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At this point, Darcy was starting to get tired of Jane's portals popping up everywhere. Never Jane, of course, just her portals. Still, her best friend was close enough to a breakthrough in her research that it had been nonstop portals in the Tower for three weeks. Darcy had long since learned to be cautious when she walked into a room, because she had no idea if there was going to be some kind of portal spewing out otherworldly creatures inside.There had been alien creatures, people from other parts of the world. Even a few instances of time travel. She just hadn't expected one to suddenly appear in front of her as she was walking down the hall, sending her through it with no warning.8888She was spit out on the other side of the portal, about thirty feet above the ground. Immediately her training kicked in and she tucked her body in tight, falling into a roll before she hit the ground and then rolling to lose momentum before springing back up. Instantly, any tension in her body bled out once she saw where she was at - out of all the places that she could have ended up, the Cave was by far the best option.Especially in her civvies - the last thing that anyone needed was a bunch of headlines about Darcy “Dee” Grayson-Wayne falling through mystery portals.Still, there was a sense of unease in her as she looked around to see all of her siblings armed - and with their weapons pointed at her. "Easy, guys. Try to stay whelmed, yeah?" She joked, and stiffened further when that only got more hostility.“Whelmed?” someone asked, from where they were hidden in the shadows. But they said it in a strange way, as if they had never heard the word before. And while that was an option, that really only happened if Bruce had taken in another child who wasn’t used to the Grayson twins and their made-up words. She hoped that wasn’t the case, though - none of her siblings had warned her that there was a new kid in the family.She was going to be so mad if no one thought to at least give her a heads-up."What are you doing here?" Red Robin asked, sounding altogether too threatening to be her sweet baby brother. Or at least, it was Tim’s voice. But the costume - shades of brown that didn’t go together at all and a frankly awful cowl that looked more like a condom than a functioning method of keeping your identity secret - was like nothing that she had ever seen her brother in. “How did you even get in here in the first place?”Darcy rolled her eyes. “Damnit, Jane.” she muttered under her breath, feeling the first actual twinge of annoyance about everything hit her. She was fine with a quick trip back home, but this was starting to look like time travel to her still fairly disoriented brain. It would also explain why she didn’t know about a new sibling. Without looking away from Tim - because really, the Discowing suit that Dick had worn was tacky, but this was just Bad - she said the required phrase. “Run Robin, run. Run very fast. But not from the future, run from the past." She wasn't sure when she had ended up, but the important thing was to let them know that it was her from either the future or the past.But she just got blank looks in return. "… what." Spoiler said, her full face mask hiding every inch of her identity. If she hadn’t known that Cass’s girlfriend was under there, she wouldn’t have even the slightest clue.Darcy looked them all over carefully - everyone seemed to be fine, and unless they all had amnesia there was no reason why all of the Birds would have forgotten the contingency codes. That didn’t explain Tim’s sudden wardrobe change, though. Still, just to be sure she repeated herself. "Run Robin, run. Run very fast. But not from the future, run from the past. And god, Tim, what’s with the outfit? Jay’s old helmet was bad enough, that cowl is ten times worse.” she couldn’t help but let the subtle dig at Jason’s original helmet out too.They just looked even more confused, but now there was a hint of tension in the air. “My name is Drake.” Tim said, looking at her like she had three heads.She just shot him a look in return. “Yes, Timberly. I know what your last name is. What, did you hit your head on patrol or something?”“He means his codename is Drake.” Steph chimed in, moving a couple of feet closer and still in a defensive position. “How do you know who he is?”That question should have tipped Darcy off that there was more going on here than she knew. But she was more focused on the first thing that Steph had said. “Your vigilante name is the same as your last name? Tim, what the hell? Aren’t you supposed to be the smart one in this family?”He just looked stunned. “You know who I am?”“Obviously.” she scoffed. “Why are you bleeding?” she asked, concerned. Her younger brother had bandages wrapped around his midsection, and they were steadily growing darker with blood.“The demon brat stabbed him.” Steph offered, raising her hands in defense when the rest of the Bats glared in her direction. “What? Whoever she is, she already knows our names, there’s no use in trying to hide anymore.”She whirled around, hands on her hips as she glared at her younger brother. “Damian?” she question, one eyebrow raised in a scary approximation of Alfred. It was enough to have the young boy looking down in guilt, shuffling side to side nervously. “You stabbed Tim?”“Tt. Obviously.”“Why?”“Drake was in the way of my pursuit of a target. The most efficient way to apprehend the target was to go through him, so I did.”Darcy just stared at him in shock. This couldn’t be her Damian - even when they had first brought Damian home from the League of Assassins, he hadn’t been this bad for more than the first month. But they had brought him home at seven years old after Jason remembered hearing about a child there. “You stabbed through your brother to take out a henchman? What the fuck? I thought you two had gotten past this stage years ago.”“Why -”But she cut off Damian before he could get more than a word out. She turned around, looking back in Steph’s direction. “Wait. What did you say?”“Me?” the blonde asked, pointing to herself in surprise. Steph had already taken off her face mask and was in the middle of taking off her hood as well when she froze as soon as Darcy turned her attention back to the younger blonde.“Yes, Steph.” she said, huffing in annoyance and purposefully ignoring how everyone else in the room tensed up even further at the reveal that she knew another one of their names.“I didn’t say anything.” she protested.“Stephanie Heather Brown, you know exactly what I’m talking about.”And then it was Bruce who shocked her next. “Your middle name is Heather?” he asked in surprise, turning to look at Steph. That made her heart drop into her stomach. The Bruce that she knew had detailed files on all of his kids, with information on everything from their blood types to favorite foods and TV shows. Her Bruce - her dad, the man who had taken in a pair of angry circus brats and gave them a place where they could feel safe again - would have never forgotten something as trivial as one of his kids’ middle names.“Why don’t you know that, Bruce? And what do you mean, whoever she is? Like I assumed you didn't know me based on your reactions to my popping in, but I was hoping I was wrong.”"Who are you?" It was Dick - still suited up as Nightwing - that grabbed her attention now, trying to keep all of her attention on him in an effort to protect the younger ones. "Stand down."That was what finally got through to her, and made her realize that something was horribly wrong here. The cave looked the same as it always had - same layout, same souvenirs, same array of vehicles and weapons. Even everyone else looked the same - same costumes and weapons, same battle-ready stances.The only difference was that every single one of them - including her twin - were looking at her as if they were just waiting for her to attack. And it was Dick's reaction more than anything else that convinced her that she wasn't at home anymore.“What?” Darcy was confused. Her family was all here - they all should have understood the codes that she had just told them. But for some reason they were all still looking at her like they had no idea what she had said. And even more worryingly, they were looking at her as if they had no idea who she even was.All of the others in the family had looked at her suspiciously at one point or another - whether they had just joined the family or had been hit in some kind of attack by a Rogue. Even Bruce had looked at his Robins that way once, early on in their career. He had suffered retrograde amnesia after a blow to the head and it had taken him a week to even recognize his own children.But no matter what, Dick had never looked at her like that. Through blows to the head, time travel, magic spells, or even shapeshifters on one memorable occasion; Dick Grayson-Wayne always recognized his twin."Oh." She whispered to herself, realizing that she was in far more trouble than she had originally thought. Not time travel, then - whether to the past or the future. This called for a contingency that they had invented one day on a whim, despite realizing that it was altogether pointless.After all, if one of the Bats had ended up in a different universe, there was little chance that they would have the exact same contingency codes in place.In the time that it had taken her to put the information together, the Bats had started trying to figure things out on their own. "Maybe she hit her head?" Duke offered, studying her while at the same time trying to stay away from her just in case. Someone else answered her, but she didn’t quite hear them as she realized exactly why they were all staying away from her.It was because they all still saw her as a threat.“Where’s Cass?” she asked, starting to scan the rafters. Out of all of her family, her younger sister was by far the most dangerous one. But she was also the only one who could read a person the way that most people would read a book. And in a situation like this, Cass’s vote of confidence could be the only thing that got her out of this without having to fight someone.“Listen -” she started to try to reason with them all, taking a couple of steps closer. That turned out to be her mistake. Damian was the first to strike, with his katana aimed at her throat. She backflipped out of his way, landing on her feet with just a little too much ease. “Let’s all just calm down, okay? Start from the beginning.”But it was too late. The Bats of Gotham descended.She had never fought her family like this before - one-on-one training matches were as close as they had ever come before. But now it was all seven of them coming at her at once - Bruce, Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian, Steph, and Duke. And while several family members were missing at the moment, she couldn’t really find it in her to be worried. After all, if Kate, Selina, or Babs was here they would most likely be attacking her as well.She would flip over Bruce’s attack, then get hit with one of Jason’s rubber bullets. Dodge a punch from Steph and a kick from Duke, but then get hit hard by Tim’s bo. She didn’t even have her weapons with her to help her defend herself.In the end, it was only a matter of time before she got hit. Dick was the one to connect his fist with her temple, and as she fell to the ground the last thing that she saw was her twin moving to catch her, a determined look on his face.
