Disclaimer: I still don't own Young Justice, Batman Beyond, or DC Comics.

I really did try to get this up before Christmas, I really did, but so many things went awry it wasn't even funny .I had a good chunk of this chapter written when I started getting a lot of extra hours at work, which is a good thing but it made my holiday schedule really hectic. Then my sister comes to town almost a week before I was expecting her and while it's great seeing family again I really need quiet and concentration to write, something I was not going to get while she was here. And Christmas day my eye started bothering me and still is. Don't get me wrong it was a good holiday but it left me so exhausted afterwards. Anyway, enough complaining out of me, onto the story.

Trust is Like a Mirror

Terry had no idea what he did wrong but shortly after the argument with Dick in the kitchen the Batman, not Bruce, barely let him out of his sight. Terry tried asking what was wrong but only got a strange glare back. Not the usual Bat glare this was something… different. It was part accusing, part curiosity, in part… something else that Terry couldn't quite make out. He tried asking Dick if he had done anything wrong but the other young man simply shared his confusion.

Soon enough Tim was relocated to the Watchtower via something called a Zeta tube, something his boss would never allow in his cave, but as Terry was about to follow Batman stopped him.

"You need clearance to enter the Watchtower." Again this just confused Terry who was under the impression that he already had it.

"Okay so just give me clearance and we can be on our way." Batman's stare lingered for a moment.

"It's not that simple." Now Terry was just getting irritated.

"Look, did I do something to upset you or make you suspicious? I've answered every question you've have for me, followed all your rules except the one which saved your kid. And since I haven't been going around kicking puppies within the last hour I don't know what suddenly changed. I thought we had trust."

"So did I." said Batman in a low cryptic voice.

"And what the slag is that supposed to mean?" Batman raises eyebrow at the unusual slang phrase but continued to glare.

"You've been keeping something from me." At this Terry went from angry to generally confused.

"And what exactly am I keeping from you? Granted I haven't told you my whole life story but you're going to have to be a little more specific." But again Batman just stared at him as if the answer was obvious. Not getting the response he wanted Batman waved his hand and a tall figure stepped out of the shadows. Standing before Terry was the legendary Martian Manhunter. He may not have met the hero in person but it didn't take a genius to figure out why Batman had called him here.

"Wow, you really have trust issues. You're so paranoid that you'll have your friend force himself into my mind." At this the Martian Manhunter raised a hand in a gesture meant to calm the boy down.

"No one is forcing you Terry but if you wish entrance to the Watchtower we must make sure that you are not a threat." Terry rolled his eyes then looked back to Nightwing who was silently watching the encounter.

"Nightwing can you tell your boss that too much paranoia is not good for a person." But instead of support Nightwing looked between his mentor and the Martian and lowered his eyes.

"I think….we should play it safe." Terry felt like he had just been slapped in the face, he thought for sure Nightwing would be on his side. He only knew Mr. Grayson briefly in his world but he was already getting the impression that like Bruce, this Dick was a very different person.

"Fine." He said in a bitter tone looking away from the other boy. "Since it's three against one I guess I don't have a choice in this matter."

"You do have a choice, you can choose the say no." Batman said in an even tone all the while watching to see how Terry would react.

"Oh, like I have any other option! I'm not nearly tech savvy enough to try and get myself home, any chance I have is up there." He said pointing up indicating the Watchtower. "You do realize that if you were in my position you would refuse and find a way up there yourself. Every Bat instinct of mine is telling me this is a very bad idea. You talk about trust but how do I know you're all not secretly evil or trying to use my knowledge of the future for something. Trust is a two-way street Batman and so far I'm not getting very much."

"Like I said, it's your choice." Batman said making a clear he was not changing his mind. Once again Terry was sure something had set him off but he still had no idea what. He didn't like this, not one bit, but if ever wanted to get home and see his family again he had no choice.

"Fine, let's just get this over with." Terry said as he sat in the chair next to the large green alien. "Just to me one favor Mr. J'onzz."

"You have a request?"

