Chapter Text
Universe travel wasn't something that seemed possible let alone the possibility of different universes even existing. So, no, when he was blasted into a Gotham look-a-like, he didn't assume it was an alternate universe. In fact he didn’t even realize anything was amiss. That was until he ran into…well, himself.
The other Batman took one look at him and sighed, "What were you doing before you got here?” He asked tiredly.
"Excuse me?” Batman snapped, "Why should I tell you?"
"Another stubborn one, why do you all have to be like this?" The other Batman murmured under his breath, raising his hand to push his metaphorical hair, "Look, you're going to have to trust me for a moment. I'm trying to get you back home."
"This is my home." Batman stated, crossing his arms.
"Oh…you don't know yet. Good, I caught you at the right time."
Bruce shifted into a defense stance, "What are you talking about?"
The other Batman raised his arms in a calming gesture which Batman was frankly offended by. Who did this man take him for? A child? "Look, you're in an alternate universe."
"That can't be true." Batman argued.
"Tell me what month it is." The fake injected,
"Month? It's October.” Batman answered dutifully, not quite understanding how it was important.
The other Batman took out his phone. The screen was on the calendar app which showed July 1, 2030.
It was strange but he could’ve just changed the date before opening his phone.
"Look I'm sure you want to get back to your Gotham, I can do that."
Batman was still suspicious but he decided he could at least entertain the idea of the alternate universe. "How?"
"As long as you follow me."
“Follow you?” Batman raised an eyebrow to that, “Why on earth should I follow you to an undisclosed conversation saying that I need ‘help’ when frankly it seems quite the opposite to me.”
“Look, I don’t want to be here as much as you don’t want me here. If you just follow me back to the Batcave we can get this sorted out.”
It wasn’t unheard of for Bruce’s villains to sell outlandish foolish ideas, however one about alternate universes? That had to be on the more advanced side. And for someone to know about the Batcave he had recently just started operating in?
Bruce hated trusting people blindly more than anything else in life. Alfred had always told him that the one who trusts blindly truly is blind. However, he could not shake the feeling of inherent wrongness in the environment. Not to mention the sky was wrong instead of it being a dusty gray, full of clouds or even the rare blue that it revealed on particular days it wished to come out of hiding. No, it was a dark deep crimson red.
While the supposed villain could’ve intended to use this to convince him further, it was completely unheard of for someone to have the ability to change the sky’s color.
Maybe a meta but their population was already dwindling in Gotham.
So, against better judgement Bruce followed the other Batman. It was the same route to his cave, passed the same buildings and through the same entrance. Bruce almost began to reconsider choices before he reached the end of the stairs.
It was the Batcave but…different. Tools and gadgets hung across the walls like trophies and multiple costumes stood in display in glass containers. Some of them were way too small for Bruce and he realized why when his eyes reached the computer. There was a child sitting in the black chair computer chair. It wasn’t just any child either it was a child in a costume.
"Found another one?" The kid asked, not even bothering to look away from the screen. The other Batman just nodded and the kid sighed. "Does he know anything?" Bruce shook his head. "Alright I'll run protocol, Robin got suspended again."
"Fighting again?" The other man guessed. The kid nodded. The other Batman grimaced. "Hospital?"
"Yep" The kid popped his lips on the "p".
"Alright I'll speak with him."
Just before the other Batman reached the stairs, Bruce stopped him as the words the two had just exchanged sunk in, "You have kids?"
The other Batman gave him a weird look. "You don't?"
After the other Batman had left, Bruce had interrogated the child making sure he wasn’t being held in some evil pyramid scheme. Thankfully Bruce found that he had nothing to worry about as the child, who was named Red Robin, assured him he would never fall for a pyramid scheme he did not create.
Wait…
Before he had too much time to evaluate his words Red Robin began to explain how alternative universes worked. Each and every choice each person made created a split in a timeline or if there were multiple outcomes it would create a branch. If the choices in one of the timelines created a significant amount of difference from the main timeline then it would completely detach itself and become its own universe.
So since he was from an alternative universe it was completely detached from this universe, meaning that if something happened in this world there is no guarantee something like it will ever happen in his world. This is what made universe travel particularly dangerous as for all you know the universe you travel to could be going through an apocalypse situation. This is what Red Robin suspected the villain's end goal was.
