The saloon was lively, most if not everyone dancing, drinking, or socializing. Two younger people had recently been wed, so naturally, it was time to celebrate the new couple. Wynonna sat at the end of the bar, smiling as she watched everyone dance around, a smile on her lips. It had been a little, at least in her time, about 3 weeks since her horrid week. She wasn’t healed by any means, but she felt much better than she did, just had to be careful as any harsh hit to her chest or stomach would make her collapse.
She wasn’t drinking, which came as a surprise to most people, rather, slowly eating some chips that the saloons owner had made himself. She hummed along to the song on the piano, smiling at a few people as they passed by.
Later into the night, a younger man sped into the building, eyes darting around until they landed on Wynonna, speaking to an older woman. He quickly passed the crowd, excusing himself as he intervened.
“A—are you Wynonna Hyde—? Sand-spider?” He asked, his voice trembling.
Wynonna looked at him, a little off guard as she looked at the boy. “Yeah? Why?”
“There’s been a sighting out by the towns watering hole, where we all put our horses during off season, and sheriff has gone missing.”
“Missing-? How long?” She was shocked, no one went missing, especially the guy who uses his gun more than handcuffs.
“4 hours now, he said not to get you, but I heard a yell up by there and— well you catch the bad guys! I’m just a watcher at the jail!” He rambled, hands shaking as he looked into her eyes.
She hesitated, but sighed, nodding as she stood to her feet, nodding to the woman as a goodbye as she started to walk away, the boy following.
They exchanged more details, apparently a guy who was a little to snake like was out by the watering hole, seeming to be waiting. “And when the sheriff left, I heard a yell and couldn’t find him! So—so I came to get you..”
“…I—I’ll see what I can do, okay kid? If I ain’t back you get some people to come looking.”
The boy nodded, watching the woman start to walk off, her shadow disappearing into the darkness. It was a moonless night, visibility was low, very low, meaning you couldn’t really see who was around. Her steps were slow, and quiet, scanning the area as she slowly made it to the watering hole.
“…Sheriff? Jacob sent me out here, said you was missing?” It was silent, no reply. “…Timothy? You out here?”
Yet again, there was so reply, making the hair on her neck stand up. She was looking at the water, the towns watering hole, somehow, the water stayed, it was deep, about 6 feet, some people said it was an old burry sight that got abandoned, then filled. Everyone sent their horses down here during off season, when there was no work to be done.
“…fuckin’ hell man, c’mon don’t do this, Mary and Andrew just got married, we don’t need a death…” she sighed, going to step back to walk more down west, before a snap of a twig filled the air, her senses firing as she turned her head, seeing Timothy standing by the waters edge, staring her down. “Shit! Jesus, Timothy you scared me straight a moment…are you okay? You look like you’ve done seen a ghost.”
“I should’ve killed you when I had Johnny.” He simply said, his voice calm, cold.
“…what…?” She took a moment to reply, raising an eyebrow. “…Johnny died at the hanging tree, his guts were ripped open, what the fuck do you mean by that.”
“You stupid woman,” he spat, stepping closer, hands twitching. “My daddy spent his entire life tracking your family and his, just to die three day shy of your wedding?! and you all get off SCOTT FREE”
“Johnny was turning his life around, that man was fixing what his family had done! Your daddy wouldn’t leave us alone! We had never done anything!”
“Exactly why your father paid me to end it, you were to valuable, if I caught you two, I would have taken the entire ring down!”
“…what.”
She stood still, staring at the man as he started to chuckle, rolling his eyes. “What..? You thought it was a random man? Idiot!”
“…you…no. You—you helped me take him down from the tree, you helped me keep his guts inside.” She said lowly, breathing slowly.
He scoffed, eyes rolling as he held a sick grin, “you did the easy part in killing your daddy for me.”
Wynonna just blinked slowly, her hand moving to her side, grazing the fan, and handing on the handle of her gun, her breathing turning ragged. “You…fucking…BASTARD.”
She ran at him, drawing her gun, which caught the man by surprise as he stumbled back, a few gunshots ringing out. They struggled, Wynonna blinded by pure rage as she tried her hardest to shoot the man, a few bullets raining into the air.
