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Tim wasn’t sure how he knew. There were no outward signs, no buttons, no dolls, not even a clue that pointed him to the conclusion, but when he walked down the stairs to see Billy Batson sitting in the Batcave surrounded by the rest of the Bats, he just. Knew. It hit him like a truck, and his mind whispered, guess she’s still around after all. His feet stuttered to a stop.
“Tim?” Bruce asked, eyebrow ticking up. Red Robin was supposed to be off duty, still recovering from a broken arm. “What are you doing here?”
Tim couldn’t even respond, couldn’t tear his eyes away from Billy, who was staring back, confused and maybe a little scared.
“Tim?” Dick called this time, before following his eyes to where Billy shifted nervously in his seat. Tim took a deep breath, held it and then let it go.
“Did you get rid of the key?” Tim asked, and Billy made this scrunched up face, like he was confused and scared and worried all in one.
“I- what? I don’t… H-How do you know about that?”
“The key,” Tim repeated, tone more urgent. “Did you get rid of the key? I swear to god, Billy, if you brought the key into the Batcave…”
Billy immediately protested. “No! No, I got rid of it. I flushed it down the toilet.”
“What nonsense are you going on about, Drake?” Damian huffed, narrowed eyes looking between the two suspiciously. Tim ignored him.
“That’ll do for now, I suppose.”
“For now? What do you mean, for now?”
Tim scoffed. “Don’t be naive, Billy. You really think getting rid of the key will stop her? It just delays the inevitable a bit longer. You’re not the first to try it and you won’t be the last.”
“That’s not true! You don’t know that. She doesn’t have any way of getting it back. She’s locked in! How would you know anyway?” Billy clenched his fists.
“You really think I didn’t try getting rid of the key? I sent it with my parents on their trip across the Caribbean and made sure it got dropped in the sea. It doesn’t stop her. Not permanently.” Tim shuffled forward, throwing himself into the chair in front of the Batcomputer. Bruce doesn’t handle not knowing things well so Tim wasn’t surprised to look over and see him about ready to burst.
“What are you talking about?” Bruce growled, cowl making his glare look more angry than confused.
“As much as I hate agreeing with this old coot, I’d like to know that too,” Jason piped up. Billy, in a surprising act of courage, ignored them both.
“You… You’ve been- she got you…? I mean,” Billy stammered.
“Yup,” Tim popped the ‘p’ in an attempt to sound nonchalant. He hid his shaking hands behind his head. “Lured in lonely, little eleven-year-old me, fed me lies of love and friends, even gave me Batman and Robin. I almost stayed, actually. I’d already agreed and everything, sitting at the dining table and watching her get out the buttons.”
Billy stared. “Why didn’t you?”
Tim was quiet, eyes planted on the ground. His lips quirked in a bitter smile, the sight of it making Dick wince.
“Do you know what my mother, my real one, told me just days before, when her and my father missed my birthday for the fifth year in a row? She said to me, ‘You should know better, Timothy. It’s not our fault you got excited. After all, you chose to trust us.’” Tim laughed, a cold and harsh thing. “How bad of a parent do you have to be to tell your kid that while he’s crying on the phone and you’re halfway across the world? She hung up right after too. But, you know, that saved my life. Right as the Other Mother reached out to get my eyes she said, ‘Trust me, Tim. Everything’s going to be alright. You’ll be so happy here,’ and all I could hear was Janet’s voice going, ‘You chose to trust us.’ So I ran. I got the hell out, locked the door and got that key as far from me as possible. Two years later, I became Robin and a few years after that, both my parents were dead.”
Billy seemed to be at a loss for words. Tim’s shoulders curled in and his knees came up to his chest. He startled when a hand touched his head, but peeking up he saw it was just Cass. She stared at his position for a moment longer before sliding around to the back of the chair and draping herself over him. The weight was comforting.
“Alright, I dunno know about these fools but I’m gonna need some context because I have no clue what the hell is goin’ on,” Jason announced, slamming his helmet on the table. Dick nodded along hesitantly and even Damian looked cautiously curious. Bruce just glowered, but Tim knew he was bubbling with questions. A quick glance at Billy had Tim sighing.
“There’s an old wives tale, I’m sure at least one of you has heard it before, about an ‘Other Mother’ who steals children from unhappy homes and gives them everything they’ve ever wanted. In return, they have to agree to stay with her,” Tim summarized quickly, and Jason nodded along.
“Yeah, I’ve heard it before. Every kid on the streets has, just like every kid on the streets knows it’s complete horsecrap. Nothing good ever comes free,” Jason said.
