Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

This was not where Danny wanted to be. No, this was only happening because Vlad wanted to feel big and important now that Danny severely outranked him among ghosts. It was comically easy for Vlad to convince Danny's parents to let him drag him to some weird, rich people event. Even Sam, an actual rich kid, never had to go to this sort of thing. Vlad was already dead, so making Danny an heir he needed to parade around was a complete power play.

It took a while, but he managed to slip away from the fruitloop when someone got him started on the topic of football. Thank goodness for that. It seemed like most of these rich guys knew better than to bring it up to Vlad.

Danny was sipping a drink and pretending to look at the refreshments when he felt a pair of eyes on him. He ignored it, but the sensation only grew. Anxious, Danny made the possibly ill advised decision to slip off somewhere further from prying eyes. Scratch probably, because that was not the move. He was starting to speed walk when a hand grabbed his shoulder and pushed him to the wall. His cup was also taken from his hands. Rude.

Blinking, Danny quickly realized he had no idea who this guy was. “Uh, sup?”

“Who do you think you are?” Asked the boy, and it was a boy and not a man. The guy was a teen who looked about the same age as him, kind of looked like him  too if Danny squinted. “Who sent you here?”

“Look, man, I don't know what you're talking about. My name is Danny, and I'm here with Vlad Masters. Not that I even want to be! I'd rather be at home than here with that fruitloop. Whatever you think is happening here ain't it, dude. I'm just some guy from the Midwest. Can you let go already?”

“I don't believe you. You have her face, her eyes.” The guy continued to scrutinize Danny with narrowed eyes.

Danny stiffened. “Okay, there's no way you knew me pre-transition, so I still think you have the wrong guy.” Technically, it wasn't impossible that this guy was thinking of Dani, but that didn't make sense either.

This seemed to cause the other guy to pause, and he looked confused for a moment before his expression hardened again. “Something happened to you when you were six. Am I correct?”

“Okay, you're freaking me out now.” Danny would absolutely be pulling away If the grip on him wasn't so tight still. “I famously don't remember what happened to me when I was six, ‘cause I kept telling crazy, made up stories about ninjas and pools of ectoplasm. What are you even getting at?”

“You– They weren't made up. When we were six, you fell into a Lazarus Pit and were presumed dead. You were my twin sister, and we were both being trained as assassins.” There sheer amount of sincerity mixed with how unbelievable the words were was insane.

Danny blinked. Then, he blinked again. “That sounds super made up. I just want you to know that. You're coming at me like a soap opera while I'm trying to survive a sitcom.”

“Tt. Submit to a DNA test. I will prove it to you.” The other boy huffed.

“No can do. My DNA is on a need to know basis. Isn't it kind of weird that you're so convinced after, like, a minute long conversation?” Danny furrowed his brow.

“You are clearly not a clone.” And wasn’t that another thing that was crazy for Danny to hear. “The only logical conclusion based on what you've said is that you're my twin. The body was never recovered, so something must have happened where the Pit took you somewhere else.”

“Why is it always clones?” Danny mumbled under his breath. This was an exaggeration considering it was fully only clones the one time. “I still don't even know who you are.”

“I am Damian Al Ghul Wayne, and you are my twin. I will prove it to you if you’ll just listen to me. As much as I’d like to be surprised by your behavior, you were stubborn even as a small child..” Bold words from the guy who was presumably also a small child at the time.

“I'll give it to you that I'm adopted, cause I'm brown and my white family is not, but I still think you're jumping to conclusions.” A beat passed. “Wait, Wayne like Gotham?”

“Precisely. Our father is Bruce Wayne, and you were presumed dead when you fell into a pool of green liquid, which you appear to remember despite your insistence otherwise. Are we on the same page now?” They stared at each other at a weird impasse. Danny felt something coming and bristled.

“Daniel, you cannot be running off with how much of a magnet for trouble you are.” Vlad came around the corner, and Danny tensed up. God, the only way this could get worse was if Bruce Wayne showed up, too. Vlad was looking between the two of them. Unfortunately, he came to the wrong conclusion. “Did you really come back here to practice your duplication–”

“Ha ha! That's such a weird thing to say, Vlad. This is, uh, Damian? Wayne? A regular guy and not whatever you were talking about.”

Vlad had the good sense to look like he understood the gravity of the mistake he had made. “Oh, yes, you know how I like to joke, Daniel. Anyway, come along.”

“No. He's busy.” Damian cut in, looking at the both of them with narrowed eyes. Oh no, was he competent? Danny was really used to dealing with kind of dumb, inattentive people. Meanwhile, his supposed twin was looking downright analytical. “We're going to go see Father.”

“We could certainly all go together, young man. Daniel's parents have entrusted me with his safety,” Vlad said in that smooth, charismatic tone he used to get his way with other adults. Luckily, there were no adults around to buy into it.

Damian moved his hand from Danny's shoulder, grabbing him by the wrist instead and pulling him into a sprint. There was a cry of “Biscuits!” behind them. if he hated Vlad less, Danny probably wouldn't be going along with this, but most weird bullshit was better than dealing with that fruitloop. The two of them ran until they were weaving in between groups of people. Danny had been hoping they weren't actually going to go see Bruce Wayne. Of course he wasn't that lucky.

“Father,” Damian said to a man who, yeah, kind of looked like both of them but whiter. “Father, I have been keeping secrets from you, but I will be needing your assistance to prove I am correct.”

Bruce, for his part, hadn't actually been in an active conversation, which was cool. That meant less people being exposed to whatever this was. On the other hand, Danny was feeling fairly intimidated by the serious look that definitely wasn't in any public images of Bruce Wayne. “Damian, who is this?”

“Your son. May we have this conversation elsewhere?” It was said with zero concern for Bruce’s feelings. Despite being a soap opera worthy revelation, Damian was steamrolling past it in that moment.

“Do I get a say in this?” Danny asked.

“The last time I let you out of my sight, you fell into the Pit, so no,” Damian said. That might have been a fair answer if Danny actually believed it. So far, he still wasn’t convinced. 

“Damian, we cannot kidnap people.” Bruce Wayne signed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“It's not truly kidnapping if he is biologically yours.” Damian did not appear to be operating on the same morals as codified law.

“I think it is, Dami.” Now, where did that nickname come from? “I'm not technically here with someone legally responsible for me, and I also don't care if he loses me, but I do have adoptive parents who are… several states away, actually.”

Bruce Wayne looked like he was developing a migraine. “Perhaps we can, without leaving the premises, go and have a conversation somewhere more private about this.”

“That is acceptable.” If they kept at this for much longer, someone was going to overhear something. No one seemed to want that, and so they were in agreement there. That is how Danny ended up in a private room with two Waynes, and it was only somewhat against his will. He could have phased out of Damian's hold and booked it at any point. Sure, he only thought of that after getting to the private room, but it was still true.

When they were settled, Bruce Wayne gestured for Damian to start speaking. “Please, explain from the beginning.”

“I saw… Danny while you were busy being sociable. Assuming he was a clone, I moved to extract him from the civilians and dispose of him. However, upon closer inspection, he was not an accurate depiction of myself. My twin had blue eyes like yours, and Danny’s are an exact match.” Damian was so convinced that it kept making Danny second guess himself.

“Since when have you had a twin, Damian? Why did you never tell me until now?” Bruce Wayne actually looked distraught for a second as he entertained the idea of Damian’s reality being true.

“We lost him a long time ago. I had been instructed to forget and not let my grief become a weakness. I cannot speak for Mother.” 

“Were the ninjas some kind of cult?” Danny asked. No one answered him, so he was going to assume that they were. It all sounded very culty.

“Danny does not remember, because he was convinced his memories of the League were not real. Out of the proper context, a six year old speaking of the League would sound ludicrous, so this is not out of the realm of possibility,” Damian said, and Bruce Wayne nodded like that was very sensible to point out.

“If he was presumed dead from falling into a Lazarus Pit, then how is he here now? They're known to kill the healthy.” Bruce Wayne was definitely being more sensible about this than Damian was. It was a relief to Danny to know that only one person here was making wild claims and believing In them without proof.

“I do not know,” Damian admitted. “How did you survive that?”

“Um. I guess since the pit or whatever you call it was green, it must have had a natural portal. I was found in the Midwest by a family that was out camping, lived with them ever since. Assuming any of this is true, since I'm still not convinced you haven't made a mistake here.” Something really strange was happening in this story. Danny would likely have to contact someone in the Realms to follow up. “What do you mean it kills the healthy? Ectoplasm isn't supposed to do that.”

“A portal?” Bruce Wayne looked concerned. Damn it, Danny did not want to explain portals to the Infinite Realms.

“Oh. Um. Don't worry about it?” Neither Wayne looked like they were going to accept that answer. “Just look up the Fenton's research. They're my adoptive parents. Actually, maybe don't look it up, it's kind of biased against extra-dimensional beings. Can we talk about something else? I don't want to do a DNA test, so I think we're at an impasse here.”

“Do you have another way to confirm, Damian?” Bruce Wayne asked his for sure, actual son.

Damian thought for a moment before gesturing to Danny's shin. “If I'm correct, which I am, you have a scar around here. A very clean line from a blade.”

“What?” Danny pulled up his pant leg to look at the exact scar that he knew was there. “Oh, ancients.” Somewhere, Clockwork was laughing at him, probably. What the ancient does all day, he has no idea, so it must involve watching Danny’s life like a soap opera.

There was a very self satisfied expression on Damian's face. “See. Now that that's settled, I'm sure I will be able to give you the proper stimuli to remember what you've forgotten.”

Danny looked over at Bruce Wayne, and, well, the man looked to be in crisis. “She kept a second child from me.” Danny probably wasn't supposed to hear that with how quiet it was.

“Um. Okay. I don't know what you think is going to happen now.” Nothing had been proven, and Danny was still legally a Fenton and not looking to change it. Maybe, he would feel differently if he was inclined to believe in Damian’s conviction. The only way he would be able to independently verify any of this would be to talk to Clockwork, something Danny could only do when the Ancient wanted Danny to find his lair. Even then, a direct answer was unlikely. Danny could understand why Clockwork operated that way and be frustrated about it at the same time. There was no rule against it.

“Obviously, we should be making plans for you to come live with us instead. We are your blood family,” Damian said like Danny was being ridiculous for even asking.

“That's cool and all, but I don't know you, not anymore, at least. I have a life and another family, and I can't just move to, what, Gotham? You live in Gotham? That’s insane. What if it’s all culty like the other place I apparently escaped?” If it weren't for the more tempered reaction from Bruce Wayne, Danny would think the world was going insane.

“Did you not just say your adoptive family is biased against extra-dimensional beings? They do not sound like good people.” Damian pulled a face. It was almost touching that he was acting like he cared about Realms beings.

“That's only a problem if you're a ghost. Do I look like a ghost?” If either of them said yes, then that was it. Danny was going to phase through the floor. This biological family that was fully just sprung onto him didn't know about Phantom, and they didn't need to know about the ghost weapons or the shooting or reanimated food. There was no world where he needed to disrupt his entire life and move somewhere without easy access to the Realms. 

Silence filled the room. Danny and Damian were each staring each other down and Bruce Wayne wasn't talking either. It would be wild for anyone to know how to navigate a situation like this one, because it was insane. This is the sort of thing that didn't happen to normal people.

“Why did Masters ask you if you were practicing duplication?” Damian posed as more an accusation than a question.

