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Chapter Text

"Breaking news of a scientific sort tonight, as researchers in the arctic circle recorded an unprecedented discovery," the news reporter began. "A pristine and unfrozen lake in the middle of an icy glacier. One of the researchers, Dr. Carter said in his report, quote, 'it's unlike anything I've ever seen. The water is green, and almost glowing, like the northern lights in liquid form. We took samples, of course, but our tests have yet to yield definitive results on what causes the strange appearance,' end quote."

Batman was already flying north along with Red Robin and Green Arrow, both of whom insisted on coming along, thinking the same thing he had. Green water, liquid in the frozen arctic, and a mysterious substance the scientists couldn't identify? All signs pointed to this mysterious arctic lake being an undiscovered Lazarus Pit.

It was a simple matter to locate the Arctic researchers' facility, a beacon of bright orange against a white, white background. It wasn't a raid, and they weren't expecting a fight, so they simply walked right up to the front door and knocked. Several long moments later, the door opened.

"Batman?" asked a man with brown hair and horn-rimmed glasses. "Green Arrow? And... you I don't know..."

"I'm not a member of the Justice League," Red Robin told him amicably. "I'm Red Robin, I work with Batman in Gotham." 

"What are you all doing here?" he asked, ushering them inside, out of the cold.

"We're here about that lake you found in the glacier," Green Arrow said. "We think it may be something... bad," he finished lamely, knowing Batman would undoubtedly growl at him or something if he revealed too much information.

"Bad?" the scientist repeated. "How so?"

"We have reason to suspect that the water in the lake you found may possess magical properties, Dr. Lentz," Batman said. Of course he knew the names and faces of every scientist at this facility. He was Batman. "An enemy of the Justice League has used similar bodies of water for his own means and ends."

"We don't want to step on any toes here," Green Arrow assured her, "but for you and your team's safety, we think it's best if we step in and run some of our own tests."

"None of you touched the water, did you?" Red Robin asked. If any of the scientists were affected by pit madness, this could become problematic.

"Heavens no," Dr. Lentz assured them. "It was green and glowing, for all we knew it could be incredibly toxic, or acidic. We were very careful in collecting samples; none of that water touched anyone."

"Good," Batman said. "Well done, and be careful not to let the water come in contact with your skin while you study it. Could you point us to where exactly you found the lake so we might inspect it ourselves?"

"Of course," Dr. Lentz waked over to a nearby computer and opened up some sort of file or log report. "Here, I'm printing the coordinates for you. This is where you'll find the entrance to the cave which opens up into the glacier cavern where we found the lake."

"Thank you," Batman waited a moment for him to hand over the print-out. "Green Arrow, stay here in case any of Ra's al Ghul's agents come by for information. If this really is what we think it is, I'm sure he won't be far behind us."

"You got it," Green Arrow agreed. "You two go do your examinations and whatever, and I'll stay here on ninja watch." He turned around, but Batman and Red Robin were already gone, vanished without anyone noticing.

The glacier wasn't far, but once they landed the Batplane, they still had to walk through a long, winding tunnel, carved through the ice to get there. Luckily there were no forks in the path, or even they might have gotten lost in the monotonous, icy walls. When finally they reached the lake, Batman heard a sharp intake of breath from his partner.

The lake was definitely a Lazarus pit; they could tell just by looking, and what was more, it was the largest one they'd ever seen. Ra's al Ghul would definitely want to control it by any means necessary.

"B..." Red Robin said, staring into the waters with deep concern.

"I'll contact the Justice League and make sure a guard is posted around the researchers 24/7 until they return home," Batman said. "Who knows was Ra's could do with a pit this size. We can't let him get his hands on it."

"B."

"There must be some way we can safely destroy it," Batman continued. "I have some theories already, but I don't know how many have the potential to work on this scale."

"Batman!" Red Robin said louder. "You see the coffin down there, too right?" he asked, pointing through the translucent green waters at a metal coffin deep beneath them, wrapped in chains. "Someone was here before now, and they either had no idea what this was when they dumped a coffin inside, or they did know, and they threw it in a Lazarus Pit on purpose."

"That would be a cruel punishment," Batman said. "And a crueler mistake."

"We can't just leave it in there, right?" Red Robin asked. "Who knows how long whoever's in there has been stuck, getting drowned and resurrected by the same water over and over again... we can't leave it like this."

"I agree," Batman said. "We'll use our grappling lines to hook the coffin and pull it out. Stay back from the water."

Red Robin nodded, and they both pulled out their grappling guns and shot them into the lake. The water slowed their momentum some, but not so much that they didn't make it to the coffin in the bottom, and when their hooks were securely latched onto the chains wrapped around it, they both started retracting their lines, slowly pulling the box back up to the surface, and onto the icy shore.

They had to step further back as water leaked out of the coffin through tiny holes drilled in the sides.

"Why would someone drill holes like this in a coffin?" Red Robin asked, though he had some ideas.

"Look at the lid," Batman said, and they both read the writing etched into the metal there.

DO NOT OPEN, it said.

"Whoever put this coffin in the Lazarus Pit must have known what the waters would do," Batman concluded. "I imagine the holes were drilled to ensure the water would fill it." Red Robin didn't want to point out the possibility that they were air holes, and whoever was inside had been alive when they were trapped there.

"The question is... do we open it?" Red Robin asked instead. "Was this done to punish someone evil, or torture someone good?"

"Shh..." Batman said, crouching to hold his ear next to the holes in the side of the coffin. "I don't hear anything. You'd think they would be panicking, but I don't even hear breathing."

"Not... could they really be dead? But how?" Red Robin asked. "Is it possible the Lazarus Pit can only bring someone back from the dead so many times before they're gone for good?"

"That's one possibility," Batman said. "It's also possible there isn't a person inside at all. It could be an object or objects that someone was trying to get rid of."

"But then why drill holes in the coffin? And why would the objects be put in a coffin at all, why not a chest?"

"I don't know." Standing up, Batman pulled a device out of his utility belt and scanned the coffin. "Hm." 

Red Robin looked between his partner and the coffin curiously, waiting for Batman to elaborate. When he didn't, Red Robin was forced to ask.

"What?"

"The readings are... confused," Batman said finally. "Signs of life: inconclusive, it saus."

"Possibly because it was in the Lazarus Pit for so long?" suggested Red Robin, eyeing the coffin even more curiously. The thing just kept giving them more and more questions, and no answers at all.

"The coffin and chains are both made of tungsten steel, but they're coated with a substance I can't identify, and even more odd, my readings show that both are approximately three thousand years old, but tungsten steel wasn't invented until the 1860s."

"Plus, the writing is in English," Red Robin pointed out. "Modern English, which definitely hasn't been around for three thousand years. So what do we think? Time travel?"

"Are there any other possibilities?" Batman asked. "A three thousand year-old coffin made of two hundred year-old steel with contemporary writing on it? If there isn't time travel involved, I can't imagine what else it could be."

"I guess maybe it could've been rapidly aged with magic, but that's kinda just time travel with extra steps."

"It could have been transported here from another dimension where time progresses differently."

"But that's also just time travel with extra steps," Red Robin said. "So what now? Do we just open it? Take it to the rest of the Justice League for further study first?"

"We should at least have Flash and one of the Justice League's magic users take a look at it before we let out whatever's inside," Batman said. "They'd be the ones to ask about time travel. Now that we've confirmed it's a Lazarus pit, we should call for Justice League backup to keep the League of Assassins from gaining control of it."

"While you do that, I'll load the coffin into the Batplane's cargo hold."

By the following day, Black Canary, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter were in the arctic on guard duty while Batman and Red Robin were at the Hall of Justice getting a second opinion on the coffin.

"Well, I agree that this thing must've traveled through time somehow," Flash told them, looking at the readings he'd taken on the screen in front of him which showed the same information Batman's Scanner had the day before, "but I'm not picking up any speed force, or tachyon particles or... well... anything that you'd expect to find hanging around something that traveled through time. I can run tests all day, but I'm not sure how much that'll actually help."

"Thank you, Flash," Batman said. "Captain Marvel should be here any minute. He'll be able to tell if there's a magical element, and if neither of you can find anything, well..."

"We may have to crack it open and see what happens," Red Robin finished for him.

"Isn't that too risky?" Flash asked. "What if we end up letting loose some kind of monster?"

"We have no idea what's inside or who put it there," Red Robin said. "It's just as likely to be a monster as it is to be a hero who fell victim to their enemy's trap. We have to be prepared for anything."

There was a knock on the door and they all turned toward it sharply.

"Batman? You wanted to see me?"

"Captain Marvel, come in." As soon as the door swung open, Captain Marvel gasped. "What is it?"

"Whatever's in that coffin has magic coming off it in waves," Marvel answered. "It's so strong I'm surprised you guys can't feel it, even without magic."

"Is it dangerous?" Batman asked immediately. "Can you tell?"

"I mean, all magic can be dangerous, but this is... I don't even know how to describe it, maybe peaceful?" Captain Marvel shrugged, more a question than an answer. "It's like there's a sleeping god in there, a dormant volcano of magic. Powerful as it is though, I don't think it's malevolent."

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Red Robin asked. "Would you be able to tell if it was malevolent, even dormant?"

"Well, magic develops different vibes based on how it's used, I guess." Marvel expounded hesitantly, crafting his explanation in his head before speaking, and still not entirely sure how to explain it to those who couldn't feel magic at all. "Magic that's often used for violence will feel violent, even when it's not being used. If it mostly gets used for everyday tasks, it'll feel gentle and helpful. And if it's usually used to protect others, it'll feel... like this, actually, like a security blanket, or like someone telling you everything will be okay."

"So you believe whatever's in this coffin is likely a positive force?" Batman reiterated. "A protector or guardian of some kind."

"Protector or guardian, yes, but..." Marvel trailed off, thinking about how he should phrase himself. "Well... a person who protects something evil while it rampages is also a guardian, if that makes sense. Normally, a guardian is a positive force, but just like magic can be used for violence against evil and be ultimately good, protective magic can serve evil as well."

"And what about the fact that it's a three-thousand-year-old coffin made from two-hundred-year-old steel?" Red Robin asked. "I assume there's a magical explanation for that?"

"Probably," Marvel said. "But I don't really know anything about magical time manipulation. I know time can get a little wonky in areas with a lot of magic, but usually it moves slower, not faster. I would call the Justice League Dark about something like that if I were you."

"Aren't you the champion of magic?" Red Robin frowned.

"Champion, not expert," Marvel said. "Constantine would probably know."

Batman sighed. "I was hoping we wouldn't have to call him." But he called Constantine nonetheless, and a few hours later, after Flash, Red Robin, and Captain Marvel had all left, the grouchy Brit was shuffling through the Hall of Justice, grumbling about a hangover.

Constantine didn't bother to knock, just shoved open the door he sensed a ton of magic behind and grimaced when he felt it roll over him. "Bloody hell, what've you got in that old box, anyway?"

"We don't know," Batman said. "That's why we called you." Constantine stepped over to the coffin, grumbling at him.

"You just brought a strange magical box into the Hall of Justice with no idea what was inside? You bloody morons I can't—" he stopped abruptly. "Oh, it's a protector spirit."

"What's that mean?" asked Batman.

"Little known fact, but if you put a ghost in a final resting place—that's a coffin, or urn, or anything like that—they'll be forcibly put to rest," Constantine explained. "That is what's happened here."

"So you're saying there's a ghost in this coffin..."

"A bloody powerful one, too," Constantine added. "Maybe even a fuckin' Ancient from the magic coming off it. Where'd you find this thing, anyway?"

"At the bottom of a Lazarus Pit in the arctic," Batman answered.

"Musta come from the Realms, then."

"Explain."

Constantine pulled a box of cigarettes out of his pocket and immediately put it back when he felt the force of Batman's glare, scowling before he continued.

"Common theory about the Lazarus Pits—among those that make theories about magical shite instead of assuming it's beyond understanding—" he said, "is that they're a sort of runoff from a place called the Infinite Realms, which is a lot of things, but under the circumstances, all you need to know is it's where ghosts come from... sort of.

"There's also, obviously the souls of the dead element there, but the other vital ingredient is a substance called ectoplasm, and that's what the Infinite Realms is made of. It's what gives ghosts the power to exist, even though they're not alive, so ghosts who live in the Realms are more powerful than the ones that don't."

"And the Lazarus Pits are... runoff ectoplasm?"

"That's the theory anyway." Constantine shrugged. "Nasty, used up stuff, diluted and weak and tainted. That's why it makes people mad. Pure ectoplasm wouldn't do that."

"So... scale of one to ten, one being the weakest, where would you put the ghost in this coffin?" Batman asked.

"Ten, easily."

"And for comparison, where would you put Deadman?" Batman asked, since that was the only ghost he knew personally.

"If I'm bein' generous? Maybe a two, probably less."

"Do you believe this ghost is malevolent?"

"Definitely not," Constantine said. "Protector spirits are really uncommon, especially in the realm of the living, but ghosts aren't like humans. There's not so much grey area with 'em. The ectoplasm, it makes 'em obsessive. When a ghost's obsession is protection, it don't matter what it is, the ghost'll try to protect it. Good, evil, hero, villain, human, ghost. If you're not something people actively need protecting from, then you're under their protection."

"So you're saying it's safe to open?"

"Yeah," Constantine said. "I dunno why someone would've put 'em in a coffin. That's usually reserved as punishment for the worst of the worst in the Infinite Realms. The last ghost I know of to be punished like that was the previous ghost king, a tyrant called Pariah Dark. He was so powerful they had to get a specialized sarcophagus painted with his image in order to trap him, and they called it the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep."

"So it could be some kind of ghost criminal inside?"

"No, the writing's in English," Constantine disagreed. "Whatever ghost is in there, was put there by a human. If they were a ghost criminal, the words would be in ghost speak, or maybe Latin, and the coffin would be locked up somewhere securely in the Realms, not left floating around so it can end up in the ghost equivalent of a fuckin' sewer. The biggest worry if you open it is that the ghost'll be disoriented, and probably a little sick from all the disgustin' bloody runoff they've been stewing in for god knows how long." 

It wasn't until a few days later that Batman was able to assemble most of the Justice League's magic users in order to open the coffin, though Dr. Fate couldn't be bothered, apparently. They didn't want to risk not being able to fight back in case the ghost was so disoriented it started attacking them in its confusion, and Wonder Woman assured Batman that regular weapons would be useless against a ghost, and magic was the only thing that might have an affect.

"It reeks in here," complained Deadman. "I don't even breathe, and I can still smell it."

"It's because you can't breathe that you can smell it, Boston," Constantine told him. "If you weren't a ghost it wouldn't bother ya."

Once everyone was standing at the ready, Superman broke the chains, removing them from the coffin, and tore off the lid, which was screwed down tight. Instantaneously, the temperature in the room dropped until they could see their breath in front of them, and tendrils of ice creeped out of the coffin and spread across the floor. A cloud  of white vapors billowed from the coffin as if it was full of dry ice.

"It's... a kid..." Superman said, flying back away and landing on the ground as they all waited for whatever would come next.

They heard a young voice groan, and a white gloved hand reached out and and gripped the edge of the coffin. Another shot up and gripped the opposite edge. The Justice League held their breath as the ghost inside pulled itself up into a sitting position.

It was a boy, in his teens, with snow white hair, looking notably green in the face. He groaned again, and pushed himself further up until he began to float out of the coffin, and hovered a few feet above, wobbling slightly. He definitely looked more solid than Deadman, and unlike the other ghost, this one glowed faintly, even in the well-lit room, especially his eyes which were a bright Lazarus Green.

"Holy fucking hell!" Deadman said in alarm.

"What is it?" Zatanna asked. "Do you recognize him?"

"Do I recognize Phantom? King of the Infinite Realms?" Deadman practically shouted. "I've only seen his stained glass windows."

"Phantom?" Constantine repeated. "Tell me you're joking."

The kid groaned again and held out a hand to them like he was asking them to quiet down, rubbing his temple with the other hand. He gagged, and slapped a hand over his mouth. Then he keeled over and vomited watery green ooze into the coffin.

"Ugh, that's disgusting," the kid said, floating higher again. "I need like a thousand showers right now."

Deadman put his right hand over where his heart once was, and thumped it twice against his chest before bowing.

"Don't do that," the kid said.

"I thought you said the king was a tyrant who got locked away in a sarcophagus," Batman muttered to Constantine. "What exactly are we in for here?"

"Different king," Constantine whispered back. "Long story, but basically, Phantom defeated him in single combat and won the throne by right of conquest. Shortly after that, he disappeared, and no one's seen him in thousands of years. Phantom was famously a protector spirit, but I'd never've guessed it was him in that box of yours."

"So what'd'ya summon me for?" Phantom asked, words slurring slightly. "'M telling ya now, 'f you called the ghost king fo'world domination reasons, 's not gonna happen. I don't do that, and th'other guy retired."

"We didn't summon you," Captain Marvel said. "And we don't want world domination. Batman and Red Robin found your coffin in a Lazarus Pit and we just let you out."

"My what in a what? I don't have a—" Phantom looked down at the coffin he'd just risen out of and his expression turned sour. "Oh. That."

"Who trapped you in there?" Zatanna asked. "All the stories I've read say you were a beloved king, despite your short reign."

"More or less, I guess," Phantom said, smacking his lips. "It wasn't ghosts though, it was..." his expression darkened further and he cleared his throat awkwardly. "My parents put me in there."

"Your parents?" Wonder Woman echoed, and Batman clenched his teeth, privately horrified by the prospect. "Why would they do something like that?" He'd seen it more times than he cared to count, but that a parent could intentionally do horrible things to their child was still a concept he struggled to wrap his head around sometimes.

"Well, ghost hunters tend to do that kind of thing to ghosts," Phantom said, more casually than any of them liked, though from the way he spoke they could tell he was slowly becoming more coherent. "Anyway, what do you guys want as thanks for letting me out?"

"You don't have to thank us," Captain Marvel said. "It's what heroes do. You were in there for thousands of years, apparently. It would've been too mean to leave you in there any longer." Phantom froze.

"How long?" he asked.

"No one's seen or heard from you in about three thousand years," Deadman told him. "Not since a few months after you defeated Pariah Dark."

"No way... but... it can't be. Unless this building is a whole lot older than it looks... what year is it?"

"Two-thousand-twenty-two AD," Wonder Woman answered. "Though that might not mean anything to you."

"I'm from 2005," Phantom answered. "It's only been seventeen years."

"All the stories about you are thousands of years old," Zatanna told him, "legends and myths, at this point. You definitely weren't around here in 2005."

"Shit..." Phantom said. "Shit. Was I in the Ghost Zone, in this coffin?"

"Uhh..." only Superman had ever heard of a ghost zone.

"Why would you be in an intergalactic prison dimension?" Superman asked.

"What?" Phantom asked. "What are you talking about? What prison dimension? Was I in the Ghost Zone? You know, the Infinite Realms?"

"You must've been until you got carried out by ectoplasm runoff into a Lazarus Pit," Deadman told him.

"Ectoplasm runoff?" Phantom repeated with a grimace. "Ew, is that what all this gross shit is? Have I been bathing in sewer water for several thousand years? Did I say I need a thousand showers, I meant like a million showers, ASAP."

"I still don't understand how you could be gone for three thousand years if only seventeen years have passed," Superman said.

"The Infinite Realms is like the lining between dimensions," Phantom explained, flickering in and out of visibility as he tried in vain to shake the gross tainted ectoplasm off with intangibility. "In it, there are portals to various times and places. It connects to a theoretically infinite number of parallel worlds and universes and dimensions et cetera, not all of which progress through time at the same rate. I must have drifted into a different dimension.

"If I could find a way to return to my home dimension... three thousand years in the Ghost Zone would be... about two thousand years there, since time there progresses at about two thirds the rate as it does in the Realms." Phantom gave up trying to phase off the ectoplasm runoff, since it resisted his intangibility, and his shoulders sagged. "Even if I went home, everyone I ever knew would be dead."

"You could still return to the Infinite Realms," Batman pointed out. "Aren't you their king? Don't you have responsibilities there?"

"The Infinite Realms don't need a king," Phantom snapped back, pulling an irritated expression and waving a hand dismissively. "If I've said it once, I've said it a million times. Ghosts don't need a king. They managed perfectly well without one for ten thousand years before those stupid artifacts got pawned off on me, and apparently, they've been going strong for another three thousand years without me." Phantom floated down until he was only a few inches above the floor, and at eye level with most of the heroes, instead of above them.

"Besides," he said. "It's not like I can just go back to the Ghost Zone whenever I like. It's not that easy. I'd have to find a natural portal, and those aren't that common. In my home dimension, there was a stable man-made portal to and from the Ghost Zone, so it was easy, but I doubt you have one of those here."

"We might," Captain Marvel said.

"If you did, you would know," Phantom said. "For one thing, your ghosts would be a lot more powerful than he is," Danny said, gesturing toward Deadman. "Stable portals leak pure ectoplasm into the world, slowly but steadily, and ghosts are drawn to them, and draw power from them."

"We could make one," Batman suggested.

"You'd better fucking not!" Phantom scowled at him, eyes burning brighter in a stunning imitation of Batman's own glare. "Humans can't create a stable portal without sacrifice. In order to open it, someone has to stand inside and die without dying. It's a shitty experience I wouldn't condemn the scum of the Earth to, and one that makes the person an immensely powerful ghost, meaning that if they're a bad person when they go in, they're an obsessive villain with godlike powers when they come out and if they're a good person, they have to suffer a fate worse than death and that can change you. So no. Creating your own portal is not an option."

"I understand," Batman said. "I'm sorry for assuming. Is there no other way for you to get back?" Phantom sighed.

"With practice, I may be able to learn how to create my own portals into the Ghost Zone, but I don't know how to do that, so it could take me years, if not decades to figure it out on my own."

"You could stay here, then," Zatanna suggested. "My dad used to read me stories about you as a kid. There was a lot of contradiction, but one thing that always carried through every variation, was that Phantom is a hero. A protector of ghosts and humans alike. If you can't go home, either to your original dimension, or to the Infinite Realms, then I'm sure you'd be welcome in the Justice League, and if not, then I'm happy to extend an invitation to the Justice League Dark."

The assembled Leaguers looked at her in surprise. An invitation to the Justice League wasn't something you just handed out to a random teenagers minutes after meeting him. They barely knew this kid, and she was asking him to join them based on bedtime stories?

"I'm... honored?" Phantom said, cocking his head in confusion. "I think? I don't know what that means." 

"We are the Justice League," Superman said, choosing to trust Zatanna for the time being. She hadn't been lying, and she seemed to know more about Phantom, or at least his reputation than anyone else there. "A team of superheroes who protect the Earth and its people from anyone and anything that would threaten us. And the Justice League Dark is a specialized group within the Justice League that deals with magical threats."

"I'm part of both, depending on the situation," Zatanna said. "If you're not sure, you can join on a probationary basis."

"Well, I'm pretty sure I'm free for the foreseeable future," Phantom said, feigning thoughtfulness. "My teachers are all dead and in another dimension, so I guess I don't have homework to do, and I missed my best friend's birthday party by a couple thousand years, so sure. Why the hell not? I'm Phantom, by the way, but I guess you knew that. So what are your names?"

Chapter Text

It had been five months since the Justice League tore the lid off Danny's coffin, and he was still no closer to learning how to create portals. In fairness, he wasn't really trying that hard. Instead, he'd been working on developing his other powers. After countless hours of practice, he could maintain three stable duplicates for a decent amount of time, and use his ghostly wail without using so much energy he had to de-transform.

Since she'd been the one to invite him, Zatanna was the one who showed him the ropes. She was kind, a great teacher, and he learned a lot about the Justice League and this new world he found himself in from her. But he was also the hero in her childhood bedtime stories, and sometimes, she would ask something, or assume something, and Danny had to find a way to avoid the subject.

He wasn't the type to brag about his exploits.

Most of them, he'd honestly rather forget.

So when she asked him, "Is it true you've fought Ancients?" and didn't notice how his breath caught at the memory of his best friends strangled in vines, and his whole world choked by natural disasters, he laughed it off. And when she showed him the House of Mystery, headquarters of the Justice League Dark, assuming he'd be totally fine with all the magical artifacts inside, including a bloodstone just like the one Freakshow used against him, he ignored the way his body tensed, and moved on.

But at least Zatanna and the Justice League Dark knew enough about ghosts not to ask questions about his life. Black Canary probably thought she was helping him grieve or something when she asked about his family, but from the way she spoke, Danny could instantly tell she was a therapist, and he turned invisible to avoid that conversation. Not the most mature response, but he wasn't ready to talk about how waking up several thousand years in the future was affecting him yet, so what else was he supposed to do?

Still, it wasn't as bad as when Flash asked him how he died, and he had to explain, very patiently, that that was not a question you could ask a ghost if you didn't want to end up one yourself. Most ghosts were a lot less forgiving than he was.

For the time being, Danny had been haunting the Hall of Justice, although a few of the other members of the Justice League invited him to stay with them, instead of sleeping on a couch in the lounge, and Zatanna offered him a room in the House of Mystery, although he didn't like to spend much time there. Captain Marvel suggested he forge a secret identity and pick a city to live in and protect, rather than spending all his time with heroes.

"How's a ghost supposed to have a secret identity?" Danny had asked him, despite knowing full well that he could and had in the past, although he hadn't spent more than a few hours as Danny Fenton since emerging from that coffin. "Besides, I don't mind you guys all that much."

Mostly, he just didn't want to go back to balancing a double life again. Here, he could just be a hero, without having to deal with school, or his family, or a social life, and instead of missing those things, he told himself they'd always been annoyances, and he never needed or wanted them in the first place. It was easier that way. Jazz would say that was an unhealthy coping mechanism, or that denial was the first stage of grief.

Danny couldn't afford to grieve.

He had things to do, to keep him occupied. For a few weeks, the Justice League Dark had him tracking down a demon along with Zatanna and Constantine, ignoring their flirting while they all tried to stop the demon from making any more deals with unwitting humans. Danny thought that was a bit hypocritical, coming from Constantine, whose soul he could see was sold in several different parts, but it wasn't his place to say anything about that. He's always thought it would be rude to bring up what he saw in someone's soul. Come to think of it, Sam and Tucker didn't even know he could see souls. He'd just never brought it up.

When he finished a mission, and returned to the Hall of Justice, he could see the cameras watching. And although the footage would undoubtedly be somewhat corrupted, he would be damned if he'd let anyone watch him grieve. That was something to be done privately.

"I'm telling you, Danny," Captain Marvel said to him. "Some sunglasses, a change of clothes, no one could tell you weren't human."

"A secret identity sounds like a pain in the ass," Danny argued, not for the first time. "You don't have one."

"Who says?" Captain Marvel shot back, smirking. "My secret identity is so good even Batman doesn't know it." He was obviously very proud of that.

"Constantine and Zatanna don't have secret identities, and they do just fine," Danny pointed out. "Half the Justice League Dark don't, actually."

"Yeah, and they're on call with the Justice League 24/7 because of it," Marvel insisted. "If you ever want a day off, you've gotta have an alter ego."

"Or I could just ask for a day off."

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Marvel said, huffing in exasperation. "But even if you do ask, and even if Superman says it's okay, you'll still get called if there's an emergency, even if they're just fine without you; ask anyone. Trust me. You don't want Batman knowing where you are every hour of every day, and if you don't have a secret identity, he will. He's just like that."

"I'll think about it," Danny said, finally giving in, mostly so Marvel would leave him alone, although the world's mightiest mortal did make a decent point. Batman had been pretty overbearing ever since the beginning.

Danny had gone on an overseas stealth mission with the man once, since being able to turn invisible and move through walls made Danny super stealthy. Afterwards, Batman had checked him over for injuries, even though he was a ghost and human weapons couldn't hurt him, and then he offered Danny a bag of gummy fruit snacks from his utility belt, which obviously he accepted, though he did privately wonder why Batman even carried gummy fruit snacks.

"Sure you will, and you're totally not just trying to get me off your back about it." Marvel sighed. "Whatever. Are you coming to the big annual meeting this year?" he asked. "Where we vote on new members?"

"Probably not," Danny said. "Pretty sure I'm still a probationary member, technically. Plus, I don't know anyone on this planet besides people who are already in the Justice League."

"That's true," Marvel admitted. "In fact, we'll probably end up voting on whether to end your probation and make you an official member. Don't worry, Phantom, I'll definitely vote in favor." He winked at the ghost, and Danny smiled.

"You'd better, otherwise I'll haunt your ass," Marvel laughed at that. Of all the heroes, Danny got along with Captain Marvel the best. Marvel never asked intrusive questions, and he treated Danny like an equal, and not like a newbie or a little kid. "Although it doesn't make that much of a difference, since I'm already an official member of the Justice League Dark. Even if you vote me out, you won't get rid of me that easy." 

Danny didn't end up getting invited to the meeting, but he was curious, so he did end up secretly spying on the meeting. Just as Captain Marvel had assumed, one of the first orders of business was to vote on whether to end Phantom's probation and make him an official member of the Justice League. He'd earned their trust by that point, so although Black Canary brought up an argument that, though he'd been around for thousands of years, he was still fourteen, by all appearances, Captain Marvel and Zatanna stood up for him, and he was voted in almost unanimously.

They also voted to invite someone called Atom, who could shrink, and another guy called Captain Atom which wasn't going to be confusing at all. There was also someone called Supergirl that Superman had apparently nominated the last few years but they didn't think was mature enough to make the cut before, and another girl who went by the alias of Bumblebee. Lastly, they unanimously voted for a guy called Nightwing to be invited, although Batman warned that he'd most likely refuse the invitation.

There was going to be a press conference to introduce the new members the following weekend, but when they told Phantom his probation was over, he asked not to be inducted in front of the press, and after some consideration, they agreed. After all, he'd basically been a member for half a year already; plus his presence would mess with all the news cameras and there wouldn't be any clear footage of it, if he was there. The only thing his official membership granted him that he hadn't had before was entrance to the Watchtower, so he got it a little early.

His first day on the Watchtower he made a beeline for the widest window and didn't move an inch the whole day. Other members tried to talk to him, congratulate him on his official membership, but even when he responded to them, he rarely bothered to tear his eyes away from the galaxies before him. He didn't see the fond smiles of his now teammates when they saw the awed grin he couldn't wipe from his face.

He quickly switched to staying at the Watchtower at night, rather than the Hall of Justice, even though that meant he kept getting put on monitor duty. He watched the Justice League introduce their new members on TV while in space. He knew eventually they'd make him go on missions again, but for the time being, Danny got to hang out in outer space as much as he wanted, and he wanted to a lot.

When Superman finished his speech and handed the new League members their special membership cards, Supergirl, Bumblebee, Atom, and Captain Atom entered the Watchtower for the big celebration they always threw for new members. Apparently Nightwing had refused the invitation, just like Batman predicted, because Batman was always right.

"No new magic users this year," Captain Marvel observed while he and Danny hung around the snack table. "Granted, we hardly ever get new magic users, but it's kinda fun when we do 'cause they're always super excited to meet me."

"Hey, technically, I'm a magic user who joined this year," Danny pointed out. "Do I just not count because I'm not swooning all over the champion of magic?"

"There's a difference between not swooning over, and never heard of," Marvel said. "As much as you know about this world's magic, I'm basically just some guy to you." He grabbed a brownie off the snack table and ate more than half of it in once bite.

"Don't take it personally," Danny teased. "Most guys are just some guy to me."

"Not Martian Manhunter," he said through a mouthful of chocolate.

"He's literally a Martian!" Danny defended intensely. "From Mars. In space."

"Earth is also in space."

"Shut up, you know it's not the same thing," Danny crossed his arms. "I wanted to meet aliens my whole life, and now I know several, and they're awesome."

"You're making me jealous."

As he said that, Supergirl approached the snack table. "My ears are burning," she said. "Is somebody around here a big fan of aliens?"

"Totally!" Danny said. "I always wanted to be an astronaut, so being able to actually meet aliens now is a dream come true. You're from Krypton, right? Like Superman?"

"Yup," she said. "I'm his cousin, Supergirl."

"I'm Phantom," Danny introduced himself. "Do you have all the same powers as Superman, or do you have different powers?"

"I have all the same powers as Superman," she answered easily. "But if you wanna know a little secret, I can actually fly faster than him."

"That's awesome!" Danny said.

"Thank you," she said, and giggled a little bit. "So who are you here with? Are you Captain Marvel's sidekick?"

"What?" Danny quirked his eyebrows. "No way. I'm a member of the Justice League, and the Justice League Dark. Plus, I could totally kick Marvel's ass in a fight," he finished, jerking his thumb at his friend.

"Ha! You wish," Marvel disputed laughingly. "All I'd have to do is hit you with a little power of Zeus and you'd crumple like tissue paper. You couldn't even beat me at Mario Kart."

"Wait, you're a member?" she interrupted, looking between the two heroes with confusion. "But, you're like twelve... doesn't the Justice League have an age requirement?"

"First of all, I'm not twelve, I'm fourteen, and second of all, I'm not fourteen, I died when I was fourteen, and even though it's been, like, three thousand years since then, apparently, I don't look any older," Danny explained. "So yeah, I'm well above the age requirement."

"Although you spent most of that time in a steel box," Marvel mumbled.

"Shut up."

"What do you mean you died?" Supergirl asked in alarm, and thankfully that was when Superman stepped in to save Danny from having to answer any more awkward questions.

"Phantom here is the Justice League's resident ghost hero," he said diplomatically, placing a hand on his cousin's shoulder, both for comfort and as a warning. He'd been the one who nominated her, so if she did something out of line, it might come back to bite him as well as her. "He's been working with the League for a few months already, and he joined the Justice League Dark around the same time. He's a lot stronger than he looks."

"I don't look that weak, do I?"

"You do," Marvel assured him, resolutely maintaining a straight face. "You're like a little twig boy. A little baby man. You look like a strong wind could knock you unconscious."

"Were you dropped on your head a lot as a child?" Danny asked.

"Bold of you to assume I was ever a child," Marvel scoffed. "I came out of the womb like this, six feet tall and ripped, like one of those weirdly buff renaissance babies."

"Your poor mother," Danny said. "Ancients, please tell me you're making that up; that's just creepy."

"You're literally a ghost, but I'm creepy?"

"There's no way you're actually my superior..." Supergirl whispered, watching the two of them banter back and forth like children. "This is a joke, right?" Danny was taken aback by the barely restrained anger in her voice. "I've been trying to join the Justice League for years and they let a teenager in before me? Unbelievable!" She'd been so nice when she thought he was someone's young sidekick, but now he could see why the Justice League hadn't offered her membership sooner. She gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. "Excuse me," she said with forced politeness, and then turned and left, hands clenched into fists at her sides.

She wasn't the first though. Captain Atom asked him which of the Justice League members was his parent, and Bumblebee asked if he'd been a hero protege for very long or if he was new to it, and when he said he was a member, she laughed at him, thinking he was joking. Even more tactlessly, Atom just asked Captain Marvel why there was a kid on the Watchtower, didn't even address Danny himself, which was kind of annoying, although it was pretty funny to watch his brain stall when Marvel told him why Danny was there.

Despite the disrespect he got from the newer members, Danny didn't mind all that much. He was used to adults not taking him seriously, and it had never held him back from getting the job done before. Sure it was annoying, and sure it would have been nice if they took him more seriously, especially since he was technically their superior and all, but in the end, he didn't care all that much.

At least, he didn't care when they were laughing at him in the Watchtower. He didn't care when Atom talked down to him while they worked on reverse-engineering alien tech after some of the other Leaguers stopped an alien infiltration mission. He didn't care when he felt Supergirl glaring at him before she caught herself and swallowed back her frustration. He couldn't exactly blame her, anyway. Like she'd said, she'd been trying for years to join the Justice League, and Danny had only been in this universe for a few minutes before Zatanna offered him a spot based on his reputation alone. It was a valid frustration.

When he was on a mission to fight someone called Count Vertigo with Bumblebee and Green Arrow, and she threw herself in front of him when he was targeted by Vertigo's powers, then he cared. He watched her wing-beats slow as he spiraled to the ground, and he was pissed. No one was allowed to get hurt protecting him. That was backwards and wrong, and he felt his core burn.

Vertigo aimed another blast at him, but Danny wasn't having it. He felt his hair whip around his face as if blown by powerful winds. His teeth lengthened and sharpened into points, and his mouth opened impossibly wide to scream like a banshee. Vertigo's eyes widened and he stepped back in fear, his vertigo effect aborted before it came close to the ghost. Phantom's ghostly wail only lasted a few short seconds but Vertigo was already unconscious on the floor.

Green Arrow didn't move. He should have been cuffing Vertigo before he woke up, but instead, he was staring at Danny, hands still pressed hard over his hears. Realizing what had just happened, Danny reigned in his scarier traits, his body returning to normal, and sunk down to the floor to look after Bumblebee, who was groaning, but slowly pushing herself up into a sitting position.

"Phantom?" she said, when she saw who was kneeling over her.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Dizzy," she answered, clutching her head. "My ears are ringing. But I'll live."

"Good," he said, staring severely at her, not resting on the laurels of his relief. "Then never ever do that again, do you understand?" he told her, more forcefully than he normally would have, but with all the solemnity he could muster.

"Don't do what?"

"Sacrifice yourself to protect me," he said. "I know you think I'm a kid, but I can't abide those actions. I don't need protection."

"I get it," she said, but she didn't, and he knew she didn't, but he let her speak anyway, hoping that she did, and he wouldn't have to explain. "Because of how you look, you feel like you've got something to prove. As a black girl, I feel the same way, both as a hero, and as an aspiring scientist, always fighting not to be underestimated. But teammates protect each other."

"You don't get it," Danny refuted with a weary sigh. "I don't have anything to prove. I don't need protection because I am dead. No injury I sustain will be a fraction as serious as it would be to you. No villain attack is gonna threaten my life, because I don't have one." It wasn't entirely true, but she didn't need to know that; she needed to take his words seriously, just this once. "We were thirty feet in the air, and a fall from that height could have shattered your legs if you hadn't been able to slow your fall. I am a protector spirit. I protect everyone. I don't need protection."

