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Dick would like to think he and Damian finally found their rhythm as Batman and Robin. That the two at last figured out how their dynamic works out in the field. How Damian is less begrudgingly following Dick's orders and actually listening. How his katana is only 'accidentally' slicing off finger tips than, say, whole freaking hands now.
(At this point Dick will take that as a win.)
Gothamites are getting used to the fact that there's a new Robin. Some grumble that having three (or four according to the ones unaware that the Robin after Steph was just Tim wearing a red version of his suit) different Robins within two years isn't a good look for Batman and Dick tries to not cringe.
Sometimes Dick wondered if everyone is very aware that there is a different Batman as well. He tries not focus on that thought and instead focuses on the fact that most people tend to be very startled by a presence that wasn't there before and thus can't immediately tell there's a difference in who is punching them in the face.
The Rogues appear to be running on some sort of honor system because he definitely has seen a few of them figuring out that this is not the same Batman but word hasn't broken out about that.
Maybe they just don't want to find out how the Joker would react. Which, fair. Dick doesn't want to know either.
Steph's presence as Batgirl has been a great help despite Damian's claims of the contrary and their bickering. Gotham these days require more than just two vigilantes but unfortunately, the old line up of a Batman, a Robin, and a Batgirl was all he had.
Jason rarely exited Crime Alley these days and declared it off limits. Dick left him to it after the Red Hood fired a few warning shots at any Bat who dared to enter.
Cass came back to Gotham once early on and departed after two days with knowledge of Tim's last known actions, disappointment in what caused Tim's last known actions, and Damian getting duct taped to a wall which she claimed was something she saw online.
Dick to this day still wonders how Cass figured out technology well enough to know what Internet memes are.
No wait. He knows how. Or rather, who he can reasonably narrow it down to with a 50-50 chance of being correct.
Tim, according to the few trackers he either missed or mercifully kept in, is currently still in Europe doing who knows what because neither he or any of his known undercover aliases haven't appeared in police reports after the Greenland Incident.
Damian took one look at the report and was unimpressed that Tim let his Mr. Sarcastic persona be spotted digging around in the ruins of a Viking colony. Dick figured it was Tim's way to let them know he was still alive.
Dick lets out another sigh as he recalls the moment Tim left and once again comes up with ways how that could've gone better.
He was half-way through a scenario he had already thought about before when the Bat Computer beeps a proximity warning and the air suddenly starts wavering. Dick watched as reality tears open to reveal a swirl of energy and a figure stepping out of it.
The person, a young man really, is dressed in Robin colors and was very obviously a Robin unless the oversized glowing and very unsuitable for stealth 'R' on his torso meant something else in the reality he came from.
The Robin stared at Dick, who noticed the minute surprised head twitches as the visitor registering the sight of Dick dressed in the Bat suit with the cowl off.
"Hm," said the increasingly familiar Robin. A voice Dick hadn't heard in months.
Unfortunately, protocol demands to be followed and so he pulled back on the cowl and ordered in his best Batman voice, "Robin, report."
"R031993TJD-ED:Prime-MG:Negative-SSD:Null-Code:Haystack-Needle," declared a Tim Drake and Dick's heart sinks. There is another Tim who was searching for someone who may be dead. But this one was hopping universes to do it.
"Explain."
The events that lead to this Tim's Bruce's...disappearance was a lot different but the end result was the same. The man got hit with a beam of energy and no trace of him was left. Yet this Tim had found some sort of proof that his Bruce was alive.
But unlike his world's Tim, this Tim didn't give enough people the heads up. He just jumped into this adventure with no plan beyond "step 1: find Bruce, step 2: ???, step 3: profit."
Dick suddenly felt grateful that at least he had an idea where his little brother is. That he was at least on the very same planet Dick was standing on.
Tim glanced at something beyond Dick's shoulder and his face spasmed with old grief before professionalism kicked in.
"Do you plan on staying long for dinner, Master Tim?" asked Alfred by the elevator that served as the penthouse's cave entrance.
Oh. Now that was a concept Dick hadn't considered before. Wow, this Tim's universe sucks.
"I really shouldn't impose myself," tried Tim.
"Of course," said Alfred as his tone entered the fringes of Disappointed Grandparent territory, "but I'm sure its been a few realities since you've last eaten and you'll need the energy for what might lie ahead. Perhaps a whole dimension of that wretched Joker fellow, for example."
Dick would rather gone through life without having to consider that nightmarish thought, thanks.
Tim came to the same conclusion yet still relented with, "yeah okay," and followed Alfred and Dick to the lockers. Even if this was the penthouse, the No Night Suits Upstairs rule still applied.
Damian watched the Imposter during the evening meal. The Imposter looked like that Inter- Drake, sounded like him, acted like him, but appeared to be older. And taller by several inches.
The Imposter glanced at Damian the moment Damian revealed himself and had said, "I forgot how small you were when you arrived."
He then dodged the knife Damian threw.
Apparently the Imposter came from an alternate Earth that was five years ahead. The Damian of his world had been Robin for four but still shared the mantle with the Imposter so that there would a Robin in Gotham whenever one left the city for whatever reason.
It sounds too convenient. And judging from the slight twitches in Grayson and Pennyworth's shoulders, it just occurred to them too late.
This Imposter is also futilely searching for Father but he is jumping universes haphazardly to do it.
At least, Damian would later begrudgingly admit, his universe's Drake is showing some intelligence to his investigation by limiting himself to the field of archeology and an impressive talent in infiltration while in disguise.
