Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Who knew all those poetry and superstitions were true? one did recall their whole life when they were about to die. Better report it to someone to get rid of the question -he chuckled inside his mind- Danny could see flashes of all his birthdays, all his science projects and all his visits to the local planetarium before it was closed. He saw how he managed to befriend Tucker, the awkward eight-year-old that refused to let go of his smart screen tablet; how he met Sam at their last year at elementary school, all pink frilly dresses and permanent scowl.

All the pranks he did, all the trouble he got himself into. But something was wrong, as the electricity started to peak in energy, as he felt his body tore apart and rearrange itself.

He saw green eyes, tanned skin, sandy dunes, snowy heavens.

He saw someone like him, in all but skin tone and eye color. He remembered holding a sword, a knife, nunchakus, ropes, chains…weapons. He remembered climbing mountains, walking endlessly in the dessert, always chasing the same boy. Never actually being able to reach him.

And then, all went black.

-

In the aftermath, his friends managed to give an excuse convincing enough to his parents that let him get away from school for at least a week. Thanks’ to Sam’s insistence they managed to convince them to not go to the hospital; pretty sure the whole ‘my limbs turn invisible when I’m nervous’ wasn’t normal, and he didn’t want to be classified as a meta -not that it was anything wrong with being one, but deep in his soul he knew…he knew he was another thing completely different- because that would put another label on him at school, he wasn’t going to give them any more reason to call him ‘Fenton Freak’, he got shoved into lockers enough as it was.

But with the week of rest, the memories settled, the old ones, the ones he didn’t even knew he had. Jazz often worried when she caught him staring into the sky, but there was this tough that nagged him and didn’t let him sleep; because, in those memories, he didn’t saw her, he didn’t saw his parents.

Only the boy, always the boy.

And suddenly, he felt lonely, yearning for someone he didn’t quite managed to remember, but that he knew, deep inside, once meant the world to him.

Akhi, a small voice whispered, wistful, sad, alone.

That was why he used his time, to search all over the house, he found photo albums, video tapes, all recording the silly normal live -as normal a live can be with ghost obsessed parents- and found something that make his blood turn cold-er.

Maddie Fenton was an organized woman, far more than her husband. All the albums were labeled and ordered by year, with small notes in some of the photos.

(‘Jazz first day at school’ ‘Danny’s first tooth fell!’ ‘Jazz’s first steps’ ‘Jazz’s first word’

Jazz, Jazz, Jazz…Where was he?)

There were no photos of him when he was a toddler, the first one being one when he was five years old. Looking like a scared cat on top of the fridge -of all the places to hide- snarling, as if waiting to bite someone.

But there were no other older photos, and this one was suspiciously named ‘Danny’s first day at home’ was he…was he adopted?

He ran to the basement, panting, knocking wildly on the locked door. A new safety measure after the incident -it may be too late for that, a part of him thought bitterly- He paced, trying to maintain his breathing, his mom rushed up looking a little bit concerned.

“Honey? What’s wrong? Are you feeling, okay?” He couldn’t form words, so he shoved the photo at her face, the hulking form of his dad -was he really his dad? - coming up the stairs. Bluish-purple eyes stared sadly at the photo, and then at him “You were such a tiny thing Honey”

“Barely five, not knowing who you were…it broke our hearts” Dad’s -Jack?- booming voice made him stare blankly at them, so they knew, and for sure Jazz knew, she would have been seven when he arrived, she should remember but then…

“Was someone ever going to tell me?”

Maddie grimaced, and gently guided him to the living room. Where she sat both down in a side hug, for once removing the suit’s cowl and her lenses.

“We were honey, I promise we were…but” Jack sat dawn at Danny’s other side, for once not gushing around. Maddie took a shivering breath. “You had amnesia; child services said that the police found you in a car crash site…the only survivor”

“They said that you had scars, old wounds, that they suspected ch-child abuse…we didn’t want to bring back bad memories, honey. I’m sorry for not telling you sooner”

“Not all were bad” He mumbled under his breath, when had he started crying?

~

“Dany! C’mon” He was again in that hot dessert, cladded in robes way to heavy for that type of weather. An enormous backpack at his back. He was running, rather clumsily after another boyish figure, both couldn’t be older than four.

Yet, they were alone in the desert…why?

“Wait! You are too fast D---” He tripped in the unstable ground and faceplanted, gaining a mouthful of sand. Danny started to cry, making the other boy sigh and walk back to him.

“You are such a baby,” The unknow boy said in exasperation, helping him to sit up, his hand was covered in blisters and small cuts. But it was warm, good warm. Same hand tilted his head up, and he stared mesmerized at emerald, green eyes. “Shush, you know mother doesn’t like when we cry”

But weren’t they small? Weren’t they young? Toddlers were supposed to cry, to be held, not to be abandoned to their luck.

“I’m sorry” younger him mumbled, hastily standing up, not bothering to release the hand that had been offered. The green-eyed kid pulled slightly, and they started their journey again “I don’t want to train”

“You know what happens if we don’t” The boy said grimly, and for some reason his small body felt a full body shiver even in the suffocating weather “An A- G—needs to know this to inherit it all”

“You are the Heir, you are the Ibn al Xu'ffasch, I’m just an unwanted addition” Younger Danny grumbled a little bit sadly under his breath, small legs trembling from the exhaustion. The boy turned sharply at that, giving him a calculating glare, way out of place on someone so young.

“Who told you that Dany?”

“Mother”

~

Danny took the whole weekend to organize his thoughts, coming to some very contradicting but soundly arguments.

Maddie and Jack Fenton were still his parents, they loved him despite knowing he wasn’t their son. Jazz loved him like a brother despite not being related. So, he was sure, his little family could hold the huge revelation and maintain itself intact. There was no case in him being mad at Jazz for maintaining the secret this long.

(“When I saw you, I already knew you were my brother, Danny”)

But all the love in the world couldn’t make him tell them his secret, not when he highly suspected he had been turned into a ghost, an abomination that somehow was alive and dead at the same time.

His parents loathed ghosts, even with all their research they only saw them as evil beings. His sister refused to believe in ghosts, and he would let her to her ignorance as far as he could. No, it was his secret. And he feared how they may react. So, he kept quiet.

~

“That’s not fair, you are stronger than me” Danny complained spread out in the training mat, panting. Their training had just finished and to be time efficient they were eating there to then go back to language classes.

The boy smirked, sitting cross-legged near Danny’s face “Of course, I am, I’m older than you”

Danny spluttered, sitting up rapidly “Just for like, ten seconds!”

“Nu-uh, at least an hour”

He scoffed, shoving the boy away from the plates of food, taking a small piece of Naan and throwing it at him. “Don’t be ridiculous”

“Don’t waste food”

Grumbling Danny looked back at his plate and made a face when he noticed the quantity of vegetables in it. He then turned to the boy giving him pleading eyes “I’ll give you my fruit if you eat my veggies”

“That’s why you are short”

Before they could continue to biker further, someone opened the door. Danny’s small body went tense, and hastily stood up, eyes never fully seeing the new figure. All he could see was a green tunic.

“Boys”

“Mother” they replied in unison, but more like one could address a commander. Danny felt his gut twisting.

~

All the turmoil was quickly put aside when the ghost started to appear. His parents quickly making ecto-weapons, guilt making him fight the ghost on his own ghostly form. Days passed, months passed, he got a hold of his powers, he fought ghost, so many of them.

But there was still that nagging feeling in his head, something else bothered him in his -what he now knows to be- ghost core. He felt restless, like something was missing.

The dreams with the green-eyed boy on them were spare, but always gave him comfort, and appeared when everything else seemed to be about to spiral out of control. They gave him hope, they were the memories he used to calm himself down.

The missing piece was still there, until he found it.

They were hanging out, on top of an abandoned building, Sam had insisted on going, to check out the place. Tucker had snickered, muttering about that even if it was rumored to be haunted, with Danny there, it made the statement true.

It was boring to say the least, after so many encounters with ghost, nothing faced them anymore. That was why they were on the roof, the only place where they got decent signal to watch videos and complain to each other about teen gossip.

Danny had transformed into Phantom after Tucker got the idea of making him an official twitter account and while they were taking silly photos, Sam was navigating on her phone. That was until she called them over with a confused face.

“Danny, are you aware you look almost exactly like Damian Wayne when you are transformed?”

“Who?” Danny frowned, Wayne, weren’t they that one rich family from New Jersey? Gotham if he remembered right. He remembers how the A-lister would gush and whisper around every time a new article came up of the infamous playboy ‘Brucie’ Wayne.

“Youngest son of Bruce Wayne, the one that is our age…”

“The extreme activist that is also vegetarian Sam always gushes about” Piped in Tucker gaining himself a smack to the head.

“Just, see” Sam passed the phone to both, displaying a photo of a kid of their age in front of a very gloomy looking animal shelter, a very familiar tanned skinned kid. Danny’s eyes widened.

“Uh, yeah, sure…if you squint and like…paint Phantom’s hair black and dim his eyes down a little bit” Tucker was right, the kid had pure black-hair -like the one Danny had on is human form- and Danny’s eyes were toxic green, like ectoplasm, not whatever shade the kid had.

But something in his gut twisted, something small that he had forgotten lighting up in hope, bubbling with anticipation. “Do you have any close shot of his face?”

“What? Got a crush?” Teased the dark-skinned kid, barely missing a well-timed smack from the other two “How narcissist of you”

Sam rolled her eyes but went back to her phone, hopefully to find a decent photo of the kid. “Yeah, sure, wait”

When he saw it, tears started to stream down his face without him noticing. It was the same boy of his dreams. The warm emerald-green eyes from his memories seemed a lot colder, but there was no mistaking it.

“You ok dude?” Asked worriedly Tucker, giving him a worried glance, why was everything blurry? Oh, right, he was crying.

Taking deep breaths and looking up in a vague attempt to stop the tears (and who knew ghost could cry?) Danny gave his two best friends a watery smile, “I…I think that’s my brother”

Chapter Text

After almost four years, Damian had finally somehow settled down at the manor. There were still some tensions between him and the rest of the residents, even with his own father.

But Pennyworth and Grayson reassured they were going in the right direction.

So, what if he wasn’t allowed to be alone in the same room as Drake for more than three hours? He admits that trying to kill someone wasn’t the best first impression, but his family was weirdly protective of Drake in that regard. As if Jason and Tim didn’t get along quite well despite Jason attempted murder.

Not as if he needed to bond with what his father and Grayson insisted on calling ‘brothers’, he didn’t need any of that.

(He already has one, he’s not replacing him)

What he hates the most tough? The galas, father always made them all attend at least one, to maintain their ‘public image’ -Damian still has to suppress a shiver every time he sees his father public persona (who on earth came up with the idea of ‘Brucie’ Wayne, he just wants to have some words)- if they were lucky only one of them had to attend while the rest patrolled.

But on very unpleasant occasion the presence of all the ‘Waynes’ was required. And that day was one of those days. Sighing heavily, he made sure his hair was in the pristine state he usually used as Damian Wayne and went down to find the rest of his…family…at the foyer.

“Dami! c’mon we are going to be late!”  Damian kept himself from cringing at Grayson’s volume -as if he didn’t know about Damian’s superior hearing abilities, there was a reason he was the only Robin with a hood- scowling at the nickname.

“How many times do I have to tell you, Grayson, stop calling me childish names”

He hated that one in particular, the others weren’t so bad, but he hated when Grayson had the audacity of shortening his name, as if the grown adult was a toddler incapable of full sentences.

“But little D, everyone in this family gets at least three!”

Damian rolled his eyes at the eldest whining and went to stand at Thomas’ side by the bookcases, he was by far the most tolerable at that moment.

The rest of the nuisances was laying around in the couches, Drake for once looking like he slept at least four hours -Pennyworths doing, no doubt- Cain in one of her fancy one-piece things -whatever they were called- Jason, as always, breaking clothes protocol by wearing a leather jacket instead of a proper blazer; and for some reason Brown was there in her pajamas instead of being at the Cave.

“Stop complaining demon brat, you are never going to win”

“Glad you know your destiny, Jay~”

Damian rolled his eyes at the eldest’s bickering, scoffed, and murmured under his breath, making sure no one could hear him. “Just, stop calling me Dami”

(Just one person was allowed to call him that)

~

“Dami! Dami! Come see!” A very excited voice called from just beyond the training grounds, Damian had to suppress a groan and jogged lightly to the source. All the way looking behind his back to make sure no one saw them.

“D----, stop running around, if mother catches us…” The words died in his throat when he saw what all the fuss was about, a little puppy of sorts, a mut by the looks of it, had somehow climbed all the way up the mountain. It looked malnourished but was happily letting itself be patted by the other boy.

“She would not, we did all the training!” the boy voiced, turning a little bit to stare at him with crystalline icy blue eyes and a pout “And I told you to call me D—y!”

Damian rolled his eyes but also crouched down to get a better view of the ‘puppy’ it had intelligent looking dark eyes that made him a little uncomfortable “Fine,” but after giving it his hand to smell it wiggled it’s tail excited and let him also pet it “It is a nice specimen”

“Do you think we can keep it?”

He grimaced at that, last time, last time the bird they found injured didn’t make it. And not because they couldn’t heal it “Mother”

“Mother wouldn’t permit it…I know” the blue-eyed boy grumbled, pouting sadly at the happy dog. Damian was just glad that it wasn’t barking “Dami, sometimes…don’t you want to be like the other kids?”

“Like Mara?” There weren’t that much ‘other kids’ at the compound, and honestly, Damian didn’t want to be like Mara. She was an outcast, because of what her father did. No one paid any attention to her (Sometimes Damian wondered if that may be better).

“Mara doesn’t count” the boy huffed as if frustrated “no, like the ones we see in the villages”

“The starving ones?” He said with a raised eyebrow. The kid rolled his eyes at him and kept petting the dog like he hadn’t heard him.

Damian let the silence settle between them, content to just observe and occasionally scratch the dog behind its ears. If it was as intelligent as it looked, he hoped it escaped before any of the instructors saw it.

“The ones who have time to play and are permitted to have pets” His companion whispered after a while. Damian didn’t respond, refusing to look the other in the eye.

His silence was answer enough, and both knew it.

“C’mon D--y, we better go before mother sends someone for us”

“fine”

~

It was game night, Grayson insisted that having one every so often would benefit their ‘family’ dynamic. Damian was sure he just wanted to eat Pennyworths cooking without having to use the dining room, like a savage.

Damian of course always won in the stupid games, he was one of the reasons Monopoly, was banned from the manor -not his fault Todd was a sore loser- but much to his dismay, UNO wasn’t one of the games he excelled at.

And it had been the one that Thomas choose since it was his turn. Apparently, no one had warned the dark-skinned teen that it was a declaration of war.

He stared grumbly at his array of at least twenty cards giving Todd and Drake a nasty glare, they had teamed up. Damian was pretty sure that the official rules stated that the trick cards couldn’t be accumulative, but they were playing under the ‘Batfam’ rules, so his protests felt on deaf ears.

“What’s wrong with you recently? You are more of a nuisance than normal demon brat” Grumbled Todd while skimming over his cards, Thomas had put a reverse so now Todd would have to either alliance himself further with Drake or decide to attack him.

“I don’t know what you are talking about Todd”

Not as if the oldest could really know, the only ones that lived at the manor where him and Thomas, Drake lived somewhere in the city, Todd rotated safehouses every so often, Grayson lived in Bludhaven and Cass more often than not was in Tokyo.

He may be a little bit snappier at patrols, but that was none of their concern. Damian knew to not let personal feelings interfere in their assignments. (Mother made sure of that)

“Aww…Baby Bat, don’t worry no one is going to forget your birthday this year”

Oh, yeah, his birthday, Damian had to roll his eyes at the eldest, Grayson didn’t know that he didn’t really care for his birthdays -not anymore- Last year was just because he turned into an official teen, but now? The closest important birthday would be when he turns eighteen or twenty-one.

“Has nothing to do with that”

“Haven’t you noticed? He gets like that every year for his birthday…” Damian scoffed at Stephanie that had shoved him aside when she talked, trying to prevent him from putting his trick card on the table. But he shoved her back, smirk in place as he put down a plus four.

“No one asked you fatgirl”

“Dami!”

~

A well landed hit of the katana and he was now sprawled over the training mat, Damian’s good reflexes were the only thing that saved him from a decapitation. Now he had a long and considerably deep gash on his shoulder where the blue-eyed boy managed to land a hit during training.

“Ahki! Oh, no,nonononono, I’m sorry, are you ok?” Same kid was now panicking and trying to apply pressure on the bleeding wound.

Even if Damian felt that his arm was about to fall, he gave the kid a deadpan look, carefully sitting up to assess the damage better “I’m fine, good work D---” but the praise was met with sobs, Damian sighed “I told you not to cry”

“Because mother doesn’t like it” grumbled the other kid under his breath, cleaning the tears away, leaving behind tracks of Damian’s blood “I know” Taking a deep breath the blue-eyed kid abruptly stood up and ran to the nearest first aid kit “Don’t move, I’ll go for some bandages”

“It’s not that deep” He rolled his eyes, trying to maintain his calm. It hurt but wasn’t deep enough to need stitches. The blue-eyed kid appeared again with a bunch of bandages, fresh tears running down his face. “You are such a crybaby”

“I just don’t want to see you bleed to your dead, dummy” The kid shooed away Damian’s hands from the wound and started cleaning it up “Ahki?” Damian hummed in acknowledgement “Why do we have to fight each other?”

“It’s part of training, and you know it…D---?”

“Why do we have to fight at all Dami? Why?”

Damian didn’t say anything because he didn’t know. He stared at the wall until the bandage was secured in place and they returned to training without another word. It would be risky if any of their mother’s subordinates heard them discuss such things.

~

They were all at one of the manor’s many attics helping Pennyworth to clean up a little bit, Grayson and Brown were just there in hopes of finding something to make fun of Damian’s father, thing they did almost effortlessly. But one could never expect less from Pennyworth’s organization. Grayson had been the one who found the box, eagerly taking out its contents.

“Oh, I see you have encountered Master Bruce old photos”

“Really?” Screeched Brown from the other side of the room. Damian rolled his eyes when he saw the rest of the Neanderthals running to get a glance “Let me see, let me see!... Oh, he was such a cutie”

“He used shorts like in the old movies” Snickered Drake snatching one of the photo albums away, Pennyworth smiled a little bit, clearly the one responsible for such vestment. Damian lazily strode over them, not really interested in seeing the photos, but it was better than being the only one cleaning.

“It’s because he is old” Replied Todd watching in amusement the photos perched at Drake’s shoulders.

“Oh, come see Dami! Did you look like this when you were little?”

Grayson put a photo in front of him, of a five-year-old Bruce Wayne smiling widely at the camera, and Damian froze in place “Da…”

Snatching the photo away from Grayson’s hold he stared at it almost in trance -not caring about the weirded outlooks he was receiving from the rest- who knew mother was right? His little brother had been almost the exact copy of their father.

“Master Damian? Are you alright?” Ignoring everyone else he strode over to Pennyworth to request to have the photo.

“I’m fine Pennyworth, can I have this?”

“I’ll buy it a frame”

~

“Ahki, Mara is being mean again” The blue-eyed boy whined, shoving aside Mara -their cousin- who had come out of her hiding place after all the instructors and servants left them.

“You are such a baby for someone set to inherit the league” the girl snarled, shoving back with the double of force making the blue-eyed kid almost fall over.

“I am not going to inherit anything, that’s Dami’s job, I’m going to be his bodyguard” the boy scoffed as if the mere thought was ridiculous.

“First you would have to…” Damian had to suppress a sigh when he noticed that the other two had started fighting “Impressive, I see you had learnt”

“You are predictable”

“Mara, D---, that’s enough” Damian commanded after Mara landed a good hit on D--- that ended up with the boy’s clothes being torn a little bit. Mother wouldn’t like that.

“She started it!”

“Mother will be back soon” With a meaningful glare, Mara grumbled, snatched some of their food and disappeared over the ventilation system. Damian gave the other a raised eyebrow, at least the boy deigned himself to looks sheepish.

“Sorry Dami”

“Go change before Mother sees it”

~

Almost as if his birthday was cursed, no one could be there to attend, honestly Damian didn’t care, despite all the apologetic messages he kept receiving from Grayson. He knew, the mission was first and all, Damian was angrier that his father didn’t let him join the ‘party’ -as Jason so vulgarly called it- just because it was a school day.

“Is something wrong Master Damian?” Asked Pennyworth, with a raised eyebrow, Damian was on his way to retrieve one of his many pets.

“Nothing Pennyworth, I…I’ll go out with Titus for a while”

(He was sure the blue-eyed kid would have loved it there, father let him have almost all the animals he found…)

“To the manors garden or to the dog park?”

“Park”

“Very well I shall inform Master Bruce” Damian had to stop himself from rolling his eyes, not like he could go walking from the park to Metropolis or something. With a curt nod he made his way to the garden, where Titus was more likely chasing something.

~

Damian didn’t like the situation, not when Mother practically put the sword on his hands, not when he was shoved inside the room like he was a misbehaving toddler “I refuse to do this mother, there must be another way”

But Mother’s eyes didn’t change, they were cold as always. Heart thumping on his ears Damian slowly turned around “Your grandfather has been clear; he only needs one heir”

Standing opposite him was the blue-eyed kid, his little brother, looking back at him with fearful eyes, but he didn’t feared Damian. He feared their mother, and that make Damian’s gut twist. It wasn’t fair.

“Dami? What’s going on?”

Mother knew Damian was strongest, Mother knew D—y would rather lose than attack him. Mother knew that Damian was better at following orders.

“Take your weapons, it is time to see who is superior enough to continue the Al Ghul legacy”

Maybe that was why his little brother seemed confused, maybe that was why his little brother was staring at him helplessly, despite being armed himself with his favorite pair of Sais.

Damian could only send him the most apologetic look he could muster without infuriating their mother. -he was just a kid too, he also didn’t wan to die, he was a brainwashed kid, they were both just five-years-old-

“Ahki?”

So, they fought.

~

“Happy Birthday Danya” Damian whispered sadly at the small cupcake with two candles he purchased when he went to the park earlier that day. Perched over the roof, no one should be able to find him there -not as if they ever tried- staring out to the sky, he whispered his wish to the stars, maybe they could deliver it

(Danya had always liked the stars, didn’t he?)

“I hope you are happy wherever you are”

Chapter Text

Talia stared at the babies forming in the artificial womb, one had been expected, the other, the other had been a surprise. A not so much welcomed surprise. She had had to have a ‘conversation’ with her father, for him to let her have both.

Twins were valued in the league, especially for recognizance missions, they were useful in infiltration, useful in confusing the enemies. But having twin heirs had always been a bad omen. Talia had to pay for her son’s live with her own, one of the few times her father seemed her worthy of using the Lazarus Pit.

Ra’s Al Ghul complied after he stabbed her to almost death, relying after her ‘miracle’ recuperation, that having more heirs to the throne could be beneficial in the long run.

Talia only hoped that at least one of her babies would be up to her father’s standards.

-

Damian had been the first to be retired from the artificial womb, making him the oldest by mere few seconds. But it was clear he had been the ‘superior’ twin. He was bigger, healthier, overall perfect.

Her other son on the other hand, Danyal was small, had had some difficulty breathing at first and was a crybaby that drove Talia mad. Not as if she oversaw the babies all day, that responsibility was handed to the nursemaids, and no one will accuse her of anything if she sends an incompetent nursemaid to their death for not keeping her son quiet.

What irritated her the most, is that her weakest son was the one whom resembled her beloved the most. To the point she couldn’t be in the nursery without becoming melancholic under the babes very familiar blue eyes.

(She hated it.

She loved him.)

As soon as her sons could walk -even a little bit earlier- she pushed them to the tutors, to their instructors, both needed to be perfect to grow inside the league, better start early, like that one girl Cain had.

-

“‘umi?” A small voice calling from behind the door to her quarters was the only warning she had before two two-year-old toddlers made their presence known, walking as fast as they could to her side. A servant practically running behind them.

Talia sighed, fortunately still in her official attire. She may need to change nannies, again.

“Little Princes you must not disturb Lady Talia” The servant’s voice landed in deaf ears, her two sons were staring up at her, still in their training clothes. Danyal was extending his arms quite eagerly towards her, holding what appeared to be a small flower.

“’umi! For you”

Where did he get it? Talia didn’t want to know, it better had been handled to him by one of their teachers, because she had given instructions to not let the heirs out, yet. She took the flower delicately, making Danyal smile proudly at her.

As if handling Talia a wildflower had been the most difficult mission he had ever had. Maybe she should up their training if they had time for such menial things.

(They are only two, a small voice whispered)

“Pray tell why they are in my personal quarters?”

