Archive of Our Own

Tim Drake had his opinions on a lot of things, but his biggest gripe right now was messing with the timestream.  “Of course we weren’t fast enough to stop this.”  He growled as he leapt onto the next rooftop.  Landing beside him was Supernova and Spoiler, both of them getting caught in the timestream rift with him.  “I hate it when they try to mess with the past.”

“At least we’re still in Gotham,”  Kon said, looking around.

“What a load of good that does us,” Steph grumbled, tearing her hood off.  “Our closed circuit comms are working fine, but anything linked to satellites is down.”  Alright, they’re definitely in the past, and that at least sets them back about five years. The newer satellites were launched around that time. 

Tim looked to his left.  “Kon, got anything?” 

Kon looked around the area, then gazed up towards the sky.  “It might just be out of view, but I don’t see the Watchtower.”  The clone looked around the city streets below and hummed to himself.  “Wait, isn’t there supposed to be a Bat Burger on that corner?”

Tim looked and saw the closed up corner shop.  Yeah, that would be a Bat Burger in their time, but back in the day, it used to be a grocery store.  If that were open now, and wasn’t a chain restaurant, that would put them back another few years.  About seven or eight years?  “If that’s the case…” Tim pondered aloud.

“Tim, where are you—” Before Steph could grab him, he leapt his way down the building via the fire escape and found himself heading towards that store.  His friends caught up to him, and the trio looked over the bulletin board posted just outside the shop.  His stomach dropped and he was sure that even Steph could hear it without super-hearing.

Haly’s circus.  The Flying Graysons.  This was the very performance that— “Cardinal.”  Supernova grabbed his shoulder before he could move this time.  “Don’t think about it.”

“Finding our bad guy and getting us back home is the priority.”  Right.  Right, Spoiler was right.  Tim shook himself out of his thoughts.  Back then, back now actually, he would be… riiiiight.

“We need to stay out of sight,” Tim concluded, though that was a given.  Not only were they going to be wary of Batman and Robin, but also a fast approaching new vigilante.  Then he realized, “but we’re going to have to hack into the systems and find where our time traveler went.”

Taking out the cameras watching the safehouse was easy.  He hoped it wouldn’t change things in the future, but for now, he needed access to the batcomputer and enough time to look for any temporal anomalies.  “I need you two to stay out of sight.”

“I was already in Gotham around this time,” Steph tried to argue.

“Yeah, but at this time, you were subbing in as Batgirl, remember?”  She scowled at him, but didn’t argue any further.  It’s not like she had a Batgirl suit she could steal right now.  It probably wouldn’t fit right anyway.  Tim looked at Kon.  “No arguments?”

“I’d still be in a test tube right about now, so it’s best if I keep my head low.”  He was being surprisingly cooperative about the whole thing. Kind of refreshing.

Steph did have something to say, though, and he wasn’t ready to face it.  “You were still ‘dead’ around this time.”

He pursed his lips.  “Yeah, I know.”  He went for his utility belt and removed his cowl.  The grey streak in his hair was crumpled back with the rest of it.  “I have a work around.”  His smile reached his hazel blue eyes.  

He wondered what would have happened if he just did exactly what his past self was about to do in a few month’s time.  Just how badly would the timeline be messed up, if he didn’t take precautions like this?  These were still Bruce Wayne measures and it was only until recently that he and Damian updated hardware across the city.  This meant he was dealing with iris scanners, not retina scanners.  

“Sorry, Jaybird,” he said, strolling up to the scanner and leaned in.  “Hope I don’t get you in trouble with Dami or B.”  The computer did exactly as he hoped, recognizing his contact lenses as Jason Todd.  The door opened and he rushed over to the computer.  Jason would have used a version of his usual passwords…no?  Really? Okay, fine, what was Jason obsessed with…

“Oh, please, no,” he murmured to himself in amusement. ‘ElizabethBennetDeservedBetter1!”  That got him in.  Tim couldn’t help but laugh.  “I am so going to tease him about this later.”  At the very least, there was no way anyone was going to guess that password, unless they knew what section of the library he liked to hang around in.

He got all the information he needed and uploaded it onto his gauntlet’s hard drive.  Additional information was helpful too—given that today was definitely the day of the circus show and the Wayne’s were to attend.  At this time, Bruce was still in recovery, but was making public appearances.  Damian would be wearing the cowl.  Jason would be working in and out of Gotham with the team as Robin.  He didn’t need any further confirmation of the time they were displaced to.  Tim worked on a few other things before he closed down the system, sure of himself.  Just as he was about to leave, the scanner at the door buzzed with static—the speaker on and the mic hot.  