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She woke up to the slow beeping sound of a heart monitor and no immediate recollection of what had happened. For a moment she just relaxed - even though she couldn’t remember what had happened to her to land her in the medical bay, she was sure that either the Avengers or her family would tell her what happened as soon as she got up. Right now her body just hurt from bruising and muscle strains from combat, and her hair was in her face so she tried to move it.But her arm wouldn’t move.She opened her eyes in an instant, taking in the room around her as she came back to full awareness. She was in the medical bay in the BatCave, she knew that much. There was no way to hide that from her, especially when she had spent so much of her life in the room. But that didn’t explain why both of her arms were handcuffed to the rails of the bed that she was lying in. That worried her.Then it all came back to her - Jane’s experiment. The portal. And the weird, almost Stepford version of her family. Her family, from an alternate universe.It was the only thing that fit, the only explanation that made sense. How none of them recognized her, even her twin. Bruce’s reaction. Damian’s attitude towards their siblings, Tim’s awful costume and name change. Even just her dad’s lack of knowledge about his kids…She didn’t know what she was going to do. Still, she took a deep breath, trying to keep the heart monitor that was attached to her from alerting anyone that she was awake by beeping too much. There was nothing that she could do if she was panicking too much, and she needed to find a way out of the situation that she was currently in. If this was her Bruce and an alternate version of one of his kids showed up, he would have them bundled in a room in the East Wing of the Manor without batting an eye.But this Bruce already admitted that he had no idea who she was. Even Dick didn’t - and that scared her more than anything. To see her twin look at her with no recollection whatsoever was terrifying. Not only that, but it was incredibly obvious that this Bruce was nothing like hers.“Hello?” she called out, looking around the ceiling of the medical bay. There were cameras up there somewhere, she knew it. Even with how different this Bruce seemed to be, there was no way that his levels of paranoia could have changed that much. “I know someone’s watching the cameras in here, you might as well come in.”“How do you know that?” if it was anyone else they would have jumped in alarm at the sudden way that Batman just appeared in front of them. But she was used to it at this point after living with the Bat for most of her life.“B -” she began, but he quickly cut her off with a grunt.“And that. How do you know Drake’s identity?”She just shot him the most disgusted look. Her Bruce had been worried about them being called Robin at first because he was worried that it would get tied back to them. This Bruce just… didn’t seem to care. “He’s using his last name as a codename, it’s not hard to figure out. I might not have the title of World’s Greatest Detective, B, but I’m not stupid.” she rolled her eyes. “Where’s Black Bat? I want to talk to her.” If any of her siblings were going to believe her, it would be Cass - the one who would be able to read her body language and literally know that she was telling the truth.“No.”“Why not?”“She’s in Hong Kong,” he grunted. “She hasn’t been in Gotham in years.”“What?” she asked, her face scrunching up in confusion. None of what he was saying made sense. Cass was one of the most family-oriented people in their household. She was quiet, yes, but that didn’t stop her from popping out of the shadows to attack her siblings with hugs. She was almost as bad as Dick was about it. So the idea that her sister willingly stayed on the other side of the world from the rest of the family was more than a little alarming. “What about the family? And Steph?”There. Only another Bat would notice the slight tilt of his head, the tension in his shoulders. Confusion. “Why would Cassandra come back for Steph?”She wasn’t going to touch that one with a ten-foot pole. The last thing that she needed to do right now was accidentally out the alternate version of her younger sister - if she was actually even dating Stephanie.She rolled her eyes, irritation growing. “Fine,” she muttered. This version of Bruce was even harder to understand than hers was. The language of grunts could tell you a lot, but you did have to know enough about the Bat to even hope to translate. And while it was the Bat in front of her, he wasn’t hers. “Then I want to talk to Dick.”“Hn.”“I’m not answering any of your questions, B.” she replied, crossing her arms over her chest. Bruce noticed, obviously, and glared at her until she sighed and put the cuffs back on herself. “I’ll only talk to Dick.”“Nn.” this was starting to get annoying.Then she thought of something, and she shot up in the bed so fast that she nearly dislocated her wrists, having forgot that she was cuffed to the bed in the first place. “You didn't tell him who I am, did you?”He jolted slightly, jaw untensing slightly as he stared at her. “No.”For the first time since she had gotten here, she breathed out a sigh of relief. “Good.”“What?”“Good.” she repeated, setting back on the bed a bit to let her racing heart relax. “I'm not going to tell him either, since you were worrying about that.”“Why?” he asked, studying her carefully. “It would make him trust you.”Out of all the things that Bruce could have ever said to her to make her brain short circuit, that was the one that she had been least expecting. She had known that this version of her father was more harsh, less caring than she was used to. She just hadn’t expected him to be this mistrusting and manipulative of her siblings. Still, it wasn’t hard for her to be honest with him. “Because I don't want to be the one to tell my brother that there is a world where he has never been alone.” she admitted, staring him directly in the eyes. If she had to have this conversation with Batman, she was going to make him look her in the eye when she told him what she thought that he needed to hear. “Where someone has always had his back, no matter what. And I don't want to tell him that it's not this one.”He stared at her for a moment, before moving to the other side of the bed. She went still at first, not quite sure about what he was doing. Then he lifted a hand to fiddle with the IV drip that she had in, and she immediately went on the offensive.He hadn’t been expecting it based on how he reared back, but it was already too late for her. She could feel the cool rush of the morphine entering her veins, and within thirty seconds she was out cold.8888The next time that she woke up, she was in a cell - one of the ones in the BatCave, as long as the Cave had the same design here as it did back home. And wasn’t that strange, she mused, thinking about a BatCave, any BatCave, as anything other than home. Still, looking around it was easy to tell that this Cave’s containment cells were at least three security updates behind her own.It would be child’s play to break out of here - when she was ready. Which wouldn’t be until either she got to talk to this universe’s version of her twin; or her family showed up to take her home. Whichever one happened first.She was pretty sure that she had only been here for around twelve hours now, so they had another seven days to show up before she would actually get worried. But she had a suspicion that the alternate version of Dick - and she was going to have to figure out an easier way to say that, because it was a mouthful every time - was already on his way.Sure enough, it wasn’t long until her twin was coming down the hallway, heading for her. She studied him as he approached - it wasn’t really all that hard to see the differences between this version of her brother and the one that was actually hers. Starting with the costume. This one wore a mainly black bodysuit, with fully red sleeves. There were white banded cuffs around his wrists, and the small belt and thigh holsters that he had were also white. Instead of the bat-shaped domino mask that she was used to, he now had a plain black mask. It was boring, and in her opinion made him look like an assassin instead of a hero.“Ugh, finally.” Darcy said, sitting up on the cot and swinging her legs over the edge of the bed as she looked at Dick. “You’re here.”Dick studied her in turn, and she tried not to squirm under his stare. She wasn’t much to look at right now, if she was bring honest - and for spme reason, she wanted to make a good first impression on this version of her twin. But she was tired still because she hadn’t let herself truly fall asleep in this version of the BatCave. Sore from her fight against her family, and covered in bruises. And she was still in the same clothes that she had worn since she had first fallen through the portal. And even then her clothes had been several days old - there had been an Arkham breakout that she had been called to Gotham to help with, and then immediately after that had dealt with Jane and Tony on a science binge.In short, she was fairly certain that she looked like a hobo at the moment, but that was an issue for another day.“Yes.” he said, crossing his arms over his chest and standing directly in front of her cell. She smirked when she noticed that he refused to actually come into the cell with her - it might have taken all eight of the Bats, but she had made the point that she was a dangerous enemy to have. It made her a little proud, if she was being honest with herself. Cass would have beaten her, but she and Dick had been training for the same amount of time, and she knew all of Bruce’s moves. “Batman said you refused to talk to anyone but me.”“I did.” she confirmed. “He still hasn’t told you who I am, has he?” the look on his face was all the confirmation that she needed. “Of course he hasn’t.” she sighed. She still didn't want her brother to have to deal with the truth of her identity, but it would have been nice if this Bruce would have at least given him the option to know the truth.“Why?” he asked, head tilting slightly to one side as he studied her, eyes widening slightly to give him an innocent look even behind his domino. “Would who you are change anything?”She had been determined to keep her cool and a straight face the entire time, no matter what. But her twin trying to use the same techniques that she had watched him used for years was more than she could handle, and she snorted out a laugh. “Nice try, Dickiebird. But I’m not falling for that, I haven’t fallen for that innocent act of yours since the circus days.” Besides, she didn’t even want to think about how this Dick would react to the news that he had shared the Robin name with his twin sister for years before they split into their own hero personas.Her Dick had anger issues. She didn’t want to know how this one - who hadn’t been in therapy for years - would react.He didn’t seem too disappointed, although he did take off his domino once she just called him by the old nickname. “It was worth a shot.”She relaxed back, a slow grin spreading across her face that this Dick would have recognized if he was actually her twin. “Also can we please talk about your costume?” she asked, mischief in her eyes. “I don’t know who is doing the costume designing for your team, but obviously they haven’t heard of constructive criticism.”He reared back, face screwing up in offense. “What is it with you and making fun of our costumes?”“Well someone has to tell you.” she shrugged. Honestly, this universe was strange.“Right.” he said dryly, rolling his eyes as he leaned back against the wall outside of the cell. “So what did you want from me?”“Where's Flamebird?” Wally was exactly who she needed at the moment, and of course he was nowhere to be found. She would have preferred Barry, but Wally got into enough trouble - and was well-connected enough with the Bats - that it would be a lot easier to get ahold of him. If she couldn’t get Cass to help her convince her family that she wasn’t a villain and was, in fact, just a victim, then she would settle for Wally to help her get home. The less time that she had to spend in this incredibly strange universe, the better.But any hope that might have been building up immediately disappeared when Dick just looked confused. “Who?”Her heart fell in her chest, feeling cold all of a sudden. “Your husband.” she had meant for it to come out as a question, but it came out as the statement she knew it was. There was no use in any follow-up questions just based on the confusion in Dick’s eyes, but that didn’t stop her mouth from continuing to talk. “He knows enough about accidentally traveling to a parallel universe, he should be helpful.”Dick was shaking his head before she was even done speaking, having pushed himself off of the wall and starting to pace. “I don't have a husband.” he told her, not even bothering to look in her general direction. If it was anyone else, she might have been offended. But this was Dick - not hers, but still her twin. This had been how he dealt with too much information for years now - ever since his first year in mathletes.That was enough to have her up and moving as well - not pacing like he did, but moving closer to the plexisteel wall so that she could keep a closer eye on him even when his pacing would take him too far out of her normal line of sight. “What do you mean you don't have a husband? There's shouldn't be a universe where you and Kid Mouth aren't together, it took me forever to get you guys together in the first place - oh.”He froze, head spinning in her direction so quickly that she could hear the bones in his neck cracking slightly. “Wally is my husband?” he demanded, his face paling.“Where I'm from, yes.” she said softly, staring into nothing as her mind raced, putting together all of the pieces. “But I was the one to make you two reveal your feelings for each other. Since I apparently don't exist in this universe…” you two never got together. She couldn’t finish the sentence out loud, but it was obvious that he knew what she was thinking.“But that can't be.”That stopped her short. “Why not?” She asked, face screwing up in confusion. “You two were made for each other, he literally renamed himself Flamebird to match you. Partially because having so many Flashes was getting confusing, but mainly to match you.”