A/N:

well, hi. There are a few spoilers in here for 'Batman and Robin #38' and then I changed a couple timelines around because creative liberty, so hopefull in further chapters it'll get a bit clearer. This is just a clear my head fic while I'm working on a couple others, i literally cannot chill, im working on three large stories right now. i've just finished high school with no real future prospects so well, this is how I cope, ce la vista.

Jason couldn't feel his face. It was real bad considering his helmet was smashed to glaciers beneath his gloves. He checked his nose, and yep, blood trickled from a blistering gash over his nose. He couldn't remember what he'd done to deserve it.

Had been exceptionally an ass to someone? Had he popped a few too many in the scum of the earth's heads? He really couldn't recall. It didn't feel like a Batman break.

But he did recall something, and it wasn't making much sense.

It had to do with this stone and the fate of world hanging in the balance, again. You'd think villains would get off on something else once in a while, just to spruce up the sex life.

He felt a palm on his shoulder and Jason kicked out, flipping into a crouch when it missed, fist at the pointless ready. He exhaled, "Warn a guy, Cass." His sister – and he used the term extremely loosely without the technical babble and company – stepped back, a deep gash running through the bicep of her Black Bat suit.

"You should get that checked," Jason pointed out.

Cass noticed it, dismissed it and carried the fuck on. She nudged the body next to him, and Jason noted nearly the whole clan was here to experience the fuck up. Definitely a bonding experience, Alfred would be so proud.

He unlatched the helmet, rubbing at the bruise forming on his neck with a grimace. Timbre grunted, leveling up onto his side and blinked groggily at Jason. He waved a mocking salute, "Fancy seeing you here."

Timmy did the whole checking the area before rocking upwards, his cape a little burnt off. "Where are we?" he checked a gash on his eyebrow.

"No fucking clue," Jason shrugged.

His little brother grunted at his lack of answers, always needing to know everything right off the bat. Jason liked the twist and turns, especially when he had a hand on all of them. So he beamed like it was the fucking holidays, clambering onto his feet.

Jason stretched, yanking Timmy to his feet when, "I'm fine, Cain." Well, little demon brat had woken up all on his lonesome, and sounded almost pleasant while doing it.

"Knew you had a soft spot for Cassie," Jason grinned. He knew it would aggravate the tiniest demon, fists stuffed inside his pockets while Timmy surveyed their surroundings.

It was a high ceiling cave of some kind, man-made and legit barren, there wasn't much to look at. Once the gang were all on their feet, they'd head out and be separated until the next crisis. Jason liked it.

Demon brat, garbed in the Robin attire with the fucking forest boots and the permanent smirk, mentioned. "Cain is, at least, worthy of Father's name which is not something I can say for the likes of you."

"Really," Tim deadpanned, "You haven't mentioned it."

Poor Timbre's, so young and with so little hope to not expend energy, like a grouchy old man. He was correct about demon brat but still, Jason liked pointing it out.

Damian scrunched up his nose, like he didn't understand sarcasm, which was priceless and maybe the tiniest bit precious. "You got a gash right here," Jason pointed at his own chin, and Damian rubbed at the cut in irritation.

Cassie grabbed Stephanie's arm, tugging her to her very sore feet. "This sucks, why does this suck?" Stephanie groaned. She had a cut running through her knee, and she scratched it absently.

"That's life," Jason preached.

Stephanie didn't approve of his message, shaking out the pain in her limbs and appraised the empty room they'd found themselves in, utterly unimpressed.

Tim poked his neck and Jason shoved him off, "We've all got a cut. Double edged blade, slim, probably a five to ten inch dagger." Timmy made it difficult to be around him when he went all Batman on him.

"You find that out yourself, Drake?" Demon Brat muttered.

Cassie halted the fight with a step forward, "You remember?"

"End of the world shtick," Stephanie checked. Yeah, Jason didn't like it too much either. Stephanie crossed her arms, shimming right up to Damian. "What about you munchkin, remember any creepy dudes blabbering about stones?"

Cassie nodded; mask concealing all the little nuances Jason slaved to catch. Demon brat's tiny old man nose scrunched, "I recall. He said our entire universe is at stake, it's not something I'll forget."

"Kid, can it with sarcasm, we're all opening these cans of worms and none of us want to eat it," Jason informed.

Stephanie blinked, "That was like surprisingly eloquent." Cassie exhaled from behind her thick mask, pinching Stephanie's elbow in retribution. She rubbed at the offended appendage and Cassie tilted her head, Stephanie somehow reading that and exhaled with a short nod.

Now that that is all done, Jason breached a grin. "Always happy to surprise," he charmed.

"Did he tell you where the stone was hidden?" Timmy jumped right back in, already taking out his glove computer and fiddling with it. He searched databases, throwing up newspapers and GPS coordinates.

Stephanie grumbled, "It's always got to be hidden."

Timbre shot ramrod, quickly skimping through the cavern despite protests, "Timmy!" Stephanie groaned, followed by Damian's growled, "Drake."

"Hurry up," Tim shot back, practically bolting for the exit. So Jason swiveled on his heel, patted his guns and magazines, and followed Tim's poor life choices to watch the show down.

Jason clambered the stairs and hit the rooftop, wind hissing at their disturbing forms and Timmy stood rigid at the twinkling skyline. It was Gotham; Jason would recognize his city burnt to a crisp and blacked out, a little further away than usual was nothing.

