Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There was no place like home.

Danny had been back in his home dimension for four days, and he was still riding the high of his homecoming. Nothing against the other dimension, some of his favorite people called that place home. But, Danny preferred his sky to be another color than gray, at least on occasion (blue or even green was preferable). And despite how hard the others tried to convince him, Bat Burger had nothing on Nasty Burger. 

Of course, he missed his pack like crazy. It was a huge adjustment, going from seeing them every day to suddenly not at all (and potentially never again, though Danny was Not Thinking About That). He missed talking with Tim. They used to have verbal debates that could last for hours. He missed playing with Damian, even if most of their play involved Danny risking bodily harm. He missed Alfred’s cooking and wisdom, and he missed Bruce’s awkward but earnest efforts. 

Most of all, he missed Dick and Jason. He was so used to having one of those two Guys around that it was still weird for him to look over his shoulder and not see one of them standing guard behind him. Dick with his clinginess and Jason with his stubbornness had attached themselves firmly to Danny’s heart. 

It was a good thing that Danny had people here who were just as important to him.

For example, his best friends.

Danny had shown Tucker what hacking knowledge he had been able to retain from Tim, and even though he knew he was forgetting some things Tucker was able to piece together enough from his spotty knowledge to be ecstatic about potential upgrades to his tech. Plus, apparently the camera Tim had given him was made of tech years past what this dimension was currently capable of, and after they downloaded all of the pictures it contained Tucker spent a lot of time examining it, even taking it completely apart at one point.

Sam had been excited to hear about some of the offensive skills Danny had gained. While she was less than impressed with his tales of gun-shooting, she was extremely impressed with his newfound knife-throwing skills, and had insisted he teach her. She picked it up even faster than he did, and at the rate she was going she’d probably surpass him in a week or two.

Danny had decided not to divulge the full story to his parents. He didn’t know how to broach the subject of “I have a second family now and was living with them for months without you knowing,” so he just… didn’t. All he told them was that as a ghost he had gone through an evolution of sorts, and that he might display some different behaviors. His parents had been confused at first, but eventually were just excited to get another insight into ghost culture. They kept a pretty close eye on him for about a day, asking him questions and noting any quirks he displayed. Their notes included “an increased need for physical touch, a higher frequency of animalistic noises, and a tendency to sleep in a giant pile of blankets.” As soon as they were sure he was healthy they moved on to being hyper-focused on something else (something about ghosts and trackers, Danny wasn’t really listening). 

Jazz was back at college, but Danny had called her up and talked to her on the phone for several hours his second day back. She was beyond relieved that he was feeling better. He debated telling her the same story he told their parents, but he hesitated for a second too long while talking and she knew immediately that he was hiding something. When she threatened to drive back that moment to get the truth out of him he caved and told her everything. Like his friends, she was just glad that he had recovered. She expressed regret that she couldn’t meet and thank his pack. Danny wished she could too.

But since he was Not Thinking About That, he focused instead on how he felt healthier than he had in a while. Maybe ever.  He could now transform into Phantom flawlessly, and could use his powers as easily as breathing (or not, as the case might be). He felt whole and happy, perfectly in sync with himself. 

Yes, things were looking up for Danny.

Until this exact moment.

“Just hold still!” Danny yelled at the squid-like ghost that kept dodging all of his attacks. Sometimes Danny hated dealing with the more animal-like ghosts more than dealing with his usual rogues. Those guys could sometimes be reasoned with, and if not, Danny could at least enjoy some fun banter. These creatures lacked the brains needed for quips. 

This particular squid-ish ghost had been scaring people innocently picnicking in the park this Saturday afternoon. Danny, while walking home from Sam’s, had seen it as it chased off a small family. Grinning, Danny ducked behind a tree and transformed (while he was out to his parents and friends, he still tried to keep his ghostly nature on the down-low for the general populace). He was looking forward to a quick and simple take-down after not fighting anything for months. Unfortunately, his opponent was proving to be a slippery devil.

Not for the first time Danny wished he had thought to bring a thermos with him. It used to be a habit to always have one on his person, but being in a dimension with no ghosts for so long broke him of that. A mistake he would not be making again. At least all of the other park visitors had left by now, so no one could see Danny’s struggles.

Danny, despite knowing the futility, tried to reason with the creature. “C’mon Squidward, I just want to go home! Do me a favor and just go back to the zone already. Please?”

The squid-ghost made no response except to wave its tentacles in a gesture that was either playful or extremely rude. It was hard to tell with squid.

“Alright pal, you asked for it!” Danny held out his arm and readied an ecto-blast, beyond ready for this to end.

Only for his shot to go completely wide. Like, missed by several feet wide. 

Okay, so he was out of practice. That was both fine and understandable. As the squid bobbed around Danny fired again. 

And again. 

And again.

Every shot he took completely missed. Eventually the squid stopped trying to dodge, just hovering in one spot in midair, watching Danny. Danny crept closer until he was almost within touching distance. He slowly held up his arm, and the squid tracked his movements but kept still. Danny gathered up his energy, held his arm steady, kept his concentration, and fired.

And missed again.

“What the heck!” Danny yelled. The squid made a chittering sound that Danny just knew meant it was laughing at him. “Oh yeah, think that’s funny? Take this!” 

Thoroughly done, Danny decided to fall back on old-reliable, and threw a punch at the ghost. 

Only for his arm to stop inches away from its dumb squid face.

“Wha-Hey!” Right as Danny started to speak the squid seemed to have enough, and tilted backwards to spray Danny with glowing ink. He spluttered. Some of it had gotten into his mouth. “Gross!”

There was that chittering sound Danny was really growing to hate.

It was cut short by the squeal of tires, and a laser beam going just past the squid. 

Danny’s dad’s voice rang through the park. “Hold still, ghosty!” The squid hesitated, but when another beam grazed one of its tentacles it squealed and flew off.

“Alright there, Dan-o?” Jack asked as he pulled up next to Danny (in the middle of the park. The van was leaving tire tracks in the grass).

Danny, still trying to blink ink out of his eyes, just gave a thumbs-up. This was apparently good enough for his dad, who said, “Glad to hear it! Now, to capture that ghost!” He did a donut in the grass around Danny, for what purpose Danny didn’t know, and then drove off in the direction the squid had flown.

Danny wasn’t worried about the ghost. For one, his dad did not have a great track record of actually catching ghosts. For another, since Danny had revealed his secret to his parents and corrected their assumptions about the inner workings of ghosts (mainly that they could think and feel pain) his parents mostly just chased ghosts now to ask questions that Danny wouldn’t or couldn’t answer, or to return them to the ghost zone if they were causing a disturbance (though usually in the process his parents caused an even larger disturbance). Lastly, after that encounter Danny wouldn’t care if that squid ended up as calamari.

It was a little concerning though, Danny thought as he finished wiping off as much ink as he could (he had already tried phasing it off of him, but it was proving to be remarkably resilient). How had that fight gone so poorly? Was he really out of practice that much? Why couldn’t he hit the ghost? 

As Danny flew off towards home (and a shower) he resolved to put the encounter out of his mind. Surely this was just him needing to get back into the swing of things after not fighting for so long. He’d be fine next fight, this was just a one-time thing.

Right?

Chapter Text

It was not a one-time thing. Repeatedly and frustratingly, it kept happening. 

The situation would always play out the same way. Danny would see a ghost causing trouble, or a ghost would see him and start trouble, and they would enter a fight. Well, to call it a fight would be generous. It would be more accurate to say they would enter a one-sided beatdown that always resulted in Danny getting his ass handed to him.

He couldn’t even use the Fenton Thermos! Just like with his ecto-blasts, his shots always went wide. Once, he had the thermos pressed right up against a ghost, and he couldn’t make his finger push down on the button. The ghost ended up headbutting him and almost escaped before Sam, who thankfully was there, took the thermos from Danny’s hands and captured the ghost for him. 

So now his fights always ended with the other ghost incapacitating Danny and flying away, or with Danny being rescued by his friends or his parents (and wasn’t that just a new low, to be worse at fighting ghosts than his parents).

It wasn’t like all of his powers weren’t working. Danny could still fly, turn invisible, and turn intangible. He could make shields just fine. But he couldn’t seem to use any of his offensive powers, at least in fights. He and his friends had tested it, and he could aim at targets with no problems. But not at anything living or post-living. 

After about three weeks of constant losses and increasing humiliation Danny decided to bite the bullet and seek answers. He debated going to Frostbite. The yeti was Danny’s usual go-to when his powers started acting wonky. But Danny was not an idiot (no matter what his grades might indicate), and he could recognize that this new problem started right when his old one was solved. The timing couldn’t be a coincidence. So he entered the ghost zone and booked it right for the lair of the one who had all the time in the world to help (or so Danny would be telling him if he tried to refuse).

Zooming through the doors and up the stairs of the tower, Danny saw Clockwork in his usual spot - staring into one of the dozens of mirrors he had floating around. Some were large and ornate, some were small and simple, but all of them displayed blurry images of moments in time that gave Danny a migraine if he stared directly at them. He didn’t know how Clockwork did it, but he supposed being the Ancient of Time had to have some advantages. 

Without turning around or looking away from his current mirror, Clockwork spoke. “Hello, Daniel. And what brings you here in such a rush?”

“Like you don’t already know, Clocky,” Danny huffed, rolling his eyes. He crossed his arms and hovered in midair behind Clockwork.

“Though you may like to believe so, I am not entirely all-knowing,” Clockwork said, shifting into his child form. He still did not turn around, the jerk. “I cannot, for example, read your mind.”

“Yeah, just my past and future,” Danny grumbled. “But whatever. Listen Clockwork, why can’t I fight anymore? I thought going to that other dimension was supposed to fix my problems, not make new ones.”

Clockwork hummed. “Yes, in most timelines this is the case. The odds of us finding ourselves in this timeline are incredibly small.”

He floated serenely, and casually moved to look into another mirror. Danny managed to wait for about thirty seconds before exploding.

“So, what’s the problem then? Why am I like this? Did that other dimension turn me into a pacifist or something?”

Clockwork shook his head. “I am afraid, Daniel, that you did that all on your own.”

Danny blinked. “...what?”

Clockwork beckoned Danny to come forward to the mirror he was looking through. It was a full length one with silver edges. “Here, watch.”

Danny flew over to Clockwork’s side and squinted into the mirror. It was blurry for a moment, before Clockwork waved his hand in front of it and suddenly Danny could make out the images. He saw himself, lying in the middle of a magic glowing circle, surrounded by tall figures in masks and capes. 

“I remember this!” Danny exclaimed. “That’s when I was summoned into space.”

“Indeed,” Clockwork nodded. “Keep watching.”

Danny saw himself getting questioned by the other figures. He saw Bruce in his getup working himself into a frenzy. He saw himself answering questions and holding a glowing rope. He saw the figure in the trench coat, whose name was escaping Danny right now, point at him, and for the first time Danny could hear what was being said.

“Easy,” Danny said. He placed a hand over his heart. “I promise not to harm anyone in this dimension. Or any dimension, at that.”

The circle glowed brightly for one last time before going completely out.

The image in the mirror froze there.

“Quite a bold declaration to make while inside a magically binding circle,” Clockwork noted off-handedly. 

“So that’s why I can’t fight anything?” Danny cried out. “But that’s not what I meant!”

“I’m afraid that in this instance intent matters very little.” Clockwork shifted to look like an old man. “Exact wording does. You promised not to harm anyone in any dimension. And so, you cannot.”

“But… but…” Danny was speechless for a moment. “But I can’t help anyone like this!” He couldn’t protect anyone. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Well, you could always become a monk, truly embrace this newfound pacifism.”

Danny glared at Clockwork, who sighed. “Yes, well, that timeline was a longshot anyway. Do not worry, Daniel. For now, there is nothing to be done. Go home, get some rest. A solution will present itself.”

Dejected, and with the sense that staying any longer would just be wasting Time, Danny left the tower and began his journey home.

