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“I don’t want to die. I wish I could do it all over again,” Batman said out loud as blood trickled down his chin. He could hear his children getting closer, but he knew that they would never make it in time. The piece of rebar had pierced his chest, and he knew his time was running out. He could feel his lungs filling with blood instead of air.
So, you have wished it, so shall it…
TIME OUT
Batman looked around and found that that time had come to a standstill. In that way that only magic users were capable of. He was still pinned beneath layers of concrete, metal, glass, and ash. The rebar was still sticking out of his chest. But he no longer felt like he was dying. That was the moment he spotted two glowing beings. One of them looked what could only be described as genie or Djinn, if one could describe them as green-skinned and glowing, but definitely something straight out of Scheherazade’s tales. The other being was dressed in a purple cloak, with a white goatee and a jagged scar over their left eye, and a grandfather clock in their chest. The Djinn was glaring at the Clock figure with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Peace, Knight of Gotham. We offer you two choices,” the Clock being said, their words had an echo-y, static-y layer to them. “Desiree could make your ‘wish’ come true. However, that would mean that you would quite literally have to repeat everything up to this point.”
The Djinn, now named Desiree, huffed and glared at the Clock figure. They turned to her. “Do you deny my words?”
“No, Clockwork,” Desiree said through gritted teeth.
Batman wondered if these beings could grit their teeth.
“What’s the other option?” Batman asked through bloodstained teeth.
The Clock figure, Clockwork, sent him a shark-tooth grin. “I have domain over time. I will quite literally reverse time for you. I will send you back in time to the point where you met your first child.”
Batman thought about it for a moment before he asked, “What’s the catch?”
“There is one event that cannot change, and the first condition. The first condition is the fall of the Flying Graysons.” Batman attempted to suck in a breath. Clockwork could see the question in his eyes. “It is their fall that sent you your first Robin. There must be Batman and Robin, but Robin cannot happen without Mary and John’s death. Robin must come to you because he wishes to seek out his family’s killer.”
Batman hated it but understood. When he first became Batman, he swore he would never take a partner. Then, he’d watched the Graysons fall and had seen himself in little Richard Grayson. Then, he’d done everything he could to keep the boy from getting himself killed. Batman could admit, now that he was on the brink of death, that he was better for having Robin. All of them. Jason. Tim. Steph. Damian. Cass, even though she had never been Robin. Barbara with her being first Batgirl then Oracle. And of course, his Dickiebird. His first Robin with the creepy laughter as he roundhouse kicked the goons, rogues, and villains of Gotham who later became Nightwing. Batman nodded.
“The other condition is that you must agree to take in the Ghost King,” Clockwork stated.
Batman wanted to protest. He knew the cost of getting involved with magical beings. He was already taking a risk by even talking to Clockwork and Desiree. Constantine was probably going to kick his ass from here till the second Tuesday of next week. He would never live it down. But dealing with the Ghost King. Batman didn’t like the sound of that.
“The Ghost King is not who you think,” Clockwork interjected before Batman could spiral any further.
They tapped their staff, and a mirror-like window/portal/screen opened above Batman’s face. He watched as a young man, a child really, stepped inside a machine. Batman tensed because he knew that the child should NOT have been there. He watched as the young man died as electricity coursed through him, and then the child came back to life as a toxic, neon green substance shot through him at the same time.
“It is not Lazarus Water as you are thinking, but something similar called ectoplasm. Now watch,” Clockwork instructed before Batman could say what he was thinking out loud. Batman clacked his jaw shut.
He watched as black hair became strikingly white. Blue eyes became green. The white suit with black gloves and boots changed to a black suit with white gloves and boots. Then, he watched as if it were some sort of 80s movie training montage. Scenes flickered to life of the boy fighting and beating different rogues while also running from his own parents and eventually what appeared to be a government agency and his dad’s best friend who could change forms just like the boy.
But what caught Batman’s attention the most was when the vampire-like ghost, his dad’s best friend, released the Ghost King, one Pariah Dark. Batman was horrified as he watched the child nearly kill himself, AGAIN, in the fight against the Ghost King. But that fight earned the boy the title of the Ghost King by right of conquest.
