Disclaimer: not mine

Chapter 1

Tim leant against the wall, checking his phone, bored out of his mind. He preferred being in public school over boarding school, it made sneaking around for Robin a lot easier. Dodging his Dad was simpler than sneaking off school grounds at night since the man slept deeply. Making friends still wasn't easy for him, but he was trying. The publicity over his Mom's death and the going under of Drake Industries didn't help things at all, then again, neither did his curfew. His Dad was being weird about 'bonding' and spending time together which Tim had thought would be nice…except half the time nothing came of it. He was too fascinated by his physical therapist and frustrated by his still shaky health.

Standing in a stuffy hall with all the guys his age was getting annoying, their chattering giving him a headache. Gotham Academy shouldn't be taking part in the free vaccine program, everyone at the school could afford to pay for it either on their own or through being covered by the scholarship. He'd rather have Leslie give him a needle than some stranger. But no, it was compulsory so he was stuck. They were lined up alphabetically but the girls had gone first and it was taking forever.

Hearing a sigh, he glanced over to see Bernard, looking just as bored. He was one of the few at the school Tim might call a friend, even if he was a conspiracy nut. It could be fun to listen to his wild theories and make sure he wasn't getting too close to any identities. Bernard caught him looking and rolled his eyes, making Tim smirk. Just then, his name was called and Bernard headed into the nurses office for his shot. At least there was a second door so the lines ran a little smoother than if they had to enter and exit by the same door. Two more students went in and then it was his turn.

"Timothy Drake?" the woman asked as he took a seat, rolling up his sleeve.

"Yes ma'am."

"Very good. This should only sting a little," she warned and then he felt the sting of the needle sliding into his arm.

That was kind of big for a vaccination needle. Then again, they were being vaccinated against Joker venom. He was just surprised a company other than Wayne Enterprises had managed a vaccine against it.

"All done dear."

"Thanks." Tim stood, rolling his sleeve down over the small band-aid. He headed for the door and then paused, lifting his hand, his fingers were tingling. "Ma'am? I think…" he shook his head.

"Oh, well, that was fast," she commented.

Tim turned to look at her, frowning. "Wh't?" his tongue felt heavy in his mouth, all his extremities tingling now. Allergic? He stumbled, fumbling for his phone. Why wasn't she doing something? He managed to press the panic button even as his hands went numb, the phone falling to the floor. Everything was getting hazy, his hearing fading in and out.

"Don't fight it boy, just let go. You'll never have to think again."

That…wasn't…

Tim stood still, staring vacantly straight ahead, face expressionless. The 'nurse' snapped her fingers in front of his eyes and he blinked slowly. She opened the door and waved a man in who grabbed Tim's shoulder and led him from the office, Tim completely unaware of what was happening to him, his mind blank.

His phone was collected and tossed with others to be disposed of and the next student called, unaware of what was going to happen to them.

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Bruce glanced down as his phone vibrated, seeing the alarm…Tim! He was in school so what could have caused him to trigger the panic alert? "I'm sorry to interrupt, but something urgent has come up. I'm sure Lucius can handle this," he told the board members.

Bruce walked quickly towards the garage, dialling Alfred on his way.

"Master Bruce?"

"Check Tim's trackers."

"Of course sir."

Bruce took the elevator down and got in the car, starting the engine as Alfred came back on the line, now in the Cave.

"They aren't registering, Sir," there was well controlled alarm in Alfred's voice. "The last registered location is Gotham Academy…the main building. According to his schedule he should have been in the gym."

Bruce pulled out a comm, slipping it into his ear. "Oracle," he called.

"Oracle here."

"Robin's gone dark after trigging his panic alarm."

"Understood," there was tension in her voice, the last time a Robin had gone dark…

No, this would not be another Jason situation. He was not losing Tim as well. He called Dick, putting him on alert and his son insisted on leaving for Gotham immediately, obviously thinking the same. He had been off-world when Jason had died and so he would not stay away.

"B? No sign of any kind of attack on the school. But the office staff aren't answering," Oracle informed him.

Bruce drove into the hidden garage, leaving his car for the bunker, changing into the Batsuit kept there. "I'm on my way to the school," he growled, hearing the chirp of Nightwing joining the system, able to hear his bike on the highway. Even at top speed, it would take around half an hour for Dick to reach Gotham. Hopefully by then it would all be over.

"What the hell?" Oracle gasped.

