Archive of Our Own ^beta

Tim binks awake, trying to break free from his disorientation, just to be met with a familiar sight. Familiar dark-clad assassins were perched around him, their eyes sharp with knowledge that Tim knew he wasn’t privy to. 

He narrows his eyes, tugging slightly at the restraints binding his wrists together. “I don’t suppose you guys could tell me why I’m here?”

Silence. 

He didn’t think so. 

He heaves a heavy sigh, exhaling sharply before leaning back until his head bumps against the wall. The lights above him hummed slightly, and he supposes Ra’s finally decided to replace the old incandescents. 

“Are you sure none of you can tell me what’s going on?” he tried again, and this time, one of the more familiar-looking assassins obliged. 

They leaned forward and whispered, “The Master discovered something recently… He says it’ll be a gift for you.”

Tim gives something that wasn’t quite a sneer, “Well, let him know this is a terrible way to present a gift. You know what, whatever… I guess we’ll see what happens.”

The room faded back to silence, and Tim had no other choice but to await his “gift”.

After several shifts of assassins rotated through his little cell, a pair of servants was ordered to fetch Tim from the little cell. The halls of the compound were unfamiliar- which meant Ra’s must’ve changed the floor plan since Tim’s little stint involving an event starting with “Bruce” and ending in “Quest”.

“So…” Tim tilts his head once he stands face-to-face with the man, the myth, the piece of shit: Ra’s al Ghul, “What did you snatch me up for this time?”

The man gave him an almost smug look that sent an unsettled sensation crawling down his spine, “Well, Detective, I’m sure you’ve already figured it out.”

He narrowed his eyes. This didn’t seem like a typical Ra’s plan… what exactly was that man planning? “Sure, but humor me, Ra’s, what fucked up 'gift' do you have in store for me this time?”

“All will be revealed in due time,” the ancient fossil of a man says, and Tim has to violently repress the urge to beat the man’s face in. Sigh… “Now, how well do you know your own ancestry?”

Tim raised a brow as the servants took their leave, his eyes scanning around the strangely well-fortified room as he replied with a shrug, “Grandma’s from Gotham, dad’s from Tennessee… what else is there to know?”

A low chuckle fills the room, and Tim has a feeling something bad- something very, very bad- is about to happen. 

“How about you find out for yourself, my dear Detective?”

“What? What do you-”

There was a click-click! and Tim reflexively ducks out of the path of the first dart- only for a second to hit him square in the back of his neck. A hiss of pain flees his lips, and by the time he looks up, he finds that Ra’s had disappeared, and the only two doors into and out of the room are sealed. He reached up to pluck the dart from his neck, gritting his teeth at the sting before steadying himself against the walls. It was cold, very cold, almost as if the metal was draining the warmth from his flesh. 

He yanks himself away, hurriedly gathering as much information about the situation as he can before the tingling sensation starts invading his limbs. Tim hissed, eyes narrowing as he scraped his gaze around the room, taking note of the strange chains in large spools fixed near the high ceiling. He takes another deep breath, cursing Ra’s and his annoyingly obsessive fixation on him as the sedative begins to take hold. 

God, he hopes the Bats find him soon. Who knows what annoying plan Ra’s had in store this time?

When he opened his eyes, Tim found that lots of things had happened. A collar weighed heavily around his neck; the cold metal, similarly to the walls, seemed to drain away his body heat greedily. 

His eyelids were heavy, leaden, and stiff. A hand smooths over his hair, nails scratching lightly against his scalp, and he bites back a frustrated noise that threatens to spill out. 

“You will thank me later, Timothy,” Ra’s said above him, his voice low- bordering on a deadly purr, “I’ll make sure of it…”

A pair of hands wrap around his forearm, a sharp sensation pricking into the inside of his elbow. 

What followed was hell. 

The hands release him, and his body falls limply against the floor, just in time for a burning sensation to bloom from the injection site. 

He sucks in a sharp gasp, his eyes screwing shut as his skin grows sticky with a layer of sweat. Immense nausea overtakes him, his stomach clenches as his mouth floods with saliva, and a guttural sound wrenches itself from his throat. Tim groans as the fiery sensation creeps from his arm and begins to spread outward, the fire searing and burning him from the inside out. His chest burned- each inhale and exhale brought stinging, hellish pain that made his muscles spasm, twitch, and writhe. 

Animalistic noises filled the air as he choked and spluttered against the flood of pain and agony that filled his veins and refused to let him be. There was nothing more he wanted than col to fill his veins, and nothing more than death to release him from the awful sensations that were overwhelming his senses. 

Distantly, a voice seemed to pierce through the ever-growing haze, “Soon, Detective, your eyes will also be opened to the potential I also see within you.”

A low rumbling fills the air, a wild frenzy overtaking his mind and body as he jerks and thrashes. A loud rattling sound rises from behind him, and he whips around to attempt to snap at the sound. The room around him seemed to shift and change, instinct overpowering rational thought as pain claws through his entire body. 

His jaws ached, sharp snapping sounds filling his ears alongside his racing heart. His bones creaked under the stress as the world, contradictorily, seemed to both sharpen and dull with his wildly shifting senses. 

Commotion sounds in the distance, and he thrashed and snapped, gnashing his fangs in the direction of the noise, spines and spikes rising in equal parts terror and anger as strange new limbs extend and flare in not-quite defiance. 

He launched himself forward, and a deafening CLANK echoed around the room as he choked on the pressure around his throat. A distant voice seemed to tisk in disapproval, of which he responded to with an infuriated snarl. 

A different type of burning begins to curl deep within his chest, a spark that flickers before igniting into an inferno that tears at his throat and veins. The previous burning that had flooded through his veins was chased away with a blast of heat, and the fog from his mind seemed to vanish like dew beneath the sun. 

As his mind cleared, Tim found himself standing stock-still in the center of the same room as before, but there seemed to be several things that were… amiss

For one, there was a giant pool of blood on the ground, and it was directly under him. The next thing he noticed was how different everything felt. With each movement, he felt new limbs shifting and adjusting to keep him from toppling over. A tentative stretch of his (new?) limbs revealed that not only did he now have a tail, he also had wings! And, thanks to a quick glance downward, Tim now knows he had scales and knife-like claws adorning each of his fingers. Uh… how wonderful? He thinks…? 

Wait…

He jerks upright, memories slamming into him as he stumbles and staggers in his rush to regain his balance and familiarise himself with his strange new limb configuration. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get very far before the collar around his neck forced him to choke and splutter. A low, furious hiss fled his lips and slithered through the air, his claws dug dents and grooves into the floor beneath him as Tim snapped and gnashed his teeth. 

There was a crash distantly, followed by crashing and explosions. His ears twitch, his muscles tensing in hesitation as he hears his name being shouted off in the distance. The entire building seemed to shake and tremble from the force of an explosion, and Tim couldn’t help the curl of both concern and smug satisfaction licking at the base of his throat. 

Behind him, there was a screech of metal- and a blast of fire spewed from his maw and clashed against the wall, mere inches away from the face of the person opening the door. In front of him stood Dick, wide-eyed and horrified as beast and man faced each other in a strange standoff of sorts.

Tim blinked slowly, dread twisting through his chest as he stared down at his brother. 

Oh god, what if he could never turn back? What if whatever Ra’s did to him is irreversible? What if he were stuck like this forever, and he’s going to be disowned by the Bats and he could never return, and- and-

“...Tim?” Dick whispered hoarsely, creeping forward slowly with a hesitation that stung to witness, “Oh god, Tim, what the hell?”