The servant looked nervous, adverting her gaze. So, he was aware that he messed up, good “S-sorry Lady Talia, training ended early, and Prince Danyal was very insistent on seeing you”

“So, you let him?”

“Prince Damian ordered me to” As if to confirm the notion Damian nodded, small arms folded over his chest, staring at the servant as if he was a being below him.

Talia had to suppress a smile.

She stared at the servant for a few minutes, he was still young, probably a new recruit, he would have still room for improvement. With a stern face Talia called for the guards, that for some reason had left an unauthorized person inside her quarters, she would have words with them later.

“You are dismissed…to the dungeons, guards”

“L-Lady Talia?”

“You need to know how the hierarchy works around here, Damian and Danyal may be able to order you around to do whatever they want” Because they were the princes, the heirs to the Al Ghul legacy, and unlike her brother’s daughter, they deserved it “But not when it disturbs me, or my father. You are lucky it was me that caught your mistake, father wouldn’t be so…benevolent. Take him”

The servant didn’t protest as the guards dragged him out of the room, at least he had a good head to recognize that he has been made a favor. The young man would be dead if the one her sons had decided to disturb had been her father.

“’Umi?”

Emerald green and icy blue stared at her with curiosity, oblivious to their involvement of an innocent man’s punishment. Talia sighed and crouched down to their level “Habibis, I have told you to not come unless I send for you”

“Nal miss you” Supplied Damian as an explanation, burrowing his face at Talia’s hair. It was a cute action, one that she would have to train out of him.

“Mien too!” Squeaked Danyal in indignation, also hugging Talia’s side with a pout, signaling to his recently bandaged arm. It appears Talia found the reason why training had ended early. “It hurts”

Danyal always made a fuzz every time he was hurt in training, and with that Damian would refuse to continue due to his brother’s crying.

“Danyal, what have I told you?”

“No to cry” Chorused back both boys at the same time, voices combining.

-

Ra’s had decided to advance the heir’s training, much to Talia’s protest -they were only three-. Her father had accused her of poisoning the mind of his heirs with a weak mindset and threatened Talia with denying her the rights to see her sons if she didn’t correct it.

She accepted after Ra’s pointed out he had started Mara’s training not that much ago and had had excellent results. Mara was just a year older than the boys, and if they wanted to maintain their place as heirs…Talia knew a threat when she heard one, so she accepted.

With a stoic face she promised to level up the heirs training, even putting in the errands meant for the new recruits -new recruits that were usually young adults. Ra’s was satisfied with that.

“Umi” Bright blue eyes lighted up at her presence, Danyal and Damian had just finished their combat training and were headed for bed.

“That’s not the way you should address me, from now on I am your Mother, and only your Mother, did I made myself clear?”

The tone made the toddlers take a step back, Talia had never been mad at them. They had seen her order someone’s death, sure, or order someone’s torture. But that ire had never been directed at them.

Danyal’s eyes misted over, Talia internally sighed, why did he had to be such a crybaby?

(Why did she had to be so harsh with her babies?)

“U…” The slap Talia gave Danyal resounded in the empty hallway, her son hadn’t started crying due to the shock. Damian was giving her wide eyes, which were promptly schooled in a blank stare when her thunderous eyes stared at him.

“Yes, Mother” Damian nodded, face carefully blank, subtly standing in front of Danyal as if to protect him (protect him from her, Talia’s heart broke).

The things she had to do to keep them alive.

“Good, now, you would have to come back from one mile away, I’m sure your instructors had been clear enough for you to know your way” And what if they were in the dessert? And what if her babies would have to suffer for the first time in their life of dehydration? And what if she wasn’t allowed to help them? They would be alive at least “I expect nothing but the best”

“Yes, Mother” Both chorused, voices mingling together.

-

“Report” She said harshly, trying to ignore the heart throb at seeing her sons standing as straight as they could in her presence. Like she was their superior and they were little soldiers, as if she was not their mother.

Danyal even had opted to never stare at her eyes, glare always on the floor or somewhere behind her head. Damian was the one of the two that always spoke up, that stared at her, but not in defiance. He was assessing if she was going to attack them, looking for clues in her body language.

Sadly, Talia had been ordered to attack them in the past, surprise training Ra’s had called it.

Damian was the one that signaled if they needed to fight, Danyal was the one always searching for the nearest exit. Always ready to take Damian’s hand and run away.

They were the perfect team. (And Talia hated it).

“The recognizance mission has been successful” Reported Damian, with a blank face.

Both were covered in gashes, from what she could see Danyal had deep cuts on the arms, as if he had blocked a sword barehanded. “I see Danyal has suffered more wounds than you”

Danyal tensed, gaze shifting to the ground. Ears turning red. Damian stood slightly in front of him, giving Talia a stern stare. “It was my mistake Mother”

So, Danyal had stepped up trying to protect his brother.

“The recognizance mission has been successful” repeated Danyal in a monotone voice, timbre like Damian’s, not daring to stare directly at her.

Talia sighed, it was going to be one of those days “Very well, go back to your room. Damien you are prohibited from attending to your brother’s wounds”

“B-but”

“If you have none, then that means they were avoidable” That seemed to make her oldest flinch, he had the bad habit of jumping in to action without regarding his surroundings. This often resulting in Danyal’s wounds. Not being able to help the youngest was punishment enough for Damian to stop and think “Dismissed”

“Yes, Mother” They chorused; Talia wasn’t sure she could discern her kids voices anymore.

-

“I refuse to do this mother, there must be another way” It was the first time Damien openly voiced an opinion about the orders he received. Talia’s oldest was the obedient one, the one in Ra’s graces.

He was perfect, the five-year-old could take down an intermediate level assassin all on his own, and with his brother help they were able to take down a ten high level soldiers, but Ra’s valued more individual worth.

Danyal had been deemed unworthy after he failed to kill one of his instructors, after Ra’s had been made aware that all the death count of the twins, had been done by Damian alone. Danyal helped, he weakened the enemy, the targets, but couldn’t land the finishing blow. He was weak, he needed to be retired.

“Your grandfather has been clear; he only needs one heir”

Talia dragged her eldest to the combat room, where a scared Danyal waited for them. Talia’s hearth panged when she noticed the fearful glare wasn’t directed at Damian, but at her.

Her own son was wary of her, he feared her.

(What had she done?)

“Dami? What’s going on?”

“Take your weapons, it is time to see who is superior enough to continue the Al Ghul legacy” Talia stated, not once staring back at her pleading children. She made it clear to Damian, one way of another, only one of them would walk out alive.

“Ahki?”

The fight didn’t last long, at first both kids did their best to prolongate the combat as much as they could. Then, then Ra’s entered the room and the battle turned fierce, both kids giving their all.

Danyal catching up that it was a combat to the death, and either one of them won, or both would be death. From there, Damian got the advantage after some well landed hits, despite her oldest hesitation, he won, and Danyal small body was now bloodied in the middle of the room.

It had been clear for her, and for Damian, that Danyal had refused to fight his brother till the end.

“Good job Damien, you have earned the title of the Demon Prince” Ra’s smile was cruel, he patted Damien’s head when he made his way out of the room. Talia was frozen in place, seeing one of her child breath’s starting to fade. “Finish him off grandson”

Once Ra’s and all the other servants were out of the room Damien broke, it was the first time Talia saw him cry. At least in front of her.

The green-eyed kid kneeled on the ground, not caring about getting his clothes soiled with his brother’s blood. Carefully hugging the boy closer, crying silently.

“Dany, najmi, you are going to be f-fine” Damian babbled, patting gently Danyal’s face, whose eyes had started to lose their light “I’m sorry”

Talia felt like an intruder, to her own son’s death. Was it worth it? All the things she did and said to maintain her sons alive? (At least one of them was still breathing).

“Please mother, you should be able to save him…”

Pleading emerald eyes met her, Talia had to advert her gaze as soon as she understood what her child was asking from her “Father wouldn’t be pleased when he finds out the pit has been used in someone unworthy”

“I’ll take full responsibility”

“He may not remember you” I wasn’t uncommon for resurrected people to suffer from amnesia, only her father and her were the only ones adapted enough to the pit to not suffer severe consequences.

Damian didn’t hesitate when he gave her a determined look “That’s better, you can put him away, take him somewhere safe…Let him live like a normal kid” the last part was whispered, as if it had been a wish her son also wanted for himself.

But that couldn’t be, what a normal childhood would have of appealing to the Demon Prince?

“I’ll take care of the body” Was the only thing she said after her youngest had finally passed away.

-

Talia never told Damian she did it, she actually resurrected her son. She couldn’t find the courage to tell him that Danyal had been relocated to America -not with their father, that would have dented their plans and Ra’s would have taken notice- no, Talia orchestrated a car crash.

One where she abandoned her youngest kid, unconscious form, more likely with memory loss. But alive and breathing.

At least one of her sons would have what they both wanted.

(At least she managed to save one of them, would she be able to save the other?)

Chapter Text

Bruce was paranoid, it would be hypotrich to deny it. His children often make fun of him for that, or often stormed inside the cave demanding he didn’t leave his trackers all over their personas. But he liked to be prepared, there existed a man that could be considered a god, a kid that was blessed by them and a woman that was half one.

And there, existed ways of controlling them, he had seen the destruction Clark could do under red kryptonite influence, this was the planet where his family lived, he couldn’t let them face that danger without being prepared.

He couldn’t lose anyone (Not any more…).

That’s why he was close to scream at Constantine for withholding information. Apparently, a major isolated incident took place while half of the league was off world, a small town in Illinois had been dragged inside a portal. To another dimension.

“I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”

“You know the drill, small, haunted town got dragged inside the ghost dimension, but don’t worry the local hero took care of it” The English man just decided to drop the bomb in a meeting. As if it was something minor, something without importance, something that didn’t involve them.

“Ghost?” Barry mouthed towards Hal disbelieve wrote all around his face.

Bruce would be the same if he hadn’t been seen weirder, some of his wards, much to his regret, had been practically dead one way or another, and they had come back. He knew about the Lazarus’s pit and had been the one to help ‘Deadman’ resolve his own murder; he knew ghost existed, but apparently there existed more than one type of ghosts.

One that was powerful enough to interact with their plane without having to posses anyone.

“We should go and see if they need help” Diana said a little bit worried, despite Constantine vague description, a whole town being trapped in another dimension for what sounded like hours may have left it in a bad state.

Constantine grimaced “Yeah, no”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Princess, ghost can posses living humans, aliens, things…do you really want to give them the chance?” That made the whole room wary, it had been bad enough when some magic user or telepath got control over any of them.

“What do you suggest then?”

“As much as it pains me to say this” Constantine said with a frown “Batman and one or two of his flock’s presence is the most I could get Phantom to agree to” The English man took out a cigarette to put on his lips, without lighting it, as if trying to make his words less shocking. “He said he had a way to stop ghost for possessing you, but that he wasn’t risking a possessed Superman”

“Phantom?” Bruce frowned, Constantine needed to give them all the information and stop assuming everyone knew what he was talking about.

“Local hero, opinion may vary but he’s a good lad” The blond man turned to stare in Capitan Marvel’s direction with a small smirk, as if they shared an internal joke “He’s on Kronos good side”

Marvel’s eyebrows almost disappeared in his hair line “Is he?”

Bruce interrupted them before they could start discussing mythology and gods, turning a stern glare toward his least favorite English man “We depart in two days”

“We?”

“You are coming with us”

“Like hell-“At Bruce’s unimpressed stare, Constantine rolled his eyes “Fine, but you own me one Bats”

-

“Let me get me this right, you are going to this town in Illinois because a what did what now?” Dick stared at him baffled, hair all dishelmed from training. Bruce had called him back to Gotham for him to patrol as Batman for a few days.

Bruce Wayne was officially going on some business trip alongside his daughter. Tim had been forcefully put to rest by Alfred after almost 80 hours awake, and the rest of his kids were busy in other things.

“A ghost sucked the entire town into the ghost dimension” Bruce deadpanned, facing the bat computer trying to find all information available of the town and the local hero.

He frowned at the reports of thievery and other crimes attributed to the local ghost, named Inviso-Bill by the media. But Constantine had vouched for him, so…he will save his judgement, for now.

“Ghost…sure why not” Jason grinned, perching himself at Dicks shoulders, taking advantage of his height and his brother’s astonishment “I call dibs on the co-pilot seat of the Batwing!”

Cass scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest, giving Jason a reproachful stare. ‘Mine’

“Nu-uh, that’s not how it works sis”

“Why are you going?” Damian scoffed interrupting his siblings’ squabble, frowning so hard Bruce was sure his eyebrows somehow managed to fuse together.

“Dickie is staying back to cover up for B, the purple menace, nightlight and you have school” Jason gave his youngest a shit eating grin. “Replacement is probably passed out somewhere”

“I don’t need to go to school”

Bruce sighed at the old protest, Damian had been more vocal about it since Jon, as in Superman’s son, had to go back to Smallville while his powers developed “Damian, we talked about this”

“I feel this treatment unjust”

“Suck it demon brat”

“Jason please don’t antagonize your brother”

“You are not my-“

‘We better go, night will fall soon’ Cass interrupted, and with a small smile she dashed to the Batwing, leaving a spluttering Jason behind.

-

After an hour flight, they met Constantine on top of a rooftop, the town was small, the skyline could never compare to Gotham, but it looked peaceful. Too peaceful for a town that had been recently dragged to another dimension.

They arrived just before sundown, and not even once the residents seemed surprised of their presence there. They only received wary glances, from a redhead kid, and a scowl from some teens.

Constantine had failed to inform the town had tried to reach the League, only to be turned down. Some town’s people resented them; they didn’t have their full trust. “Wait a minute, let me…. “Constantine mumbled unbothered by the stares, taking out of his pocket one battered down phone. Bruce could feel his children incredulity at the sight “Phantom? Yeah, we are here, hurry up”

“You have a ghost on speed dial?” Blurted out Jason, distorted voice sounding quite baffled. The English man rolled his eyes.

“Not speed dial, but he gave me a phone number to contact him”

‘Why does a ghost need a phone?’

Bruce gave a small shrug at his daughter’s question, to then turn and give the blond man a stern stare “You should have given him a League Communicator”

“Pretty sure you are the only one that carries spare ones” Before Bruce could reprimand the magician, about League protocol, he turned around to stare at the horizon. The air suddenly felt chillier “Oh, he’s here”

The ghost didn’t appear from where John was staring at, in fact, he just, was suddenly there. Bruce was expecting a man, to be honest, one didn’t like to think a ghost could be a kid.

A boy, a boy was the town’s hero. He couldn’t be older than fifteen, his face was still round, fluffy with hair going in all directions, his ‘uniform’ didn’t have any protection. He reminded Bruce of someone, but that couldn’t be all his children were alive and breathing.

“That’s a child” Whispered Jason into the coms “B, that’s a freaking child”

The kid hasn’t seemed to notice them, crossing his arms, and glaring at Constantine like he found him irritating “I told you it wasn’t necessary the town is fi-” Glowing green eyes stared right back at Bruce’s eyes, and he had to suppress a shudder. The kid’s aura was cold, but that wasn’t what was giving him the chills “Oh my, that’s Batman…Mr. Jhon, that’s Batman!”

“I know kiddo” Constantine seemed rather offended at the change in demeanor, scoffing all the while Phantom zoomed in and out of their personas trying to get a better angle at their suits. “Teenagers. Phantom if you would?”

“Oh, right, sorry” Phantom stopped floating, standing straight in front of him, like a little soldier. It made Bruce gut twist; the action reminded him so much of Damien he could barely see the ghost at the face. He looked so much like his son, that Bruce’s mind didn’t know how to process it “As I have told Jhon, the town is fine, ghosts had promised to stop their attacks for at least a week and there wasn’t that much property damage since the whole fight took place at the castle”

“See Bats? There’s nothing to worry about” Constantine didn’t seem to notice the slight grimaces that the three Bats had. Because that kid.

That kid looked really familiar.

(Had he failed again?)

-

“Are we going to address the elephant in the plane?” Asked Jason after a while, they had gone back to the Batwing to retrieve some equipment, despite the general good condition of the town Bruce didn’t want to risk collapse from internal damage to the structures. Cass turned around sharply to raise an eyebrow at her brother “What? This is not a room”

‘That kid…’ Cass frowned, gesture barely noticeable due to the cowl ‘He looked like…’

Like Damian, a white haired, wrong shade of green eyes, glowing and floating Damian. Bruce didn’t like this, was it another clone of his son? Another plot of Talia to get back at them. To try and ‘save’ their kid from Ra’s ire?

But the ghost, the kid, didn’t seemed to recognize him, nor him, nor any of his children. The kid seemed genuinely excited to see them, like an overwhelmed fan. His actions differed so much of Damian that apart from the physical resemblance it was hard to see his youngest on the ghost kid.

“We should investigate how ghost actually form” Bruce hummed, he may not believe in coincidences, but they existed “Hood, find a way to get a photo close enough for facial recognition and a sample”

“Aye, aye, sir”

-

“So, bye, please don’t come again” Phantom was practically pushing them towards the Batwing, the kid looked exhausted. Thing that seemed to puzzle Constantine for some reason, like it was the first time he got to see a ghost that evidently needed rest.

They had patrolled the town, and when Bruce deemed it structurally safe enough -near four in the morning- they finally decided to retire to their own city.

“I tough we bonded Glowstick” Teased Jason, hooking his arm around the ghost’s neck. Who turned intangible and scoffed at him?

“Yeah, no, please don’t come back, my nerves could not take it” The kid mumbled giving them all a stern scowl, so like Damian’s and at the same time so different. To then turn into a bright teasing smile that made the differences between the boys stand out like an eyesore “Except Black bat, she’s cool”

‘Goodbye, hug?’

“Yeah, sure, why not? Fair warning tough, I’m dead cold” Jason groaned and rolled his head to stare at the sky, as if pleading the universe.

“Please never meet Nightwing”

“You are just boring” The kid stuck at his tongue in a childish display, letting them see slightly elongated canines. To then turn a stern glance towards them. “Please do not come back, I don’t know what I’d do if any super or meta gets overshadowed”

Bruce grunted in acknowledge, Phantom had given them a type of belts that supposedly protected the user from being possessed. That and a small number of weapons he apparently smuggled out of the local ghost hunters.

He will stay back until he managed to recreate the technology “We will try”

-

Bruce frowned at the result, the DNA had come up inconclusive, he had expected it. He wasn’t an expert in ghost biology, but knew they were apparently made up of energy, so, technically speaking they wouldn’t have any DNA, but he had to try to appease his mind.

(Had he lost another one?)

“So, how was the little field trip?” Asked Dick, to no one in particular, as he and Damian made their way to the showers. Bruce frowned when he noticed the day, it was a school night, Damian wasn’t supposed to be out this late.

He would have to have another talk with Dick about indulging Damian so much.

“Met a ghost, got some technology…” Jason had decided to stay for the day, only by Alfred’s insistence “Replacement! You won’t believe this! This thing’s battery lasts for a month!”

Bruce frowned once again; Tim wasn’t supposed to be here. It seemed that the only kid that followed his rules in the house was Duke -but for how long?- Tim perked up at the mention of a durable battery and dashed to Jason’s side.

Steph raised an eyebrow in Bruce’s direction from her perch near the training mats “Ectoplasm can be used as a source of energy” He explained under his breath.

“Did you bring souvenirs?” The blond asked, sounding far more excited than anyone had the right to be at five in the morning “Apart from glowing goo?”

“Oh, yeah, sure…” Jason cackled while putting all the weapons Phantom gave them on the table. Turning a mischievous grin towards his youngest brother when he stood out of the changing rooms “Hey Dames! We found your look alike!”

Bruce frowned, once again, he had told Jason to not show the photo to anyone. Not after Phantom confessed, he had to really concentrate to be shown on camera -that was why there was no actual footage of the hero aside from his ‘official’ accounts- Bruce needed time to run tests, to determine if they were all just seeing things where it wasn’t anything.

“Don’t be daft, Todd”

“You know how there’s at least one person in the world that looks exactly like you?” Jason continued his explanation without minding Damien’s scoff or Bruce’s warning glare. But as always Bruce’s warning felt on deaf ears, Jason portrayed the ‘selfie’ he took of him, Cass and Phantom in the main screen of the Bat computer, for all to see “We found yours, well he is dead, so I don’t know if it counts”

The photo was a good one of Red Hood making bunny ears at Black Bat, while Phantom smiled widely in the middle, eyes almost closed. Tim snorted, mumbling something about how Damian would never smile like that. Dick squealed in excitement. Steph whistled, immediately seeing the resemblance.

But Damian, Damian hadn’t got angry, like everyone had been expecting him to -Along the lines of ‘how dare you compare a plebeian to a prince’ or so tough Bruce-, no, Damien had gotten deadly pale, he wasn’t moving, he was staring at the photo like he had seen…a ghost.

“You, okay?” Dick asked a little bit worried.

Damian snapped his teeth together, Bruce was pretty sure he had bitten his tongue on purpose, give them all an impressive scoff and headed upstairs as if nothing had happened “I better go, I have PE first period”

His son knew something, and Bruce didn't liked when information was hide.

Bruce missed Damian’s last glance toward the screen, a glance full of hope, mixed with fear and fury.

Chapter Text

Damian was conflicted, in the screen they all saw the same white-haired kid, a superpowered kid that had attracted the Justice League’s attention, for guarding his hometown against an interdimensional threat. But to him this was world shattering view, if the boy was a ghost as his father said, then, with those looks, was it the ghost of Danyal? Had he turned into a ghost because he had been unsatisfied in his death and decided to haunt the earth?

Did his little brother wanted to take revenge? (Not as if he would stop him).

Or, a little hopeful voice said, his mother had taken his words to heart and had put his little brother in the pit, and had given him another chance at living?

(But then, why was his little brother dead?)

A vile, untrustworthy voice said this may be a trap from his mother, to lure him away from father once again and end the job.

(He still had nightmares about her peaceful face once she realized her son was losing the light in his eyes, as if she was doing him a favor in killing him).

He ditched PE, not as if he needed extra physical activity, and went to the school's library. Not the securest net there was but would suffice for now, he put his special USB made to keep Oracle away from personal investigations and started.

He needed to know if ghost aged

If they remembered their dead’s

How to appease them

How to send them to rest

(If there exited a Christian heaven or anything that resembled it, from both, he was sure Danyal was the only one that deserved it)

-

His research at the library didn’t conduct to anything substantial, aside from the work of Dr. and Dr. Fenton -which he was sure was biased, based on their constant dismissal of any possibility of ghost being sentient- the rest of the websites were obnoxiously goth sites that Damian was sure were scams of some sort.

Frustrated he went back to class, not really paying any attention at all. Not as if he needed it, he and Danyal had received the best education in the compound, technically on doctorate level at the tender age of five. (Dany chose astrophysics while Damian studied management and arts). He had to suppress a smirk at the relieved glare the PE professor sent him when he noticed him at lunch, he was not in trouble for skipping class, in fact Mr. Johnson seemed relieved of not having him in it.

Damian had put a lot of the basketball team ‘stars’ at the infirmary for the coach’s comfort. They have been accidents of course, planned ones. They couldn’t prove anything.

Anyways, back to research, this time from his cellphone while munching on his lunch. He was pondering on asking a certain raven-haired girl for help when a sudden voice make him groan.

"What’re you doing?"

"Go away Mizoguchi" He scowled at the brunette, she was the only one that still approached him at lunch, the rest had learned their lesson, do not approach Damian Wayne. They were in some school activities together, and Damian had been the victim of her ramblings more than once.

They were something like friends. (Don’t let the rest hear that)

“It’s Maps, and you know it Wayne” The girl rolled her eyes, snatching up one of Damian’s grapes right from the container and started to leave to another table “Let it be known that I tried”

Normally he would let her go, it was a ritual now, Maps trying to not so subtly ask if he wanted company for the lunch period, and him turning her down. But when Damian watched the members of the other table, he remembered.

“Wait” Deep down he knew he would regret this, but desperate times “You are the president of the paranormal club, right?”

“Detective club” Maps groaned “Yes, what of it?”

“What do you know about ghosts?”

-

Maps and her merry band of friends had been of no assistance, at all. Damian had just gained a migraine for the constant bickering of the group of friends.

Later that day he had went to the Titans, in hopes on convincing Raven of telling him some more details, since she was the resident expert in all occult things -no, he didn’t have an infatuation with her, Grayson, one should be blind to not see how she and Beast Boy looked at each other- but she was in a bad mood.

(It had nothing to do with how rudely he asked for the information)

“Constantine” Damian barked once the world stopped spinning, walking with careful steps around what Raven called the ‘house of mystery’, home of the conman “I require your assistance”

“Robin? What on earth are you doing here?”

