Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jason wakes up in his boxers with chains bounding him to a chair.

To the average human, this might be an alarming situation to come into consciousness in, but unfortunately, Jason is not the average human. 

Actually, he’s not even sure if he counts as human anymore, but details.

He takes stock of himself and his surroundings, keeping his body lax and his breathing deep so as not to alert potential unfriendlies that he’s awake. He’s surprisingly uninjured as far as kidnappings go in his line of work, though there is a weird ache in his neck, and he vaguely remembers the sharp pinch of a needle entering before waking up who the hell knows where, and assumes that’s how they got him. 

Speaking of, there’s multiple voices echoing around him as if bouncing off walls and a ceiling far larger than an average room; probably a warehouse of some sort, if Jason has to guess. He can also make out the rustling of clothes, and some light scraping sounds along with the flash of fire on the backs of his eyelids. It’s a low flicker and he doesn’t feel any heat, so he’s not worried about that at the moment.

For now, he tunes into the conversation, hoping to glean some information about what the hell he’s gotten himself into this time.

“-the entire set! At this rate, we’ll be ready for the ritual in a little under an hour, My Lord!”

“Make it thirty minutes. The hour of Thin Veil is approaching and our Almighty has waited long enough.”

Oh great. Jason’s been abducted by a cult.

It takes an absurd amount of willpower not to roll his eyes and give himself away. Ever since he’d crawled his way out of the Lazarus pit, he’s been getting snatched by various occult groups looking to use him to summon one thing or another every few weeks. 

Quite frankly, Jason’s sick of it.

“Unhand me at once!” A voice calls out, and Jason goes stiff, adrenaline flooding his system in a rush of sudden panic. He’d know that obnoxiously petulant tone anywhere. 

“Damian, chill. Don’t piss off the guy with a knife.” Tim’s exasperated tone chastises, and Jason’s eyes fly open. To hell with being discrete, he needs to know what's going on now.

He’s sitting on the edge of a massive circle carved with an old script and littered with candles. Various people in crimson robes mill about, putting the finishing touches on the floor and dragging seemingly random objects onto key parts of the spell. Jason pays them no mind though, fully focused on his brothers, spread out equal distance from him on the circle, in the same hog-tied position as him. 

There’s a man in red robes in front of Damian holding a wickedly sharp knife. Tim watches the guy with apprehension, running his mouth presumably in hopes of turning the attention onto himself, and Dick is seemingly unconscious. 

Fuck. 

If it had just been Jason that was abducted, he could play scared civilian and let the cult spill their secrets as he figured out a way to escape, but his brothers being a part of the scheme led him to believe this was a bigger operation than the standard run-of-the-mill idiots who happened across a spell book and thought they could gain a power-up in their free time.

“Hey, leave the brat alone. He’s not the one with Lazarus water running through his veins.” Jason calls out, feeling smug when the knife-wielding cultist pauses and turns to him.

Damian shoots him a sour look for the interruption, probably disgruntled to have the man’s attention so easily turned from him -kid has serious issues- but Jason ignores him in favor of doing exactly what Tim said not to do. 

Antagonize the guy with the knife.

“Is your wannabe cult group too stupid to do your homework? I thought my little life-and-death stunt was a well-known in underground circles, but sure. Threaten the kid without liquid anti-death instead of me.”

The guy’s lip curls, “Silence sacrifice! You do not understand the gravity of what we're doing here today.”

“Well, we didn’t exactly get around to introductions before you went waving a knife around like a kid with a bubble wand.” Jason sasses, “How about I go first? I’m Jason Todd and I'd say it’s nice to meet you, but-”

The man abandons his position next to Damian and marches up to Jason, shoving the knife in his face. “I said, silence. Or do you want me to cut out your tongue?”

Jason opens his mouth, about to say something that will probably get him de-tongued -but will be absolutely worth it if you ask him- when another voice joins the fray. 

"What in the world is going on?”

Just his luck. Mr. Golden child's awake.

“Oh you know, kidnapped by a cult group probably for some sacrificial bullshit. Just a regular old Tuesday evening.” Jason snarks, taking great pleasure in the way Dick’s eyes widen and he bucks against his chains, testing their weight.

The knife near Jason’s face cuts a shallow line down his cheek, and Jason hisses out a breath. He wasn't unaware enough to forget about the lackey, but damn, can a man have a conversation around here?

“I said. Silence.”

Jason shuts his mouth.

The cultist smiles patronizingly at him and moves to walk along the exterior of the circle. “Now, let me enlighten your dull, unknowledgeable minds. We have brought you here, the four most influential children of Gotham, to have the great honor of summoning our Almighty and freeing him from his prison. Rejoice, for this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and once he is free, the Almighty will give us great strength!”

Yeah right. Sounds to Jason like they’re gonna drain him and his brothers dry for some eldritch being to go on a rampage and flatten half of the city. 

Not on his watch.

Jason turns his attention to the circle, and starts in surprise. The writing is in Ancient, and he scans the spell with a growing sense of horror. 

"The runes are wrong." 

"What?" Tim hisses over the beginnings of a dozen voices rising in chant.

"They've got the wrong spell."

Damian shuffles in his chair, seemingly trying to get a better look at the floor. "How are you-"

"What does that mean for us?" Dick cuts in, and Jason eyes the circle warily. 

"Nothing good."

They fall silent, watching the floor begin to glow a soft crimson as the chanting gets louder. 

Jason's vision begins to tint green, as the pits respond to whatever the fuck is being called, and frantically racks his brain for any way out of this. He’d never admit it, but contrary to popular belief, he does give a fuck about the other dumbasses adopted by Bruce Wane, and whatever entity is about to come out of this circle is going to be baring a fate worse than death. 

Jason would know. He’s been dead.

…Actually speaking of being dead. Jason does know someone from the Ghost Zone with enough sheer audacity to help him fight what very well could be an actual demon. It’s been years since they last spoke, with Jason being resurrected, trained by the league, and then sent out on a mad warpath and all, but this particular ghost is one of the few people Jason will genuinely and unabashedly call a friend, so he figures it’s worth a shot.

With a mental ‘fuck it’, Jason begins to chant. 

The feeling of the pit rising in him grows to a dull roar, and judging by his fully greened-out vision, he can only assume his eyes are glowing. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see his skin beginning to pale, but he doesn't stop, desperate and willing to put all his energy into this last trump card.

Slowly, the light around the summoning circle changes from a blood red to match the neon of Jason’s irises. The temperature drops, an artic chill blowing through the room, extinguishing the candles and sending frosty patterns over the floors and walls. 

Ectoplasm bubbles out of the runes, stopping right on the line of the circle, creating a perfectly round pool of noxious green liquid. The entire thing ripples violently, sending little splashes of goop onto Jason’s legs, but he keeps chanting. 

There are spots in his vision when a shape begins to rise out of the pool, dark and writhing. It glitches like it can't decide on a form, the only clear feature is a pair of glowing eyes, the same color as Jason's own.

Jason finally falls silent, gasping in heaving breaths, and allowing himself to slump forward and blink rapidly as his strength begins to return to him.

"Who dares summon the Ghost King?" The apparition speaks in a hundred overlapping voices, distorted and grating on the ears.

One of the cultists steps forward, you know. Like an idiot. 

“Almighty! We have brought you to this plane and freed you from your prison of eternal darkness! Grant us your power and you can rule this mortal realm with us as your faithful servants at your si-”

The apparition waves a too-long limb and the man’s mouth freezes shut. The cultist’s eyes widen, but the others take the frozen mouth of their fellow practitioner as an invitation to surge forward toward the hulking mass like a group of toddlers rushing an ice cream truck.

“Oh, this’ll be good.” Jason chuckles just as the apparition loses its patience and sends out a wave of freezing wind, blowing the ridiculous cloaks right off the practitioners. They finally take the hint and scatter, leaving Jason and his brothers tied down with an eldritch nightmare.

In any other circumstance, they might be fucked, but Jason knows this particular cryptid and their penchant for dramatics.

"Thanks for the save Phantom, but do you think you could get me out of these chains?” Jason says in as much as a monotone as he can muster white shivering violently. “And maybe find my clothes? It’s a little chilly in here for boxers, yah know?” 

"Wait, Jason ?” The chill fades, frost melting into little puddles, and the apparition condenses into a dark cloud of smoke which Danny pops through, eagerly coming to hover in front of him. “Holy fuck, I thought you passed on!"

Jason grins, accepting the pat on the shoulder, and stretching his sore arms once he’s been phased through his chains. Danny rushes off to do the same for Tim, Damian, and Dick -who stare at the ghost with wide eyes- and Jason takes the chance to study his friend. He notes that the eternal teenager’s white hair didn’t use to float like that, his canines are definitely sharper than the last time he saw the guy, and he’s wearing a new cape and a crown in the time it takes for Danny to retrieve their clothes from a shadowy corner and dump them at Jason’s feet.

“Yeah, I wish. But nope, got thrown right back into the living world like a bat out of hell.”

Danny snorts at the pun.

“But what about you?” Jason gives him an obvious once-over, letting the teenager know that he’s noticed the changes, “Last time we talked you were complaining about fighting off the Box Ghost, but it looks like you got a promotion.”

Danny rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. “Yeah, Pariah Dark pulled my whole town into the Zone, and I sorta defeated him in single combat…”

Jason whistles, impressed. “Damn, good one your majesty. ” He emphasizes the title just to watch the guy squirm. His friend has never been a fan of attention, and Jason’s rewarded by Danny blushing green.

“Jason,” Dick cuts in with a cautious tone, “Who is this?”

Jason blinks. He’s honestly forgotten they had an audience, too caught up in seeing his old friend again.

He guessers loosely at Danny who’s floating a foot off the ground beside him, “Meet Phantom, the Ghost King, and my friend from the Infinite Realms. Phantom, these are my brothers Dick, Tim, and Damian.”

“Hold up, wait. You know the Ghost King?” Tim squawks with his t-shirt halfway over his head.

“Oh yeah, Jason and I go way back.” Danny grins, “We both make killer jokes about dying, and have really shit luck like, all of the time. Which apparently hasn’t changed in the two years I haven't seen you.” He elbows Jason, throwing him off balance while he’s trying to pull his pants up on stiff legs.

“Oh fuck off, you’re not any better.” Jason grumbles, shoving the asshole and his unnaturally cold elbows away from him.

“Touché.”

Jason’s brothers stare at him incredulously, and he sighs, resigning himself to having to explain this half a dozen times by the end of the night. 

“We met in the Infinite Realms, otherwise known as the Ghost Zone when I was 15. I was in the middle of uh, hijacking an interesting looking bike-"

"Jonny's. You were stealing Jonny's bike. The guy with a rampaging shadow core and an emotional attachment to said motorcycle." Danny interrupts exasperatedly.

Jason flaps his hand in dismissal, "Details. I was hijacking a sick-ass bike cuz I was bored when Danny just walked up and thanked me. I thought he was out of his fucking mind and I told him so, and we've been friends ever since."

Danny rolls his eyes, "That was the fastest and most un-detailed version of that story I’ve ever heard. Did you lose your dramatic flare with the return of your heartbeat?"

"Hey! I’ll have you know, Mr. Eldritch Nightmare, that I’ve still got it, but if you think that was oh so terrible, you tell them."

Danny grins and leans in as if about to spill a particularly juicy secret, and Jason snorts at the way his brothers all mimic the action. "Okay so, there's this city I haunt, and it's kinda overrun by ghosts. Not all of them are obnoxious, but a few cause issues for the humans, so I try and send them back into the Zone when I can. Jonny's generally chill unless he has a fallout with his partner, Kitty and they had a massive fight, so I went into the Zone to try and do some damage control before they moved their argument into the living dimension. They didn't listen though, and I was on my way out when I saw this scrappy kid stealing Jonny's bike and thought he'd heard the fight too and was trying to help, so I thanked him. Turns out he just wanted to take a joyride and since Jonny won't be seen in public without his bike and I was really tired of playing mediator, I offered to steal the keys."

“I- don’t even know where to start with that.” Tim admits, sounding faint as he taps away on the phone he’d retrieved from his clothes. 

“Put your pants on before you go down a goddamn rabbit hole, for fuck’s sake.” Jason groans, far too used to his brother’s hyperfixations on anything vaguely interesting. 

To be fair, finding out your previously dead older brother is friends with the Ghost King who apparently also steals motorcycles does count as a little more than vaguely interesting, but he digresses.

“What language were you chanting in? It’s not one I recognize.” Damian asks, staring suspiciously at Danny all the while.

Jason rolls his eyes at the polyglot, “Most of the Zone just calls it Ancient.”

“What were you saying though?” Dick asks and Danny perks up, answering before Jason can get a word out.

“Every ghost has an Echo, which is essentially a calling card, kinda like a pager. Most summoning spells include them, which is why they work in the first place.” 

“But the whole drawing a pentagram on the ground thing isn’t necessary if you have a connection with who you’re trying to summon. I just took the liberty of hijacking the cultist's circle for Danny because I really didn’t want to meet whatever the hell they were trying to raise.” Jason adds.

“You paged the Ghost King. With an incorrect summoning circle. To save our lives.” Dick marvels, looking at Jason like he’s never seen him before. “Damn Jay, I didn’t know you cared so much-”

“I don’t give a fuck about you.” Jason immediately defends, sending Danny into a fit of laughter. “I was saving my own ass. Now where the hell is the Bat? There’s no goddamn way you three chuckleheads got snatched without him getting wind of it.”

“He’s on his way, I texted him as soon as I hacked past the Signal Jammer.”

“Wait, this is Gotham right?” Danny cuts in, looking to Jason who nods. “Shit, then that’s my cue. I have a feeling your dad isn’t gonna be ecstatic to see what looks like a meta in his city.”

“Hold up, what do you mean, Jay's dad? Do you know Batman's identity??” Dick exclaims.

“What do you mean, looks like a meta?” Damian demands.

“Wait, Danny he wouldn't-” Jason tries to reassure him, but the teenager’s already gone.

Chapter Text

“Alright, spill.” Steph demands the literal second Jason sits down in the bat cave. God, he’s too tired for this. “Where the hell did you meet this Phantom guy?

“Hell is right” Jason mutters under his breath, the barest hint of a smile pulling at his lips as he imagines Danny’s reaction to his pun. Unfortunately for Jason, Steph picks up on his micro-expression like a dog with a bone and leans forward.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” Jason dismisses with the wave of a hand, and unceremoniously changes the subject. “We pulled pranks in the Zone after I died. Met him while stealing a motorcycle.”

“Zone?” Batman repeats in that way he does when he wants answers yesterday; slow, dangerous, and with just the barest hint of a threat.

“Oh my god, I just processed the fact that you committed grand theft auto and the Ghost King helped you.” Dick breathes, effectively cutting off Batman and derailing the conversation in one fell swoop. 

Jason’s almost a little proud.

“You what!? ” Steph exclaims, eyes gleaming. “I have to hear that one.”

Tim shoots her a shit-eating grin. “Apparently, he got away with it too.” 

“Hey, he wasn’t the king then, and Phantom’s no snitch.” Jason protests. In his defense, Danny’s one hell of an enabler.

"Even in death, you were a menace." Dick laughs, reaching over to give his hair a ruffle. Jason bats away the offending hand a tad reluctantly. 

It’s been years since he was volatile enough for a simple touch to set him off, but he has a reputation to maintain, dammit, and it doesn't include accepting hair ruffles from overbearing older brothers.

"People really don't change." Damian sneers, cross-armed and permanently grumpy as always.

Jason digs into his ‘bribe street kids with random shit’ pocket and throws a Flash-themed pencil at him, causing the brat to squawk indignantly and promptly cut it in half with his sword. Jesus Fucking Christ, his reflexes are inhuman.

"Children." Batman snaps and the room quiets dutifully. “Explain from the beginning. What is the ‘Zone’ and what constitutes as a ghost?”

Jason sighs, “Ghosts are created by strong emotion and a high amount of residual ectoplasm. The Ghost Zone, or Infinite Relams if you're being formal, is a mirror dimension of Earth where ectoplasmic beings, more well-known as Ghosts, reside. Though 'Ghosts' by human definition, isn't really the right word for most ectoplasmic beings, seeing as the population that died as humans and came back is pretty damn low."

“Ectoplasm?”

“It’s a semi-radioactive substance that the Infinite Realms are made of. The more activity the area has, the more ghosts it’ll contain and vice versa. Gotham reeks of it.”

"So is that how you and Phantom became ghosts? By dying?" Steph breaks in, apparently unable to hold herself back any longer. Jason sends her a reproachful look, but before he can reprimand her, Cass signs.

“Oh my god, Steph. You can’t just ask people how they died.”

Steph immediately guffaws, and Jason slides his chair a little further away from her. He’s not sure what the hell his sisters are going off about, but the way Cass emphasized the sentence, makes him think it’s a quote from something.

Sure enough, as soon as she gets her breath back, Stephanie reaches over to give Cass a high-five.

“I knew introducing you to Mean Girls was a good idea! Seriously though, you knew the Ghost King when he was only a baby ghost-ling! How cute!”

“Did you miss the part where they stole a motorcycle together?” Tim mutters.

Damian scoffs at their dramatics, and turns to Jason. “How did you know how to summon Phantom? Were the runes that messed up or did you override them?”

“Hold up, you summoned him?” Stephanie cries indignantly, “I thought you just like, I don’t know, called him or something?”

Jason rubs the bridge of his nose, tired of having to explain this. “I did both. Phantom gave me his 'Echo', which is kinda like an @, when we were in the Zone, and I didn’t use it until now.”

“So you repeated the magic of an unknown years after being out of contact-“

“Whoa, B. Chill.” Dick interrupts, “They were friends when they were dead. Phantom wasn’t an unknown.”

“Thank you, and yes, I hijacked the summoning circle. It took a little more energy than I would’ve liked, but whatever the cultists were trying to lure out with that thing wasn’t gonna be good news.”

“That doesn’t explain how you knew he was the Ghost King.” Batman accuses, but Jason doesn’t rise to the bait.

“Oh, I didn’t actually know about the King thing. I pulled Phantom in hopes that he could phase me out of the chains before whatever the cultists were summoning killed me again. Phantom’s always been good at getting out of tight spots.”

“You didn’t seem all that surprised when Phantom showed up with a crown.” Damian states resentfully, but Jason only laughs.

“Never put it past Phantom to pull off impossible shit. Kid’s a stupid good strategist and has enough of a suborn streak to move continents.”

“Kid?” Bruce interrupts, visibly softening, and everyone in the room rolls their eyes at his tone. It’s the one he uses when he’s considering picking up another stray. They all know it well.

“He’s got parents, B.” Jason states, though he’s only like 50% sure they’re good ones. Actually, now that he’s thinking about it, Danny’s human form does have black hair and blue eyes. He's prime adoption bait. “And besides, he’s not a meta but he’s got powers.”

“What do you mean he’s not a meta?” Damian demands, “He iced over the room, blew fully grown men back with a wind blast, and then phased us all through our bindings.”

“Yeah, cuz he’s dead.” Jason deadpans, decidedly not mentioning Danny’s halfa status. That was not a conversation for today. Or ever hopefully. “Technically it's a medical condition.”

“I kinda wanna laugh but I don’t know if he’s joking or not.” Stephanie stage-whispers to Cass. The former assassin only shrugs in response.

“Is he a meta or isn’t he?”

Jason sighs, kicking himself up on the back legs of his chair and avoiding looking directly at Alfred’s shadow appearing in the doorway at the action. Jason’s boots are clean, he’s not a hooligan. 

…usually.

“It’s complicated. To us? Sure, but his species are known for having some kind of power individual to the being. A lot of what he can do is the norm in the Infinite Realms. Not to mention that it’s a different dimension. He’s basically in the same boat as The Martian or Superman. Do aliens count as metahumans when they’re not actually human at all?”

There’s a quiet moment of contemplation that Tim breaks with a vaguely awed tone.

“That was a really intelligent explanation, Jay.” 

Jason throws another pencil. This time it’s Green Arrow-themed. “Oh fuck off. I’m not a genius, but I’m not an idiot either.”

“Yeah, just brain dead.” Steph jokes and Jason gives her a Look.

“I haven’t been dead in years.”

“Technically you’re a zombie, so-“

Jason hits her square in the forehead with the eraser side of a Superman pencil, and immediately doubles over cackling at the look on her face.

“How come she gets the Superman one? We all know it’s Bruce’s favorite.” Dick faux whines, and Bruce scowls, sending Jason into another fit of laughter.

“Dick-“

“It’s okay to have a crush, Bruce-“

“Richard Grayson.”

“Jeez, okay. No need to bring out the full name.”

Jason wheezes for a few more moments before he’s able to regain his breath, and he takes the glass of water shoved his way gratefully. Fuck, he needed that. Though he’s starting to get to the end of his questions quota for the night.

"Do you know who he was when he was alive?" Damian asks, and Jason’s brow furrows. He doesn't know the brat well, but something is off about his tone.

"Why? Did you know him or something?"

Damian pauses, "He- looked familiar."

"Familiar how?"

"If you don't know who he was then it doesn't matter." Damian gripes, visually closing off.

Jason decides to poke that particular bear another day.

“Fine, whatever. Any further questions or am I free to go, officers?”

“Yeah actually. How is it that you’re 21, and Phantom’s-I’m not actually sure- but he's still a kid?” Tim questions, a laptop pulled from apparently fucking nowhere sitting on his lap. 

Jason could have sworn it wasn’t there when he was throwing pencils. Whatever, let his brother keep his secrets.

“So the thing about the Zone is that it's essentially a liminal space. Time is super weird there and you don’t really age. So I died when I was 15, and Phantom died when he was 14, but since I didn't expect to get yanked back into my living body by the Lazarus pit, I wasn’t keeping count past my death date. I meet him probably a year after I got nerfed, and we fucked around for what felt like two years, but I couldn't tell you how much time passed on earth during that. When I woke up again, I was definitely older than a glorified pre-teen.”

“Did you remember Phantom past the pit rage?”

“I wasn’t able to do much of anything except kill during the pit rage,” Jason quips sardonically, “But it came back with the rest of my mental faculties when it wore off, yeah.”

“So, you knew about another dimension with an entire race of unknown entities this entire time and didn’t tell anyone?” Batman asks, a lilt to his tone betraying how pissed he is. Jason lets his chair legs fall back onto the ground with a loud thump and glares.

“It didn’t involve you.”

“It’s a threat and it should have been investigated-“

Jason can feel a headache growing behind his eyes. He takes a deep breath, willing himself not to snap. “Phantom’s got it covered.”

“You said he wasn’t the king when you left.  An untrained 14-year-old has been-“

“I never said he was untrained and I sure as fuck didn't say he was still 14.” Jason interrupts but Bruce keeps talking like he didn’t even hear him.

“Who would’ve stopped ghosts from coming through and causing an incident?”

“Phantom would and did on multiple occasions.” 

“What do you mean by that?” Tim cuts in and Jason sighs, rubbing his temples.

“The town he haunts sees a lot of ghost activity. He manages it.”

Batman’s posture straightens in alarm, “What town? Why haven’t we heard of it?” 

“Oh fuck no, stay out of Phantom’s business. He’s doing fine.” Jason snaps. He’s not sure why the Justice League never intervened, but Danny’s not a child that needs protecting anymore. Swooping in to fix things would be an insult to what the kid went through to keep himself and his town safe.

“Considering he’s dead-”

Jason abruptly has had enough. “You know what, fuck you. Danny gave me his calling card. He was there for me even in death, and when I needed him, he came. I can’t say the same about you. So fucking lay off the both of us.”

