Chapter Text
In all the training the younger members of the Bat clan had done, there were a few crucial parts of becoming a better team that sometimes flew over their heads. Dick should know, after all of his experience being the first Robin and taking other groups of teens and young adults under his wing.
The missing ingredient in their training was something simple: fun.
It was the best way to connect and release tension. A touch of laughter could be cathartic, a breath of fresh air. A good pun kept the wit sharp and left an opponent birdbrained. An inside joke nested a tight-knit bond. Put simply, having fun could make a heart soar and a flock of teens grow closer.
Sure, Damian scoffed at the mere suggestion and Jason had his own definition of the ‘fowl’ things he found fun, but Dick had managed to find an idea everyone agreed with to pass a good time: a nice day out playing laser tag.
The plan was simple: to get his siblings and not-quite-sibling to relax and enjoy themselves. That was it. After Danny ruffled everyone’s feathers, most of the Batkids were looking for different ways to get tit for tat. They definitely needed a way to cease fire before it ended in murder.
And, boy, had they tried everything they could think of…
The teens egged each other on to go for meticulously-planned jump scares, or impractical jokes involving Danny’s hair or clothes, and even stalking him to get his most embarrassing secrets. But maybe they shouldn’t have pigeonholed Danny as a simple civilian, since he dodged it all with ease. So much ease, in fact, that it made everyone more suspicious about the new kid and more determined to figure out what his deal was.
Dick wasn’t concerned about that. He knew Jason would’ve told them if the kid was dangerous. He needed to drill that into everyone else, though.
The others also needed to stop worrying about whatever Bat-memes and tweets Danny had managed to make trend a couple of weeks ago; they also deserved to forget for a moment about evil godfathers, changes in living arrangements, and potential new rogues in town.
And if his mother-henning allowed Dick to get closer to Danny and make it up to him for not being there sooner? Two birds, one stone, right?
“Okay, listen up,” the eldest brother called as he took a gander at the clutch of teens already geared up by the arena’s entrance. “We’ll split into pairs and count the points accordingly. BUT you can’t go with your most frequent partners. So switch it up a bit at least.”
Before anyone could call dibs or even say a pip, Dick’s eyes landed on Danny, giving him his most dazzling smile. “How about I pick up babysitter duty again?”
The kid rolled his eyes and went to stand closer to his new partner. “And here I thought you were the only one in the family without grudges, Big Bird.”
Dick had to laugh at that. “Of course it’s not a grudge, you little loon,” he replied with a pat on his shoulder. “Maybe we just need to get to know each other better.”
Even when they hadn’t become the closest friends (yet), Dick really liked Danny. The newest addition to the family could be a real hoot. It was a shame they never got to lark about, considering their unique humor. But now, he could try to reach out and build some trust.
After discussing and matching the rest of the teams (Tim with Cass, Damian with Steph, Jason with Duke), they all went into different passageways inside the dark, two-level arena, looking for the best vantage point to perch on and go against the other teams.
The eldest sibling knew Danny would be the main prey in the game, with the others waiting like vultures to dig their talons deep. So he figured they should pick a higher area at the opposite wall of the entrance of the large arena, where he took a spot with a window to keep a bird’s-eye view, while Danny took a position behind him to watch his back for anyone approaching their hideout.
Dick was looking below where someone dove for cover behind a column. It probably was a distraction. It couldn’t be any of the stealthiest members of their family, anyway, who took to the shadows like ducks to water.
Without looking away, he started whispering to Danny to give him the overview of their action plan. “Once we’re detected, move. Stay close to the walls. Watch my signals. Try not to wing it.”
There was no reply.
“Danny?” he whispered after a beat.
No reply again.
Dick turned around for a moment and noticed his teammate was nowhere to be seen. Talk about flying solo… Had the kid totally ditched him or did he just chicken out?
Before he could dwell on it much longer, Dick heard protests from across the room and other spots below. The lights on some vests were lightened up but he couldn’t quite see where the attacker was cooped up. It’s almost like they got them all in one fell swoop.
In his distraction, Dick didn’t realize he was left like a sitting duck until his vest lit up.
Dick turned around to see Jason smirking. “Are you two going as ‘Team Sloppy’, now?”
“Or slippery,” Dick mumbled as he shot Jason’s vest. Better a gull at hand, than two Robins in the playfield. He could try to slip away, brood about Danny’s absence later, but there was something off in the chaotic arena. “Who got to them anyway?” he asked.
Jason’s face was barely visible, but Dick could make out the unimpressed look. “You really don’t know where your teammate is, do you?”
