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.