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"Let's go."

Tim tightened his fingers around his staff as they approached the weird invisible elevator again, ready to extend it to full length if he needed to. He wasn't sure what to expect in this place, but he didn't want to appear threatening until he had to. Like when they got to a point where they could demand to be sent home. Bart and Kon both had to save the world, and as for him... well... he was in Gotham for a few days helping Batman, and Batman never reacted well to MIA Robins.

They started going up again and Tim looked out over... a city. What the hell kind of crazy city was this? It wasn't like anything he'd ever seen on Earth, which meant they were probably a long way away from home.

Hn. Well, they'd just have to find a way to get back.

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Tim thought he could be forgiven for staring. Batman... was a kid? "But... You're my age. Even Bruce didn't become Batman until he was older. How the Hell are you Batman?"

Terry really wasn't sure how to answer that. He could go into detail, about his dad and Derek Powers. But this kid, even if he did seem to know the old man pretty well, was still a stranger. And his dad really was a tough subject for Terry. So he went with the condensed version.

"I stole the Batsuit for... my own purposes. Bruce must have been impressed, because he let me continue to be Batman."

Not really helping Tim get the rude staring under control. "You stole the Batsuit?" he asked, repeating the guy's words out of a sense of disbelief. "Seriously?" He couldn't imagine anyone getting away with that... ever. And certainly not being allowed to be Batman afterward.

"Yeah, seriously." Though, sometimes Terry thought he was insane. Him, Batman? He was a screw up and an ex-con. Just why exactly was he the Bat?

"There was a lot of bad stuff going on." He said, trying his best to explain it to the other young man, as well as himself. "I'd already found the Bat-Cave by accident. I asked the old man to do something, but he wouldn't. And the suit was just there, between the original and the Robin suits, just collecting dust. He wasn't using it - why couldn't I?"

Oh, that sounded familiar. A costume collecting dust, and the person who'd used to wear it unwilling to take it up again when it was clear that someone were needed. Tim understood that.

But--something else he'd said had caught Tim's attention.

"What happened to Robin?"

"Well, according to the Commish', Dick Grayson went off to be Nightwing, or whatever the name was. And, Tim Drake..."

He paused, thinking about what to say. Jaime had made it pretty clear not to say too much about the future. And Tim Drake was a pretty big, scary part of the future.

"I can't really say what happened to him."

Better to lie then to face the wrath of a short hispanic guy.

"Nightwing," Tim agreed absently, his attention more focused on the rest of the other guy's words. He was lying--obviously he was lying. He knew what had happened to Tim.

And it probably wasn't adopting a new name like Dick had, or the guy would have said something.

"What? Did I turn into a psycho murdering dictator and have to be put down?" The question was asked with a wry smile, but his tone belied a certain amount of desperation--he didn't want to become that version of himself--the insane Batman they'd met in the future.

"What?" Terry looked at the young man - really looked at him. No wonder he looked familiar. Sure, he'd be older when he'd meet Terry again... taller, heavier, with greying hair. But it was still there. He was amazed he hadn't realized it before.

"You're... you're Tim Drake?" He asked, quietly, though he really didn't have to.

"In the flesh." He gave him an uncertain smile. "I'm guessing I don't age gracefully."

"No, no..." Terry said quickly. Another lie, but Tim was clearly in his prime - maybe he hadn't even hit it yet. Everything he'd ever heard about him had been good. He should know about that, not the mess with the Joker.

But still, there was something he had to say.

"My name's Terry McGinnis. You and I are going to meet in the future. A pretty long time into your future, really. My past. And I already know I don't get to say this then - I respect you, a lot. And I'm sorry."

Tim blinked, surprised. "Uh... thanks," he said, coloring a little and covering it with a grin. "I'm not going to ask why you're sorry--I'm sure I'll find out someday. It's nice to meet you, Terry."