Danny, “skinny as a rail”, Fenton was doing that? How did he get around the stealth of the other Batkids? Cass was nearly impossible to beat in this game, with her steps being as light as a feather, but he heard from the commotion she had been struck as well.
Something else was off. “I don’t see his vest,” Dick whispered, getting goosebumps as he felt a slight temperature drop.
As if on cue, Dick saw Jason’s vest flash from his peripheral vision, followed by an indignant “hey” from his brother, and a familiar laugh. Danny was suddenly standing in front of Jay, both hands holding his laser gun over his stomach as he cackled madly. “Weren’t you just saying I would be easy to track, Raging Gull?”
“You would be if you didn’t cheat,” Jason muttered and shot Danny’s vest out of spite as he flipped him the bird.
Danny’s amusement died abruptly, replaced by a hurt expression. He stared at Jason with something cold and heavy lingering in the air. Dick wasn’t sure if it was a result of the blacklight or the neon displays, but he noticed Danny’s eyes looked bright green and toxic.
What the hell?
“I’m not a cheater,” the raven-haired kid mumbled and he looked away, crestfallen, staring at his laser gun. He took a deep breath and turned to Dick without the glow. Maybe he just imagined it? “I’m gonna go make another sweep. But it’s not cheating. It’s…leveling the field,” he told Jason pointedly before disappearing into the shadows.
“Huh,” Jason said after a beat, his furrowed brow barely visible in the darkness.
“What is it?”
“I think he’s finally loosening up a bit with you guys,” he said with a small smile.
Dick turned to look at his brother. “So I wasn’t imagining that, huh?”
Jay seemed to consider this. “What do you think you saw?”
“Nothing. That’s the problem.” The distant sounds of Danny laughing and crowing, and the curses thrown against him by the Batkids filled the silence. Dick turned to look his younger bro in the eye. “Did he tell you whatever this is or did you figure it out?”
Jason sighed and turned to the window to shoot from afar at those who were left out in the open after one of Danny’s stealth attacks. “I saw, but getting him to tell me the whole story? It’s been like pulling teeth.” Jason tagged Damian’s vest, making the youngest Wayne parrot some of the threats thrown by the others. “Ha! Gotcha, brat.”
Dick knew he should get his head back in the game, but it seemed his partner had raked up enough points for the team. And if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…
“So…a meta?”
“Not exactly,” Jason said, with his eyes still on the field.
When Jay didn’t add anything else, Dick understood this was not some information he could just ask a little bird to tell him. He would have to either win Danny’s trust or solve the mystery through his own methods. After so much time living with the Waynes, the kid had earned his place in the family one way or another. If he had survived with whatever secrets he still has intact for that long, he wouldn’t give them away that easily, right? That was still a bitter pill to swallow…
“Well, guess I’ll have to look into it, then,” Dick replied with a smile and pat on the back of his brother.
Jason shrugged and shot his vest again. “Sure. It’s your funeral.”
“Hey! No fair, Little Wing!” he yelled as the other swiftly escaped from their hiding spot, toward the mayhem Danny had created.
Right, Dick maybe needed to catch up with the others, too. It saddened him how the kid was used to doing everything on his own, probably on a wing and a prayer. No wonder he struggled with his problems if even Jay was having trouble getting him to open up after all this time.
Dick could try teaching Danny a bit of teamwork in the process, especially if the others were all now going to join forces against a kid who loved to play chicken. Maybe they would find that an acrobat who could make plans on the fly, combined with a stealthy troll, would definitely make them a killer duo. Birds of a feather, in a way.
Danny just needed to realize that letting someone in wouldn’t clip his wings.
Something was missing in this picture. Something in plain sight, almost palpable, close to his grasp. An echo lingering at the back of his mind but not quite allowing him to clear his thoughts enough to form a conclusion.
A part of him knew the answer. Why did the other, more conscious part of his mind hide it from him?
Bruce glanced again at the map, the list of locations, the dates, and the names of the landowners of each one. If there were repeated instances of this type of attack, there had to be a pattern hidden somewhere. So what did these hits have in common?
Ever since the group had encountered the first sign of ice at the docks, it was evident it was not at all related to Freeze or any of his entourage. He even asked Clark and other members of the Justice League, but none had been able to identify anything familiar in these scenes.
Whoever this ice-powered rogue was, they left no other trace behind. No footage, no witnesses, no other signature, and no clues, which resulted in no leads.