“Ahem.” Alfred clears his throat from the door and Jason realizes he’s standing, having knocked the chair back in his sudden anger. His siblings are staring at him in shock and more than a few have hands hovering near their weapons. 

It makes shame curl in his gut, but it’s quickly snuffed out by anger. Fuck, he’s mad. Screw Bruce for bringing up Danny’s death. The man has never even met Phantom, and Bruce’s particular brand of paranoia has been grating on Jason’s nerves this entire conversation.

All he wants is to pop a few Tylenol, take a shower, and sleep for the next 12 hours.

“May I offer to drive you home, Master Jason? I don’t feel that public transport will be safe for your current state.”

Jason opens his mouth to say no, but pauses. If he’s being honest with himself, he’s exhausted. It would be just his luck to pass out on a bus and get kidnapped again.

“Yeah, alright.”

As he’s turning to leave, Bruce speaks up one more time. “This discussion isn’t over. I’m bringing this ‘Ghost Zone’ up with the Justice League for a threat assessment.”

“Fucking fine.” Jason spits, not able to think past his pounding head.

He’s glad he takes the offer of a ride, because the trip back to his apartment is a blur. He stumbles up the stairs, fumbles his keys more times than he’d like to admit, barely remembers to lock the door behind him, and flops face-first into his bed.

He’s asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow.

Chapter Text

“So, let me get this straight.” Jason deadpans, so many levels of done with this situation already, “You sent an emergency alert for me to haul ass to the Watchtower because B told you about Phantom, and now you want me to do my party trick and summon him?” He asks to the room at large.

There's a not-so-surprisingly small amount of heroes for a weekday on such little notice, Jason can only assume the others are on missions, off-world, or had prior engagements that their civilian secret identities couldn't get out of. Only Superman, B, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, and the Flash are gathered in one of the Watchtower's many receiving rooms.

Superman nods sagely and it takes all of Jason’s willpower not to sneer. The guy has a major ‘justice’ boner and it gets on Jason’s every last nerve. 

Once upon a time, he'd genuinely looked up to the asshole, but after dying, coming back, and Tim telling him what the jerk had said to Kon when they first found out about the clone, well. No real hero blames a kid for existing. Especially not when it wasn’t the kid's fault he'd been made. 

Not to mention that the guy saved the Joker’s life. That alone had Jason deciding that Superman doesn't deserve the name rights and he mentally vows to come up with every insult he can think of, if only to get him through this meeting.

“Yes,” Super-ass confirms, expression not changing.

Jason’s first thought is, 'nope, no, absolutely not, stay the fuck away from Danny', but he takes a deep breath and really considers it. 

Jason's known the kid long enough to be well aware that the ghost can fight his own battles, but the Justice League doesn't have the best reputation of leaving the hell alone. He'd much rather have the kid meet the JL on his terms where he could play damage control if necessary. 

And strategically, a good first impression could be beneficial for both sides. God knows, Danny could use some backup every so often. Even if the backup is a group of assholes, B, and Wonder Woman.

“You do know the guy has a phone right? I could just call him.” Jason gestures to the summoning circle someone had taken the liberty of drawing right in the middle of the floor, incorrect runes and all. “This is completely fucking unnecessary.”

Super-dick’s expression doesn’t change. If Jason hadn't seen magazines with the guy’s face plastered on them, he’d be convinced the other man doesn’t smile. 

If Jason looks at him any longer he’s gonna throw hands, so he directs his attention back to the summoning circle, and frowns. It’s incomplete, a piece of chalk set beside the un-drawn lines. 

He takes a step closer to examine it. “Who even made this?”

“Constantine.” Batman states with just a hint of mischief in the way he’s holding his jaw. Jason squints suspiciously. 

“…And?”

“He stepped out for an emergency and told us specifically not to call you until he got back.” 

Jason can’t. He just can’t. Why does he associate with these people?

“So you messaged me immediately like a child getting into the cookie jar as soon as their parents leave?”

“I was outvoted.” Wonder Woman mentions off-handedly, and Jason snorts. 

“Ignore the only person in this room with any common sense. Classic.”

Super-jerk has apparently had enough of the banter, and speaks directly behind Jason. Because personal space is apparently not a thing he does. Fucking Christ.

“Do you have Phantom’s number?” 

“It’s my first speed dial.” Jason quips, knowing they'll think he's being sarcastic, but not actually joking.

Green Arrow leans against the wall, not pulling off the edgy and aloof act half as well as Bats. “Get it over with already.” 

Jason decides to stay silent, just to piss the guy off. As a treat. He’s had beef with the Green Arrow ever since he and Roy became besties.

Seriously, what kind of hero leaves his protege alone for months and then kicks him to the streets when said protege turns to substance abuse. The asshole didn't even try to help. That's like. Human decency 101. Take responsibility for your actions.. 

“Hood.” Bruce admonishes in an exasperated tone with just the tiniest hint of pleading, and Jason turns a glare on the man, still upset from the other night.

“Come on, man. It’s a good chance to get intel from the source, and you’ve said he’s a friendly so it’ll be fine!” 

Jason has a suspicious feeling that Flash just jinxed them all, but he sighs and pulls out his phone anyway.

“If he's in the middle of something you're waiting until he’s done."

"That’s fine-” Super-bastard begins, but Jason ignores the rest of his sentence, far more interested in making a show of holding down 1 until his phone begins the dial tone. 

He’s never been accused of not being a petty son of a bitch. Sue him.

“I thought he was joking when he said he had the guy on speed dial.” Flash mutters lowly to Wonder Woman. It's most definitely not meant for Jason to hear, but he quite frankly doesn't give a shit.

“I assure you I was not.”

“Uh? Hello?” The voice on the other end of the phone sounds confused and cautious and Jason realizes with a start that Danny doesn't have his number.

“Hey, it’s Jason. You busy right now?”

“Oh, sup!” The teen’s tone does a total 180, and he lets out a breath of relief, audible over the phone. “And no, not really. It’s lunch hour.”

Jason checks the time with a curse. He’d forgotten Danny was only in his senior year of high school. He should check in and make sure all’s going well with the guy’s grades. There’s no way he’s getting enough sleep spending a whole 8 hours at school a day, and then playing hero in his spare time.

Does he even have time to do homework with that kind of schedule? 

That’s a problem for Later Jason though.

“When’s the soonest convenient time for you to come to the Watchtower?”

“What?!” Danny sounds like his world just tilted on its axis and Jason can imagine the pure look of befuddlement on the teenager’s face. It takes a great deal of willpower not to laugh.

“They want to meet you and talk politics.”

“Like, as Phantom?”

Jason rolls his eyes, knowing full well the kid can’t see him. “What do you think?”

“Okay, okay stupid question. I’m still kinda in shock over here. Does four hours from now work?”

“Four hours?" Jason asks the room as a whole and receives a few nods. “Yeah, that’ll be fine. Do you know how to get here?”

“Dude. It’s a giant metal container floating in space! Of course I know how to get there.”

“Alright cool, see you in four.”

“Yeah,” Danny's voice takes on a sardonic tone, quieter as if he’s pulling the phone away from his face. “More government-sanctioned assholes confused about my existence. Can’t wait.”

“What do you mean-“ Jason begins to ask but the teen’s already hung up. He frowns at the screen for a second, considering calling him back and asking what the hell was up with that, but decides that’s not a conversation to have in a room full of nosey superheroes with enhanced senses, and slips his phone into his back pocket.

“How does he know where the Watchtower is and how is he planning on getting here?” Batman questions with an edge to his voice that Jason knows means he’s overthinking and snowballing quickly into paranoia. 

Oh hell no, Jason’s nipping that train of thought in the bud before it gets to worse conclusions. Like Danny somehow being a spy or worse, a villain.

“Chill, Bats. He’s a ghost, he doesn’t need to breathe, and he can turn invisible. He’s been in space before.”

Batman does not look entirely reassured by this, but fucks off to brood, probably. Don’t ask Jason.

Wonder Woman speaks up, looking for all the world genuinely curious. “Why did he venture into space?” 

Jason sighs, “If you were stuck on this planet for your entire life, died, and suddenly weren’t held by gravity or oxygen anymore, wouldn’t you?”

He doesn’t wait for a response, turning and striding out of the room. This place has to have a vending machine somewhere, and Jason needs some caffeine.

~ 🪐 ~

It’s not until four hours later on the dot, that Danny pops into existence just to the right of him. Jason’s scrolling aimlessly on his phone, but he feels the shift in the air before the teenager speaks inches away from his face.

“Hey, do you think they’d trade a cool space hideout for a castle in a different dimension or…?”

Jason prides himself on the fact that he doesn’t jump. Danny’s cold as fuck and also dead silent literally all of the time. Emphasis on the dead. “I’d like to say no, but unfortunately I've been in the same room as them on multiple occasions.”

There’s a cacophony of startled noises and abrupt movements, and Jason sighs. "Off to a great start already." 

He stands, and makes a show of gesturing to the eternal teenager at his side. “This is Phantom, Phantom, meet the Justice League. Pro-tip, doors are a thing and you should use them here. Superheroes don’t like to be startled.”

Danny winces slightly, probably relating to that, and feeling bad about the way they’d all reached for their weapons at his sudden appearance.

“Sorry about that. I’ll keep the door thing in mind.”

Super-bitch recovers first, unsurprisingly, “Welcome to the Watchtower,” He greets pleasantly. If Jason didn’t spend an unfortunate amount of time near the guy on many grudging occasions, he’d think it’s a friendly tone.

However, there’s a cautious lilt to it that gives away the man’s uneasiness as he studies Danny, eyes lingering anywhere that shines green and looking distinctly uncomfortable.

Danny seems to pick up on it, because he doesn’t offer a hand to shake, instead rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

“Uh, hey. I’m Phantom. I’ve actually always wanted to meet you guys.” 

“Good evening, King Phantom.” Wonder Woman greets, “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well.” She gives him a genuine smile, and Danny seems to relax a bit.

Well, right up until Green Arrow opens his big fat mouth.

“You’re the Ghost King?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“But you’re-“ Green Arrow’s gesture encompasses all of Danny, and the teenager seems so confused that Jason can't help it. He outright cackles and Danny shoots him an annoyed look.

“What?”

“You - oh my fucking god - you forgot to change into the get-up.”

Danny glances down at his plain black hazmat suit, white gloves and boots, with the stylized D on his chest, and blushes green. 

Abruptly a halo of light circles at his waist, rising up and down his body. When the light fades, he’s in full regalia. Various pieces of armor covering his vulnerable places, such as his chest, forearms, knees, and shins. The positioning of it says a lot about his fighting style, more defense than offense hand-to-hand.

A cape flows gracefully behind him, not hindered by the lack of wind as the milky way swirls through the fabric. The Crown of Fire floats a few inches above his hair, flames frozen mid-movement by a thin layer of ice, and it’s glow casts his face in sharp relief. 

He looks regal and intimidating, nothing like the cheerful teenager seconds ago, and Jason’s actually a little impressed.

“What the fuck.” Batman mutters under his breath.

Jason snorts, making a mental note to tell Alfred to put a dollar in the swear jar. It's been a running joke since Jason was picked up off the streets by the scruff of his neck, physically unable to go more than three sentences without making a sailor blush. And Jason's going to get a new motorcycle out of that stupid jar, dammit.

Super-ass frowns at the display, and softly says, "He's a child."

Danny places his hands on his hips and pouts, thoroughly breaking the regal moment. "Hey! Ghost forms don't reflect age like living bodies do. Don't assume."

Jason very pointedly doesn’t react to that statement, knowing if he let himself, he’d laugh his fucking ass off. Ah, teenagers. Always pretending to be older than they are.

“To be fair, you’re what, five-three?” Jason says instead, not bothering to lower his voice, and Danny puffs up like a kitten trying to make itself seem big and scary.

“Actually, I grew two inches since you last saw me!”

“Oh wow. Two whole inches. So big and strong.”

Batman clears his throat like he does when Jason’s siblings get off track. “Paron me asking, but are you a meta, Phantom?”

“No, I’m dead. It’s a META-cal condition.” Danny quips with a smirk, and goddamn Jason fucking loves this kid. Sassing Batman to his face, what an icon.

“Hmm,” Super-ass is still looking at the kid like someone kicked his super-puppy. Fuck him and his pity. “But you have powers. What can you do?”

“I’m not in the habit of telling strangers what my strengths and weaknesses are.” Danny crosses his arms “That’s a great way to get hurt.”

If Super-jerk is affected by the insinuation that he might hurt a child, he doesn’t show it. Instead, he puts his foot solidly in his mouth.

“You need guidance.”

Danny raises an unimpressed eyebrow, “Nope, try again.

“It’s not safe to have an underage meta wandering Earth without supervision. You could get hurt.”

Jason’s about to tell Super-dick where to shove his unwarranted, self-righteous opinion about people getting "hurt" - is he fucking serious - when Wonder Woman speaks up.

“Potential age aside, he’s a monarch, Superman. I think he can take care of himself.” 

Fucking finally, this right here is why Wonder Woman is Jason’s favorite. Does Super-ass not see the fucking crown on Danny’s head? It’s sure as shit not just there for show.

“Thank you Wonder Woman, and Superman, I’m. Not. Human. My species doesn’t age. I will forever look as young as the day I died. That’s not an indicator of my strength level.”

“Died? It wasn’t a joke?” Green Arrow interrupts suddenly, abandoning his sport against the wall to take a closer look at Danny. 

Jason growls a warning, and idly wonders if all the guy does is ask stupid questions. Actually, scratch that, Jason knows the answer to that.

Danny’s eyes glow brighter in a warning to tread lightly. “It comes with the territory of being a ghost, yeah.”

“And you were…” Green Arrow trails off, looking fairly nauseated at the prospect. 

The room goes cold. Literally. Jason’s wearing a jacket over his suit and he shivers.

“Children aren’t immune to death. The Justice League of all people should know that.”

“Phantom, freezing my ass off here.” Jason reminds him not-so-gently, and Danny takes a deep breath, and the temperature rises back to normal.

“Sorry, anyway you have no right to assume I’m underage. And even if I was, insinuating that I need guidance simply based on the years I’ve existed is insulting. Check a guy’s skill level before writing him off.”

“And what skill level is that?” Super-bastard latches onto the last sentence like Danny hadn't said anything else, and Jason rolls his eyes so hard he can feel an ache beginning behind them.

Is it possible to strain your eyes? Jason sure hopes not. He's got more pressing issues to worry about than an eye strain.

Danny stubbornly refuses to speak, so Super-dick turns to B. “You said a few of your Robbins encountered him. What was their report?”

Batman stares at Danny for a long moment as if asking permission. At the begrudging nod he receives, he speaks. “Robin reports seeing him create some kind of visual illusion involving light and shadows, ice over a room, create a wind blast strong enough to move fully grown men, and permeate through solid objects. The permeation is able to be extended to another by touch.”

There’s a chorus of explanations around the room.

“Well if you intend to hold that much power, you’ll have to have a mentor.” Green Arrow interjects, as Super-ass nods along gravely.

“We can train you at the Watchtower every week. Maybe Constantine or Dr. Fate can be contacted for running some tests on power limits-“

Oh hell the fuck no.

“Now hold on a damn minute!” Jason interrupts loudly, taking a threatening step toward the Primary-Colored-Bastard with a hand on his holster, “You’re not running shit on him.”

“He needs to be monitored-“

“Shut your fucking face before I get ideas about doing it for you. Phantom's not a threat and I don't appreciate you treating him like one-

“He’s a meta of unknown origins-“

"You haven't given him a goddamn chance to tell you about his origins-"

"And he holds a great deal of power-"

“So the fuck do you!”

“It’s different-“

“What because you don’t know him? Because he might be younger than you?"

"This is about more than his age, and we have tests to determine morality-"

"Phantom is the kindest damn hero I’ve ever-“

“Oh, coming from you -“

“This isn’t fucking about me -“

“You’re right, it's about a powerful teenager with no training-“

“What fucking right do you have to assume whether he’s been trained or not? You’ve seen a party trick and gotten intel from a game of telephone!”

“I haven’t heard you volunteering information, Hood.”

“Maybe because I’m waiting for you to grow a pair and stop treating him like a fucking-“

“Why don’t we let him speak for himself.” Wonder Woman speaks over them with a commanding tone that has both men wisely shutting the hell up.

They all turn to Danny, and Jason’s blood pressure only rises because the kid’s hands are shaking. 

Jason makes an aborted motion to step fully in between him and the superpowered adults, coming up with half a dozen plans to get the two of them the fuck out of dodge, but then Danny looks up.

His eyes are glowing. 

“How. Dare. You.” The eternal teenager speaks, voice distorted as if overlapped by hundreds of voices as he rises into the air. “I have spent years. Years protecting a city that you didn’t save because you wrote us off at the first mention of Ghosts.”

“What are you-“ Green Arrow begins, but Danny cuts him off viciously.

“Don’t pretend to not know what I’m talking about.”

“There isn’t a major Ghost problem on Earth. We would have heard about it.” Super-dick states patronizingly, like Danny doesn't live in a town that's been infested with ectoplasmic beings since he was a Freshman.

Well, "live" is a relative term.

“Are you shitting me? No Ghost problem on Earth? Do you even know how I became the Ghost King?”

Superdick shakes head, looking morbidly interested in the conversation topic. It pisses Jason the fuck off.

“The previous monarch pulled my entire fucking town into the ghost zone and almost killed roughly a hundred thousand humans. The only way I won the right to save their lives was by beating him in combat. I was 15 .”

“We never-”

“Four human teenagers helped me fight a fucking war because the only adults in the town who had the means to help are weapons manufacturers working under the assumption that my entire species is unable to feel pain and should be experimented on.”

“What do you mean, experimented?” Batman growls, and Jason prepares himself for another sibling. 

He knows that tone.

Danny whirls on him, “There’s an entire government branch dedicated to the ‘study and dissection’ of my people and they have the legal right to cut me up like a fancy dessert." 

Batman's mouth presses into a thin line. There’s a protective anger so strong it’s practically rolling off the man.

“Where?”

“What do you mean, where ?” Danny gestures frustratedly, “The fucking town I was talking about.”

“We haven’t received any distress signals matching your descriptions.” Wonder Woman mentions placatingly, and Danny stares at her incredulously.

“So the city, Amity Park, doesn’t mean anything to you?” Danny asks, looking to Super-bastard for confirmation.

Why the hell Danny is searching that asshole for the truth Jason doesn’t know, though he guesses the kid might have picked the guy least likely to play nice and agree with the rest of the League. 

Which, Jason has to admit, is a smart move.

“No.”

Danny floats a few inches back down, the wind visibly taken out of his sails. “What? We sent calls almost every month.”

“They didn’t make it to us. I assure you we would have responded if they did.” Wonder Woman tells the eternal teenager.

The kid's voice loses its Eldridge Nightmare edge and he lands back onto the metal flooring without a sound.

“So you had no idea this whole time?”

Batman shakes his head, “We didn’t, and it was a massive oversight on our parts that we'll be working to rectify."

“What about the GIW?” 

“Who?” Super-fuck asks and Jason glares at him. He has no right to act concerned on Danny's behalf.

“The Ghost Investigation Ward? Guys in White? The ones who passed the anti-ecto acts declaring my entire race glorified science experiments in the eyes of American law?”

Jason glances around, seeing nothing but bewildered and in some cases, murderous expressions, and frowns. If he’d known that the JL weren't ignoring Amity Park or staying away with the impression that Danny had it covered, he might have mentioned something sooner.

“Well, I still think he should be monitored-” Green Arrow mentions off-handedly and Jason's vision tints green.

“Absolutely the fuck not.” 

“Let’s take a step back.” Batman interrupts, stepping between them. “We can revisit the topic of mentorship at a later date when tensions aren’t so high. Phantom, I apologize for not answering your calls and for the way this meeting went.”

Jason stares at Bruce like he’s never seen him before. Where the fuck was this de-escalating behavior last night when his ass was on the grill?  

But one look at Danny, and Jason sighs. The kid manages to appear exhausted and on edge at the same time, his shoulder raised, but arms hanging loosely at his sides, and Jason’s sure he’s going to have one hell of an emotional reaction as soon as there isn’t a room full of superpowered adults psychoanalyzing his every move.

“Oh, um. Thank you?” Danny rubs the back of his neck, “I guess you couldn’t have known.”

“We’ll be looking into why that is, mark my words.” Batman promises, and Jason can tell that the guy is dead serious.

Fuck it, Jason can manage to back his adoptive father if it means getting Danny away from this clusterfuck of a situation to regroup. “Yup, you do that. And you two,” He shoots a look at Super-ass and Green Arrow, “Pull your heads out of your asses and maybe we’ll be back.”

With that, he grabs Danny by the arm and frog-marches him toward the exit. They vanish into thin air before they even get to the door.

~ 🚬 ~

Unbeknownst to the two half-dead humans, John Constantine steps into the room seconds after their swift departure. 

“Sorry about that, took longer than I anticipated." The man pauses at the various expressions of guilt and rage, "What in the bloody hell did you do?"

Chapter Text

“Are you fucking shitting me?” John Constantine does his best not to yell at the idiotic superhumans shuffling their feet like chastised children. He doesn’t succeed. “ Christ! I step out for five fucking minutes-”

“Five hours.” Batman cuts in but John is well-versed in ignoring him.

“-and you decide to play Russian Roulette with gods ?” 

Superman, the absolute dunce, crosses his arms defiantly. “He’s not a god, he’s a teenager-”

“Please for the love of all that’s holy, tell me you didn’t say that to his face.”

Superman decidedly doesn’t make eye contact and John can physically feel years being taken off of his lifespan. He’s aging right here and now in front of this eye-sore of a wanker. 

“That ‘teenager’ is the King of a Relm so large they could overpower Earth’s population with a tenth of their army. That ‘teenager’ defeated Pariah Dark, a highly powerful and dangerous ghost who ruled the Infinite Realms with an iron fist and the possession of the Ring of Rage and the Crown of Fire, which granted him nearly limitless power and was commander of an army of undead, skeletal ghosts. That ‘teenager’ beat Pariah Dark with a band of outlaw ghosts and 3 human teenagers, dealt the final blow, and inherited not just the Crown and Ring, but also the entire army, the Fright Knight, and the loyalty of the Infinite Realms in under a week.”

Superman blanches, but John has no sympathy for the man. Not after he fucked up on this scale.

“You’re bloody lucky that one of the most powerful undead deities even agreed to talk to you, much less without bringing his Fright Knight. And you stuck your fucking foot in your mouth and treated him like a primary schooler.”

A moment of tense silence engulfs the room and John lets it stew, pissed enough not to take mercy on the League.

Surprisingly, it’s Wonder Woman who breaks it. “I’m not familiar with this ‘Fright Knight’. Would you explain his role in aiding the King?”

John sighs, running a hand through his hair, “The Knight is essentially the King’s bodyguard. He carries a sword that can send someone to a nightmare dimension for an indeterminate amount of time with just a scratch. And it would’ve been well in his right to do so for only mildly pissing off the King. You’re incredibly lucky that Phantom came alone.”

Another thought occurs to John and his voice rises with the spike of anger in his chest. “Not to mention what could’ve come out of that fucking portal. If that had been Pariah or another ancient, the entire universe would have been fucked .”

“Whoah, hey!” Flash grins nervously at the magic user, “We didn’t even use the circle, maybe you should chill out a little-”

“Chill out? Chill out? You could have started a war. You might have started a war actually, and we have no way of knowing what’s coming because the only living person who seems to have any connection to Phantom, left with him.”

