Disclaimer: I do not own Batman Beyond or JLU; they belong to their respective writers, producers, and so forth. This is simply for fun and not for profit.

Summary: Terry just wanted to get home to his Gotham, not some past one, not some weird alternate dimension one, just home. Who knew time travel and the journey home could be so...troublesome.

A/N: So this one is short and a little weird. Oh well.

Chapter 5: A Twisted Turn of Events pt 2

Terry raised himself over the parallel bars with his legs out in a straddle. Slowly, he pressed his legs together as he raised himself into a handstand—the bars wobbled. He breathed in and out carefully as his muscles strained. His legs were pointed straight up and then he carefully shifted his weight over to his left hand. His right arm raised out and—whoa shit! Terry caught himself before his face met the ground.

There was a snort of laughter off to the side; he glared in the direction. Crazy Terri was laughing with her hand cover her mouth. Baby Matt was swaddled and held against her chest with her other arm. Terry convinced Terri to name the baby Matt after the brother she never got to have. He had originally suggested Warren, but she vetoed the option because to her he would never really be her father—he never stopped what her mother was doing to her so…

"You still suck hero-boy," she commented before holding out Matt. Terry took the infant as he rolled his eyes. Terri then proceeded to show off on the parallel bars.

"Yeah well, I'm not a girl," he justified himself.

"Meaning you're not aerodynamic?" she retorted as she contorted her body over the bars.

"Meaning I'm not as flexible," he defended.

"No, what it means is your core strength is still abysmal, kid." A new voice entered the conversation and Terry groaned while Terri cackled. The older man who spoke was the infamous Grayson. He had graying hair and missing eye he covered with an eye-patch. While Terri had made the man out to be worse than Bruce, he really wasn't. Bruce…Terry still felt conflicted.

"Did you get that hero-boy, you're weaker than a girl version of you," Terri teased before she hopped off the bars with a flourish. Mentally, Terry retorted that he hadn't been a trained killer, so that accounted for their differing abilities, but they all were trying to move past that. Bruce hadn't been able to.

It was amazing Grayson still accepted Terri even though he knew everything (Terry made her), but then, the man did have hundreds of killer clones, so he had been more sympathetic than Bruce. Hell, thanks to Terri's inside knowledge, they had been able to dismantle the cloning facility and uh…well, the government was eager for the clones even if they were unstable. Apparently there was a whole contingent of Grayson clones doing suicidal rescue missions in the most war torn countries. The survival rate wasn't the best, but it had been a solution to multiple problems.

"Love you too, Crazy Bitch," Terry said with a sigh as he bounced baby Matt. The baby cooed a little. Terri snorted and moved over to take her son back.

Grayson rolled his eye. "If you two are done with your squabble, we have one last case before you go," he said to Terry.

"Mayor got electrocuted in Arkam Asylum," Terri stated in boredom as she bounced Matt. "I'm saying the son is at fault."

"Why?" Grayson asked while Terry pinched the bridge of his nose. She always accused the family.

"Did you see the kid at the press conference, he's totally like me and Doug," Terri stated as she poked Matt's nose. The baby tried to grab her finger and she pulled back again.

"Meaning a sociopath or a psychopath because you are one and Doug was the other," Terry drawled. She had an almost preternatural gift of telling when people were lying or hiding their ugly sides. He figured it was because she grew up with two-faced people her whole life and had to lie constantly just to survive.

Terri just gave that slow creepy smile she always gave him when they talked about her…quirks. "Maybe," she sing-sang, like one of those creepy kids in a horror movie.

Grayson made an annoyed noise at the back of his throat. "Any substantive proof?" he asked testily.

"I hacked his file at Arkam. Daddy's been sending him to counseling and made the whole new wing just for his baby boy," cooed while teasing Matt, who was giggling. The sad thing is she wasn't trying to baby talk to Matt, she was just doing that annoying voice because she knew it made Terry and Grayson uncomfortable.

"Can't you stay a little longer?" Grayson leaned over and asked Terry.

"I need to get back to my Gotham, plus she's been making progress, the next step is placing trust in her again," Terry replied, knowing full well Terri could hear them.

"Aren't I just the best patient," she chirped as she looked up at them with an innocent look.

"Yep Crazy, you are," Terri replied while giving her a one-armed hug and kissing her forehead. She was still bat-shit insane, but she was making strides—the baby actually helped. Terri ducked her head slightly and rested it against his shoulder in a rare moment of affection before she moved away from Terry.

"Of course hero-boy. So, do you want to follow through with my suspicions?" she asked in a saccharine tone.

"Yes ma'am," he replied with a mock salute, and she stuck her tongue out at him. He did the same in return before running off to get ready for what might be a long day.