(If Grayson and the others actually paid attention to Drake's account on the Batcomputer, they would notice the meticulous updates that are somehow being added in and how infuriating that its becoming increasingly plausible that Drake may be actually correct in his claims. Damn him.)
Damian noted how the robot Failsafe the Imposter mentioned was usually held back by Pennyworth. Damian had been around long enough to know Pennyworth would never fail at any task he assigns himself. To fail to prevent Failsafe's activation would mean that he was incapacitated.
Possibly permanently.
How could this inevitability not occur to a version of his father, a man known for his contingencies?
He voiced this out loud and the Imposter replied, "I suppose he couldn't bring himself to think about the concept of his dad dying."
The rest of the visit brought forth revelations that spun Dick's head and continued to spin it when it was almost time for the alternate Tim to continue his search. The Joker stole the entire Wayne family fortune somehow. Vandal Savage then bought Wayne Manor and is living there now. The money from the purchase was enough to buy a nice brownstone in the middle of the city and maintain their equipment. This Tim had a boyfriend named Bernard Dowd (...wasn't he the guy who kept hitting on Tim's step-mother and had a crush on a girl named Darla?) who he rescued from a cult. This Tim lives on his own in a house boat at the Gotham Marina.
It was the house boat that Dick couldn't comprehend. No, that one had to be a lie. There was no way this Tim started his patrol by sneaking out of his boat. Given how paranoid his Tim and Bruce were about identities, this disregard in operational security would not fly. No way Bruce would allow that.
(There is no way that their Alfred isn't haunting Tim's ass about it.)
The Zur-en-arrh thing tingled in the back of Dick's mind. That. That definitely sounded familiar but Dick wasn't sure. But given the way Alfred eyed the penthouse's branch of the Batcomputer, he had a hunch that the killer robot was in their universe as well.
The man waited until Damian went back upstairs to the penthouse to greet Stephanie before he confessed, "I admit, I was tempted to not intervene and let Failsafe out a few times."
Damn. Dick didn't want that hunch to be right.
Tim stared at Alfred in horror. The robot took down the Justice League within a week and turned Gotham into a war zone. And Alfred almost unleashed that horror onto the world on a whim?
"When Master Jason died, Master Bruce fell into a deep grief," Alfred explained, "when he was awake he would drink for hours. When it was time for patrol, he fought with little regard to his own safety. Every criminal he came across received horrific injuries. We didn't tell him but there were a few cases where his...victims had to be transferred to other hospitals in other states in order for them to get better treatment. One just recently woke up and started physical therapy."
That was news to Dick. But...didn't Tim try to tell him when he first tracked him down to ask him to become Robin again? There was a thick folder involved...Dick remembered skimming it while Tim rambled.
Dick, once he got his head out of his ass and worked to mend bridges with Bruce and help train Tim, had thought it was a miracle that no one died.
But...that wasn't true, wasn't it?
"He killed," said Dick.
"Indirectly," replied Alfred.
Even then, that still technically counted. Damn.
"I was on the verge of giving in the temptation of releasing Failsafe and not caring what would happen next when Master Tim arrived on the door step and refused to leave until Master Bruce saw his evidence."
"And then he became Robin?" asked Tim.
"No, he was kept at arms length but stubbornly held on until he was sent overseas to train. It was only after he returned he officially became Robin."
"Huh. He personally trained me the whole time."
Fascinating, Dick thought.
"With news of Master Bruce's death, however, Failsafe has been permanently offline. It can not intervene on any fatal actions anyone makes as Batman."
Which meant Jason was very lucky all he got was a very angry older brother on his ass after his spree in the Batsuit.
"But what if this world's Bruce actually returns?" asked Tim.
"Then I hope this Zur-En-Arrh fellow doesn't remember about Failsafe."
Stephanie was unimpressed that no one told her that a Tim from an alternate universe was visiting sooner. She still missed her ex boyfriend and while it wasn't exactly him, she still wanted to hang out. He supposedly had an hour left before he had to jump into the next universe and her chances were getting smaller.
She was greeted with the sight of an older version of her ex. A little taller. A bit more muscular. Less baby-faced.
Somehow still alive despite the giant glowing R on his front.
"How are you not dead?" she asked, waving a hand towards the R.
"I'm only wearing it for this mission," said Tim, "it will help Batman find me."
"But will it be the right Batman?" she points out.
"R031993TJD-ED:Prime-MG:Negative-SSD:Null-Code:Haystack-Needle," Tim recited, "He just has to say the right answer phrase."
"So...what does 'SDD' stand for?" 'MG' being 'Metahuman Gene', she can understand but that one?
Tim glanced at Damian and then at the Batcomputer which was bouncing the current date (XX/XX/2009) around as a screensaver. It has only hit a corner twice so far.
"You guys aren't ready for that information yet," he hedges.
"Oh come on!" complained Steph.
"I can handle it," Damian added, "I'm old enough."
Tim stubbornly shook his head, "Give it a few years for the Internet to manifest it organically."
"That still tells us nothing, Drake," said Damian.
"Fine," sighed Tim before turning to Dick, "you guys know what 'RPF' means, right?"
"Okay," Dick tried not to cringe, "maybe Tim here does have a point," he gave Alfred a look that translated to 'update the parental control list on the Batcomputer when you have the chance.'
The date hits a corner for the third time. Right on cue, a portal opens.
"Ah," said Tim, "My ride's here."
"So soon?" Steph pouted.
"My Batman is still out there somewhere. He needs help getting home and that falls to me," Tim approached the portal with a sureness that couldn't be outstubborned, "tell your Tim I said 'good luck.'"
He then hopped into the portal which then immediately closed. It was like he hadn't been here.