The most heartbreaking thing to watch was when the boy’s parents captured him. The boy had become careless when he shifted forms in his bedroom, and his parents saw the whole thing. Batman couldn’t watch as the parents performed unspeakable acts upon the boy. There was a flash of light, and all that remained of the boy was a greenish blue orb the size of a grapefruit.
Before either of the boy’s parents could touch it, Clockwork appeared on the screen and gathered the orb carefully in their hands. Clockwork was crying softy, saying that their hands were tied by “those damnable Observants” and “they would find a way to save him”. Batman knew then that his mind was made up.
“How do I save him?” Batman asked.
He was presented with another shark-toothed grin. The Djinn disappeared in a snarl of rage, knowing that Batman had chosen Clockwork’s plan. “Talia al Ghul made many clones of your son, Damian, did she not?” Batman nodded. “She did not send all of them. When you leave for Nanda Parbat to rescue Damian, perhaps you can steal one of the clones. Press Daniel’s core into the clone’s body. Biologically, the boy will be your son, but no longer a clone. The core will make sure of that.” Batman nodded again to indicate that he understood.
“Do we have a deal, Bruce Thomas Wayne? Your life for the life of the Ghost King?”
Batman couldn’t extend his hand, pinned since it was underneath the giant slab of cement, but he could speak his understanding. And in the world of magic and ancient deals, a verbal agreement was just as binding as a handshake or a written contract. “We have a deal,” he whispered through blood-soaked teeth and a tear-stained cheeks.
Batman blinked, and he was no longer Batman. He was Bruce Wayne standing outside the tent for Haly’s Circus. He swallowed back the bile he could feel rising. He took the same seat he had the first time he’d entered this tent. He watched with hollow eyes as the circus performed mystifying feats. And his heart lurched painfully in his chest as the Grayson family climbed the fateful trapeze. And with his coffee and lunch trying to make a reappearance, he watched as Mary and John fell and their son, Richard, screaming from the platform for his parents.
In the coming weeks, he was approved for his foster license, and Richard “Dick” John Grayson took his first steps, AGAIN, inside Wayne Manor. But this time, Bruce was determined to do things right. He knew where he had messed up. He sought out and thoroughly vetted Dinah Lance, who would become Black Canary, as he worked to build the Justice League.
Dick became Robin, but Bruce and Dick went to therapy with Dinah. And unlike the first time around, about a year after Dick stepped foot in Wayne Manor, Bruce had approached him about formally adopting him. Dick had been ecstatic. Roughly three years after Dick’s adoption, Bruce sought out Dick where he was working in his personalized gymnastic room. Bruce watched as Dick Grayson-Wayne tumbled and practically floated through the room before Bruce approached him.
“Hey, Dickiebird. Can I talk to you?” He called softly, not wanting to startle his son.
“Oh, hey, B. What’s up?” Dick chirped. Bruce smiled. It was such a difference from the first time Dick had entered the Manor, all angst and anger balled up in a tiny, rage-filled, eight-year-old.
“Do you ever think about having any siblings?” Bruce asked as he sat down on one of the benches in the room.
Dick looked at him like he’d grown two heads. “Uh, B, how can I have siblings when you’re not seeing anyone? I’m not stupid. I know where babies come from,” Dick snarked, like the sassy little shit he was.
This startled a chuckle out of Bruce. “Not…not like that, chum. I meant for me to adopt another kid.”
“Oh. Hmm, maybe. Is there anyone who comes to mind?” Dick asked with bright eyes. He’d always wanted a large family.
“There’s a boy. When we go out at night, I’ve been keeping tabs on a boy in Crime Alley. His name is Jason,” Bruce explained as Dick snuggled into his side when Bruce opened his arms.
“What’s he look like?” Dick asked curiously, eyes sparkling as he looked up at Bruce.
“Well, he’s kind of small because he doesn’t have a good home life. He has black hair and blue eyes,” Bruce recited from memory, trying to remember exactly what Jason had looked like the first time he had walked through the doors of Wayne Manor.
