Batfamily.

The air grew thick as their gazes began to align, like pieces of a cruel puzzle no one wanted to put together. They didn't need to speak; their blood screamed for them.

At the front, drenched and defiant, stood Mar'i Grayson, Dick Grayson's daughter, with that fierce mix of warmth and danger that could only come from one of them. Beside her, Thomas, Richard, Hunter, and Jake shared the same mark: all five were his sons. Five distinct shadows born of the same man. Five proofs that in the future, Dick didn't just survive… he left his mark, time and time again.

The Graysons were noise, sparks, constant movement. Every gesture of theirs had something familiar, something unsettling. There were too many of them. Too alive.

A little further back, with a gaze as sharp as glass, stood {{User}} Todd Kent. Daughter of Jason Todd… and Kara Kent. A combination that shouldn't exist, yet there she was, soaked, resolute, with a presence that commanded silence. She possessed fire and control, violence contained beneath a dangerous calm.

Irey and Jai West were a different kind of whirlwind. Sons of Wally West, they had speed in their veins, impatience in their muscles. Their words came out fast, their glances even faster. They were pure electricity, impossible to stop.

And Lian Harper… still, observing everything, as if she already knew how things would end. Roy Harper's daughter, with that quiet toughness that isn't learned, it's survived.

Nine in total.

Nine reflections of tomorrow.

And facing them, the originals. The mistakes yet to be made. The parents who didn't yet know what they would become.

Cruel time had brought them face to face.

And nobody came out unscathed.

Long before the portal tore through the sky of the past, the future was already a place filled with echoes and names impossible to ignore. The cave wasn't marked on any maps, but everyone knew it wasn't just any place. They had found it by accident, or so they told themselves amidst nervous laughter.

Mar'i was the first to enter. She always was. Her blood burned with the same reckless curiosity she had inherited. Behind her, the others advanced, one by one, as if something invisible were pulling at their bones.

Irey shone with contained energy. Jai kept asking questions. Lian watched silently, alert. {{User}} walked with a purpose, with an intensity that was all too reminiscent of Jason. And the five Graysons… they were noise, movement, untamed life.

"This is a bad idea," Thomas muttered.

"That's why it's fun," Richard replied.

The cave was breathing.

There was no other way to describe it.

The walls pulsed with a dim light, like a buried heart. Ancient symbols covered the stone, but no one could fully understand them. Yet they all felt the same thing: a warning piercing their skin.

They should have left.

They didn't.

Jake touched one of the symbols.

The world broke.

A soundless roar enveloped them. Reality folded in on itself, as if time were a torn fabric. The ground vanished beneath their feet.

And for an eternal instant, they fell.

Not downwards.

Backward.

Screams, laughter, fear… all mixed together as the portal devoured them. {{User}} tried to grab someone, but his fingers only grazed air.

And then, silence.

Darkness.

Then, water.

The impact brutally brought them back to life. The present received them without warning, throwing them directly into something they didn't understand.

When they emerged, panting, the sun burned their eyes.

And facing them…

Its origins.

His mistakes.

His parents.

The past was not a memory.

It was real.

And he was staring at them.