A/N: I do not own the Teen Titans or any characters from Star Wars; they belong to DC Comics and Lucas Arts, respectively.
It's a relieving moment to know that Bruce is still alive, but we don't know how and why he is the prehistoric era. Damian says Darkseid killed him but how can Bruce be alive? The Omega beams kill anyone it comes to contact with, then how can Bruce be in the prehistoric era? I walk around Bruce's Manor and I walk to the fireplace. Kori looks at me then a picture, "Kori, what are you holding?" I wonder.
"I don't remember seeing this picture." She shows me it and she's right! It's a picture of Thomas Wayne and... Bruce? How did he get in the 1930's?
I take out the bat-shaped communicator and I try to contact Tim, but he doesn't answer. I start to run around the Manor, much to the dismay of my wife. I find Jason running towards me with an old letter. "I found a portrait of this cowboy and a letter from him!" He hands me the letter and I read it. He's in the year 1885! "I'll show you where I found the portrait." I follow him and I see the portrait. I notice the cowboy has bat on his chest with the utility belt around his shoulder.
"Let's see, he's been in the prehistoric, wild west, and 1930's. I think we can send a team to search for Bruce in these time periods. It will be easier with the wild west but we need an exact time and location!" I tell Jason while I start running to make sure members of Justice League are still here. As I descend down to the cave, I see Tim trying to the league about something. "I believe Jason and Kori have found clues to Bruce's whereabouts." I state and they give me a look of interest. "Kori found an old picture of an adult Thomas Wayne with his grown son, Bruce Wayne." I show them the picture.
"Then, I found a portrait of Bruce as a cowboy." Jason shows the portrait.
Clark smiles as we can send a team to find Bruce. "Who are we going to send to find Bruce?" Diana raises a good point.
Clark looks around, "I'll go." He offers.
"I'll join you." John adds.
"I think I should advise your trip." Tim recommends and we nod our heads. "I believe we'll start with the prehistoric times."
"Can we perform a carbon dating test? Before we send a team." I inquire.
"How long will the testing take?" Kori asks what Diana was thinking.
"For accurate results, three days." Tim admits.
"How are we going to get the samples?" J'onn wonders.
I rub my chin against my face and I begin thinking about cutting the painting out, but I would have to cut it out carefully. "I want to say cut the painting out but are there any alternatives?" I wonder but no one offers any answers. "I suppose we cut it out."
Clark walks up to the painting and he uses his eye beams to make a square around the painting. J'onn uses his morphing ability to squeeze through the outlining and pulls it out, carefully. He places it inside a box and we wait until the painting is in the carbon dating tester. I know we have to wait until three days but I know I will not be looking over the tests. "Tim, you do realize that you will be looking over the tests, right?" He nods at me, "Making sure." I leave the Batcave and I grab Kori's hand, so we can go to sleep.
When we arrive to our room, "Why did you give me credit for finding the picture?" Kori asks.
"You did find the picture and if you didn't find the pic, I wouldn't be able to tell them where to look for Bruce." I hug my beautiful wife.
After sleeping for five hours, I walk around the Manor to see what other clues Bruce left for us. Already knowing that he's in two other time periods is a good enough to know, but how are they going to locate Bruce? In what exact year are we going to find Bruce? Then again, he somehow has been skipping through time like it's nothing. I have a feeling that Darkseid has a plan for Bruce, but what? What can he have in store for Bruce?
*TT*
After Tim told us the whereabouts of my father, I decide to return to my room and look at the note that I took from Joker. I unfold the paper and I examine the writing, to discover an involvement with the League of Assassins. What' the benefit of working with a mad man? Think about it. He could betray them any minute, if he wanted to. Whatever my mother is doing, she's trying to send me a message, for sure. However, why use the Joker to enforce this message? I think my mother is going crazy. Should I tell Dick this information? If I tell him, then we'll figure a way to stop them, before Joker does something wrong, again.
Before I lay on my bed, I put away this vital information, and I rest on my bed. I let my mind succumb to my wariness. My sleep was one that was of comfort. I guess my mind was able to sleep peacefully. I hope my father will be proud of me.