Damian had to stop himself from rolling his eyes, the English man was wearing just boxers and seemed about to go to bed. Typical of a lowlife like him.

(Time worked different there, didn’t it?)

“Raven helped me”

“Of course, she did” Constantine groaned, magicking himself a pair of trouser, at least he pretended to conserve some decency.

 “She said that if I wanted to know more about ghosts, I should pester you instead of her”

The blond man stopped his action of lighting a cigarette, frowning and regarding Damian up and down with narrowed eyes “Wait, did Bats put you up to this? I told him to leave Phantom alone”

“Father did not” Seeming as Constantine wasn’t intimidated by the unsheathed sword Damian decided to put it away, choosing to sit as nonchalky as he could at one of the couches. Between grime and magic books, he had sat on worse “It’s personal research”

“Whatever you say kiddo, but I’m not telling you how to hurt ghosts”

He had to roll his eyes at that, despite knowing the other couldn’t see it due to the domino mask “Don’t be daff, that’s not what I want to know”

“Then?”

Damian did his best to sound like he didn’t care, when in fact, he did, a lot.

“Do ghosts age?”

(Had his little brother been trapped as one this long?)

-

Ghost did age, but not at a human peace, so it was probably that Phantom had died at the age he portrayed. Constantine thankfully didn’t pry on to why Damian so desperately wanted to know that, after a thoughtfully interrogation -Constantine agreed to tell him everything he could, but not weakness, apparently the conman didn’t want to anger another mystical being, with demons was enough- Damian could come to two conclusions:

• Danyal, if Phantom was indeed him, had recently died, judging by his looks. He seemed around the same age as Damian.
• There existed a possibility that someone could be controlling him.

His gut twisted at that, he had pleaded for him to been sent away, to live a peaceful live. But there was a possibility of someone magically controlling his little brother, of someone taking advantage of him.

(He would make sure to secure and destroy all those magical artifacts, to keep him safe) (Like he should have, like he had sworn to do)

The only alive person one that could answer correctly if Phantom was Danyal, was their Mother. if there was the possibility his little brother had survived and ended up in Illinois -to then die again. The slight chance that his Mother had heard him once in her live.

But there was one problem with that, Father had cut down all communications with Thalia, always keeping an eye out for the League of Shadow’s activities but a distance from her, because his father was paranoid. Batman had prohibited Robin to even utter her name after she had decided to send a horde of clones to kill him -he wondered if Danyal had a normal life, one without evil clones.

But he did say, alive, didn’t he? Damian would have to ask in person.

If it was not him, he would find a way to stop the pretender, and find answers of his own.

(If it wasn’t him, he wasn’t sure he could handle it. It had been already too long)

-

Damian was efficient, trained to be in fact, it had taken him only twenty four hours to collect all the available information -he did not pull a ‘Tim’, Todd, he at least slept three hours-  it was time, he needed to know, he needed to be certain.

But he couldn’t go to Amity Park under Robin’s mantle, Phantom had been clear, and Batman had taken it seriously. No other superhero or vigilante should step inside Amity Park unless it was a dire situation or Phantom gave express permission. Unless they wanted ghosts discovering the fun of possessing a superpowered human or alien.

So there went the possibility of taking the teen titan’s jet or taking a ride on top of Goliath to the location. Thankfully there was a very good reason for Damian Wayne to visit Amity Park.

The local zoo somehow had gotten their hands in a very rare specimen, a purple back gorilla, he didn’t like to use his activism contacts for his own gain, but this was an exception. It was a plus that as soon as he mentioned animal activism in his house, he was given permission to do whatever he wanted, and go wherever he wanted as long as he didn’t come back with another pet.

“Are you sure about this little D? One of us could come with you” Grayson said worried, while Damian carried his small suitcase down the stairs, Alfred had agreed to drive him to the airport.

“I’ll be fine Grayson, I’m capable of taking care of myself. I at least don’t eat sugary cereal for the three meals of the day”

His eldest -something- gasped in mock betrayal “Dami! You said you will keep that a secret!”

“Did I?”

They sent him away without really asking where he was going, learning long ago that he would never directly tell them. Which came in handy because his destination was a banned one.

-

“Samantha Manson?” Damian was supposed to meet three people outside of the zoo today, but he only saw a goth girl, who he assumed to be Samantha Manson, local activist. Said girl spun around with a frown, mad.

“It’s Sam, call me Samantha again and I would…sorry” that quickly deflated after she realized who he was. If Damian hadn’t been used to lingering glances -since he was famous Bruce Wayne’s son-he would have noticed a little hint of recognition on her purple eyes. She then turned to her cell phone and whisper yell to whomever was on the other side “Guys, he’s here, hurry up”

“Mason then, Damian Wayne” They shook hands a little bit awkwardly “So, tell me about the zoo. Are their conservation policies good?”

“Well, they try, but this is a small town and despite the zoo being privately funded…”

“Is still struggling?”

“Yeah”

They talked some more about the zoo and its various inhabitants, Damian always keeping an eye out for any ghosts. From his research, where there were ghosts, Phantom was always close by. He just needed to find a good excuse to disappear during a ghost attack to confront the teen ghost.

“Sam! There you are! Danny went…” A kid in a fedora screamed from the other side of the street, clearly exhausted from running around “Hi?”

“Da-Wayne, this is Tucker, one of my friends, he agreed to be our camera man”

The two friends exchanged some glances, and some weird hand signs -something about a thermos, as far as Damian could decipher “A pleasure to meet you! Dude, Sam is always talking about your job!”

“Wasn’t there supposed to be three of you?”

“Da-Danny is…”

“Preoccupied, maybe you could meet him later”

-

The rest of the day had been uneventful, Manson and Foley had been…adequate…company, this Danny (Why did the universe decided to remind him of Danyal everywhere lately?) had never showed up, something about his parents experiment of sorts.

At that Manson had to explain to him that Danny was the son of Dr. and Dr Fenton, the local ghost scientists, and pseudo ghost hunters. That picked his interest, maybe they were the source of father’s new green glowing equipment.

It had turned late, no one was out in the street -a good thing considering this town was haunted by literal ghosts- no one except them, there was just so many things wrong at the zoo that Manson and him had put their minds in a renovation program funded by their families, Damian hadn’t notice that it was already dark out.

Or maybe it had been destiny, because just as they were getting out of the zoo, him behind the locals who were discussing an appropriate establishment to invite him for dinner, an eerie glowing begging appeared in front of them. One hurtfully familiar.

“Sorry guys! It was boxy again, is he gone already?” He didn’t pay mind to Manson’s panicked ‘Phantom’ nor did he register when he pushed the other two teens aside. Right in front of him was the ghost, the ghost of his past that he so desperately wanted to see.

To confirm that it was who he thinks it was, to apologize, to do something to gain his forgiveness.

“Oh, he’s still here” Damian took firm steps toward the teen, avoiding Manson’s and Foley’s attempts of keeping him away, suddenly he was grabbing the dead teen’s face. It felt cold but there was no denying it, despite the change in skin tone, despite the green eyes, white hair, and the fact that the boy was glowing -not floating anymore, he had touched down to let Damian closer.

Damian would recognize his little brother anywhere on this plane or the other. The hint of mischief on his eyes, the warm smile that was reserved for those who he held dear -and wasn’t it reassuring? That Damian was still in that list- the way he stared back at him as if he finally found something he had been desperately looking for.

(The same way Damian was staring back at him)

“Dany” He whispered, voice broken for the first time in almost ten years, cheeks wet for the second time in his life.

“Ahki” Suddenly they were embracing, despite the cold, Damian hadn’t been warmer in his life. He hugged back fiercely, glad that this type of ghost was tangible, burring his face at the top of Danyal’s face -He was still taller than him, barely, but that small detail hadn’t changed. And then, they were spinning, in midair, floating like gravity didn’t exist.

Reality came crashing back to him like a bald of icy water. His little brother was dead, he couldn’t protect him.

“Dany, please tell me” Damian pleaded, once they were back on solid ground, for the second time in his live, staring earnestly at his brother’s face with determination. Not caring about the tear tracks on his own cheeks. Or the fact that they had company in the form of two dumbfounded pair of teenagers.

“Who killed you little brother? Who do I have to kill?” Because if he couldn’t protect him from dead, Damian would be sure to avenge him.

“Ahki?”

“Who did this to you Najmi?”

Chapter Text

Danny had to make a double take at his brother’s seriousness, a mix of warm and horror mixed in his gut. He remembered bits and pieces, small fragments, of weapon training and some kind of missions. But he hadn’t made, didn’t want, to make the connection.

Tucker had joked once that from what he told them -what he remembered- made it sound like a ninja cult. Seeing now the seriousness in his brother’s face, it may not be that far from the truth.

“No, no, it’s okay Dami, I-I’m fine”

“You are not fine Dany, you are dead” Damian deadpanned, Tucker snickered in the background. Right, he had forgot about his friends -he would deal with that later. But seriously Tucker, it was not the time.

To some it may sound like a joke, but Danny was certain that Damian wasn’t joking.

“Tucker!” Admonished Sam, looking a little bit panicked, observing their surroundings. Right, they should change locations before someone noticed.

“Sorry, sorry” Chuckled Tucker looking far too amused for the circumstances “I didn’t know you knew Arabic Danny”

“What?”

“You two started to speak it”

“Of course, he knows Arabic” Damian sounded so done with the situation that Danny worried about Tucker’s integrity. His brother -he felt giddy just thinking about it- narrowed his eyes at Danny’s friends, with suspicion “How do you know him?”

“Am…we seriously need to relocate” Whispered Sam, and just on cue the G.A.V made its way towards them. Danny sighed; his parents just had to appear in a critical situation. Where were they when he was chasing Boxy ten minutes ago?

“Stop right there! ghostly menace!”

“Step away from the kids!”

He saw from the corner of his eye how Damian tensed, an aborted motion of standing in front of Danny. Something in his ghostly core hummed in contentment, his platonic soulmate was back in its place.

“Not a kid” Damian grumbled, eyeing with a calculating eye the weapons the Fenton started to wave around. His brother was frowning and judging by the previous statement may act against people who harmed him.

Which was basically half the town, Danny better kept an eye out “I’ll lose them, meet back at your house?”

Sam raised her eyebrows but nodded “Sure” It was a miracle the goth girl hadn’t lost a limb going by Damian’s face “C’mon Wayne”

-

“I’m back!” Danny yelled overenthusiastically once he floated inside Sam’s room. His two best friends were practically in the corner watching Damian warily who had decided to sit all properly in one of Sam’s bean bags. The scene was quite funny “Is everything alright?”

His brother -older brother, Danny groaned- was the first to stand up, frowning at Danny’s hair “What happened to you?”

Now that he noticed it smelled a little bit like burned…hair “This is normal, don’t worry, Mo…Mrs. Fenton almost managed to land a shot”

“Your dodging skills need” Damian drawled, pinching a part of Danny’s hair to extinguish the fire “work”

(“Who killed you little brother? Who do I have to kill?”  No one actually, his own stupidity if they wanted to put the blame in someone. But he doubted that would a peace him…wait, his brother tough he was dead)

“So” Sam broke the awkward silence, once they were inside Danny realized despite having so much to tell and ask, he didn’t know how to start. Sam and Tucker seemed to sense this, and tip toped towards the door. “We…we’ll be at the game room”

“Sam!”

“Have a nice chat guys!”

*-*

Talia had decided to follow Damian when he noticed the city he was heading to, of course she kept tags on her child(ren). She wasn’t as bad as her beloved but liked to know where her heir was.

It had been already four years since her attempt of ‘liberating’ Damian from this world, she had gotten notice of what her father would do to her boy and decided that if Damian couldn’t be himself, he was better off dead. No need to live as the soulless vessel of the Demon head.

(Why wouldn’t she just kill her father instead of her baby [babies]? Why?)

Her beloved had made it clear; she wasn’t allowed to be near Damian. But that was inside Gotham and the Bat associates’ immediate surroundings. She didn’t know what had gotten Damian interested on visiting that specific town on Illinois, but she would follow to see the development.

(Would she gain his [their] trust back if she reintroduced them?)

Talia watched the town wearily from the window of her hotel room, she hadn’t been there in years. Once she made sure Danyal was on good hands she never visited again. No need to attract the league’s attention.

But now, she realized, the relatively calm town had been transformed in ghost central, the receptionist had asked if she was an occult fan -much to her confusion- and the small research she did while she waited for her spies’ report wasn’t painting a good picture.

In the last six months the town had been transformed, attacked, and subjected to terrors similar to major crime ridden cities. Thankfully there had yet to be casualties.

(Was her baby, okay?)

Later, when she received a report that her son had been dragged away by a bunch of local teenagers, one of them being a ghost. She worried, Lazarus pit and ghosts didn’t mingle -Yes, the shadows knew of ghosts, hard to not to, since they often played with live and death. But Ghosts didn’t like the aura the Pits left on the body, they considered sacrilegious any interference with dead. The demon’s heir and ghosts weren’t a good combination.

So, she dismissed her troops, pretty sure Damian wouldn’t react well to their presence and hurried to the place herself. Better to explain her son (her baby) that he would better stay away from the apparitions.

What she found almost make her loose her composure.

(baby) [Babies] (baby) [Babies]

*-*

Damian stared at his brother with anticipation, the energy around them was a little bit awkward, but it wasn’t hostile (not like when Damian met the rest of his father’s brood). It was filled with hope and anticipation.

“So, that happened” Mumbled Danny under his breath staring in disbelief at the door, Damian supposed he wasn’t counting on the other teens ditching them -how did a ghost became friends with teenagers? Were they friends when Dany was still alive?

The glowing kid took some deep breaths and turned to face him; Damian had to suppress a small smile at the overexcitement from the other one -some things never changed “Hey Dami! Nice to see you again”

But he couldn’t let the warm distract him, now that they were closer, now that there was light, he could see that his brother had bruises, he was injured, had bags under his eyes and looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

Something inside him told him this was wrong, all wrong, Danyal -even though the harshest of their trainings- wore a smile and a lightness that Damian often envied. But now? He seemed, defeated. His gut told him it had nothing to do with the fact that he was dead “What happened to you Najmi?”

“I’m fine Ahki, see?”

“Danyal” Damian deadpanned.

“Danyal? That’s my name?”

Worry twisted Damian’s face, had the Lazarus Pit trampled with his little brother’s memories? But he seemed quite able to recognize him “What? You…you forgot?” Which thing exactly had he forgotten?

(Did he not remember that his first death was Damian’s fault? Was that the reason he seemed so happy to meet him? Because he didn’t remember? [He didn’t remember Damian had killed him?])

“Not entirely, I still prefer when people call me Danny, with double n” Damian thought it was his duty to refresh his brother’s memory, to apologize and never see each other again if Danyal so wanted it. But he was also selfish, Damian had missed his brother for so long “Now I know why I hate Daniel on principle”

“You always hated your full name” Just, a few more minutes would be fine, right? Damian would get names out of his brother, would avenge him, and if Danyal didn’t want him around after everything… “Don’t change the subject”

“What do you say if we…exchange stories?” Despite the hesitance, there was also hope in Danyal’s eyes, and who was Damian to deny him anything?  “And just to let you know, asking how a ghost died is very rude”

But before they could share stories, about a live full of hardships, of misunderstandings and violence.

About a live full of excitement, isolation, and bullying.

They were interrupted, by the person Damian wanted to see less in the world.

“Step away from him, ghost”

From the shadows appeared her figure, cladded in green but still managing to blend in the darkness. Portraying confidence and respect just by stepping inside the room.

Damian tensed, taking a defense position in front of his brother.

(Just like so many years ago. Old habits)

“Mother”

“Mother?” Poor Danyal seemed so lost, but also ready to attack the intruder. Eyes searching everywhere for an exit.

(Old habits die hard, indeed)

“What are you doing here?” Damian spatted, cursing inside his head about letting Pennyworth convince him of leaving behind his main weapons. Thank batman’s paranoia that he still had some daggers with him “Was I not enough?”

Talia for her part looked puzzled, as if the scene was something she hadn’t been expecting.

(There were firsts for everything, mother)

“Are you here to harm him too?” Damian wasn’t liking how she was looking at his brother, as if she wanted to destroy him. Dread pooled in his gut, not caring if Danyal tough it weird, he unleashed his concealed daggers “Or were you the one who left him like this?”

*-*

Talia watched with slight amusement how her son took position to defend the creature, to defend it from her “Now, now, don’t jump to conclusions Habibi, who’s your friend?”

“You don’t recognize him?” At the venom on her son’s voice, she raised an eyebrow and turned to look at the glowing creature with critical eyes.

“Dami, what’s going on?”

The voice was so like Damian’s that make her stop on her tracks, the creature looked like her son, but in an ethereal way. It was glowing, its hair was pure white, but its eyes…

His eyes were Lazarus green.

“Dany, meet our Mother” Talia’s chest panged at the venom, mother used like an insult (where was her baby? Where were her babies that called her ‘Umi with delight and fondness? [You killed them, whispered a voice]). Damian stepped more to the left, to put himself between her and the creature (the creature, her conscious screamed that it wasn’t one, that she knew him) “You are too late, he’s already dead”

“At least he stayed dead”

(She hadn’t meant to say that)

“What?”

“She tried to kill me once, don’t worry, Father didn’t let it be permanent”

“She, s-she did, WhAt?” The glowing familiar kid spluttered, looking at her wide eyed.

(‘Danyal, an Al Ghul should never hesitate, nor when one kills, nor when one talk’

‘s-sorry Mother’)

“Damian, step away from the apparition” Talia said warily, not liking the situation in the slightest. In retrospective, maybe taking out a weapon of her own had been a bad idea.

“You, lady, stay away from my BrOthEr”

“D…Danyal?”

*-*

“Where’s demon brat?” Tim grumbled under his breath; he hadn’t seen the menace on his way to the cave. And he liked to keep tabs on him least there was another accident. He had just woken up after Alfred, or Bruce, someone had drugged his coffee to make him sleep.

Which was rare, he hadn’t been up that long!

“Went somewhere to defend a purple gorilla or something” Replied Stephanie, who was by the training mats, chatting amicably with Duke who had come down to the cave for some hand-to-hand combat lessons.

“I’m pretty sure there’s no mammals that are actually purple” Tim mumbled, while double checking on the computer. Just to make sure her ex-girlfriend and best friend wasn’t pulling his leg.

She must be referring to the purple backed gorilla, which had two specimens, both being guarded in a private owned Zoo, in Illinois. “Um…guys…”

“What do you want replacement?” Jason grumbled from under one of his motorcycles “Some of us are busy over here”

“Damian went to…” Oh, the brat was in so much trouble “He went to Amity Park”

Stephanie whistled “The one place Batman said not to go to?”

“Demon brat is entering the rebellious phase” Jason cackled “I’ll pay to see those fights”

Tim didn’t pay his siblings any mind -yes, Steph was kind of his sister at this point- checking Amity’s security cameras trying to see why the demon brat would have wanted to go there of all places.

Dread invaded him when he noticed a familiar figure in one of the frames “Bad news people. Talia is also there”

“Call B, we better hurry up”

Chapter Text

Talia stared a little bit bewildered; Damian didn’t seem to notice -or if he did, he didn’t care- the apparition, Danyal, had started to glow brighter. His canines elongated and the aura he gave out was threatening. He had the whisp of his tail around Damian’s torso, as if to protect him.

“Danyal, stop this nonsense this instant”

“Look, lady, I don’t know who you are, and I don’t care. Step, down” Her kid growled, and honest to God growl, as if he was a feral animal.

But that didn’t matter, one thing stood out for her. Startling her enough to make her put away her sword “You…don’t know who I am?”

“Recently gained my memory back, I only remember Dami here” ‘He’s the only one I want to remember’ was left unsaid.

Damian on his part was watching her warily, still positioned for an attack. Danyal didn’t seem to mind his brother’s sword despite being almost the same as Talia’s. She was clearly not wanted there if those were her sons’ reactions. But she needed to make them see.

“Damian, you need to…”

“I no longer follow your orders…M-Talia” and it hurt, more than she would like to admit when her son didn’t call her mother.

“You know Habibi, ghosts and demons aren’t meant to mingle” She repeated, the league’s teachings still on her mind. Damian was supposed to learn about ghosts once he became the Demon’s head, about how Ra’s ancient fight with a being called Pariah Dark and how from that battle came the right over the Lazarus pits.

That were no other thing than ectoplasm and live magic, two things so contradictory, and yet complementary. A bizarre thing of nature that made ghost loathe them and living beings exposed to the waters get into rage rampages.

Of course, her father resulted to be mad, he wanted to take over her little baby’s body. So, she sent him away before he could learn any of that, of their legacy.

But now, in front of him was his other son (Her failure, the one she couldn’t protect) he was a ghost, but with the Lazarus waters still on his body, the green eyes were a prove of that.

A being so contradictory that was a wonder how he even managed to turn into a ghost, and yet Al Ghul’s were known for doing the impossible that she wasn’t even surprised. “I can see the Lazarus’s waters still affects you Danyal”

“Don’t know what’s that”

“Is that so?” Talia said with a raised eyebrow, it appeared that Danyal hadn’t retained any of his important memories, she wondered if he had forgotten all his training.

“You know what, I’m not in the mood to stand here under your judgy stare…Dami, mind if I?”

At Damian’s shake of head, Danyal took him by the armpits and both, floated away.

*-*

Danny didn’t know how to feel, the lady had said somethings that was making his ghost core scream. It was telling him to take Damian and put him in a safe place, away from that woman, to later come back and eliminate her.

Damian had called her mother, so he assumed she may be his mother too. But his conscience was telling him she was a treat, to get out of there as fast as he could. Thing he did once Damian agreed.

(Get him away of her, before she commanded one of their dead)

Talking about his brother, he didn’t even flinch when he started floating both out of the room. It was as if he was used to it. Weird. Danny would latter apologize to Sam for leaving a ninja lady on her room, not that Sam would mind, thought.

“I think that roof over there may be enough distance brother”

When had they reached the town’s limits?

“Uh? Oh, of course” Sheepishly he put Damian down, floating softly in front of him “So, that just happened”

“Yeah…sorry you have to meet her like that” Damian grumbled, staring at Dany with a slight frown, as if he was worried about something “What do you remember?”

Dany tried to not make a face at the question, he felt guilty that he hadn’t gone to find Damian as soon as he identified his photo (He, after all could fly) but one of the things holding him back was the fact that he didn’t remember much.

“Not much, really. I started to remember after the incident” He had a slight suspicion his memories were only the good ones. His mom did say social services suspected him of being a victim of child abuse. Judging by the fact he remembered some strange things and that his apparent mother could hide in the shadows, it wasn’t painting a good picture.

Danny felt more guilty when he realized that Damian had grown up around that. (Without him)

“Some glimpses, of you, us…training? Playing, things like that” His brother’s face turned sour, as if he had been worried Danny didn’t remember all the details “B-but, don’t worry, I still like you. You would need a lot to get rid of me Ahki”

Danny playfully shoved Damian, the other teen rolled his eyes but had a small smile on his face.

Well, that was until a robotic voice interrupted them.

“Someone is in deep trouble”

*-*

“Hood” Damian internally cursed, he thought the dose he gave Drake should have given him at least three more hours. Danny tensed at his side, eyeing Todd with suspicion.

Not that he could blame him since Talia appeared just few moments ago with intentions of harming them.

“What are you doing here?”

Todd for his part put his hands up in mock surrender, Damian could still see that the man was fully armed “Phantom, nice to see you again”

“I told Batman; no capes are allowed in Amity” Danyal frowned, his hand resting on top of Damian’s shoulders.

He growled at Todd, not in the mood for more interruptions. With their mother was enough. But now he had the suspicion that his father and the rest of them were in the city. Danyal didn’t seem to like that, and honestly, Damian either.

“Right, well, you see kid” Todd snarked, pointing at him as if it was obvious why was he there “Da…Wayne there had no authorization to come here”

“I have father’s permission to be here”

It wasn’t even a lie; he didn’t even deceive his father to be there. It wasn’t Damian’s fault that no one took the time to check where the purple backed gorilla was. And he did do his activisms work, there was some deniability in all of it.

“Really?” Todd’s distorted voice sounded amused. He took some steps towards them, thing that seemed to irk Danyal, that hold on his shoulder was starting to turn painful “Now, if you come quietly, maybe Batman would tell Bruce Wayne to not ground you”

“On your dreams Hood”

Maybe showing hostility towards Todd had made his brother wary of the vigilante, but Damian didn’t care, he needed some alone time with Danyal. If he must fight everyone for it, so be it.

(It had been already too long)

“Stay away from us” Damian did not yelp when his brother started floating him, nope, it was just an involuntary reaction. Dany flew them away, glaring daggers at Red Hood the whole time “And get out of my city!”