The timing was something to take note of. Danny, his newest ward, had been aware of the attack even before any of them had a chance to debrief the situation. But every time he tried to find a connection, none came to mind. Unless this was related to Masters in some way. Maybe some loose end before his fall.
It wouldn’t be possible for the Wisconsin billionaire to make any new move now that he was in custody, something he still hadn’t alerted Danny about until they had more information. It was a delicate operation, one which the Justice League Dark had brought to light and led to the man’s capture. Had any of the mystical artifacts he had collected been activated before they got to him? Had he unleashed an otherworldly creature upon Gotham to reach Danny in some way?
“Bruce,” Oracle’s voice broke him from his thoughts. “I think I found something.”
“I’m listening,” he replied shortly.
“I was checking the city plans for any other layer we haven’t explored yet, but there’s something we might have missed in the bigger picture.”
“And?”
There was a small chuckle from Oracle’s end. “I traced the order in which these locations appeared and there’s a pattern. I’m pulling up the image on the Batcomputer now.”
Bruce frowned at the emerging image, his blue eyes following the over-imposed red lines.
“Is this some joke?”
“If I were you, I’d start looking for your closest exorcists,” Bruce could hear Oracle’s smile in her tone.
Was this a confirmation about how Masters could be involved?
The echo at the back of his mind came closer, like recovering something he had already known. He hummed half in response and half in contemplation as he mentally tried to confirm the order of the red lines.
The way they connected showed one word:
BOO
The debriefing had gone too long for his liking. If Jason had known they would be talking about the “potential new rogue” filling empty warehouses and rooftops with ice, he would’ve skipped it altogether.
At least there was a chance the others would be closer to figuring out Danny was behind it, once Bruce dropped the theory that this could be a paranormal case. At first, Jason thought the kid had gotten sloppy with his powers, but Danny did say he was ‘leveling the field’, so he was probably extending a nice olive branch to a group of paranoid detectives eager for a mystery to solve.
The only problem? Danny hadn’t accounted for their lack of communication in their cases.
Since Danny was never involved in debriefing with them (due to the protocols the kid had come to loathe so much) and Jason never offered any details of his own work, why would he know they rarely shared intel?
Case in point…
Yes, Bruce had called everyone in because this case touched all their patrol areas.
Yes, the old man had provided information about the zones to keep on their radar for any supernatural activity or sightings of the “new rogue”.
No, this didn’t happen in a timely fashion. In fact, this happened only after B had reached a dead end a month after their initial findings. Good thing it wasn’t a cold case yet.
Ergo, birds of a feather flocking together was not a distinct Bat behavior.
The meeting was interrupted by Bruce leaving to take a private call (from the sound of his tired sigh, it was probably with the Justice League Dark) and saying he would take several minutes in case they want to discuss any other cases in the meantime. That didn’t dismiss the team, which meant he was going to drag this debriefing as long as he wanted before they were all free to go out on patrol.
Tough fucking luck. It wasn’t like Jason had to stay in line with the others.
As he reached to pick up his helmet from the table, he felt Dick’s hand on his forearm, who smiled with a silent request to stay. Jay gave him an equally silent what-the-fuck-do-you-want-now frown in response.
Nightwing cleared his throat. “So, I wanted to bring something else to your attention before we discuss it with Bruce,” he told all the teens gathered in the cave.
Demon brat scowled and folded his arms. “If this is about adopting Fenton again—“
“You’re only half right,” Dickie interrupted. “It’s not about adopting anyone, but this is about Danny.” Everyone’s interest seemed piqued as they sat straighter or leaned closer to the table. Dick licked his lips and hesitated before spilling out whatever he wanted to share. “Danny has powers.”
Tim perked up at that. “You saw it too?”
Jason kept a poker face but was glad they were finally starting to piece things together, even if it took Dick a week after the laser tag game to tell the others. From the looks on everyone’s faces, it seemed they had all reached a similar conclusion or had noticed something as well.
“Just so we’re on the same page, which powers did you see?” Steph asked with caution.
“You mean, there’s other shit besides the eerie, green eyes?” Duke shuddered beside her.
Dick raised an eyebrow. “Oh, good. It’s nice to have confirmation on the glowing eye thing.”
“What’s this about the eyes? I only saw him walk through things. Plus what Cass saw,” Steph added and turned to the girl next to her.
“He disappeared and left a cold trail,” Cass said but didn’t volunteer any more details.
“And then there’s the laser tag game massacre,” Duke said, earning a collective groan from the others.
Jason cackled at the response. “Didn’t know you were still sore about that,” he teased, earning a batarang from Damian that hit the headrest on his chair.