"Even protector spirits should have someone watching their back," she argued. "I'm no ghost expert, but I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself if you got hurt."

"You don't get it!" Danny shouted, and he felt an inhuman growl bubble up deep in his chest. Bumblebee startled when she heard it and leaned away from him in alarm. He forced himself to continue as a lower volume. "I did get hurt. Ghosts are beings of emotion, so I feel emotional pain as strongly as you feel physical pain, if not more. Seeing you get hurt protecting me hurt me much more than getting hit by Vertigo and falling thirty feet would have.

"So in the future. Don't. Do. That. Understand?"

She nodded quickly, and he realized his fangs slipped out and his eyes were probably glowing solid green. No wonder she was starting to look scared. He closed his eyes and pressed his lips together, willing his appearance back to normal once more before he offered her a hand and helped her to her feet.

"You two alright?" Green Arrow asked, dragging a handcuffed and still unconscious Count Vertigo behind him. "You even had me spooked for a second there, Phantom, but I didn't see you get hit."

"I didn't, I'm fine," Danny told him. "And Bumblebee's gonna be okay soon, too," he assured. "I'm sorry for scaring you both."

"Hey, no worries," Green Arrow said. "You took down the bad guy, didn't you? It's all good." But Bumblebee was watching him nervously in the corner of her eye, and he couldn't really blame her.

When they got back to the Watchtower, Bumblebee immediately started avoiding him, and since Green Arrow agreed to spare the newbies and fill out the mission report himself, Danny decided he needed a break. He went back to the Zeta Tube and decided to head to Fawcett City, Captain Marvel's haunt, or his hometown, he guessed, and wander around for a while.

Marvel had told him a little bit about the place, but Danny had never actually been there before, and had no idea where to go or what to do. He should've invited the man to come with him and give him the tour, but he'd been so desperate for a break he hadn't thought to. Besides, he didn't think Captain Marvel would be able to ditch monitor duty just like that without getting a stern talking to from Batman, and no one deserved that.

Danny let the cold white rings of his transformation wash over him for the first time in weeks. The last time he'd turned into Danny Fenton was when he was practicing his ghostly wail, specifically testing how many times he could use it before he couldn't stay in Phantom form anymore.

Now, he reached into his pocket for a wallet he hadn't bothered to look at in months, to see if he had any money on him. Twelve dollars and sixty-seven cents. Enough for a burger and a pop, at least, depending on where he went, and the value of money in this universe, and—well, a whole slew of other variables, actually. Hopefully money was the same here as it was back in his own dimension.

Walking down the street, no one looked twice at Danny, just another teen in ripped jeans and a worn out T-shirt. Maybe Marvel was right about the secret identity thing. It was kinda nice to be a nobody for a little while.

He got himself some suitably greasy fast food and savored it. The food they served in the Justice League cafeteria was good, but he missed eating garbage with very little nutritional value.

Fawcett City was crowded and bustling, with a lot of foot-traffic, and Danny was content to wander, listening to the white noise of half-heard conversations and cars going by, blending in to the populace for a few hours before he had to deal with any more Justice League bullshit. Bumblebee hadn't been the first to do something like that.

The Justice League Dark either already knew, or quickly learned, not to, but the regular members were all self-sacrificing assholes, and since Danny didn't have his own base of operations, he'd often be deployed when another League member called for backup. Some of them learned. Some didn't. Batman still tried to protect Phantom, but not by risking himself anymore, thankfully. Superman still threw himself in front of danger to protect him all the time, which he hated, but at least Superman never really got hurt by it, so Danny could push through the horrible sensation in his core without too much trouble.

Flash was a bigger problem on that front. He healed quickly so he was less concerned about getting hurt, and he had this rule that no one was allowed to die, and Danny already being dead was a contradiction the speedster couldn't wrap his head around. No matter how many times Danny tried to stop him, Flash would still do any batshit crazy thing he could think of to keep Danny out of life-threatening situations, and more often than not, it left Danny with a throbbing ache in his core, struggling to hold back his ghostly nature. It got to the point where he asked not to be teamed up with Flash if he didn't need to be. 

That kind of think almost never happened with Sam and Tucker. Even before the three of them found out he was a protector spirit. They knew that they were the fragile humans, and he was the powerful undead hero. They all knew that he could take a hit much better than they could, and that his parents would be less likely to notice injuries than theirs, and that everyone expected him to get a little roughed up because of how much he got bullied, and so they let him. Jazz too, once she joined their little ghost hunting team.

That's not to say they didn't help him; no, they were hugely helpful to him, the perfect teammates. They backed him up from a distance. They helped him study and test his powers, and come up with plans. And they didn't jump in front of missiles to save him from Skulker, or flying crates to save him from the Box Ghost. The one time Tucker jumped in front of Fright Knight's sword sucked beyond words, but Tucker got a frantic, panicked lecture about it afterwards, and it never happened again.

The Justice League wasn't like that. It was like being on a whole team of Danny's, with no Sam and Tucker and Jazz, and it was... not ideal, to say the least.

Danny was so lost in thought as he ambled through Fawcett City Park that it took him an embarrassingly long time to notice people running away screaming in the opposite direction he was walking, and when he looked up, he saw why. A nightmarish lovecraftian horror of a monster the size of a capitol building was rampaging through the park. Tentacles as big as trains writhing around, snatching up anything they could get a grip on and slamming it down on the pavement, mostly benches and trees so far, but Danny spotted an old man in one of its tentacles arcing downwards, and shot forward like a bolt of light, transforming midair.

He reached the man mere feet before he went splat on the sidewalk, and phased him out of the tentacle, flying him to safety before returning to fight the monster. There were a lot more people on the streets than there were in the park, so ideally, he'd defeat the thing before it reached the sidewalk. He shot a ghost ray at it, experimentally, but it showed no response. His punch bounced right off, and his ghost stinger didn't even make it flinch. Dialing up the heat on his ghost ray didn't bother either so he decided to go the other way. When he shot a bit of ice at it?

The monster screeched in paint, flailed momentarily, and then all its tentacles stopped churning aimlessly and stretched toward him as one. Bad move. With all the tentacles converging on a single point, he let loose a huge wave of ice, his eyes glowing blue instead of green as he froze the monster's limbs together, and grabbed the icy spear that they'd become.

The question now, as the creature screeched and squealed but could no longer attack him, was how to get rid of it. Then, he noticed a magic circle painted around the pond. Perfect. Danny reversed gravity on the monster to carry it back to the pond it emerged from. He aimed a ghost ray at the paint, tracing the circle around the pond, and burning it up, channeling his own power through the sigils to reverse the spell, like Zatanna had taught him. 

When the monster was gone, Danny decided to split up and find its master, the magician who had summoned it. He was so drained from reversing the spell, and from everything that had happened, that he could only split himself into two, but that was enough. A few minutes later, his duplicate found a man panting heavily, running away from the scene with a magic staff in his hand, with the mark of the monster on his soul, and they converged on him. 

One tore the staff out of his hand and snapped it over his knee, the other held his arms and cuffed his hands together with ice. When it was over, Danny dropped the magician off at Belle Reve, all while he ranted and raved about how hard he'd worked to summon that monster and how all his plans, years of study and training and careful scheming, were ruined by a stupid teenager. Danny ignored him, sending his duplicate to drop the remains of the magic staff off at the House of Mystery before returning to the Watchtower.

He'd enjoyed his break, had a good time blowing off steam against a tentacle monster, but it was time to get back to work. A few minutes later, he heard Captain Marvel return through the zeta tube, along with Zatanna and Supergirl.

"Phantom!" Marvel called out when he saw Danny and flew over to him right away. "Did you beat that thing by yourself?" He grabbed Danny's hands and checked him over, looking for injuries.

"Uhh... yeah?" Danny answered, confused.

"As soon as I saw it on the monitor, I grabbed whoever was here and rushed down to Fawcett. It looked pretty nasty, but you don't look hurt... you're not hurt, right?"

"No, I'm fine," Danny said, but didn't fight it as Marvel flew circles around him just to be sure. "It was just some asshole with a magic staff and a dumb plan." It wasn't true, and he knew it. Judging by the power he'd sensed coming from the magic staff, and the power drain sending that creature back had on him, and the details he'd gotten about the magician's plans afterwards while he was flying the man to prison. He planned to summon thousands of those things, and that was a small one.

"If Phantom beat that thing by himself, then what did you even need me and Zatanna for?" Supergirl scoffed.

"Seems like maybe you were overreacting," agreed Captain Atom who was already in the common room when they got there. "No offense or anything, Phantom, it's great that you managed it on your own, but come on, after this many years, you'd think Marvel would be better at threat assessment."

Zatanna seemed a bit skeptical too, but Marvel was still looking at Danny like he thought he should be dying, but he wasn't.

"By the way, Zatanna," Danny said. "I broke that guy's magic staff, but I dropped the pieces off at the House of Mystery, if you wanna take a look, maybe catalogue it, or whatever you do with all those magic artifacts in there."

"Right, thanks."

A few days later, Zatanna, Constantine, and Captain Marvel, all asked him to meet them at the House of Mystery, and, begrudgingly, he did. He still didn't like being there. All the shelves full of spell books and artifacts made him uncomfortable, but he'd gotten used to it over time, more or less.

"Hey guys, what's this about?" he asked when he found the three of them in the parlor with the broken pieces of the magician's staff on the coffee table in front of them.

"We had a look at that bloke's staff you brought the other day," Constantine said, gesturing to the splintered wood pieces. "We've identified it as the Echidna Staff."

"Does that mean something?"

"Echidna was the mother of all monsters in Greek Mythology," Zatanna explained. "Her and her husband Typhon were created to destroy the gods, although they didn't succeed. The Echidna Staff is an enormously powerful magical artifact that can summon monsters from various other worlds, including the Infinite Realms. Even one monster is supposed to be powerful enough to kill a minor god, and some of the stronger ones can theoretically destroy whole worlds.

"Based on the information we have on the monster you fought in Fawcett City... well, basically, Marvel's threat assessment was completely correct," Zatanna concluded. "Even with mine and Supergirl's help, it would have been a tough fight against that monster, and... to be honest, the magician probably would have escaped to summon a lot worse."

"The two of 'em together mighta been able to send that monster back to where it came from, but it woulda taken a lot out of 'em," Constantine added. "Fact is, when it comes to raw magic power, you've got us all beat."

"I still think I could take you," Marvel mumbled, but Danny chose not to dignify that with a response.

"And as you know, sending something home is supposed to be easier than summoning something to Earth that doesn't belong here," Zatanna added. "Basically, if you hadn't been there, the world would be completely screwed right now. But you managed to end it in less than an hour."

"What can I say? That's the job, isn't it?" Danny shrugged, and drew his ankles up to sit cross-legged in the air. "We all save the world. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time."

"With the right amount of phenomenal cosmic power, yeah," Constantine scoffed. "Bloody hell, kid, there's humility, and then there's outright lies. You're seriously underselling yourself."

"If you gave yourself a little credit, maybe you'd be taken more seriously," Zatanna suggested gently.

"I don't really need to be taken seriously," he told her. "I'm used to it. Besides, attention generally hasn't suited me well in the past."

"Really? It doesn't bother you that you saved the whole world by yourself, and your own teammates laughed?" Marvel insisted. "You don't hate how much they underestimate you."

"No," Danny told him, almost eerily at ease with the situation. "It's a little annoying, maybe, but if they can laugh at the boogeyman, believe it's just a scary story, all it means is I've done a good job protecting them from it. And that's all I need anyway."

"You're saying their ignorance is a sign of your success?" Zatanna asked, sounding a little frustrated by his nonchalance, but reluctantly understating, though she didn't agree. 

"Basically," Danny agreed with another shrug. "You don't have to get angry on my behalf. Just trust me when I tell you that a few people underestimating me is still much better treatment than I got in my home dimension. I'd rather be looked down on than hunted for sport."

"Phantom, you know saying things like that doesn't make us feel better, right?" Marvel pointed out, rolling his eyes in exasperation. "Like, casually mentioning you used to get hunted for sport isn't giving us the warm fuzzies. We're very concerned about you."

"Don't tell me how to live my life," Danny snarked back, and just like that, he and Marvel were back to their usual, comfortable bantering and bickering. Danny much preferred it to the Captain Marvel who fretted over his friend, like he was afraid he might have expended so much power in that last fight he'd just disappear and never return.

Chapter Text

"Phantom." Batman appeared suddenly behind him, and he absolutely did not jump, no way. His knees did shoot up towards his chest where he floated, but that was totally unrelated. Another few months had passed since the incident in Fawcett City, and thankfully, the new members were finally starting to get used to him and begrudgingly accept him as an autonomous member of the League and not a communal sidekick.

"Uh... yes, Batman?" Danny asked, running back everything he'd done lately to try and figure out what Bats was about to lecture him about and coming up blank. Most of the Justice League Dark had been unconscious the past few days, fighting a dream demon—though it'd probably been months for them by now—leaving just him and Deadman to hold down the fort, so maybe it was about that. Apparently it was giving them more trouble than expected and Danny's core felt like it was cracking any time he saw one of his friends flinch in their sleep, but since they were all heavily warded against ghost possession, he couldn't jump in and help, so he'd gone up to the Watchtower to stargaze and try to relax.

That was where Batman found him.

"I need a favor," he said.

"What kind of favor?" Danny prompted when he didn't elaborate right away.

"Gotham has been having some ghost troubles lately," Batman explained. "A cult has been summoning spirits into the city, and my team isn't equipped to deal with them, but I understand that's your specialty."

"Yeah, I can help with that," Danny said. "I fought tons of ghosts back home, and even a couple of ghost summoning cults."

"I can take care of the cult," Batman assured, "I'm more concerned about the fact that the ghosts appear to be drawn to a few of my partners for some reason, and they aren't able to protect themselves because I haven't been able to provide them with the proper tools."

"So you need a babysitter," Danny reiterated. "No problem. I've been curious to meet your partners anyway. I've heard about them from some of the other Leaguers."

"They may not be very receptive to your presence," Batman admitted. "They don't like to be treated like they're immature, or incompetent, but I can't keep watching them get hurt, so given the circumstances I'm willing to have them angry at me for a while."

"I get it." Back home, he'd gotten that from his own teammates from time to time. Although Batman wasn't a ghost, he was obsessive like one sometimes. If he ever became a ghost, Danny didn't doubt he'd be looking at another protector spirit, just like him. "I've never been to Gotham before. Is it nice?"

"Not really." The answer surprised Danny, since the other heroes always talked up their cities so much, insisting that Central City, or Fawcett City, or Metropolis, or wherever was the best city in the whole country. "At least it's better than Metropolis." There it was.

They zeta'd down to Gotham right away, and before he even stepped out of the crusty phone booth that hid the zeta tube, Danny knew why Batman wasn't bragging like the other Leaguers.

"Ancients, this place is super cursed," Danny observed, as he stepped out into the alleyway.

"Hn." Batman pulled a tarp off something in the back of the alley, revealing a sleek, black, incredibly souped up car. "I'm not surprised." They climbed into the car, which he called the Batmobile, and he started driving, weaving through backstreets to avoid cameras.

"There's a runoff pool around here somewhere, right?" Danny asked. "Or, what'd you call it? A something pit? The whole city reeks of it."

"A Lazarus Pit, and no, there isn't a pit in Gotham," he said. "There is some especially corrupted... runoff, though, that saturates the ground through large sections of the city." 

"Well that's gotta have some fun and totally not devastating side-effects." Batman grunted again. Danny took that to be confirmation that his sarcasm was well warranted. "So where're we going?"

"The Batcave," he answered. "Base of operations for most of the Gotham vigilantes."

"Of course... the Batcave..." Was it weird that Batman put a 'bat' prefix in front of seemingly everything he owned? Not any weirder than a grown man dressing as a bat to fight crime. This world was already weird enough, so why not? "So why are you vigilantes in Gotham and heroes everywhere else?"

"Public opinion and local law."

"Ahh... yeah, that'd do it." Danny was plenty familiar with public opinion and local law and their combined influence on whether you were a good guy or a bad guy.

Eventually they reached the Batcave, and Danny followed Batman in, deciding last minute to turn invisible and pull a little prank on Batman's partners. They might throw ninja stars or something at him, but it would be worth it. As it turned out, the Batcave was pretty aptly named. It was just a huge cave full of bats... go figure. Along with the bats, there were tons of cool gadgets, a life-sized T-rex statue, an enormous penny, a two story tall joker playing card, and about a dozen teenagers in brightly colored costumes, as well as a young red-haired woman in a wheelchair. 

Danny eyed them all curiously. He could tell pretty clearly which ones the ghosts were attracted to and why, and he didn't like it one bit. Their souls... they were all older than they should have been, a bit like Jazz's was. Too much responsibility and too much suffering when they were too young would do that to a person.

"B, what's going on?" asked one with a blue bird across his chest. "Why'd you call us all here? I don't even live in Gotham anymore, and I don't work for you."

"Yeah," said one dressed mostly in red with a black cape and yellow holsters criss-crossing his chest. "Shouldn't we be focused on the cult problem, not having some emergency family meeting?" Family? Were they all related? Danny wondered.

"I'm supposed to be on patrol right now," said the one clad in black and yellow, with ears on his helmet. He jerked his chin toward Phantom, floating invisibly behind Batman. "And who's your friend?" The rest of them all turned to look at yellow in confusion.

"This is Phantom."

"You could see me?" Danny asked, popping back back into the visible spectrum while all the brightly colored teens took up fighting stances. "That's cool, I won't lie, but you totally ruined my prank."

"Uh, sorry?" said yellow, clearly confused.

"Phantom?" asked a girl in purple. "He's a member of the Justice League, right?"

"I'm also a member of the Justice League Dark," he confirmed. "Batman asked me to help out with the ghost problem you're up against." 

"We don't need your help," snarled a young man who's face was completely covered by a red helmet.

"Right, because you can touch and hurt and fight a ghost on your own," Danny said. "And you have effective ghost hunting weapons. And you know their weaknesses and how to trap or dispel them. I guess you're all good and I can go, then."

"He has a point, Hood," muttered blue bird guy, much to red helmet guy's obvious displeasure.

"Phantom has a lot of experience with fighting ghosts," Batman explained, "and knows a lot more about them than any of us do. I knew you wouldn't like it when I asked for his help, but with several of you being regularly attacked by enemies you can't touch..." his head turned to the shortest of the group, a boy with an 'R' on his chest, whose furious face was mottled with bruises that made him no less baby-faced and adorable. "It was time to call in an expert."

"Father, we can handle some angry spirits," insisted R, who spoke with an accent that was familiar, but he couldn't quite place. "We do not require a nanny." Got it! It was the same accent Sam's grandmother had, transatlantic or midatlantic... he couldn't remember what it was called exactly. Sam called it finishing school voice.

"Sounds to me like he's more like a supernatural bodyguard," said purple, crossing her arms over her chest. "Which we also don't need."

"This is not up for debate," Batman said. "If it helps, think of him as another ally, and let him watch your backs like you do for each other."

"Yeah," Danny agreed. "I'm good at watching people's backs, but could we start by telling me your names?" None of the teens seemed especially eager to do that, so blue bird guy sighed and gestured to himself.

"I'm Nightwing," he said (so this was Nightwing), "that's Oracle," he pointed to the woman in the wheelchair who waved vaguely, "that's Red Hood, and Red Robin," he said, pointing to red helmet guy, and then the guy with the yellow holsters. Next he pointed to purple and another girl in all black with ears on her cowl, which covered her entire face. "That's Batgirl and Orphan."

"Batgirl," the girl in black corrected.

"My bad, they're both Batgirl," Nightwing said. "And that's Signal," he pointed to yellow, then to R, "and Robin."

"So every time Batman said he works alone, that was bullshit, huh?" Danny observed, and most of them nodded, a few of them smirking for good measure. He would win them over. Slowly.

"If you're such a ghost expert, why are they attacking us?" Red Hood asked once the introductions were over. "And why only some of us?"

"Let me guess, you, Batgirl in black, and Robin, right?" They looked surprised that he guessed right away, but Batgirl in black nodded, confirming his suspicions. "Two main factors. Firstly, this city is so gross it's making them disoriented and violent, and second, the ectoplasm in your bodies draws them to you, which, I gotta say, it's not comforting to see that several of you have died before."

"Says the ghost," Red Hood scoffed.

"Hey, just 'cause I died young, doesn't mean I want other people to share my experiences," Danny said pointedly, frowning at him. "Even if you guys got brought back alive."

"How can you tell?" Robin asked. "How do you know we've died before?"

"Same way the other ghosts know." Danny shrugged. "I can sense the ectoplasm in your bodies, and it's gross, by the way, just like all the other ectoplasm in this city. It's no wonder its making the spirits that get summoned here so aggressive."

"What's ectoplasm?" asked the Batgirl in purple.

"It's what's in the Lazarus Pits," Red Robin answered, and it was then that Danny remembered Captain Marvel mentioning Red Robin had been one of the heroes who found his coffin, so it made sense that he would know. "That green water that Ra's uses to bring back the dead. That's why those three have some in their bodies."

"Exactly, but also not quite," Danny said. "The ectoplasm in the Lazarus Pits is runoff from the Ghost Zone, not pure ectoplasm, but tainted and nasty ectoplasm. It's corrupted, but it's the only ectoplasm around here, so the ghosts are absorbing it involuntarily and they're becoming corrupted."

"Is that gonna happen to you?" asked Red Hood.

"No, I have a built in ecto-filtrator." He let his transformation rings flicker around him, but didn't transform. He hadn't figured out why yet, but no matter what happened, whenever he transformed into Phantom, his ectoplasm was totally pure. Based on that knowledge, he learned that he could filter his own ectoplasm with the same rings he used to transform, whether or not he changed forms. "See? All good."

"So are we just going to sit in the cave and twiddle our thumbs while Phantom protects us?" Red Hood demanded. "That's bullshit! You can't bench me anymore, B! I don't work for you!"

"We're going to divide and conquer," Batman explained, stone faced. "The cult has been active mostly at dusk, which is why we're getting an early start. Nightwing, Batgirl and I will find the cult and stop them from summoning another ghost tonight. The rest of you will head somewhere with few people to limit civilian injuries, and draw the ghosts to you. Phantom will be in charge. Oracle will run point, as usual."

"Wait, why am I going with the ghost group?" Red Robin asked. "I'm not one of the ones they've been targeting. Also, I have experience with cults, I should be with you."

"Experience?" Nightwing scoffed, crossing his arms under the blue emblem on his chest. "You mean when you intentionally let yourself be captured and tortured?"

"I won, didn't I?" he pointed out indignantly. "I saved everyone!"

"You're going with Phantom," Batman said, leaving no room for argument. "Take a variety of weapons, see if you can find anything that affects the ghosts. While Batgirl, Robin, and Red Hood draw their attention, you will attempt to find a weakness we can use if we have to fight a similar enemy in the future while Phantom does the bulk of the fighting."

"You're using us as bait?" Robin complained furiously, and Red Hood looked equally pissed off at the prospect.

"Would you rather I take you off the field entirely?" Batman asked, and Robin bristled but didn't argue further.

"What about me?" Signal asked. "I'm the daytime hero, am I off the clock?"

"No. You're the only one who can see the enemy, even when they're invisible," Batman explained. "You'll go with them and keep an eye on the enemy, relaying their position as needed. Don't lose sight of them."

"Got it. Okay," Signal agreed.

"Phantom can't use comms because his voice just sounds like static," Batman added, "so he needs anyone who can use them to relate things back to Oracle and the rest of us. If we all understand the plan, let's get moving." Oracle immediately headed toward the huge computer behind them, while Batman, Nightwing, and Batgirl in purple headed toward the Batmobile, and the rest of them made their way toward a fleet of personalized motorcycles.

"Is Robin old enough to drive?" Danny asked when he noticed the youngest climbing onto a motorcycle of his own.

"No, but we're already breaking a bunch of laws just by being vigilantes in the first place," Red Robin answered with a shrug. "What's one more?"

"Fair enough," Danny agreed as they all started up their motorcycles, which were remarkably quiet, probably thanks to some state of the art Batman tech or something. "So where're we headed?"

"Open space, few people, I'm thinking Gotham Beach," Red Robin suggested.

"Gotham has a beach?" Signal asked.

"Yeah, but no one ever goes there because the weather around here's shit for a beach day," Red Hood said. "Plus, it stinks like dead fish with all the pollution in the water, and the sand is full of broken glass and sharp rocks."

"You've been?" Signal asked.

"I was dumb enough to take a date there once in high school," Red Hood admitted. "I didn't get another one."

"Tt. You wouldn't have gotten another one anyway," Robin scoffed.

"You little brat—" Red Hood cut himself off as they all emerged from the entrance to the cave and pulled to a stop in the middle of the road a few seconds later, all eyes turned to the sky. "What the hell..."

"What? What is it?" Danny asked. All the Gotham vigilantes were staring straight upwards, and he followed their gaze, looking for some kind of missile or flying monster, but there was nothing there, not even a cloud in the sky. "Uh... guys?"

"It's... sunny," Signal observed.

"Uh... I know you guys tend to go out at night, but you have seen the sun before, right?"

"Of course, but not in Gotham!" Red Robin said, sounding much more alarmed than Danny thought the situation warranted. "I've lived here my whole life and I don't remember the last time Gotham had clear skies."

"In the years I've lived here, I've never seen it," Robin agreed, and Batgirl in black nodded.

"It can't be that strange," Danny said. "You've gotta be kidding."

"In Gotham, the rainy season lasts ten months," Red Hood said. "The dry season is actually the foggy season. The pollution in the sky and the overcast weather is so reliable, that the city's primary method of contacting Batman is a huge-ass light in the shape of a bat, pointed at the clouds. People refer to a sunny day in Gotham the same way they refer to a cold day in Hell. We're not kidding. Fuck, I don't know if I've ever seen blue skies like this in Gotham."

"Is that a freaking Rainbow!?" Signal shouted, pointing over the trees where indeed, a very faint rainbow was visible. Red Robin pulled out his phone and wordlessly snapped several pictures of the weather phenomenon.

"Don't we have somewhere to go?" Danny asked, after watching the vigilantes gawk at the weather of all things for a solid minute, just basking in the clear skies. "There is something seriously wrong with this city."

"Yeah," Signal admitted. "Still better than Metropolis."

"Damn right!" Red Hood agreed enthusiastically. "It's a shithole, but I'd rather die again than have to live in Metropolis."

"Agreed." Robin was outwardly grimacing at the prospect.

"Totally," Red Robin said, "but anyway, we've gotta change the plan. Gotham Beach is gonna be completely crowded on a day like today."

"Let's head to the factory district." Red Hood suggested.

"Good idea," Red Robin agreed, revving his engine. "On a day like today, no one'll want to be stuck under the smog there, it'll be basically abandoned."

With that, they took off, heading southeast toward the factory district. Along the way, traffic was at a standstill, with people stopping just to get out of their cars and watch the sky, the sidewalks were crowded with people, in awe of literally just weather. Thankfully, they moved out of the way of the vigilantes' motorcycles like it was second nature to them, so they were able to keep moving, but it was still totally bizarre.

Danny heard one woman laughingly say, "I guess I owe Keith that date, after all." In the skyscrapers, people in business suits were pressed up against their windows.

As soon as they could, they turned down a side-street and switched to the lesser used roads to avoid the crowds, and still, the sidewalks were lined with people who stepped out of their homes and workplaces to watch the skies when there wasn't even anything interesting going on.

"This really is rare weather here, huh?" Danny realized, the fact finally sinking in as he saw how it completely disrupted the day for all these people.

"Yeah," Red Robin laughed. "I kinda wish we could take the day off. This is perfect date weather." Just then Red Robin's phone buzzed. "Speak of the devil," he said, smiling, and answered it, tapping the communicator in his ear to connect it to his phone. "Hey Bernard, I was just thinking about you."

"Bernard?" Danny asked Signal, who was closest to him.

"His boyfriend," Signal explained, and Danny nodded in understanding. That made sense. "They were in that torture cult together." That made less sense.

"I wish," Red Robin said, sounding legitimately regretful. "Unfortunately, I'm crazy busy right now. But I bet I can squirm out of my plans later tonight, maybe there'll even be stars!" Danny didn't feel the need to point out the light pollution in a city like this at night would mean the stars wouldn't be visible. No reason to ruin their good mood. "You too," Red Robin said. "I'll see you tonight." He tapped his earpiece again, hanging up.

"I'd make fun of you for instantly making a date as soon as the weather cleared up," Red Hood said, "but honestly, if I had a girlfriend right now, I would too."

"Same," Signal agreed, and Batgirl nodded.

It wasn't long before they reached the factory district, and just like they'd said, the streets were empty. No amount of good weather could change the amount of smog the factories pumped into the sky, so with the skies otherwise clear in Gotham for the first time in ages, there was no one to be seen. The pulled their bikes into an empty parking lot, and Red Robin started to set up his array of weapons for when the ghosts showed up.

"They will probably be here any minute, if the last few days is any indication" Robin said. "I'd set up quickly if I were you, Drake."

"I am setting up quickly, brat," Red Robin shot back, deftly assembling some kind of stun baton.

His statement was met with a quiet "tt" from Robin.

"What do these ghosts look like?" Danny asked, hoping he might know them, and even if he didn't, knowing their appearances might help him find their weaknesses.

"There's three so far," Red Hood said. "An abominable snow man that almost broke my arm, a plant monster that gave me and Batgirl some trouble before Ivy stepped in and got carried off, and the four-armed Amazon that roughed up Robin yesterday."

"We thought they were some kind of monsters, actually," Red Robin added, "Until yesterday, when the Amazon told us she was a ghost, then we put the pieces together about the rest of them."

"The yeti, did he have an arm made of ice, molded around bone?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, you know that ghost?" Red Robin asked.

"Did the plant monster call itself Undergrowth?" Batgirl nodded, tilting her head curiously. And the four-armed Amazon could only be one person. "Well that's not great..." Danny said. "This cult of yours isn't just summoning any ghosts, they're summoning Ancients."

"Explain yourself," Robin demanded.

Danny gave them the rundown of who the ancients were, and how powerful they were, trying to keep it light by not bringing up how surprised he was they hadn't been seriously injured already, because he always had a hard time when he fought ancients, especially undergrowth. Luckily, he knew all the Ancients at this point, and hopefully that would give their little group a leg up.

"I have an idea," Danny said, after he explained the situation. "It might not work, we only have a two thirds chance of getting past step one, but if there are three Ancients, all dealing with corrupted ectoplasm, there aren't too many ways I can deal with that and minimize collateral damage so—"

"Shut up," Red Hood interrupted, his arms crossed over his chest, and Danny could just tell he was rolling his eyes behind those white lenses in his mask. "Every plan we ever use is a long shot. Stop trying to justify whatever bullshit you just pulled out of your ass and tell us what it is already so we can tell you why it sucks."

"Okay, well, good news is, Frostbite, the yeti, and Pandora, the Amazon, are usually benevolent," Danny explained. "They're just not in their right minds because they've been stuck here stewing in runoff, but if we can somehow purify their ectoplasm, it should bring them back to their senses."

"What about the other ghost?" Batgirl asked.

"Undergrowth is... not benevolent to put it lightly... it doesn't usually leave the Ghost Zone because it hates humans. There is some more good news, though, because its weakness is ice, which both me and Frostbite can use, so beating it together shouldn't be too much trouble, even if it's taken a host."

"Host?" she echoed.

"Undergrowth becomes more powerful if he takes control of a human to be his plant queen, usually a woman, someone with an affinity for taking care of plant-life, a passion for protecting the environment, and a general dislike of human beings."

"You mean like Poison Ivy?" Signal asked.

"I don't know who that is, but probably?" Danny guessed. At least, if she was the first person they thought of, she probably fit the bill. "I'm hoping that if Frostbite or Pandora show up first, I can purify their ectoplasm the same way I do my own. We'd be in for a tough fight if Undergrowth showed up first, because corrupted ectoplasm or not it's still gonna attack us, and more so if its found a host, because if it has an appropriate host, Undergrowth can overshadow lots of people at once."

"Undergrowth kidnapped Poison Ivy yesterday," Red Hood said. "So how fucked are we?"

"Uh... that's... bad, but not the end of the world," Danny mentally altered his plan. Once he explained his last battle with Undergrowth, their course of action was clear. With the exception of some mild grumbling, none of them ended up telling him his plan sucked in the end, mostly because none of them could think of anything better. "Now if I can get a volunteer, I wanna test if I actually can purify someone else's ectoplasm. Red Hood? How about you first?"

"What exactly is this gonna do?" Red Hood asked, hesitant, but ultimately allowing Danny to place a hand on his chest.

"Maybe nothing," Danny said. "Or maybe it'll clear your head a little. You won't... see red so much."

"What the hell's that mean?" Danny let the rings appear, stretching them wider than he would for only himself, pushing them over Red Hood's body and his own. "Woah..." the vigilante breathed out.

"Did it work?" Danny asked, examining him. "Looks like it worked. How do you feel?"

"Uh... calmer?" Red Hood took a step back, shaking his head. "I think I get what you meant that it'd clear my head."

"Who's next?" Danny asked, and Batgirl stepped forward. The ectoplasm in her and Robin wasn't as bad. They must've taken a dip in it somewhere else. He took care of both of them quickly, with Batgirl saying only a thanks, and Robin insisting he didn't feel any different. "Pure ectoplasm will draw them even more, so be ready for—"

He was interrupted by his ghost sense, followed in short order by a thunderous roar and turned to see a familiar—if rabid-looking—yeti barrelling towards them. Red Robin readied his first weapon, Robin drew a sword from somewhere within the folds of his cape. Just before impact, Frostbite turned invisible.

"He's flanking you!" Signal shouted, just in time for Danny to turn and grab Frostbite by what felt like his horns before he felt claws digging into his sides.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, he held on tight and summoned the white rings to clear the haze of corruption from Frostbite's soul. When he did, the yeti became visible again, blinking away the brain fog.

"Great One?" he said, confused. "What happened?" He looked down to see his claws piercing Danny's side, green seeping out. "My word!" He let go and reached into the bag that hung across his chest and pulled out his special healing salve. "My deepest apologies, Great One," he said as he leaned forward and applied the salve, while Danny tried not to hiss from the sting. At least he knew it worked quickly. "I was not thinking clearly, and could not control myself. It's this place..."

"I know, Frostbite. It's okay. We're chill."

"Boo!" Red Hood called in complaint over his pun, and Danny laughed.

"That was... a lot easier than I thought it would be," Signal said, jumping down from his perch on top of the fence where he'd been watching.

"Would've been harder if I'd been gored by his horns," Danny laughed. "How can you see us when we're invisible, anyway? Even other ghosts can't do that."

"I'm a meta-human," Signal answered. "My powers are related to light and shadows. It's hard to explain. I see a sort of residue floating around you, whether you're visible or not."

"That's awesome!"

"Thanks."

"Anyway, there's one more problem I didn't mention." Holding back a smile at the horrified reactions of the others, Danny reached a hand into his chest and pulled out the Fenton Thermos. It was the first time since waking up in this dimension that he'd felt the need to pull it out. "This is the only thing I have that can trap a ghost. It can hold lots of normal ghosts at once, but I doubt it could hold more than one of the Ancients. Even bigger problem, though, is that we need to get them all back to the Ghost Zone as soon as possible, because they have realms to rule, but we don't have a ghost portal."

He was interrupted again by a mighty battle cry in the distance as his ghost sense went off again, and then the sound of metal crumpling. He felt like he remembered his ghost sense giving him a little more warning in the past. Maybe it was confused because of all the ambient runoff. They all turned to see Red Robin diving out of the way as Pandora slashed all their bikes in half with a single swipe of her mighty swords.

"Shit!" shouted Danny, dropping the thermos, and Red Robin tried ineffectively to taze her.

"The boy's sword!" Frostbite shouted.

"What about it?" Danny asked, bisecting himself at the torso with spectral body manipulation before Pandora's sword could do it for him. "Oh!" he swooped over and snatched Robin's sword, charging it with ectoplasm, like he did when he used the thermos, effectively making it a ghost sword, at least until the effect wore off. "Robin, take a stab at this!" Really, he tried to hand it back carefully, but he had to duck Pandora's fist at the same time, so he ended up chucking it at the kid instead. Thankfully, Robin caught it by the handle, and was quick to join the fray, grinning like the cat that caught the canary.

As it turned out, the kid was really good with that sword of his, and even though Pandora wielded two swords with two free hands to spare, he still managed to hold his own. While Robin kept her occupied, Danny was able to circle behind her and latch onto her back to force the white rings over her, purifying her ectoplasm as well.

She groaned and shook her head, not easing up the force with which she had Robin's sword locked under both of her own until, "Why in the Realms am I fighting a child?" she asked, letting her arms and swords fall to her sides, and he let go of her.

"Oh good, you're back to normal."

"Phantom!" she shouted, and sheathed her swords to wrap him in a four-armed bear hug. "I haven't seen you in millennia, my King!"

"Good to see you too, Pandora," he managed to say while the Amazon crushed him. Finally she let him go, and he gasped for air, not that he really needed it.

"You were a worthy opponent," Robin told her solemnly.

"I am honored, young one," she told him, kneeling in front of him and still towering above him. "I believe you were as well." He nodded, satisfied to be acknowledge by her, which was truly no small feat.

"Please tell me you remember where you were summoned and that the summoning circle is still intact?" Danny asked her.

"I remember where I was summoned to," Pandora confirmed, quickly catching on to the severity of the situation. "It was a round building on top of a hill. There was an enormous telescope like I'd never seen before."

"Gotham observatory," Red Robin recognized immediately. "It's usually empty because even though there's not much light pollution way out there, it's too cloudy to see the stars anyway, but I'll bet it's packed tonight."

"We'd better get there before dark, then," Signal said, looking pointedly at the ten foot tall ghostly warrior woman before him. "Too bad somebody trashed our rides."

"I am sorry for my behavior," Pandora said sheepishly. "I do not know what came over me. It was as if the land itself was ushering me to kill."

"Yeah, it'll do that," Danny said, picking up his thermos and phasing it back into his chest. "But this place isn't all bad. We still need a way to get to the observatory though."