“YOU FUCKING BASTARD. HE FAUGHT SO HARD TO MAKE A LIFE FOR US. WE WERE GOING TO HAVE A CHILD. WE WERE GOING TO BE SAFE DOWN IN WASHINGTON.” She screamed, her voice ragged, a guttural yell.
The man simply grunted, looking for a way to get her down, the two ending up in the shallow end of the waters. He let out a yell, and hit her ribs, causing her to gasp, loosing air as she fell to her knees. The next moments were a blur as he struggled, shoving her down into the water with a splash. She let out a yell, trying to grab a breath of air before her head went under the water.
His hands wrapped around her throat, held down under water, she fought, she really did fight hard, but she was loosing air. She clawed, she hit, she kicked, she tried to get up, nothing. Her head was getting fuzzy, her eyes hurting, her chest begging for air. She inhaled, water rushing into her lungs as she gagged. She felt weak, her mind slowly starting to fade, and in her final moments, her thoughts were only one person, the one person she made a promise too. Rider, Doll, Juniper, June,
Junie.
244 notes
·
View notes
TWINcognito mode (Tim and Danny Pretend to be Twins AU)
AO3, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
Danny was floating in contaminated ectoplasm, which was absolutely fucking disgusting. If this was Beelzebub’s idea of a prank, then Danny was going to fill his precious lava lake with jello.
‘Come with me,’ he’d said, ‘We’ll go spy on the living for some fun,’ he’d said.
Then the stupid Demon had knocked him out and now Danny was suspended in the equivalent of sewage.
But something wasn’t right; he had memories that weren’t his and a fighting style that itched under his skin, and his sense of self was muted in a way that only the living felt.
Then the ectoplasm drained, and-
-Danny stood at attention in front of a strange man who was giving off serious stranger danger vibes, bewildered, as said man droned on and on about how he may be another version of Timothy but he would be just as formidable-
-Danny was standing on top of a building, and by this point he was pretty sure that he’d been brainwashed. He needed to find his progenitor, Tim would know how to overcome-
-He was staring at himself, and the self he was staring at stared back in turn.
“Ra’s?” He asked.
“Ra’s.” He answered.
“Brainwashing?” He asked, tilting his head.
“Yes,” he answered, holding his arms out to allow the hit he knew was coming, “Can you undo it?”
His other self smirked.
“I know better than anyone what I’m capable of; of course.”
Red Robin swung out his arm, Danny felt a prick in his neck, and he fell-
-Danny woke up, and for the first time in who knew how long (he knew, it’d been roughly a month of not being himself and also being himself, removed but there), he felt like he was actually present. He could hear Tim rummaging around the kitchen, hear the distant sounds of the city, and started taking stock.
His wrists and ankles hurt, as did his neck. His muscles were sore, like he’d been thrashing around or fighting back. Given the state his progenitor must have dragged him back in, both were likely. He’d likely need further work with an actual therapist to undo the rest, but his head actually felt pretty clear. There were some lingering traces, and he was sure he’d hesitate if he heard a certain phrase or eight from Ra’s, but those could probably be slowly worked out of his system.
Sure, he could just die and go back to being a nearly all-powerful god thing, but…he’d kinda missed being alive. Plus, it wasn’t like he’d completely lost his powers. He could still feel them, they were just muted.
He knew he could fly, had a bit of supernatural strength, could still toss energy bolts and create a shield, but the other powers? Locked away and sealed into his incorporeal form. The powers he just intimately knew he had were the only ones that his current moral body could handle.
So at least he still had a piece of his original self; it would help differentiate him from Tim. A whole person he hadn't known, but now knew better than he’d ever known Jazz. It was weird to think about. At least when Dani had been made, she hadn’t been forced to take reconstructed versions of his memories.
Slowly, he sat up; wincing as the electrodes on his skin fell off. He felt shaky, strained, and…wait.
“Did you just…shock the brainwashing out of me?” he asked, watching as Tim rounded the corner and handed him a cup of coffee.
The laugh that Tim let out was just short of unhinged; a memory that Ra’s hadn’t known to replicate then.
“If electroshock was good enough to turn me into JJ, then theoretically it should be good enough to train my brain away from League brainwashing,” Tim snorted, and Danny was suddenly very sure he Didn’t Want To Know, “We’ll have to keep an eye on you to make sure though. Probably set you up with a therapist or eight.”