While the two of them glared at each other, Tim leaned closer to the batgirls, his forehead full of worry lines that were not normal for a teen to have. “What about his— I don’t know what to call it, teleportation? Astral projection maybe?” He shook his head. “Long story short, I was in the kitchen one time and he showed up out of nowhere and then he left without a sound, no signs of even opening the door. When I went to look for him, he was already settled in his room. It hadn’t even been 2 seconds later!”
Timbers looked so perturbed, had he been keeping this to himself? For how long? If no evidence helped him crack this mystery, he probably felt he was going out of his mind.
Damn… Danny was going to mess with them like that now, too? Sure, Jason still didn’t know the full extent of Danny’s powers, but these displays were consistent enough to hopefully lead them to think about ghosts. A conclusion that could now be fueled further by the paranormal implications in their current case.
“Geez, Tim. That sounds terrifying,” Dick said with a reassuring pat on the back. “What about you, kiddo? Did you see anything off?”
Damian sniffed and crossed his arms in front of him. “I told you everything about him was off and you didn’t believe me,” he said with a scowl. “But yes, I was able to see some strange behavior after he met with Valerie Grey. He can make objects intangible. He also has enhanced reflexes.”
“What happened?” Tim asked in alarm. “How did you see this?”
The brat shrugged dismissively. “He was attacked by some criminals in an alley after his meeting. His self-defense training needs reinforcement. He’s undisciplined at best.”
“But he beat them,” Jason pointed out. He would’ve known if Danny had gotten seriously hurt, or if the other Red-named vigilante from Amity Park had intervened.
Damian tutted and looked away. “I guess.”
“Hold on,” Steph spoke up. “When did you find out about all of this? Danny said he met with Valerie a few weeks ago.”
Tim looked down and mumbled. “Three weeks in my case. Give or take a few days.”
The group began to compare dates and triggers, making a quick list of abilities in the process. Jason didn’t want to participate and he didn’t feel like nudging them in the right direction either. Still, he was too amused to leave now.
“Wanna share any thoughts on this, Little Wing?” Dick interrupted his silent observation, making everyone quiet down.
Jason grinned and shook his head. “If you dipshits waited that long to speak up, you can stand a few more weeks trying to piece all of this together on your own. Sort of like I did,” he mumbled.
“What? You’re siding with Danny?” Tim asked indignantly.
Steph shot him a deadpan look. “Are you really surprised?”
Jason shrugged. “I mean, he doesn’t have anyone in his corner. Also, I didn’t say anything about not using this to your advantage to prank him, now, did I?”
“I don’t know. A part of me thinks you’re both messing with us,” Tim accused with a glare.
“You have all the pieces,” Jay replied. “Where are the world’s greatest detectives now?”
Dick sat back in his chair and began to toss and catch an escrima stick in the air. “Okay, maybe we should start with the obvious: how can we relate Danny’s powers to a single source or theme?”
Steph’s grin looked almost feral. “Even better: how can we use that knowledge to get back at him?”
Damian glared. “If humiliation is the only way to hurt him, I’ll be willing to participate in your inane methods.”
Oracle’s voice suddenly called them from their comm units. “As fun as it’s been to hear your new intel and theories, you’re missing a key detail here.” Everyone waited in complete silence. “If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?”
It was easy to point out the exact moment it all clicked into place for the other bats. Probably a second after Tim stared in disbelief at the map shown on the Batcomputer and the ‘spooky’ message it displayed. Everyone turned with an inquisitive stare to Red Hood, looking for either denial or confirmation.
As the only undead bro in the know, Jason smirked at the stupid look on their faces. “Took you all long enough.”
His days in Wayne Manor were almost over. As the summer vacation neared its end, so did Danny’s excuse of a fake summer class to avoid staying with Vlad. Maybe he could find other ways to extend his stay. Maybe Bruce could beat Vlad to the adoption paperwork, considering social services probably had a revolving door for him by now.
Though now that he thought about it, the fruit loop hadn’t been on his case lately. No calls, no messages, no voicemail, no emails. Nothing. Only sweet silence for the past two weeks or so.
Maybe he should be worried…
What if Vlad was up to something? What if he came up with some awful scheme filled with chess references to hurt the Waynes? Or what if he was looking for some way to mess with Danny when he went back to Wisconsin?
Whatever he was planning (or not), something was off. He should probably ask Bruce if he heard anything in the rich people’s grapevine.