“We could go to amity park and start an investigation-” Green Arrow begins but John doesn’t even pretend to humor the idea.

“Absolutely the fuck not. Disturbing a ghost’s haunt is extremely taboo. The only thing worse than trespassing is asking how they died.” A thought strikes John, and he turns a suspicious look onto the Justice League. “You didn’t ask how he died, right?”

Superman grimaces, “Uh… not in as many words?”

“Are you fucking kidding me.” It’s not a question. John is too infuriated for it to be a question. “Every day I wake up on this plane of existence, and I wonder why I speak to you people.”

It's for the sake of the universe, but godamn he regrets every second.

“You know what?” John pulls a book titled ‘Manners of the Dead’ and another called ‘Foreign Monarch Relations’ out of a pocket in his trenchcoat and slams them on the table in front of the Justice League. “We’re starting a mandatory book club.” He declares angrily.

No one protests.

~ 🧪 ~

Danny vanishes into thin air and almost drags Jason all the way out of the tower before he remembers that Jason is mostly human still, and can’t survive in deep space. He abruptly turns away from the window he’d been planning on exiting through, and absentmindedly searches for an empty, preferably locked room.

He floats down the halls at random, mind a jumble of raging thoughts and emotions, too complex for him to even begin to sort through.  

There is one glaring issue standing out amongst the others, however. 

The Justice League didn’t know . All those calls. All those pleas for help. All those times holding out for backup that never came and they didn’t even know.

Danny doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. If he was in his other form, he’d probably be hyperventilating right about now, but there are perks to being dead.

Jason abruptly tugs on his arm, reminding Danny that having panic attacks out in the open in the Justice League Watchtower is probably not his brightest moment, and points to a door seemingly at random. If it were just about anyone else, Danny would be cautious, but he phases them through the wall dutifully, implicitly trusting Jason’s judgment after the years they’d spent messing around in the Ghost Zone. 

Jason had never left the Infinite Realms, but he’d still managed to help Danny out of a few tight spots, and Danny appreciated the help whenever he could get it.

The two of them make quick work of casing the room for people or bugs, and double-checking that the locks are firmly secured, and at Jason’s nod, Danny lets go of him and turns them both visible and tangible again.

“Kid?” Jason asks, a worried note in his tone, but Danny’s busy collapsing against the wall, and sliding down it to have himself a proper freak-out.

Oh, ancients. Danny just walked out on the Justice League. 

The Justice League he’d sent hundreds of distress signals to, only to find out that they didn’t even know about the GIW, or the anti-ecto acts, or that anything was even remotely wrong in Amity Park. Unless they were just lying to him to cover up that they were working with- no. Batman looked genuinely mad on Danny’s behalf. He’s seen that kind of protective rage on his sister before and he’s like 85% sure it can’t be faked. 

“Danny? Hey, can you look at me?”

But that was just Batman, and maybe Wonder Woman. The rest were pretty firm on their stances to ‘run tests on the unidentified meta and mentor the baby’ before Jason cut them off at the knees. 

Which? Seriously? Danny knows he looks like a teenager and all, but hello?? Isn’t foreign relations their whole Thing? Other than fighting, obviously. But aren’t they supposed to be diplomats? Who looks at the High King of another dimension and goes, ‘A CHILD! NO!’?”

“Breathe with me, Danny. It’s okay.”

As if Danny doesn’t have a perfectly good- well. Perfectly Chaoticly Good Clockwork to teach him everythi- okay. Most of the stuff he needs to know. Sometimes even before the Bad Thing happens so Danny’s not flying by the seat of his pants! …Alright, maybe they have a point. But still, their delivery was shit and Danny has every right to be mad. As far as they know, he could be thousands of years old.

Not to mention, they were mean and distrustful to Jason right after the guy defended Danny, which was rude on so many levels. Danny’s gravely offended on Jason’s behalf. 

“Come on, kid. You’re safe. It’s just you and me here.”

Speaking of which, the -Human? Zombie? Remnant? Danny needed to figure out what the hell Jason classified as- had some absolutely rancid vibes there for a bit. The stench of corrupted ectoplasm was almost gag-worthy when he got mad, and that could not be good for the guy’s mental health. 

Or physical health for that matter.

Danny latches onto that last thought like a lifeline (ha) because unlike the storm of emotions in his chest, this is immediately fixable. He knows that ectoplasmic beings need a relatively steady supply of ectoplasm to introduce to their system in order to keep it pure and cleanse out negative emotions, but Jason had smelled like a petri dish of anger and hurt that’d been left in the back of the fridge and forgotten about for half a millennia. 

“Danny? Please kid, you’re gonna pass out.”

Seriously, how was the guy even functioning? Danny needed to get onto that ASAP, and he was pretty sure he’s stocked up on what he lovingly calls ecto-shots because there was nothing funnier than chanting ‘shots, shots, shots’ and dowing a vial of glowing green liquid.

Last he remembered, they were in one of the pockets of his belt.

Danny snaps his head up, not sure when he’d lowered it. His body is still thrumming with panic, but he’s always found it easier to shove his emotions aside when he has a task to focus on. Especially when that task is someone else needing help. 

“Come on, Danny. I know you’re in there. You need to listen to me and fucking breathe” Jason is urging him, a little frantically, which Danny finds odd because he’s dead, he doesn’t have to breathe, but when he tries to speak, he can only manage a gasp and realizes suddenly that he’s hyperventilating.

If he were human, this would be a capital P problem, because human brains run on oxygen and without it, they tend to shut down, but Danny’s essentially human-shaped ectoplasm soup when he’s in this form so he simply stops breathing and pats himself down for the vials.

“Whoah, hey what are you doing?”

“You need ecto-shots.” He tells Jason very seriously, and in hindsight, yeah, he could have explained himself better but he’s on a mission to ignore his problems, give him a break.

“What?”

“You’re corrupted, and I can fix it, I just have to find-”

A hand closes gently around Danny’s wrist and he stares at it, uncomprehending. His fingers are shaking. “We can focus on me when you’re not having a panic attack, okay? Right now I’m more worried about you.”

“But it’s not good for you to have angry ectoplasm.”

“And you can explain what the hell that means in ten minutes when you’re not having a break-down. Now, tell me five things you can see.”

If Danny didn’t feel about to vibrate right out of his metaphorical skin, he’d roll his eyes at the grounding method he’s done hundreds of times with his sister, but he knows that if anything’s going to help right now, it very well could be this, so he dutifully looks around.

“Uh, you, a chair, a table, the ceiling, and um… some kind of potted plant? Can plants live in space?”

“No idea, and I’m not asking Poison Ivy. Four things you can touch?”

“Your hands, my suit, the wall, and my cape.”

“Doing great, 3 things you can hear?” 

“Your voice, the air conditioner, and uh… the leather on your jacket shifting?”

“I’ll take it, two things you can smell?”

“Your ectoplasm.” Danny deadpans, “It’s rancid af, dude. You should let me fix it.”

“Nope, one thing you can taste.”

“Words cannot express how much I hate that. Now I’m too aware of what my mouth feels like and it’s awful. Why is that part of the question? Couldn’t it be, I dunno, ‘One thing you can do’ instead? I’d happily do a cartwheel if it meant I didn’t have to become hyper-aware of what it tastes like to have eaten barbecue chips 3 hours ago.”

“Yup, you’re fine.” Jason decides, letting go of his wrist abruptly.

Danny perks up, “Ecto-shots time?”

“How about we talk this shit through first. What was going through your head before the ectoplasm thing?”

Danny’s recently calmed breath hitches. “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”

“Yeah, not gonna happen. Spill, kid.” Jason orders, but Danny only pouts.

“I’m not a kid.”

“Hate to break it to you, but 16 is in fact, kid age. Stop deflecting and talk to me.”

“I just- they didn’t even know. I died and was brought back to life, and became the sole protector of my town, and mom and dad hunted me, and the GIW wanted to run experiments on me, and they didn’t even fucking know !”

“Shit, yeah. Do you think there’s some kind of signal blocker?”

That… hadn’t actually occurred to Danny. 

And the more he thinks about it, the more horrifying the idea gets. He imagines other people, other not-half-ghost-and-also-part-time-vigilante/hero people sending out a distress signal and not getting an answer, and blanches. The only reason Danny’s still kicking, is because he’s already dead. It’s really damn hard to permanently end something that’s only half alive when it wants to be, hence Pariah Dark and the coffin of forever sleep. 

Regular humans wouldn’t be so lucky.

“Fuck, I didn’t mean to send you spiraling again, breathe Danny.”

“No, I- they would have noticed if a large network like that went down, right? Like I know they’re busy but there’s gotta be someone who checks that kind of thing.”

“I can ask bats, but there’s no way they wouldn’t keep an eye on their system.”

“Then how did they miss us? Amity isn’t exactly a city, but we’ve got a population in the thousands! That many people don’t just disappear on the radar one day. What else could they have missed? How many others called and died waiting for an answer?”

“We’ll look into it, I promise, but you’ve gotta calm down first.”

“I-I can’t Jay. What if there are others out there like me?”

“Then we’ll find them, can you follow my breathing-”

But Danny’s had enough listening for the day, and tunes the man out. His core aches at the idea of other whole towns, wiped off the map with no one to protect them, to focus on mundane things like grounding methods. 

There’s another ache in his chest, separate from his core that thrums with a dull agony of an emotion Danny finds familiar, but can’t place. He clenches his fists trying to keep the outburst at bay, but it only grows around his lungs and he just- he can’t take this anymore.

“I didn’t want to be a hero!” The eternal-teenager whispers brokenly, “I didn’t sign up, or volunteer, or make some big choice! I fucking died! ”

It takes a moment for him to find his words with his throat closing up, but he swallows hard and repeats himself at a normal volume. “I died, and it hurt, and I was scared, and no one could tell me what was wrong with me, but I thought to myself, ‘No one else will have to live with this! No one else will have to endure this much pain. Not when I can stop it.’ That’s why I took the crown. Because Pariah sucked, and the GIW sucked, and Vlad sucked, and someone had to do better. I would have happily left it up to anyone more experienced or more equipped, but there wasn’t anyone but me .” 

Danny has to pause again, and take a deep breath, “So now I have this crown, and this responsibility, and I’ve been carrying it for years, only to find out no one fucking knew ?? All that time! I could have stepped back! I could have been helped. But It’s too late now, and I have to deal with that. And I’m okay with it, really, I’ve accepted my situation, but ancients it’s like morning something you thought you’d already lost.”

He drags his gaze up from his knees and looks at Jason who’s adopted the expression of a man who’s just watched someone dump a box of kittens over a cliff. “I know I made the right choice, so why does it hurt so much ?”

Jason’s quiet for a moment, seemingly debating with himself, before he leans forward and wraps his arms around Danny. It can’t be comfortable, kneeling on the concrete floor over a cold, bony teenager, but Danny takes comfort in the touch, and finally lets himself break.

He’s not sure how long he choaks on broken sobs, but there’s a hand running through his hair and the familiar scent of smoke and gunpowder on the jacket his face is pressed into, and he breathes it in, coughing a little when the smell of corrupted ectoplasm hits the back of his throat. 

Oh fuck, Danny forgot about the ecto-shots!

He pulls back suddenly, ignoring the startled sound Jason makes as the person he was leaning over abruptly disappears and he almost face-plants into the concrete. Danny would laugh at him, but he’s too busy rifling through his pockets- they’ve gotta be in here somewhere, he swears he replenished his stock last week- with a triumphant noise, he locates the little tubes, and holds a few out to Jason. The guy isn’t impressed though, and simply blinks at them before turning a frown to Danny.

“What the fuck. This is a glowstick.” It’s not a question, and for some reason that’s what gets Danny to crack a grin.

“No, notglowsticks , Ecto-shots. Basically pure ectoplasm I bottled for a quick-energy fix.”

Jason seems dubious, but reluctantly takes one to squint at suspiciously. “You want me to drink a glowstick?”

Danny rolls his eyes, thinking that Jason’s taking this whole glowstick thing a little far, but actually. On second thought, it does resemble one of those chunky necklaces kids wear on Halloween… Ha, Danny’s essentially powered by extra-hazardous glowstick juice.

“It’s an ecto-energy drink glowstick, excuse you. And yes, you have to drink it. Your whole system is seriously fucked dude..”

“Thanks.” Jason deadpans.

“No, I don’t mean it like that , and anyway, I can fix it. Though it might need to be a two-step process…” Danny trails off, considering.

He can fix the ectoplasm issue with no problem, but Jason’s obsession might turn out to be a whole other can of worms. If Danny’s not careful he could irreparably fuck up the guy’s underdeveloped core, but… he might be able to solve all of his problems in one go if he plays this right.

“Hey, do you want a job?”

“Hold the fuck up, what ?” Jason is looking more and more confused by the second, and Danny… well he honestly can’t blame the guy. He’d just gone from having a panic attack, to talking about shots, to a breakdown, and is now pitching an employment offer.

He takes a deep breath and decides to start at the beginning.

“I need a new Fright Knight and I think you’d be perfect.”

Somehow, Jason looks even more lost. “The hell’s a Fright Knight?”

“Oh right, you never met the last one. Essentially, it’s a royal bodyguard, but like, The Royal Bodyguard specifically for the King. Though you wouldn’t have to be around all the time, just royal excursions, which aren’t very often because a lot of the Zone developed some pretty decent self-governing while Pariah was in forever sleep, but there are a few that still need some work. You’d also have a few minor duties like checking up on the castle if I'm away for a long time to make sure it's not under attack or anything, but yeah.” 

Danny shrugs, “I mean I guess you'd also technically be a Ghost Liaison for the living world which the last guy wasn't, so you're free to make up some shit, I don't really care what you do in your free time-”

“Okay whoah, hold up." Jason stops the teenager before he can info-dump Jason's brain right out of his ears, “You want me ? Lord of Crime-Fucking-Alley, 8 severed heads in a duffle bag, Jason Todd? As a bodyguard?”

“Yup!”

“And what happened to your old Fright Knight?”

“He retired. Which honestly? I can’t blame him. Guy had to deal with Pariah Dark for millions of years. I’d retire too.”

Jason blinks, processing that, and Danny takes his silence as permission to keep talking. “He sends me postcards of the weirdest stuff too. Which is wild, cuz I asked him as a joke, but now I get monthly mail of a planet made of cheese, or him whale surfing. I kinda wish I’d gone with him.”

Jason clearly decides not to follow Danny down that particular rabbit hole. "What makes you think I’m your best choice for the job?”

Danny frowns, baffled. Does Jason not think of himself as a good person? This is the same guy who’s spent hours in the Ghost Writer’s Library pouring over a book report the night before it was due. Not because Danny had asked, but because he’d seen Danny struggling and simply took a seat to explain the most boring classic Danny ever had the misfortune of laying his eyes upon, but Jason made it fun with dramatic voices. 

Jason is a big brother through and through and Danny had thought it was obvious that the guy hadn't changed after the way he stood up to the Justice League.

“You protected me in there. I didn’t need it, and you knew that, but you did it anyway. That’s what I’m looking for in a Knight.”

“Are there benefits?” Jason's obviously attempting to redirect the attention away from himself. Danny recognizes the deflection and decides to let it slide.

“Uh…we have a lifetime guarantee?”

Jason sighs deeply, “I walked right into that one.”

“You really did.” Danny says with a shit-eating-grin. “We do have to fix your ectoplasm first, though. I wouldn’t give this position to someone I didn’t trust, because frankly, it will give you a crazy power boost and weapon access, but I think you can handle it so-”

“Back up, what’s wrong with my ectoplasm?”

“Didn’t I explain that? Or did I just think it? Either way, it’s corrupted.”

“And that’s bad, how?”

“Do you ever get strong compulsions to do something you usually wouldn’t before you died?” Jason nods reluctantly, “Right! So I think your emotions were are out of wack ‘cause your core is mega unstable and it’s doing an opposite day on your obsession.”

“My what?”

“You know, the thing that drives you? The first thought you have in the morning and the thing you fall asleep picking apart with your mind? The underlying cause of every action you take during the day? You have one of those, right?”

“Killing the Joker.” Jason says decisively, but Danny looks at him like he said something ridiculous. 

“That isn’t your obsession.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your whole thing as Robin was always protection. Robin was magic and he saved the day time and time again. But when you died, all you wanted was to be protected and saved, right?”

Jason nods hesitantly, looking uncomfortable at the mention of his death.

“Obsessions form during the last moments of your life based on your strongest emotion. So, your strongest compulsion as a ghost would have been protecting or saving people, but then  The Lazarus Pit brought you back. Technically, your obsession should have carried over, no matter what, but fully formed ghosts shouldn’t be able to come back to life, so you’re a special case.”

“But if your obsession is protection and your core is underdeveloped, you’re probably overwhelmed in a big city, because you realistically can’t protect everyone in Gotham. So even if we fix your ectoplasm, you’ll still be run ragged by your unstable-ass obsession and end up right back where you started.”

“So first we solve the corruption issue with these,” Danny shakes the ecto-shot? Glowstick? Glow-shot? Yeah, that’s what he’s going with. “And then, we make you the Fright Knight. It fits your obsession, narrows down your scope of reference and gives it a purpose, but the real kicker is, I don’t need protection. You won’t be driven as strongly by the need to keep me safe because I’m fully capable of handling myself, so you can live independently and maybe sometimes when I need you for like appearances or something, I’ll bring you along.”

Danny’s pretty proud of his plan, if you ask him. It fixes all of Jason’s issues, solves his glaringly vacant position in his court, and no one’s forced into servitude or tied to Danny 24/7. Which he’s on board for, because blegh , babysitters.

“You can fix the Pit Rage?” Jason breathes with obvious wonder, staring at Danny in awe.

“If that’s what you call the Freaky Friday corruption impulses, then yeah.”

Jason leans back heavily, “Oh my god, I should have summoned you sooner.”

Danny laughs, “Yeah probably.”

“And you’d do this in exchange for me being your Fright Knight?”

“I’ll do it even if you don’t want to be my Fright Knight, I get not wanting the responsibility and stuffy appearances, but we’ll have to come up with something else to manage your core.”

“Fucking hell, I’ll follow you around stuffy appearances for the rest of my afterlife if it cures the pit rage.”

“I won’t tether you to me, Jason. This isn’t about me.”

Jason’s expression flickers through the 5 stages of grief and lands on gently concerned. “It can be about both of us, kid. Now how ‘bout we head out? The Watchtower gives me the creeps.”

Danny agrees whole-heartedly

+ OMAKE  +

Jason > B 8:14pm

just got a new job. will be out of Gotham for a while.

B > Jason 8:15pm

What?

Report.

Hood, details now.

Jason?

What the hell have you gotten into this time?

Jason takes great pleasure in muting him.

Chapter Text

Danny hasn't lived with his parents for a long time. 

Well, long is relative, but a year feels long to Danny, so he's going with it. 

He's not unhappy though. He's officially the High King of the Infinite Realms, so he can make portals whenever he wants, and after the whole experimentation debacle with the Fenton's… well.

Let's just say it was a bit of a crazy week for everyone, and he has a whole castle. Who needs a house when you have a castle in another dimension? Not Danny, that’s who.

It’s also just a really nice castle.

There are plenty of rooms, it's got his color scheme going, and most of it gives off futuristic spaceship vibes which is just so cool if you ask him. 

So as soon as Jason agrees to be his new Fright Knight, Danny takes him there to introduce him to the right people and hopefully get a bit of training in before they knight him.

His castle comes into view long before they arrive, and Danny grins at the sight of the old, stone black walls and green Arora Borealis shining above it. He’d chosen a location near the far Frozen, but distinctly out of the Yetis territory. So it’s cold, but not arctic.

Jason stiffens in Danny’s grasp when he also catches sight of the gothic architecture. "Whoah, I know you said you were the new king, but damn. That’s a whole castle."

Danny laughs, "Yeah it used to be my Lair, but when I was crowned this popped up basically overnight. You've gotta see the inside, you'll love it!" He sets them on top of the staircase leading to the main entry, and opens the massive wooden doors, taking great pleasure in the way Jason’s eyes go impossibly wide at his throne room.

It’s a large room. Almost too large for a receiving hall, but Danny has a flair for the dramatics and can repurpose it into a banquet hall or a ballroom with the wave of his hand -pros of having a magic castle- so he doesn’t mind the size. There are ornate columns reaching to the ceiling, connecting at the top to form semi-circles of carvings that fade into the galaxy above them. It’s impossible to tell how tall the room is because it reflects the night sky on a clear day, stars twinkling and milky ways swirling in an unending, mesmerizing dance. 

Green lanterns light up the dias which seats five chairs, though the middle would be better described as a throne with its size. It’s perfect for Danny to sprawl sideways in and annoy rambling Observers.

"Yeah, this is definitely an upgrade to your old Lair.” Jason says faintly, not seeming to notice Danny pulling him along, practically marching him through the massive room. Sue him, Danny has things to do. “Damn, you'd trade the Watchtower for this?”

“Ehh, maybe?” Danny shrugs, “I mean this is pretty cool, but they’re in space .”

Jason gives him a look that says something along the lines of, ‘you rule a secret parallel dimension and conjured a futuristic castle and you’d rather be in space??’ and well, Danny will give him that one.

“ Anyway ,” He says a little too loudly, trying to change the subject, “How are you feeling after drinking the glow-shot? Any side effects so far?”

“Not really, no. Other than the fact that this is the quietest the pit has been since before I was resurrected, and goddamn I didn’t realize how much of a headache that was until it’s started to fade, no. Is that itty bitty vial really gonna cure me?”

Danny shakes his head, “No, that’s definitely not enough to give your system the proper detox it’ll need for me to knight you. I have some more in the med bay though, along with the stuff I need to run some tests and make sure I’m not fucking anything up. It’ll mostly just be bloodwork so I can track how your body’s responding to the cleanse. We can start the tour there.”

They cross the hallway and enter the med bay, which Jason pauses to take in. Again, Danny can’t blame him. It’s futuristic to a sci-fi extent. All white surfaces with a green/teal glow, and state-of-the-art technology. It’s even equipped with a renovated cloning pod for Dani.

Danny directs him to one of the beds, having him take a seat as he goes rummaging around for what he needs. 

He’s no slob at first aid, being a long-time vigilante and all, but Frostbite really taught him the lay of the land when Dani came into the picture. Her form is relatively stable, but there were a few scares and Danny wanted to be as confident as he could with everything he thought she might need.

He pulls a few vials of blood, setting one in the orbital spinner to separate the plasma and ectoplasm, putting one in the fridge for reference in case he needs it, and running a series of tests on the last few.

~ 🔬 ~

Jason watches him flit around the room as Danny explains his processes and jots the results down on a clipboard, and his gaze lands on what looks like a fully functional cloning tube. Which, what the fuck? 

“Hey kid, mind explaining what’s up with that?” Jason asks, going for a causal tone he’s not sure he achieves, and gestures to the cloning pod.

“Huh?” Danny looks up from his microscope distractedly, “Oh, that’s for my sister, Dani. She's technically a clone who was made by this guy, Vlad, because he’s got that creepy stalker thing going on with my mom, but when Dani broke free of him, she was unstable. We stole the pod to keep her alive while we figured out a way to stabilize her. She’s all good now though, and is off traveling the world. She comes to visit every so often, but she's got weird biology, so we kept the tube just in case.”

Jason momentarily considers asking Danny and his clone to meet with Conner, kid could use the support, but puts a pin in that thought for later. “So is she your twin or?”