“I’m sure the Justice League would have some good suggestions,” Danny agreed mildly, sipping his coffee, “We just need to follow proper protocol for finding a clone that isn’t brainwashed or needs assistance overcoming brainwashing.”
Tim sipped his coffee.
Danny sipped his coffee.
“But we don’t want to do that, of course.”
“Oh no, no we do not. It’s been too long since we’ve had fun, I think.”
“And wouldn’t you know it; I thought of something funny. Wanna do it?”
~~~~~~~
It was funny.
For them, anyway.
The overall gist was; Danny would go to Dinah for therapy, and they’d have to trust in her professionalism to keep his existence secret until he was ready.
Ready for Danny meant, of course, when he and Tim finally got made by the rest of the Batclan.
They were going to play it off that Tim had always had a twin. Daniel Janus Drake-Wayne had always been there, pushed into the background because his parents didn’t want an accident with his powers to get out to the press.
And hadn’t that been a shock for Tim, to learn that his clone-twin had powers?
They’d managed to work it in, though.
So the plan was to make it seem like they’d never hidden that Tim was a twin, doctor literally every single piece of evidence they could electronically to show that Tim had a twin, and work in shifts to drive the family up a wall. All photos had been doctored, signatures had been forged, they’d even forged Bruce’s signature on some doctored adoption papers.
“Oh, I’m emancipated. Do you want to be?”
“Nah, it’d be even funnier if they thought they’d pushed the one still under his guardianship out of the manor.”
“A bit cruel, but yeah that’d really make them scramble. Perfect.”
They would, eventually, start dropping hints that they weren’t there for XYZ meeting, etc.
The family had pushed Tim to the side, and like, sure, it wasn’t really a big deal. But it was super inconsiderate and by proxy they’d also pushed Danny to the side as well, so payback was a bitch and payback was making the entire batfamily question their abilities as detectives and good family members.
“We should get Kon and Bart in on it. Cassie as well, we’ll never sell it without her.”
Tim nodded, already sending out a coded text to his friends. They’d arrive in two hours, when they could make enough excuses to leave without getting caught or raising suspicion.
“I think we should divide up the time they’ve seen us and say that some of that time, for the more public appearances, it wasn’t me.”
“Ohhhh, try to remember the ones you were super uncomfortable at and we’ll say that was me.”
Danny and Tim grinned at each other.
The prank was way too involved, way too intricate, and they were having way too much fun planning it to stop and think about potential consequences.
“Currently I’m trying to break open a pretty big case, I need you to fill in for me at family brunch in a week. Then there’s an extended training exercise in the woods for a week immediately afterwards; all of us are to attend. Substitute heroes have already been selected for our territories. Is that doable?”
“Sure, I’ll get started on freaking them out. Nothing too obvious, but I’ll have to target Bruce a bit differently if I want to avoid confrontation.”
“Of course.”
“I think I like puns. I’ll start with those.”
“Practice now and perfect it; that way it doesn’t seem like you’re new to them.”
“Of course, I’m practice-ly a natural.”
The dead eyed stare that Danny got was worth it.
~~~~~~
Danny stared at his new drivers license; it was designed to look a bit roughed up and older. It was almost identical to Tim’s, picturewise.
He hadn’t really been thinking about it, but he was kind of starting to really like the idea of having an identical twin. He was still hashing out his personality versus the one that Ra’s had tried to install in him, but he felt like having someone to call family, even as a prank, would help him figure it out.
He could still feel echoes of his family bonds, and there was a tentative new one between him and his…twin. He needed to think of himself as that to prevent referring to himself incorrectly in the future.
There were the faint bonds to his parents and his sisters, back in the Infinite Realms, and even fainter ones going to who he assumes were the ‘batfamily’. He hadn’t told Tim, and he was pretty sure he didn’t need to, but he was grateful to get to know them outside of the designation of ‘that clone that got dropped on us’.
And there were Tim’s friends; they’d dropped by, oohed and ahhed, and declared Danny their friend as well. Danny wasn’t sure if the friendship would last, but again; the more family or friends he had, the more secure he felt about himself.
So even if they were on loan from Tim, Danny was grateful for them.
Also they had been 100% on board with gaslighting the batclan and seeing who would notice. From Danny’s memories he had based from Tim’s, he was certain Cass would find out first.