"Yeah, you have my permission to show Batman anything he wants." Everyone in the room was a little surprised by this request including Batman. "Especially the part about him winding up an old, bitter and lonely old man." And with that the room fell into silence as J'onn J'onzz got to work. It was a strange sensation for Terry to have somebody rifling through his thoughts. More than once he had to resist the urge to block him. The sensation didn't feel invasive but it still made him feel vulnerable. In just a few minutes it was over and Terry sighed in relief.

"Happy now?" Terry said getting up from his chair. Everyone looked expectantly at J'onn who seemed a little disturbed by what he saw. At first Terry was worried he might've seen the time he spent in juvenile hall but then it occurred to him if there were other Martians currently on this earth than he would have known that the Martian Manhunter of his world was the sole survivor of Mars. If he had any loved ones they be dead or never born. He wondered what else was different about the worlds that John saw.

Composing himself J'onn looked at Terry with an unreadable expression. "Thank you Terry, we will do our best to help return you to your home." He then turned to Batman. "It is safe to allow him access, he has no ill intentions."

'Finally', Terry thought. 'All it took was risking my future, myself and have my mind put in a blender. Piece of cake.'

Nightwing walked up to the tube entrance and program the machine to allow Terry access. He turned to the other boy with a smile one which Terry did not return.

"Look Terry, I'm sorry but we had to play it safe. It's just-" but Terry cut him off.

"No I get it, don't trust anybody, don't let anyone in, isn't that the bat family motto?" Nightwing frowned almost looking sad but Terry was still too angry to let it go just yet. "Guess that's why you and Batman haven't had a falling out yet. You're both on the same page." One look at Dick's face and Terry knew he went too far but before he could try to apologize the Zeta tube opened in Nightwing stepped through.

"I… I'll see you later Terry."

"Nightwing wait, I-" but he was already gone. "Slag it!" He was so distracted with Nightwing he almost missed what J'onn said to Bruce as he entered the Zeta Beam light.

"He does not know." Was all he got before he vanished from the Batcave.

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There were many things Batman did not like. One of the biggest things on his list was surprises. He hated surprises and finding out that this hero from another dimension was his biological son really through him for a loop. If he thought he was unprepared when he decided to take in Dick he was even more unprepared now. He had no idea what to do with this information. Technically Terry was not his child he was the other Bruce's but after years of rebuilding his family to suddenly find out that he had a blood relative left him very conflicted.

It wasn't just the fact that Terry was his son but it seems as though Terry had lied about it and try to hide the fact from him. He had told him that his father was murdered and he had only found out about Bruce being Batman by chance. That was either a lie or very bizarre coincidence. And Batman did not believe in coincidences.

His story didn't match up which made Bruce feel bitter and angry that he allowed Terry into his home so easily. He had truly wanted to trust the young man but now it seems he couldn't. And he couldn't allow Terry into the Watchtower until he knew for a fact that he posed no danger. He also didn't like asking J'onn to find out Terry's intentions but he needed to know the truth.

Of course Terry was angry and he was right, he himself would not allow someone to openly go through his mind like he was asking Terry to do. The boy is either a very good actor or sleeper agent but after the incident with Red Arrow everyone had to be extra cautious.

Once John was done he gave his okay. Bruce couldn't help but wonder what he saw and what the real story was.

"He does not know." John said as Terry and Dick left for the Watchtower bickering along the way. That just left them with more questions. How did Terry not know Bruce was his biological father? While he wouldn't put it past his older self to possibly have a one night stand he was usually very cautious. But still accidents can happen and if the mother never told him or told him not to interfere than he supposed it was possible for Terry not to know. But what he refused to believe was a coincidence was that Terry just happened upon a long retired Bruce Wayne and accidentally discovered that he was Batman. Even though J'onn said Terry had described his first meeting accurately that meant there is still something missing in this puzzle.

"My counterpart has to know, from what Terry says he's even a more paranoid man than myself and there's no way he wouldn't have done a DNA test just as I had."

"Why do you think he has not told the boy?"

"There could be a number of reasons but if Terry doesn't know himself than we'll only have educated guesses to go on, not enough evidence."

"Do you think perhaps that you should inform him?" But Batman shook his head.