“So that’s the situation,” Danny finished explaining. Tucker and Sam stared at him in disbelief. They were all gathered in Sam’s bedroom. Danny’s two friends were sitting on the edge of Sam’s bed, where they had been watching Danny pace back and forth across the room as he recounted what he had learned.

“What the heck, Danny!” Sam finally exclaimed. As Danny’s pacing brought him closer to her she whacked him on the arm. “Did you learn nothing from Spectra? Always watch your wording around magical beings!”

“Dude, Danny…” Tucker shook his head. “Even I know better than to make promises like that.”

Sam whirled on Tucker. “Oh please, you would have fallen for the same trap!”

“Would not!” Tucker protested. “I would have pled the fifth and said nothing!”

“You wouldn’t have lasted five seconds before opening your big mouth!”

“Guys, please,” Danny begged. He was starting to get a headache from the stress, and the loud argument was not helping. “Can we stay focused? Mainly, how do we fix this?”

The other two settled down. “Well Danny, it seems like there’s not much that can be done,” Sam said matter-of-factly. “Didn’t Clockwork say just to wait?”

Danny groaned and flopped backwards down on the bed, lying in between her and Tucker. “But I hate waiting!”

“We know,” Sam and Tucker deadpanned at the same time. 

“Look man, just leave the ghost fighting to us for now,” Tucker said, flexing his non-existent muscles. “We have enough Fenton/Foley tech to keep the ghost population under control.”

Danny wasn’t sure that’d be enough. “Yeah, but that mostly just works on the small fry. What if someone major comes along and I’m useless?”

“First of all, you’re not useless,” Sam said firmly. Danny brightened. She continued, “You can be used as bait.” He deflated again.

Sam patted him reassuringly on the shoulder. “Look, if something major happens before this gets solved, we’ll just go back to Clockwork and force him to help us, alright?”

Danny smiled up at her. “You’d fight Time for me?”

She smiled back. “Any Time.”

The serious moment lasted all of ten seconds before the three of them burst into laughter that lasted for a solid minute. Danny felt his core start purring. His friends really were the best.

That good mood lasted from then until he was about halfway home, when anxious thoughts started invading his mind again. Being a fighter, a protector, was who Danny was. If he couldn’t do that, what good was he? 

So lost was he in his anxiety spiral that he didn’t sense anybody nearby until someone shouted right behind him. “Danny!” 

Danny jumped about a foot in the air and whirled around with his hands raised into fists (as if that would do any good). The sight of the person in front of him had him immediately freezing in shock. Before he could even lower his arms he was wrapped up in a familiar tight embrace.

Chapter Text

“Dick!?”

Sure enough, it was one of Danny's pack members wrapping him up in a hug like a boa constrictor. For a moment Danny could do nothing, frozen in shock. As soon as he could gather enough of his wits he returned the hug, practically vibrating with happiness.

“Danny!” Dick greeted back enthusiastically. As he spoke he rubbed the side of his head against Danny’s. Since returning to his dimension Danny hadn’t been scented at all. He hadn’t realized how much he had missed it.

After a little while Danny felt another pair of hands insert themselves into their hug and push to separate them out. “That’s enough, Richard, you are embarrassing yourself.”

Danny released Dick and stepped back to see Damian! “Dami!” he cheered. Damian raised his arms for a moment like he might go for a hug as well, but then lowered them and stuck out his hand for a handshake instead. Grinning, Danny took it. After shaking his hand once he yanked Damian towards him and snuck in a quick hug before jumping back to avoid the knife Damian pulled on him.

“What are you guys doing here?” Danny asked, grinning from ear to ear. He was still riding the high of seeing these people he had worried might be gone forever.

“We came to visit!” Dick beamed, as if they lived just an hour away and not an entire world.

Danny was going to need more than that. “But… how?” 

Dick’s smile somehow became even larger, practically bursting with pride. “Tim put a tracker in your camera, and was able to figure out the coordinates of your dimension. The travel was the easy part, we just needed to know where to go.”

“Oh, is Tim here too?” Danny asked. Even more pack!

“Yep! He and Jason are around here somewhere. We split up to try and find you.”

Danny couldn’t believe it. Practically all of his pack, here in his hometown! In his dimension! “Let’s go find them!” Danny couldn’t wait to show them around and introduce them to everyone.

“No need,” Dick said. His head was tilted, and he seemed to be listening to something. “One of them is on the way now.”

Danny tried to listen in as well, and a few seconds later he could hear the sound of shoes slapping against the sidewalk. That sound was fine, normal even. The following sounds of a squeal of tires, a blast going off, and a sharp yell were less fine, though for Danny they were unfortunately still pretty normal.

Danny watched as Jason suddenly turned the corner and ran up the street they were all on, going right towards them. A second later Danny’s parents in their van turned the corner so fast that for a split second they were on two wheels, before they landed with a thud back to the ground and chased after Jason.

Dick and Damian tensed and got into battle-ready stances. Damian’s hands twitched by his side, but Danny was relieved to see that he lacked his usual sword. “Are those some of your villains?” Damian asked tensely. 

Danny just sighed in exasperation. “Nope. Well, actually… no, sticking with no.”

Jason bolted towards the gathered group. As he did so Danny took a step to the side and gestured subtly to a bush behind him. Jason didn’t hesitate and dove right into it like a swimmer might dive into a pool.

Danny made a mental note to apologize to his neighbors later for messing with their yard, and then immediately forgot about it.

The van pulled up next to them and the window rolled down. “Hi sweetie!” Danny’s mom smiled.

“Hi Mom,” he returned with a wave, as Dick’s eyes widened, and Damian mouthed the word “Mom?” to himself.

“We were just chasing down a ghost for you,” his mom continued. “You know, since you’ve been having some problems recently.”

Danny gave her a small smile. They did mean well. “Thanks Mom.”

“Anytime, sweetie. Hmm, now our equipment seems to just be picking up you. We really should adjust those settings. That way Jack, the ghost will get away!”

The van lurched forward with a cry of “Bye Dan-o!” Soon it turned the corner and was out of sight, knocking down two mailboxes, a trashcan, and almost running over a cat on the way.

There was silence for a moment. Silence, and the sound of Jason trying to fight his way out of a bush.

“So,” Dick said over the sound of Jason’s struggles. “Those were your parents?” Danny could hear the forced neutrality.

He sighed. “Yeah. Believe it or not they’ve actually calmed down some in the past couple of years.”

Dick eyed the tire tracks left on the road and the mild destruction up and down the street. “If you say so.”

“For goodness' sake Todd, get out of the bush already!” Damian snapped.

“I’m trying! There’s thorns!”

“You imbecile. Ugh, here.” Damian pulled some of the branches aside and Jason was finally able to scramble his way to freedom. 

Brushing himself off as if nothing had happened, he looked over to Danny. “Hey there kid, how’s it going?”

“Not too bad, yourself?” Danny responded automatically.

“Oh, you know,” Jason said, pulling a thorn out of his pants with a wince. “Can’t complain.” As soon as Jason was done brushing himself off he pulled Danny in for a hug as well.

Dick was looking at Danny with concern. “Danny, what were your parents saying before? Are you having troubles with your ghost half again?”

Danny sighed. “Different problems, but yeah.”

“And why did your parents think Jason was a ghost?” Tim asked. 

Danny waved him off. “Oh, who knows with them, their inventions malfunction all the time…wait, Tim?”

Tim smiled and waved nonchalantly like he had been there the whole time and hadn’t just appeared while no one was looking. “Hello Danny.” Danny gave Tim a hug as well, which he happily returned. 

Danny was ecstatic. Most of his pack, together again in one place! He felt himself start purring in contentment. 

Jason glared at Tim. “And where were you when I was being chased all over Timbuktu? What happened to Dick’s buddy system?”

Tim waved him off. “Oh please, you hate that system. And I was doing something important.”

“Oh yeah?” Jason asked skeptically. “What was that exactly?”

Tim smirked. “Getting blackmail.” He held up his phone, showing off a photo of Jason’s panicked face peeking out of a bunch of leaves. “I’m thinking of making it my new screensaver.”

Before Jason could do much more than start to lunge at Tim, Dick took a step in between them. “Okay, tensions are running high. Danny, is there somewhere we can go that’s not the middle of the street?”

“Sure thing,” Danny gestured and started leading them through the neighborhood, Jason still attempting to grab Tim and Dick holding him back by the collar. Damian just rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Right this way folks, it's your turn to be the guests at my house.”

Four stunned faces stared at Danny’s home while he got out his keys at the front door.

“Wow, Danny,” Dick eventually said. “I know you described your home to us, but seeing it is, well…”

“Are you certain you do not come from a family of supervillains?” Damian asked bluntly. “Because I have personally seen villain lairs with fewer laser guns than yours seems to have.”

“After a while you don’t really notice them,” Danny shrugged. He finished opening the door and held it open with a flourish. “After you.”

The group traveled in. Danny gestured towards the living area and went to fetch some water for them. When he returned Dick, Damian, and Tim were seated on the sofa. Jason was in the armchair with his arms crossed. Danny borrowed a chair from the kitchen table and was about to sit in it before Tim insisted they switch spots. Now Danny was seated next to Dick and within touching distance of Jason.

“So, Danny,” Dick said after sipping his drink. “Start from the beginning. What seems to be the problem?”

Danny took a sip of his water and gathered his thoughts. “Well, do you remember that time I was summoned to space (and none of you told me and we never went back and I’m still a bit miffed about that)? There was this magical circle, and this guy in a trench coat, and he was saying stuff about me being a threat, and I wanted to show that I wasn’t one, and so I sort of said that I wouldn’t harm anything in any dimension ever. And now I’m back home and I can’t fight anymore, like physically can’t, which is hard since I’m supposed to be the protector of my town and all.”

Damian looked at Danny unimpressed. “Did no one ever tell you to take care when making promises with magic users?”

“Believe it or not, magic doesn’t come up much in this dimension.” Danny chose not to mention the many instances where it definitely had. 

Jason’s brow furrowed. “But wait, that doesn’t make sense. What about those kidnappers, didn’t you fight them off?”

“Actually, after Daniel transformed he screeched at the leader of the men, who screamed and fell over, and the other two took off running. He never actually fought any of them,” Damian explained.

“Oh. Huh.” Jason looked like he was re-framing a few things.

Damian continued. “This may actually explain why you were so bad with my weapons training, Daniel. I knew that no student taught by me could be so incredibly incompetent.”

“Gee, thanks Damian.” 

Dick looked thoughtful. “Well we don’t want to leave you defenseless, Danny, so how about this for a plan: I’ll go back and get Constantine, and convince him to let you off the hook, and everyone else can stay here with you to help out in the meantime.”

“Actually, I was only going to be here for a quick visit to make sure the kid was alright,” Jason admitted. “I’ve still got a lot of crime to catch up on.”

“Do you mean stopping crime?” Danny asked.

Jason nodded. “Yeah, that too.”

Dick continued. “Okay, so Tim and Damian, you’re on Team Protect Danny, I’ll be on Team Find Constantine, and Jason will be on Team Lame-o.”

“Excuse you, I am always Team Awesome, and don’t you forget it.”

Tim cut through their bickering. “Out of curiosity Danny, how long has it been for you since you returned to this dimension?”

Danny did the math. “Almost a month.”

“Interesting.” Tim hummed. “Looks like my math was a little off. We’re not fully synced. It’s only been a week for us. I should be able to adjust that when I’m back in my dimension, but it’ll have to wait until we’re all back.”

“How did you get here, anyway?” Danny had been wondering about that.

Tim waved him off. “It’s pretty technical, no need to get into all the finer details. Just know that there’s a machine that I borrowed-”

“Oh, is that what we’re calling it now?”

Tim scowled at Jason. “Ahem, borrowed very politely and with full permission from the Justice League in the Batcave. It gets us to this dimension, and these devices,” Tim held up his wrist, showing off what looked to be a high-tech watch, “keep us here and stable. We can adjust the settings on these to send us back.”

