"We need to get out of here," the young Batman said.
"Leaving so soon?" one of the Jokerz, Ghoul, asked, stepping forward. "You didn't even take any party favors." He hurled his pumpkin bucket up, unleashing a scattering of sparks and explosions.
"Incoming!" Warhawk shouted.
Terra's eyes glowed as the street below ripped open and formed a dome of rock between them and the explosives. "It's not gonna hold!" she warned, gritting her teeth. "Get ready to run!"
The dome shattered, and she cleared the ground as everyone scattered. Xander found himself facing off against the Dee Dee twins.
"Dee Dee and Dee Dee," he scolded. "Now, what would your grandmother say if she saw you doing this?"
"You leave Nana Harley out of this, Grandpa!"
"Huh?" he blinked.
"Gotcha!" one crowed as she sucker-punched him. As she and her sister brought their laser whips around, Xander dodged one and grabbed the other's wrist. Twisting the laser whip out of her hand, he switched to one-handed grip around her neck and sent a haymaker into her chin. And then another.
Oh, he remembered this episode quite well. There was no way he was going to allow either Dee Dee to go flying and duplicate on impact if he could help it.
"Oof!" The other Dee Dee tackled him from behind, and reflexes took over. He groaned and sat up... and realized he was now facing four Dee Dees.
"Aww... hell."
"We're getting out of here! Now!" came Batman's voice from above.
"Not a chance!" Warhawk shot back from where he was wrestling with the hyena-spliced Woof. "Hold the line!"
"Are you f***ing nuts?" Xander snapped. "We need to regroup! There's more at stake here than a bunch of hopped-up Joker fanboys!"
"I don't remember putting this up for a vote," Batman said, pulling out a Mother Box and activating a Boom Tube. Chucko hurled his Darth Maul lightsaber and knocked the Mother Box from his hand, breaking it and collapsing the Boom Tube.
Suddenly, the earth rose up, flinging the Jokerz one by one down the street and entombing them with in a solid, thick dome.
"Thanks, Terra," Robin said.
"That wasn't me," the Titan said, shaking her head. "I could never do anything on that kind of scale."
"Never say 'never,'" came a voice from above. On a hovering boulder crouched a woman who appeared to be in her sixties. Despite her age, she was still recognizable. "Sorry I'm late," the older Terra said. "Now, let's get out of here before they break free."
Raven held out her cloak, "All aboard the Raven Express."
"_This_ is Justice League headquarters?" Robin asked in disbelief.
"For now," Static said, turning on the computer. "We're all that's left of the League."
"You've traveled about fifty years into your future," Batman added.
Terra looked around, then looked at her older self. "So... where's...?" she trailed off.
The older Terra shook her head sadly, "Not long after when you're from. Bane."
The younger Terra shook her head in denial.
"The Titans?" Robin asked.
"Gone," Raven spoke up, pulling her hood back. She walked up to Xander and, without a word, pulled him into a deep kiss.
"Hey!" the redhead protested. "Auntie Rae! Lips off my dad!"
"'Auntie Rae'? 'DAD'?" Robin and Terra chorused. They both looked at Xander, "What's going on here?!"
"MMPH?!" was his only response.
Finally, Raven pulled back and smiled, "I missed you."
"Good to see you too, Rae, but next time, no tongue," he said. He turned to the redhead warily. "Okay, I recognize everyone else, but who are you?"
"I'm Nightfire," she said. "Joyce Harris."
"Your mother," Xander croaked. "Who is she?"
She grinned, "I think the starbolts kind of give it away."
Xander slumped in amazement, not even noticing the death glare Robin was shooting him.
"Yes," Nightfire said with a melodramatic flair, "I am actually your love child from your secret love affair with Blackfire."
Dead silence greeted that announcement. Nightfire giggled, "You guys are too easy."
Robin shook his head in resignation, "Yup. She's definitely your daughter." He looked up, "What about the Batcave?"
"This is all we have left now," came another voice. Its owner, an elderly man, stepped out of the shadows. "Deal with it."
Robin hesitated for a moment, "Bruce?"