A knocking sound wakes me from my slumber and it's my step-mom, "Time to wake up, Damian." I remain in my comfortable bed, unwilling to get up. "It's nine o'clock in the morning, I think it's time to wake up." She tries to sweet talk me but it's not going to work, I'm not getting out of bed. "Time to wake up or else..." What's she going to do? I hear footsteps past me but I'm not paying any attention to it. "I tried warning you." She opens the floodgates for the outside light to come in and I'm immediately blinded, but I do not get off the bed. Light won't harm me. "I swear that should've worked!" Her tone helps me get more comfortable in my bed. "Oh well, I did everything that a normal parent would've done, but now it's Amazonian's way."
Wha? Hey, that's my... I let my eyes open to reveal that I'm being lifted in the air and I look at my step-mom. "Are you crazy?"
"No, just a concerned mother." You have got to be kidding me right?
"Stepmother." I correct her. "Can you let me down?"
"Tomato, tomato." She shrugs her shoulder. "Will you be going to go back to bed?"
"Maybe." I try to answer convincingly but she senses my deceit.
"When we enter the kitchen, I'll put you down."
*TT*
After an uneventful day, I decide to get ready before everyone else. I look at the bat computer and I discover some old tricks that the bat suit used to do. I looked further into it and I decide to incorporate it in my bat suit too! I suppose Bruce used this device for , I know I will be benefiting from this idea. I decide to put it on mine and Damian's boot. However, we cannot rely on this too much, this'll be used as a means of escape.
A few moments later, everyone enters the cave and I signal for Damian to come towards me. We walk away from everyone else, "I've added a new feature to our suits." His eyebrow raises, "It's your right boot's heal, use it only in extreme situations. That's an order."
"What does it do?" He asks.
"It'll take time it to come to you, that's the only downside to it."
"Dick, can you answer my question." He grows impatient.
"You'll find out, one day." I put my hand on his shoulder, "I hope." I mutter while he was walking to put on his Robin uniform.
After my conversation with Damian, he puts on his Robin uniform. I put on my cowl and I walk to the Batmobile. "Dick, before you go. I found a piece of paper that Joker dropped and it revealed that the League of Assassins are somehow working with Joker." He hands me a piece of paper he was talking about.
"Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?"
"I wanted to read it first, but I only got a chance to read it last night."
"Okay." I nod my head, "Looks like I found my lead." I smile and I turn on the engine to the Batmobile. "Make sure nothing happens to mine and Garfield's daughter, okay."
"I'll try, Dick." He walks toward Anna and Mar'i.
"Be safe, Richard." I kiss Kori before riding away to my new lead. I must get information from Joker!
*TT*
I walk towards Mar'i and Anna while putting on my hood, and Anna opens a portal to where we'll be going. We walk through it and we already see a crime taking place. I descend down to the scene and a man, a face more concealed than mine, runs away. "Anna, Mar'i; chase him from the air and cut him off. I'll follow him from the ground." I tell them on my earpiece.
Whoever this guy is, his agility is matches Dick and Jason's agility. Then I lost sight of him, "Make a right turn here!" Mar'i tells me and I do so. He stares at me and then enters a building. I can't decide if I want to enter without them, then they descend to where I'm at. I don't want to make the mistake of putting ourselves in danger.
Just as I'm making my decision, a bullet narrowly misses my head, and I grab their wrists and we start running like hell. I feel their pace matching mine so I let go and I jump through the door and the bullets stop firing at us, thankfully. "Hahaha hahaha hehehe hehehe." We hear someone laughing at us and I glare.
"Who are you?" I ask dumbly.
"Ibn, it's time to come home." Mother!
"Mother." I mutter while taking a few steps forward.
"Damian, don't." Mar'i grabs my arm, preventing me from walking away, and I look at her.
"Don't let your emotions make your decisions, she's trying to use you, Damian, and you know it." Anna logically tells me.
I blink my eyes at them unwilling to listen but what they're saying is true and I start to feel my body tremble. "I'm sorry, mother, but I will not go with you."
"Ibn, if stay with your adopted brothers, you'll be put on a hit list, and you'll eventually be killed. However, I will not fret over your death; for I have cloned another son." She confidently tells us and she signals for something or someone.