"We don't know why my counterpart has not told him there might be a very good reason." 'Or a selfish one.' He said to himself thinking about some of his counterpart's more questionable actions. Still, he was reluctant to be the one to break the news to Terry in case there really was a good reason. J'onn gave him a questioning look.

"If you think that is wise." Batman collected Terry's blood sample intending on showing it to the Atom for further analysis.

"It probably isn't."

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When Terry arrived at the Watchtower he was grateful Nightwing hadn't completely run off. He ran up and grabbed his shoulder to get his attention.

"Look Nightwing, I'm sorry, that was a stupid thing for me to say." While Nightwing still wasn't smiling he wasn't trying to run.

"Maybe but maybe there's a ring of truth to it."

"Well… paranoia does seem to run in the family but trust me you're not nearly as bad as my Bruce." Nightwing turned to him with a serious expression.

"He's… He's been burned a lot and so have I. There was an incident when I was leading The Team." Terry wasn't sure which team he meant possibly the Teen Titans, but he didn't want to interrupt. "A group of our younger members were in trouble including Robin and out of the blue this new hero shows up and saves the day. We checked him out but not thoroughly enough and even though I had my doubts I wanted to believe he was here to help us. That decision nearly cost my entire team their lives."

Now Terry felt like a real jerk. Nightwing was just protecting his team and family and he went and threw it back in his face. "Sorry, it's just easy to forget sometimes that while bat paranoia is often overkill it's justified a little too often." Finally a smile started creeping back onto Dick's face. Terry had to admit he liked Dick's smile more than his frown. He also noticed a small strand of hair on the side of Dick's face slightly out of place. Terry had the urge to reach up and brush it away. It was almost like his hand was moving on its own violation when suddenly-

"Nightwing, your back!" Terry jerked his hand back in surprise. Perhaps he imagined it but it looked a little like Dick had wanted him to do it. At least he wasn't pulling away. The person that interrupted them was a tall redheaded girl with green skin hovering a few inches off the ground. It took her a few moments to realize that Nightwing was not alone.

"Oh, and you brought a guest." Dick smiled up at her and gesture to Terry.

"M'gann this is Terry, Terry this is M'gann also known as Miss Martian." M'gann extended her hand and Terry shook it. It seems his hunch about Martian Manhunter was correct. They were more Martians in this universe. He wondered if it was just the three Nightwing had mentioned or if there were more still alive on Mars.

"Nice to meet you Terry, are you that new Batman from the future that saved Robin? I mean another dimension, which is in the future." Terry's eyes widened behind his bat issued shades. He thought the bats like to keep their issues to themselves. Apparently they did because Nightwing face palmed.

"Seriously? Who told you about that, we were trying to keep this on a need to know basis." M'gann looked little abashed and blush slightly.

"Bart kind of let it slip while we were visiting Tim. Sorry I blurted that out, I didn't know it was a secret." Nightwing let out a huge sigh.

"You do realize that Bart and everyone who broke protocol is going to be in for an earful from Batman. And everyone else is going to get a reminder." But M'gann just put her hands across her chest.

"Everyone was really worried Nightwing."

"We sent a communication saying Robin was fine." But at the word "fine" M'gann scoffed.

"Says the guy who came to the mountain after a head injury and passed out in the training room because you were also bleeding from a knife wound that you didn't tell anybody about. You classify that as 'fine' too." Nightwing's cheeks reddened as Terry snickered trying to hide it behind his hand.

"Okay I get it but right now Robin's fi-" he almost said the 'F' word but M'gann sent a glair back at him. "I mean recovering with only minor injuries. Better?"

"It'll do for now."

"Regardless Batman's not happy, especially with Bart."

"I know you been taking some time off Nightwing but Bart's been acting really strange lately especially when Robin went missing. Do you think he knew something bad was going to happen to him?"

Nightwing looked thoughtful and Terry couldn't help but wonder the same thing.

"I'll see about talking to him later if he's still avoiding Black Canary." The answer seemed to satisfy M'gann at least for the time being.

"Well since the secret's out and you brought him to the Watchtower how about we show Terry around?" Terry looked at Dick as if asking if this was all right.

