@nightblackowlbat and @randompersonidk
I love your takes on Tim getting yoinked. You understand exactly that I wanted Tim to just feel loved and safe while Bruce and Dick are so angsty and angry and guilt ridden.
Literally a week after Danny's thought to have died and the Bat's find out Jason's grave is missing.
When 'Peter' comes back from who knows where, stumbles into the graveyard, and seems to have a mental breakdown at the sight of his brother's grave missing? The Bat Family are trying to figure out a way to grab him and get him off the streets.
But, instead of going out and patrolling as Red Hood, he spends two days helping people in Crime Alley pack. Word spreads quickly around the Alley, saying how Red Hood doesn't think he can protect everyone here. How he's leaving Gotham and only going to check up now and again. Refusing to tell anyone where he's left to, other than that it's where Danny had wanted to move before all this.
Then, one night they finally let Robin fly again (mostly cause the knew Tim would just sneak out on his own otherwise).
And it was just a moment.
A single moment of not looking at their littlest bird.
The last thing Oracle could get from his domino mask was Tim turning around and seeing Red Hood. Then, it cuts to black. None of their trackers are working.
There's the slightest possibility that Peter didn't kill Tim.
But they know that it would track, given all the recent trauma. Having one brother die as Robin, then the other die to seizures, only to find someone stole your other brother's grave? Plus, all the threats that were made before. The ones they thought were just Peter trying to get the Bats to watch their newest bird better, like they didn't do for the one before.
How could everything go so wrong so quickly?
Bruce, on the other hand, is kicking himself for even doing the whole test on Tim's 16th birthday, right before all this happened. He felt worse for never apologizing.
Now, he might never get the chance.
Meanwhile, Tim gets woken up by a cow licking his face. All he remembers is Hood tranquilizing him. And Peter and Danny are rough housing in a bed of clovers and grass. Tim even sees Jason's tombstone on a new plot in the backyard he's in, with another grave labeled Daniel Fenton next to it.
And, for a moment, Tim thinks he's died and gone to a sort of heaven.
He's still not convinced he's fully alive as time drags on in the farmhouse. It's the only house in the area that actually connects to the wider farmlands and areas they have cattle and such. All the other houses are miles away in their own little community. With all of them being people who once lived in Crime Alley.
It was so much sunnier here.
Jason, as who he thought was Peter but was corrected, would fuss at him to wear sunscreen. Danny took him out stargazing
The name felt like another point towards the theory he was dead. But he didn't want to ruin the mood by bringing it up. Especially since he's pretty sure it was Peter that killed him.
Danny and Jason were really good at hand to hand combat. So they taught Tim. They taught him how to prowl through the tall grass and how to use a variety of guns on a range.
Jason even helped him with literature comprehension. After a debate with Danny between themes on a book they were reading lead to Tim revealing it was all gibberish to him. When Jason had joked about sneaking off to do patrols on school nights, Tim had corrected him and said he had missed a lot of school because Batman needed him. The look of devastation had lead to Tim quickly asking Jason if he could help him catch up on everything he needed to know.
Even though it's not like he'd go to school the next year.
Danny had taken that as the chance to teach him engineering and chemistry, as well as math and any science he thought Tim should know. From advanced biology to inter-dimesional travel. And took to even making a 'Portal' with him.
The schematics seemed otherworldly. And the math hurt his brain to look at.
Jason seemed really happy that they were getting along though. When he wasn't busy, the three of them would garden.
Though, how Jason could stand to garden when he spent all day helping set up the larger farm lands with the people in town, Tim didn't know. Maybe it helped that Danny had created seeds for super plants that didn't take long to grow but capped their growth after a certain height? Maybe because this was the afterlife and nothing had to make sense?
Tim didn't really know, but he hid himself away to take a good cry at how loved he felt.
If this was what life after death was like, he hoped his mother and father had found ones just as happy. Even if they weren't part of his.
Danny had heard the crying. He knew it wasn't from fear or stress. Quite the opposite. Danny could feel it was of love and relief. But it still didn't make Danny feel good.
"He probably just misses Gotham, Danny. I'm surprised he hasn't tried to run off or contact Bruce yet."
"Well, the portal is almost done. It's only been this long cause I was trying to teach Tim. But I'll just finish it up so you two can travel between places faster."
"I'm genuinely worried for how smart you are. How did you not become a rogue?"
"Technically was, for a bit. Was a vigilante too, but that was hell in a hand basket. Mainly cause I delt with the dead and undead."
"And being undead is considered it's own crime."
Danny snorted and Jason cracked a grin.
"Hey, Tim. The portal is almost done. I decided to just finish it up real quick, since I thought you must be missing Gotham. I'll teach you how to make a complete portal next time, okay?"
"Wait, what? I can go visit?"
"Yeah, of course! We didn't want you stuck here forever if you didn't want to stay. We just thought that you needed a break from the Bat. If you want to stay longer, that's okay. But Jason is going to go to Gotham anyways to check on the people still in the Alley. You can come back with him or you can stay there. And you can come back anytime you want. You'll always have a place here."
The portal knocked Tim out going through it.
Jason had been holding on to the other, in case of anything happening. So he was easily able to catch the kid. Danny had warned that it could happen, because the kid had no ectoplasm and was probably never exposed to it.
He dragged the kid to the Alley clinic. Sue him, he wasn't going to take the chance it could be something more serious than just the inability to comprehend the spaces between reality.
When Tim woke up and called him Peter, Jason assumed it was because there were people around and they needed to keep up the disguise.
When Tim woke up later that night, with Red Hood over him in a clinic, he assumes he had died to an overdose of tranquilizer and Danny and Jason sent him back.
"Hey baby bird." Peter said, tired and clearly worried. "You were out longer than you should have been. Glad to see you're okay."
They really were triplets. Their hugs all felt the same. Holding him tightly and close to their hearts, despite the danger he possessed.
That night saw Red Hood and Robin working together. Patrolling like it was something they'd always done. And Hood was quick to protect and defend the teen bird. And just as quick to get them out of areas when they heard the Bats coming.
By morning, Tim Drake found himself standing at the front door of the Wayne Manor, asking Alfred if he could come in.
He doesn't tell them much. Other than Red Hood accidentally gave him too much in the tranquilizer and how the man was just trying to make sure nothing would happen to Robin while the Bats were acting eratic.
Leading Bruce and Dick to feel as if Peter was telling them to behave and take care of Tim, otherwise he'll step in again. After all, you don't know what you have until it's gone.