He was pretty sure she’d go along with it.
Danny knocked his forehead on the window as the Uber came to a sudden stop, and the driver nervously looked back.
“Uh, here we are Mr. Drake-Wayne,” the poor man looked like he was terrified to be parked in front of the gates to the Manor, “I can assure you of Uber’s ability to keep customer IDs secure though, there really wasn’t a need for a fake-”
“It isn’t, thanks,” Danny said quietly, letting himself out and walking towards the gates.
This place…was so much bigger than his generated memories recalled.
He heard the Uber tear away, and focused on trying to muster up the courage to walk through the gate. He’d gone over it with Tim, it would be easy. All he had to do was just go in there and socialize.
Was the anxiety he was feeling a Danny trait or a Tim trait? Shit, did one of them have anxiety? Did both of them?
He could almost hear Jazz berating him in the back of his mind, going on and on about taking his mental health seriously. He would have to tell Dinah and talk about feelings.
Gross. He wasn’t looking forward to-
-A car horn blared behind him, almost causing him to give up the game early as he spun around and glared at Jason, a hand behind his back and ready to summon a ball of ecto-plasmic energy.
Jason glared right back.
“Come on shitstain, did you forget how a fucking gate works?”
Danny frowned. What would Tim do?
Another car directly behind Jason’s honked its horn in response.
“Don’t be rude, Jason!” Ah, Dick. A…A witness. Danny had himself a witness.
Ah.
Aha!
That was what Tim would do.
Danny smiled serenely, taking great pleasure at the sudden paranoia and confusion that flashed over his older brother’s face.
“Don’t,” Jason warned softly, grip on the steering wheel tightening.
Danny moved towards the car.
“Timberly I swear to god-”
Danny walked to the car-a classic 1970 mustang, nice-and gently ran his hand along the hood.
Jason snarled and tapped the gas, clearly only intending to spook Danny away from the car.
But Danny stepped forward and into the giant, mostly steel vehicle’s momentum. He made sure to use a little extra strength to dent the front, certain that his mortal body would bruise, and dramatically dropped down.
“What the fuck-”
“Tim!” The scream Dick let out was nothing short of guttural, and Danny realized he may have forgotten to take into account the possible PTSD of both siblings.
The door to Dick’s car slammed open and the eldest of them bolted around Jason’s car towards Danny, only for the footfalls to pause long enough for Dick to deck Jason in the face. Perfect. Yes, yes this would do.
Danny grinned as he picked himself up off the ground, quickly wiping it off his face before Dick could notice it.
Jason saw it.
Jason’s glare intensified as Dick hurried towards Danny.
Danny allowed himself to be dragged away from the front of the Mustang and turned his head just enough to stick his tongue out at Jason, safely where Dick couldn’t see.
The blackening eye really did suit the man, Danny thought to himself as he was bundled into the back of Dick’s car. But it was as the Ancients said; talk shit, get hit.
~~~~~~
Cass had frozen at the top of the steps and just stared at Danny as Dick fretted over him.
Danny stared up at her and smiled, allowing his giddyness at the prank to show in his body language for a half a second.
Cass smiled back, letting out a short laugh before she descended the stairs. She made a point to glare at Jason and protectively put a hand on Danny’s shoulder.
Jason spluttered, gesturing violently towards her and then towards Danny. The third oldest snarled when Cass very obviously turned her head away from him, before finally scoffing and storming into the dining room.
“You’re all fucking against me! I’m gonna remember this you little asshole, you better be prepared!”
Danny snickered and stepped out of Dick’s hold.
“I really am fine, you can stop-”
“Tim, I know you and Jason don’t get along but please don’t ever make him hit you with his car again. What if it had been serious?”
Danny flushed, averting his gaze. Damn, he thought he’d done a really good job of acting too.
“Look at this!” Fingers brushed his hair out of his face, focusing on poking at a small bruise on his forehead from the Uber window, “This bruise is gonna be awful, what were you thinking?”
“If you knew, then why did you punch him?” Danny grumbled, the flush increasing as Cass started tousling his hair.
Dick snorted.
“He shouldn’t have made the threat to begin with; we all know you don’t handle threats well or normally.”