"The League is going to be trying to help him get home but until then he'll be staying with us. Might as well get to know The Team before we have any more green birds flying into our windows." M'gann covered her mouth in surprise.

"Garfield was over there too? He said he was running out for some exercise."

Terry got the feeling somebody else was in for another lecture. He was just glad it wasn't him.

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Once again Bruce really wished his paranoia wasn't justified. Between himself, J'onn and the Atom the three of them were able to piece together how Terry was Bruce's son, had no knowledge of it, and yet still found Bruce to become the new Batman.

The answer was Cadmus it seemed in whatever world they existed in they caused trouble. The Atom was able to read Terry's DNA down to the molecular level and discovered that Bruce's DNA was introduced through another man who Terry believed was his real father. It was really quite sophisticated work. Warren McGinnis had his reproductive system altered to match Bruce's, most likely without his knowledge or consent. That answer the "how" question but it still didn't answer the "why" question.

That answer was found when John informed them of another Cadmus incident from Terry's memory, one that involved their Dick Grayson. It seemed that the Batman in that universe had made himself such a strong figure that some people actually feared what would happen if man actually did die. Similar to the way they currently viewed Superman in this universe. And like Superman their first answer was a clone. But it wasn't clone of Bruce Wayne, the bastards had cloned Dick Grayson thinking that the original was too unstable and Dick was the most logical choice for a successor.

They had stolen his DNA along with his memories after he had been gunned down by the Joker and lying unconscious in a hospital bed. The thought made Bruce literally shake with anger at the thought of someone violating his son like that even if it was his counterpart. The problem was they had tried to program the clone to do things that contradicted Dick's memories. They wanted him to kill and they wanted him to be Batman two things that he knew neither Dick Grayson ever wanted. The programming conflicted so badly that when the clone escaped he went on a killing spree and targeted Batman's former villains and some of Terry's current ones feeling that the Batman title had been stolen from him. And then he tried to end Batman's mission once and for all by destroying Gotham. Terry and the real Dick Grayson helped to stop him and supposedly the clone died in the fight but Bruce was doubtful.

But this meant that Cadmus had a very real interest in creating a new Batman and if they were willing to clone Dick Grayson and alter Warren McGinnis' reproductive DNA who knows what else they had locked away in their closets. But this also was suspicions in Batman's mind. It was very possible that Terry might have some unseen subtle programming like Red Arrow and Superboy. This might be what led him to the Bruce Wayne of his world or it could be another form of manipulation. In either case Terry was not consciously aware of the possible manipulation. He wished he knew why his counterpart kept this from him but there could still be a very important reason for keeping him in the dark.

He was going to have to ask J'onn to probe a little deeper just in case and the League needed to be informed.

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Terry had learned a lot about Nightwing's so-called team in these last few hours. For one thing "The Team" really was their name and no one had ever heard of the Teen Titans. He did however recognize a few Titans like Beast Boy from the original team and Bumblebee from Titans East but there were a lot he didn't recognize.

Obviously Miss Martian didn't exist in his world since Mars had been wiped out more than 1000 years ago. There was no Supergirl in this world, at least not yet, but there was a Superboy who was the clone of Superman. That was new. He knew about Galatea the clone of Supergirl but Connor Kent didn't exist in his world either.

There was a different Aqualad named Kaldur not Garth. Although Garth did existed here he chose to take another role. Blue Beetle was different to but Blue Beetle had gone through several different hosts so that didn't surprise him too much. He had never heard of Wonder Girl, Artemis or Tigris as she was calling herself now, or Kaldur.

Many of the other sidekicks from his time were not here but he is a little surprised to see Virgil Hawkins a.k.a. Static Shock. The guy was a big hero in his time but right now his career was just starting he hadn't even officially picked the name yet. He wondered if Gear or Richard Foley was around somewhere. Those two seemed to come as a set. They were married in his world after all. But after all these weird changes he decided not to make too many guesses for all he knew this Virgil might be straight. After all his origin story here was a lot different than in his world so who knows.