Tim rushed to get over to the camera’s blind spot and put his cowl back up. He tapped at his throat, just a few adjustments, and…

“Jason, don’t you have midterms?”  It wasn’t Damian, but Bruce Wayne.  He sounded so much younger here, but also so very tired. Tim had to smother his feelings about it.

He gulped, knowing that the voice modulator would only do so much.  He did enough research at this time. He didn’t earn his Stalker allegations for nothing. “Ditched school, a case was bugging me.”  He could act like a rebellious teenager again, if only to get another moment like this with Bruce.  

It also helped that Jason did have notes up previously from his last use of the computer.  Tim highlighted a few things, just to help out his replacement a little.  Couldn’t hurt to light a fire under him, right? 

“If you’re not back in school before lunch, I’m taking you off the patrol roster this weekend.”  Tim tried not to laugh, but a snort came out anyway.  It wasn’t how Jason would laugh, but at least it sounded like him.  “And don’t forget, we’re going to the circus tonight.”  

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”  Tim thought about the person he was during this time.  That kid spent years without this kind of love, and he’d spend a few more without it.  At least he held onto the memory of it.  The memory of a loving family is what saved him, even when he didn’t join up with the Bats right away.   

He itched at his forearm, though his gauntlets made it difficult.  

Bruce huffed, the typical Bat sound for fondness.  “You’re going to train hard before we go because of that attitude, you know that.”  

Yeah, Tim felt bad for Jaybird, but he could handle that much.  “I know.” God knows the man would never talk like this again with him.  “See ya later, B.”

Tim took off the cowl and left the safehouse to meet up with his friends at the library.  Steph used her cape to act like a skirt and well, Kon didn’t have to do much to change his look.  There were plenty of Superman fanboys, so him with the emblem wasn’t weird.  Tim fussed with his cape, fastening unseen buttons, latches, and straps until it looked like a loose jacket.  It was loose enough so that the gauntlets strapped to his back didn’t show.  His pants and combat boots made him look like some punk, but better than looking like a pretend vigilante.  

Steph stared at him as he approached their quiet corner of the library.  “That’s so uncanny,” she murmured.  “You look like Jason, you know, except for the gray hair, old man.”

“Kinda creepy that you have contacts of everyone in your family,” Kon said, though he didn’t sound weirded out by it at all.  “You didn’t get caught?”

“Jaybird did, but that’s okay, he probably deserves it.”  

Steph laughed at this, patting Tim on the back.  “I’m sure his past self is going to love that.” 

“Didn’t think you’d be such a dick to him this quickly,” Kon laughed along.  

Tim poked him in the side.  “I’m not being a Dick to him, I’m being a Tim, not that he knows that yet.”  Oh that terrible joke, but they snickered anyway.  

Getting down to business:  temporal anomalies were easy to spot when the right things were being monitored.  Their villain didn’t have sufficient power to make another jump, meaning they were going to hijack one of three places—unless they skipped town, of course.

“Then I’ll head for the nuclear plant.”  Glad Tim could count on Kon for choosing that right away.

“Fine, I’ll take S.T.A.R. Labs, not like I haven’t broken into there once or twice.”  Tim smiled, grasping her shoulder.  “Oh, no , you are not asking me to do you a favor while I’m there.”

“I mean, if you happen to download any of their files while you’re there, I’d appreciate it.”  There would be plenty of information that could be gathered, especially since a lot was lost in the years ahead.  Steph rolled her eyes, but made a grabby hand.  He offered her one of his gauntlets in exchange for hers, she preferred to have less tech while fighting, but they fit each other's gear well enough. “Thanks, Steph.”

That left Tim to the final location—the branch of Wayne Enterprise that he’d eventually come back to revamp in years time: Wayne Industries.  That also put him in range of where he needed to be.

Each of them started heading towards their different locations.  They couldn’t afford to use the cash they had on hand, as it wasn’t the proper date.  The credit cards they had wouldn’t work at this time either.  Despite Kon having the luxury of flight, he couldn’t draw attention to himself like that, not when Gotham’s vigilantes would be watching the skies.  Steph and Tim couldn’t use their grappling guns all the way across town in broad daylight either.  So walking, for the most part, or sneaking onto the buses without anyone looking, which Tim found very easy.

He breathed, then looked at his arm.  He swore to himself five years ago that he’d cover up the words there, but tattoos never did cover up soulmate marks very well.  He leaned his head back on the hard head rest and closed his eyes.  

