Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Okay, take stock of your surroundings first

Till is still in the ship, which is now in some sort of warehouse. 

Strange. 

The black hole must’ve transported him to another planet somehow. Till didn’t know how it would’ve worked since his education hadn’t been valued much. It’s not like he knew anything about physics that could explain this. 

Either way, someone might come into the warehouse so Till should probably gather what he can from the ship.

Wait- wait a second.

Something is wrong.

Well, no shit he just got pulled through a black hole but-

Everything is weirdly sized now.

The proportions of everything around him are wrong, and now that he’s no longer preoccupied with other more important things… he can assume that this isn’t anything good

He takes his helmet off and uses it to get a look at his reflection. Maybe it’ll help give him some clearance

He’s fifteen years old. 

That is his fifteen year old body.

With all his current scars and damage sure, but that’s still how he looked at fifteen.

What the hell

That is wrong. Disgusting even. 

How is Till supposed to get anything done now? He’s so screwed. It’s going to be so painfully easy to be turned back into a pet now.

His knees feel weak and he’s suddenly on the floor, world tilting with vertigo and spinning around him. 

He hits the floor with an oomph! And all the air is knocked out of his lungs.

At least the floor of the ship is blissfully cold. He might just stay here for a while…

He sighs, supposing that he was always all sorts of noodle limbed as a kid, guess even with some of his modern features crossing over into his childhood body it seems his lack of strength as a child stayed.

Would that mean that he lost his ability to ride his bike?

If he can’t do that anymore he’s going to cry. That bike along with his guns are his biggest advantages against Segyin. He probably can’t use either now… ugh.

This is potentially one of the worst days of his life.

Though, there’s no reason to make it worse. He has things to do, maybe he can figure out where he is, and how to get home and back to his usual body. 

With that plan settled, he lays on the floor for a minute before pulling his fraying determination together to start grabbing things from the ship that could help him into his backpack, and getting out of there for the time being.

His helmet was packed away because it wasn’t needed anyways. His motorcycle was left in the ship but hidden so he could come back to it later. As much tech and charging cables packed into his backpack as possible, and the crate with the bodies hidden more in the corner. The last thing Till did was a sweep to look for anything interesting and found nothing of note. 

Then the backpack was hidden in the corner so it’d be easier to hide and Till slunk out of the ship.

Looking around the warehouse. It wasn’t like the ones he was used to back at ‘home’. It was too rusty, too dingy, and completely empty.  

The ship stuck out like a sore thumb with how clean it was compared to all this . Now that his helmet was off and he was out of the ship; the assaulting smells of blood, rot, and vomit were a lot more obvious. It was disgusting and sharp and unmistakably real. 

Till certainly wasn’t dead then, everything felt too real to be some sort of strange post-mortem hallucination. That means there’s more to explore, information to get, that kind of thing. 

He really hopes that he understands whatever language they speak on this planet. He never did learn if there was some sort of universal space language. He should've asked back at ANAKT but... eh, he hadn't felt like it then.

Too busy perfecting his skills, too busy hoping for the love of someone slowly drowning in their affections for another.

Only for those affections to be ripped out of both their chests, a grotesque bloody screaming thing ripped from the sternum, vaugley approximating a beating human heart.

Though, their hearts had long been rotted out with this faux-devotion, hadn't they?

Till lets himself stew in self-deprication as he walks through back alleys and tries to stay out of view. The streets are strangely empty for how decent of a day it appears to be. It’s about noon based on the vague position of the planet’s sun, hidden by smog and pollution as it is. 

This entire planet is disgustingly polluted from what he’s seen so far. Till is going to miss looking at the stars, even with how much light pollution the old planet had had, Till’d always been able to see the stars. It was nice. The stars visible from this planet would probably be different though anyways.

Not that it mattered, he didn’t deserve to have something nice like that. He needed to figure out where he was.

The grey-haired man- or, he supposed he was a boy now. Maybe a teen if he wanted to be pedantic… he’s getting off topic.

He realized that he had wandered up to some random building and looked around to where he’d ended up. 

Whatever language they used on this planet, Till hadn’t seen it before but, at least he could understand it for some reason. Maybe the black hole messed with his brain enough to learn a new language? 

That was… oddly considerate compared to everything else. 

For now at least. 

Supposedly, he’d ended up at some sort of a... uh... public library. He wasn’t quite sure what a ‘Gotham’ was, but perhaps that was the sector he was in? 

The name of some planet he didn't know?

It's not important, what is important is that if memory served him right, libraries had... books and files and computers, right? Till had never been to a library before, so that could be wrong. 