There were a lot here today mostly to make sure Tim was really okay and not just bat okay. He suspected Bart Allen, the second Kid Flash, was around here somewhere but was probably hiding from Batman. It was a lot to take in at once. And of course the rumors about him must have spread because every once in a while somebody would turn to look at him. Some were looking at him kindly, a lot were curious and some, like Superboy, were giving him a suspicious glare. Not that he could blame them he did just fall out of the sky claiming to be Batman but he was seriously getting tired of all the paranoia. This is why he liked working alone, well, alone with the crazy old man but his League membership was temporary at best.

"Hey Terry, wasn't it!" Terry jump and nearly took a swing at the person who had startled him. He stopped just short of hitting Kid Flash who dodged the potential attack in the blink of an eye.

"Whoa, sorry I scared ya, I should know better than to startled a bat." Terry was surprised to see Bart here. He had to know Batman was pissed at him and he had already seen that Tim was OK so why was he risking the man's wrath in front of everyone.

"Shouldn't you be in hiding? You know Batman's here in the tower with us." The young speedster nervously looked around as if Batman would appear at any moment. Well, truthfully he might.

"Well it's a worth the risk to get a chance to talk to my IDTTFBBF." Terry raised an eyebrow.

"Your IDT…what?"

"Inter-dimensional-time-traveling-best-friend-forever!" Before Terry could ask Bart what on Earth he was talking about the young speedster took him by the arm. "I just realized we don't have a secret handshake! We can't be IDTTFBBFs without a secret handshake. Let's go make one!"

"What are you-" but before he could say another word he was whisked away without anyone even noticing.

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Dick was about to check on Tim again just to say hi when he felt a tap on the shoulder.

"My friend it is good to have you back." Kaldur said while extending him a hand which Nightwing shook eagerly.

"I'm just here for a visit and to make sure Robin doesn't get overwhelmed."

"I do wish you would reconsider, the team has been… unbalanced since you left."

"I do plan on returning some day but I'm just not ready. Besides you were always the better leader I'm sure you can handle this just give it time." Dick said with a reassuring smile but Kaldur didn't smiled back.

"I am glad that you still have confidence in me but the team is much larger than when I led them into battle. It has been tricky trying to relearn everyone's strengths."

"Yeah you did kind of leave him with a whole new batch of freshman to look after." said Artemis as she walked over to join them. "You need a start answering your phone once in a while." Dick had the decency to look a little sheepish.

"It also might help if we had known that our former leader had been undercover for two years instead of betraying us." Dick grimaced at Superboy's tone but he could tell the young man was more hurt than angry both of which were not something he ever wanted to inflict on his teammates and closest friends.

"Connor, don't start." M'gann called out as she floated over to join them. "We all know why he did it, the plan really did save a lot of lives and finally gave us an edge over the Light." Superboy shrugged.

"I'm not here to fight with Nightwing but I think a long talk is way overdue." Nightwing glanced around and saw all of his friends had been slowly converging on him effectively cornering him. While he had been avoiding this conversation he couldn't help but smile. All that was missing was a joke from Wally.

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Terry had never been carried by a speedster before, it felt like he was fighting a 100 mile per hour wind but only for a moment. It was not a pleasant experience. It left him a little disoriented and it took him a few more moments to realize he had been brought to an empty room. It looked like a study/lounge area with a few shelves of books, a coffee machine, and several couches. He noted all the exits which was second nature to a bat. He would guess he was probably at the other end of the station from the med bay waiting area where everyone else was gathered. Terry figured that Bart wanted to talk to him and he also wanted privacy. And perhaps he figured it was safer to approach him here at the Watchtower as opposed to the manor which might be booby-trapped by now.

"So Terr, about that handshake, I was thinking there could be a partial slap here fake slapped then to the right-" but Terry cut him off wanting to know why Bart had literally yanked him out of the med bay waiting room.

"Cut the crap Kid Flash, we both know you didn't bring me here to show me a secret handshake. I know you're from the future so you probably knew about the fate of the Bat Family even though Batman probably told you not to share. But I need to know, did you know what was going to happen to Tim?"

Bart fidgeted and glanced around the room every few seconds as if expecting Batman to appear out of the coffee machine or something. "Well sort of, it's just… It's kind of complicated."