“Wally West is dead.” the words came out of him like bullets out of a gun - harsh, fast, and ruthless. Like he was trying to say them as fast as possible so that he wouldn't have to think about them any longer.And it hit her like a bullet hit its target - ripping a hole through her so that she couldn’t breathe. “What?” she stumbled back, feeling for the third time in her life like her legs couldn’t fully support her. Wally might have been Dick’s more than hers, but he was still always there for her no matter what. “Wally can't be dead. He - he can't. What about -” her mind was racing. Her Dick and Wally had taken in Bart as their own after Iris gave birth to the twins - two speedsters and newborn twins was too much for any household that didn’t come with an Alfred.And as much as the rest of the family was convinced that one of Iris and Barry's twins was going to be Bart’s parent, Darcy wasn't so sure. After all, he had immediately started called Dick ‘Dat’, to match Wally's title of ‘Pops’.“What about what?” He asked, turning to stare at her.But she was already shaking her head, refusing to say another word on the subject. She could already see the pain in Dick's eyes at the thought of having lost Wally, she wasn’t going to add to that. “Nevermind.”“Nothing.” She told him, glaring at him until he got the message to actually drop the subject. “What about Barry?”Dick snorted at that, looking almost amused. “You're just not even gonna pretend like you don't know all of our identities anymore, huh?” he asked, and she grinned cheekily up at him.“Of course not.” she agreed. “Where would be the fun in that?” she followed his every movement, watching him pace back and forth. “So? What about Barry?”But Dick shook his head, a slight scowl on his face as he turned to face her again. “He’s in space right now - Green Lantern had a mission from Oa that needed his help. He won’t be back for another week or two.”She scoffed at that, but didn’t question him - if the bats of this universe were going to be that blind to every relationship around them, that was their problem and not hers. She had more pressing issues to deal with. If she couldn’t get one of the Flashes to help her out of here and back to her own universe, then it would be up to her to get herself out of this mess and find somewhere to lay low until her family came looking for her. “What time is it?” she asked, changing the topic.“Why do you want to know?”She shrugged, and laid just a slight hint of guilt on her twin - after all, she might have been used to his tricks but he didn’t know any of hers. “I just want to know how long I’ve been trapped down here, that’s all.”He rolled his eyes. “It’s about ten at night, so you might as well make yourself comfortable.” he replied, starting to walk away. Still, he called over his shoulder to her before he left her sight, “Otherwise it’s going to be a long night.”
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The Science Trio - Doctors Jane Foster, Tony Stark, and Bruce Banner - had just had a three day science binge, and were planning on going right back to it once Darcy and JARVIS decided that they had slept enough and ate enough food to restore their abilities to get into the labs. Tony had used to try and fight Darcy every time, trying to sneak back into the labs when he could. Darcy had just laughed in response - and then drugged his coffee, and dragged him back to bed.It had taken a few months of fighting like that - starting off as drugged coffee, then turning into a full-scale prank war - until Pepper put her foot down. And while there were very few things that he was actively scared of anymore, an angry Pepper was still at the top of his list.Now he went to bed when told - the sooner he got the required amount of sleep, the sooner he could get back to the labs. Luckily, Darcy didn’t push too hard. As much as she would prefer that he got an actual decent amount of sleep and some vitamin D before going back into his labs, He was in the middle of dreaming, this time - a lovely one involving Pepper and whipped cream - when he was rudely woken up by the sound of blaring alarms. He shot up in alarm, heart racing and hair standing on end from the few hours of sleep that he had managed to get so far. “What?” he asked, voice hoarse from lack of use. “What’s going on?”JARVIS answered, which eased some of his worry. The last time the alarms had gone off, the AI had been put offline by people trying to invade the building. “Sir, one of Dr. Foster’s experiments has reacted while you were sleeping.”He fell back into the bed, covering his face with a pillow to block out any light streaming in and the sound of the alarms. “Oh, god.” he groaned, rolling over onto his stomach. “What’s gotten loose in the tower this time? If it’s more of those giant snails, I’m cutting Foster’s funding.”“Nothing is loose in the Tower, sir.” JARVIS replied.That caught his attention, and he pulled the pillow away from his face, staring at the spot where he knew JARVIS’s cameras were. “Okay, so why are you waking me up then, J?” he asked, his confusion evident on his face.“Ms. Grayson-Wayne fell through the portal, sir.” he sighed, then rolled over again, going back to sleep. If Darcy was involved, she already had the situation handled.“Oh okay. Well if that’s all.” he mumbled into his pillow, already half asleep again. Then JARVIS’s words actually processed, and he was instantly awake again. “Wait what?”“I said -”But he was already halfway across his bedroom, heading for the door. “Yup, heard you J.” he said curtly, his mind already racing. “Override babysitter protocols on the labs, wake up Jane and Brucie.” he ordered. “And call Wayne. If we don’t let him know that Darcy is missing, there’s going to be hell to pay.”But before he could say another word, the lights in the corridor flickered for just a moment, before their normal fluorescent lights turned an eerie shade of green. Most of his mind was consumed by panic, but the part that wasn’t was equal parts confused and impressed - he knew for a fact that there was no way for those lights to turn green. Especially not the specific shade of green that the Bats of Gotham called ‘Oracle Green’. “What did you just say?” Barbara Gordon didn’t even try to hide behind her normal vocalizer, the sheer panic and harshness in her voice cluing him in to the fact that she must have connected to his systems the second she had gotten a ping.“I’m not even going to ask how you already know what happened when I found out less than a minute ago.”“I’m just that good, Stark.” her voice was still full of panic but it was slightly more under control now. “Now what happened to Darcy?”JARVIS cut in before Tony had to admit to one of the most terrifying women that he had ever met that he actually had no idea what had happened to her girlfriend. “Miss Oracle, allow me to fill you in.” he said reassuringly.“Please do, J-Man.”Tony listened to the briefing as well, pulling on the first shirt and pair of pants that he had grabbed off of his and Pepper’s bedroom floor as he made his way to the elevators. “Miss Grayson-Wayne was leaving her apartment when one of Dr. Foster’s machines turned on, opening a portal under her. She fell through.”“She fell through a portal?” Babs asked, dread obvious in her voice. Tony froze as well, the information completely new to him.“Yes, Miss Gordon.”“Shit.”“Got that right, Stark.” Babs snorted. “Where’s Jane?”“Still in her room, I think.” Tony reported, watching the coffee finish brewing. It wasn’t the most time effective way to do things, but the more caffeine that he had in his system, the better. “Unless she passed out in the hallway again.”There was a moment of silence before Babs said anything. “Found her.” she reported, and Tony barely had any time to think about how quickly she managed to make it through his firewalls and access the cameras. “She’s in her rooms, I’m waking her now. You get Dr. Banner, he won’t react well to my wake-up call. Meanwhile, I’m summoning the Bats.”“Are you sure that -”“Yes, it is.” she said sharply. “Unless you were about to suggest that we would leave you all to find Darcy, when you were the ones to lose her in the first place? Not to mention how none of you have experience with portals?” Tony winced. She had a point, but that didn’t mean that he wanted his tower invaded by the Waynes. In the past, he would have been against it because he didn’t want to have to deal with ‘Brucie’. Now he knew better, and he was even more scared of having the entire contingent of Waynes in his house.“Foster does.” he pointed out quickly, getting into the elevator with the doors closing behind him.The silence that came from the speakers hidden in the elevator was telling. Even if he hadn’t already felt like he was in far over his head, that would have been his sign.“Jane’s portals are the reason that Darcy is missing in the first place.” Barbara said coldly. “Forgive me if that isn’t a stunning review of her abilities.”“Fine.” he sighed, rubbing his hands over his face. “Just let me know when they’re on the way. I need time to prepare for DaddyBats.”“Oh, I’m so telling him that you called him that.” she replied, some of the stress coming out of her voice as she laughed slighty. “Oracle out.”“Wait, don’t - and, she’s gone.” Tony sighed, leaving it as a lost cause for the moment. It would be far easier to let the Bats handle themselves, then to try and inject himself into the middle of it all. He would deal with them all once they got here, and that would be enough. “J, get housekeeping up here to set up extra bedrooms - equal to however many kids Bruce has got now. Get the team together, fill them in on what is going on, and warn them to prepare for an infestation.”“Yes, sir.”“I’ll be in the lab.”8888Barbara Gordon was panicking - really and truly panicking. Her heart was racing til it roared in her ears, hands trembling to the point where she had to take a break to get herself under control between closing the backdoor that she had into the firewalls that protected Avengers Tower and calling the Bats. It was rare that this happened, anymore. The last time that this had happened had been when she had woken up in the hospital for the first time after the Joker had shot her. Then she had had Darcy to help her through it - her girlfriend has been asleep in the chair next to her bed, her hair a riot of unbrushed curls and drool running down her cheek. When she had woken up thirty seconds later - drool still on her cheek and lines from the sheets on her face - Barbara had thought that she was the most beautiful thing that she had ever seen.Now she was alone.She took a moment to calm herself down, wiping the tears away from under her eyes and taking a moment to breathe before she activated a red alert. The Clocktower lit up, red lights going off everywhere with silenced alarms. Babs already knew what was going on, there was no need to make herself deaf. She was in enough pain already, there was no need to add a migraine to the list of threats going on. But the button that set off the alarms here would also set off the ones in the BatCave. So whoever was there would know what was happening, and to contact her immediately. The same notification went out to all of their personal devices, as well - a simple alarm, sounding like the twittering of a bird. That was everyone’s sign to get to the Cave as quickly as possible - no exceptions.She gave herself another five minutes to settle back into herself before rolling back over to her computer, pulling up the direct feed into the Cave and bracing herself for the chaos that she knew was coming. The second that the feed went live, she relaxed slightly - the only ones in the cave currently were Bruce and Damian. But then the others started to pop up, like a zoom call - phoning in from wherever they were at, all of them on the move as they headed to the Cave, and all of them talking a mile a minute. Finally, a voice was able to break through the sheer noise that had begun the second that the first call connected. “What’s going on? Why’d you activate an alert?”“Everyone needs to head to Stark Tower, right now.” she told them, and braced herself for what she knew was coming next.Immediately, there was a cacophony of noise coming from every channel that she had access to. She muted them all for a moment, letting them all get out their shock and anger before turning the comms back on. “Hey!” she yelled, raising her voice so that she could be heard over everyone else on the call.Bruce’s voice cut through the chatter, his no-nonsense tone getting the Birds to all quiet down. “Oracle, what's going on?” he asked, and all of their attention was on Barbara. But the redheaded woman knew that it wouldn’t stay like that for long. Not once they found out what was going on, and that was the next thing that she had to tell them.She braced herself for the explosion that was about to come, and then told them the news. “Darcy’s missing.”It was immediate chaos again, and she would have been amused if it was any other day with any other emergency. “Everyone shut up!” she ordered, and even Bruce snapped to attention.