“Wow, neat.” Danny wondered if Tim could take a look at his parent’s portal, and maybe combine it with his technology so Danny could have instant access to the Zone whenever. Could be useful. He made a mental note to ask later.

“Well, I should get started,” Dick said, standing up. He opened his arms and Danny wasted no time going into them for a hug. After a few seconds they separated. Dick gave a hug to Tim and Damian as well, after which he looked at them all fondly. “Keep each other out of trouble, alright?”

“No promises,” Danny and Tim said in unison, while Damian nodded seriously.

“I’ll try not to take too long. Should only be a day or so.” Dick smiled with only a hint of worry. He pushed a button on the side of his device, and was suddenly gone.

“Guess I should head out too,” Jason said, getting up as well. He rubbed the top of Danny’s head. “I’ll come back and visit as soon as I can. And I’ll make sure Dick stays focused and finds Constantine quickly, okay?”

“Okay,” Danny said, just a little sad that his two Guys had to leave so soon. “Come back soon.”

Jason just smiled. He gave the group a salute, pushed his device, and disappeared like Dick.

Damian looked at Danny. “Now what?”

Just then Danny’s phone beeped at him. He checked it to see a bunch of angry texts from Sam, asking why he wasn’t checking in. Oh yeah, he had said he’d do that once he got back to his place so they knew no ghosts had attacked him. Oops.

Danny smiled at the other two. “Want to go meet my friends?”

Chapter Text

Danny woke up slowly, and immediately thought about going right back to sleep. It was Saturday, so no school, which meant he could be as lazy as he wanted. It had been some draining weeks recently too, he could use the extra sleep.

He nestled himself back under the covers, but there was something missing that was keeping him from sleeping. It took his tired brain a moment to connect the dots. Oh right, his pack was staying with him, and by the lack of them in the bed with him they were already up and about. Regretfully, Danny resigned himself to waking up. It would be incredibly impolite to sleep in while his guests were up, his midwestern manners would never allow it. So, with regret in his heart, he yawned, stretched, and tried to come to life; the whole nine to five. 

It had been a week with Damian and Tim in his dimension, and Danny was having a great time.

The two were staying at his place. Officially both of them were rooming in Jazz’s room, unofficially Damian usually (nightly) snuck into Danny’s room to sleep, with Tim joining sometimes on nights where his insomnia didn’t keep him up and distracted with other things. 

Danny’s parents were remarkably chill about them staying over. All Danny had to say was that they were two friends from out of town who needed a place to crash, and his parents were more than welcoming. 

To be fair, Danny’s mom had asked to speak with one of their parents to verify. Danny almost panicked, but Tim calmly just rattled off a phone number. When his mom went into the kitchen to call, Tim’s phone went off, and he answered it. 

“You’ve reached Bruce Wayne, how can I help you?” Tim made no effort to change or modify his voice at all.

Danny then panicked for real (his dad would maybe fall for it but his mom was not so easily tricked), until Damian whispered to him that Tim had a program that changed his voice to certain settings, and that currently Maddie was actually currently hearing Bruce’s voice. When his mom came out of the kitchen all smiles, saying that Tim and Damian were welcome to stay as long as they needed, Danny nearly fainted from relief.

After Danny had tumbled out of bed and stumbled to the kitchen the only one he saw was Tim, who was seated at the table and sipping coffee out of the mug he had claimed as his own (a green one that said “I boo-lieve.” Danny was pretty sure he had given it to his dad as a Father’s Day present last year). Knowing Tim, Danny doubted it was his first cup.

“Morning Danny,” Tim greeted. He was skimming through a newspaper as he sipped his drink. There was a half-empty bowl of cereal next to him. Danny glanced at it, and it didn’t seem to be moving, which was a good sign. By this point Tim and Damian had learned to always check, after a few educational experiences.

“Morning Tim,” Danny responded as he got his own bowl. “Any plans for today?”

“I’ll probably go over to Tucker’s later,” Tim said. “He texted earlier, he wants me to take a look at an update he gave to his PDA.”

Those two had bonded quickly, as Danny had suspected they might. Tim and Tucker would get into hours-long spirals about technological differences between dimensions. The long technical words flew right over Danny’s head, but he was glad they were having fun. It was great that Tucker had someone who could keep up with him, though if Danny had to listen to one more conversation about processing power he was going to lose it.

Danny sat down once he had his breakfast situated. “Any idea where Damian is?” Danny asked through his bites of cereal. 

“He mentioned something about doing a quick patrol of the town with Sam.”

Danny had been surprised that Damian and Sam bonded so quickly, but in retrospect he shouldn’t have been. Both of them were strong-willed people willing to fight for living things more helpless than themselves. The main difference was that Sam fought for plant rights and Damian fought for animal rights, but they found that their ideologies overlapped quite a bit. When Damian had resumed his fighting lessons with Danny, Sam had insisted on joining in. Damian was petulant about it at first until she threw a knife that nicked the top of his ear. From that moment on he had been nothing but impressed with her, and had taken her on as a student. Once, she jokingly called him sensei; Damian tried to brush it off but by the hint of red on the tips of his ears Danny could tell that he liked it.

Both Damian and Tim had taken to ghost hunting remarkably well. Perhaps it wasn’t surprising, since they already had training and experience dealing with the strange and unusual. Sure, there were some mishaps, like Damian getting repeatedly attacked by ghost animals because he kept trying to pet them, or Tim examining a thermos to see how it worked and accidentally setting the ghosts inside it free, but they were definitely more of a help than a hindrance and Danny was grateful for their additional support. 

Danny didn’t bother asking where his parents were - knowing them, they were either fiddling in the lab or causing chaos about town. If he didn’t hear any explosions within the next twenty minutes, he’d know which one it was.

Both Tim and Danny finished their breakfast in comfortable silence. Right when Danny was slurping up the last bit of his milk he heard the front door open. He looked up, expecting to see Damian, and was fully surprised when Jason walked in.

“Jason!” Danny shouted in joy and surprise, and ran over to give Jason a hug in greeting. Jason gave him a one-armed side hug in return, his other tucked behind his back. “I didn’t think you’d be back so soon!”

“It’s good to see you too kid,” Jason said, squeezing Danny to his side and scenting the top of his head briefly. “Yeah, something came up.”

“Hello, Jason,” Tim waved from his seat. Jason nodded at him in greeting. “Any word on Dick and Constantine? Is Dick on his way?” 

Jason shrugged. “Last I heard from Dick he hadn’t made contact yet, but he seemed optimistic.” 

“So…” Danny trailed off. He released Jason from the hug and took a step back. “Why are you here then? Not that you’re not welcome! But, you made it seem like you were busy and wouldn’t be able to visit for a while.”

Jason pursed his lips. “I thought so too. But, well, something happened.”

“What is it?” It wasn’t like Jason to be so cagey.

“This.” Jason moved his other arm out from behind his back and let the sleeve of his jacket fall down, revealing nothing. As in, there was nothing where his hand should be.

As in, he had no hand.

“Oh my gosh!” Danny yelped. He was torn between jumping forward or backward in surprise and just did a sort of lurch in place. “What happened!? Do you need a doctor? Oh my gosh sit down!” Danny pushed Jason into a chair. Where did his family keep their first aid kit again? “How’d you lose your hand?”

Jason was remarkably calm for someone missing an entire limb. “I didn’t.”

Tim, who had stood up from his seat in surprise at Jason’s reveal, came over to take a closer look, peering at the spot where Jason’s hand should be. “I hate to be the one to tell you this Jason, but your hand is clearly gone.”

Without warning Jason made a quick motion towards Tim like he was waving his arm in front of his face. There was the sound of flesh hitting and Tim’s head was thrust sideways. When he straightened up Danny could see that his cheek was turning red.

“Oh, is it?” Jason asked sarcastically.

“You could have just told us your hand was invisible!” Tim grouched, rubbing the side of his face. “You didn’t have to slap me!”

Jason smirked. “Beg to differ.”

Guess Danny didn’t need to worry about finding a first aid kit after all. That was a relief, but now he had a new, weirder concern. “So then, why is your hand invisible?” 

Jason turned serious. “I was hoping you could tell me, kid. It started right after I returned from your dimension yesterday. My hands or sometimes feet will just suddenly disappear. They come back, but then disappear again randomly.” As he spoke his hand flickered back into visibility. He held it up as if to demonstrate. “See?”

“That is weird,” Danny nodded. “Kind of sounds a lot like what I went through when I first got my ghost powers. I had a hard time staying in the visible spectrum.”

“But Jason’s not a ghost,” Tim pointed out. 

“Yes, that does put a damper on that theory,” Danny agreed thoughtfully. He sighed. “Unfortunately, I’m not a doctor, so I couldn’t tell you what the problem is.”

“So what, I’m stuck like this?” Jason threw his hands up, both of which now flickered in and out of visibility.

“Ahem,” Danny coughed, giving Jason a pointed look. “If someone would let me finish my thought. As I was saying, I’m not a doctor, but I do know one who specializes in problems like this.”

“Great!” Jason said. “Who?”

“His name is Frostbite, and he’s a ghost yeti.”

Tim and Jason stared at him, then looked at each other, then back at Danny. “What?” Jason eventually asked.

Danny explained patiently, “He’s a ghost yeti, and he’s my doctor. My primary care physician, if you will. He lives in the ghost zone in a place called the Far Frozen, which I know sounds like it’d take awhile to get to but I can get us there in like twenty minutes. We’ll just need to grab a jacket for you first.”

After a moment Jason sighed, defeated. “You ever have one of those days where you’re like, this might as well happen? Sure Danny, let’s go see your ghost yeti doctor to fix my invisible appendages. Why not? Our lives are already so goddamn weird.”

Chapter Text

After shooting off a quick text to Sam, Tucker, and Damian to let them know where they were going, Danny, Tim, and Jason headed down to the basement, set up the Specter Speeder, and prepared for their journey.

The others wanted to come along, of course, but Jason wanted to leave and get this taken care of as soon as possible. He insisted “Aren’t doctor’s appointments supposed to be private, anyway?” Danny, remembering how Jason had helped him feel more comfortable for his own appointment with Dr. Leslie, couldn’t deny him, and so they kept their number to three.

“It really should just be two,” Jason tried to insist before they left, giving a pointed look to Tim. 

Tim just smiled in response. “We’re going to another dimension, from another dimension. Don’t you think it might be a good idea to have someone on hand who can act as a representative of what regular, healthy people look like for us?”

“You are neither regular nor healthy, Mr. Drinks Fifteen Cups of Coffee a Day,” Jason snarked. He sighed. “But fine, you can come.”

“Didn’t need your permission, but thanks,” Tim said as he entered the Speeder.

Jason looked like he wanted to strangle Tim, but as currently both of his hands were missing he was forced to let it slide.

On their journey, Tim spent most of his time looking out the windows and observing the Ghost Zone. Before Danny could stop him he tried to take a picture with his phone, and was forced to drop it when it started sparking. 

“Sorry, I should have warned you before we left,” Danny said apologetically over his shoulder as he kept driving. “Ectoplasm and technology usually don’t mix, you have to take certain precautions. My parents are some of the only people who can do it reliably, and that was after a lot of explosions.”

“Good to know,” said Tim. He stared at his old phone/new paperweight with a certain gleam in his eye, and Danny prepared himself for the dismantling of a lot of gadgets when they returned.

Jason, meanwhile, barely looked around, mostly distracted with watching his hands as they flickered in and out of sight. Danny wasn’t sure, but he thought that the rate with which they disappeared and reappeared might be increasing. 

The whole trip Danny braced himself for some sort of side quest, as was normal for him journeying through the Zone. Rare was the time that he could go any length of distance without being attacked, or pulled into some kind of mini-adventure. But, as his English teacher would say, everything seemed to be All Quiet on the Western Front, something that Danny was both grateful for and a little suspicious of. 

Oh well, shouldn’t look a ghost horse in the mouth, as they say. 