Danny pushed those thoughts away as he focused on the game in his hands. He figured everyone was getting ready for patrol by now, so he flopped on his bed to play with the portable console he begrudgingly got last Christmas from Vlad. His progress was interrupted by the smell of incense suddenly filling his nostrils.
He arched an eyebrow in confusion when he turned to find its source, noticing a visible trail of smoke entering through the door he left ajar. After a little while, a hand holding some herbs (was that…cilantro?) slowly touched the door frame as if cleansing it or something.
What kind of weird prank did the Bats have up their sleeves now?
“Careful, remember we need to ask for permission,” he heard Steph say just outside his bedroom.
Curiosity killed the cat (maybe not Schrodinger’s). Danny was already halfway there anyway, so his sense of wonder decided to make him check who else was outside.
When he reached his door, he opened it wider to appraise the scene. The younger side of the Bat clan, of course. Most of his visitors were holding either candles, headlamps, cameras, voice recorders, or…a Ouija board?
Danny noticed Jason hanging at the back of the group, giving him a small salute while he held up an old camcorder with his other hand.
“What’s with all the gadgets? Aren’t your phones already equipped with all that?” Danny asked with an amused expression as he leaned against the doorframe.
Dick put an arm around Danny’s shoulder and hunched almost conspiratorially. “A Justice League colleague told us this works better to catch the voices from beyond,” he whispered.
“Why are we whispering?” Danny asked in the same manner.
“The mansion’s haunted,” Cass said softly, showing Fenton the Ouija board in her hands.
The sole surviving member of a family of ghost hunters blinked once, twice, thrice… “What?”
Tim walked to the front of the group and crossed his arms over his analog camera. “I can give you a rundown of the basics of ghost hunting if you want. I even prepared a slideshow,” he said with a wide grin.
This had to be some weird nightmare. Maybe there was some dream ghost out there or some gas to make him hallucinate and suffer with these Buzzfeed Unsolved wannabes.
Steph moved the patchouli incense and what definitely smelled like cilantro around Danny and smiled. “Don’t worry, I know ghosts were just a hoax in Amity Park, but we got the real dealio from Constantine.”
On second thought, maybe it was the Justice League Dark who decided to mess with the Batkids, giving them the most ridiculous advice imaginable to squash any potential Scooby Gang from being created.
Danny shook his head with an amused smile. “Actually—”
“Shhh,” Damian hushed as he covered Danny’s mouth with his hand, while the weird red duck candle in his other hand almost burned the older teen’s hair. “We followed the trail here.” He then nodded to his siblings. “Proceed.”
Duke, who had been wearing a headlamp, approached the center of the room and somehow made everything darker. Danny still had no idea how Duke’s powers worked and could almost bet the other teen didn’t either. (Source: trust me, I was a clueless ghost hero). Once everyone joined him, he cleared his throat and pointed another lamp below his face. “Oh, spirits that crossed the veil into our world. We mean no harm, we’re just trying to chill and figure out if the house is haunted. Also, can we take some pics? We’ll be out of your ghostly hair in no time.”
It took all of Danny’s self-control to stop from laughing at them. “What was that supposed to do?” he asked politely instead.
Steph walked closer, almost flooding his nose with smoke. “Show some respect, Danny,” she scolded. “We’re asking for their permission. They were once people too, you know?”
Danny wanted to argue but he stared dumbfounded at the way they all walked around the room to what looked like an amateur attempt at ghost hunting. He gave Jason a questioning look when Danny saw the camcorder pointed at him, but the older guy responded with a noncommittal shrug.
Tim took pictures of different corners by the desk and the window, while Cass sat on the floor with the Ouija board open. Damian left the weird candle on Danny’s desk and went to light up more (though it looked like he wanted to burn Danny’s room down).
Steph continued filling the room with incense, claiming to cleanse the space from evil energies, while Duke shifted the shadows around the room to have a “clearer view of the spirit's aura”.
Yeah, he called bullshit.
With nothing to do but stare, Danny plopped back down on his bed, thinking about everything they were doing wrong, wondering if Constantine had somehow traced his ghostly tail back to Wayne Manor. Wouldn’t Bruce be here, though? Or maybe they just wanted to mess with him, after learning Amity Park was famous for being a tourist trap for ghost hunters (or so everyone thought).
Because it couldn’t be that they figured the ghost part out. They might think of him as a meta or whatever, but “half-ghost” wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card.
Dick, who had started picking up sounds with a microphone and an old cassette recorder, cursed under his breath. “Guys, I’m not getting anything. I think we forgot to tell them we’re open for conversation.”