"Oracle?" Nightwing sounded very concerned and Batman agreed, she was not one to swear.

"I'm in the school cameras…they're gone."

"Who?" he demanded. It was sounding like this wasn't a targeted attack on Robin, was that better or worse?

"The upper years. Ninth grade and up are just…gone, male and female students. I'm seeing school bags in classrooms and…that's Robin's in a classroom. Some school jackets are even still on the back of chairs. I'm getting into the stored footage…and it's blank for the last three hours."

"I'll be there in ten."

Someone had taken the children. The left behind belongings and the lack of alarm suggested something well planned and executed.

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Empty, dull blue eyes stared out at the vastness of space, unaware. The hold of the ship was full of teens who all sat and stared blankly, not a single thought in any of their heads. The stars outside blurred as the ship raced away from the planet it had been orbiting.

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Batman stalked through the halls of the school, heading for the office. He opened the door and stared at the bodies lying about, thankfully still breathing. "Oracle, send ambulances, the staff has been incapacitated."

"Understood."

He made his way to the security office, finding the officers unconscious as well. He went to the computers and began working to see if anything was retrievable on site. He stopped as he spotted Robin, Tim, walking down the hall with his classmates, they didn't seem at all concerned. They appeared to be between classes and then there was a garbled announcement before the footage turned to snow. He pulled the audio and sent it to Oracle to clean up.

He made his way to the classroom and collected Robin's bag and jacket, its trackers were in place and active and he took the bag with him, despite knowing he should leave it to be given to Jack Drake. But he was well aware of Tim's issues with his father, of how he was at the Manor every chance he had. They had more right to the bag than that man did.

He then followed the signal for Tim's phone, outside…to the school dumpster. He opened it and looked inside.

"Oracle, I've found Robin's phone along with close to a hundred more." He leapt up and began carefully searching for the right one, claiming it as well. He removed the rest and placed them in an expandable bag, carrying it to the school office.

"I've got the audio, it's an announcement of the compulsory vaccination program. The missing year groups had their turn today…and Robin's alarm was triggered right around when it would have been his year group."

"Understood." He headed for the nurses office, finding the woman locked unconscious in her supply cupboard.

There was nothing else and he set the woman on the bed in the recovery position. There were two doors, space for one or two students at a time…it was perfect for taking them without a student raising the alarm to those waiting. Obviously, whatever they did worked fast or Tim had simply been more aware of something being off since he was the only one to try and call for help.

"Any sign of how the students were removed?"

"Nothing, there are cameras on the gates and along the fence, on the streets. The children never left the building."

That meant very advanced, possible alien, technology or magic.

"Batman, I've found the same thing at a school in Metropolis and another in London," Oracle reported.

"I'm contacting the League." This was bigger than Gotham and even if it wasn't, he would take whatever help he had to, to get Tim back alive and well.

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Dick raced down the highway, weaving in and out of traffic, heart racing. Not again, he couldn't do this again. He couldn't lose another little brother. Tim should have been safe at school. He listened to B and Oracle on the comms, keeping quiet since he had nothing to add. He grimaced when she reported other schools missing students as well. He was relieved Bruce was open to calling the Justice League immediately rather than trying to deal with it all themselves.

With so many strikes at once, taking so many…it had to be alien technology or magic. They didn't have many alien members - J'onn would be little help as the Martians had never left the solar system which meant Shayera was their best bet there. Hal was off world for Green Lantern duties so they'd have to send word to him or any member of the Corps they could reach, surely this level of kidnapping was something they could intervene in.

Dick switched channels to put in a call of his own, hoping Koriand'r might have some idea who would do something like this.

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Jack Drake listened as the police explained his son was gone, taken along with all of his classmates by an unknown group. For all of Gotham Academy's vaunted security, the children had been taken. His heir had been taken, not that there was much left for Timothy to inherit beyond his trust fund. Their medical bills and inability to run the company had seen to that. The Board had done the rest, running the ailing company into the ground. He couldn't throw himself into a dig either, physically unable to handle it yet.

Dana, he would call Dana, she always knew what to say.

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Tim stripped out of his school uniform alongside everyone else, waves of energy washing over their naked bodies, sterilising them to ensure no contamination between planets. It wouldn't do to accidentally start a plague after all. The energy also removed all body hair and anything like tattoos. The imbedded tracking chip in Tim's shoulder was also destroyed but he didn't react.

