Well, I don't own any of the characters, but the story is all mine. I'd like to thank the reviewers for taking time out to review, it really helps keep me going and lets me know people wanna see where this goes. If any of you wanna get in touch or ask questions, either review or drop me a message. Its great hearing from you.
Anyways, this time........ Tim, the Darkness and Dick.... three different paths.... and they are all gonna cross in a hurry...... but remember when I said this was gonna be dark..... Bruce isn't the only one dead by the end of this chapter......but that isn't necessarily the big reveal here either....
Flashes.
Flashes of blinding light.
I didn't know what was going on.
It was like a brain freeze when you have a frozen drink made up of crushed ice and whatever else, but a thousand times more intense.
Flashes of imagery.
Of flavour.
Of taste.
A voice.
A woman singing.
The voice.
So familiar.
The flashes were getting faster...
Brighter...
**
"So." She began. "...care to tell us what we are doing here?" She was cold, to the point, a little more direct that I was ever use to, but maybe this was good, I wasn't sure how, but I was clutching at straws here.
"I have invited you all here Barbara because the time is right." I replied.
"Its right? Or its right for you?" She replied with venom in her tone, not the drug either. Not sure which I would have preferred.
"Have I done something to offend your Babs?" I asked trying not to sound shocked, or off balance, but who was I kidding.
"Offend me?!" She screamed. "Are you seriously kidding Tim?! What haven't you done to offend me?! You kicked everyone who wasn't you out of Gotham and you sealed yourself in!" She pushed forcefully away from the table, but I wasn't playing her game. Not now. Not today.
I was responsible for it all now. I wasn't going to make his mistakes.
"Barbara wait." I said standing up and grabbing the back of her wheelchair and stopping her from moving any further away, that was my second mistake.
My first one was assuming everything would go smoothly. Who was I kidding. I knew this wasn't going to go well. I just didn't expect Barbara to be the problem.
As I spun her chair round to face me an escrima stick came flying up towards my head, and I just narrowly avoided what would have probably been the beginning of a painful concussion.
I heard chairs pushing away from the table and women coming to their feet.
"ENOUGH!"
At first I didn't realise who had spoken, then I realised it was me.
**
I blacked out for a moment. Or at least I thought I did.
But I doubt it.
I was somewhere.
Images kept flashing.
Images of Bruce.
Of Tim.
Of Alfred.
Of Barbara.
Of a girl.
Of my family.
**
The women behind me stopped.
I looked at them and apparently shot them one of his looks, they all backed down and sat back down in their chairs as I turned to face an incredibly pissed off ex-Batgirl.
"Look Barbara you need to tell me what I've done, I'm not a mind reader." I began.
"You abandoned me." It was like a whisper. Her eyes were looking down and away from my own.
"Clear the room, all of you, upstairs."
**
The flashes were getting faster now.
It wasn't just images either.
There were voices.
Conversations.
Experiences.
I collapsed to my knees and when I looked up I was looking down an aisle of a church.
There I was. Standing there with a woman, hidden under a veil but in a stunning white dress...
Now I knew I was dead.
But things weren't done.
There at my side was Alfred, and Bruce.
My head screamed again and as I clutched it I collapsed to the floor and my world spun out from under me.
When I opened my eyes again I was in a field, it was a beautiful and warm summers day.
I looked out from a gentle slope and down on the ground further along the field I could see a woman with red hair, and a man with dark hair.
Between them a young baby crawling around on a blanket looking up at what I guessed was her parents.
A man with dark hair. A woman with flame red hair.
Things were beginning to come together.
The world spun again.
I was standing holding a little girls hand, surrounded by family and friends as the heavens poured down on top of us.
In front of us, a tombstone and a freshly filled grave.
Barbara Gordon, loving mother, loving wife.
That's when it hit me. These weren't just images and dreams and nightmares. This was this life I was watching of this world's me.
Then the world went dark.
**
I could tell they were all looking at each other, call it Bat-telepathy, or whatever you want, but I didn't even have to turn around to look at them to know what they were doing. It was the ruffle of their clothing when they moved their necks to look at one another. It was the jangle from necklaces and bracelets, hell it was the way their perfume was a lil bit stronger when they moved just that tiny bit. Man, I spent too much time tracking down Ivy and Harley last week.
I listened intently not taking my eyes off of Barbara as they got up and walked towards the stairs, Selina leading the way and Charlotte trailing behind, not wanting to leave her mentor alone with, well, with me. From her perspective, I couldn't blame her.
I stood up and moved away from Barbara in her chair and turned to let my hands rest on the conference table and looked down at it, in all honesty I wasn't sure what else to do.
"I needed you Tim."
"You had the Birds..." I began.
"They aren't you. You are all I have left of this... this deranged lunatic family." I knew she meant the Bat Clan as some referred to us as.
"There is Cass. You could have tried to get in touch with her..."
"She wasn't an original." I heard from behind me.