“ No ,” Danny takes a deep breath, and carefully relaxes his hold on the microscope. Jason notes that there’s visible dents in the metal where Danny’s fingers were with more than a little trepidation. “She uh- I consider her a little sister. I mean technically she could be, but that would make me a tri- never mind. To answer your question, I prefer to think of her as my kid sister.”

Jason could have sworn Danny was about to say ‘triplet’ before he cut himself off, but the guy’s never mentioned having a twin, and that’s kinda a big thing to forget to share, especially when he’s heard Danny complain on multiple occasions about not being able to be two places at once, so he very pointedly decides that he must have heard him wrong.

Danny rolls his spinny stool across the room and bumps lightly into the bed Jason’s perched on, keeping him from pursuing any further thought on the topic. 

“So I was right, your ecto-contamination levels are fucked, but it’s fixable. Our best option is to get you back where you need to be ASAP. I’m thinking the best way is to have you stay the night so we can micro-dose you every few hours and I can keep tabs on how everything is balancing out. Does that work for you?”

Jason blinks, distinctly remembering when Danny had tried to stitch himself up with dental floss but his hands shook so bad that he just made the tear in his side worse, and wonders when that kid became a medical professional.

“Yeah, that’s fine. I told B I’d be out of the city for a bit and don’t have anything pressing in the next 48 hours.”

“Great! You’ll be able to meet my inner court during movie night!” Danny grins and passes him a cup half full of glowing green liquid, “Take this for now, we’ll go do the tour, and in a few hours we’ll check back and give you more.”

Jason dutifully drinks it - why is this shit spicy - and almost immediately feels his shoulders loosen as something harsh and angry in his head soothes. Yeah, he could get used to this.

“Come on! You need to know the layout if you’re staying, and there’s some rooms you’re gonna love.” Danny floats excitedly near the doorway and Jason follows with a smile tugging at his lips.

It’s nice to see the little shit so cheerful, especially after the day he’s had. They both need a break. 

Their first stop is a glass room with iron window rails and a view that takes Jason’s breath away. It’s overflowing with plants and what look like wispy ghost butterflies flitting in and out of the visual plane. The place almost looks rustic and overrun with vines trailing up the old iron swirls, but the walkways are clear of debris and the plants are clearly taken care of. 

“This is the greenhouse; it’s mostly for Sam. She’s been into plants after a run-in with a ghost who could control them and there’s some cool properties in the ones grown here.”

Jason faintly hopes Poison Ivy never winds up in the ghost zone. He doesn't want to think of the level of destruction she could cause with potentially magical plants at her disposal.

“She’s also an ultra-recyclo-vegetarian, so she’s trying to get Tucker, who’s a meat lover, to go on her diet by making a veggie burger that he won’t know isn’t meat.”

“Oh? How’s that going for her?”

“Baddly,” Danny laughs, “She’s been trying for two years. Tucker’s suspicious of any food item she hands him, now. He’s also really good at knowing exactly what vegetables are in her creations.”

“My brother Tim is like that but with decaf coffee.” Jason mentions off-handedly as they step back into the hallway, “He can always tell when we switch it out.”

It’s actually a bit creepy how he always knows a few sips in. As far as Jason’s aware, there’s no taste to caffeine, so it must be that he doesn’t get the rush or something, but there’s no way it kicks in that fast. 

“Ah, a fellow caffeine addict.” Danny nods sagely, “The council room is through those doors, but it’s boring so we’re gonna skip it. My inner council has another room, but it’s super chill and more of a hang-out space for us to bounce ideas in.” 

“Is that where movie night is?’

“Yeah, but lemme show you what I think your favorite room is gonna be,” He pushes open the ornate wooden doors with a grand gesture.

Jason’s immediately drawn in by the scent of old books, it’s unmistakably recognizable, and he finds himself momentarily speechless as he steps inside the personal library. It’s bigger than the one at the manor, bookcases tower at least two levels, but not so large to be clinical instead of cozy. The ceiling mimics the one in the throne room, but it’s green instead of multicolor, and there are planets he doesn’t recognize floating aimlessly through the starry clouds.

It’s stunning, and amazing, and Jason decidedly doesn’t ever want to leave.

“You’re welcome to use this anytime.” Danny tells him when Jason turns his awed expression on the teenager, “Ghost Writer supplies me with all sorts of stuff from his archives, mostly novels that were lost through the years, and anything that was destroyed in the living world.”

“So you have lost books from every book-burning event in history?” Jason asks faintly. All that literature. All that history. Seemingly gone. Only to be found again in a dimension ruled by one of Jason’s only friends. 

He’s got so many fucking books to read ASAP.

“Yup! Sam request stuff all the time, and it just shows up on the shelf. It's pretty cool. If you want a book that’s currently in use by the living world though, it might be better to just bring it in yourself, because the last time I asked for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Ghost Writer gave me an unbound deleted first draft. Don't get me wrong, it was interesting, but I failed my book report.”

Jason snorts, trailing his fingers along the spines of a line of old, hardback books.

“It's also the furthest from the labs so you won't be bothered, Jazz, my older sister, uses it to study her finals or write papers. She's going to be a psychiatrist.”

“I was wondering about the university bookstore’s worth of modern psychology textbooks.” 

Jason pauses as his fingers meet the railing of a metal staircase. He glances up, intending to follow it with his eyes, expecting to see some kind of entrance to the second story in the library or perhaps a sitting space, but the staircase disappears into the depths of the glittering night sky above. 

“What the hell does this go to?’

Danny visibly lights up. Literally. His eyes glow brighter as he bounces in place. “That’s my observatory! Or as my friends call it, my nerd tower.” 

He leads the way up a spiral staircase that opens into a circular room lined with bookshelves and star charts, with a telescope in the middle. He pulls a lever and the dome ceiling slides open revealing the green sky, still glowing with a neon Aurora Borealis. 

Jason whistles lowly, “That’s sick.” 

“Yeah, I spend most of my time up here. I have star charts of stars that are dead, and also some of the future. I get those ones from Clockwork, or I guess you might refer to him as Kronos.” He shrugs as if he didn’t just name-drop the god of fucking time itself, “He uses them to bribe me into doing time god chores.”

Jason very pointedly does not consider what ‘time god chores’ entails. He’s got questions. So many questions. But for the sake of his sanity, he’s asking absolutely none of them. He’s had enough crazy shit for one week. He’s officially taking the night off. Tomorrow he can be a detective.

“The guest rooms and offices are up here on the second floor,” Danny points vaguely at a door, “But you can explore those on your own, they’re not special.”

He says in a magic space castle in another dimension. Jason thinks a little hysterically. If he’s judging by the theme of everything else in this damn castle, those are probably the most sci-fi fantasy guest rooms he’s ever gonna lay his eyes on.

Jason walks down the stairs like a normal fucking person while Danny slides down the railing, laughing maniacally all the way. The brat has to pull him bodily out of the library when Jason reaches for a particularly interesting shelf, and he grumbles about it but relents. The library will be there when he comes back.

They’re passing a non-descript door when Danny pauses, “Wait, you can cook right?”

Jason squints at him, inherently suspicious of that sentence as one of the only members of the bat family who’s allowed in the kitchen unsupervised, but nods.

“Cool, well this is the kitchen.” The space is clean and modern with a few plants in the windowsill. “Jazz and Sam use it mostly, I suck at cooking, and Tucker and I are banned ‘cause apparently, we took apart a few too many appliances.”

Jason doesn’t doubt that.

“Kinda unfair if you ask me, but you take apart a toaster four times and suddenly you’re ‘not allowed back into this room except for snacks and I’m not making toast for 30 people so there’s literally no need for it to be able to toast that much bread at once.’ So now it’s set to send a notif to Jazz’s phone if I use anything other than the microwave or the fridge. Also, the last time I had a screwdriver in my back pocket when I came in here, there was this loud, automated ‘Daniel Fenton do NOT’ that didn’t stop till I threw my tool out the window.”

Jason is definitely looking forward to meeting Jazz in person. She sounds like someone he can lament the horrors of having a chaotic little sibling with. 

“Do you keep a specific stock of food here or does the magic castle supply whatever you need?”

Danny rubs the back of his head sheepishly. “Magic castle.”

“Of fucking course.” Jason sighs as he closes the door behind him and follows Danny through a bean-bag filled lounge space and into a hallway.

“Bedrooms are down this hall. The doors have nameplates and once you stay here a night or two, my lair will accommodate anything you need. Lemme know if you want anything until then and I can probably summon it.”

Jason idly reads the names on the doorplates as he passes. It seems like the hall is separated by gender with Jazz, Sam, and the mysterious Dani on one side and Danny, and Tucker on the other. There’s two empty rooms at the end of the hall, but the one further away is labeled ‘reserved’. Jason thinks about asking, but his brain is actually throbbing from all the information he’s gotten recently and he really just. Cannot handle another thing right now. It’s his night off.

Danny pushes open the nearest to them and Jason watches in fascination as a doorplate materialized with his name on it. The room is generic when he steps foot inside, but as he familiarizes himself with the space he swears that things begin to mold to his preferences. The blanket on the bed was definitely not black when he walked in, and he could have sworn that bookshelf wasn’t there a second ago. 

“This is probably a lot to take in, so if you want, I can leave you to get settled in and show you the rest tomorrow or something.” Danny offers and Jason could actually really use a break -this castle is fucking huge- but he’s a little curious about what else this huge ass magic castle could need. “What else is there to see?”

“The gym, armory, and my lab. Though we can skip the lab for now, since you probably won’t use it.”

Jason can do two more rooms. Especially with the promise of weapons. “Nah, let’s see what kind of setup you’ve got.”

Danny grins. “It’s definitely impressive enough to show off to a former Robin.”

“I don't know, it’s hard to top the Batgym.” 

They cross the throne room again and pass through a shower and locker room, and enter a large open space lined with various workout machines. There’s a sparring ring set up in the middle and a ropes course spans the ceiling. 

“This is a shared space. We run training drills and the likes in here but I’m sure I don’t have to explain a gym to a Robin.”

Jason snorts. 

The armory is more than a little well-stocked, with grated weapons lockers along three of the walls, a few metal tables with maintenance boxes, and a three-lane shooting range.

None of that is what catches his attention though. There’s a whole ass mech suit just chilling in the corner. Casually. What the fuck.

“Who’s fucking mech suit is that?”

“Oh, that’s Sam’s. Tucker usually runs comms and drones. You’ll meet them at movie night.” 

“ They’re your inner court?”

“Yeah, they were the OG Team Phantom, so why not?”

Jason decides that’s fair. He’s actually a little excited to meet the people he’s heard about through Danny during their years in the ghost zone. He’d never actually left the Realms, and tended to stay out of Danny’s drama unless he was asked to be back-up, so though he’s seen the teenagers in passing, he’s never been able to shoot more than a hurried ‘hey’ in their direction before they collectively kicked ass.

“Oh, and that’s where you can keep your sword.”

“I get a sword ?”

“Yeah, it’s in stasis right now, but it’ll appear during the knighting ceremony when you take your vows. It’s stuck in a stone all King Arthur style and if you mean what you say, you’ll be able to pull it out and it’ll shape to your will. The last guy kept his in a pumpkin when he wasn’t using it. Had a big Halloween theme going on though, you can do whatever you want with yours.”

He gestures in the direction of the shooting lanes that Jason had been not so subtly eyeing. 

“And that’s the shooting range. Jazz gets the most use outta that. Her aim has gotten so much better in the last year, she’s scoring higher than the rest of us now. Which is annoying cuz I used to hold the record, but whatever.”

“This is the same Jazz that’s becoming the psychologist and banned you from the kitchen?”

“Yeah, she’s great. Practically raised me when our parents were too busy with the portal. She’s really nice and level-headed. Has helped me through a lot of rough times when I was first learning how to use my powers.”

Jason privately thinks she and Dick would get along, and is also looking forward to getting to meet her in person.

“Anyway, down the hall is Tucker and I’s lab, but you're not a tech nerd, so we’ll skip that for now. If you want to explore later, feel free but we have a lot of projects laying around so be careful what you touch.” 

Danny claps his hand together with an air of finality, “Welp, that’s it for what I want to show you today. I’m hungry, I’m banned from the kitchen, and you can cook. Make me a sandwich?”

Jason is distinctly reminded of every little sibling he has, and has the sinking feeling he’s been reverse adopted. But sighs and heads toward the stairs anyway.

They're cutting across the throne room and are discussing the best kind of sandwich -Jason is a firm believer in BLT’s and will die on this hill (again)- when the massive front doors slam open to reveal Jazz, back-lit by the Zone and pointing directly at the teenager.

The small amount of color in Danny’s face drains and he instantly feels a sense of dread.

Chapter Text

His sister is glowing, her hair flowing around her face like it's moving underwater, skin going pale, and eyes bright, luminescent green. 

One does not simply live in Fenton patented amounts of lab unsafety their entire lives and not become ecto-contaminated. Though Jazz is usually level-headed enough not to show it.

So the fact that she's glowing can only mean one thing.

She's pissed. 

And Danny may not be afraid of superman but he is definitely afraid of Jazz Fenton.”

"Would you look at the time!" Danny squeaks, darting for the nearest door, "I have an appointment to change my name and flee the country."

“Daniel James Fenton! Sit. Down .”

Danny thinks about saying no for exactly two seconds, but the light glow Jazz burst in with is only getting brighter, and he decides that maybe, it might be within his best interests to listen for once in his life. So he drops to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut and melts into a dramatic little Danny Puddle on the floor of his own throne room.

Because he’s a great and all-powerful ruler who definitely doesn’t get intimidated by his big sister.

"Heyyy Jazz. How are you?”

Jazz doesn't even walk, she floats just an inch or two above the floor. “How am I? How am I? I went back home and your room was trashed.  TRASHED DANNY!”

Danny gulps. Yeah okay, not telling his sister about the Situation with their parents might not have been his best move. But in his defense, it was a really crazy week… and then a few weeks… and now months.

“I had to track down your friends and do you know what they told me?”

“That I was fine and you shouldn’t worry about it?” Danny hedges.

"That our parents VIVISECTED YOU and you didn't tell me !"

Danny bites his lip, a little hurt that Sam and Tucker spilled the beans, but he figures they were probably just trying to help. 

And intimidated by his sister, which is fair. She’s scary when she’s upset. So he’s not mad, but he’s like, surface-level betrayed. Like when someone eats the last cookie that you were saving.

“You were in college," Danny definitely doesn't whine. No siree, not him. "I didn’t want to make it a big deal.”

“OUR PARENTS USING YOU AS A LAB RAT IS A PRETTY BIG DEAL, DANNY.”

Danny hadn’t exactly thought of putting it that way before, and he takes a deep breath, trying not to remember being strapped down, the feeling of scalpels under his skin, Maddie and Jack’s silhouettes swimming above his head as they put various ‘cosmetic’ organs in glowing jars and- fuck. He really doesn't want to think about this.

As if sensing his souring mood, Jazz touches down onto the marble floor and puts her hands on Danny’s shoulders. 

“Can you show me?” She asks, motioning to his chest.

Danny shoots a pleading look at Jason, but the man throws his hands up and backs away with wide eyes. Clearly, he’s not going to be any help here.

"Come on Jazz, that's like, super not necessary."

His sister crosses her arms, hair starting to lift like an angry studio ghibli character.

"Seriously, it's not pretty. How about you just take my word for it and we can move on-"

"Show. Me."

Danny really, really doesn’t want to show her. He’s not kidding, even with his accelerated healing, the scars are rugged, nasty, and still a pinkish-lavender in places. Jazz will freak and cry and probably murder her parents.

“I’m serious, you’re not gonna like it.”

“Danny, please .” Jazz’s voice breaks and Danny feels his resolve promptly shatter, “Your room was covered in ectoplasm, smears all over the walls and your books, not to mention the blaster singes in the living room. I just wanna make sure you’re okay.”

Danny is decidedly not okay. He’s so many levels of not okay actually, but with great hesitation, he unclasps his cape, removes his chest plate, and zips down the upper half of his hazmat suit. He peels it off his front, letting it hang around his waist and gives her a full view of the assorted scars he'd gained during his few-day stint strapped to a lab table.

He wasn’t kidding when he said it wasn’t pretty. There’s I incision lines down his shoulder and arm where his joints and muscular anatomy were studied, a few burns, slices, and other various marks on his stomach to test healing times along with the areas around his neck and wrists where the ectoranium strapped there had caused the skin to warp and melt.

The worst, however, is the dark outline of his sloppily stitched Y incision scar starting at his shoulders and ending at his navel. It’s the longest-healing scar out of them all, still pinkish in color and prone to sending aches through his chest at seemingly random moments. His torso had been opened like a book for his parents to dig around his organs and figure out how they work, and with the skin being clamped open, he had no way to heal. 

Jazz gasps, the fight draining from her posture as her eyes fill with tears. “Danny-”

The teenager can't keep eye contact with her, so he glances at Jason. It's a mistake. The man looks just as floored as Danny's sister and suddenly he can't take this anymore. So he does what he's best at. 

Makes a joke.

"Some people have matching friendship bracelets, we've got matching scars, right Jason?" He quips, steadily ignoring the strain in his voice as he fumbles to zip his suit back up and clip his armor plating. 

With all the concerned eyes on him, he feels a little like he did back on that table. Helpless, frustrated, and utterly alone. His skin itches at the reminder, but scratching would only draw their attention, so he refrains. The cape settling around his shoulders gives him a little comfort, as its weight is grounding and he can wrap it around himself to hide.

"...shit kid."

"I'm going to kill them." Jazz growls in Ghost Speak, every syllable crackling and crunching like broken glass under a pair of heavy boots, and Danny winces. Oh Ancients, if he thought Jazz was mad earlier, this is nuclear.

"Whoahhhh, hey.” Danny placates, waving his hands frantically, “Let's not bring the K word into this. I don't live there anymore and they can't follow me here, so we're all good."

Jazz’s expression makes it clear that she doesn't find this ‘all good’ at all. “This is the second time they’ve captured you! You promised me that you’d be safe! Going away for college was a mistake.”

“Uh, no. The argument you had with Jack and Maddie was worth leaving for college. Also the first time I was only trapped for a few hours and you got me out-”

“I wasn’t there this time though!”

“It’s okay! I don’t live there anymore! I stay in my lair that has everything I could possibly need. I haven’t even talked to them since you left.”

"I'm dropping out of college, then." 

Danny's eyes widen in alarm, "Uh no! Not that either!"

"You need someone to take care of you." Jazz stubbornly holds her ground.

"I will literally move back in with the Fenton's if you quit college. I'm not joking. You don't deserve to put your life on hold like that for me."

"And you didn't deserve to be-" Jazz takes a deep breath, visibly calming herself down. "I'm registering you as an emancipated minor."

"Already ahead of you. Tucker faked the paperwork for me as soon as he knew I wasn't fading so I could still go to school, and the Fentons think I was the one who helped Phantom escape. We had a huge fight over it and I made it clear that I wasn't coming back."

Jazz doesn't look reassured by Danny's adamantly fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants plan. "How long is that gonna last though? Tucker's a great hacker but if mom and dad make a fuss, it's not impossible that you'll be found out."

"I mean I could probably get Technus to-" 

"I'm getting a restraining order against them." Jazz states with all the finality of someone who's made a decision they're not budging on.

Danny deflates, "Okay yeah, that's doable. Let's do that."

"I know a guy or two than can expedite it." Jason supplies, being helpful for the first time since Jazz came in and Danny shoots him a betrayed look. Where was this when he was getting interrogated by his sister??

Jazz studies the man for a second, giving him a visual once over and turning to him with a glare when she doesn’t like what she finds. “Who are you and what business do you have with my brother?”

Shit , Danny mentally curses. Jazz didn’t meet Jason in the Zone and out of context, his offer sounds really sketch. 

“That’s Jason, the guy from the Zone I told you about. He’s gonna be my new Fright Knight.”

Jazz looks him over again. “You’re not a ghost anymore, but you’re also not human. What qualifications do you have?”

“Wait what ?” Jason takes a step back, “How the hell can you tell I’m not human?”

“First of all, I’m a princess of the Interdimensional Afterlife. And secondly, If you were fully human your ears would have bled when I slipped up and used Ghost Speak, not to mention that you’d be very little use to my brother.”

Danny groans as Jason mutters a quiet ‘what the fuck’ under his breath. 

“He’s a remnant, it’s a long story, but he protected me from the Justice League and I trust him with my life. Or well, afterlife. Half-life?”

Jazz nods, dismissing Jason for now, and turns back to Danny, gathering him in a hug. 

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you." She whispers.

"No, I- I really should have told you." He murmurs back.

Jazz smiles ruefully, running a hand through his hair and he melts against her hold. Ancients, he missed his sister. "You should've." 

"I'm glad you know now. I didn't mean to hide it from you."

"I know.” Jazz pulls back with a glint in her eyes that promises trouble, “Seriously though, I'm ending their careers."

“Jazzzzz,” Danny whines, “You’re already cutting them off and taking legal action, that's enough.”

“It really isn’t. Enough would be Beating Mom and Dad with a stick, but I’ll settle for a restraining order."

Danny laughs nervously, having the sinking suspicion that she’s not kidding. 

“Now!” She claps her hands together, “Sam and Tucker drove me here in the Speeder and are waiting outside, so let’s go get them. We can have a movie night, and you can properly introduce your Knight.”

Ha . Movie Knight. Danny grins at Jazz’s unintentional pun, but before he can comment, Jazz is turning back to Jason.

“And what was that about defending my little brother from the Justice League?” She demands, and Jason pales.

Danny drops his head into his hands, “Can we at least let Sam and Tucker in so that I don’t have to repeat this twice?”

“Bold of you to assume we aren’t already here,” Sam says from behind him, sending Danny’s soul into the astral plane. She’s leaning up against a pillar in pajamas with little skull and bone prints on them. “Jazz was taking too long, and we wanted to see her tear you a new one.”

“Yeah, kinda disappointed honestly. All we got to see was the Sibling Bonding Hug. Also, why are you two still in armor?” Tucker asks, looking them over critically, “It’s movie night.”

Danny abruptly realizes that Jazz is sporting her Gotham University tee-shirt from her psychology program, and blue fuzzy pants with hearts on them. That’s so unfair. How does she pull off the Scary Older Sibling act with cartoon Gotham Knights on her socks??

“Sick aesthetic though,” Sam takes a step toward Jason with a hand raised for him to shake, “I love the jacket.” 

Jason takes it and Danny grins at his friends getting along.

“I know we’ve never talked but we’ve blasted dead people together, and that’s one hell of a bonding experience.” Tucker adds in and both Jason and Danny snort. 

“Yeah, it’s nice to be able to say more than ‘hey’ before kicking ass.”

“Speaking of kicking ass,” Jazz crosses her arms, “Can we get back to defending Danny from the Justice League?”

“Ugh, okay.” Danny sums up the last few days, from being summoned to the cult situation by Jason to the Justice League assuming he was a Child™, and him storming out, pointedly skipping the part with the panic attack in an unoccupied watchtower meeting room.

By the end of it, Jazz looks like she might kick Superman in the balls if she ever meets him. Danny dedicates himself to making sure they’re never left alone in a room together. 

“Do I need to beat them up? I have the Creep Stick in the Speeder.”

“No, no!” Danny waves his hands in the air, “Well, not all of them… Wonder Woman was cool.” 

“There’s a reason she’s my favorite.” Jazz smirks.