Once they reached the Far Frozen and parked the Specter, Danny smiled and kept one eye on the other two as they exited the vehicle. There was a difference between being told something and seeing it with your own eyes. Danny knew this well. So, even though he had told Jason and Tim about Frostbite, he still expected a fun reaction from the two of them when they came face-to-face with the seven-foot-tall yeti.

“Phantom!” Frostbite, in all his yeti glory, practically appeared out of thin air in front of them (and as a ghost, he may very well have). Danny even jumped a little bit, startled. He looked at Tim and Jason to see their reactions.

Neither of them even blinked. 

Danny pouted internally. Those jerks. 

Frostbite continued, “What brings you to the Far Frozen, Great One? Trouble with your powers again?”

“Great One?” Jason mouthed at Danny.

“I’ll tell you later,” he hissed back. To Frostbite he said, “No, Frostbite, I’m actually better than ever. It’s my friend Jason here who could use your help.” 

“Sup?” Jason said, waving one arm in greeting as his hand flickered in and out. 

Frostbite leaned in close to peer at it, his claws and fangs on full display, and Jason just stood passively, not even bothering to flinch. Danny's pout became external.

“I see,” Frostbite slowly nodded. “This is interesting. It will require further examination!”

Without another word Frostbite lunged forward, picked up Jason (who yelped), threw him over his shoulder, and sprinted off with him. Jason kept up a steady stream of curses that slowly faded as they got further away.

Danny smiled to himself. That was more like it. 

“Umm…” Tim trailed off, looking between Danny and the fading figure of Frostbite. “Should we be worried?”

“Nah, he’ll be fine,” Danny said, waving him off. “But we should go before Jason learns the hard way that bullets won’t work here.”

For such a large guy, Frostbite could be fast when he wanted to be. By the time Danny and Tim caught up Frostbite and a couple of other yetis were already halfway to getting a protesting Jason into a medical vat.

“Oh no!” Jason was yelling. “I already took one bath in glowing green liquid, and that was plenty enough for me, thanks!”

“It’ll be fine, Jason,” Danny reassured him. “It’s just concentrated ectoplasm. You’re already surrounded by it just by being in the Zone.”

“Yeah, that’s not as reassuring as you might think,” Jason snapped. When Frostbite took a step towards him Jason yelled, “Try that and lose another arm, Abominable!” 

When even Tim started tensing up as if for a fight Danny knew he had to step in. “Can you do a check-up without the vat, Frostbite?”

Frostbite reluctantly nodded. “I can, but it will not be as efficient.”

“Please?”

“For you, Great One, anything.”

From there it was a matter of watching and waiting as Jason was examined by Frostbite’s team of doctors. There were wires attached and then detached and then reattached in different places. There were machines printing graphs and charts of numbers that Danny couldn’t hope to understand, but Tim peered at, intrigued. The doctors had Jason go through a series of exercises as well, including jumping jacks, holding his breath, and flying (which he insisted he couldn’t do, to their disbelieving looks).

Eventually the tests finished and all the yetis but Frostbite left the room.

“Well Doc, what’s the diagnosis?” Jason asked. He shrugged his jacket back on, having taken it off for most of the tests. “Am I dying?”

Frostbite smiled and patted Jason on the head. “No more so than you should be.”

Jason frowned and shoved him off. “And what, exactly, does that mean?”

Frostbite beamed wider. “It means that, though your core is weak, it’s growing stronger, and soon enough you shall be a healthy halfa!”

Jason looked as stunned as Danny felt. “Me? A halfa? Like…” He gestured to Danny.

“Well, perhaps not as powerful as the Great One,” Frostbite amended. “But yes, you are both half alive and half a ghost. I’m guessing that you died some time ago?”

Jason and Tim exchanged a look. “Um, yeah.”

“And where you come from, there’s very little to no ectoplasm?”

“Never even heard of it before.”

“He comes from a different dimension,” Danny explained.

Frostbite looked thoughtful. “That might do it. A different world may have much less ectoplasm. I suspect that sometime after your death you were exposed to some, enough to bring you back to life but not enough to develop your core fully. Phantom’s world, however, being so close to the Infinite Realms, has a much higher concentration of ectoplasm. Once you entered his world your core began to absorb it, and here we are. Tell me, have you transformed yet into your ghost self?”

Jason blinked, stunned. “No.”

“I would expect that to happen very soon. Here in the Infinite Realms we have an even higher percentage of ectoplasm. If you were to remain here I would expect you to transform within twenty-four hours.”

Jason said nothing, looking off into the distance with a thousand-yard stare.

“How long would it take if we go back to Danny’s world?” Tim asked.

“Hard to say,” Frostbite said, looking at some of the charts. “Perhaps a week?”

“Right,” Jason nodded, seeming to come back to himself. He focused on Frostbite. “How do I stop it?”

Frostbite shook his head. “I’m afraid that now that the process has started, there is no way to reverse it.”

“You sure? None at all?” Danny thought there might be a sliver of desperation in Jason’s voice. 

Frostbite shrugged. “I suppose if you were to return to your own dimension that may pause the process. But it would not reverse anything, and you would be stuck with this lack of control forever.” Jason’s hands flickered in and out of sight as if to prove the point.

Jason didn’t say anything for a moment, and resumed his staring off into space.

“It’s not so bad,” Danny eventually said. He crept closer to Jason and leaned against him in comfort. Jason absent-mindedly put his arm around Danny. “It only took me a couple of months to master my powers.”

Jason blinked and came back to himself again. “Wait, months? I can’t be away from Crime Alley for months!”

“You wouldn’t have to be,” Tim spoke up. “Remember, our times aren’t synced up yet. You could stay in Danny’s dimension for a month and it’d only be a week back home.”

Jason drummed his fingers against Danny as he thought. “Fine,” he eventually said. “You got space for one more in that house of yours, kid?” 

Danny smiled. “We’ll figure something out.” He turned to Frostbite. “Thanks for all your help.” He nudged Jason in the side, who gave his own muttered thanks.

“Always happy to help, Great One,” Frostbite boomed. “And actually, since you’re here we should do a checkup for you as well…”

Danny grabbed Tim and Jason by the arm and started pulling them away. “Oh-geez-would-you-look-at-the-time-we-got-to-go!”

Frostbite’s laugh echoed around them long after he was out of sight.

Chapter Text

The return trip was mercifully calm as well, which Danny did his best not to question. He was more concerned about Jason, who was just as quiet now as he had been on the way to the Far Frozen. There was something going on with him, but Danny couldn’t quite figure out what it was. Not for the first time he wished he had the ability the rest of his pack had, to easily smell and identify the other’s emotions. Sure, it was a pain when they used it on him, but it would be useful in this case.

Perhaps Tim knew what was wrong with Jason, if the frequent glances he kept giving him were any indication.

Eventually Tim stood up and went over to Jason. “Hey-”

“I swear if you end that with ‘How you holding up?’ I’m going to lose it.”

Tim closed his mouth, then tried again. “Okay, what-”

“If that question is ‘What are you thinking about?’ the answer will be where I can hide your body.”

Tim stood still, then backed up to where Danny was driving, not looking away from Jason until he had several feet between them. Jason, for his part, never looked up once. “I think he needs some space right now,” Tim whispered with the wisdom gained from years of learning how not to set off Jason.

Danny nodded. “I think you’re right.”

Danny wished he knew how to comfort Jason. He knew firsthand how disorienting it was to go through this process. To have your body change on you without warning. To suddenly be something unfamiliar, something strange and unusual. 

But, at the same time, Danny couldn’t help feeling a little excited. Another halfa! There were so few people out there who could fully understand Danny’s position, and less that he could also call a friend. Now he and Jason were the same. There was a loneliness in being unique, and Danny felt a little less alone with Jason now being like him. Yet this only made Danny feel guilty, as he could see how it was really weighing on Jason. He wished he could help him see that it wasn’t the end of the world.

Upon returning to the lab, they had hardly stepped out of the vehicle before they were ambushed by the welcoming party.

“Well?” Damian asked impatiently. He was standing right at the end of the gangplank with his arms crossed, a default position for him. “Tell us the results.”

“Geez, Dami, give us a second to get out of this thing first,” Danny said, making his way down. Sam and Tucker were in the basement as well, waiting in chairs against the wall. They stood up to greet Danny when he came over to them.

“I still say you should have waited for us, man,” Tucker said, though he still gave Danny a fist bump in greeting. “Not cool.”

“Sorry Tucker, didn’t really feel like my call to make,” Danny apologized, glancing back at Jason, who was ignoring an increasingly more agitated Damian’s questions.

Tucker followed his gaze. “Yeah, I get it. Still, what if you encountered some un-friendlies and needed the help of your ghost-fighting team?”

There was a small laugh, and they both turned to see Tim approach. “I think between me and Jason, we’d be able to help with any ghost-related issues.”

Sam gave a small scoff. “Look Tim, you may have picked up a few things in the weeks you’ve been here, but we’ve been doing this for years. We’re the best bet for Danny to be protected.”

Danny’s core gave a small twinge at the thought of him being the one who needed protection, not the one doing the protecting. Where was Dick, anyway? Shouldn’t he have found Constantine by now?

An at-the-end-of-his-fuse Damian started yelling. “For goodness sake Todd, just tell me what the ghost doctor said already! What, are you dying or something?”

Jason gave a barely-noticeable wince while Tim muttered, “Or something.”

Damian wheeled on Tim. “What does that mean, Drake?”

Tim narrowed his eyes. “It means mind your own business, brat.”

Damian growled and not-so-subtly shifted his stance into a fighting one.

Aaand that was Danny’s cue to step in. “Look, I think tempers are high. Why don’t we go upstairs, have some lunch, and we can fill everyone in. Okay?”

Damian and Tim gave identical nods while glaring at each other. Jason said nothing, but started heading upstairs anyway. Danny looked at his friends, shrugged at their questioning looks, and followed.

They were almost at the top of the stairs when there was a yelp, and Jason suddenly disappeared. Moments later there was the sound of a crash below them. Damian and Tim took a moment to stare at where Jason used to be in disbelief. Danny, Sam, and Tucker, however, were more than used to this exact scenario, and were already halfway down to the basement before the sound even reached them. 

Sure enough, there was Jason lying on what used to be a table of lab equipment, and was now a collection of kindling and loose glass. “What happened?” he asked, dazed. 

“You went intangible for a moment and fell through the stairs,” Danny explained. “Don’t worry, that used to happen to me all the time.”

“Yeah, ask him about the time he phased through the floor of our school and landed in the girl’s locker room,” Sam teased.

“Or ask him how many times he turned his pants intangible and he ended up flashing his underwear to everyone,” Tucker added. “I’ll give you a hint, it’s at least two digits.”

“Or ask him about the time-”

Danny clapped his hands together. “O-Kay, I’m sure he doesn’t want to hear about all of that ancient history that there’s no point in bringing up and I don’t know why you won’t just let it go.” He tried to glare at his friends, who just smiled innocently at him. He looked at Jason, who was in the process of standing and brushing himself off. “Seriously though, are you okay?”

“Fine,” Jason grunted. “Sorry about the table.”

Danny shrugged. “Eh, it’s fine. My parents probably won’t notice, and if they do, I’ll blame it on a ghost.”

“Wouldn’t even be lying,” Tim, who had made it back downstairs with Damian, added.

Jason pointedly ignored him, and made his way over to the stairs again. He hesitated before taking the first step.

Danny approached him and held out his hand. “I can help you up, if you’d like. Or, you know, be there to keep you from falling.”

Jason hesitated for a second but took Danny’s hand. “...Thanks kid.”

“No problem,” Danny replied easily. As they did a take-two up the stairs he added, “You know, I’d be more than happy to show you the ropes with this whole halfa thing. I’ve learned some tips and tricks over the years.” 

They had reached the first floor. Jason released his hand from Danny’s, only to immediately start sinking down through the floor. He reached out and Danny pulled him back up.

“Yeah, that might be a good idea,” Jason admitted. “I’d like a bit of time to myself, then we should have lunch, but why don’t you give me some pointers this afternoon?”