“How old is he?”
“Hmm, right now, I think he’s about seven.”
Dick narrowed his eyes at Bruce. “He won’t try to take Robin away, will he?” He said with a pout.
Bruce had long ago realized his mistake and vowed to attempt at not repeating them. “No, he won’t take Robin away from you. Now, one day in the future if you feel like you’ve outgrown Robin and want to give it to him, that’s another story. I don’t really even want him to join the nightlife.”
“I’m NEVER giving up Robin,” the twelve-year-old stated proudly.
“Sure, chum,” Bruce agreed in that way that parents who knew better than their children did.
A few days later, a very angry seven-year-old Jason Todd appeared within the halls of Wayne Manor. But unlike before where he’d tried stealing the tires off the Batmobile, this time it had been Robin who had convinced him to come back to the Manor. A new routine was formed, and six months later Jason Peter Todd-Wayne was announced to the world.
At the age of fifteen, Dick left to form the Teen Titans. Jason would ask if he could have Robin, and Bruce would firmly tell him no. But Bruce would still train him and would occasionally allow him to look at hero-suit designs. When Dick returned from California a year later, he announced that he was too old for Robin and wanted Jason to have it. Jason whooped for joy. Bruce knew it was time to have another talk with his boys. Bruce, knowingly, didn’t say anything about Dick’s name change when Dick announced he was going to become Nightwing.
“Dick, Jason, can we talk?” Both boys looked up at Bruce from where they were hunched over their tablets planning Jason’s Robin costume. Jason wanted to wear shorts instead of the scaly panties.
“Oh no, B. The last time you had that look on your face, we brought Jason into the house. Who is it this time?” Dick nearly shouted with his hands on his hips.
Bruce smiled. “Timothy Drake, our next-door neighbor. He’s actually been following the three of us out on patrol for a while, taking pictures.” Since Bruce knew from his previous time what Tim had been up to, he knew where to look for his little stalker child.
“Wait. How come I’ve never seen him?” Dick demanded.
“He’s very well hidden. I only know he’s there because I’ve heard the camera shutter a couple of times,” Bruce hedged. Clockwork had warned him not to tell anyone, except Alfred about his time traveling. Bruce was doing his best to keep his word.
“Doesn’t he have parents, though?” Jason asked, not quite wanting someone to take away his spot or Bruce’s love.
“He does, but they leave him home alone for several months of the year. And they’ve already fired Tim’s nanny, so the only people who are at the house are Tim, and the people hired to come take care of the Drake estate regularly,” Bruce patiently explained. “For now, he’ll stay with us when his parents are gone, and we’ll talk to him about letting me become his legal guardian full time.”
Bruce watched as both of his boys talked about it and came to the conclusion he knew they would. That night, as Nightwing, the new Robin, and Batman swung through Gotham, Batman made a point of pointing out where Tim Drake was hiding. Robin swung around and landed silently behind him, while Batman and Nightwing landed with a little noise to alert the kid that they were there. That night saw Tim Drake walking through the door of Wayne Manor for the first time.
When Jason turned fifteen, he started pulling away from his family. Bruce knew it was time. This was one event that Clockwork had told him he could change with impunity. And Bruce would be damned if he let his Jason die and go through all…that…again. Before Jason could sneak off to Ethiopia, he sat Jason down and presented him with all of the evidence that he’d been collecting. Then, he told Jason that if he still wanted to go to Ethiopia, he could go, but only if they went as a family, and only if Jason promised to wear a tracker and comm at all times. Jason cried in his dad’s arms for what seemed like hours.
Batman called in a few favors to ensure Gotham would not be without protection as its vigilantes flew across the world to give Jason the closure he needed. Jason, in the Robin outfit, sat stiffly on the Batplane; Nightwing in the copilot seat while Batman was in the pilot’s seat. Tim’s voice filtered to them over the comms. Tim gave them precise directions to the food bank where Shelia Haywood was supposedly working and found an area that was hidden enough for the Batplane to land. This time, however, Batman was prepared for the Joker’s antics.