Years ago to him, or maybe just a year or so from the now he was stuck in, Cardinal took flight in Gotham.  He wasn’t as amnesiac as the League of Assassins believed, but he knew it best to bide his time than to run too soon.   Establishing himself wasn’t difficult, not when he knew the city so well.  He broke into one of the safe houses that the Bats maintained, following his instincts in believing one thing: Bruce wouldn’t have removed Tim from their systems, even if he were deemed dead.

Over time, he observed the changes in the Bats and the changes in his Gotham.  Bruce was forced into retirement due to injuries, and Damian naturally took on the role.  Cass too ascended from Batgirl to just the Bat—both of them fully masked and haunting the streets with lethal, but merciful precision.   Then he saw the boy—the one that replaced his replacement. Tim knew where the old Robin, now Red Hood, went off to. This new one was so young, was he really supposed to be patrolling alone? After what happened to Tim?

Cardinal wasn’t being as overly cautious as he was known for.  His fellow forsaken friends teased him for being spotted by the Baby Bird, but honestly, he deserved a scolding.  He shouldn’t have let it be so easy.

The kid wore a much brighter suit than any of the last ones, black having become the accent to a bolder red, yellow, and green.  It was nice to see something that was new, but still paid homage to Damian’s black, Tim’s yellow, and Jason’s red suits.  Watching the kid, this Robin was the first that Tim actually believed could fly—the first one to embody being Robin and the symbol of hope it’d become.  He laughed, actually wholeheartedly laughed, and that got the kid’s attention.

Robin landed on the rooftop he’d been lurking on, and he gasped.  “It’s you!”  The voice was soft, in awe, enamored in a way that changed one’s perspective of the world. His face showed recognition, though Tim couldn’t imagine why.  Had Bruce and Damian talked about their little black sheep, the blood stain in their records?  That’s a hell of a story to tell a kid. 

No, they couldn’t have known it was him yet. Had they made a file of him as an outcast then? 

There was a burning, stinging pain at the inside of his wrist beneath his gloves and sleeve.  Something was wrong, and he wasn’t about to let the kid help him with it.  “Get lost!”  Cardinal left, dropping off the kid’s radar easily.  The newbie had raw talent, he surely had time in training, but experience was the true master here.

Tim traced his finger over the words hidden by his sleeve.  When you meet a soulmate, their first words spoken to you are written on your skin.  He didn’t think he’d get lucky enough to have such words on his skin, but he also didn’t think he was lucky enough to live again.  So imagine how much of a bastard he felt when he realized that those words—those simple, softly spoken words—were his soulmate mark.  How was his soulmate some kid that the Wayne’s adopted, just like him and Todd and how in the world did he—

Tim sighed, opening his eyes and getting off the bus.  That didn’t matter.  He wasn’t the kid’s true soulmate, while somehow the kid was his.  There wasn’t much documentation on it, but these things did happen.  One party could have a profound imHe already had words on him before he even met him. His real soulmate was out there somewhere, and it wasn’t Tim.

“Drake, I know you’re still adjusting,” Damian said, giving him the same distant familiarity from their youth.  Tim figured that he’d get that stick out of his ass by now, but given his upbringing before being in Bruce’s care, it made sense that he still needed time to deprogram.  He was no better.

“I’m only staying in the manor because Gotham turned to hell.”  They needed him, and he accepted the fact that he couldn’t handle the problem in their city without having more help than just his small band of friends.

“I just want to warn you that the newest Robin…has a lot of energy.”  That was a way to put it.  Richard Grayson, though he preferred Dick—the little Dick wad—came running down the stairs at a break neck pace.  Tim almost guessed that he tripped over his own feet, but the flip and well executed tumble back to his feet at the final landing was too good to be a coincidence.

Dick gazed up at him with the biggest eyes—like a fawn. “You’re here!” His cuteness was grating.

Tim pursed his lips, noticing that there were words inscribed on his arm.  He expected the callous warning he spoke on that rooftop, but didn’t see them.  Something bitter crawled at his throat, as he looked away.  Was it someone here that told him those kind words, or someone else? Tim ignored it, scratching at his covered wrist. “Yeah, I’m here, and I’m leaving again.”  He turned around and started out the door.  “I’ll be back for the meeting tonight.”

Tim started walking his path down familiar streets.  He grabbed enough gear from this time period to make this worth it.  No signs of ‘Cardinal’ would exist, not until his past self was ready to make his debut.  He’d stolen Jason’s arsenal—he reminded himself not to give the guy so much crap when he got back.  Tim looked at the slowly descending sun and breathed.  “Almost showtime.”

“Hey, Cardinal?” Robin had a habit of sticking to him like glue when they teamed up, it was annoying—but growing to be annoyingly tolerable.  “Why did you come back?”

