Alternative Rewritten

Chapter Five: Happy Harbor

AN: If you were to read the original Alternative, this would have been chapter two. I have added so much new content to this rewrite it's not even funny. I think the original was 35ish chapters long already. I'm scared for how long this is going to end up being.

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"My cookies!" Renegade heard Miss Marian exclaim as he edged closer to the kitchen. He heard other voices inside as well, but they were muffled. The door was just at Renegade's fingertips before he hesitated, wondering if he was up to being around the Team. He had far too much weighing heavily on his shoulders, still mentally digesting the things that Batman told him. Was he really in any kind of state to be talking to his teammates after everything he had learned about himself?

He couldn't believe he knew his own name. Richard Grayson. Richard Grayson. His name repeated itself in Renegade's head in a never ending loop. The more he thought about his name, the more his mind tried to steer to the rest of what he learned, but he fought against it. It was starting to get difficult. At the smallest prompt, Renegade could still hear Batman telling him about his parents.

He had spent so long living with the assumption that his parents had abandoned him as a baby. That maybe they had been too young, or maybe his birth was the result of a careless fling between two strangers. He always listened to the Cadmus scientists when they claimed that he and the rest of the children were unwanted. Why else would he have ended up with them?

Now he wished that that hadn't been a lie, because the truth was somehow much worse. Knowing that he was loved, that his parents wouldn't have wanted this to be his fate, that hurt much more than believing that they simply hadn't cared. Because if they had loved him, that meant he should have been mourning them. His parents were dead, murdered when he was eight years old, and he didn't remember a single thing about them. He couldn't remember their faces, the sound of their voices, couldn't remember being loved and cared for in the way that Batman told him he had been. There wasn't a shred of their existence left with him, and it made him feel all the more alone.

Renegade rubbed at his temples, thoughts of his identity swarming together and wrecking havoc throughout his mind. He wasn't able to sort them out, and he most definitely wasn't able to define how each of them felt with how quickly they shuffled through each other. It was obvious that he wasn't ready to think about what Batman told him.

Maybe a distraction wasn't such a bad idea.

He didn't allow himself to ponder it over any longer and finally entered the kitchen. He instantly caught sight of his teammates gathered around a tray of what looked like slabs of charcoal. The fact that Wally was happily munching on one didn't make anything less confusing.

"I can make more? I'll be extra careful next time!" Miss M suddenly announced, already moving towards the fridge to gather more ingredients. Were those rocks meant to be cookies?

"It was sweet of you to make any," Aqualad told her, though he was clearly trying everything in his power to keep his eyes away from the first batch.

Miss M looked up from her task, positively beaming. "Thanks, Aqualad."

"When we are not on the job you may call me Kaldur," the Atlantean suddenly said, glancing around the room to ensure they all received the message. Renegade tensed, realizing where this might go.

"Oh well in that case, you can all call me M'gann," she said in response, looking around excitedly. "Or Megan."

"I'm Wally," KF said after swallowing another mouthful of cookie. Renegade blinked at him; did he forget that he already told them that? That was probably the first thing he blurted out to them when they all first hung out as a group. "So, secretive mask guy," Wally met Renegade's gaze and grinned. "Do you want us to do some detective work to figure out what your name is, or should we make up a new name for you?"