Danny gave him a thumbs-up. “Sounds good! Get ready for Ghost Training 101. We’ll start at 1 o’clock, and you’ll be in control of your powers by tonight, or my name’s not Danny Phantom!”

“So, what are you thinking for your new name?” Tucker asked. “I’ve always thought your name should be spookier, like Draconis the Demon.”

“That makes him sound like he’s a dragon, and he’s neither that nor a demon,” Sam pointed out. “I say, why mess with the classics? Inviso-Bill should serve just fine.”

From where he was lying on the floor of Sam’s room, Danny let out a groan. From where they sat on Sam’s bed, she and Tucker gave him matching looks of pity and amusement.

“I just don’t know what went wrong!” Danny moaned, one arm draped over his eyes. 

All from that afternoon to well into the night, Danny had tried to help Jason get his ghost powers under control. And from that afternoon to well into the night, Danny and Jason had encountered a series of failures that rivaled Danny’s early ghost days.

First, Danny tried to get Jason to hover in midair. Jason could get his feet to float but not the rest of him, causing him to lose his balance, tip over, and hit his head on the floor. Repeatedly. They tried getting him to wear a helmet after the fifth attempt, but he kept making the helmet intangible (but not his head somehow) so its help was negligible.

Next they tried invisibility, figuring it might be easier since Jason had been doing it partially already. After over an hour of trying, Jason had turned his left eyebrow invisible once, his fingernails and toenails invisible three times, and all of his clothes invisible seventeen times. Damian and Tim, who had been helping (heckling) from the sidelines, left after the second time that happened, and didn’t return for several hours. 

Finally, they tried ecto-blasts. At the time Danny’s thought-process was something along the lines of “Screw it, maybe Jason’s violent tendencies will come in clutch here and make this easy for him to master.” As many people told him many times later, that was a disastrous thought and should have been stopped by something called “common sense.”

Danny would like to point out that he stored his “common sense” in other people, and since Sam and Tucker had already left for the day and Tim and Damian had deserted the training like the cowards they were, he couldn’t be held responsible for the three-foot wide hole in the living room wall. 

(He told his parents that it must have been the same ghost who caused a mess in the lab, and they were understanding. Like Tim said, he wasn’t even technically lying, which was his favorite way to lie.)

After that Jason insisted they stop for the day before any further humiliations or property damage, and Danny had reluctantly agreed and went over to Sam’s to wallow in his failure.

“Maybe he’s just not ready to master his powers,” Sam helpfully suggested, bringing Danny back to the present. “Give him some time. You didn’t master yours in a day either.”

“I know, it’s just… he’s acting so distant now, I think he might be really upset about this. And I thought, if I could help make this easier for him…” Danny let his voice trail off and sighed. 

Tucker and Sam gave each other identical looks of “Time to Transition to Support Mode,” and slid off the bed to join Danny on the floor. Sam grabbed his hand while Tucker patted his back. 

“I’m just so useless right now, I thought I could at least do this one thing,” Danny admitted quietly.

“You’re not useless Danny. You’re doing your best, and that could never not be of use.”

“Did you get that from a fortune cookie, Tucker?”

“Shut up Sam, I’d like to hear your words of wisdom!”

As the two descended into their traditional squabbling Danny allowed himself to feel the tiniest bit of optimism. Maybe tomorrow things would work out. Couldn’t be much worse.

When Danny went back to his house the next morning, he found a note on his desk. It read:

Danny, I just need some time to think. I’m going back to Gotham for a bit. Thanks for trying, Jason.

So no, today was not looking to be any better.

Chapter Text

It was a rainy day in Gotham. Not in any way unusual, but Jason still found comfort in the symbolism of the weather matching his mood as he looked out over the city. 

He had tried patrolling for exactly nineteen minutes before he had been forced to quit. He had hoped that being in Gotham would mean that the ghost shenanigans would calm down some.

Turns out Frostbite had been onto something. While Jason didn’t think that his symptoms were any better than they had been in Amity Park, they also weren’t worse. There was at least some relief in knowing that his transformation was, at least for the moment, paused.

That relief was cold comfort when he couldn’t even reliably hold onto his guns, much less actually fight anyone. At one point he turned his helmet intangible and it hit the ground hard, startling a group of muggers Jason had been sneaking up on. He recovered and went to punch one of them, and his arm went right through the mugger’s chest. The group ran off screaming about Scarecrow fear toxin, and Jason was forced to just let them go.

So Crime Alley would have to do without Red Hood tonight. Instead he was tucked under an awning on a rooftop, wondering how his life ended up here.

Was it stupid to be hanging out on a ten-story building when he had recently developed a habit of falling through things? Jason was self-aware enough to know that the answer was yes, incredibly so. But he was in a shitty enough mood not to care.

He listened to the rain fall steadily for over an hour. The rain was doing its best to muffle the background sounds of Gotham, police sirens and screams, a lullaby Jason had grown up with. There did seem to be less noise than typical, which made sense - even crime didn’t like getting its socks wet.

Jason would have happily stayed put until sunrise. But his contemplation (not brooding, that was Batman’s thing, and Jason would never accept comparisons to that asshole) was rudely interrupted when another figure landed on the roof and made his way over to Jason’s spot. Jason knew from the footsteps alone which annoyance this was.

“Don’t you have somewhere else you’re supposed to be?” Jason asked as Tim approached.

“Danny’s fine,” Tim replied, which was not what Jason had asked (though admittedly maybe what he had meant). “I have Damian watching him, and I don’t expect I’ll be gone long.” Tim made like he was going to sit down next to Jason.

Jason growled a little at him. “Sorry, this is my roof, you’ll need to find your own. Actually, on second thought, all the roofs in a three mile radius are mine, so if you wouldn’t mind going someplace further, like, I don’t know, Metropolis, that would be great.”

Tim gave him a flat stare. “You’re literally on a Wayne Enterprises building. This is more my roof than yours.” And he sat down without a care.

Damn. Of course Bruce would make sure that his buildings came equipped with good contemplating ( not brooding) spots.

Jason did his best to ignore both Tim and the circling thoughts in his head. He had just about managed to not think about anything for a whole minute when Tim stood up.

“Well, as much fun as this is, it's time for us to go.”

“I’m not ready to go back to Danny’s dimension,” Jason said. Truthfully, he didn’t know if he would ever feel ready. He knew he’d have to eventually, but he was going to delay it as long as possible.

“Oh, I know,” Tim said easily. “I meant time to go to the manor. Our ride’s here.”

Jason leaned over and peered off the roof. Sure enough, a car with a signature silhouette was approaching, and pulled to a stop on the street directly below them.

Jason let out a growl, barely holding himself back from attacking Tim. “You called Batman?” Tim must be out of his god-damned mind.

Tim scoffed at Jason like he was being an idiot. “Are you an idiot? Who in their right mind would call Batman to talk about feelings? No, with Dick apparently out-of-town, I knew there was really only one person to call.”

Jason thought for a second, then paled. “You wouldn’t…”

“Oh yes I would. Now, are you going to go down, or are you going to make Agent A climb ten stories in the rain to get to you?”

Jason went down.

“I must say Master Jason, it’s been too long since we’ve been able to share a cup of tea like this.”

Less than an hour later Jason found himself with a cup of lemon tea in the manor library. The blatant use of an environment he found comforting was not lost on him, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t working. Alfred had driven Jason and Tim back to the Cave, where they had taken off their uniforms, changed into casual clothes (Jason didn’t know how to feel that Alfred kept spare clothes in his size, but it prevented him from having to wear Bruce’s clothes so he couldn’t complain), and made their way upstairs. Alfred had wasted no time in preparing drinks for them, though Tim was only allowed decaf coffee to his disappointment. And now here they were.

“Uh, yeah, Alfie, sorry about that. Hard to keep a consistent schedule when you’re trying to destroy Gotham’s underground from the inside out.”

Tim put in his two cents. “Plus, you don’t have your pup around any more to keep safe, so you can go back to your old habits of avoiding the manor at all costs.”

Jason just growled at Tim. “I’m not avoiding the manor.”

“No, just one particular billionaire who happens to live here.”

“Where is that asshole anyway?” Jason had been ready to leave the second he saw B, but he had yet to show his stupid face.

Tim smirked. “There just so happened to be word of a major drug deal going down by the docks tonight. Unfortunately, the deal could take place at any time between 10 pm and 5 am, necessitating an all-night stake out.”

Jason thought about how hard it was raining and smiled to himself. Sometimes Tim was worth having as an ally.

Tim leaned forward towards Jason. “Now tell us what’s really going on.”

And sometimes he wasn’t.

“Nothing,” Jason bit out. “I’m fine.”

“You’re very clearly not,” Tim said, eyes on how tight Jason’s fingers were around his cup. When he felt Alfred’s eyes on him too Jason set it down. He would never want to break one of Alfred’s things on purpose. 

“Jason,” Tim said after a moment of silence. “You abandoned your pup.”

Jason stood up in fury. “How dare you!” he yelled. “I would never.”

Tim stayed seated, glaring at Jason with defiance. “Then where is Danny?”

“He’s fine!”

“Oh?” Tim cocked an eyebrow. “Would you like me to explain in detail what Danny looked like when I left?”

Shit. Jason had hoped that Danny would be okay, he had his friends and original family there, plus Damian and Tim (though not him right now, Jason supposed). “No, I can guess.”

Tim was merciless. “He’s devastated! He thinks that it’s his fault you’re like this, that you hate him now because he made you like him. That all you said to him before about self-acceptance was just a lie.”

“What? No, that’s not it at all!" Jason hadn’t meant to make Danny feel bad about himself again. That was the last thing he wanted to do. He had to fix this! "Tim, send us back, I gotta straighten this out.” 

“Good,” Tim stood up. “I can have us back in Danny’s dimension tonight, let’s just head downstairs and-”

“A moment, Master Tim,” Alfred cut in. “I’m afraid there’s something we must do first.”

“What is it?” Jason asked. He was now impatient to go back to the kid.

Calmly, Alfred said, “It will do neither him nor you any good in reuniting if you don’t first acknowledge what made you leave in the first place.”

There was little that Jason wanted to do less than talk about his feelings. But he could tell from Alfred’s expression that there was no getting out of here without giving him something.

He sighed. “It’s, just a lot, you know? I used to be dead-then-alive. Now I’m dead- and -alive. It’s a lot and I’m having a hard time adjusting, I guess.”

“Hmm,” Alfred hummed.

Tim clapped his hands. “Great, now that that’s out there, let’s head back and you can work it all out with Danny.” He started to head for the door again when Alfred stopped him.

“Not so fast, Master Tim.” He turned to look again at Jason, a serious look in his eye. “Take a seat, my boy.”

Jason sat. He could never say no to Alfred.

“Now, tell us what is bothering you.”

“I did!”

“What is really bothering you.”

Shit. Jason should have known better than to try to hide something from Alfred. Bruce didn’t get his detective skills from nowhere.

Tim hesitantly took a seat next to Alfred, and both of them watched Jason with varying degrees of concern in their eyes.

Jason sighed and bit the bullet, trying to put his thoughts into words. “You know Danny’s ghost form? The suit he wears?” Alfred and Tim both nodded. “It’s a hazmat suit, right? It’s what he was wearing when he died.” 

Tim looked confused, but Alfred immediately had a look that told Jason he understood. Jason continued, “Ghosts form when they die, right? So they end up looking how they did when they died.”

Tim seemed to understand now. “You’re worried that…”

“Oh, my boy,” Alfred stood up and went to sit next to Jason, taking his hand and squeezing it. 

Jason squeezed it back, trying to get the rest of his words out. “I can’t do it. I can’t be what he made me, for eternity. Weak, broken. A dead Robin. I worked hard to move past that, to never feel so helpless again. If I have to go back to being that half the time, forever, I…”

Jason trailed off, doing his best to keep his voice steady. The way Alfred had started rubbing his back made it particularly hard.