“Nothing against Talia wanting to be the mom I didn’t get to grow up with, but Ra’s wasn’t exactly the warmest of people.”  Honestly, if not for her, he wouldn’t have gotten out sane and alive.  

Dick was quiet for a while, thinking over everything that Tim wasn’t saying.  Smart enough kid for recognizing that.  “But why Gotham?”

It’s not that he only spent time in Gotham.  How else would he have been able to save Supernova? Before he could answer, something skittered onto the rooftop beside them.  Tim’s body moved, shielding the kid and shrouding them both in his cloak as the grenade went off.  The smoke cleared and the look that Robin gave him almost made his stomach turn.  

He looked at him like he was a hero.  Like he was never cruel to him.  Like all the bitterness that Tim gave him didn’t exist.  He’d toss those thoughts in a box and hid them away for now.  “Move and get behind them.”  They had some thugs to take down and some information to pull—or teeth, if they didn’t want to talk.

Tim shook his head, trying to get rid of the memories that were washing over him.  

Dick did something reckless on a mission, and Damian was chewing him out over it.  The typical Batman and Robin behavior, but it pissed off Tim.  He removed his cowl and jammed his finger to Damian’s chest.  It didn’t matter that he was shorter than him, he still stood with the same steel resolve.  “Lay off the kid.”

“This doesn’t concern you, Card—”

“What a load of crap, it doesn't concern me.  Robin went off script, but he made the right call.”  Dick spent his first year training under the original Batman and then mentored under  every other vigilante within a hundred miles.  He was the culmination of every hero before him and Tim was determined to support that.  “You wouldn’t have gotten out of there alive without him ignoring your orders.”

Damian clearly had a response, but Bruce put a hand on his shoulder.  He didn’t need to say anything, the cold stare and the meaningful hand gesture was enough.  It hurt that Bruce couldn’t even look at Tim, despite supporting his side.  Damian sighed and glowered at Tim.  “You’re dismissed, Drake.”

Yeah, he deserved that coldness.  He didn’t say a word as he headed for the vehicle depot.  What he didn’t expect or deserve was the hand that reached out and held his own.  He shouldn’t have felt the warmth from it, given their gauntlets, but he did.  “Thank you,” Dick said.  “For—you know…”

“Of course.”  

Tim looked at the street ahead of him.  Left and a couple of miles would lead him to Wayne Industries.  His Jason contact lenses would get him in through computer security, but he wasn’t confident about deceiving any employees who may have been lurking around.  To the right was another long walk and a circus show.

Tim course-corrected when he noticed someone’s bike was locked up to a lamppost.  He approached it like he owned it and none of the passerbys cared.  An easy cut with a batarang freed the thing and he pedaled down the street quickly.  It would have been nice if he stole a motorcycle, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. 

Dick wasn’t a stupid kid, not by a long shot.  He picked up on hacking into the batcomputer quickly, Tim was impressed as he facilitated the action.  “I need to edit something in my file,” Dick said, singlemindedly focused on that task.

“You can’t change your height, Baby Bird.”  

Dick huffed at him.  “No, there’s a detail I think is missing.”  His origin files were opened, clearly written by Damian at that time.  Tim only read the file once or twice, out of curiosity (no, because he always had information on everyone he was around).  “Besides, I’m gonna be taller than you.” Tim laughed at this.

xx/xx/xxxx - Haly’s Circus visits Gotham.  The Flying Grayons final performance. The performance that orphaned— Tim looked away from the computer.  “What’s missing then?”

Dick chewed his lip, his fingers a little shaky as they hovered over the keyboard.  Tim glanced back at the screen, seeing the kid’s newest school photo as his mugshot and a list of identifying qualities.  Notably: his soulmate mark.  Dick’s confidence waned and he closed up everything instead. “Nevermind, I just don’t understand.”  

“You’re gonna have to explain that, Baby Bird.”  Tim ruffled his hair.  “Can’t make sense of things, if you don’t present the details—but only some of the details, or else it’s no fun to puzzle it together.”  Dick stuck his tongue out and hopped out of the chair.  “Hey, where are you going?” Tim went after the kid, seeing that he was getting his suit on.  No way was he going out alone while having a clouded mind, no way in hell.

Back then, or rather, back now, Dick said he overheard the Ringmaster get threatened by a local gang.  Typical thing for Gotham thugs, but Haly’s Circus had plenty of important backers.  Surely someone should have put out the money, or at the very least shelled it out for proper security.  His parents assured him that they’d be okay, and that there wasn’t anything to worry about.  They didn’t mean to lie, after all, they didn’t know they’d be the targets.