"I have a car at one of my safe houses, but we'll have to take the bus to get there," Red Hood said. "There's a bus stop nearby, and the number seven is supposed to come..." he checked his watch, "two minutes from now, which means it'll be here in twenty minutes." Danny decided not to question why Red Hood apparently had the bus schedule memorized.

Grumbling and sighing, they all gathered anything important from their trashed bikes and went to the bus stop a block away, and two minutes later, the number seven bus came.

"What the hell?" Red Hood seemed unreasonably surprised when the bus stopped and the door opened. "I guess it really is a sunny day in Gotham when the buses run on time, huh Charlie?" he said to the bus driver, handing him a fifty for all of them.

"Beautiful weather we're having for once, huh?" the bus driver agreed. "Past few hours it's like traffic just opened right up in front of me, like magic."

"No kidding?"

Once they'd all found seats, the bus started moving again. There were only a few other people on the bus, and they didn't seem the slightest bit bothered by all the strange people that had just loaded on. Gotham really was a strange place that people left work in the middle of the day to see a blue sky, but didn't even bat an eye when a vigilante sat next to them on the bus. Between where they got on and where they got off a few blocks from Red Hood's safe house, they didn't have to make a single stop.

"Gotham public transportation has never run that smoothly," Red Hood said when they got off the bus.

"You use it a lot?" Signal asked.

"All the time," Red Hood said, "unless I'm in a hurry. Safe house is this way." Red Hood's car was a beat up blue Honda with only five seats, so the ghosts had to fly above it while they drove to the observatory, not that they minded.

Once it was in sight, Danny flew ahead, to see if the summoning circle was still there. Jackpot. They'd just left it there, in perfect condition, total working order. All he had to do was get Pandora back to it and use it in reverse. It would be a cinch. He flew back to tell them the news. Once they all arrived, it was a simple matter.

"Later, Pandora!" Danny wished cheerfully.

"Farewell, my king." She put her upper right fist over where her heart would be if she had one and thumped them twice against her chest and bowed, in the manner subjects of the Infinite Realms saluted their king. He channeled his power into the summoning circle, until it glowed bright green, and then Pandora vanished... along with the circle.

"I was afraid of that," Danny said.

"What happened?" asked Robin.

"The circles which summoned us here were highly specialized," Frostbite explained for him. "They have to be, in order to summon an Ancient and not some other ghost. The Great One must dismiss us using the same portals we were summoned through."

"Fantastic," Red Robin spat sarcastically, throwing his hands up in defeat. Thick vines broke through the floor and grabbed him and Batgirl. "Fantastic!" he complained again, just before undergrowth got its roots in him and overshadowed his mind, along with Batgirl's. Then Danny's ghost sense went off, blue mist billowing from his lips.

What good are you if you go off after the ghost shows up?" he griped. "At least this way Frostbite can help us fight Undergrowth." But the yeti shook his head.

"We Ancients have sworn an unimpeachable oath never to fight or harm each other. if we had not, we would not have been able to work together long enough to lock away Pariah Dark."

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me," Red Hood said, and Danny could empathize. Robin tried to slash one of the vines, but his sword passed right through and he had to dodge.

"Phantom!" Robin shouted, dodging vine after vine as they tried to corner him. "I require a recharge."

"You died, didn't you? You've got ectoplasm?" Danny said, freezing the vine that wrapped itself around his own body, trying to reach Robin to help but getting blocked at every turn. "You should be able to charge your sword with it yourself... in theory. Just focus on the weird, squishy energy inside you, summon it into one place, and then expel it into your sword."

"I do not know what any of that is supposed to mean!" Robin shouted, obviously irritated.

"Well I'm trying to reach you, but I'm too far away to do it, so just try!" Danny called to him. "Hood, you should be able to do something like that too, just focus it in your fists or something, and you'll be able to punch a ghost like normal."

"Right, I'll just follow your vague, stupid instructions!" Red Hood yelled back. He had the misfortune of having to fight his overshadowed allies. "I'll just reach out and grab these stupid vines using weird, squishy energy!"

"It's the same energy from the pit thing that brought you back from the dead!" Danny shouted at them, trying to get them to understand since while he was so occupied with root after vine, the only way he could protect them was if he could get them to work it out fast. "You know what that feels like!"

Red Hood managed to dodge past Red Robin and grab the vine that connected to the back of his neck. "Hey, that actually worked!" He ripped it apart, releasing Red Robin from Undergrowth's control.

Not one to be one-upped by his teammate (brother? Danny was pretty sure they were all siblings of some sort, maybe), Robin gritted his teeth and managed to pull it off as well, thank the Ancients, slashing the vine attacking him and rushing in to sever Batgirl's possession while she was fighting Red Hood. With them taken care of Danny was finally able to focus enough for a bigger attach. He hit the floor and froze the rest of the vines in a wave of ice without freezing his allies.

"You couldn't've done that earlier?" asked Red Hood.

"In an enclosed space, I could've frozen a lot more than just the vines if I wasn't careful," Danny explained. He didn't mention that he was too worried about them to focus. They wouldn't take it well.

"And Signal, what's your excuse?" Red Hood demanded of the teenager who was standing behind Frostbite, who hadn't been targeted by the vines at all. That was an 'unimpeachable oath' for you.

"I don't have any ectoplasm to fight a ghost with!" he defended. "I woulda just been controlled like Red and Batgirl! Besides, you looked like you had it covered. My job is just to watch out for invisible things today, remember?"

"He's right," Red Robin admitted, rubbing the back of his neck where the root attached. "Probably better he managed to stay out of it, actually."

"It's not over yet," Danny said, "but it will be. I just have to rip it up at the root." He pulled the Fenton Thermos out of his chest and flew through the wall to finish the job. Now that he was outside, and his allies were inside, and he knew all the right tricks, beating Undergrowth was much easier than the first time. He didn't recognize the green-skinned woman it had taken as a host, but assumed that it had to be the Poison Ivy person the others had told him about.

The battle finished quickly, and he trapped the diminished Lord of the Ghost Wilds in the Fenton Thermos while the other vigilantes tended to Poison Ivy and the surprisingly small number of civilians it had overshadowed. Undergrowth must have been too disoriented to enact a wide-scale takeover. Thankfully, no one seemed to be hurt, just confused.

Poison Ivy didn't even seem confused, actually, even though she was wearing leaves instead of clothes, and had just been psychically connected to a plant. Danny learned in short order that apparently, both those things were totally normal for her.

"Does anyone know where Undergrowth was summoned?" he asked.

"Thomas Wayne Memorial Park," Batgirl said. "Circle is a crime scene."

"That right," Signal remembered. "I saw it on patrol earlier. The whole area's cordoned off, so the police would've kept it intact. That means you can still use it, right?"

"That's ideal, actually," Danny said. "What about you, Frostbite? Do you remember where you were summoned?"

"It was much like the Far Frozen," Frostbite said, "but smaller. A tavern of sorts, covered in ice."

"The Iceberg Lounge," they all said at once. Obviously they knew it.

"Okay. Let's split up," Danny said, duplicating himself, and grinning when they all groaned at his pun.

"You're as bad as Nightwing," Red Robin groaned.

"Too bad I didn't get him on my team," Danny joked. "Red Hood, Robin, you guys go with Frostbite and my duplicate to the Iceberg Lounge, and send him back to the Far Frozen, the rest of us will take the thermos to the park and send back Undergrowth."

"I'll go with you to the Iceberg Lounge," Poison Ivy volunteered. "You'll need someone who's on the list or they won't let you in."

"Okay," Red Hood agreed. "But don't try to pull anything."

"Trust me, in this one case, and no other, our goals align," she said. "I don't want these monsters hanging around Gotham any more than you do."

"I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it Frostbite," Danny assured, patting his enormous friend on the shoulder. "Hopefully, everything will go smoothly and we'll meet Batman and the others back at the Batcave. I'm feeling pretty lucky today."

Despite Danny foolishly saying things would go smoothly, things actually did go pretty smoothly. The biggest issue was transportation, but with a little maneuvering, Danny was able to fly himself, Red Robin, Signal, and Batgirl to the park, with Red Robin pointing the way. It didn't take too much convincing for the police to let them into the crime scene at the park, surprisingly, since apparently Red Robin had told Oracle what they were doing, and Oracle had called ahead and explained the situation. Danny released Undergrowth from the thermos and sent him back to the Ghost Zone in under a minute, before he could do anything else, then Red Robin called to check in on the others.

Although thee bouncers didn't want to let vigilantes into the Iceberg Lounge, Poison Ivy and the eight foot tall yeti who filled the entire doorway and then some managed to convince them in the end, once Robin and Red Hood promised not to start anything. One of Penguin's goons was just about to mop away the summoning circle, but hadn't started yet, so after Frostbite complimented their decor, Danny's duplicate easily reversed the summoning and sent him home, and then they were on their way without any further trouble.

The sun had just set in the still-clear sky as they reached the Batcave at almost the same time, with Danny reabsorbing his duplicate before they went in. Reminiscing on how cool that mission had been, even though they'd almost died multiple times, the only injury had been Phantom accidentally getting mauled by the yeti, and that was already healed, thanks to Frostbite's salve. Robin, in particular, seemed very pleased with his swordsmanship.

"Welcome back guys," Oracle greeted. "The others just finished, and they're on their way back. Once they get here, you'll swap reports, and then go back to regular patrols."

"Not me," Red Robin said. "I'm gonna hit the showers. I've got a date tonight."

"Batgirls can cover," Batgirl said. "Patrol together, tonight."

"Sounds good," Oracle agreed, and Red Robin waved goodbye and left.

About fifteen minutes later, the Batmobile drove in and Batman, Batgirl in purple, and Nightwing stepped out.

"Hey Bats," Red Hood said, an audible smirk in his voice, even though his mask his his face. "Looks like we won."

"It wasn't a competition," Batman said. "Did you complete your objective?"

"Yup," Danny said. "All three ghosts have been dealt with. I used the summoning circles to un-summon them. As long as you dealt with the cult, you won't have to worry about it anymore."

"Where's Red Robin?" Batman asked.

"He went upstairs to get ready for his date," Signal said. "And as soon as we're done here, I'm hittin' the showers, too."

"Hn," Batman acknowledge before continuing. "There's a fourth ghost."

"What?" Red Hood asked. "But there were only three that attacked us, and Phantom said they were drawn to us. We never saw a fourth."

"We caught up to the cult at Gotham Clocktower as they were setting up a ritual to summon a ghost they called Clockwork about an hour and a half ago," Batman related to them.

"We didn't think they'd started yet, so we crashed the party," Nightwing took over. "There were a lot of them, but we managed to knock them all out after a bit."

"They weren't that tough," Batgirl in purple added.

"We thought we'd managed to stop them before they summoned another ghost, but there was this... thing," Nightwing told them. "It had to be a ghost, made of black ooze with needle-like teeth, and it breathed smog, and it showed up out of nowhere, wiped the summoning circle away, and disappeared."

"So we completed our mission, but you failed in yours?" Robin reiterated. "Pathetic. I expect better from you all."

"They didn't fail," Danny said. "I don't know what you saw, but it definitely wasn't Clockwork. I know, I've met him."

"So it was another ghost that even you don't know?" Signal asked.

"Yeahhh..." Danny said. "I think I'll stay in Gotham for a while, if that's alright with you."

"I'd appreciate that," Batman agreed.

Chapter Text

"Aw man! I thought we'd be done with ghosts after today," Duke moaned, and Jason couldn't really blame him after the evening they'd had. "No offense, dude, you're cool, but my eyes hurt from looking at you all today. Sun's down, I'm gonna shower and finish my homework. You guys have fun with the ooze monster on patrol."

"Fine," Bruce allowed, as if Signal hadn't been patrolling all day already and definitely didn't need his permission to take a break, "but be prepared for more ghost-related work tomorrow if we can't find and deal with it tonight." Duke sighed, and gave a weak salute before heading upstairs. "Phantom, do you have any thoughts about this ghost besides that it wasn't Clockwork?"

"It doesn't sound like any ghost I know personally... wait! Did it have horns, and, like, stars and stuff in its body, like the night sky?"

"No," Steph said. "It looked like a bit like tar with teeth." And that was a disgusting mental image. "Definitely no stars, and I didn't see any horns. Why?"

"I know a ghost called Nocturn that looks similar, but notably more starry and less toothy, another Ancient," Phantom said, because apparently he knew every ghost except this one. "If it's not them, then it's not any of the Ancients."

"That's a good thing, right?" Dick asked.

"Yes and no." Phantom wobbled his hand in a 'sort of' gesture. "The Ancients are the oldest and some of the most powerful ghosts in the Zone, but they're far from the only powerful ghosts in the Zone. The real concern is that there's a ghost here that your cult didn't summon."

"A problem that will soon be rectified," Robin stated, his sword shining faintly green with the new trick he'd learned. Admittedly, it was a cool trick, and Jason was pretty proud to have figured it out as well, but it was only effective against ghosts. Against a drug lord, or a mugger, all it would do was look flashy.

"Hold on here, let's not jump the gun... or the sword," Phantom said gently, pushing the edge of Damian's sword down before turning to the trio who'd fought the cultists. "Did this ghost hurt anyone? What exactly did it do?"

"It tripped a cultist and knocked him to the floor as he was coming towards us," Dick said. "But... come to think of it he wasn't hurt. All it really did was show up, wipe away the summoning circle, stain the floor, and disappear."

"Does that mean something?" asked Steph.

"Maybe..." Phantom rubbed his lower lip thoughtfully. The ghost considered it for a long moment, almost getting lost in thought before he waved a hand and said, "I'd have to meet the ghost in person to confirm anything."

"Understood." Bruce looked around at the rest of them. "Until we know more about this new ghost, all those who've been targeted by the other ghosts will patrol with a partner." Jason rolled his eyes behind his helmet. "Robin, stay close to me tonight, we'll start our patrol in Old Gotham and see if we can find any clues back at the clock tower. Batgirl—"

"Batgirls," said Cass, latching onto Steph's arm.

"We'll take Gotham Proper as usual, all the way up to Robbinsville tonight," Steph said. "Seeing as Red Robin made plans."

"Right. And Red Hood—"

"I am not patrolling with Dick," he interrupted. Jason had gotten onto better terms with Dick, but he still didn't want to be stuck on patrol with him all night. Especially when there were ghosts around, and he'd definitely try to get Jason to talk about his feelings about his own death. "I'll stick with Phantom and patrol the usual areas." At least Phantom didn't ask any personal questions.

"Fine," Batman said, accepting it, though the minuscule tightening in his lips indicated he would have preferred it the other way. Probably because he knew Nightwing would stop Jason from killing anyone, but he wasn't entirely sure if Phantom would. "Nightwing, I know you're probably eager to get back to Blüdhaven, but—"

"I can stick around for a few days, at least until we know the situation better," Dick agreed before Bruce even finished asking, the suck-up. "I'll take the north end of Gotham, just to cover all our bases, and keep an eye out for the tar with teeth. I know we'll all be busy with the usual stuff, too."

"Actually, there was a significant drop in criminal activity while you guys were ghost hunting today," Oracle said. "I don't doubt that's partially thanks to the whether. I even went outside for a while earlier and worked from my laptop. All I got on the police scanner was a corner store robbery in Little Italy, and a couple cases of looting, which the police dealt with.

"There will probably be a little more tonight, but Gothamites have been organizing a city-wide blackout on social media to reduce the light pollution tonight since this may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stargaze. Even people who have to work late have agreed to work by low light or close their office blinds so everyone can see. All the lights being out will make it harder on criminals, but you'll all have to activate the night vision in your masks too."

"Are you serious?" Phantom asked, surprised. "That's gonna take some unbelievable coordination."

"That's what Gotham is like," Jason told him, trying to sound nonchalant rather than fond. "We're all a little paranoid, and we never trust anybody worth shit, but when it comes down to the wire, we pull it together. You'll never find another city that better understands that we're all in the same stinking, rotting boat together." 

"That's actually kinda sweet," Phantom said. "My hometown wasn't like that at all. You could start a civil war about just about anything there, then a ghost would show up and pick a side and cause a mess, and then I'd have to stop it. It was a real pain in the ass."

"Sounds like it." Jason had been wary of Phantom at first, since he generally disliked when outsiders came in to quote-unquote 'help' around his town, but Phantom wasn't so bad. He stayed in his lane, and didn't try to give orders when he didn't know shit. When he did know shit about something, they usually didn't, so it worked out. "Anyway, how well can you see in the dark, because I'm not babying your ass."

"I wouldn't ask you to," Phantom said. "Ghosts can see regardless of light or darkness."

"Good," Batman said. "Then it's time to head out. You all know where you're going."

"Comms test!" Oracle called out.

They each said their code-names into the comms to double check they were still working and synced properly before they all headed out. Batman and Robin took the Batmobile, the Batgirls both climbed on Steph's purple Batcycle, and Nightwing pealed out on whatever he called his motorcycle, Jason couldn't be bothered to remember all the stupid names. He led Phantom to his own car, since his bike was currently scrap metal in the factory district.

"So where do you usually patrol?" Phantom asked, buckling up making himself comfortable in the passenger seat.

"Crime Alley to the Narrows," Jason answered, starting up the car and driving out.

"I notice this before, but it's a lot more obvious when I'm inside the car," Phantom said, gripping the safety handle. "You drive like my dad, and that is not a compliment."

"Well, technically I never got a license since I'm still legally dead," he said. It wasn't the first time someone insulted his driving, and it wouldn't be the last. "I'm willing to bet you don't have one either though, so I don't think you've gotten any room to talk."

"No license to speak here, huh?" he joked, though he looked a little greener than usual. "Gotham doesn't really have a place called Crime Alley, does it?"

"Technically, it's Park Row, but only rich assholes call it that," Jason said. "It's basically the dirt on Gotham's boot."

"Gotham's very own wretched hive of scum and villainy," Phantom said, because why the hell wouldn't a ghost make a Star Wars reference. "Got it. Sounds like a place you wouldn't wanna live, not that I have that problem."

"I live there," he said, mostly just to watch Phantom squirm. Phantom did squirm, clearing his throat awkwardly and pursing his lips, and Jason smirked under his mask. "You're right though, it's a shithole. We start in the Narrows."

For the first hour of patrol, nothing happened. The Narrows were quiet, with no signs of any muggings or of the black ooze ghost. Just like Oracle warned, everyone had their lights out. People had climbed up the outdated lamp posts to put metal bowls over the tops so all the light aimed down at the street and not into the sky. The only trouble they ran into was that Jason couldn't just run across the rooftops like he usually did since the people who lived in the area had laid out blankets on their roofs to stargaze, that and Phantom kept stopping to join them.

Finally, they came across a looter and called out to him, but as soon as he turned around and saw Red Hood he surrendered.

"Fuck this, man, I ain't looking to get shot!" he said, throwing his hands up.

"Good choice," Jason said. "Now get lost, and don't try it again!"

"You're not gonna arrest him or anything?" Phantom asked.

"Why? Nobody got hurt." Jason shrugged. "He was an opportunist, not a serial killer. I'm not gonna hand him over to the police, not when more than half the cops in this city are gettin' paid off by guys a hell of a lot worse than him." 

"Why doesn't anybody do something about that then?" asked Phantom, and Jason raised an eyebrow the ghost couldn't see.

"What do you propose we do?" he asked, placing a hand on his hip. "When the bad cops outnumber the good ones, and even the good ones aren't that good, how are we supposed to fix a system that broken? Especially when the politicians and lawyers are all taking payoffs from criminals too? Why the hell do you think Gotham has so many vigilantes? We're doing something about it, taking matters into our own hands, even though some of us don't agree on how to do that."

"I see..." Phantom got quiet and looked up into the sky again, and Jason turned off his night vision for a moment to look as well. The stars were beautiful. All his life, Jason never thought he'd be able to see stars over Gotham, and even with all their efforts, it was just a few of the brighter stars that they were able to see, Orion, the Big Dipper, Pleiades, not the true night sky, like Jason had seen before on missions to the middle of nowhere, but still. It was different to see them at home.

"I still can't believe a city like this could reduce light pollution so much so quickly," Phantom said for the third time. "It's just... insane."

"Don't say that word, you'll jinx it."

"What word?" he asked.

"Insane," Jason told him, and just like that, Oracle's voice rang in his ear with an emergency alert. 

"Everyone, there's been a breakout at Arkham!" she told them frantically. "It's the Joker! He's joined up with a clown car full of goons and they're headed north, toward the Narrows."

"What's wrong?" Phantom asked before Jason could even start spitting curses.

"The Joker just broke out of Arkham and he's headed our way," Jason said through gritted teeth. The pit had been quiet ever since Phantom had done that weird purification thing earlier, but it was churning inside him now.

Although he'd never been to Gotham before today, Phantom had obviously heard of the Joker. A maniac in clown makeup who killed countless people and caused immeasurable chaos? Everyone knew him, and everyone hated him, but Jason hated him more than most, and a long string of tinny curses and insults that spilled through his voice modulator.

"Is the Joker..." Phantom stopped himself for a moment, looking conflicted. "You don't have to answer if it makes you uncomfortable, I know I shouldn't ask... but is he... related to your death in some way?"

"What?" Jason snarled at him. "Of course he fucking was! He's the rat bastard who killed me!"

"I thought so," Phantom said, though Jason couldn't imagine how he'd known. Must be some kind of ghost magic. "I'm sorry. Most ghosts who were murdered don't have to live with whoever killed them afterwards since they're in completely different dimensions. Those that do lose their minds from the stress a lot of the time, especially if they suffered violent deaths. That must be really hard on you."

"It's..." No one had ever acknowledged that before, not around Jason anyway. They were always trying to force him to take the high ground, just ignore the fact that that sadistic clown had beaten him with a crowbar and blown him up at fifteen fucking years old. "Mind your own business!" Jason snapped. "I don't need your fucking sympathy."

"Sorry. I overstepped," Phantom apologized, putting his hands up in surrender. "So do we go fight the Joker, or do we retreat?"

"We fucking fight him, obviously!" Jason said. "And if we can find a chance, we kill him! We can't just let him do whatever he wants."

He started running south, with Phantom following obediently right behind him. When they heard manic cackling and the roar of an engine in the distance, the ghost flew on ahead. Based on the squeal of tires, they was coming his way, so Jason stopped to climb up to a second floor fire escape for a better vantage point. There he was, the Joker, throwing an orange jumpsuit into the gutter as he pulled on a purple tailcoat, and Phantom stopped dead when he saw him.

For some reason, Phantom was ignoring the Joker, just letting his car drive past as he floated into an empty alleyway.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Jason hissed, drawing his pistols and taking aim at the car barreling down the road.

"The Batgirls are on their way," Barbara said in his ear. "ETA seven minutes. Batman and Robin, too but they're on the other side of town ETA sixteen minutes. Nightwing is occupied with a robbery."

It wasn't long before they were in range and Jason used seven shots to take out all four tires, but it was still going, rims sparking against the asphalt until it hit a street lamp, knocking the metal bowl off it onto the ground and making the light flicker on its now warped and leaning pole. The Joker jumped out of the skylight cackling, waving around a brightly painted sword.

"Well well well!" the Joker shouted up to the fire escape he was shooting from. "If it isn't the little antihero who stole my shtick! No rubber bullets today? You and Batsy having a tiff?"

"I've got real ones for you," Hood shouted, aiming right at the clown.

"Oh? I thought you wanted Batman to off me," Joker laughed. "Some nonsense about not avenging his dead son because he was too much of a goodie two-shoes." He was right. Up until a few hours ago, Jason was obsessed with making Bruce break his one rule to avenge him, but when Phantom had done that weird purification thing, something calmed down in him.

"Changed my mind," Hood said. He'd realized that it wasn't just about him. It didn't need to be revenge. The Joker didn't need to die because he'd killed Jason, he needed to die because he'd killed hundreds of others, and he wasn't going to stop. "I've grown as a person. Now I don't care who kills you as long as you're dead." The Joker was just the same as any of the other rapists, child abusers, traffickers, murderers, and other criminal scum he'd put in the ground. "You're not special."

"Well that's just mean," the Joker complained. And Jason had damn well had enough of him. He was gonna be free of this clown tonight.

"Wait!" Phantom jumped in front of his gun right before he pulled the trigger.

"Don't try to stop me," he snarled. "You and I both know how much it can suck, but some people deserve to die. If I don't kill him now, he'll kill a dozen more people tonight and who knows how many tomorrow."

"His soul has too many ties here," Phantom explained frantically. "Kill him and he'll haunt Gotham forever."

"Oh?" Joker asked from down on the street, cackling some more. "Sounds like fun. I say you take the shot, old pal!"

"Well I'm sure as shit not gonna send him back to Arkham to break out again," Red Hood insisted, although he did put his gun down. "So what am I supposed to do?"

"I'm working on it," Phantom said, wincing when Jason growled at him. "For now, we have to make sure him and his goons don't hurt any civilians. I'll think of something."

"Fine," he gave in, holstering his guns and making to jump off the fire escape. "Think fast. The others are on their way, and once Batman gets here, he'll insist on letting him live."

"Right, right," Phantom said, letting Red Hood lead them into the fray. As soon as they were close enough, a goon ran at them to attack, and Phantom froze his feet to the ground, snatching the baseball bat out of his hand and knocking him out with it.

The kid was pretty good in a fight, even when it wasn't against ghosts, but he seemed a little distracted. He only fought the goons who came in close instead of chasing them down, like he was preoccupied with his thoughts. After a few minutes of keeping the Joker and his goons occupied and more importantly, corralled, the Batgirls came in on their purple Batcycle, jumping off and letting it hit one of the goons before skidding to a stop on the sidewalk, undamaged, because of course Steph had all the luck. Where was she when the rest of their bikes got trashed?

"Mind if we join the party?" Steph asked while Cass took down three goons almost simultaneously.

"Sure, but I don't think we'll be hiring the same clown next time," Phantom quipped. "This guy sucks. He can't even juggle!"

"And none of his jokes are funny either," Jason agreed.

"Hey, I've got a joke for you," Phantom said, because the kid loved jokes, even when he was supposed to be coming up with a plan to kill Joker without his spirit sticking around. "What do you get when you boil clowns?"

"What?" asked Steph.

"A laughingstock!"

Jason allowed himself a chuckled, and the Joker looked absolutely furious when one of his remaining goons started busting up at the joke and he slashed the guy on the back with his sword, knocking him to the ground. "It wasn't that funny!" Joker sneered.

"I thought it was hilarious!" Steph said. "Reminds me of another joke I heard once. How do you make holy water?"

"How?" Cass obliged.

"You boil the hell out of it!"

Jason snorted as he pistol whipped the last goon standing and Danny broke into a laughing fit.

"These jokes aren't even clever!" Joker screeched.

"Come on, we're just clowning on ya!" Phantom sang, because he obviously couldn't resist a good bad pun. "Actually, that gives me an idea?"

"What? We boil the hell out of this clown 'til he becomes a laughingstock?" Jason asked lightly. "Anybody got a really big pot?" Stephanie didn't bother to hide her giggles, and even Cass' shoulder's were shaking with laughter. Joker looked absolutely pissed that they were cracking jokes around him and laughing up a storm after never once laughing at his, and that just made their dumb jokes even funnier.

"Not quite," Phantom said, the humor in his tone a stark contrast to the sudden change in his demeanor. His hair whipped around his face getting longer as it moved, and he started to glow brighter than before. His limbs stretched, his green irises filled his eyes making them look like swirling pools of toxic waste, and his teeth sharpened into fangs. The air around them became so cold so quickly that frost started to form on the nearby windows. "Red Hood, I changed my mind. Go ahead."

"What?" the Joker asked in alarm, swinging his sword at Phantom and not landing a single hit as it passed right through the ghost. Jason recovered his wits quickly, eyes fixated on the Jason horror on the Joker's face.

"Copy that," he said. In one fluid motion, Red Hood—Jason drew his right pistol and emptied the rest of the clip into Joker's chest. "What now?" he asked as the body hit the ground, sword clattering against the asphalt. His body felt light with relief, more at ease than he'd been in a long time.

"Now, I gotta make sure his ghost forms quickly," Phantom said, and he made those rings appear around him again. They widened to cover the Joker's corpse and the vigilantes stepped back as they started to spin, faster and faster, circling Phantom's newly terrifying form as it got more and more unnerving by the second, and the air above Joker began to glow green, faintly at first, then stronger, slowly taking shape. Phantom reached a hand into his chest and pulled out that thermos from before.

The green glow started to become solid, and defined, until finally, a very disoriented spectral Joker was floating their. His colors had changed, his green hair and tie becoming blood red, his purple tailcoat turning black, his yellow vest purple, his legs were now a spectral tail like Phantom's were sometimes, and his eyes glowed red as well.

"What the hell just happened?" was all the Joker was able to say before Phantom uncapped the thermos and sucked him right in before capping it again. That done, the rings shrunk back into Phantom and washed over him before disappearing, and he collapsed on the ground looking totally normal. Not just normal for Phantom but... normal.

He looked human.

"Phantom!" Cass called out, running to his side and checking his vitals. "Heartbeat!" she said in surprise when she felt his pulse point. "He is alive."

"Do me a favor?" Phantom groaned. "Don't tell Batman? And don't let him see me like this?"

"I'll take care of it," Jason volunteered, crouching down to pick up Phantom, who was still holding tightly to the thermos, hefting him up against his chest like a koala bear. "I don't wanna be here when B gets here anyway. Feel free to pin everything on me. I'm already the least favorite, so this won't make too much difference."

"No you're not," Steph waved him off. "He hates us all equally."

"Except me," Cass said, sounding very self-satisfied.

"Except her," Steph agreed. "But you'd have to be some kind of monster to hate her." Phantom chuckled. His breathing was shaky, but he was breathing. Jason had no idea how, but the ghost kid was alive, and he was breathing.

"I'm gonna get us both out of here," Jason said.

"Thanks," Phantom mumbled, then his eyes drooped closed and he was unconscious, his thermos falling out of his hands. Jason caught it and clipped it to his belt.

"Later, ladies!" he said, and pulled out the grappling hook he rarely used to make a quick escape to his car.

He laid Phantom in the backseat and started driving to his apartment in Crime Alley, figuring if Phantom woke up soon, he could finish his patrol around there. The stars were still out, though, so the night was quiet. He didn't even notice any muggings or smash and grabs happening as he drove through the seediest part of the city. He changed in the car before he got out and carried Phantom up to his apartment.

He made the kid comfortable on his couch, gave him a blanket and a pillow and let him sleep, but when he woke up, Jason had lots of questions for him. For now, he turned the thermos over in his hands. This weird metal device held the Joker's soul. There had to be some way to destroy it, get rid of it forever. If he only knew more about ghosts, Jason might even be able to do it himself.

When he heard a window open across his apartment, Jason put the thermos down on the coffee table, stood up, and pulled out his gun, walking quietly toward it.

"Jay?" He sighed and put the gun down.

"What are you doing here, Dick?" he asked, finally seeing his black and blue clad brother walking into his living room.

"Is it true you killed the Jo—who's that?" he interrupted his question with another question and pointed in alarm at the kid on his couch. Phantom couldn't've been more than fourteen. Even younger than Jason had been when he'd kicked it. But he wasn't dead anymore. Jason sighed and sat back down in his armchair. He'd found it at a thrift store, and it was his favorite seat for reading.

"I did kill the Joker, and Phantom trapped his ghost in that thermos," he said, even though he heard loud and clear how ridiculous that last part sounded. "That's him, by the way."

"Joker's ghost?" Dick asked, like an idiot.

"No, dumbass, that's Phantom."

"No way, that can't be Phantom, he looks—"

"Alive?" Jason guessed. "Yeah. He's got a pulse and everything. I was surprised too. He said not to tell Batman, so I guess it's supposed to be a secret but I wasn't about to tell you I just picked up a random stray kid on my way home."

"Don't want me to think you inherited B's habit?" Dick teased. "Does he have blue eyes, too?"

"I dunno, I only saw 'em with the night vision on," Jason admitted with a shrug. "I'll be honest, asking his eye color didn't even occur to me with all the questions I have for him."

"Mind if I stick around for the interrogation?" Dick asked. "I'm pretty curious now."

"Why the hell not," Jason shrugged. "As long as you don't try to guilt trip me for killing the Joker."

"Nah," Dick said, peeling his mask off and taking a seat on the floor since Jason was in the armchair and Phantom was stretched out on the couch. "I'll leave that to Bruce. I'm sure he's writing a whole lecture in his head as we speak.

"Besides, it's not Bruce, I'd be worried about if I were you," he added. "I guess you probably didn't know the rogues had a bet going on whether you or Harley were gonna kill him, and some of them will be very mad at you."

"I did not know about that," Jason said. "How much was it?"

"I don't know exactly, but from what I gathered, there was a lot riding on it," Dick told him. "I'm pretty sure Scarecrow just lost several thousand dollars."

"Serves him right, the prick."

"But Black Mask won big."

"Bastard! I can't have him making money off me!"

Chapter Text

Danny woke up in a strange apartment with black hair falling into his eyes and instantly knew he was screwed.

"You're awake," a voice observed, which meant it was too late for Danny to pretend he was still sleeping and formulate a plan. "I was starting to wonder if you might be in a coma or something." He grunted and pushed himself up. A blanket slipped down from his shoulder.

Sitting in front of him was a stranger.

"Who're you?" he asked.

"Dick Grayson," the man said, smiling pleasantly. He was familiar, but it took Danny a long second to place him.

"Nightwing," he said, then cringed. He'd just flubbed any chance of playing dumb and pretending he didn't remember being a dead superhero. "Whoops. Shoulda kept my mouth shut. Guess I gave up the ghost there, huh?" Nightwing, or rather Dick Grayson, laughed. He didn't seem too bothered by the fact that Danny knew his real name. Probably because Batman had told him Danny came from another dimension, and the name wouldn't mean anything to him, even if he was famous or something.

Even after almost a year there, he didn't know much about anything outside of the Justice League and some of their allies. Flash had introduced him to a cool sci-fi show, and over the course of binging all eight seasons, he'd learned some of the actors' names, but outside of that, he knew next to nothing. He could barely remember all his coworkers' names half the time, but in his defense, most of them had two. Like how Flash was also Wally, and Wonder Woman was also Diana, and Cyborg was also Vic. He'd probably forget Nightwing's real name by tomorrow, honestly.

"Hey, you are pretty funny," Dick said. "I'm started to get what Hood was saying about the puns, I bet he booed you out of the room. Speaking of, I should tell him you're awake."

"He did," Danny started to smile. "And I really thought he'd be dying of laughter."

"E-spectral-ly since he's such a joker himself."

"Double-up, nice," Danny laughed. "You'd better not ghost him now, it might break his spirit, and that would be a grave mistake." While Dick was shaking with laughter trying to fish his phone out of his pocket, they heard a window slam open.

"What the hell is this about you killing the Joker and Phantom coming back to life?!" shouted a voice, over the sound of someone climbing into the apartment, followed by the window slamming shut again. "I literally took one night off! What did I miss?!"

"Jaybird had to step out for a few minutes," Dick said as another familiar but unfamiliar person came into the room. "Didn't say why, and I didn't ask, but it seemed important. Your timing's pretty good, though, Phantom just woke up."

"Oh, uh... hi," the newcomer waved. He was probably seventeen or eighteen, too young to have a job that required a suit like he was wearing, with black hair, blue eyes, and skin so pale he looked like he hadn't seen the sun in years. "Are you Phantom?" he asked, looking Danny over with scrutiny.

"Yeah, and you're... Red Robin?" he guessed hesitantly. He was too slender to be Red Hood, plus he said he'd taken the night off. A resigned sigh left his lips.

"Tim," he corrected. "I didn't know you'd be here, or I would've come in costume. B's always riding us about being more careful with our secret identities. I'm usually better about it, but I didn't think I'd need full gear to drop in on my brother."

"Eh, I don't know enough about this world for your real names to mean anything to me anyway," he assured them both with a shrug. "You could be the president and I wouldn't have a clue. So, how was your date?"

"Oh, it was great," Tim said, still sounding a little exasperated. "Stars have never been visible in Gotham as long as I've been alive, so it was pretty amazing to see. When I saw the blackout plans on social media, I had Tam send an email blast to everyone at Wayne Tower to minimize light usage near the windows and turn off the sign on the top of the building. Bernard and I made popcorn and hung out on the balcony at my penthouse, it was really nice. Then this morning I woke up to a text from Oracle saying Red Hood killed the Joker, and a text from Steph saying Phantom was alive, but I had a bunch of stupid meetings to go to all morning before I came here, and now I'd really like to know what happened."

"I think we all would, Phantom."

The front door slammed open.

"He's awake!?" In stumbled a man about six feet tall and built like a brick wall, with a wispy white streak in the front of his black hair. His eyes locked on Danny and he slammed the door shut behind him. "You're awake!" His gaze swiveled to Tim. "And what are you doing here?"

"Uh... congratulating you on killing the Joker?" Tim forced a smile, and the man who just walked in—whom Danny was pretty sure was Red Hood, since that's who he remembered taking him home when he passed out and the build was the same—crossed his arms, and cocked an eyebrow, unconvinced. "I came because I wanna know what the hell happened last night."

"Did Dick let you in?"

"No, I came in through the kitchen window." He leaned against the wall. "The lock's broken, by the way."

"Yeah, I know." Red Hood walked the rest of the way into the room and took the now-empty seat on the couch next to Danny. "How ya feeling, Phantom?" he asked, looking Danny over for any signs of injury, forcibly meeting Danny's eyes like he was trying to tell if he had a concussion just by looking at him.

"I'm fine," Danny assured, pulling away from him defensively. "I wore myself out yesterday, but I'm perfectly fine now."

"Great, then you can answer some goddamn questions," Red Hood said sternly. "Firstly, how are you alive? Did you steal Joker's life force or something when I killed him?"

"Uh... no?" Danny raised an eyebrow at him. "Pretty sure that's not a thing you can do."

"So how did you come back to life, then?" Dick asked, having none of Danny's deflection.

"I didn't, really," Danny said, then paused. How was he supposed to explain the concept of a halfa to people who were still pretty new to the concept of a ghost?