Terry did his best to hide a slight wince. It was great to meet Tim in person, but he personally wasn't looking forward to their future meeting. Getting to know a person makes having the literally beat the hell out of them a lot more painful.

But he pushed that out of his head, and smiled. "It's nice to meet you, too. It's good to know I'm not the only person here who's from Gotham."

Tim laughed. "Tell me about it."

He decided to let worries about the future slide for the moment. What would come would come and--Kon had already promised to keep him from going psycho, and whatever Terry was not saying... Maybe he'd be able to avoid that, too.

"So what does Gotham look like in the future? Flying cars? Because I really want one of those."

It really would be best for the both of them if Terry didn't ever bring up the Joker incident again. It would be tough, though - how exactly could he act around Tim?

He tried to force those thoughts into the very back of his head. Tim was Robin - in a way, he was family. Like a really cool, vigilante uncle that just happened to be about the same age as him at the moment.

"Flying cars? Man, I have a flying Batmobile. How shway is that?"

Tim's eyebrow went up at the slang term. "'Shway?' Is that like 'cool?' Because a flying Batmobile would be ten kinds of awesome." So would a flying Redbird, for that matter. He wondered if Terry would be willing to give him a hint on the technology involved.

Probably not.

To Terry, that was perhaps the peskiest part of this time travel mess - no one understood his slang.

"Yeah, it's pretty much the same as 'cool'. Which the car is. Way too cramped to have another person inside, and even worse when the old man makes me take that mutt of his, but it's still badass. Especially the looks on people's faces when it shoots by."

Tim gave him a disbelieving look. "Bruce has a dog? Seriously? When'd he get a dog? Since when does he have time for a dog?"

"Yeah, big black dog called Ace." Terry was a bit confused. To him, Ace was just part of the team. To imagine Bruce without the dog was weird. "I'm not sure when he got it. But the Bruce I know... well, there's a reason I call him 'the old man'. He's at least 70. He doesn't get out much."

Tim's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Wow, really?" He had to admit... he hadn't really thought Bruce--any of them, really--would live to that kind of old age. Not with the kind of lives they led.

"Guess that explains the dog," he mused. "And you being Batman."

He stopped, horrified. He--hadn't meant that the way it sounded. "Wait, that's not what I meant--I just meant that I can't imagine Bruce giving up Batman unless he really couldn't do it anymore."

"No, you're right." Terry replied. "If Bruce wasn't old and weak, he would have been able to help me. I wouldn't have stolen the Batsuit if he was still young and strong."

He paused, thinking. "Not that he can't still kick butt. I sort of owe him my life for beating off a gang of Jokerz that were following me."

Tim frowned a little. Old and weak Bruce was... not something he could really conceive of. It didn't surprise him that he'd been able to help Terry fend off some attackers. But that wasn't really what had caught his attention.

"Jokers? You mean that clown has a fan club? How's he still around and doing his thing if Bruce... isn't?"

Slag. He shouldn't have mentioned the Jokerz. He should have just said 'a gang'. If there was one person who shouldn't know about The Joker's future, it was Tim.

"Well..." He thought, trying to figure out a way to explain the gangs without talking about the original, "The Joker isn't around any more. I'm not really sure what happened to him, just that Bruce won't talk about it. The gangs are just a bunch of dregs that think pretending to be a psychopath is fun."

Tim made a face. "That's just nuts." He shook his head. "The Joker is a murderer, and a psycho, and probably the scariest individual I've ever encountered. I can't believe he has groupies in your time."

He gave Terry a wry smile. "I guess Gotham never does get any more sane, does it?"

Scariest individual he'd ever met? He had no idea.

"It's beyond nuts." Terry said in agreement. Even when he'd been a total dreg himself, he hadn't gotten involved with the gangs. And after what they did to his dad, he never would.

"If anything, the city gets more insane all the time. I wouldn't even know where to start with all the weird stuff that goes on there in my time."

Tim laughed. "We should trade stories sometime, though--" he made a face. "Something tells me you already know a lot of mine."