It wasn’t that long ago from the present, and honestly, Tim hated himself for enjoying it. He was working with his friends on a mission, but had a little stowaway: the unpredictable fledgling himself.  

“Please don’t take me back!” Of course everyone was enamored by him. The outcasts thought he was the cutest darn thing in existence and it made him both miserable and amused to watch. 

Cassandra, daughter of Zeus, knelt down to his level and squealed. “So this is Baby Bird!” She pinched his cheeks with extreme gentleness. “Oh, Robin, you’re so cute!”

Blush wasn’t something noticeable on his face, but Dick wasn’t very good at hiding his emotions yet. He fumbled over his words. 

“Jeez, Red Bird, didn’t think we’d be babysitting,” Tigress said, lounging back in the airplane seat. 

Kon scoped up the kid, making him take his seat. “Don’t move—and I mean it, you and every other Robin are so slippery for no reason!”

Resounding opinion: Dick got to stay. 

Tim should have sent him home packing. 

It started with the plane being shot out of the sky. The outcasts were split up in the forested mountains over some east European country, when they were still three hours from their destination. Did they have plenty of flyers on this mission? Yes. Did they have enough time to do things right? Of course not. That’s how Tim ended up with the kid strapped to him via conjoined utility belts as they made their descent with a shared parachute. 

Dick was calm initially, but that was likely because Tim was too. Days would pass, and they did well enough in the wilderness. Tim did the dirty work of catching and killing their food, knowing that his hands were already dirty. No sense in traumatizing the kid more. 

Eventually, the kid cracked. Understandably so, considering Tim was on the verge of it himself. Soothing crying twelve year olds wasn’t on his resume, but he did what he could anyway. “It’s going to be okay.” Dick visibly calmed after hearing those words. Seeing him calm down made Tim release tension too. The kid had faith in them getting out alive, and he was going to hold onto that faith too. 

The show was underway by the time he arrived.  The opening act was in progress, the tent was crowded to the brim.  He saw where the Bats were and kept his head down.  He just needed to get to what was effectively backstage.  Tim just needed to find them and stop them before it was too late.

It first happened when they were stranded in the wilderness. The note was something from Robin’s ‘Before’ files that he remembered.  Dick’s mother used to kiss him between his brows, a well documented thing before each of their performances.  It likely happened a lot, and so as a reassuring gesture, Tim started to do it too.  

Except it started bleeding into things where it shouldn’t have.  Greetings when they crossed paths on patrol.  Farewells after family dinners at the manor when no one’s looking.  Whenever Dick decides to run away from the manor, just to show up at whichever safehouse Tim was hiding out at and spend the night.  The rare occasions when Tim’s the one taking the kid home from his gymnastics competitions.  

The kid seeking out comfort and reassurance from him was something to get used to.  He had Damian for this kind of thing—he was his mentor-father figure.  There was Bruce, the mentor-grandfather.  He could have gone to Jason-the uncle-brother(?), who was far more emotionally competent than he was.  Cass-the mentor-aunt was a great option too, but Dick gravitated to him, and he hated that he did the same.

Dick would have the same excuse every time too.  “It’s gotta be you.”  “It’s you I want.”  Did this kid understand what he was saying?  Did he know what those words were doing to him?  Even as he got older, it didn’t really change. 

Those insufferable words were used against him yet again.  “It’s you!” The words washed over him like a salve.  The last time they met on patrol, Dick was already taller than Tim.  He gave a kiss to Cardinal’s cowl as a greeting, grinning to himself like a foul (like the damn sun). 

He had to stop this before it got too far.  Before Tim and his selfishness ruined him.  

His single minded determination on completing a goal was both admirable but a flaw.  He should have been thinking.  He should have been more aware of his surroundings and those around him that would stop what he perceived to be a noble goal.  Before he could sneak through, someone grabbed him, twisted his arm, and clamped a hand over his mouth.  He attempted to wrestle with this person, but he simply didn’t have the strength.  They fell into the shadows under bleachers, where another person came into view and looked down on him.

Stephanie had a grave look on her face.  “You can’t do this, Tim.”

Kon held on tight, not at all struggling with keeping him pinned.  “You were the one that always warned us not to mess with the timestream.”  He wasn’t going to get out of this.  No amount of Kryptonite was going to get him through his own hypocrisy.  

Unconscious, Dick laid in a hospital bed in critical condition. It was his fault. Cardinal shouldn’t have been there, but he had returned to Gotham early and heard the call for help. The two Bats were in different parts of the city, caught up in their own fights. Red Hood was on the other coast, too far away to be of help. Bruce almost suited up,  but he was too old now to be doing this. Cardinal told him to stay on the computers, since they didn’t have Alfred watching out for them anymore. 

