Chapter 8
This was the last time that she ever even attempted to help the Avengers on a mission. The last time, she had ended up with a sprained wrist. The time before that, she had ended up covered in a green goo that smelled like rotten onions - the smell had taken almost a week to come completely out of her hair.
Jason had called her Shrek the entire time, because he was an asshole.
But this time, they were facing Kang the Conqueror, and just as she was about to come up behind him and steal the ray gun that he was using, she got caught. He swung around just a bit too quickly, aiming his time gun - and wasn’t that just an awful name for a weapon, sounding more like something that Condiment King would have come up with as opposed to a real supervillian - and shooting her with a flash of bright blue light before she had a second to even think about moving out of the way.
And then the world was no more.
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Everything was pitch black for a moment, and then there was blinding light. As she fell, she tried to take it all in, despite the way it all blurred around her. But she could still place where she was - in a familiar area, one that she hadn’t stepped foot in in almost ten years. The large cave echoed around her as she rolled to a stop, popping up into a ready stance and looking around herself.
The zeta tubes were off to one side, with the holo-screens on one side and all of the computer equipment. The tunnels leading off to the garages and the living areas were on one side, and the training equipment looked like it had just been powered down.
Almost instantly, it was like she was transported into a memory, and her stance loosened. Not by much - she could tell the Robin in front of her was Dick, and he would know what she was going to tell them, the rest of the team wouldn’t know. And as she looked around - Superboy, Miss M, Kid Flash, Zatanna, and Aqualad - she couldn’t help the small grin that crossed her face.
“Who are you and what are you doing here?” she didn’t even know who had spoken at first, she was too busy just studying her surroundings. Even then, she was quickly trying to see who was closest to what exits, if Red Tornado was anywhere to be seen - as well as trying to subtly put as much distance between herself and Miss Martian as she possibly could. This Mega’nn hadn’t gone insane over Kon yet, trying to control his mind. But if she was remembering the timeline correctly, she had already been using her powers much more than was right - or safe.
Still, everything else flew out of her mind the second that she laid eyes on her old team.
“Oh my god you’re all so tiny.” she practically gushed, “And the outfits! Why B let us run around Gotham in neon colors is the question, although the stealth suits that we switched to were at least a bit better.”
“Who are you?” one of them asked, and another one was quick to jump in. “What are you doing here, this is a secret base.”
And despite all of her training, she couldn’t help the small snort of amusement that escaped her. “Yeah, cause using the old JLA base is so secretive.”
Kaldur stepped forward first, magic sparking down his back to activate his water swords. “How do you know that?” he asked, and she almost cooed. While Kaldur’ahm would grow to be a feared warrior one day, right now he was little more than a guppy, still trying to fill in the shoes that Aquaman and Batman had given him. “Who are you?”
“Kaldur! Oh you're so tiny - wait, where's Roy?” she asked, spinning to get a full look around the team’s lair. If she had her timeline right, this was before the fake-Roy joined up with them, but she was still a little disoriented from time-travel. And she wanted to make fun of Jason’s fiance. Because as much as she liked Roy and thought he was good for Jason, his trucker hats were bad enough, but the little Speedy hat was far worse. “I wanna see if his little hat is as dumb as I remember it being.”
But it was Robin who caught her attention when he stepped forward, weapon already drawn and ready to go. “Who are you?” he asked, a slight rasp in his voice. At the moment, he sounded like a kitten, but once he was at their current age - in the future that he hadn’t lived yet because time travel was incredibly strange like that - that rasp would become a growl that would be used to terrify anyone who tried to come after their family.
She locked eyes with the younger version of her twin from behind her mask. “Run Robin, run. Run very fast. But not from the future, run from the past.”
It was almost impossible to tell if you weren’t a Bat, but Darcy could see the way his eyes widened behind the domino mask. “You're kidding me.”
“Afraid not - although I’ve been itching to change the codes since there’s now more than just Robin, but that would kind of defeat the purpose of them.” she admitted with a wry shrug, before bowing deeply and striking a dramatic pose. “Nightingale, code DG04, at your service. Anyone mind telling me what year it is?”
“Nightingale?”
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Dick was confused. Darcy was home sick this weekend, which was fine considering that he and Wally had had plans to hang out at Mount Justice anyway, and they still hadn’t let the Team know that there was more than one Robin. And while there was part of him that was still incredibly confused about how this woman that was claiming to be a future-version of his twin sister had appeared in front of him, the larger part of him was just surprised that she was there at all without him there as well. They had been inseparable until they were eight years old, and then once Bruce had adopted them both it was even more rare to see one without the other.
Even now, while they were eleven, the only time that the pair were really separated was when one of them was with the Team.
