A sound, one between a scream and a shriek, echoed through the cave. Everyone whipped around to find the source of the strange noise only to see Batman roll his eyes fondly at something in his car. 

"I know but I need to warn your uh...my friends. I'll let you out in a minute." He shut the car door and turned to face his sons with a grim expression. His expression was usually grim if they were honest but context clues suggested this was related to something in particular. "Something happened to Dick tonight and I need you to prepare yourselves."

"Did he make that noise?" Jason questioned. He nodded stiffly. "Is he dying in there or something?" No person should be making that noise without being in horrific pain.

"He's not dying," Bruce was quick to clarify. "He's fine for the most part."

"And for the small part?" Tim asked. He sighed and pulled down his cowl, rubbing his tired eyes as though that would help him think of something or some way to put this gently. He opened his mouth to say something but the door to his car clicked open and someone slipped out. 

They were tiny, a few inches shorter than Damian was, with curly black hair. Their skin looked drained of colour, their veins oddly vibrant beneath their skin and their bright piercing golden eyes with tiny pupils despite how they looked slightly owlish. If they didn't know any better, they would say this looked like Dick if he were younger and creepier. Creepier still, they were wearing a Robin suit Dick had once worn too. They tilted their head appraisingly at the group before joining Bruce's side and making a quieter questioning squeak.

"One second, chum," he told them. "So, this is Dick. Dick is now a child or well he was always a child but he's been jumped forward in time to when he shouldn't be a child."

"What?" the three yelled. Dick jumped at the sudden noise and scurried over to the computer, scaling the expensive piece of tech like it were a climbing frame and settling at the top perched as though ready to pounce. He let out a sharp squawk just for good measure as though warning them not to follow him up.

"He's jumpy," Bruce explained when they turned to him for an explanation. "Rest assured, this is a time issue, not an issue of him being turned into a child. It's completely reversible."

"So is our version of him stuck in the past?" Tim inquired. He hated time travel problems. They were always so tricky to get right and you had to think of thousands of solutions just to come up with something viable. Even then, it could all go wrong so fast. Step on a butterfly and suddenly the Ottoman Empire was still around.

"No, a timeline can only have one prime version of a person. Our version has been displaced by that." At their worried looks, he tried to comfort them. "Don't worry, he'll be in no pain. He's been pushed out of this universe and practically out of existence. He's basically dead." They didn't dignify the attempt with a verbal response. They just stared at him dumbfounded. "Yeah, that wasn't my best work."

"What do we do?" Damian asked.

"There's some tech at the Watchtower that, after some calibration, will put him back in the right point in time. Dick commissioned the tech after what happened with Wally being lost to the speed force and skipping through dimensions. Although this isn't the exact same, it works fine for what I need it for," Bruce informed them. Then he glanced between Dick and the trio in front of him almost nervously. Of course, his outward expression was blank. "To do that, I need to go there and work on it. The League won't let it leave the Watchtower because one of the Lanterns got stuck in Tudor England trying to prove Elizabeth I wasn't the virgin queen."

"Fine, have fun," Jason replied. He turned to leave but was interrupted by Bruce continuing.

"Ah but that leaves you three to handle this guy," he continued, thumbing to Dick. They glanced over, finding him now chewing on the heel of his palm and still staring at them intensely with eyes that seemed to burrow down into their souls. "Dick, no biting!" The boy squawked in disapproval and continued to chew. Bruce groaned and searched his utility belt, eventually opening a pouch that contained a pack of gum. He pulled it out and surrendered it over to Dick who had immediately been entranced by the sight of it. "I know it's not your teethers but it's the best I can offer." The boy considered it for a moment before carefully climbing down and snatching it off him, quickly peeling back the foil and popping strips of it in his mouth. A content ghost of a smile graced his lips and grabbed Bruce's hand, pressing his forehead against it. "It's okay, you just need to remember to ask for it when you need it. I should really get your teethers."

"Okay quick question: What the hell is wrong with him?" Jason asked. Dick made a hissing noise from the back of his throat and rolled his eyes, clearly offended by the question. 

"I would suggest not to say something is wrong with him. He doesn't appreciate it."

"Evidently," Damian muttered.

"I didn't get him right after his parents died," Bruce admitted. "The Court of Owls got him. Found him when he was in between places and before the right paperwork had been filed to even allow me to take him in." The boy hummed croakily, getting his attention. He pointed upward with a questioning tilt. "I'm sorry chum, we took your attic space down. You'll have to wait a minute." He pouted and sadly popped more gum into his mouth. "About a year after he was taken, I was investigating the court. I was young, in over my head, and I got lost in this maze trying to escape after the mission went wrong. Turns out it was training grounds for the new members. Talons, they called them. He was the only one that hadn't been too fractured." Bruce patted his head, the boy humming happily. "He saw me and knew I wasn't a handler. I thought he'd attack me but he helped me out of there and followed me home. I realised who he was and took him in. He became Robin later."