Sam hums in approval, “Did you give Jason the tour of your historically incorrect castle already?” 

Danny sighs, having heard this before but still wanting to defend his Lair, “Sam it’s a magic castle in a different dimension. It doesn’t need to be historically correct.”

“That’s gonna bite you in the ass when someone attacks. It’s impossible to defend, and who puts their armory on the far outside? That’s just asking for trouble.”

“Sam, he’s OP as hell.” Tucker groans exasperatedly, “Also the king. No one’s gonna attack him in his own castle.” Danny’s grateful for the backup and shoots his friend a grin.

“Yeah, they'll go for amity instead.” Sam remarks sarcastically, and Danny winces. 

She’s right, as much as he hates it. And yeah, he has the power to demand no one mess with his town, but his little ‘Rogue Gallery’, as Jason likes to call it, all have obsessions that are difficult to fulfill in the zone, and they’ve long learned to keep civilian injuries and property damage to a minimum unless they want a week of Soup Time.

It’s not perfect, but it’s the best Danny can do without a Royal Decree, and he really hates those. They’re all-abiding and he can't just take away the free will of an entire race because he wants a few more hours of sleep at night. That would be hella unfair.

He shakes his head to rid himself of his thoughts, and not so subtly changes the subject. “Why don’t you three get the popcorn started in the movie room? Jason and I need to change.”

His soon-to-be-knight also needs another round of ecto-shots, but Danny’s decided not to mention the fucked up ecto levels just yet. That’s a conversation for hopefully never. 

Or not, considering he might need to take care of these ‘Lazarus Pits’.

~ 🎥 ~

“So what are we watching?” Jason asks, slumping into an open bean bag next to Danny. He has a sneaking suspicion it was left there for him as a way to make sure he sat by someone he knew, and it’s a surprisingly thoughtful action.

“Pride and Prejudice,” Danny says innocently, but the look on his face has Jason fearing for his favorite book.

Well, at least he can rant about shitty screen adaptations.

“Nice pj’s,” Sam quips at him and Danny, but there’s a smile on her face that lets him know she means the sentiment. Even with how sarcastically she said it.

Jason glances down at his Wonder Woman shirt and over at Danny’s Martian Manhunter one. 

“Hey, we already cleared WW, and I haven’t met the Martian yet, so he hasn’t had the chance to disappoint me.” Danny defends their fashion choices. Like he isn’t a disaster who wears nothing but Nasa shirts, ratty jeans, and hoodies.

Jason thinks about the few experiences he’s had with Martian Manhunter, and the general vibes he got from the alien, “I don’t think he’ll disappoint. From the few times I’ve seen him, he’s always treated me fairly.”

Danny’s smile brightens at that and he turns on the movie.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.” The movie begins, and Jason shoots Danny an incredulous look. 

“When did this come out exactly?”

Danny, the mischievous little shit, grins at him with manic glee. “When you were dead.”

The first zombie gets stabbed, strangled, and decapitated.

Jason mutters a quiet, ‘what the fuck’ under his breath and wonders what he just signed up for.

The girls have knives. The Bennet sisters have knives and clean guns in their spare time. They wear them under their dresses. Casually armed at a suit-and-tie party. 

Fuck all his previous reservations. Jason fucking loves this movie.

The fight scenes are overly dramatic, and the girls would be dead in seconds if that was real life with the amount of telegraphing they do, but it’s fun to watch anyway, and Jason’s far too excited about the fact that his favorite book characters are armed to the teeth to really care.

-

“I won’t give up my sword,” Lizzy says with all the stubbornness of a fighter.

“You will when you marry,” Her sister tells her condescendingly, but Lizzy’s having none of that.

“The right man wouldn’t ask me to.” She states, and Jazz, Jason, and Sam all cheer some variation of: “RIGHT ON!”

-

“ Eww , Wickman looks like young Vlad.” Sam complains when the man is first introduced.

Danny groans, “Ancients, you’re right.”

“Who?” Jason wonders aloud. The name sounds familiar, but he’s not sure why.

“He’s the homicidal mayor that wants to kidnap Danny and make out with his mom.” Tucker supplies helpfully, tossing a handful of popcorn into his mouth like he didn’t just drop that bombshell into the conversation.

“I’m fucking sorry, what ?”

“Yeah, actually this movie is a great introduction into the bullshit that’s our lives.” Jazz says thoughtfully.

Tucker lifts his hot chocolate mug like he’s raising a toast. “Amen baby, our lives are so goddamn weird.”

-

“It’s called ‘Saint Lazarus?” Jason says in a strangled tone, “That’s a bit ironic.”

Danny laughs, “I know right?”

“Zombie aristocratic church.” Sam states gravely. 

-

Jason sits forward in his beanbag, excited for the famous monologue after Darcy asks for Lizzy’s hand in marriage. “-and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.” But instead of verbally pulling the man apart, Lizzy kicks Darcy in the chest. 

The sound Jason makes is halfway between a laugh and a wheeze. 

Oh my god, she has a fire poker.

“Fuck yeah, stab his ass!” He cheers.

“Get fucked, you misogynist!” Sam joins in, and damn, Jason can see why Danny liked this girl. She’s an absolute spitfire.

“Shove his opinions up his ass with a cactus!” 

Just about anywhere else, Jason would’ve received some strange looks for that last comment, but here, there’s only the delighted laughter of people he might be considering new friends. 

The movie they picked is objectively fucking hilarious. Clearly, Danny chose it to make him feel more welcome, but not one of the teenagers seems bored or annoyed and is ruthlessly criticizing the fights right along with him.

It’s been a long time since Jason’s felt so included without the lingering itch under his skin when he’s pitied. There’s none of that here though. These kids have seen and been through things he can’t even imagine and it’s refreshing to be surrounded by people who just get how fucked up life and death can be.

-

On-screen Lizzy is saying, “My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me,” before she promptly buries a six-foot-tall muscle mountain of a man under a pile of bricks.

“I could take her,” Tucker says and Jason looks at him like he’s insane.

“No, you couldn’t.” Sam deadpans, “But I could take her on a date.”

“She could kick me through a wall any day,” Jason adds in. 

He and Sam high-five. Yeah, he likes these feral teenagers.

-

Somehow the main plot isn’t zombies. Jason is genuinely baffled about how there’s a literal apocalypse happening and the storyline is kept up so well that he sometimes gets a bit of a jumpscare because he’d genuinely forgotten that fucking London just fell to the undead.

-

“I kinda wanna hold one.” Danny remarks when a disembodied hand reaches through the ground to wave threatening at Darcy and Lizzy.

Tucker choaks on his drink, “THE ZOMBIE HANDS STICKING OUT OF THE MASS GRAVE!?!”

“Yeah, I think they could use a little holding.”

Jason snorts.

-

“There’s no fucking way that bridge just blew up like that.” Jason squints suspiciously at the screen. 

“Yeah,” Danny agrees, “There’d be way more black and grey smoke.”

“Also that sequence of explosions is so historically incorrect.” Sam remarks.

“I have concerns for all of you.” Tucker deadpans but he’s smiling as he says it.

Jazz frowns at the screen contemplatively, “Where’s the horse?”

“Where is the horse?”

“Did it die?”

“Idk? It just disappeared??”

“They’re not addressing it either, just moving right on like it didn’t exist.”

“Schrodinger’s horse.” Danny nods sagely.

-

“He’s wearing a leather coat at his own wedding.”

“What a mood.” Jason pointedly doesn’t think about the leather jacket that’s practically his second skin.

“Can they stop kissing please?” Danny whines, peaking through his fingers like a child scared of the dark.

“Yeah,” Sam agrees, “This is straight propaganda.”

“They’re eating each other's faces off more than the zombies were.”

“I don’t think-“

“Aww look, the zombies came to their wedding.”

“That’s the least ‘aww’ moment I’ve ever seen in my life, what the fuck.” Tucker mutters in a strangled tone.

~ 🧟 ~

Jason is having the time of his life, honestly, especially when he gets front-row seats to watching this train wreck of a friend dynamic. It's surprisingly similar to the relationship he has with his brothers and seeing it from an outside perspective gives him some clarity as to why they get such weird looks when interacting in public. 

He’s also very Bi for Jazz Fenton. Sue him, she’s hot when she's mad.

Speaking of which, she gestures him toward the door when the three teenagers are distracted by their rowdy conversation. Once the door closes behind them and they’re left in the hallway alone, her relaxed posture changes. 

Jason feels a shiver go down his spine. He’s not emotionally disconnected enough to admit that he’s afraid of the older Fenton. 

Attracted, yes, but afraid.

“You helped Danny out in the Zone when he was younger, right?” She starts off, and Jason nods with no small amount of trepidation, but she just smiles.

"Thank you for taking care of my little brother when I couldn't.” Her smile drops as suddenly as it appeared and christ , this woman is scary. “But if you EVER-"

“Whoah hey,” Jason raises his hands in defense, “I’m not here to hurt the kid. He’s one of the few people I’d call a friend, and there are lines I won’t cross. Hurting children is at the top of them.”

“I understand that, but you’re about to become his prime defense, and though he can take care of himself, if you fuck up and it winds up with him hurt, they will not find your body .” Her eyes flash Lazarus green and for a moment, Jason feels pinned by the gaze. “Do you understand?”

Danny chooses that moment to pop through the wall, obviously having been eavesdropping. The shameless little shit. 

" Jaaaaazzzzzzzzz ! Don’t give my Knight the shovel talk! He's one of the good ones, I wouldn’t have chosen him if he wasn’t.”  

Jazz rolls her eyes, "Alright, well please continue to take care of my little brother then."

"Heyyyy!” Danny complains, “I can take care of myself!!"

Jazz turns to him with a raised eyebrow. "I have watched you stay awake for 72 hours and pour coffee into cereal. You absolutely cannot."

"It's faster than drinking it with-"

"Don't finish that sentence."

Danny wisely shuts up. 

At least the kid recognizes danger when he sees it.

“Don’t knock it till you try it!” Danny shouts, before disappearing back through the wall.

…Nevermind. Jason takes it back.

“GO TO BED!” Jazz yells after him. She rolls her eyes when she gets no response, muttering something about annoying little brothers under her breath, and tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear. 

Jason watches the movement a little too intently, reddening when she turns back to him. She pulls a business card out of her pocket and hands it to him. 

It’s a generic student therapist’s office card for Gotham University, blue words on unfinished cardstock, but when he flips it over, a number is neatly written onto the back. 

“That’s for my cellphone. If you ever need backup or if Danny’s being an obnoxious little shit. He’s a good kid, but talking him down from dumb ideas can be a chore. I’d rather you have that just in case.”

Holy fuck . She gave him her number. This beautiful, protective, badass of a woman just gave him her phone number. And he didn’t even have to ask. 

It takes him a few seconds to find his voice. He stares down at the numbers, committing them to memory and knowing he’ll be putting them in his phone as soon as he has control over his hands again. 

“Thanks.” He says in what’s hopefully a casual tone, and books it down the hallway toward the stairs without waiting for a reply.

He isn’t running away from a pretty redhead. He’s simply making a tactical retreat before he does something embarrassing like asking her if she wants to get coffee sometime. 

It’s been too long of a day for a crush. Any potential feelings are decidedly Later Jason’s Problem. 

Chapter Text

Jason wakes up in an unfamiliar room with a glowing green IV drip in his arm, and for a moment he panics.

Then he remembers the previous night, and right . Magic castle. 

His room has gone through some significant interior decorating in the time he was asleep. The walls are a dark, charcoal brick now, there’s more than a few books on shelves taking up at least one whole wall, and a window has added itself to the space behind his bed, complete with curtains and a view into a very familiar city. How he has what he assumes is a real-time streaming window into a city he’s a full dimension away from, he doesn't know, but that’s not his biggest concern right now.

If his ecto levels are stable, he’ll be knighted today. 

Danny had given him exactly zero information on the process of that, so with a groan, he drags himself out of the stupidly comfortable bed -seriously, how is he supposed to sleep on anything else again when he knows that this mattress exists- and heads into the hallway, hoping to find the kid.

There's noise coming from the kitchen and as Jason gets closer, he recognizes Jazz and Danny's voices having a hushed argument.

“-if Maddie leaks that you’re different from the other ghosts?’

“She doesn’t know that, the only other things she's managed to get a hold of are blobs, and that one time with the shade. They’re unconventional scientists, but there's just not enough evidence for her to jump to the conclusion that Phantom is her half-dead son.”

“Are you sure you never went human during their experiments?”

“Did you see any blood? Cuz all I saw was the basement painted green.”

Jason rounds the corner to Jazz looking nauseous, and he can’t blame her. His timeline for destroying the Fentons has just accelerated.

 “Okay, okay. I’m just worried now that you’re on the Justice League‘s radar.”

“I know.” Danny looks exhausted, “But my halfa secret is staying 6 feet under for now.”

Jazz notices Jason standing awkwardly in the doorway and straightens, sending him a strained smile.

“Good morning. Would you like some eggs?” She asks, already turning to make him a plate as if needing something to keep his hands busy.

“Thank you, I didn’t mean to intrude,” Jason feels inclined to say because if Alfred did one thing, it was teach him manners. “I just had a few questions about the Knighting Ceremony.”

Danny hops off his stool, shoveling the rest of his multi-colored cereal in his mouth.  

“We’ll need to check your ecto levels first.” He says, snatching the plate from Jazz’s hand, throwing a piece of toast onto it, and drags Jason out of the kitchen in a whirlwind of movement. Jason is honestly impressed that he doesn’t drop anything. “Bye Jazz!”

Danny draws Jason’s blood as he eats his eggs, sitting on the edge of the same medbay bed as yesterday.

The kid hums happily at every result he writes down, and rolls back over to Jason as the man’s chewing his last bite.

“Everything’s looking good! Your body’s actually metabolizing the pure ectoplasm at a pretty fast rate. I’d say you’ll be almost completely clear by the time the ceremony’s scheduled for today. 

“And when is that exactly?”

“An hour or so.” Danny mentions casually, and Jason. Just can’t. With this kid.

“ Fuck , that soon? Do I need to like, memorize a speech? My schmoozing skills are null and void at the moment. Will I be expected to talk? And shit, what’s the dress code? I didn’t exactly bring fancy clothes-”

Danny laughs, “Nah, you’re fine in what you’re in, there’s no speeches, and you won’t have to schmooze. My council and the Observants are used to my lack of shits to give about their traditions and ‘formal wear’, so they won’t blink an eye at my Fright Knight doing the same. Actually, I think they might expect it after the debacle with Sam and The Dress.”

Jason remembers thinking today was the day to be a detective, but he’s taking the L on asking about that . Some stories are worth leaving un-told.

“So what, I just show up, yank the sword out of a rock, and we leave?”

“Pretty much. They’ll ask you some questions that essentially boil down to, ‘Will you protect the king with your afterlife’-”

“Duh,” Jason interrupts, because he may have only re-met Danny for a few days, but he’d shoot everyone in the room and then himself if anything happened to him.

“You’ll yeet the sword, some magic shit will happen, and voila. Fright Knight.”

“What kind of magic shit?”

Danny shrugs, apparently done with his explanation from the way he stands, and makes for the door. “See you in an hour!”

“ Wait, what magic shit?? ”

. . . .

The Courtroom Danny called ‘boring’ is anything but. It’s a large circular room with stadium-like stone seats facing a flat area in the middle where Jason assumes he’ll be knighted. Floating planets spin lazily around the ceiling while green torches set into the dark columns cast the room in an ever-changing array of dancing shadows. 

It’s a stunning sight, nothing like he’s ever seen before and if not for the creatures taking up the seats, he’d stand and just admire the space. 

Speaking of which, are those eyeballs ? Giant glowing eyeballs in robes? Danny declined to mention that his Observants were nightmare fuel, fucking hell .

He was right about the sword in the stone King Arther style, though. It’s sitting in the middle of the open flat space, where Jason assumes he’ll be taking his vows and said ‘magic shit’ will go down. 

He’d still like a rundown on that, thanks.

The most pompous of the glowing eyeballs, complete with fancy robes, speaks in a loud, echoing voice and Jason refocuses.

" Will the Inner Court of King Daniel please step forward ?”

Jason is 95% sure that wasn’t English. He understood it just fine, but the sound is reminiscent of Jazz’s voice when she got mad, so he assumes it’s Ghost Speak. It’s decidedly weird to hear with human-ish ears. When he was a ghost, the language wasn’t forced at all, but hearing it now is hard to listen to.

Sam, Tucker, and Jazz step up, forming a semicircle facing him and wow, this is starting to really give Jason cult vibes. Is it too late to ask about the magic shit again? 

He has the sinking feeling that he’s just gonna have to roll with the punches on this one.

“ Councilmen. Today we gather to witness the return of the previously vacant position of The Fright Knight. The tyrannical reign of Pariah Dark has come to an end and we can finally lay the foundations for an era of peace and unity for our people. To do this, we must strengthen both our kingdom and our alliances, beyond the borders of our dimension. For this reason, King Daniel has chosen Jason Peter Todd to be his most loyal protector. He is a citizen of not only the Infinite Realms, but also the living, similar to our Majesty. His strength lies in his compassion -”

“You ready to yoink the Soul Shredder?” Danny whispers under his breath from his position at Jason’s side as the Pompus Eyeball yabbers on.

For a moment, Jason is confused, but he glances back to the King-Author-Style sword in the stone and- No. No fucking way.

No one would name a sword that pretentious of a name. He refuses to believe it on principle.

His utter horror at the shitty ass name must show on his face because Danny snorts as quietly as he can.

“Yeah, It cuts into your soul and sends you into a nightmare reality where you’re forced to relive your imagination’s worst for eternity.”

And what in the Scarecrow Fear Toxin is that kind of power? 

Nope. Just for that Jason decides that the name sounds like a cheese grater. A stupid, pretentious, cheese grater. With stupid Fear Toxin powers, because nothing in the Ghost Zone is normal.

“We’re not calling it that.” He hisses, still absolutely fucking appalled.

Danny shoots him a tiny, shit-eating grin. “That’s literally been its name since forever, Jay. You can’t just change it.”

“Fucking watch me.”

“Alright, what are you gonna call it?” Danny challenges, gaze flicking briefly to check that they’re not drawing too much attention with their whispering.

Jason pauses. He won’t admit it, but he’s genuinely awful at naming shit. There’s a reason he didn’t protest being a second Robin. For fuck’s sake, when he came back from the dead, he named himself after the Joker. He doesn’t have a single idea what to name a magic fucking sword. 

Actually, who even names their swords? Other than Damian. Demon brat is simply built different and Jason would respect it if the kid wasn’t a royal pain in the ass 24/7.

For a moment he considers texting his younger brother, but decides he’s not up to handing blackmail on a silver platter to a murderous 17-year-old. 

“Uh… Nightmare Maker?”

Danny stares at him, “No.”

Jason decides that’s fair. He’ll come up with something.

“ Ahem .” The Observant in the fancy robes coughs pointedly, and Jason abruptly remembers that he’s still in fact, being knighted. Whoops. Looks like he’s just as good at ghost politics as he is at human ones. 

“ Jason Peter Todd, do you swear on your core to do everything in your power  to protect our King through all that may threaten him, stand loyal to his side during peace and war, combat anything that is detrimental to his wellbeing, and conduct yourself as a true Knight worthy of the Infinite Realms? ”

“I do.” He says as confidently as he can muster, hoping that’s the right response. 

Sue him, he hasn’t exactly been to Royal Ghost Court Knightings before, and he’s taking inspiration from human media here. If they’d wanted him to be prepared, they shouldn’t have left the explanation up to Danny.

The Observant seems to take his answer in stride -Jason can’t tell if it’s because it was the right one, or if they’re so used to Danny’s shenanigans that they’re not willing to waste breath trying to correct him - and continues.

“ Step forward and receive the Soul Shredder. Your word will determine its willingness to remove itself from the stone .”

Jason does as he’s told, taking ahold of the hilt. For a moment, he’s afraid that the decontamination hasn’t been enough and the sword will sense his rage -he’s assuming this is the ‘magic shit’ part- but it comes free of the rock with no resistance.

Except for the fact that it’s heavy as fuck. The nondescript hilt didn’t prepare him for 3 feet of hardened steel, Ancients . 

“ I hereby appoint you as the Fright Knight, loyal guard to the High King of the Infinite Realms. Ancients witness this Knight and grant him the strength to protect our King. Arise, Jason Todd,  as a knight of the Realms .”

The sword in his hand begins to glow a bright, noxious green and in any other circumstance, Jason would drop the thing like it burned him, but this moment feels important, so he allows himself to hold the rip-off lightsaber. 

Grudgingly. Has he mentioned it’s heavy and unwieldy? 

As if reading his mind, the sword begins to change. The glow grows, and the metal in his palm begins to warp. It goes through multiple aborted weapons, before Jason feels the familiar grip of a gun.

A maniacal grin makes its home on his face as a rush of power radiates from his newly-formed weapon. It’s so strong it almost sends him stumbling forward, but when he looks down, his feet aren’t touching the ground anymore and as he watches, a ring of fire starts at his feet and makes its way up his body, revealing an inverted version of his Red Hood costume. 

There are a few new details Jason doesn’t recognize though. He’s got various metal pieces resembling armor he’s seen in medieval-themed museums scattered according to his fight style. A layer of metal over the knuckles on his gloves, protective layers on his knees, shins, and boots where a kick would be particularly devastating, and when he pulls the helmet off his head, he laughs at the absurdity of it. The whole get-up is decidedly reminiscent of an old-fashioned knight with his own flare of streetwear mixed in

His feet touch the floor lightly, and he looks at Danny with wide eyes. The kid is grinning like Christmas came early and is bouncing up and down mid-air like he’s about to burst.

“Congratulations and welcome to the inner court.” Jazz says with a smile. Jason returns it, but is yanked forward by a half-dead teenager before he can respond.

“That was so cool! And you have a ghost form now! Oh, I’m so excited to see what kind of powers you have now that your core is developed! There was fire when you did your transformation, maybe it’ll be related to flames. That would be ironic, but fitting tbh. Or it could be something totally different. After all, my transformation is a light show and I have like, zero power over that. Let's hit up the gym before the boost wears off!”

Jason feels like he’s being talked to by a hurricane, but he latches onto a single detail in Danny’s excited rambling. “It’s gonna wear off?”

“Well, not completely. It’ll start to dull in an hour or two though since your core literally just got a growth spurt. So now’s our chance to fuck around with what powers you have now while they’re strong and maybe see a few that you’ll have to work up to.”

“I’m voting for a shadow core.” Sam pipes up, and since when the fuck was the whole group following?

Tucker frowns and shakes his head, “I think lava would be dope as hell.”

“Maybe it’ll be ice.” Jazz suggests mildly.

“Ooh, yeah we could match!” Danny agrees.

They all look to Jason like he’s got any fucking idea what’s going on.

“Do you feel anything in your chest? Warm? Cold? Something else?”

Jason concentrates on the little spark he’s starting to feel resting in the center of his ribcage, just right of his heart. He’s not sure what he’s supposed to be feeling, but the energy there isn't giving him any strong vibes to work off of so he shakes his head. “Too early to tell.”

“Ah, man.” Tucker groans good-naturedly, “More time for us to put in our bets then.” 

Danny lets go of Jason’s arm abruptly and throws the doors to the locker rooms open. “We’ll figure that out later. Right now it’s training time!”

And Jason is swept into the enthusiasm of three teenagers with excitement zoomies.

 . . . .

They’re all spread out on the floor, breathing hard, by the time Jason feels his core’s energy wane and settle into something that feels more like it fits into his body. 

