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Chapter Text

The bird did not return.

Gotham loved its residents. She tried to take care of each of them, and she felt like the Gothams reciprocated her feelings. No matter how rapidly her curses got out of control, no matter how villains inhabited the dark corners of her hideout, Gothams rarely moved. They got used to attacks, adapted to life with eternal risk, rejoiced at the slightest improvements.

Gotham loved its residents, but she couldn't say she didn't have favorites. The bat and its birds are one of those.

The first bird did not belong entirely to her, but he became a thought, a concept that gave rise to a new flame in Gotham. She was grateful to Robin, who flies, and let him go in peace when the bird spread its wings and flew away to Bludhaven.

The second bird belonged to her from the first day of her birth, and for years Gotham did not know how important this bird was. It wasn't until Batman took her to the nest that Gotham met Robin, who worked magic. Robin, who fixed the flame and fanned it to a tiny bonfire, warming his hands on the coldest nights.

But the second bird flew away, landed on iron wings and did not return, and the first, most precious ward of Gotham began to go crazy. He was cruel, unfair, and unforgiving. I am inconsolable for the bird that will not return.

Gotham was afraid that sooner or later her curses would consume him. Then, without hesitation, she took the flame created by the previous birds and breathed life into it.

The boy slipped out of the shadows and went to Bristol.

***

Gotham didn't have enough strength to keep him physically fit for a long time. It was easier when he looked like Robin, and harder without it. In addition, he needed to get an official civilian uniform so that her paranoid ward would not summon his magical friends and try to dispel her.

Gotham didn't have enough self-awareness to figure out what to do on her own. However, she tried to give the chick the properties that Robin would need and the knowledge that true Gothams possess. And then her baby bird figured out what to do next.

First, he suggested taking the appearance of a young Timothy from Bristol. It was difficult to maintain his shape without a mask, but it would be easier to create a face shape similar to a person who already belonged to the city. Young Timothy lived at a boarding school all year, and for the summer holidays – the only ones he was taken away from the Internet – he was sent to distant relatives. He hardly ever appeared in the city, and yet he felt like his own, was his own. Having gained control of the computer, hiding in the shadows of the attic of the Main Gotham Library, the bird absorbed the knowledge spread among various residents of the city, and managed to figure out how to work with technology to fake his story.

He's Timothy Drake now. Not a boarding school student at all, but a boy from Gotham Academy High School who jumped through two grades of junior high school. The program automatically marks his presence in all classes and gives him grades. While Batman thinks Timothy is at school, Tim will return to the shadows of Gotham, taking what little energy he has to keep him in shape.

Gotham tells him that it's stupid to go after the first bird. The chick replies that it's necessary for the backstory, which Batman will trust more. It's like he tried to bring the first Robin back first, and volunteered to put on the robe himself just because he refused.

Gotham heavily handed him over to Bludhaven, and the sister city, which was friendly to his sister, took the chick into his arms, helping him appear in front of Nightwing's apartment with a backpack on his back filled with fake evidence and real statistics deduced by the smart chick.

As they suspected, the first Robin refused, but, surprisingly, he gave the go-ahead to the chick to put on a cloak.

«That's not really true», – the chick later explained to Lady Gotham, returning to her comforting, body–hugging embrace. – «He was talking on emotion, but the statement was rather sarcastic or sarcastic, it seems to me, because he usually says otherwise. I still can't fully understand all the intonation meanings, just like you, but I felt that he didn't mean what he said».

«And yet he said it», – Gotham replied, running her hand over the black nebulae forming his hair in physical form. Her voice sounded like the hum of an echo, like car horns, gunshots, explosions, and soft humming. – «I told you, my clever third bird».

A few days later, Nightwing and Batman were captured by Two-Face. Tim convinced Alfred to give him Jason's costume, saved Gotham's wards, and won the right to the cape. After waiting for a while, he stopped putting on a suit made for him – it was difficult to maintain it – and began to go out on patrol in his first-born form, the one that the first Robin lit, inflated the second and made his third.

***

Batman sent him to study with a Tibetan monk. It was a path that the chick knew he couldn't take. Gotham's powers were not enough to send him so far and for such a long time. And yet they tried. It would be rude not to at least say hello, and then figure out how to escape to "recharge".

The Tibetan monk was wrong. It shone like a Metropolis, like Star City, like day, like stars, like a force that reflects light, like sun catchers. He was not the kind of force that suited Gotham, and if initially the chick thought to at least try to learn from him, then upon meeting him, he realized that this was not the kind of person who would help his creator.

Fortunately (no, not fortunately, because Batman does not tolerate murder, and he cannot afford to enjoy death), to his advantage, the monk was killed by Lady Shiva. A statuesque, strong woman swallowed up the world like Bludhaven, like Hong Kong, like a desert. Like Gotham.

«Teach me», – the chick demanded. The lady glanced at him and turned away, leaving the monk's dwelling. The chick followed her, allowing itself to cling like a parasite to her energy. Wherever she disappeared, he found her. Wherever she went, he was always there. And, in the end, she allowed him to study with her.

These were the forces that would help Gotham. Of course, the chick could not use lethal techniques, but Lady Shiva made sure that he performed them perfectly. She gave him skills that could help the city, and he absorbed them into himself until his strength began to run out, and he left the teacher without having time to say goodbye, one moment disappearing into the shadows of mountain caves, the next already forming in the gentle, familiar hands of the creator.