“It's an inside joke,” he said blandly.

“Are you here with Vlad Masters, Danny?” 

“I guess.” Bruce Wayne did not seem happy with that answer. “He made me his heir because he's obsessed with my adoptive mother and wants her to leave my adoptive father for him and take me with her.”

“And they allow you to be alone with him.” That tone of voice from Bruce Wayne had Danny fidgeting in place.

Danny shrugged. “I can handle him. The only power he has over me comes from adults not listening to teenagers.”

It was as though Danny didn't understand what was wrong with what he said. In fact, that was exactly the case. Danny was so used to Vlad being a creep and no one else seeing it, that he was desensitized to how it sounded when he talked about the man.

“Danny. Are you safe with Vlad Masters?” Bruce Wayne asked way too gently.

“I mean, I don't think anyone is ever safe with Vlad. That man would double cross a puppy.” That was supposed to be a joke, but it only made the present company frown even more. Tough crowd.

“I can't let you go back with him if you'll be in danger, chum.”

“No, you don't get it,” Danny said, and his frustration was really showing. “I’m not your chum, and you don't have any right to be making decisions for me when I don't know you. That fruitloop can try all he wants to hurt or control me, but he can't! He hasn't been a real threat to me in– in ever.” Danny tripped over himself trying to smooth over implying there had been a time where Vlad was a threat to him. None of this accounted for being the focus of detectives, though. Danny Missed the look the Waynes shared, squeezing his own eyes shut before they could flash green or start glowing or whatever.

“Give me your phone.” Danny opened his eyes to see Damian holding his hand out to him. After he narrowed his eyes, Damian rolled his own. “I'm going to put my number in. Now, hand it over.”

There was a beat before Danny got his phone out, and Damian quickly added himself to his contacts. Danny wished he wasn't so worried when they were still like strangers. If he could barely remember being six, then how could Damian?

“You will call me if you are in trouble. If that man or anyone else hurts you, I will eviscerate them.” Damian said it like he meant it. How was Danny supposed to feel about that?

“Damian,” Bruce Wayne warned.

“Tt. I will eviscerate them unless Father stops me.” Damian rolled his eyes.

“That's a very nice offer and all, but I can fight my own battles.” Suddenly, Danny stopped and looked at the door. It might not be as reliable as his usual ghost sense, but he could still get a feel for when Vlad was around. Sure enough, there was a knock followed by said man opening the door.

“Oh, Daniel, there you are. I've been looking everywhere for you.” Vlad was trying to act innocent with a faux concern, but there was an anger in his eyes. Clearly, he was mad about Danny managing to lose him for so long. Twice. “My apologies, Mr. Wayne. This one gets into all kinds of trouble without proper supervision.”

“It's quite alright, Vladimir. He seems like a nice boy.” Bruce's demeanor had completely changed when Vlad walked in, a paparazzi friendly smile pasted onto his face. It almost made Danny do a double take considering how serious he had been moments before. “Actually, my son, Damian, was hoping to spend some more time with Danny.”

“Unfortunately, I do need Daniel to come with me. Now.” As Vlad got closer, Danny glared at him. He almost went intangible when Vlad grabbed his arm, but he thought better of it. The grip on his arm tightened, which meant Vlad had felt the power fluctuation. Danny was summarily pulled out of the room and Vlad hissed at him. “What in the toffee nut was that about? How did you end up in a room with Bruce Wayne?”

“None of your beeswax, old man,” he said, finally tugging himself out of Vlad's grip.

“Father, that was not normal. He isn't safe with that man,” Damian hissed after being left alone with Father.

“I think you may be emotionally compromised, chum,” Bruce said, placing a steadying hand on Damian's shoulder.

“I'm not. You saw what I saw.” Yet, the boy was heated.

“I did. That doesn't mean we're within our rights to act on it. We don't even have concrete proof beyond a matching scar that Danny is who you think he is.”

Damian paused. “I have a cup that he was drinking out of.”

Bruce should be shooting that down, setting a good example and insisting that they wouldn't run privacy invading testing without consent. That would be the responsible thing to do. “We'll run it through the Batcomputer when we get home.”

“I have a number of additional concerns. First, he used the term ectoplasm when referring to Lazarus water. Second, we briefly encountered Masters before finding you, and he accused Danny of running off to practice his ‘duplication,’ which they both tried to play off as a joke, rather poorly. Third, his eyes became Lazarus green when he got angry. However, he seems to have far more control over it than, say, Todd. Furthermore, he provided the surname Fenton, the one he presumably uses, and we must conduct a background check on his adoptive parents immediately. Lastly, he twice seemed to know when Masters was going to show up before he got there.” When Damian finally finished, there was a long pause, as if to make sure he was really done.

“We're tabling this for now,” Bruce said, and he lifted a hand to cut off Damian's protests. “After we get through the rest of this event, we can look into next steps. I understand that it will be difficult for you to wait that long, but we have to trust Danny, for now, that he isn't in immediate danger.”

“Very well, Father,” Damian grumbled.

Danny managed to lose Vlad one final time at the end of the night. The event was ending, anyway. This time, he was too exhausted to notice the eyes following him around. He turned a corner and went invisible to fly through the building until he got to the roof. The night air was clear and beautiful, not a cloud blocking the night sky. Transforming, he laid back on the roof to bask in his obsession as only his ghost form could. White hair floated around his head like underwater and his freckles lit up like constellations. All the light from the moon and stars soaked into him like sunlight on a solar cell.

Nothing good could last for Danny. His stargazing was ultimately interrupted by who else but Plasmius. “Ancients, you've been chasing me down over and over again for hours. The event is over. Give it up and let me have a moment to myself already.”

“You're being irresponsible, Phantom,” Plasmius sneered. “That crown must be pressing down too hard on your soft spot.”

“Irresponsible how? By not putting up with your bullshit? I didn't even want to be here. Let me stargaze.” Was Danny whining? A little bit. It was hard not to with how much this event had stressed him out between Vlad and the Waynes.

“Such a child. I expect you to return by the end of the hour or there will be consequences.” With one more dirty look for good measure, Plasmius flew away. A green bolt chased after him, but it was blocked by a pink shield with Plasmius not even bothering to look back.

“I expect you to return by the end of the hour or there will be consequences,” Phantom repeated in a mocking tone as Plasmius disappeared from sight. “Choke on a cheese cube, Plasmius.”

Across the roof, a baby bat was spying with narrowed eyes. 

Chapter Text

To say that Damian was frustrated was an understatement. Part of why he was angry had nothing to do with the current situation with his twin, but in the time long gone.

Damian knew he had not been a good brother, and so it was almost a relief that his twin did not remember being in the League together, but only almost. Ultimately, he would still rather be remembered at all than have his cruel and childish behaviors forgotten.

“Damian, I don't know what you're saying,” Father said with a sigh. The two of them were in the car heading back to Gotham.

“I'm reporting to you what I witnessed,” he said, annoyance slipping through. “When Danny vanished, I predicted that he would go to the roof. There were two unknown metas by the time I arrived there, and their conversation was suspiciously familiar.”

“I believe you, but there is a lack of evidence,” Father sighed, and he sounded tired. No, not tired, emotional.

“Tt. Evidence will come in time,” he said, clicking his tongue. Typically, Damian also saw the value in waiting for evidence before making conclusions, but he was completely sure of himself in this instance.

“I need to think. We can come back to this in the Cave when we run the DNA sample.” Father effectively ended the discussion for the moment. After that, it was a long, silent, car ride. Neither of them were the most talkative, so it wasn’t too unusual. However, it felt different than that, more charged.

Skipping the regular garage, they went right to the Bat Cave. Damian couldn't help but wonder if Father was upset with him for keeping this from him. As calm as Father was trying to be, it was clearly affecting him. His lack of reaction at two unknown metas was proof enough of that. Father held out a hand wordlessly, and Damian knew to hand over an evidence bag with a small cup in it. The silence was heavy while the sample was prepped and run through the system. Damian stood by, as tense as the atmosphere.

“What…” Father trailed off, and Damian took a closer look at the results on the screen.

“It's corrupted. Why?”

“Some of the sequencing is either degraded or doesn't match up with the human genome altogether.” Father glowered, shifting into more of a Batman mindset. “The strangest part is that with the uncorrupted data, we still get a genetic match. What happened back then? Could the Pit have caused this?”

“I don't know. Danny fell into the Pit while perfectly healthy, which should have killed him. It is already unheard of for someone to have survived that.” Damian frowned. “What of Todd? Is his DNA like this?”

“Jason has refused to provide a DNA sample for the records in recent years,” Father said, purposefully keeping his voice devoid of tone.

“Tt. Of course he has.” This was just another of Todd's many failings. “Danny is still my twin. I knew that I wasn't wrong. It doesn't matter if he has become something else. We have many associates who are not human.”

“You're right, he's still your siblings and my son, as well.” Soon, it would truly and properly sink in that Father had another biological child that he didn't know about who had something dramatic happen to his biology. His emotion seemed too in check for that to have happened yet. “Run me through your assessment of the two metas from the roof.”

“The first one was a slightly glowing teenager, identified as Phantom. His hair was white, and he had a similar skin tone to myself, perhaps a touch more blue. I could not see it well, but his eyes may have been Lazarus green and also glowing. He appeared to be wearing a monochromatic, hazmat suit. The second looked, well, vampiric. His skin was blue, and he had black hair shaped into horns, as well as a cape. He also glowed. Phantom referred to him as Plasmius,” he reported, starting first with appearances. “The conversation, to be blunt, sounded exactly like Danny with Masters. Phantom complained about the man coming to find him several times at an event that was now over. In turn, Plasmius seemed to be imposing some form of curfew. It is unclear how their appearances could have changed so dramatically, but it isn't unheard of. Phantom fired a green, energy based attack from his hand, and Plasmius blocked it with similar energy, only pink. After the older meta flew away, I had to retreat before I could determine if Phantom was also capable of flight.”

“That is… very suspicious, chum. I will give you that.” Father put a hand on his chin. “We need to run a background search on Danny and his adoptive family.”

The echoing sound of an engine approaching filled the cave. Tim Drake, dressed as Red Robin, stepped off of his bike and approached the silent scene. “Am I interrupting something? I'm not going to leave about it, but I do want to know what it was.”

“It's none of your business, Drake,” Damian said, immediately and with unreasonable amounts of hostility. He found it unfortunate that it no longer fazed Drake to be spoken to that way.

“We can't hide this from the family,” Father said with a sigh. “This is a delicate situation, Tim. At the event we attended, Damian approached Vlad Masters’ new heir. We've determined with DNA evidence that he correctly identified the boy as his presumed dead twin.”

“Oh, God, there's another one?” Tim asked dramatically.

“Fortunately for you, Drake, he does not remember his time at the League,” Damian sniffed naughtily. “He was taken in by an American family at six and told his memories were merely his imagination.”

“That's… rough, actually. Did he remember you at all?” 

Damian looked away, back to the computer. “No.”

“Damian also suspects that a meta teen–known alias: Phantom– he saw after looking for Danny may have been Danny. The DNA sample Damian acquired was corrupted, which supports the theory that he has been enhanced in some way.” Bruce was very much talking about Danny as Batman, not as a father. It was pretty much a given that he would be either avoiding his feelings or brooding over them.

“Same voice, same cadence, same aura of disrespect as when he had talked to Masters earlier. Body type match unclear. He wore an ill fitting suit at the event,” Damian rattled off. His conviction had only grown stronger with the DNA analysis.