"Hello, old man," Xander said.
"Surprised to see me?"
"Of course not," Xander snorted. "I saw this episode." He jabbed an accusatory finger at him, ignoring the puzzled looks coming from Static and Warhawk, and continued, "You, Diana, and John Stewart were supposed to catch Clinton trying to steal your utility belt from the Watchtower several months after the JLU is formed. _You_ were supposed to follow him on this History Channel special. It was _not_ supposed to be the three of _us_ catching him trying to steal my gun before the JLU even existed!"
"If you weren't here, that gun wouldn't have been worth stealing."
Xander had no response to that.
"You were right, by the way," Bruce added, inclining his head toward Batman. "He _did_ need my help."
"Hey!"
"Told you he would."
"Still," Bruce's face darkened, "I assume you know at least enough to help?"
Xander nodded, "Some. I only saw the episode once, though, so don't expect any miracles. The timeline's being contaminated. Chronos is swiping monuments from all over history and dropping them in Gotham without regard for temporal stability, and it's tearing the time-space continuum apart." He looked over at Static, "And contrary to what you might think, just because two Terras are here doesn't mean we've already won." He looked at the older Terra, "You don't remember any of this, do you?"
The old woman shook her head.
Everyone stared at him. Xander blinked, "What?"
"You actually understood everything you just said?" Robin asked skeptically.
"Of course I do," Xander replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "It's comic book physics."
"Okay, okay," Static said, "time out. Someone wanna fill me in here?"
"Ooh, very Matrix-y," Xander quipped as he looked at the green symbols flooding across the computer screen. Bruce shot him a withering look.
"We still don't know much about him," Batman said. "Obviously, he's a time traveling warlord. He's littered the streets with buildings he's stolen from other time periods." He looked at Xander, "Unless you've got anything to add?"
"His name is David Clinton," Xander said. "He started off as a history nut from this time's Gotham City, stealing minor things from history that he thought no one would miss to add to his private collection. We caught him trying to steal my gun and chased him back to the Old West. A guy there stole the time belt off his suit and showed him just how powerful he could be. He's got a bit of a limited imagination."
"That doesn't make him any less dangerous," Robin said as he straightened. "But I got a good look at his time belt. I've written a program that should disable it." Xander gave him an odd look, then simply shook his head.
"_If_ we can get close enough to upload it," Warhawk pointed out.
"We're running out of time," Xander said, pointing at the monitors, where it showed a whiteness converging on the edges of the city. "Literally."
"We need to find Chronos," Batman said.
"How?" Static asked. "He could be anywhere." He looked over at Xander, "Unless you know?"
Xander shook his head. "I barely remember this half of the episode. I was too busy giggling in glee at seeing Terry over there again after his series got canceled," he said, jerking a thumb at Batman.
"Could you please stop talking about us like that?" Batman scowled.
"Fine, fine," Xander waved it off. "But one thing I do remember: We need to find Clinton's wife. She'll know where he is."
"How're we gonna do that?" Static asked.
"The old-fashioned way, of course," Xander said, turning to leave.
"It's not gonna work," Batman said. "You don't know your way around here. A lot of things have changed."
Xander pushed the doors open, "Buildings change, cities change, even people change. But the criminal element doesn't. Am I right, Bruce?"
"Yup."
"Then let's get moving."
"So, um, what's the story with the Dee Dee twins?" Xander asked his future daughter as she carried him over Gotham. "They, uh, called me 'grandpa.'"
"Their father was your godson, Dad."
"Oh."
They flew in silence for a long moment. This was... extremely awkward. He had known about Kori's feelings for him for a while now, but he'd been trying to keep his distance -- albeit not with a great deal of success -- for various reasons, not the least of which was the fact that, appearances aside, he was a good ten years older than her.
"You never did tell me why you named me Joyce, Daddy."
Xander snapped back to the current moment and thought for a bit before he answered, "She was the mother I never had, someone I'd die to protect... someone I'd _kill_ to protect."
Nightfire... no, _Joyce_ looked down at him thoughtfully. "It didn't save her, did it?" she asked quietly.