A week later, Tim pretended to have returned to the city after a long period of study with a monk – of course, not with the one who was killed, but with "his friend, who decided to finish his studies as a disciple of his comrade". Batman did not elaborate on the details.

The third Robin was here to help and support Batman's condition. However, his current poor mental state has been most beneficial in trying to hide what Batman shouldn't know.

***

Bruce knows that he has failed each of his teammates, and he knows that he has done it differently with each one.

He was too controlling of Dick.

He didn't trust Jason.

He was pushing Barbara away.

He neglected Tim.

He knew that. As well as the fact that "his emotional intelligence is equal to a pea", as Jason liked to say after every Batman and Nightwing argument. It was Jason who helped Bruce reconcile with his eldest child. It was Jason who made him laugh, try to talk rather than draw conclusions on his own, try to understand rather than analyze.

It was the loss of Jason that made him let Tim down so badly.

He wasn't proud of himself back then. Now Bruce can look with an almost clear head at the statistics collected by Tim to substantiate his painfully correct thesis – Batman needs Robin. Without Robin, Batman is violent, uncontrollable, unpredictable, dangerous, and at the same time too open in battle. Not only because he no longer has his back covered, but also because he recklessly doesn't try to protect himself.

In addition, he was bad off the field. He sat in the Batcareer for days, I forgot to eat, drink, sleep. He refused to break away from investigations, even if he understood that his condition worsens detective skills and slows down the solution of the mystery, rather than speeding it up.

He was in such a bad way that he didn't go into the details of the most important investigation: who his new Robin was. Bruce went through the information superficially, made sure that the boy was who he claimed to be, and calmed down.

By the time Barbara returns as the Oracle, Batman is already too convinced of Robin's loyalty to fire him when the truth comes out. Barbara instantly noticed the holes in the story, connected to surveillance cameras at a boarding school somewhere in Wisconsin, and reported the fact as it was: Timothy, clearly a real, living Drake boy, did not leave the educational institution. Whoever was with them in the cave, it wasn't the rich heir to Drake Industries.

They didn't tell Dick. Alfred too. Actually, as Barbara joked, Alfred probably knew this from the very beginning.

Instead, they began to observe.

***

Dick didn't know how to feel about the new Robin, – Timothy, his name is Timothy. Tim. – but I tried to support him as much as possible. He was afraid of repeating his mistakes with Jason, and he had already realized that Tim was too stubborn to talk him out of it. All Robins were like that.

However, there was something about Tim that repelled Dick. He noticed it the first time they met. If he stared at Tim for too long, the effect of an ominous valley appeared. It's like he's looking at something artificial, a mask that looks too much like a human, but isn't.

They ran tests. They were convinced that Tim was not a werewolf, not a Martian, not an android, not any other life form. Just a man with a frightening white face of a single shade, without a hint of blush, changed except by shadows. He was strange, almost abnormal, and yet a man.

There was no such thing in Robin's mask. When the guy changed clothes, it became easier to look at him. More correctly. It was as if he had been created to wear this robe. As if the suit was perfect on him.

But sometimes. Sometimes there was something strange about him, too. When Dick talked to Bruce about this, Bruce let out his trademark hm, indicating that he disagreed and did not disagree, but would take the information into consideration. So they were watching. They were watching.

Sometimes it seemed that the mask was part of Tim's face. It didn't just fit his eyes with a thin Kevlar layer, it was his skin, his eyes. The white lenses expanded as Tim's own eyes expanded, following his emotions. They squinted, becoming tiny slits. They were rolling. They were freezing. They reflected Tim in a way that the ice-blue eyes under the mask did not. They transmitted the expression... An expression that domino masks don't have. Dick knows because he's been wearing one himself since he was eight years old. Yes, they stretch a little when he raises his eyebrows, but the lenses do not change shape, they are designed to help hide emotions rather than convey them to everyone.

«Where did he get this domino?» – watching the footage from the battle with the Riddler, when Batman fell into a trap, and Robin enthusiastically got involved in a chess game with half-meter pieces, Dick asked. He watched the lenses shrink thoughtfully, as the black fabric around them seemed to fold into skin folds on the bridge of his nose, and not just slightly stretched.

«Hm. He has access to the equipment that we use to create costumes», – and despite this explanation, Nightwing read between the lines: Tim either never entered the lab, but only justified access to it, or Tim really visited the lab, but they don't have the technology that could do this. Dick would have been the first to know about it.

The mask wasn't the only one, but it was the most obvious one. Sometimes it seemed that the red tunic was not a separate layer of the uniform at all. Sometimes it's that his leggings, the first Robin pants in history, are his legs. Not with a cloth over it. Not a protective layer. The skin.

Once Dick saw Robin's gloves being ripped off, but there were other black ones underneath. Sharpened like claws, impenetrable like darkness, absorbing any available light. Dick didn't even know that an additional protective layer was now worn under the gloves.

(Bruce said there is no such layer. That maybe Tim himself added these gloves in case of unforeseen situations. The guy seemed to be a B-level paranoid, almost never taking off his costume in the cave).