“Well, Duke will be happy that he's not the only one in the family with powers anymore.” Tim got closer enough to see the test results for himself. “You need help with any of this, B?”

It was not hard to tell that Bruce was not feeling great about this. This kind of emotional turmoil typically resulted In long hours wearing the cowl. “Danny referred to his parents as the Fentons and mentioned their research being biased against, quote, extra-dimensional beings. Conduct a thorough background check.”

“I'll find out if he's safe,” Tim said with a nod.

Bruce stood up from the Batcomputer and walked away, likely to change for a late patrol. It left Damian and Tim in a somewhat uncomfortable silence as Tim sat down to start his research.

“Are you going to go with B?” Tim asked, clearly trying to play it cool.

“No. I need to know who these Fentons are,” Damian said, crossing his arms. There was a pause and an uncomfortable pit in his stomach. “I don't need your pity, 

“Good, because you don't have it.” Tim rolled his eyes. It couldn't be seen with the domino on, but it was felt. “This little brother might not stab me, so he's already my favorite twin. Oh, what the hell?”

Damian looked to the screen and saw the outdated mess that was the FentonWorks website. A family portrait was on the “about us” page, and it confirmed that they were in the right place. That was Danny in that photo with his adoptive family. The kids looked pretty normal, but the parents were in custom hazmat suits.

“These people might be crazy. Half of this is just a rant about ghosts being evil and them heroically inventing weapons to stop them. Why is there a fudge recipe on this page?” Tim started clicking through the different pages more rapidly, and Damian clicked his tongue. “You're not surprised they're nuts?”

“I already knew they would be idiots. They allow Masters to be alone with Danny. He was not comfortable when they interacted, though he spoke of Masters not being able to harm him.” There was a very skeptical tone to the way Damian recounted that conversation.

“But it sounded like there was an ‘anymore’ that he wasn't saying?” Tim looked over to Damian to see him nod. “I doubt you or B showed restraint, so the reason he isn't here now is because he refused.”

“He was reluctant to believe me. About anything. Father becoming involved only made him more weary. I suspect that it is because the authority figures in his life are all be inept fools.” Damian firmly believed that Danny would be far better off here with him, and only some of that conviction was due to bias.

“Hm.” Tim had a video pulled up now of two staticky figures brawling. It was titled ‘Inviso-Bill vs. Ghost X’ and buried in the depths of YouTube. More news and web pages flashed over the screen. Damian couldn't tell if Tim was doing anything special to get it all, his eyes unfocused and unwillingly to concentrate. It was anywhere from a few minutes to possibly an hour before Tim spoke again. Both of them lost track. “All sources I've found identify Phantom as a ghost. There are even forum posts about him cracking jokes over being dead. Just about every news piece about a ghost attack includes the Dr.s Fenton showing up and shooting at Phantom. Also, your twin saved the purple back gorillas from extinction, I guess.”

“He's not dead,” was Damian's instant reaction. Danny was there and alive and not a figment of his imagination. The topic of the gorillas was being tucked away in his mind for later.

“I didn't say he was. Could falling into the Pits even do this to a person?  The earliest evidence I can even find of Phantom is from only about a year ago. Well, apparently, some people believe there are cave paintings of the guy, but I'm not counting that. God, and I thought this report was going to be simple. I still need to go through the Fentons’ research.”

“If Grandfather knew of a way to get superpowers from the Lazarus Pits, he would be utilizing it,” Damian stated blandly. “He did not even know why Danny's body could not be recovered from the Pit.”

“How do you get from Nanda Parbat to Illinois, anyway? I feel like we'd know if the Pits had fast travel. And why isn't Danny getting full-named?”

“Danny mentioned something about a portal but refused to elaborate. There's something about the Lazarus Pits that we don't know, but I suspect Danny does.” Damian glared at Tim. It wasn't effective, but the sentiment was there. “Tt. I believe he chose that name. Masters called him Daniel, and I did not like the way he said it.”

“Two more weird answers, got it.” Tim sighed. “I'm probably going to be at this for a while, you know. You should go rest instead of menacingly spacing out behind me.”

“I am not spacing out.” Damian balked, but it was true. He was exhausted. Finding his twin involved a lot more emotion than he typically needed to cope with, and it had been devastating to have to part ways so soon after.

“Whatever you say, demon brat.” Tim snorted. “I still need to get this done before the inevitable family meeting, so scram.”

Damian stormed away, going to the elevator up to the manor. It was too late to get much sleep but too early for Alfred to be up yet. Alfred the cat, however, was plenty awake, and Damian convinced the cat to come with him to his bedroom. He felt like he needed the company. The idea of being alone, accepting that he still did not quite have his brother back, made him feel ill. It was affecting him a lot more than he thought it would. All the old guilt he felt over his twin's fate had resurfaced, even though Damian had seen him alive and well. It was still his fault they were ever separated.

.

Across the country, a boy returned home and waltzed into his sister's room without knocking.

“Wait,” Jazz said, holding up a finger while she marked her place in her book. “Okay. Welcome back. How did it go with Vlad?”

“Something weird happened,” Danny said, not really sure where to start.

“Did Vlad try something? I hate when he gets you alone.” Jazz looked like she was ready to go get retribution with nothing but the Fenton anti-creep stick.

“No.” Danny wrinkled his nose. “Vlad's not a threat to me. I keep telling you that. Something else weird happened. You know how you guys found me on a camping trip?”

Jazz seemed unconvinced, but she allowed the conversation to move on. “Yes, of course I do. I stormed off from the campsite and came back with a little brother.”

“Do you remember all the stuff I would talk about back then?” Danny asked, sounding more hesitant now. It wasn't that he didn't want to tell Jazz. More, speaking it would make the whole thing more real.

“All the stuff about the ninjas? Mostly, yeah,” she said, giving Danny a puzzled look. “You kept saying you were from a desert city on the other end of the world, but we were in the Ozarks. It didn't really make sense. What does that have to do with Vlad?”

“It doesn't have to do with Vlad. I got pulled aside by someone I hadn't met before. He acted like he knew who I was. Knew something happened when I was six and where an old scar was, and he was saying all that ninja stuff was real.” Danny frowned. “It was Damian Wayne, the Gotham rich kid. He was convinced I was his long lost twin, that he had a twin sister who he thought died. I don't know how I'm feeling ‘cause it mostly just freaked me out. Like, I don't know how he could've known some of the stuff he was saying if he wasn't telling the truth. As stupid as it is, I could've ended up in the Ozarks if I fell into a big, green pool of liquid and there was a natural portal in there.”

Understandably, Jazz took a moment to think. “Well, ninjas and portals are a lot less crazy after living with ghosts running amok,” Jazz said with a sigh. “Even if you believe it, you don't have to do anything if you don't want to. Mom and dad are still legally your parents.”

“I guess. I ended up talking to both Damian and Bruce Wayne, and it sucked. They kept asking if I was safe. I couldn't just say that I'm the savior of another dimension and way stronger than Vlad now.” Danny saw the pained look on Jazz's face. “No, you're supposed to know I can beat Vlad!”

“And we both know that you can't always use your powers to stop him. Dad's got blinders on, but I really wish mom would stop letting him take you places. Vlad got enough genetic material from you to make clones. That isn't normal, Danny.” Jazz looked so worried, and it wasn't like Danny was being ignorant of that. On some level, he knew where she was coming from, but, more than that, he didn't want to think too deeply about all the things that have gone down between him and Vlad.

“I know it isn't normal. Everyone knows that it isn't normal. Does Vlad even know I'm adopted?” Somehow, he wasn't sure that had ever come up. Jack and Maddie, for all their faults, had always treated Danny like a full blooded Fenton. “Whatever. Anyway, meeting Bruce Wayne was super awkward, since I guess he didn't know Damian had a twin. Damian wanted me to drop everything to reunite or whatever, but I don't even know him. I don't remember much of anything from being that young, and I definitely don't know what's actually real. He put his number in my phone and said he would eviscerate anyone who hurt me.”

“It's completely up to you whether you want to contact him or not,” Jazz said. With all the crazy things she was worried might happen, this was honestly a pleasant turn of events. “However, since I assume you want my opinion, I don't think a text conversation would hurt anything. It wouldn't hurt to have more people in your corner.”

“Sam will probably say a bug out option is being handed to me on a silver platter.” it was something neither of them was happy to acknowledge. Having an exit plan in a town full of ghost hunters was a practical decision, sure, but it also acknowledged the underlying tension in their own home in a serious way. For them, it was too much like peaking into the box and bringing what was in there into existence.

“I try to stay optimistic, but yes, that too. You already know how I feel about telling mom and dad, so I won't say it.” With every rant it was getting harder for her to believe what she was saying.

Danny rolled his eyes. “At this point, I don't know if it'll ever be safe to tell them.” He looked away from the sad look Jazz sent him. “I guess I can text with him.”

“Give it a chance, but stay safe about it. Don't give out too much personal information. They could be more fruitloops for all we know.” 

“Okay, mom.” Jazz threw her book at him. Danny let it fly through him and stuck his tongue out.

-

The inevitable Wayne family meeting was, indeed, called for. It took a few days to arrange between the reports being made and scheduling, but pretty much everyone was in the Cave. Even Jason arrived— five minutes after when they were supposed to start.

Damian was in better spirits. He was pleased that Danny had started texting him. The conversations they had were somewhat stilted, but now he wouldn't have to take drastic measures in order to establish contact with his twin. It was something good to think about in the face of all his idiotic family members.

The group was gathered around Bruce, who was suited up with the cowl. “In the last week, it was revealed to me that Damian had a twin who was presumed dead when they were six years old. This twin has been located with a positive genetic match. We will not be using his legal name and will instead refer to him using his chosen name, Danny. Through unknown means, Danny was found in America after falling into a Lazarus Pit. He does not remember the League of Shadows. He is also not here. Currently, he lives in Amity Park, Illinois with an adoptive family.”

There was a drawn out silence where no one was really sure what to say to that. Obviously, it was better to tell everyone about the development, but there was nothing to immediately act on. Cass was the one who broke through the tension. “New brother.”

“That's it? Why did I have to be here for this?” Jason groused.

“If you want to leave now, then no one is stopping you.” Tim gestured towards the vehicles and the Cave's exit. “The situation is more complicated, of course, because we suspect he inherited Bruce's vigilantism. Though, if you want to either be out of the loop or read through all the reports on your own, by all means.”

“Seriously? Did he get adopted by super villains or something?”

“That is closer to reality than you would think. I got put on background check duty, and Danny is from a town that claims to be the most haunted place in the country, and it just might be. The place is regularly ransacked by extra-dimensional beings that apparently self identify as ghosts. There's also a ghost hero who fights them, and we have reason to suspect that the ghost hero, Phantom, and Danny are one in the same. In conclusion, Jason is no longer special for dying.”

“Come say that to my face, Replacement.”

“Wait, ghosts?” Dick asked, furrowing his brow. “I'll give it to you that they exist based on my experience with JLD, but what do you mean by extra-dimensional?”

Tim went on to give more background on the Fentons, their research, and Phantom. He also briefly covered the town facing JL level threats and that it never actually reached the JL. For the family, the most relevant parts were in regards to Danny being the one to fight those threats, the way his parents acted towards Phantom, and the resulting safety concerns. As such, that’s what most of the time was spent on. Batman would be handling the JL stuff.

