Chapter Text
Waking up in your 10 year old body is… jarring to say the least.
Tim wasn’t thinking much when he set the machine back. He knew there could be consequences, knew he could end up pretty far in the past, but he didn’t expect to be thrown quite so far back.
Once he calms down and gets his bearings though, he realizes the golden opportunity sitting before him.
There’s no way back, Tim is stuck here now, for better or worse, and he has the ability to do so much good . He may only have the body of his 10 year old self, but his mind is as sharp as ever. He can’t do much physically , not yet anyway, but with his knowledge? He could fix things, not just-... that, but everything.
He could fix everything.
So he does.
At first there isn’t much to do. Dick is on his last year as Robin and his and Bruce’s relationship is in a downward spiral. Tim’s not touching that with a 12 foot pole. He wants things to be better for his family but he can’t exactly interfere in their personal relationships. Jason won’t be taken in by Bruce for another year, so in the meantime Tim uses his ample free time to solve some cold cases.
It’s a bit frustrating at times. Technology isn’t as advanced as Tim is used to, but he manages. Some of the cases are familiar, cases he’s solved years in the future. Others are brand new to him, likely cases Batman eventually got around to addressing before Tim became Robin.
In the beginning, he sends the information he gathers to the GCPD in the form of anonymous tips, but he knows that will get suspicious over time. He starts building his own network, making it as tight and unbreakable as he can with current advancements. From then on, he sends his information straight to the GCPD through their private grid. With time, he builds his own tech, and switches it out with the old stuff until he’s sure not even Batman could break through his walls.
He does his best to stay off Batman’s radar in the beginning, but with his coming plans he knows it's only a matter of time, so he tries to make a good impression on Gordon and the GCPD. It helps that the tips he gives them are always correct. Gordon comes to expect the messages and trusts him as much as he can trust a nameless, faceless person.
The police take to calling him The Hacker within the precinct. Tim hates the name, it’s boring, derivative, but he doesn’t have anything better yet.
Barbara finds out about him through her father and from then on Tim is meticulous . He still sends his information but he leaves nothing behind, not a trace of his presence to be found on GCPD tech, no way for the future Oracle to track him down. Barbara is still batgirl in this timeline and while extremely competent with tech, she has yet to reach the expertise she did after her accident. Tim uses the time it gives him to sharpen his skills to a point. He won’t be discovered, too much is at stake.
He spends the next 2 years just like that, gaining more trust with every case he helps solve.
In his civilian life, he makes quite a few alterations to the way he’s perceived. If everything goes to plan, and he eventually becomes some sort of vigilante presence in Gotham again, he doesn’t want there to be a hint of suspicion thrown his way.
Before, Tim was known to be a quiet yet inquisitive child. His parents demanded nothing short of excellence from him and it pushed him to reach genius levels of intelligence before he was even a teenager. This time, he holds himself back a bit. His parents' demands are just as high, and he does meet them, but he’s careful not to exceed them, knowing full well his parents' perception of him won’t change either way. He ends up a year ahead in school instead of the 2 years he was ahead before. It places him just a year behind Jason at Gotham Academy.
When they were in school before, Tim was careful to avoid Jason’s attention, not wanting him to draw any connections from the tiny kid in his grade to the kid with the camera he once saved from falling off a fire escape.
Tim still keeps his distance, but he also curates a certain image for himself. Instead of a child genius, he’s an arrogant know-it-all. Instead of being humble and timid, he’s spoiled and snarky. He’s the epitome of the typical whiny rich kid, just another entitled brat of the upper class, exactly the type of person Jason abhors. It doesn’t help that Tim makes a point of making friends with Jason’s bullies. He never participates himself—he actually manipulates them into backing off when he can— but Jason doesn’t know that.
Though they rarely meet in person, Jason, and by extension the Wayne family, have a decidedly bad impression of the kid next door. And it suits Tim’s purposes perfectly.
A year before Jason’s trip to Ethiopia, Tim finally inserts himself into Batman’s awareness. He’s sure Batman has at least heard about ‘ the hacker’ from Gordon, but it’s the first time he reaches out to the Bat directly. Hacking into the batcomputer and leaving a message on the desktop is perhaps not the best way to gain his confidence, but the needs must and all of that.
Bruce is, and forever will be, a paranoid freak, so Tim has to gain at least some credibility with him before it truly matters. He starts small, giving him tips about events he shouldn't know about, threats that are in the midst of developing, ect. He’s sure it drives Bruce crazy, but when Tim is proven right time and time again, he can’t do much but accept it.