He looked away. "No. It didn't."
"Did Mom know her?"
"No, that was before your mother's time."
"Oh, from your home dimension? Before you got younger?"
Xander looked up at her, "...I take it I told you that part?"
"Yeah, but you never said much else," she replied. "I always wondered why."
"The less you know, honey, the better you'll sleep," he spoke quietly.
"That's the second time you've told me that." She looked down at him with a frown, "I'm not nine anymore, y'know."
"It's the truth," he said with a small shrug.
"You need to confide in someone _here_, Daddy, or it'll kill you!" she snapped as her flight path faltered. She sniffled and whispered, "It _did_ kill you." Shaking it off, she looked up and focused on flying.
*Now I'm starting to understand how everyone else feels when I start talking about the future...* he thought, stunned.
Xander crouched at the edge of the building. He stiffened, rose, and turned to face Ghoul, who had just arrived.
"Hey," Ghoul said. "You're Nighthawk, aren't you? Y'know, I've seen history cubes about you. Not as good as the original Batman, so I hear. Still, hard to believe someone as stupid as you killed the Joker." Ghoul raised his right arm, extending a buzzsaw blade.
Xander raised an eyebrow.
"I killed the Joker?"
"Oh?" Ghoul's grin broadened. "You mean you didn't know?"
Xander shrugged, "Can't say that I did. Static?"
ZAKK!
The bolt of electricity struck Ghoul's cybernetic limb, and he fell to the ground. He rolled over to see the entire line-up of heroes.
"Oh, terrific," the Jokerz ganger muttered.
"You've got some information we need, Ghoul," Batman said.
"You won't find me the talkative sort," Ghoul replied.
Xander grabbed Ghoul and picked him up. Leaning in close, he said calmly, "You seem to misunderstand your situation here." With that, he rammed his knee into Ghoul's crotch and let him go. The Joker crumpled into a ball, clutching his crotch.
Xander pulled out the Colt Single Action Army he had picked up from Elkhorn and emptied the cylinder. He pocketed all but one of the bullets and held up the last one. He slid it back into the gun and spun the cylinder, snapping the revolver closed. "We're gonna play a little Russian Roulette."
He pressed the muzzle of the gun to Ghoul's crotch and pulled back the hammer, "Now, care to talk?"
"N-no way, man!" Ghoul hissed. "You're bluffin'!"
Xander pulled the trigger.
Click.
"That's one."
"-and we've got nine thousand four hundred and fifty-three active Jokerz organized into about two hundred smaller groups. I don't know where Chronos is. He contacts us. He spends every night in a different one of those old buildings. There's no way of knowing ahead of time where he's gonna be. And that's everything I know!"
"'_Everything_'?" Xander repeated skeptically, pulling the hammer back again.
Ghoul's eyes darted around, then he looked down, "I wet my bed until I was fourteen."
On the other side of the building, a somewhat different discussion was taking place.
"Sorry about kissing your father like that," Raven said, "but he... he means a lot to me."
"Keep your hands to yourself, Aunt Raven," Nightfire scowled. "He's my father, and I don't even want to think about... ew!" She shuddered.
"Oh, come on," Raven flashed her an evil smile. "From what I heard from your mother, he's a Viking in the sack."
"Oh, eww!" Nightfire recoiled.
"I'm just saying," Raven held up a hand, "it's a good thing for you they needed a lab to have kids, or you'd have a _lot_ of siblings."
"Auntie Rae!"
Raven grinned.
"That was a little harsh," Robin commented, looking over to where Ghoul was cowering at the corner of the building.
"Nah," Xander waved it off. He pulled out the bullet from the revolver and tossed it to him. "Notice what's missing?"
Robin examined the round and frowned, "No primer." He looked up, "You were bluffing?"
"Of course," Xander said. "I couldn't risk _actually_ blowing his bits off before he told us what we needed to know. He's a street thug. There isn't a street thug in all of time that's going to risk his bits on the chance I'm bluffing, especially not after he saw me load it. With the cybernetics, I was worried they'd be armored."