Terry followed the Mayor's son while camouflaged for the remainder of the day. The more he saw the young man interact with his family and peers, the more Terry recognized something was off about the guy. Terri was right, as she always was. For the past year, every time he and Grayson were stumped on a case, she'd swoop in with some insane deduction that turned out to be right. In some ways, it was like working with Bruce…

Terry hadn't seen the man since taking down Cadmus, he couldn't stand to see him. Even if this Bruce, wasn't his Bruce, he was still…still…what? Terry still couldn't think of the right term. Father was wrong because Terry and Terri were just faulty clones. Terri was too insane, and Terry was not good enough. He would never be good enough. It was something Terry and Grayson had bonded over in the last year: not being able to fill the mantel like Bruce could.

Hell, Bruce had tried to take the suit away from them after Cadmus, but they had fought it. When he disabled the suit, Terri had pulled a mad-scientist move and somehow unlocked it—seriously she was terrifying. In the end, as long as no one died and Batman held up justice, Bruce would let them be and they would let him be. Part of Terry figured he was disgusted by them, ashamed by his own clones. So the two of them had Grayson. They lived in the man's loft, used his gym, and got missions from him.

The three of them had made a dysfunctional little family in this dimension, and now Terry needed to leave so Terri could take over again. The dimensional hopper had been ready for some time now, but Terry hadn't wanted to leave crazy-him yet. She really was like that annoying, sociopathic little sister he never had. Even if she mocked him constantly, he knew she felt the same—uh, that he was her big brother, that is.

Terry paused in his ruminations. What the hell was the Mayor's son doing? Oh slag no! Terry swooped down from his perch just as the young man slid a yellow helmet on his head. Terry quickly punched him in the head but then the guy sent a wave of electricity at him. Terry's body seized up within the suit. Then the suit was locking down was the guy kept wailing into him. His last mission and he already messed up the number one rule; he underestimated the suspect. Slag.

The mayor's son fled after that but not before letting loose Arkam's inmates. Terry quickly did his best minimize the collateral damage. Still, Spellbinder, Inque, and Ghoul made it out. Slow-pulse his life!

When Terry dropped down into Grayson's loft, Terri was looking at him while nursing Matt. She had that annoying smirk on her face that said she knew he messed up. "Don't say it," he growled as he moved over to Grayson's computer display. The man was already pulling up what they had on the escapees.

"Say what, hero-boy?" she asked as she moved to stand behind them while still nursing. "That you f***ed up?" Terry's eye twitched. "Is the boy a meta?"

"Yes," he mumbled. "But how? That wasn't in his reports!"

"Uh, it kinda was," she replied sarcastically.

Grayson now looked over at her with Terry skeptically; Terri shrugged. "Loony Bin doc was making a special cell for him," she explained. "Didn't you read that in the file?"

Terry groaned dropped his head forward. Grayson sighed, "So we talk to the doctor and see if we can get that cell up and running."

"So what kinda meta is he?" Terri asked as she flopped down on Grayson's couch. She was now burping Matt.

"Something with electricity, but I don't understand how…" Terry trailed off as it hit him. "F***ing Ghoul and the Joker's toxin. He had hit the mayor's son a while back with a modified formula, remember?" Terry was so exasperated. Could his last job have been an easy one?! Was that so hard to ask?

"Right, and it had awakened metagenes in half the people he had exposed to it, but the psychoses brought on by the toxin…" Grayson trailed off and rubbed his face. "Why didn't we think of it before? And Ghoul made it out, didn't he?"

Terry nodded slowly. This was going to suck.

Terri sighed and stood up while shaking her head. "You two can lament about being dumbasses later," she stated while bouncing Matt slightly and fixing her shirt. "Right now, mayor's little boy seems to what Batman bad. So does this bitch have to handle your mess, or are you gonna man up and take care of it, hero-boy?"

Terry glanced over at the news channel playing out "Rewire's" ultimatum. "What kind of example am I setting Mattie if I can't follow through on a job?" Terry replied with bravado just to annoy Terri. Then he leaned over Matt and coed, "Uncle T's gonna take care of it."

Terri rolled her eyes and called him a dork. He rolled his eyes back, but then pulled his cowl back on and left the loft. A few minutes later, over the coms, came Terri's voice. "I'm having Grayson go on standby in case you get your ass handed to you,"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," he replied sarcastically.

"Always hero-boy."

Terry scoffed slightly but couldn't help but smile. His last mission in this dimension and part of him couldn't have asked for it to be any different: bat-shit insane Terri in one ear, and Grayson ready to help him in the field.

TBC

A/N: I like to think the only way someone can be as good of a detective as Bruce, is if they are insane. Why else haven't any of his protégés been good enough? Thus Crazy!Terri can deduce as well as Bruce, she just needs a handler to keep her from going off the rails.