The cloak sometimes resembled wings. Like the pants, Tim changed it. It's still bright yellow inside, but it's turned black on the outside. When Robin jumped off buildings, he seemed to deftly catch gusts of wind with his cloak, reducing the impact of landing. However, Dick is ready to swear that sometimes his cloak flutters, regardless of the wind or Tim's own movements. Like the waving wings of chicks jumping on the windowsills of the estate.

The only thing that never looked like a part of Tim's body were his boots and civilian clothes. Dick only knew this because he rarely saw Tim in civilian clothes, and every one of these occasions was imprinted in his memory. He seemed awkward, nervous, and uncomfortable, but just enough so that only the trained eye of the family of the best detective in the world could tell. He didn't fiddle, pull down his sleeves, or pick at loose threads, but the longer he was around Dick or Bruce as a civilian, the more tired he seemed.

Dick was worried that Tim might be uncomfortable around them without masks. The child was clearly neglected, not used to touching and communication. Dick could see how during each of their interactions Tim's intelligent head was boiling hard, interpreting every intonation and emotion, as if trying to understand their cause and react accordingly. It hardly surprised him that such a lonely child ended up fixated on Batman and Robin, stalking them at night.

Well, whether he was weird, a little scary, or abnormal, Dick didn't care. Dick was going to be the best big brother in the world.

***

Timmy was wonderful!

Laughing, Dick scooped up his new brother, throwing him over his shoulder and running out of the Bat Cave. He's on patrol with Robin today! Fraternal Unification Day!

Timmy is charming. He reached out to Dick like a stubborn flower that broke through the layers of concrete and exposed its head to the sun, not just enjoying its rays, but striving to become bigger, open up stronger, grow like no rose could. It sparkled like a sunflower – dark inside, not attractive with its raw core, but bright, glowing outside, with the kindest and sweetest petals the color of gold.

Tim rarely smiled at the beginning. Dick thought it was because of the Batman situation. He still thinks that's partly true. But over time, he seemed to adopt the features of Dick. He snuggled up if you hugged him, babbled at the speed of light if you asked him about a new case, smiled only when he saw Dick next to him. He was genuinely happy with everyone in his environment, and Dick got the honor to teach him how to show it.

Tim is so precious. And so lonely.

And Dick will fix it!

But later. Today there will be a patrol of brothers full of gymnastic tricks and games. He had recently learned that Tim could be pulled any way he wanted, and he was almost as flexible as Dick!

(When Bruce saw them on the mats, stacked in the most spine-shattering boxes in the world, he sighed heavily, turned away and left. Barbara made a gif of this moment in their chat).

Amazing brother! And how Dick loves him!

***

The villains, to be honest, don't know how to react to the new Robin. At first, when the Joker boasted that he had killed "my dear Betsy's bird," they didn't believe him. Then Batman swept through the city like a bone-crushing, tooth-crushing tornado of rage and grief.

And then he appeared with a new bird, as if nothing had happened.

Apart from simple street bandits and hooligans, so far the boy has not met anyone serious. Of course, there was Catwoman, but it's clear to absolutely all the villains that she doesn't count. Eventually, people like Penguin give way to people like Harley, and the villains go quiet while the least hostile ones check out the new Bat.

(He first appeared during Two-Face's attack, but that doesn't count, because at that time he simply wasn't known).

The riddler gets to be the first. He makes special efforts to trap the big and gloomy one, and then has fun with the new traffic light, challenging him to a game of chess.

«Smarter than the previous ones», – he says later, during a certain meeting at a dinner table in Arkham. – «Smaller and thinner, physically weak. He'll get ahead at the expense of his mind, mark my words. It doesn't need fists to be the best».

Harley meets the boy next. Batman is strategically distracted by Poison Ivy.

«He's so adorable! She's just lovely, just a baby, I can't get over that expressive face. Much more emotional than the last two!».

«Not really», – Aisi interrupts, sipping the lousy coffee that is reluctantly prepared in this third–rate hospital every Wednesday. – «I don't know how, but his mask really conveys emotions more vividly. However, the content itself? The first two were bigger. One is a fucking firework, the other is a disgusting lump of pure rage. This one?» –  She winces. – «It's as if he hasn't learned how to hide his emotions and express them at the same time. Come on, Harley, turn on your doctorate and look at him seriously».

«Well, honey, you're spoiling my fun», – Harley sighed, but the next moment she became a little more serious. – «Autistic disorder. Dick knows what it is, honey, we haven't talked that long with him, but I'm sure this is it. Plus, there is a complete lack of socialization, a lack of understanding of social signals, ambiguous or other expressions that are not direct in their meaning. I would say he's as bad as a teenager living in isolation and exploring the world through TV series. He kind of knows how things should be, but he's never experienced it firsthand. A pitiful waste for such a mind, if Nygma is right about his intelligence».

Then the boy single-handedly beats up seven of Penguin's thugs, using only Bo's staff and batarangs.

Then he hacked Dr. Freeze's program, which was supposed to surround Gotham with an ice dome.

Then he brought a Spoiler to Birds of Prey. And sometimes he joined them, if not on missions, then at least in training.

Then some girl–not even a villain–did something to Nightwing. No one knows what the hell, but Black Mask, while exploring Bladhaven, hoping to expand to a new market, caught Robin blackmailing him. The boy Wonder threatened the girl in such expressive terms that when the Mask repeated a couple of them, the thugs whistled and added them to the vocabulary of the streets.