"So you were never a ghost to begin with?" Red Hood asked. "Have you even really died?"

"It's... complicated," Danny said. All three of them stared expectantly, and he looked imploringly at Red Hood, who didn't waver at all. They were demanding answers, and though he'd only known them for a day, he'd been in this world for almost a year, and no one knew his past. Maybe it was time to come clean to someone, and they were here, asking. "Alright, fine, but I'm only explaining this once, and I really really don't want Batman to find out, or anyone else on the Justice League, got it."

"Fair enough," Red Hood said, and his brothers nodded in agreement. "Now, out with it."

"I'm a halfa, which means I am a ghost, and I did die," Danny said, "but I'm also still alive and human. I'm both at the same time, half-a-ghost, half-alive." He really hoped he wouldn't have to explain beyond that, but he knew there wasn't a chance in hell of them all being satisfied by that.

"Why does that... sound familiar...?" Tim asked, forehead crinkling as he thought back. "You're dead but also alive...?" He crossed his arms.

"Like Schrodinger's cat?" Dick asked. "But uh... pretty sure the JL opened the box, and you were a ghost when you came out of it."

"When he came out of... that's right!" Tim's voice raised with his sudden epiphany. "I remember after they opened the coffin, Batman was writing transcripts of what you said because they'd discovered that recording devices can't clearly pick up your voice or image. At one point, there was something about a man-made portal to the Infinite Realms, and Batman asked if we could make one, and you said no because in order to make one, someone would have to stand in it and die without dying.

"I remember that specifically because I was in the Batcave when he was writing that part, and we both thought it didn't make any sense. You also said it was a terrible experience, like you knew personally. That's what happened to you, wasn't it? You were the one who had to die without dying to open the man-made portal in your original dimension, right?"

Danny looked at him with wide eyes, then looked quickly away and shifted uncomfortably. He was hoping they'd get it, but not that completely.

"Wow... you've really got a good memory, huh?" he said, and coughed awkwardly. "Yeah... that was me." He forced a short bark of laughter to try to keep the mood from getting too heavy. "You can punch a hole to another dimension, but you can't keep it open unless it punches a whole through you, too. Creating a stable man-made portal also creates a halfa, or half-ghost, like a by-product, I guess, if you wanna get all clinical and scientific about it. You can't create one without the other."

"Does that mean the portal in your home dimension is still open, then?" Tim asked.

"I dunno." Danny shrugged. "It means it could be, but it can also be turned off and on again once it has a halfa connected to it."

"I don't understand," Red Hood said bluntly. "Explain it better."

"Alright, basics then," he said with a sigh. "There's a simple recipe for a human ghost. First, the soul is un-bonded from the body, usually via death. Next, you need ectoplasm nearby. Then you need strong emotions, positive, negative, mixed, doesn't matter what the emotions are, as long as there are a lot of them. The ectoplasm latches onto the strong emotions in the human soul and binds to it. Once a little bit of ectoplasm binds to the soul, it will attract more ectoplasm, and over time, usually several years, the ghost will become fully formed. With me so far?"

"I think so?" Hood said.

"Human soul plus strong emotions plus ectoplasm equals ghost," Tim reiterated. "Let stand until done."

"Exactly." Danny pointed at Tim for emphasis.

"Okay, yeah, that basically makes sense."

"That's how you get a regular ghost, but there are other types of ghosts," he continued. "Some are subtypes based on the specific emotions the ectoplasm bonded to, or the circumstances of the person's death. Then there are cases of ghosts that form without a human soul, like most of the Ancients. Pandora was actually the first ghost to form with a human soul. And cases where ectoplasm bonds to a soul without it becoming unbound from the body, and the whole person gets brought back to life, but a little more obsessive and emotional because that's what ectoplasm does, like what happened to you."

"That, I'm familiar with," Red Hood acknowledged, and Danny nodded.

"Yeah. A halfa is created when a soul is ripped from its body," he put his fists together and them pulled them apart like tearing a sheet, "then both body and soul are charged with enough ectoplasm for the soul to be come a fully formed ghost instantaneously and to keep the body alive without a soul indefinitely, and then the two are smashed back together again with the force of two dimensions colliding." He slammed his hands back together with a clap and clasped them tightly.

The three vigilante's stared at him wide-eyed, but didn't say a word. He swallowed his discomfort. Talking about his death was never easy, but he could manage it as long as he made it impersonal, if he kept himself out of the explanation, like it had happened to someone else, and not him. Still, he could feel his breathing become unsteady and his heartbeat quicken.

"That can only happen in the process of forcing open a portal between the Ghost Zone and another dimension," he finished. "Once that portal is opened, it becomes connected to the halfa, drawing from their emotions to keep from collapsing. As long as the halfa it created is still around, the portal can close and reopen. It's like smashing a hole through a wall and then putting a door there. The halfa would be the doorframe in this metaphor."

"So... are you a ghost and a human, or... are you neither a ghost nor a human?" Red Hood asked, and Danny sighed deeply.

"Three thousand years, and I have yet to figure out the answer to that question," he admitted, although technically it had only been about three or four years that he'd been conscious and thinking about it. "In this form, I'm completely human, unless you look too closely. In my ghost form, I'm exactly like a ghost unless you know what to look for. I like to think I'm both, but a lot of people, both human and ghost, seem to prefer the 'neither' interpretation."

His statement was punctuated by the sound of the window opening again, and a clattering in the kitchen. All heads turned to the noise.

"We're here!" a girl's voice called, and the two Batgirls walked into the living room. "We were at the manor when we got your text." They stopped dead when they saw everyone in the living room. "You didn't say we should come out of costume."

"What text?" Dick asked. "I only texted Jason." Jason, that was Red Hood's real name.

"You texted the group chat," Batgirl in purple told him, pulling out her phone and showing him a long string of texts. "Damian's throwing a fit about being excluded, and Duke's freaking out. No one told them anything about last night, and they're both in school right now, so they can't come, and Babs is at work."

"Oops," Dick said, ignoring the way Jason was glaring at him.

"By the way, Jay, you're window lock's broken," she said while Dick demanded to know why Tim hadn't told him he'd texted their group chat instead of just Jason by accident.

"I know," Jason said, irritated.

"I have all the notifications turned off on that chat," Tim answered Dick with a shrug. "If you guys need something from me, you'll text me directly."

"At least it was our chat and not the one with Batman in it," Dick sighed. "It could've been worse."

"Yeah." Batgirl in purple pushed back her hood and took off her mask. "Personally, I'm glad to be kept in the loop, even if it was an accident." She offered Danny her hand and a vibrant smile. "I'm Steph, and that's Cass."

Cass took off her mask as well and slipped it into a pocket, revealing an Asian teen with chin length black hair and a thin scar on the left-hand side of her face. She smiled and nodded politely. Without the scary mask, her taciturn behavior was a lot less creepy.

"Do none of you guys ever come in through the door?" he asked.

"No," they all answered at once, with varying tones from amusement, to thoughtfulness, to annoyance. Cass just shook her head with a mischievous smirk.

"We didn't miss the part where you explained how you're alive now, did we?" Steph asked, smoothing down her cape and taking the empty seat on the other side of Danny while Cass sat on the arm of the couch next to her with her ankles in Steph's lap and hand behind her back.

"He's technically only half ghost," Jason recapped, "and half human, so he's dead sometimes and alive sometimes."

"I can switch back and forth between my human and ghost forms on command, usually," Danny added, "But when I use too much energy in my ghost form, I automatically revert to my human form. Yesterday I used up a lot of energy fighting the Ancients and purifying their ectoplasm, and then I basically charged Joker's soul with, like, ten years of ectoplasm in about a minute to make his ghost form so fast, and it drained me too much."

Tim filled them in on the recipe for a ghost the same way he'd simplified it before, and they seemed to understand. They didn't ask for an explanation as to how he became a halfa, but Danny didn't doubt someone would explain that to them later, hopefully when he wasn't in the room.

"What now?" Cass asked, gesturing to the thermos that rested on the coffee table.

"Yeah, I was wondering about that too," Jason said. "The Joker's dead, but you still have his soul trapped in your weird thermos, so what are we gonna do with it?"

"Oh yeah!" Danny remembered the other encounter he'd had the night before, with the black ooze ghost in the alleyway. "I found the other ghost we were looking for."

"Tar with teeth?" Steph asked. "Did you get rid of it?"

"No, she actually belongs here," he explained. "She's another different type of ghost called a village ghost. If a certain place has enough ambient ectoplasm, it can bond with the emotions of the people who live there, and over the course of several decades or more, depending on how much ectoplasm is around, it can coalesce into the ghostly embodiment of that place. The 'tar with teeth' is the spirit of Gotham. She called herself Lady Gotham, actually."

"You're saying Gotham has it's own ghost, and it's been here the whole time?" Jason asked. "How have we never seen it before."

"She usually doesn't like to be seen." Danny shrugged. "Kinda like you guys. She lurks in alleyways and hardly ever shows herself. But when you hear a mugging echo down the street louder than it should, and when the getaway car you're chasing skids and crashes because of the rain, that's her, helping you help Gotham. She's connected to the whole city, and she cares for it and all the people in it, which is not easy with how unbelievably cursed this place is.

"Apparently when she sensed the Ghost King in town, she wanted to give me a good first impression. That's why the weather's been so nice, and the crime rate dropped so much, and the buses ran on time. That must've be really hard to pull off, though, so it probably won't last."

"Oh, definitely not," Steph said. "It's already overcast again. Kind of amazing she managed to pull it off for as long as she did."

"Girlboss," Cass commented in her monotone voice with a small smile, and Steph squealed and hugged her legs that were draped over her, elated.

"I'm rubbing off on you!" 

"Anyway, when I spoke to her, it was right after we caught sight of the Joker," Danny told them. "She was very upset that he was there, but she said Joker isn't a part of Gotham, he didn't belong there, and wasn't hers, so she never had any power over him, no matter how much damage he did to her and her people. I promised I'd stop him. I figure she'd be more than happy to get rid of his soul for good."

"How would she do that?" asked Jason.

"Well, I imagine she'll eat it," Danny deadpanned, though he empathized with the grimaces he saw on most of their faces. Honestly, he hadn't been too thrilled to learn this little tidbit about ghost biology when Skulker told him about it at the last truce he spent in the Zone, either. "If she does that, she'll absorb his soul and his power, destroying him and becoming stronger in the process. But... he'll probably taste funny." Cass leaned over and smacked him teasingly on the back of his head while Tim groaned.

"I was gonna make that joke," Dick complained. "Hold on, gimme a sec, uhh... I hope she doesn't joke on him." Tim groaned louder and Jason rolled his eyes, but it got a chuckle out of Steph and Danny.

"That was bad... but I think that's a fitting end, actually," Jason said, leaning back into his couch, satisfied. "The Joker deserves to be devoured by an angry Gotham after everything he's done to this city."

"Then what?" Tim asked. "Is that just it? The Joker's gone forever and we have a ghost in Gotham from now on?"

"Technically, the ghost is Gotham," Dick reminded him. "And apparently she's been here the whole time."

"Yeah," Danny confirmed. "And yeah, that's pretty much it. Once I give her the Joker's ghost, I'm done here."

"What?" Steph asked, turning to lean towards him, eyebrows drawn together in a frown. "But you can't leave so soon! You've gotta at least stay for the parade this weekend!"

"What parade?"

"The Joker Memorial Parade," Jason said with a smirk. "The name is meant to be ironic. In five days, on Sunday afternoon, the whole city is throwing a massive party to celebrate that cheap clown finally biting it. People are making floats and shit, stores already have signs up saying they'll be closed that day. I don't know how they're gonna pull it off so fast, but I don't doubt they will."

"I'm pretty sure May twelfth is about to become a local holiday," Steph said.

Danny looked at all of their faces, surprised, but they all acted like this was exactly the outcome they expected.

"The Joker's been terrorizing Gotham for about twenty years now," Tim told Danny, since he had no context. "Every single citizen of Gotham knows someone personally who was maimed or killed by the Joker, if they weren't themselves, so him finally being gone for good is a big deal, and we have you to thank."

"We?" Jason raised an eyebrow at Tim. "Aren't you always saying killing is wrong?"

"You weren't the only Robin he traumatized," Tim reminded him, scowling. "I have my reasons for refusing to kill people, but just because I wouldn't do it myself, doesn't mean I'm not glad he's gone."

"So this Joker guy was a seriously bad dude, huh?" Of course, Danny knew the Joker was 'universally despised', according to Captain Marvel, but he hadn't really understood the scope of it in Gotham specifically. "Sure, I guess I can stick around for the parade," he agreed easily enough. "I don't know where I'll stay though."

"You can crash in any of my safe-houses if you let me be there when you hand Joker over to the ghost of Gotham," Jason proposed.

"Alright. I'm sure Lady Gotham won't mind an audience," Danny agreed. "Especially not if it's her vigilantes. She's really proud of you all, you should know."

"Really?!" Steph asked, excited. "You guys! Mom's proud of us!"

"That's... sweet..." Dick said, no doubt remembering the ghost he'd seen at the clock-tower yesterday. Unlike Steph, he didn't seem quite so eager to refer to the 'tar with teeth' as 'mom'.

"We can take the Joker to her now, actually." Danny started to stand up, but Jason put his arm in front of him and pushed him back down onto the couch.

"Not so fast there, Phantom," he said. "I have one more question for you."

"What is it?" After explained all the ghost stuff, and what they were gonna do with Joker's ghost, what else was there to ask?

"Your funky ghost thermos has the word 'Fenton' on it," he pointed to the chipping purple paint on the side of the device. "Why?"

"Oh...." That. "Well... that's because it's a Fenton Thermos. My parents invented it, and they put our last name on all of their inventions." He could see them putting the pieces together, and figured he might as well just give them a full introduction. "My name is Danny Fenton, and you can all call me Danny, if you want. Nice to meet you all."

"You too, Danny." Cass was the first to remember her manners, and the rest of them followed.

"Why a thermos, though?" Tim asked. "I've been wondering since you first pulled it out."

"I think my parents just picked random household items to base their designs off of," he admitted. "Not really sure why. They wanted to make something to trap ghosts, so why not make it look like a thermos? There's no reason to, but there's also no reason not to, as long as it works. That's just how my parents were."

"Your parents sound pretty weird," Jason observed.

"Your dad dresses up as a bat to fight crime."

"I'm adopted."

"We all are," Tim added.

"I'm not," Steph said. "I'm not related to any of you dweebs. I'm basically the ex-girlfriend who still comes to Thanksgiving dinner because your family likes me so much."

"You didn't even come to Thanksgiving last year," Dick pointed out with a frown. "You pretty much broke poor Alfred's heart."

"That wasn't my fault!" she insisted, gesturing indignantly with one hand. "I got captured by a drug cartel. I swear I tried to make it back in time, but I was tied up! I barely escaped with my life!" 

"You were fine."

"Broken arm," Cass disagreed, frowning. 

"They almost cut off my pinkie finger!" she pulled off her glove and held up her left hand. "I still have the scar!"

"Oh boo-hoo. Everyone's got scars from when someone tried to cut off their fingers, Steph," Jason scoffed. "Build a bridge and get over it."

"I don't," Dick said, and immediately got a throw pillow tossed as his face by Jason, which he caught.

"Quit bragging, dickhead," he said. "Actually, all of you, get out of my apartment." Standing up, he grabbed the Fenton Thermos off his coffee table and tossed it to Danny. "Come on, Danny, let's go deal with this."

It took a while for Jason to shoo everyone out, but when they all finally left, he locked up his apartment, changed quickly into his Red Hood getup, and he and Danny headed down to the street.

"So... where do we find this ghost?" Jason asked.

"We just go to any dark alleyway and ask for her," Danny said, already walking toward the nearest shadowy nook off the street. The heavy cloud cover that always hovered low over the city had returned, making the alley all the more dark and dingy looking. "Lady Gotham?" There was no need to shout, even a whisper would do; she would hear him.

A puddle of oil on the ground in front of them rippled, then spread and moved and grew, forming into the black mass that was the spirit of Gotham City. It had been darker the last time Danny saw her, and he hadn't noticed the iridescent oily sheen on her before, the way her eyes absorbed light like a pair of black holes set into a face whose only other feature was a wide set of thin, wickedly sharp teeth. A tendril of tar-like ooze formed on the right side of her body, and crossed over her to thump twice against what would be her chest, and she bowed briefly.

"Sssire," she hissed, her teeth twisting into a hideous grin that nonetheless portrayed her pleasure, "and Red Hhoood... hhappy to sssee you." Danny could see Hood's muscles tense up, ready for a fight, though there was no way it would come to that. Gotham would never attack one of her vigilantes.

"We brought you the Joker's ghost." Danny waved the thermos for her to see.

"I may hhhave it?" she asked, and when he nodded she let out a trill of excitement. "Sshhhow mee!" He uncapped the thermos and hit the release button. Lady Gotham backed up to give it room.

"Ahhh!" the Joker's ghost screamed. Gotham rapidly puffed up before him, intimidating him. He tried to retreat towards Danny and Red Hood, but they stood their ground, Danny got ready to block him with a ghost shield, and made his eyes glow to remind him of the creature he'd seen before he died. "What is that!? What's going on!? Wh-what am I!?"

"You were not mine," Gotham rasped at him, and his ghost started to blur at the edges, unable to retain its shape in his utter terror. "You hhhurt mine. You killed mine, but you were not mine!" Her aura became downright oppressive as she revealed a set of stony gargoyle's wings, spread them so the whole alley was cast in their shadow, and reached out dripping tendrils of inky black ooze to wrap around the Joker's spectral form. "But noww?" her toothy grin stretched impossibly wider.

"Noww... you are ̙̺̖̿͐m̙̪͙̙̑ͩ̂ì̦̬̹̯̬̈ͬ͑͑n̬̹̭͔ͤ̆ḛ̹͚͓̙̄ͧͥ͐̾."

"No!" Joker screeched as she opened her mouth as wide as a python and pulled him towards it to bite off his head before swallowing the rest of his body whole. "Noooooo!" his scream was swallowed along with him. An oily black tongue stuck out to lick the ectoplasm off those terrible teeth.

"Hm, tasssstyyy," Gotham said. "Thhhanksssss."

"Don't mention it," Danny said. He capped the thermos and returned it to the spot in his chest where he usually kept it ever since he learned how to keep intangible objects in his person.

"Will repayy," she said. "Whhenever you are in Gotham, goood lucksss, hhave you, alwayysss."

"Thank you." He smiled, swallowing the bile that climbed up his throat after what he'd just watched. "That's a very thoughtful gift. We'll be going, now."

"Be ssseeing you."

"Yeah," Red Hood said, the first words he'd spoken since he saw the ghost of Gotham. "Nice meeting you... milady?" She let out another happy trill.

"Sssweeet boyy," she said. "Will hhhelp you, tooo, with your work."

"Oh? Uh... thanks," Red Hood said. "Bye." She waved with another long tendril, and they waved back. As they walked out of the alley, she vanished back into the cracked concrete.

"So where are these safe houses of yours?"

"Huh? Oh," Red Hood had seemingly forgotten his promise after what he'd just watched, but it returned to him when Danny asked. "Well, I've got one right across the bridge from Blüdhaven, another in Gotham proper, close to the university, and one in Tricorner. Which one do you want?"

"I dunno," he shrugged. "I don't actually know where any of those places are. I've only been here for a day."

"Right, well, a teenager is probably gonna attract the least attention in the area near the college, since Gotham Academy is around there too."

"Sounds good to me." Danny's stomach growled, and he didn't miss how Red Hood tensed at the noise. "Are there any good burger places around here?" Hood relaxed.

"There's the Batburger," he said. "But if you don't want Batman knowing you can turn human, you might want to change into something a little more... dead. He'd definitely get suspicious if someone saw me in public with a random teenager, the hypocrite."

"Good call," Danny agreed, and summoned up his transformation. He wasn't glowing as brightly as usual, he couldn't make his legs be legs, so he floated along next Hood with a spectral tail, and he felt tired. Clearly he still hadn't fully recovered all the energy he'd expended yesterday. He felt something buzzing in his thigh and reached under his skin to pull out his Justice League communicator. "Speaking of calls..." there was a message on his screen from Zatanna.

We took care of the dream demon and everyone made it out safe.
Where are you?

He sighed with relief before messaging her back.

thats good. i'm in gotham rn. batman needed help with some ghosts.

"Do you just keep all your shit inside your body?" Jason asked as he watched Danny phase his communicator back inside his thigh. "That's gross."

"They're intangible the whole time," Danny said in his defense. "They don't get any blood or anything on them. It's more convenient than carrying a bag, plus, it's completely pick-pocket-proof."

"Yeah, alright, I'll give you that one," Jason relented. "Come on, let's get lunch."

Chapter Text

Despite all the weather reports predicting rain, the clouds thinned on the day of the parade. The sky was far from clear, but every once in a while, some blue would peek through and shine on all the smiling faces.

Batman did not come, still moping and brooding about one of his kids killing (as if Jason hadn't killed people for a lot less), but most of the other vigilantes were there. Robin was forced to stay home because Batman didn't want him out celebrating someone's death, and Tim was out of costume so he could go with his boyfriend, but the rest all came.

Someone who lived in the apartments next to the street where Joker's last battle had been posted a video on social media, even though Phantom's presence made the video so grainy and glitchy you could barely make out what happened before there was a huge blinding light and the camera died. Thanks to that, everyone knew that Red Hood, Phantom, and the Batgirls were the ones to thank, and they were treated even more like celebrities than usual.

So many people stopped Phantom to ask for a photograph, and he had to apologetically explain that he really didn't photograph well, but they could try. No one got a good photograph of him that day, but one girl with a well-used but expensive-looking camera really, really tried. She fiddled continually with the settings on her camera, changing them so many times Danny lost count, and managed to get one photo that, though far from clear, was still far and away better than any other picture taken of him that day. She said she planned to send it to The Gotham Gazette for their piece on the parade, and he wished her luck.

He went to the parade with Steph, wearing her Purple Batgirl costume, and they met up with some of the others after a couple hours. Red Hood got himself some cotton candy from one of the street vendors, and much to Danny's surprise, removed his helmet to eat it, only to reveal a red domino mask underneath.

"Why do you wear a domino mask under your already face-covering helmet?" Danny spluttered.

"Because I can't eat cotton candy through a face-covering helmet," Red Hood explained, pinching off a piece of pink fluff and popping it into his mouth. "Also, fuck you, it's intimidating."

"I honestly can't even imagine how sweaty that must get," Steph said to his side. "It can't possibly be comfortable."

"I wouldn't know," Danny said. "I don't wear a mask."

"Yeah, 'cause you don't need one, lucky bastard," she grumbled.

A little while later, Cass and Signal found them, and the Batgirls went off on their own while the boys wandered around together. In the five days he'd spent hanging around Gotham he'd learned the real names of the rest of the rest of the Bat family, Duke, Damian, and Barbara. He didn't know Batman's real name yet, but it didn't really bother him. He'd been avoiding Batman, anyway, not wanting a lecture for letting Jason kill Joker.

Apparently, even Gotham's other villains hated the Joker, because several of them were at the parade celebrating, instead of taking the opportunity to commit crimes, and apparently everyone else was in too good a mood to care because none of them got arrested. Danny learned a little later that there were people actively leading cops away from the event and keeping them out so they wouldn't ruin the mood.

A lady in clown makeup called Harley Quinn had made twenty Joker shaped piñatas in the past five days, and was letting kids whack them apart with her giant mallet, or her thematically painted baseball bat when the mallet turned out to be too heavy for the little ones.

"Hood! Signal!" she squealed when the boys saw her in the park and started to walk over. She handed her mallet to a vicious looking middle school boy. "And Phantom, right?" She ran over and pulled them all into a hug.

In the background, the middle schooler had knocked the piñata right off the string and was repeatedly hitting it in its papier-mâché crotch, no doubt crushing the candy inside, but the other kids were cheering anyway. Man, Gothamites really hated this guy, even the kids.

"Hey Harley," Hood said, smiling as she released them. "You're in a good mood."

"All thanks to you guys!" she said, then turned to Danny with a thousand watt smile. "And Ivy said you saved her from some plant monster that was mind controlling her! She was just offended that it would even try, because mind controlling people with plants is her thing, but I was so worried about her!"

"Yeah, no problem," Danny said. "I uh... heard through the grapevine she's your girlfriend right?"

"HA!" she barked a laugh. "Yeah. Wowie, you just showed up and saved my girlfriend and helped kill my scumbag ex in one day! Haha! You're my new favorite superhero!"

"Aw, man. Batman's gonna be so mad when he hears that," Signal said lightly. "I guess he'd better step aside."

"Batman can be my second favorite hero." She waved dismissively. 

"I like the piñatas," Red Hood told her.

"Yeah?" she turned back to watch fondly as the middle schooler continued to beat the shit out of the paper and cardboard Joker, paying absolutely no mind to the candy inside. "I wanted to get his actual corpse and stuff it full of candy, but the coroner wouldn't give it to me, even though I asked so nicely. He said it would 'traumatize the little kids'," she said, putting finger quotes around the sentiment. Danny found it hard to believe that was the coroner's only objection, but given how much everyone seemed to despise the guy it might've actually been a possibility. "But then he said if I had actual piñatas, then I could make more than one, and then everybody would get the chance to take a crack at the clown."

"Looks like they're having fun with that," Signal observed, looking slightly disturbed by the thirst for violence the kids were displaying as they cheered on the middle schooler trying to rip the cardboard neck and remove the Joker piñata's head.

"Hey! Red Hood!" one of the kids shouted, finally noticing them. "You should come and shoot him in the head!" The rest of the kids cheered loudly, egging him on.

"I'd love to, but I didn't bring my guns today," he called back, gesturing at the empty holsters; he'd left them behind for safety's sake, since there was gonna be a lot of kids at the parade.

"Aww!" they all chorused.

"Phantom can do it though, can't you Phantom?" He nudged Danny forward, toward the kids, who were cheering him on.

"Shoot him! Shoot him! Shoot him!" they chanted.

"Uh... if I shoot him, it'll make the candy inedible," he told them, holding his hands up and trying to back away.

"That's okay!" a six-year-old reassured him to the raucous agreement of the others. What world was he living in where thirty kids would rather see a piñata of a dead guy get shot with a ghost ray than eat the candy inside.

"I'm not really comfortable with this," Danny admitted quietly to the vigilantes beside him. "These kids are starting to creep me out."

"Don't be a coward, just shoot the piñata," Hood said, shoving him toward the kids, who had resumed their unsettling chant.

"Fine, fine! Just back up so you don't get caught." he finally caved, and the kids gave him a wide berth, none of them standing in the line of fire as he charged up a ghost ray and fired at the already separated head of the piñata. The children whooped and hollered. "Okay, now you cannot eat any of the candy, because that was radioactive, and it will make you sick. You have to throw it away."

"We get it!" groaned the middle schooler from before.

"Yeah, just let us have this!" said another kid around the same age. Signal had already pulled one of the park garbage cans over and was helping the kids clean up the ruined candy, all of it either crushed to bits, or half-melted and faintly glowing.

"I'm gonna go get another piñata from my car," Harley said, and skipped away.

"Let's go somewhere else," Danny suggested to Red Hood.

"You're not seriously this put-off by a bunch of little kids."

"Look at them!" Danny said, gesturing to the children literally dancing around the shredded remains of the Joker piñata. "Those kids are bloodthirsty." Hood laughed.

"Alright, buddy. Signal!" he called over to the yellow clad vigilante currently preventing children from eating now-poisonous candy. "We're gonna head up to the parade route!"

"Go ahead! I'll catch up in a minute!" Signal called back. As they were leaving, Harley returned with a new Joker piñata for them to mutilate, and the kids cheered again.

At least they were having fun?

When he thought about it, Danny wasn't sure whether to laugh or be bitter about it. After less than a week, the people of Gotham liked him more than the people of Amity Park ever had. So far, no one had tried to skin him, or dissect him, or even called him a menace. Plus, he'd had great luck since coming there. All week, he hadn't tripped over the uneven sidewalks even once, or accidentally run into anyone; he'd found twenty dollars on the ground the day before.

Then there were the Bats, with the exception of Batman himself, all of them either actively were or had been teenage vigilantes just like him, and they'd grown on him. When he'd gone up to the Watchtower for monitor duty on Thursday, he'd told Captain Marvel and Zatanna all about his time in Gotham, working with the Bats, and they were shocked to learn what he'd done regarding the ghosts, but Marvel quickly got over that to give Danny an enthusiastic "Cool!" before asking him more questions about it. Danny had left out the part about his still being alive, but he told himself that he would tell them, someday. Maybe even someday soon. 

"Red Hood!" He was pulled out of his thoughts by an unfamiliar voice. Jason quickly turned around beside, him, legs tensed like he was ready to make a run for it.

"Commissioner Gordon," Red Hood greeted. "Here to arrest me for killing the Joker?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," said the gray haired man, the police commissioner, apparently. "The coroner released his report yesterday, didn't you see the obit in the paper? The Joker's death was ruled an accident. His car crashed, and he fell out and tragically landed on several bullets."

Wow. Gothamites really, really hated the Joker if even the police commissioner was agreeing to that bullshit story.

"Truly a tragedy," Red Hood said, grinning.

"'Course, I could still arrest you for all your other crimes," Commissioner Gordon said. "But... well... the Red Hood isn't that short," he said. "And you're clearly wearing padding to make yourself look as muscular as him, your bicep is slipping." Jason looked at his sleeves, confused. He definitely wasn't wearing padding to look that muscular, Danny knew that for a fact. "Plus, he wouldn't wear a domino mask underneath his helmet, that's absurd."

"It's intimidating!"

"It's a pretty good costume, all in all, but you messed up the details."

"What are you talking about?" Jason asked.

"You're a cosplayer, right?" Commissioner Gordon winked at him. "My daughter told me about people like you. There are lots of Red Hoods at this parade, and your costume doesn't even crack the top ten in authenticity. If I ever saw the real Red Hood, I'd arrest that scumbag on the spot, so you'd better thank your lucky stars you're not him. Anyway, enjoy the parade."

"Thanks, commissioner," Jason said, "you, too," and they waved goodbye to each other while Danny looked between them, confused.

That was Gotham solidarity, he guessed. Tim had filled him in on Jason's sordid dealings, how he was one of the two major drug-lords in Gotham, and he killed tons of people, also something about eight severed heads in a duffel bag. There was a reason Joker had called him an anti-hero, it would seem. So for the police commissioner himself to turn a blind eye, even just for a day... well... it reminded him of a time when he'd saved his whole town, and the local police tried to arrest him while he was worn out from the fight. The teenagers from his school had to distract the police for him to make his escape.

There was no denying it was a terrible city. The infrastructure was old and crumbling, there were psychopaths murdering and kidnapping people left and right, and the weather was so dreary a sunny day could grind the city to a halt, but even still... Danny didn't think he would mind living there.

The parade itself wasn't very long. There were four floats of varying detail all of them impressive, considering the time-constraints, even if most of them didn't look like they'd make it to the end of the parade route; the Gotham Central High School marching band, with the Gotham North dance team right behind them. Spread throughout the length of the parade was a group of cosplayers dressed as various Gotham vigilantes and rogues, and one dressed in a pretty good Phantom cosplay considering they had to throw it together in five days based on blurry photographs and other people's descriptions.

Three old men from Chinatown playing a song Danny didn't recognize that made a lot of the locals laugh on traditional Chinese instruments walked up front; and a punk band singing their original song "A 'Fuck You' to the Joker" with the drummer set up in the bed of a pick-up truck next to a set of portable amps, and the guitar and bass players sitting on the roof, brought up the rear.

The procession passed through each stretch of the route within twenty minutes, but the party kept going well into the night. When the street lamps came on, Danny watched a group of teenagers climb up the posts to tape translucent colored plastic bags over them so they'd shine blue or pink or red lights down and they could really have a party.

Over the course of the parade, Danny had met so many people, he even got a glimpse of Tim's elusive boyfriend Bernard for the first time (though he didn't stop to say hello, since Signal told him Bernard didn't know Tim was a vigilante, or that he knew any). And he met Barbara's best friend Alysia, too, who was helping her navigate her wheelchair through the crowds.

He'd even caught Damian watching the parade with a malicious grin and a bag of popcorn after he snuck out against Batman's wishes with the help of his friend Jon, who Danny sincerely hoped knew Damian was a vigilante, because if he didn't, Damian would be in a tough spot when he asked why Phantom, Red Hood, and Signal all came up to teasingly deride him for sneaking out. Based on the other two vigilantes' behavior, Danny could safely assume Jon knew, although why they trusted an eleven-year-old with their secret, but not Bernard, Danny couldn't guess.

After a while, though, Danny needed a break, and he wished everyone good night and flew up to a nearby high-rise to watch from a distance for a while. He landed next to a gargoyle and transformed so that his glow wouldn't attract attention.

"Mind if I sit here?" he asked the gargoyle. When the gargoyle said nothing, he took that to mean it was fine, and sat down, hanging his legs over the ledge, idly watching the celebration thirty-something floors down. "What's your name?" he asked the gargoyle, who didn't answer. "You look like a Harry, can I call you Harry?" the gargoyle didn't object.

"You know, Harry, I think I'm really starting to like it here in Gotham," he said. The gargoyle didn't respond, as he knew it wouldn't. He just needed to think out loud for a while. "I've been thinking in the last couple of days about my friend Captain Marvel. He keeps telling me I should get a secret identity, and I always told him I didn't want one before, but I think I'd be okay with having a little bit of a life here, as long as Batman didn't find out. What do you think Harry?"

Harry didn't speak, or shrug, or nod. He just sat there, his claws wrapped around the ledge, mouth open in a grotesque snarl, ears tilted back, and his stone wings folded. Those wings reminded him of Lady Gotham.

"She probably wouldn't mind if I stayed, would she?" he thought aloud. "She seems to like me. I should probably ask her first, before I make a decision, though, huh?"

Harry didn't share an opinion. He wasn't really a helpful confidant, but he did remind Danny of Sam. She loved gargoyles, and wanted to get some on her own house, but her parents never allowed it. He wondered if Sam ever did get some gargoyles for her house. Probably, at some point, if she didn't die young fighting ghosts because Danny was trapped in a coffin and couldn't protect her. His heart and his core throbbed as one at the thought. He missed her. She would have loved Gotham.

"If there was a Gotham City in our world, Sam would've moved there in a heartbeat, as soon as she could," Danny confided in Harry. "This city is like a goth's natural habitat. No wonder Batman likes it so much..." he sighed. The gargoyle had nothing to contribute. "Maybe I should talk to Marvel about this. He's the one who thinks I should establish a secret identity." Since Harry didn't offer any alternatives, Danny reached into his thigh and pulled out his Justice League communicator, typing out a message to Captain Marvel.

i been thinking about the secret id thing...

A response came from Marvel a few minutes later.

Finally decide to make 1? Need help pciking a name?

yeah, but i'm gonna use my real name.
from when i was alive.

Danny bit his lower lip, considering, before finally deciding it was time. He trusted Captain Marvel. He typed another message.

actually
there's smth else i wanna tell u, but it has to b in person.

A painfully long moment passed before Marvel's response came through.

Ok? Watchtower? 

no. somewhere privat
e.

How private?

i don't want anyone else to find out yet.
so very.

Ill meet u at the Fawcett zeta tube
Rock of eternity privtae enouph?

that'll do lol.
tomorrow tho.
i'm dead tired ;)

Lmao ok but it has to b after 3pm

y?

Im a busy guy pahntom

i hope ur busy with spelling lessons.
i thought we were friends, but u can't even spell my name right?
cpatan mravle how could you?

Rude! It was a accidnte

accidnte.

X_X

Danny laughed and typed out his last message.

c u after 3 if you haven't died of embarrassment

Marvel responded seconds later.

Meanie

He laughed again. For a grown man, Marvel was sure childish sometimes, although that was probably part of why he and Danny got along so well. Danny was mentally much younger than the Justice League seemed to think he was. He tried his best to be mature and serious, even curbed the puns during those long boring meetings about mission reports and labeling all the food in the Watchtower refrigerator or else Flash would eat it, but being around adults all the time got real boring after a while, even in space.

Marvel had a younger soul than a man his age should, not without its burdens, but full of hope and childlike wonder, so it was a relief for Danny when the two of them hit it off so well. It wasn't like Danny didn't get along with the other Justice League members, he did. Some better than others, but even the new members got used to them after a month or two, although Supergirl was still a tiny bit bitter that he was allowed to join before she was. But even though they thought he was thousands of years old, he still looked like a kid, and they all slipped up and treated him like a kid from time to time. Marvel always treated him like a peer.

"Anyway, Harry, if I wanna live here, I'd better make sure that's okay with the lady of the house." He patted the gargoyle on the head an jumped off the ledge, transforming halfway down and flying straight to the nearest empty alleyway.

When he asked Lady Gotham how she felt about him staying, she let out a happy trill, ruffled her stony wings with an awful scraping sound, and patted him on the head with a dripping black tendril. Not only did he get her permission, but she was openly pleased by the prospect.

He returned to the safe house Red Hood put him up in, wondering if he'd be allowed to keep using it, or if he'd have to find a new place to live. He'd be fine out on the streets. No one would look twice at a homeless teenager, especially not in Gotham. His parents had taught him survival skills since he was four, so he wasn't afraid he couldn't manage it, especially since Gotham gave him good luck.

The next day, he went grocery shopping with Jason, and brought up that he was thinking about staying in Gotham. To his relief, Jason was very receptive to the idea, and told him he could keep staying in the safe house without Danny having to ask, although he warned that he'd have to share the space with anyone else Jason sent to stay there, injured vigilantes or people on the run from stalkers or abusers that Jason was on the tail of.

That was fine by Danny. He was a protector spirit, He would happily patch them up and keep them safe. If anything, that was a bonus, not a drawback. Jason also suggested that Tim could forge documents for him, a whole identity, even use a false name if he wanted to.

