Tim had made a mistake, of course he didn’t realize it was a mistake until much later. In fact he didn’t realize his mistake until it was staring him in the eyes. Literally. The memory of the mistake rushed into his mind, and if someone was wondering what that mistake was, it was sipping from a cup of water that Lex Luther had given him. He was such an idiot! Of course Lex would take advantage of his stupidity to make a clone, except strangely enough, his clone was female. She was trapped in a glass cylinder, fidgeting and obviously anxious until she noticed him, and she was just staring at him and his team. Above the glass cage she was trapped in was a sign that was labeled, Project M-a01r.
He knew it was his clone, they had the same eyes, skin color, hair color, and facial structure as him along with a feature or two from someone else that was not Luther. He was snapped out of his stupor by Conner tapping his shoulder.
He asked hesitantly. Tim startled at the touch but quickly nodded back and responded with a quiet and shocked unconvincing,
The girl in the tube hesitantly lifted her hand and pressed it against the glass as she leaned closer to it as well, but not close enough to fog up the glass with her breath. Tim took a few hesitant steps forward and quickly analyzed her before placing his hand in front of hers. The girl looked shocked before she gave him a bright blinding smile like no one had ever bothered to pay attention to her. He looked over at the electronic pad next to the glass prison and quickly moved towards it to find as much information as he could.
Female gene: Bridgette Graham de Vanily
Tim looked further into the information that the device could give him only to be once again snapped out of his trance by one of his teammates, Cassie this time.
She shouted, which meant that they had been trying to get attention for a bit then. Oops. She let out a frustrated sigh before crossing her arms and lifting a silent judgmental brow with her eyes shifting to the glass case still holding a now dejected girl. His clone mixed with someone else’s DNA.
He turned back to the device he quickly hacked into it and opened the glass casing much to the girl’s shock. Hesitantly she stepped forward and quickly retreated when Con approached her.
“Hey, it’s okay. I understand that this may be weird and shocking for you, but we’re gonna get you out of here, okay?”
Con slowly telegraphed his movements so that she could watch him lift his arm out as an invite to take it. Hesitantly she extended her arm out as well and took Con’s hand taking slow small steps till she was standing next to him. She was very small, smaller than Tim, he wondered if that was his fault or this so-called Bridgette’s fault that it happened. He hoped that she wasn’t actually done growing though, because he didn’t want her to be exactly 5’ forever.
“Looks like you’re a dad now Red.”
Cassie said with an elbow to his side. He glared at her and rubbed his side.
Everyone turned to stare at him in shock.
Con asked shocked, hurt, and slightly angry.
“What I mean is, that sounds and looks weird and wrong. I’d rather be her brother.”
Everyone nodded at that. He was only 17, it would indeed be weird if he was a “dad”. An older brother sounded much more reasonable, especially because the girl looked to be about 14.
“We should also find out who this Bridgette is so that we can inform her of the situation.”
Marinette tilted her head and her nose scrunched in confusion.
“Are we not going to the lab?”
The girl spoke for the first time, confusion heavily lacing her voice that held an unexpected french accent. Conner looked at her with sympathy in his eyes as he pulled her closer to his chest.
“No, we’re going to get you out of here.”
He promised with a firm voice. She looked at him with awe in her eyes. Tim really hated Cadmus, there was always something shady happening here. He felt bad for Guardian, he was trying so hard to clean this place up, but as long as Lex Luthor was the CEO, it would never be clean. They quickly got out of the underground bunker and left towards Mt. Justice.
“Hey, do you have a name?”
Conner asked her quietly as she shrunk into his side farther as true sunlight for her very first time. She slowly shook her head and was grateful when Red Robin took off his cape and placed it on her, flipping the hood over her to shade her eyes.
“Would you like to pick one? Or do you want one of us to?”
“I wouldn’t mind if one of you came up with one.”
She mumbled shyly fidgeting with her fingers. Everyone looked at Tim with a raised brow silently saying, you better not mess it up. Tim gulped and thought over names in his mind trying to come up with one that wasn’t bad or stupid.
“Umm, how about Marinette?”
He said, well more like questioned, nervously. The others thought it over and nodded.
“That name sounds crash!”
Bart said as he ran up to the girl.
“I think it’s a nice name.”
She said with a small smile.
“Good job Boy Wonder. You actually found a good name.”
Cassie said with a small smirk. Tim rolled his eyes under the mask.
“Have a little faith, I’m not that bad.”
“You absolutely are that bad.”
She said wryly, the smirk on her face never leaving. Tim sighed as they arrived at their vehicles. He side eyed Con as he helped Marinette into the sidecar of the motorcycle Sphere turned into. There was something going on there, and as her new big brother, he was obligated to be suspicious of this.
~~~~~~~~~~
Marinette and Tim stood in front of the gates to the Graham de Vanily mansion. They had found Bridgette who was currently living with her husband, Felix Graham de Vanily, in London. They had contacted her before, but today was the day they were going to meet her. Marinette fidgeted with the sleeves of her shirt looking down at her feet. Tim gently took her hand into his and gave it a small squeeze.
“It’s going to be okay, Bean. I’m sure she’ll love you.”
Marinette let out a long breath and nodded looking straight forward with a spark of confidence in her eyes that she always got when she felt like she had to get something done when under pressure. She felt Tim's hand slip into hers and squeezed it before she rang the bell. She gasped and stepped back in surprise when the gates immediately opened up for them. Tim smiled and had to stifle a laugh as he pulled her towards the large estate in front of them. A short girl with black hair dressed in a black and red sundress ran towards them at top speed.