(Black Mask never revealed the contents of the blackmail. He also did not tell that Robin had somehow noticed him, entered his secret apartment, beat him blue in the face, and no less eloquently explained what would happen to Zionis himself if at least something important leaked into the information field of bandits and villains).

Gotham accepted the new Robin as easily as it seems it was not the case with either of the previous two. Something about him seemed to attract them, whispering that he was one of them. That the city is his top priority, and others will not be allowed to harm the Gothamians Robin has taken under his protection.

Gotham easily accepted the new Robin because Gotham himself had unknowingly created him. Because Gotham believed in Robin.

Chapter Text

The first Robin devoted his life to making the nestling's work more difficult. Tim – he was already used to calling himself Tim, mentally referring to Drake as Timothy so as not to get confused – spoiled his brother, stealing him from time to time to Bludhaven. If he had known that Dick would try to socialize him, he would not have accepted the invitations of his creator's sister-in-law.

He liked surfing on trains and jumping on rooftops. And he loved Dick, as he loved any Gotham, and as he was created to love the sons of his creator in order to help them. He loved him, and therefore could not refuse for a long time when he insisted on introducing him to other young heroes in order to unite them into a team, as the Titans once united.

And now, having accumulated enough strength with Gotham to send him to a place without fuel, he went to the Tower in San Francisco. It would have been enough for two days, and longer would have meant complete exhaustion and an instinctive return to the wing of the creator. He was tense and on edge, ready to keep strict track of the time of this meeting.

Everything went wonderfully. Even the magically inclined members of the team, demigods, witches, or literally a half-robot, did not see him as a non-human. And he had to hide his identity, so there was no need to take the form of Tim Drake. Then his time here would have to be shortened, and Tim had not done enough tests from a distance to determine exactly how many hours he would have at his disposal.

The only oddity was the Momentum. As soon as Nightwing introduced Robin to everyone, Momentum appeared in front of his nose and froze, tilting his head comically. He looked through funny glasses, squinting, and then he smiled so much that Tim's cheeks hurt, and welcomed him to the team with some special warmth.

The impulse was from the future. Maybe he knew something that Tim didn't know yet. Perhaps he knew that the third Robin disappeared as soon as everything got better in Batman's life, because that was the only purpose of his existence, and that's the only reason Gotham spends his energy maintaining him.

Perhaps the Impulse is kind to him because he thought the third Robin would die young.

***

The boy did not go to school. Even the Gotham Academy. Barbara shook her head, trying for the third week to use the city's cameras to track where Tim disappears after he leaves the cave.

She and Bruce have installed new cameras at the exit and around the estate. After that, more cameras were added to the surrounding area.

The fact is that the boy doesn't seem to leave the cave. At all. One minute he's waving at Dick, smiling almost identical to the first Robin, the next he's walking through the tunnels, refusing to leave through the manor without explanation, the next he's supposed to get out on the other side of the aisle, but he's not there. Not until the next evening, when Tim appears out of nowhere in the cave, right before the patrol. Bruce looked at everything along the path Tim had chosen each time. It's the darkest, one of the narrowest, the one made specifically for the Robins' strategic retreat – even Bruce has to walk sideways there because his shoulders can barely fit in the aisle.

Entrance and exit. There are no branches, so as not to get lost during a high-speed retreat.

Then they put a camera there too. Sophisticated, very high-quality, with night mode, infrared mode, and ultraviolet mode.

Tim... Tim noticed her the same evening she appeared, waved his hand as if greeting Barbara, and walked on. Finally, that evening, he came out of the cave for the first time.

And he disappeared.

And so, camera by camera, they spent the journey with him from Bristol to Gotham, in which there was nothing they could do.

However, Barbara knew that Tim wasn't spying. She periodically hacks all the devices of their regular opponents, checks the devices of potential future opponents every two months, launched a program that went through Gotham like a virus and now informs Barbara about every device where a file with the word "Bat" appeared.

(She had read too many drafts of fanfiction from Gothams praising or mocking their Dark Knight.)

Anyway, nothing. No leaks. In fact, Selina confirmed to her that there hadn't even been any rumors of suspicious spies or informants in the villainous community.

Barbara leaned back in her chair, took off her glasses, and rubbed the bridge of her nose. They made a deal with Bruce. If nothing suspicious (more than already) appears within the next six months, they stop suspecting the new bird of espionage.

But in the meantime? So far, they still have a whole bunch of theories that need to be considered.

***

They saved a clone of Superman. Robin rarely agreed to team missions, spending 98% of his time in Gotham, and yet, by luck, he was on the mission where they discovered the CADMUS laboratory.

Superman acted like a jerk. Tim couldn't imagine Gotham treating him like this, but one day she would dispel his consciousness and accept him back into her being. She would cause the end of his existence, and yet she was better than Superman.

After a while, Superboy became part of their team.

***

His name was Conner.

Tim didn't understand why his heart was pounding so fast.

***

He's in love.

It's not love, or the kind he already knew. He loves every Gotham, because it was thanks to their faith that he was created. He loves Gotham because she's his creator ("mom" would probably be just as good. He accidentally called Bruce Daddy yesterday. Gotham could be a mom). He loves Batman and Nightwing, and he loves Bruce, Dick, Alfred, and the deceased Jason because they are the defenders of his city, his essence. And because they are a family.