"That's why you hit him there."
Xander nodded, "I got the idea just before we left, while you were fiddling with the time belt, and had Elkhorn's gunsmith make the blank for me."
"You sneaky son of a bitch," Robin shook his head in amusement.
The pyramid of Giza was easy to find.
"Can we really do this?" Joyce murmured as she looked up at the imposing structure. "I mean, he travels through time, rules the world, and treats reality like a toy."
"'Course we can," Xander said. "It's been done before."
"Oh, right," she smiled. "Mom told me about that."
"What else did your mother tell you?" Xander asked, a worried frown crossing his face.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" she winked at him and started for the entrance.
Terra walked up beside him and stopped. "Robin's right. She's _definitely_ your daughter," she said, then marched ahead.
Xander whimpered as he started forward himself.
"It's partly why you and Kori wound up together," Raven said, landing beside him and walking with him.
"Huh?"
"Apparently," Raven said with a faint smile, "in the future she visited, we were together. Pissed me off to no end when I found out, but..." she shrugged, "I got over it. If not you."
Xander swallowed nervously.
The guards at the pyramid were considerably less impressive than they had anticipated. Jokerz and robotic guards fell easily to the onslaught.
Robin stepped into the room, "Enid Clinton..."
Robin seemed to shimmer a little -- almost like a video image de-rezzing -- and was replaced by a taller, slightly broader-shouldered person in a different Robin costume. The spandex leggings were replaced with shorts, and his boots and mask changed from black to green. The cape -- once black on the outside and yellow on the interior -- was now entirely yellow.
He continued talking as if nothing had happened, "...we need to see your husband." He noted the stares everyone was giving him, "What?"
"Dick?" Xander asked hesitantly.
"Jason Todd," Robin replied. "It's a time shift. Don't worry; I'm up to speed." He continued walking toward Enid.
"Okay," Batman complained, "I'm starting to get a migraine."
"It only gets worse from here, Terry," Xander said. "Any one of us could change or cease to exist at any moment."
As if that were a cue, he vanished.
"Daddy?!" Nightfire shrieked
Robin turned and muttered softly, "He never came to this world."
"Or he was never born," Raven added.
"So... how am I still here?" Nightfire asked.
"The damage to reality's getting worse," the younger Terra said.
Her older self nodded, "Cause and effect are getting disconnected."
Robin turned back to Enid, "Ma'am, we have to undo all of this. That's why we need to find your husband. We'll do our best not to harm him."
"Between you and me," Enid said, "I wouldn't mind one bit if he got roughed up along the way."
"Then where is he tonight?" Warhawk asked. "The Parthenon? The Great Sphinx?"
"He just wants people to think he moves around," Enid said. "He always sleeps in the same place."
It seemed odd to Terra -- the younger -- that the great and powerful Lord Chronos, as he had become now, would choose to sleep in the same Elkhorn jail that he had been imprisoned in for six months back in the Old West. Even if it _was_ now in the Coliseum's arena.
"The psychologists would have a field day with this guy, don't you think?" her older self asked, startling her out of her thoughts.
She smiled, "Yeah, no kidding."
Robin stood from where he examined the door. "No traps or alarms," he said, then suddenly morphed back into the more familiar shape of Dick Grayson. "At least, none that I can detect."
"Make up your mind, would you?" Static snapped petulantly.
Robin scowled.
"If we don't beat this guy," Warhawk noted, "it's the end of everything."
Batman walked up next to him, "We've been there before."
"Not like this." Warhawk looked down and asked rhetorically, "What are you supposed to do when you have the weight of the world on your shoulders?"
"Fight until you can't," Nightfire said, her voice deceptively calm. "That's what my dad always said."
One by one, they entered the jail and walked to the back, where the cells were. The younger Terra shook her head, "I don't get it. Of all the places he could sleep, why sleep here?"
"Because a loser with a kingdom is still just a loser," Enid said, elbowing her way to the front. "See for yourself," she said, yanking the blanket off, revealing her husband in the cot, curled up and sucking his thumb.
Chronos woke, and sat up, "Enid?"