"You will know me." Appears the man I was chasing, who's wearing something reminiscent of Darth Starkiller on planet Tatoonie. "And you will fear me." He says threateningly. Damn it, no way out. I try to search for an exit but the only exit is behind us. Just bullets. The only other way is into the mouth of the demon's daughter and a desert dweller.
I kneel down and I fiddle with my right boot's heel and I feel a button. It must be the button Dick was talking about! Okay Dick, this is an extreme situation! I push the button and now I have to wait for whatever going to be our escape plan. "Just follow my lead, okay." I whisper to them and they nod at me. Now it's time to stall and see how long I will be able to stall.
"Whatever you kids are planning, it won't work against me!" The masked man yelled through Talia's disapproval.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." I lie.
"Whatever our plan is, it's obviously not going to work." Mar'i adds.
"Logically, it'd be impossible for us to escape. If we go backwards, we'll be greeted by bullets, but our only option is through the demon's mouth." Anna monotones to them.
"Ibn, this is your final chance to get out of this situation." Mom warns me for one last time.
"Don't call me Ibn anymore. Call me, Damian." I state.
"Why do you prefer Damian over your true name, Ibn?"
"It's the name my true parents chose for me!"
"Your choosing that Wonder Bitch over me?"
"She's been acting more of a mother than you ever been! And don't call her that, Talia!" I glare.
"Why you worthless piece of..." My ex-mom starts.
"Mother!" Masked man speaks.
She regains her composure. "Luckily, you found the note on Joker's inner pocket. I have a feeling that Dick is on a pointless chase to find Joker." My mother smiles while I frown. Mar'i and Anna's hands and eyes glow, ready for a fight, and I signal with my hands not to fight. I know my escape plan will work, I hope. "Damian, how on Earth will you become a hero?"
"My road to becoming a hero, like my father and brothers before me. Will be a long and hard. It will take me places where I do not want to be, but I will travel down it, nonetheless. The temptation to kill will be one task that will be tough, but I know I will with support of my family, I will overcome it! And I will become the next Batman!"
"Okay, little punk." The desert dweller speaks while taking a step towards us and I hear a ring coming from the masked man's pocket. He picks it up and listens to the message disbelievingly, "What do you mean 'a swarm of bats?'" Bingo. I grab a hold of Mar'i and Anna's hands, then the bats burst through the door, giving us a chance to escape. I lead them through my mother and whoever this guy is, who are too occupied with the swarm of bats scratching them. We try to find an exit but I don't think there's an exit in here, damn it!
"Let me make an exit!" Mar'i punches open an exit for us and go through it.
"Anna, can you teleport us somewhere far from here?"
"Can you stop the bats from surrounding us?" She requests.
"Give me a sec." We stop moving and I kneel down and stop the device and the bats fly away from us. "Must've used some kind of sonar frequency to attract the bats around me." I assume.
"Okay. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Anna opens a portal and we go through it. We find ourselves in a different part of town.
Mar'i slaps me first, then Anna joins her. "What was that for!" I demand.
"Next time, don't scare us like that again!" Anna yells at me.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that. It's just, I don't know what happened to me back there." I jumble my words around and I walk away from them. I look at to the sky, "You two realize that I'm a target now." I look at the ground, then I turn around. "Are you girls alright?" I ask courteously.
"A few scratches here and there, but I'll be fine." Mar'i responds convincingly.
"Same here." Anna responds, "How did you know that the bats were going to be our escape route?"
"Well, the bats were kind of a hint in of itself when I heard that masked man yell." I tell her.
"What was the point of holding our hands?" Mar'i asks.
Honestly I'm thrown off by her question, "To make sure you girls didn't get lost in the swarm of bats." They nod understandingly.