Dogs have a family. Tim believes that he can consider these people to be his family, just as dogs consider their owners to be their family.

So, he knows different kinds of love. It's not her.

But it's falling in love.

Watching Conner laugh as he tripped Bart up, Tim thinks for the first time that he wouldn't want to get carried away.

***

«Do you like it, Master Robin?»

«It's the best thing I've ever tasted in my life»

Alfred smiles good-naturedly, looking at the young Robin, completely immersed in a half-liter cup of hot chocolate. For some reason, he doesn't even have any doubts that the boy is telling the truth.

***

No patrols after visiting San Francisco. Only missions that do not take more than a day are approved. Any espionage-related missions are performed brilliantly, but they should be used as a last resort.

All these things are very exhausting for the new Robin, he looks like he hasn't slept for a long time and is about to fall off his feet. Bruce has not yet been able to figure out how these missions and Robin's fatigue are related, but he tries to take care of the boy, and if he gets sick from being away for a long time or without a mask, he is ready to put up with it.

Tim is not human. They're pretty sure of it. Barbara, at least, agrees with him. Judging by the fact that Alfred calls him Robin, not Tim, the butler agrees too.

Dick has never been known for detective observation of those he trusts and loves. Bruce doesn't blame his son for not realizing it yet.

Anyway, whoever Tim is, he's friendly.

Bruce's gaze turns to the glass case against the wall. Pain shoots through his chest, and yet he tries to keep going. He would not allow the new Robin, this something that had penetrated his life, to occupy such a significant place in his heart. Still, he doesn't deny that he's getting better with Tim.

***

He has to change his shape. Batman has been recovering for too long, and Tim needs to simulate growth. He has to flow over, taking what was imitated by baby fat, and putting it into the length of his arms and legs. It's hard at first. He has to shorten his time in San Francisco.

In addition, the real Timothy's mother is killed, and his father falls into a coma. I have to think urgently about what to do, because Tim cannot allow Bruce to adopt himself. He needs daytime time away from the Waynes to "recharge" from Gotham.

Fortunately, the original Timothy is adopted by an extremely distant relative. Tim doesn't even have to forge documents, he shows the real ones. He lies that his uncle will continue to pay his babysitter and housekeeper, so he won't visit Gotham, but that nothing will change for Tim.

(Bruce looks weird when Tim says that. But Tim still finds it difficult to interpret Bruce's emotions and expressions.)

It's all good. Everything is fine, and he's managing to hold on. Batman is getting better, and soon Tim will be able to leave him.

(It hurts, it hurts. Why does it hurt so much in the chest?)

***

Timothy's father wakes up. He takes the original Timothy away, forcing him to return to Gotham from boarding school for every weekend and vacation. Tim is adapting. He tells Bruce and Dick that he's going to pretend he didn't know them. He urges you not to bring up the Avengers with him in any case, if they are not in the cave or on patrol. He ensures as strictly as possible that his father is not a fool, and he will immediately understand that Tim is Robin if they make even one wrong step.

Tim himself convinced Bruce and Dick of his mind. They did not doubt his assurances about Jack Drake's shrewdness.

***

Dick is dubiously watching Tim at a charity gala. He was always a good actor – Caroline and Alvin proved that – but something was wrong.

The way he moves. The way he communicates. The way he behaves.

The fact that his face does not evoke the eternal effect of the sinister valley. On the other hand, it glitters slightly with shimmer and powder, so maybe Tim did a particularly good makeover?

«Timmy!» –  When Tim caught his eye and frowned awkwardly, as if he didn't understand why they were looking at him, Dick moved forward, arms outstretched. In one hand, he clutched the thin stem of a glass of fake champagne. – «How was your evening? Are you chatting with your friends?».

Other boys from rich families look at Tim in shock, whom one of the Wayne personally came up to greet. Tim looks no less confused than they do.

«Mr. Grayson? I'm glad to see you. Thanks for the invitation, it's a great evening. My friends and I were just looking at the paintings».

An empty, secular dialogue ensues, from which Dick itches to escape. At the end of it, Dick doesn't know how to feel, except for the obvious: it's not their Tim.

He just doesn't know if their Tim was ever the real Timothy Drake.

***

«What does that mean, Rob? How can this be explained?!»

«Batman didn't do anything wrong. Emergency situations...»

«Emergency situations? He has several plans to destroy everyone in the Justice League! Shouldn't the existence of these plans be considered an emergency by the League?!»

«You're being unreasonable. Batman wouldn't have used them if there hadn't been unforeseen circumstances that forced him to...»

«You're justifying him! Are you on his side, Rob? Maybe you agree with him? How can we trust you then? How do you know that you don't have the same plans for each of us?»

Tim doesn't know what to say. He doesn't understand why his friends – his friends, his own, he made them himself – are mad at him. Batman was doing the right thing. It was necessary. And his plans are necessary too. Logically, this cannot be denied. How can they not understand?

«Of course, I have plans. I can show them to you. But you cannot read the plans aimed at countering yourself».

Cohn pursed his lips. His body was tense, his fists clenched. Oh. Tim knows these emotions, he can figure them out! He's already good enough at reading the body!

But why is Cohn mad at him? So much so that he restrains himself from attacking? Should Tim have said something else?

