Cuckoo
by TwinEnigma
Disclaimer: I do this for fun and skills building, not profit. Also I'm apparently incapable of resisting a good crossover prompt.
Warnings: Spoilers for Doctor Who, YJ: Invasion, etc. Originally done as a fill on YJAM, crossposting because I'd already admitted it was me and why the hell not?
Wayne Manor
7:30 PM
Fifty-two years earlier
It's boring. A lot of scientists and technicians, mostly law enforcement, mill around the ballroom. Somewhere in there, Barry and Bruce are pretending not to know each other as they discuss Wayne Enterprise's latest foray into the development of forensic technology. Commissioner Gordon's daughter is notably absent, making them the only two kids at the party. And so Wally and Dick are stuck together in their utter boredom.
It's a good thing they're best friends.
"Hey, Dick, is that a fob watch?" Wally asks, pointing at the chain running across Dick's waistcoat. "Can I see?"
Dick blinks in momentary confusion, looking down to see that indeed he was wearing the item in question, and pulls it from his pocket, carefully undoing the chain from his button. Huh, he thinks. He can't even recall putting it on.
"Cool, thanks!" Wally says, turning it over in his hands. He whistles low, fingers tracing over the intricate design on the watch's cover. "Kent Nelson had a fob watch, too, but it wasn't nearly this cool-looking."
"Honestly, Wally, I forgot I was wearing it," Dick admits.
Wally snorts. "How could you forget you're wearing a watch?"
"Well, it's not like it works or anything," Dick says, defensively. "It's an antique. My parents gave it to me - it doesn't even open! It's stuck or something."
Wally makes a silent 'oh' of realization and winces a little: "Sorry, man, I thought maybe Bruce got it for you, to match his." He pauses, holding out the watch in a gesture of genuine contrition, and adds, "You know, maybe all it needs is a little cleaning up or something and it'll open right up."
Dick smiles a little, rolling his eyes as he takes the watch back. "Maybe. I don't know. I've never really tried to open it before."
"Then, how do you know it's broken?" Wally asks.
"Well," Dick starts, but then he hesitates. In all the years he's owned it, he's never even thought twice about the watch, much less can remember ever attempting to open it. Surely, he must have tried once, because he knows it's stuck and broken, but he can't recall ever trying. He looks down at the watch in his hand, tracing his thumb over the intricate interlocking circles on the watch's cover.
Fire flashes across the backs of his eyelids, accompanied by the sound of warbling, distorted gongs.
"Dick?"
He can hear screaming, words, half-formed and unintelligible, and some that he thinks he should know.
"Dick, are you okay?"
He's suddenly aware that Wally is shaking his shoulder, green eyes narrowed with concern.
"Still with me, bro? You got real pale there for a second," Wally says, trying not to sound worried.
Dick blinks, shaking his head, and says, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just…"
His thumb traces across one of the etched circles again and he suddenly sees a glimpse of his mother, her hands on either side of his head.
"…thinking about my parents," he finishes, closing his eyes again to try and center himself. "Wally, could you excuse me a minute?"
Wally doesn't look any less worried, but he nods and steps away. "Do what you gotta do, bro."
Dick gives him a strained smile and hurries out of the ballroom. He ducks into the first empty bathroom he finds, his hand trembling uncontrollably as he locks the door, and only then does he chance another look at the watch. The symbols on the cover of it are important, familiar…
"This is for you," his mother says. Sparks rain down behind her head as she holds up the watch. There's a symbol, spinning around and around, and whispers hiss in his ears.
Dick traces his thumb around one of the lines and he gets a flash of orange skies and silver leaves, a city beyond them and twin suns rising in the distance. His thumb circles again and he catches a glimpse of mountains covered in snow and a room made of coral with a pulsing light. The images don't make sense at all, but he feels like there's something he's forgotten and this watch is the key to understanding how it's all connected to him.
And yet, there's a part of him that insists he should stop and forget the watch because it means something, something about him, his past, some terrible truth he's forgotten, and if he remembers, it'll change him, forever.
His thumb traces the circles on the watch again.
"It's a new regeneration," his father says, laughing, and he looks different but like Dick's always remembered.
It's so strange.
He's eight. His initiation is soon.
Initiation into what?
The Academy.
He gets another flash, a spark, whispers of war.
Gallifrey. The Citadel. Their trailer. Home.
He turns the fob watch over and over in his hands, pacing the floor.
Fire.
It's just a broken watch his parents gave him as a child. There's nothing special about it, so why does it bring up all these strange images and words, things he thinks he should understand?
"How do you know it's broken?" the echo of Wally's voice whispers in his ears.
Dick stops pacing, raises his hand and looks down at the watch, as if seeing it clearly for the first time.
"Now," a voice, one that sounds almost like his own, says in his head. "It's time."
His thumb clicks the catch.
It opens.
It's a sound Bruce never expected to hear in his own home and, for a moment, he is completely paralyzed in horror, unable to determine the direction of the wailing. Then, Batman takes over and he is running, a headlong, pell-mell charge for the ballroom doors. As soon as he hits the hallway, he sees Wally, shouting and pounding on one of the bathroom doors, and the color drains from his face.
"Dick, open up!" the teen shouts, futilely jiggling the handle. "Dick, come on! Please!"
Bruce isn't even aware he's moved until he's telling the boy to get out of the way and he's even less cognizant of the fact he has an audience as he throws the full bulk of his weight against the door. It doesn't matter – only Dick does and he's in trouble.
The door cracks.
"Dick!" he screams. "Answer me!"
The wailing starts to peter into sobbing.
"Damn it!" Bruce hisses and kicks the door. It shudders. He kicks it again, harder, and this time it practically jumps out of the frame, slamming open with a bang. And then, for a moment, he freezes again.
Dick is sitting on his knees in the center of the floor, like a doll with his strings cut, sobbing heavily. His hand is clenched around something, a watch maybe, and his face is practically ashen.
"Get Leslie Thompson," Bruce orders, swooping into the room, and is only peripherally aware that someone – Barry, probably - is shooing people away. He wraps his arms around Dick, noting the rapid pulse and how cold the boy feels. "It's okay, Dick. It's okay. I've got you."
Dick's sobs slowly even out and Bruce can feel the cold fingers curling around his shirt.
"What happened?" he asks, not expecting an answer.
Dick moves his other hand, his fingers tightening, and hot tears spill onto Bruce's shirt. "They were human. They shouldn't have died, but they were human."
"Who, Dick? Who?" Bruce asks, privately praying that Barry and Wally got all the guests away by now.
"My parents."
AN: A Time Lord could have survived such a fall by regenerating, but... Time Lords who's consciousnesses are concealed by a Chameleon Arch cannot regenerate.