“What kind of evidence do we have that Danny is Phantom?” Duke asked. “Not that I'm not excited to have a family member who also has powers, but we also seem sure that Danny is currently alive.”

“Tt. It's unclear how he is able to change his appearance or exhibit the qualities of a ghost, but I know what I witnessed. I saw Phantom that night, far from his town but exactly where I expected to find Danny.” Damian went on to tell the rest of them what he had already told Bruce about what he saw on the roof that night.

“As established,” Bruce continued, “we did acquire a DNA sample. That sample was heavily corrupted, returning bunk data consistent with comparing non-human or hybrid entities to the human genome.”

“Trust the demon brat to have a Pit demon for a twin,” Jason muttered under his breath. This earned him a death glare from Damian.

“So, to sum up, his parents are an existential threat to him, but we're not in a position to take immediate action? I'm glad to be in the know, but I don't know that I needed to be in Gotham to hear this,” Dick said as innocuous as he could manage. Now, if his new little brother was actually here, that would be different.

“The purpose of this being a meeting is transparency.” Bruce stared his kids down, daring them to protest that it wouldn’t become an issue if someone thought something like this was being kept from them. “But you are otherwise correct. Unfortunately, he does not know or trust us. There will likely be a meta rights investigation concerning the actions of his parents and a vague yet menacing government agency that only operates in Amity Park once the JL gets involved. I will intervene if necessary at that stage or if something comes up sooner. His godfather is Vlad Masters, and that man's behavior towards Danny was also concerning. Trying to get Danny out of his current home indirectly might lead to him being with Masters, as opposed to somewhere safer.”

There was a pause, and Jason spoke up. “Consider me informed. I'm out of here.”

Dick shot Jason a look as he stormed off, but he ultimately turned back to the ongoing conversation. “It sounds like he doesn't know that you're Batman, so I'm guessing it's one of the things he forgot. Maybe if he was told again, he might be more willing to see that you have good intentions. I don't see the point in keeping it from him when it's not impossible that he could remember on his own.”

“Don't overwhelm him,” Cass said. “You boys are very intense.”

“I will see what he thinks of the Justice League and Batman. If he hates them, then we will know not to use that,” Damian said. “It is likely that many residents of that town would feel that the JL has failed them. I will find out if Danny is one of them and proceed from there.”

.

“You're a Wayne?” Tucker hissed. “Dude, your life is insane.”

“Thanks, Tuck, I hadn't noticed.” Danny rolled his eyes. “Did you miss the part where I'm not convinced?”

“You know Tuck doesn't think before he speaks.” Sam had her phone out, she put it in front of them with a close up photo of Damian Wayne. “If you aren't related, then I can't explain how you two basically have the same face. The only person on the planet who looks more like you is Ellie, and she doesn't count.”

“Are you saying I'm in denial?” Danny pouted.

“Yep. Are you gonna deny it?” Sam raised an eyebrow.

“Well, now I can't,” Danny said with a huff. “I've been texting him, but I still don't know how to feel. He talks really formally all the time. Sam, what are you supposed to talk about with rich kids?”

“I don't know. I've hated every rich kid I've ever met,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Including yourself?” Tucker yelped as she swatted at him. “You should ask him about the latest Wayne tech.”

“I'm not doing that,” he said flatly. Danny looked down at his phone. “Why did he just ask what I think of the Justice League?”

“Maybe he's a Batman fanboy.”

“Tell him they suck ass.”

“I'm saying that I like Martian Manhunter.”

“Nerd.”

“Okay. Now, he's specifically asking about Batman and Robin.”

“Yep, fanboy.”

“I mean, I'm pretty sure Gotham's city spirit favors the bats. Those kinds of ghosts are pretty hard to fool, so they can't be that bad.” Danny hummed. “I’ll say they’re alright, but I don’t think about heroes from other cities much. It's true, anyway.”

The three of them chattered for a little longer before Danny was notified of another text coming in. Damian had sent him ‘You may not remember, but Mother always told us about how we were the children of the Bat.’ Something about that did, in fact, feel deeply familiar, but the implications were a little more distracting.

Sam and Tucker looked at him questioningly when he didn’t look up to tell them what the text said. Ignoring them for a moment, Danny sent back ‘dude u have got to stop dropping the most deranged bombshells on me. are you trying to tell me the conspiracy theories are right about bruce wayne being batman cause no one believes that one’

Pretty much immediately, a “Yes.” appeared on Danny’s screen. Does he owe Wes Weston money now? No, because Wes Weston will never find out about this.

“Sorry, he spills the most insane lore unprompted. Like, this stuff is so crazy that I don’t know how I could’ve forgotten it.”

“Dude, you spent first grade insulting people in Arabic. Did you forget that, too?” Tucker asked. He had been the one peer Danny had managed to latch onto while being openly hostile to basically everyone else. Sam hadn't moved into town yet back then.

“Oh. Huh, yeah, I did do that.” Danny looked and felt baffled as that came back to him. It was easy to forget how much he struggled socially after getting picked up in the Ozarks, since it was very different from his current social struggles. “I don’t even know if I can do that anymore. That’s sad, right? If I lost the language.”

“Yeah, but it isn’t really your fault,” Tucker said with a shrug. “That one is on your parents.”

‘what brought on the lore drop. also im starting to believe you cause im being reminded of how weird i was when i started school here’

‘I saw Phantom that night. I want you to know you can trust me, as we have always been more alike than different.’

“What did he say? What’s that face about?” Sam tried to get through to him, but Danny felt like he was somewhere else. 

‘is this a trap you have to tell me if this is a trap’

‘This is not a trap. I had never heard of Phantom, and we didn't know information was being hidden until we knew to look for it. Father plans to bring the meta rights violations in Amity Park to the attention of the Justice League.’

“Danny?”

“Um. I don't know how to explain what I'm looking at, and I don't think it's a good idea to show you.” What does he do? What does he even say to that? Damian is Robin and implied that he knows Danny is Phantom. The Justice League was going to investigate, what, the GIW? That was insane.

Staring down at his phone, he felt overwhelmed. The messages could come off as threatening, depending on how you read it. Danny could feel the olive branch being extended to him despite that. In the whole time he had gotten to know Damian (this time around), his so-called twin seemed like he was trying to make peace with him. There was probably something he was missing, some reason why Damian acted like he had something to make up for. Accepting all of that, how does he move forward? Should he go out on a limb the same way Damian was?

‘can you reteach me arabic’

‘Of course.’

Chapter Text

From an outside perspective, nothing had really changed. Danny still had to go to school, still got picked on, still spent his evenings fighting with other ghosts. Nothing was really crazier. Okay, that was a lie; some things were crazier. Damian had been keeping him updated on their– on B’s progress with the JL in getting the GIW dealt with. Danny had been pretty insistent about not involving the press, though, which had made things difficult, apparently. It wasn't his fault that the living couldn't be trusted with knowing the Infinite Realms existed. 

Danny was just a little bit, slightly worried about how things would go down once the JL actually comes in to tell his parents and the GIW to cut it out. Both parties were super reactionary and the GIW especially was prone to taking drastic measures. See: that time they tried to nuke the Ghost Zone. Basically, he didn't think they would just stop because Superman told them to.

Something about not going quietly into that good night? Maybe? Danny wasn't failing English anymore, but he still wasn't acing it.

One thing Danny learned was that the JL had a branch for occult type supernatural stuff. It was unclear if he needed to worry about any of them coming to Amity Park to grill him. Damian had asked him if it was true that all ghosts listened to one king. Danny told him no. It wasn't lying, Damian just wasn't being specific enough in his questioning. For all that they were speaking more openly to each other, Danny was still holding some cards close to his chest.

After his brawl of the evening, Danny had gone to the lab to send his rogue back through the portal. He was cautiously eyeing a new addition to the lab when the basement door slammed open. Nearly fumbling his thermos, Danny quickly changed back and shoved it into his chest.

“Dann-o! Didn't expect to see you down here. Did you notice the new invention your mother and I made?” Jack's booming voice filled the lab as his parents came into view. Making his way to Danny, he swung a heavy arm over his shoulders and directed him to look at the odd table in the middle of the lab.

“Hi, sweetie. Did you get all your homework down?” Maddie asked, but she didn't wait for an answer before she started talking again. “Your father and I have been wanting to make something like this for ages. While we have actually caught any of those ghosts yet, we're optimistic it'll happen soon, so we made the Fenton Dissection Table. It has everything we could want for restraining and systematically pulling apart ghosts.”

“All the better to tear them apart molecule by molecule! Especially that menace ghost boy.” Jack shook his fist at the ceiling. Danny was starting to feel ill.

“Haha, that's great. I'm, uh, gonna go. It's getting late.” Danny extracted himself from his dad's arm and started making his way towards the stairs.

“Alright. Goodnight, Danny,” Maddie said, intercepting him to place a kiss on his cheek.

Danny tried not to look like a bat out of hell (ha) as he rushed up the stairs and out of the lab. In the kitchen, he found Jazz holding a steaming mug of tea and wearily eyeing the fridge. Walking over to her, he put a hand on her mug and cooled it to drinking temperature. “We have a situation. I'm probably going to get Sam and Tuck involved, but mom and dad made something cuckoo bananas that we need to sabotage.”

“Oh, yeah, they were rambling to me about something a little bit ago, but they kept talking over each other and describing how they want to tear you apart, so I tuned them out for my own sanity,” Jazz said, looking about as uncomfortable as he felt. She took a sip of her tea, presumably an herbal blend since it was night.

“Yeah, it's some crazy, souped up dissection table. I might let Sam take the creep stick to it and blame a ghost.” It would be good stress relief for her. Probably not for him. “I know they won't be able to catch anyone, but it's still, like, majorly fucked up. Speaking of fucked up, I probably need to sweep for bugs again. Didn't Vlad invite himself over the other day?”

“I think so. We were both somewhere else, thank goodness.” As riveting as the horrors were, Jazz switched gears. “How's Damian?”

“I mean, he's fine.” Danny shrugged. “He complains a lot about school being too easy, the braggart.”

“Aw, but you learned the word ‘braggart,’” Jazz teased, reaching over to pinch his cheeks. “Are the Arabic lessons going well?”

“Mostly. I can usually understand what he's saying, but it's hard for me to find the words to reply.” Danny shrugged then sighed. “It still wasn't your job to help me keep my languages.”

“I know, but I can still be sad for you. Let me be your overly emotional big sister.” A beat passed. “Anyway, I need to get to bed. Good night. Try not to stay up too late.”

“Night.” Jazz went upstairs and Danny stood in the kitchen for a few silent minutes before heading to his own room.

-

“Bats, you're being unreasonable. Someone from JLD needs to smooth things over with the only friendly Realms being before we screw up more than we already have,” Constantine Sighed dramatically and rubbed his temple. “If you think I'll fuck it up that bad, then send Zatanna.”

“Further diplomacy with Phantom is currently unnecessary,” Batman said.

“It isn't Phantom we're worried about, mate. Put my ear to the ground and the old High King of all ghosts got dethroned about a year ago. If we've got a ghost who's willing to have a chat, then We could figure out who the new one is, if they know, and how mad they are.” A cigarette was pulled out. One sharp look and it was stuffed back into a pocket. “The last one was a right tyrant far as I know.”

“I'll look into it,” Batman said. Constantine groaned and dropped his head in his hands.

.