«Rob», – Bart appears next to him, his hand timidly reaches out to Robin's shoulder. – «Tell me, do you trust us?»

«Of course», – it's not even a question. He trusts them. Loves them. This is also his family.

(Mom helps him come to them more often. I had to sacrifice a couple of centimeters of height and tell Batman that I had changed my boots to a lower platform).

«Then tell us your name», – Cassie steps forward, interrupting the possible next words of the speedster, which is not difficult when he is trying to be empathetic. She looks angry too. Why are they mad at him? – «Reveal your identity. Prove that you trust us».

But he can't. He has no identity. Robin is the closest thing to his true identity. He was originally created in the guise of Robin, and then received the disguise of Timothy Drake. And he can't say he's Timothy Drake, because that's not true either.

«My name is Robin. This is a real person». – He bows his head slightly, as Dick and Bart often do when they don't understand something. By this point, he conveys complex emotions quite well.

Cece sighs, collapsing onto the couch, Cassie growls – really, like human ligaments shouldn't be able to – and Conner turns away.

«If that's the case», – Con says.

Bart lets him go. Tim looks at everyone in front of him.

«I don't understand», – he admits. Dick often praises him for his honesty.

Con – no.

«Go away! Get lost! Go back to your Batman and don't come here anymore!»

***

Tim is coming back. Then he left as Con had asked–as Dick always leaves after a fight with Bruce, so Tim knows it's the right thing to do – and then he came back as usual. Because Dick always came back, too. At least since Tim came into the family.

(Tim was supposed to disappear a couple of weeks ago. Bruce was fine. She, Dick, and Alfred had resolved their differences, and the grief of their loss no longer choked them so much. This was supposed to be his last visit to the cave, when everything went wrong again, and the distrust of the team hit Bruce hard. So he's still here, proudly carrying the task of saving Batman.)

The team is looking at him strangely. They speak sharply and abruptly. Sometimes they do this complicated thing – sarcasm, Stephanie teaches him this – and Tim slows down in confusion, trying to understand the meaning hidden under the direct meaning of the words.

One time, Bart glowered at their friends after Cassie said something with that special tone. He waved his hand in the direction of Tim, who was frozen in thought, wiggled his eyebrows, shot menacing glances and conveyed his thought without words. Even though she still looked angry, Cassie apologized for her words and asked Tim to forget them, which Tim gladly did.

They didn't say that anymore.

And after a while, they were attacked by Superboy Prime. He and their versions from an alternative evil future gave a tough fight, but Tim was happy, because then he was able to use his emergency plans and show his friends that they were really necessary.

Very awkwardly, they apologized to him after that. And a little later, on movie night, Conner turned to Tim with a question:

«Why do you think there was no version of you among our evil selves?»

«Well, they looked over twenty years old, maybe closer to thirty even», – Tim put his hand to his chin, tapping his finger thoughtfully. – «M. Yes, it's nothing complicated. I won't live that long».

The room became quiet. Tim shrugged, took a piece of banana from a bowl of dried fruits and returned to watching.

(For some reason, the team looked sad. Tim saw them try to start a conversation with him a couple of times, but they never got beyond a quiet «Rob, you... Are you feeling well?»).

(Bart hasn't changed. He smiled kindly at Robin and immediately stole all the dried berries from his bowl).

***

«Conner asks me my name." They didn't want to know my emergency plans, but they want to know my identity».

«What did you say, Master Robin?».

«That I'm Robin. Isn't that so?».

«Of course it is, my boy».

«They didn't like that answer».

«Sometimes people don't like the truth. Sometimes they don't realize that what they're hearing is actually the truth they want».

«So it's not bad that I said that? What didn't they like?».

«Of course not. Call Master Bruce, dinner will be served soon».

«Ok. Eh, Alfred?».

«Yes?»

«I like being Tim. Simply... Yes. Just so you know. Like».

«All right, Master Tim. How about brownies for dessert?».

«That sounds good».

Chapter Text

Stephanie didn't regret hitting Robin in the nose with a brick. First of all, he deserved it. Secondly, he will know better than to scare honest girls at night in the alleys of Gotham. Yes. Honest girls. Beating up not such honest men.

Honestly, hadn't he seen what she was doing? I should have known that it would fly into it!

She doesn't know how she ended up earning his recognition. That's not quite true. She said the pompous phrase of a pompous teenage vigilante, and he seemed to instantly give her a piece in his heart.

«I'll give up the fuck! This is my city! Or do you think that Bats has a monopoly on Gotham? Well, if he can break the law for the sake of peace in Gotham, then so can I».

Yes, it wasn't very mature. And yet, Robin's face seemed to glow from within at that moment, as if she were an angel descended on his prayers.

He began to train her, hiding her from Batman. He introduced me to the Oracle and helped me integrate into Birds of Prey. He taught me how to do detective work, and he told me which cops you can trust and which ones you should avoid. He gave the lists to the family, and firmly assured them that Commissioner Gordon was the most reliable among them, but at the same time, not everyone could get to him whenever they wanted. That after the Joker's attack on the commissioner's daughter, Batman personally took his family under protection.

Robin was sweet. Stephanie assumed that he was a year or more younger than her, but that didn't stop her from falling in love with him. Teenage feelings and all that, don't think about it. And she was still in a relationship, so it couldn't be anything.