At this point Red Robin began chuckling like the villain himself saying something about the villain overlooking things. When he noticed Bruce blankly staring at him he apologized and went back on track. Apparently this universe was known as an ‘Open Universe’ basically meaning that traveling to this universe was significantly easier than most other universes. Like say someone built a device to travel worlds and put random coordinates in, most likely they would appear here. ‘Closed Universes’ were universes so far away from other universes that it was almost impossible to travel back to.
During the explanation Red Robin pulled up a program on the computer introducing it as, EYNTKAU, or Everything You Need to Know About Universes…gez it didn’t even have the word program in the name when it really should. Bruce felt a bit ashamed knowing that no one other than Bruce himself could’ve come up with a worse name.
He had been told time and time again how horrible his naming skills were and even he himself was aware of it. But for the love of God he could not figure out how to decently name an object whatsoever. An object's name should connect back to its main function right? The main brand? So why was it that Alfred seemed so disappointed when he was giving him a tour of HIS Batcave?
“Yeah….” Red Robin drawled, interrupting his deep thoughts about betrayal and names, “It’s bad isn’t it?” He asked, smiling at him apologetically.
Bruce nodded, it certainly was...something.
“Honestly, I'd rather be killed again than have to use a stupid name like that,” Bruce winced, wondering if that was how Alfred felt. Wait, again? So basically everyone just uses ‘The Batverse Program’ instead, you know keep it with the branding.What the Program does is motion all digital documentation in that universe. Taking into account the articles and websites posted we usually can accurately predict what’s going on in that universe and see if it’s safe. Unfortunately the resources HAVE to be digital or else we can’t get our hands on information without going there.” Red Robin explained.
Bruce carefully looked over the program, “Is there a way to transfer this to my Batcomputer?” He inquired.
Red Robin paused, looking a bit surprised by the question but quickly relaxed, “Yea there is but usually the Batmans just try to build the program on their own.”
"Why work harder when you can work smarter." Bruce huffed.
"Ha! Batman says that exact same thing- well my Batman. I guess it's a popular old people saying." Red Robin thought aloud.
"I'm really not that old." Bruce defended.
"Sureeee you Batmen were born in the 1900's anyone born then are old."
Was being born in the 1900’s considered old now? "I'm only in my 20's…"
"Twenty’s, really?!” He exclaimed, “What did you just start out as Batman or something?"
Bruce wasn't one to feel ashamed but the way he worded it just made him break eye contact.
"Wait- are you actually just starting out?"
Bruce nodded, still looking away.
"Oh, oh gosh," Red Robin seemed to by looking at him more closely now. "I haven't meet such a young Batman- I mean I've met a young baby Bruce but not Batman. Wait-" Red Robin said, catching his mistake, "You are Bruce right?" Bruce nodded. "Thank goodness I thought I just revealed my Batman's identity."
"Are there other Batman that aren't Bruce?" Bruce asked, this caught him off guard because he thought every Batman was a Bruce. What other reason would someone have to go by Batman after all? I mean, he guessed that if there were alternate universes there would probably be infinite versions of each universe.
"Well ya, not in every universe you're Batman. There's infinite universes out there, there can't really be infinite possibilities if you HAVE to be Batman in all of them." Red Robin said, confirming his thoughts.
Red Robin sighed, "Anyways we should get you back now. It takes an hour to start up the teleporter so you will probably be here for a bit. Could you tell me about your world?" While Bruce was still slightly suspicious he went along with Red Robin's words, most of the things he was told seemed pretty legit.
Bruce ended up getting sent back home, better yet right into his batcave, where Red Robin installed "The Batverse program" into his computer (purposely naming it The Batverse Program so he wouldn't use the name EYNTKAU). Red Robin was clearly a bit weirded out by his batcave but he didn't vocalize any of his thoughts.
By this point in time the whole situation had blown over weeks ago, he had caught the criminal and sent him to jail. With how bizarre the encounter was though the only thing that kept him from thinking it was a dream was the program installed on his computer.