Two consecutive hours of power tests and sparing matches will do that to a guy. Though, Jason was unwilling to use his new nightmare gun on any of the kids. He’s saving it for a special occasion.

Even Danny didn’t get away without some serious exertion though he’d used his ghost form’s ability to not breathe to his advantage. 

Fuck, when’s Jason gonna learn how to do that? Actually, can he even do that? He’s pretty sure he’s more human than Danny, but after all the magic shit that’s happened today, he can’t say anymore.

“I think that’s all we’ve got right now.” The eternal teenager sighs, a little put out. “Your boost definitely wore off and you’ll need practice or extremely strong emotions to get that level of power back anytime soon.”

“Yeah okay,” Jason agrees readily, not particularly enthused about the idea of having all that strength 24/7. It'd be a nightmare to get used to. He'd spend so much money reparing things. “I need to check in with the bats. I told B I’d be out of touch for 48 hours, and wouldn’t be surprised if he’s shitting bricks, looking for me now.”

“I’ve got a test I need to study for,” Jazz chimes in, “Danny can drop us off in central Gotham. Does that work for you?”

“Yup, I’m good with that.”

Danny groans, but dutifully rips a hole into reality.

As they step through, Jason pulls up the camera app on his phone and takes a selfie with a shit-eating grin on his face. He makes sure to get the glowing green portal in the background, surrounding him in a halo of Lazarus green light, and Phantom’s dark silhouette as he begins to close up the man-made reality tear.

The Birds and the Bats 

TheWalkingDead : I’m back, bitchachos. 

InterdimensionalFieldTrip.png

AdoptionAddiction (B): Where have you been?

TheWalkingDead : Fuck off. 

CursedFashionPolice (Dick): Where have you been!?!

CEOInsomnia (Tim): Hell probably. Again.

TheWalkingDead : I don't have to tell you every time I go interdimensional, I’m not five.

OnlyTolerableRobin (Steph): Congrats on finding somewhere Tim can’t hack. We totally lost your cell signal.

QuietButDeadly (Cass): 👋☺️

OnlyTolerableRobin : Tell me your secrets, Jason. I know where you live.

TheWalkingDead : No, you don’t.

SuperpoweredGlowstick (Duke): Please don’t tell me dimensional travel is normal in our line of work.

CursedFashionPolice : Yeah so about that…

CEOInsomnia: oof

OnlyTolerableRobin: oof

QuietButDeadly: oof

AdoptionAddiction: I'm getting gray hairs from this.

DemonBrat : tch. Trust Todd to cause father more stress by disappearing to another dimension.

OnlyTolerableRobin : Yeah Jason. Bruce only has so much hair left :( cut him some slack.

Jason snorts at the ‘ several people are typing ‘ and mutes his phone, refocusing on the two siblings who are finishing up their goodbyes.

“See you around, Jason.” Jazz says, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, “I hope you don’t have too bad of an impression of me after our first meeting.”

Jason remembers the glowing rage of an Angry Older Sister and tries to keep a neutral expression. He’s not sure if he succeeds. “It was memorable.”

Jazz laughs at that and Jason’s sure his ears are pink. Sue him, she’s pretty.

She gives Danny one last hug, whispering something Jason can’t make out, and heads toward a bus stop with a wave.

“You’re gonna let her take a bus back to school alone in Gotham at two in the morning?” Jason asks with an eyebrow raise.

“Nah, she knows I'll follow her invisibly until she gets back safe. She hates it, but she’s given up trying to stop me.” Danny shrugs, and Jason decides that’s fair. If Tim or Damien tried to tail him because they didn't think he would watch his own back, he’d probably stab them.

Or well, maybe not. With the pit rage gone, he feels… peaceful. It’s a new development, but he could definitely get used to the quiet of only his own thoughts and emotions.

“Better get to it then. The busses run less frequently at night.”

“Right, I’ll call you if ghost shit comes up and you know how to summon me if you’re in a pinch.”

Jason snorts, “Being the knight in shining armor and saving the damsel in distress is my job now, squirt.”

“Hey-” Danny protests but is cut off by the tell-tale screech of public bus transportation breaks. “Shit, gotta go!” He sends Jason one last grin, and disappears from the visual plane.

As he watches Jazz board the bus, Jason discreetly scans his surroundings. It might just be paranoia or the lingering effects of his power boost, but he could have sworn that he felt the back of his neck prickle.

He can’t be sure, but he has the sinking suspicion that they’re being watched.

+ OMAKE +

Jason drops a stack of files onto the desk inches from where Tim is typing. 

He pauses, blinks at the veritable mountain of paper his ‘I would rather cut off my left leg with a rusty spoon than ask for help’ brother has bestowed upon him, and takes a deep breath.

“Um-” He begins eloquently, but Jason cuts him off.

“I need to legally end someone’s career.”

Wow, what a way to start a conversation. Jason’s always been direct, but this is new. Tim won’t lie though, one sentence in, and he’s invested.

“Also dismantle a branch of the government and fix a patch job of an illegal emancipation of a minor.”

“What?”

“It’s Top Priority, how long will that take you?”

“Hold up,” Tim shakes his head like if he etch-n-sketches his brain, it’ll force his brother to start making sense.” I’m gonna need some backstory and at least three good reasons -besides the minor, send me the deets on that ASAP- to mark this as Top Priority.”

Jason sighs, “A branch of the government has decided that ecto-entities, any creature that is made out of or depends on the stuff, like Phantom and I are non-sentient and created a law that makes it legal for the US government to capture and experiment on us at will. The two main ecto-scientests working for this organization need to be legally eviscerated for acting on that law or so help me, I will repeat the duffle bag situation. And there’s a minor living alone to keep himself safe because of these laws that needs an emancipation not done by a teenage civilian, yesterday.”

“Are these connected circumstances?” Tim hedges, already planning how he’s going to pull this off and contingencies for when things inevitably go sideways.

“Does it matter?”

“I guess not…” And really, what is Tim supposed to say? No?

“Great, I’m gonna go fill in Bruce.”

Tim chokes on his coffee. 

Jason is willingly talking to Bruce? Peacefully? Without his helmet or guns in sight? What the hell? Is he possessed?

Tim stares incredulously after his older brother, decides he doesn’t want to know, and opens the first file. 

Chapter Text

Jason’s used to being the center of attention, (he is a crime lord after all) but giving out orders to a group of lieutenants and grunts who are armed to the teeth is a very different atmosphere than having the Justice League -the whole one this time, not a small handful of assholes and Wonder Woman- actually listening to him. 

To be fair, Jason’s technically the Ghost/Human Liaison now, but he sure as fuck isn’t mentioning his status. That reveal deserves some level of dramatics and a crisis situation ain’t it.

Especially when he’s summing up the past few days -sans the knighting bullshit and glazing over most of the details of the Ghost Zone field trip- to the League members that missed the first disastrous meeting.

“Pardon, but are you telling me that Superman implied an immortal child monarch from The Infinite Fucking Realms needed mentoring ?”

Superbastard has the decency to look embarrassed. That doesn’t make Jason any less pissed at him and by the looks of it, Constantine feels similarly.

“We’re so fucked.” Green Lantern puts his head in his hands. Jason feels that. He feels that on a spiritual level. “I can’t believe you didn’t call the actual diplomatic team. Like we literally exist for a reason, but no . Just summon a High King. Casually.”

“Wait, the High King of the Infinite Realms?” Shazam asks, “As in King Phantom?”

Jason raises an eyebrow at the clear excitement in Shazam’s tone. He knows the guy’s whole thing is magic shit or whatever, but Phantom’s never brought him up. Maybe he’s a fan.

“That’s the one.”

Shazam’s face lights up, “I love that guy!”

Well shit, never mind. Jason resolves to question him later.

“You know Phantom?” Constantine demands, somehow looking even more frazzled. Poor dude.

“Yeah! We met on the Rock of Eternity and hit it off pretty quick. He was a big help with some time-related issues I had a while back. Really chill guy. We grab a burger sometimes and catch up when we can.”

“ Wait, wait, wait . So ghosts are real, you’ve been buddy-buddy with the High King of the ghosts for years, and just never mentioned it before?” Flash asks incredulously.

Shazam shrugs, “He said he wasn’t a fan of attention, a lay-low kinda guy. I can respect that.”

“Bloody Hell.” Constantine looks like someone just pissed in his cereal right in front of him. Jason would know. He’s done it to Dick. 

“Are you still in contact with Phantom?” Batman questions pointedly, and thank fuck they’re getting back on track. He’s starting to understand why B always looks so tired after these meetings. His coworkers are chronically chatty.

“I’ve got his phone number if that’s what you mean, but I really need to explain the-”

“How pissed is he on a scale of blowing up Australia to destabilizing our entire dimension?” Constantine interrupts, a little frantically. 

“He’s not-”

Superman frowns, “What do you mean destabilizing our dimension? He’s just one teenager-”

“Don’t fuckin’ start, mate.”

“Hey,” Jason interrupts, “I’ve got shit you’ll wanna hear about.”

“But the responsibility should go to someone who can better handle it and let Phantom be a kid-”

“That’s not gonna fucking happen. The Realms are a ‘top of the food chain’ set-up. He may be teenaged shaped, but Phantom beat Pariah Dark in single combat. So him and only him have rights to the throne.”

“That’s exactly why he needs a mentor! Someone to guide him and support him through-”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP,” Jason roars, green eyes illuminating the inside of his helmet. The room goes silent and tense immediately. “I didn’t come up here for a fucking interrogation. We’ve got a serious problem.”

He pulls up the slideshow Tucker sent him on the big screen and internally cusses the kid out. It’s titled ‘The GIW is a Piece of Shit Organization and Should Have Never Existed in the First Place’. Honestly, he should have expected it, but dammit, it’s hard to stay serious with neon green, Comic Fucking Sans Script.

Before any protests can start up, he clicks left and an obliterated street in Amity fills the screen. “There’s an organization that’s being funded under the US government called the GIW or Ghost Investigation Ward.” 

Another slide shows a mid-battle picture with the white-suited men shooting at a grocery store. It was taken at just the right time to display the windows blowing out from the force of the weapon, and the blue-haired ghost fleeing the scene with a look of terror on her face. 

“It was formed during Luther’s stint as president and his whole ‘getting rid of fossil fuels’ but actually using it to find a fuck ton of shitty organizations, schtick. Apparently, he did research into ectoplasm as an energy source, fuck if I know what he found, but he declared that any entity that either contains or is made up of ectoplasm is a non-sentient being that can’t feel pain and gave blanket permission to capture and experiment on them at will.

Jason glances at Martian Manhunter. He doesn’t want to bring up any bad memories from the times the alien had to fight for his own rights, but other than a stiffening of his shoulders, the guy seems alright.

“This law is already a huge fucking problem, but it gets worse.” He tuns to a slide that shows his own ectoplasm samples -not that anyone but Jason know’s they’re his- side by side. One is green, clear, and glowing like a glowstick, and the other is dark, murky, and bubbling. 

“The Lazarus pits are made of ectoplasm. A rank-ass cesspool of it, but anyone who’s taken a dip in the pits is fair game to the American Government. Not to mention that every single one of the GIW’s scientific proof is absolute bullshit and they’re a ‘shoot first ask questions later’ kinda group, so there’s a fuck ton of metas that could easily be targeted by them.”

Constantine swears colorfully, and it seems to signal the beginning of a clamor of shouting. 

The ensuing uproar is headache-inducing. And Jason has a noise-canceling helmet. He wants is on the record that he hates it here.

“When were they put into effect?” B demands, already typing away on his wrist computer.

“A few years ago, give or take. Around when I died, I think.”

Batman grunts and keeps typing.

Jason leaves him to it and goes back to his slideshow. He clicks left and is greeted with the scene of a lab. A green-splattered lab. With vials of ectoplasm and containers of organs sitting next to green-crusted scalpes, and is that a fucking bone saw ? He really hopes Danny and Jazz weren't kidding when they said they aren’t particularly attached to their parents, because he’s going to kill them. He’s going to rip them apart like they threatened to do to Danny h̶i̶s̶ ̶k̶i̶n̶g̶, and Jason’s going to relish in their fucking screams -as he has every right to because they hurt h̶i̶s̶ ̶k̶i̶n̶g̶

A hand settles on his shoulder and Jason makes an aborted motion towards a gun before he realizes it’s Wonder Woman. She smiles sadly at him, but takes the remote and clicks the next button. It’s another destroyed street, and when Jason can hear past the ringing in his ears, he mutters a quiet ‘thank you’. 

Wonder Woman squeezes his shoulder and moves back to her seat.

“What was that?” Shazam asks, voice small in the face of his horrified expression.

“A lab,” Jason’s voice is filtered through a voice modulator in his helmet, but even through the distortion, it sounds flat and angry,”A ghost was captured and dissected by the Dr.’s Madeline and Jack Fenton in that lab. They’ve been ghost hunters since before they even had proof of ecto-entities, and are willing to go to horrifying lengths in the name of science. They’re extremely dangerous.”

“Is the ghost okay?” Shazam asks, looking like he might be sick. 

“Physically? Yes. Mentally? He’s recovering.” 

“I found the Anti-Ecto acts.” Batman speaks up, hijacking Jason’s slideshow with legal jargon. “It was signed in with a collection of environmental advances. I think they hoped to hide the word Ecto in with Eco and hope no one looked at it too closely.”

“Did he go through the proper channels to make it official?” Martian Manhunter chimes in, and Jason’s glad that he’s showing interest in the conversation. Guy could be a huge help if there’s backlash. Not to mention that he’s Danny’s favorite hero, being an alien and all. “Is there any way to challenge the validity of it? We could move things along quickly if that’s the case.”

B hums and scrolls through the document. “The statute was passed through both the house and senate, but with it being concealed under false pretenses, there’s a possibility for a repeal.”

“I know a reporter or two that could do a piece on it. They’d be happy to inform the public of the possible danger to the meta’s rights acts.” Superman volunteers.

“And I could arrange a meeting with the current president. I’ve saved his life a great many times and he’d be willing to hear me out if I requested an audience.” Wonder Woman supplies. Ancients, Jason fucking loves her. Platonically, but every word out of her mouth solves so many of his issues. She's an genuine, actual diplomat in a room full of chuckleheads and it shows. Maybe he should buy her some bath bombs or a gift basket. 

“Yeah, yeah, legal shit.” Constantine drawls impatiently, “How long would that take? Days? Weeks?”

“Usually, a few months at the earliest, “Batman informs them and Jason’s face falls, “But the Justice Leauge holds a lot of weight, and if we present this as a violation of the Metahumans Right’s Act and get the general public involved, we can put enough pressure on the legal channels to expedite it.”

“That still doesn’t tell me how long.” Constantine mutters under his breath, but the sentiment is loud enough for most of the room to hear.

“A couple of weeks, max?” Flash says thoughtfully, “With the press involved, maybe faster?”

Constantine turns to Jason, “Will that be fast enough to prevent a war?”

There’s a chorus of alarmed exclamations, but Jason just stares at the magic user. Because war? What fucking war?

“The hell do you mean, war ?”

Constantine sighs like explaining is a great inconvenience, “The anti-ecto acts are a direct threat to the Infinite Realms as a whole. They’re painting a target on anything with any semblance of ecto levels with a, ‘Hey this massive dimension that holds all other dimensions in balance? Yeah, we’re nuking it.”

There’s a few protests at that, but Constantine continues talking over them.

“Phantom already knows how much of a threat humans are from his own experiences with this GIW, and with his ascension to High King, I’m honestly surprised that he hasn’t called for the end of this dimension as a whole. It’s probably just a blip in the universes he has access to, and from that picture of the lab, there’s already been serious harm made to one of his subjects. He has every right to take the GIW’s actions, or lack thereof on our part, of as an act of war.”

And when it’s put like that ? Well, Constantine has a point.

Logically, Jason knows that Danny is protective by nature, and would find it difficult to hurt anyone, much less the people he considers his . But he’s also spent years -ones he should have been dicking around as a teenager- fighting a government that had it out for his blood. Literally. He’s been the sole entity keeping balance between ghosts and humans, protecting both sides as his halfa status demanded, for far longer than most people in his position could have. 

And he did it alone.

Jason very carefully doesn’t think about the Y incision on Danny’s chest and about exactly whose organs are floating around in jars or being experimented on even now. Ancients , he wouldn’t blame the kid if he held grudges.

“I can talk to Phantom and get his opinion, but I spent two days with him and he and his council didn’t once mention that they were preparing or even thinking about going to war.”

“ That’s where you went-?” Nightwing begins in an incredulous tone- and when the fuck did Dick get here- but he goes ignored.

“Let me know if that changes,” Constantine says, as serious as Jason’s ever seen the man. It’s a little disconcerting seeing the generally laid-back, if chronically stressed, man looking at him grimly, face drawn, but Jason nods all the same. He at least owes these people a heads-up if shit’s about to hit the fan.

A thought occurs to Jason suddenly and he frowns, “Wait, was that comment about ‘threatening the zone via nuke’ supposed to be an exaggeration?”

Constantine pales, “They didn’t. Please tell me they didn’t.”

“...We should finish the slide show.”

. . . .

Jason’s in the middle of slide 27 of the horrifying PowerPoint, when he gets a shiver down his spine and has the distinct feeling that Danny just did something stupid.

As if on cue, his personal phone rings. 

Jason wastes no time transferring the call to his helmet. It’s soundproofed, but the superhumans in the room will have no problem overhearing him. Whatever, there’s very few people who have this number, and even fewer would call him for anything other than a dire emergency.

“Hello?”

“Danny’s gone.”  

Jason curses loudly and steps away from the presentation. 

‘Be the fright knight of an undead teenager’ they said. ‘It’ll be fun they said.’ Can’t leave Danny alone for 5 fucking minutes. Jason thought they were kidding when they said the kid needed a babysitter, but apparently the hell not. 

He takes a deep, calming breath.

“Do you know where he might be?”

“No.” Jazz sounds like she’s on the verge of tears, “Last I saw him was at the bus stop. He was supposed to be traveling back to Amity park, but he didn’t check-in. Sam and Tucker haven’t seen him, and the tracker Tucker planted in his boot has gone offline.”

“You had a track- nope, dealing with that later. Where’d the signal stop?” 

“About 15 miles outside of Amity.”

Jason does the math quickly, frowning at the multi-hour time gap. It’s better than being on a trail that’s a day or two old, but there’s a lot that can go down in five minutes, much less an indeterminate amount of hours. “And how long ago was this?”

“We- we thought he’d run into one of his Rogues and they got a lucky shot that broke the tracker. It’s happened before, but I just got a call from his school saying he wasn’t there and Sam and Tucker already checked the house and all of his hang-out spots. He’s missing and I- if it was the GIW- I can’t- he’s already been dissected once- I can’t fail him again.”

There’s a harsh breath and then muted whispering from someone in the room behind Jason, but his full focus is on the current situation and he doesn’t have time for the mystery JL member’s impending moral crisis right now.

“Okay, take a deep breath for me, Jazz. Was there any evidence that the GIW was in his location when he disappeared? Have Sam and Tucker gone to look?”

‘They’re on their way now. I called you when I got off the phone with them. Can you track him? The Observants said you’d have a connection, but your core is still developing and I don’t have any idea how that works and-”

“Hang on, slow down. Deep breaths, remember? Let me check.”

Jason closes his eyes and focuses. His core feels off balance for the first time since he’d been ecto-purified, but not in an all-encompassing-rage way. More of a distinctive feeling of wrong, wrong fix it, protect him, keep him safe . He tries to trace it back to a source, a direction, anything that will give him more insight into the situation at hand, but there’s too much interference with the roiling emotions and his still-developing core.

He grits his teeth in frustration, but he redirects his attention to the other end of the phone, managing to unlock his jaw. “There’s a pull on my core that’s telling me he’s in danger but I can’t trace it back. Is there another way to find him?”

‘Maybe? We used to just use the Boomerang or the Fenton Ghost Dector but apparently after Danny escaped the lab, Maddie and Jack moved to a GIW-funded laboratory. The security is too tight to just borrow things anymore. We’d need an actual plan to break in.”

“Did they build anything that can pick up ectoplasmic signals?”

“Not anything operational right now, but when I went down- after Danny- before I knew- well, they have a lot of blueprints stored in the basement still.”

“Great, when Sam and Tucker get back, have them look for anything that could give us an idea of where he’s gone. I know a guy who’s good with tech. He can probably recreate something workable if he’s got a base idea of what he’s making.”

The sound of a car door closing and an engine starting echoes through Jason’s helmet. “Okay, okay. I’ll wait for them to call me back. I’m driving to Amity now.”

“If it’s the GIW, call me immediately. If not, text me those blueprints.”

“Got it. Thank you, Jason.”

“I’ll let you know if I get any info. We’ll find him.”

The phone call ends and Jason gives himself a moment, just a moment to be blindly angry that someone took his king, Jason’s to protect, not theirs, how fucking dare they interfere with his obsession- and relaxes his clenched fists.

He turns back to the League. They’ve shut up for once, and are looking at him expectantly.

“We’ve got a problem.”

Chapter Text

The watchtower goes from a pop-up-classroom on Ecto-Entities and the Infinite Realms to a full-fledged war room in less than a minute. 

Jason’s actually a little impressed. He’d been under the assumption that the Justice League was a group of heroes reluctantly getting along for the sake of world peace, but this abrupt switch lends to the idea that their teamwork is deeper than that.

“-don’t even have the legal right to interfere.”

Superass (sorry, man . Jason can set aside his grudge in the face of a crisis) frowns, “We can’t leave a teenager in the hands of scientists-”

“Don't you fucking start with the teenager shite again, mate-“

Batman clears his throat, “Considering Phantom’s an interdimensional monarch, we have full jurisdiction to step in.”

They fucking better. Jason’s not afraid to go rogue again if that gets Danny back in one piece.

“Even with the USA’s government laws against their species?” Green Lantern asks, and seriously? Who gives a fuck about the American government? 

Not Jason, that’s who.

“America's only one country,” Batman says with a finality no one can argue with. “This is a planet-wide risk. We’ll be informing the American government along with the United Nations of this oversight. In the meantime, Wonder Woman, get in contact with the President of the United States."

"Thank you." She turns to Jason with a stormy gaze, "Get him back."

Jason nods, seriously. He absolutely the fuck will.

"Superman," Batman contintes, "Call your journalist contacts and have them prioritize writing against the Anti-Ecto acts. I want every news source you can get your hands on to spread as much information as possible, and make sure they know it's a direct violation of the Meta Rights Act."

"Will do. Should only take me a few minutes, so count me in for the raid."

The mental picture of the public going feral at a loophole in the Meta Protection Acts is an enjoyable one. There’s going to be bloodshed if the US government doesn’t get their shit together real fast.

Batman turns to Jason, “Do you have the locations of the GIW bases?”

Jason rolls his eyes -not that anyone can see it through his helmet, but it’s the thought that counts- and pulls out his phone. 

“I can get them.”

Team Phantom

ResidentZombie(Jason): Status update?

AspiringPoisonIvy(Sam): I’m babysitting Jazz in the basement. Tucker’s hacking the OPS center

ResidentZombie: Why does Jazz need a babysitter? Is she okay?

AspiringPoisonIvy: She’s got her murder face on and a creep stick. If the Fenton’s get back anytime soon, she’s gonna rack up a manslaughter charge.

ResidentZombie: Right there with her, honestly

AspiringPoisonIvy: yeah, no.