Danny opened his mouth to defend himself, but was stopped by a large hand resting on his shoulder.
“Tim, what’s this about Jason hitting you with his car?” Bruce asked, concern managing to worm its way into his voice.
“I’m fine-”
“Tim, your version of ‘fine’ is two days of no sleep and a broken arm,” Dick interrupted, sounding very much like a tired father himself.
“Well, they said ‘break a leg’ but I needed those.”
Dick and Bruce froze, both turning an evaluating gaze on Danny.
“Oh no,” Bruce sighed, reaching out to trace the bruise on Danny’s forehead, “He’s got brain damage.”
“Hey Tim, nice to see you,” A voice loudly interrupted. The voice that said it, for how bright it was, sounded downright cold.
The group froze, all heads turning as one towards Barbara. She was smiling, but it wasn’t a nice smile, and any who knew her (or knew of her well enough to probably know her) knew better than to think she was actually happy.
“I can run the equipment downstairs to make sure he isn’t brain damaged, no need to bother Leslie. Besides, we need to have a little talk.”
~~~~~~
Danny sat on the medical cot.
Bruce and Dick had run to the dining room as soon as they could, the cowards.
Barbara sat in front of him, her fingers steepled as she waited for her own tech to outdo the Bats.
Her phone let out a small ding, and she finally nodded. All recording devices except hers were active. Tapping at her phone, she held it in front of her as his own voice echoed through the speaker.
“Ra’s?”
“Ra’s.”
Man, their voices sounded almost identical. The only real difference was the inflection used.
“Brainwashing?”
“Yes, can you undo it?”
It really sounded like he was just having a conversation with himself.
“I know better than anyone what I’m capable of; of course.”
The recording stopped. Barbara set the phone back down on her lap.
“So. I could swear that you weren’t on any records at all prior to two weeks ago, Daniel. Mind explaining how that happened?”
Danny did mind. The prank had seemed like such a good idea in the beginning, but actually explaining it made it seem dumb in hindsight, and Barbara was scary and reminding him of Jazz-
“The only reason I didn’t rat you out and set the Bats on you is because Cass didn’t say you were a threat. Where’s Tim, Daniel?” Her words were sweet, but Danny knew better.
The time for games was suspended, and he needed to rat out his twin.
“Uh, he’s in the Nest. There’s a meta-trafficking ring, and he’s been trying to find out who the leaders are for like, a month.”
Barbara groaned, reaching up to rub her temples.
“What, so he decided to trade places with his ‘twin’ at the last minute to avoid brunch?”
“And training.”
“Of course he did. I’m assuming he’s also largely responsible for all the documents detailing that you’ve existed forever. What are your thoughts on all of this?”
Danny shifted, uncomfortable with being forced to consider his own feelings on the matter when he was still trying to figure himself out as a person. What he did know, however, was that he was very much okay with this.
Maybe a carefully political answer would appease her?
“It’s a nice, slow way to introduce me to this family without the stigma of being a, ah…’twin’. I’m still recovering from my time with Ra’s, so something like this is just a fun way to get to know everyone. Secretly.”
Barbara’s stare, much like her, was not impressed.
Okay, fine.
“Alright; it may be payback for being assholes to Tim when Bruce was gone and we may want to mess with them. Nothing big, just see how long it takes them to notice? We already have something to hold over them since they didn't realize right away. We’re treating it like a training exercise as well. Pretty much only you and Cass passed.”
Now she looked mildly intrigued.
“...Do you wanna be a part of the test?”
Barbara sighed and threw her hands up.
“Sure, why not. I’ll play along. I do have a condition, though.”
Danny nodded, staying exactly where he was and trying not to vibrate in place.
“I want to use your ‘past’ to teach Bruce about the importance of communication.”
Danny had no idea how she would do that, but sure. As long as he got to fuck with these people, he was fine with whatever she did with his doctored history.
“Yeah, sure, sounds good.”
~~~~~~
Brunch was…an affair.
Damian tried to poison him, Jason kept kicking him under the table, and Dick kept trying to put more food on his plate.
So, Danny stared Jason dead in the eye as he reeled his foot back and kicked with enough force to shove Jason’s chair back a good foot.
Then, turning his attention to Damian, he held the little shit’s stare as he picked up the toast that had been tainted, slowly lifted his hand, and shoved it into Dick’s mouth without looking.
