Chapter Text
“Don’t touch anything until I get there, Robin,” Batman warned through the comms.
“Got it, Boss!” Jason chirped. He sat down on a dusty, sheet covered lump and sighed. Batman was on the opposite end of Gotham, so it could be up to half an hour before he got here. But Jason had been roaming around on the other side, looking through abandoned warehouses like Batman had asked him to.
While the job was not very exciting, seeing most abandoned warehouses were actually empty or were camps for the homeless, Jason did it with relish, seeing that it was the only thing Batman actually let him do alone.
Jason wanted to prove that he could be trustworthy. He wanted Batman to be proud of him, to see him worthy of a partner.
Five minutes earlier, Jason had stumbled upon a not-so-empty warehouse. Inside were several large lumps that were covered with heavy sheets to keep the dust from landing on them. The sheets have varying amounts of dust on it, which proved that someone visited the warehouse frequently.
Jason had pulled the sheet off one of the more recently touched lumps and found some weird looking machine underneath. Jason’s first instinct was to pull the large red lever. But he refrained from it due to his training. So he sent a message to Batman instead.
So now Jason sat on another weird lump, across from the first machine, just studying it. It was large, bulky, and seemed to have no head or tail to the thing. Jason could not figure what it was for at all. It looked like it was made completely from random scrap metal. He was pretty sure some of it came from an old car hood.
While he examined it, Jason kicked his legs back and forth, waiting patiently for Batman to show up and congratulate him. Suddenly, the machine he was sitting on, turned on.
Jason leaped off immediately, whirling around, and stumbling backwards in surprise. His arm hit the lever of the first machine. There was a loud screeching noise and a bright flash of light, and suddenly, Jason was gone.
~
He groaned when he sat up, bright colors still flashing in front of his eyes. Jason felt slightly disoriented.
He looked around, frowning. He was outside. It was still night time, but the skies were clear. They definitely had not been clear five minutes ago when he dropped down into the warehouse. Jason looked around wildly. Had he blacked out? Jason did not remember hitting his head or anything like that.
Jason stood up and went to go press the comm in his ear. It crackled and all Jason got was static.
Jason frowned. When did Batman’s toys ever malfunction or break? Especially since these comms were new and recently improved by Batman himself. Jason sighed and decided he should probably go find and report to Batman himself. He reached for the grappling gun on his utility belt when he heard a quiet sound behind him. Jason froze and whipped around, searching for the source of the noise.
Suddenly, there was a choking noise, then silence again. Jason turned around slowly again.
“Stop hiding, coward,” Jason hissed. “Come out and fight me!”
He was only met with more silence for a brief moment, then, someone stepped out of the shadows, hands raised in surrender. As he stepped out into the light, Jason saw that he was wearing a skintight, black suit with electric blue stripes. He held escrima sticks in both hands. He wore a black domino mask, like Jason’s.
“Who are you?” Jason demanded.
The man let out a little laugh. It sounded more nervous and a touch hysterical if anything.
“I think a better question would be, who are you?” the man asked. His voice was very, very familiar.
Jason shivered, then snarled. “I asked you first!”
“Okay, okay!” the man said, raising his hands higher when he saw Jason ready to attack. “I just-" The masked man took a deep breath. "Little Wing?”
Jason froze again. The man sounded like Dick, he moved like Dick, though he had a better fashion sense than Dick, no one called him Little Wing, aside from Dick fucking Grayson, the first Robin, now Nightwing.
Jason took a sharp breath.
“Holy shit,” Dick whispered. “It is you! What happened to you? I thought you were on a mission in Shanghai for the next four weeks! Was it a spell? And what happened to your Red Hood stuff?” Dick started towards him, but Jason stepped back. Dick stopped. “Jay?”
“You’re not- You’re not Dick,” Jason said. He looked Dick up and down again. “And I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Dick looked confused. “Wait…what?” he frowned slightly. “But...” He started muttering to himself. "Maybe he got de-aged and forgot everything? But what's he doing here then? And dressed like this?"
“What are you talking about?” Jason choked out.
Dick took a deep breath and a wild guess. "What year do you think it is?”
“I- I-” Jason said, feeling it was hard to breathe. “Shit, the machines.”
“What machines?” Dick asked sharply.