"Neither were you. But you are Robin, Bruce was Batman... Dick... Dick was..."
Silence. I knew what she wanted to say. Dick was so much more to her than Bruce or I. I was her kid brother, her little friend she could always call on if her and Dick were at odds, and Bruce. Well Bruce was like the over protective friend of the family. He'd be awkward as hell to deal with sometimes. He wouldn't even be around all the time. But if you hurt one hair on any of, the kids, man your ass was getting a whooping.
"Dick was... … … MY GOD." She screamed. "I can't believe I can't say it, even after all this time." Didn't she know this was my cave now? I chastised myself, it was the role of the Lord of the Manor, no one else's.
"Its okay Barbara, I know who he was. We all do." I turned to face her and crouched down in front of her chair and held her hands in my own.
"He was such a good man." She whispered as her eyes began to tear. "He loved me so much, and I pushed him away."
"Don't say that Barbara. He loved you more than any one else I ever knew."
"More than anyone you know? Tim seriously that wouldn't be hard." She said laughing through the tears, she had a point. Emotionally available we were not.
It was then that Barbara pulled a hand away and rested it on her midriff. Oh god, oh no. Don't tell me.
"Are you?"
"I was. Miscarried last week. Just one of these things I suppose."
"Did he know?"
"No. I don't think so. I mean he was one of the world's Greatest Detectives, there is always the chance." Barbara paused for a moment and looked up at me. "Dick was a good man, as Robin, as Nightwing, hell even when he was Batman that one time." She said looked up at me as I raised myself from my crouch to my full height.
"But you know the one thing greater than all of those people?" I said turning her chair round by holding on to the frame.
"What?"
I waited, I smiled and I looked down and kissed Barbara softly on her flame red hair.
"All of those persona, all of that honour and prestige," I began as I started to push Barbara to the elevator, "meant nothing to him compared to when you called him your husband."
With that nothing else was said, I smiled and I could tell from her posture she was relaxing.
I moved her chair up to the doors of the elevator and navigated her inside as we began our climb into the Manor where the others awaited the outcome of our closed door encounter.
**
The gateway split open.
The darkness had arrived, spilling out onto the dark side surface of the moon.
It was nearly time.
It was so close.
He was so close.
**
I woke up.
It was raining.
I opened my eyes, and everything was blurry. I gave it time.
I smiled, and I laughed.
I hadn't felt the rain in what was like months.
God it felt good.
Everything began to come into focus. I knew where I was.
This was rather strange, I was in the grounds of Wayne Manor.
I thought I was going to another world.
Then I saw it.
Here lies Bruce Wayne beloved father to Richard Grayson and Timothy Wayne.
Beloved husband to Lois Wayne.
May he find the peace in death he could never find in life.
Damn looking glass my ass.
That's when I heard it.
A yell.
A familiar yell.
It couldn't be, could it?
Alfred?
For the first time in months I broke into a sprint, and it was then I noticed, it wasn't just a sprint. I was damn near flying. I hadn't run this fast since I was Robin.
I bounded down the hill and tore down the path that would lead me back to the Manor. Another few turns and the back kitchen entrance was in sight.
A group of men seamed to be holding someone.
An old man, dressed in... yeah that was Alfred.
I didn't even think of slowing down. I went faster.
I leapt into the air and came crashing down on two of the four men and sent them crashing into the ground.
Two down.
The two men holding Alfred looked like they had seen a ghost. They backed off scared, and frightened.
Something about please don't hurt them.
I glowered.
Lightning forked off in the distance and thunder rolled overhead.
Impressive entrance, I liked to think so.
The two men I had landed on were half scurrying back to their feet and half being dragged by their fearless friends, seriously I had met braver pensioners staring down a gang with nothing but a bag of groceries.
But still, a win is a win, gotta start somewhere.
Alfred was half on the ground half on one knee.
I came up behind him.
"Hey, easy there old friend." I said leaning in to help him up, that's when I knew something was wrong.
He pulled away.
"Stay away from me. You are not real."
"Uh Alfred, its me." I began.
"You are not him. You are not who you say you are."
This wasn't the time nor the place. It was raining, and he was about to catch a cold, something not good for men of a certain age.
I reached down and helped him to his feet, whether he wanted my help or not, and brought him face to face with me.
Lightning crashed in the distance and I saw the reflection of my face in his eyes.
No wonder he thought I was dead.
From his perspective I was.
To him, Dick Grayson was dead, the woman in Limbo has said as much.
But somewhere deep in those eyes, a realisation hit.
He saw something.
In me.
He pulled back, then leaned in closer to get a better look.
"Mind if we go inside Alfred." I said with a smile.
"Yes, I sense a need for tea." He said clasping my arm in his hand.
A smile began to appear on the old man's face, then it just damn near broke into a massive grin.
He was smiling.
I was smiling.
It seemed the proper thing to do when once came back from the dead after all.