Once he felt a little more stable he finished. “I dream about it often enough. I don’t know if I can handle seeing it during the day too.”

There was silence for a few minutes after his confession. Jason closed his eyes, leaning into Alfred, taking comfort in his scent, which promised comfort and support. The only sound was the patter of rain hitting the windows.

Tim eventually broke the silence. “You know…” he said hesitantly. “Danny’s ghost form didn’t always look the way it does now.”

Jason opened his eyes and looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve seen pictures in his dimension. Back when he started, he didn’t have that symbol on his chest the way he does now. I asked him about it, and he said it had something to do with a wish and a rogue and maybe time travel, but the point is his uniform is different than it used to be.”

Jason opened his mouth but Tim continued, gaining speed. “And speaking of changes, Danny became Phantom at fourteen. Danny is sixteen now. You’d think that when he goes from human to ghost he’d look like he did at fourteen, be a little shorter at least? But he looks the same, same height and everything. So even if it’s subtle, it’s a change.”

Tim kept going, standing up and pacing now. “And what about all of his rogues, the ghosts he fights? I’ve seen pictures of them too, in newspapers and such, and you can’t tell me they looked exactly like that when they died. Some of them maybe, but all of them? The ones with hair made of fire and blue skin and crazy body shapes? I don’t think so.”

Tim turned and dramatically pointed at Jason. “So you see, even if we don’t know exactly how yet, there has to be some way for ghosts to change their form, even if it’s unconsciously. So if the worst happens and you do end up looking like a burnt run-over Thanksgiving turkey” (“Hey now-”) “you wouldn’t have to stay like that.”

Putting aside the turkey comment, for the first time Jason felt some hope about his situation. “Are you sure?” 

Tim nodded. “I’m certain. As soon as we get back, we can talk to Danny, see if he knows any concrete ways of changing what his ghost form looks like, and even if he doesn’t know, I bet he knows someone who does. If we work quick maybe we can get an answer before you even have to transform.”

Alfred gave Jason one last firm pat on the back then lightly pushed him to stand up. “Now go reassure Master Danny and then see what he can do for you.”

Jason held a hand to Alfred and helped him up, then gave him a quick hug. “Thanks, Alfred.”

“Thank you for allowing us to help, my boy.”

“C’mon,” Tim said, leading Jason out of the library. “I think I found a way to send us straight to Danny’s town, so hopefully by the time we get back it won’t have been long enough for anything too crazy to have happened.”

Jason followed, feeling lighter than he had in awhile, and not just because he kept hovering a little with every step. Finally things were starting to look up.

That hopeful feeling lasted a while. It lasted through Tim tinkering with the dimension-traveling machine. It lasted with both of them going through the machine and ending up on the outskirts of Amity Park. It lasted through an incident of Jason starting to fly off and Tim having to hold him down until he felt solid again. It lasted all the way to Danny’s front door.

It was when they entered the house, finding signs of a struggle, broken furniture and burn marks on the walls, a few drops of blood on the floor, and no one anywhere to be found…

That was when Jason’s newfound peace shattered.

Chapter Text

Danny was straight up not having a good time right now. No cap.

First, Jason left, which was fine, no matter what Damian said. It was! He needed to get away from Danny for a bit, he got it, it was fine. Then Tim left, which was also fine, because he left in the daytime and gave his reasons to Danny’s face and said when he would be back instead of disappearing in the night and only leaving a freaking note and-

It was fine. It was fine. It was fine .

So there Danny was, in his house, being perfectly fine, playing video games in the living room with his friends as they tried to distract him, Damian out on a walk, his parents in the kitchen, when all of a sudden his house was overrun with ghosts. It happened so quickly, one minute everything was calm, the next minute everything was green. 

Danny thought that his parents and friends tried to fight, but everyone was pretty quickly overwhelmed. Danny himself had stood up suddenly and found himself pushed onto the floor, so quickly he didn't think to phase through. And apparently his instincts had gotten used to being a ghost, because instead of holding his arms out he fell flat on his face. There was a sharp pain in his nose, which immediately started bleeding. Danny tried to stand up, but he felt something land on his back and grab his hands. Before he knew it he was being zip tied and forcefully phased through the floor into the basement. He had just enough time to register the portal before he was shoved through it. He then spent the next who-knows-how-long being flown through the Zone, too quickly to get his bearings, his eyes steaming tears and his nose streaming blood.

It stopped as quickly as it had begun. When Danny finally stopped moving he found himself in a giant cage, large enough for him to stand and take a few steps to either side, bars too close together to squeeze through. He attempted to move through anyway, knowing that humans could often go through ghost things in the Zone, but was unable to. This cage must have come from Earth, then.

Looking around Danny saw other cages around him, arranged in a semi-circle, on what seemed to be a small floating island. Danny could look around and see the edges of the island not far from where the cages were arranged. It wasn’t familiar to Danny, but that wasn’t unusual, being the Infinite Realms and all.

 Sam and Tucker were in their own individual cages to his right, and his parents each in their own cage to his left. Danny himself was in the middle of the five cages. They were just far enough away that Danny wouldn’t be able to touch them.

“Everyone okay?” Danny called out.

There were grunts and groans but no words given. Danny looked closer at everyone. Like him, they all had their hands secured behind their backs. Unlike him, everyone else seemed to be gagged with something. Sam and Tucker merely had tape over their mouths. His mom’s mouth was wrapped around with - Danny peered closer - what seemed to be a silk scarf? His dad had what might be socks crammed in his mouth.

 Best Danny could tell everyone was some mix of shaken and surprised and angry, but unharmed. He seemed to be the only one bleeding, which was what he would have wanted so that worked out nicely. 

Danny’s attempt to look on the bright side didn’t make him feel much better. 

Neither did the voice he heard next.

“I do apologize, Daniel. I did specify that you were to be captured unharmed.”

Danny groaned, both internally and externally. “Vlad.”

Indeed, the ex-mayor himself appeared in front of Danny, floating down from above until he was hovering a foot above in the ground in front of Danny’s cage. He was in his Plasmius form, stupid cape flapping behind him and horn hair and everything. “Little Badger.”

Danny growled. “I thought I told you never to call me that!”

Danny had thought he had made his opinion of Vlad quite clear the last time he had seen him. It was a bit before he had been sent to the other dimension, back when his emotions were all over the place. Vlad had turned up and tried his usual fight-then-recruit tactic, like that had ever worked, and Danny had ended up kind of going off on him, fighting back and beating him a bit (a lot) more than he would normally, screaming about how he would never join Vlad, no matter what. Vlad had looked stunned when Danny left, so he had hoped that maybe that would finally be the end of it. Apparently not.

Vlad smirked. “I don’t believe you are in any position to make demands, Daniel.”

Danny growled again and hit the bars in front of him with the palm of his hand. The flinch and step back Vlad took was worth the immediate sting he felt afterwards.

Vlad shook himself off and resumed his blathering. “Come now Daniel, this behavior is most unbecoming.”

Danny was already sick of this. “What do you want, Vlad?”

“Oh, I think you know exactly what I want, Daniel.”

And, unfortunately for Danny, he did. “You’re not getting me or my mom.”

Soon after Danny had revealed to his parents his ghostliness, he had come clean about Vlad as well. He had almost been more worried about this conversation, knowing how much his parents liked the freak. He had ended up stumbling through his prepared speech in a rush, almost hyperventilating by the end of it, when his mom was able to calm him down.

“Danny,” she said. “Are you saying that Vlad makes you uncomfortable?”

Danny looked down and nodded.

She nodded once, decisively. “Then he’s never coming over here again.”

“What?” Danny asked, astounded. “But he’s your best friend.”

“Yes,” she said. She reached out to hold Danny’s hand. “And you are my son. That takes priority.”

His dad had needed a bit more convincing, not quite willing to let his relationship with “Vlady” go. But once Danny had reiterated again that Vlad was a ghost, and showed him some video evidence that Tucker had helped him get showing Vlad transforming into Plasmius, followed by all of the times Plasmius had attacked Danny, he was more than willing to write him off.

With his reasons to stay gone overnight, Vlad had vanished into the Zone (Danny had strongly encouraged him to do so, threatening to show his evidence to the media and destroy his life otherwise). He had shown up exactly one time since, to have that fight and beat-down Danny had given him, and Danny had not seen him again after that until now.

All of that to say that there was no way Vlad was going to be able to convince his mom of anything, especially not in her current situation. She was glaring at him pretty hard from inside her cage. And Danny would rather die permanently than belong even partially to Vlad.

Something that Vlad seemed to not understand, even now. “Oh, I think you’ll find it in you to change your mind, Daniel. Unless you don’t care what happens to your loved ones.”

Danny lunged towards Vlad, but this time he stood disappointingly still and gave no reaction.

“I have no reason to be afraid of you, Daniel. I don’t know where your sudden pacifism came from, but I know that you cannot harm me.”

“Wanna bet?” Danny snarled.

Easily, Vlad replied, “Yes, well, that’s what the cage is for."

“I’ll make this easy on you,” he continued. “You have until I come back to agree to join me. If you do, I promise to not hurt anyone else here. If not… Well, you’re a smart boy, I’m sure you can guess.”

And Vlad twirled with a whoosh of his cloak like the drama queen he was and disappeared.

“Everyone still okay?” Danny asked a moment after he left. He got a series of grunts and thumbs-up in response. “Great. So, any ideas on how to get out of here?”

He got a series of shrugs and thumbs-down in response.

“Great,” Danny sighed. “Well, there’s still Damian out there, at least. So here’s that.”

And Jazz, but she was coming up on finals and had asked not to be disturbed for a couple weeks. She wouldn’t realize something was wrong until it was too late.

Danny spent some time after that exploring his cage and trying to shake loose different bars, but nothing could ever be that easy. 

“Well, I suppose we keep our eyes peeled for help or an opportunity,” Danny said. “Sorry about this, everyone.” 

Danny liked to think that the muffled voices of his friends and parents were reassuring him that it wasn’t his fault, and not completely blaming him and hating him for putting him into this situation. He almost believed it, too. Although, Sam was doing something odd…

She kept pointing to him, then putting her arms across the middle of her body and separating them up and down, then pointing out of the cage. 

“What, I don’t understand, what are you… oh, oh! Oh, right. I can just go ghost and walk out of here. Duh.”

Sam hit her head with her hand. 

Testing the situation, Danny let himself go ghost, and stuck a hand out through the bars of the cage. Nothing happened. Slowly, he left himself phase completely out of it.

Suddenly a loud alarm went off, screeching and making Danny quickly cover his ears in pain. He jumped back into the cage, and it stopped as quickly as it started. Looking at his family they were all covering their ears as well.

So, Danny thought once he had gathered himself. He could potentially leave, but he decided not to test any more right now. He didn’t want to see what other kinds of tricks Vlad might pull. He could be pretty nasty when he wanted to be. Besides, now that he knew leaving would hurt his family, the curse might not let him.

Danny turned back into a human and sat down on the floor. He didn’t know what was coming next, but he might as well conserve his energy. Hopefully something would come to him.

Danny wasn’t sure how long it was before Vlad returned. It was hard to keep track of time in the Ghost Zone, what with there being no sun to rise and fall, just an endless stream of glowing green. He knew he drifted off into a fitful nap at one point, with a lack of anything better to do. 

Sam and Tucker seemed to be amusing themselves with an ongoing game of rock-paper-scissors, which Sam seemed to be winning more often than not based on the dramatic reactions from Tucker.

Danny’s parents were seemingly trying to communicate with sign language, but since neither of them knew the language they seemed to just be making things up and hoping the other would understand. Whether it was working or not Danny couldn’t tell for sure, but both of them seemed happy with the results.

One moment there was nothing in front of Danny, the next Vlad with his stupid face was standing in front of him, grinning again. 

“Well, Daniel? Have you thought any more about my offer?”

Danny did not have a great filter at the best of times, and right now, low on sleep, hungry, with his loved ones in danger and a sore nose, this was far from the best of times. “Your offer sucks Vlad and so do you!”