"Nice on the stealth thing, lady," Batman deadpanned.
Chronos touched his time belt, and a time tunnel formed. Out of it emerged Bonk, Chucko, Woof, Ghoul, and the Dee Dee twins.
The Jokerz were back.
The Elkhorn jail exploded in green fire.
"Get the belt!" Robin cried. "Nothing else matters!" As he and Batman charged into the cell, Chronos activated his time belt again and dove into another time tunnel before they could catch him.
Robin felt heat across his back, and he turned. It was then that he recalled just _what_ exactly powered a Tamaranian's starbolts.
Righteous fury.
And at the moment, Nightfire had that in spades.
"Take cover!"
For a few moments, the world burned green.
The two Terras were able to shield their fellow heroes from the worst of the explosion. The Jokerz were not so lucky, and Chucko took the brunt of the blast. Chucko's image flickered and faded. It was a hologram.
Batman recognized the robot that was revealed underneath, "Zeta?"
"Target acquired," the robot spoke in a monotone.
"Aw, slag."
Starbolts sent Zeta stumbling back a step, and then it charged toward Nightfire. A bolt of purple lightning struck Zeta, playing out harmlessly across its outer shell. Static cursed, then looked up as the building trembled again.
"We've gotta get out of here!" Static warned. "Building's comin' down!"
"Oops," Nightfire muttered as everyone scrambled to leave the building. "I guess Daddy was wrong. There _is_ such a thing as overkill. Oof!" The Zeta unit had tackled her.
"Or not. Let me show you something Daddy once suggested I could do," Nightfire snarled. "He called it the Nova Flame."
"Robin!" Terra turned back to the Elkhorn jail. Robin hadn't quite made it out of the building before it exploded and collapsed.
"Look out!" Terra found herself tackled by... herself. The older Terra crumpled to the ground, the charred gash across her back and the severed rock pillar next to her standing mute testimony to what the Dee Dee twins' laser whips could do.
"No!"
The older Terra looked up and cracked a wry smile, "Hey... who else am I gonna die for?"
Terra's eyes glowed, and her hair rose as she turned to face the Dee Dee twins, but her concentration shattered as a buzzsaw grazed her arm. She backed away and turned to face Ghoul.
Woof charged and tackled Static, who recovered in mid-air, landing on his Static-Saucer and returning fire. Woof scampered away until the very ground started to destabilize, glowing white as it begin to dissolve from the temporal instability. Static cried out as the void dragged him in.
As Batman landed and put down Enid, three British redcoats appeared.
"It 'appened again!" one of them exclaimed.
Another pointed toward the battle, "Look out! Monsters!"
"Fire at will!" the third ordered.
Batman's eyes widened, and he shoved Enid out of the line of fire as they shot him with their Brown Bess muskets. They didn't do much damage, but they _hurt_, knocking him to the ground.
That was all it took. One of the Dee Dees lashed his arm with her laser whip. By now, there were four of them, and soon, the other three had his other three limbs pinned.
"Batman's not paying us any attention, Dee Dee."
"He should be punished, Dee Dee."
They pulled, and energy crackled through the Batsuit.
"Terry!" Bruce rose from his seat at the computer as he watched in horror. He lowered his head when the vitals flatlined. "Terry..."
Terra backed away and raised pillars and hurled small rocks, but she was having trouble concentrating as Ghoul pressed the assault. Suddenly, Warhawk dove down and tackled Ghoul.
Terra turned and barely managed to erect a stone barrier before Bonk's mallet hand smashed into it, shattering it.
The three redcoats continued pursuing Woof, and Enid did her best to avoid getting mixed up in the fight. A time tunnel opened next to her.
"How could you betray me, Enid?" Chronos asked, emerging from the time tunnel. "Everything I've done, I've done for you."
"Don't blame this on me," she scolded. "I just wanted you to assert yourself, not destroy the universe!"
Meanwhile, Warhawk had knocked out Ghoul and tossed him to the side. Unfortunately, a temporal rift chose that moment to occur, and the mammoth that appeared knocked him silly.