“Jeez, Barbie.” Hood’s vocalizer would have sounded almost menacing, if it wasn’t for what he was actually saying.“Shut up, Jason.” she snapped. Her fingers were flying across her keyboard, sending them all directions to two different zeta tubes that were in Gotham. At the same time, she was going back into Stark’s files, using the backdoors that she had set up years ago, when Darcy had first made the decision to follow Jane to New York. “Everyone make their way to the nearest Zetas and get to Stark Tower.”Dick was the first one to respond. Out of all of the Waynes, he had known her the longest, even slightly before Darcy had. He knew when she was two seconds from losing her mind and just programming all of their equipment to take them there herself - and this was that moment. “Yes ma’am.”8888In the Tower, Tony had gotten both Jane and Bruce up again and caffeinated, explaining to them exactly what had happened. Bruce and Tony were currently watching the security footage of what had happened, while Jane ran around like a madwoman and checked all of her equipment, and she was still running around, muttering frantically to herself when the rest of the Avengers reached the lab.Steve immediately headed towards Tony, intent on getting answers before anything else. “Tony?” he asked, head tilting slightly to one side as he watched the engineer race around the room. “What’s going on?”“Jane?” Thor was anxious as well, eyes searching the room for the Lady Darcy, who kept his Jane in one piece. “My love, are you well?”The petite Gothamite was struggling, running her hands through her hair as she paced back and forth. She was checking the readings from her machines every few seconds, growling when they didn’t give her the results that she wanted quickly enough. “Need to find her, I can’t believe that this happened. The readings are off the charts, but if I can triangulate the geo-temporal locations, then I might be able to pinpoint the -”“Someone want to explain what’s happening here?”Tony shot them all an anxious smile, fingers flying over the hologram in front of him - working on what looked like sleeping arrangements on one of the empty guest floors of the tower. “On the bright side, now we know that Jane’s theories were correct.” he began.“And on the dark side?”“The portal took Darcy.”8888The lights flickered out around them for a moment, and then they came back on again.And that second was all that was needed for the Bats to appear. “Sir, it appears that Miss Grayson-Wayne’s family has arrived.”“Think so, J?” Tony asked, looking around the room. Right now there were only three of them there - Nightwing, Signal, and the littlest Robin. Nightwing was casually perched against one of the lab tables, while Signal watched the video footage that Oracle had sent out to them all, eyes glowing white as he did. And Robin -Robin was racing at Jane Foster with his katana drawn, a murderous gleam in his eyes. “How dare you endanger my sister you harlot I will -”Nightwing swooped in, restraining Robin in a swift motion. “Damian Al-Ghul Wayne, put down the sword!” he growled, tightening his hold against the struggling toddler in his arms. It almost would have been an amusing sight, if it hadn’t been for the way that it was obvious that Nightwing wasn’t pretending to struggle at holding the thirteen-year-old back. Still, he finally managed to get Damian to loosen his grip on his katana, and the weapon dropped to the ground. It took another few moments of a soft conversation in Arabic to calm him down, and then and only then did Dick let go of his youngest brother.Jane breathed a heavy sigh of relief, some of the tension draining from her body since there was no longer a sword coming at her head. “Thanks, Dick.” she said softly. But the second that he turned to look at her, she knew that had been the wrong thing to say.She had known the Waynes a long time - far longer than most people realized. She knew that while most people thought that it was Jason you had to watch out for, it was actually Dick. he was the one with the temper, the one who would do irrational things in the name of his family, to keep them safe. It was he and Darcy who had escaped a mansion every night to hunt down the man who had killed their parents. Now his twin - his last remaining blood relative - was missing, and it was her fault. The maniacal gleam in his eyes as he stared at her, the way his head ticked to one side. The slow smile that spread across his face, showing far too many teeth. “You can’t stab people, Dami.” he chided, eyes still locked on Jane. And she knew that he didn’t fully mean whatever he was going to say next - he’d come to her later and apologize for it. It was the Gothamite in him - strike first, strike quick, strike hard. But that didn’t change what he was going to say now. “After all, she can’t fix the problem if she’s dead.”That didn’t mean that what he said didn’t hurt.She took it like a Gothamite would, too - without flinching, never showing that the blows actually hurt. But Steve reacted differently - flinching back for her, like he was the one who had been hit with a verbal blow instead of her. “Now hang on a second, son -”The shadows parted, and the Batman stepped out of them, taking off his cowl as he did. They had been in the middle of patrol in Gotham, but now that he was out of his city he could take it off - turning from the terrifying Dark Knight to worried father. “Captain.” he growled, stalking over to the other man. “You might think you have authority, but not when it comes to my family. If they step out of line, then I will correct them.”“Yeah.” Tim Drake-Wayne said from where he was perched in the corner, still studying the holograms being projected out of his wrist gauntlet. “Shut it, spangles.”“Are you going to correct them for that?”“Why should I?” he responds, gliding over to stand right behind Jane, reading her notes over her shoulder. It’s almost eerie - Bruce Wayne’s face on Batman’s body. Logically they all knew that they were the same person, but there were still those occasional moments of disconnect. “They aren’t out of line.”Before anyone could say anything in response - and just by the way that Steve went rigid, it was obvious that he was about to try and argue his point - they were interrupted by the sound of breaking glass. Instantly, everyone ducked for cover, trying to avoid the glass that was flying everywhere.The intruder landed, guns in each hand as he surveryed the room, and the Gothamites all sighed, getting back to work. But the New Yorkers - the Avengers, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes - stayed frozen in place, all of them eyeing the guns in the newcomers hands wtih caution.He stood there, red helmet reflecting the fluorescent lights above them. “Alright, someone had better start talking before I -”Tim was the first one to look around and see that all of the Avengers were still frozen in place, staring at the Red Hood. “It’s just Jay!” he reminded them all, looking around at the Avengers in exasperation.Dick rolled his eyes as he turned to Jason, showing his brother the katana that he had confiscated. “Jay, Dami got here first.”“Aw, fuck.” he said while he pulled his helmet off, the robotic tone leaving his voice as soon as it was over his head. “Why didn’t someone tell me the demon spawn already had a turn?”“Didn’t want to ruin your fun.”“Yeah, well now it’s just embarrassing.” he shot back, rolling his eyes. All of them, with the glaringly obvious exception of Dick Grayson-Wayne, were being almost too chill about the fact that Darcy was missing. Unless, of course, you knew where to look. Then you would see the signs - the slight twitching of Jason’s fingers that meant he was itching for a cigarette; the green steam coming off of Tim’s more-toxic-than-usual coffee; Damian performing katas in a corner. Even Black Bat and Spoiler - who the Avengers hadn’t even seen arrive - were practically vibrating in the corner, whispering to each other. “Where are we at with finding Tweety?”“So far, we don’t have much.” Jane admitted, still pouring over the figures and documents in front of her. “We’re waiting on backup, right now.”“What? Who is backup?”At that moment, almost like she had planned it - and, if he was bring honest with himself, Tony was pretty sure that she had - the elevator doors opened, and a familiar redhead wheeled herself out and into the lab space. A tablet was already in her hands, her head bent over as she studied it. “Me.” she announced, looking up to fix Tony with a piercing glare. “Sorry I’m late, it took a minute to get all of my equipment together, and then longer to find a way up here. Your ADA accommodations need improving, Stark.” she scolded, an eyebrow raised in a patented Alfred look. “Also your security team downstairs is really confused, sorry about that.”“It’s alright, Barbara.” Bruce answered - speaking for Tony, which Steve was a little irritated by, but then nothing seemed to follow normal societal conventions when there were bats involved.Tony only looked away from what he was doing when he heard the familiar sound - to him, at least - of panels being ripped open and wires getting stripped. “Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing?” he demanded, spinning to glare at the redhead that was currently tearing his system apart.“Hooking myself up to your system,” she shot back, not looking away for a second. “I could run things remotely from the Clocktower, but it will be easier if I’m hardwired in.”With that, he nodded, going back to what he was doing. “Have at it, hot wheels.” he called over his shoulder, distracted. There was a small screwdriver in one of his hands, a bundle of wires held tightly together in the other hand.Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Banner all watched as the Gothamites around them practically froze in place, like time had stopped. Then, in complete synch, their heads all turned so they were staring at Tony. “You did not just call me that.”Tony froze in place, replaying the last few minutes over in his head, then winced. “Sorry.”“I’ll lecture you later on proper terminology for disabled people, along with ADA requirements.” Barbara huffed, shaking her head. “Let’s get to work.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
She waited for a good couple of hours - counting down the minutes in her head as she sat cross-legged on the bed, meditating. Until about nine in the morning, when she knew that Alfred would be in the middle of directing the gardeners, Babs would be just starting her shift at the library, and the rest of the family would still be sleeping. That was when she got back up, unfolding her legs from underneath her and getting back up.It was the perfect time to try and make her escape.She stood up, stretching her back out as she raised up on her toes, then quickly took off her cardigan, her socks, and her shoes. They would come in handy in a minute, once she had made it out of the cell that she was in. Until then, however, they could stay in the corner. She made her way over to the walls, studying them for a moment to make sure that what she had seen when she first woke up was right.It was. It was an older model of the cells that were in her version of the BatCave - one that had had to be replaced after Harley had found an easily exploited flaw in the wiring to escape. There were a lot of upsides to Alfred pointing out that Harleen and Bruce had used to be beset friends back in the day - and Harley Quinn testing their security systems every few months was the smaller ones, if Darcy was being honest.She wedged herself into the corner as she used her toes to grip the wall just a little tighter, climbing up the walls so that she could reach the paneling that hid the wiring that ran the security system. It only took her a minute to pull the paneling free, and then it was a matter of moments before she had spliced into the wiring, and the door opened.She pulled her feet from the walls, dropping down from where she had been perched. After that, it was a simple matter of putting her socks and shoes back on and grabbing her cardigan. She was tense as she ran out, keeping an eye around her. She had timed things so that she had the best chance of getting out without getting caught - but preparedness never meant anything compared to her family’s paranoia.Still, she checked every corner before she went around it, triple checking every step she made before she took it. Even though she knew that BatCave like the back of her hand, this still wasn’t hers. She didn’t know what she might find in here.8888It was mid-morning in Bristol, Gotham by the time that she actually made it out of the