“Bridgette! Slow down or you’ll scare her off!”
A blonde man, who must have been Felix, called from the doors. Bridgette stopped right in front of the two and quickly took both of Marinette’s hands into hers.
“You must be Marinette! It’s so amazing to meet you! We’re going to be the best sisters ever! I’ll take you shopping, and we can go out to festivals, and have sleepovers, and I can teach you how to bake!”
Bridgette’s voice got higher with every suggestion as she also began to bounce on her toes. Marinette stared at the woman in shock and held as still as she could as Bridgette bounced up and down. Her head soon snapped to Tim, and he had to will himself to not take a step back.
“So you're her other donor? Tim Drake-Wayne?”
“Yes, it was quite a shock to learn that this happened.”
He said as he stuck out a hand for her to shake. Instead she launched herself and wrapped him into a hug with one arm while she hugged Marinette with her other.
“No handshakes! We might as well be siblings now!”
Tim stuttered, slightly flustered. Marinette giggled at him as she leaned into the warm comfort she got from the hug. The next thing either of them knew was that they were both being pulled towards the mansion and being brought through the main hall to a modest sitting room.
Bridgette announced loudly as her husband jokingly rolled his eyes as he sat down next to her with much more grace than his wife.
“I call dibs on spending time with her in the Summer! I also get visitation rights whenever I am able to come to Gotham. You can also come visit during Summer, but I get the majority of her time. Deal?”
Tim thought it over for a bit before nodding and sticking out his hand.
Bridgette smiled brightly with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
“Perfect, now that we have that settled, we’re going shopping!”
She announced with finality, punctuating it by standing up and taking Marinette’s wrist and dragging her out the door. Tim and Felix stared at the door then looked at each other. Felix was smirking and shaking his head amusedly while Tim bit his lip to hold back his amusement at the panic and confusion that covered Marinette’s face.
“Would you like to grab some tea?”
Felix asked politely. Tim gave him a small smile and nodded.
~~~~~~~~~~
Tim no longer thinks that it was a mistake to have fallen for Luthor's trick. He loved his new sister. Turns out that his coffee addiction is genetic as she too has the same need for it after her first time trying it. Bridgette was pissed when she found out as she does not like coffee in the slightest. Felix thought it was funny and sometimes gave her some of his when she visited. Another amazing thing was that it turns out she had trace amounts of magic in her blood as Bridgette had told them about her time using the miraculous of luck and creation for many years. She was a very fast learner and was able to analyze then perform moves almost immediately after watching them. The only thing that they both wished she was better at was lying. She was really bad at it, but that never stopped them from wreaking havoc. Another thing that he didn’t agree with was how she and Jason got along like a house on fire. So when the three of them were teamed up for prank wars, everyone knew that the world had a high possibility of ending. The final thing that concerned him was her and Conner.
He had overheard many of the conversations that the two had over the phone. And when she went to Mt. Justice, she was always dressed a little more stylish than when she left the house any other time. If his suspicions were correct, then Con would have to go through the entire batfam giving him the shovel talk. Even from Damian. As soon as he learned that she had an interest in art but didn’t know what she should do, he had practically kidnapped her and helped her learn different techniques and his entire art room. It was rather cute really, especially since they met up every Thursday from 4 to basically the end of the day. Dick and her had bonded over her interests in arial arts, watching them perform on the trapeze was amazing. Anyone that watched them would immediately know that both of them were born to be in the air.
Marinette liked to stay by Tim as much as possible though. Because while she had this amazing confidence, she could immediately become shy and small in a second. Marinette often had nightmares of being in the “lab”. She never really talked about it, but he could tell that whatever had happened there was absolutely terrible. When her nightmares got really bad she would always go to Tim’s room and often he would be sitting in his bed working on a case on his laptop. She would curl up in his lap and while he continued to work he would run his fingers gently through her hair and quietly mumble the case facts to help her fall back asleep. Sometimes when it was really bad she would take his cases away and snuggle with him until they both fell asleep together. And when he was on patrol she would wait in the cave with Alfred and help monitor or work the comms.
One of the most precious moments of her in the cave was when Bruce was benched because of a broken leg, but still wanted to work on the cases from the Batcomputer. When everyone had returned from patrol it was to a sleeping Marinette leaned against a still awake Bruce with a small, soft, content smile on his face.
The Summers without her seemed long and almost unbearable. It was weird not having her and her bubbly personality missing from the manor, so he and the others found themselves visiting London more often than not. They even began to look to build a new Wayne Enterprises there, and if the Graham de Vanily’s were helping to fund a large portion of it, well it was strictly for business purposes.
All in all, Superman lied. Having a clone of himself and a bit of someone else was great. Marinette was an amazing person. And a just as amazing hero.
The only thing that was the downfall of it is that now she is dating Conner, and he has to watch the two flirt all of the gosh darn time! The worst part is when they did it on purpose specifically to annoy him. He loved the two, he did. Conner was his best friend and Marinette was his sister, but sometimes he wanted to slap them if it wouldn’t lead to his demise.
Tim took a sip of his coffee as the whole family gathered in the movie room together watching a stupid B list movie together and talking over each other to comment on how terrible it was and why. He let out a small content sigh and let his eyes drift shut with the feeling of content and love surrounding him. He wouldn’t trade Marinette for anything, she was honestly the glue that was keeping them together and that has helped them heal. Screw Superman, clones are awesome.
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