Still, the biggest thing that was confusing him was her name change. “Nightingale?” He asked, looking her over. “You're not Robin anymore?”
She cackled, pulling her domino off in a practiced motion. And despite the obvious differences, the woman in front of him was still obviously his sister - just a much older version. “Not for a long time, Rob. Once the girls came in it became a lot harder for us to pass as each other.”
The Team couldn’t really help the giggles that her words caused, especially once they saw how Robin relaxed around her. If the most paranoid member of the team accepted that the stranger was who they said they were, that was good enough for the rest of them.
Kid Flash was the most excited of them all - enough that he was literally bouncing off of the walls. The original Flash - Wally’s Uncle Barry - had experienced time travel before. And while he knew he shouldn’t, Wally couldn’t really help the flood of questions that escaped him as he ran circles around the room.
Darcy laughed, shaking her head as she made herself comfortable on the floor. “You know I can’t answer anything, Walls.” she reminded the redhead. “I’m not risking changing the future.” Still, she couldn’t help but grin at how adorable he was back then - and her grin only grew when she saw how her twin was trying to hide the awestruck expression on his face every time the speedster got close to him.
She couldn’t wait to tease her twin about the crush that he had on his husband whenever she got home.
The rest of the Team was trying to be subtle as they examined her from afar - all, that is, except for Miss Martian. Darcy flipped back up to her feet before dropping into a fighting stance. She pulled out the electrified bo staff that she had been partial to lately. Instantly the Team was on high alert, until they saw the Martian staring intently at their current visitor, her hair floating around her face and eyes softly glowing.
“M’gann, I don’t want to hurt you.” Darcy said carefully, her grip on her bo tightening. “But if you try and attack me, I will end this.” she was trying to stay as calm as possible, but her heart was racing. She remembered why most of them had stopped talking to M’gann, why she had gone back to Mars. She also remembered a time period where none of them knew if they were actually in control of their actions or not. “Stand. Down.”
Miss Martian continued to move forward - until a Batarang flew past her head, the eerie cackling that Robin made projecting from it. That - and the way it clipped her shoulder - had her freezing in her tracks. The entire team froze, watching as Robin took up a defensive position in front of his sister. “You fight her, you fight me.”
She couldn’t help the snort of laughter that escaped her as she watched the rest of the Team react to her twin’s ultimatum. Wally immediately backed down, and so did Artemis. Kaldur thought about it for a moment before powering his weapons down. Superboy was the only one left that seemed like he even vaguely wanted to fight - and that was solved quickly and by Darcy reaching into one of her pockets and pulling out a small shard of kryptonite.
Darcy laughed. “Oh I can’t wait to remind you all of this in a few years time - at least for you.” she amended. “For me it will just be a little while longer.”
“How do you know?” Superboy asked, arms crossed over his chest as he continued to study her. There was something about her…
Darcy noticed his staring, and shot him a wink and a smug grin in return. “Close your mouth, Kon, you’ll catch flies.” she teased. She especially couldn’t wait to go home and tell a certain younger brother of hers about the interaction that she had just had with his boyfriend.
Any other discussions between them all came to a quick stop when the equivalent of a sonic boom echoed through Mount Justice, and there was a newcomer standing amongst them all. “Nightingale!” the man called, scooping up Darcy practically before she knew he was there.
It was a tall redheaded man, in a Flash red suit - and that alone was enough to have Wally excited. It had to be the future him. Until he watched the Future Him pick Darcy up and spin her around before planting a kiss on her cheek - it just looked and felt wrong to him.
There was no denying the slight pang of relief that hit him when the newcomer turned around to reveal a large golden bird sigil across his chest. This new man might have been a speedster, but that was a sign that he definitely wasn’t a Flash - which meant that his future self wasn’t dating Dick’s twin sister. Thank the speedforce.
“Everyone, allow me to introduce you all to Bludhaven’s newest hero. This is Flamebird.” Darcy introduced them. “I’m sure you remember everyone… I guess we’ll call you FB? Or would WG work better?”
“Either one works to protect my identity.” the man shrugged. “But let’s get you out of here. We’ve got a worried priestess of Apollo at the cave.”
Darcy snorted, shaking her head. “Make a joke one time, and you never hear the end of it.” she muttered under her breath, before holding her hands out to her brother-in-law. Wally picked her up quickly in a bridal carry, sending the rest of the Team a look.
The speedster grinned, sending them all a sloppy salute before readjusting his grip on his sister-in-law. “I’d say it was nice meeting you, but I’ve already done that. So I guess… see you all again in the future?”
Darcy laughed, shaking her head. “Come on, loverboy. Let’s get you home.”