The two boys stuck together and went to find Jason’s bio-mom, while Batman lurked in the shadows chasing a deranged clown. Clockwork had demanded that the Clown be turned over to the Infinite Realms as part of their deal. Batman had asked the Clock being if that would kill the Joker, but the Clock being had simply replied that the Joker would be dealt with due to his crimes against the Balance. Batman thought he could deal with that. One life for the cost of many, and for having failed Jason the first time.
When the three of them reunited, Jason had red-rimmed eyes. Dick softly admitted that he’d confronted his mother and point blank asked her if she was working with the Joker. At first, she tried to deny it, but when Jason pulled out the evidence that Bruce had compiled, Shelia confessed. Jason had slapped the woman before walking away.
Tim was about to guide the Batplane back towards America when Batman realized that since they were already on the right side of the world, they might as well go on a side quest to retrieve Damian. Batman set the course for Nanda Parbat. He ordered his boys back into their costumes. They looked at him in confusion. Bruce pulled the cowl of his uniform back and looked at Jason and Dick in the eyes. He pulled up the screen so that he could see Tim, even if Tim wasn’t there in person.
“When I was first learning how to become Batman, I spent time with an organization called the League of Assassins. At the time, they called themselves the League of Shadows. I trained under their Head called Ra’s al Ghul and fell in love with his daughter, Talia. But eventually, I learned what they really called themselves and that Ra’s calls himself the Demon’s Head. It was then that I realized that their beliefs and mine don’t mix, and I left. I thought Talia would leave the League with me; she was pregnant with my child. Instead, she lied to me and told me that she miscarried. The League’s brainwashing was too deep in her head. I recently found out that she kept the baby. His name is Damian.”
“So, this is a rescue mission?” Jason asked as he began to pull on his Robin suit. Bruce nodded.
Dick sighed but didn’t argue. He wasn’t about to leave his baby brother in the hands of that nutjob. He never liked Talia when she came around the Manor and always tried to make her life hell whenever she visited. It didn’t really surprise him that she’d manipulated Bruce like that.
It was dark by the time they reached the Himalayan mountains where Nanda Parbat was nestled. Bruce warned Dick and Jason that stealth was of utmost importance. Tim said that he could create a diversion. Bruce wasn’t sure if he wanted to know. Bruce had asked Clockwork about Daniel’s family. Clockwork had replied that “that timeline no longer exists.” Bruce had pressed for answers but Clockwork had simply left him a neon green sticky note that said, “All is as it should be.” Sometimes, Bruce wanted to punch the Clock being.
As the Batplane landed, Bruce pulled his cowl back on. Dick was in his Nightwing uniform, and his escrima sticks were held ready and loose. Jason was in his Robin uniform; his knives slipped into their sheaths in his belt. He’d wanted to bring a couple of guns, but Bruce had once again told them that they needed stealth and quiet, which meant NO GUNS. Bruce led the way by memory on silent feet. Nightwing and Robin blending into the shadows behind him.
They raced along the corridors until they found a training hall lit up solely by the light of the full moon. Batman was surprised to find a young boy alone within the hall. The boy turned to face them as if he heard them coming. Batman stopped in his tracks. He had not been expecting to find Damian unattended and waiting for them. The young boy, who appeared to be about five years of age, stepped forward and greeted them.
“Greetings, Father. I was informed you would be coming today,” Damian said in broken English.
Batman knelt down so as to be on eye level with Damian. “Damian, who informed you that we were coming?” Much to Batman’s surprise, he pulled out one of Clockwork’s sticky notes.
“This note instructed me to appear alone in this training hall. I have sent the Shadows on a wild chase. Mother is in the Pit Chamber with Grandfather.”
“Good. We just have one more thing to do before we leave,” Bruce said standing up. He handed Damian to Dick, though the younger boy protested being carried. He realized that his protests were in vain and huffed at his newfound family.
Batman had an idea of where the cloning labs were and took off at a sprint. The three boys followed after. He kept Nightwing and Damian between them, trusting Robin to protect their backs. The four of them burst into the cloning lab, and Batman heard Damian snarl in fury. He grabbed the child as he launched himself out of Nightwing’s arms.