Then Jason runs away to find his birth mother.
Tim has had years to ponder the best way to address the event and stop Jason from dying. If he were so inclined, he could've stopped it all. He could have stopped Jason from looking for his birth mother at all, he could have made her disappear, made the Joker disappear. It would’ve become just another blip in time, passing by without notice.
But he can’t do that.
Tim can’t play God, no matter how much he might want to. Everyone has the right to choose what they do with their life, and either bask or suffer in the consequences. Tim knows that better than anybody. He can’t take away Jason’s choice, nor can he take away the knowledge and the heartbreak that will come from the experience.
But he can save his life.
So Tim lets events unfold. It’s not like he could change the tension already brewing between Bruce and Jason anyway. Jason runs away, he’s sold out, and he’s captured by the Joker.
Then and only then does Tim intervene, sending all the information he has to Batman, just another tip left on the display of the batcomputer. Batman knows enough about Tim’s tips to know he is rarely wrong.
Jason is tucked safely back into Wayne Manor that same night.
Tim observes the fallout from afar. Jason doesn’t come out unscathed. He’s still injured, but not nearly as severely as Tim knows he could have been. Most of it is superficial and Jason will heal up in just under a month. Something about that night still shakes Jason though, changes him. He’s quiet at school in the weeks following, introspective. Tim knows what it's like to be betrayed by a parent and he can only hope what happened doesn't ruin Jason’s trust in Bruce.
It doesn’t.
If anything, it seems the betrayal of his birth mother only opens Jason’s eyes to everything Bruce has done for him. Jason had three different parents abandon him, fail him, but Bruce chose Jason. He showed Jason he has value beyond his rage, beyond just being a tool to be used. Bruce isn’t a perfect parent, but he tries to do right by his children and it seems like Jason sees that now.
For Bruce’s part, almost losing Jason scares him. It makes him a bit more cautious, a bit more willing to seek help outside his limited perspective. He gets Jason into therapy with Dinah for a while, and from then on the Waynes are far more willing to address their sometimes (oftentimes) questionable mental health.
Bruce makes a stronger effort to bridge the gap between him and Dick. It’s not an overnight process, but their relationship starts to heal, opening the door for Dick and Jason to mend their own hurts. In a relatively short amount of time, they become near inseparable, brothers in every way like they were always meant to be. It makes Tim both happier and more depressed than ever.
The most unexpected outcome of the near tragedy, though, is Bruce’s response to Tim. He leaves a note on the batcomputer for Tim to find.
Thank you. Should you need my assistance, you need only ask.
~ Batman
It leaves Tim shocked and shaky. It’s the first time he’s been directly acknowledged by anyone for his “work”. Tim is careful to cut himself off from the people he “works” with. Whatever info he sends to the police or to Batman, he never gives them a way to respond, to speak with Tim in any way. Oh they’ve tried before, especially Barbara, but Tim always shuts them out. He likes being the invisible hand. It’s cleaner that way, better for him, better for everyone if he just… doesn’t exist.
But Bruce’s response sparks something in him.
Bruce leaves the message on the desktop of the batcomputer, for who knows how long, just waiting for when Tim would inevitably hack back into the network. Beyond the actual words, the note communicates a sort of acceptance. It’s more trust than Tim ever thought he’d ever get from the Bat.
His response is simple, and for the first time ever, he gives a name.
You're welcome.
~ Cardinal
The years pass. Tim trains hard, gaining back his previous muscle mass. Though, for the most part, he leaves the field work in the capable hands of the Bats.
Jason outgrows Robin, and transitions into his own hero, Bluejay. Steph endears herself to the family again, and takes up the Robin mantle for a time.
Through it all, Cardinal follows their every move from the shadows, never seen or heard from except through the occasional digital messages he sends. They never invite Cardinal into their investigations, but they don’t turn down the offered information either.
Tim prevents every major tragedy that he can, but some things are out of his control. The more he changes the timeline of events, the less current his information is. He warns Batman that the Joker has plans to target Barbara Gordon (the commissioner's daughter, not Batgirl), but things have changed so much, he can’t predict when or where it will happen.
And so despite his best efforts, Barbara is still injured.
The injury is slightly less severe than it was the first time, but it still takes Batgirl out of the action. Within months Oracle is born once again.
