Bruce knows exactly where he is long before he's awake. To be honest, he'd known where he was in his sleep as well. Encountering the heavily-traumatized small counterparts of his own children had struck deep into his subconscious, and he'd drifted in and out of unsettling dreams about them all night. When morning comes, he opens his eyes to the ceiling of a living room in the alternate Manor.
"Master Bruce," Alfred is saying quietly but firmly from his side. "I believe you'll want to be a part of this."
Bruce rubs his eyes once and sits up. "A part of what?"
"The younger versions of the children are attempting to decide what to do moving forward," Alfred says. "Our versions are mediating over breakfast, however, your input may be valuable."
Bruce grunts in acknowledgement as he stands. Then, remembering how irritating that had been coming from the other him, Bruce says, "Understood. Lead the way?"
Alfred leads him not to the main dining room, nor to the kitchen, but down to the Cave.
Upon Bruce's questioning look as they descend the stairs to the Cave, Alfred says quietly, "Although the younger Master Tim was notably the most uncomfortable meeting in the Manor proper, none of the alternate children were particularly comfortable here. I suspect the size and luxury intimidated the younger Master Jason and Miss Cass. As for the younger Master Dick and Damian, they also relaxed when we rescheduled breakfast down here."
Bruce nods thoughtfully, trying not to show the heartbreak caused by versions of his children being uncomfortable in what should've been their own home. Yet again, he despises his alternate self.
When they reach the gathering of children seated on the ground, both alternate and original, they walk up to the sound of Small-Jason saying spitefully, "Oh, because we can just go to the police?"
"Not what he said, mini-me," Jason says surprisingly mildly.
"He said we should talk to the authorities," Small-Jason says, glaring at Dick.
"The authorities on things like this," Dick says. "I meant the Justice League."
Despite his initial gut reaction, which was to declare they were taking all these children back with them to their own dimension and making a home together, Bruce has to tentatively agree with Dick. Based on his knowledge from the other Batman, the Justice League of this dimension is "soft." Bruce had originally taken that to mean the other Batman wanted them to train more, but now Bruce is inclined to guess that meant the other Justice League was made of actually good people.
However, just guessing isn't going to be good enough.
"How do we know the Justice League will assist us?" Other-Damian asks nervously. "Are they not harsh on evildoers and those associated with evildoers?"
"Harsh on evildoers, yes," Damian says. "But they intend to do good deeds and treat the victims of evildoers with kindness."
"At least in our dimension," Bruce says, taking a seat on the floor beside Damian. He pretends not to notice how Small-Jason, Kid-Tim, and Other-Damian jolt at his arrival. Other-Damian even drops his fork, although granted, the forks they have are a bit big and unwieldy for such a small child in the best of circumstances.
"That is a fair assessment," Damian says. "Are there resources we would be able to use to ascertain the intentions and actions of the Justice League in this world?"
Talon slowly raises a finger up from between his side and where Other-Damian is pressed into him.
"Talon, do you have an idea?" Bruce asks.
Talon swallows a few times before speaking, clearly gathering his courage. "When I observed you… There were noticeable differences between this Batman and you. Is there a way to observe this Justice League? To look for differences?"
"Or really, to look for if they're good like yours," Small-Jason muses, then he hurries to correct himself. "I mean, like you say yours is, at least."
"You can use the computer here now, right?" Kid-Tim asks softly.
"We can," Bruce agrees. "We can go off of the other Batman's observations, and we can make observations of our own too. Good thinking, all of you."
Talon seems shocked at the compliment, while Small-Jason blushes visibly and Kid-Tim just looks confused.
"Let's move forward as if we're contacting the Justice League for now," Bruce decides. "Red Robin, Nightwing, head to the computer and see what you can find on this Justice League there. Red Hood, Robin, look through the rest of the Cave for any hard copies of files that might help. Black Bat, Agent A, with me."
His children nod and get up, starting to head toward their assignments.
"And what will we be doing?" Alfred asks, gesturing toward Cass, himself, and the alternate children.
"I'd like to assess how we're all doing here," Bruce says. He knows he's being kind of evasive, but he's trying to hold himself together, and saying outright that he wants to check over the alternate children physically and mentally for any other abuses they may have suffered would probably break him.
Thankfully, Alfred seems to get that, and he nods. "Am I to understand you'd prefer to do the assessments yourself, while Miss Cass and I entertain the others?"
Bruce hesitates. The answer is yes, Bruce would prefer to assess the children, to get a full understanding of the situation, even if it hurts him. But this shouldn't be his own preference. This should be the preference of the ones already hurt by the situation. Bruce turns to the alternate children and gives them the options. "Would you rather have individual interviews with myself or with Alfred? Either option is okay."
The alternate children trade glances.
"I'll talk to Alfred," Small-Jason says. He grabs Small-Cass by the hand. "She will too."
Kid-Tim hesitates, but then says, "I'll talk with you, Batman."
"Talon and I would want to talk with you too," Other-Damian says eventually.
"Would I be able to talk with each of you individually?" Bruce asks, then he adds, "Meaning to talk with you alone and then to talk with Talon alone."
Other-Damian's lower lip trembles. He looks up at Talon pleadingly.
"We can do that," Talon says. He doesn't look happy about it though.
Bruce holds back a sigh. "If it would be a lot harder to do alone, we do it together."
"We can do it alone," Talon insists, still looking unhappy. "Really."
"Okay," Bruce says. If they'd insisted on being together, he would've done it that way, but based on what he's seen so far, Talon and Other-Damian are likely each other's only person they've ever trusted. They'll have to learn to be apart eventually. However… "We'll be just over there, okay? And as I promised already, I won't let anyone harm any of you, including me."
Bruce stands and holds out a hand to Other-Damian.
Other-Damian takes one more long look at Talon. Then Other-Damian takes Bruce's hand and stands as well.
Bruce leads Other-Damian around a corner and up to the kitchenette section of the Cave he and Cass had found previously, where he'd seen a chair. He gestures for Other-Damian to take the chair. Once Other-Damian is seated, Bruce seats himself on the ground, so that he's looking up at Other-Damian a bit.
"Hey," Bruce says. "Thanks for trying this. You're being very brave."
"I am?" Other-Damian says, sounding surprised.
"You definitely are," Bruce says, putting as much warmth and approval into his voice as possible. "Now, how are you doing?"
"I am okay," Other-Damian says. "I miss Talon already."
"You two have been through a lot together, haven't you?" Bruce asks.
Other-Damian nods. He starts to kick his legs a little, just absentmindedly, as his feet are far from touching the floor. "And he's really nice, especially to me."
"What kinds of nice things does Talon do?" Bruce asks.
"He gets me food," Other-Damian says. "And he doesn't make me be quiet. And he lets me have both the blankets on the cold nights, even when I can tell he's cold too. Will we get to have blankets with the Justice League?"
"I will make sure you have as many blankets as you want," Bruce says.
Other-Damian grins. "You're nice too."
"I try to be," Bruce says around the lump in his throat.
Once he's asked all his questions, Bruce walks Other-Damian back to the main group, where he finds Small-Jason, Kid-Tim, and Talon waiting with Cass.
"Alfred took her," Cass says knowingly before Bruce can even ask about Small-Cass. "Don't worry."
"I never worry," Bruce says, watching Talon envelop Other-Damian in a hug.
Cass laughs. "You always worry."
He doesn't tell her she's right. She already knows.