Alternates
She was getting tired of Jane's portals. Never Jane, just her portals. Still, her best friend was close enough to a breakthrough in her research that it had been nonstop portals 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.
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.
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She was spit out 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 - 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.
"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?”
"Who are you?" It was Dick - still suited up as Nightwing - that was facing her down, 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 - was 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 what 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.
It was with a bit of shock and horror that she realized he was staying back from her because he thought she was going to attack him.
“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 there were several family members missing at the moment, she couldn’t really find it in her to be worried. After all, if Kate, Selina, or Babs were 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.