“Thank you Dick, but you should toast-ally have some.”
He felt Dick smile delightedly against his hand.
“Richard, do not swallow that! Spit it out!”
“No Dick, eat it; teach the little demon that there’s consequences to his actions.”
“Did you just try to tip my chair? You little shit-”
“I have the antidote, Big Brother.”
“Thanks Cass! Dami, we’ve talked about this-”
“Master Damian, there will be no poison at the table.”
“Tim, why would you put poisoned toast in Dick’s mouth?”
“Guys why is Tim weird-”
“He’s always weird Duke, I’ve seen him stay up for seventy-two hours just to prove a point.”
“No but there’s something really, really weird about-”
“I’m fine Duke, it’s just a little side effect from the Lazarus water.”
“Wait, the what?”
“The what?” Bruce’s voice ripped through the air, silencing everyone.
Danny frowned. This wasn’t technically something he was supposed to do, but…as the younger twin, he felt it was his responsibility to also inconvenience Tim. His job description was to be a sibling of this family, and a younger sibling he would be. He’d been a little brother once before, and he’d gladly do it again. To the fullest extent of his abilities.
Also he felt like Tim should have asked for help regarding his stalker problem ages ago.
“Well, Ra’s keeps trying to woo me and chases me around Gotham. I was bound to get dosed at some point, it’s not my fault.”
The chaos that ensued after that statement did Danny’s heart some serious good. Yes, this was perfect.
~~~~~~~~~
The batplane was a fun experience. Genuinely; Danny hadn’t gotten to enjoy the flight over to Gotham, and flying was fun no matter the form it took.
“Drake.”
Oh, Danny had been looking forward to this one.
“Wayne.” Danny responded, fighting to keep the joy out of his mouth.
He got to be the big brother this time. Him! Damian was a tiny terror, but he had nothing on the chaos gremlin that was Dani. There was only one thing Danny could do here; destroy Damian’s composure.
“Good, you know my name-”
“Yet you don’t seem to know mine,” Danny sighed, putting on his best disappointed face, “You keep saying Drake but never the full thing; Drake-Wayne.”
Behind Damian Dick was mouthing words at Danny. Probably such words that would tell Danny to behave.
What a pity that ‘Big Brother’ did not mean ‘Parent’, then. Not that Danny had such a good reputation for listening to his parents, and Tim never listened to Bruce anyways.
“I refuse to call you a name that you do not deserve-”
“Hey Bruce, did I trick you into signing my adoption papers?” Danny called out over Damian, drawing Bruce’s attention away from talking to Jason, allowing a shit-eating grin to stretch out over his face.
“No, Tim.”
“Hey Bruce, am I still adopted?”
“Yes, Tim.”
“Hey Bruce, are you gonna send me back-”
“Tim, we’ve been over this. There is nothing you could do that would make me overturn my decision. You are a part of this family, emancipated or not, and there is no escape.”
Huh. While that answer had been a bit more passionate than Danny had expected, it still worked.
“Sounds like I earned the name, Dami.”
Damian’s face was growing red with rage. Luckily, Danny knew just what to do to make it worse; by layering on sarcasm.
“But don’t worry, as your big brother I understand that it is my duty to lead by example. So I forgive you, el-witwaat, for your mistakes. Maybe when you’re older, you won’t make such obvious oversi-”
Danny jerked to the side, dodging the knife and breaking out into slightly hysterical laughter.
“I will find you this week,” Damian hissed, his arms restrained by Dick, “And I will kill you.”
“Timothy, stop antagonizing Damian. Damian, stop threatening Tim.” Bruce sounded every bit the tired dad he was.
“But he-!”
“What was that name you called him?” Duke interrupted, turning his seat. Damian let out a wordless cry of rage, struggling with Dick to get out of the chair so he could presumably stab Danny into silence.
“Oh, what name?” Danny asked, resting his chin in his hand and watching Damian with a wide smile. “Do you mean Dami? That’s the nickname that Dick gave him. Or-oh, wait; did you mean el-witwaat?”
“Cease this at once! Richard let me go-!”
“Sorry Duke, it’s a nickname that only I get to use on him.”
Damian froze, narrowing his eyes at Danny suspiciously. Good. He was right to be suspicious, because Danny wasn’t done.