Tim smiled wryly. “I guess that’s why she didn’t aim for a Gotham street kid.”
“Are you saying this ‘Other Mother’ is a real thing, Drake?” Damian scowled. Dick looked skeptical, as did Bruce. Tim didn’t blame them.
“Not exactly. Not that version, anyway. The real Beldam is a lot less… charitable. Of course, she seems just lovely in the beginning but you soon learn that’s not really the case. I mean, it took me a while but eventually I figured it out. I, um… I should probably start from the beginning.”
Dick nodded slowly. “Yeah. It’ll probably be easier to understand that way.”
“Okay, so, uh. I was eleven. It was just a few days after my birthday and I got a doll in the mail. It looked just like me, with the same hair and skin. It was even dressed in a replica of my favourite outfit. The only difference was it had buttons for eyes. At the time, I thought it was a late present from my parents, so I took it everywhere with me. In reality, the doll was a spy for her. She sent it to watch, to find out what I wanted most so that she could create a world based on my desires.”
He took a deep breath, eyes hazy as he got sucked into the memory. “When I first got there… God, it was perfect. My parents were there, happy and attentive and so so loving. I’d never experienced that before. And then she gave me Batman and Robin, had Robin become my best friend. He would swoop by after patrol and hang out with me and we would just talk and talk and talk until Batman came and gently ushered us to bed. But… But for my final wonder…. She offered me Jason Todd.”
Jason frowned, looking at Tim weirdly. “What?”
“She had no way of knowing that Jason and Robin were the same. All she knew was that I was obsessed with Robin and I was also obsessed with Jason. So, she tried to give me both. She gave me Robin, righteous and kind and badass. And then she gave me Jason, funny and scrappy and smart. They were two different people and I knew that wasn’t right but… I was willing to overlook it. I was fine pretending that’s how it was supposed to be. I was just… I was so happy. She asked me to stay, told me what that entailed and I said yes. I said yes to having my eyes removed and replaced with buttons, said yes to fake Jason and fake Robin and fake parents. Even at eleven, I was a smart kid. I knew that staying wasn’t that simple. I knew I’d probably be killed by the Beldam. But, I remember thinking, if I’m going to die, at least I’ll die happy. And then she said, ‘Trust me,’ and I heard, ‘You chose to trust us,’ and I just. Couldn’t do it.”
Tim let out a shaky breath. “I ran. You know the rest.”
The cave was silent. Tim didn’t dare look up, couldn’t face his family. What would they think of him now that they knew? Did they think he was pathetic, stupid to fall for such an obvious trick? Did they think he was pitiful, knowing that he was going to die and fully willing to go through with it anyways? He didn’t want to know.
Billy was the first one to speak. “Mine was too.”
“What?” Tim glanced at him, brows furrowed.
“Your first wonder. It was about your parents,” Billy clarified, “Mine was too. In my world, they were alive and taking care of me. They were exactly as I remember.”
Some part of Tim wanted to laugh. The cynical voice in his head found it amusing for reasons unknown to even Tim. Instead, he just smiled and said, “Hurts like hell to come back after, doesn’t it?”
Billy twisted his hands in his shirt. “Yeah.”
Finally, Bruce sighed, reaching up and taking off his cowl. Without it, it was easy to read the exhaustion in his cheeks, the pain in his eyebrows, the fear in his jaw and the worry in his lips. He ran a hand through his hair.
“There’s… there’s a lot we’ll have to talk about as a result of this but…” He reached out to pat Tim’s head and then took a few steps to do the same to Billy. “For now, how about we go upstairs. You both look like you could use a good cup of Alfred’s hot chocolate. We can figure everything out after.”
Some of the tension leaked from Tim’s shoulders and Cass gave Bruce an approving nod. Tim smiled just slightly, a fragile thing, and stood up. He started towards the stairs, hearing everyone else start to follow his lead.
As he rounded the corner and disappeared from the family’s sight, Tim could hear quick footsteps chasing after. He turned to see Damian approaching quickly.
“Drake,” Damian acknowledged with a frown. Tim raised an eyebrow.
“Damian.”
Stopping in front of Tim, Damian had a split-second look of nervousness before he lunged forward. Tim flinched, feeling arms wrap around him like a cage. Just as quickly as they came, they were gone and Tim gaped at Damian’s reddening face.
“Tell anyone about this and I’ll skin you,” he threatened, and Tim could only nod dumbly. With a final huff, Damian ran away, leaving Tim with a warm feeling in his chest.
There was a lot wrong with this family, a lot that needed to be worked on. But, they were trying and it was good. It was enough.