Cave. She still stuck to the shadows, though. It was one thing to be out and about in Bristol at this time - it was another to be out here and look like you had gone three rounds with the Bat himself. And the last thing that she needed right now was to end up in a cell at the GCPD. She didn’t think that this Commish would be as forgiving of her antics as he normally was. After all, she had just gotten dinner with her version of Jim Gordon less than a month ago. This one had no idea who she was.While she hid in the shadows, she took a minute to think through exactly what she had going on at the moment, and what she had to do to survive. That was all that she needed to do, as well - just survive.Darcy knew that Jane would be the first to realize what had happened - and the first to realize that it would be incredibly difficult to get another portal to open to the same time and place that she had been dropped at. But she also knew that the first thing that Jane would do would be to call her family and tell them the news - which meant her terrifyingly competent girlfriend would be coming after her.Knowing her girlfriend, she would be home in maybe two months in their timeline. But that didn’t mean that it would also be only two months in this universe. Which meant she still needed some way to take care of herself until they came to bring her home. She had listened to enough lectures by her scientists - and her Doctor Who-obsessed girlfriend - to know that time wasn’t a linear construct. For all she knew, two months back home would be six years here. But she couldn’t worry about any of that right now. Now her goal was food and shelter for the night.As she crept through Bristol, she remembered everything that she had ever learned from Jason's stories about his time as a street kid. Stay in the shadows, don’t get caught. Always have a weapon. Gather your resources and hold them tight. As she looked across the Trigate bridge, she started coming up with a plan to make it through this. If this Gotham was anything like her own, there was one place that she could go to always find a job, no matter what.Well, really, there were two options. But Wayne Enterprises wasn’t really the best route to take at the moment.She crept across the bridge, watching her surroundings for any cars that might hit her and the skies for any unplanned bombings. She was drawing some attention to herself, unfortunately - it was almost unheard of for someone to be walking across the bridge between Bristol and Gotham proper, especially when they were coming from the Bristol side of things. She could have just stolen one of the vehicles in the Cave, if she was being honest with herself. But she knew that they were all tracked, and she had gotten lucky enough to make it out of the Cave without being caught. She didn’t need to tempt fate by literally telling the Bats where she was heading.Still, Darcy breathed a little easier once she was off the bridge and in Burnley. She still had a long ways to go before she actually made it to her destination, but at least she was out of the Wayne's backyard.Still, something in her revolted at the thought that the Manor she grew up in and the Cave that she spent her nights in was no longer a safe place for her.She kept one eye on the sky, though - she knew Oracle too well to not think that the other woman wouldn't start tracking her the second that she found out that Darcy had escaped. Still, that wasn't too big of an issue at the moment.What was more important was finding a weapon. A weapon, and information. She needed to know exactly what she was dealing with in this universe.Darcy had little things on her, of course. She was a Gothamite - not born, but certainly bred. But a pen knife wasn't going to do much for her here. And while she might have picked up a bit of information while she was in the Cave - like Cass being in Hong Kong, and the changes to her family - she needed more. But that could wait as well.So she looked around, trying to find a mark. No one stood out to her immediately, and she sighed. This would have been easier if she had been spat out in any other city on Earth - any other planet would have probably been easier in the long run of things. Gothamites were too mistrusting to easily steal their wallets. If this was anything like her Gotham, then their wallets would be attached by a chain or even spiked to prevent thieves.After all, Gothamites weren't all criminals. Most of them were hardworking people who were just trying to feed their families. And even half of the criminals were like that, too.Darcy sighed. She missed her home already. Still, it was nice to be back in her city, even if it wasn't really hers.She perked up, her eyes landing on a perfect target. Bright clothes, awkwardly looking around himself, a bright grin on his face. Avoiding the shadows and sticking to the lights around him. And so clean that he practically shone.Metropolis.She couldn't help the almost predatory grin that crossed her face as she eyed him up, already figuring out exactly what she could get off of him. She might not have been as good at it as Jason was, but she wasn't too bad.So she fell into step behind him - not too close so that he would realize that she was there, but close enough that she could keep an eye on him, and ward off any other pickpockets that might have targeted him. Then she waited.Luckily, it didn’t take all that long for him to stop and gawk at a graffitied building, pulling out his phone to take pictures of a row of gargoyles that had been painted to look like some of the Bats. As she knocked into him, Darcy couldn’t help but almost feel bad for ruining his picture. It was going to be a cute one.As she hit him she made sure to lean her weight into him for all of five seconds before steadying herself. And as she grabbed his arm with her left hand to make sure that he didn’t fall over, her right hand was sneaking around his side to quickly lift his wallet. Now that that was done, she smiled up at him for a quick second. “Sorry about that!” she chirped, trying to project as much anxiety as she could. “I’ll have to watch where I’m going better next time.”The man visibly relaxed, looking her over with a friendly grin. “Not a problem, ma’am.” he said, quickly checking to make sure that she hadn’t been hurt either. “Actually, I was hoping you could help me with something. I’ve been trying to find my way to this -”That was when she cut him off, before she got caught helping someone from Metropolis, of all places. Robbing one of them was fine, but actually helping one? Disgusting. “Sorry, gotta go!” she called over her shoulder, already halfway down the street by the time that he had realized what had just happened. She kept moving - not fast enough that it seemed like she was running away from anything, while still moving enough that Metropolis wouldn’t be able to find her if he went looking. She slowed down again after five minutes or so, discreetly checking what she had managed to get away with.It was quickly stuffed into her bra once she realized exactly how much she had managed to get away with. Three hundred and forty-seven dollars - enough to buy herself two or three really high quality knives, plus put some food in her stomach and still have some left over. Perfect. She cut across the street, flipping off the drivers who honked at her. There was a shop on the corner, like a bodega - the signage above the door simply said GUNS & THINGS.She opened it, the bell above the door ringing loudly as she stepped inside. As if summoned by the sound of the bell, a teenaged girl popped up behind the countertop. A soft gray hijab covered her head, and she wore a light pink hoodie that was at least three sizes too big. “What da ya want?” she snapped.Darcy didn’t take it any sort of way, just shoved her hands in her pockets and made her way over to the counter. “Knives. Least three inches.”“Anythin’ else?” the girl asked, already pulling out a display case filled with the knives that she had been asking about.That caught her attention quickly. “What else you got?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at the teenager.She shrugged. “Depends on what ya want.” she admitted, pulling out another case full of things. “Take a look.”The grin that lit up Darcy’s face was almost unholy in its glee as she pulled the case closer, starting to examine its contents.8888She left the store with considerably less money, but weighed down with the new weapons that she had gotten herself. She had three more neighborhoods that she needed to get through before she ended up at her destination. She just hoped that she wouldn’t need to use any of her weapons.It would be easier to stay off of the Bats radar that way. And at the moment, that was the most important thing.8888She couldn’t help the sigh of relief that escaped when she finally got off of the Madison Bridge. She also couldn’t believe that she had forgotten just how big Gotham was - the city seemed so much smaller when you were grappling over it. It had taken her most of the day to cross the city on foot, but she was here now.Finally, she had made it. The Iceburg Lounge.In her Gotham, it was as safe as could be for the known hideout of the Penguin. But they didn’t care if you used an obviously fake ID on your paperwork, and she knew for a fact that Cobblepot made sure that all of the girls who worked for him were treated well and taken care of - as long as they didn’t do something stupid like try and cross him. It would be a good place to lay low until Babs and the others came looking for her. Still, she couldn’t help the slight case of nerves that overcame her as she approached the front door of the building. She slipped the bouncer a twenty dollar bill and he raised the ropes, giving her immediate access to the club.As soon as she was inside, she was on the move, making her way to the bar that took up the middle of the room. She took a moment to admire the way the women around the room moved - all sinueous movements and sparkling smiles, all engineered so that they could make the most money for themselves and the bar. And even then, she kept her head on a swivel - keeping an eye on all of the Penguin’s girls who were working around the room. The Iceburg Lounge in her universe had its reputation - but she had to keep reminding herself that this wasn’t her universe anymore.She still needed to make sure that this would be a safe place for her to stay. Not that she couldn’t take care of herself, of course - but it would be nice to not be looking over her shoulder every second that she was here.“Hey,” she called out, waving an arm to flag down the bartender. “Hey!” Still nothing. Darcy sighed, rolling her eyes. After buying her weapons and getting herself some food, she had about forty dollars left. So she reached into her bra, pulling out an only slightly mangled twenty dollar bill, and waved it in the bartenders direction. Almost miraculously, the woman materialized in front of her and grabbed the money out of her hands, instantly pocketing it.“Can I help ya?” she asked, leaning over the bartop.Darcy nodded, trying to tame the wild mop of hair that she had into something slightly more presentable while affecting an accent that was a little more like Jason’s than her own. “Yeah. I need ta talk ta the Bossman.”That was obviously not the answer that the bartender was expecting, because she immediately pulled back. “What?” she asked, an expression of dread creeping across her face.“The Penguin.” she repeated, shooting the other woman a look. “I need ta talk to ‘im.”The bartender - a gorgeous black woman with close-cropped hair and several different piercings - looked at her strangely for a moment before shrugging. Apparently the woman still had reservations. “What for?” she asked suspiciously.“Bout a job.”Darcy was starting to get annoyed. She was tired, her feet were starting to ache. And if the people on either side of her didn’t stop bumping into her, she was going to lose her mind. Not only that, but she had had plans for this weekend back home. Going back to Gotham, she was going to pick up her girlfriend and absolutely misuse her League privileges to take the Zeta tubes on a world tour. It was supposed to be a surprise, and she had worked for months to keep any trace of the trip under lock and key so that there was no chance of Barbara finding out about it.Now she was stuck in a parallel universe, with no idea of how to get home and no help at all.