"Nightwing said you've been hovering around the Bat Family lately, were you trying to warn them or stop it from happening altogether?" Bart was now fidgeting even more Terry sincerely hoped he wasn't going to start vibrating again. It would be just his luck if Bart fell through the Watchtower and he was the only witness.

"I didn't want this to happen, Tim's a really good guy and he's been a good friend."

"So what was stopping you, I heard you already changed the past once before." Impulse did indeed start to vibrate and Terry had to forcibly put a hand on his shoulders and tell him to calm down. All joking aside he really didn't want to see this kid fall into the vacuum of space.

"It's because I screwed up." He sounded sad and frustrated but at least he had stopped vibrating. "I thought I did everything right, I saved my grandpa and we kick the Reach off the planet but…"

Terry waited silently urging the distraught young man to open up.

"But Wally he wasn't supposed to die!" He shouted as if it took extra energy just to get the truth out. "Over the years we've lost a lot of heroes but Wally wasn't supposed to be one of them. He was supposed to get married and have a set of super speedy twins, but now none of that is going to happen and all of it is my fault because I made a change that I thought would make the world a better place." His cheerful mask had broken and there were tears dripping down his face but he stubbornly wiped away and looked at Terry with a serious expression.

"But despite all that I was still going to try and help Tim but something else when wrong and it happened too soon. A different event was supposed to be happening right now, and now I don't know what to think." Terry let his words sink in, Bart was revealing consequences that he himself had been afraid of. They both knew that there still might be consequences to come.

"What do you mean it happened to soon, what was supposed to happen first?" Once again Bart was looking around making sure they weren't being overheard.

"I've been keeping an eye on all of the Bat Family because a lot of bad things were supposed to happen to them in a short period of time. The first was Barbara Gordon getting shot by the Joker, paralyzing her from the waist down." Terry's eyes went wide, that was very different from what had happened in his world. Barbara had never spent any time in a wheelchair as far as he knew.

"Oh God, that's horrible. How were you planning on stopping it?"

"That's the thing," he began ringing his hands. "I wasn't sure I should." Terry looked at him incredulously as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard. Seeing as how his words upset Terry, Bart quickly added, "Because she came back even stronger. Barbara Gordon never walked again but she didn't let this tragedy ruin her life. She became Oracle the world's greatest computer hacker and has been the eyes and the ears of every hero I can think of. She's probably saved more lives as Oracle and she ever did as Batgirl. Since changing the past the first time had such a horribly unexpected consequence I was seriously debating whether or not I should interfere. But I must've messed up something in the timeline because Tim was attacked first. I still don't know if Batgirl will stay Batgirl or if she'll become Oracle. I'm just not sure anymore."

Terry had to admit that he felt for this young boy had had to make some very hard decisions knowing that there were consequences for both changing things as well as keeping them the way they were.

"I can sympathize." Terry said meeting the young man's eyes. "I don't regret saving Tim but I have no idea how this is going to affect the future especially because it's no longer my future." At that Bart perked up a bit.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Ever since I figured out who you are and where you came from I been doing some serious number crunching and I think that since you are not originally from this timeline you can make changes with fewer risks of creating paradoxes. Granted my math with time and dimensional travel is a bit iffy and I've already changed the past so new changes are inevitable but you're the wildcard bro!" Terry had to slow him down to make sure he heard him correctly but it sounded like he had a better shot of changing things because this wasn't his world.

"So you're saying I might be able to change a few things and not had the time stream collapse all around me?" Bart scratched his head and looked up thinking about the problem.

"More like you have less of a chance to screw up the time stream." Terry rolled his eyes but Bart put both his hands on his shoulders looking him straight in the eye. "But we still need that chance because there's something, rather someone I need you to save. Batman's not going to let me hang around the family probably for a long while but he's going to be keeping you close."

Terry's eyes narrowed. He knew he couldn't be talking about Tim he had just escaped his unfortunate fate and Barbara Gordon seems to have missed hers. It didn't sound like Bart was talking about Batman either and that only left one person.