He even caught a whiff of polluted sea water carrying out from over the bridge, "You're freaking me out, Timbre." Gotham looked like Gotham, a fucking mess of permanent ominous clouds at shallow lights.

"Look closely," Timmy insisted. His fists were clenched and Jason stuffed his fists under his armpits, he wasn't getting frostbite for Timmy's inability to just tell him what had him in a ditz.

Damian and the girls finally caught up and switched to the view, "We're staring at Gotham, okay," Stephanie muttered.

Realization didn't creep up to Jason, it was just sort of there. He'd thought it was the angle, but Jason knew Gotham, because he'd lived those streets. That apartment complex had gone done a few months back, and that tower needed a dozen more layers, and that tower would lose a couple layers off the top thanks to a visit from Superman.

Gotham was perfect, untouched by the years that he hadn't seen the glaring fault.

"Timmy what's the year?" he didn't want to ask. But Jason could write a book on the amount of shit he did that he didn't want to do.

Tim swallowed and raised a brow, "According to Google? September, 2011."

Jason slapped his headache before it appeared, groaning into his other hand when Stephanie yanked Tim's glove computer to read it herself and Cassandra took a step towards the edge of the roof. She didn't get far due to Damian's clutching her sleeve, in a rather frozen figure.

Could they just not do this? "Timbre where's the stone?" Please don't say in the heart of Gotham, or the goddamn Bat Cave. Jason would step on a crack, get in over his head and then mini-him die unexpectedly crossing the road.

"It's not in Gotham," Tim assured.

The little demon brat breathed an almost hidden sigh of relief, rounding closer for information. "You're doing the 'bad news' pause, why are you doing the 'bad news' pause?" Stephanie questioned, growing more startled by the minute.

Tim got this close to pouting, "I don't have a 'bad news' pause."

"Timbre, you got a bunch of tells and you stalling is just another," Jason pointed out.

His little brother's eyebrow arched the way holding back all their examinations to finally shrug, "It's in Metropolis." Timmy liked watching them squirm, the absolute bastard.

"You're going to tell us this stone is in the Daily Planet next," Stephanie laughed anxiously. Thankfully, Jason's got to live another day when Tim grimaced with a shake of his head.

Little Bro scratched at his jawline, "The United States Government found the shards years ago. They've only just begun experimenting on one in Metropolis in a facility on the outskirts."

"They won't prove much of an obstacle," Damian mentioned. It might even be counting as assisting gang moral here, which might be hitting rock bottom.

The information was ringing a little familiar, and Jason realized what that odd rock top hat guy wanted them to liberate was. "It's a chaos shard," he said. This was actually really bad; they couldn't give the guy that.

Damian fingers flickered up to pressed at his sternum where Bruce had shoved one of those bad boys inside his chest and life had been returned to him. "You mean the rock that brought…" Stephanie trailed off with a glance at Damian's scowl. "Oh, we can't give that creep that."

"Exactly," Tim-Boo mentioned, "But without it, we might not have a way back home."

Jason shifted, brushing Cassie's elbow and thankfully not been reacquainted with the ceiling and then abruptly the floorboards. He'd had a splitting headache for the rest of that day and all for poking her shoulder while she was lost in thought.

It didn't happen often, but with Bruce out of the picture, Jason knew she wasn't feeling too good about the absence.

Stephanie shivered, "Creepy dude didn't need the literal chaos shard to stuff us here to steal it for him." Her blond hair whipped from beneath her Batgirl cowl, "We even certain we're all really here?"

"I would've sensed an illusion, Brown," Damian grumbled. But he looked a little shifty, worried that all his bases hadn't been cleared. He couldn't be older than ten and he had an ego almost as large as Bruce's.

Cassie nodded, "Not illusion. It's all real."

And if Cassie called it true, the world damn well would be true.

"Since when do we give the bad guy what they want?" Stephanie asked.

As the resident bad guy Jason knew they might not have much a choice. Didn't mean they had to give the fucker everything though, "How we getting back then? I don't know about you but I'm not walking around while mini-me steals tires back there."

"He brought us here, so he can take us back," Cassie figured. Jason shrugged, that was his two cents.

He didn't trust anyone proficient in time travel enough to bring them into the loop, and those closing in with connections hadn't donned a cape yet in fucking 2011. Tim opened a calculations pocket on his computer, "Maybe I could send a distress signal through the time stream."

Damian scoffed, "Even if that was to succeed you'd be painting a target on our backs and I don't plan on deceasing here." Demon brat just never cooled it, which Jason got five thousand percent, he was all for the rebellious phase. But why at Timmy, he was most well-adjusted and productive of the lot of them.

Tim partially glared at the kid, "I don't hear you volunteering any alternative," the other part was all exasperation.

"We could just get the shard," Jason shrugged. "Keep a hold of it until he takes us back."

"Because that plan, always works exceptionally well," Damian hissed.

Stephanie squeezed Damian's shoulder, despite him moving out of her reach. "You got another plan, yeah I didn't think so. We've survived up till now on half-baked plans, we'll get through this one."

That didn't sound particularly ill-boding, without a struggle they'd find themselves locked up and waiting for the camera's to turn off. Then again, they'd just get out of that one, or at least he would.

A/N:

let's try and get the next chapter for next week, or a few days, i don't know, shouldn't be too long this, just a three shot :)