“You wanna talk ta the Penguin about gettin’ a job here?” the bartender repeated, a completely shocked expression on her face. “It’s your funeral.” she shook her head, shooting Darcy a pitying glance before walking away. Darcy watched as she moved out from behind the bar, making her way to where the Penguin’s office should have been. She couldn’t quite help the way her shoulders slumped in relief. At least the woman was actually getting the crime lord instead of just pretending to, like some might have.She turned around, resting against the bartop as she waited and looking around the club. The Iceburg Lounge was packed full, as always - the normal club floor packed with partying people, and private roped off tables for the VIP section. She let her eyes wander the room, pretending like she was just admiring the building but in reality Darcy was cataloguing every entrance and exit that she could find. Then she froze.At the top of the building, there was a walkway that led around the perimeter of the room - grated walkways that held the entrances to private rooms. Each one had glass walls so that the occupants could gaze out at the frenzied crowd below them - but also so that she could see in. And she could already see several familiar faces from her universe - ones that tended to spell trouble. The Falcones, the Triads, the Salvatores. The old mobster gangs.She froze though, tearing her eyes away from the windows up above, when she caught wind of a conversation going on a couple feet away from her. It was so loud in the club at the moment that she was almost surprised that she could hear anything at all, but the man who was causing the scene was drunkenly shouting at the waitress that he had grabbed ahold of.He was using her almost as a crutch to keep himself standing, so that she couldn't move too far without risking him just falling on top of her. “Aw, come on darlin’.” He slurred the words out. “Just, just, just come home with me, an’ I - an’ I - an’ I’m tellin’ ya, I’ll show ya a good time.”The waitress tried to yank her arm away, but his grip on her was too strong. “Mistah, I told you before and I’ll tell you again - get yer hands offa me ‘fore I cut ya.”He laughed, like he couldn't see that her free hand was reaching for her waist, grabbing for her weapon. “Come on, now -”That was when Darcy saw red. “Hey!” She snarled, marching over and physically pulling the man off of the waitress. “She told ya to leave her alone.”The man turned in her direction, stumbling slightly on his feet. “Yeah?” he slurred, looking over her left shoulder. “And what’cha gon’ do about it?”“Good question.” she said, an impish grin on her face as she took a moment to size him up. And then she swung.It wasn't a fair fight, not really. Darcy was five foot two and around one hundred and forty pounds; the man she was up against was six foot three and somewhere around two hundred and fifty pounds.The only way that he was going to win this fight was if he used Jason's favorite stunt - just putting his full weight on a family member, slowly crushing them into the ground. Even Bruce lost when Jason used that trick.Still, he was holding his own at first, up until a swing of his went wild and she was able to get in close and get a few hits in. But before she could really end things, she was dragged away from the fight. “Hey!” a deep voice bellowed as hands grabbed her around the waist. “No fightin’!”“Get yer hands offa me!” She yelled, wrongly assuming that whoever was grabbing her was a friend of the man that she was currently fighting. The words that the man yelled hadn’t fully processed before she had grabbed ahold of the man’s arms to use as a fulcrum and launched herself backwards, flipping in his grip so that she could kick him in the face. The move at least shocked him enough that she was able to break free of his grip, easily landing on the ground. “Aw, fuck.” she moaned under her breath, realizing what she had done.nShe looked at the group that had formed around her - four large men, all spread equidistant around the exact man that she had come looking for. The Penguin looked the same here as he did in her universe - short and on the rounder side, dressed in a full tuxedo and top hat, his ever-present umbrella in hand. Luckily, he hadn't pointed it at her yet, but he still didn't look too happy at the moment. “You must be the woman who was looking for a job here.” he drawled.Since Cobblepot looked more like he wanted to kill her than hire her at the moment, she was going to need a new plan. And fast.“You misunderstood.” she replied, her mind racing a mile a minute before the perfect plan slipped into place. She let herself show a few more teeth than most people did, hardening her facial features slightly as she tensed up, ready to start fighting again if this didn’t go her way. Still, she kept a proud and slightly haughty look on her face, sneering down her nose at the man in front of her. “I wasn’t asking you for a job. I was coming to see if you were willing to do a job.”Oswald hummed, eyeing her cautiously. “I see. Well if you would unhand my bodyguard, we can go to my office and talk things over, Miss…?”This was where it became tricky. She couldn’t be Darcy Grayson-Wayne - in this universe, there was only one Grayson-Wayne, and announcing yourself as one of her family was the same as putting a glowing target on your back. But she still needed a name for herself that her family would recognize when they came looking for her - and it couldn’t be something that this universe’s Batman would know to look for her under.Which really only left one identity that she could use. Back home, her family occasionally pretended to be a small-time mob family so that they could get information from people. Not to mention that there was something almost therapeutic about getting all of their worries and frustrations out while in costume.And while she hasn't had time to really do a deep dive on information about this universe yet, she had done a small amount of research into this version of her family, looking at all of the names and aliases that they used. This was the only one that wasn't used here, and she already had a fairly well-established cover - one that would be easy for her to slip back on like a well-worn hoodie.“Malone.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Darcy waited, trying to catch her breath as she watched the Penguin. She had no idea how he was going to react to her at the moment - all she could do was hope that she made the right choice.Still, her choices paid off in the end. With a wave of his hand, Cobblepot dismissed his men - including the one still laid out on the ground at Darcy’s feet. They parted like the seas, making a path for Darcy to walk. “Why don't we go up to my office to continue this chat of ours.” he said, with something that could almost be called a smile making his lips curl unnaturally. Coming from anyone else, it would have been a suggestion. Coming from the Penguin, it was a command. “This isn't really the place to discuss business.”“Very well.” Darcy nodded, keeping her expressions almost regal. She pulled on any lessons that Alfred and Bruce had given her over the years, using them to help her start to build her cover. She had used the Malone name many times in the past, just like the rest of her siblings. Only this time she had no backup. “But your men stay down here. I don't like being outnumbered in a room by hired thugs.”Penguin studied her for a moment, before agreeing. “If you insist.” he said - despite him never raising his voice, the sound carried around the room fairly easily. “Any weapons must stay put, I'm afraid.”She nodded, easily giving in for the moment. It would be easier in the long run for her if Penguin thought that he was winning at the moment. Still, that didn't make dealing with the smug grin on his face any easier. “I had a feeling you'd say that.” She replied, playing coy. “Still, I understand.”She let his men pat her down, keeping an innocent look on her face even when they pulled three weapons off of her. When the Penguin shot her a look, though, she couldn't help but open her mouth. “Oh come on, Ozzie. You can't expect a girl to travel completely unarmed, can you?” she teased. Oswald Cobblepot was fairly close with her family back home, particularly her and Dick. As the oldest of the Wayne kids, they had been the first to act as hostages - to the point where they held the nicknames to match it. The Penguin was the first of the Rogues who developed a soft spot for Richie and Dee Grayson, but nowhere near the last.“My name is The Penguin.” He bit off every word like it was physically painful for him to say, a glare on his face that rivaled Damian’s - as in he looked more like an adorable child than an angry villian. “If you must, you can call me Cobblepot. I don't recommend anything else.”She couldn't help but roll her eyes with a petulant sigh - her Cobblepot had been Uncle Ozzie since she and Dick had been eleven or twelve. “Fine.” She agreed. “Let's talk business.”Darcy moved over to stand next to Penguin - neither one of them was going to let the other at their backs, especially not after her display against his guard. The crowds around them slowly started to pick back up again as well, only dying down if one of the partiers accidentally made eye contact with either person.The Penguin led them around the edges of the crowd, towards a staircase in the back. He paused when they got there, before taking a step back and gesturing for Darcy to go first. “After you, my dear.” He offered, giving a slight bow. It would have been charming if she hadn't known his counterpart as well as she did. Unfortunately for him, she did know him and his practices fairly well - the second that she went up the stairs before him, she would have a knife in the back for the audacity of standing up to him.“Oh no, but thank you.” She demurred, motioning him forward instead. “Age before beauty, after all.”“Hm.” he missed, completely unimpressed by her. But he went first anyway, two of his guards closing ranks behind him and making sure that she wouldn't have had a shot at his exposed back even if she was looking for it.Not a word was said between any of them as they made their way up the stairs, heading towards the Penguin’s office. Darcy found herself studying the club around her more than anything else in that time - from the art-deco style decorations around the place to the guards stationed at every exit.Finally, they were inside the office, just the two of them. “Remind me again what you said your name was?” Cobblepot asked as he went around his desk, sitting down behind it.“Malone.” Darcy told him, starting standing in front of the desk. She knew the Penguin would take it as some kind of power play. In reality, though, Darcy was dead on her feet. She knew the second that she sat down she would fall asleep, and that really wouldn't help her image at all. “Martha Malone.”“Malone?” he repeated, raising an eyebrow skeptically. He knew all of the old families of Gotham, and that wasn’t one that he had heard of before. “How can I be of assistance to you, Miss Malone?” Cobblepot asked, sounding slightly condescending.Darcy wasn’t too surprised - she didn’t really look the part of any kind of respectable businessperson at the moment. She was still in the clothes that she had been wearing when she had first arrived in this alternate Gotham. She also had some mud on her boots, dirt on her cheek, and she didn’t want to even think about what her hair looked like at the moment.Still, she kept her head held high as she started the man down. “My family is looking to start up business in Gotham.” She said, giving him a look as she let her eyes wander around the office. “The rest of them should be coming along soon, but I want everything to be ready when they get here.”He immediately seemed guarded. “Really? And what exactly does that mean?”She breathed in - this was part of things that she had planned for, at least. She knew what to do here. “It means three million dollars in your pocket if you get me identification paperwork, someone to help me find a warehouse, and twenty men to start. The rest of it I can do myself.”. She had been plotting this since she had been forced to use the Malone name less than twenty minutes ago. Luckily, thanks to years in the caped community and the frankly legendary prank wars that happened at Wayne Manor, she was very good at thinking on her feet.“You’re moving into the area? From where?” She almost sighed. It was obvious that the man was fishing for information, and he wasn't even good about being subtle at it. “Gotham doesn’t take kindly to outsiders.”“Not that it’s any of your business, Ozzie.” She rolled her eyes. “But not to worry - I’m from Gotham, I’ve just been away for a while.”. Either way it was true, even if this wasn't her own Gotham.“And what if Gothamites don’t let you?”