As a sort of welcome back gift, Cardinal sends her a note asking if she’d be interested in more open lines of communication. He always planned to be their ally in the shadows. Establishing a form of communication is only logical, right?
With Oracle’s approval, he remotely installs a chatbox of sorts into her network, a direct line from him to her so they can send messages back and forth. The program is heavily encrypted, and set to destroy itself the moment someone tries to hack their way in, along with the network it’s installed into. Oracle takes the threat in kind and doesn’t attempt to break the encryption.
One of the first things Oracle asks him is why he’s setting up this system with her of all people? Why not the GCPD? Why not Batman?
He simply responds that it’s the most practical. And it is, Oracle has eyes and ears everywhere in the city, she’s the guard at the watchtower, well Clocktower.
Though, if Tim is being honest with himself, having any sort of communication with his past family is just too… painful. But he knows how important it is for them to have open lines with each other so neither party oversteps. Barbara is his compromise.
Tim keeps track of his other would-be siblings. He finds Cass and Duke and makes sure they are safe. He helps them where he can, and keeps an eye on their path, carefully nudging them towards their inevitable adoption at the hands of one Bruce Wayne.
And then there is Damian.
Tim isn’t about to let Damian suffer in the hands of Ra’s and the league longer than he has to, though he’d rather avoid putting himself on Ra’s radar. When the time is right, (and Tim needs Bruce distracted) he tracks down Talia and leaves her a carefully timed physical note written in crimson ink, warning her of Ra’s future plans for Damian in the near future. He doesn’t know how she convinces Ra’s, but not a month later, Bruce Wayne announces the welcome of his youngest son to the public.
When Tim is 15, his parents are killed by raiders at their most recent dig sight. Tim mourns them all over again, mourns the fact that even in this timeline Tim wasn’t enough for them to stay.
Tim finishes up school, graduates early, and has himself emancipated. He prevents the whole Timestream incident, then goes on a trip. He tells the press he’s “touring the world” for the next year.
In reality, he goes hunting.
He’s finally at a point physically where he can track down a few of his old mentors and even go after some of his old enemies personally. It’s the first time he dons his newly crafted Cardinal uniform. He meets and re-meets many people on his travels, making a name for himself in underground space between heroes and villains. No one ever sees his face or learns his true name.
Tim returns to Gotham just a few months shy of his 17th birthday with both new allies and enemies.
Cardinal kept in contact with the Bats while abroad so as to not raise any suspicion,( it’s not like they ever knew where he was to begin with). They’re used to not hearing from him for weeks or months at a time. Upon returning though, Cardinal starts to go out on the streets. He’s rarely seen by anyone, person or camera, but whispers start traveling throughout the city of another shadow stalking the rooftops.
He takes over his parents' company, still the ‘youngest CEO in history’, blah blah blah . From then on, he starts shifting his image again. He’s older now, no longer a child, and a prominent business owner. He refuses to be walked all over like he was when he was running Wayne Enterprises.
He’s still a nepo baby, but he embraces the fact, throwing his name and wealth around when the situation calls for it. It’s public knowledge he’s smarter than the average teenager, having completed school so quickly. He uses it to his advantage, taking on the persona his mother was most known for, which was.. Well… a bit of a bitch.
He’s the epitome of grace and good manners until challenged. He’s witty in conversations, well, more snarky than anything, but still likeable to some. When the inevitable doubt and condescension comes his way, questioning his age, experience and intelligence, he uses his tongue like it’s a weapon, tearing apart his victims without ever lifting a hand. He’s been called a vindictive bastard more than once.
Despite his age, the public quickly learns not to mess with him. He’s just another selfish, arrogant upper classer with no care for anybody but himself. It’s not the perfect cover, but he started his time as Cardinal so young that the few who know of his existence would never connect him with his alter ego.
Before he knows it, Tim is 18 again, the same age he was when he first jumped back.
Thus far, Tim has done everything he set out to do. Cass and Duke are officially Waynes again. His family is all together safer and happier than they ever were. Gotham is a better place, the world itself has suffered less for all that Tim sacrificed.
Another year passes and Tim convinces himself it’s enough.
He fixed it. He fixed everything.
Does Tim’s chest feel a little more hollow everyday? Sure. Does the pain of loneliness come for him every night? Obviously. But it’s all worth it. His family's safety is worth it.
Never having to see his little brother’s lifeless body again is worth it.