*-*

Jason stood on top of the roof looking at the way where Damian and Phantom had disappeared, like, disappeared. He had seen Phantom pop up out of nowhere when he helped the old man with the town’s evaluation. But it was quite disturbing to see his baby brother (As much as Damian hated it and denied any affiliation with them) disappear like that.

“Hood, report”

Oh, right, the comms.

“Damian was with Phantom, they seemed to be on good terms” Which was quite strange, because Damian hated everything and everyone (Dick would say he wasn’t fair that Damian did have friends) “Also, now that they were standing side by side…B, I put my money on the clone theory, they also sound the same”

He had tried to sound calm when he teased the brat about his rebelliousness, but he also had an internal freak out when he noticed how both teens were practically the same person.

“What do you mean?”

“They are roughly the same size, not really sure about Phantom since he was floating, but they have the same complexion” Well, kind off, Damian was buffer since he trained regularly, but it was barely noticeable. More so with the slightly baggy clothes the brat used in his civilian form (Thing that took Alfred and Dick almost a year to convince the menace of).

“I wouldn’t say clone, per se, not really seeing Dami getting along with someone cloned to replace him” Dick commented over the coms “Remember how it went the last time”

At that mention all the present cringed, Jason often made jokes about the ‘dead Robin club’ but he had promised himself at some point ‘no more dead robins’ and well…Damian died, Steph faked her death, Timbo would have died when he went to that expedition -he returned without a spleen- so, he wasn’t really doing a great job at it.

“And the fact that Phantom is a ghost also deters the clone theory, according to Constantine a ghost is the result of strong emotions, I doubt a clone would achieve that if he had had accelerated growth to appear to be Damian’s age” Tim mumbled, tired, a small pause -Jason bet the replacement was drinking coffee- and then a horrified “Oh my god”

“Red Robin?”

“Damian has a twin” Tim sounded breathless “Well, had, but, what?”

Any other group of people would have reacted with denial, with incredulity and such other things. But they were bats, they were detectives. Jason was sure that everyone had the thought as soon as he showed them that photo at the cave.

But no one had wanted to dwell on that because, because of what that would mean. What would that have meant for Bruce.

(For their dad)

The comm went silent, they were all tense. Jason was holding his breath, since Damian was -as he liked to say to whomever who would listen- the blood son, then that meant…

“Talia is also here” Bruce’s voice was barely above whisper, more a grunt than anything.

Jason could bet he had crunched whatever he had been holding.

“She…” Dick sounded apologetic “Sorry B”

She had not only kept Damian’s existence a secret up to he was ten, apparently there had been another. Another one that apparently died at fourteen.

Jason clenched his hands, he still remembers the shadow’s training, even that there was a special compound meant to train children, the cradle. How he had tried to dig info up about it only to come up empty and with a sword to his head.

A furious Talia yelling at him for poking his nose in things he ‘couldn’t comprehend’.

“When I was training with the league…” But now it was pretty clear, she wasn’t just furious at him for trying to steal info from the League of Shadows. Jason jumped down from the roof, it wasn’t hard, there were no proper skyscrapers in the small town. Then turned his motorcycle on and started to drive toward the warehouse where everyone had gathered.

 “Remember? We discussed the possibility that I may have met Damian before” Replacement had come up with that idea, Damian even have confirmed he may have heard of him inside the league. He would have been seven when Jason arrived. “I didn’t see the brat in person, but there were rumors going around, about how lamentable was that one of the Demon twins was out of commission”

Talia had been mad because he had come close to discover her little secret. To Jason one thing was clear, Damian knew this kid. “I never tough much of it; twins were quite common in the league”

“That also explains why Demon brat knows how to fight in pairs, it also explains why he gets so frustrated when the other fails to see and guard his blind spots” Tim mused, being the first to find his voice “It’s because he was accustomed to fight with someone so tunned to him that he didn’t need to tell him instructions”

“Tim, where’s Talia?” Bruce practically growled.

*-*

“So, you know Red Hood?” Danny asked curious, he had taken Damian to the abandoned ‘haunted’ house he usually hang out at with his friends. They even put a couch and Tucker managed to set a TV-videogame console combo.

It wasn’t the best place, but no one else aside from his friends knew about it. It was safe and away from curious onlookers (he needed Damian to be safe).

“All the Gotham vigilantes actually” Damian deadpanned, eyeing the place in general. Frowning at some things but not really saying a thing about the state of decadence of the place. He even hummed under his breath at Danny’s game collection.

“Why? No, wait, right, super rich kid…”

Right, he had overheard the A-listers talking about Bruce Wayne’s kidnaped children more than once. (What would Damian think about moving in with him? He needed to keep him safe).

His brother gave him a raised eyebrow, took out one of the games and went to put it on. Uh? He wouldn’t have thought Damian was a fan of Cheese Viking. They only had it because Sam liked it.

It was kind of awkward for a while, Danny just floating there not really knowing how to have this conversation. Damian thought he was a full ghost, which, fair, but Danny’s gut twisted with guilt every time his brother gave him concerned glances.

How to tell him everything? (That it had been his fault if he ever wanted to blame someone) Danny was also reluctant to tell him that his parents were ghost hunters. He loved them, he knew they would accept Damian, no questions asked. But something told him that Damian would behead them for pointing weapons at him.

Him being Damian himself, or Danny, he wasn’t sure.

“What do you think of Batman?” The silence was cut by his older brother -and Danny groaned internally when he realized he still was the ‘baby’- who gestured him to sit down and take the other control.

Danny obliged, hovering one inch or two on his spot. His ghost form not at all fan of the laws of gravity.

“Oh, man, it was super awkward, he came by after an incident with the ghost zone, and he was all angry and gloomy. I know ghosts cheerier than him” Youngblood and Ember were a good example. He pouted when he noticed his brother had gotten his favorite character. Huffing he turned to give Damian a side smile “I also thought he would be taller”

Damian smirked “Right?”

Chapter Text

If she hadn’t been quite shocked at the fact that Danyal was a ghost, and that apparently, she had been at a teenager’s room -who decors a room all black? No even her beloved did that. Talia would have reacted when said teenager practically shoved her out of the room towards the guests drawing room with a mean frown that rivaled her son’s. And explicitly hissed, actually hissed at her to stay put or else.

As if a puny teen could do anything to her.

At least they were polite enough to provide her with a tea set and some subpar concoction, it was a little bit bitter for her taste, but the warm helped to keep her calm.

Talia needed it, since she just learned that the son she had managed to get away from the league, died in horrific circumstances (painful and traumatic enough for him to come back as a ghost) and practically threatened to harm her if she ever glanced wrong at her other son.

Sha may be in distress, but that didn’t mean she was on high alert. Not when she knew her beloved so well.

“Hello, Batman”

“Talia” The man in question stepped out of the shadows, in full cowl, Talia knew that the rest of his flock was somewhere around, waiting to attack. She expected her own troops to stay in line. “Why did you do it?”

She needed to have this conversation before his agents decided to take the birds on their own.

“Do what, beloved?”

Talia knew her beloved would piece the things together, but there was something that didn’t sound right in that statement. Bruce growled and, in a few movements, had her pinned to the wall -she allowed it, just because she was a little bit stunned.

“Why did you separate them? Was it worth it? How did he die?”

“I think we are not in the same page”

Was he implying she killed her son? (again) or that she kept to herself one of the twins and left the other with him. (She had gotten them out of her father’s reach, if Danyal had been still with them Talia would have also dropped him with Bruce four years ago).

“Why you took one kid and left me the other? Was it to spite me?” She had to suppress her amusement, despite being the best detective, her beloved could still jump to conclusions when she was involved. Wasn’t that cute? “You, you took my other child just to let him die in a league mission, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t do such thing”

“Then, explain”

*-*

It took two game rounds -where to his frustration Damian won with mean combos- for Danny to get enough courage to address the very big elephant in the room. He couldn’t take Damian staring at their surroundings with a concerned frown any longer.

Did his brother tough he lived there? (That it was his haunt or something? Well, technically it was)

“So, Dami…there’s something I need to tell you” Damian paused the game, but thankfully didn’t turn around to fully face him. Thing Danny appreciated because he didn’t want his brother to see him struggle with his words.

But his brother seemed used to it, as if it had been a common thing for Danny to not know what to say or how to say it, Damian offered his hand to him, to play with it. It was a habit he always had, playing with people’s hands when he was nervous, it warmed his hearth seeing that Damian still remembered it.

(He wasn’t the one who forgot)

Taking a deep breath, he opted to simply, let it out. Like Jazz insisted so much on him doing with their parents -yeah, that was still not happening. “I’m not dead”

“Constantine told me denial was quite common with ghosts”

That wasn’t the reaction he was expecting, Danny froze in place staring in disbelief at his brother.

Then he remembered that Damian thought he was dead, dead, and could see why that had been his reaction. (Also, Damian knew Constantine?).

“No! not like that, I mean” There went nothing, griping Damian’s hand he let the rings transform him back. Thank the ancients he wasn’t on his pjs or something “Hi”

Damian had turned around as soon as the brightness of the transformation made itself present in the barely lit room and was now staring at Danny with big eyes. Suspiciously wet, but Danny would not comment on it -he was a good little brother like that.

“You want to exchange stories now? Because I want to know what that woman meant when she said you died”

His brother was still speechless, opening and closing his mouth like a gaping fish. But one detail made Danny giggly inside, Damian was still holding his hand. He wasn’t afraid of him.

That gave him courage. “I’ll go first, it all started when my parents…the family that adopted me, decided to construct a portal to another dimension”

*-*

Damian would deny it till the day he died -again- but he could just sit there, gaping. Only half of the things Danyal was saying were consciously registering, the other half of his brain was going through relieved shock.

After a quite bright game of lights, Phantom vanished, and Danyal. His baby brother was sitting there mumbling his live story.

How he had wanted to be an astronaut before the incident, on how he couldn’t remember anything before his sixth birthday. He even joked that shock therapy seemed to be good for memory.

But Damian’s mind didn’t focus too much on the quite morbid bad puns, because all he could see was blue eyes, pale skin, and fluffy black hair. All he could see was how his brother’s cheeks turned rosy while he worked himself up trying to explain himself. How his chest rose and fell which each breath. His brother was alive.

Or something like that.

“…and then, then I felt like one hundred thunders crossed m-my b-body, and, and” Oh no, his baby brother was hyperventilating.

Damian practically launched himself to hug Danyal -Grayson would be so proud of him, don’t even dare to mention it- Constantine had warned him, for a ghost to form, their dead was painful and traumatic. Even Danyal had told him that asking a ghost how they died was considering very rude.

And his baby brother seemed to be remembering his dead, Damian admitted he had been curious to know. Furious, wanting vengeance on his brother’s behalf, but he didn’t wan to make him suffer.

(Manson had a lot to explain, also, Danny’s parents didn’t sound that good. Specially if they were the maniacs that pointed their weapons at them at the zoo. He would need to talk with Danny about that later.

No one would harm his brother, ever, again.)

“Hey, hey, Najmi, breathe with me” Damian directed the hand he was holding towards his chest, and started to inhale and exhale. Desperate for his little brother to follow the motions, but Dany seemed to have forgotten how to breath. “Here, follow me, it’s ok, it’s ok”

He hadn’t done this in a while (nine years to be exact) but he moved their foreheads together and started to sing an old lullaby under his breath, one he had once willingly forgotten because it brought back memories. One he always associated with his brother.

He sang about how their father would come back, from the lemon harvest with a skirt and a shawl to keep them warm in December.

Their first caretaker had sung it just once when they were very little. He had been from somewhere in Egypt and had been dispatched after he had stood up for them. Back when they still needed diapers.

But the song had been on Damian’s head ever since, maybe because it had been the first and last warm from an adult he had experienced inside the league. He often sang it when Dany was sad, sad that their mother would not visit them any longer.

“Hey” Danyal whispered once he finished, Damian was glad his breathing had returned to normal “Why does this feel familiar?”

“You used to be a crybaby…mother didn’t like that so I…made sure you didn’t cry”

He was so glad he decided to visit Amity in his civilian form, Damian would have died of embarrassment if any of his father’s guards heard him being so sentimental.

“Such a great big bro”

“You, okay?”

“I think I’m better” Dany send him a tired but genuine smile that make him smile in return. He hadn’t noticed before, but his little brother was quite cold. He stood up from their pseudo side hug in search of anything to guard the cold. Danyal didn’t seem to like that “Wait! Come back here!”

“Have I been reduced to a human heather?” He scoffed, throwing a fluffy dark purple thing over Danyal. He supposed it belonged to the goth girl.

“Not my fault I’m always dead cold”

“Dany” Damian deadpanned, quite used to Todd’s dead bad puns.

“Sorry, sorry, force of habit” At least his brother had the decency to look sheepish “Now, it’s your turn”

He knew that Danyal was curious, he did just tell him all his childhood till he got into the accident. It was their non-verbal accord to share stories, but…from where should he start?

“Mother left me with our father when I was ten…”

*-*

Bruce had acceded to ‘sit down’ and have a ‘calm conversation’, he stood looming over Talia’s form, who as sitting as if his previous outburst hadn’t affected her at all. It had been Tim and Dicks voices which made him back down.

They needed to hear the information.

“Danyal was a surprise. They are identical twins, so especial that they have each different skin tone and eye color…Danyal was the smaller one, he was quite fragile. But he was just, so full of life that I couldn’t let father kill him just because of that” Talia sipped her cup as if they were friends discussing things over tea.  “So, I convinced him, that having two heirs was better than having one, that if something happened to one, there would be a backup”

Bruce gripped the batarang on his hand, trying to distract himself from the anger that tried to rise at Talia’s casual statement “They are kids, not pawns”

“They did everything together, there was nothing they couldn’t do. The most fearsome five-year-old you would ever meet, the demon twins” She continued as if he hadn’t talked. Her gaze somewhere in the distant with such sadness on her eyes that make him angrier, how dared her to be sad when she had been the one who signed up their kids to that torture?

How could she be sad when he was the one who had been shut out of their lives? When she was the one who told him the baby had died?

(When she left him to grieve for the baby alone)

Bruce took a deep breath, he needed to hear the whole story first.

“But Danyal was so full of life, so much in fact he had stopped completing his missions” Damian had never actually told them what his training had implied, he never went into detail and it was the only thing Bruce felt queasy about to ask him (He didn’t want to get mad in front of him; knowing Damian he would percept the anger as something directed at him, not something directed at the circumstances)  “Father got notice”

“They were just kids”

“Father didn’t like how soft Danyal was, so…he made them fight” A sharp breath was heard from the coms, either Tim or Jason had forgotten to turn their coms down “Combat for the right of heirship”

Tim whispered horrified “Those are combats to death”  

*-*

Damian told him about how Talia -which was apparently their mother’s name- left him with Bruce -Bruce Wayne was his biological father, what- how he struggled to get along with his charges -apparently, he now had a ton of siblings (yes, Danny was sure Jazz would adopt Damian as her brother without a second thought and he was hopeful to also be somewhat included in Damian’s live). How he struggled with fitting in school and other things.

But he avoided to tell him anything from after they were five, Dany frowned.

“Why do I feel you are not telling me something, Ahki?”

A lot of emotions seemed to pass on Damian’s eyes, yet his face remained impassive. The green-eyed teen looked away as if he was nervous of whatever Dany may think.

“I…there’s a reason why you don’t remember…it has to do with the Lazarus pits”

“The Lazarus what?”

“The Lazarus pits are magical, they let whoever bath in them gain immortality, and sometimes they even cure people of illnesses or physical injuries” That was a strange way to change the theme, but he got the feeling Damian wasn’t changing it, he was more like explaining, contextualizing.

“What are you not telling me?”

“Dany, Najmi, I think your eyes are green because of the pit” Damian gripped his hand as if trying to ground himself, like the next words were so hard to say that he needed the extra courage. His older brother took a deep breath and stared straight into his eyes. Danny felt his stomach drop when he noticed the deep regret reflected on those emerald eyes, Damian was crying “Danyal, I killed you when we were five”

“I’m sorry, you what?”

His mid stopped altogether, staring quite baffled at his brother who was trembling. But never once glancing away, like he needed Danny to know he was being quite serious.

“You have decided to not kill anyone, and I feared what the consequences would be, so I finished your job. You weakened them but then left the room when it was time to f-finish the deed”

Something in his chest panged, his ghost core was giving him back those memories he had gotten in grains of salt this half year. And suddenly, memories flooded his mind.

“We were toddlers” Danny whispered horrified. Finish the deed, it meant killing people. Because they had been trained to do so.

Since they were two.

Damian was trembling, from repressed sobs, but held Danny’s gaze somehow maintaining an even voice “G-grandfather somehow got notice of it” tears finally filled Damian’s eyes to the limit and started to go down, leaving behind tear tracks on his brother’s face “He didn’t like it”

Danny wasn’t liking the picture Damian was painting. Apparently, whatever was next was too much as Damian turned around, desperately trying to catch the tears that had dared to escape.

As if it was a crime to cry.

(It was, in the league showing weakness was punished)

“Hey, hey, Dami, please, look at me” Danny asked softly, taking back his brother’s hands on his own, his heart broke at Damian’s state “Dami”

Damian took a deep breath and with a trembling voice continued his speech, he needed to let it all out; and Danny would let him.

“He made us fight, for the right of heirship”

Meanwhile his mind was trying to process the new memories, but with his brother’s voice, a scene was up front. “That’s bullshit, everyone knew I didn’t want to be the heir”

“At first we started to fight as if it was a spar, mother was there, looking over us”

Danny remembered that, he remembered the fear he felt when he noticed his mother enter the room “She dragged you inside the room, we were both terrified”

“I think we both planned to make the fight as long as we could”

Damian was speaking like Danny didn’t interrupt him, Danny only gripped his brother’s hand hard, his own tears going down his face “We both hold back; we didn’t want to fight”

 “Then Grandfather stepped inside”

Danny felt something inside him scream in agony, the simple thought of harming his brother was revulsive. “We were terrified”

“We had to stop pretending and actually fight”

“I didn’t want to hurt you” Danny whispered, putting his and Damian’s foreheads together. Damian’s rant turned to rushed whispers.

“You smiled at me before letting me stab you”

“You would be a better heir than I, you needed to live” And he would do it again.

“Grandfather went out of the room, patted my shoulder as if I had done a good job”

He remembered that he worried about the blood on his robes, how mother would be disappointed in him “I was getting cold, then you hugged me”

“I pleaded mother to take you to the pits, to not let you die”

“I remember your cries; I remember wanting to reach out”

“I begged her, that if she even did it to take you away, to save you from that place”

“It was getting hard to breath” Had…Had he died not once, but twice?

“They had to sedate me when I refused to let go of your body, when I started to lash out when I noticed you had stopped breathing”

“It all went dark; it was all peaceful. But I missed you so much it hurt” Without his brother at his side?

“I didn’t know what happened to you, but a part of me always hopped that mother for once heard my pleas”

“And then there was green, green, green everywhere. I needed to find you” Danny didn’t notice but at that his eyes turned acid green, lighting up the whole room with their eerie glow. Damian didn’t mind, he was more preoccupied crying himself out.

“I’m so sorry Danyal, I killed you” Damian sobbed, and Danny hugged him, as if he had the intention of never letting go. Damian mumbled under his breath, against Danny’s shoulder, sounding wary and at the same time hopeful “If you hate me is okay, I won’t blame you. If you want me to leave you alone, I can also do that too”

“No, no, no, Damian, my stupid precious brother” Danny forced Damian to look at him in the eyes (both of their eyes were glowing a toxic green) “It wasn’t your fault, we were little kids. They practically forced us to do all that”

“I’m sorry”

As Damian broke down, and as Danny held him. He made a promise to the universe.

“It’s fine” He would never let anyone hurt his brother ever again “We are fine”

(He had promised to be Damian’s body ward, didn’t he?)

H̶̢̤̣̟̘̟͛̀̾͌̌̏̂͑̊͒̑͊̚͜e̷̢̡̢̯̖̗͇̘͆̊̂̿͑͊̈́͠͠ ̶̧̢͖̥̜̹̞̦̣̘̠̰͊̿̑͛̿͊͗̃́̚̚͝n̴̢̐͘ẹ̴̠̭̰̜̹͓̱̞̥̦̩͍̝͕̊͌̐̓͗̓͒͗̽͋̑̀̕è̴̢͈̲͔̖̹̹̯̥͔͗͝ḓ̴̨̢͎̈́͑̄̓̐̅̕̚͠e̷̦̙̼̜̪̬̠͔͇̱̤̟̐͒̀̈́͛̐̚d̸͎͔͎̬̝̥̤̘̣̼̮̹̜̏̂̎͐̊͠ ̴̡̨̡̨̛̬͔̻͇̦̠̲̔t̶̗͖̻̭̩́̇̇ǫ̷̥̹̜̪̫͚͇͓͍̬͌͊̂͌̎̍̀͂̽͐͌̏̒͝ ̴̢̺͚̦̭̞̉͛̑͜͝p̶̛͚̪̫̰̻̠̘̼̹̎̏͒͊̈́͗̑̾̈́̒̕͝ͅr̶̗̈́̄ơ̶̞̣̥̌͌̌͒̇͗̓̈́͛͝t̶͍̳̤̘̦͇̦̓ȩ̷̺̭͙̘͕̖̤͚͉̱̈́̍̿͛̅̾̈́̊͝ͅc̵̨̥̣͖̯͂͗̈́̏̑̇̽̾̚̚t̴̰̟̝̯̫̉̇̎̄̀̐͆̉͛̽̚͝ ̴̢̨̢̛̤̬͕̣̳͓̙̖̜̟̒́̂̈̅͌͒͗̈́̊̊͂h̶̡̙̙̝̭̼̲̺̻̗͖͙̹̰̉̔̉͐́̎̔̅̐̚͝͝î̵̟̣̯͎̼̗̙͚̙͇̰͜ͅm̸̛̗͙̞̺͎̖̫̓̋̋̾̎̃͗͝͝͝

*-*

Bruce stared at Talia horrified, the comms went quiet. The world had seemed to stop. Talia was crying. She was crying after confessing her cult made two toddlers fight to the dead, how she saved the loser just because Damian had pleaded her to do, all bloody and teary. How she had dipped Danyal’s -his son’s name was Danyal- small body in the toxic waters.

How she had hidden his son with another family, him being too inconvenient to her plans to ever contemplate him on her decisions.

“You made them do what?” He whispered to the room. Feeling his own tears going down his face.

“F-father made them”

The silence was tense, Bruce was trying very hard to not attack her right there (what good would it be? He was already too late. Twice, his baby had died twice).

“Bruce, we have a problem” He was too stunned that he didn’t chided Tim for his use of names in the field, Bruce only grunted in indication that he was hearing.

“There had been some sightings of Ra’s Al Gul in the city”

At that he gave Talia a harsh glare “Find Damian and Phantom, take them to a secure place” He practically barked at his kids, he needed to put the, the… twins in a safe place.

He used the batarang on his hand to threaten her (the woman he once loved) “Was this your plan? Lure us out? Drag Damian towards one of Ra’s traps?” It was too much of a coincidence to be any other thing “Involve Danyal too?”

“No…I…no, no, no, father can’t see Danyal” Talia’s face turned paper white.

“Why?”

“Ghosts and the demon clan don’t mingle; they aren’t supposed to be compatible”

And yet, Phantom existed. Ra's would want to know why. Bruce needed to protect his children.

Chapter Text

It wasn’t that hard for Tim to cross-reference all the sightings of Phantom to get a general idea of where the ghost liked to hang around, between all the amateur video footage and the town’s traffic cameras (He couldn’t criticize the quality of the video, Phantom had confessed he needed to be conscious about it, to appear on camera) he could narrow it down to five points.

Two on the outside of the city -on opposite directions-, the town’s high school, the suburban area, and the local ghost hunter’s base of operations.

Something in Tim’s gut twisted when he noticed the high school. It made him remember that the kid was that, just a kid.

“What’s wrong replacement? Have you found them?”

Tim gave Jason a deadpan; it hadn’t been more than five minutes since Bruce ordered to find their youngest, and yet, all his siblings were staring at him, expecting him to know the answer.

“Yeah, kind of, I’ve narrow it down” He tried to sound calm, but someone would need to be dense to not feel the tension that reigned in the room. Tim knew better than anyone in the room how Ra’s could make their plans turn to dust. “The town’s high school, the suburban area, the Fenton’s building, the upper-class northwest area or the southeast abandoned district”

“Oh, geez, I wonder where a teenage ghost would hide at”

Dick smacked Jason’s head with a frown, making Tim relax a little bit at the quite normal pre-mission ruckus. It reminded him that they were all on this together, and if they were lucky at the end of the night there would be a new addition to the family.