So Tim went to help, not knowing what he was getting into. 

He always took the time to think things through, never allowing himself to act too early.  It was due to this that he put himself in danger. Dick threw himself in harm’s way to protect Tim.  It was only due to practical instinct that they both made it out of there alive.

Damian chewed him out, while Dick was getting operated on. Jason tried to diffuse the situation, but a load of help that was. Cass had to pull them all apart, her tempered emotions near the surface still. 

The scene of Robin coming in and protecting Cardinal turned his stomach over and over.  That hit should have been for him. Dick could have gotten away unscathed, if he didn’t have to save him. 

“This is on you, Drake.” Damian said, hands fisted in the fabric of his uniform. “If he dies, his blood is on your hands.”

He had to try. He had to try and prevent everything, and so through Kon’s hand, he screamed,  “I can save him!” 

“He was saved,” Kon argued, despite not sounding convinced of it himself.  “He lost his parents, but he gained a family anyway.”  

Steph grabbed his face, made him look her dead in the eye.  They reflected back the desire to save, the regret of not being there in time, and the determination to do what’s right.  She gritted her teeth and looked away.  How can she let this continue, knowing what would happen next?  How— “You aren’t focused on saving his parents, but saving him from what’s going to happen.”

Tim knew that was true, but that didn’t change the intent.  If they lived, Dick would be happy.  If they pulled off this performance without getting hurt, then he’d continue to travel the world with them.  That ball of sunshine wouldn’t have that darkness lingering in his heart.  He’d find happiness.  He’d find that someone who was his true soulmate, the one who said those kind words to him.  It’s you, could have been said to the person who deserved Dick’s goodness.  They wouldn’t be on Tim, and Dick wouldn’t be bound by some shitty fate to him of all people.

The call for the main event started, and the stars of the show walked out from beyond the curtain.  In the dark space they left, many performers were queued up for their shows: the firebreather, the strongman, the animal tamer, and a sad, strange looking clown.  John and Mary didn’t notice the group under the bleachers as they passed, but Dick did.  The small kid tilted his head in confusion, but followed after his parents dutifully.  Seeing that innocent face shattered Tim, and he thrashed about as much as he could.  Minutes would pass and it felt like hours. This went against everything he stood for. Him and his outcasts, all of those who were forsaken. If this went on…

Stephanie couldn’t look towards the center ring, she couldn’t look at Tim.  The ringmaster introduced the stars.  Despite holding on tight, Kon was no better, no less guilt stricken.  The ringmaster hyped up the Graysons, wowed the crowd with how daring this stunt would be.  The remorse of this moment would stay with his friends, just as it would for Tim.  It wouldn’t be the blood of the corrupt, but those of the innocent on their hands tonight.

The crowd’s buzzing screeched to a halt with a resounding gasp.  The unmistakable sound of bodies hitting the ground left the people quiet for a single heartbeat.  In the eruption of shrieks and hysteria, there would be a little boy silently crying.  The words on Tim’s arm stabbed him, threatening to remove his whole hand, but that didn’t matter.  His heart broke for the boy.  He failed him. He couldn’t save Dick.

Kon let go, now that there wasn’t anything Tim could do.  Shame enveloped them all, but what did it matter?  They were right.  The timestream shouldn’t be messed with.  Who knew where their villain was and what mess they made in their time away from the team? Tim messed up by coming here, but he… 

He had faith he could do something good for Dick.  Like how Dick gave him faith that there was good in the world.

The world seemed to move in slow motion.  The crowd dispersed, certain figures of Gotham elite stayed behind to bear witness.  Tim knew what some of them were, and hoped that the information he highlighted in Jason’s files might help later, but that didn’t matter right now.  Jason clung to Bruce despite his age, making sure he was well and fine, but Damian hopped the crowd barrier to head towards the kid.  The ringmaster ordered the firebreather to take Dick, get him away from the contorted forms of his parents.  Damian tried to talk, but was blocked.

Kon, Steph, and Tim watched as Dick and his current watcher went behind the curtain.  That was it.  It’s over now.  They started making their way towards the exit, using the crowd as cover to make clean escapes.  Something bothered Tim though, and he never found himself wrong when it came to his intuition.  Steph and Kon didn’t have a firm grasp on him anyway.  Cardinal pulled on his cowl and turned around, running backstage.