"And the noises?" Tim asked.

"Surgery done to his vocal cords. Stops any of them talking about their own ideas in any detail, calling for help if they wanted out of the organisation, and their communication blends into the night," he answered. "You can pick up on the differences in tone after a while although he did get rather annoyed in the beginning."

"But he can talk," the teen insisted. He knew Dick spoke. His accent had always been a little hard to place but he assumed it came from living in a circus with many cultures.

"Now he does. When he was twelve, he was desperate to talk so he could go to school and communicate with the new proteges. We went to Leslie and she decided the previous surgery had been done long enough ago that further surgery wouldn't cause major scarring. Of course, then he had to relearn to talk. He still chirps though it's rare for him to do so." As though to demonstrate, Dick let out a series of chirps. 

"So Goldie just casually left all this out and you went along with it?" Jason clarified.

"It's his business." He turned and kneeled down so he was at eye level with his ward. "Dick, they won't know what you mean when you talk so you'll have to be patient whilst I'm away. They're safe people so you don't need to hide from them. Write down what you want or lead them to what you want, okay?" Dick's face scrunched up, clearly unhappy, and he tugged on his mentor's arm. "You can't come with me. They'll be nice. Right?"

"I'm still debating on leaving," Jason deadpanned. He wasn't. This was far too interesting to leave. Dick could be secretive but this was a whole other level and he'd be stupid to leave now.

"Nobody is leaving. Except me. Now I've really got to go chum so be nice to your brothers. You three be careful, he still bites." Before any of them could disagree, he was already out of there leaving them to stare at the problem he left behind.

Dick stared at them for a moment before making his way over and holding out the gum wrapper with a pleading look. Damian fished out a packet of gum from his pocket and passed it over, gaining a grin.

"Oh you fucker, you just made yourself his favourite again," Jason grumbled. "Did Dick ever mention anything weird to you guys?" He wasn't around long for his stint at Robin so he wouldn't be surprised if they never got close enough to talk about it or even get hints about it.

"I didn't know Grayson had any assassin training. Perhaps that's why he tried so hard." At the mention of assassin training, the boy poked at Damian's arm with a questioning hum. "League of Assassins." He nodded somewhat approvingly before patting him almost sympathetic. 

"You ever work with Talons?" Tim asked out of interest.

"No, Mother thought their methods too far."

"That's saying something," Jason muttered. "Guess we should get you something to eat. Maybe wear something other than your suit."

"Dude, he's like 3ft he won't fit-" Tim was cut off by a sharp kick to his shin. "HEY! It's the truth, besides there's no point changing his clothes if he's going back to his time."

"Fine, let's just feed the menace so he doesn't go back with blood lust."

Bruce was an honest man when he wanted to be. Did he need to take an extra hour on his journey? No. Did he intentionally take this extra hour because he remembered what a menace his first kid was? Perhaps. He would claim it was because Flash caught him on the way out and for someone who spoke so quickly, had the ability to waste about ten minutes of your life on one singular thought. It wasn't that Bruce didn't like this version of Dick. He had many loving memories of this version of his child. He loved seeing Dick learn to speak again, break out of his strict moulding from the Court of Owls and become a hero in his own right. That didn't mean he missed all the biting and frustrated squawks. 

The cave was empty which he took as a good sign. Being able to convince Dick to go upstairs where there weren't as many climbing options was a nice step forward. That was until he walked up to the manor and heard yelling from the library. Instantly, he set off running expecting to see someone had intruded on the family home at the worst possible moment but what he saw was quite different.

Dick had hopped up onto one of the ladders and was hissing violently, throwing books down at Jason who was trying to get him down with a broom. Well, getting him down was generous. He was more so batting in Dick's general area and telling him to come down. Tim was babbling on about needing a tetanus shot because he didn't know where Dick had been and his mouth had loads of germs as he cradled his arm that had two bites in it. Damian's finger was wrapped up in a bandage and he was shaking the ladder in hopes of drawing the child down. 

"What happened?"

"We didn't have any cheese strings and he flipped out!" Tim explained.

"Oh yeah, it was all he ate for a good month. I thought we were past that phase."

"Just make him normal again! Do you know how much tetanus shots are?"

"You have health insurance Tim, I don't since I'm legally dead!"