Bruce had looked into the world that the other Batman had resided in when he got back and was surprised to find that they had inputted information about themselves in one of the menus.
They had named their universe ‘Homebase’ which alluded to their ‘Open Universe’ status. When he looked into it he was surprised to find that Batman had himself a whole team under this project, Red Robin was one of main overseers, apparently his real name was Timothy Drake-Wayne. When he looked into it he found that he was serving as the other Bruce's adopted child or "Ward". But the children didn’t stop at Tim, no, apparently most of Batman’s team was made of his children. The rest were named Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, and Damian Wayne.
Intrigued, Bruce looked into more worlds and found that most Bruces actually did adopt children. Which Bruce guessed was the reasoning behind the “You don’t?” comment from earlier when he questioned him about the children.
Usually the “Families” consisted of most of the same repeating children with some outliers here and there. These children were, a Dick Grayson, a Jason Todd, a Tim Drake, a Damian Wayne (or Al ghul considering which universe it was) and occasionally a Cassandra Cain, a Stephine Brown, and a Duke Thomas. Even Barabra Gordon was considered family even though in almost every universe she still had her father who loved her. However taking care of so many kids took its toll in some universes.
Bruce was usually a single parent and this usually ended up with him accidentally hurting or neglecting the children especially when he got them into vigilant-ism. But even in some universes where he wasn’t Batman that didn’t guarantee him as a good Father since in those universes he became more obsessed with his company and work.
Without fully knowing any of the children Bruce felt saddened for them. Every single one of them deserved a good childhood and caring parent just like he had been given.
And without fully realizing it Bruce became attached to his non-existent family. One thing led to another and he started looking into his universe for the possible versions of his kids. It was selfish he knew that, he already had Alfred and he should’ve been enough but he already had so much he could at least share it with these kids. Just like how Alfred had done with him.
Getting into his universe's government records was fairly easy especially after doing it with the other universes. He searched for the names of the other world’s children in the records however he quickly realized none of them were in there.
Then he remembered that not everyone in Gotham was officially documented in the official records. With the great amount of homeless and unsafe areas not everyone went to the hospital to give birth or to pick up a certificate. It became such an issue that jobs in Gotham completely stopped asking for any form of ID when hiring and just did a background check in their own ways (which wasn’t always completely legal). Since everyone who was born in Gotham remained so extremely poor they rarely ever moved out so they never faced the consequences of not being officially documented.
So after going through the records he decided to go through security cameras, social media posts, news articles, basically anything you could think of that could show that you exist. He still found nothing, he ended up even looking into the parents; some had never gotten together (like Tim’s parents) while others just never had children (like Dick’s parents, who also never ended up going to Gotham…or maybe they just haven’t gone yet). No matter what he did, he couldn’t find anything.
Devastated Bruce moped in his bed for a full week putting work and Batman on hold. After all, how could he protect their families when he couldn’t even have his own.
As the crime rate steadily rose it didn't take long for Alfred barge into his room unannounced.
“Master Bruce, what in the world are you doing?” Alfred asked, setting the tray of food on the bedside table. Bruce tugged the sheets over his face avoiding Alfred’s gaze knowing full well it was disapproving.
“Master Bruce, you know that I never approved of this venture of yours however you have labeled yourself with the responsibility of protecting these people. You have given them something fragile, hope. Right now people are out there dying calling upon you to save them while you rather wallow in sadness because one thing did not go your way.” And with that Alfred left.
Bruce groaned rolling around his bed knowing what Alfred had said was true. He was being immature, having a tantrum in his big fluffy bed while people were dying in the slums.
Alfred always knew the right thing to say even if it was blunt and sharp. Bruce had always been extremely dense anyway so it benefited him greatly by having someone like Alfred by his side.
Bruce also knew that his dense-ness was one of the leading reasons he and his kids drifted apart. While Bruce certainly felt bad he knew it was the contribution of his wealthy upbringing and a philosophy he himself had considered. Shutting down your emotions and blocking out the emotional world around you, helps you think logically and come up with concrete solutions. This thought process was heavily used in the scientific field however it wasn’t the best when trying to build relationships. And after seeing the results of what it could do to his kids this Bruce is determined to not turn out like the others.