Disclaimer: I am a college student. own nothing.

Brothers Together

Chapter 7: Theories, Rumors and Sure Bets

"So, what you're saying is…You think he's Robin's son."

"Nightwing's son," Beast Boy corrected with a huge ear-to-pointy-ear grin, brandishing one hand at the messy 'diagram' he'd scribbled across the team's whiteboard. "And he came from the future as part of a top-secret time travel experiment to catch Chronos and…"

"I dunno, man," Cyborg muttered through the bacon and eggs he was rapidly ingesting. "I kinda like the clone theory better."

Kid Flash looked up from his third box of Super-Crunchy Fruity-Os and grinned, revealing that not a speck of sticky color-mush had managed to stick to his teeth. "Nah, that can't be it. If he were a clone, he'd look more like Robin."

"And how would you know?"

"Trust me, I know."

Raven scowled at the boys over the top of her book, her blue eyes narrowed suspiciously in the direction of Beast Boy. "And next you're going to tell me that he's a robot or something."

"Oh, yeah!" Beast Boy's eyes lit up at the very idea. "I forgot about that! Good one, Raven!"

Their resident witch groaned vocally, rolled her eyes, and went back to her book.

Starfire frowned just a bit as she floated in from the kitchen and settled onto the couch between Cyborg and Speedy, who cringed away from her breakfast of mustard-covered frozen waffles. "Please - who is this 'he' of whom you are discussing?"

"The new kid," Speedy grinned, holding up his notepad. "You want in on the pool? Odds are looking pretty good for B.B.'s theory, crazy as that sounds…"

"But you are not in a pool…" Starfire blinked. "There is no water."

Speedy groaned and slapped his forehead with the flat of his hand.

At that moment, with a mechanical whir and a buzz, Robin appeared from the main doors, his hair still wet from the shower and his face looking both parts contemplative and disgruntled. Starfire saw him first, and her face lit up. "Robin!"

"Hey, Rob!" Speedy grinned again, brighter than before. "You want in on the pool? We've got some good odds running here."

Robin's eyebrows perked curiously behind his mask. "Odds on what?"

"Who the kid is," Speedy wiggled his eyebrows in that suggestive manner that would have been perverse if present company didn't know that he was only playing around. "Like, really is. Got some good ones flying around. Cyborg thinks he's a clone, B.B. figures he's your son, and Raven thinks he's a robot."

"I didn't say that," Raven growled tersely, even as the color drained straight out of Robin's face.

"My what?"

Cyborg and Kid Flash grinned for a few split seconds, then disappeared into their breakfasts to avoid talking. Raven's eyes vanished behind her book, and Speedy just grinned, gesturing like a game show host as Beast boy popped up with his diagram.

"'Kay, look, here's how I figure," Beast Boy grinned widely and pointed to the crudely-drawn 'super-deformed' figure of Chronos, jumping through a swirling purple thing that was apparently supposed to be a time portal. "The Chronos we're chasing is actually from, like, 20 years in the future, and he's been causing a bunch of trouble there before trying to escape here. Naturally, somebody has to come after him, but…" he swiveled to several older-looking Titans chibis, looking rather distressed with a large red 'X' drawn across each one them. "Us in the future couldn't send anybody after them that existed in this time, 'cause it would cause a massive tear in the space-time continuum fabric and generally mess a lot of stuff up. So!" He spun to a picture of a chibi-fied Nightwing, with an even smaller chibi-Robin - who looked just like their Robin, but with slightly longer hair that fell into his masked eyes. "They have to send Nightwing's kid instead, and needs our help to catch the bad guy and send 'em back!"

Robin stared at the green boy blankly, his mouth falling open. "He's just…a kid."

"Suuuuure he is," Speedy smirked again, lounging back and rubbing his knuckles against his chest. "A perfectly normal kid who gave you guys the run around for five hours last night."

Robin opened his mouth, closed it again, and repeated the motion a few times without any sound actually making it out.

"You know what I really wonder?" Kid Flash cut in, depositing his dishes in the kitchen sink and reappearing a second later. "If Nightwing's the kid's father, who d'ya think his mom is?"

A few sneaky eyes darted across the room to Starfire, who remained completely oblivious to it all as she enjoyed her mustard-soaked breakfast. Robin, on the other hand, noticed every single one.

"You guys are nuts," he groaned, falling back onto the couch with one hand pressed over his eyes. "Absolutely insane."

"Well, you know, dude…" Cyborg grinned, tapping his chin in a contemplative manner. "We've never really gotten a good look at him, so for all we know…"

Robin groaned again. "For all we know, he could be anything."

"Like a clone!" Beast Boy grinned again.

"Or a robot," Kid Flash added. "Or some kinda inter-dimensional counterpart, like that 'Larry' dude."

"Or an evil twin, or a psychic astral-projection from the future," said a voice from the kitchen, remaining infuriatingly calm even as it slid into, "Now who're we talking about, again?"

A dumb silence fell over the room, broken only by a light pop as a pair of blueberry-filled pastries jumped out of the toaster. They were plucked out of the appliance by a bare hand, which was quickly re-gloved after the snacks were deposited on a paper plate. Seconds later, the strange not-Robin appeared and hopped into a barstool like it was the most normal thing in the world.

Robin, their real Robin, sat straight up and pointed at the boy accusingly. "YOU! You're not supposed to be here!"

"Well, when you said you'd bring breakfast, I didn't think you meant two hours later," the boy shrugged, nibbling coyly on the edge of a pop-tart. "If you really wanted me to stay put, you should've at least left something to read."

Robin stood, gritting his teeth in annoyance. This kid… "How'd you get out?"

"Hacked the lock."