“Don't you have a ton of siblings?” Danny asked the next time he and Damian were on the phone together. Having at least audio was best for speaking in Arabic together, so they did video calls pretty frequently. For all they spoke together with the topic of family especially being a frequent one, he hadn't heard much about Damian's siblings.

“I suppose I do,” Damian said, seemingly put off by the question. “Father, as the media is wont to portray, has a habit of picking up strays. We have a number of adoptive siblings who are tolerable, I suppose. Richard asks about you, and Drake has been insisting I ask why there is a fudge recipe on the Fentons’ website.”

“Hey, don't rag too hard on adoption to the adopted guy.” Danny rolled his eyes. “Well, the fudge thing is easy. Dad is really passionate about the family fudge recipe, and they both, like, uh. They're both really scatterbrained. Some of the research they've done on ectoplasm is insanely accurate, but most of the other stuff is a bunch of weird, biased conjectures.”

“That you ever had to be adopted was a fluke.” There was a pinch in Damian's brow that Danny was starting to recognize from whenever he didn't approve. “You use that word a lot: ectoplasm. The way it is described is similar to the Lazarus water.”

“Lazarus water is in the weird, boiling pits, right?” Danny waited for a noise of affirmation before He continued. “I'd probably have to talk to someone who knows more about this stuff to know exactly what's going on, but it probably is ecto. Pretty rank ecto, but still ecto.”

“Who would know more than you?” Damian asked, and wasn’t that wild to hear? It was a totally unearned vote of confidence in Danny’s knowledge and abilities.

“Um. A ghost?” Danny said, a little dumbly and like a question. “Look, you already figured it out. You know that I'm, like, dead, but I haven't been dead for that long. There are other, way older ghosts who know way more about this stuff.”

“I fail to understand how you can be dead when you are clearly alive.” Damian actually frowned when he said that. Was he upset? Danny needed him to know that he didn’t have to be upset about this. A little mourning was okay, but this, ultimately, wasn’t that sad for him.

“Dude, I don't even know how it works, exactly. I died and became a ghost, but I also got revived. I'm both, and that's extremely rare.” Danny gestured vaguely into the ether. Explaining things wasn’t a particular talent of his, especially when he didn’t actually want to get into it.

“How did it happen?” There was a long, awkward pause, and then Damian tried again. “Can you tell me?”

“No!” Danny said, a little too fast and a little too loud. He took a breath before he continued. “I'm not ready to talk about that. It's– The way a ghost died is very personal, so you can't just ask that.” running a hand through his hair, he brought himself back to the moment. It was hard reacting well to that question. Nobody really knew to ask about it, so he didn't encounter it much.

“I see. We can move on if you'd like, but I was also curious about something else you've mentioned,” Damian said carefully. When Danny didn’t stop him, he continued. “You said something about a portal before, back when we reunited, in regard to how you got to America. At the time, you refused to elaborate.”

“Ghosts have their own dimension, or, well, it's the space in between dimensions, but same difference. You heroes picked that up somewhere. Anyway, portals there are naturally occurring. There was probably a portal in that pit and I just so happened to fall out of another portal in Missouri instead of getting lost forever in the Ghost Zone.” Danny pulled a face. It was probably some fate nonsense. The type of thing where if he prodded Clockwork, he'd get told that all was as it should be, or whatever. “It probably had to happen that way or the universe would explode.”

Damian got that pinched look again. If Danny had to guess, he'd say that Dami was trying not to scare him off with too many questions. On one hand, he wasn't a baby. On the other hand, he absolutely would hang up if he prodded too hard, so fair enough. On a third, unrelated hand, he could also totally be reading Damian wrong.

“What can you tell me about this Ghost Zone?” Damian asked, and cautious air to the question.

“Nothing else, for now. You have to understand that there are things that the living don't need to know about.” It already felt like he was giving too much away, even if the Justice League was going to help with the GIW. 

“Including information on the High King?” Damian pressed. It had utterly baffled Danny the first time Damian asked about the High King, seeing as even the ghost hunters didn't really know there was a King at all.

“No one listens to the king that much,” Danny said, dismissively waving him off. “Mortals don't have anything to worry about.”

“Do you listen to the King?” Damian raised a brow in question.

“No comment.”

They looked at each other with identical blank stares for several beats before Danny broke into a grin.

“Anyway, back to earlier, you don't have to gate keep me from the rest of your family. That doesn't mean have the whole clan message me all at once, but like, I don't know.” Danny shrugged.

“Tt. I am ‘gate keeping’ you because it is my own preference. Those hooligans can wait to get your phone number from you themselves.”

“Really? Hooligans?” Danny snorted. “Anyway, I should probably go now. You gotta promise to show me Batcow next time, though.”

“Of course. Everyone should see how majestic Batcow is. Goodbye, Danny.”

“Bye, Dami.”

.

“Tim.” Tim looked up from where he was messing around with some electronics to see B. “Thank you for your work compiling the information gathered from the Ghost Investigation Ward.” The words were stilted, which meant that B was trying too hard to be sincere.

“No problem, B. How'd the JL meeting go?” Tim wasn't asking how they reacted. Obviously, they'd all be against hunting down another species. No, he wanted to know what the plan was moving forward. Whatever it was, it was going to be slower than they'd like. Bureaucracy was a bitch like that.

“Wonder Woman is going to press some contacts into more or less auditing the agency under suspicion of meta rights abuse,” B said, and Tim nodded along. “Our hope is that it will effectively stop all functions until the agency can be properly dismantled. We'll be looking to cut all funding in the next budget resolution, as well. That will give us more time to work.”

“Good. What about the Fentons?” While Tim asked that, he tried to get any kind of read on how Bruce was actually feeling. The clench of his jaw was telling.

“They should be receiving a letter from the DoJ’s meta rights division notifying them that they should cease any ‘ghost hunting’ activities at the risk of being prosecuted for knowingly engaging in violations of the Meta Rights Acts. It'll be pushed through after the GIW is put under investigation.” B was taking pains to keep his voice level. These were the people raising his son as well as shooting at him, after all. They had collectively been reluctant to have Damian broach that topic with Danny, but it was for good reason. With how tentative the existing connection was, they couldn't risk alienating him. As long as they could make it known that they were safe for him, it would be more likely for Danny to reach out in an emergency. That wouldn't happen if he, well, ghosted them.

“I hope it goes over well. We can't really know how either party will react to being told no,” Tim said with a sigh. “I hate the proper, legal channels. It takes way too long.”

“Long term results take long term solutions,” B recited, though his heart definitely wasn't in it.

“We should decide what to tell Danny. Damian's been giving him updates, so we do need to tell him something to avoid too many hurt feelings.” The last thing they needed was their new flight risk feeling like they kept things from him, or, worse, that they tricked him.

B grunted. “I'll discuss it with him.”

With that, B walked off, and Tim was left alone. The little experiment Tim was working on wasn't entirely unrelated to what they'd been talking about. When Tim learned that ectoplasm messed with electronics, he decided to see if their samples of Lazarus water would have similar results. Unfortunately for him, the results thus far had been wildly inconsistent between the different samples. Maybe, when Damian stopped resource guarding him like a dog, Tim could talk to Danny about getting samples of actual ectoplasm.

.

It was like the world had gone whacky overnight. The day had started out normally enough, was the thing. Danny had gone and had a very typical, very bland day at school. The Box Ghost showed up, Lancer was there, Dash tried to trip him. It wasn't until he got out of school for the day that he really noticed the chaos that had started building up in the town.

“Is it just me, or is every idiot in white running around like a chicken with its head cut off?” Sam asked.

“I think something happened,” Danny said. Sam and Tucker both gave him a look as though to say ‘no shit.’ “No, I mean. Um. I can't tell you how I know this, but I think the Justice League got involved.” 

“Dude, don't be so dramatic. Everyone knows the Waynes are secretly connected to the Bats,” Tuck said, rolling his eyes. “What I want to know is how they knew to tell the Bats about the GIW.”

“Right! Right, well, they saw the FentonWorks website, mostly, I think.” Danny shrugged. That was a close one. It was unpleasant lying to his best friends like this, but he couldn't just blast Batman's identity around, no matter how much he trusted these two. It was a matter of respect, of principal, some kind of secret identity honor code.

“That checks out.” Tucker nodded. It all made sense after hearing that. 

At that point, the conversation moved on. The three of them were stopping by Danny's place to get a fresh thermos before hitting up Nasty Burger. Danny missed most of lunch because of Boxy, so he really wanted some safe food to eat. What they found when they got to his place was his parents seemingly preparing the GAV for war.

“Uh, hey,” Danny said, as they approached. “What's going on!”

“Ghost!” Jack shouted, jumping down and pointing a gun in Danny's face. “Oh! Sorry, Dann-o. This dang thing still isn't working right.”

“Hi, honey, how was school?” Maddie came around as well, fully kitted out. There was no time to answer before She started talking again. “Your father and I got this ridiculous letter from the government. We don't know where on earth they're getting it from, but they think ghost hunting violates the Meta Rights Act. That's just ridiculous. All published research–courtesy of your father and I, of course–states that ghosts are neither sentient or sapient.”

“That's right!” Jack held a fist In the air. “Today's going to be the day we finally catch that ghost menace. We'll be able to prove once and for all that our research is correct.”

“We contacted the GIW, of course, and we're going to be running a joint operation tonight. The town will finally be safe.” Maddie's voice was stern with conviction. It made Danny feel sick.

“Unfortunately, ol’ Vladdie hasn't given it the mayoral stamp of approval,” Jack said, looking genuinely disappointed for a moment before he was grinning again, “but he hasn't told us to stop, either!”

Both Danny and Tucker were floundering, so it was up to Sam to be the competent one, as usual. “Wow, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, that's really cool. Anyway, we're all headed to Nasty Burger, so we'll be going.”

“Bye, kids. Have fun!” Jack waved his arm vigorously, while Maddie gave a more reserved wave.

The trio proceeded to walk away from FentonWorks as fast as they could without it being weird. None of them talked to each other about any of that, or anything at all, until they were safely tucked away in a booth at Nasty Burger. Even then, they sat in silence for a tense few minutes.

“I mean,” Tucker started, “they're not good enough for it to work. Right?” Tuck and Danny had been visibly paler earlier, and the color was only just starting to come back. Sam was already wearing white foundation that day.

“Right,” Sam agreed, managing to sound more sure of herself than Tucker had. “You could also skip going out tonight, just to be safe.”

“No, I can't do that.” Sam and Tuck both looked like they were going to start talking, but he held up a hand. “At least let me finish before you chew me out. I have to go out because someone else might get caught in the crossfire. Some ghosts still come over unplanned, and there are hunters out looking for blood. Even if I stay in, they might settle for another ghost, so I need to be out to get to anyone else before they do. If I stay hidden and in human form, they'll be too busy looking in the sky for Phantom to notice me.”

“I just don't have a good feeling about this, Danny,” Sam said, expression serious. “It feels too much like you're going to end up sacrificing yourself because of your obsession.”

“What happened to them being too incompetent to catch a ghost?” Danny groused, but he sighed and looked back up to Sam. “I get you. I do. That's why I want to swap phones with you before I go out tonight. If anything happens to me, you need to call Damian.”

“Damian? What's he going to do? Call fucking Batman?” Sam hissed, and she would have probably yelled it if they weren't in public.

“Just trust me, okay? All goes well, and we'll swap phones after the chaos is over.” Danny wrung his hands out. It wasn't like he was happy about this either, but he had a duty to protect both the living and the dead. He was honor bound. “Can you promise me you'll do it? That you'll call him if it comes down to it?”