Plain grey cloth was delivered and they robotically dressed in the pants and tops that most closely resembled Earth crop tops with no sleeves, leaving most of their upper bodies bare.

But as Tim stared blankly out at the passing stars, there was a tiny flicker of awareness that something was wrong, though it faded in less than a second.

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Dick held Tim's jacket in his hands, just staring at it. It was so small, smaller than anything Dick had worn at the same age. He was sixteen, a year older than Jason…no, he was not going to think like that.

The Justice League had gathered, going to work to find any evidence of the perpetrators. So far, all they had was a few seconds of corrupted footage of a figure leading a student away, the girl not struggling or anything. Schools world-wide had shut down to try and keep the students safe, children only being seen with parents or in large groups. Though, the League was fairly sure the kidnappers were long gone…which meant Tim was long gone.

The galaxy was massive, 3600 sectors according to Hal, how could they ever find them? Even if the Corps mobilised to help, they had other duties as well, they could not abandon them even for ten thousand human children. Ten thousand children vanished within the space of three hours. Who would need to take so many? What use could they have for them? Nothing good likely. The idea of children in slavery, hard labour, or something worse…he felt sick.

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Slowly, the number of bodies in the ship dropped as they travelled from planet to planet, selling their wares.

Tim remained, sitting unmoving unless told to do something. It wasn't English or any language spoken on Earth but his body still responded to the commands. The virus injected into his body ensured that.

He was unaware of the passing time, of the eyes that stared at him, assessing, the hands and other appendages that would touch him, curious. He would be disgusted to be treated like a piece of meat or equipment if he was. His body was in top condition due to his training as Robin and that garnered interest but also drove his price up.

But Tim was different to the others gathered from Earth, he was Robin. He'd been running around Gotham since a young age, trailing Batman and Robin even before he took on the role. That meant he had been exposed to just about every toxin and pollen there was and had begun building natural immunities even before having access to Batman's antidotes and vaccines. His body chemistry was just a little bit different because of all of that, not enough to fight off the alien virus, but enough that he didn't quite react the same as everyone else.

As time passed, a vague awareness built up. Sounds flowed in and out, incomprehensible but still heard. He had no concept of who he was, of being a person, but there was something there which was more than any of the others had.

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Jason wandered the city, taking in how still on edge things were when it came to the children. He'd been shocked when the news had broken of the thousands taken from their schools. He'd never imagined such a thing, despite knowing of aliens, he'd met some…before. He'd returned to Gotham to make sure there were no more Robins, to make Batman kill his killer…well, there was no Robin. Timothy Drake, the perfect Robin, was gone, one of those taken. And…he wasn't sure how that made him feel.

He was still very angry at Bruce but he had spotted Batman and Nightwing patrolling the city and there was something…kind of pathetic about both of them that took the joy out of all of his plans. So today, he was breaking into the Cave. He wanted to see what they knew about all the missing kids and to see if they remembered him in any way.

To his shock, his codes still worked. Seriously? How dumb was that, he could have told the Joker! He hated to admit it, but if he'd asked, he would have told him, anything to stop the pain. He made his way carefully into the Cave, finding it empty as planned. Alfred did the shopping this time every week, Bruce was at WE, and Dick was off with the Titans for a few days.

He looked around, finding not much had changed. He spotted the replacements uniform in a case and snorted, kid did have brains…he'd added pants. Why hadn't he thought of that? It was sleeker, more able to blend with the shadows, than the brighter shades he and Dick had worn. And the kid wielded a bō too, though he wasn't sure he believed the rumour the kid had been trained by Lady Shiva herself.

And then he froze, staring at the display case in the centre. That…that was his suit…the one he literally died in. He could see the burns, the tears…the blood. Jason walked closer, unable to help it, and snarled as he read the plaque at the base. Was that all he was to Bruce? A good soldier? He was right, he'd never been good enough, never really been his son.

"How do you know those codes?" a growl had him spinning around and there he was, Batman.

"A good soldier huh? Is that all…he was to you?" he snarled, hands balling into fists. He barely kept from saying 'I'.

Batman frowned, Batarang in hand as he cautiously circled around. He shouldn't be anywhere near the Cave! His codes must have set off some kind of alert, so stupid. At least he had his helmet on.