The Bats worked fast. By the time he had to leave to meet up with Marvel, they'd set him up with a student ID and social security number, with a passport and birth certificate in the works. Steph had bought him more clothes since he only had the ones on his back, including a uniform for Gotham Academy, whose administration system Duke and Damian had hacked into and enrolled him as a sophomore—starting next school year, since there was only a week until summer vacation anyway. They'd even given him a phone with all their numbers in it, and Tim assured him that he'd added something to prevent it from being traced or the messages from being hacked. All of this without Batman knowing a thing.

At three o'clock, he headed toward the Gotham zeta tube, telling them he had League stuff to take care of. When he got there, he only had to wait a few seconds before Marvel zipped in with the speed of Mercury.

"So, how exactly do we get to the Rock of Eternity from here?" Danny asked.

Captain Marvel grinned and grabbed the handle of the door next to the dumpster. Danny was pretty sure it led to the kitchen of a Mexican restaurant if the smell was any indication, but the cracks around the door started to glow gold, and when Marvel opened it, it was to reveal a huge cave. It was lined with hideous statues, and at the far end there were seven thrones around some kind of low table or maybe a fire pit.

"After you," Marvel said with a smirk, smug about the amazement that was no doubt painted all over Danny's face. When the door closed behind them, it disappeared. "Welcome to the Rock of Eternity. You know a lot of people think this place is a myth."

"And a lot of people think ghosts are a hoax," Danny laughed back. "I guess we both know better, huh."

"Guess so," Marvel agreed lightly. "So what did you want to tell me that was so important, Phantom."

"Oh, that, right..." Danny should have planned this better, but his morning had ended up being a lot more hectic than he'd expected. "Well I guess I can start with this." He let his transformation rings pass over him, leaving the room a little chillier than it was before, and revealing his human form to his closest friend since coming to this dimension. "My real name is actually Danny Fenton, and I'm not... strictly, entirely, fully dead."

"Are you actually fourteen?" Marvel asked. "I mean, I guessed you didn't get mentally older when you were trapped in that coffin because you were asleep the whole time, but... you look like you're really fourteen."

"I think I'm almost fifteen, maybe even like fifteen and a quarter," Danny answered with a shrug. "I learned a while ago that don't age when I'm in my ghost form, only in this form, and in the past... almost a year now, that I've been in this world, I've only spent a few days as a human."

"How can you be a human and a ghost?" Marvel asked. "How do you switch back and forth? You didn't say any magic word or anything, is it just like a thought command? This is so cool!"

"Woah, slow down! I can only answer one question at a time," Danny said. "First off, I'm a halfa, which means I'm half human and half ghost. It's hard to explain, but if you want more details I can tell you. To switch back and forth, I only really have to think about it, so yeah, no magic word. Although I did have a catchphrase for when I turned into a ghost. I haven't used it in a while, though, since I spend most of my time as a ghost now."

"What was it?"

Danny grinned and took up a cool pose before saying, "I'm going ghost!" and transforming back again.

"Cool!" Marvel said, much to Danny's bemusement. Most of the time when adults, usually other ghosts, heard his catchphrase they were a bit patronizing about it.

Danny transformed back. "You're taking this better than I even hoped," he admitted. "I was afraid you'd freak out about your teammate being a kid."

"Freak out?" Marvel asked, surprised. "I think it's awesome I finally have someone my age on the team."

"Your age?" he cocked his head in confusion.

"Oh yeah!" Marvel said, then shouted, "SHAZAM!" A bolt of lighting shot down from the roof of the cave and hit Captain Marvel dead on. Danny fell flat on his ass in shock, breathing heavily, scared for his friend. When the smoke cleared, there was a boy around his age in a red hoodie and jeans, with a red beanie on his head. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," the boy said, offering a hand to help Danny up.

Once he was on his feet again, Danny got a better look at him. He had black hair and blue eyes, like Danny, but his skin was paler, and he had the same bright smile as... "Captain Marvel?"

"Yup! The name's Billy Batson," he said. "I'm fifteen."

"Holy shit, this explains so much," Danny said. "No wonder Batman hasn't figured out your secret identity."

"Pretty sweet, huh?" Billy said. "All I have to do to get a guaranteed day off is not say the magic word to change forms and no one on the Justice League can force me to help fight Dr. Psycho or someone else super annoying that they can totally handle on their own. I keep telling you the secret identity thing has it's perks. So what changed your mind?"

"I spent some time in Gotham, I guess," Danny said. "I really like it there. Plus, Batman's kids found out I'm not totally a ghost, and promised to keep it from him. They help me set up an official identity this morning."

"In Gotham?" Billy asked, aghast. "Do you want to never see the sun again? You know it's not to late to change your mind. You could live in Fawcett City."

"And live where?" Danny scoffed. "Your house? Yeah, I'm sure your parents would love that."

"Well... I don't really have parents... or a house," Billy admitted awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I usually sleep here, at the Rock of Eternity."

"You're homeless?"

"Well... no... sort of... anyway, I manage just fine. Could probably manage even better with two of us."

"As enticing as that offer is, Robin and Signal already enrolled me in their high school next semester, Red Hood's letting me live in one of his safe houses there, and that village ghost I mentioned the other day already gave me her permission to stay, so I'm gonna stick with Gotham. I do actually like it there."

"Yeah, I guess even with the shitty weather and stupidly high crime rate there's gotta be some reason people still live there," Billy let out an awkward chuckle.

"You could move there," Danny suggested. "And with your powers, you could even still work in Fawcett while living ther."

"Nah," Billy said. "You can only live there because the birds and bats know about you and they're helping you. I'm not ready for anyone to find me out yet. Thanks for the offer, though."

"I get it," he shrugged. "If I hadn't turned human from overexertion right in front of them, I wouldn't have told them either. Oh, and since you're obviously wondering: it's the gargoyles. Everybody loves them, and there are tons in Gotham. If there were more gargoyles in Fawcett City, I would probably agree to live here."

"No way!" Billy gave him a light shove of the shoulder and scoffed.

"I'm telling you, Gotham has 'em all ofer the place, just garg-ing around, that's why people like it so much."

"No it isn't."

"It's the stone cold truth." Billy just laughed at him. It felt good to make his friend laugh.

As it turned out, everyone had a cell phone in 2023 (although apparently Billy didn't get 'data', and could only use it on 'wi-fi', whatever that meant), and since Danny had gotten one earlier that day, the two of them exchanged numbers. He was still getting used to the touch screen though; those hadn't existed back in 2005, so he kept thinking there should be actual buttons to press, and it felt weird to just tap a flat surface.

"I still can't believe you just keep stuff literally under your skin," Billy said, grimacing as he watched Danny put his phone back into his right thigh, the opposite one he kept his JL communicator so he wouldn't mix them up. "That's just unsettling."

"I'm a ghost." Danny laughed. "Unsettling is part of the job description."

They hung out around Fawcett for a while, just as Billy and Danny, seeing the sights, pranking police officers, climbing things they weren't supposed to climb to get a better view of the skyline, even though they could both fly. With Billy there, it was a lot more like a tour than the last time Danny had been there, wandering aimlessly until there ended up being a monster to fight.

When they were done, Danny couldn't wipe the smile off his face, but he had to transform and head back up to the Watchtower for monitor duty.

The summer passed quickly, with Danny splitting his time very unevenly, not being in Gotham nearly as much as he would have liked. Between his responsibilities with the Justice League and the Justice League Dark, he ended up still staying at the Watchtower overnight more often than he would like. Over the course of the summer, however, he slowly transitioned to spending more time in Gotham, as a human.

He'd spent almost a year straight as a ghost, and as much as he hated to acknowledge it, even internally, his human form had started to feel slightly foreign to him from disuse. The more time he spent around regular people, the more he had to deal with the culture shock of being in the future. If he thought touch-screens were confusing, the time Steph tried to set him up with social media was a nightmare. And he was still terrified of whatever the fuck an air-fryer was. Every time the oven in the safe house made a weird beeping noise he charged a ghost ray, just in case.

When school started, he thought he'd be ready for it. Schools never really changed, after all. The Casper High School geography textbooks still listed East Germany and West Germany as separate countries in 2005, so in 2023, the textbooks were probably from 2005. Plus, Duke and Damian were going to the same school. Duke was a senior, but Damian was a year behind him, and a genius. He'd be okay.

As it turned out, Danny was not prepared. For one thing, no one had told him that Gotham Academy was a private school with tons of funding, so not only did it have state-of-the-art facilities that Danny didn't have the foggiest idea how to use, but he was also one of the scholarship kids, meaning the snobby rich kids were always looking down their noses at him. On top of that, Gotham City was different from Amity Park in one more way that Danny hadn't considered until he was surrounded by normal kids.

In Amity Park, the ectoplasm was clean and in the air. Everyone breathed it for years, so everyone was a little bit contaminated to the point where brown eyes were a statistical wonder there thanks to the amount of ecto-exposure everyone in town was subject to. In Gotham that wasn't the case. Yeah, there was tons of runoff ectoplasm, but it was all in the ground, and diluted enough that unless someone was buried in it, like Jason had been, it didn't affect people all that much, it only affected the city itself.

So basically, in Amity Park, uncanny valley was just regular valley, but in Gotham that was not the case. Until he started going to a regular high school in a more or less normal city, Danny had never realized just how uncanny valley his human form was. It didn't bother the Bats, but at school, everyone could tell there was something off about him, and they unconsciously avoided him because of it.

Then there was the fact that the more time he spent around ordinary people, the more suspicious his good luck became. It was nice when the guy who shoved him against the lockers tripped over his shoelaces immediately afterwards and face-planted in the hallway. And it was convenient that his textbooks always fell open to exactly the right page. The lunch-line always being miraculously short when Danny got to the cafeteria was pretty good too.

But people were slowly starting to notice.

Even though they didn't know it, Gotham City was covered in curses from beings Danny had never heard of whose names no human could pronounce, and people who had died there, and people who had lived there, and people who had their hearts broken there, and all the monsters figurative and literal who had ever walked her streets. They didn't know it, but everyone could feel it, could see the effects. People weren't lucky in Gotham. Especially not as lucky as Danny, who had Lady Gotham herself looking out for him, tripping his bullies and rigging his school books.

People whispered about him, usually only stopping when Damian glared at them because freshman or not, Damian Wayne scared them all. And after about a month, Danny was seriously wondering if he'd be able to keep it up. How much longer would he be able to pass as a human?

All the time he'd spent as a ghost had only made his human form more... well... inhuman, and his ghost form more ghostly. When he'd first floated out of that coffin in this new dimension, his ghost form never had fangs unless he was well and truly pissed, and then it always had fangs. When Danny looked in the mirror now, even his human form had them, not as noticeable as he they were as a ghost, but there, nonetheless. He'd started to grow his hair out, just enough to hide the fact his ears were becoming pointier. Not so much that he couldn't still pass for human, but definitely enough to notice.

When would it finally be time to give up the ghost, so to speak, and go back to living in his ghost form all the time, sleeping at the Watchtower, and always being on call whenever any hero asked for back up?

"Excuse me." Danny looked up when a voice pulled him out of his thoughts. A very short girl with freckles across her face bumped into him after she'd already apologized, and he felt something press into his hand. She said nothing else, just passed him right by, jogging to catch up to her friend, a dark-skinned girl with pure white hair that Danny had noticed around school before. He'd checked, but she wasn't ghostly or even ecto-contaminated as far as he could tell, so the hair must've been bleached.

Confused, Danny opened his hand to see that the girl had given him a crumpled up piece of binder paper for some reason. He uncrumpled it and read the neat, round handwriting.

Come to the mystery section in the back corner of the school library at lunch. Don't worry, it's not a trap or anything like that! Please rip up this note once you've read it.
                                                                                          — Pizza Club ; )

"Pizza Club?" Danny read. "Oh this is definitely a trap. Whatever. Might as well see what it's about." He tore up the note and tossed the shreds into the trash can on his way to his next class.

Chapter Text

When lunch rolled around, Danny grabbed a sandwich from the cafeteria and scarfed it down on his way to the library. He'd only been to the library once before to pick up a copy of Othello for his English class, so he had no idea where exactly he was supposed to go.

"Excuse me, uh, Mr. Librarian?"

"Scarlet," the man introduced himself, smiling gently. "What can I help you with?"

"Can you point me to the mystery section?" Danny asked.

"All the way against the back wall," the man pointed. "There's a sign, but it isn't visible past the science fiction section, so just keep going until you see it." 

"Thank you." Danny followed Mr. Scarlet's directions to the very back of the library, where stood the same two girls from before, and an auburn-haired boy with sunglasses on and a green hoodie under his blazer, all of them completely hidden from view until Danny was practically right on top of them.

"You came!" said the girl who had given him the note, practically bouncing up and down in her excitement. She nudged the white-haired girl with her elbow. "I told you he wouldn't think it was a trap!"

"Oh, I totally thought it was a trap," Danny admitted. "But I figured, you're only, like, four and a half feet tall. I could probably beat you if it came down to a fight." He knew the girl from somewhere else, he was sure of it.

"Told you." The white-haired girl nudged her back. "Saying it's not a trap just makes it sound more like a trap."

"You're in my history class, aren't you?" he recalled.

"Mia Mizoguchi," she introduced herself cheerily, hefting the yellow backpack she always wore on her shoulders. "But aside from teachers, everyone calls me Maps. And you're Danny. And this is Olive and Colton." She pointed to the white-haired girl and the boy with sunglasses each in turn. "We're all members of the Gotham Academy Pizza Club." She punctuated the statement with a very over-the-top and obvious wink. "And we're inviting you to join!"

"The school lets you eat pizza in the library?" Danny asked.

"What? No!" she said, pouting. "Did you think the wink was just for my own entertainment?" She lowered her voice and whispered, "We're not actually a pizza club, duh." 

"Well you told me you were the pizza club, so what else was I supposed to think?" he asked, and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his uniform jacket. He still wasn't used to having to wear a uniform to school, especially one with slacks and a sweater vest. It felt awkward and overly formal. "What are you then?"

"We're actually the super secret Gotham Academy Detective Club," she whispered conspiratorially. "We investigate unnatural, mysterious, and paranormal occurrences around the school."

Danny swallowed and slowly moved one foot back, preparing to make a run for it if he needed to. "Is that so?" he asked conversationally, taking his hands out of his pockets to be ready for a fight. If they were actual paranormal investigators it was possible they had anti-ghost measures that could actually harm him. Had he underestimated this trap? "What does that have to do with me?"

"Well, we've noticed you around school," Maps explained, "and it seems like you're like us. You hang out with the Wayne kids sometimes, but most of the students avoid you, because you're an outsider."

"You look mighty lonely, to be honest," said Colton. "Plus, I saw you rustle up a smoke bomb to get out of Professor Milo's class, when I was cutting gym. That makes you an ally in my book."

"You saw that?" Danny asked. He'd had to get out of class because Marvel messaged him on his League communicator for help with a minor emergency in Fawcett City, and with the materials at hand, his choices had been a smoke bomb or a chemical fire to trigger a fire evacuation. "Have you been watching me?" Hopefully Colton hadn't seen him transform behind the school building and fly off.

"Nah," Colton assured, unperturbed. "I was watching Professor Milo. He's secretly a criminal scientist."

"A lot of the teachers moonlight as criminals, actually," Olive reluctantly told him. "We like to keep an eye on them so they don't pull anything during school."

"Riiiiight..."

"Anyway, Danny, what do you think about joining the Detective Club," Maps asked, bringing them back on track. "Oh, and don't worry about being a—" she lowered her voice again—"meta-human." She returned her voice to a normal volume again. "We have a couple in our club already, so you wouldn't even be out of place, and you wouldn't have to hide it with us. Batman says 'no metas in Gotham' but that doesn't mean there are actually no metas in Gotham. It's just to keep capes and criminals from other cities from showing up and causing even more trouble than Gotham already has."

"I'm not a meta-human," Danny argued, although, according to the laws of this world, he supposed he did technically fall into that category. At least according to the Meta-Human Protection Acts that Superman made him read shortly after he first woke up in this world. After all, even aliens were protected as meta-humans as long as they lived on Earth peacefully, and this world didn't have the anti-ecto acts, so ghosts were protected as meta-humans too.

"Are you sure?" asked Maps, furrowing her eyebrows. "I thought you had magical good luck or something. I was also gonna invite you to join the Serpents and Spells Club, cause I thought you'd probably roll a lot of nat 20s." 

"Pretty sure," Danny assured them, though it was absolutely a lie. "Good luck is just coincidence, not magic."

"Oh, well, whatever, you still seem like you'd be a good addition, and we want you to join anyway."

"If you're interested," Olive tacked on, implying they wouldn't force him.

"So... you didn't decide to invite me because I'm a ghossst... expert?" he asked, tacking on the last word to cover his slip up. When they said they investigated paranormal activity, he'd been so sure they'd found him out, even though he'd been so careful to keep it a secret.

Maps' eyes practically sparkled with excitement and she grinned like she'd just won the lottery. "You're a ghost expert!?" He took a step back, alarmed by her excitement.

"Well... uh... my parents were ghost hunters so... sort of? Maybe not an expert, but I know some stuff."

"Well now you have to join!" Maps insisted while Olive shook her head, assuring him that it really was his choice.

"How about... just on, like, a trial basis?" Danny suggested. He couldn't deny that he was intrigued by the so-called Detective Club, but he still wasn't sure about it.

"Alright!" The enthusiasm Maps always radiated was almost contagious, and Danny smiled back at her. "Then let's show you to our secret club room and introduce you to the rest of the club." She looked around, making sure no one else could see them.

"This isn't all of you?" Danny asked. "Wait, you have a secret club room?"

"Of course," Maps said obviously, sitting down on her knees and reaching under the bottom shelf in the corner. "A secret club room for a secret club. You didn't think we met in the library, did you? Now where is that stupid—aha!" The bookshelf slid back, revealing a secret door.

"Woah..." Danny said.

"Cool, right?" Maps bragged, allowing Olive and Colton to enter the passageway first. "The school is full of secret doors and passageways. We spent most of last year mapping them all, although I did most of the actual mapping." 

"Is that why people call you maps?"

"Yup! After you!"

He entered the passageway with Maps behind him, her yellow converse squeaking on the stone floor. When she slid the bookshelf back into place, he assumed the passageway would be pitch black, but there was an orange glow up front, like Olive was carrying a torch. The passage was narrow, so they had to walk single file and he couldn't see where the light was coming from, but not so narrow they had to move sideways through it, thankfully.

While they walked, maps started telling him about the other members. There was a senior girl called Pomeline who was their club's magic expert, and a freshman called Katherine who was an unofficial member the year before because she was still in junior high but officially joined at the beginning of this year.

Her older brother had been a member the year before, but he'd been a senior so he graduated. However, since he went to Gotham University, she told Danny he'd probably join some of their investigations that weren't during school hours. They also had another ally who wasn't really a member called Tristan, who'd also graduated, but might work with them again anyway, depending on the circumstances.

"I have an after school job most days," Danny told her. "So I might not be able to help with a lot of your investigations outside of school hours." The floor had started sloping downward. Was their secret club room in the basement?

"That's fine," she said. "We can work around that. We usually meet during lunch to discuss club activities, unless there's something we can only do outside of school."

"Like breaking into a museum?" Olive grumbled.

"We would never do that," Colton said immediately, though he sounded very much like he was just covering their asses.

"Unrelated, how cool are you with breaking the law?" Maps asked. 

"Depends on the law, and the reason for breaking it," Danny said honestly. Back home, he'd regularly broken the law by acting as a vigilante although he maintained that laws shouldn't apply to ghosts. Then there was every single time he'd gotten on Walker's bad side. "Fuck cops though." No one had any objections to that statement, thankfully.

"Yeah, and Batman, too," Olive added from the front. For a moment, Danny was surprised, but then, Batman had said he was a vigilante because of local law and public opinion, which meant not everybody was a fan.

"So, Olive, are you a Sophomore?" Danny asked. "I don't think I've seen you in any of my classes, but you hang out with Maps a lot."

"I'm a Junior," she said.

"But she and I are best friends!" Maps said.

"I'm a senior," Colton said. "Which means one more year and I am outta here."

"I'm jealous," Danny admitted. "I've been... uh... home-schooled for a while. I forgot how much regular school sucks." He hadn't exactly been home-schooled, per se, but he had spent a lot of his free time at the Hall of Justice or the Watchtower reading Flash or Atom's science books, or the magic books from the House of Mystery. And not having his own city to patrol left him with a lot more free time than he was used to. 

Finally, the floor leveled out again, and they stopped shortly after. Olive pushed open a door to the side and stepped through it. The rest of them followed.

"There you guys are," said a girl with short blonde hair and dark, droopy eyes. "We were wondering when you'd get here." She looked like she'd been pacing the length of the room but stopped when they walked in.

"What took you so long?" asked the other girl in the room, who was sitting in an antique chair with her feet kicked up on the table in the center of the room and a book open on her lap. She was wearing a gray hoodie under her uniform jacket with the hood over her long dark hair streaked with orange. She also wore ripped tights and tall boots with buckles on them. She looked about as goth as she could manage within the uniform requirements.

"He asked a lotta questions," Colton said.

"And Maps talks a lot," Olive added with a teasing smile.

"That's Pom and Katherine," Maps said, pointing first to the goth girl and then to the nervous-looking blonde. "And welcome to the Detective Club's secret underground headquarters!"

The secret underground headquarters was a rectangular room lit with very old electric lights, about twenty feet long and seventeen feet wide with a low ceiling. There was a wide dark wood bookshelf on the right side with a collection of books much too small for it, an ornate table and eight chairs, a cobbled together map of some sorts on the left wall, and what looked like a conspiracy board on the back wall.

"We're pretty sure this room used to be used by a top secret Gotham rich people cult called the Court of Owls which I believe still exists today," said Maps.

"She only believes that because she's a nerd and she thinks it would be cool," Pomeline said blandly. "There's literally no evidence they're still around."

"No evidence so far!" Maps corrected.

"Whether or not the court still exists, this courtroom has clearly been out of use for a long time," Olive assured, "So when we found it while exploring the secret tunnels, we decided to make it our new club room. We used to choose a different place for every meeting, so it's convenient not to have to remember a new place every day."

"Anyway, let me give you the tour," Maps enthused, jumping over to the far end of the room. She pointed to the bookshelf. "That's where we keep our books!" she said, like Danny couldn't've guessed. "There's a lot of Pom's magic books, and some Gotham history books, including The Book of Old Gotham which a lot of people would kill to get, but we have it."

"If you tell anyone it's here, we will actually be in a lot of danger," Pomeline said, deadpan in her seriousness. "Like, I know that sounds like something a delusional person would say, but genuinely, some very bad people want that book and they will actually kill us for it if they know we have it, so keep your mouth shut."

"Y-yeah," Danny agreed, nodding. "I can do that."

"Great!" Maps' smile never faltered. She pointed to the left wall. "That is the map of the secret tunnels that I've been drawing and updating since last year. The blue lines  are the buildings and stuff that everyone knows about, and the red lines are the secret passages. Olive and I first discovered them while we were investigating reports of a ghost at the north building."

"The one that's all boarded up that we're not allowed to go to?"

"That's the one!"

"There was a fire there two years ago," Colton said. "It's all burned out and the foundation ain't no good anymore, so it's a safety hazard."

"What about the ghost?" Danny asked.

"Turned out to be a hoax," Maps answered, sounding disappointed, in stark contrast to the vibrant energy she'd displayed so far. "Smoke and mirrors. Batman was investigating it too, because apparently it was linked to some other crime, but he knew the ghost was fake the whole time. He said ghosts weren't real, but I'm still pretty sure they are, even though that specific ghost was fake."

"They are," Danny assured her. "Isn't there a ghost on the Justice League now? Phantom?"

"I've been looking into that," Pomeline said. "He's mentioned in a bunch of articles as helping the Justice League, but there are no pictures, and, like, he's never on the news, so I dunno."

"That's probably because ghosts don't photograph well," Danny explained. He'd already told Maps he was a 'ghost expert' so he didn't really have to bother hiding his expertise with them, he supposed. "The energy they give off messes with cameras, like how strong radiation does."

Pomeline scrutinized him suspiciously, pursing her lips and narrowing her eyes.

"Turns out Danny's parents are ghost hunters!" Maps told her excitedly. "So he knows a lot about ghosts too!" Danny opted not to correct her that he'd said they were ghost hunters, as in they weren't anymore, but his chest tightened hearing someone refer to his parents in the present tense after so long.

"Really?" For the first time, Pomeline seemed interested in him.

"Uh... yeah."

"I'm definitely gonna find us another ghost to investigate this year, now that we have an expert!" Maps announced. Danny was about to argue that he wasn't really an expert, but she just barreled on with the rest of the tour. "Anyway, this is the case-board, where we tape up all the relevant information about whatever case we're working on. Right now, it's still got the stuff from last year's investigation on The Book of Old Gotham, but we'll find a new case soon, I can feel it."

Katherine looked at anxiously at Maps, although Danny couldn't peg if it was because Katherine was afraid of the paranormal, or if she was worried that Maps would be reckless with whatever new case she found, or if she was afraid of getting in trouble with the school during their investigations. Given what he'd seen so far, Danny was pretty sure those options were all equally likely.

"And lastly, this is our meeting table!" She gestured invitingly at the table. "Seating isn't officially assigned but we usually all sit in the same seats anyway. You can sit wherever you want that's free." She pulled out the seat at the head of the table and sat down, the high back of the chair reached well above her head. "Without further ado, everyone take your seats and we'll start today's meeting."

Olive had already taken the seat to her right while she was talking, with Colton next to her. Pomeline was sitting at the end next to the book case, leaving an empty seat between her and Katherine, who sat clumsily in the seat to Maps' left.

"Actually," Colton argued as Danny walked over to pull out the chair next to the only other guy in the club. "Lunch is about over."

"What!?" Maps jumped back to her feet and pulled a watch with a broken band out of her backpack and checked it. "Crap! We've gotta go if we don't wanna be late for class!" Olive was the first into the passage again, with the rest of them following, and as before, when the lights went out, there was still an orange glow in the front of the group.

At the next few meetings, they spent most of the time telling Danny about all their past adventures. All the details about the fake ghost in the north building and discovering the secret tunnels. They told him all about The Book of Old Gotham, and why they'd broken into a museum. For a high school detective club, they really had some cool stories, and Olive especially was a great storyteller, though she stayed notably quiet whenever they talked about the north building.

They also told him about their two meta-human members. Katherine, he learned, was an aspect of a villain called Clayface, and like her father, she was made of a clay-like substance that could transform, allowing her to change her appearance, though unlike him she had no interest in crime. And Olive was reportedly descended from a witch called Calamity AKA Amity Arkham, and had the ability to control fire, which was why Olive was always the first into the dark passages, to light the way.

He learned about Pomeline's aspiration of learning magic, though without a teacher, she hadn't made much headway yet, and Colton's aptitude for building things, including the fireworks he illegally sold to other students. It was almost embarrassing how quickly he ended up liking the other kids in the Detective Club.

It was especially entertaining to watch Maps flit about rambling on and on about her theories and conspiracies about Gotham's paranormal activity when he was a personal friend of the main culprit. So when Maps finally found something to investigate, he agreed to go with her and the rest of the club to look into the reports of a monster in the school greenhouse.

Of course, he told himself he would only help insofar as a normal fifteen year old would be able to. Without using his ghost powers unless someone ended up in serious and immediate danger (although based on the stories they'd told him, that was a distinct possibility).

"We're you just talking to Maps Mizoguchi?" Damian asked him one day.

"Yeah," Danny confirmed. "She invited me to join a club she's in during lunch periods, and I agreed."

"Would that be Serpents and Spells or her her so-called Detective Club?" Damian raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.

"The second one," Danny said, paying no mind to Damian's accusatory glare. "You know it? I've been really enjoying myself actually. I finally feel like there's someplace I don't stick out like a laugh at a funeral at this school."

"Well... you should be careful around the Detective Club," Damian warned. "They tend to get into undue of trouble, and often end up in over their heads when it comes to their self-proclaimed investigations."

"Yeah, I've heard their stories," Danny said. "Thanks for helping them out as Robin, by the way."

"As if I could allow my own classmates to subject themselves to such dangers and do nothing?" he scoffed. "Besides... Maps is... kind to me... and everyone. But she gets herself into too much trouble. Sometimes I think someone ought to keep her on a leash."

"Sure, dude," Danny said, laughing. "We should get to class."

"Ah yes," Damian clicked his tongue in annoyance. "The time has come to return to the loathsome drivel that passes for education at this institution."

"Yup!"

With that, the two parted ways.

Meanwhile, many miles north, in Alaska, a hunter, moving quietly through the woods caught sight of a green glow, and approached it.

What he found was a muskeg hole with a peculiar aura. Breaking a branch off a nearby tree, he used it to test the depth, only about two feet, and he felt the branch hit something at the bottom, probably just a rock, but... something had to be causing the glow. Luminescent algae? Some kind of micro-radiation? Could be dangerous, but... it could be something amazing.

The hunter threw the branch aside and took off his coat and his flannel shirt, despite the cold, and laid on his stomach on the ground, and reached into the muskeg hole, his hand brushing the bottom in watery mud all the way up to his shoulder. He felt something cold and something very hot.

When he pulled up the cold thing and wiped off the mud on his undershirt, he saw that it was a ring, made of some kind of strange metal that was black when he looked at it straight on, but as green as new growth out of the corner of his eye. The ring was large, and a emblem of a skull with two red gems inlaid in its eyes looked up from the signet, staring into his very soul. Like something was urging him on, he felt enticed to put the ring on, and though it had seemed much too big for him, it fit his hand perfectly.

He reached his hand back into the muskeg hole. Now that he was wearing the ring, the hot thing at the bottom didn't even bother him, and he pulled it out.

In his hands, he held a crown made of the same strange metal as the ring, and before his eyes, it caught afire. Green flames swallowed the crown completely and it rose just above the palms of his hands. As if possessed, the hunter put the crown atop his head, and he was consumed by unbelievable power coursing through his veins.

He had a world to conquer.

Chapter Text

Danny stumbled over nothing as he felt something jerk at his core.

"You okay?" asked Katherine, and he smiled at her.

"Yeah, all good," he assured her, rubbing his chest where he'd felt the painful tug. "Just tripped." It almost felt as if some of his power was being drained somehow. Not enough to be an issue, but still... it was weird.

The Detective Club had been going methodically through the school in search of the so-called monster that had been seen around campus. They'd already searched the main building, the museum, the greenhouse, and the dorms. Danny had missed that last investigation because unlike the others, he didn't stay in the dorms. He'd gotten the day off from Justice League stuff to join them on their investigation of the school cemetery and turned off his communicator. The odds that the League would actually need his help on his one day off were astronomical, and of all the places in the school, the cemetery was the one the Detective Club was most likely to run into a ghost.

"Why does this school even have its own cemetery?" he asked.

"The cemetery was here first," Olive told him. "Although why they would build a school halfway on top of a cemetery where witches were reportedly buried we're still working on."

"Come on! Let's check that mausoleum!" Maps suggested, jogging ahead.

"Are we sure about this?" Katherine asked. "Last time you guys went looking for a monster, you found Killer Croc."

"Waylon's a friend now!" Maps pushed at the door of the mausoleum, her sneakers slipping on the stone floor, but it didn't budge. "Locked! Colton!"

"I have it handled," Colton said, pulling out a set of lock picks from his duffel bag of 'detective gear'.

"Katherine's right, though," Olive pointed out. "The next monster might not be so friendly."

—

"Sir!" Hal Jordan approached the man cautiously. He wore some mysterious and most likely magical artifacts, and was slowly amassing a small army of mind-controlled civilians wrecking everything they could reach. The Green Lantern had already called for backup, preferably of the magical variety, but as the first on the scene, he had to do something. "I'm going to have to ask you to stop!" Hopefully, this could be resolved peacefully, without hurting the civilians under coercion, especially since he didn't yet know the specifics of his enemy's power.

There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to who the man could control and who was seemingly immune, and thus a victim of the chaos. As of now, he had fifteen people. They'd gotten off a boat in Washington State and immediately started destroying everything it their path, not stealing or looting, just creating carnage. At random, a new person would join the battle on the side of the burly man with the floating, on-fire crown.

"I am not going to stop!" said the man, and turned on Green Lantern with glowing red eyes. "You are going to join me!"

Hal was about to ask why the hell he would do something like that, but he couldn't say a word. His body moved on its own, joining in, adding to the chaos. He tried to fight it, but willpower alone wasn't doing anything.

"Now, we could use some transportation," said the man, and the green power ring summoned up a green construct platform big enough to hold everyone the man was controlling, and carry them wherever their leader wished. No matter how he tried to stop himself, the man's control over Hal was absolute. He was powerless to resist, though he refused to stop trying.

—

"Got it." The mausoleum door swung open, and Maps pulled her flashlight out of her backpack.

"What're you looking for?" Danny asked her. "It's not that big a room. If there was a monster in here, we'd see it already."

"Yeah, but I've never been in here before!" Maps was already on her hands and knees looking on the ground for something. "There could be another entrance to a secret passageway. The hidden buttons and switches are usually low so people don't see them at eye level."

Pomeline sighed at the girl, then stiffened and whipped around suddenly, looking back outside. "Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?" Maps asked excitedly, jumping back up to her feet and looking under Pom's arm.

"You mean that... slithering sound?" Danny asked. That particular sound had become pretty familiar to him during his months in Gotham City. "No." Please Ancients, tell him the monster they were looking for wasn't Lady Gotham.

"It sounded like a snake moving through grass," Pomeline described. "Like, a really big snake."

"I ain't hear anything," Colton said.

"Me either," agreed Katherine.

"I didn't think there were any snakes around here..." Olive said, taking a nervous step further back into the mausoleum.

—

"Lantern!" Superman shouted at his friend, who had trapped him in a green construct sphere. "What are you doing?"

"He works for me now," said the villain, cackling with delight. "And now... so do you."

Superman tried to refuse, to deny it, but when the sphere disappeared, he didn't even try to fight back. It wasn't the first time he'd been mind-controlled, but it was different this time. In the past, he'd never been aware of his actions, but now, he was aware of everything. His heat vision activated, frying buildings and trees from the sky, and there was nothing he could do to stop it, and still, he could see and feel and watch, helplessly, as a woman was burned to ash beneath his gaze.

And though he was the culprit, he was powerless to stop it. He understood now why Green Lantern had become a tool of the enemy. Even with his indomitable will, he hadn't had a choice.

The villain cackled some more, pleased as punch about how much success his rampage was being met with, but it had to end eventually, Superman knew. He couldn't control everyone, otherwise his army would be a lot bigger than twenty-seven random people, several of them senior citizens, and two superheroes. They could only hope that a Leaguer would come that the villain couldn't control, and then they might be saved. Of course, now they'd have to defeat Superman and Green Lantern first, before even reaching the villain. 

And didn't these things usually get worse before they got better? Watching the carnage they left as they flew over the country, Superman could only pray that someone with Kryptonite showed up first.

—

̴̹̐̂ͬ̾̉̓R̶̼e̘̠̞̥̲͚̻ͧv̠̫̜̘̲̎͒ͯ͗̔̈́͢ẹ̼̫̗̯̬̊̊̒̃ͮ̽a͔͖̹͂l͈̱͗͒ͧ̋̉̏͆͠ ͙̤͙͐͋̓̓̅̎y͈̬̰͖̥̖ͅo͍̳̯̞u̲̫͕̍ͪ̑̉͂r̙̫̘̬̪ͬ͡s̰͎̯̉̎e̦͙ͮ̋̍l̴̻͖̲̣͚̾f̖̯͎͂̉͟

Pomeline tried reciting a spell she'd found in one of her books to reveal hidden things, but it didn't work.

͔͉̫̫͇͍̩̀R̻̫̼̘e͡v̭e̬a̶̪̻̥̼̳l̞̦͟ ̫̥͟y̺̭̗͕̠̯̻o̝̹̥̼̮̻̙͡u҉͕̠r̲s̸͍̮̘̗e̴l͞f̥̠͇̻̣

She tried again, but no dice. "Damn it! Why can't I ever get any of these stupid spells to work!?"

"It's just slow going because you're teaching yourself," Maps reassured her. "You'll get it eventually."

"Have these spells ever worked for you?" Danny asked.

"You don't have to rub it in!" she snapped, shooting him an impressive glare.

"I wasn't trying to," he said, holding his hands up in surrender. "I'm just thinking, if you've never been able to use them just as plain spells, you might need a focus."

"I am focusing!"

"I mean a focus like a magical object you can draw power from to cast spells when you don't have natural magic," Danny clarified. "I'm pretty sure I read about them in one of you magic books." He hadn't actually read any of Pomeline's magic books, but surely they had to be mentioned.

"I don't remember that in any of my books."

"Oh! Like in Serpents and Spells!" Maps chimed in. "In order to cast spells you have to have a wand or a staff or a holy symbol or something. Do you have anything like that Pom?"

"Maybe I read it in one of Maps' Serpents and Spells books," Danny said with a shrug, thankful for the convenient excuse, although he would probably have to learn Serpents and Spells now to cover that lie. "But it's still worth a shot. Do you have anything on you with magical properties? One of your books, maybe? I don't know if it would work but..."

"What about your necklace?" Colton suggested. "Didn't Amity Arkham give it to your family? And ain't it mighty old?"

Pomeline reached up to her necklace, worrying the silver pendant under her fingers. "I guess so."

"Try the spell again, but this time, instead of casting it from your own power, try to focus the spell through your necklace," Danny suggested, hoping it wouldn't be too suspicious that he knew about all this stuff. He was supposed to be their ghost expert, not their magic expert. Thankfully, none of them seemed to think about it too much.

Taking a deep breath, Pomeline tried the spell again, this time closing her eyes and channeling it through her necklace. If it had magic power, it would work.

̵̽ͨ̓̊͂̚R̶̞̖̝͙̞̺̬͐̐ẹͭͪ̃̀ͩ͘v̡ͦ̽̄̌̄ë̪͔̯͈͖͚̦́͒̔̒aͯ̉͋͋͟l͂̋̐ͩ̾ ͇͍͕͙͖̘̼ͬͯ̏͠y̪ͭ̄̆̓͢o̪͛͐̽ͧͩ͘u̹͙̙̺͐́̊̐͌͊̀ṟ͎̞̣̤̓͋͗s͎͉̘̥̺̓̎ẽ̡̩̜̗̦l̷̬̗̳̲̟͕͍̈ͪ̆ͭͩ͛f̖̺̏ͭ̓ͮ̋

Nothing happened.