Many of the circus folk were running about, making it difficult to find just where Dick went.  Tim found the firebreather, but he didn’t have the boy.  Tension coiled as he approached the man and fisted his shirt.  “Where’s the kid?”

The firebreather panicked.  “Are you Batman? Why are you here?” 

He didn’t correct him.  “Tell me where the boy is!”  

“I gave him to one of the clowns, he offered to watch the kid so I could help with—” 

He saw red.  “Where!” Tim didn’t even realize that he lifted the man off the ground, so he put him down and ran off.  Like a compass following a cardinal direction, Tim weaved through every obstacle to find his North.

Outside, near the animal pens, that strange clown had Dick and threw him to the ground.  “Dammit, kid, you know how much I was paid to do this right?”  A familiar click echoed.  “If you don’t behave, you’ll end up just like them!” 

Singlemindedly, Tim’s bo staff extended out.  He rushed in, silent as the night should be, and deflected the arm holding the handgun.  The first bullet went flying, but the rest of them wouldn’t matter.  His next strike snapped from the arm to his head, disorienting the man into dropping the weapon.  As the clown tried to get his bearings again, he twirled the staff about his hand and swung again, striking the man against the ribs.  Another clean twirl of the staff, and Tim came in with another low blow.  The man tackled him, but Tim used his momentum against him to put the man down.  With a proper chokehold, Cardinal knocked the man unconscious.  

During the fight, Dick had gone silent in terror.  Frozen, he watched the whole fight with wide eyes.  Tim collapsed his staff, calming his breathing now that it was over.  His parents were gone, but at least Dick was safe.  He approached slowly, his hands up in a pacifying manner.  “You’re going to be okay.” 

The words relaxed the kid, enough for his composure to completely fall apart and sob.  Dick ran into Tim’s arms, crying against his chest and clinging like the world was slipping from his grasp.  Tim repeated the words again, rubbing his back, trying all he could to soothe him.  

A pair of footsteps came up to them, and the aborted cries of his name died on his friends’ lips.  The unconscious clown with a gun told the whole story for Tim.  He stroked Dick’s hair, mostly to keep him from turning his head and looking at the newcomers. 

“You shouldn’t—” Steph began to say, but Tim shook his head.

“ They’re on their way,” Kon warned, the implication obvious.

Tim nodded, then pulled the boy up so that he was face to face with him.  He was thankful for the cowl, or else he’d lose his composure too.  “When they find you, tell them that you used that broken pipe over there to save yourself.”

Dick was confused, but nodded.  

Tim bit his lip.  “You don’t tell them about me or my friends.”  

Dick bit his lip and stayed quiet.

“Promise me.” 

Dick’s lip trembled, but he nodded again.

He shouldn’t have done it, but the habit couldn’t be broken—Tim kissed the boy between his furrowed brows.  Dick gasped, eyes wide and still streaming tears.  “Be brave.  You’re going to be okay.”  He got up, hit the unconscious body once to get a bit of blood on it, then gave the boy the pipe.  Tim had to make sure that the story seemed believable enough.  

Kon had run off with Steph then came back, trying to tug him away.  Dick didn’t want to let go, and it hurt Tim to make him, but they didn’t have a choice.  The boy stayed behind, his eyes finally leaving Tim and going to the pipe in his hand.  Kon and Tim flew to meet up with Steph, who was waiting in a car that she must have hotwired.

They drove off without bringing attention to themselves.  Tim pulled down his cowl, trying to find his breath.  It was found, only to be lost again when Steph pulled on his hair.  “Are you insane?”

“I couldn’t let anything happen to him before he met the Waynes.”  It was for the sake of saving the timestream, of course.  

Kon groaned as they made a turn.  “If you didn’t get out of there in time, Cardinal’s cover would have been blown a whole year earlier than it should have!”  Now that they were clearing from the circus traffic, the streets were getting a little easier to navigate.

“Would have been nice to see the Old Bat’s face—I’ve only ever heard about how he took that news.”  Tim sighed at Steph’s words.  Yes, that was on his mind too, but of everything, Dick…

“He’s going to be fine, Tim,” Kon urged.  “You know it, you’ve seen it.”  So long as what he did didn’t mess up the timestream, then yes, Dick was going to be fine.  Even if he were laid up in a hospital bed presently, he’d be okay. 

“I can’t believe I let you fuck with our minds,” Steph snarled, finally letting go of his head.  “I’m just glad I convinced Kon to speedrun things with me.”  

Tim initially believed that they ditched searching out their previous posts, but smiled.  Leave it to Steph to band them back together.  “So did you—”

“Of course she did the computer stuff, Tim, do you think we’d slack off?” They turned another sharp corner.  The final strip of road was ahead of them, but something caught them off guard.  A pillar of smoke rose up to the sky, directly over what would be Wayne Industries.  