"Bart what happened to Nightwing in your time?" Terry could feel that the speedster flinch but fought keep his hold and keep eye contact.

"That's where I'm going to need your help Terry, we need him. I know he doesn't have a huge amount of confidence in himself at the moment but we will need him, the team will need him, the league will need him, the world will need him. We can't lose him this time." Terry gripped Bart's arms which were still clutching his shoulders as he fought down the fear that was now growing in the pit of his stomach.

"Again, what happened to Nightwing?" Bart almost looked away.

"I don't know." Terry actually shook Bart getting a little frustrated by the boy's cryptic answers.

"I can't help you if you don't tell me what happened!"

"But that's just it, I really don't know, no one does." The fear that was growing and Terry stomach is now creeping up to his throat.

"What do you mean?"

"It's going to happen soon but with things happening out of order I'm not sure when. But in a very short period of time both Nightwing and Dick Grayson will vanish never to be seen or heard from again."

To be continued…

Next time: Both the League and The Team have much to discuss and Terry has another burden added to his overbearing load.

Note: I had originally intended for both the Justice League and The Team to have a larger conversation involving Terry but this chapter was already late and I did write some of it in originally but it seemed to interfere with the flow of the story so I cut it down intending to add those bits to the next chapter.

The following is my impression of the different versions of Batman and Dick Grayson from both Earth 12 and Earth 16 you don't really need to read this to understand the story if you want to skip it that's fine.

I wanted to note that I do feel like Batman of Earth 12 a.k.a. Batman the Animated Series is a very different man than the Batman of Earth 16 a.k.a. Young Justice. According to the creators of Batman the Animated Series Bruce was never a real father to Dick, he was more like a mentor/older brother. I specifically remember an episode where Dick Grayson was kidnapped and held for ransom and while talking with Jim Gordon Bruce referred to him as his ward, not son. And later in the Batman Beyond TV series when people thought Bruce Wayne was going insane the doctors mentioned that he had no family indicating that perhaps Bruce never adopted Dick or Tim or that they had cut themselves off possibly even disinherited themselves. It's a little hard to say for sure.

I and a lot of other fans of Young Justice get the impression that the Bruce Wayne in that universe was much more of a parent to Dick than a lot of other incarnations. It's little things really, a simple touch on the shoulder, cheering Dick up when he was upset with the game of basketball, and in the comics he actually gave a mission to another Justice League member to attend Dick's 14th birthday party even though Dick said it was okay and that he understood why he couldn't come. We may be reading into this a little bit but I do think Bruce's closeness to Dick affected his personality as he grew up.

I read somewhere and, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Greg Weisman said that Dick and Bruce never had a falling out during the transition from Robin to Nightwing. He won't go into detail about it because if there was an off chance, however small, that the series could come back in some way, shape, or form he doesn't want to spoil things. I can respect that.

Ironically I think this Dick Grayson's is actually more Batman-like than some others and I can see why. Robin was 13 when the sidekicks were thinking about forming a team of their own and if Batman had been the traditional, "do as I say don't question me" Batman than they might've run off and form the Teen Titans. But I think this Bruce realized that they were serious and he wasn't ready to lose his Robin just yet. By forming the team he could control what the team learned through training and still give them real world experiences on missions that weren't as dangerous as real league missions (or weren't supposed to be at least). In other words he gave Dick just enough freedom to spread his wings while he started to go through his teenage years but still left a safe haven for him to come home to. This indicates that Batman might've taken Dick's emotions and feelings into consideration. As a result they never had a falling out and since Dick was still with the team and still working pretty effectively Batman even after becoming Nightwing he picked up a lot of Batman's mannerisms.

Ironically the Batman than never wanted Dick to become like him now has a son who is very much like him. That's just my two cents on the matter. It's this version that I'm drawing some of my character basis from. I'm still trying to keep everyone in character as much as possible this is just an expansion on the characters a little bit. I would have liked to include this in the story but Terry really doesn't know enough about Dick Grayson's past to really make the comparison and come to this conclusion on his own. Although he's at least noticing some of the differences himself.

That's it for now, tune in next time for some more original team bonding.

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