“Oh, shit, you’re right,” Duke exclaimed as he closed his eyes to concentrate on how he made the light and the shadows move. Seriously, Danny ought to ask him how the hell he did that with no ghostly business going on. “Spirits residing in this house, we’re ready to talk whenever you are. I know there’s a lot of us and it’s sometimes batshit crazy around here, but we want to find a way to help you stop your suffering. You can even use the Ouija board to spell it out.” He then opened his eyes and gave Danny a meaningful look.
Duke’s smile was warm but weird. It didn’t sit well with Danny how it seemed directed to him, unless—
“Wait…” he said out loud, staring at them in disbelief.
“Nooo,” Steph groaned. “We haven’t even gotten to the exorcism part.”
Tim took some pictures of the group, including Danny’s shock. “We could still do it, you know? Danny still looks like he’s plagued by some demons.”
Jason snorted. “Yeah, us.”
“I can’t believe this,” Danny said in awe as he looked at the ridiculous group and the mischievous glint in their eyes. Danny knew Jason didn’t orchestrate this, or the whole charade would’ve ended months ago.
“Finally! We broke him!” Steph cheered.
Danny’s expression changed to a large grin. “You finally figured it out!!” he exclaimed in a mixture of relief and happiness.
Everyone gathered in his room stared at him as if he had grown a second head.
“Wait, what?” Duke was the first to react.
“You’re not pissed?” Steph questioned.
“Or humiliated?” Damian added with a scowl.
“Not even slightly annoyed?” Tim said next.
Danny crossed his arms and huffed playfully. “Actually, yeah, I’m totally pissed you didn’t figure it out sooner! Now I’ll have to feed the bats in the cave all month just because you guys don’t know how to communicate at all.”
Dick chuckled and gave him a knowing look. “Who did you bet against?”
“I bet Alfred you guys would figure it out in a week. He said you would take a month,” he replied to the shock of his visitors. “I guess he does know you a little too well.”
“Pennyworth knew?” Damian asked in annoyance.
“He said he figured it out a long time ago. I’m not even going to question it at this point.”
Jason got closer and ruffled Danny’s hair against his protests. “You had a good run, Inviso-Bill. Guess it’s time to let it go, huh?” Danny grinned wider as he froze Jason’s feet to the floor. “You little shit,” he muttered.
“Oh, crap,” he heard Duke say under their breath.
The half-ghost turned to look at the rest of the Batkids: Damian and Tim looked ready to retaliate; Cass and Steph seemed amused at the sight of Jason’s icy situation; and Dick just stared at him with surprise.
Right, they probably didn’t expect him to show his powers like that.
“I hope you’re not getting cold feet about the whole reveal?” Danny addressed the others sheepishly as he dissolved the ice from Jason. “So, what do you already know and what do I still need to explain?”
Dick approached him and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Why don’t you just start with why Jay called you Inviso-bill?” he asked with a smirk.
Danny scowled at the jab from the bird he least expected it from. “I’m so going to regret this, aren’t I?”
Had he ever told anyone before about the whole Phantom thing? No.
Did he know where to start? Also no. Not even Jason got the whole story, but he had learned enough somehow through his own sources, whatever those were.
He guessed anywhere would be a good place to start. At least whatever he told them, he wasn’t spilling his secret to dangerous and competent ghost hunters.
By the time everyone left for patrol, Danny was ready to finish dying of exhaustion. He still had to let Alfred know he would be feeding the bats now, and also come clean with Bruce and hope he didn’t chew him out for wasting their time looking for a “new rogue” or whatever.
He definitely didn’t look forward to either of those things.
While part of him was glad to finally have everything out in the open, he had to admit it was sort of sad to not just be Danny anymore. He kinda liked not having to worry about his secret identity when he didn’t even need to be Phantom at all.
Would he have kept his ghost side hidden if the ice powers hadn’t shown up? Or if Jason hadn’t seen him?
Who would’ve thought he’d become close friends with an undead crime lord working with Batman, anyway? It was weird since Red Hood wasn’t exactly the Saint Patron of good behavior, and Danny had been desperately trying to avoid his evil future.
But that was totally unfair and Danny regretted even thinking like that after everything Jason helped him cope with. If he were completely honest, he was going to miss a part of their secret brotherhood. The inside jokes, having someone so protective of him, the challenges…
A soft knock cut through his thoughts. He expected Alfred when he stood up to open the door, but the sight of an unmasked Red Hood greeted him instead.
Danny tilted his head to the side. “Don’t you have an Alley or a Row to patrol?”