AspiringPoisonIvy: one homicidal older sibling is more than enough

AspiringPoisonIvy: don't add to my shit

TechSupport(Tucker): I’ve recruited Technus.

AspiringPoisonIvy; oh god

AspiringPoisonIvy: leave some GIW for the rest of us

TechSupport: >:)

ResidentZombie: Can you send me the locations of all the GIW bases?

TechSupport: oh sure, lemme just open my ‘hack every secret underground evil lab’ program

TechSupport: I actually have one of those. Lemme condense what I’ve got so far, I’ll send them in a few.

“Can’t you just summon him?” Shazam questions, pulling Jason’s attention away from his phone. 

Fuck Jason’s entire half-life, why the hell didn’t that occur to him?? Some Fight Knight he is. 

“Gimme a pen.”

He catches the ballpoint tossed in his direction and scribbles a pentagram on his palm. It’s not strictly necessary, but having a focal point helps him concentrate. His hand glows green as he chants, and by the glow flickering in his peripheral, his eyes are probably luminescent too. 

Jason finishes the chant, watching as the pen line disappears, but there's no chill in the air, no hint of a snarky teenage voice, and defiantly no swirling portal. Frowning, Jason tries again. 

Nothing.

One more time proves fruitless as well, and with a sinking feeling in his gut, Jason looks up. 

“He’s not responding. Something must be holding him wherever he is.”

“Fuck.” Constantine swears, and Jason finds himself agreeing wholeheartedly with the sentiment. 

Batman squeezes Jason’s shoulder in as close as the man can get to comfort. “With the locations of the GIW’s bases, we’ll find him.”

Jason kinda wishes he could storm the white house, and pick up any stray journalists he can find along the way to repeal the legal shit As Fast As Physically Possible. But he’s got GIW agents to kick the shit out of, and that’s a far more satisfying activity.

“Do you have the location of the bases yet?”

“Yeah hang on,” Jason says absentmindedly as he opens the file Tucker dropped in the groupchat. It’s a metric fuck ton of information and Jason only understands half of it, so he says a mental fuck it and switches to a new message.

Jason: Evil-Lab-Locations.csv Can you put these coordinates on a map and then drop it on the main screen of the Watchtower?

Tim: What room?

Jason: Debrief

The Powerpoint closes out and is replaced by a map of North America, scattered with 5 numbered red dots, most located in Illinois, but one stands out in Nevada.

Is that- there’s no way that’s area 51. Jason refuses to believe it on principle, but that fucking dot blinks away and goddammit, if anyone were to have a set-up in an area like 51, it’d be the fucking GIW.

“Five teams.” Batman states, “At least one magic user per team for contingency. We don’t know what kinds of weapons they may have.”

“Constantine, Red Hood and I will hit Base one.”

“Martian Manhunter and Aquaman, you’re on two.”

“Superman and The Flash will take number three.” 

“Zatanna and Green Arrow, four.” 

“Black Canary, Shazam, and Green Lantern will take location five.”

Batman glares around the room, waiting for protests that don’t come. “Be ready to depart in 10.”

+ OMAKE +

Jason’s watching Batman program the coordinates into the Zeta Tubes, when his com chimes in his ear, signaling that someone’s tapped into his current channel.

Tim’s voice comes over the line a moment later, “Hey, I got those blueprints and threw a locator together to alert me of any similar energy spikes to you or Danny’s signatures. One just popped up in Wisconsin. Does that mean anything to you?”

Jason has flashbacks to every comment about Vlad that team Phantom’s ever made.

Shit .

His core, which was previously a storm of get him back, not safe, protect, protect, protect , suddenly gives a harsh tug. Jason wheezes, feeling like he just got punched in the chest, but if he were looking for confirmation that Danny’s with the Fruit Loop, this is it. Fuck .

He speed-dials Jazz, “I think I know where he is.”

Chapter Text

"Is this the place?" Jason asks over coms. He's not a huge fan of his brother being his only source of information, but if anyone can get Jason an in, it's Tim.

“Yeah, the signal is coming from a couple hundred meters in front of you.”

Jason eyes the mansion with suspicion. There aren’t ant traps he can pick out, but there are three guards. They seem to be some kinda of vulture ghost? With hats? 

What even is Jason’s life?

Danny’s in danger though, so Jason refocuses, allowing himself to be seen as he steps out of the shadows, all hulking armor and noxious green eyes.

The ghost vultures visibly take a step back, but one stupidly calls out in an attempt to rally the others.

"The Fright Knight uses a sword so we can take him as long as we-" 

Jason pulls out his gun with a feral grin, taking immense pleasure in the way their eyes go wide.

“Fuck.” One of them curses under its breath, and Jason chuckles darkly.

"Thought I'd be fighting with my fists?“ He quips, “You wish. On guard, motherfucker.”

. . . .

Jason gets lost almost immediately. 

This place is a maze. Even worse, it’s full of ugly ass football merch for the Packers. Jason is reminded of when he was first brought home by Bruce and the manor was so big that he couldn’t find shit. 

Jason's core tugged him along to some kind of library, but had long since been doing some kind of compass-over-a-magnet thing, spinning in circles uselessly. 

He assumes the entrance to the basement is somewhere in here. He's had experience with cryptic billionaires and their penchant for the dramatics, but seriously? Can a man get a hint around here?

He’s considering just shooting shit, when he spots a line of green smears and scratches that's reminiscent of trying to drag a cat covered in mud into a bathtub leading to a bookshelf that's just a little crooked. 

Of fucking course. No one with this much money can have regular fucking doors.

Jason slowly pushes it open, cautious of alarms or more guards, but the staircase is empty and eerily silent as he creeps down. 

His core leads him past the mad scientist-looking lab, which, really? What’s with Danny’s luck when it comes to labs? 

Jason's seriously considering getting a baby leash. It'd make his job a hell of a lot easier.

He comes upon a hallway filled with nothing but doors. Jason is getting real goddamn sick of his core being an unreliable navigator. What's the use of having a Ghost King Locator if it's fucking shit at giving directions?

He's resigned to his fate of opening all of them one by one, when he hears a strangled yell. 

" JASON! "

He whips around as his core gives a massive tug. The reinforced metal door is locked, but Jason can feel Danny’s presence behind it. He doesn’t have the time to pull out his lock picks, not with the desperation in Danny's voice, so with a burst of power, he kicks the fucking thing right off its hinges. 

He’s not just mad, he’s pissed . And that raging ball in his chest is only growing with every second he’s away from Danny.

And there he is, in all his kingly glory, laying on his back, propped up by his elbows just enough to allow the ectoplasm flaked with blood to drip down his chin as he coughs and spits insults at what Jason can only assume is Vlad. 

Jason would be offended about the entirety of the man’s outfit, and entire general aesthetic -because, seriously ? Dick made quite a few god-awful fashion decisions in his time, but this was a new level of fuckery- if he could see anything but green .

The man turns to him with a sneer. “Well if it isn’t Daniel's little pet bodyguard. Word travels fast in the ghost zone, and I heard your core only developed a few days ago. Daniel must be pretty confident in his position if he chose a baby ghost as his guard. It really is a growing collection. Four human teenagers, the Boy King, and an insult of a Fri-”

Jason punches Vlad across the face so hard that the man crashes into the concrete wall with an audible boom. There’s a visible spiderweb of cracks coming from the minor crater Vlad’s body created, and Jason feels a rush of vindictive satisfaction at the way the man wheezes.

“Phantom, status report.” He barks out, not daring to take his eyes off the threat.

“Got Blood Blossom juiced via IV, and a little roughed up but I’m fine.” There’s a particularly wet-sounding cough that’s decidedly anything but fine. Ancients , Jazz was right about this kid’s self-preservation skills. He might actually clip a baby monitor to Danny’s cape. “Enough about me though. Tucker was right about your core. Damn, I owe him ten bucks.”

Jason’s gaze flicks down for just a moment, not that he’s expecting to see anything since his core has been blazing unhelpfully for hours now, still managing to be a useless little shit, but to his surprise -and minor horror- his form is wreathed in green, toxic looking flames.

“Well, shit-”

Vlad takes the moment of distraction as an invitation to shoot a fireball right into the center of Jason’s chest. Jason’s flaming chest. Which promptly sucks the pink monstrosity into itself and glows brighter. 

Jason grins. Yeah, he can work with this.

Actually, he can’t wait to curb-stomp this bastard. It's a perfect time to try out his new gun against someone more powerful than some D-List guards.

“A baby ghost huh?” Jason taunts, “I guess that phrase about fighting fire with fire was right.” 

Vlad visibly pales and Jason takes that moment to attack .

. . . .

Danny has had. A string of really shitty days. 

Dropping off Jason and Jazz went without a hitch, and the fly back was nice. He hadn’t traveled long-distance by flight much since he learned how to portal, but he’d figured he could use time to think over everything that had happened from meeting the Justice League to the Knighting Ceremony.

He'd apparently been thinking a little too hard though, because the GIW got the drop on him a few miles out of Amity. 

He'd almost gotten away when Vlad showed up, hit him with the Ghost Gauntlet so hard, that Danny had seen stars, and then yoinked him into a stolen thermos. 

It was truly a dick move. Very unsportsmanlike. The Packers would be disappointed. 

But for all the bullshit Vlad had pulled on him, including waking up strapped to a table in what looked like a lab -and hadn’t that been a fun little trip down memory lane- watching Jason pummel the shit out of the Vampire Wannabe was almost making up for it.

Almost.

Unfortunately, he’s a little distracted by the blood blossoms coursing through his veins, sending shocks of pain into every fucking nerve ending he has, and quite frankly, Danny’s just doing his best to stay conscious right now. 

He can actively feel his organs melting and coming up his throat in the form of pure ectoplasmic goop and it’s. Not a pleasant experience. His tummy hurts, but he’s being very brave about it.

All in all, he’d give his current situation a solid 2 out of 10. Would not recommend.

Jason lands a particularly hard hit and sends Vlad flying straight through a concrete wall. 

Full stop. The wall was whole a moment ago, and now there’s a gaping, Vlad-shaped hole. 

Danny’s just at the right angle to watch Vlad slump to the floor in an ungraceful heap.

Holy shit . If Danny wasn’t actively coughing up a lung, he’d be rolling on the floor, pissing himself, because Vlad’s face is priceless . He wishes he had a camera. He’d frame the picture and put it in his throne room, stuffy old Observants be damned.

Jason doesn’t give Vlad time to recover and body-slams into the guy at top speed. Danny can hear the air wooshing out of the man’s lungs from here and a few cracks as his ribcage struggles against the force of a pissed-off, 200-pound, brick shithouse of a man.

Danny's officially raising his score to a solid 10 out of 10. This is the best day of his life. He gets front-row seats to Vlad getting the snot beat out of him by a guy whose core developed 3 whole days ago and it’s glorious .

Jason’s moved onto systematically pile-driving Vlad's face into the ground, when Danny’s chest gives a violet jerk and suddenly he can’t breathe. He bangs his hand on the nearest loud thing to get Jason’s attention, and wheezes, “ Help ”.

Danny's organs are melting at an alarming rate, and he might, possibly, just a little bit , be dying for the second time.

Jason turns back to Vlad, flames growing so bright Danny has to look away. 

"What the fuck did you do to him?"

Vlad makes a pathetic wheezing sound. Kinda like a squeaky toy, Danny thinks deliriously. 

"...blood blossoms."

"What the hell are those?"

"Ghost poison… Nervous system… Organs melting… Destabilizing."

Danny starts to laugh, but the movement is too much, and he collapses back onto the floor. Ha, ha. He's deathly allergic to flowers. That's so funny.

Jason's voice is cutting out, and that's weird. Danny's pretty sure they aren't using the Fenton Phones. There are spots in his vision though, so maybe Danny’s the one with a bad connection. To like, the world. 

"Where - antidote? - Dying - motherfucker."

A gunshot goes off. That's probably bad. Danny should get up. There are people he has to protect. For reasons.

Danny’s vision is starting to go dark around the edges, and whoah , when did Jason learn duplication? There’s two of him sliding to a stop beside Danny and saying things he can’t understand over the ringing in his ears. 

That’s super cool of him though. Helping Danny out. Though he wishes Jason didn’t look so panicked. He can do something about that though, he’s a whole hero and heroes don’t let people look panicked.

Danny uses the last of his fading strength to pat Jason on the arm. 

“Good Knight,” He wheezes, and everything goes dark.

+  OMAKE  +

Shit, fuck. Jason’s arms are full of unconscious teenager and he doesn’t know how to make a portal- wait. The Fenton lab. 

The lab that’s actively being destroyed by Jazz, Tucker, and Sam. 

If he can get there fast enough to stop them from destroying it, he can get Danny into the Zone, and back to the medbay in his lair.

Guess it’s time to see how fast he can fly.

Chapter Text

Danny's only vaguely aware of the next few hours. He feels strong arms carrying him while the wind ruffles his hair, hears shouting and the sound of the portal whirring to life, feels the rush of cold-safe-welcome from his lair, and then the strong arms disappear and he watches through half-lidded eyes as he sinks through green. 

Jason, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz are watching him with worried expressions, and he wants to tell them that he's okay, there's nothing to worry about, don't look at him like that; but his eyes slip closed and he lets himself fall into unconscious.

. . . .

Danny wakes slowly. He's comfortable, but decidedly not in a bed. 

He tries to move his arm to rub the sleep out of his eyes, but it moves slower than it's supposed to. Like it's being held back by something.

A lab table with metal restraints pops into his mind and Danny's eyes fly open. 

He's in? Green soda? 

He's in some kind of tube with green liquid -and really? He may not need to breathe anymore, but drowning is so not cool- with little bubbles floating slowly up all around him.

Okay , this might not be the strangest situation Danny’s ever found himself in, but it’s seriously weird.

Jason's face appears on the other side of the glass, and then the tube is draining. 

What the fuck?

Danny looks past Jason, searching for any sign of what the hell is going on. The first thing he notices is a truly impressive blanket pile splayed out on the floor. 

Danny wants to lay in that. So bad.

Behind the veritable nest is a very familiar medical bed in green and white. Fuck, he’s in the retrofitted clone pod for (marinating) healing serious ghost injuries. What did he do this time to end up in the Med Bay? Danny thought he was over his stage of injuring himself bad enough to get souped.

Wait, Vlad. Discount Vampire kidnapped and almost killed Danny all-the-way-dead. Jason must have dragged Danny here.

Right, cool cool cool. Danny doesn’t have time to unpack all of that, so he focuses back on his predicament.

The ectoplasm drains away and the door opens with a truly sci-fi-worthy hiss. Danny’s lifted gently out of the tube, and promptly burritoed into the blanket nest by Jason. Sam and Tucker huddle in around him.

It should be gross, considering he’d been covered in ectoplasm for who knows how long, but his skin absorbs the excess energy, leaving him dry, and a little tingly.

Which is all very nice, really, but Danny has questions . "What happened?"

Sam starts talking without hesitation, looking gleeful to be the one to fill Danny in. Oh, joy. He's in for a good one if Sam's taking point on the explanation.

"The Justice League raided the GIW because an anonymous hacker," she glances at Tucker who winks at Danny, "gave them proof that the GIW was performing inhumane experimentation on ecto-entities, and should’ve been protected under the Meta Rights Act.” 

Oh great . That’s not going to have consequences for Danny. Nope, not at all. It’s not like he’s the king of said ecto-entities and might potentially have to explain that his species exists to the world. The species that’s been a well-kept secret until the Guys Imitating Weasles started sticking their guns into the Ghost Zone’s business.

Sam continues to talk, “Then, the US government tried to claim that they never funded the GIW, but the whole thing was leaked to the press, so there was a huge scandal about secret government organizations classifying metas as 'non-sentient beings' as an excuse to commit genocide."

"About damn time they caught onto that." Jason huffs, shooting Danny a sideways glance, “Sorry about not being on top of that earlier. I didn’t realize the GIW was still a problem.”

Danny waves his hand dismissively. From what Danny had gathered, the guy was a little busy being hulk-ified by the rabies of ectoplasm after he was rudely brought back to life, via ecto-cesspool.

"Also,” Sam continues, “The president did a press conference in hopes of assuaging the protesters, and signed a ton of shit to hopefully smooth relations between the Earth and the Zone to prevent a war they almost started. But given that they committed multiple crimes against your species, they’re kinda shitting bricks right now." 

Sam grins fiercely. Danny has the feeling that the American government isn’t gonna be making that mistake again in the future if Sam has anything to say about it. And she does. She has a lot to say about it.

"Oh! And the Justice League's been assigned the primary mediator between the Ghost Zone and Earth. That way the King -whose identity was conveniently left out- wouldn't have to meet with the disbanded group that paid people to cut him open."

That's. A lot, holy shit.

"How long was I out??"

"Three days, Tucker helpfully supplies, “We all thought you’d die again.”

Shit, now that he’s looking, Danny can see the bags under their eyes, the disheveled hair, and the slumped shoulders. He really didn’t mean to scare them like that, but he knows from experience that if he tries to apologize, they’re just gonna give him the ‘Shut up, it wasn’t your fault someone tried to un-alive you’ speech.

"And when you’re stable enough to go the Fuckers of Justice League for the peace meeting, I’m coming with you.” Jason states, “No objections. I reserve the right to scare the shit out of them."

Speaking of scaring the shit out of people… Danny’s suddenly aware of a missing presence.

“Okay, Okay. Sure. You’re coming with,” Danny agrees absentmindedly, looking around, and yup, there’s the tell-tale Gotham University jacket. But there’s no overprotective big sister to be seen.

“Also, Jazz is going to kill you. She’s been waiting for you to be awake so she can knock you back out.”
Fuck.

. . . .

Dani arrives 20 minutes after the lecture of Danny’s life.

Jazz’s ability to both reprimand, but also fuss at the same time is truly astounding and one of the reasons Danny fears her. By the look in Jason’s eye, he understands too. Jazz is just too powerful.

Dani breaks the awkward tension in the kitchen by coming in through the wall, and stealing a stress-baked cookie from the horrifying amounts of trays lining the counters. She takes a bite, and looks Danny over, unimpressed by the state of the bloody shirt and ripped-to-shit jeans he hasn’t had the chance to change out of yet.

“Hey, looser. Heard you got gooped.”

Fuck, Danny’s missed her.

“Just so you know, that the Marination Pod is mine. I called dibs.”

She squawks indignantly when Danny tackle-hugs her, but notably doesn’t push him off, so Danny takes that as permission to dangle bonelessly off of her as she finishes her cookie in one unhumanly large bite. Danny can feel her jaw unhinge a little from his position, but he’s unbothered by her show of eldritch-ness.

To be fair, he’s not much better, himself.

Danny can hear Jazz asking about Dani’s travels, and Jason being introduced, but he’s suddenly really sleepy now that he’s bodily slumped onto a person he trusts. It’s a method used often by Team Phantom. If you trap Danny with affection, there’s a pretty good chance that he’s sleep deprived to drift off.

“Hey, goop boy is passing out on me.” Dani calls out, only to be met with a chorus of good-natured laughs and groans.

“He slept for 3 whole days .” Tucker complains, “How is he still tired??” 

“I don’t know if unconsciousness caused by severe injury counts as sleep.” Jason snarks, but by the tone, Danny can tell that the man is smiling.

“Hey, the eyes are closed, the brain is quiet …probably. I don’t science, but it checks out.”

“No, Sam.” Jazz sounds exasperated but fond, “Sleep is a 5 part cycle. Without that cycle, there’s no actual rest.”

“Okay, but the body heals during sleep right?”

“And Danny got healed! So there!” The chest Danny has his face smushed against vibrates with Dani’s exclamation and he snuggles closer to her core, responding with a purr.

“All four of you are messing with me right now. I refuse to believe you’re all that stupid.”

“You’ve got the brain cell, Jazz. Them’s the rules.”

Danny loves listening to his family bicker, but he’s so sleepy. The sleepiest. He’s just gonna rest his eyes for a few minutes. Just a moment, really. He’s got things to do. Ghost king things. And he’ll get to them, he swears. Just… in a minute.

+ OMAKE   +

Dani seems like a nice kid. A little snarky and sometimes Jason has to look away because she’s an almost replica of Danny, but the long hair, differences in costume, and general mannerisms make him feel like he’s watching an old 3D movie without red-blue glasses.

An overlay that makes you dizzy if you stare at it for too long.

“So you used Vlad’s portal to get Danny here, right?” Dani asks abruptly, “I’ve always thought it was kinda slimy feeling. Did you get that too?”

“Vlad’s what now ?”

Sam, Tucker, and Jazz wince in unison. Oh, Jason’s so having a talk with them later about important information being shared ASAP.

“His portal? Shaped like the Fenton’s? Sitting in his creepy underground lab?”

Jason distinctly remembers a creepy lab but he was a little too preoccupied at the time with saving Danny to go poking around.

“You're telling me.” Jason says slowly, “That I didn't have to crash course a power I've used exactly once, that I got 3 whole days ago, to fly across state lines with an actively melting teenager? I could have just turned on some dickhead’s illegal interdimensional portal and saved hours of time, energy, and stress?”

Dani looks a little uncomfortable, rubbing the back of her neck like Danny does when he’s nervous. But she catches onto the fact that Jason’s not looking at her, and turns.

Sam, Jazz, and Tucker are a little pale. 

Her face splits into a grin reminiscent of the one Jason sees on his youngest siblings when they know someone’s about to get it. “Yup!”

Tucker gives Jason puppy eyes and a sheepish smile, “Hey, now you know how fast you can go.”

Sam elbows him, but it’s too late. Jason has plans. Sweet, sweet, revenge plotting. So many things to choose from, he’ll have to make lists. 

“You have five seconds.” He tells them gravely.

They scatter.

Chapter Text

Jason walks into the kitchen just in time to watch Danny scoop a spoonful of instant coffee grounds into his mouth.

A whole-ass spoonful. And he chews it. 

“What the hell.” 

Danny glances up, takes in Jason’s appalled expression, and shrugs. “It can’t be worse than what’s already in my body. I'm basically radioactive.”

And that’s… technically true, but goddammit , Jason just wanted eggs. Not to watch crimes against coffee happen right in front of his breakfast.

Dani darts around him, spots the coffee grounds Danny’s eating directly out of and grins. “Score!” To Jason’s abject horror, she steals the container and shovels an even bigger scoop into her mouth.

Jason is. Not prepared for these shenanigans at 7:30 in the morning.

He’s watched Tim pour Monster and Five Hour energy into straight espresso and this is somehow worse. He grew up with Dick Grayson but he’s never seen someone with this much sheer audacity.

Jason should make his eggs and leave. He should make up some random task that he Absolutely Has To Do At This Exact Moment. But the siblings are now pouring water into the grounds and pulling out a brand of cereal Dick would love -ungodly sugary- and finds himself rooted to the spot. It’s like watching a trainwreck and being unable to look away.

Jason knows where this is going. He’s seen this done before. 

Pulling out his phone, Jason snaps a picture of Danny pouring coffee into his cereal and sends it to Tim. 

DiscountMafiaBoss (Jason) : CrimesAgainstCoffee.jpeg Is this your long-lost twin or something?

. . . .

Tim’s having a very normal morning. The normal-ist morning he’s had in months. 

He got 5 hours of consecutive sleep, woke up when his alarm went off instead of sleeping right through it due to pure exhaustion, and has only needed 3 cups of coffee to feel like a regular, functioning member of society.

His morning is normal, and Tim is suspicious.