—

The villain touched down in Central City. Wally was busy fighting Captain Boomerang—whom he thought was dead after his stint with the Suicide Squad, but Captain Boomerang always came back—outside a jewelry store he'd just robbed when the saw the green disk full of people floating overhead and a ray of Superman's heat vision beheaded a nearby stature of the town founder.

"Time-out!" Flash said. Of course, Captain Boomerang attacked again anyway because he had no respect for the time-out, but Flash easily dodged his boomerang and ran up the side of the nearest skyscraper to jump onto Green Lantern's disc construct which he was using to transport an odd variety of what appeared to be line cooks, bikers, twenty-something club-goers, and very old people.

"Hey now, what's going on here?" Flash asked, easily dodging Superman's heat vision, and moving an elderly woman out of his way as well.

"Another soldier in my army?" said a man with a flaming, floating crown and glowing red eyes, standing in front of the others. He seemed like he was the ringmaster of this circus, so Flash made to run at him, but when he did, he found that he couldn't move an inch. Calling out to his friends was a fruitless endeavor, and trying to shake himself out of the control was equally useless.

"Oi!" Captain Boomerang shouted from below, throwing one of his namesake weapons upwards, only to have Green Lantern block it easily. Superman turned his heat vision on the other villain, but the man in the crown raised a hand to stop him.

"No... I think I'll take him too," he said. A green rope wrapped around Captain Boomerang and pulled him up to the platform.

Worried about how he would fight Boomerang when he couldn't control his own body, Flash almost panicked. But Boomerang didn't do a damn thing. How was this guy controlling them? And why them and why these civilians, but no others? Flash couldn't understand it, and he couldn't overpower the control, even though he was still in his right mind.

It was like torture, being forced to watch as this lunatic in a crown made him use his speed to trash buildings and set things on fire. A nightmare made real.

—

"Guess my necklace isn't magic after all."

"Maybe there's just nothing to reveal," Maps suggested. "Try a different spell."

Pomeline huffed, but tried again anyway. This time, she framed the necklace with her fingers, holding her hands open, thumbs and forefingers forming a circle over her collarbones.

̖̗͈͔̠̥̫ͨ̄ͫ̎̿̑̀̕C͇͍͉̯̥ͪ͒̀̑ͮ̍ͅǫ̩̘m̻̋̒̓́e̯̯ͦ̑ͬ͟ ̟̙̜̎̋̈̉̒l̷̞̩̎̎̃̈i͈͍̬̠ͪͫ͗̐ͨ̐̚g̺̙̱͕͍̋̋̌́̑h͂̑͗̈͊t͆̈́͑͊̋͗͢,͗̂͆͆̎̚ ͍͙̳̱̠̦ͭ̎ͬͮ͝a͒͏n̷̫̖͇̭̭̜͈̄̏ͪ̈́d̜̳̖͍͙̩̝ ̱̾ͣͪ̄͗́c͌͒ͥ̊a̯̺̲͙͋́̂̃s̀ͬ҉̭̦̤͓t͒̊ͫ҉ ͕͙̫̥̪́͗ͥ͘o͆ͣ̎u̅̉̇҉t̩̰͑͋͒̄͊ͭ̚ͅ ͔͔̻̜͓̗̩ͨͧͭͯ͢t̡͕̩͉̻̠ͭ̀ͦͯͦ̃̑h͈̰̦̱̔̈́ͅḙ̟ͣͤ ̴̞̦̻͚́̈́ͦ̿d̪͖̰̤͎ͪ͌̍͡a̴̞͇̞̓͐́̀̈́ͮ̓ȓ͈͉͙̖̩̤̩ͫkͪ̑ͮ̊ͩ̎̉n̢̬͇͈ͯͬ̂͆̓e̞̺͍̝̖͚͂̋̽̐̐ṡ̳̺̞̺̫̘͇ͯ̿̊͒s̵̫̞͕̫̏̈́ͅ

She gasped when a tiny orb of light, no bigger than a gumball appeared. "It worked! OMG it actually worked!" she squealed, even as the spell fizzled out. Danny had never heard her squeal before, or seen her smile that big, a toothy grin as opposed to her usual mocking smirk. She tried the spell again, this time summoning an orb as big as a ping pong ball, though it faded even more quickly that the last.

"That's amazing Pom!" Maps shouted, literally jumping for joy, and everyone in the Detective Club leaped to congratulate Pom because holy crap, their friend just did actual magic and it was awesome!

"The second one was bigger," Colton noted. "I reckon the more you use it the stronger it gets!"

"You think?" Pomeline asked. She framed the necklace in her fingers again and bit her lip.

̡̘̌͋̐̂̓̔C͕̤̳͙̄͒o̮̟͔̲̠̳͆̋ṁ͍̭̱̇ͧe̤͎͚̬͌͋ ̲͓̊̒̆͐l̳͚͇͚̤̙̃͗ͥi̩̱̼͢g͈̤͓h̽͋ͅt̪̣͒͞,̲̻̄̅̐̇ͤ ̠̠͛̾̄ͫ̎ͦ̎a̸͎̐̎ͮ̌ͤn̠̔͗̈dͩ ̭̝̎ͩ̿̌c̟ͭͩ͊ͣ̚a̷͓̝̪ͬͮͧͣs͚̳̖͑t͊̐̕ ̞̰͇̻̻̼̿̋̄ͮ̚ͅo̼̠̝̝͕̪u̸̅͋͆t̸͙ͫͅ ̴̲̬̂̈͛̊ͦṭ͎̯̺̰̬̬́ͣ̃ͭh͎ͪͥe̯͉͚̻̐̈́͛ ͔̠̫̰̭ͧ͋̀̃̎ͣ̇d̡͍ͣ͑a̶͕̒̈̄ͯ̉̇r͓͖̺̟͚̎̅ͪͮ̄̋k̻͓̫̻͒ṇ̻̟̹̗̳͚ȇ̃ͫͯ͗̀̋s̼̻͉͋͆̾s̤̦͓ͦ

She repeated the spell with more force than before, this time, the orb was almost as big as a tennis ball and lasted for several seconds. "I think you're right. I just have to practice, like, a ton, and I'll be able to use magic like a real witch."

"I bet you can do it," Olive encouraged her.

"Totally!" Maps agreed, brimming with enthusiasm. "You've just leveled up from being our club's magic expert to to being our club's very own witch!" 

"That's seriously incredible, Pom," Danny said. "If anyone can become a great witch, you can."

"Hell yeah!" Pom agreed, her enthusiasm almost a match for Maps'. "Let's go find us a monster!" The rest of the club cheered their assent and the continued on through the cemetery.

—

As the war procession flew over the country it grew. Supergirl and Superboy both tried to subdue Superman, only to be controlled themselves and end up joining in the destruction. Ironically, the mind-controlled Justice League Members thought they might be saved when Lex Luthor showed up in his mech-suit with kryptonite, only for him to throw it away when the crowned man commanded him to, and start firing missiles into the streets.

Wonder Woman was the first magic user to show up, and the first to fall under the control of the villain. Wondergirl, who had been with her when she went to confront the man, did not fall under his control, but she was hardly a match for three supers, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, and Lex Luthor. And she had no idea why they had been controlled and she hadn't. She flew to the Hall of Justice and asked the first Justice League member she saw, Martian Manhunter, to increase the threat level and request full League response, including the Justice League Dark.

They needed all the help they could get.

The Justice League tried to put an end to the attack by setting up a hero barricade west of Metropolis, but rather than getting upset, the man in the crown looked thrilled, his red eyes burning even brighter. Almost every member of the Justice League and the Justice League Dark, as well as many of their proteges, had assembled at the edge of metropolis, with the exception of the other Green Lantern, who was off-world, and Phantom, who had taken the day off for some reason, and whom no one could find or contact. Even without them, the Justice League was confident they could put an end to this.

The Justice League Dark wasn't so sure.

One by one, the heroes were switching sides. Martian Manhunter, then Captain Atom, then Deadman, then Black Canary, Raven, Cyborg, Etrigan, Aquaman, Arsenal, Batgirl and Robin, each of them joining the enemy. With so many powerhouse heroes now serving the villain, they were fighting an uphill battle, and retreated back and back, toward Gotham as Batman's contingencies proved not to be effective enough when so many of his colleagues were working together.

What good was kryptonite if the moment it got close to Superman, Green Lantern deflected it, and he couldn't get close to Green Lantern to steal his ring with Diana getting in the way. This was an open battlefield, and Batman's usual tactics of stealth and sneak attacks were betraying him now.

Even the villains were starting to take notice of the threat, but that only caused more problems when Deathstroke, Red Hood, Harley Quinn, and Vandal Savage joined the ranks of the man with the crown.

Desperately trying to hold his own, Captain Marvel retreated, shouting to the others that he was going to try to find Phantom.

"You really think one more guy is gonna make that much of a difference?" Bumblebee shouted back, then squawked in alarm as she shrunk to get out of the way of a spell Raven shot at her.

"If you think you can get a hold of him, you should bloody well do it, then!" Constantine screamed. Him, Zatanna, and Dr. Fate were firing off spells like crazy and still couldn't get close to the actual enemy or the magical artifact he was using.

"We'd better hope he can't control Phantom," Zatanna shouted in agreement.

Captain Marvel scoured the ground for the nearest building with free wi-fi, before transforming behind a Starbucks and whipping out his beat-up old phone.

"Come on, come on," he muttered as the wi-fi connected and he found Danny's contact. He hit the dial button.

—

The sun was gone below the horizon, and though they'd been searching the cemetery since school got out, they found nothing. The day hadn't been a total loss. Pom had been practicing a few various spells while they looked, and though the more difficult ones still usually ended up being duds, she'd gotten pretty good at the light spell, and some of the other simple ones she'd tried.

After a quick vote, they decided to continue their search for a little while longer, but while Colton was handing out flashlights from his duffel bag, Danny felt his cell phone buzzing in his thigh. He turned so his body blocked his friends from seeing how he reached under his skin to pull it out and frowned when he saw Billy's name on the screen.

"I gotta answer this," Danny said and took a few steps away so he wouldn't bother them.

"Phantom we need your help!" Billy's voice shouted through the receiver as soon as he put the phone to his ear.

"Billy? What's going on?" he asked, thankful that his voice was only slightly staticky on recording in his human form, instead of completely unintelligible.

"There's a villain with a magic artifact and he's got half the Justice League under mind control. They're a few miles out from Gotham and moving fast," Billy told him. "Everyone who's not already under the bad guy's control is trying to stop him, but we're barely slowing him down. If you can't help, we're completely fucked."

"I'm on my way," Danny said, and hung up.

"What was that, Danny?" asked Olive.

"Personal emergency," Danny told her, then laughed. "My friend's freaking out about a science project due Monday that he hasn't even started and he's begging for my help," he lied. "Sorry guys."

"Lame!" Pom groaned. "Whatever. We'll just find the monster without you and kick its ass while you do homework."

"Sure you will," Danny teased. "I bet you don't even catch a glimpse of the thing."

"You're on!" Maps shouted immediately. "If we find the monster, you have to buy us all ice cream."

"And if you don't, you all have to call me 'your majesty' for a month," he shot back.

"A week!" Colton argued.

"Deal," Danny agreed. "I gotta go now! Later guys!" He started running with them all shouting their goodbyes behind them, and as soon as he was out of sight he transformed. "Lady Gotham, would you mind watching out for them for me?" he asked, and when he heard the scrape of stone wings and a soft purr, he took that to mean 'yes'.

He took off, headed west. He thought it would take him a lot longer to find the fight, but much the is dismay, it was already right across the bridge.

Chapter Text

"Zatanna!" Danny flew over to the nearest hero. Being a magic user, Zatanna was flying well behind the melee fighters, sweat pouring off her forehead from the exertion of the defensive spells she'd been casting. "What's the situation?"

"Phantom, thank god!" she said. "The enemy is a man wielding a powerful magical artifact, but we can't get close enough to tell exactly what it is, just that it's on fire and looks like some sort of crown. It's giving him the ability to mind-control certain Leaguers, but apparently not all of us, thankfully, although we're not sure why. He has some of our most powerful members, though, all the Supers and Wonder Woman."

Phantom looked more closely at the enemy and the people he was controlling.

"Oh." He understood the situation immediately. "Well... it's actually two magic artifacts, and he can control any person who's been touched by death. Everyone on that side, both the Leaguers and the civilians have died at some point, even if their heart only stopped for a few seconds, it was long enough for their soul to get a little loose, and that's how he's controlling them."

"Well, fuck, then you're the last person we should've called, huh?" Green Arrow groused. As the archer, he was also further back, and close enough to hear what Phantom was saying.

"Oi, stuff it," Constantine yelled at him. "Princey over there hasn't noticed him yet, so at least we can get some advice. Phantom, you know what this is?"

"He somehow got his hands on the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage," Danny said. "They're manipulating him."

"You're bloody joking!" Constantine was understandably displeased with the information.

"Tell us how to stop him before he notices you and controls you, too!" Green Arrow demanded.

"Actually—" his words were interrupted by the loud, gruff voice of the man wearing the royal artifacts.

"What's this?" the villain shouted, pointing right at Phantom. "Why don't you come play with me?" How dare this imposter try to command the true king?

"I think I'll pass!" Danny shouted back, floating towards the enemy at a leisurely pace with a barely suppressed sneer. "In fact, I think think playtime is over."

The villain's face scrunched up in anger, consumed with the fury of the damned. Danny actually felt a little sorry for him. No mortal was meant to suffer through that.

"What? Why aren't you joining me!?" she screamed. "Whatever! My soldiers! Attack the ghost!" he ordered, and all the people under his control turned at once to attack Danny, who wasn't the least bit concerned.

"̭̈̀͐S͇̮̺̖͕ͧ̽ͅt͇̩̫͐̌̉͂o͖͙͈̙̱̟̾ͤ̈͂̓p͚̻̱͍̺͊̄.̬͙̒"

There was no need for him to yell. Just a little authority, and a tiny hint of his ghostly wail to make the command carry across the battlefield, and every single person on the opposing side stopped dead. Looking around, he could see that thankfully, none of his teammates on either side looked like they were seriously injured, all though a few of them were a little worse for wear, and it made his core ache. He should've protected them better.

"I think that's enough of that," Danny said, floating through the frozen battlefield. The enemy had stopped at his command, and his allies had halted themselves, in part from confusion, and in part because they didn't really want to hurt their enthralled friends. Danny kept going until he was right in front of the false king wearing his crown, then stilled. "Give me my stuff back before you cause an even bigger mess."

The man obeyed immediately, taking off the ring first and handing it to him, and then the crown, which Danny allowed to hover above his own head, its flames calming slightly, comfortable in its proper place. Reluctantly, he put the ring on as well, so it wouldn't feel left out.

"What... what the hell did I just do?" asked the poor man, trembling before him.

His eyes had gone from blazing red to pale purple, though Danny doubted they had been that color before he'd picked up the ectoplasmic artifacts. He hadn't died permanently, but his heart had probably stopped a few times during the ordeal. Mortals weren't supposed to touch the royal artifacts, let alone wield them. He would survive, but he would never be the same as before. Danny could relate.

"You were possessed. I'm sorry," Danny told him. "The royal artifacts were trying to find their way back to their rightful place, and you got caught up in this mess because of them. Let this be a lesson not to touch weird glowing things in the future."

"Phantom!" He turned to see that Bumblebee had shouted out to him. "What's goin' on here?" He looked around. All the controlled heroes were still frozen.

"Oh, yeah," he said. "You're all free now. I'm not gonna order you around."

As soon as they were released, Green Lantern lowered the platform of civilians to the ground, and they started the long process of figuring out where all the civilians came from and getting them back home... if their homes were still intact after the devastation, that is. The heroes all kept looking at Phantom, glancing over their shoulders or openly staring. Their expressions ranged from awe, to fear, to confusion, to frustration.

"What gives, Phantom?" Green Arrow demanded, running up to him. "Didn't you say he was controlling everyone who's died? You're literally a ghost, why didn't it work on you?"

"It's my stuff," Danny said with a shrug. "These are the sacred royal artifacts of the Infinite Realms, and as king, they belong to me. Some random human who found them who-knows-where isn't gonna be able to control me with them. He couldn't even use them properly."

"Properly enough to control more than half the Justice League," Flash argued. He was angry. Of course he was angry. He had every right to be. "Do you have any idea how much destruction was caused today because you couldn't keep track of your 'stuff'? People died. He used us to kill people." Danny shuddered and pain tore through his core like someone had just hit it with a hammer. He gasped but Flash forged onward with the accusations. "Then you show up and solve the whole thing in an instant? Where were you?"

"I was busy," Danny said, his pain making him defensive, and more aggressive than usual. He had been busy. He'd been protecting his other friends, watching over them. "I can't be expected to babysit your asses 24/7, and I don't have to tell you everything, and I don't have to justify taking one day off, or turning off my communicator during it, either. The odds of there being a world-ending threat the whole Justice League couldn't deal with without me were almost non-existent. As if it's my fault it happened anyway?"

"It's your crown!"

"I was locked in a coffin for three thousand years!" Danny shouted back, matching his anger. This was why he hated wearing the ring of rage, it heightened his emotions, because in ghosts, stronger emotions made you more powerful. Danny didn't need to be more powerful though, he needed to not snap at the tiniest trigger. "How exactly do you think I should have kept track of them, huh? How the fuck was I supposed to know where they were?"

"I would think you would have put them somewhere they couldn't end up in the wrong hands to begin with!"

"You think I didn't?!" It was turning into a full-on screaming match now. "They're not just jewelry you know! They're powerful, ancient, semi-sentient ghost artifacts that can and will seek out their master on their own! One way or another, they would have made it into this dimension, but it could have taken centuries! I couldn't possibly know they'd show up today!" 

"You knew they were going to show up here and never mentioned it!?" Flash sneered. "How could you hide that from us!? You—"

"Flash, Phantom, enough." Batman's stern voice left no room for argument, but the ring of rage spurred Phantom to argue anyway.

"I'm not at fault here," Phantom insisted, scowling. "Neither is the man who wore the artifacts, he was being controlled as much as anyone else was."

"Explain."

"First," Danny took off the ring of rage and held it out to Batman. If he hadn't worn it, it would have thrown a hissy fit, but he couldn't have a reasonable conversation while it was on his finger. "Take this from me for a minute, but don't put it on no matter how much it tempts you, and it will try to tempt you. It's like that ring from Lord of the Rings."

"I don't know if I should—"

"As long as you don't put it on, everything will be fine, but I can't keep wearing it right now because it enhances my emotions, and I'd really like this to be civil right now. So please take it or it'll find its way on my finger one way or another."

"Alright." Batman accepted the ring and immediately slipped it into a pocket of his utility belt to resist the temptation of wearing it, and Danny breathed a sigh of relief. "Now explain what's going on."

"Flash is right. I should have told you about the risk of the royal artifacts finding their way into this dimension, and I'm sorry," Danny started. "If I had told you, you could have been prepared and avoided sending anyone who had experienced death, however temporary, to deal with the problem, and that's on me. But I think I already said it could have taken hundreds of years for them to finally get here. Semi-sentient or not, they're still objects and can't really move on their own. I didn't consider how long I could've been in this dimension before you let me out of the coffin, plus, I kind of forgot about them, and it was a stupid mistake." 

"I didn't ask for an apology," Batman said firmly. "I asked for an explanation." Danny rubbed his neck awkwardly. He always hated when Batman used his dad voice on him; it made him feel guilty, even if he hadn't done anything.

"Right... well I kind of said before, the artifacts were seeking me out because they belong to me," he began to explain. "The artifacts probably fell through a natural portal into this world and that guy," he nodded to the man Wonder Woman had tied up in her lasso behind him, "he must've found them somewhere, and he would've felt compelled to wear them, because they're powerful magic and they were trying to get somewhere and he's just a normal dude. But they aren't meant to be worn by a living person and he couldn't handle them.

"They made him go a little crazy, and brought out the worst in him, and they have an innate desire to rule the dead, which, in a world of living people translates into a desire to make everyone dead so they can rule everyone." Danny grimaced. Ghostly artifacts really, really didn't belong in the real world. "It wasn't really his fault. He didn't have any more control over his actions than the people he controlled." He looked imploringly at the bat.

"I understand," Batman said. "Continue."

"Not much else to say." Danny shrugged. "The artifacts sensed me somewhere to the east and started moving that way. That's pretty much the whole situation."

"You said he wasn't using them properly," Green Arrow pointed out. "What did you mean by that?"

"A human can't use them properly," Danny answered easily. "If they could, he would have summoned skeletons and corpses out of their graves, and that would've been an even bigger problem, but a human can never become the ghost king, and only the ghost king can use the royal artifacts to their full potential.

"The ring enhances emotions because that makes a ghost more powerful, but in a human it just makes them emotional, and unpredictable. The crown acts as a sort of backup generator I guess. It 'burns with the eternal flames of the Infinite Realms so the king may draw power from it and never grow weak'," at least, that was how Frostbite had explained it to him, "but humans don't draw power from the Infinite Realms, so the crown just allowed that guy to draw power from me.

"Anyone who wields the two of them together, can command the dead, although how well they can depends on the person. Seems like this guy could only control living people who've died before and full-fledged ghosts like Deadman."

"In that case, I hope you won't mind putting those things away somewhere?" Black Canary requested. "No offense, it's not that I don't trust you, but I don't like the idea of you being able to control me whenever you please just because I flat-lined for three-and-a-half minutes four years ago."

"Oh, uh... I have no problem putting them away somewhere, if that makes you feel better, but I don't need the royal artifacts to command the dead," Danny said, promptly putting his foot directly in his mouth, like a complete idiot. "The king has that power even without the artifacts as long as his throne isn't in question, and since no ghost has made any solid attempts to dethrone me, mine isn't. Technically, I could've done it whenever, but I've been mind-controlled before and it sucks, so I would never do that to you guys unless I absolutely had to, like today."

"You could have just controlled us whenever you wanted to?" Supergirl demanded furiously. "That's horrible!"

"Hey, I didn't chose this power!" Danny defended. "I don't even want this power. I literally tried to give up this stupid throne and this stupid title dozens of times! nobody gets a choice here."

"Everyone calm down," Raven said, she and Constantine had been using teleportation magic to return the civilians back home and she'd overheard. "Phantom, you said that he was drawing on your power. How did you not notice your power being drained away like that?"

"I don't know if I'd say it was drained," Danny admitted. "I did notice my power being tapped into, but it was such a small amount I didn't think it mattered much. I figured it was probably Constantine, since I gave him permission to draw from my magic if he was ever in trouble and running on empty." 

For a long moment, his teammates were too stunned to speak.

"That... was such a small amount you didn't think it mattered?" Superman repeated. "He controlled over a dozen Justice League members, as well as several other heroes and supervillains, and you didn't think that much power mattered?"

"In my defense, it didn't take a whole lot of effort to take control of everyone away from him without the artifacts," Danny said. It was the wrong thing to say. The awe was gone. Now, everyone was looking at him with fear, horror, disgust.

"Just what kind of monster are you?"

He didn't know who said it. He didn't care. The moment the words penetrated the air, he was no longer standing in the wreckage of a battlefield, he was in the basement of his old home. It didn't matter who'd said it, because the moment the words hit his ears, all he heard was his mother's voice.

"We'll get that monster out of you, sweetie, don't worry," she said, as his back hit cold steel and a heavy metal lid slammed down on top of him. "This is just temporary, until we can separate that filthy monster from our baby boy." He'd begged and pleaded to be let out, even as the screws were drilled in, securing the lid in place, even as eternal rest started to overtake him and his eyes fell shut.

"I'm not a monster," he said weakly. "It was an accident."

"Phantom..." Captain Marvel floated down in front of him, bending over to look him in the eyes with concern. Danny blinked until he could see reality again. He was standing on the ground, not floating like he usually did around the Justice League, and he'd wrapped his arms around himself and he felt very small. He might've actually shrunk slightly. "Are you alright."

"Fine," Danny said. He cleared his throat and fixed his posture, standing up straight again, and realizing he had physically shrunk himself under the disgusted looks of his fri—his colleagues. He slowly returned himself to his usual size, hoping they wouldn't notice the change.

He put all the regal authority he could manage into his voice, shoving the scared kid inside of him into a dark coffin of his own. "I'm sorry my belongings caused you so much trouble."

"It wasn't your fault, Phantom," Captain Marvel said. "This whole nasty mess was just one big accident." At least one person was sticking up for him.

"Batman, if you'll give me my ring back, I'll be going now," Danny held out his hand expectantly, and Batman returned the ring, not wanting it to be in his possession anyway. "I can assure you this won't happen again now that the artifacts are in my possession, but I won't be part of a team with people who fear me. Consider this my resignation from the Justice League."

"What about the Dark team?" Deadman asked. Of course, he'd known the whole time that Danny could control the dead and respected him for his restraint. "We ain't afraid o' you."

"I'll... think about it," Danny said, and turned invisible before flying away so they wouldn't be able to watch him go. He flew straight to the safe house he was staying at, wondering if Jason would kick him out now that he knew what Danny was capable of. Just in case, he packed all his clothes and books and belongings into a garbage bag and waited.

As he'd expected, Jason showed up, though it wasn't until much later that night. "Danny, you here?" he called out, and Danny walked into the living room to see him closing the door with a young woman leaning heavily on him and a little kid at his heels. Instantly, Danny left the room and returned with the first aid kit.

"Don't worry Marsha," Jason told the woman as he carried her over to the couch and helped her down. "Danny here's a friend of mine, and he's gonna fix you up real good. I'll take care of everything else. Danny, come here a second." They retreated a little and spoke in hushed whispers. "That's Marsha, her husband beat her and she tried to take her son and leave but he kidnapped them. They're both still suffering the effects of the drugs he gave them, but they don't seem to be in immediate danger from them, and he dislocated her ankle so she couldn't run away. Can you manage that?"

"Yeah, I can take care of that, but... you're... not gonna kick me out?" he asked.

"I wasn't planning on it," Jason said, and at Danny's uncertain look, he sighed. "Look, what's between you and the Justice League has nothing to do with me, and I don't care about any of the ghost king shit. I know you wouldn't control me without a damn good reason, and I'm not any more afraid of you now than I was when I watched you turn the Joker into a ghost. And I still carried you home after that, didn't I? I've got other shit to deal with right now, and so do you."

"Right," Danny agreed and went back to the two Red Hood had brought to him while the vigilante left again. "Marsha, right?" The woman nodded, her eyes unfocused. The kid, too, was much too quiet for an eight-year-old boy. "I'm gonna take care of that ankle, okay?"

He knelt down in front of her. Jason hadn't relocated the joint yet, so Danny carefully shifted it back into place with intangibility and wrapped it up with bandages from the first aid kit. If there was no immediate danger from the drugs then all their was to do was hide any sharp implements in case they were psychogenic or depressive, give them food and fluids to reduce side effects, and wait for them to wear off.

Danny fused the knife drawer shut with intangibility, grabbed a sleeve of saltines, and poured two plastic cups of water. He carried them back to his two patients. "Here." He handed them each a cup before opening the saltines and putting them on the coffee table. "Drink that, and snack on these while I make some real food. They'll help if you're nauseous."

Hopefully neither of them were allergic to wheat or gluten, but there were epi-pens in the first aid kid too. He watched them a few minutes for any signs of averse reactions, but there were none. The two were extremely obedient, and Danny couldn't help how his chest ached thinking about how they might've been treated before.

He went into the kitchen to make some chicken broth with noodles. Food would help kick-start their metabolisms to help them process the drug faster, that's what his mom said to his dad when he had to get a root canal and the laughing gas wouldn't wear off, anyway. He didn't actually know if it was true or not, but he did know that drugs were more potent when consumed on an empty stomach, so some easily digestible food couldn't hurt.

His phone lit up with a text from Billy.

Srsly, r u ok? U looked freaked

He didn't answer until he'd finished and given both mother and son mugs of broth to drink slowly.

i was, a little, but i'm fine now.
i'm not going back to the jl.

I wasnt gonna aks u to

good.

But we r still frends right?

yeah. we're still friends.

Being called a monster by the people he'd put his trust in... well... maybe he'd deserved it, but he couldn't keep working with them if they were going to look at him like that. If they were going to get all nervous any time he entered a room, or jump when he spoke to them. If they couldn't trust him anymore, and it seemed like a good number of them weren't willing to after the day's events, then a partnership wouldn't work out.

Thankfully, his friends in the Justice League Dark hadn't seemed more than startled by the revelations, and at least Jason was okay with him, even though Danny didn't know about the rest of his siblings. Feeling so suddenly and acutely unwelcome in the Justice League had been a blow, there was no denying it, but it wasn't the end of the world. He still had allies, and friends, and he could still help people.

He turned on cartoons for Marsha and her son to focus on, hoping that might help them get over the effects of the drugs faster, even if it didn't flush out of their system right away, and kept an eye on them. Right now, they needed him. The Justice League would be fine.

Chapter Text

When the doorbell rang the day after, Danny opened the safe house door to see Duke and Damian standing on the front porch with a black Great Dane on a leash. Since Jason had taken Marsha and her son back home after dealing with her husband (Danny didn't ask how, but he could guess), Danny invited them in.

"Hey, guys," he said. "H-how's it going?" Cringing at his own awkwardness, Danny forced an anxious half-smile.

"We are well," Damian said. "We have brought Titus for the purpose of comforting you. You may pet him as you see fit." Danny's smile became a little more genuine at that, both the thoughtfulness of bringing Danny a pet to cuddle after everything and the intensely serious manner in which Damian had introduced the dog, the same way he did everything.

"Jason mentioned you weren't in the best place after yesterday," Duke told him. "And I remembered you said you used to have a dog, so we thought Titus might cheer you up some."

"That's sweet, thank you, really." He crouched down to scratch Titus behind the ears and stroke his warm fur, much to Titus' delight. "I'm uh... sorry about yesterday..."

"Don't apologize when you are not at fault," Damian said, sitting down on the floor next to him and petting the dog as well.

"Yeah, man," Duke agreed, taking a seat in a nearby chair. "You saved our bacon yesterday. We should be thanking you."

Danny didn't take his eyes off of Titus as the dog pawed his knee, and wagged its tail, and panted happily, not wanting to see the expressions on his friends faces.

"But the whole mess was because of objects I'm supposed to be responsible for." He reached for the ring of rage which was strung on a shoelace around his neck. The crown of fire was on his night-stand for the time being, but he'd need to find a better place for it soon.

"It was not the first time I'd been manipulated into killing, and despite father's best efforts, I am skeptical that it will be the last," Damian said dismissively, like that wasn't a completely unhinged thing to say. "I believe you've been informed of my past in the League of Assassins."

"Yeah, you told me about it before," Danny said. "What about you, Duke, you're not scared of me now?"

"Yeahh... I won't lie, it was scary as hell to see what your power can do in the wrong hands," Duke admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. Danny drooped at the admission. "But it's not in the wrong hands, is it? If anything, I'm relieved it's your power and not somebody else's, so no, I'm not afraid of you."

A sigh of relief left Danny's lips and he pulled Titus into a hug. "Thank the Ancients," he breathed out. Titus flopped onto his side so Danny and Damian could rub his tummy and Danny laughed.

"Cass isn't afraid of you, either," Duke assured him. "She feels the same way I do, but she's... different than most people. She sees more. Killing people is a lot for her, mentally—ot that it's easy for other people—but I just mean 'cause she can see everything people feel when they die, so she's locked herself in her room, and mostly only lets Steph come in, but she's one of those that'll always blame herself before someone else. Says she should've been stronger."

"I would like to know how that ability works," Damian said, playing with Titus' paws with a serious expression on his face that didn't quite match the action. "I believe it may help her to have the pertinent information. Is there any way to resist the control. Normally, one can resist mind-control with mental fortitude and willpower, but even Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter were enthralled."

"The ghost king's control is different," Danny explained. "You can't resist it with just willpower and concentration, because it doesn't overpower the target's will, it just ignores it. That power sinks its grip into your soul and your body, not your mind."

"So there is no way to resist it?"

"Well... not as long as the Infinite Realms has a claim to your soul," Danny answered thoughtfully. It was a power he generally like to forget he even had, so he'd never really given much consideration to how the logistics of it worked. "As soon as you die, even if it doesn't stick, and even if you don't become a ghost, the Realms have a claim on your soul. But if somehow your soul doesn't belong to the Realms you can resist it."

"So you can only resist it as long as you've never died?" Duke reiterated.

"More or less," Danny said. "Until you die, your soul is completely your own. After you die, the Realms also has a claim to it, but you'll still control it for the most part, unless that claim is invoked. The only way to really get around it is to promise your soul to someone else, but that's dangerous. Constantine, for example. He's died before, temporarily, but his soul doesn't belong to the Realms because he traded it for power—to a bunch of people, actually. His soul is basically locked in legal limbo because no one can take it without pissing off the others who have a claim to it."

"I see," Damian said. "Can you trade your soul after it the Infinite Realms has a claim to it?"

"Uh... I don't really know all the logistics of selling your soul, Damian. I just know that you shouldn't." He eyed the boy suspiciously. "You're not thinking of—"

"Tt. Certainly not," Damian assured him, turning up his nose at the idea. "I am merely curious. I would also like to know if there is a way to regain complete ownership of one's soul."

"Sorry, I don't know that either," Danny said apologetically. "You could ask Constantine, if you happen to run into him. He might know."

After that they switched topics to school, to Detective Club (which both Damian and Duke already knew about before Danny joined, even though it was supposed to be a secret), to much lighter topics, normal topics. Duke brought up Damian's past crush on Maps which Damian fervently denied, claiming his feelings for her were "the furthest thing from romantic" and turning the conversation to the girl Duke had a crush on, Ana, making the older boy blush and stammer in embarrassment.

Much to Duke's relief, their conversation was interrupted then. Less relieving was the fact that it was interrupted by a set of huge claws piercing directly through the air beside them and opening a radioactive green tear in the fabric of reality. Duke jumped out of his chair in alarm, getting ready for a fight.

"Mi trovis vin, amiko!" A glowing snout poked through the tear, sniffing the air and grimacing with a mouthful of wickedly sharp teeth. Danny couldn't blame him. Gotham smelled disgusting to a ghost. "Mi serĉas vin de tiom longe, mia reĝo." Through the tear stepped a man-wolf on two legs, covered in fur. He was dressed differently than Danny remembered, wearing a bright green Robin-hood style medieval shirt and pants and a black cape, rather than torn and ratty prison clothes, but Danny still easily recognized his friend as the portal closed behind him.

"Wulf!" Danny jumped up to throw his arms around his old friend's fuzzy neck. "Vi mankis al mi!" he shouted. Though it had been a very long time since he'd last practiced Esperanto with Tucker, the words 'I missed you' came back to him easily. The rest he had to think about, but he found them after a moment. "Kiel... vi trovis min?"

First, Wulf put him down and gave him the traditional salute and bow of the Realms, thumping his fist against his chest four times rather than the standard two, to indicate his deep loyalty to his friend and king. He looked older than Danny remembered him. White streaks and clumps peppered his black fur, and his claws, though still sharp, were not quite so sharp as they were in Danny's memory. Even a ghost's power could slowly wane if enough time passed.

"I have been trying to sniff you out since you vanished," Wulf explained in Esperanto. "I searched for centuries. I made an alliance with Princess Dorathea, and she helped me. I found you when I scented the royal artifacts being used, but it took some time to find exactly where you were."

"You speak Esperanto?" Duke asked, standing back from the ghost man-wolf warily. Damian stared up at Wulf with stars in his eyes and Titus stood up to sniff him curiously.

"Yeah, I learned because it's the only language Wulf could speak," Danny said. "I'm surprised you recognize it." 

"Jason knows it. He's tried to convince us it's the perfect language for secret codes a few times, but no one else ever backs him up."

"This is Wulf?" Damian asked, standing up and offering the new ghost a hand, which he politely accepted, his enormous paw swallowing Damian's hand entirely, and shook very, very carefully. "It is an honor to meet you. Your fur is very soft. You must take excellent care of it."

"Thank you," said Wulf, looking very pleased. "Who is this nice child, friend?"

"Wulf, this is Damian and Duke," Danny introduced in Esperanto. "They're some of my friends in this world." He switched to English to say, "Wulf is an old friend from the Ghost Zone." 

"A friend of my friend is a friend of mine as well," Wulf said, smiling. Though those teeth didn't exactly put Duke at ease, he still smiled back.

"Nice to meet you," he said. "But uh... maybe we should leave you guys to it?"

"But Thomas," Damian started to say, only for Duke to tap him insistently on the shoulder.

"They look like they need to talk," Duke insisted. "We can come back some other time."

"Very well," Damian said, pouting. He picked up Titus' leash and they left, saying their brief goodbyes.

"Are you going to take me back to the Ghost Zone now?" Danny asked Wulf.

"You are missed and needed there," Wulf told him. "But I must rest before I am strong enough to take you back."

Danny could have offered him the crown of fire, although he knew Wulf would refuse, not wanting to disrespect the crown, even if the king himself suggested it, and unwilling to risk any sort of dispute over the title. No, Danny couldn't let another ghost wear the crown. He could of course wait for Wulf to recover his strength, but then... he'd also been wanting to learn to make portals himself for a while, too, and this could prove to be a good opportunity.

"Maybe... you could teach me to make portals instead," Danny suggested hesitantly. "I've been wanting to learn, but I can't figure it out on my own."

"I would be happy to teach you, friend," Wulf agreed, and Danny grabbed the crown of fire from his room so it couldn't cause unsupervised trouble, and brought it with him and Wulf to the place he liked to practice new powers, a desert far away from any humans with very few animals that could be hurt if he made a mistake. "Let us begin."

—

Billy couldn't take it anymore. The wisdom of Solomon bade him to wait before confronting the rest of the Justice League about Phantom quitting to give them time to process, but that was his friend. Still, he'd waited patiently, but now that they were in a meeting, several days later, their first League meeting since Phantom quit, he couldn't keep his mouth shut anymore.