“But it means the sound that a bat wing makes when it’s flapping. It basically means flip-flap.”
“That’s adorable,” Dick breathed, accidentally letting go of their youngest.
Bruce had to put the plane on autopilot to wrangle Damian and force their youngest to calm down.
~~~~~
The week of training was largely uneventful. For Danny, at least.
Danny found out he could still turn invisible and density shift, and promptly spent the entire time reenacting the poltergeist movie on his new siblings.
Jason kept waking up in entirely different parts of the forest they’d chosen, miles away from the checkpoints. Jason had opted to not sleep, which was doing wonders for the ‘ragged and deranged’ look he was going for.
Danny’s personal favorite moment was pretending to walk into a clearing just as Jason was waking up, surrounded by sticks, and idly commenting “Wow Jason, it looks like you’re in a…sticky situation.”
The wordless screech of rage had been music to Danny’s ears.
Damian was driving himself into the ground trying to hunt down Danny, who just maintained invisibility and density shifting to keep just out of Damians reach for literal hours each day before leaving to mess with the others.
Danny took great pride in that he managed to tuck Damian in every night without waking him up, thoroughly confusing the little demon just as much as he was bruising the kid’s ego.
Duke was left alone. Not because Danny thought he should be spared from their sibling bonding exercise, but because he’d see Danny coming thanks to his powers. There was literally no way for Danny to sneak up on him, and he was pretty sure Duke had clocked him as Not Tim anyways.
Dick lost his socks. All of them. Even the ones on his feet. Then Dick lost his sleeping bag. Finally, Danny collected as many spiders as he could and tucked them away, all neat and tidy, into Dick’s bag.
Dick had been an asshole, and justice needed to be served.
Danny did not feel satisfied or vindicated, however, as when Dick opened his bag and was met with the spiders, all he did was nod and step back to allow them to escape, only saying “Yeah, I deserved that. Good job Tim, I didn’t see you at all!”
Danny retreated. He’d have to have a planning session with Tim to plan a way to get back at Dick properly, then.
Cass was spared out of fear.
Bruce, though. Bruce was approached differently.
If Danny used his powers, there was a chance that the Detective would pin Danny as Not Tim, and with insufficient evidence there was a risk of being seen as a threat. Danny very much wanted to avoid an interrogation.
So Danny had opted to leave his new-old drivers license on the plane as the group was dropped off at various points; he knew the Bat as well as Tim. He knew that Bruce would find the ID, knew he would search it, and knew he wouldn’t say a word until he was sure about something.
And Danny, thanks to Tim’s memories in his mind, also knew that Bruce would never admit to a mistake as big as missing the fact that your adopted son was a twin. Bruce would try to guess who was who, and pretend like he’d known the entire time.
When Danny had stopped by the Base Camp to check in, Bruce had three tablets in front of him, all with information on Danny, and was cradling his head in his hands.
The only thing he heard Bruce say was something about possible brain damage, dimension travel, and messing up the time stream.
Then Bruce had frozen and scrambled for one of the tablets.
Danny decided he’d seen enough, and he was missing out on Damian time.
By the time the week was up, Cass and Duke looked refreshed, Danny accomplished but exhausted, and Dick, Jason, and Damian nearly crawled their way into Base Camp.
And Bruce?
Bruce refused to meet Danny’s eyes, and tried every way possible to avoid saying the name ‘Tim’, but also avoided saying ‘Danny’. Good. He wasn’t sure which one Danny was.
The groundwork had been laid.
Danny felt like patting himself on the back; this was a job well-done.
~~~~~~
Upon Danny’s return to the Nest, he and Tim compared notes about everything that had happened over a nice cup of coffee.
“Oh, also I’m pretty sure Bruce thinks that he fucked up the time line when he was trapped, and that that’s why he doesn’t remember me.”
“Oh! That’s perfect! Yes, that’ll stop him from mentioning it to anyone else. We’re in the clear to proceed as normal.”
The future was bright, and the road to happiness was paved with their family’s confusion.
@terzatheunderscorerima @darkbiscuitvoidstudent @akikkobara @reach-for-the-horizon @bitter-coffeecup @moodycow210 @kisatamao @thefantasmarex
597 notes
·
View notes