“Gothamites always accept their own.” She replied simply. She paused for barely a moment before turning away from him. In the window’s reflection, she could see the Penguin fuming at the perceived slight, and she grinned. It was so easy to irritate him, sometimes. “Oh Ozzie, you saw what I did to your goons out there. Do you really want to test me?”He smirked, reaching down for his umbrella even as he kept one eye on her. “I rather think I do, my dear.”She was already in motion by the time he picked up his umbrella - ducking down underneath the desk so that any bullets that came out of his umbrella missed her completely. Then she used the ability that all Bats had - blending in with the shadows around the office, she moved through the shadows until she was behind the Penguin. And then, she struck.She lunged forward even as she palmed her blade, wrapping one arm up and around Penguin's shoulder while the other - the one with the knife - wrapped around his neck, her blade coming to rest against his carotid artery.She could hear Bruce in the back of her mind, screaming about how they didn't use violence. And Bruce didn't. It wasn't his fault that the rest of their family had a much more relaxed stance on the topic. And if it would help her to survive in this universe's Gotham, then she would do what had to be done.Still, she wasn't going to actually hurt him unless she had to. “Ah, ah, ah, Ozzie.” She tsked, letting the blade barely touch his throat. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” She practically purred the words out.“How? How did you get that in here? My men searched you!”“Ceramic blade, Ozzie.” she replied, whispering the words into the man's ear. She didn't want them to be found out before she was ready, after all. So she grabbed ahold of the man, dragging him slightly away from the desk - that way he would have less of a chance of pressing any kind of hidden alarms. “Besides, they don’t look as hard once they’ve found the first three. Third time’s the charm, after all.”Now there was a hint of fear in the crime boss’s voice - so small that it would be undetectable to anyone else. “What do you want, then?” still, there was an edge to his voice that told her he wasn’t beaten, yet.She cooed, shaking her head as she pulled away slightly, kicking away his umbrella as she moved. She knew that the Penguin had seen her fight - and while the Penguin was a powerful enemy, he wasn’t anywhere near them in a hand-to-hand fight. “Now then, Cobblepot.” she sighed, shaking her head slightly as she rested a hip against his desk, still keeping the knife in her hand loosely pointed at him. She looked relaxed in every way - a clever trick that she had learned from Cass at one point, to get people to underestimate her. “I think we’ve established what could happen if you were to really make me angry - you could at least try to be a little bit nicer, you know. So for now, I just need one more thing from you.”“What?”“A computer.”Without hesitation, he gestured towards the computer on his desk, and she grinned. “See, that wasn't so hard, was it? Now then. Let's get to work.”“What are you doing?”“Hacking into Wayne Enterprises.” she replied casually. It wasn’t even hacking, really. Bruce was apparently incredibly predictable in this universe - his passwords were still the same thing that they had been when she had first been adopted. Her Bruce had changed them to his kids’ initials and birthdays, years ago - updating the passwords for each new kid that came along. At this point it took him two minutes to put in passwords for anything. “Specifically, Bruce Wayne's personal bank accounts.”“What?” the Penguin hurried over to her, watching over her shoulder as she effortlessly cleaned out a few of the man’s bank accounts. “Are you insane?”“I've been asked that before.” she shrugged, sneaking a USB that she still had in her pocket from Tony’s lab onto the computer. She downloaded everything that she could find onto the USB, copying files so that she could read them over later. “Still the same answer, too, I think.”“Which is?”She shrugged. “Jury's out.”“You can't rob Brucie Wayne!” the Penguin argued. “He’ll come after you!”She didn’t flinch. “Will he?” she mused, quickly wiping her history from the computer. The last thing that they needed was the Penguin to have a backdoor into the Wayne’s accounts. “Because I just took seven million dollars from him. Now, your cut of the money will be deposited into your accounts the second that I get identification papers from you. Now then, I’ll be leaving you. I expect to have those papers ready in a few days time - let’s give you forty-eight hours.”With that said, she stood. Wiping imaginary dust off of her pants, she turned to give the Penguin one last look.“I’ll be back soon for those papers. In the meantime, though - is there any way that I could get a change of clothes?” she asked, shooting him a look. He looked confused more than anything else, but still nodded dumbly. She grinned. “Good. I’ll write down my measurements for your men, then.” with that, she walked out the door.It took a moment for Cobblepot to come back to his senses. But the moment that he did, he was out the front door, already ordering his men to start shooting at the Malone woman. But it was too late - she was already gone.In her place, there was only a note on the floor, with three numbers written on it. 39-27-38He barged his way through the crowds on the dance floor, making his way over to the bar. “Lillian!” he called his head bartender over - the same one who had come to get him when Malone had first shown up. He slammed the note on the bartop, hard enough that the sound rang out. “What does this mean?” he demanded.The bartender studied the note, then laughed to herself. “They're measurements, boss. That broad really ordered herself some clothes, huh? Malone's got balls.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Life wasn't incredibly hard after that - lonely, but never hard. There were the normal issues, of course - starting up her crime family while trying to stay under the radar of the Bats and the Waynes the entire time; adjusting to this new universe and trying to figure out a way to navigate it at the same time.It almost was enough to make her feel bad for Jason. Not enough, though.Still, it was tricky. When she wasn't at the penthouse apartment she had set up researching the current universe she had fallen into, she was at the Gotham Public Library - avoiding this universe's version of her girlfriend and trying to find out more about this universe's Gotham at the same time.So far, she had found out that most things were the same, although there were a few differences. Wally West was dead, in this world. Which meant Bart was living in Central instead of Blüdhaven, and Iris and Barry were having more than a little trouble with newborn twins and two speedsters in the house. It also meant that there was no Flamebird helping Nightwing in Bludhaven, making Gotham’s sister city just a little bit less safer than it would have been otherwise. There was also barely any mention of Catwoman in the last several months, and no signs of Selina in the house.That was alarming, for Darcy. Selina and Bruce had started their on-again, off-again relationship before she and Dick had been adopted. And after that, she had stuck around for every kid until Bruce had proposed and they had gotten married a year or so later, in a ceremony that was talked about for months afterwards. But in this universe, there was nothing - Bruce and Selina had dated for years, just like back home. But something changed, because they went from being happily together to Selina disappearing from the Gotham social scene.The Justice League had still formed in the same way, though. But they were the main team on this Earth - while the Titans and Outsiders existed, it was all as if they were just a pipeline for the Justice League.No one in this universe had ever even heard of the Avengers. Stark wasn't a household name, Captain America has never existed. Even Fury and SHIELD weren't around.She hadn't had time to look into much more than that, though - she knew how many vigilantes were in Gotham at the moment and their names, but nothing about her family and their specifics. That would come later, once she had gotten just a little more established in the criminal world.That was what she was up to tonight. She had already made a small name for herself in the criminal underground, and as such she had managed to wrangle an invitation to a small gathering of different mob families. As such, she came to impress. She was the newest player in town, but she had already started to make a name for herself. The gathering was at the Iceburg Lounge, again - this universe seemed to not really have any other places in Gotham that criminals gathered in for some reason. She had dressed appropriately for the event, in a pinstriped grey skirt suit and sky-high stilettos, a fedora perched on her head. It was rare that she ever used the Martha Malone, but she did pull a lot of her character from the old mobster movies that she used to watch with Bruce.“Hey, Malone!” she paused for a second, turning to see who had called her alias’s name. It was one of the Falcone boys - Nicholas Falcone, who was currently working his way up through the ranks in his father’s business. He called her over with a wave of his hand. And after a moment of staring at the man, she crossed the room to him.“Can I help you?” she asked cooly, studying the man. It was times like this that made her body ache with the thought of how much she missed her family already. If she was back home, she would have had backup in the room with her in the form of another member of the Malone family. She would have had Oracle in her ear, feeding her any information that she might have needed. Now she was alone.Still, she pulled herself out of her thoughts, needing to keep her focus on what was going on around her. “It’s more of a question about all of us helping out each other.” Nicholas said, drawing her with him over to a table where some of the other families sat. He pulled out a chair for her, waiting until she was seated to sit down herself. “See, there’s a player on the board who’s been taking out the competition.”She shrugged, looking around at everyone around the table. They were all studying her closely, as if waiting to see how she would react to their idea. “That doesn’t sound like a bad thing.” she couldn’t help but point out. And really, it didn’t. Someone else taking out the competition for her would make life easier for her in the long run. It gave her one less thing to worry about, as long as they didn’t decide to come after her.But Nicholas shook his head. “Yeah, but he doesn’t stick to any one family.” he explained, flagging down a waiter absentmindedly. “He’ll take out anyone who even remotely gets in his way.”She leaned back in her seat, pretending to think it over. The waiter came over before she could answer, though, and she added her request in with the rest of the table. Still, she waited until the man had walked away to continue speaking. “Sounds like a good person to dispose of.” she admitted, eyeing them all cooly. She didn’t know what exactly was about to happen, but there was a sort of tension in the air that hadn’t been there a moment before. In that moment she knew that she was absolutely going to hate whatever they were going to tell her. “And judging by how you said ‘he’, you already know who this person is. What's the plan, then?”“We bribed the bartender to give Hood a specific bottle of liquor tonight - a poisoned one.”There it was.The words made her freeze, her breath catching in her throat and her heart skipping a beat. “Hood?” she repeated, going deadly still. “As in Red Hood?”“Yeah.” one of the other men - Marius Santori, she thought his name was - cheered, raising his glass in a toast to their master plan. “Bastard's better off dead, anyway.”She paused, her mind racing as she tried to think of a way to spin this in her favor. Still, there was nothing that she could think of at the moment - if this was her universe, it would be a different story. But that was the issue that she kept running into - this wasn't her home universe. “That's a good way to get the Bats on your tail, ain't it though?”One of the lower level goons snorted, crossing his arms over his chest as he shot her an incredulous look. “Why would they care?” He asked condescendingly, and she snapped.Darcy spun around, stealing Falcone’s pistol from its holster as she turned. In one fluid motion, she was pulling the gun out of the man's holster, and shooting the idiotic goon who had made the mistake of opening his mouth. There was no need to undo the safety, even - this was Gotham. No one used a safety. In the time it took to undo the safety you would already be being attacked by a Bat or a Bird.Everyone froze - all of their eyes trained on the goon at first, then turning to look at Darcy like a hive mind. “I'll only say this once, so make sure the word gets out.” She said coldly, completely ignoring the sounds of pain from the goon who was now on the floor, clutching at his injured leg with both hands. He would live, that much she was sure of. “Anyone who tries to lay a finger on Hood will lose those fingers. Hood is under my protection. Am I understood?”The up-and-coming mafiosos stared at her, nothing but shock on all of their faces. “You're crazy, lady.”