Still, falling in love didn't suddenly make her blind to his flaws. On the contrary, it seemed that these feelings opened her eyes and made her hypersensitive to all Robin's oddities.

There has long been a theory that Batman is a vampire. Stephanie didn't believe her. And yet, watching Robin, despite his assurances that all the Bats were human, she began to assume.

He blends in too well with the shadows. It clings too easily to the smallest protrusions in the walls. He bends too much, wields his lanky body too deftly, knows Gotham too well, learns about bandits or attacks too quickly, as if heading towards them even before the attacker gets down to business.

Oh, yes. He also has a terrible understanding of feelings, intonation, sarcasm and all that. But hey, autistic people are too, so it doesn't fit well with her theories, so Stephanie puts it at the bottom of Robin's list of "Oddities."

Cryptid. A creature of shadows. Maybe an alien? A monster created by Gotham radiation? A creature of the catacombs? Stephanie didn't know. But she trusted Robin completely. And so, when she needed help, she knew exactly who to call.

«I'm pregnant».

And it started spinning. One day, they met outside one of Gotham's not-so-great, but still paid clinics. Tim – she didn't know if it was his real name or not, and she didn't know if he was wearing a realistic mask or if Robin was very unlucky with his face – submitted documents at the registry office in the names of Timothy and Melissa Swan, an absolutely adult married young couple. She was registered. He paid for everything without demanding to return the money immediately, in fact, having firmly indicated that he would not accept a single cent back from her.

He bought her vitamins. He accompanied me to all the courses, checkups, and pair classes. I signed up for yoga for pregnant women. He firmly insisted on ending the patrols as soon as the fetus became old enough to understand that it would not fall out on its own, and they were not going to provoke miscarriages.

The fetus was developing in her body, and no matter how stupid it was, Robin was also developing in Steph's eyes. He was learning to communicate. I studied emotions. He joined a team of young superheroes.

She was close to giving birth when she saw this: he was in love. Not at her, thank God not, but these feelings sprouted in Robin and surged forward as clearly as her child's heels hit her bladder wherever she did not have the opportunity to quickly run to the toilet.

In general, it is very obvious.

«I'll take care of him».

He picked up her baby on the day of discharge, and Steph believed that he would fulfill his promise. She didn't dare ask where he had taken her son, and she was relieved to stay in her bed for the rest of the day. Even after a few days, the fatigue after giving birth did not leave her.

Stephanie didn't know who Robin was, who Tim was, but she trusted him. I would have trusted you with my life. Therefore, she was particularly hit by Nightwing's news a couple of months after her 16th birthday.:

«You're a Spoiler, aren't you? A friend of Oracle and Robin».

«Maybe», – Stephanie replied, squinting behind the mask – the mask of a costume that Robin had created for her in secret from Batman. She has not yet directly interacted with either Batman or Nightwing.

«Do you know where Robin is?»

Something in his tone made her uneasy. Anxiety, a ninth sense, whatever it was, it was screaming like a siren that she wouldn't like the news.

«I don't know what you're talking about. Did something happen to Robin?»

Nothing could have prepared her for the next words. Because this usually doesn't happen. Not with Robin.

«He's gone. Two months».

***

Robin saves three civilians by taking them right out from under the nose of a brand-new opponent who was aiming to become on a par with the Gotham Villains. When he returns, he smiles brightly at Batman, reminding him of another black-haired boy who smiled just as brightly.

«Did you see that? He just turned away, and I did!» – His hands shot up, gliding, slicing through the air, showing how quickly he had brushed past.

«Hm», – Bruce smiles, watching from the rooftop as the same villain is bundled into a police car. – «Well done. Good job».

Robin freezes for a second, looking at him strangely. Then he leans back, swinging his legs off the edge of the roof and laughing.

Bruce notices Commissioner Gordon looking in their direction. Pride for his child makes something in him goosebumps when the commissioner nods to some of his thoughts and turns away, flicking a lighter.

Perhaps it's time for Robin to get to know their allies. Wherever Robin wanders in the city for days, it will be good if he finds out which of the police can be trusted.

(He already knows. Bruce is not surprised that the boy has already looked through all the files of the batcomputer).

***

Talia couldn't explain it, and the rage blurring his vision prevented Jason from conducting his own investigation, but one way or another, a stupid discrepancy in the documents wouldn't stop him from teaching Batman a lesson. He doesn't need to know where the substitute actually studied in order to smear his cocky face on the floor of the Tower.

And yet, the documents didn't add up. Talia updated him on the information as often as she could: how far the new Robin had progressed, what cases he was already solving on his own, what kind of training he was doing, who he was fighting, what he should pay attention to.

We don't know a damn thing about the civilian life of the replacement. He goes to boarding school, then to the Gotham Academy. I have been registered there since the very beginning of my studies. At boarding school, he is exactly the same year of study as he should be, at the Academy he is two years older, which corresponds to his mental assessment (no, this is not true, but Jason is annoyed by Talia's thoughtful reflection that he could have graduated from school in absentia at fourteen).

At boarding school, he has several loyal friends, average grades, and a couple of reprimands for bad behavior. There are no friends at the Academy, perfect attendance, perfect grades.