Going purely off of things he’d overheard from Segyin talking to each other at investor things or in idle conversation he’d overheard over the years, that would be his best shot at getting information based on the little he did know. 

He walked in, only to be greeted by- 

A human? 

That is a human female-

right?

He’s not seeing things, is he? 

It must just be a Keulibtanyum, right?

No, they all disappeared years ago- there's very few of them and those who do still exist, they wear masks and such so as not to look like disgusting lowly humans.

Besides; her pupils are circular, her hair didn't have that weird slimy undercurrent, her body wasn't disproportionately muscular...

So it can't be one of those

Therefore...

Nononono- that's not right.

It just can't be a human

Unless...

Is she being made to work here? Is she some sort of decoration or mascot? 

She does look preferable. Bright red hair is a good standout feature for branding, her skin is unmarked but her name is probably embedded somewhere under the sweater she’s wearing… 

Huh, green eyes. Till hasn’t seen those before. Maybe it’s some sort of genetic preference from her handlers. She is on the older side, so she must either be a beloved fixture or a diligent worker. Maybe he can get her out of here if he just- 

He can’t do anything, what is he thinking? Till is lacking all his modern day strength and no one would believe that he’s him . It’s not- it’s no good.

“Hey kid, do you need help with anything?”

Her voice isn’t made for singing.  And she’s good at being polite and normal. Good for her, it gives her quite a bit of immunity from dangerous circumstances.

 Not that she’d ever be truly safe, humans weren’t allowed that privilege. But maybe she'll be safer than others. Till could only hope her owners appreciated her.

Oh- Till has to respond- right!

“Oh- uhm- yes. I was wondering if I could use your computers?”

Please let this be how libraries work, please let this be how libraries work  

Till is going to lose his mind if this is how he gets caught. He’d never be able to live it down. But instead, she’s a very professional human. Trained well, good for her.

“Of course! No need to ask as long as you have a library card”

Oh- libraries need identification? Maybe he can bluff? No, that won’t work. Maybe he’ll try being honest and playing up how young he is now? 

This planet is weird and he doesn’t really know what he’s doing… but if he has seeming innocence, it’s probably safest to play it up.

“I don’t have a library card. Sorry ma’am” best to be respectful as well. It should help him keep his cover as a totally normal human child who has no connections to any rebellion whatsoever. Any more stress and his voice is going to shut down. 

Hopefully this goes quickly so he can just get on the computers.

“That’s alright then, I can let you use my card, come on. I’ll scan it for you" The woman smiles kindly and her voice softens incrementally, maybe unidentified humans are common or she’s part of a resistance on this planet? 

Both theories are viable… Till will have to look at the history of this planet to make more sense of it. 

She rolls out of the desk on some sort of chair-thing. Till’s never seen something like that before, it somewhat looks like medical rolling chairs but a lot more permanent. 

Were her legs disabled? That would be quite a way to keep a human docile. She must’ve been very feisty then. Till wonders offhandedly what she did. He won’t ask though, it would be rather impolite.

The walk to the computers is short, the computers themselves don’t look like anything Till has ever seen before. The screens are thick and chunky and everything about the computer feels rather clunky in general. Considering how sleek he knows tech can be, it's rather odd. But he’ll figure it out.

“Thank you” he just says simply once everything is set up for him. He gets a glimpse at her card, the woman's name is ‘Barbra’. 

Nice name, her owner picked a pretty suiting one.

“It’s no problem. The access is good for an hour, if you need the computer for longer than that, just let me know.”

And with that Barbra is gone. Till is free to look up whatever he wants. He’ll start simple.

History is a lot, but it gives him enough of a baseline to understand things. This planet seems to be Earth which it can’t be. Till knows for a fact that Earth is a lot more messed up and there aren’t any humans left on it… right? But- he did it! He found Earth! He… can’t share it with anybody.

Everyone else is still stuck on that planet- Till can’t even tell them how to get here… if the black hole disappeared he’s never going to get anyone to this better planet.

He can’t even get his ship back into the air because of how beat-up it’d gotten and because of how young he is. And if the black hole transport de-ages people… well, all the kids they’d rescued would probably turn into babies with full-grown consciousness’ which just wouldn’t be sustainable. 

Speaking of kids… Till misses his kids so damn much it hurts. He’s once again realizing he’ll probably never see them again and that hurts. 

He’s stuck on the planet they’d worked so hard to get to and he can’t share it. Till needs to get back, he can’t just be on the better planet- he doesn’t deserve it! He won’t be here without anyone to share it with! 

Till doesn’t deserve it at all! 

He’s never deserved anything this good. 

This is terrible. 

This is the worst possible outcome. 

Till is such a failure, he can’t do anything right.