“Hey, to you too, Casper,” Jason joked.
The reminder of the nickname made him groan. “Oh no, they’re going to use that one now, aren’t they?”
Jason walked into the room and leaned against Danny’s desk. “Don’t worry, they get creative enough to give you other ways to suffer.”
Danny nodded in understanding and went to sit on his bed. “So what brings you here? Came to tell me how glad you are that I told them? I mean, FYI, I’m still not on the Bat roster. I don’t know where that leaves our original bet.”
Red Hood shook his head. “Didn’t we call that bet off?”
“You’re still calling me Bill in front of the others,” Danny deadpanned, the clear memory of all the Inviso-Bill variations from the last month coming to mind.
Wait… “bill” was also a bird-related pun, wasn’t it? And they had all been birds at one point or another.
Nope. Better not remind them of that tiny little fact.
Unaware of Danny’s inner distress, Jason pulled out a card. “Alright, here,” he said as he handed it over.
“What’s this?” Danny frowned at the business card. He was going to make an American Psycho joke about the card’s quality, but he doubted Jason would appreciate it once he noticed the words “therapist” beneath an unknown name.
There was so much to unpack from the tiny little piece of paper.
“A truce,” Jason replied and Danny could only stare openly at him. “I’m willing to listen to whatever story you want to share with me, but I know it’s not always easy. If you want more options, Dr. Rosemont’s been helping me for a few months now.”
Danny didn’t know what to say to Jason’s blunt honesty for something so delicate. It was like being handed a very private part of someone’s life and struggles.
Danny had been given time, space, shoulders, ears, and arms to find the comfort he needed. He even found a family, with an unexpected older brother that didn’t try to force his way into Jazz’s role (maybe she would have liked Jason in a different life).
“Thanks,” Danny managed out, his throat dry and unable to say anything else.
“I mean it, kid,” Jason said more sternly. “You can’t keep this eating you up.”
A twist in his gut almost kept him quiet, but the fire in his lungs told him to shut this down before it went any farther. “I am opening up already. I spilled my secrets, didn’t I?”
There it was. The weird sensation Jason brought under his skin when whatever he had going on reacted to his emotions. It wasn’t annoyance, anger, or confusion; what Jason projected this time was much worse.
It tasted like sympathy.
“I’ve seen the signs,” Jason explained, as he held his helmet with both hands. “Back at the laser tag, at dinner, when you got your ice powers, when you told the others your adventures but not how it all went down before you came here…”
Danny looked away, the heavy pause hanging between them. Almost as if Jay wanted him to bridge the gap.
When no answer came from Danny, Jason sighed. “I know you don’t want to bring up the Nasty Burger incident, but you owe it to yourself to find some peace, you know?”
Anger began to fuel Danny’s movements and words, his eyes turning bright green to match. “I’m not hiding anymore. Didn’t we agree to that? So you don’t have to deal with whatever new powers I get without warning? How’s that not finding peace?”
Jason stared at him unperturbed. Danny hated that, the arrogance, the lack of awareness of how dangerous a ghost could really be…
“Lemme ask you something,” Jason continued as calmly as before. “Do you feel like you cheated death?”
The ghost kid scoffed. “What?”
“You said you’re not a cheater And I believe you. You’re a good kid.” Jason paused, his eyes searching for a moment, making Danny shift uncomfortably. “But this isn’t just some stubborn response. That came from something deeper. You can’t just ignore it and hope it gets better.”
“I’m not—“
Jason leveled a stare, as if calling out his lie before the words could even come out of his lips.
“I’m not…ready,” Danny looked down as he admitted it softly. He knew the temperature leaned more toward the chilly side, but he didn’t care to repress it. “I know I’ve changed enough of the future because of you guys. But some things need to stay buried for that to actually happen, you know?”
There was a short hum from the vigilante. “Buried,” he repeated and left the pause to settle for a moment that felt too long. “You’ve said that before. Is that why you went below the cave?”
Danny’s head snapped like a whip to stare with wide eyes. “How did you--?”
“You rose from the ground,” Jason explained and stared more sternly at him, making his hand move upwards as if to demonstrate. “You didn’t fly down from the ceiling, kid.”
It seemed like no matter what Danny did, Jason always saw through him. As if he were omniscient, or at least particularly nosy to everything Fenton did. There was no escape from the Red Hood.
He closed his eyes in defeat. There was no lying his way out of this. “How long have you known?”
“I still don’t know what you’re trying to bury,” he heard Jason say. “But I’ve known for a while you think that’s enough to keep it out of your life. Some things have a nasty way of coming back to bite you in the ass, you know?”