After school, Timothy Drake goes alone to the dorm, from where he leaves for swimming training or classes at the cinema club. In Gotham, Timothy Drake is a ghost who only appears in a cave or on patrol, and Jason fucking wonders where Bruce is looking if his obedient soldier is playing some kind of suspicious game with his life.

Talia said that her people had done a thorough research. Timothy doesn't work as a spy for anyone, and there's no record of anyone getting information about Batman that can be replaced. He just disappears. It's like the boy doesn't even exist outside of the mask. The only other personality he uses is involved in the schemes of his girlfriend's medical problem, and as far as Talia knows, even there it's more because they're both underage than anything else.

Rich boy is a secret, bitch. Jason can't help but think how well Bruce replaced him: the same mysterious punk as Batman himself, just as poorly versed in feelings, the same paranoid, brilliant detective, burglar, acrobat.

Replacement.

A replacement that he doesn't need to know the details about in order to teach a lesson. Show what happened to the last bird that put on the costume.

The boy is fully equipped. Jason is not surprised. The boy had a few loud (for the community raincoats) disputes about distrust and refusal to disclose their identity. A teenager who never relaxes, does not trust anyone, and often does not take off his mask even in a cave.

Jason enjoys beating the arrogance out of the little critter. He takes special pleasure in hitting him on the neck – deep enough to draw blood, but still surgically precise so as not to kill him and allow him to wait for help.

He dips his fingers into the blood flowing from the boy's shot thigh and begins to write on the wall. The first letters come out big enough to scare, but small enough for him to have enough blood for the entire inscription, and at the same time he would not drain the replacement to the last drop.

He turns around. He's going to dip his fingers in again to continue.

There's no one in the pool of blood on the floor.

Ten minutes later, Jason was convinced that there was no one in the entire Tower. He couldn't stay any longer–help, no doubt already rushing to the pretender, was about to arrive.

Whoever this Robin was, he's gone.

***

«Hello! My name is Tim!»

Barbara holds back a shudder as she shakes hands with young Robin Tim, who is currently in civilian clothes in her library. The cameras didn't capture the full horror of his face. This grotesque monophonic skin, like glass eyes, dirty shadows – everything reminds her of the Joker, who is just as disgusting and unlike ordinary people.

The sinister valley. Barbara is almost ashamed of her desire to avoid face-to-face meetings with this Robin whenever possible.

«I brought some books from the estate that Bruce forgot to give away when he was young! He's so old now that he probably doesn't even remember that they're not from his home library. Dick says he's getting senile!».

Barbara accepts the books, and together they put them on the shelves, joking about Betsy's age. It's a surprisingly easy conversation compared to the boy's first impression.

And yet, she starts avoiding him. Fortunately, Tim is a smart boy. After a couple of meetings, he stops contacting her directly, except for the communicators on patrol.

There is something inhuman hidden in this body. She doesn't understand how the others accept him so calmly.

***

Robin appears a couple more times. It was as if Jason hadn't shot him in the thigh. It was as if he hadn't torn the muscles in his shoulder with a knife. As if he hadn't slit his throat.

Jason is watching. That's him: Timothy Drake. Not some kind of fake to convince the town that Robin is still in the field. This kid...

And then he disappears. At first, he's been gone for a week, and Jason finds it funny.: What could the perfect little substitute have done to get him put on the bench? Then he gets worried, which he diligently shoves into the back drawer and refuses to analyze: has the replacement been injured, and is he currently undergoing treatment?

Then a month passes. He's ready to kill someone just to get news about Robin.

Two months pass. He finally scored as a substitute, continues to capture the Alley and develop his influence.

And it's when everything goes well that Batman appears on his territory. He stands there, not trying to hide from the gun pointed at him.

«This is my territory, asshole. Get out of here».

«We need your help».

Batman is compromised. Jason tenses, removing the safety catch. Batman never asks for help. Especially him.

«And? What do I care?».

«Robin is missing».

***

Everything is fine. It was getting so good. The league calmed down, he and Dick communicated normally, Tim was doing well as Robin, there had been no major crises in Gotham for some time, and Jason was back.

Everything was fine.

Bruce doesn't understand what the trigger was. Whether it was a kidnapping, an escape, or something related to Tim's unknown biology.

Bruce should have asked. Someone should have asked. But no one did it.

And now Tim is gone.

***

In fact, he almost didn't expect this day to come. All the time, something was making B's life worse than before, and the crumbs of success that Tim got by helping Batman were immediately thrown back: either a particularly violent quarrel with Nightwing, a dispute with the League, or another victim of the villain that Batman did not have time to save.

But now? Now Jason is back. The second bird, whose death caused Tim's birth – does this make Jason his father? After all, Gotham is a mother, and fathers are always less involved in the creation of children – she returned to the city, and now everything should be fine.

He doesn't say goodbye. Not because he doesn't want to. He actually almost tried. But... he couldn't. Something stopped him. Something in his chest pinched so hard, so painfully, that he couldn't even say "bye." He wanted a hug. To snuggle up against the broad chest of Batman, in whose arms he had never been, and say something. Thank you. Sorry. Goodbye.

He doesn't do that. That evening, Batman and Robin finish their patrol as usual. Robin is writing a report, as usual. As usual, he is politely invited to stay for dinner. He refuses, as usual.

It's the same as always. And yet.

Robin doesn't come back the next night.