Then the memory clicked.  “Oh, I forgot there was a fire here that night too.”

The trio caught the villain and managed to siphon energy from the Wayne grid to get the machine operational again.  Once brought back to the proper time (now sitting in what would be a lab run by Luke Fox), Tim pulled researchers in and promptly dismantled the machine.  Arrangements were made to relocate the core and their bad guy taken into custody. 

“Well, everyone seems to know who we are,” Steph said, glad to have pulled her own mask and hood back up.  “We aren’t getting arrested.”

Kon put his arm around both of their shoulders.  “I think we should get some Bat Burger and call it a night.” 

Tim could get behind that.  He treated his friends to some food then parted ways.  He was the only one obligated to handle any reports ‘being the team leader and all,’ lazy fucks.  He loved them anyway and was relieved they got home without messing up too much in the past.  They were off by a day or so, but that was fine.  Instead of heading back to the manor, he roamed the skyline of the city.  Tim needed to breathe, he needed to forget.

He stopped by a water tower and collapsed to the ground.  He wanted to cry, but that wouldn’t fix anything.  John and Mary Grayson were dead, but their son lived.  That had to be enough.  He couldn’t let himself think it was his fault.  He couldn’t blame his friends.  He couldn’t… couldn’t…

A giggle cut through his thoughts.  “It’s you!”  Cardinal sat up quickly to meet Robin’s smile.  Before he could stand, Dick gave him a kiss on the cowl.  

“What are you doing here?” He looked… okay? He looked fine! Dick clearly had some extra padding with his suit, and a knee brace, but overall seemed to be recovering.  Tim couldn’t look at him.  The kiss was feather light, but felt like a brand.  He didn’t deserve any of this.

“Damian called in a favor, and I’m mostly better. Not allowed to go on real missions right now, so I asked if I could patrol and recon only.” They wouldn’t have been able to keep the kid in bed anyway. He was a man of his word, so Robin could be trusted to do only that much.  “How did the mission go?”

The explanation was suspicious, and he’d consider digging into it later.  Tim sighed. “Got lost in time for a little bit, but we got the bad guy.”  And all it cost was Dick’s happiness.  Tim needed to run away.  If he couldn’t save Dick in the past, then the least he could do now is save him in the present and disappear for good.

Dick looked around to make sure they were alone before helping Tim out of his cowl.  He would have put up a fight, but the idea of hurting him more churned his stomach.  Robin’s domino mask was removed, showing the bright eyes that won him over again and again. Tim tried to avoid his gaze, only to be made to meet him head on.

Dick stared intensely, holding eye contact. His lip trembled like back then, the memory too fresh. He eventually found his voice. “I kept that promise.”  Tim’s brows furrowed.  “I didn’t tell them.”  

He didn’t… wait.

“Your eyes were different back then, just like how they look now—it confused me so much growing up, thinking that you and Jason were the same person.” 

Him and Jason? The contact lenses.  The fact that teenage Jason was already about the same size as Tim was now.

“Then I met you again, but you didn’t know me,” Dick said, holding his shoulders and keeping him close.  “But I knew it was you.”  Those words again.

“How did you—”

Their foreheads rested against each other, Dick’s eyes closing.  “I don’t know what would have happened, if you didn’t save me.”  

Tim stared for a long time before he pulled away and kissed him between his brows.  Seeing that young boy, now seeing the young man before him, it was jarring to see how much he’d grown.  “So all this time, you knew I was your soulmate.”

“And you kept trying to deny it and run away.” Tim bit his lip. “It’s you. In a million and one ways, it’s always been you.” 

Tim shook his head. This wasn’t right. Was he always meant to go back in time to that moment then? Was he supposed to stand by and watch Dick’s parents die? Was he going to be the reason why this golden boy was so scared and alone— “it’s my fault,” he said, throat raw with emotion. “You’re suffering, and it’s my fault.” Damian said his blood was on Tim’s hands, but that also applied to all the Grayson’s now. 

Dick hugged him tight, as if protecting him once again. It shouldn’t have been like this. It should have been Tim holding him close and safe guarding him from the world. “You told me I was going to be okay.  You promised that, and it was true.” Tim tried to deny it, but Dick wouldn’t have it. “Because it’s you, I’m going to be okay.”

The blending of their words resonated, causing a warm thrumming that sank deep within both of them. Tim cried—he didn’t mean to, but neither did Dick. They held on tight to each other, enveloped by the dark of the night and the racing cars of the streets below.