He found it, but no one else can even know about it- this is so stupid.  

Till is so stupid

He needs to calm down, wallowing in his own issues won’t help. He has other things to look at and-

ALIENS?

THERE’S ALIENS

Till needs to calm down. But it’s not easy- he’s staring at a page about the history of Aliens on Earth-

Why are the Aliens being treated like good people? 

Like they would ever do anything good for humanity? 

No, no, they're so stupid here...

Aliens are disgusting, terrible, bad, horrible creatures- they don’t get a modicum of praise. And they shouldn’t have a whole article talking about the good they’ve done for humans! How any past discretions are fabrications made by... something called a twitter monkey?

Unimportant. The more important thing is the conclusions he needs to make.

His current assumption is that he on some sort of past-earth before colonization? No, that wouldn’t make sense. The aliens he’s seeing here are far too ‘nice’. 

Well, Till never learned how Earth had been taken over and destroyed in his own universe. Maybe the aliens are playing the long game? That must be it. Now what is this Justice League thing?

Heroes huh

That’s stupid. Even if they do good things, Aliens are allowed to be the primary defense for Earth . That’s so stupid! Aliens shouldn’t be allowed on earth, that’s so stupid! Aliens are evil , you idiots! 

Humans are so stupid! This is so dumb! 

He doesn't know what a the Kryptonian, Amazonian, Atlantean Aquaman, Thanagarian, or Martian is... but those clearly are not humans and that makes them bad.

Nothing with a lack of humanity should ever be trusted with shepherding humanity. 

He'd heard once, that humans are the root of pain, creatures who can’t seem to love without exploiting. Just as bad as any other species that had attempted and with honesty, succeeded to enslave them, though perhaps humans had been worse. Clinging to false innocence to no end, looking for some sort of noble cause to call their own. Truly, humans themselves are inherently corrupt and can barely take care of themselves independently without corruption. Powerful otherworldly beings who could crush humanity underfoot are just as corrupt as any other sapient. They don't belong within human culture. Truly, they should be expunged immediately and permanently.

Preferably with heavy weaponry. 

A few more searches to see if Earth has any sort of defenses against Segyin and...

Who’s this Lex Luthor guy… ?

Huh, not bad. He really likes this bald man’s philosophy honestly. Finally someone who isn’t stupid and blindly trusting. Just because the aliens are seemingly nice now means nothing. Till knows that fundamentally that aliens can’t be trusted.

He’s getting off track, he should probably look up what a ‘Gotham’ even is.

Alright, this city is apparently just weird. There’s a big problem with homelessness and crime, which would explain why he didn’t get any weird questions from Barbra about his lack of identification. 

There’s also lots of condemned buildings and stuff. Then there’s these things called rouges which are so weird- there’s some sort of plantamorphic Segyin type villain, there’s a crocodilian, a really really ugly human named after a bird, some ice-thing, and more clowns than is normal. Two clown themed bad guys is far too much. 

Maybe they ran out of ideas for unique gimmicks or something… who knows.

There’s also this bat-man-guy, who he saw when looking up the Justice League. Apparently there’s also a bird one? Robin or something. That one…oh. That one’s missing, presumed dead and this Batman just got a new one? That’s nasty. 

Children shouldn’t be treated as replaceable. 

Even if that appears to be a constant wherever he goes.

It reminds Till too much of his own past, he’d been threatened with death for misbehavior so many times and based on the description of Robin  he was rather rambunctious. 

Probably why he got killed huh. Must've been a setup from the Bat to get a better child

A more well behaved child

One who wasn't so difficult

Who didn't fight

Who sounded good

Not some kid who thinks he's a punk chasing an unobtainable-

Till needs to get the new Robin away from the Bat before something bad happens… he doesn’t know if he can pull it off but

he has to. No child should ever be left to-

The computer times out. It’s already been an hour, huh. He should get out of here then since he’s overstayed his welcome already.

He says goodbye to Barbra with a hopefully polite nod and heads out, she looks a little distracted, typing really fast on her computer and looking at something serious looking. The way she’s looking at him seems a little strange now, but he doesn’t pay it much mind. It’s more important to find somewhere to stay for the night. 

If his research was correct, then, there’s this ‘crime alley’ place with a lot of decommissioned buildings he can potentially take residence in for now. And since that area appears to be so decrepit and that Batman figure seems to ignore it… no one will ask any questions. It’s perfect for his purposes. The warehouse his ship was in appears to have been on the outskirts of Crime Alley as well so maybe he’ll even stay in the warehouse.

Okay, alright, he can do this. 

He can do this.

Till may be a failure, but he will persevere for the betterment of humanity.

He has to.