"No way," Cyborg interrupted, his voice carrying a distinct tone of disbelief. "All the door locks in the Tower are tied into the main security system. You'd have set off every alarm in the building if you tried that!"

"Yeah, about that…" Other-Robin polished off a pastry and pulled a palm pilot out of a pocket of his belt. "You've got a hole in your firewall that's exposed every twenty-two and half minutes or so. I can show you where it is and you can patch it up however you want."

Cyborg raised an eyebrow curiously, standing to look over the kid's shoulder. "You can read that kind of programming?"

"Sure," the kid grinned. "I learned from the best."

"Huh," Cyborg rubbed the back of his head, taking the little machine from the boy and watching it intently. "Color me impressed…Not bad, uh, 'Robin.'"

Raven glanced up from her book, especially as their Robin's annoyance became practically visible to her empathetic eyes. "That's going to get a little confusing."

"Yeah, too many Robins flapping around," Speedy agreed, stretching all his limbs as he stood and wander over to join Cyborg and their 'visitor.' "We gotta figure out what to call this kid. How 'bout 'Robbie'?"

The kid frowned. "Uh, no."

"I know, I know!" Beast Boy chimed in jumping over the back of his chair to flap over the group in the form of a tiny bird. "How 'bout 'Sparrow'?"

A raised eyebrow was added to the frown. "'Sparrow'?"

There was a rush of wind, and Kid Flash was suddenly added to the crowd, making the mini-Robin shift uncomfortably. "Youknowguys, Redbird would sound kinda cool, whattya think about-"

"Tim."

Again, the chattering fell silent and they turned to the visitor as he disengaged himself from their group, backing away a few steps. "Just call me Tim. It's my name."

"Really?" Beast Boy said blankly, disappearing for a moment as he shifted back to his normal form. "Like, your really real name? Really, really real?"

"Well, yeah," the kid backed up a bit more, the tenseness in his muscles easy to see without the layers of armor he'd been wearing. "It's Timothy, if you want to get completely technical, but just call me Tim."

"Timothy," Starfire smiled, lifting off of the couch to float over to him with a slight smile on her face. "It is…quite nice to finally be introduced to you, formally. I wish to thank you for assisting me last night against the Chronos."

Tim glanced at her with a small curve of his lip that could have been a smile, or maybe a trick of the light. "Don't mention it, Starfire. Really."

"There is so much that I would wish to ask you…"

"That would not be wise," Raven interrupted, closing her book with an authoritative snap. She stood gracefully, gazing at the gather Titans coolly. "I don't know where he came from, but I know that he doesn't belong in this world at this time. We don't know how his timeline is related to ours, and we can't risk changing the future."

Tim nodded, just slightly. "My thoughts exactly."

"Auuuuuuuuw…" Beast Boy's voice rose into a whine. "C'mon, it can't be that bad."

Raven narrowed her eyes. "I assure you that it can."

"What if we just guess stuff, and he tells us if we get it right. Would that be okay?"

"No."

"Or we could…"

"No."

Robin sighed, sinking back into the sofa cushions and pressing his hands over his face. The muffled sound of his own breathing against the thick material of the gloves blocked out the noise of bickering Titans and left him alone with his thoughts.

For some reason, his mind drifted to Beast Boy's 'theory' and stuck there like flypaper. It was stupid, just another of B.B.'s crazy, science-fiction induced ideas that shouldn't be taken seriously….but…

The kid knew his name. He'd never told anyone his real name, not even any of his friends. And the kid's reluctance to tell him anything, absolutely anything about the future might mean that…no one would want to prevent their own birth…and that picture…

"It's my father. He's dead."

"He was murdered."

Robin lowered his hands just enough to look over at his younger doppelganger without actually exposing his eyes. In the light, he could see the similarities between them - dark hair, slight build, precise training echoing with their every move… His skin was paler, though, no dark undertones that indicated any kind of Romani heritage, but he could almost say that it could have been from the mother…

"My father is dead…"

Robin swallowed, suddenly finding it just a little hard to do so. It was stupid to think this way, it didn't prove anything, and lots of people had dark hair. It was a crazy possibility…

…But it was a possibility. And Beast Boy's crazy theories had been right before.

He just had to hope that this was not one of those times.

( - )

"Rackin'-frackin' little…brats…"

Chronos's voice echoed off the walls of the long-abandoned apartment building, creating a chorus with the electric buzzing of his hastily-stolen hand-held power tools. The occasional flash of light appeared as the makeshift replacement component he was working on sparked, but it was unnoticeable to the day-lit streets far below the tightly-closed window.

"Stupid kid…breakin' my stuff like he's the one who stole it. Who's he think he is, pawin' at me like that? Must'a been raised in a cave…" Chronos hissed and spat over his shoulder in disgust. "When I get my hands on him, I'm gonna…Ye-ooow!"

An electric shock rolled up his arm, jarring the man's entire body and completely frying the little piece of equipment that he'd been pouring over.

"Auuuuuuuuw, screw this!" Chronos swore and hurled the item away from him. "I am never gonna get this stupid thin tuh work!"

The component, as a testament to its shoddy workmanship, the quality of its stolen materials and the welding abilities of several hundred volts of pure electricity, stayed in one place as it hit and skittered across the stone floor. With a soft clack, it came to rest along the wall beside the door, which opened suddenly to announce the entrance of a new figure.

"Well," the stranger said, reaching down to lift the component into a black-gloved hand. "Sounds like you're having a bit of a problem."

Chronos jumped, twisting and flinging the top of his shoddy 'worktable' - the rotted bathroom door supported by a pair of saw horses - to the ground. "Who…Who are you?"

"A possible friend," the mechanical voice said, in a way that indicated he was smirking behind the blank white skull mask. "Call me Red X. Now, how about you tell me all about this little…problem…of yours?"

TBC…