Jason took a shaky breath in, trying to calm his racing heart. “I was- I was supposed to be waiting for Batman in a warehouse, and- and there were all these machines there. I didn’t know what they were for, and Batman told me not to touch anything, but I accidentally turned one on, and fell into another, and there was this white light and-” Jason gasped. “You're older, that's what's different! Holy fuck, did I go to the future?”
“Watch your language, Jay,” Dick immediately chided. He then grimaced. “So how old are you?”
“Fifteen,” Jason answered.
Dick sighed. “Looks like it then. Welcome to the future, Little Wing. You’re ten years ahead of your time.”
Jason snorted weakly. “And even though you’re ten years older than your past self, your humor is still just as bad.”
Dick laughed. “That hurt,” he said. Then, Dick smiled softly at Jason. This was a different Jason from the Jason Dick knows and admittedly loves very much. This Jason was the Jason Dick never bothered to get to know very well because he thought he would be around forever. This was the Jason that was full of life because he had yet to experience death.
“What?” Jason asked.
“Hm?” Dick blinked a couple times. He realized that he had just been staring and smiling at Jason. “Oh, nothing, just reminiscing.”
“What about?” Jason asked.
“I can’t tell you,” Dick laughed. “It’s your future, my past. I’m pretty sure if I told you, it would change time-space continuums and all that.” He reached out instinctively and ruffled Jason’s hair. “Anyway, I think I should probably call this in.” Touching his comm, Dick said, “Hey, B, Wing here… Yeah, I’ve got something here you’d probably want to take a look at… No, no need to come here, I’ll bring it back to the cave with me… I promise it’s not dangerous, jeez… okay, okay, see ya.”
“We’re going back to the cave?” Jason asked. “Sweet! I want to see what the cave looks like ten years into the future!”
Dick laughed quietly. “Alright then. Let’s go.” He took out his own grappling gun and shot off into the distance, Jason not far behind him.
They arrived back in the cave, and Jason immediately pulled off his mask to get a better look around the cave.
“Woahhh,” he breathed. “That dinosaur is sick! And woahhh, there are so many costumes in the cases!” Jason ran towards the glass cases with the past costumes in it. He snickered, looking at Dick’s first Nightwing suit. “You’re wearing this right now in my world,” he told Dick pointing to the blue and yellow atrocity.
Dick winced. “Yeah, you need to tell me to burn it the second you get back.” Then he felt his heart leap into this throat. This Jason would have to return back to his world soon. And Dick, Dick did not want that at all. He did not get it right the first time, and he felt like this was his second chance.
“I’ve already told you that a couple times,” Jason said with exasperation. “You didn’t listen to me.”
Dick smiled wryly. “I should’ve,” he said. Just then, the door to the cave opened and Alfred came walking down. He carried a large tray with tea on it.
“Alfie!” Jason cheered when he saw Alfred. He immediately went bounding over, nearly knocking the shocked man over with a hug. Somehow, Alfred did not spill a single drop of tea.
Alfred was silent for a whole three seconds before he patted Jason back. “Master Jason,” he said. He glanced at Dick for an explanation.
“Came from the past,” Dick provided.
“I see,” Alfred mused. “Perhaps it would be to let me set my tea down, Master Jason. I am not as strong and wily as I was before.”
Jason laughed and let go of Alfred. “Who are you kidding, Alfie? You’re the strongest of all of us.” Then Jason blinked at Dick. “There are… more of us now, right? I saw several other Robin costumes in the cases.”
Dick nodded, a bit uneasily. “Yes, there are.”
Alfred set the tea down on a metal cart and started pouring it. Jason slid down the metal railing and landed next to Dick. He reached for a cookie, pausing to give Alfred a questioning look. Alfred nodded, and Jason took a large chocolate chip cookie, smiling gleefully.
Dick saw the slight tremor in Alfred’s hands, and he did not blame the man. Dick just wanted to wince thinking about how Bruce would react.
Jason took a big bite of his cookie and turned to Dick. “So where am I in this world? You said I was on a mission?”
Dick nodded. “In Shanghai at the moment.”
“Cool,” Jason said. He glanced up at the memorial cases again. “If I’m not Robin anymore, who am I?”
Dick ruffled Jason’s hair fondly. He was already growing quite attached to this Jason. “Red Hood.”
“I sound awesome,” Jason said. He stuffed the rest of his cookie into his mouth and dusted his hands on his costume. Just then, there was a roaring of a car’s engine and a moment later, the Batmobile pulled up into the cave.