"Does anyone else have a matter they'd like to discuss?" Batman asked, opening it up to the rest of the League.

"I have one," Marvel said, raising his hand briefly to draw their attention. "What the heck was with the way you guys treated Phantom?" he demanded, scowling. Scowling was not something he did much as Captain Marvel, and his friends seemed uneasy. "I understand that the situation was stressful, and emotions were running high, but it wasn't his fault you got controlled. It wasn't anyone's. Calling him a monster was way out of line."

"I'll admit... that wasn't my best moment," Cyborg apologized.

"It's probably for the best that he resigned, I'm sorry to say," Black Canary said. Marvel grit his teeth against an argument, waiting to hear her reasoning first. If not for the wisdom of Solomon, he would have chewed them all out about this days ago, but Solomon urged him to wait and listen. "Knowing the devastation he has the power to cause, and that he possesses an ability he can use against so many of us will make it hard for us to trust him again... at least for a while."

Before Marvel could snap about how it couldn't be that hard to trust the person who'd saved them all, Zatanna spoke first.

"An ability he never used against you before," she pointed out. "If anything, doesn't that make him more trustworthy, not less?"

"He still should have told us about it beforehand," Flash insisted. "And about that crown and ring. If we'd known, we could've prevented it from escalating like it did, he said so himself."

"You always treat Phantom like a kid, but now he's made a mistake you suddenly expect him to be infallible?" Marvel asked, eyebrows furrowed and nose scrunched up in displeasure. Flash had been the worst offender. "You don't get to patronize him all the time and then yell at him for not being perfect. You can't have it both ways."

"That's easy to say when you weren't a victim of his power," Flash argued, obviously fighting not to raise his voice. "Even if he wasn't the one using it, that's what it was. We didn't get mind-controlled, only our bodies were controlled. We were still conscious and aware of our actions, just watching ourselves cause so much destruction without being able to stop it, or even mitigate it. If you haven't experienced that, you have no ground to say we were overreacting."

"Flash is right," Superman said, though he looked ashamed to admit it. "I've been controlled before, but... never like that."

"No, he's not," Supergirl disagreed. Everyone turned to her, surprised. She was the last person Marvel would have expected to defend Danny. "Look, I know I didn't react all that well either, and actually, I do still think he should have told us that he had that power, but also... I kinda get why he didn't. He knew it would upset us to know, and he never intended to use it, so why would he? It's no secret that I've never been Phantom's biggest fan, but I still worked with him just like the rest of you. You must have noticed he plays things close to the vest. How many other things do you think he's hiding just so we won't treat him like... well..." she didn't have to say 'monster'.

They all knew what she meant. Phantom never told any of them details of his past. He never bragged about his glorious ghost battles, or regaled them with the story of how he'd become king (though they knew from Deadman he'd won the throne by right of conquest). Now, they knew he'd been hiding at least one power from them. How much had he been hiding just so he didn't scare them off? It was hard to decide how to feel about that, scared or sympathetic.

"He's a protector spirit," Bumblebee added, softly, remembering the lecture he'd given her all those months before, shortly after she first joined the League. "He's told us all a hundred times, hasn't he? He was protecting us, but he was also protecting himself. He deserves his privacy just like anyone else."

"Exactly," Zatanna agreed. "Plus... even though Marvel's right that we shouldn't have treated him like a child, we can't just disregard the fact that he's a dead fourteen-year-old who unwillingly had the responsibility of leading an entire dimension dropped on his shoulders. I can't imagine how stressful that must be for him."

"Yet unlike most of us, Phantom acted with exceptional consideration for the team," Batman said. "He ended the control without making any unnecessary commands, trusting that no one would harm anyone else or attack him. He removed the ring of rage in order to facilitate productive conversation. And he willingly gave a comprehensive explanation for the situation.

"I'm not angry with any of you for the way you acted. I know you weren't at your best, and it was an... unpleasant experience to say the least. My own daughter hasn't come out of her room since returning home that night. But it's unreasonable for you to blame Phantom for what happened, especially now that you've had time to reflect." Marvel wasn't sure if he should be surprised or not that Batman was on his side. He probably should have expected it, but it still felt vindicating.

"That's just it, isn't it?" Martian Manhunter said. "There is no one to blame. The one who actually controlled us was being controlled himself. Phantom isn't at fault. And we can hardly bring a pair of inanimate objects to Justice. But there is still much pain and anger within us all."

"Yeah." Green Lantern sighed. "That." He'd been the first to be controlled, and had been unusually quiet ever since.

"We can't help but be angry after that," Black Canary said. "But there's nowhere to direct it for once, no organization to take down or villain to send to prison, no productive outlet for this anger, which makes it difficult to find closure. It's like a natural disaster targeted us personally to cause its devastation." 

"But an earthquake or a hurricane doesn't make you lose trust in your teammate," Marvel stated. "Especially not the teammate who saved you from it."

"I know you're right, you're right!" Flash relented with a groan. "But I still don't think I'll be able to relax around Phantom for a while. I'll send him an apology card, but if I can't even be around the guy without constantly being on edge... I don't know if I could work with him, even if he did rejoin the League."

"He didn't like working with you anyway," Zatanna pointed out with a quiet scoff. "You babied him more than anyone." Flash frowned at her, but said nothing.

"He told me ghosts are beings of emotion," Bumblebee said, fidgeting with her hands under the table. "If he were to rejoin the League while so many of us were anxious around him, it would probably hurt him more than anyone else."

"In that case... perhaps we should... delay in asking him to rejoin," Wonder Woman suggested. She hadn't spoken about the incident since it happened, but now that she was speaking, it seemed to Marvel like she wasn't completely comfortable with Phantom anymore either.

"That's fine," Marvel said, more or less satisfied. "I don't think we should try to pressure him into rejoining anyway. But he definitely deserves an apology."

"Captain Marvel makes a good point," Batman said. "Phantom already gave his own apology for withholding information, even though he did not believe it would become an issue. He deserves the same respect."

There was some general assent from the rest of the League. Even those who were still wary of Phantom were willing to agree after being called out on it. It was a productive conversation, Marvel thought. At least his friend wouldn't have to keep thinking the rest of the Justice League hated him.

After the meeting, Billy texted Danny saying the Justice League was preparing an apology, and they all felt really bad about how they treated him now. When Danny didn't respond for a few hours, Billy texted again, asking if maybe he'd overstepped by calling out the rest of the Justice League. Still, no response came.

After two days with no responses, Billy finally went to visit the address Danny said he was staying at. Danny wasn't there, but Red Hood was.

"Captain Marvel?! What the hell are you doing here?" Red Hood asked.

"I'm looking for Phantom," he said, eyes wandering the room, hoping for a sign of the teenager. "I know he's living here right now."

"Oh, well, he was, but he's not here anymore," Red Hood said, reaching into the fridge and pulling out a can of what Billy chose to assume was soda. "I'm surprised he told you where he was staying."

"We're pretty close friends," Marvel explained proudly. "Do you know where he is?"

"No clue," Red Hood said. "Robin and Signal said they came to visit him the day after that whole royal artifacts fiasco, and a man-wolf ghost came through a rip in the universe and Phantom said they were old friends. No one's seen him since then, but if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say that man-wolf took him back to the Infinite Realms."

Captain Marvel was completely cresfallen. "Do you know if he'll be back?"

"Not for sure," Red Hood said with a shrug, "But I know he left all his shit here, so there's a good chance." Marvel shifted nervously. He didn't like the possibility that his friend had left forever without even saying goodbye. "Hey, Phantom probably just has some ghost king paperwork or something to catch up on. He's only been gone for a week, and I don't think he's the type to up-and-leave forever without a word. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of him."

"You really think so?" Marvel asked.

"You and him are close friends, right?" Hood asked, and he nodded. "What do you think?"

"I think he'll come back... or at least, I'd like to."

"Well, there you have it," Hood said. "That's as good an answer as I could give ya."

—

"A portal is an opening in the curtain which separates worlds," Wulf began, explaining the ability to Danny before he attempted to open one himself. "There are many ways to travel through the curtain. Your friend Cujo can slip underneath the curtain, through the cracks, but I do not know that method. I rip the curtain to pass through, but the hole is quickly stitched closed behind me. Sometimes, the curtain will open itself to let a soul pass. This is how you transform from boy to ghost."

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" Danny asked.

"A halfa can always pass through the curtain," Wulf elaborated, "Because a halfa is part of the curtain. To open a portal, you must find and feel out the connection between the place you are and the place you wish to be. A halfa is the connection between the Realms and the real world. As a halfa, you can travel wherever you want through the Realms."

"How?" Danny asked. "If I'm the connection, how to I open a portal?"

"In your core." Wulf poked Danny's chest remarkably gently with his huge claw. "Close your eyes. Focus. Search inside yourself. Find your connection to the Realms. Find the gap in the curtain. Open it, and push through. Then find your connection to the real world, and push through the gap in the curtain again. I will follow you."

Eyes closed, Danny focused inward. His core was a crystal of concentrated ectoplasm. It had formed instantaneously, though a core would normally take months or years to fully form. It was the power source that allowed Danny to continue existing, and that held the Fenton Portal open.

It held the Fenton Portal open.

It was already a bridge between the Ghost Zone and another dimension. All Danny had to do was cross it. A green circle opened up in front of him, and Danny took Wulf's hand before passing through it excitedly, thinking he'd already done it on his first try.

They weren't in the Ghost Zone.

Instead, the pair of them stood in a huge cave of ice, at the edge of a frozen, green lake. The last time Danny had been here had been just a few weeks after he'd come out of his coffin. The Justice League learned that the ice he made didn't melt naturally, and Batman had asked him if he could freeze ectoplasm. Obviously, since his ice was frozen ectoplasm emitted from his own body, the answer was yes, so Batman had taken him here, to this lake. Danny had been the one who froze it over, ensuring that no one would be able to use the runoff ectoplasm's residual power.

"What is this place?" Wulf asked. "I do not know it."

"This is where I came into this world," Danny explained. "Through a natural portal into this water. It was not frozen then. I didn't mean to come here."

"That is okay," Wulf assured, placing a gentle paw on Danny's shoulder. "Try again."

Making a portal was a lot more difficult than Wulf made it look. Danny ended up in the wrong time and place over and over again, but every time he failed, Wulf would comfort him patiently.

"It is okay," he would say. "Try again."

"Estas bone." In each new time and place and dimension that wasn't the Ghost Zone. "Provu denove."

They would rest every so often to take a break, stop to sleep for the night, and Wulf would tell him about how the Zone had been since Danny's disappearance, and Danny would tell Wulf about all the friends he'd made since waking up in that new dimension, and how it felt more and more like home.

Finally, after over a week of practicing, Danny started to get the hang of making portals. Finally, when he passed through a toxic green circle, there was more green on the other side. He closed his eyes, savoring the fresh, pure ectoplasm that soaked into his soul. He'd made it. He was back in the Ghost Zone for the first time in ages.

Now to find a way back to his home dimension.

Chapter Text

Danny had never gotten lost in the Ghost Zone before. Even though the islands shifted, and the doors moved in an endless stream, and the 'landmarks' floated away sometimes. He couldn't always find his way in the Zone, but no matter what, he had always managed to find his way home. He hadn't understood it at the time, but now he knew why. It was like he could feel the Fenton Portal pulling him toward it.

All Danny had to do was follow his gut and let himself be drawn home by the portal he was connected to. Somehow, it was still on after all this time. Maybe he'd gotten the math wrong. Maybe the progression of time in the Ghost Zone had changed. Maybe it had only been a few years back home. Last time he and his friends had tested it, time in his home dimension moved at about two thirds the rate of time in the Ghost Zone, meaning three thousand years in the Zone was two thousand years there, but if the portal was still on, maybe that was different now. Maybe he'd be able to see his friends and family again after all.

None of the ghosts they passed on the way to the Fenton portal were familiar to Danny, but apparently they all recognized him. They gave him the salute of the Infinite Realms and bowed as he passed by, whispering to each other about how the king had returned, and how they couldn't believe it was really him, but he sure looked like the king.

"Friend... I know you wish to return home, but you must know that it is not as you remember it," Wulf warned him when he realized where he was following Danny to. "Intruders are not welcome in that dimension."

"Intruders were never welcome in that dimension," Danny scoffed, his Esperanto was getting much better after a week of practice. "Nobody there likes ghosts. Why do you think I was always sending you guys back? My own parents threatened to dissect me when they didn't know I was Phantom, and locked me in a coffin when they did. That's nothing new."

"It is different now," Wulf insisted. "Not safe anywhere in that world. Anyone who passes into that world is destroyed."

"I'll manage," Danny said. How much worse could things be now than they were with the Guys in White on his tail? "If it's too dangerous, I'll come right back. Does that make you feel better?"

Just as he knew it would be, the Fenton Portal was there, it's metal hardware old and tarnished, but still it was there, swirling lime green as it ever was, it's pull inviting, welcoming him back home.

"Be safe, friend," Wulf said with obvious concern in his voice. "Where you go, I cannot follow."

"That's fine," Danny agreed, smiling as he floated toward the portal, almost hypnotized by it, like a moth to a flame. "But I have to see it. I'll come back soon."

He ran his gloved fingers against the electricity-warm steel, and stepped through the Fenton Portal. Blinking a few times to adjust to the harsh sunlight, the first thing he saw was a rust-red sky.

A green ecto-ray shot toward him and he reflexively put up a ghost shield to block the attack. He took up a fighting stance, looking around for whoever shot it.

Much to his surprise, none other than Dan, his evil future self—actually, at this point he'd be Danny's alternate past self—was there, and he... was not attacking anymore. Protected by his ghost shield for the time being, Danny took stock of his surroundings. The sun burned red, bathing the sky in the color, and making everything look even more apocalyptic, not that it needed much help.

He was in a massive crater with nothing but rubble, as far as the eye could see, the occasional dust devil the only thing to break up the dismal view, whirls of sand and soil blown into spirals by the wind, gone in seconds. When he risked a glance at the portal behind him, he saw that all the hardware was cracked and broken and much of it had fallen off. The portal was no longer built into the basement wall but freestanding in the crater that had once, presumably, been Amity Park.

The ecto-filtrator was busted, and the portal was leaking runoff, leaving Danny floating above a shallow pool of impure ectoplasm, not as gross as most of the runoff pits he'd seen, but hardly clean either. Which was why he grimaced in disgust upon seeing Dan floating star-fish style in the pool.

"Have you come to finally put me out of my misery?" Dan asked, sounding even more miserable than that question might suggest. "Did Clockwork send you?"

"No, Clockwork didn't send me," Danny said, and watched as Dan turned in the pool of runoff, splashing around to look in shock at Danny, apparently having not known who he was shooting at before. "What the hell are you doing here and not in a thermos in Clockwork's lair?"

"Danny?" he asked. "Is that really you?"

"Yes it's me," Danny scowled and put his hands on his hips disapprovingly. "Now tell me what the hell you're doing here and not in soup prison?"

Dan's eyes were fixed on his alternate self, watching in amazement, like he couldn't believe what was happening was real. How long had he been here? Danny wondered. He let his ghost shield fall, but stayed ready to summon it up again if Dan so much as moved too quickly.

"Well, I was under the impression that you'd been missing for nearly a thousand years, and the situation in this world was getting irreversibly bad already," Dan explained. "So Clockwork sent me here as... community service. I destroyed this world to prevent them from causing the implosion of the Ghost Zone, and then was forced to rot here alone for the rest of eternity with nothing but shades for company. Do you know how dreadfully boring shades are? Terrible conversationalists."

"You expect me to believe any of that?" Danny demanded, clenching his fists. "You're right next to a ghost portal, you're hardly trapped."

"I am Tantalus," Dan said woefully. "Freedom is within my sights and yet, I can never reach it." Dan flew up out of the pool, ectoplasm dripping off him, and hovered unhurriedly toward the portal behind Danny, making no move to attack. As soon as he got within six feet of the portal, still a decent distance from Danny, he disappeared, then he reappeared twenty feet away in the same instant.

"I've got one of Clockwork's medallions fused to my core so I can't take it out. Whenever I get close, it loops back time for me to when I was farther away," he explained. "At least a world is roomier than a thermos, but still... I've merely traded one prison for another." 

Looking back and forth between Dan and the portal, and then around at the desolate landscape, Danny's brows furrowed.

"So Clockwork let you loose into the world, and you destroyed it again," he sneered. "So much for community service."

"My community is the Infinite Realms, not this puny little world." The bitterness in Dan's voice was the closest he'd sounded to the evil ghost Danny once knew, so far, and it was still a much more melancholy displeasure than he remembered. "I was it's king once, you'll recall. Before my timeline was eradicated, and My throne was abdicated to the quote-unquote 'true Phantom', only for you to vanish without a trace. What happened to you, anyway?"

"None of you're business!"

"As you say," Dan gave in easily, brushing the exchange off with with a wave of his hand. "In any case, I completed my community service exactly as I was expected to."

"By turning this world into a post-apocalyptic wasteland?!"

"Danny, you don't understand the severity of the situation," Dan said with a sigh. "You know, I'm sure, that if the Ghost Zone is destroyed, so, too, is this world, but it's not just this one.

"If the multiverse is a brick wall, and each world is a brick, the Ghost Zone is the mortar that holds it all together. If one brick crumbles or falls out, the wall would be just fine, but without the mortar, it becomes unstable. The whole thing comes crashing down. Some of the worlds might survive, but others would crumble to dust, and nearly all of them would be damaged."

Danny pictured that, but for some reason, it wasn't his ghost friends that popped up in his head when he imagined the multiverse collapsing. He imagined Billy desperately trying to save it, Batman making and enacting plan after plan, his kids actually working together for once to help, and none of them making even the slightest change. He pictured the Justice League suffering again, like they had because of him, like they never deserved to, and all the entities Constantine had sold his soul to coming to collect at once, out of spite, before they died as well.

He swallowed and wiped the images from his mind, then scoffed.

"You're a stone mason now?"

"When did you learn was a stone mason is?" Dan asked, oblivious to Danny's internal dilemma. "I certainly didn't know anything about masonry when I was a teenager."

"Dora," Danny crossed his arms. "And school. You'd've learned more if you made it past the ninth grade."

"Apparently so." Dan just shrugged and waved a hand, unconcerned. "Evidently, when you went missing, many ghosts saw it as an opportunity to run wild in the world you once protected, and humans became more hostile to them in response. Others believed that their king had been trapped by an anti-ghost group and attacked to try to get you back. I don't know exactly how it happened, since I was in a thermos for this part."

"You deserved that."

"Perhaps," Dan agreed, much to Danny's confusion. In his nightmares, Danny had met his evil alternate self more times than he cared to count, but it never went anything like this. "Anyway, I think there were several hundred years of various battles and skirmishes, the timelines don't match up between the two dimensions, so I'm not sure exactly how long it was. The ghosts started out with the upper hand, but the humans steadily gained ground with new technology and whatnot. Clockwork showed me how it all went down, but I wasn't paying much attention and it was a long time ago, so I don't really remember the details.

"What I know is that some old organization with white suits rose up to lead humanity's charge against the Infinite Realms. And that by the end they created a weapon. It was an... I don't remember what they called it, some kind of bomb. It was powerful enough to make the entire Ghost Zone collapse in on itself, swallowing itself up. I don't know if they didn't realize it would also swallow up every dimension in the multiverse, or if they were just so single-minded in their goal of eradicating ghosts that they didn't care, but obviously we couldn't have that."

"How is that different from the last time the Guys in White tried to destroy the Ghost Zone?"

"I don't know anything about any other time anyone tried to destroy the Ghost Zone," Dan admitted with a shrug and an apathetic raise of his eyebrows. He had been stuck in a thermos when that happened, Danny remembered. "Clockwork only told me about the one. But I would assume it's because no one was around to stop them this time. They had the full support of most of the world's governments and the general population, as I understand it. The situation was dire. As a last resort fail-safe, Clockwork sent me."

"Why the hell would Clockwork send you?" Danny demanded.

"Possibly because most of the Zone's other powerful ghosts were already trapped by the humans of this world," Dan proposed. "Possible because the sentimental old fool thought I might still have some protector spirit left in me—which I don't. Possibly because he knew he could trap me here, in a barren prison of my own design. I've been here for over a thousand years now, mulling that over, and I still haven't settled on which is the right answer, but those three seem the most likely."

"And swimming in all this nasty runoff," Danny muttered.

"Oh, nasty, I would kill for a Nasty Burger," Dan lamented leaning back in the air, his arms and legs spread out like a starfish again as he drifted like a leaf back down into the pool, to float idly on the surface, as before. "Or a cheese platter. I would commit unthinkable atrocities for a cheese platter."

"What is with you?" Danny practically shouted, furious. "You're so... chill."

"Well, I did technically achieve my greatest ambition," Dan said, and Danny supposed that was true, though looking around he couldn't imagine why Dan would want this. "It's terrible, by the way." No shit. Danny could've told him it would be. "And I've been trapped here for... I don't know how long, but well over a thousand years. I suppose you could say I've changed."

"You really think you can convince me you're... what? A good guy now?"

"Certainly not," Dan scoffed, making Danny feel frankly insulted by the nonchalance with which the man who was once the greatest enemy he'd ever faced was scoffing at him. "At most, I might convince you that I'm unimaginably bored, and more than that, that I am tired. Far too tired for world domination, or ambitions of any kind. The most I want now is... honestly? I can't stop thinking about that cheese platter. Mmm... It's all your fault. You're the one who got me thinking about food when I haven't eaten in eons."

"I didn't even mention food!" Exasperation was outweighing caution and anger at this point. He never thought he'd see Dan so absurdly pitiful.

"But I wouldn't have though about it if you hadn't shown up."

"You can't blame me for that!" Danny bristled, and when Dan let out an ominous chuckle the absurdity of the situation settled on him. He was standing there, arguing with his most fearsome enemy about cheese plates. He sighed in exasperation and crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't understand what Wulf was so worried about. He was acting all foreboding and saying I shouldn't come back."

"Well... it has been a while since anyone tried to come through that portal, but for a long time I had a habit of simply destroying anyone who came through," Dan admitted casually, as if that wasn't an absolutely deranged thing to do, especially when he'd been complaining about being lonely not ten minutes before. "I was angry at being trapped here, but I didn't want to be trapped here with anyone else, least of all some curious fool that doesn't know better than to pass through a strange portal when they don't know what's on the other side."

"So why haven't you tried to destroy me yet?" Danny asked.

"I did," Dan insisted. "I shot a ghost ray at you; it didn't work. What more do you want from me?"

"You're really... pathetic now, huh?"

"I'll admit, I've gone a little stir-crazy." Dan lifted a hand off the pool to twirl his finger. "Actually, maybe I should call it stir-sane in my case. But at least I have my own swimming pool now. I never had one before. Come on in, the water's fine!"

"That's not water."

"And I'm not actually swimming." Dan sighed. "I have so few things, Danny, why must you insist on trying to ruin them? I'm already imprisoned here until the heat death of the universe."

"Is the whole planet like this?" Danny asked, looking around again. He still couldn't get over how it looked now. It was hard to wrap his head around.

"Do you mean the buildings crumbled to rubble, the ground pitted with craters, or the sky red with smoke and toxic fumes?"

"All of that."

"Oh yes, definitely," Dan answered, nodding with a splash. "I leveled mountains, uprooted forests... the whole world looks like Kansas used to. Kansas is a massive crater, so it actually has more topography now."

"Thousands of years, and you still remember Kansas?"

"Of course, I've been waiting for a chance to make that joke for centuries." Danny could only stare for a long moment. "So, if you're not here to end me, what are you here for?"

For a long moment, Danny didn't answer.

"I just... I wanted to see what had changed," he admitted. "I didn't really think the answer would be 'everything'."

"Not everything," Dan argued noncommittally. "This world still spins in the same direction as it did when you were born. It orbits the very same sun. The plates still move, just like when you were a child. The moon is the same as you remember from your youth, and it still pulls the tides. The Grand Canyon is still here. It's a little bigger now, but it's there. I never could bring myself to destroy a beautiful natural wonder like that. Mount Rushmore is toast though. Fuck Mount Rushmore."

"So the only things that haven't changed are the changes that were already happening?"

"Isn't that how it always was?"

Danny blinked in surprise. He'd never thought of it like that but... he supposed that was true. Change was inevitable, but constant. The sun still rose and set, changing day into the night as the world spun. The Earth moved. The oceans churned.

"And the portal is still here," Dan added. "Although it went out a few times in the past few days. I assume you were learning how to make your own portals, finally? Took you long enough."

"What do you mean?"

"That's your portal, where you were created. It draws from your power, and you can divert it wherever you wish. That's how a halfa uses ghost portals," he explained. "I can't do it anymore, because my timeline no longer exists. The portal I used was wiped out, and I'm not a halfa anymore, so I couldn't take it with me."

"Take it with you?"

"I never could do it, but apparently, a halfa can carry their portal with them. Wear it around their core or something. I don't know. Like I said, I never figured it out. According to Ghost Writer's books, you summon the portal to your core instead of a place, and hold it there."

"Like a portable portal?"

"Sure."

That explanation actually did kind of make sense to Danny. If summoning a portal was usually about finding a connection to wherever he was going, then all he had to to was find his connection to this portal, the same way he had to follow it here. Only this time, instead of letting the portal pull him toward it, he had to pull the portal to him. He closed his eyes and focused on the sensation he felt that drew him toward the portal, and instead of following the feeling, he mentally tugged on it, like it was a yo-yo string.

Danny gasped at a feeling like something snapping into place. It felt... right, in a very strange way. He felt weird, but he felt whole, too. 

"Well done," Dan congratulated blandly. "Now you don't even have to divert the portal, you can just push it out."

"I never thought I'd actually learn something from my worst enemy."

"Okay, first of all, I'm flattered that you think I'm your worst enemy," Dan said. "And second of all, you already learned your ghostly wail from me, so that's complete nonsense. I could teach you more things if you want. It's not like I've got anything better to do."

"I might take you up on that," Danny said. "I still don't trust you, but you have convinced me that you've got nothing better to do. Right now, I've gotta go back to Wulf and then, well... I've already been away for over a week. I think it's time for me to go home."

"Whatever." Dan waved him off. "Next time you come, bring a cheese platter, would you, I'm still thinking about that; I'll be thinking about it for weeks."

"Ha! Sure. Why the hell not?"

Danny focused on the place he left Wulf, and pushed the portal outwards from his core. It passed over him like his transformation, a green disc replacing the white rings, but the motion familiar, and when he found himself once again in the ghost zone, the portal snapped right back to where it belonged again, like a dislocated joint returning to its socket, but less painful.

"Friend!" Wulf shouted as soon as he saw Danny pop into existence in front of him. "The portal disappeared, and I feared you may become trapped."  Behind Wulf, the old steel frame that had held the portal in place on the Ghost Zone's side was still there, but it was empty now.

"I'm fine, Wulf," Danny assured him, smiling. "I was just talking to an old... person that I know." No matter how much he'd mellowed out, Danny still wasn't about to call his evil alternate self a 'friend'. "He told me how to make the portal my own."

"I see," Wulf said. "Where would you like to go next?"

"Well... I've already missed a whole week of school," Danny said. "My friends are probably worried about me so... I think I'll go home for now."

"Very well, friend."

"I'll come back next time I get a day off," he promised. "There are still things I need to do here, but I have obligations there, too."

"I will see you soon," Wulf gave him a salute, thumping his fist against his chest four times for loyalty, and bowed.

"See ya soon, Wulf." Danny smiled and thought of home, of the safe house in Gotham City, of Jason who always dropped people on him that needed help, of the Detective Club, of the Justice League Dark, of Captain Marvel, his best friend in that world, and the rest of the Justice League, who'd taken him in, even though they weren't on the best terms at the moment. Green flooded his vision, and then he was standing in his living room staring at eh cross-stitch wall hanging that read 'Safe House Sweet Safe House'. He was home.

Seconds later, his phone started buzzing in his right thigh, vibrating and pinging with dozens of new messages he hadn't been able to receive because he was in another dimension, or a different time. His smile widened and he transformed back into a human, reaching his hand into his thigh to check to messages he'd been sent in the past ten days (give or take).

35 messages from Billy
3 messages from Cass 🖤
21 messages from Dick
4 messages from Jason
11 messages from Maps 🔍
5 messages from Pomeline
14 messages from Steph <3
13 messages from Duke
3 messages from Colton
1 message from Tim
1 message from Babs

He was almost afraid to turn his Justice League communicator back on and see how many messages he'd gotten from his friends and allies who didn't know his personal phone number, so he opted to hold off on that for a while. He flopped down on the couch, getting ready to go through all of them.

He started with the low numbers. Barbara and Tim had both sent him messages with links, but when he clicked on them, nothing happened. Seconds later, both Barbara and Tim sent him 'welcome back' messages asking where he went. After a moment of consideration he responded to each of them.

i was training. i can make ghost portals now!

Cass' texts consisted mostly of emojis, since she wasn't the best with words, but he got the message that she was assuring him they were on good terms, no matter what had happened before he left, and he sent her a response that he appreciated it and was looking forward to seeing her again. Colton asked if he was sick and when he would be back at school, which was an easy answer.

i'm fine. i'll be back at school tomorrow. 

Jason's messages consisted of two warnings that there would be someone in the safe house if he came back then, each followed by a message that everything had been taken care of and the safe house was empty again. Danny messaged him letting him know he was back at the safe house now. At least he was courteous about that kind of thing, even if Danny didn't receive the messages until he got back. Pomeline asked when he'd be back at school as well, and also informed him that she'd mastered the light spell and had finally gotten a plant growing spell to work, though it needed improvement.

i'll be back tomorrow,
and that's awesome! i can't wait to see it in person!

Maps had the same questions, but her earlier messages were just rubbing it in his face that they'd definitely seen the monster, and describing it as a glob of black snot—which was disgusting by the way—and lamenting that they hadn't been able to catch it or anything, but he still totally owed them ice cream. She'd also attached a blurry photo of what looked like it might be the edge of Lady Gotham's wings, but might just as easily be one of the hundreds of gargoyles in the city. He snickered.

that doesn't look like a monster to me.
definitely doesn't look like it's worth ice cream.
we'll talk more at school tomorrow.

Duke asked him if he was okay and where he was several times, alongside some warnings that the school was definitely gonna notice all these unexcused absences and he'd better have a damn good explanation for the principal. Danny explained the situation similarly to how he'd explained it to Tim and Barbara and added that he'd come up with something to appease the principal.

Just as he was going to check his messages from Steph, a text came in from Jason.

A letter came from your school. They want to talk to you and your parents about your unexplained absences. I can cover as your parent, if you want, but you were out for a whole week without a word. We're going to have to tell them you were kidnapped, or something, if you want to stay out of detention.

i can live with that.
we can talk about a cover story later. 

 Capitalize your sentences, you nerd.

no. <3

Steph's messages consisted of two or three worried questions in the beginning followed by a stream of ridiculous memes about dying varying ways and disappearing to never be found, and Danny was laughing heartily as he got to the bottom and texted her that he was alive, and she responded with another meme that just said "I lived bitch" overlaid on the grainy newspaper photo that girl had taken of Phantom at the Joker Memorial Parade, and a confetti emoji. 

Dick's messages were all asking if he was okay, and where he was, and when he'd be back. It seemed like Dick texted his twice a day since he left, and Danny responded with the same explanation he'd given the others.

sorry i didn't respond.
i was training to make ghost portals in another dimension, so there was no service.
i'm back now, and safe.

Dick responded almost immediately.

Thank god!
I was worried out of my mind!
I'm so happy your safe!

Lastly, Danny scrolled through Billy's messages. Their contents varied from apologies, to congratulations, to questions, to worry, to just talking about his day and saying how much he missed Danny and that he was bored and Danny should come back soon. Apparently, he'd convinced the Justice League to apologize for how they treated Danny after the royal artifacts incident, which was really nice of him.

He typed out a message that he was back, and Billy didn't respond for about an hour, probably because he didn't have 'Wi-Fi' although Danny still didn't fully know what that was. By the time Billy responded, he'd settled things with everyone else, and so he and Billy just chatted back and forth for a while, exchanging stories about what had happened during the week.

Chapter Text

Jason had been a little worried that the headmaster would recognize him from the handful of years Bruce had him in Gotham Academy before he died, but it seemed the old man hadn't seen through his disguise yet.

His hair was heavily gelled, with the white patch strategically spread out to make it look like he was starting to go gray. He wore a pair of prescription free, horn-rimmed glasses, and made a strategic choice not to shave in the last two days, hoping the stubble would age him somewhat. His muscles he hid, or attempted to hide, under thick, loose clothing. Even with all his measures, Jason, at newly twenty-years-old, looked like he couldn't possibly be older than thirty at the very most. 

"Mr... Fenton..." Headmaster Hammer said, raising an eyebrow. Jason and Danny were sitting in front of his desk while he looked severely at them over steepled fingers. "I expect you have a good reason for your... son... to have missed eight days of school without so much as a note."

Though there was no recognition in his eyes, it was hard to tell if the headmaster was skeptical that he could have a fifteen-year-old son so young, or judgemental that Jason—or rather Jack Fenton (Danny picked the alias)—had apparently conceived a child at fifteen himself. Not unheard of in Gotham, especially the poorer areas, but since Danny and his family had supposedly come from Illinois, Hammer might be a little more suspicious. And even if he wasn't, such a thing was still not considered acceptable in 'polite society', which Headmaster Hammer definitely considered his academy to be.

Having attended for almost four years, Jason wasn't sure he'd call the place 'polite'. Snobby rich kids had a tendency to treat other people like gum on the sidewalk. Although, actually, he did kind of miss school, especially now that he was there. Maybe he should finally get that GED and take some college courses, although he might not be able to since he was legally still dead. Right now, though, he had to focus. He was there to keep Danny out of trouble, not to reminisce.

He started in on the story he and Danny had decided on the night before.

"Yes sir, I do," he said, mimicking a Midwest accent since Danny's backstory was that he moved to Gotham from Illinois. He could see Danny purse his lips in his peripheral vision. Apparently, the accent wasn't very good, but it only had to convince Headmaster Hammer and it was too late to back out now that he'd started. "You see, last Sunday night when he was coming home from a study session at friend's house, Danny was mistaken for one of the Waynes, if you can believe it, and snatched right off the street."

"You're son was abducted?" Headmaster Hammer raised an eyebrow, unconvinced.

"You betcha." Jason nodded emphatically and ignored the way Danny was turning his face away to hide his smile at Jason's undoubtedly trite impression of a Midwesterner.

"And you didn't think to call the school and let us know?"

"If you don't mind me saying, Headmaster, sir, I had other things on my mind," Jason insisted. "I called all his friends, and their parents, and checked the places he usually hangs out. My son was kidnapped! I was a little more preoccupied calling the police, don'cha know."

He heard a sharp exhale from Danny. The kid was holding himself together like a champ, honestly. If it'd been Jason listening to someone's god-awful fake Jersey accent, he wasn't sure he could've kept from laughing in their face.

"I don't know if you've ever had to deal with the police in this town of yours but the were none too helpful, I'll tell ya!" Jason was rambling now, staying in character as the talkative Midwestern dad. "My sweet Danny'd only been missing for a few hours when they told me he was probably dead and there was no point to looking for 'im. What parent wants to hear that?!" he asked, completely aghast. "So I gave em what for, don'cha know, and finally got 'em to do their dang jobs!

"It took 'em almost a week to find my sweet Danny and I had to drive 'em like cattle the whole darn time with the way they were draggin' their feet. If I knew anything at all about investigatin' and whatnot, I probably woulda found him sooner myself. Thank God for that nice Mister Wayne, he tipped us off about a ransom call." Jason huffed a deep breath. "Then we found 'im, praise Jesus, and the poor boy's got a concussion and he's a banged up like I'd never seen. Poor Danny was all beat to H-E-double-hockey-sticks!" Danny snorted very quietly, almost blowing the whole operation, but thankfully, Headmaster Hammer was so focused on Jason he didn't seem to notice.

"And you couldn't have sent an email to the school once you'd found him?"

"My boy was in the hospital!" Jason practically shouted, scandalized at the suggestion. "Danny has a heart condition after an accident a few years back, don'cha know; do you have any idea how scared I was. I coulda had a heart attack myself! I already lost his mom. I was scared outta my mind I might lose him, too!"

"I was fine, Dad," Danny said, sounding every bit the annoyed teenager, whose parent was overreacting. The kid was a good liar, Jason would give him that much. He pulled himself together really well when it was his turn to help sell the story.

"You had a concussion, Danny honey," Jason said to him, then turned to the headmaster. "And three bruised ribs, I'll tell ya! His heartbeat was like a turtle, slowest I ever heard of. For a few hours there it was like it coulda stopped any second." Danny feigned an exasperated sigh. "They let 'im home from the hospital easy enough, but no way was I gonna send 'im to school in that condition. I am sorry I didn't call, Headmaster, sir, but it was just so stressful I didn't think to."

"But my bruises are basically healed up now, so as long as I don't get hit in the chest I'm one-hundred percent fine, and you don't need to worry anymore, do you, Dad?" Danny insisted. "I can go to school and not have you hovering around me constantly. I'm fine."

"Ooh..." Jason shifted in his seat and scrunched up his face like he really didn't care for that idea at all. "I still don't think he should be back at school so soon but... he's insisting. And I need to get back to work again too. I haven't missed too much, but more than I normally would so I can't afford to keep stayin' home and babying him anyway."

"No you can't," Danny said firmly. He straightened up and looked the headmaster in the eyes. "So I'll be back at school from now on."

"Very well," Headmaster Hammer relented. "It seems you have a reasonable excuse this time, but in the future, please endeavor to call to inform the school of extended absence. Regardless of the circumstances."

"You betcha!" Jason promised, ignoring the way Danny bit his lower lip.

"This wouldn't be the first time a student has been kidnapped outside of school hours, but we still expect to be informed when a student will be absent."

