Tim Drake, the Red Robin, is Gotham's unofficial heartbroken detective and vigilante. After one night patrol, a dimensional rift sweeps him up and dumps him onto the set of a horror movie. His starter pack has no Batarangs, just a modified staff and a sharp-tongued antique doll: pale flaxen hair in a bun, a bonnet, a crinoline dress, and a wind-up key on her back. Her stubbornness rivals Arkham's security gate.
The trouble is, the horror movie Bosses all look at her a little strangely. Jason hesitates, Michael tilts his head, Freddy puts his claws away for now to talk about aesthetics, the Countess wants to collect her, a cult wants to worship her, and Leatherface even wants to get her a different dress. At first, Tim calmly records the facts: abnormal physiology, tactical risk, isolation and observation required. After several worlds, he realizes there is only one risk: the whole world wants to get close to her, and the Red Robin from Gotham is jealous for perfectly logical reasons.
Across twenty worlds, they save people and bicker, all the while saying "don't leave" as if to say "don't get the wrong idea." When they finally fall back into Gotham, the Batfamily watches Tim smile at empty air, nod, pour tea, and dodge danger ahead of time. They are left deep in thought: the kid may really have brought back a girlfriend from another world, and, even more frighteningly, she's correcting the color of his cape.
Reader's Note:
1. The timeline is after the struggle over the cape, whether or not that exists in the comics. The sensitive author thinks my poor bird boy has been hurt.
2. Sandrone is not the one from Snezhnaya, but she isn't just a skin either. Snezhnaya's Sandrone has her own story, and this story's Sandrone also has a new beginning of her own. There is no Pronia or Faggio.
3. I want to write a destined love story where Tim doesn't have to fight for it himself, yet is still chosen wholeheartedly.