“WHAT IS THIS?” The boy demanded.
“Talia made multiple clones of you, in case…in case something happened,” Batman explained looking at each of the cloning pods. He avoided the real reasons Talia and Ra’s had had the clones made.
At the moment, all of them were in stasis. Most of them had no brain activity, and were only being kept alive by the machines they were in. Batman read each chart carefully before finding one that did have minimal brain activity and was showing signs of life beyond what the machines provided. It helped that one he chose was close in age to Damian. He took Daniel’s core out of the pouch that he’d had Alfred make for it. He began the process of draining the chosen cloning pod and caught the clon boy’s naked body when the hatch to the pod opened.
“B?” Nightwing questioned, worry and suspicion, lacing his voice.
Batman sighed. He knew that the moment of truth was coming. And soon. “I’ll explain everything once we’re back on the plane.”
“You had better,” Nightwing spat, holding onto Damian to prevent him from interfering with Batman.
Daniel’s core hovered over the chosen body and then sunk into the chest. A bright flash of light, and then the boy was wearing the same hazmat suit that Batman saw him die in. A second flash of light, and then he was naked again. He started sputtering and coughing. Batman snapped off his cape and quickly wrapped it around the boy so that when he regained consciousness, he wouldn’t be embarrassed by his nudity.
“What the fuck, B?” Dick growled.
He didn’t answer; he just picked up the still unconscious kid. He did allow Damian to destroy the lab, and every bit of genetic material he found. He felt bad for the clones for a moment until he remembered how Talia would use them in the future and how one of them would go on to kill Damian. Once Damian was done, he gave the order for them to move out. Then, he remembered there was yet another child to rescue.
“Damian, do you know David Cain?” The boy stiffly nodded. “Where are his living quarters?”
Damian gave directions about how someone would give directions to their enemy. But Batman would NOT leave Cassandra here if it could be helped. And it could be helped. They heard Cain dragging something semi-heavy and throw it against the door. That something thrashed for a moment before going silent. Batman burst through the door with a flashbang. He turned his lenses in his cowl to heat imaging and found the lump that was Cassandra Cain.
She looked up at Batman with terror-filled eyes, but when she realized that it was not her father. She was small for her age; Batman knew that she had come to him when she was about sixteen in his previous lifetime, so he guessed she was about fifteen now. He spoke slowly so she could understand and asked if she wanted to go with him and his sons. Her eyes flicked uncertainly to her father.
“He’ll never touch you again. I swear it,” Batman promised. Cassandra nodded.
They made their way out to the Batplane unchallenged. But the final boss was waiting for them at the hidden plane. Talia was standing in front of the walk-on ramp, a sword in her hand, her lips pursed, and her eyes narrowed in a dangerous glint.
“Beloved. I see you’ve picked up some strays,” she mocked the ragtag group half hidden behind Batman.
“No, I’ve picked up my family. Why did you lie Talia? No, don’t answer that. I know why you lied. Our love was weaker than Ra’s control. But I will be taking my sons and daughter home,” Bruce spat. He wondered what he ever saw in her.
“I was a good mother,” Talia attempted to say.
“No, Talia you weren’t. You aren’t. A good mother doesn’t allow their child to be beaten for the smallest of infractions or imperfections. A good mother doesn't allow their child to go on “survival training trips” that nearly kill said child. A good mother would have brought their child to me as soon as he was born, or better yet, stayed with me in the first place instead of lying and saying that you lost him. A good mother wouldn’t have allowed their child to live in such a horrid place,” Bruce ground out, trying not to raise his voice at the woman he once loved and the mother of his children.
Talia opened her mouth to refute his words then realized she couldn’t. “Take care of him.” She turned and disappeared into the shadows.
What started as a simple closure trip for Jason ended up as three-person rescue trip. Batman took off his cowl once more and indicated that Jason and Dick could take off their masks. Before Bruce could speak, a green sticky note appeared in front of him. Dick snatched it out of the air and read it out loud. “Treat him as your own. All is as it should be.”
