Hey guys

So good news from how this story grew it's going to be a chapter longer than originally planned.

Now we have moved into the future of the DCAU so Batman Beyond time.

On with the show


Some 40 years later

Wayne Manor's study room

Bruce in his chair is taking a sip of his tea from a cup which he sets on a nearby table. Twenty years ago, he retired from being Batman since no longer being able to physically meet the demands on a nightly basis and the brief incident of nearly using a gun on a criminal.

However, he has kept up the physical exercise to the best of his ability since after all Bruce knows it was needed for training Terry. Which thanks to his wife he didn't nearly end up becoming that old, lonely man.

Since mere days after the Justice League with the Legion of Doom's help stopped Darkside with his final invasion from Apokolips, Tim Drake was kidnapped by The Joker and Harley Quinn.

After searching for weeks Barbara, Selina and him located them at the old Arkham where they discovered what Joker did for brainwashing Robin into a mini Joker. Eventually, that final fight ended in Harley's death and Tim killing The Joker with his own gun.

Leslie Thompkins managed to nurse Tim back to sanity a year later and during that time, Selina had kept Bruce from undoing all the progress he made.

Namely convinced him to not cut all ties with the Justice League or forbidding Barbara from being Batgirl. And once Tim returned Bruce left it up for Tim to decide if he wanted to keep being Robin and the young teenager declined.

Barbara remained Batgirl for some more years with Dick and her ended up restarting their relationship again, on Selina's advice. Selina told him it was a lot better than watching Barbara try to settle for Sam Young who was a very boring guy.

Eventually, Dick Grayson moved from Blüdhaven back to Gotham City where Barbara and Dick got married. Shortly following that Barbara gave up being Batgirl and started at the GCPD academy, alongside Grayson.

As the years went on both Barbara and Dick cleaned out the GCPD from within, or well the most they can given this is Gotham after all Bruce notes. Barbara having risen to the new Commissioner and Dick gaining the rank of Captain.

Brought out of his thoughts by Selina walking into the room Bruce looks over.

"Terry just came in from his date with Melanie" Selina says.

"That girl from his senior high school class?" Bruce asks.

"Yes, that one" Selina replies.

"You told him to go down to the cave?" Bruce asks.

"Darling he is our son, after all, so he knows the routine" Selina says with a roll of her eyes.

Bruce merely nods while climbing to his feet before heading over to the grandfather clock and opening the glass door pulls the pendulum down causing the door to move aside to reveal the stairwell.

Selina and Bruce walk down the staircase leading down into the cave as the clock door closes behind and eventually stepping down onto the main rock platform.

Glancing over they both see Terry standing at the glass cases containing the various suits for Batman and the rest of his now-retired team, including one for Catwoman. Terry is 18 years of age with having the build of a solider with wavy black hair. The young Wayne is in blue jeans, a black T-shirt and a brown coat.

"Oh hey. Sorry, I was just thinking, I'll go get changed for practice" Terry says.

"Actually, go suit up" Bruce says.

"That's what I'm going… wait you mean the actual suit? The final one you wore, not my training clothes?" Terry asks smiling, excited and hopeful.

"Yes" Bruce replies.

"Gladly" Terry says grinning.

Turning out Terry dashes back over to the glass cases with opening the one containing the black and red bat suit before removing it and heading off to another part of the cave.

Bruce is already heading over to the computer with punching in the needed keys to cause all the monitors to come alive. Selina walks over to Bruce with placing her arms casually around his chest enjoying his presence.

Hearing movement both Bruce and her turn to see Terry walking forward in the bat suit pulling the mask over his head. Although Terry is wearing one of Bruce's old belts that has the pouches instead of the silver one from the previous timeline. There is a grin on Terry's face naturally as well.

"So how do I look?" Terry asks.

"Like a hero" Selina says proudly with removing her arms from around her husband.

"Take the car I'll monitor you from here" Bruce says in complete serious mode while sitting down in the chair.

Nodding Terry takes off for the Batmobile on one of the platforms a short distance away.


Later in a Gotham City alleyway

A small gang of the Jokerz containing the four J-Man, Bonk, Chucko, Ghoul, and Dottie. Currently, they are approaching two young teens as the man and woman back up terrified. Suddenly Batman drops down into the alley with retracting his wings.

"Run" Terry yells towards the teens and glances back at the gang "You want some fun? Come get it."

"Ah, why not. We can always find boring ones; this guy thinks he's like Batman? Haven't you heard we are the Jokers" J-Man said.

"Sure, you are" Terry replies smirking in disbelief.

Bonk goes rushing towards the Dark Knight who swiftly moves out of the way and leaping up kicks Bonk right in his face hard enough to send him to his knees. Landing Batman quickly delivers an elbow strike to Bonk's head knocking him out cold. Glancing over Terry sees Ghoul and Dottie along with Chucko come rushing forward.

Ducking a swing from Ghoul's pumpkin container Batman responds by punching him in the face sending Ghoul to the ground and out of the fight. Quickly Terry throws a batarang that hits Dottie in her hands causing her to drop the weapon and punches Chucko in the stomach following that. Hitting Chucko in his face causing the thug to fall to the ground out cold Batman rushes forward.

Grabbing Dottie by her hair Terry pulls her right onto the ground before kicking Dottie right in her head hard enough to knock her out. Stepping over the body Batman moves in to face J-Man who is backed up against the wall in fear.

"Now you're going to tell me all the locations of every Joker gang hideout or we can make this a very unpleasant evening for you, and you want to know why?" Batman asks darkly.

"Why?" J-Man inquires afraid.

"I am Batman. Now for the information, you intend to so kindly give me" the Dark Knight replies cruelly smirking.

Stepping closer Batman grabs J-Man by his jacket lapels lifting him off the ground while the thug's terrified screams fill the night.


Hope you all enjoyed this

Yeah, this time around Terry is Bruce and Selina's son.

Originally, I was going to have a conversation with how Amanda Waller performed the same genetic experiment on Selina just with some obvious differences compared to how she did it in the DCAU.

Since as revealed in the Justice League Unlimited episode Amanda Waller had a Cadmus agent inject Warren McGinnis with a nanotech that rewrote his reconstruct his reproductive material to match Bruce Wayne's under the guise of a flu shot. Around one year, Mary McGinnis gave birth to Terry, who was a combination of her and Bruce.

I'm one of the people who actually doesn't mind that story twist for Terry being Bruce's son. However that conversation just wasn't fitting in this story for how I wanted causing me to get rid of it.

So, I'm just leaving it up to the reader to decide if Amanda Waller did something similar once again in this timeline or Terry just looks like his other timeline self from being Bruce's son regardless.

Now the future Batman has arrived in Gotham City and since he was trained for doing exactly this role for years, probably began around his childhood this Terry is far readier for it then he was in the original timeline.

Of course, for Bruce compared to how he ended up in the DCAU well Bruce has succeeded in having a much happier life despite the hardships in getting there.

I wanted to give Dick Grayson and Barbara a happier ending too compared to canon where they didn't get together.

Until next chapter