“Glad you boys have finally noticed.” She couldn't hold back her grin at that - the classic Robin grin that had made grown men have to change their pants. “But you lay a finger on that little shit, and you'll have me to deal with. He's mine.”She wasn’t sure what was going to happen next. All that she knew was that she had to make sure that Jason lived through the day, no matter what. But after a moment, they looked at her with a certain level of respect. “Alright, Malone.” Nickolas said, nodding his head slowly. “Knew ya had it in you. But that's a big fish to go after all by yourself. Sure ya don't need any help?”She couldn’t help her slight sigh of relief at the explanation that the mobsters had come up with. They thought that she was planning to kill him. It was far easier to go along with the storyline that they had come up with on their own. “I can handle him.” she scoffed, tucking the stolen pistol into the back of her skirt. “Watch and learn, boys.”The crowds around the bar parted for her, allowing her a clear path to the bar - and a clear shot.It only took her a second to pull, aim, and fire her gun. And before Hood could even open the bottle, it shattered in his hand. Everyone else in the Iceburg Lounge ducked for cover, except for Hood. He just glared at her, dusting the shards of glass off of his clothes. “What’d’ya do that for?” he griped. “That was a perfectly good bottle of tequila!”Darcy sighed, walking over to the bar and sliding into the stool next to this universe’s version of her brother. “It was poisoned, genius.” she groaned, ordering a bottle of whiskey instead. If they had poisoned that specific bottle, it was because they knew that it would be the kind that Hood would drink. Therefore, every other type of liquor should be perfectly safe. She pulled the cork out with her teeth, taking a swig from the bottle before handing it to her brother.He took it with only a bit of hesitation, then seemed to recognize her and took his first swig. “Oh, it's you.” he said, drinking some more of it. “The one from the portal.”She couldn’t help the snort of laughter that bubbled up. “Elequent as ever, Hood.”He eyed her cautiously. “Seems you got me at a disadvantage here, doll.” he drawled. “You know me, but I don’t know you.”“Name’s Malone. Martha Malone.”“Malone…” He huffed as he looked over at her, his domino mask changing with his expressions. And a small part of her couldn’t help but be relieved that at least that remained consistent through the dimensions. “What are you doing here?”“Saving your life, apparently.”But alternate!Jason shook his head. “Nah, that's not what I mean. You’re the one obsessed with Goldie. Why are you helping me?”Her hair whipped around her face as she turned to look at him, her confusion obvious on her face. “What?” she asked.Jason gave her a shit-eating grin - the kind that he would give her and the rest of their siblings back home right before he would lay on them with his full weight. “Shouldn’t you be out there stalking him or something?” he asked, all too innocently.“Why do you think I'm obsessed with Dick?”“Ya only wanted to talk to him, didn't ya?” Jason replied, looking her up and down with judging eyes as he stole the bottle out of her hand. “Ya ain’t got a chance, so ya know - he only likes redheads.”She visibly recoiled, enough that the Red Hood almost laughed at the distress on her face. “Don’t be disgusting, you shithead.” she snapped, shoving at him with one elbow in an attempt to unbalance him from his barstool. She rolled her eyes when he didn’t move an inch, before turning her attention back to her alternate younger brother. “Fine, change subjects then.” Darcy decided. “How's Arsenal? I was so sorry to hear about what happened to Speedy.”He turned to look at her so quickly that Darcy could hear his neck pop. “What did you just say?” he asked, his voice going hard.Darcy winced, immediately starating to babble slightly as she tried to fix the mistake that she had just made. “Oh god, I just stepped in it didn't I.” she groaned, feeling her cheeks flush with embarrassment. “What, in this universe you and Roy are fighting or something? You still see Lian, right?”He glared at her again for a moment, before draining the rest of the bottle in one go. When he spoke next, his voice rough from the alcohol. “Lian… Lian is gone.”She froze. “What?”“Lian?” he repeated. “Lian Harper? I thought you knew.”“Why would I know that?”“Because you said that you had heard about Speedy.”Now Darcy was even more confused. The only research that she had found about Speedy was Roys’s run as Green Arrow’s sidekick. “I meant Roy’s Speedy!” she shot back, her voice getting increasingly high-pitched. “ With the cloning and all of that other stuff. You and Roy let your daughter become a cape?”“Keep your voice down!” Jason hissed, looking around them to see if there was anyone neary who might have overheard. Portal girl was wrong - he had never had any kind of romantic feelings for Roy Harper, that would be ridiculous. “What do you mean, me and Roy?” any abnormalities in his voice were because of how weird things were at the moment. No other reason.But Miss Malone was staring at him strangely, shaking her head in disbelief. “What?” she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper. “No, no, I did the research this time to make sure that I wasn't springing anything on anyone. You and Roy live together.”“Yeah, he needed someone to keep him from killing himself after Lian was gone.” Jason defended. And Darcy could hear the certainty in his voice - she didn’t buy it for more than a second, but he genuinely believed that that was his only reason for moving in with Roy Harper.“So then who…?” she began, meaning to ask him about who he had in his life - because even with how annoying Roy Harper could be, he and Kori were the best thing that had happened to her younger brother. But before she could say anything else, her gaze landed on her brother’s neck.More specifically, the white scar that went straight across his throat. One that he didn’t have in her own universe.In that moment, Darcy saw red. Her hand lifted without her even realizing it, and she couldn’t stand the way that her brother flinched back from her touch. “Jay… your neck.” she said softly, to the point where even he almost didn’t hear her.“What about it?” he asked, like he hadn’t just upset her entire world by showing off the thin line across his throat. Her hand brushed against the mark and he jerked backwards like he had been shot. “Oh. That.”“What happened?” she asked, her voice barely more than a growl. Jason and Damian were the ones in the family that were said to have tempers - but no one talked about how the Grayson twins had snuck out of the house for months when they had first been adopted, hunting down the man who had murdered their parents.Jason snorted a laugh, opening up another bottle of liquor and getting to work. “Dear ol’ dad, who else?”“What?” Darcy was horrified. “B did that to you?” she couldn’t think of a single reason why that would have happened - the first thing that her Bruce had done once she and Tim had brought Jason back home was fall to his knees in front of his son, holding onto him as if he was the most precious thing on the planet.And Jason just shrugged, as if it was totally normal for him to admit that their dad had tried to kill him. “Yeah, back before he knew it was me.” he continued talking while Darcy tried to find some kind of mental stability. She already hadn’t liked this universe - it was just similar enough to her own to make her homesick. But this revelation had her reeling, and she wanted her dad more than anything else right now. Her Bruce would never lay a finger on any of his kids. “Still, I did the same thing to Replacement…”And her Jason would never knowingly hurt any of his siblings. But none of that was important at the moment in time. There were a million things that she needed to take care of right now - playing therapist for an alternate version of her family was the least of her concerns at the moment. So she pushed on, ignoring all of the little voices in the back of her head that were telling her otherwise.“I need a favor.” she said plainly, leaning in just a little bit closer so that she could be sure that no one would overhear them. If anyone was trying to watch them, it would look like a seduction in progress, although later on no one would be able to agree about who was seducing who. Their words were disguised by the bottles in their hands, used as shields to keep their mouths covered when needed.“What?” be asked, brows furrowed in confusion as he looked over at her. “You do know who I am, right? Yer pals over there tried tp kill me!”“And I saved you. Which means you owe me.”“Owe you?” he parroted her words back at her, the same confused look from earlier back on his face. And - not that she would ever admit it to this Jason - it also matched the look that Bruce would get on his face when something confused him.Expressions were a learned habit, it seemed.“I saved your life.” she challenged.But the Red Hood just scoffed, swallowing down another mouthful of the amber liquor. “Please, I would’a been fine.”She cocked an eyebrow at him and he shrunk back almost instinctively. “You sure about that?”“Fine.” he muttered petulantly. “Wha’d’ya want?”“A Second.”“Huh?”She finally asked for a shot glass from the bartender, and got a fresh bottle of liquor to go with it. She poured herself a shot and downed it, but then pushed the bottle aside. She still wanted to keep a semi-clear head for the rest of the night. “I want to borrow one of your people to help me run my operation. I’ve got the manpower, but I need the help to keep them all in line. I need a Second.” she explained.“I don't know….”Darcy stared at him for a moment, before sighing. “You drive a hard bargain, Hood.” she reached over the bar, mouthing an apology at the bartender as she stole a napkin and a pen. Quickly, she wrote down coordinates on the napkin, sliding it over to the alternate version of her brother. “Follow these coordinates, you’ll find an old chest buried beneath the tree. That’ll have all of the money that you might need in it.”But he still didn’t seem convinced.Darcy huffed, folding her arms on top of the bar and laying her head on them. She knew she was pouting, but by this point she didn’t care. “Oh come on, you'll get back whoever you give me and more when I leave.” she whined.“You sound so sure that they'll come looking for you.”“What, my family?” she asked, surprised. “Of course they will.” no matter what happened in this universe, that was something that she would always believe.He snorted, looking at her out of the corner of his eye as he took another swing from the bottle. He was starting to act a little tipsy, but Darcy knew that that was all it was - an act. It was almost impossible for her brother to get drunk after his dunk in the Lazarus Pits. “Must be better than mine, then.” he said bitterly. “What're they like, the Malones?”Jason was watching Martha Malone carefully. It didn’t take much brainpower to work out that it was an alias that she was using - Bruce went out as Matches Malone every once in a while to gather information. And just by how easily she responded to the name meant that it was one that she used regularly. Adding that to the fact that the first name she was using was Martha - and the similarities that she had to his own older brother - and Jason had a fairly good idea about who he was actually dealing with. He was just waiting for the woman to mess up.“Oh come on, Little Wing. You know I can't tell you that.” her eyes widened in her panic as she realized what she had just said, and she quickly tried to backpedal. “I mean -”He smirked, holding up the bottle in a sort of salute. “Its alright, Grayson.” he said quietly. “Your secrets safe with me.”For the first time since she had arrived in this dimension, Darcy felt all of the tension in her body snap, like she was a puppet who’s strings had finally been cut. Just the sheer relief that someone else knowing about her past offered was more than anything else. “Grayson-Wayne, actually.” she said quietly. “B adopted us right after you, where I come from.”“Us?”“Me and Dickiebird.”That was what made Jason pause - not any of what she had just told him, just the mention of her twin. “Huh.” he hummed. “I thought…”“What?”“I don't know.” He replied, shrugging. No one else would have caught the hint of bashfulness in his body language - not unless they had known Jason for years. “That ya were like an alternate version of Dickhead or somethin’.”Any response that she might have given was cut off by a drunk man on the other side of the Iceburg Lounge shouting over at the pair. “‘ey, Hood! Got ya’self a moll?”“I ain't no moll, asshole.” she practically snarled the words, her fury evident in every inch of her body language. “So? Do we have a deal or what?”“Alright, Malone. You got a deal.”