Danny was pretty sure the muffled responses from the others were supposed to be a chorus of agreement. Sam in particular made her point with a rude gesture that Tucker was quick to copy.

Vlad sighed. “Alas, I had hoped it would not come to this. I could of course just wait, let you watch your friends and parent starve slowly in front of you until they join this Realm permanently, but I confess that I have already used up most of my patience.”

Vlad let out a sharp whistle, and suddenly ghosts Danny did not recognize flew up and surrounded the other cages. They were not well-defined, little more than blob ghosts with extra features. Unfortunately these features included sharp claws and fangs, and a maniac look in their eyes.

“I tried to offer a deal with some of the other denizens of the Realm,” Vlad remarked casually to Danny’s unasked question. “Unfortunately, either mine or your reputation preceded me, and the cowards all declined. Fortunately, those who are weak are always willing to do more in exchange for power.”

“You’re insane, Vlad.”

Vlad’s eyes glowed red. “Oh, am I? Am I insane for wanting a family? I beg to differ. Now, if you don’t want to see your’s torn apart right in front of you, I suggest you do as I ask. You and I both know that these cages will not keep any spirits out.”

As if in demonstration one of the ghosts lunged towards Tucker’s cage, swiping a hand through the bars easily. Tucker jumped back out of the way just in time, but the point was made.

“Well, Daniel?”

Danny hesitated. What could he do? Maybe he could go ghost, and maybe he could manage to escape without Vlad or his minions capturing him, but then what? Leave his family to suffer? He could try reaching out to one of his allies, but by the time he found one and returned it would be too late.

He was out of options.

Danny opened his mouth, not sure what was about to come out of it, when a green blast came down from above, hitting Vlad in the back and pitching him forward onto his face. 

“Back away from the kid, motherfucker, before I tear you limb from limb.”

And Jason, in all his Red Hood glory, jumped down from the sky like an avenging angel.

Vlad recovered quickly, floating up and trying to glare imperiously. “Who are you?”

Jason merely raised his gun, pointing it right at Vlad. “The last thing you’ll ever see.”

And he shot Vlad in the face.

Chapter Text

~A few hours earlier~

“It’s about time you returned.”

Tim would never admit to jumping, certainly not to the sound of Damian’s voice. He wouldn’t want to give him the satisfaction. But the smug look on Damian’s face let Tim know that he caught it anyway, the brat.

“Where is he?” Jason wasted no time in interrogating Damian. Tim could tell that he was stressed. The way that Jason kept flickering in and out of visibility while he paced around the room was a dead giveaway.

“I am well, thanks for checking,” Damian said, rolling his eyes. “But the others were taken.”

“Taken?” Tim asked. “By who?”

Tim knew that Danny had enemies, but they had not been seen recently. Tim had been stupid to think that that would continue while he was fetching Jason. 

Damian sighed and explained. “A day after you left, Drake, there was a commotion. I did not see the start of it, being preoccupied elsewhere at the time, but when I arrived Daniel, his family, and his two companions were taken into the portal.”

“Did you get a good look at who it was who took them?” Tim asked.

Damian shook his head. “I only saw them for a minute, but it appeared to be a large group of ghosts. There was one who appeared to be directing the others, who had pointy hair and a cape, but I only saw them for a moment before they disappeared into the portal.”

“Why are you still here?” Jason demanded. He had not stopped pacing and growling lowly at the destruction around him. His eyes would stop on the spot of blood every few seconds. Perhaps Tim should cover that.

Damian continued. “When I reached the portal the rest had already departed. Daniel warned us against going into the Zone without the Speeder, and I do not know how to operate it. I was in the process of trying to decipher its inane control system when I heard you arrive.”

“Don’t know what you could have been doing that was so important you couldn’t have been there to protect him from the beginning,” Jason muttered darkly.

Damian’s head ducked slightly, a huge tell for him. Before Tim could say anything Damian spit back, “Well if you had not left us in a childish tantrum over something that was in no way Daniel’s fault, you could have been here to protect him yourself.”

Before the two could come to blows Tim stepped in. He really wished Dick was here: Tim hated having to be the voice of reason. “Okay look, let’s all take a step back for a moment. Assigning blame is not going to help us here, especially since it's only the fault of the person who took Danny. Who could still be in danger, by the way, so we need to stay focused.”

Jason and Damian stared at each other tensely for a second before each giving a slight nod. Jason’s frequency of flickering reduced slightly.

“Alright, good. Now, our number one goal is recusing Danny and the others. I watched Danny drive the Speeder before on our way to the Far Frozen, and I feel pretty confident in being able to operate it.”

“I have already gathered ghost-fighting gear from around the house, as well as from Foley’s and Manson’s.”

Tim nodded at Damian. “Good, that’s useful. So we have what we need to get there, and we have weapons. The main problem is that we don’t know where to go. I could maybe get us to the Far Frozen again, but it may not be worth the risk of getting lost in the Ghost Zone. What do you two think?”

“I say we pick a direction and go,” Jason said. “We’re wasting time.”

“Jason, the Ghost Zone is also called the Infinite Realms. As in infinite. We’d get hopelessly lost if we wandered in without a plan.”

“Then we do your thing and get to the Far Frozen first, I don’t know! We just need to get going.”

Damian spoke up, that smug grin that Tim hated on his face. “Fortunately, I have means of finding Daniel. Had you not shown up when you did, I would have ventured off myself once I got the ship working.”

“Well, what is it?” Jason asked impatiently.

Damian merely raised a hand to his mouth and let out a shrill whistle. There was a few seconds of silence, before Tim heard a distant bark. 

Suddenly appearing in front of Damian was a small, glowing green dog, jumping around. 

“This is Cujo,” Damian explained. “Danny introduced us shortly after you left. He knows many tricks, and is proficient at tracking one thing in particular.”

“Is it…?”

Damian smirked. “Cujo,” he spoke firmly, at which the dog stopped his bounding and looked up at Damian. “Find Danny.”

The dog barked once, then sniffed around the room. A few moments later he lifted his head, letting out another bark, and dove down through the floor.

“Quickly,” Damian said, running for the stairs. “I have already gathered the weapons into the vehicle. Drake, you are confident in your ability to operate it?”

“Of course,” Tim said, right behind him, Jason at his side, and practically phasing into his side at some points, which Tim very nicely didn’t mention. “Can’t be much different from the Batplane.”

When they reached the basement Cujo was there, staring directly at the portal, one of his front legs lifted like he was a pointer dog, and not some kind of ghostly boxer. He dove into the portal, and then back out. He did that repeatedly, looking at them as if to say to hurry up. 

The three of them hurried into the vehicle, Tim making note of the pile of weapons in the back that Damian had indeed gathered. Within a couple minutes Tim had the Speeder turned on and ready to enter the portal.

“Hey,” Jason said, right before Tim started to send it through. “Thanks, both of you.”

“Of course,” Damian said. 

“He’s our pack too,” Tim said. “We’ll get him back.”

Filled with determination, the three of them entered the Ghost Zone, ready to do whatever it took to rescue Danny. 

And the others too, of course.

Since Vlad was currently a ghost, the bullet Jason just shot him with did nothing but irritate him.

“Did you just shoot me?” Vlad asked, as though he couldn’t believe the audacity.

“Yup,” Jason replied easily. “Want to see me do it again?” And he shot Vlad again without waiting for a response, this one going through his chest.

“Why, you-!” Vlad took off at Jason, who surprised Danny by retreating. The two of them flew off to the edge of the island, where Jason kept shooting while Vlad started firing back beams. Vlad missed a lot more than Jason did.

“Psst, Danny.” Danny turned around to see Tim behind his cage.

“What! Tim?” Danny asked, remembering at the last second to whisper. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Rescuing you, dummy,” Tim replied. He inclined his head to the side, and Danny looked to see Damian investigating Sam’s cage. 

“No, but I mean, how did you get here?” 

Tim started messing around with the cage, opening up a panel from the outside and examining some wires. “We had a bit of outside help.”

Danny felt something rub up against his legs, and looked down to see Cujo, who looked up and barked at Danny in greeting. “Good boy, Cujo,” Danny whispered, rubbing the pupper between the ears. 

A moment later there was a small beep from Danny’s cage. “Okay, you should be good to go,” Tim said. 

Danny phased through the bars, and there was no responding noise from the cage. “Nice job, Tim!” he praised. 

At that moment there was another beep, this time from Sam’s cage. Damian opened her door and started helping her free herself from her bonds.

“We’ll keep going on the cages,” Tim said. “You wait here.”

Like heck Danny was going to just sit around while other people did the saving. He looked back to the fight. From the sound of the guns firing and the repeated yelling from Vlad, it didn’t seem like Jason needed help. But if nothing else, Danny wanted to see Vlad get his butt kicked up close.

Danny flew over to where the other two were going at it. Most of Jason’s shots went right through Vlad, but they seemed to be doing some sort of damage if the way Vlad was crying out slightly louder every time it happened was any indication.

“Hey Fruitloop!” Danny yelled, announcing his presence and ruining any element of surprise he may have had. “Forget about me?”

Vlad looked over at him, and had just enough time to say, “Daniel-” before Jason pistol-whipped him in the back of the head. By all logic that should have just gone through his head. But instead Vlad staggered to the ground, stunned.

Jason did it again for good measure, and Vlad’s eyes rolled to the back of his head as he passed out in a crumpled heap.

“Thanks for the distraction, kid,” Jason said.

“No problem,” Danny replied easily. He was not going to mention that for a moment he had forgotten that he wouldn’t have been able to fight Vlad. Distraction had always been the plan.

Jason and Danny looked at Vlad’s body on the ground. “Is he alive?” Danny asked.

Jason just shrugged, like he didn’t care either way. Probably because he didn’t. He kicked Vlad in the side, and he gave a small groan without waking up. “He’s alive.” He cocked his gun. “But not for long.”

“No, don’t kill him!” Danny said.

“Why not?”

Danny was tempted to say because killing was wrong, but he knew Jason would never go for that answer. “If he becomes a ghost full-time, he’ll never stop haunting and bothering me,” he said instead.

Jason winced. “Yeah, I wouldn’t want that either. What do you suggest we do with him then?”

Before Danny could voice his best idea (roll him into the abyss and bolt), a green, familiar-looking portal opened up a few feet away from them. Out of it stepped Bruce in full Batman attire. 

“Bruce?” Danny asked. “What are you doing here?”

Bruce looked around, taking in the surroundings. He was acting very calm for someone exposed to the Ghost Zone for the first time. Must be all that Batman training. “Danny, Red Hood, report.”

“We’re fine, B,” Jason said, crossing his arms. “Tone it down a little. Answer the question.”

Bruce said, “Alfred told me you were in trouble. I was just about to go to your universe, when this portal opened up and sucked me in. Are we in the Ghost Zone?”

Such a good detective. “Yep,” Danny said. “Already defeated the big bad and everything though. Not sure why Clockwork would send you here.”

Because it had to be him. This portal was identical to the ones that first brought Danny to and from the Wayne’s universe.

On the ground, Vlad groaned. Great, the jerk must be waking up.

Bruce, for his part, zeroed in on the sound instantly. He cocked his head, sniffing the air. “Puppy?”

Uh, oh.

Danny and Jason looked at each other. “Um, what did you say, Bruce?” Danny asked.

Bruce paid him no mind. He slowly approached Vlad, sniffing around him. “Puppy,” he said more firmly. 

Vlad cracked his eyes open and looked around blearily. “What…?” 

That was all he was able to say before Bruce scooped him up off the ground, holding him in his arms. “Mine,” he said firmly. Then he bolted for the portal. Vlad’s short yell was quickly cut off as both he and Bruce disappeared into the portal, which vanished as soon as they had gone through.

Jason and Danny stood around for a moment. “Was that what I looked like?” Jason asked.