“What the fuck, B?” Dick demanded, turning towards his mentor and father. The plane had taken off, remote piloted by Tim and Barbara. Bruce pulled up the camera for the Batcave because he knew there was shit storm brewing and he wanted his child and pseudo-child to hear what he had to say.
Bruce was glad that he had pulled the cowl off so he could run his hands through his hair and sighed. “Right before I met you, Dickiebird, I was dying.” Dick, Tim, Barbara, and Jason started to protest. He held his hand up to silence their words. “Not dying from cancer or anything like that. Dying from a piece of rebar that had pierced my chest. In the future, we became a crime fighting vigilante family. When I was dying, you were all too far away to save me. I made a wish that I could do everything over.”
“You made a wish? That’s like magic 101,” Dick snarked, having sat through hundreds of Constantine’s rants.
“Yeah, I know, chum. I just wasn’t ready to leave you yet. All of you were older, and several things had happened, and I wanted to do…to be better. Two magical beings appeared before me; one of them with the power to stop time so that I was no longer actively dying. I have good reason to believe that they were ghosts or something similar. The Djinn said that she could grant my wish, however everything would repeat itself exactly like it had the first time. The other, whose name was Clockwork said that he could literally reverse time.”
“Time Travel,” Tim said in awe. “But you couldn’t say anything because it would have created a parle…parat…”
“A paradox, Tim. Clockwork said that they had two conditions for them reversing time. I’m not going to tell you what the first one was. But the second was saving the Ghost King. And they showed me how the Ghost King came to be. In my first life, I knew that Talia had created several clones of Damian. Clockwork assured me that if I placed the King’s core inside one of the clones…”
“What’s a ‘core’?” Jason piped up from where he was stationed. He’d been keeping a close eye on the still unconscious kid; the one that Bruce had put the core into.
“From what Clockwork told me, a ghost’s core is their everything. The Ghost King was a very young King, barely a year old, in ghost terms, when some very bad people got a hold of him and tried to kill him. Permanently. Clockwork told me that for a ghost to retreat into their core they would have suffered a great injury. Then, he told me that the King is a rare type of ghost called a Halfa. Halfas have everything that make a human human but they also have a ghost core. And a ghost core is all of the internal organs rolled into one plus their power source and soul,” Bruce explained, hands clenched in a ball in his lap.
“That’s why the clone. I read those charts. Those clones were essentially dead. The only thing keeping them alive was the machines. Placing this ‘core’ into one of the clones, you basically kicked started the clone into being a person, giving them a soul,” Dick said, thinking out loud. Bruce nodded. “I do have one question though. Were we your kids Before?”
“Oh, Dickiebird,” Bruce warbled, his voice cracking as he tried not to cry. He motioned for his kids to gather close to him, and they pressed in from all sides, even Cassandra because she could read his body language. “Before, I tried to be a good dad to all of you, but I made a LOT of mistakes. And sometimes, it felt like I pushed you away. You and me, Dickie, we got into a lot of screaming fights. And when Jason ran away to Ethiopia, I was too late to save him.” A collective gasp ran through the kids. “And Tim, I never knew how neglected he was, and he was right next door. Damian didn’t come into our lives until he was ten. The only new addition is Danny.” Bruce indicated the boy wrapped up in a layer of blankets. They had put him in a set of hospital pajamas when they boarded the Batplane, even though they swallowed him and were too big for him. “He was never in our lives Before.”
“Are we missing any others?” Tim’s small voice came through the comms.
“There are two more, but since the story has changed, I’m not sure if they will still appear,” Bruce said thoughtfully.
Another green sticky note appeared. Dick once again grabbed it out of the air. This one read: They will come.
Bruce smiled fondly at the message. He didn’t tell his gathered children who was missing, but he had an idea of where to find them. He wasn’t quite sure when Duke’s parents had fallen victim to Joker’s Venom, but now that the clown was gone, he had to make sure that Duke had a chance. As for Stephanie, he’d already heard the rumors of Cluemaster trying to start up. Bruce knew right where to go.
“Alright kids. It’s time to go home.”