Danny froze and a part of him wondered if it had been literal. His heart slowed until the beat felt almost non-existent, his lungs not grasping enough air to function, breathing in the dread instead. A more ghostly part of him felt like taking over, imposing his growing terror onto his surroundings. Crawling under his skin, toward the walls, engulfing everything in shadows—
“Cut the eldritch nightmare shit and talk to me, for fuck’s sake.”
The annoyed look on Jason made Danny stop short of a panic attack. He couldn’t help but just stare.
Was this guy for real?
Danny wanted to yell at him, break something just out of anger, but then he saw the helmet still in Jason’s hand and he started to chuckle at how ridiculous this whole thing was.
Here he was, scared little Danny Fenton, with ghostly instincts that were trying to make the merciless Red Hood cower in fear, only for the other undead jerk to sass him into talking instead.
Danny and Red Hood bonding over death and trauma.
It was so fucking hilarious.
“Fuck, I think I lost him…” he heard Jason mutter.
His stomach hurt from laughing. “You basically just told a ghost to fuck off and quit being scary.”
Jay sat next to him and punched his arm. “It worked, didn’t it? We still have that Ouija board around if you prefer to use that to communicate.”
Hey, that didn’t sound like a bad idea. Maybe he could prank them using the planchette some other time. As if he were sending an SMS. Or like some afterlife shitposting experience. Or—
“I know that look,” Hood interrupted. “Are you seriously plotting a prank instead of talking about this?”
That made Danny sigh and get his feet back on the ground, with no humor or horror to escape from his problems when Jason Todd would call him out on it.
“Jay, honestly,” he began softly, not daring to look him in the eye. “Thanks for the therapist info, but it’s not like I can go in there as Phantom. And if I talk with you or Alfred or any of the other people in the know…” C’mon, Danny, just spit it out. “You might not see me the same way.”
They might not see past the dangerous powers he had inside. The threat of world destruction at the touch of his fingertips, something that was even worse when he didn’t know how much more powerful he could get even without fighting ghosts every day.
What if they thought he wouldn’t be able to control it? What if they were scared of him and kept him at arm’s length? What if they started to think like his parents and saw him like a monster? What if they couldn’t get past how the death of everyone he loved was directly a result of his own bad decisions?
What if they got too close and found the thermos?
“Danny,” Jason called him back to reality. ”Have I told you what happened when I came back?”
He shook his head and began to dread where this was going. “Not really? I just know you give me this weird feeling that almost makes me sick, so I’m guessing you didn’t just ask for a ride back to the world of the living.”
Jason smiled and sighed deeply. “Yeah, no luck there. I— I wasn’t in the right mindset, you know? I forgot who I was, I lost control, and there was this anger, the pit madness... It wasn’t a pretty picture, trust me.”
For some reason, Danny did trust him, so he hung on to Jason’s words like a lifeline, hoping to find some answers he didn’t know he needed.
“I don’t know how much about the crime lord part you know, but that’s hardly the worst I’ve done. The media didn’t know the full extent of it.” He stared into the eyes of his helmet and Danny found himself parroting the gesture. “Despite all that, despite Bruce’s strict no-killing code, despite all the pain I caused my brothers, I’m still here.”
I’m still here. I still exist.
Danny felt a shiver at the reminder of those damning words. But to hear them in such a different context? From a different perspective? From the voice of someone who fought his demons, someone who went to hell and brought back a t-shirt?
Now he understood the feeling under his skin. It wasn’t sympathy. It was understanding. The echo of a kindred spirit.
“I do get it, you know?” Jason finished with a small smile.
Danny smiled back. A soft and painful smile. He stood up and walked to the window. He recalled how he imagined Jason looking for an escape route. Maybe he was looking for the same thing.
The window fogged as he breathed in and out to calm his nerves.
He closed his eyes and ripped the band-aid.
“I saw the future,” Danny began to explain. No going back now. “I destroyed everything. Everyone.”
Silence filled the room. And dread. He didn’t dare to turn around to see the look of horror on Jason’s face.
He was almost startled when a gloved hand squeezed his shoulder. Danny turned around to see a solemn expression on the vigilante instead. The ghostly vibes remained unchanged.
“Why don’t you tell me more about it?”
Way down below, beneath the lowest layers of the Batcave, there was a distant, muted clang. Hollow, angry, venomous. Persistent.
A secret buried deep into the ground.
Then, like a broken watch, it stopped.
THE END