He’s sitting at the breakfast table when his phone goes off. Normally, he wouldn’t dare check it at Alfred’s table, but that’s the sound he assigned to Jason, and Tim is on edge, so he slides it out of his pocket and promptly almost drops it.

“ What the fuck .” He whispers, staring at the image in sheer dread.

Damien shoots him a glare, and leans over to see what’s worth Tim looking at to risk Alfred’s wrath.

The bite of eggs his little brother had taken is now across the table, and Damian is coughing violently. Alfred and Bruce have frozen, staring at their youngest like they’ve never seen him before.

Alfred recovers first, swiftly making his way to Damian’s side. “Are you alright, Master Damian?”

The gremlin ignores Alfred entirely, an alarming action with how much he seems to preen under the grandfatherly man’s attention, in favor of staring at the image on Tim’s screen.

“Who sent you this and where are they?” He demands, face more stricken than Tim’s ever seen, and he once caught the kid burying a little orange kitten he found on patrol.

Tim decidedly doesn’t know what to do with this level of emotional vulnerability.

“Uh, Jason? He’s in the Infinite Realms with the guy who saved us from those occultists.”

Damian lunges for Tim’s phone.

. . . .

Jason sent the text as a joke. He’d like that to be on record. 

So when his phone rings, he sends it to voicemail. The phone rings again. Jason stares at it for a moment, shrugs, and sends that to voicemail too. Tim knows how to push a call through if he really needs something.

A few seconds later, the phone buzzes.

RedTrafficLight (Tim): Todd, Is that boy’s name Daniel? 

Oh great, the Demon Brat stole Tim’s phone again.

DiscountMafiaBoss (Jason): Why?

RedTrafficLight : Don’t play coy with me, Todd. This is a serious matter.

Jason frowns, he’s not sure what’s got the baby bat’s feather’s so ruffled, but he can ask if the brat’s so insistent.

“Hey Danny, my little brother is asking if your name is Daniel?”

“Oh eww, full name.”

“Yeah, really doesn’t fit you. Is it cool if I tell him though?”

Danny looks contemplative for exactly 3 seconds before he shrugs. “Eh, sure.” He busies himself with his cereal again.

DiscountMafiaBoss : Yeah, why?

RedTrafficLight : That’s Daniel Al Ghul. My twin brother.

Jason blinks uncomprehendingly at his phone. No. No fucking way.

He scrambles to pull up a picture of the Demon Brat, swiping furiously until he finds one with a full facial view. Damian is scowling, which is no surprise, but when he holds the phone up and compares the Brat’s face with Danny’s…

Fuck . Jason honestly never would’ve connected the dots. The twins both have a specific range of expressions that they use, and it’s a perfect opposite.

“Oh my God, you look like Damian.” Jason blurts out, still reeling.

Danny’s head turns around, faster and further than it should be able to. He looks startled, like a deer caught in the headlights, and Jason knows. Jason knows this little shit is about to look him in the face and lie.

“Who?”

Jason flips his phone screen around to reveal a scowling Damian. 

Danny stares at it for a long moment, tracing every line in Damian’s face. He slides off his chair in a daze, and Jason lets him take the phone to look more closely at the image.

“He’s alive?” He whispers, voice breaking. Jason can see tears gathering in his eyes.

Dammit , it’s not even 8 AM. Jason hasn’t even had breakfast yet. He’s not prepared for emotions.

Danny looks up from the phone with the biggest, saddest puppy dog eyes Jason’s ever seen. Jesus Christ, this shit could be weaponized.

“You called him your brother?” 

“Yeah, he lives with B. Won’t shut up about being the blood son.” Jason absently tracks the movement of Dani and Jazz approaching to look over Danny’s shoulder at the picture. 

“He escaped the League of Assassins?” Danny whispers like it’s forbidden to say out loud.

Jazz gasps, her hands coming up to her mouth, while Dani scrutinizes the photo with intensity.

Jason ignores them, focusing on Danny as he hums his assent. “Talia dumped him on the doorstep when he was 10.”

“And he’s safe?”

“I mean… He’s a Robin. But the family babies him, so he’s as safe as he can be while parkouring around the city in a traffic light cosplay.” Jason decidedly doesn’t think about his stunt as said traffic light cosplayer. His time in booty shorts doesn’t need to be spoken about.

Danny laughs -a wet, broken thing- but he’s smiling, and Jason tries not to make his sigh of relief too obvious. “I-I’m glad.”

The kid looks back down at the photo, and abruptly drops to the ground, sobbing and holding the phone close to his chest. 

Shit, fuck , Jason isn’t prepared for crying teenagers.

Luckily, Jazz comes to the rescue, scooping Danny into her arms and pulling him in close. 

“I didn’t- when I left he was so- I didn’t know if-“ Danny chokes, letting out a heartbreaking sob.

Jazz shushes him, and dammit , Jason can’t just stand here any longer. He kneels and places a comforting hand on Danny’s back, rubbing gently as the teenager cries. 

It’s only a few minutes before he regains his composure, taking the tissues and glass of water pressed into his hands by Sam and Tucker -when did they get here- and cleans himself up.

“What’s going on?” Sam asks cautiously, clearly curious but trying not to send Danny into another breakdown.

“I have a twin.”

“Uh, yeah? You and Dani joke about that all the time.” Tucker says, and Dani nods, a little furrow between her eyes.

“No, like. An actual twin. One that was born with me. I grew up with him for the first 8 years of my life before-“ He cuts off, eyes focusing on something none of them can see.

Jazz is the one to draw Danny back out of his head, “I thought you didn’t remember what happened to you before living with us. Or that you were a runaway from an abusive home.”

Danny chuckles, “Oh yeah, cause I was about to tell a family full of civilians that I was raised to be the Head of the League of Assassins, an international group of mercenaries trained in the art of espionage and murder. Great way to fit right into the role of 'moderately traumatized kid'. Especially as an assumed immigrant with no papers.”

Everyone speaks at once.

“What the fuck.”

“International murder ?!”

“League of Assassins?”

Danny sighs.

It turns out that the twins were on a mission with bad intel and when Danny wasn’t able to compensate -Jason has almost kicked it because of bad intel and Danny was a fucking baby , what the hell- Danny was dealt a fatal blow. Talia, though a harsh figure in the boys' lives, loved her sons and was willing to betray the League for them. 

So she let Ra’s confirm the body, and prepare to get rid of it before she snuck Danny away and plopped him into the Lazarus pit.

Danny woke up in the middle of bum fuck nowhere, Illinois, with nothing but the clothes on his back and a confusing jumble of memories. The 8-year-old had picked a random direction to start walking. A few days later, he stumbled into Amity Park, and right into the path of a young Jazz Fenton who adopted him on the spot, refusing to take no for an answer.

Since Danny left the League as early as he did, he didn’t get the memo about Batman being his father. So he laid low in Amity, hiding from his past that slowly came back to him via nightmares.

Danny has suspicious that Clockwork may have meddled a little, but no one but the God of Time could prove anything, and Clockwork sure wasn’t about to spill his secrets.

“Do you want to talk to him?” Dani asks, voice uncertain.

“I- No. Yes? Maybe? Not yet. I need to deal with the American Government and the Justice League first. I have a duty to my people, and I- I don’t think I’m ready to see him yet.”

“Okay, that’s fine.” Jazz soothes, “You can reach out when you’re ready.”

“Damain probably needs to cool off and process, anyway.” Jason remarks off-handedly, thinking of the massive tantrum Damain was probably throwing.

Jason doesn’t pity his family right now.

Chapter Text

Jazz fusses with Danny's crown, much to his annoyance. 

He's a Big King, he doesn't need his sister to dress him.

Heedless of his pouting, she gives him one last look-over, and pulls him into a hug. "Call me if anything happens. I swear to god I'll punch Superman in the face" 

From Danny's view over Jazz's shoulder, he spots a blush making its way across Jason’s cheeks. Sam sends the man a grin and pretends to swoon, unbothered by the playful shove she gets in return.

Danny rolls his eyes, "It's a Peace Treaty Jazz. Emphasis on the peace."

“More like a, “sorry we let the US government dissect you and then were super rude to your face, please don't kill us-treaty.” Tucker mutters with a grimace.

“It was vivisection, actually.” Jason corrects, absently, “I was dissected, but Danny was still alive.”

“Only technically.” Dani and Danny quip at the same time. They turn to each other, matching shit-eating grins on their faces. 

Danny’s eternally grateful that Dani is discovering parts of herself that don’t involve the things she was programmed to mimic. Watching her grow into her own person is amazing, but every so often, they’ll share a brain cell and it fills Danny’s chest with warmth.

Jazz sighs loudly, "Okay, enough with the death jokes. Danny, use your Fenton phone if anything happens. Even if it's Batman, I use the Creep Stick indeterminately."

Jason’s expression somehow softens even further. Danny cannot watch this any longer. He has places to be that are not here at this exact moment.

“Stop flirting before my interdimensional treaty meeting!”

“Danny-” Jazz cries, scandalized, face as red as her hair an distinctly not looking at Jason, but Danny doesn’t let her start.

“We’re leaving now!”

Danny swirls his hand into the air, grabs the fabric of the universe, and pulls . A green portal opens in front of him, guided by him stretching the edges until the swirling ectoplasm is big enough for Jason’s Ghost form to fit. 

A ring of light surrounds Jason’s body, fading to reveal an inverted version of his Red Hood costume plus the medieval knight aspects, that looks cool, yeah, but gives Jason away as a massive nerd.

The two of them take a deep breath, share a meaningful look, and step through the portal.

The room they enter is much more impressive than the room Danny met the Justice League for the first time.

There’s a wall of monitors, flicking through images Danny doesn’t have time to investigate. His attention catches for a moment on 3 large tubes with metal doors obscuring what’s inside. 

Danny tries very hard not to think about the Ghost Zone portal and his unfortunate demise. This is the Justice League. They have access to some of the most technologically advanced stuff on the planet. Whoever designed whatever those tubes are, probably wasn’t negligent enough to put the ‘on’ button inside.

What he really wants to look at though, are the large windows of the surrounding sky and oh Ancients, that’s earth. He’s in space. On a space station. Surrounded by stars. This is an observation deck.

 It takes considerable effort to tear his eyes from the view, but he has Important Things to talk about, so he directects his attention to the center of the room.

A long table seats what Danny thinks might be most of the Justice League. He spots Superman right away, along with Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Nightwing. Danny smiles faintly at Shazam, who waves back with a grin. He’s always liked the guy and it’s nice to see a friendly face.

There’s other heroes he vaguely recognizes, but he really doesn’t want to take a headcount. Public speaking was never his strong suit and he’d rather not know how many people he’s gonna be talking in front of. 

Danny glances at Jason for reassurance, but his Knight’s gaze is firmly locked on Batman. Oh, whoops. Did they tell the Bats about Jason’s rise to knighthood? Tucker set up cell connection with the Living Realm as soon as Danny knew he had a lair, so they could have sent the guy a text.

…or not. Jason’s complicated relationship with his family is his problem.

A guy in a trenchcoat catches Danny’s attention. He’s not someone that Danny recognizes even a little bit, but something about him feels… familiar.

“Greetings your majesty,” Green Lantern stands with a respectful nod of his head, “You can call me Hal. I speak on behalf of the Justice League-“

Danny tunes the man out immediately. He’s heard this song and dance way too many times and it never gets more interesting.

He’s got better things to ponder. Like why something about Trenchcoat feels like it’s reaching out to Danny. The problem is, Danny’s pretty sure he’s never seen this guy in his entire existence. 

“I understand that the previous experience you had with the Justice League was not a good one-“

He’s got a pretty good recall of faces but Trenchcoat isn’t ringing a bell, so it's gotta be something else. There’s a hint of magic that lingers whenever he moves, like a particularly sentient after-image, so he’s definitely not an ordinary human.

“We formally apologize for-“

Maybe it's the guy's signature? Though Danny’s having a hard time placing it, Trenchcoat’s soul is in the worst shape Danny’s ever seen…

"We are ready and willing to do whatever we can to-"

Holy fuck, his soul.

"Oh my god, you're Tax Evasion Man!" Danny exclaims, totally interrupting Hal’s formal apology, but Danny’s so excited that he doesn’t even notice.

In the sudden silence of the room, Danny can hear Jason facepalming.

Tax Evasion blinks, an expression of pure bewilderment and a bit of exasperation on his face. 

Danny's very familiar with that expression. He seems to bring it out in people.

"…pardon?"

"We've been trying to reach you about your soul's extended tax fraud," Danny says gleefully, snapping his fingers to summon the list of soul fragments and their current owners. It’s a very long scroll. Comically long. The end of it hits the floor and rolls toward the gathered heroes.

Constantine just stares at him, gobsmacked.

"You’ve done so much soul prostitution." Danny continues, “Like so much. The Observants have it out for you. They have an entire room full of paperwork for you when you die. I hope you like sorting!"

“You owe part of your soul to King Shark ?” Flash exclaims, horrified from where he has the end of the scroll in his hands.

“I forgot an anniversary. That’s not the point here.”

The Flash looks like he very much thinks that’s the point here, but Constantine speaks over him.

"What exactly are the Observants?"

"Ghost government workers.” Danny says, tucking his feet up and sitting cross-legged, midair. “Like the afterlife IRS. They suck and I do my best to annoy them as much as possible."

Jason sighs audibly. “Do you, or do you not, know how to be formal?” He murmurs under his breath.

Danny smirks at him.

"The public would be very interested in a ghost society.” Superman says thoughtfully, “It would put many people's minds at ease if they knew where their loved ones went after-.”

"Nope, no. Gonna stop you right there.” Danny waves his hands as if batting away the words, “Part of this treaty? A large part, actually, is that you keep quiet. The last thing we need is more people digging around in our biology looking for "everlasting life" or trying to blow holes into the Zone.”

Shizam’s goes wide-eyed at that, and Danny holds back a snort. If only they- oh shit they probably pulled the GIW records. They did know. Danny doesn't have the energy to unpack that situation, so he plows on before any questions can be asked.

“Plus, not everyone who dies becomes a resident of the Realms. I don't need every amateur ghost hunter in the world trying to break in looking for their dead grandma or moment of glory on TikTok.”

Is that last bit a little harsh? Maybe, But it’s true and gets the point across. The Zone is dangerous, even for powerful ghosts. An unprepared human poking their noses into it recreationally wouldn’t make it 5 minutes. If a ghost didn’t go after them for trespassing in their haunt, the atmosphere’s toxicity to other beings could be detrimental to their health. 

There’s a reason that the older Fentons built the Spectator Speeder and practically used their hazmat suits as a second skin.

Not to mention the political mess it would cause. 

The moment the government passed the anti-acto acts, was the moment when they opened up the real possibility of going to war. And when they began to hunt his race for the purpose of dissecting ‘non-scient beings’? 

Danny's not really an eye-for-an-eye guy, but he sure would love the right to exist without fearing for his existence.

“That’s acceptable,” Batman confirms, “We’ll keep whatever knowledge you’re willing to give us in highly encrypted files located only on the Watchtower.” 

Danny’s shoulders relax a fraction. For all the trouble the Justice League caused him, at least Batman seems to be on his side.

One less guy for Jazz to hit with the Creep Stick.

“Great! I'm not one to stand on formalities for too long, so just to be clear, you guys destroyed the GIW and got the Anti-Ecto acts repealed. Thank you for that. In exchange for your assistance, I’ve gotten my council to agree not to raze this reality in revenge for the wrongdoings against my people. Capiche? Sweet!"

There’s more than a few sighs of relief from the assembled heroes. Danny feels a little bad. He didn’t actually want to lead an undead army onto earth, most of the population didn’t even now his people existed, much less that were being stripped of their rights and experimented on. But he hadn't really gotten the chance to say that last time, and well. Results are results.

“Our signal to Amity Park was restored the day after the GIW disbanded,” Wonder Woman informs him, “Which means we’re now able to receive requests for support if you need it.” 

“Yeah,” Shazam adds in, rubbing the back of his neck with a sympathetic smile, “We’re sorry you had to do everything on your own.”

Danny always knew Shazam was cool.

“Is there anything we can do to support you now?” Batman asks, attention mostly on Jason, who glowers.

Danny hums consideringly. When he was first moonlighting as a vigilante, figuring out his powers, he would have taken any help available. Good or bad. But he’s gotten significantly more powerful since then and trusting what's essentially a super powered militia is not something he’s particularly comfortable with.

“If there’s a problem, I'm probably already on top of it, but I have a group that I could ask about becoming a sort of ambassador team that could be called in case of an emergency on your end.”

“What would constitute an emergency?”

“Anything involved with the Infinite Realms. You have an issue with a ghost? I’ll be there ASAP. If there’s a world-ending threat you’re having a hard time managing, I’m alright with being a last resort. I sorta like haunting this planet, would hate to see it blown up.”

“And who will we be contacting?” Green Lantern asks.

Danny glances at Jason, who gives him a nod. 

“This is my Fright Knight, though you might know him better as the Red Hood.”

Jason gives a little wave, but Danny’s attention is on Batman, whose gaze is drilling a hole in the side of Jason’s helmet. Nope. No. Not Danny’ circus, not Danny’s monkeys. He will be minding his business on this one, thank you very much.

“He’ll be the main contact if you need to get ahold of me.” Danny glances pointedly at Tax Fraud Man, “Don’t try to summon me, I don’t know what books you have, but if you pull Pariah Dark out of the Sarcophagus of Eternal Sleep, so help me.”

Tax Fraud nods, looking suitably nervous. Good. Danny will lose his absolute shit if he has to shove that tyrannical asshole back into his containment coffin. Sure, Danny’s significantly more powerful than the last time he fought Pariah, but it was not a fun fight, and Danny’s not sure he can keep the ‘little to no deaths’ streak he has going if the guy has a chance to roam the Living Realm. 

Things would be so much easier if he could just banish the guy to the Nightmare Realm. Actually, Jason probably wouldn’t hesitate if Danny asked him to shoot someone. 

That’s a scary thought.

Danny claps his hands, gaining the attention of everyone in the room and clearing his head. “Great! So if all that’s agreeable, and you hold up your end of the deal, we’ll be good.”

“We can do that,” Batman agrees, nodding solemnly. 

Danny lets out a sigh of relief. Ancients, he’s glad that went well. Now he can go home and let the beanbags swallow him whole. He’s not coming out for at least a month. Danny deserves a month of video games and sleep. He’ll bite anyone that says otherwise.

A loud mechanical voice announces one of the cylindrical tubes beginning to glow. It’s gold, not green, and the light shoots out in radiant beams, not swirling like the portal Danny died in, but even still, it takes a moment for Danny to process what the words meant.

“Zeta B-04 Robin”

A figure emerges from the light, silhouetted by the gold. As the machine powers down, Danny recognizes a red, yellow, and green-clad figure, a cape flapping behind him, and then Robin is rushing Danny. 

Holy shit. He’s about to get attacked. Danny went to a peace treaty and is about to get attacked. By his own fucking brother.

Danny automatically scans for weapons, shifting into a fighting stance and watching the rapid approach with a wary eye. There’s a sword handle on Damian’s back, a katana, a belt of pouches of various sizes, holding who knows what, and Danny would bet that there’s sheathes in the armbands and boots. Dami isn’t reaching for any of them though. In fact, the way he moves is eerily similar to the 8 year old version of his twin that Danny last saw.

Short cropped hair, swept up and to the side, running with the speed and grace of one trained by the league, bronze skin in the same tone Danny’s was when he last saw-

“Robin, No!” Someone, maybe Batman yells, but he’s too late and the two teens collide with an audible oof.

There’s a moment while they just stare at each other, at a loss for words as they take in the differences caused by time and wildly different upbringings. 

Danny moves first, wrapping his arms around his twin, and tucking his face into Damian’s shoulder. 

Wow, Damian’s got some serious gains. If Danny wasn’t actively holding back tears, he would comment on it, but as is, it’s all he can do to breathe against his twin.

Dami stiffens for a moment, and then he’s returning the hug with just as much fervor, holding on with clenched fists like when they were little and had snuck into the other’s room in the quiet of the night, terrified for the day they would inevitably be seperated.

That day had come a lot sooner than either of them had expected.

“Brother.” Danny chokes out in a broken whisper, automatically reverting to League Dialect, and not particularly wanting to be understood by the heroes inevitably listening in.

“I thought you were dead.”

Danny laughs bitterly, “I am.”

The arms tighten around him, “Do not jest with me, brother.”

“Sorry, that was insensitive.”

Damian sniffs in disdain, but his grip doesn't loosen.

“I can’t believe you’re Robin.”

“Says the King of the Infinite Realms.”

Danny laughs, “I missed you.”

Damian doesn’t respond, but Danny doesn’t need him to. He knows the feeling is mutual.

. . . .

Jason’s shutter sound on his phone camera goes off, abruptly shattering the moment. 

Shit, he should have checked his volume. Well, too late now.

The twins turn in unison, matching glares on their faces. Well, damn. Maybe they do have one expression in common. Count Jason impressed.

“Quit the shining impression, I promised Jazz I would take a pic of the twins dramatic reunion”

Out of the corner of Jason’s eye, he watches Bruce go very, very still.

“Twins?” He asks, voice slipping dangerously out of Batman, and into Bruce The Emotionally Constipated Dad, territory.

Jason turns to him with a shit-eating grin. “What's wrong, B? You look like you've seen a ghost.”

+  OMAKE  +

Danny uses every ounce of teenage dramatics he has in him to flop onto his favorite beanbag, detransforming, and sighing loudly just to make his point.

“God, what a bunch of fruit loops.”

He’s so glad that’s over.

“That bad, huh?” Jazz asks, sounding equal parts amused and concerned. Danny tilts his head lazily, just in time to catch Jason shooting Jazz a reassuring smile.

Ick, they’re nauseating.

“It went fine. The treaty is in place and all that, Danny’s just being a little shit.” 

“Hey, I take offense to that.” Danny whines. He doesn’t. Danny’s dramatics are a finely honed skill and he wields them with precision and grace.

“Speaking of fruit loops, anyone seen Vlad recently?”

“Tucker, no.” Sam groans, “Speaking his name is taboo.”

“He’s probably hiding out planning something stupid, and now he’s gonna come crawling out of his vampire coffin just to annoy us.” Dani agrees, though she doesn’t seem too put out for a chance to acquaint an ecto blast with her creator’s face.

What a mood.

Jason clears his throat and suddenly seems very interested in the floor. “Totally unrelated, but hypothetically how would one go about uhh… fishing someone out of the nightmare dimension after they were hypothetically shot in the chest during a fit of rage?”

Danny perks up, suddenly interested, and Jazz drops her head in her hands. “Hypothetically, would that person be Vlad?”

“I’m not answering that without a lawyer.”

Sam grins looking absolutely delighted. Fuck, Danny knew introducing her to Jason was a bad idea. They get along like a house on fire.

“How long has he been in there?” Tucker asks.

“I think you know.”

Danny waves a hand flippantly, “He can wait, it's not urgent.”

“Danny.” Jazz chastises.

“What?! It's his own fault! If he didn't want to get stuck in Jason’s Soup Jail, he shouldn't have pumped Blood Blossoms into my bloodstream. That’s very impolite. He deserves a time-out.”

“The Nightmare Dimension is in no way shape or form like Soup Time.”

“How would you know?” Danny grumbles, “You've never been Souped.”

“What do you think he’s seeing?” Sam ponders gleefully.

“Maddie getting married to Jack over and over.” Dani replies without missing a beat. 

Ancients, Danny loves his mirror sister. 

Jazz’s lips twitch, “Maybe we can leave him in there a little longer.”