I face away from them; I put my left foot on the ledge of the unfamiliar building and I start thinking about what my mother has revealed. She already cloned another version of myself. What was the whole point of creating me, if there was a possibility of me joining my father and brothers in fighting crime? Will my clone be able to be persuaded into fighting crime? I hope so. However, a sudden realization emerges that I put Anna and Mar'i's lives in danger. I know the assassins will use this information and capture them alive, forcing me to rescue them, and possibly facing my clone, in the process. After a moment of despair, I smile at the fact that I just called Diana my real mother, but it feels right calling her that! Despite being with her for about a week, there are some things that a mother does to let her son know that he feels loved, no matter what. Whenever Talia hugged me, I felt a sense of a forced hug more than a loved hug. But when Diana hugs me, I always feel the love in her hugs. I guess you right after all Dick, she does treat us like we're her kids.
"Anna, we're in Jump City." Mar'i interrupts my thought process.
I look around and Mar'i's right! This isn't Gotham! "Why are we in Jump City?" I question while realizing we're on a tower, on an island! What kind of base is this?
"I was feeling a little rushed and I must've selected Jump City. Let's go inside and rest for a couple of minutes. A nice cup of tea is what I need to get us back to Gotham." We agree and enter this tower we're standing on.
"Welcome to Titans' Tower!" Mar'i tells me and I smile while taking off my hood.
"Damian, before I get tea, I have to tell you something." Anna states, looking a little sad.
"What is it?"
"I have a feeling, that the man who killed you in my dream, was your clone."
"Anna, that was just a dream!" I try to comfort her.
"Everything felt so real, Damian!" Tears flow down Anna's cheeks. I see objects floating in the air, then they softly land as Anna is able to calm herself down. "Just be careful, okay." Anna walks to the kitchen and I'm left with a possibility of death in my short future.
I look at Anna, who is making her tea, "Mar'i?" I whisper.
"Yes?"
"Has Anna told a dream that took place in the future before?"
She looks to the right corner of her eye, then she closes her eyes. "Yes, she has."
"What did she tell the vision was about?"
"That Grandpa Bruce was going to die in an explosion, when he came back from the dead." My eyes widen from this discovery.
"When did she tell you?"
"About... a year ago."
I'm starting to think that Anna's dream was a vision, I guess she can't control when she gets these visions. More over, her prediction that my father could destroy Gotham or the world, when he comes back from the dead; is scary! I hope her vision doesn't turn into reality!
I hear doors open and I look to see who it is, "Aren't you two young ladies supposed to be in Gotham?" I see a Latina in a tee-shirt and sweats. "You must be Robin." She points out the obvious.
"Sarah this is Damian and Damian this is Sarah. Auntie Sarah, where's Uncle Vic?"
"He barely went out to patrol with Wally and Roy." She smiles.
"What time is it?" I wonder, I kinda forgot.
"It's 10:30 P.M., why?"
"So, it's 1:30 A.M. in Gotham."
"Anna, are you done with your tea?"
"Give me a minute." She responds and I nod at her. She sips her last part of tea, "Ready. Good bye, Aunt Sarah and tell Uncle Vic 'I said hi!'" She tells the grown woman and opens a portal back to Gotham.
"Bye, Auntie Sarah!" Mar'i hugs her and goes into the portal.
"Good bye." I wave, then enter the portal. Last is Anna and the portal closes behind us. I quickly stretch and we look for a spot to observe from. After two hours of patrol, we go back to the Batcave, and call it a night.
Before I take off my uniform, I have to check something. I go on the Bat computer and I hack into the League of Assassins database. I open the folder containing a list of names that have a bounty on them, then I see my name with the highest bounty on my head. However, the picture shows me in my Robin uniform. I close my eyes, confirming my earlier statement. I feel a hand touch my shoulder and I look up to see... Tim. "You okay?" I refuse to speak to him, "Why do you do this to me? I try to be nice to you and you treat like my shit! What's your problem?"
"My problem?" I yell. "My problem is that my father still accepted you as his Robin, even when I entered my father's life!" I shout. "Then I just learned from the woman who gave birth to me that I was useless! Now she created another version of me. I'm banished from the al Ghul family and branded a traitor! Now my head is put up for bounty!" I walk away from Tim and I sit down against the cave's wall. I start letting tears flow down my cheeks, "To make matters worse, I figured out that I will be killed by my clone!" Everything after that sentence becomes gibberish and Tim looks at me with awe.
After I finish my rant, I feel Tim hug me, "Everything's gonna be alright... little bro." Little bro, I like the sound of that.