“I don’t know Jay, maybe the kid is a nerd like you and decided to haunt the school”

“Shut it goldie”

Tim rolled his eyes at his eldest brothers’ antics “Right, so crossing out the high school, the Fenton’s building, for obvious reasons, that leaves us with three possibilities” Before Jason could retort Tim send him a glare “John told us that not every ghost likes to hide around spooky places”

“It’s Demon brat’s brother” Jason complained.

Which was a fair point, but Tim didn’t want to put the kid inside any boxes, it was a new opportunity for him to make a good impression. Damian and he may not be on the best of terms, but he would like to at least be able to have a decent conversation with Danyal.

No one aside from Dick could make Damian talk more than three sentences -outside of enraging the teen- and that was making the kid’s integration in the family difficult.

(Was Damian reluctant to call them brothers because he felt like he was betraying his real one?)

Dick bounced around with an impish smile on his face “Oh my gosh, who do you think is the youngest?”

“Ten bucks it’s Damian” Jason smirked.

‘D.a.n.y.a.l’ Cass spelled with confidence.

Why would Jason think Damian was the youngest? Tim would like to know the logic behind that, because he was with Cass, Damian gave the weirdest older brother vibes.

(Those three sentences often contained worried tones disguised as insults, like how often Damian made fun of Tim’s unhealthy sleep schedule because ‘he was an insomniac, idiotic enough to not realize that his consumption of caffeine may be the root of his problems’)

“Right, I’m not betting on that…. wait, cross out the northwest, that’s where B is”

“Dibs on the spooky part of town!” Dick called, cartwheeling towards his bike. Jason chasing after him with his helmet on his arms.

“Not fair!”

“You already met them, and you didn’t leave the best impression” His eldest brother reasoned, giving them all a smug smile “Besides, Damian likes me better”

Which was true, Tim rolled his eyes at Jason’s pouting. Taking Dick’s logic in account -and apparently, they all were assuming their little brothers decided to hide in the most dangerous part of town- Jason and Tim should be the last to meet the new kid, since, you know.

Damian had tried to kill Tim and Jason almost got a bullet to the kid’s head…

He shoved his second eldest brother towards their own bicycles “I’ll go with you”

*-*

What Dick hadn’t told the rest was that he was confident of knowing where the youngest were hiding at. While Tim did his mojo -all of them could hack into the Pentagon, but Tim was the fastest, just behind Barbara- he did some research on the local town’s teenage gossip.

Considering this was an actual haunted town with a lot of confirmed ghost sightings, Dick guessed the entry of ‘Phantom’s haunted house’ on the local high school’s newspaper may be into something.

Or so he supposed, this West guy came up with some weird theories.

Cass just followed behind without protest, but she did give him a tilt of her head when she noticed him parking outside a specific house. It was old, half of the upper floor was in ruins and mother nature had already reclaimed it -Poison Ivy may like the place- but the other ground floor was still standing.

“There’s rumors this house may be haunted”

Despite Black bat’s full cowl Dick could picture his sister smiling at him.

-

They entered quietly, as just an ex-assassin and an acrobat trained by the Bat could. The interior wasn’t that much better than the exterior but there were some shoe marks on the dust that layered the floor. As if someone may have recently used the house.

Two pairs of sneakers and a pair of heavy boots.

Bruce had told them that Phantom may have associates, it was a wild guess, but Bruce had caught the ghost teen slipping out a name or two to then immediately shut himself up and refuse to discuss the theme further.

If it was true, that would help Dick’s mind, he didn’t want any of his little brothers to be out there without backup.

After getting nearer the center of the house, Cass put a finger in front of where her mouth usually was and started to tiptoe towards a door, Dick guessed it was the living room. He tensed when he was finally able to hear what had picked Cass’s interest, sobs, and whispers. Someone was crying their heart out inside there, Dick gave his sister a wary glance, should they interrupt?

Cass nodded and Dick had no other option than to open the door, just to freeze when he was met with two pairs of toxic green glowing eyes, two black headed kids had turned suddenly in his direction as soon as the door opened.

He may have left out a startled scream.

Cass shoved him aside and immediately put her hands up, as if trying to convey they were not a treat. Judging by the room suddenly growing colder, he may have to do the same.

“Hey! We…come in peace”

 Dick didn’t know why both teens had glowing eyes, or why Phantom had now black hair, but he could guess which one was his Robin and which one was the local ghostly hero. First, his baby brother couldn’t make a growling sound that reverberated around the whole room -no matter how much he tried- and he was sure Damian didn’t had fangs.

Why were they receiving this treatment? Dick only wanted to meet his new brother.

“Dami, could you tell…Phantom to stop growling at us?”

Damian blinked owlishly at them, as if only now registering their presence. Dick’s heart broke when he noticed the matching tear stains on both teens’ cheeks. Maybe they shouldn’t have interrupted their moment.

“Dany, is fine, I know them”

Phantom narrowed his eyes at them but the cold receded “Are you sure?”

“They won’t hurt us”

“Fine” The toxic glow deemed but Phantom kept his guard up, going as far as floating in place, ready to pounce at any moment. The only thing holding him back seemed to be Damian’s hand in his -no sir, Dick didn’t mentally squeal at the sight. “But you better explain later how you know all the Gotham vigilantes”

“I will” Damian nodded with determination, standing up from the sofa, moving to stand subtly between them and Phantom. As if Dick and Cass would do something to the floating teen. “What do you want Nightwing?”

Judging by the earlier reaction, Dick needed to find a way to relay the situation with tact “We have a situation and B-man ordered us to put both of you in a safe place”

Phantom frowned “Both?”

“Ra’s in town” Cass blurted out, Dick facepalmed when he noticed both teens’ hackles going up.

*-*

Danny felt like the ground just opened below him, he felt colder -even by ghost standards- Ra’s Al Ghul, a name he had just remembered but had already started to loathe. The name of the man that had separated him from his older brother.

(The name of the monster)

“Grandfather is here” Damian deadpanned.

Nightwing -the one with the blue bird on his chest- flinched a little bit at Damian’s detached tone. Danny had the suspicion that his brother knew these vigilantes more closely than the average rich high profile Gotham kid.

“Yes, he appeared while B was talking with Talia”

He hadn’t noticed but he had started to float out of the room, unconsciously getting ready to fight. Damian’s voice stopped him just in time.

“Don’t” His brother’s tone was sharp, it also remined Danny that he still had his brother’s hand on his own, both were floating in the middle of the room. Nightwings and Blackbat’s eyes fixed on them. But he paid them no mind when Damian scoffed at him “I know you Danyal, don’t rush headfirst into battle”

Nightwing snorted “Sorry, sorry, kind of weird hearing that coming from you”

“But! Dami, that...that….” That monster, that vile man. The worst grandfather on earth, was in his town, in his haunt, near his brother, near his family, near his friends.

[H̸̛͍̻̭͉̥̦͕͊͜ȇ̵̡̧̞̖̭͇̠͈̩̳̼̥̱́̑̂̌͑̏́̕̕͘͝͝ ̴̢̮̖̺͍͚̥̖̙̮͚̫̬̑̀̕n̶̖̫̘̠̞̦̫̯̘̰̭̦̪͔͕͛͒̎̃͑̐̌̆͆̍͝e̸̡͕͉̲̓͂͗́̒͂̉͆̌̇̔͊͜͝é̴̡̡̥̺͚͚͉͍͇̍̀̕͝͠ḑ̷̧͕̘̜͇̗̲͎̠͚͊̉̃̚͠ë̴̢̨͖͚̻͎͕͇̪̟͉́̆͋̋͗̆̆̂̿̽̌̃̓͝d̴̬̼̬͔̼͇͈̗̑̽̓ ̵̨̲̝̤͙̆͊̌̅̓t̸̢͕̞͍͉̞̮̻͎̙̠̀͂̄͐̉̈́̋̀̐̌ơ̴̺̖̳̪̺͇̥̻̲̱̘͚̩̏̉̌̓́͑̑̌̅̑͠͝ͅ ̷̡̤̠̣̣̪͍̭̐̊͒̂͘p̷̡̛̼̩͕̰̫̗͎͈͇͇̺̟̼͉̏͗̓ŕ̸̡̰͍̖̗̤͔͚̞̮͍̲͗͐̍̋̑͜͝ͅo̵̗̦̼̗̓̊̋͗̓̊̌̄̆́͘̚̚͝͝ţ̶̩̥̠̲̲͉͉̲͚̝̿̎̈͜ḛ̷͕͐c̷̢̜̜̽t̶̩̼͇̜̺̳͍̜̱͈]

The room had started to freeze over, a slight cape of ice was now on the floor. His fangs had grown, and his ears had gotten pointy. The two vigilantes seemed startled, but Damian was looking at his eyes without flinching.

“I know how you feel, believe me, but it would not do anything”

“Twin secret language!” Danny gasped; he didn’t know how but he still remembered. It made him calm down, but there was still a voice at the back of his mind telling him to drive Ra’s out of his haunt -he meant, his town. “I, it’s just, I”

“If you go, you will have to take me with you”

That made him frown, logically speaking he knew Damian knew how to defend himself. He had just received a ton of memories of their training, and for what Damian told him, he had received five more years of training before leaving to live with their father.

Damian would be fine.

[But Danny didn’t like it]

“Are you sure?”

“Danyal, do you forget who you are talking to? I’m not a helpless civilian”

“I only forgot that one time” Danny grumbled back, Damian gave him a ‘are you serious?’ look that made him sheepish, maybe it was a little bit too soon joke about his amnesia.

“Besides, I don’t think I could convince you about letting it go, and considering what Grandfather would do with the knowledge of your existence… ”

They stared at each other’s eyes for few minutes, narrowing them slightly, daring the other to back down even a little bit. Danny was the first to blink and groaned when he saw the smirk on his brother’s face.

“Fine”

Danny hustled Damian up, now supporting his weight by the armpits. The other teen gave him a glare which he returned with a smile, he would take Damian to their grandfather, but he was going to be annoying about it.

Just when they were about to disappear trough the ceiling Damian called back “We will meet you there” Danny had forgotten about their audience.

Nightwing spluttered in place “B told us to protect you! Not to let you go and confront the mad man on your own!”

*-*

Like Jason suspected, there was nothing but houses on this part of town. But the replacement kept insisting on at least checking around to be sure there were no invisible kids hanging around. He tried to not roll his eyes at his brother’s paranoia, of all the things to learn from Bruce.

Just before Tim could pull out the energy scanner -from their last visit to Amity, Batman had noticed that ectoplasm registered as an anomaly- the communicators opened.

“Big bird to the nest, we…may have a situation”

“Stop calling yourself that” Tim grumbled under his breath.

Jason had to hold a chuckle at the reference.

“We may have…lost them”

Red Robin seemed to have lost it and was now hitting the back of his head against a wall, Jason wasn’t concerned or anything -Tim definitely needed a nap. “How did you lose them?”

“Did you forget that one of them is a literal ghost?” Nightwing mumbled back, the sound of wind could be heard in the background.

An impish grin came up to Jason’s face, despite knowing Tim couldn’t see him the young adult snapped his head towards him so fast that made him cackle “So what? They are…”

“Don’t you dare Hood”

“…Ghosting us?”

“Oh my god” Tim groaned, then shoved Jason out of the way, focusing back to the communicators. Already mounting his Red Bird -what a cheesy name to call a motorcycle. “Where do you think they may be?”

“Judging by the angry scowls, they went to find Ra’s”

“B is going to kill us”

*-*

Finding Ra’s base had been easy, suspiciously so, Bruce was wary. The only reasonably reason for them to find the mad man this early in the game was because he wanted them to do so. Ra’s had decided to set camp on the south of the city, some tents here and there, heavily guarded by Shadows.

Talia was tense at his side, both having to crouch down to not be seen by the enemy -thing that didn’t matter, if Bruce’s suspicions were right the Demon Head already knew they were there.

“Why is he here?”

Talia seemed distressed, Bruce had accused her of knowing about Ra’s plans, but judging by her reactions, it may not be the case “I do not know, he was supposed to be back at the compound, after…”

After the last time, Tim had informed them of the apparent Demon’s Head demise, maybe Bruce should invest on trying to destroy the pits, just to stop the mad man to remerge. It wasn’t killing him, just preventing him from keep existing.

“He used the pit again”

“He has become more paranoid since the last time”

Someone was near, Bruce launched a batarang while Talia soon had a dagger towards the intruder’s throat. The Shadow wasn’t even faced by it. They just bowed slightly, minding the dagger, and continued to announce their message.

“Lady Talia, Batman, the master is awaiting you”

-

They were conducted outside the biggest tent, Bruce became more tense each step they took, they were surrounded by shadows, clearly where the Demon Head wanted them. Talia seemed to pale by the second, and if Bruce hadn’t known better, he would have sworn she was trembling.

(As if she was afraid of her father)

“It has been long, daughter, detective” Ra’s greeted them, all false calm, and green robes. Bruce gave the man a nasty glare “Now, there seems to be some elements missing from this family reunion”

“Leave Damian out of this” Bruce snarled, hoping against hope that, as Talia had suggested, Ra’s was oblivious to Danyal’s existence.

But the man gave them a smile, as if he had been waiting for them to mention it “Right, the twins” Bruce could hear how Talia inhaled sharply at his side, Ra’s smile turned feral “Surprised? Oh, Talia, you could never keep a secret from your father”

The green-eyed woman gave her own father a wary glare “How long have you known?”

(Why did she seem so afraid?)

“That you went against my orders and revived that failure?” Bruce had to clench his fist to not hit Ra’s on the face, none of his kids where failures “Since the beginning”

“But you didn’t do anything”

“Better to have a backup plan even if it didn’t result as one wanted, right?”

Ra’s was talking about Danyal and Damian as if they were disposable, something he could easily acquire and get rid of when he so desired, and it made Bruce’s blood boil “Don’t treat them like objects”

“But that’s what they are, detective, mere vessels”

“They are my children” Talia growled out, adopting an offensive posture.

(It may be the first time Bruce saw her go so openly against her father)

“And I had hope you have seen the truth, but oh well” Ra’s tsked, almost the same way Damian did when he was dismissing someone. But on the grown man the action was menacing, more so accompanied by a cruel smile, that was directed to his own daughter “Nothing a deep inside the pits wouldn’t fix”

This time Bruce was sure, Talia was trembling, from fear or rage, he couldn’t tell.

But before things could escalate, the ambient became colder, shadow agents came out of their hiding spots brandishing weapons. Clearly on high alert. Bruce’s gut was on the floor, he knew that sensation.

A sudden cold spot in the middle of a warm night, in a city famous for its ghosts. It meant Phantom was nearby (Hadn’t he told his children to get the twins out of there?).

“Hey, ugly” Phantom popped into the visible spectrum, floating in the middle of the circle with a very familiar head of black hair on his back, Damian was there too, outside of his gear, great -he didn’t doubt his youngest ability to combat bare handed (Bruce was sure Damian had at least three weapons on himself) but that didn’t mean he wanted them there for the fight “Get away from my city”

“Grandfather, your presence is not welcomed in this town”

“How, interesting” Ra’s smirked, as if he had predicted it all “Guards, keep the children company while the adults…discuss”

Hey~ This is the recomendation corner (the author can't figure out how to put links on the notes).

Recognized by AgentIanLegend
-[Really good, 100% recommended] DPxYJ-

When they heard the fateful words "Recognized: Robin - B01," nothing could have prepared them for the web of secrets which would unravel as Daniel Fenton and Richard Grayson search for answers.

And So It Ghost by Evandarya

-[I love their world building, man, so good]-

When Danny Fenton is invited to a Technology Fair in Gotham he hopes it will help open doors to a good college. What he doesn't expect is an attack by a technology obsessed ghost, or a visit from the Batman himself.

Can Danny keep his identity a secret while also scoring a spot at Gotham University? Or will everything come crashing down around his ears like usual?

To Join the Whispers by ayamari_no_goshi

-I love how Jason fits in the ghostly context, *chef kiss*]-

A contact for the Batfamily passed along a rumor that the League of Assassins were investigating a small city called Amity Park. The old man and Tim managed to find evidence of unusual paranormal activity in the town. While they weren’t entirely certain it wasn’t just infested with metas, the locals believed the entities that haunted, for lack of a better word, the town were actual ghosts. If there was one thing Ra’s al Ghul didn’t need to get his grubby hands on, it was ghosts.

That’s probably why Jason was doing this. He had the unfortunate luck to experience both death and resurrection in a way he’d never recommend to anyone else.

And...I'll stop there, but there's some really good works out there. 

Chapter Text

The situation wasn’t ideal Bruce didn’t want the twins there, but apparently going against orders was a thing that Damian and Danyal had in common. Ra’s had taken out his sword and was fighting Talia while Bruce fended off some of the Shadows. He had tried to step in the fight between the Al Ghul’s but Talia had snarled at him to get out of her way.

It appeared to be personal.

He tried to get close to his sons, Damian was in civilian clothes and despite the great competence Phantom had shown as a ghost fighter, there may be a possibility of Ra’s knowing a way of counteracting his ghostly powers.

It was very unlikely for Ra’s Al Ghul to launch himself into attack without at least five back up plans. And he seemed to have kept better tabs on Danyal than Talia.

When he got to the clearing where the teens had moved their fight, he had to slow down a little bit. Unconscious bodies were lying around, some with first degree burns -Phantom’s ecto-blasts? – and some with some nasty gashes and cuts -Damian had got his hands on a sword somehow.

Kind of scary to admit, but it was painfully obvious, they may have used non-lethal hits, a little bit to the right, a little bit more to the left; at least a dozen of the people lying around would be dead. It made Bruce’s angry, not at his sons, but at Talia, at Ra’s for taking away his sons’ childhood to convert them in weapons.

(Just like Cass).

[Why did all his children had to suffer so much?]

Bruce completely stopped just on the brim of the fight, it was clear, the twins didn’t need help.

They were faring pretty well against at least fifty Shadows, they were even bickering around while blows were exchanged.

“Out of my way short stuff” Phantom called as he rushed around, twirling to send green blast after green blast, almost hitting Damian in the process.

Damian rolled his eyes, and simply dodged an upcoming roundhouse kick and a couple of blasts with a one-handed backflip using the force to kick one Shadow on the shin with the sole of his shoes. Bruce was right, he had managed to steal a short sword from one of Ra’s agents.

“Pretty sure you are the short one”

*-*

Danny scoffed at the remark, Damian wasn’t taller than him. Maybe just a couple of inches, nothing to get cocky about. His brother smirked in his direction while putting out another couple of thugs. “You can’t float, I can, hence, I’m taller”

Damian rolled his eyes so hard Danny worried they may fall off “Grow up Danyal”

“I can’t”

“Really?” Damian deadpanned.

He shugred, blasting off the last of the ninjas, if Damian was disturbed by his dark humor, he didn’t show it, instead his older brother seemed to freeze when he noticed something. This made Danny’s hackles rise, hurrying to his brother side, ready to protect him.

If his months as the local ghostly hero had taught him anything, was that if the fight was too easy, the bad guys had something upon their sleeve -unless it was the box ghost, then it was just annoying.

Danny surveyed their surroundings, twisting his ghostly tail around his brother’s shoulders. With bright green eyes he spotted whom had made Damian stop, a shadow that was darker than the rest. He charged his blasts.

“Don’t fire Phantom, he’s on our side” Damian stated crisply, still tense, a man stepped out of the shadows and Danny had to hold his breath “Batman”

He had just met the man once, but something about his posture made Danny think that he seemed startled by Damian’s words (as if he had been expected to be called something else).

The atmosphere was tense, he didn’t know why. So, he decided to tease his brother to light the mood a little bit “Really Dames? You even know the Bat?”

“Privileges of being kidnapped at least thrice a year” Damian snarked back, making Danny chuckle.

“Damian” Batman stated rather heavily, it made Danny frown. The man sounded like he was seeing a…ghost. “Da-Danyal”

That made Danny freeze clutching Damian closer with his ghostly tail.

“Hey Mr. Batman sir, I think you are confusing me with someone, the name is Danny Phantom” He tried for nonchalance but came out a little bit tense. Damian was just staring daggers at Batman as if the man had the answers to every problem.

“No, your name is Danyal Al…Wayne”

“No names in the field” Damian snapped, reaching up to hold Danny’s hand, he held it back tightly.

Danny didn’t know if he was seeing things, but Batman seemed to hesitate -The Batman, the man famous for having contingency plans for impossible situations (He was trying to ignore how familiar Damian seemed to act with him, as if he knew him personally. If his brother had one more secret to tell him, he will wait patiently for it).

“You two have to get out of here”

But it was too late, a pitch black arrow suddenly hit Danny on the shoulder making him tumble to the ground, taking Damian with him.

He screamed.

*-*

Damian met the ground with a loud thumb, but he caught himself with his palms. Turning around quickly trying to catch the attacker, which was quite easy.

Grandfather had always preferred grand entrances.

Ra’s Al Ghul was standing on the other side of the clearing, another dozen of his guards at his side, all of them with bows. Two of them were dragging around a motionless body like a sack of potatoes.

His gut twisted with worry when he noticed that it was [his mother] Talia, all bloodied and with at least three daggers embedded to her torso, there was no doubt for him now, Talia had gone against Grandfather’s wishes. Dany’s screams made him snap out of his staring to run towards his brother’s side.

(He wasn’t going to lose him, not again)

[Never again]

“Dany, Najmi, what’s wrong?” It was such a stupid question; it was obvious why his brother was screaming. He had an arow sticking out of his upper arm. But that was why Damian was asking, because he knew, from experience, that Danyal had suffered worse injuries without complain.

(Not as if they were permitted to)

“Take it out, take it out, takeitout”

Damian hesitated, he knew which type of arrow heads the League used, if he took it out without the proper equipment there was a high possibility of tearing a tendon or something worse. But all this flew out of his head as soon as he noticed the dark veins on Danny’s jaw.

Whatever the arrow was made off, it was poisoning his brother.

Without another though, he snatched the arrow out, trying hard to not pay attention to his father’s scream (As if Damian would do anything on purpose to hurt his baby brother).

A blob of green dense liquid started to flow from the wound, Dany seated up suddenly, just to throw up black ooze at the other side. Damian felt his hand itch, he threw the offending arrow as far as he could.

“As you can see, we came prepared” Ra’s voice sounded amused, Damian hastily shredded his t-shirt to try to stop the bleeding -was it blood even if it was bright green?

Batman was tense while he stepped in front of both, as if to protect them “Ra’s Al Ghul”

“Detective” Damian was observing the interaction from the corner of his eye, trying to stabilize his brother but very aware of his Grandfather’s presence “I see you have met my other heir”

Danny pushed him gently aside, slapping his own wound with the opposite hand and creating a coat of frost over it -not hygienic at all, but at least it had stopped the bleeding- the white-haired teen was staring daggers at Ra’s.

“I am heir of no one” Danny screamed back, frowning. Like the words weren’t meant to came out of his mouth.

Ra’s inclined his head, just a tiny bit, almost imperceptible. A big smirk on his face “Oh, when you are like that, no”

The statement made Damian and Danyal freeze, standing side by side like stone statues. Did Ra’s know? Did he know that Dany was just half dead?

Ra’s chuckled seeing their reactions, smiling cruelly as if he had already won the confrontation.

“Oh, yes grandsons, I know of his little secret”

“Run!” A weak female voice stated, it sounded tired, it wasn’t a scream, but it was loud enough to snap them from their staring match. Talia was looking at them with desperate eyes, blood coming down from her temple, eyes unfocused.

“Run Habibi, run” Ra’s let her talk, clearly amused by her efforts “Father knows how to defeat ghosts” She coughed out some blood “He even made the ghost king retreat, centuries ago”

For everyone it was clear that she meant the last statement as a warning, to let them all know just how resourceful Ra’s was, but despite the circumstances Damian stood up taller, taking Danny’s hand in his with what he was sure would look like a crazy man’s smile.

Their confidence was granted thought, they knew something everyone else didn’t.

Even his father stepped aside, watching them warily.

*-*

Bruce had been tense, ready for any attack Ra’s may threw at them at any moment. He felt a little bit guilty for screaming at Damian when his son was clearly just helping his brother. But he couldn’t risk anything when the situation was full of unknown factors.

Despite all his efforts ghosts were still a thing he didn’t knew how to combat -or how to help- that was why he made a mental note to save one of the arrows to study them later.

After Talia’s ominous statement, a cold spot seemed to grow behind him, one of Ra’s shadows put down their bow startled. Bruce stepped aside a little bit, just enough to have visuals on both Ra’s and the twins.

What he saw made him wide his eyes -not noticeable behind the cowl.

The twins were standing side by side clutching hands as if it was the most natural thing in the world -when everyone knew that Damian didn’t like physical contact- but what caught Bruce’s attention the most was the glowing eyes, not just from Danyal, but Damian’s eyes were also toxic green.