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Bruce fought to remain calm and collected. He'd lost Jason, had likely lost Tim now too, and this stranger dared?! How did they know Jason's codes? The only possibility would be that the Joker interrogated Jay while beating him, but he wouldn't just then pass them on or sell them. So, who else….no, it wasn't possible. And yet…he'd gone to both Robin cases. It was insane to even consider and he was so much taller and broader. If he could get the helmet off, he'd be able to tell. But if there was a chance, did he really want to fight him?

"Jaylad?" he asked quietly, and the helmeted figure stiffened. He lowered the Batarang and moved closer. "Jay?"

"Shouldn't you be asking about your soldier?" he snarled. And was that a faint green glow from the visor? That was not good.

"My son will always come first," he stated, seeing Jason stagger in shock. It was Jason, it had to be. He held his hand out to him. "Jason."

He shook his head, obviously trying to see a way passed Bruce, to get out. Bruce triggered the security lockdown, he was not going to lose his son again. "How is this possible? How long have you been…"

"Alive?" Jason finished for him. He reached up and ripped the helmet off, staring with angry green eyes…green.

"The Lazarus Pit," he murmured. But how? Jason had been dead and buried, there was a time limit on how long after death they worked.

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Alfred packed the shopping away slowly. The Manor had only begun feeling like a home again the last few months as Master Bruce and Master Dick finally fully warmed to Timothy's presence. And now…the place was silent once again, though at least Master Bruce wasn't spirally the same way as he had after Master Jason. Because there was still hope he was alive somewhere?

He paused as he realised there was activity in the Cave, activating the monitor to see an unfamiliar figure facing Master Bruce…and then they ripped the helmet off. Older or not, he knew that face. He braced himself against the counter, how could this be possible?

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Kon-El fought the urge to fidget, not wanting to bring negative attention. As much tension as there often was between them, he didn't want to bring shame to Kal with his behaviour. Most Kryptonians would never have taken in a clone of themselves but Kal had, he'd given him his name and welcomed him into the family estate.

He knew the whole House of El had faced issues over his very existence, let alone Kal accepting him. He wasn't just a clone of Kal, he carried alien genetics as well, apparently it was a good way to stabilise a clone. The fact that Jor-El had created him… sometimes he wished he knew what the man had been thinking at the time but that was impossible, he had been dead for years before Kal had stumbled across Kon's tube and freed him. They'd scoured Jor's files but his reasons for creating Kon had not been recorded.

He didn't even know who the man had gotten the other part of his genetic code from, just the sector of the Galaxy the donor came from and there were several inhabited planets in it. So, good luck finding out who it was. At least they were similar enough to Kryptonians that there was nothing strange about his appearance.

Being stuck at some fancy party was not his idea of a good evening, but Jon was too young to drag along so he was stuck being the younger representative of the House of El. Kara was excused since she was on the other side of the planet, lucky her.

Eventually, Kal caught his eye and motioned to the doors, giving him permission to wander around. That was nice. He slipped out of the room and into the halls, heading for where the visiting ships were docked to take a look at them. Some of the guests made his skin crawl so checking out their ship…well, they were docked in at private ship estate and thus under Kryptonian law.

He slipped onto the large ship, beginning to explore and it just didn't feel right. They were traders but…something about the ship was bothering him. He moved to the cargo bay, finding trading goods as there should be. But…there! He touched the wall, running his fingers and TTK over it, finding the seam. The door opened and he headed down, deeper into the ship. He froze as he stared at the group of people.

"Are you alright?" he called but there was no response.

Kon took a deep breath and walked towards the closest ones. Their body's looked like a Kryptonian on the outside, though they lacked any hair. All of them stared vacantly straight ahead, their eyes dull. He stopped in front of one of them, male if they were built the same as his people, taking in the vacant blue eyes, not as bright a shade as Kryptonians had. He was shorter than Kon but his body was fit in appearance. He waved his hand in front of those eyes and the only reaction was a slow blink.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" he asked. Dealing in living products was illegal in Kryptonian space, as well as pretty much anywhere the Lantern Corps had a presence. So, he had to check and see if these were really sapient or not. If they weren't, then they could be bought and sold freely.

He was about to leave when there was something. He reached out and tipped the head up gently to get a better look…for just a second there seemed to be some level of awareness. Even if the person could hear him, they may not understand Kryptonian. He carefully took a limp hand in his and squeezed briefly.

"Can you squeeze my hand?" Come on, give him some kind of sign. He would never forgive himself if they were taken and sold when there was a person in there somewhere.

TBC…