Woof looked down at Warhawk, who had landed at his feet, and raised a claw... only to be smashed in the chest by a rock the size of his head. "You okay?" Raven asked.
"I'll live."
"Chronos!" Robin called as he finally pulled himself free of the wreckage.
"You _are_ good," Chronos said. He looked at Enid, "Isn't he good?"
"Look at what you've done!" Robin said. "Look up!"
He did, and he saw the whiteness of non-existence spreading across the sky.
"Pretty..." Chronos muttered.
Nightfire blasted out of the wreckage and landed next to Robin. Terra joined them. "You small-minded, self-serving idiot!" Nightfire snarled. "Do you have any idea what you've done? You caused all this!"
"Right," Chronos said, seeming to focus on the situation. "You're right. This calls for another approach." He kissed Enid on the cheek and created a time tunnel. "You'll love me next time!" he called as he dove in.
Nightfire, Terra, and Robin dove in after him.
"Where does he think he's going?" Robin asked. "There's nothing left!"
"Not quite," Nightfire said. "The beginning of time. Something Daddy told me about. If anyone were to witness it, he'd awaken something that'll destroy reality itself."
At the far end of the time tunnel, they could see the first few moments of time, going backwards as the giant hand began to close.
"He's doing a fine job without any help," Terra snapped.
Robin aimed his grappler and fired.
"No!" Chronos cried as it latched onto his wrist. Robin pulled him back toward the trio and slid the disc he'd programmed into the time belt.
"Uploading now!"
"Hurry up!" Nightfire snarled as she gritted her teeth, holding onto the other three. "Can't... slow... down..."
Reality stopped.
Beast Boy rose from the breakfast table he shared with Robin and Terra. "I'm gonna head outside," he said.
Terra looked around and leaned over to Robin, asking hesitantly, "Did that... actually happen?"
"I think so," Robin said, looking around curiously.
"Then we won... right?"
"Morning," Nighthawk greeting them as he joined them for breakfast.
"Morning," Robin replied.
"You okay, Terra?" Nighthawk asked, nodding at the gash in her arm. "Looks pretty bad."
"Uh, I'm fine," Terra said, covering the wound with her other hand. "Thanks," she smiled at him. At his puzzled look, she added, "For caring."
"Hey, you're one of us now," he said with a shrug, as if that explained it all. In retrospect, maybe it did.
After a moment, Robin asked him, "You don't remember going on a mission with us today, do you?"
Xander blinked, "Mission? What mission?" *And why does that line sound familiar?*
"Nevermind," Robin waved it off.
"So, we're the only two who remember?" Terra whispered to Robin.
"Apparently," Robin nodded. He looked up as the door opened again, and as Starfire entered the room, he smiled and leaned back, "But you know what? That might not be so bad."
"Well, what about Chronos?" Terra asked.
"I reprogrammed the belt to make sure Chronos would never come to exist," Robin replied.
"You worthless, good for nothing, _wretched_ waste of space!" Enid Clinton roared. "You invent a time machine and can't think of anything useful to do with it?!"
"I can think of one thing," her husband, David, pulled the hood of his chronosuit over his head.
Flash.
"You worthless, good for nothing, _wretched_ waste of space!" Enid Clinton roared. "You invent a time machine and can't think of anything useful to do with it?!"
"I can think of one thing," her husband, David, pulled the hood of his chronosuit over his head.
Flash.
"You worthless, good for nothing, _wretched_ waste of space!" Enid Clinton roared. "You invent a time machine and can't think of anything useful to do with it?!"
"I can think of one thing," her husband, David, pulled the hood of his chronosuit over his head.
Flash.
"Did it work?" The voice sounded female. Anxious. Nightfire also thought it sounded vaguely familiar.
"We got _someone_," another voice said. Nightfire shot to her feet and dropped into a fighting stance. She kept her hands free of starbolts -- no reason to expose herself.
She found herself facing several people. People she recognized.
"Hey, it's all right," the redhead said soothingly. "We're not gonna hurt you."
Nightfire stared at her, slack-jawed.
"Auntie Will?"
Story downloaded from
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