Sam hesitated, looking down at her hands before she met Danny's eyes. “I promise.”

Chapter Text

It wasn't that Damian was constantly waiting with baited breath to get a text or call from Danny. That kind of pathetic behavior was unbecoming of someone of his station. Yet, not hearing from his brother made him worry that he'd been shot out of the sky. Phantom was a hero that operated primarily alone with no mentor and many enemies. Not only did he have no backup as a result, but he chronically did not fight back against his human adversaries. Trying to talk to Danny about that has not gone well for Damian. All he did was make excuses, and it was infuriating.

All of that was to say: Damian was more worried about Danny on the daily than he had thought he was capable of. It was a jarring thing to realize. Perhaps he'd been teased about being cold and uncaring so much that he had internalized it, because he found himself questioning how this was even possible. Was it out of guilt? A sense of obligation? Damian knew he hadn't felt this way about Danny before he fell into the pit on that fateful day, because that remained a weight on his soul. He didn't ever worry like this about the rest of his family or Jon. At the same time, that might be since he could also be assured of the relative safety of these individuals.

Damian stepped out into the main area of the cave suited up as Robin. Near the Batcomputer, Red Robin was speaking to Batman. “There's been disorganized movement from the GIW all day, from the moment they were given their deadline. Communications have been all over the place with conflicting orders. The common theme is that all available agents are on the street tonight. What are these morons thinking?”

“Hn. Send what you have to Oracle to monitor during patrol.” Batman turned to address Robin. “Have you heard from Phantom today?”

“Not since this morning,” he reported, a slightly sour tone to his voice. “Regardless, he will not engage with me on the topic of his human enemies. It is likely that he is out there instead of lying low. Otherwise, he wouldn't be ignoring me.”

“Can we track his phone?” Batman asked, gaze pointed back to RR.

“No. There's too much interference. I'd guess it's related to ectoplasm in some way, but I don't know enough about it to say how.” RR sighed in frustration. “I can't believe I'm saying this, but we need to be doing more to bring Phantom into the fold. If I don't get some answers on how this stuff actually works, I might just lose it. I've tried to replicate the effects with our Lazarus water samples, but it just doesn't work. Phantom is my only shot at getting actual ectoplasm to work with.” 

Batman's frown deepened. “I'm going to contact Superman to be on standby. If the situation escalates to the point of needing Justice League intervention, he can get there the fastest.” Robin and RR both nodded. Superman was more than enough to handle a bunch of bumbling humans with weapons that exclusively worked on ghosts. “Red Robin, finish your preparations. Robin, you're with me.”

Nodding, Robin fell into step with Batman. He was still thinking about Danny while the Batmobile raced towards the heart of Gotham. Patrol was no time to be distracted. It would only make him a liability, but it was hard to ignore the pit of dread he felt. He didn't even listen to Batman's brief call with Superman. Damian only really noted that civilian safety was also being cited as a reason for the standby order.

When the car stopped, Damian had to put his own thoughts and worries aside. Gotham needed him to be Robin, to protect her streets and keep her people safe. The bats and birds never did notice the way the city itself responded to them in turn.

.

Before the sun set, Danny had made sure to call Jazz to let her know what the plan was. Finding a nice alley to slink into, he had given her a call from Sam's phone. Her reaction was about what he expected. That being that she would kill him for being so stupid if he wasn't already dead.

“Are you crazy?” Danny held the phone away from his ear when she raised her voice. “Can't you just tell everyone to stay in the Zone tonight and shut the portal?”

“There isn't enough time to get the word out, and I can't send out an order to the whole Zone like that." Can't or won't? "Besides, a ghost could randomly visit who doesn't use the portal. You never know.” Only time would tell if he was jinxing himself by saying that. 

“I still don't think you need to be out there. If all the hunters are getting shut down anyway, it can't be that hard to rescue anyone they'd catch, and that's if they even catch someone. That's a very big if. I don't see why you need to put yourself at risk.” It pained Danny that she sounded like she was pleading with him, it really did. However, he had already made up his mind.

“I just– I have this gut feeling that I need to be out here tonight, and, and, and Clockwork can smack me upside the head with a post-it note if that'll fuck up the timeline.” Danny waited several seconds, but nothing happened. “See? All is as it should be, or whatever.”

“Danny, you can't know that he's watching you at this exact moment.”

“That bastard is always watching. It's his thing.”

“We're getting off topic.” Jazz sighed before getting quiet. “What are we supposed to do if something happens to you? None of us are superheroes.”

“Maybe Red Huntress would help?” The line was silent. “That's why I'm calling from Sam's phone, okay. She has my phone, and she'll call Damian if the world explodes. He, uh, has connections.”

“What? Is he going to call Batman?” Jazz scoffed.

“He might,” Danny said, and there was silence on the line again. Well, he had been banking on her not taking that seriously.

“I guess I'm going to close the portal and hope that means your human self can just camp out in an alley all night.” There was a rustling on the other end of the line, probably Jazz getting up. “I love you, Danny. Please, be careful.”

“Love you, too.” They hung up, and Danny was alone. A pit of dread had settled in his stomach. 

For a solid minute, Danny spaced out in the alley, because nothing was happening. The sun had set, most people were indoors. Amity Park was a painfully quiet suburb prior to all the ghost attacks, and it showed through in small moments like this. That quiet moment of contemplation was quickly ruined by the sound of cop shoes stomping down the sidewalk. Danny dove into the shadows and peeked out to see a group of agents walking aimlessly down the street, armed to the teeth.

Tucker had already tracked down the marching orders that the GIW got for the night. It was mostly a bunch of nonsense that boiled down to “pull out all the stops and wait for Phantom to show up.” It was hard trying to figure out what exactly the big guns they were pulling out were. For all they knew, it could be another nuke. Doubtful, but that was how unhelpful their own internal communications were.

The agents marched away, but he heard the sound of the GAV racing down the street before he could move locations. He peaked out, and, for some reason, the GAV hit a curb not far from him and stopped. With a furrowed brow, he watched Jack and Maddie get out of the RV with a device he'd never seen before.

“It's picking up a large source of ectoplasm, but there's no sign of any ghosts,” Maddie said, looking down at the device in her hand. It had a comically large antenna attached to the otherwise palm sized device.

“It must be that ghost menace. He's the only one crafty enough to hide. Like a mindless predator!” Ignoring the very contradictory statement about him, Danny watched them curiously. He wondered what they were picking up on, since he didn't sense anything nearby.

Almost too late, Danny noticed that they were getting closer and closer to where he was. Cursing, he ran deeper into the alley and scaled the wall, running along the roof and hoping down to the next street over. What the hell? How were they tracking him so accurately when he wasn't even in his ghost form? Being human was supposed to make him read more as ecto contaminated, which was enough for his parents to shrug everything off as malfunctions. The only thing sensitive enough to really lock in on him no matter where or what was the boo-merang, and Team Phantom had commandeered that.

“Freeze! Ugh, it's the Fenton boy.” Danny looked over to see Agent O with a gun aimed right at him. If him and K had managed to sneak up on him, then he really needed to pull his head out of his ass. These guys weren't sneaky. Danny needed to focus, and he needed to get out of this conversation before these bozos got trigger happy and fired a warning shot directly at his face.

“What can I do for you, Oscar?” Danny asked, dripping with faux politeness. He relished in how put off the agents always were when he used names instead of their silly codename system.

“Go home, brat. We're imposing a curfew.” The gun was still being aimed right at Danny while he said, which was super comforting. “Everyone has to stay in their homes until five AM.”

“Yeah? Did the mayor approve it?” His innocent face was on while he spoke. Sure, they all knew it was BS, but the agents couldn't prove that. “I haven't heard anything about a curfew from the official channels.”

“No–” Agent O was cut off by Agent K slapping a hand over his mouth.

“The authority of the Ghost Investigation Ward is great enough to impose a curfew without the mayor's involvement,” K said. Danny made sure to give him the flattest possible look to show that he absolutely did not believe any of that. Suddenly, everyone's eyes went down the street to where the GAV was slamming into a light post. That was Danny's cue to go. Immediately.

“Nice seeing you two, gotta go!” Danny raced off between another two buildings. He risked going invisible to get to the roof and start racing along the tops of buildings to get some more distance faster. This was already a disaster, but Danny could play cat and mouse for a few hours if it was to make sure no one got hurt.

Hopping down several streets over, Danny dropped the invisibility to get more distance on foot. He had to get past several groups of agents, but none of them were very attentive to begin with. Was he really going to have to do this all night? When he stretched out his senses, he could already hear that the GAV was closer than he'd like for it to be. How were they so on top of him today? Of course, that was when his ghost sense went off. Great. That was exactly what he needed.

.

Sam and Tucker were at her place, hunkered down in the home theater waiting for everything to go wrong. It wasn't that they wanted to be pessimistic about this, but everyone was able to feel it in the air that something was going to happen that night. When they were stressed like this without a mediator, it was harder than normal for the two of them not to argue, so they were sitting in silence pretending to watch a movie. The tension was expanding like an overfilled balloon until it was suddenly popped by an incoming call to Danny's cellphone. The sound of the ringer made both of them jump. Sam grabbed the phone to see who it was and snorted.

“It's Vlad,” she said to Tucker, who stuck his tongue out. “I'm gonna answer it.” Sam paused their move before she accepted the call and put it on speaker.

“Daniel, what on Earth are you doing out tonight? Do you have no sense?” Vlad didn't even wait for a hello or anything. Somehow, he was both yelling and hissing out every word.

“I don't know, why did you let the GIW turn the town into a war zone?” she asked, dripping with contempt. If anyone could have stopped this, it was the mayor, and they heard from Jack Fenton himself that the mayor had done nothing to stop the GIW or the Fentons.

“Ah, Samantha. What a joy to hear your voice.” From the tone of voice alone, the feeling was mutual. “I don't see why I need to stop an agency that's being actively shut down when I have an appearance to maintain. Even I got a letter informing me that I can no longer employ ghost hunters in my capacity as mayor. Now, dear Samantha, why, exactly, do you have Daniel's phone?”

“None of your beeswax, old man.” Tucker was giving her two thumbs up. When it came to smack talking authority figures, she would almost always be the one put up to bat. Tucker had learned that he was most helpful when he wasn't trying to throw in his two cents. Of the three of them, he was the most likely to trip up and ruin the whole thing.

“Now, listen here. You're a sensible young lady, Miss Manson, which is why I'm certain you know how dangerous it is to be a ghost out on the streets of Amity Park tonight. I'm in Wisconsin for the night, and I tried to get a hold of Daniel to offer him refuge here out of the goodness of my heart. No strings attached.” Samantha scoffed loudly, but Vlad pressed on. “Instead, I find out that he's been out there being chased by every hunter in town, so I called to once again attempt to convince him to leave Amity Park for the night. You must know that would be better than his current, risky behavior.”

“You forget the part where he'd pick the bear over you,” Sam shot back. “He wouldn't have gone with you, and we both know that. The reason I have his phone is because he knows what he's doing is dangerous.”

“His phone? You're not saying he has some kind of backup in there to call.” Vlad was entirely unbelieving, which, fair. Sam still wasn't convinced this was a good plan, either. “Who is it? You and that other boy are his only allies. Is it that Wayne brat he met mere weeks ago? What's that child going to do, call Batman?”