Danyal’s form seemed to flitch, between his normal self and something bigger, something stronger, something mere humans couldn’t comprehend. This form was at least twice bigger, had pointy ears and razor-sharp teeth. His skin was pale, his lips were purple, resembling a hypothermia victim. He was oozing out waves of cold and even had some frost forming at his feet.

Damian didn’t move thought, almost like he couldn’t feel the sudden cold.

Both grinned widely at the same time, disturbingly resembling Joker’s smile -Damian’s teeth were also sharper.

Bruce felt all the small hairs in his body stand up, something inside his mind was screaming at him to run away; he stood stubbornly in place.

“H̴̨̞̰̣̯͕̪͓̺̙̞̀̈́̃̇̈́͑̌̇̓̕̚̚͠e̵̢̨̺͇̭̠̔́͐̈́͒̃͊͆̽̀͒̎͝͠ ̴̝̀̀͗̈̓̒͑̕͝[̷̧̡̞͎̬̫̘̥́̈́̍̈́Ì̷̢͎͚̺̪̖̱͙̱̪̠̲͖̓̍̑̈̎͐͘̕]̵̢̫̘̙̙̖͇̒̓̋͐̅̈́͊̅͆̚ ̴̺͙̞̳͌d̶̟̟̤̱̼̥́̂̈́̀̊̌͝ͅȩ̷̧̰̫̳̺̺̻̝́͐̋̽̆͗̾͂̒͊̐̈́ͅf̵̢̨̢̼̻͈͈̣͍̣̬̽̀̅͊̎̚ͅé̶͔̦̘͉̃̐̈́̋̔̿̑͝͠a̷̡̱͆̅t̵̩̿̇̐̍́̑̉͋̈̈̚ȩ̵̢͍̳̙̪͇͚̏̋̽͐̾̑̈͌̋̆͐̎̀͒͒d̴̢̰̲͓̖͍͌̉͊͊̑̀̈̉͒ ̶̧̨̖̹̗̤̟̗͔̪̮̝̘̗̌̍̒͛̍̎͂́̾́͆̚̚ṫ̸̨̻̫̆̅̾̊̈́̈́̄͌͑͛͗̕͠͝h̷̡̫̹͈͓̘͙͈̙͚͘ͅe̷̲͊̓̀̑̋͂̂͑̓͆̏ ̸͍̰͐͌̎̑̋͗̑͊̉̀͆̄g̸͔̩̹̜̗̭̐̂̐̒͒̕h̶̢̛̳̦̞̻̮͗̀̈́̆̂̽̍̈́̈́͘͠ǫ̸̨͚̳̮̣͎͗̊̈͑͛̚ş̸͍̯̤̝̯̗̺̘̱̀̚t̶͇̭̟̞͎̣̖̖͋́͆͑̈́͗̏̒̕ ̶̧̱̲͉̗̣̰̆͜͜k̵̪̤͓̗͈̙͙͚͎͚̣͚͒̆̈́̈́́͝i̷̺̯̿͆̒͐̍̇̈́̅͆̕͝͠ǹ̸̨̳̺̤̮̯̲̤̲̖͛̈́̐͗̂̀g̷̡̻̬̥̘̝̠͚̺̑̕”

Was said at the same time, Bruce wasn’t sure how Damian even managed to pronounce that. But one thing was clear, Ra’s hadn’t been prepared for that take of events.

Chapter Text

The ones present at the clearing could feel their bodies turning cold, flakes of snow had started to fall from the sky, a rare phenomenon since they were in the middle of spring. The shadows seemed to grow, twist and become crooked and sharper; if one observed carefully, there were some that had taken the form of hands pointing towards some of the figure’s feet, trying and failing to take them with them.

The wind whistled around, but it was not a gentle spring breeze; it was unforgiving, making the cold sensation even worse, wind gusts making their skin feel like ice needles penetrated even through the thick armored clothing. The worst was what the wind carried, to an outsider it would sound like simply wind howling, but if one was standing in the middle of the clearing, it would sound like the most heartbreaking screams one could ever heard.

Screams of despair and pleads of forgiveness, screams that begged for mercy.

All of this, this feeling of unworldliness, of fear, of despair, was accentuated by green light. Of such a toxic hue that had no place to be in the middle of the nature, yet so gentle one could only want to stand closer, for it to make the unpleasantness away.

Contrasting with the calm feeling, was the image of some unworldly creature that keep glitching in and out of existence, sometimes it appeared back like a white-haired teenager with big innocent eyes, others, like a creature straight out of the worst nightmares. And right at their side, a figure stood impassively, not even flinching when their companion changed forms.

They were a boy, and if one paid attention to the unworldly figure when it resembled their most human appearance, they would notice that they looked so much alike that it would have been impossible for them not to be related. His stare was heavy, figure unmoving, glowing green eyes, staring, unblinkingly at the crowd, as if daring them to take a step closer.

Daring them to make the first move.

 Blood thirst was making everyone wary, eyeing the two teens as if they may bite their heads off (Who knows, the most human looking may).

“Stop this nonsense children, step down before someone gets truly hurt” The old man in green robes said, motioning the archers to ready their bows.

The archers did, just by pure sheer force of will. It was obvious they would fail each shot thought; their arms and legs were trembling uncontrollably, especially since the dark-haired figure stared them down widening his mouth in a smile, with teeth a little bit too sharp.

“I would like to see you try” Damian’s voice was harsh, it echoed, as if three people had talked at the same time. The smile turned cruel, body going tense with anticipation; the dark-haired teen was being only held back by the creature’s hand. It was quite clear that the only thing stopping the highly trained assassin from going in a rampage was his brother, if anything happened to him, there would be hell to pay.

“You are way out of your game old man, better turn around with your tail between your legs, while you still have the chance” Danny’s voice was far gentler, eyes kinder than his brother but still holding a sharp edge. It must have been in his nature to try and end the conflict without bloodshed. [What a gentle king he would be]

Ra’s Al Ghul, of course, thought of this as a fatal failure.

“Don’t get cocky ghost” The man sneered, nodding to the trembling archers to shoot.

“Don’t say I didn’t try” Danny sighed, as if he was disappointed by the tun of events, but paying close attention to his face, there would be a smirk that adorned the unearthly creature’s face. “They are all yours Ahki”

Damian smiled ferally, letting go of his brother’s hand to dash at an inhumanly speed towards the rest of his grandfather’s guards -Batman’s figure stepped back startled by the sudden speed.

“Remember Dami, do not kill them, I don’t need more ghost going around!” Danny warned with a playful stern voice, just as Damian’s fist connected with the face of the guard holding the now unconscious body of Talia Al Ghul.

“Don’t worry, I don’t want more annoying ghost haunting the world either”

Damian crunched down, sweeping his leg around making three guards tumble to the ground, carefully avoiding kicking his own mother. Danny’s face lightened up with a mischievous smile, watching impassively how his older brother took the League’s forcers in a question of minutes.

While his forces were kicked and knocked out unconscious, Ra’s had collected one of the quivers full of blood blossom arrows and was sporting a suspiciously looking blood red-sword. Staring wickedly at Danny, as if he had already won the battle. Danny just raised his eyebrows, unimpressed when he noticed him.

Without warning the green cladded man dashed straight towards Danny’s side, sword brandished for an attack. The slash was met with a pair of ice dais that had materialized out of thin air into Danny’s hands. Despite being made with ghostly ice the weapons had started to melt at the direct contact with blood blossom, but they served their purpose of redirecting the attack.

“Attacking without warning? Where’s your honor old man?”

“One does not need honor to fight an apparition” Ra’s snarked, pulling out an arrow and launching it with precision right at Danny’s face, he deflected it, using a ghostly shield that soon melted. “Now if you want to retain some, I will allow a duel in your other form”

Danny’s form froze in place, face turning wary and closed off.

“As if you have ever allowed fair duels” The white-haired teen snarked with stone cold eyes, remembering how much suffering he and his brother had to endure under the torture disguised as training the league had put them through.

(A five-year-old should not have to know how to reset dislocated shoulders

A four-year-old should not know how to sew their own cuts close

A three-year-old should not be resistant to common poison)

“Have I not?” Ra’s raised a judgmental eyebrow “Or you just say that because of the outcome of the last duel you participated in?”

Danny bristled, clearly failing for the blatant provocation, flying at neck breaking speed right at Ra’s face, with a feral snarl adorning his features.

*-*

Bruce could only watch the fight that broke right in front of him, even when he had snapped out of his staring spell, Damian had already defeated the remaining members of the League of Shadows. In fact, his youngest (was he his youngest or was it Danyal?) was currently walking towards him, carrying his mother’s body in a fireman carry, shoulders tense, as if he would like to be anything else than carrying what was once his maternal figure.

[He didn’t know that all the motherly respect his sons could have for the woman had vanished so many years ago].

Damian dropped Talia’s still form unceremoniously right at his feet.

Bruce took an uncertain step forward, not sure if the hand that wanted to drop at his son’s shoulder would be appreciated. Damian still looked like the black-haired version of Phantom, sharp teeth, glowing eyes, and now that he was closer, Bruce noticed the slight pointy ears. He didn’t look at all like the son he had known for the last four years.

“You should take her to the nearest hospital” Damian’s voice was eerily calm, Bruce had to repress a flinch at the detachment his son showed when referring to his own mother. Even after he had brought him back from the dead, after being murdered by his own clone, Damian had insisted on trying to contact Talia, to let her explain.

It seemed that all those childish wishes had been crushed away in the last few hours.

“I doubt Dany would appreciate if anyone died” Damian turned his glowing eyes to stare at the quite impressive fight, Danyal and Ra’s seemed to be immersed in. It was almost as seeing a great predator and a mad man fight. Bruce could see how Damian’s body itched to run towards his brother side, to aid him in taking down the source of their nightmares “in front of him”

The statement took him a shameful amount of time to process, but once Bruce had comprehended the meaning behind Damian’s words, his son had already run towards his brother’s side, leaving behind the heavily bleeding form of Talia Al Ghul.

Bruce closed his eyes tightly, he knew he should go and stop him from committing murder, but was it worth it? Taking a deep breath, he put a surprisingly steady hand to his communicator.

“What’s your ETA?”

“Oh, great of you to finally answer us old man” Jason’s voice almost deafened him, but it also grounded him. The slight shiver he had been feeling since the sudden transformation reseeding.

“Black Bat and I are at least fifteen minutes away”

“Replacement and I are closer, five minutes at the latest”

Bruce crunched down, Talia’s pulse was still steady, it seemed that Ra’s had aimed to let her slowly die of blood lost, he guessed slow enough to let him transport her all the way towards the nearest Lazarus Pit. But their injuries were still deep and deadly “Red Hood, Red Robin, prepare a transfer to the nearest hospital”

“Oh, shit, did they get one of our brats?”

“No” Bruce eyed the fight with a frowned mouth, but was it really that unexpected for his assassin trained sons to have taken down what he assumed to be Ra’s elite forces? “It’s Talia”

*-*

Damian soon joined his brother’s side, flanking his weaker side and maintaining at bay Ra’s lucky strikes that managed to break trough Dany’s shields.

It was not as if Danyal needed the help, in fact he had been debating with himself -while he approached his father- to let his brother fight alone, since it was obvious -for him- that Dany was going to win as it was.

But then he felt something calling him towards the fight, freezing tendrils caressing his whole begin, begging for him to come closer. Despite the cold, they were gentle, playfully drawing him nearer, and once he had entered the fight, Danyal’s eyes had lighted up with approval, movements becoming fiercer, more secure, as if he had been fighting at half his capacity without him at his side.

Damian let the familiar feeling of fighting alongside his brother overwhelm him, movements synchronized in such deep, that it appeared as if they were dancing around a sword brandishing mad old man.

The sentiment was so perfect, so exhilarating that he soon found himself laughing while confronting what had been the source of all his fears since he was younger, it felt as if the universe was telling him that now that he had found his other half, there was nothing that could harm them ever again.

That in fact, those had had made them suffer should fear for their lives.

Dany laughed alongside him, excitement and drunk full glee adorning his face. Giggles drowning out Ra’s furious screams.

(To them it was innocent laughter, to the outsiders, it sounded like mad-like cackles, accompanied by the echo of a thousand voices)

*-*

Bruce watched stunned how it appeared like his sons were only playing with Ra’s, as if the millennial old man was nothing more than a child playing pretend.

Tim and Jason had taken Talia towards the nearest hospital, both glancing warily at the scene playing in front of them. If not for the risk of Talia passing, he was sure both his middle kids would have liked to stay.

He was currently waiting for Dick and Cassandra, hoping against all hope that Dick could convince Damian and Danyal of stopping whatever they were doing -he reluctantly admitted that Dick seemed to have a better handle on Damian than his own father.

Bruce was sure that whatever it was, it was affecting Ra’s in some way, as his movements had become droopy and slow, quite an uncommon sight on the Demon head.

As if they were sucking the energy right out of him.

“Care to explain what’s happening?” Dick and Cassandra appeared, looking a little bit winded, Bruce guessed they may have sprinted all the way over there, the woods not a good place to ride a bike.

He could only grunt in response, occupied trying to analyze the scene, unblinkingly, trying to take everything in. Bruce would rather die than asking Constantine for help, but it appeared that this was more up to his ally than his, he was certain that even Zatanna wouldn’t know what was happening.

Maybe Raven?

“B, how many times I’ve to tell you that a grunt is not an answer” His eldest took him out of his musings, sounding exasperated.

“I don’t know”

“What?” Dick blinked, taken by surprise.

“I don’t know what’s happening”

Bruce hated when he didn’t know things.

Chapter Text

Bruce had to repress the trembling of his limbs with a steady breath, not because of the scene in front of him, frankly he had seen worse, with his line of work and all that (no, he wasn’t shocked that his children could do so much damage, he was not).

It was quite unsettling thought, Phantom seemed to find it harder and harder to restrain his strength. Damian had long ago stopped holding back.

Ra's kept trying to get the upper hand, but he could barely defend himself. In any other person it would have looked quite pathetic, distressed too wide swings of limbs, trembling legs, and a hint of desperation.

But Ra's was trained, finely so, he had outlived all his masters and had even invented martial arts of his own, even when the situation was dire and not at all in his favor. He was not desperate; no, the glint on his eyes was different, he was mad for power.

Bruce's gut twisted when he recognized the maniac glint, he seemed to recognize Phantom’s value, his power, and Ra’s wanted it for him.

He needed to stop this before the demon head managed to escape, because if he did so, Bruce was sure he would hunt down his son until he got the power he wanted.

The power he thought he deserved.

“Phantom, Ro-Damian, stop this” he had good intentions, clearly, but his interruption made the twins lose their concentration for a little bit.

Ra’s always knew how to take advantage of small distractions.

Even in his state, the demon head managed to sneak past the twin’s defenses, stabbing Damian in the thigh with one of his arrows, attempting to do the same with Phantom just to be stopped by Damian’s hand.

Bruce tensed but sighed relieved when he noticed the place of the wound, clearly a desperate attempt, but something so minimal in the life of a vigilante that he was sure Damian could be alright the next day.

Phantom didn’t seem to think the same.

The ghostly teen turned around, fast, fury radiating from his posture.

“Oh, you did not”

“You still need a lot of training, being away made you weak Danyal” Ra’s said with such confidence that one might think that he had the upper hand, when in fact, he had bruises all over, frost burns and a bloody mouth.

The man was a few punches away from losing consciousness.

But he kept handling himself with the dignity and arrogance of his title “Nothing we can’t fix”

Phantom’s hackles raised.

“What makes you think you could win?”

Ra’s gave a laugh, more humane than the haunted ones that had invaded the clearing not long ago, but in its own way, unsettling, foreboding.

It made Bruce stop in his tracks, Dick holding his shoulder in a tight grip. Cass eyeing the man with clearly portrayed distrust.

“Oh, Danyal, al-aban al-thani al-makhzi, because I know your weakness” Ra’s managed to right himself, spitting away some blood and what Bruce was sure was at least three teeth. His smile was feral “You can’t kill me”

The silence that followed was suffocating. The whispers that had been constantly in the background, felt silent.

The snow that had been silently falling in the background, turned into a storm.

It was not Phantom who was the center of it, sure Bruce could feel his anger from where he stood. But the snowstorm had another epicenter.

It was Damian, Damian who was staring darkly at his grandfather, Damian who had a bloody arrow in his hand (Blood strangely dark for such a superficial wound). Damian who had the tips of his hair turning white.

Bruce immediately had the suspicion he was resonating with Phantom’s powers. Damian had lost all his temporary powers from the shard of chaos long ago.

“He can’t…but I can”

Damian’s voice was barely above a whisper, but it was delivered to all of them by the winds. Cold, final, a promise.

One that made Bruce uncomfortable, a reality that he had hoped not to confront.

“Damian!” Dick shouted. Voice falling in deaf ears.

“You fool, don’t you see that is the same thing that led to all this?” Ra’s seemed unfazed by the threat, staring at Damian with a cruel smirk “If only Danyal had done his duties right, then you two would have been together, the perfect heirs”

“Perfect vessels you mean” Phantom spat, floating down to stand alongside his brother “Who says I won’t be able to kill you?”

Bruce’s blood turned cold, he knew, knew his younger(-est) sons were raised by assassins, he knew Damian had a head count even larger than some of the rogues they fought.

It was a topic he avoided, not wanting to make Damian uncomfortable, knowing quite well that those deaths were not on his son’s head, but on the ones that ordered him to do it [he had been just a kid].

[Another kid he couldn’t save]

But seeing them now, he knew they would kill the man with full consciousness of it. He needed to stop them before they did something they may regret.

Before they were tainted by that kind of decision.

Ra’s chuckled, clearly amused “It’s just not in your nature”

Phantom rubbed the center of his chest absentmindedly as if there was something there that made him certain of his next words “My nature says you are not worth protecting”

Bruce was about to take a step closer, about to try and reason with the (his) children. Just as his foot met the ground, making a crunching noise with the now thick bed of snow, Phantom seemed to have finally decided.

It was sudden, the cold air turned glacial and with a wave of his hand Phantom had stabbed Ra's in the same place as Damian, but this time with an ice formation that appeared out of thin air. It went all the way through Ra's thigh.

The old man seemed startled but chuckled darkly after a few minutes.

"See? You could have killed me, but you are too soft"

Damian's eyes flashed toxic green, in a blink of an eye he was at the demon's head side, cuffing him up by the hem of his robes. Using such force that even the ice stalagmite separated itself from the ground.

"You don't deserve a quick death" Damian tossed the man to the side with hatred "wasn't it you that said death was a coward's man way out?"

Damian kicked Ra's in the chest, Bruce was sure that the remaining ribs were now broken.

"Weren't you the one that insulted my little brother because of his death?"

Another kick, another grunt of pain.

"Weren't you the one that made us suffer?"

Damian felt silent, everyone else was tense. The teen was staring at the man, as if expecting him to answer.

Ra's chuckled darkly after a fit of coughs. Bruce was sure he had a perforated lung.

"Was I?" Ra's, showing the stubbornness of the Al Ghul’s stood up, his limbs trembled but his face didn't lose any composure, it didn't show any pain "Your Mother was the one that brought you to me"

Bruce tensed; he didn't want to hear it. He knew, he hated Talia for it.

Ra's spit away more blood, showing them all a mean smile, tainted with liquid as red as cherries "Well I was the one that ordered her to" he corrected "But she never protested"

From the corner of his eye Bruce saw Phantom trembling, to his surprise his youngest kid startled them all with a hollow laugh. It echoed all around them, the small voices joining in once again, breaking their silence.

"What's so funny?" Ra's asked, annoyed.

"Is this your attempt at manipulation?" Phantom was smirking, a mean glint on his eyes "Do you really think we would join your side to go against Talia?"

Bruce was lost. But from Ra's tense reaction Phantom had hit the nail head on.

"How delusional are you?" Phantom turned to stare at his brother in mock concern "Dami, I think you hit him in the head too hard"

To Bruce's surprise, Damian smirked, mirth clear on his eyes.

“But that doesn’t matter, let’s just” With another wave of Phantom’s hand, Ra’s was encased from chin to toe with ice, it glowed lightly, Bruce had the suspicion it wasn’t normal ice.

[What was he expecting thought? It was ice his son controlled with his hands, it was quite clear it was not normal]

“I don’t know why you didn’t do that sooner” Damian rolled his eyes, mock pouting.

Bruce had to do a double take.

Despite the situation Damian seemed less confrontational than when he was fighting alongside them. Sure, he was still tense, clearly pissed, but he wasn’t screaming at anyone for their incompetence.

He seemed weirdly at peace.

Phantom floated towards his twin, hitting him in the shoulder playfully. “And take away the fun? I’m not a monster Ahki”

“Your peculiar status should state the opposite” Ra’s spat, angry, he seemed to be struggling against his restrains to no avail.

Phantom and Damian’s faces turned cold in a question of seconds, teasing smiles forgotten. Bruce saw how Damian’s hand opened and closed, as if wanting to hold his sword.

“Shut up old man” Phantom hissed, floating up to be on eye level with the demon head “Or I may do something…”

Bruce was getting wish plash from all the mood changes.

From fury, to banter, to killing intent. It was worrying.

Ra’s rolled his eyes, as if he wasn’t at the twins’ mercy “I told you, you are weak, too soft…too human”

Bruce frowned, the way Ra’s said it seemed to imply something. And judging by the teens’ reaction, it did mean something for them. But what?

“The only reason you are still alive is because we have witnesses” Phantom hissed, waving his hand in Bruce, Dick and Cass’s general direction.

He would analyze Ra’s cryptic words later, he needed to fin a way to calm Phantom and Damian down.

Chapter Text

Danny was angry, not only because his dumbass grandfather refused to leave the world of the living, pretty sure his time had expired a whole century ago, no he was angry because there were some vigilantes in his city -how hypocrite of Batman, having a no interfere policy on his city and not respect other people’s wishes- same vigilantes that kept portraying their feeling of concerns and uncertainty on him, as if he had anything to respond them for.

He liked Nightwing, Blackbat and Red Hood, really, but was it really necessary to have almost all of Batman's associates invading his space?

“Phantom”

It felt quite oppressive to be honest, and he had his plate full of his parents’ world views to concern himself on whatever Batman and his merry band wanted him to do, to be. Add to that Ra’s clearly intention of outing him in front of the world’s famous detective, and he was in no mood to play games “Batman, what are you doing here, really doing here”

Danny knew what Nightwing had said, that they were there because 'Brucie' Wayne had sent them to retrieve his son but sending at least five bats was a little overkill. A reaction he only saw from helicopter parents, it was highly suspicious to be honest.

“Danny” Damian warned with a hand on his shoulder, Danny huffed in exasperation but settled down a little bit “Let me handle this”

He still couldn’t understand how or why Damian seemed to know the Gotham vigilantes -far more than the average rich kid- but deciding to let his older brother deal with them, if only to avoid landing himself in the Justice League’s list of wanted persons or something similar. Damian’s hand also grounded him, making him focus more on his own feelings rather than letting himself be influenced by the ambient ones. A side effect of being a ghost he had yet to learn how to control.

“Be my guest, I would be over there, making sure our grandfather can’t run his mouth” Danny encased Ra’s mouth in ice, not at all taking pleasure in his startled muffled scream.

He didn't know how long the human body could function with that temperature or if he could manipulate it to go colder. Danny would have to check if he could make Ra's Al Ghul shaped popsicle, if the old man entered in thermal shock, would it really be his fault?

*-*

Damian had to stop himself from slapping Danyal on the side of the head, letting him float aimlessly in circles around Ra’s Al Ghul. He had always been the hot heated one from the two of them -fact that he was sure Drake would like to refute- sighing heavily he turned around to glare at his father, at his f-family.

“Your presence is only aggravating him” He informed them bluntly, he had felt his little brother’s conflicting emotions about Batman being there.

It didn’t help that even though the cowl he could feel his father’s concerned and disappointed stare, as if Todd hadn’t done worse things in pit induced madness -no matter what people though, Damian was sure that his father’s ‘golden child’ was Todd rather than Grayson, he was the only one who could do stuff without getting into trouble- He didn’t know if he should feel offended at the blatant distrust his father clearly held for him, as if he would corrupt his newest child (bad news for him, Talia had done a good job on that).

 “Damian, you two should step down” He could only scoff and cross his arms, giving Grayson a raised eyebrow “Before you do something you may regret”

“You are eleven years too late Nightwing” Damian tried to not react at Grayson’s small flinch or Cain’s tensing posture. He tried hard to not stare in his father’s general vicinity. Not ready to see his reaction.

He always wondered if his father was ashamed of all the things he had to do in order to be considered worthy of meeting him.