“Pretty much,” Danny said. Good thing Jason was currently wearing his helmet that blocked out smells. He wouldn’t have been eager to have Vlad for a brother. Now he was Bruce’s problem. “Think he’ll be okay?”

“The caped idiot or the other caped idiot?”

“Both. Either.”

“Who cares?” Jason shrugged.

“I think they’ll be fine,” Tim said, appearing behind them suddenly. “Bruce is Batman, do you think he doesn’t know how to handle entitled superpowered people? And who knows, maybe this will be what Vlad needs so he stops bothering you all the time, Danny. I say we leave them to it.”

Danny shrugged. “Works for me. Just don’t expect me to visit for a while.”

“Understandable. Also, we freed your family. You’re welcome.”

Danny looked behind Tim, to see Sam and Tucker talking to Damian, and his parents examining the cages they had been in. Danny got the sudden urge to get them out of here before they got any new ideas for ghost capturing. “Do you think we’ll all fit in the Speeder?”

“Probably,” Tim said. “If all else fails, you and Jason can go intangible and we can sit on you.”

“Hardy har har,” Jason said dryly. “Let’s get going before I bust a rib laughing.”

It occurred to Danny then why Jason might be in a rush to head back. “Hey,” he said as they walked closer to the others. “Thanks for coming to get me. You didn’t have to do that.”

“Of course I did, don’t be stupid,” Jason said, rubbing the top of Danny’s head. “You’re my pup. I’ll always save you.”

Danny was touched. “But what about what Frostbite said?”

“We’ll deal with it when it comes,” Jason said. “Besides, being a halfa? That just means I’m more like you. And that could never be a bad thing.”

Danny gave Jason a small smile in thanks. That was one weight off his chest.

Now to introduce Jason to his parents, and figure out a way to get eight people and a ghost dog into a vehicle built for three. 

They somehow made it back without anyone stepping on one another’s toes too badly, though Danny did have to make himself float up near the ceiling in order to make a bit more room.

Danny was going up the stairs from the basement, his parents in front of him, Jason behind him, when he heard a crash from behind. He turned around to see a Jason-shaped space.

“Seriously?” Danny sighed. “Are you going to do this every time?”

There was no response from below the stairs. Frowning, Danny allowed himself to phase through as well. 

There, surrounded by Tim and Damian, was Jason, once again lying in a pile of broken lab equipment. His eyes were closed and he was completely still.

“Jason?” Danny asked.

For a moment there was no response. Then a blindly white light erupted from Jason, and Danny had to look away.

Chapter Text

“Is he okay?”

“I think so. He’s not breathing, at least.”

“That’s… good?”

“With our kind, it could go either way. No heart beat to check either. We just kinda need to hope he wakes up on his own.”

Jason let out a groan. 

“Oh look, a sign of life! Well, you know… a sign of consciousness, at least. Hey Jason, wake up.”

Jason groaned one more time, louder, just to make it clear to whoever was bothering him that he really didn’t want to do that. Then he opened his eyes.

His pack was standing over him, or at least several members. The younger ones. They seemed to be in Danny’s basement again. Hadn’t Jason just been about to leave this place?

“Hey Jason,” Danny said, leaning in closer. “You passed out for a minute there. Are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah, I’m…fine?” Jason paused speaking halfway through. Why did his voice sound echo-y?

“Glad to hear it,” Tim said. “You think you can stand up?”

Jason nodded, and started to get up. Only, instead of using his arms to push himself onto his feet like he had been trying to do, he ended up pushing himself up into the air, and found himself hovering a foot off the ground.

“Whoa!” Jason yelled, pinwheeling his arms for a moment before he got his balance. 

“Easy, you’re good,” Danny said, himself going to hover in front of Jason. “I know, a weightless body takes some adjustment at first.”

“Weightless?” Jason asked, wavering in the air.

“Um, yeah…” Danny said. He looked at the others. “Anyone happen to have a mirror?”

“On it,” Tim said. He pulled out his phone and snapped a picture. He then frowned at the result. “Nevermind, forgot that would be blurry.”

“Tt,” Damian tutted at them all in that derisive way of his. “All of you are idiots. Allow me to describe what you look like, Todd.”

“No need, brat,” Jason replied. While the others had been talking Jason had taken the opportunity to look down at himself. 

He was wearing his typical Red Hood gear, except the colors were inverted. His black body armor was now bright white, the red bat on his chest a teal blue. His jacket, usually brown, was now a silver-gray. All of his gear seemed to be accounted for, just with inverted-color like his clothes.

Jason could feel that he was wearing his helmet. “What color is my helmet?”

“Glowing blueish-green,” Danny said. “It matches the bat on your chest.”

Jason nodded to himself. “Is this my…”

“Your ghost form?” Danny finished for him. “Yeah. It is. How do you feel?”

Considering that Jason had been half-convinced that he was going to transform into some kind of version of the mangled, broken boy the Joker had left him as? “Pretty frickin’ awesome.”

“Oh great,” an unfamiliar voice moaned. “There’s two of them.”

Jason had his gun in his hand and pointed at the direction of the voice before he even had a chance to think.

“Hey now.” A blond man with stubble on his face, a British accent, and a “I was over this yesterday,” attitude rolled his eyes at Jason. “I come all this way to help you guys out and this is the thanks I get?”

“Danny!” Jason’s most annoying (only) older brother appeared from behind the man, beelining it for Danny and wrapping him up in a tight hug. 

“Dick!?” Danny shouted in surprise, before hugging him back. “What are you doing here?”

“I found Constantine!” Dick said proudly. 

The scraggly man, Constantine apparently, snorted. “More like dragged me out of hell to fix up his precious pup. And no, that’s not an exaggeration.”

“You went to hell for me?” Danny asked, sounding both confused and touched.

“Anytime,” Dick smiled at him. “Besides, Constantine was pretty easy to find.”

Dick’s eye twitched in a way that meant he was lying, but Jason chose not to call him out on it.

While Dick turned his attention to Damian and Tim, greeting them in turn, Jason eyed Constantine. “So. You here to undo that curse you put on Danny?”

Constantine rolled his eyes again. “To be clear, he placed it on himself. I would have been fine with him agreeing to not purposefully hurt anyone from our universe. It was his choice to become a bloody pacifist.”

Everyone looked at Danny. “Oops?” he said. 

“Yeah, oops,” Constantine snorted. “Let’s make this quick, shall we?”

He walked up to Danny and eyed him up and down. “Do you give your word not to cause harm to any beings?”

Danny opened his mouth, then closed it again. He seemed to think for a minute. “...I promise not to cause excessive harm to other beings, unless doing so is necessary to prevent greater harm,” he said eventually. 

Constantine shrugged. “Works for me.” He stuck out his hand in a clear signal for a handshake, and Danny took it. Their hands glowed golden for a moment before fading. 

“Great. Just so you know, I’ll be made aware if you break that. Any turning evil, and you’ll find yourself on a one-way ticket to hell before you can say ‘ghost.’”

“I won’t,” Danny said assuredly. “I already defeated my evil self.”

Constantine just stared at him. “Yeah, I’m not touching that.” He gave a half-hearted wave to the room. “I’ve got some business elsewhere to take care of. I assume you’re all fine getting back to your dimension?” Before anyone could say anything, he continued, “Great. Glad we could visit. Don’t contact me again.”

He turned around and started walking away, and as he did so faded until he vanished completely. 

“Wow,” Jason said, whistling. “What a-”

Dick rushed over and scooped Danny back into another hug. “Danny! How do you feel?”

Danny slowly reached out a hand, rested it gently on Dick’s arm, and then pinched him.

“Hey!” Dick yelped, jumping back. “After all I did for you, this is the thanks I get?”

Danny was too ecstatic to pay him any mind. “It worked!” he said. “I can hurt other people again!”

“Yeah, maybe don’t sound so thrilled about that,” Tim said, stepping closer, Damian by his side. 

“Don’t worry,” Jason said. “You do whatever you want. If that guy wants to send you to hell, he’ll have to go through me first. And if all else fails, Dick apparently knows the way, he can bring you back.”

“Little Wing’s right, there’s nothing to worry about,” Dick said. He smiled at Jason, looked back at Danny, and then did a double take back to Jason. “Little Wing! Are you trying out a different look? And did you grow taller?”

Because he could, Jason floated over to Dick, and punched him through the head.

Dick leaped back. “Hey, that’s cold!” he complained. “Also, rude. Also also, is there something you need to tell me, Little Wing? What did I miss while I was gone?”

Jason and Danny smirked at each other. “Oh, nothing much,” Danny said. 

Now that Danny was out of danger, most of the pack left to go back to Gotham, though they still visited relatively frequently.

(They reported that they had been avoiding the manor at all costs, so as not to run into Bruce or Vlad. No one wanted to witness that, or worse, be put under the same kind of haze Bruce was in. According to Alfred, Vlad was “settling in.” According to the Gotham Gazette, Bruce Wayne had recently gotten into heavy metal, which explained all the loud noise and flashing lights coming from the manor.)

Tim and Tucker were working on a way to text through dimensions. They both insisted they were on the edge of a breakthrough any day now.

Damian spent most of his time visiting with Sam, training together. When he was at Danny’s, he would check in briefly with Danny before asking after Cujo. Eventually Danny just gave him a dog whistle. He didn’t see Damian quite as frequently after that, though he still came by every other week or so.

Dick stayed with Danny for three days, saying he deserved a break after everything he had been through, and that Danny time was his reward for a job well done. Since Danny owed him, he had a hard time denying him. Jazz video called one time while Dick had been in the room, and Danny introduced them. That may have been a mistake: now they made weekly phone calls to commiserate about their reckless younger siblings.

Jason stayed the longest, wanting to make sure he had fully mastered his powers before returning to Gotham. He didn’t want to be in the middle of a fight, only to lose control of something, like Danny had in his early days. 

It took Jason two weeks to feel completely confident with his powers, a much faster rate than Danny had been able to achieve. Though of course, as Jason reminded him, Danny had to figure out everything on his own, and Jason had Danny there to help.

After his first transformation, control came much easier to Jason. He still had a few slip-ups in the beginning (he burned at least three rugs before he got his ecto-blasts under control) but it was nowhere near as bad as it had been before, thank goodness.

Eventually, Jason was ready to leave. He gathered his things, and he and Danny headed out to the park to say their goodbyes in private.

Before he activated his device, he wrapped Danny up in a tight hug.

“Thanks, kid,” he said gruffly. “Sorry I was a jerk before.”

“I get it,” Danny said. “It was a lot all at once. But, now that you’ve mastered your powers, you know what you can do?”

Jason released Danny and looked at him questioningly. “What?”

Danny smirked. “Haunt the hell out of the Joker.”

Jason froze, as he realized the infinite revenge possibilities that were now open to him. He laughed loudly. “Kid, you have given me literally the greatest gift I’ve ever received. What do you want in return? Name anything, it’s yours.”

“Your happiness is enough,” is something Danny did not say, because that would have been way too cheesy.

“Bring me back one of those chili dogs from that one food cart the next time you visit and we’ll call it even,” Danny said instead.

Jason gave him a thumbs-up. “You got it, kid.”

There was a screech behind them. Turning, Danny saw the squid-ghost that had given him such trouble before. It was flying around, waving its tentacles in the air, scaring off the few other people in the park. Ghosts were creatures of habit, if nothing else.

“Need any help?” Jason asked. 

“Nah,” Danny said, shaking his head and transforming. “I got this.”

“That’s my pup,” Jason said. “Knock ‘em dead, kid. Well, deader.”

With a grin Danny flew off to meet the ghost. When he glanced back Jason was gone. Danny took no offense - it meant Jason trusted him enough to be able to handle himself. 

Thrilled to be back in his element, Danny pulled back a fist and fired a blast, hitting the squid-ghost directly in the chest, causing it to squeal and turn to him. It waved its tentacles threateningly.

“Bring it on,” Danny said, and with a whoop of joy he did what he did best - used his powers to protect other people.

(Somewhere, in another dimension, one of the few other halfas in the world did the same.)