Sam and Tucker looked at each other. considering they also shared that incredulousness, it was hard to try and form a proper response.

“Did you know that Danny is adopted?” Tucker blurted out. Just the other day, Danny was saying that he didn't know whether or not Vlad knew. There was immediately a crash on the other end of the line, and Sam and Tucker looked at each other again with wide eyes.

“He's what?!” Sam jolted forward and ended the call as fast as she could. There was a long moment of silence between the two of them before they burst into laughter. 

.

Running through the Amity Park Park wasn't what Danny would call a great tactic for avoiding being seen. There was a lot of open space. However, it was also where he was sensing another ghost, so he was frantically sprinting around trying to find the ghost before the hunters did. He really, really, really didn't want any of the ghosts getting caught up in this for very obvious reasons. All these hunters were throwing a final hail Mary before they're to be forcibly shut down, and he was certain they'd rip apart any ghost they could catch until they got to their core. It made his slow beating heart speed up to something closer to normal from nerves alone. God, his hands were sweaty.

The ghost felt close, but before he could do anything else, big, green paws pushed him down, and then he rolled over to see a little, green dog. “Cujo! You can't be here right now.” Cujo responded better to ghost speak, so Danny also sent out a chirp of danger/go home/scared. Ghost speak was still newer to him, so the last part wasn't quite intentional. Cujo picked up on Danny's fear, and he grew to his larger size. Jumping up, he threw himself at the dog. “No, Cujo, you can't fight them. It's hunters. So many hunters who are all acting super aggressive. You need to leave. Go back to the Ghost Zone, Cujo.”

Danny tried again with ghost speak, sending out danger/threat/go home/hunters. there was a rustling of grass and leaves In the distance, past the limited tree cover. “Please, go home. I'll be fine.”

Cujo shrank down and whimpered. The rustling got closer, two figures silhouetted in the night. Just before they came fully into view, Cujo dug back to the Zone and Danny went intangible and sank into the ground. Being intangible underground was the worst, but being seen by his parents would be worse. Danny was going to have to live with the mild claustrophobia and buried alive feelings until it was safe to go back up. He strained his ears to hear what was happening past the dirt and grass.

“The ghost is still here! Now, where could it be hiding?” That was Jack speaking, followed by the loud sound of the Fenton Bazooka. “Not over there!”

“Jack, dear, the ghost might be underground.” Danny nearly cursed, but he kept himself carefully quiet just in case. His nerves were on fire, and his hackles were raised. Jazz said to take a deep breath when he got overwhelmed, but he felt like he was going to fully freak out if he did that in the cold, dark dirt. It was actually really uncomfortable not breathing in human form, but he didn't have a choice at the moment.

“How are we going to get a ghost that's underground, sweetums? Should I use the Bazooka?”

“I think this will work better.”

In a near miss, the Fenton Ghost Gloves tore Into the ground. One finger grazed Danny's arm, and he took off like a bullet, speeding off in a random direction while still underground. He had no idea where he was or where he was headed, but he was freaking out way more than was helpful.

Eventually, Danny felt like he'd gone far enough to come up out of the ground. It was a good thing he remembered to be invisible, because he was fully in someone's house. He got outside and dropped his invisibility, leaning against the house and breathing heavily. Even though he had hardly done anything, he felt drained. Humans were not meant to be surrounded by dirt on all sides.

“There was a spike over this way!” Fucking Guys in White can eat his damn shorts. Danny took off, going manual and jumping fences to run through backyards. Since those agents were dumb as rocks, he heard a group of them behind him, struggling to keep up and generally get over the fences.

After a couple minutes of that, the backyards ended and Danny was back to the roads. He took pains to make sure he was never in direct light, which got increasingly difficult when every turn he took had another group of agents running towards him or chasing him with their stupid, white vans. There was an obscene amount of property damage between those idiots and his parents.

At this point, one of the only reasons he hadn't transformed was because there were too many people actively chasing after him, and he couldn't be sure any cover he got would be good enough. Transforming produced light, and one of those bozos might see just enough to fuck him over. There was also a really stupid part of him that still hoped he'd be able to hide away easier as a human, despite the complete and repeated failure of that throughout the night. It was a fool's errand the way he kept running around, kept trying to hide. Danny scaled buildings, he climbed trees, and he even hid under a car. No dice. After a wild goose chase through the whole town where Danny was left utterly exhausted, he managed to get himself closed in on all sides. Underground was an option, except he was actually going to have a panic attack if he did that again in a human body.

There were probably a million and one ways out of this situation, but, in that moment, when a goddamn flood light illuminated him, Danny could not think of a single one.

“The ghost is disguised as that Fenton kid!”

“That's stupid, the kid has probably been a ghost the whole time under our noses!”

“Ghosts don't have heartbeats, moron. That kid is ecto contaminated. Occam's razor.”

The agents argued while Danny stood there like the proverbial dear in the headlights. It was hard to tell who was saying what when they were mostly identical men wearing all white. Okay. Playing dumb was probably the move. Probably. “Why am I being chased? I'm trying to go home.”

“Your house is on the other side of town,  kid.”

“I was being chased!" Danny was doing his best impression of a freaked out kid. It was a really great impression on account of him being a freaked out kid.

Before anyone could try and grill him about it more, several agents had to dive out of the way as the GAV entered the scene, coming to a grinding halt. Out jumped mom and dad, armed to the teeth with every weapon pointed right at him. The weapons lowered, and why wouldn't they? Why would he ever be worried that his parents wouldn't lower their weapons?

“Danny, honey, what are you doing out? It's not safe, especially with how ghost sensors react to you,” Mom said, walking past the agents to get closer to him. Dad wasn't far behind.

“Your signal looks exactly like the one we've been following all night. It's gotta be that Fenton strength that kept you safe.” Dad stood next to Mom. Their words were so normal, but Danny felt so uncomfortable under their gaze.

“Um. I was just trying to go home from Sam's place, and then I got chased. No one told us about a curfew or anything.” Playing dumb. He's playing dumb. So dumb. Undeveloped frontal lobe.

“Why don't you get in the GAV, honey? I know all the ghost hunting can be scary for you.” There, Mom was giving him an out. He was reasonably sure no other ghosts were coming out tonight, so he could just go home and be fine.

Nodding meekly, he started walking to the GAV. Danny thought he was making a clean getaway. That went about as well as he could have hoped for, after all. No one was shooting at him, mom and dad weren't jumping to any conclusions, and he was being sent to go hide in the GAV. This had to be the best case scenario, so maybe that was why his guard went down a little, and he stopped paying so much attention to the Guys in White.

With his back turned to everyone, one of those cowards actually shot at him. Not once during that exchange had any of them lowered their weapon, and one of them shot him. He gasped, and there was a sudden burning on his shoulder. Danny looked over and saw an oozing gash dripping a mixture of mostly red, but with streaks of green. Not normal. He only glanced back at his shocked parents for a second before he took off running. It didn't even occur to Danny to say screw it and use his powers; he just ran.

As he ran, more shots sailed past him, and he fumbled out Sam's phone. There were heavy footsteps behind him, and he managed to get out a single text to his own phone of “bad news bears” before he found himself being crushed in Jack Fenton's arms.

Chapter Text

Sam stared down at the phone in her hand. “So, he said ‘bad news bears,’ and I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he sent that instead of like, SOS, because he's stupid and not because it isn't serious.”

“Yeah, probably,” Tucker agreed with a shrug. “What now? Do we call Damian like he asked?”

“Absolutely not. We don't even know what's going on yet. What are we gonna say? ‘Well, he said bad news bears, so you should call Batman.’ That ask was for if we've exhausted all other options.” Sam huffed. “Can you track my phone?”

“On it. I could get through the interference from Danny's ectosignature in my sleep,” Tucker said. He pulled out his PDA and got to work. “Good news. It looks like it's still on him because it's on the move. I think his parents have him, going off of the speed and where it's headed.”

“I'm calling Jazz. She might be able to run interference until we get there.” Both of them stood up and started making their way through Sam's house to get out of there. The place was big enough that they didn't even have to go full stealth.

Even though she was coming off calm, Sam was worried. She had been worried all night, because things just didn't feel right, and it was only getting worse. Gritting her teeth, she dialed Jazz's number. The first ring didn't even finish before the call was answered.

"What went wrong?" Jazz said immediately and without being prompted. "What do I need to do?"

"Your parents have him. We don't know exactly what happened, because the only thing he texted was 'bad news bears.' That doesn't give us a lot to work with. Tucker said it looked like they were heading back to your place. Try to run interference, and we'll be there ASAP for backup." As Sam talked, she locked in. It was go time. There was no room for hesitation.

"Understood."

-

"B, there's something going on with the GIW." Oracle's voice sounded off in Batman's ear.

"Report, Oracle," he ordered, gruffly.

"It's hard to tell what exactly happened, as with anything from them, but it appears shots were fired. Some reports say an ecto-entity was involved, other communications mention the 'Fenton boy.'" She didn't need to tell Batman why that was a concern. It was evident.

"Add Robin to this channel and connect him to Phantom." It was child's play for Oracle, to call from Damian's phone and loop it through their channel.

"No answer"

"Force a connection."

"—don't know why Danny's long lost twin is trying to call right now, but his timing sucks. Wait, shit—" It was the voice of a girl, not Danny. Based on his known affiliates, it was mosst likely Samantha Manson.

"Conncetion was terminated."

"If Phantom isn't there, it can be tracked, can't it?" Robin asked.

"I have a location. They're moving, likely on foot, towards FentonWorks."

"Force a connection again," Robin demanded, ready to butt in before the call could be ended again. "Why do you have his phone?"

"What's it matter to you? He gave it to me." It was the same girl's voice, annoyed and defensive. Based on the sounds of her breathing, she was running.

"Something happened to Phantom." It was an accusation, not a question.

"Nothing we can't handle! How do you even know that?" There was the sound of another voice in the background, but it couldn't be made out. "We don't need help from some rich kid all the way in Jersey. I don't even care if you can call Batman, 'cause he's in Jersey, too! We are in Amity Park, and we are going to figure out what's happening."

"Connection was terminated," came Oracle's voice. "I think we got all we could from that route."

"Continue monitoring the GIW and FW," Batman said, moving to get back to the case he and Robin were working on.

"Batman! We have to do something." Robin got in front of him, blocking his path.

"Stand down, Robin."

"We're abandoning him." Robin was heated, pointing a finger at Batman with anger in his scowl.

"We're waiting on further inteligence. If you cannot remain calm, you will be benched for the night." Batman didn't rise to accusation, not visibly. Any emotions were compartmentalized. The field was neither the time nor the place for it. Batman waited and, after a moment, Robin acquiesced.

-

Jazz knew the moment she first found Danny that he needed to come home with her. It had taken some work to convince everyone else of that fact, but she had gotten her way in the end. It was moments like these where she questioned if the convictions of that little girl hadn't just doomed Danny, if she had doomed herself. She wasn't stupid. No, she was fully aware of how over the years she had been increasingly parentified. It wasn't fair, not to Danny and not to her. Opening the portal just exacerbated all of the issues that were already there that left her stewing in the sensations of guilt and grief. A little girl, not even ten years old, couldn't have ever predicted this.

No one actually knew what she should be expecting when her parents finally got home after catching her little brother. No one knew what kind of condition he was in. No one knew if he was Fenton or Phantom. No one knew if her parents knew either.