To be worthy of living.

“it’s not the same” Came Batman’s carefully intoned words, Damian tried not to frown at his father’s implications.

“Isn’t it?” Because, even then, when he was three with a knife in front of a wide-eyed old man that his grandfather deemed unworthy of keeping alive, it felt… “It feels the same”

The same numbness, the same emptiness, the same heart twisting guilt. The only difference now, was that he could care less about Ra’s family reaction or would not wonder if someone would miss him if he killed the man today (flash news, no one would).

“Damian”

“You know what I don’t get?” Danyal’s voice interrupted whatever father wanted to say, hanging upside down in front of them, arms crossed and a puzzled look on his face “Why are you so invested in this” Danyal gestured in Ra’s general direction, him and all the damage the small clearing had suffered, all the people lying unconscious on the ground “It doesn’t make sense”

Damian knew his brother was right, to an outsider who didn’t know the connection between Batman and the Al Ghul’s, the vigilante’s interference was rather, baffling “you are right, it doesn’t”

But that didn’t meant Danyal could kept interrupting their discussion, his little brother huffed in annoyance when he glared at him, Danyal put his hands up as in surrender “I know, I know, let the grown-ups talk”

Dany floated near Damian’s head, with a little bit of a maniac glint on his eyes, only to whisper in his ear “I may find a way of making him cold enough to…i don't know, stop his heart?”

“Danny!” Damian tried his best t sound scandalized and not to smirk or roll his eyes, that would be a way of taking advantage of Batman’s no killing policy, there was nothing said about permanently disabling.

Dany gave him a wiggle of eyebrows to then mimic zipping his mouth up and launching the key out, his little brother still had his ridiculous streak on him, good to know.

With Danyal’s ‘silence’ warranted he turned around to keep his discussion with their father going. Not at all minding the temperature drop from his brother’s experiments.

“What did he say?”

“Twin’s secrets” He replied cryptically “Now, I though Constantine had been clear about ghost’s territorial business”

At least that was one of the very explicit warnings about ghosts the Con man would give them -along with the ‘do not ask about their deaths’ and the ‘do not interfere in their obsessions’- all the while grumbling under his breath about not being ready to get in the ghost’s bad side.

A surprising statement by the man that had fought the literal prince of hell.

“What does that have to do with this?” Grayson grumbled, clearly upset by his choice of words.

“You lot are clearly overstepping your boundaries” Damian turned to stare at his father with a raised eyebrow “No metas in Gotham”

Danyal had told him how he had practically demanded from Constantine a guarantee that no other superhero, meta or not, would step in Amity Park’s borders, with the constant treat of ghosts possessing -or overshadow as Danyal liked to call it- an enhanced individual or someone with high profile secrets like Batman, it would not end well.

And yet, there was his father, in full gear in the middle of the night. It was kind of Damian’s fault, but even when other rogues dared to explore Gotham, Batman always made it clear that he would take care of it.

Why couldn't they give his little brother the same courtesy?

“That’s different”

“Or so you say” He had to stop himself from rolling his eyes, not having the mask to cover the gesture “Let me handle this, Danyal would hear me out”

He was sure his little brother would take his words over whatever father wanted to tell him. Damian was also pretty sure that if his father wanted to reveal the whole ‘your father is Batman’ it would need to come from Damian for Danyal to ever consider the words.

His father seemed tense at that, even Grayson seemed hesitant, Damian stared at them not comprehending their apprehension, yes, he had had a bad record of telling people who they were, but he wasn’t that bad.

Jon still talked to him despite their, not quite pleasant first encounter, and Colin was one of his best friends, he could tell the secret without traumatizing people.

Besides, his little brother had told him his deepest secret -if only to stop him from stabbing him- it was only fair that something of this caliber came from Damian, not anyone else.

“Dames, little dude, I don’t think that’s a good idea”

“You are compromised” Batman grunted gesturing at the ice bounded millennia old mad man behind him.

“What? You think I would go behind your back to terminate grandfather?” He scoffed, Danyal was the one doing that, he for his part was just the distraction. But it was not that, Damian frowned he had a slight suspicion of his father’s reaction “You really don’t trust me”

“Damian”

Like he didn’t trust him to be in the same room as Drake without supervision, like he didn’t trust him with important things.

 Damian loved the man, but there was sometimes that his actions hurt.

Grayson always told him to be patient, that so many people had hurt him, that he needed more time than the rest of them to completely trust someone. That he needed space to think.

But what about Damian? Why did he have to suffer from all the wariness? Why didn't they respect his privacy?

It wasn't fair.

“After four years?” Damian scoffed, crossing his arms tightly, subtly hugging himself with the action “Why am I not surprised?”

“It’s not that Damian”

“You are afraid I may corrupt him” He gave them a tight smile that turned into a grimace “We grew up together for four years, believe me, he has seen the worse humanity has to offer” and despite all that, despite growing up in the shadows, all the darkness… “Despite all that he still hasn’t lost the light”

Despite dying, not once, but twice, Danyal still saw the world as something worth saving.

“Da…“

“Ahki” Danyal floated, hurriedly to his side, a guilty face on his features.

“What did you do” Damian stopped himself from groaning, but he knew that face, it was the same his little brother always had after he did something he shouldn’t have.

It was equal parts endearing and stress inducing, Danyal had always had a streak for mischief, doing small pranks around the compound as a small act of rebellion. His bother gestured towards their grandfather who seemed to have turned a very concerning shade of blue.

Damian could only raise his eyebrows with mock reproach “Really?”

He was no expert, but even him could see that Ra’s had been frozen, if not to dead(yet) on the way there.

“Not completely my fault, the whispers were pretty eager of getting rid of him” Danyal whisper-yelled in his ear, completely aware that the Gotham vigilantes could hear him “I think they are the voices of the dammed or something”

“I though only I could hear those” Mumbled Grayson.

Danyal snorted, hard “Nope, they sometimes like to follow me around town, more often now after the whole Pariah fight…You can’t see them because they don’t have enough ectoplasmic matter to be seen by human eyes”

Damian raised an eyebrow, if Danyal was talking about the small globs of green matter, he was able to see them too, but there was not time for that “I think you should take him to a clinic if you want him to live”

His father grunted but trotted to Ra’s side, a small torch out to try to melt the ice. Damian and Danyal exchanged a look, in the ‘who is going to tell him that won’t work’ kind of way.

After a few minutes of intense stare, now with Nightwing and Blackbat also aiding in the ‘rescue’ efforts, Danyal grunted and floated over the group of vigilantes.

“I say we should leave him like these” At Damian’s unimpressed raised eyebrow Danyal rolled his eyes but finally waved his hands in a motion that made the ice disappear.

The action startled Nightwing, making him almost set fire to Ra’s hair. Danyal grinned cheekily at them when they turned around to stare at him.

“That was ghost ice, only the ghost who made it can melt it” his little brother retorted after a while, he then turned eagerly to him, grabbing from the armpits and making them both float gently in place “C’mon Dami! I must present you to someone!”

Before their father could protest, they were already a few feet off the ground. It was quite the funny sensation, far different from when Jon gave him a lift. Danyal turned down with a sharp smile, letting some fangs show “Tell Mr. Wayne that Damian would be home in a day or two!”

There were some protests, but Damian could only chuckle at his little brother’s antics “And please leave the city before I made you!” was the last thing Danyal screamed before both popped out of the visible spectrum.

*-*

Dick blinked, trying to focus the spot where his baby brother(s) had disappeared, he knew one of them was a ghost, but it was still quite startling to watch them turn into nothing.

Bruce grunted at his side, clearly in frustration, but with the way Damian had reacted it was a miracle that discussion hadn’t ended in a scream match. He really didn’t get it, sometimes it felt like his fault that Bruce reacted so badly when his siblings started to talk back. Dick was, after all, the oldest, and had been the one to give Bruce headaches for years in his journey of finding himself.

His little brothers had just kind of followed his steps.

Turning around so he could concentrate on the body -not corpse, or at least he hoped so- of the Demon head on the ground, he left Bruce to his own thoughts.

Honestly, he apart of the whole ‘killing is bad’ he didn’t saw anything bad with permanently getting rid of the old man. At least if Talia was head of the shadows, they could actually talk with her. That and he resented them for what they did to Jason, to Tim, to Cass, to Damian (to Danyal).

Maybe that’s why he didn’t feel anything when he couldn’t find a pulse, the body was so cold that he wondered if it would break into tiny pieces when he moved it -like in some old cartoon.

“B, you have to promise to not overreact” He started, cautiously, standing up to his full height.

“What?”

“Ra’s dead” Cass said, bluntly, Dick could see despite the cowl how his little sister’s eyes were wide open. Body a little bit more relaxed. Cass never talked about it, but she feared Ra’s almost as much as she feared her birth father.

Dick was only slightly glad that the man that hurt their family so much was finally gone. Just a little bit, like a tiny itty little speck of dust, he promises.

“What?” Bruce turned around, fuming.

“I guess Phantom doesn’t really know how to regulate the temperature of his icy powers” Dick mumbled, cringing when he registered what he said. What was the thing that Batman hated the most apart of metas in his city? Untrained overpowered metas.

His father figure seemed about to storm up to Amity Park to try and find the twins’, thing Dick was sure would not be welcome, not when Bruce was clearly mad that his moral code had been broken and that would inevitably end up with the kids distancing themselves from the man.

Dick put a hand on Bruce’s shoulder. Pressing a hard to keep the stubborn man in place.

“If you go like this, you’d only lose their trust” He could feel how Bruce tensed “Are you willing to risk that?”

“Tell Damian that he would better be at Gotham by Friday and that he better bring Phantom with him”

Chapter Text

Damian stared as his little brother walked back and forth mumbling to himself, clearly trying to not panic, and failing at it.

Despite their, if he dares say so, comical, and nonchalant, exit, Danny seemed to be working himself up, mumbling worries to himself that were sounding even more ridiculous by the minute. They had to make an ‘emergency’ landing on top of the rooftop of some type of fast-food chain -what kind of name was Nasty Burger?

Seeing as Danyal was about to start tugging at his hair out, he decided to intervene, wary of the icicles forming around Danny’s feet, those looked sharp.

“Danny, Danny!” The white-haired teen seemed to be on his own little world, Damian huffed, carefully standing in front of him, holding gently Danny’s wrists “stop it”

Danyal turned his head around, his eyes instantly zeroing on him, wide and full of panic. 

“Dami, what am I going to do? Batman would set the whole league after me! I’m not ready to become a fugitive! Not like I regret it, like at all, Ra’s so deserved it. BUT! everyone knows about B-man’s ‘no killing rule’ and here I am, a little timer wannabe superhero that just kind of murdered someone in front of one of the most powerful persons in the world! He is going to think that I am, I am…some…some…some kind of monster…or…or creature, he’s going to research about ghosts…oh no, he’s going to find my parent’s research! and…and, and I love them but all the things they write about ghost are so biased, there hasn’t been enough time to make them see the truth.  If their research manages to convince B-man that I’m some kind of evil entity that came to haunt the living plane or something…, would he send people to exorcise me? …. heck he doesn’t need convincing! he just saw me killing someone! Well, unaliving Ra’s should count as me being a protecting entity but he wouldn’t see it that way…. oh gosh, I am in so much trouble!!! should we scape to the ghost zone? Do you think we could live out of ectoplasm? I mean I am part ghost and I’m pretty sure you as a revived person makes you at least a ten percent ghost so there should be a possibility that we can live eating ghost stuff, is not as if its deadly to humans, Jazz has eaten contaminated food and she’s fine-”

A loud thud made Danny stop on his tracks, Damian had headbutted their heads together, it was either that or a slap and Danyal’s had a tight grip on his hands now. Maybe he used too much force, there was a small trail of blood coming down his head, well, he managed to make Danyal pay attention to him.   

“First of all, you, should, breathe” Concerning words aside, what did people usually did with hysterical little brothers?

Danny threw his head back, trying to get away from him. When Damian didn’t let him, the white-haired teen left out a hysterical laugh “Ghost don’t need to breath!”

“Then turn back” It was a harsh whisper, Damian needed to be the head leveled one, or they would end up both having a panic attack. Danyal at what he had done, or believed to do, and Damian because he couldn’t calm him down.

Danny was still breathing hard, but after a tense moment, nodded. The transformation washed quietly away, like a small light show, Damian sighed with relief when he had a black-haired, blue-eyed teen in front of him.

He nodded approvingly, moving one of their still entwined hands to his chest making exaggerating inhaling and exhaling motions; like Grayson had taught him to do with victims of Scarecrows gas after they had administered the antidote and the paramedics were overwhelmed “Good, now, follow me”

It took time, minutes, that felt like hours, but Danny had calmed down enough. Enough to let Damian shove him down until both were sitting on the ground.

“Thanks, Dami”

They sat there, lost in their own thoughts, letting the night chill keep them from falling asleep, hands still in each other’s grasp -Damian was sure Danny wouldn’t let go any time soon, and he was fine with it. The ambient was peaceful for a while, he remembered many nights like this one, were they just stayed out in the cold scouting, waiting for instructions.

It was nostalgic in a twisted sense.

But now, now he could reassure his little brother about his fears, unlike then, when neither of them was sure of what tomorrow would have for them.

Now he knew, and it was his duty to let Danny know everything would turn okay.

“Batman won’t send the justice league after you” Not that he would ever let him, Damian held his breath, eyeing his brother reaction.

Danyal let out a startled chuckle, still some of his hysterics clinging to him, shaking his head in amusement. Clearly thinking that Damian’s words were just to reassure him “You don’t know that, and even if he doesn’t, he still has all the Gotham vigilantes on his back”

“He does not” At Danny’s noncommittal hum, he continued “At least not Robin”

That, that made Danny frown.

“You seem to know a lot about Gotham Vigilantes”

Damian raised an eyebrow “I live in Gotham”

“I know, but, but it seemed like…”

It was now or never, he supposed “Like I know them? More than the average civilian should?”

“Yeah” Danny was now full-on glaring at him, gears turning around his head. At least he had stopped panicking.

Damian smiled to himself, his little brother didn’t like to attend their lessons when they were little, but he remembered him being quite clever, if a little oblivious.

“Robin seems to be around our age” He pointed out, a slight smirk on his face.

“This one perhaps, there’s rumors that he is the…” Danny’s eyes widened like saucers “The fourth one”

“Technically the fifth one, but we don’t talk about the time Spoiler was Robin” Don’t let Brown know that he acknowledged her time as a Robin.

“There was a girl-Robin?!” Danny squeaked, a very high-pitched squeak, Damian frowned, wondering to himself if his voice could do the same.

“Yeah, but at least she had pants, Oracle still teases Nightwing about the scaled pants and fairy boots” It was a weird statement, at least from him, he wasn’t known for menial words, but he would try to calm down his brother first and foremost, other’s conceptions of him be dammed.  

Danyal startled laugh filled the night silence, it turned to small little giggles, trying to keep it down. “You are either pulling my leg, are very good friends with Robin or….” At the end of his statement Danny sobered up, quieting down, and glaring at him with something like wonder “or something else”

“What I’m trying to say Najmi, is that…I know firsthand that Batman won’t send anyone after you, I won’t let him, Agent A won’t let him…” He was tentatively sure that the rest of the bats would at least buy them time “and if he does, well, we already disowned Talia…”

Danyal’s widened in realization, shaking his head with mock horror “Oh, my g-d, no, no, no, no…you have to be joking”

Danny’s voice was so full of disbelief that Damian had to frown “But then, it would make sense why he was here today, why he was concerned on why the league of shadows was here…. why Bruce Wayne would know Talia Al Ghul”

At the last, Damian’s eyes widened. A small chuckle escaping his lips, Danyal had first met him as a ‘civilian’, he had told him about his live in Wayne Manor. He had told him about their father, Bruce Wayne, same man Danyal would only know by gossip magazines and bad reality tv shows; a man that sometimes, made international news for things rather shameful and full of secondhand embarrassment.

It wasn’t as if Danny didn’t believe him, no, there were some innate trusts between them -despite all the years apart- it wasn’t because Danny was oblivious and hadn’t cached his words, it was just that, Danyal was in denial, in denial that someone so airheaded and cringy was Batman.

Damian started to laugh outright, trying to fend himself against Danny’s fists, which were his little brother’s attempt to make him shup up. But he couldn’t, he had been expecting an explosive reaction, anger, maybe a fight; he wasn’t expecting disbelief so out of proportion that was just comical.

“No, Dami, Dami, Dames, that man went to the red carpet in boxers once! That man can’t be The Batman!”

Damian only managed to calm down after Danyal had managed to elbow him in the stomach strong enough to make him lost a little bit of air, Danny didn’t even seem sorry, the traitor.

His sides hurt, his cheeks hurt, he hadn’t laughed that much in….in years, not since destiny took Danyal away from him. He sobered up at the thought, sitting straighter, turning so his full focus was on the other.

Danny was pouting, arms crossed over his chest, cheeks puffed out, the corners of his lips twitched slightly, clearly fighting down a smile.

“You know, you didn’t seem so against it when you only knew Brucie Wayne was your biological father” Damian pointed out, raised eyebrows, a slight smirk on his face.

Danny faltered, cheeks blushing “I mean, I know about embarrassing parents, that wouldn’t be anything new”

Damian hummed, remembering the earlier scene that night, he supposed that even if it was their battle gear, orange and teal weren’t the best colors for it.

“But, knowing that the man that makes baddies wet their pants with only his name is the same man known for his silly photos of Gotham’s skyline quoted with very bad dad jokes…”

Damian huffed “Yeah, I know…it was rather baffling the first time I saw him acting like that, I almost maimed the waitress thinking they put something in the drinks”

“Is an act then?” Danny whispered, looking anywhere but him “Who’s the real him?”

“Not all of it, he does care for charity and for his…adoptive children…in his own way, but… he is still the man that has a hundred contingency plans and that is too paranoid and untrusting that keeps one of the only things in the world that would hurt his close friend on hand” The man that was so untrusting to even trust his own son.

The man that kept wounding their children even if he didn’t mean to.

“Does he know? That I…I am”

“That you are his child?” At Danyal’s meek nod Damian reached out for his brother’s hand, having let go when he was laughing, giving it a squeeze, he kept talking “He does now” At Danny’s tensing posture he hurried to clarify “I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know the full story” Well not their side of the story at least, if Talia had talked to him that night, he had no idea what she told him.

“For someone named the ‘best detective on earth’ sometimes he doesn’t see very obvious things… sometimes he overlooks facts” He had already told Danyal that their father didn’t know about having a child(ren) with Talia until Damian appeared at his doorstep, four years ago.

“Then…then if he knows the Shadows, if, if he knows how Ra’s was…what they did to us…then, why…why…why was he so angry?” Danyal’s voice broke, and Damian gave him wavery smile that treated to be reassuring, this conversation was like one of those things Grayson loved so much, rollercoaster? “Why was he angry at you?”

“He wasn’t” At Danny’s glare, he faltered, he didn’t want to think about it, or to talk about it, but he had promised to himself to not keep secrets from Danyal “…he wasn’t at first, but my first years as Robin weren’t…what he expected”

Danyal’s intense stare indicated that he had his undivided attention, and Damian closed his eyes, trying to not let anything out but also not waiting to see his brother’s reaction “I…I was violent, too much for his tastes, always went too far, used almost deathly force, sent criminals to the hospital more than once….”

“That’s what you were taught” Danny’s harsh whisper startled him, his sparkling blue eyes drilling holes into his own now “Did he…taught you the ‘correct’ way?”

He tried his chuckle to not sound bitter, he failed “It was more yells and fights, than anything, Gr-Ni-Grayson was the one that explained everything to me” He had been the only one who hadn’t given up on him, that still had hope that he would become something else.

He had given him Robin.

“Did he noticed that you tried?” Danny was frowning now, and Damian was starting to realize that maybe this was why Father didn’t want him to be the one to explain things to him, because he would give Danyal his version of events and then…and then if he ended up hating Bruce, then it would be Damian’s fault.

“Over time” He trailed, averting his eyes. Trying to change the subject “He was angry at me because…he doesn’t really trust me, not with…with interactions like these and…” Damian smiled hollowly “and is my fault, really”

“No is not”

Damian shot his head up, startled the intensity of those harsh whispered words. Danny was starting at him, with a slight frown but his eyes didn’t shy away from him, he still had his hand on his own.

He wasn’t afraid of him.

And of course, that had to be wrong, despite how ‘well’ -compared to previous interactions- he got with the rest of Bruce’s ‘children’ now he knew the bad first impression had been his own fault, he knew he shouldn’t have assumed.

He couldn’t keep leading his little brother like this.

“I tried to murder Red Robin and Red Hood, Nightwing too…” Danny’s stare didn’t waver, he even squished his hand in reassurance. Damian tried to keep his voice even, but suddenly, suddenly it was hard to talk “I…I saw them as competence and since what…what happened with us, with…with Mara, and you at the league” Since he had to fight his cousin for the heirship position too, making her blind in one eye “I…I assumed”

“That you had to fight them to gain a place”

“Which was a mistake because of that, the small chance that I had of acceptance back them was, taken away…and I had to fight, to fight to gain it back, to try and gain their trust somehow” And he had, but not all of it. “It’s still not enough…but is better now”

“You should move in with me” Was Danny’s immediate declaration, a fire in his eyes. Damian could only stare at him “If we explain things correctly to my parents, without giving them the chance to think you are a ghost shapeshifter, then, then I’m sure they won’t mind”

Damian gave a small smile, this was all ridiculous to him but knowing that Danny would accept him in his family, no questions asked, was heartwarming.

“You know it would be two unknown scientists against a very well-known billionaire?”

“Who says we have to do it the legal way?” Danny replied cryptically, and Damian had to shake his head.

There he was the same teen that was afraid of telling his parents what he was, the same teen that had been in the border of a breakdown, the same teen was offering refuge, protection, and determination.

Damian gave him a hug, knowing well that taking Danny’s offer would only end in tragedy for all the involved, but glad that despite all what he had done, Danny would be on his side, always.

“You know, I find concerning that you called yourself a monster” At his words Danny groaned hiding his face on Damian’s shoulder.

“It’s too late to have another emotional talk, let’s, let’s find somewhere to sleep and never talk about this, like, ever”

“Danny”

“Nope, I’ve had enough emotional wish plash for a night” Danny let go of the hug, standing up and trying to tug him away from the place with a constipated face “You are starting to sound like Jazz”

“Is an older sibling thing to care for little brothers”

“Yup, definitely sounding like Jazz right now, nope, nope, not today Satan!”

Damian rolled his eyes but relented, he would make sure to let Danny know that he was not a monster. He was the purest being Damian knew, and if only may-haps -there was still circumstantial deniability in Phantom’s actions- he had done something that resulted in Ra’s dead, he was pretty sure it counted as self-defense.

His little brother wasn’t a monster, no matter what anyone else thought. Damian would fight whoever said otherwise, even if that person was Danyal himself.

(The only monster was him, after all, a fact he had made peace with himself long ago).

Chapter Text

Danny, for a lack of better options, led them towards his house.

Sam's house had been discarded since Damian, oh so kindly pointed out that they had left Talia there alone with his friends, Danny did not want to deal with Sam and Tucker's lecture right now -he had been kind of panicking, alright? And deep down he knew Talia wouldn't hurt them, mindless killing was more Ra's way of thinking. His core seemed to agree so he really didn't think about it.

Great defense, he knew.

Tucker's house was out of the picture for the same reason.

There was Damian's hotel room, far better than his messy room, but his brother told him that knowing B-man (it was too weird to call him Batman now, and he wasn't calling him Bruce or father, just, nope), it was now bugged or something, since it would have been the first place his family searched.

"Ok, fair warning, it's a little bit messy" he didn't give Damian any time to reply, phasing them through the wall without a warning.

It surprised him that Damian didn't seem phased once they were back in the tangible realm, but now that he thought about it. If his brother was really Robin, it wouldn't be his first time intangible. Wasn't it one of the basic powers of Martian Manhunter?

Oh, gosh Damian may have met Martian Manhunter! From Mars! Before he could ask about it, Damian made a 'tt' sound, one that made Danny strangely nostalgic.

"It is messy '' Damian raised an eyebrow at Danny's clothes on the floor, he could only blush green in embarrassment. "Alfred would be very disappointed in you"

"Who was Alfred again?" Danny asked while he kicked some clothes -underwear, how mortifying- under the bed.

"Our butler, or something" The way Damian said 'or something' made Danny give his twin a knowing look, he remembers how Damian always got fond of their art instructors. Damian rolled his eyes and averted his gaze, a light blush on his cheeks "At least is better than Drake's 'nest'"

"Why does he have a nest?" Danny frowned, letting his transformation go and going to the clean pile of clothes to find something comfier for Damian to wear for the night.