“Holy shi- shoot – I said, shoot, Dickie, don’t look at me like that – is that the Batmobile?” He ran up to it. “It’s way cooler than the one I stole the wheels off of! Ha! The future is awesome!” Jason pressed his face into the driver’s window. “Hellooo?”
He stepped away after a few seconds and Dick held his breath. Bruce did not step out for a full minute. Then the door finally opened, and Batman stumbled out, yes, stumbled. He slowly removed the cowl, his eyes never leaving Jason.
Jason rocked back and forth on his heels and he gave Bruce a small wave. “Hey, old man,” he said.
“Jason…” Bruce breathed. “You’re-” He glanced at Dick. “Where’d you- Who’s-”
Dick just shrugged. “Sounded like time travel from the past. He’s fifteen, if you want to know.”
Bruce looked a bit faint. Jason was starting to feel uncomfortable under Bruce’s intense gaze. He felt like there was something here did not know about. But if he asked, the probably would not tell him. “Future”, and all.
“Where’d you find him?” he asked slowly.
“One of the warehouses by the ports,” Dick said. “He was just… there.”
Bruce made his way over to the computer chair and he collapsed in it. He looked tired, lost, and suddenly very old.
Jason was a little worried. He had never seen Bruce like that before. To him, Bruce was this cold, exact man, but sometimes, his hidden warm side would show. Given, he had only been Robin officially for three months, and he had only known Bruce for seven months. There was not much he could actually say about the man.
But Jason could easily tell something was a bit off with Bruce. Jason walked over slowly.
“Um, I don’t know what about me being here is making you upset,” he mumbled, “but I don’t mean to.”
“No, no, Jason,” Bruce said. “I’m not upset. I’m just… absorbing.”
“Oh, okay,” he said a bit dubiously, not completely convinced.
Bruce gave him a small smile. “Come here,” he said. He held his arms out. Jason smiled and stepped into it. Dick marveled at the fact that Jason was so small he could hug Bruce without stooping over that much at all. At fifteen, Jason was probably as tall as Damian was at thirteen, right before Damian officially hit his growth spurts.
“You’re not mad?” Jason asked again, his face buried in Bruce’s shoulder.
Bruce held him a little tighter. “God, no, Jason. I’m not mad. I would be completely unreasonable if I were.”
Jason pulled back a minute later and smiled. “Okay,” he said. “I really like what you did with the cave, by the way. It’s really cool.”
Bruce smiled. “Thank you. It’s not me though,” Bruce said with a small laugh. “I have no touch for interior design. It’s Alfred and-” he paused. “The others…”
“Who are the others?” Jason asked. He reached for another cookie as Alfred pushed the cart between them. “Who was Robin after me?”
Both Dick and Bruce were silent. Jason took a large bite of his cookie and looked between them with wide, innocent eyes. “What?” he asked.
Bruce swallowed and picked up the tea Alfred handed him. He took a long sip. “A boy named Tim,” he said. “He’s not here at the moment. He’s staying at the penthouse.”
“You have a penthouse in addition to the Manor now?” Jason asked. “Fuck, I mean, fudge, that’s cool! Does this Tim invite girls over and party all night?”
Dick snorted. “Tim? Party? The only parties Tim attends are the stuffy galas he goes to in Bruce’s stead nowadays. Nah, our Timbo’s not into the whole partying scene.”
Jason finished his cookie. “He sounds like a stuck-up kinda guy,” he said through a full mouth. “Who’s Robin now? My replacement?”
“Tim didn’t replace you,” Dick said immediately. “You’re not replaceable, Jay.”
Jason slowly raised his eyebrows. “Okay…” he said, swallowing. “That… wasn’t my question, but I’m glad you think so highly of me.”
Dick took a deep breath. “Damian. Bruce’s biological son.”
“Wait, so that Tim kid’s adopted too?” Jason asked.
Dick laughed and nodded.
Jason gave Bruce an incredulous look. “How many kids did you adopt, old man?”
“Legally, he has five kids. But if we’re going unofficially, he’s got somewhere up in the mid-teens now.”
Bruce rolled his eyes. “Dick…”
“What? It’s true,” he laughed. “Jason’s going to want to meet them all sometime, right?”
Jason nodded eagerly.
Bruce looked between them, an almost fond look in his eyes. He knew he should be working to send Jason back to his time, but a little longer never hurt anyone. After all, like Dick, he believed this to be his second chance to get things right with Jason.
Maybe then, things could turn out differently for him. For all of them.