Right now, she needed to be ready to stop her parents at the door. There literally wasn't a way for them to get down to the lab without coming in through the front door, so there was a guaranteed intercept. Jazz waited there, nerves steadily rising until she heard the squealing tires of the GAV arriving in front of the home. She didn't quite know what exactly she was preparing herself for, but she steeled herself nonetheless. A lipstick laser sat heavy in her pocket.

The door burst open before he nerves could become any more shot than they already were. Her parents had grim looks on their faces, and Danny, bleeding from his shoulder. was sandwiched in between them looking like he had been crying. Someone had put a specter deflector on him. That must be part of why his wound wasn't closing. Jazz blocked their path. "What happened?"

"Oh, Jazzypants, don't you worry." The pained look underneath Dad's smile said otherwise. "We just need to take him down to the lab. Something's infected your brother."

"Not to worry, though," Mom said, seeming much more chipper, "because your father and I have everything we need to cure whatever some horrible ghost did to him."

A heavy pit dropped in Jazz's stomach. She tried to meet Danny's eyes, but he was looking at the ground, tearing up. "Mom, he's bleeding."

"We'll take care of him," Mom said, tightening her grip on Danny and pushing past her.

"Let me do it," Jazz begged. "Let me bandage him up. The first aid kit is in the bathroom, not the lab." She followed closely behind as Mom pushed Danny towards the lab.

"We have to do this, Jazzy." Dad blocked her way and tried to guide her away from the lab, but Jazz refused. Standing her ground, she kept herself close enough that they wouldn't be able to stop her from following. "After so long where we never noticed anything was wrong, we have to." He tried to hold her away and close the door to the lab behind him, but Jazz dove in before the door could shut. Before he could grab her, Jazz was rushing down the stairs as fast as she could without falling.

In the lab, there was Maddie, a firm hand on her baby brother's shoulder as she guided him towards that table they hadn't had time to sabotage. Jazz panicked. After the fact, she would readily admit it, but in that moment she acted before she could think it through. Jazz tackled Maddie. The only reason it even worked was because Maddie was as shocked by Jazz's actions as Jazz was. Maddie didn't go down, but she released her hold on Danny. It was an opening for her to get to Danny and start fumbling with the specter defelector as fast as she could. Jazz only managed to loosen the device on a stunned Danny before she was pulled off of him.

"What has gotten into you?" Maddie demanded, shocked and momentarily distracted from Danny.

"Danny, go. Run!" Jazz yelled, but Jack was blocking the way back upstairs. "Get in the Portal!"

"Jazz?" Danny sniffled, looking at her with sad eyes that she hasn't seen since he was much smaller. He was backing up towards the portal, but he was hesitating.

"I'll be fine. Go." The moment snapped. Danny turned and ran for the portal, a recovered Maddie hot on his heels. Jazz doubted that the woman even knew what was really happening here, but Danny could not be here for her to find out.

At the same time, Jazz ran to get to the portal controls, and Jack went to stop her. There was no way she could overpower him. Swallowing hard, Jazz pulled out her lipstick laser and shot it at him, stunning him long enough to get the portal door opened. Danny disappeared into the swirling green just as Maddie grabbed his arm and tried to pull him back. The ensuing tug of war tested her resolve. Would she allow herself to fall further into the Ghost Zone if it meant she could pull Danny back in? Jack and Maddie had never gone through that portal themselves, not once. That fear of the unknown challenged a mother's resolve just enough for her child to slip away into that vast plane unexplored by the living.

Maddie reeled back as though burnt. "Jack! Get the Specter Speeder ready. Oh, god, my baby."

"What is going on, Jazz? Why did you do that?" The look in Jack's face forced Jazz to look away. It was too much to be faced with. Attacking her own parents had crushed her, but she couldn't let them just go and hurt Danny by trying to help him.

"You were going to hurt him," she said quietly, and now she was crying, too. Jazz faintly registered two more sets of footsteps coming down the stairs. Instead of saying anything else, Jack walked away, probably to go prepare the Speeder like Maddie asked.

"What happened?" That was Tucker. Jazz looked up to see his concerned eyes along with a seething Sam. "Where's Danny?"

"In the Zone. They're going to try to go after him." Jazz wiped her tears away. It wasn't over yet. "He had a specter deflector on, so he won't be able to get very far until he gets it off."

"We need to go after him," Sam said, stomping her boot. "He needs that thing off."

"We can't," Tucker said, "Unless we can steal the Speeder when Jack and Maddie are already halfway in, we'll get ecto poisoning if we're there too long. Danny won't forgive himself if we get hurt for that, and you know it."

"Going after him won't stop Jack and Maddie from going after him, too," Jazz said, firmly. "We stop them. Tucker, shut off the portal."

"Wait, are you serious?" Tucker looked panicked. Jazz knew he could do it, they all did, it just never seemed like something that would ever be necessary.

"Hurry, they're getting in the Speeder. We don't have much time. Please." Jazz's voice was soft but firm. She knew without a doubt that Danny would be safe in the Ghost Zone. That had to be enough for her in this highly stressful moment.

Swallowing hard, Tucker started in on the portal's control panel, fingers moving quickly. The moment seemed to stretch on forever, The speeder was piloted to a ready position in front of the swirling, green portal. Her parents were bracing themselves to go where they had previously never dared to go. As the Speeder moved forward, Tucker hit the emergency shutdown buried deeper than an emergency measure ever should be, and the metal doors of the portal slammed shut while the power supple started fritzing out.

The portal had never been shut down all the way, not since Danny first got it working at great sacrifice. No one really knew what would happen if they tried. The whole thing sparked as what was actually a self sustaining portal struggled against the machinery. It sparked in anger and roared in a high pitched scream.

"Shit, we gotta get out of here in case the thing blows. I don't think I can stop whatever's happening," Tucker pulled on Jazz, but she hesitated. "Your parents aren't your responsibility. If they stay in the Speeder, they'll probably be fine. There's time for them to get out, too."

The three of them couldn't afford to wait any longer. They turned tail and ran upstairs and out of the home altogether just to be sure.

"What do we do now?" Tucker asked after a long, quiet moment. It didn't look like the building was coming down, at least not for the moment.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Same grumbled, taking out Danny's phone and redialing the last number. Jazz heard a tinny answer on the other end before Sam spoke again. "How much do you know?"

-

No one had ever thought to test what the Specter Deflector would do in the infinitie realms, were the very air was full of ectoplasm. It turned out that, in that case, it would simply go off continuously. Danny had no idea how long he had floated there being jolted again and again to where he couldn't think. It took a while for him to feel his own body, to reach down and touch the belt. It took longer yet for him to grasp the belt and find the strength to push it down. Jazz loosened the vice grip enough for him to slowly, painfully shimmy out of the damn thing and push it away, where it continued to shock nothing but the void surrounding it.

Danny gasped in relief, curling into a ball and transforming without a thought, taking on the appropriate form for the realms that surrounded him. Whether he knew it or not, he was favored by the Infinite Realms itself, the lattice of energy and reality that kept the space a cohesive whole. It would hold him safely in his state of exhaustion. He had lost a good bit of blood.

Nothing if not resilient, Danny did recover. He unfurled himself and breathed in the pure ecto of the Realms before looking back where the portal should have been. Key work there was "should" because there was nothing but empty space there.

"Well, shit." He hadn't realized that was even possible. "Oh, ew, am I going to have to go and use Vlad's portal to get out?" Vlad's portal being accessible wasn't even guarantee, but it had to be better odd than the Fenton portal reappearing. With a sigh, Danny flew off in the general direction that Vlad's portal usually was.

The Infinite Realms was infintely flexible, ever shifting and adjusting as new dimensions are born and old ones cease. Danny had an idea of where he was going, but he would have to adjust course as he felt out the space around him. That wasn't the annoying part. The annoying part was that he was exhausted and flying at top speeds.

As he found himself approved the Ever Moving Here and Now, it did switch to being the annoying part. Clockwork's Lair was whenever and wherever it needed to be and nowhere else. There was no use in avoiding it, so Danny went in to see him. Clockwork was old with a greying beard when Danny found him.

"So nice of you to drop in, Daniel," he said, you know, like he was a jovial grandfather and not a cryptic bastard. Okay, fine, he kind of what a grandfather-esque figure in Danny's mind, but you'd be hard pressed to get him admit that he views the master of time as fraid. CW definitely knew if the look on his face was anything to go by. "I wasn't expecting to see you so soon."

"Very funny." Danny rolled his eyes. "What's up? I'm trying to get back to the living realm."

"The Realms have shifted. The Fenton portal cannot be opened again. Leaving through Plasmius' portal will not have a favorable outcome." The old man shifted into a baby and then to a young man. "Go have your shoulder looked at. You'll need your strength in order to leave the Infinite by your own power." Behind his words there was a hum of /Rest/Heal/All Is Well/.

"Would you tell me if there was trouble in the living realm real right now?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

"You will make it back to the living precisely when you need to," Clockwork said, smirking just a little bit.

"Right, of course," Danny grumbled, crossing his arms. He was testier than he normally was with Clockwork these days. There were a lot of swirling thoughts and feelings in being that he was avoiding, though they still soured his mood. Any ghost who knew him well enough would pick up on the traces of /Worry/Fear/ coming off of him.

"It would do you well to practice patience before you take the crown, little prince." Gears shifted and a window opened to what was likely the Far Frozen. "Go, now."

"Bye, Clocky." Danny gave a weak salute and went through the portal and into the white, snowy landscape. The chill felt nice, and he coasted until he reached Frostbite's village. It was a comforting place for him, with the feeling of Frostbite's aura a background hum in every nook and crevice. Danny flared his aura, calling out to the big yeti.

It didn't take long for Frostbite to show up. "Great One, what an unexpected pleasure to see you here," he greeted Danny before his eyes drifted down to his still oozing shoulder. Danny was trying not to think too hard about how it hadn't totally healed yet. "Come, let me take a look at your wound."

Frostbite lead him into a medical hut and had Danny sit on an exam table. It was just a surface wound that should heal no problem. That wasn't the sort of thing that would normally have Danny bringing his ailments to Frostbite. Nothing a little first aid couldn't take care of. Frostbite seemed to be using something to clean out the neglected wound. Other instruments were used to for who knows what.

"Ah, I see what has happened. Great One, you are aware of the connection between ectoplasm and emotions, yes?" Danny felt a little bit like a child when he felt how strong of an aura was around him when Frostbite asked him. Did it sting more to have his feelings treated as delicate or for them to actually be kinda delicate?

"Yeah. Ghosts are, like, all emotion. Emotion is what keeps ghosts anchored to their obsessions. We feel everything more strongly than the living."

"You are correct. However, there are yet more intricacies. Our emotions can have a great impact on our bodies, especially for young ghosts. The very form of a ghost is guided by these emotions along with sense of self and obsession." There was a sound of a whirling blizzard and the sensation of /Safety/Peace/Healing/. "Hurt can be heavy with emotion. As both your human and ghosts halves are still juvenile, an emotional hurt you may, ah, be ignoring could cause a wound like this to linger."

Danny was quiet for what felt like an eternity. "I don't think Amity Park is safe right now," he said quietly. "My parents saw my human form get hurt from an ecto weapon. They don't know I'm Phantom, but they— they still think there's something wrong with me that they need to fix."

Before he could even realize he had started crying, Danny was enveloped in strong, furry arms and the sound of wind whipping up powdery snow.