"ALF!" The dark haired boy in a black and red version of the Impulse costume shouted, zipping up the stairs onto the patio at superspeed and grabbing up the smaller kid in a tight hug. "Don't scare us like that! Do you have any idea how much Mom and Dad and everyone else has been freaking out! We haven't gotten any work done in the two weeks you've been gone-"
"Two WEEKS?!" Alf yelped, cutting off the other's rapid fire babbling. "It's only been a day here!"
"Well, whaddya expect when time travel's involved?" Jason grumbled, grabbing some more of the desserts before heading towards the door. "Let me know when this mess is all cleaned up."
The most recent arrival blinked, finally taking notice of the patio's other inhabitants, all of whom were staring at him. "Uhh... Oh-kay then, I'll just be taking my little brother and going now."
Irey and Barry's jaws dropped. "Brother?"
"Crap. You hadn't told them about that?"
"Kid, your baby brother's been practically silent this whole time." Selina paused and gave a brief shrug. "Except for the moments he forgets and rambles a bit, but when he catches himself the jaw gets clamped."
The dark haired speedster's eyebrows rose high above his domino mask in astonishment. "Alf. My brother. Has actually managed to keep quiet? Dad's never gonna believe me. Heck, none of the Clan is gonna believe it."
Scowling, Alf crossed his arms in a defensive gesture. "They might."
"Yeah, no, I don't think so. Regardless, it's time we left, before Mom comes after us and potentially screws something else up." With that said, the boy grabbed his little brother's shoulder, and began vibrating the both of them at an incredible speed. The light around them solidified into a portal, which closed again once the boys stepped through.
Around the patio of Wayne Manor, those who had witnessed it silently wondered if that was truly the end of the matter.
-LRR-
When the portal opened on the patio of Wayne Manor in the year 2033, everyone gathered there held their breath until the two boys stepped through. Then, there was a collective cheer as several people swept forward to grab the smaller of the two in a fierce hug or give him a squeeze on the shoulder. Hardly daring to believe he was really home, Alf returned the gestures with a wide grin as his eyes kept searching through the crowd.
Then a redheaded woman shoved her way through, and scooped the seven year old up off his feet. "Mom!"
"Oh Alf, I'm so, so sorry that happened to you." Irey West-Wayne whispered, holding her youngest son close.
"S'okay Mom. Richard came and got me, and I didn't do anything to mess up the timeline! Er, I didn't, did I?"
"Well, we'd hardly know now, would we?" She teased him lightly, as the two continued to be surrounded by relieved family members. Back at the edge of the crowd, Richard approached his father, who was planning on waiting until the feeding frenzy had died down before laying hands on his child.
The dark haired boy opened his mouth to ask, but was beaten out. "You're going to ask if we remembered he was sent back to a point in the timestream when your mother and I were Impulse and Robin." Damian sighed, while his elder son nodded. "I didn't, not until the two of you came back through the portal. And then, it was if I had never forgotten."
"Laws of the universe working against us, huh Dad?"
"I suspect more along the lines of working for us - reality doesn't like it when things get altered because of meddling time travelers."
Richard blinked as his father scowled. "Does that mean something like this is going to happen again?"
This time, it was Damian who opened his mouth only to be cut off before he could begin. "Not in our time, Richard." Elegant even at age sixty-three, Selina glided forward to rest a hand on her stepson's shoulder. "But every superhero experiences at least a couple of situations like this in their career. And we've been compiling as many examples of it as we could, during our search. None of us remembered that Alf had been sent to our past because, until you two returned, it hadn't definiteively happened at all in the timeline."
Richard tried to wrap his head around the complexities of time travel, and the twelve year old came up short. "Eh. I'll wait until I've gotten through some higher science classes before I try to understand that."
"Wise choice." His grandmother nodded, eyes twinkling in amusement. "Now, shall we go rescue the baby birdie before he's smothered to death?"
-LRR-
Later that night, after everyone had assured themselves that Alf was indeed back where he belonged, the boy was being tucked into bed by his parents and brother.
"What I don't get," Richard was saying while Irey and Damian half listened. "Is how you managed to keep your mouth shut for so long." All three of them took note of Alf paling slightly.
"Alfie?" Irey asked, running a hand through his red locks. "It's okay, you can tell us."
"...Remember when Dad came back from that parallel dimension?"
"Yeah."
"...I, sort of, listened, when he was telling Grandfather and Uncle Dick about it." Immediately, Damian stiffened, deepening Irey's concern. He husband had gone on that particular misadventure shortly after he'd become the Batman, about four years earlier. Damian never had told her all that occurred in the other world, only that his alternate self had never married - because there hadn't been an Irey West to fall in love with and marry. They determined that while Zoom's attempt to kill Linda Park-West while pregnant with her twins decades before had failed in their world, it must have succeeded in the other. It was after that realization that Irey had determined she didn't much care for the darker dimension.
Knowing now that her young son, who'd been three at the time, had heard the full story of what went on in that other world chilled the woman to her core.
"Alf, what all did you hear?"
The boy was silent for a while, gathering his thoughts. "Dad's other self was so alone... Everyone from his generation was either dead, or gone, or his enemies. There wasn't any version of Mom, so me and Richard didn't exist, and none of our cousins did either - at least, none of them were in Gotham. And the city! It was a wreck! The bad guys were awful, and Dad, he- he was willing to kill!" Tears were silently rolling down Alf's face, as Irey repositioned herself on the edge of the bed to pull him into her lap, Damian and Richard instinctively moving closer. The boy looked up at his family, seeing the identical expressions of horror."You want to know why I was so afraid of talking in the past? Of spoiling something about the future? Because I was not about to be the one to alter history, wipe out our family and turn the Batman into a killer."
He continued to cry for a while after that, the others staying close by his side until the small boy finally fell into an exhausted sleep. Even then, Irey remained on the bed, softly stroking her baby boy's hair, while Richard curled into her side and Damian sat on a chair beside them, a hand still curled around Alf's much smaller one.
Outside the bedroom door, Selina herself had to close her eyes against a few tears, silently berating herself for not having done a better job at comforting the boy when he was in the past. Carefully depositing by the doorway the backpack she'd kept hidden for twenty three years, Alf's Robin suit still folded neatly inside, Selina wished the group a nightmare-free night before retreating. She'd made it back to the central staircase before being approached by her nineteen year old daughter.
"Mom?" Holly asked, not appearing nervous but betrayed by how close her dog Ace was sticking to the teen's side. "Alf's going to be okay, right?"
"Of course he will, sweetheart. He might not be quite as thick-skulled as that half-brother of yours, but Alfie's still a Wayne." Selina stood a little taller at her own words. "And us Waynes can bounce back from anything."
A/N: Ye gods, 'tis finished!
More of Alf's adventures will be coming up in Glimpses, which is in progress right now, and the to-be-written stories The Next Round and Lost Again, But Not Alone in this Time. Later folks!
-Triscribe