Damian sat on the unmade bed, staring with slightly sad eyes around the room (it definitely was his little brother's room, with all the space themed objects). "Because he's that uncreative"

"He's Red Robin, right?" Danny smirked, tossing Damian a pair of joggers and a loose t-shirt.

"Tried to use Drake as a pseudonym once" his brother deadpanned, snatching the clothes right out of the air. What a showoff.

"No way" Danny's laughter may have been louder than he thought.

"Danny!" A feminine voice hissed from his door; it was barely above a whisper, but he knew who it was. And judging by the tone, his sister was mad.

He sent Damian a panicked look, his traitorous older brother only shrugged. It was true he planned to tell Jazz first, but Danny had hoped it could have waited till tomorrow.

“I will let you in if you promise to…not freak out"

"That doesn't help your case at all little brother" Jazz snapped from the other side of the door.

"Promise!"

"Okay fine, I promise'' He opened the door, letting the redhead enter, closing it behind her with lock; he also turned on the lights -they had let them off in their attempt at subtly, the glow in the dark stars provided with enough light as it was- Once his sister's eyes adjusted to the brightness her eyes immediately zeroed on the other teen present. Eyebrows furrowed "Danny, there's two of you"

"Ta-dah?" Okay, maybe the jazz hands deserved the pillow to the head.

"He isn't a ghost, is he?" Jazz was still a little bit skeptical about ghosts, almost all of them attacking their town didn't really help matters.

But Danny did not want his sister shooting her lip laser around his room, her aim was trash.

"No, no, see? No glowing eyes or anything"

And what if he practically shoved Damian in front of him like a sacrifice? It was better to appease Jazz's curiosity before anything else.

His sister did not disappoint, taking Damian's face between her hands and shoving him to the left and right. Going as far as checking his teeth and ears. Danny could see how bad his older brother wanted to snap at her but by some miracle managed to contain himself.

"Who are you?" Was her final question, hands on Damian's shoulders giving him a onceover.

"Unhand me you…"

Danny hastily put his hand on top of Damian's mouth "This is Damian, and he doesn't really like you invading his personal space"

Jazz held up her hands with a sheepish expression, Danny couldn't really see his brother's face, but he could bet he was frowning "Right, sorry"

After an awkward silence, where Damian shoved away his hand, Jazz looked around confused and Danny was just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Jazz finally seemed to collect her bearings, sitting on the bed straight up, like she did in class "Explain"

He sent a 'help me' look towards Damian, Damian stared back at him with a raised eyebrow. Clearly the ‘twins can share thoughts’ was a lie. Well, better explain before Jazz calls the calvary, and it would be good to have her on their side to explain things to his parents.

"You remember I'm adopted, right?" At her sister's nod he continued “Well, he is my brother, twin brother to be specific, obvious if you look closer, that's why you asked, 'why are there two of you Danny?' and well, as you know identical twins tend to look alike…"

Damian, oh so rudely, shoved him aside, interrupting his rambling "We were separated around the time he got adopted, I was led to believe he was dead all this time, but then some rando sent me a message on my social networks pointing out we looked a lot alike.  We talked, and here we are"

Jazz stared at him, Danny stared at him, that was practically the true, with omissions and painting him as a social media stalker, thing he was not, thank you very much. But they hadn’t had time to come up with a cover up story, and he definitely wasn’t going to explain the whole ‘League of Shadows’ fiasco to his family, heck! He still didn’t understand it all!

Danny could see how Jazz's brain was trying to catch up with it, the fact that his sister had been sleeping five minutes ago, made his respect for her grow tenfold. All high school was privy on how bad Danny was just out of sleep -sorry, Mr. Lancer.

"And you just…went with it?"

Damian shrugged, like it was a common thing that happened to him all the time -who knew, maybe it was, the Wayne’s tended to be in the spotlight and randoms claiming to be their lost something seemed into the realm of possibilities.

 "We can still do a DNA test to be 100% sure but, that will require parental approval" Jazz eyes' sharpened at that last bit, Damian seemed to catch up quite quickly "My father does not know about this"

Jazz eyebrows were practically nonexistent, but her mind was sharp, and Danny knew for a fact that she was cataloging the information, their faces, reactions, and ticks to analyze another time. "I have questions, but it's late…we will have words, tomorrow"

Danny let out a sigh he didn't know he was holding.

Jazz waved goodbye "Sleep tight"

He didn't give Damian another glance, simply went directly to his bed and launched himself to get some rest.

*-*

Damian starred in barely concealed horror at the, where those sausages? Whatever it was, it was moving. He was seriously reconsidering his little brother's breakfast invitation.

"Yeah, I'll stay away from those, there's some cereal…" Danny himself was eating a bowl of it, great Grayson and him could bond over sugary monstrosities for breakfast.

"The milk is glowing green"

His little brother blushed slightly, putting a bowl with a lonely banana in front of him "Fruit?"

Damian took the banana with a little skepticism, maybe he should scan the house for radiation or something…

Before he could ask more about the strange breakfast food, a booming voice made him -not jump, nuh uh, Damian Wayne does not get startled- grab the fork like a live line. It would serve as a great weapon.

"Dann-o! It's rare to have you up so ear….ly" a giant of a man in a bright neon orange hazmat suit stood at the kitchen's door frame, it was anyone's guess how he had entered the house. He was even taller than Todd, if that was even possible.

In a blink, Damian had a green glowing gun pointed at his face. Danny had let his cereal return to the plate, from his mouth, disgusting.

"Dad! Wait! You remember what I was telling you about?" Jasmine was the one to come to his rescue, apparently, she had been walking right behind the giant man.

"Are you sure he is not a ghost? He even has green eyes!"

Damian was about to protest in defense of all the green-eyed people -well except Todd, he was in fact a zombie of sorts…maybe the green eye theory had something to it- when a woman in a teal suit put her gloved hand on the gun, making the man point it to the floor, she was staring at Damian with calculating eyes.

He didn't know why but he felt like she was dangerous.

"Jack, honey, we promised to hear what the kids had to say"

"But Maddie" Jack, the giant of a man, whined and pouted, what.

"If he ends up being a ghost you can try your new invention on him" Damian didn't like how the man's eyes lit up, but the woman's intense scrutiny was somehow a reassurance that at least she would first find out who -or in their perspective what- he was, before she let her husband do anything to him. Joy "Only if!"

"Fine" Jack sighed, turning to the toaster "Who wants some toast?"

*-*

It was strange for Maddie to have this person -ghost- sitting in front of them, at the same table as them, eating their food. He looked like a fun house mirror image of her son.

Aside from the obvious physical differences, the thing that stood out the most was how he handled himself. Where Danny slouched over his cereal bowl, trying to be smaller and sending wary glances around, the other kid -Damian according to Jazz- held his back straight, kept his chin up and never shied away from her gaze.

Even in the -quite high possibility, honestly- of this being a ghost, he was doing a bad job of imitating their son "Who are you?"

"Damian" The green-eyed child responded, sharp and unwavering "Wayne" raising an eyebrow he added, almost defiantly "I met you yesterday by the zoo"

Maddie frowned; she didn’t remember that "The zoo?"

"Yes, I came here, apart from reuniting with Danny here, to do some fundraising and inspection of the local zoo seeing as they have the last specimens of the purple-back gorilla"

Maddie was a little baffled about the kid’s way of talking, it was so proper he even had a slightly British accent. It was kind of weird hearing someone that looked a lot like her son talking like that.

"How…convenient" Jack narrowed his eyes, pointing at the teen with the butter knife he used to put butter on his toast.

Jazz sighed, phone in her hand "Damian Wayne, the son of Bruce Wayne, globally known for his contribution to various animal conservation initiatives” Maddie, Jack, Danny and the so called ‘Damian’ were staring at her a little bit baffled. Jazz rolled her eyes waving around her phone with a small biography of the kid "what? You can literally search it"

"He didn't spout out of nowhere, apparently" Her husband grumbled under his breath "but it still could be a trap!"

"Really dad?" Jazz groaned.

Maddie snatched the phone from Jazz's hands, frowning at each line she read. They knew of Bruce Wayne, of course they knew about him, the man made the news every once in a while, and she was sure some of the local women were part of a fan club of sorts.

But honestly speaking, Maddie didn't know much about the man, she really disliked the absurd things rich people did in their free time -Yes, that included Vlad and his strange obsession over cheese. Jack and she were more of scientific articles, especially if they talked about ghosts.

Maddie went back to the main search and started to read the articles that caught her interest, with each word her eyebrows climbed higher and higher, the internet seemed to have collected whatever their little claws could dig into.

It went from articles about the kid's arrival to Gotham four years ago, to school fights, to Bruce Wayne petitioning the press to leave his youngest alone, to Damian using his name to attract attention to social issues.

There was something that bothered her more and more from the timeline the gossip magazines and blogs wrote -putting aside the fact that Bruce Wayne was one of the richest men on earth, that was a can of worms Maddie would open later.

"Here says you arrived at Mr. Wayne's house four years ago…why?" Why then? Why now? And more importantly, was he okay?

They got Danny more than a decade ago, and that small and frightened boy had had some severe wounds and old fractured bones that were simply too many to have been accidental. Even if the car crash was fake or a mad set up, those wounds weren't and that meant that Damian came from the same place that did all that to her baby.

Maybe they had done the same to him.

"There were some…circumstances with my maternal family that made them leave me under my father's care" It wasn't obvious, but Damian was tense, to Maddie, it sounded defensive.

"Where is your maternal family from?" Jack asked with slightly less suspicious eyes, the fact that Damian had accepted some toast seemed to have put his nerves at ease. Ghosts didn't eat -not even that weird ghost that seemed obsessed with the school lunch menu, the only ghost she had ever seen eat something was Phantom, but Jack and she attributed it to the ghost menace trying to mimic human behavior.

Damian’s expression closed; the atmosphere turned tense. Danny seemed to have forgone all sleepiness and had snapped into attention at the mention of the maternal side. It appeared that both had enough time to catch up after they met last night.

“We were born in Nanda Parbat” Maddie raised her eyebrows, she wasn’t the best at geography but that sounded like a far place, in a, that’s a different continent kind of far. It made her question how on earth did Danny ended up at American soil. “It’s near the Himalayas”

 Jack seemed to have catch up on her train of thought “Then how did Danny ended up in a car accident at the other side of the world?”

*-*

Danny tensed, that was one of the history holes he had been thinking about the whole time the conversation was going on, and really, maybe Damian had a reasonable explanation, but Danny was panicking and sometimes he did stupid things while panicking, like…

“Apparently we came by on vacation, but I got kidnapped or something, Dami doesn’t know he was too little to remember” The sharp annoyed glance his older brother sent him made him believe that Damian had something prepared for that kind of question, but, BUT! His explanation was more believable, thank you very much.

He didn’t care if his older brother claimed to have perfect memory of everything that happened to him since he was three or whatever ridiculous thing Damian could come up later, nope, a simple answer was better. Besides, it wasn’t even lying, Damian didn’t remember how Danny ended up in another country -because he thought he was dead- therefore his conscious could live with itself.

Danny was about to hit the limit of lies he could keep from his mom, and he definitely wasn’t about to tell her that his bio mother had decided to abandon him in another country as some form of twisted mercy, nope.

His dad seemed to think it over, eyes still narrowed over Damian, the ‘intimidation’ factor was dimed to nothing since his dad had some leftover jam all over his face.

*-*

“Are you willing to let us test out you are not a ghost?” Honestly? Damian was expecting that question the moment the Fenton’s arrived. He was not surprised, it would have been something his father would do, at least they were asking.

Disregarding Danny’s panicked face, he nodded “Only if they are not intrusive”

Mr. Fenton seemed pleased by that, relaxing, and going back to ear his breakfast with new vigor. Damian watched with slight disgust how the man smeared jam and chocolate all over his face.

Who in his right mind had fudge for breakfast?

Danny mouthed a ‘Are you sure?’ clearly thinking about last night, but right now, with Danny in his human form, Damian didn’t feel any of that mysterious power, so he nodded at his little brother, ‘don’t worry’, he mouthed back.

The woman’s eyes sharpened, something like worry in them “I’d also like to call your dad, and see what he thinks about a DNA test”

Oh, right, to their eyes he was just a fourteen-year-old child, a rich fourteen-year-old child at that. In a more logic scenario, he and his father would be the ones asking for a DNA test to make sure it was not a scam, but… “Father doesn’t really know about this, and…we were hoping to keep it under warps…”

Danny and him exchanged a look, Damian worried at the impish little smile his brother gave him.

“The media hasn’t let Dami alone in four years despite his better efforts, and we don’t want Mr. Wayne letting it slip by accident in a social event or something…you know how he is” Oh, Danny would rely heavily on the ‘Brucie’ persona, Damian knew that some day that would turn on his father. He had to hide his smile under the pretense of sipping his cup of tea “Remember when he announced by mistake the winner of that reporter prize in an interview? Or when he Revealed the mysterious guest in that Tv show?”

The woman, Madison or something -not like Danny was willing to call his parents by their full name- seemed thoughtful. Damian just needed the selling point.

“Being watched for any mistake I may do, is…not fun”

Maybe it was his subtle troubled expression, maybe it was the articles Mrs. Fenton read -Damian knew they were invasive at best, difamation at worst- or maybe it was Danny’s puppy eyes, but the purple eyed woman sighed in resignation. “Fine, but we still need to tell a responsible adult you are here”

“They already know I’m in Amity” Damian rolled his eyes halfhearted, hand going to retrieve his phone from his pocket “But if you must insist, you can call this number and tell Alfred”

Chapter Text

They changed locations to the basement, Damian had to admit he was slightly impressed by the array of technology these people had in it-not all were a famous billionaire with a knack for going out at night, after all- specially since a lot of them looked like futuristic cooking supplies, neon green glowing cooking supplies, that explained the fact that food came to life.

Talking about that little incident, Mrs. Fenton had offered him some sausages, again, he had to explain that he was vegetarian, and that Danny had already offered them in his sleepy state. Mrs. Fenton nodded in understanding while Danny flushed furiously at having forgotten his dietary restrictions.

The transition way down had been without incident, more so when the Fenton’s noted he wasn't resisting or opposing it at all. Danny for his part, seemed squeamish and kept glancing towards what he assumed to be The Portal, as if it would suddenly open and vacuum them all inside.

And maybe it would, Damian didn't know.

"Welcome to Fenton's Lab!" Mr. Fenton beamed, rushing ahead to retrieve something.

"It seems you…. are quite the '' was that a soup thermos? Seriously he needs to make these people read about the risks of cross contamination in labs "…. ingenious inventors"

Mrs. Fenton pushed aside some blueprints and metal scraps from one of the worktables, some things landed on the floor with a heavy thud, the woman was stronger than she seemed.

"Oh, yes, one has to make do with what we have over here" she replied cheerfully, her mood seemed to improve now that they were in her element.

"Why are they green?"

The woman seemed to open a little bit more, less wary, more exited. Apparently talking about their inventions was a way to put him in their good books "We use ectoplasm as a power source, is an almost endless source of energy"

Damian's eyebrows raised subtly "Is it?"

"Yeah, quite clean too. We once tried to get founds through that, but Lex Corp found our research 'completely nuts', the man didn't even let us explain!"

The mention of Lex Corp made him tense up, that man was always up to no good. It was a blessing in disguise that Luthor dismissed the scientists, and more so if he didn't steal their research, Damian didn't want to imagine any of Luthor's machinations with an almost endless source of energy.

Danny sent him a questioning glance, which he dismissed with a wave of a hand, he would explain later.

"I think that's because you broke into his hotel room that one time he was in Chicago" mumbled Jasmine, with an exasperated sigh, Mrs. Fenton seemed to pay her daughter's comment no mind.

"... right now, part of our investigation is funded by Vlad Co, a friend's company"

"As in…Vladimir Masters?"

The eccentric man? The same man that gave his father a bad vibe and that had some very strange deals in their records. It had raised alarms in his father database long ago, amassing fortune and companies as if they were collectibles. He was on their millionaire watch list for strange behavior.

One meeting receiving a rotund negative, the next the whole conseil agreeing to sell him the company for half the price. Almost as if they had been…. possessed…

"Oh, you know him?"

It appeared he had to talk to Danny about some things, and judging by his twin's frown he also had something to tell him about the man "Father has mentioned him once or twice"

"That's our Vladie!" Mr. Fenton announced, bringing with him a strange machine that consisted of a huge pole with something circular on top "always knew he would get places"

Was that supposed to be a dreamcatcher?

"I present to you the Fenton Ghost Catcher!" For some reason Danny scooted subtly away from him, Damian would have to ask if these inventions worked and if they were a risk for his little brother, later. "This will let us know if you are being possessed by a ghost or not"

*-*

Danny wasn’t comfortable around the Fenton Ghost Catcher after the whole ‘have to work with himself to defeat Sulker’ fiasco. But from all his parent’s inventions, it certainly was the less invasive one. He was glad they were keeping their word on that front.

“Am I supposed to…sleep?” Damian questioned with a judgmental eyebrow, eyeing disapprovingly the worktable his mom had just cleaned up. Despite his previous protest about these ‘test’ Danny couldn’t help to burst out laughing.

At Damian’s glare he tried to reign himself, least he ended up with a hit to his head. “Sorry Dami, it’s, that was just a too funny mental image”

Even his mom seemed to take it with humor, judging by the little smile on her face “You just have to sit on the table and let us do the rest”

Danny could see how Damian was weirded out about the whole ordeal, but after a beat his older brother subtly shrugged and hopped on the table.

His dad beamed at him and walker closer with the invention still in hand “This net here is supposed to work as a filter, I repaired It after it somehow got destroyed”

Well, that explained that, Danny thought resentfully.

"Is supposed to split the ghost from its host without damaging the human" "just, don't move"

To his relief the Fenton Ghost catcher passed through Damian without incident, which was good because he didn't know how much of a ghost -undead person- his brother was or if he would have been affected by the artifact at all.

Damian had been very dumb for doing the test without knowing that first, but Danny would reproach him, later.

"See! A human 100%!" Danny announced cheerly, making jazz hands.

His mom seemed amused at his antics, nodding at the statement "We'll take it, for now…I'll call this Alfred person and let him know you are safe, honey"

Danny had to push Damian a little bit for him to react, apparently the Fenton's were a whole other concept of strange for him. Joy, now Danny would have someone to share the first hand embarrassment with.

"Thanks?"

His mom patted Damian on the head with a small smile, and Danny had to wonder if it was mom's special power to not have her hand chopped off at the action "You can go up now" His mom put away her goggles giving Danny a mock stern glare "Danny, show Damian around town"

"But first, where are you staying Champ? We can go retrieve your things!" His dad practically screamed, clearly excited with the news "I'm sure Danny wouldn't mind sharing his room with you"

Damian seemed perplexed, as if he was expecting more. Danny suspected that with a man like B-man, famously known for his paranoia, he had expected more fanfare.

Danny was just glad that despite his parent's genius they hadn't thought about a DNA test machine because he didn't know how his DNA had been affected by the ectoplasm -and frankly he didn't want to know.

He took his still in mobile brother's hand and with a wave behind his head he took him upstairs, his dad trailing behind them with a huge smile.

-

Damian didn't really know what to think now, yes, he had been expecting skepticism, and tests, but he had expected…more.

Maybe it was the part of him raised at an assassin's base, where you had to keep your guard up at any given moment least you were perceived as weak; or the years he had passed under his father's tutelage, a man so paranoid that has immediately requested a DNA test as soon as they met.

But with the Fenton's, apparently proving he wasn't a ghost was all they needed to accept him. No matter how cliche his explanation sounded.

It felt weird, and Danny kept glancing at him between worry and amused.

DeBut the worry may be because Mr. Fenton drove like -the clearly modified- SUV was the bat-tank. How did this man even have a license?

"Here is okay Mr. Fenton!" He did not scream, but it was a near thing.

The tires screeched and they skidded, with accuracy enough to park themselves between two cars. Damian excited the car, trying to look impassive. Danny snickering behind him, something he ignored in favor of going straight to the hotel’s main entrance.

"Take your time kids!" Mr. Fenton announced, voice booming in the now empty street. Damian assumed that any sane person would have seek refuge at the man's antics.

Danny screamed something back and both entered the reception, the lady behind the reception gave them a weird look, but once Damian showed his room key up, she went back to focus on her computer, letting them pass towards the elevators.

"How was your first Fenton-ride?" Danny commented with a huge grin on his face.

"He drives like Todd" Damian deadpanned, which was an unfair statement, every Gotham vigilante drove like mad people, but Todd was the one who did it more often, even in civilian form.

Apparently, being legally dead let him break all driving lessons in anonymity.

Danny only cackled, making Damian roll his eyes, barely containing a fond smile.

It was good to have him back.

~*-*~

Tim stared at his tablet, barely blinking, they had retreated to Gotham, despite Bruce’s protests, but he and all his siblings had agreed that the kids needed some space and had practically manhandled the man towards the bat plane, a combined effort between Cass’s puppy eyes and Jason’s threats.

That didn’t stop him from checking the cameras they placed in Damian’s hotel room, thought.  

Deep down he knew that the demon brat was more than capable of defending himself -if all the assassination attempts on Tim’s person were any indication- but Dick’s worried face and Bruce’s grunts made him guilty enough to check on the brat without anyone asking him to. He had been watching them ever since they departed from Illinois, but so far there hadn’t been any indication that Damian had returned.

Which made him think that maybe the brat wasn’t stupid and knew they had rigged his room as soon as they set foot in Amity, but whatever, he would check the cameras a little bit more and then call it a day. They still had patrol and he hadn’t sleep enough -shocking, he knew.

Just when he was about to shut down his tablet, he saw something strange, there was Damian entering the room, but the footage seemed to be corrupted, it cut in some frames and then resumed in others, like a low budget horror movie, except it was almost noon and there was light.

It must be Phantom’s doing then, Bruce was still at the Bat computer trying to salvage their bodycam records.

“Hey brat” Tim said into a microphone feature, he had been the one with the idea of placing two ways speakers on the room, pretty sure Damian would not pick his phone the rest of his stay. Now surer after the fight he apparently had with Bruce, or so Dick said.

The teen on the camera footage rounded around, eyes searching, zeroing into one of the cameras with an impressive scowl. “Drake”

“You were not kidding; this place is full of bugs” Tim couldn’t see the source of the other voice, but it was so like Damian’s that he had to assume it was Phantom’s, or rather Danyal’s as Bruce had taken to address the teenage hero -letting the undead part out, for the moment, Tim would come back to think about that, later.

“Hello to you too Danyal”

“I prefer Danny, thanks” The voice replied, annoyed.

“What do you want Drake? I already reported to Alfred of my status” Oh, geez, Dick’s assumptions had been on point, Damian was at the stage where he would rather die than talk to anyone of them, Alfred being the only exception.

“Letting you know we will try to calm down B as much as we can, but he would lose his mind if you’re not back by Friday, Saturday at the latest” Tim had to suppress a flinch when a pair of Lazarus green eyes suddenly appeared occupying his whole screen, Danny had decided to turn visible it seemed.

“Nuh-uh, he’s staying here, I haven’t seen him in years!” It was quite bizarre to hear Damian’s voice whine, but Danny seemed more expressive than the demon brat. The green eyes faded from his screen, Danny reappearing floating gently at Damian’s side, half hugging the brat “Besides, not sure I’m comfortable meeting the man that screamed at my little brother”

“You are the younger one” Grumbled Damian, trying to shove his brother away -and wow, they were, in fact, brothers, blood brothers, Tim’s mind supplied. “By one minute”

“Shh, they don’t know that”

Damian managed to free himself from the hold and turned to give the camera a judgmental raised eyebrow, which was quite common, the brat seemed to think everyone else was stupid.  “Tell father we’ll consult with someone more knowledgeable if Danny can attend to his summons”

“Pfft, summon” The glowing teen snickered, and Tim was getting wish plash, was that a smile on Damian’s face?

Putting that aside, Tim frowned “Why wouldn’t he?”

This time the one to look at the camera as if the person at the other side was stupid -which, ouch- was Danny “As far as I know, Ghosts get attached to the places they died” Right “So, I’m not sure if I can leave Amity”

((Danny in fact, could leave Amity whenever he wanted, even in ghost form, he had died in the expanse of the Infinity Realms after all, which expanded far beyond human comprehension, not that he was privy to that information.

Besides, it was a good excuse, one that made people uncomfortable))

“Right”

“I’ll send my report later, tell father to wait till then” Damian turned around, impassive, luggage in hand, Danyal gave the camera a wave before disappearing from the visible spectrum.

Well, Tim was glad that he wasn’t going to be the one to explain all that to Bruce. He headed to his room, faceplanting on his bed.

It was weird, but he was glad Damian seemed happy-er.