"I understand, headmaster, sir," Jason said. "But this is the first time it ever happened to my kid, so I hope you'll forgive me for not being quite so on top of it as the rest of your students' parents would be. As you know, we're not from around here, and the two of us are all we've got in the world right now."

"As I said, I'll pardon your truancy this time," the headmaster agreed. "Do try not to let it happen again."

"We will!" Danny said quickly, before Jason could respond with 'you betcha' again and crack Danny's resolve. "If that's all, I have a ton of homework to catch up on, so we'll be on our way."

"Very well," The headmaster stood to gesture them out the door, and Jason waved goodbye while Danny pushed him out into the hallway. "Goodbye Daniel, Mr. Fenton, I hope we'll have no reason to meet again soon."

"You and me both, Headmaster Hammer," Jason said. "Bye bye, now!"

Once they were out in the hallway and a decent distance away from the headmaster's office, Danny finally let loose the laughter he'd been holding in. Thankfully, school hours were well over and the halls were empty.

"What the hell was that?" Danny asked through his laughter. "That was the worst accent I've ever heard!"

"I dunno what you're talking about," Jason joked. "I thought it was pretty good. Fooled Hammer well enough."

"Well, Headmaster Hammer has obviously never met a Midwesterner before," Danny said, shoulders still shaking with mirth. "You sounded like the fragile grandmother of a Wisconsin dairy farmer talking to her church friends."

"Wow! That's so... specific," Jason laughed. "And what are you talking about? I was talking like you. That's what you sound like."

"It absolutely is not!" Danny snorted. "I've never said 'don'cha know' unironically in my whole life, and definitely not four times in ten minutes."

"Fuck you kid," Jason laughed. "I just got you outta detention for the next month and this is how you thank me? By calling me a dairy farmer's religious grandmother. You little shit." Danny gasped mockingly and put on his own approximation of Jason's god awful Midwest accent.

"You should watch your language young man, or you might end up in H-E-double-hockey-sticks," he chastised, and Jason shoved him into the wall with a scoff, making him laugh even harder. "It's not very nice to shove people and whatnot, don'cha know!" Jason wheezed.

"It really was so bad," he finally agreed. "I have no idea how Hammer didn't notice."

"Probably thought it would be rude to call you on it, in case it actually was real," Danny said with a shrug.

"Probably!" Jason shook his head with a lopsided smile as their laughter died down. "Come on, let's get outta here." He clapped Danny on the back and led the way back to the safe house. After all, Danny really did have a lot of homework to catch up on.

Even though he'd been gone for a while, Danny went right back to his old routines like he hadn't left at all. He'd been back at school for a day, and aside from having to collect over a week's worth of homework, it was just as before. Going to all his classes, spending lunch in the secret club room with the detective club where Pomeline proudly showed off her improving spell work and he argued with them all about whether they'd actually seen the monster or not, eventually agreeing to buy them ice-cream after school the next day anyway, and catch up. The meeting with headmaster Hammer and the homework overload had been the only things out of place so far.

When he'd finally turned on his communicator, he had over a hundred messages to read from the Justice League and the Justice League Dark. It seemed like there hadn't been any urgent need for him while he was gone, but the Dark League had lots of questions about how and why he'd apparently disappeared from the universe. That would be easy enough to explain, at least. They would understand the truth: that he was traveling between dimensions and not in any kind of danger. In all likelihood, they wouldn't even have any questions about it.

The Justice League was asking to meet with him at the Hall of Justice to apologize. He'd also gotten a message from Batman about his resignation being finalized. Officially, he was no longer a member of the Justice League, although if they came up against a magical or ghostly problem, they could still call on him as a member of the Dark team, for whatever that was worth.

In all honesty, Danny didn't really want to go to some forced apology meeting where he might be pressured into rejoining just because they said sorry, but Billy had assured him nothing like that would happen, so he agreed. He requested to meet them on Saturday morning so he could go train with Dan afterwards and maybe blow off some steam if it didn't go well.

When Saturday came, he regretted it.

He so didn't want to do this.

"Listen, you guys don't need to apologize," Danny started to say before any of the rest of them could speak—and oh wow, almost the entire Justice League was there, even the ones that hadn't said anything bad to him. Only Zatanna and Batman were absent since someone needed to be on monitor duty. "It's hard to see the worst you can do, I'm more familiar with that than you know." He remembered leveling an entire city block the first time he'd used his ghostly wail because of Dan.

Captain Marvel was standing next to Danny, looking cross. He was the one who'd convinced Danny to come and assured him it would go well, so he intended to make sure his word was good.

"You still deserve an apology," Supergirl said, and that surprised Danny quite a bit, because he always thought Supergirl didn't like him much. She even sounded sincere. "It was a stressful experience, and a lot of us lashed out at you in the moment. We shouldn't have, and we're sorry."

"You were the one who saved us in the end, and you apologized promptly for your part in the events, even though it was beyond your control," Martian Manhunter told him. "It was wrong of us to treat you that way, even if we weren't at our best after what happened."

"We don't expect you to come back to the Justice League right away, and we're not asking you to," Flash assured him. "Unfortunately, there's still gonna be some... anxiety, on our side and yours, probably. We just wanted to clear the air between us."

"We respect your decision to resign," Black Canary added, "and frankly, we admire the maturity you demonstrated during such a crisis. If we'd all been able to remain as composed, there might not have been anything to apologize for, but we weren't, and so we have a lot to apologize for."

Cyborg stepped forward, looking remarkably sheepish for a man made half of metal. "I'm sorry I called you a monster," he said, sounding absolutely sincere, and almost heartbroken. "I, of all people, know how shitty that feels, and I swear I didn't mean it. You're one of the greatest heroes I know."

Danny's core hummed with satisfaction, but his heart ached.

The worst part of being a halfa was when the two halves of himself didn't agree. When his ghost half felt a sense of duty to draw away his parents fire so no one else got hurt and his human half was trembling internally with fear and anguish because his parents were shooting at him. When he was in space and his human half just wanted to stare at the stars for hours, but his ghost half insisted there was work to be done and lives to save. When his ghost half got so much satisfaction from being acknowledged as a hero while his human half withered because he'd never wanted that, but the role was forced on him.

"Thank you," he said. "I appreciate your apology, but it's okay, really. It always was. My resigning was for your peace of mind as much as my own. Like I said, I always understood where you were coming from."

"It wasn't okay," Bumblebee disagreed. "You're always telling us you're a protector spirit, and that our words and actions hurt you, even without touching you. After working with you this long, we should all be better at taking that into account."

"Sure," Danny said, not wanting to argue. "Anyway, I accept your apology, we're all good now." He just wanted to be done with this. "This was fun, but I actually have someplace to be, so I'm gonna go now."

They wished him goodbye. None of them asked where he was going, but Marvel did follow him out when he left. Flying after him.

"Is everything alright?" he asked when he caught up in the sky. "Like, really."

"Yeah, everything is fine," Danny assured him. "I really do appreciate the apology, and thank you for everything, but having everyone there and all attention on me... it was kind of awkward. It felt weird. It wasn't quite like being protected at someone else's expense, but it was, enough that it was uncomfortable. Especially since I've been exactly where they were, seeing the absolute worst I was capable of and not being in control of it. I was able to prevent that timeline, but still... that kind of thing sticks with you."

"That sounds like it sucks big time," Marvel said. "Do you... wanna talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Okay, cool," Marvel said, and Danny internally sighed with relief that he didn't try to push it. "So do you actually have someplace to be or was that just an excuse to make a quick escape?"

"Sort of." Danny shrugged and wobbled his hand. "I was planning to go somewhere today, but I'm not on a time crunch."

"Where?"

"I was gonna go back to the Ghost Zone, now that I know how to make portals," Danny answered, since there was no reason to hide it from Billy. "I probably have tons of ghost king junk to catch up on. And I wanted to check the infinite archives and see if any of my loved ones became ghosts so maybe I could see them again. And if I had time I was gonna go train with—" he cut himself off, not sure how to describe Dan to his friend—"this guy that I know?"

It was then that he noticed the look of awe on Captain Marvel's face when he talked about going to the Ghost Zone. Come to think of it, it might be nice to have a friend with him. Ancients knew combing through those archives was gonna be mind-numbingly boring alone, no matter how well maintained they were, thanks to the archivist.

"Actually, do you wanna come with me?" he offered.

"Really?" Marvel perked up, excited. "You wouldn't mind?"

"Sure, why not?" Danny said, grinning at him. They landed on a roof a few blocks away. "You gave me the Fawcett City tour; I owe you one. Plus, it'll be nice to have some company. So, you in?"

"Absolutely!" Billy agreed. "Should I stay Captain Marvel for this or can I change back?"

"Either's fine," Danny shrugged. "Up to you."

"Okay then," Billy said, then called out, "SHAZAM!" A lighting bolt struck the rooftop and Danny jumped and flew several feet back in alarm. He'd forgotten that there was lighting when Billy transformed.

"Give me a little more warning before you summon a bolt of lighting out of nowhere!" Danny squawked, before letting his shoulders sag and returning to the rooftop.

"Sorry!" Billy said. "I promise I will next time."

"Alright, good." Danny smiled fondly at his friend again and held out his hand. "Let's go."

When Billy took his hand he pulled him close, until they were right up against each other so the portal would be able to transport them both. Danny still couldn't make the portals very wide, and Billy wasn't a ghost, so he wouldn't be able to shrink to make it through like Wulf could. His body was warm against Danny, who was as cold as death. He heard a quiet gasp from his friend and then pushed the portal outward, encasing them with green as they entered the Ghost Zone.

Chapter Text

Billy didn't have time to ask how they were gonna get to the Ghost Zone before Danny was pulling him flush up against him, his cool body sending a chill through Billy, causing him to gasp. All he could see after that was green, toxic green like Phantom's eyes, like pure unfiltered ectoplasm, filling his whole field of view. The green didn't disappear when Danny loosened his grip and Billy could look around and see where they were. It surrounded them.

He could see what looked like floating islands in the distance, swirls in the green like ectoplasmic whirlpools, and doors floating around in seemingly endless streams. He took a deep breath of acrid smelling air, and tried and failed to get his bearings. It was like he couldn't tell which way was up and which way was down.

"This place looks... radioactive..."

"It is!" Danny said excitedly, which was absolutely not what Billy wanted to hear. Maybe he should have stayed in his Captain Marvel form for this. "Wait, I mean, not really!" Danny quickly backtracked. "It's... it's not that radioactive. It won't give you cancer or anything unless you spend decades here. It's only a little tiny bit radioactive." He held up a hand with the thumb and forefinger pinched close together.

"That's... comforting..."

"You don't have to worry about the radiation is all I'm saying," Danny reiterated floating further away very slowly. "The fact that everything in this dimension can kill you and the only reason it doesn't is because it just doesn't want to is much more concerning than the radiation. Just don't eat anything. And... stay close to me."

"Right... I'll stick with you then." Billy meant to follow him then, but couldn't figure out how he was meant to move when he couldn't push off anything.

"Nothing will hurt you as long as you're accompanied by the king, I promise," Danny said, meeting his eyes sincerely. "Now come on. You know how to fly, right?" Billy nodded, brows furrowed in confusion. "You can move through the Ghost Zone the same way you fly as Captain Marvel." He'd already tried that, but this body wasn't made to fly like Captain Marvel did.

"I can't even tell which way is up, here," Billy admitted with a nervous laugh. "How the hell am I supposed to find my way?"

"There is no up," Danny said, grinning widely and turning upside-down in demonstration. "There's no gravity in the Ghost Zone, except when there is. And you don't find your way, it finds you, except when it doesn't, and you end up lost."

"You just dragged me into Wonderland, didn't you?" Billy was starting to get that sinking feeling in his stomach that he got whenever he was in over his head. He'd agreed to come without knowing anything at all about the Ghost Zone and now he was facing the consequences.

"Hey, you were the one who accepted the invitation!" Danny chuckled. "Stop worrying. I run this place, remember. As long as I'm here, you'll be completely fine. And I can portal us both out if you get overwhelmed. All you have to do it ask."

"I'm not worrying!" Billy insisted, indignantly. "I just think it would be nice to know where I am or where I'm going."

"That's asking way too much around here, dude." Danny flew on further ahead, but Billy was struggling to move at all waving his arms and kicking his legs, hoping maybe he could swim forward.

"Hey! Wait up!" his friend turned around to see Billy spinning slowly, unable to stop or change directions, so he flew back and grabbed him by the shoulders, holding him firm and steady.

"What gives, Billy?" he asked. "Don't you fly all the time?"

"Not in this form, and never without gravity!" Billy huffed, crossing his arms. "This whole place is... screwy."

"Here." Danny grabbed his hand and started pulling him easily forward. "I'll lead you until you get the hang of it."

"Do you know where you're going?" he asked, remembering what Danny had just said about how you couldn't find your way here.

"Eh." Danny shrugged and wobbled his free hand. "I know where I want to end up," he said after a moment of consideration. "Like I said, the way finds you. The Ghost Zone is a little bit sentient, and a little bit psychic, and space and distance and time are all pretty fucky around here. Actually everything's fucky around here. My goal is the Infinite Archives, so as long as I don't lose sight of it, the Zone'll get me there."

"Is that really how it works?" Billy asked skeptically.

"Probably." He shrugged again, which was not especially reassuring. "Hey look down there." He pointed down at a bile-yellow stream flowing through the vast green emptiness. "That's the river of revulsion. Looks like the Revulsaurus is further downstream now, but you still shouldn't get too close or you might throw up from the smell alone."

"Dude, gross!" Billy grimaced and scrunched up his nose in disgust while Danny laughed.

"Hey, I said I would give you a tour," he said, eyes twinkling with amusement. "The way I remember it, the Infinite Archives shouldn't be too far from here, but... well... nothing is anchored anywhere in the Ghost Zone so everything shifts and after three thousand years, I'd be surprised if anything is where I remember it being."

"So we're gonna end up hopelessly lost."

"Definitely not," Danny promised. "And even if we do, I can portal us home whenever. There's nothing to worry about as long as we don't get separated."

"And if we do get separated?" Billy asked nervously. It seemed like all of Danny's assurances were entirely dependent on him being able to protect Billy if things went wrong, and Billy didn't like being that reliant on anyone, especially without a guarantee.

Danny's grip on his hand tightened, and he slowed until the two of them came to a stop. Free floating. Danny was frowning in thought.

"I'm gonna try something." The green ring that had appeared when they teleported from the real world to the Ghost Zone appeared, but this time, instead of passing over them, it just widened around them and then shrunk right into Billy's chest. "Do you feel it?"

Billy nodded, his eyes wide, and his free hand pressed hard against his chest, as if he could touch the portal inside him through his skin. It felt hot, tingly, almost electric. Like there was a tiny lightning storm raging next to his heart that slowly settled into soft thundering once it got comfortable.

"Good," Danny said. "Try to keep it there. I don't know how well it'll work, but that portal is connected to my soul, so as long as you're holding the portal, I'll be able to find you wherever you are, anywhere in the Ghost Zone, and go right to you."

"Oh..." Billy wasn't sure how to feel about that. It sounded both strange and weirdly intimate. Was he... holding a part of Danny's soul? "Cool." Was it cool? Billy wasn't sure, maybe it was more creepy, or maybe it was a little embarrassing, even. He couldn't decide.

"Let me know if the feeling disappears, because that would mean The portal isn't staying with you and I'll have to find a different method." For some reason other than the obvious risk of him being lost forever in the Ghost Zone, Billy really hated that possibility. He wanted it to stay right where it was. He wanted to trust that Danny would find him, and that he couldn't ever up lost and alone.

"S-sure thing." Why was he blushing all of the sudden? Thankfully Danny had already turned away and started leading them through the Zone again. He pointed down to a floating island covered in thick plant-life.

"That looks like... yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the Never-ending Forest," Danny said. "That's Undergrowth's realm, and he's uh... thorny, so you probably want to steer clear. I've never actually seen it in person, only heard about it from Frostbite."

"Doesn't look so never-ending to me." The island was big, sure, but hardly never-ending.

"Not from this angle," Danny agreed. "But like I said space and distance aren't all they're cracked up to be here. You think you can see the whole realm from above, but once you land on it, you cold walk in a straight line for a century and not reach the other side."

While Danny was talking, a vine reached up from the island and wrapped around Billy's ankle. He yelped in alarm and looking down he could swear the vine passed right through him before Danny shot it with ice and yanked Billy away from it, holding him close against his chest.

"You okay?" he asked.

"All good!" Billy squeaked, and pushed away. "I thought you said nothing would hurt us!"

"You're not hurt, are you?" Danny asked in alarm, looking at the withered vine drifting slowly away from his ankle.

"Well... no..."

"Oh good." He sighed with relief. "Undergrowth doesn't really like me 'cause I kicked its ass once... well... twice now. Even Undergrowth won't actually hurt you, but spooking you is fair game. This is the Ghost Zone, you know, literal home dimension of all ghosts and the most haunted place in the multiverse. If we can't pull jump-scares on unsuspecting passersby every once in a while, what's the point?"

"I don't like jump-scares."

"Yeah, but they won't kill you." Danny smirked, and tugged his friend further away from the Never-ending Forest. "Come on. I think we're getting close."

Billy frowned at him. He'd thought exploring another dimension would be more fun, but so far it had been a more frustrating and freaky. When Danny laid it all out like that, it kinda felt like he should've known better. Still, it wasn't all bad. This place was definitely freaky, but it was cool, too.

"What's with all the doors?" he asked. He'd been wondering about them since he arrived, but even though Danny said this was a tour, he hadn't mentioned them yet.

"Oh, well, the Ghost Zone is infinite, meaning some things are so far from other things that people from one place could go their whole afterlives, potentially millions of years, not knowing others even exist," Danny said. "The doors are portals; they make places more accessible. Most of them lead to specific ghost lairs, but others lead to different dimensions, different times, different places in different times and dimensions. A few of them are basically warp gates to the opposite end of the Ghost Zone, like our equivalent of public transportation, and at least a couple just open up into actual black holes. Basically, no matter what's behind the door, it's usually in your best interest not to open it if you don't know."

"Yikes."

"Yeah, I've almost been killed a couple of times opening the wrong door in here," Danny said. "Most ghosts really hate trespassers in their lairs. Although, to be honest, I still don't know how they tell whose is whose."

"Sounds like a pain in the ass," observed Billy, watching the doors warily, as if waiting for another evil vine or something even more horrible to jump out and grab him.

"Not as much as you'd think." Danny pulled him gently through a spiral of doors, unperturbed by the danger lurking behind them. "It's not like ghosts jump through their doors and cause trouble for no reason. As long as you don't go out of your way to open them, they're just part of the scenery."

"Still..." Billy eyed the doors nervously and tightened his grip on Danny's hand. Getting sucked into a black hole was not on his to-do list. "The scenery in Fawcett won't try to kill you under any circumstances."

"You're telling me none of your enemies ever made the trees and mailboxes come to life with magic and attack people?"

"No?" Billy cocked his head an furrowed his brows, astonished. "Does that happen a lot to you?"

"Well... not the mailboxes," Danny answered. "Technus did turn the street lamps and ATMs into a giant robot a couple of times though. Hey! I think that's it!" They sped up and kept flying until the reached a lavender brick wall. Then Danny stopped and pulled them to the ground next to it, letting go of his hand. As soon as Billy's feet touched the grass, there was gravity again, and he sighed with relief. "Welcome to the Infinite Archives."

"Danny, this is a brick wall."

"Ghosts who live in the real world have a saying," Danny said matter-of-factly. "Doors are for the living."

"I'm not a ghost." 

Danny's transformation rings flashed and he stood there, looking very human, in front of Billy. "And we're not in the real world." Danny grabbed his shirt and threw him into the wall. Much to Billy's surprise, instead of smacking his head on the bricks, he went straight through, stumbling to catch his footing so he didn't fall on his back. A moment later, Danny's head appeared through the wall with a shit-eating grin and he stepped through after him. "Cool right?"

"What the hell?"

"Physics in the Ghost Zone is different. Most things are intangible by default, meaning they can only be touched by other intangible things," Danny said. "In the Ghost Zone, humans are the ghosts, because we're tangible, and the walls are not."

"How come I don't fall through the floor?" Billy stomped his foot on the ground a couple times and it felt very solid, thankfully.

"It's a voluntary thing," Danny answered easily. "You don't want to fall through the floor, but when I threw you at the wall, you didn't want to hit it, right? Even if it was just for a split second, you thought something along the lines of 'I don't want to hit this wall', didn't you?"

"I guess, if 'this is gonna hurt' counts?"

"Exactly," Danny nodded. "Now the real trick is finding anything in here."

Looking around, Billy could see immediately what Danny meant. The wall they'd come through was about fifty feet high and so wide he couldn't clearly see the ends of it, and floor to ceiling, wall to wall, the only thing on it was card catalogue drawers. Floating around the massive room they were standing in, were dozens of silver quills, filling out green cards and filing them, removing cards from the catalogue to edit and re-file them.

"This is gonna be impossible, isn't it?" Billy guessed, shoulders slumping.

"It's not as bad as you think," Danny said. "Archivus is super well organized, and they maintain this place. The time-consuming bit is gonna be finding the right rooms." He looked around, searching for a sign maybe. "Where are we now?"

A glowing purple orb appeared out of nowhere and stopped in front of Danny. As far as Billy could see, it was just a purple orb, but apparently Danny could see something inside because he nodded in understanding.

"Can you lead us to the citizenry catalogues?" he asked, and the orb bobbed down and up once and started to lead the way out of the room. Danny immediately started to follow, and Billy trailed after him uncertainly. "Come on, keep up. It's gonna be a long walk."

they walked in silence for a short time, focused on following the orb, but after a while, the silence got boring, and they carried on an easy conversation, keeping the orb in their sights.

"I know I told you a few days ago that CPS finally caught up with me," Billy said. "They stuck me in a group home the other day. There's five other foster kids there, I hardly get any time to myself, and on top of that, all five of them watch me like it's their job 'cause I'm basically the shiny new toy, so I haven't been able to run away yet."

"Maybe you should give 'em a chance," Danny suggested.

"Are you kidding?" he asked, taken aback. "You have no idea what the foster care system is like. I'm not doing this shit anymore. That's why I was on my own."

"You're right, I don't," Danny agreed. "But I used to live in a house that regularly tried to kill me, with parents who thought I was a monster, so it's not like I've never had a bad living situation before." Billy was about to argue that it wasn't the same as living with strangers and never knowing what to expect from them, but Danny spoke over him. "I'm not saying you should abandon all your escape plans, just, you know, give it a chance. You can't slip out right away anyway with everyone's attention on you, so why not? How much worse could it really be than eating out of dumpsters and sleeping on the ground at the rock of infinity. At least at a foster home they're legally required to provide a bed for you."

"It could be a lot worse, actually," Billy said, thinking of the horror stories he could tell about his last stint in the foster system, and others that he'd heard from other foster kids and former foster kids. Danny's expression darkened. No doubt they were both remembering the same thing. Being locked up in a small, dark space for an accident.

Billy had liked that foster home at first. He'd only been there for a few days, but the people were kind, a man and woman, and their bio-daughter Lorraine, who was about to leave for college. There was a color coded chore wheel, the food was good, and everything was kept neat and tidy. Billy had thought once that it might be okay to live with them. Once.

His fourth day there, he dropped a glass while washing dishes, and it shattered on the kitchen floor. The man had hit him for his mistake before making him clean it up with bare hands. Two days after that, he'd gotten up and left his room to use the bathroom in the night, accidentally waking up the woman, and the next night, they forced him to sleep locked up in the closet. He'd skipped school to run as far away as possible the very next day.

"Even if it's fine now, I'm not gonna wait for them to show their true colors," he said bitterly. "The minute I get the chance, I'm making a break for it. I barely had a free moment to turn into Captain Marvel for that meeting, and all my stuff is still at that house." Not having it on him, or at the Rock of Eternity where only he could access it, made him anxious. Since he'd been homeless he learned that any of his belongings not kept on his person or at his magical base were basically asking to be stolen.

"Sure," Danny said, clearly sensing that it was not a topic he should push, which Billy was grateful for. "So, aside from being the new toy, what's this new foster home like?"

"Noisy and chaotic," Billy grouched. "This girl Darla won't stop trying to hug me, and she never stops talking. And Freddy's obsessed with superheroes. You should see the pages in his scrapbook on you. One grainy-ass photo and a bunch of newspaper clippings covered in question marks. He blathered on about this whole crazy conspiracy theory that you might be a hoax."

"He wouldn't be the first," Danny teased.

"Still, you can't even imagine how weird it is to live with someone who keeps a scrapbook—several scrapbooks, actually, about everything there is to know about superheroes, including you, your teammates, and your best friend," Billy said. "I'm serious, I've never met a bigger hero fanboy. It's all he ever talks about. He keeps trying to get to know me or whatever, and all his conversation starters are hero related. 'Which would you rather have, flight or invisibility?'"

"I have both," Danny said thoughtfully. "I think it'd be cool to be invulnerable. It'd make getting shot way less hassle."

"You already have a healing factor?"

"Yeah, but it's messy!" When I get shot, everything gets covered in either blood or ectoplasm, or both, my clothes get ruined, everything around me gets ruined, sometimes the ectoplasm combines with outside chemicals and starts turning super acidic and eating through the floor, plus, it's just gross. When you get shot, nada. The only thing that gets messed up is the bullet."

"That's true," Billy said, only a little bit smugly. "But I only have invulnerability as Captain Marvel. As Billy Batson, I don't have any powers at all. You can use most of your powers no matter what form you're in."

"Jealous much?"

"Little bit, yeah," he admitted. It was really unfair how powerful Danny was, but even despite all that, the only power Danny had that Billy could say he was actually jelous of was the ability to use his powers in his human form. The number of stealth missions that would be infinitely easier if he could shoot lighting out of his hands as Billy Batson, or fly? It would make his jobe so much easier.

Finally the orb led them into another room and stopped. A sign was hung prominently next to the door, but it was in a script that billy didn't recognize. Once they were inside, the orb vanished.

"Is this it?"

"This it it," Danny confirmed. "These are the citizenry catalogues, which means every citizen of the Ghost Zone is listed here... somewhere. Are there any assistants here?" he asked, almost like someone might ask if there were spirits present at a seance. From the rafters flew seven or eight little green globs of goo with curious faces.

"What are those? They're adorable." Billy stepped closer to get a better look, and one of them floated over to rub against his cheek for a few seconds with a soft purr before zipping to Danny along with the others.

"Blob ghosts," Danny answered, scratching one of them on what appeared to be its head. "You can find little guys like these pretty much anywhere in the Zone. They form when ectoplasm coalesces around something and gets a little too concentrated. In the Infinite Archives, they serve as assistants to help you find things. All of them are personally trained by Archivus."

A few of the blob ghosts cooed and trilled. Billy had no idea what any of it meant, but apparently Danny understood.

"We're looking for some people," he said to the blob ghosts, speaking very clearly and carefully as if speaking to a group of toddlers. It was kind of cute, actually. "They may not be citizens, so don't be upset if you can't find them." The blob ghosts bobbed up and down like they were agreeing with him. "We would like to find my sister, living name: Jasmine Alicia Fenton; my friends, living names: Samantha Coral Manson and Tucker Axel Foley; my parents, living names: Jack Terrence Fenton and Madeline Christina Fenton; and one more, a halfa, living name: Danielle Masters, or Danielle Fenton."

The blob ghosts nodded again and then scattered, chittering and trilling.

"How long is this going to take?" Billy asked watching them open drawers, fan through cards and push the drawers closed again. One had to shove a quill out of its way and got bopped on the head with a silver feather for its rudeness.

"Not as long as you'd—" a blob ghost returned carrying a neon green card with dark purple writing on it—"think." He took the card and read. "Jazz made it here. She's going by Psychopomp, and her place of residence is... Amity Park?" Danny looked perplexed.

"What's wrong?" Billy asked, noticing the look on his face and guessing that something was amiss.

"That's where we used to live, like... live live," Danny explained. "Amity Park is my home town but... it's not in the Ghost Zone."

"So... does that mean she's still alive and living there?"

"That's impossible," Danny refuted, shaking his head, astounded. "I've been back there, and the town doesn't exist anymore, and it's been over two-thousand years there, so even if it did, she couldn't still be alive. Plus, if her card is in this room, that means she's a citizen of the Infinite Realms."

"So what's that mean?"

"I guess... somehow the Ghost Zone has an Amity Park now?" Another blob ghost flew down with a card and handed it to Danny. He read the purple writing. "Phantasm. Living name: Danielle Jane Fenton née Masters. Place of residence: Amity Park..."

They waited another few minutes for the rest of the blob ghosts to return and sway side-to-side with their heads bowed. "You didn't find any of the other names?" The blob ghosts repeated the motion again. "That's alright, thank you." He patted each of them on the head before handing back the two cards they'd given him. "You all did a great job." Billy patted a few of them on the head as well. They were squishy and smooth, and felt surprisingly nice to touch.

"What now?" Billy asked. 

"Now... I guess we go to Amity Park." Danny called for the purple orb to lead them to the exit, and they started moving again.

"So what's Amity Park like?" Billy asked, as they made their way out. He listened intently as Danny described his hometown.

In all the time they'd known each other, Billy had never heard his friend talk so much about his life before they'd met. For the first time, Billy learned that Danny's old house was also his parent's ghost hunting company, Fenton Works, and that his sister wanted to be a brain surgeon all her life until she was sixteen and decided she'd rather be a psychiatrist instead. Danny told him about Amity Park Zoo and how he'd gotten a 'C' on his bio project, even though he'd learned how to speak gorilla and his findings were featured in a scientific magazine, and he was still a little bitter about it.

He learned that Danny used to go to a school called Casper High and their mascot was the ravens, and he was bullied by the football star Dash who's family bribed the school to make him the varsity quarterback when he was a freshman, and he had a huge crush on the queen of his grade, Paulina, but she never gave him the time of day, even though she practically worshiped Phantom.

Billy was a little surprised when Danny brought up a goth bookstore that had slam poetry nights, since he didn't seem like the type for those things, but then Danny told him about one of his best friends in his home dimension, Sam, a hardcore goth. Apparently, Danny's other best friend was a tech geek named Tucker, and the two of them spent a lot of time at the arcade in middle school before it closed.

To Danny, it seemed the town was as much the people as it was the places, if not more so. The people, and the ghosts, who also made up a significant portion of Danny's description of the town. There was Sid, who haunted his old locker at the school, and Spectra, who impersonated the guidance counselor to make students depressed and feed on their misery. And Technus, and Skulker, the Box Ghost, and Ember, and Johnny, Kitty, and Shadow who just came to have a good time.

The whole time they walked, Billy listened, occasionally interjecting with comments, or asking questions to keep Danny talking. It was the most he'd ever learned about Danny's past by far. Maybe it was this place, the Ghost Zone, his home turf that made him more comfortable, but in any case, Billy wasn't going to complain. Finally, they reached the foyer, and the purple orb vanished.

"Your majesty," came a voice from a nebulous being made of ink and paper, with strange markings, and glowing purple eyes. The being wore a purple, pinstriped vest with a name-tag that 'Archivus' with the words 'head archivist' underneath. Scribbling quills and blob ghosts floated around them.

"Heya Archivus," Danny greeted with a small wave. "Long time, how've you been?"

"I have been well," Archivus' voice had a stange whispery quality, like the sound of fanning pages in a book, a the hissing and popping of an old, dusty record, "and you?"

"Getting better over time."

"I trust you found what you were looking for?" Archivus asked.

"Sure did!" Danny smiled brightly at them. "Your domain is even more well organized and easy to navigate than I remember. The guide orb is new."

"I have a whole fleet of them now, added fourteen hundred years ago, took over a decade for them to lead out all the lost ghosts," Archivus told him. "Best investment I have made in eons. However, me and the blob ghosts are still in the process of re-filing the catalogues of the dead-and-gone after a disaster with an angry poltergeist two hundred years ago."

"You're not working the poor things too hard, are you?"

"Please," Archivus scoffed, a sound like a heavy dictionary snapping shut. "I of all people know the importance of properly managed shift work. And we all take tea breaks at regular intervals, of course."

"Of course," Danny said. "Thanks for having us Archivus, but we have to be going now."

"Farewell, your majesty." Something like a limb stretched across Archivus' formless body to thump twice against the left side of their vest, which then lowered, as if in a bow.

"Bye!" With that, the two of them left the archives, and they linked hands so Danny could lead the way through the air again.

"Hey, what's with that thing Archivus did?" Billy asked.

"What thing?"

"With the thumps and the... was it a bow?" Billy had seen that same gesture before. If he remembered right, Deadman had done the same thing when he first saw Danny float up out of that coffin over a year ago.

"Oh, that, yeah," Danny said, frowning in thought. "That's the 'traditional royal salute of the Infinite Realms.' The thumps are supposed to symbolize a heartbeat, which ghosts don't have, and the bow symbolizes subservience. The whole thing is supposed to indicate that every ghost puts their life in the hands of their king, and not doing it is an insult to the king's authority—traditionally, anyway, personally I prefer when people forget about it. Two beats is standard, four for loyal friends and followers of the king, and six for the king's personal servants, but I don't have any, nor want any. In ghost speak it's called o̷͈̳b̨̳̟̘̱̣s͈̟̗̥̫̻ḙ̦͢r̝̪v͓̹̼̣̬̮ͅi̳̟̭̺t̵͙̩̖u̡̩͎̹̺̲̥̣d̡̩͍̭̞̖̼̘e҉͖."

"That's... kind of a lot." Having everyone in an entire infinitely large dimension put their life in your hands sounded as stressful as being the champion of all magic in the multiverse. Which Billy could absolutely confirm was stressful as hell, but at least it was him and every version of him in the multiverse working together, and not just him alone.

"Yeah," Danny agreed. "It's a lot of pressure and a lot of responsibility, and I've always hated it. Especially since ghost king was a total figurehead position for ten-thousand years while Pariah was locked away. They don't even need a king since most of the realms have their own leaders. In all that time, what they had in the Zone was a functional anarchy, and the king was never needed or wanted. The Infinite Realms is way too big to be ruled by a single person anyway; that's too much power for anyone to have. That's why I never use it unless I have no other choice."

"That's probably why they all seem to respect you so much," Billy said. "Zatanna told me about that Pariah guy a while back, and he sounds like a dick. You don't abuse your power, plus as a protector spirit, you always act in your people's best interests, rather than trying to conquer them. No wonder they like you."

"Yeah, well, it's still a pain," Danny said.

"Well, duh," Billy agreed with a scoff. "Responsibility always is. You think the champion of all magic doesn't know that?" He knew that all too well.

"Fair." Danny shrugged and pointed at medieval castle floating above them to the left. "That's the Medieval Realm, my friend Dora is the Princess and leader there. She taught me a lot of stuff about magic and leadership. She can also turn into a dragon. I wonder if her brother's still in jail? His sixteen hundred years should be up, but I kind of doubt he actually made parole."

"Ghosts can go to jail?"

"Depends," Danny answered. "In most dimensions, the dead can't be held accountable for crimes in which case, no they can't; but here, they can, since dead people make up a significant portion of the population."

Danny continued to give his weird tour, pointing out different lairs he recognized, but acknowledging that there were some he didn't. Finally, they came upon a town, floating on an island of it's own. Danny had had something to say about every place they'd passed so far, but when his eyes landed on a relatively ordinary looking town in the Ghost Zone, he fell silent and stopped dead.

"What's that?" Billy asked, curious about his friend's reaction.

"That's... Amity Park..." Danny said, and then dragged Billy down to the sidewalk in the middle of the town. He looked in awe at a brick building with a big ugly contraption on the top and a hideous neon sign. "That's my house!" He didn't let go of Billy's hand as he ran up the front steps to the door, dragging him along, and reached into his right hip, pulling out a set of keys which opened the lock easily. "The locks are even the same."

"This is where you grew up?"

"Yeah... the inside's a little different, but... not by much." Looking around, Billy decided he wouldn't live there if someone paid him to. It was hideous.

"Who's there?" asked a voice from upstairs as a woman walked down. She had long blue hair, glowing green eyes, pale skin, and she wore a black lab-coat over a red and black outfit. "Danny!"

The woman jumped off the stairs and flew to Danny, wrapping him in a hug. Danny finally let go of Billy's hand to hug her back.

"Jazz!" he said. "I can't believe you're here!" They pulled apart and he took a good look at her. "You're older."

"You aren't!" she said, just as surprised. "What happened to you? You just vanished one day and no one had any idea where you went." Danny's smile quickly started to droop.

"Mom and Dad didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Her smile fell just as quickly, and Billy knew right away that she already had several guesses based on that question alone. "What did they do to you?"

Billy cast his eyes down to the floor. This should probably be a private conversation, he thought, but he didn't want to stray too far when he didn't know how to navigate either the Ghost Zone or the town, so he just backed away and stood against the wall to wait in silence.

"They put my in a ghost-proof coffin and screwed the lid down," Danny told his sister. "I don't know exactly what happened after that, but I must've ended up in the Ghost Zone and then drifted into another dimension through a runoff portal and woke up three thousand years later."

"Ew," she grimaced. "Are you okay?"

"I'm good now, yeah," Danny assured her. "I actually kind of made a life in that other dimension. This is my friend from there, Billy." Billy's head shot up suddenly and he waved at her with an awkward smile.

Jazz seemed to notice him for the first time. "Nice to meet you, Billy," she said kindly. "I'm Psychopomp, but Psy is fine, or Jazz, I guess, but no one's called me that in millennia. I'm glad that my brother was able to find friends under such circumstances."

"Yeah, I'm glad I'm his friend too," Billy agreed. "It's nice to meet you." She nodded in polite acknowledgement, and then the moment was over and Billy faded into the background to let the siblings talk to each other for the first time in far too long. He didn't mind.

"Before we catch up," Danny said. "I have to ask... what happened to Mom and Dad, and Sam and Tucker? They weren't listed as citizens in the archives."

"Oh... well... you know Mom and Dad, they would've rather died than become ghosts," she and Danny both chuckled. A person kind of had to die to become a ghost, Billy thought, so it must've been some sort of inside joke. or maybe that was the joke. "When you were gone, there was no one to stop the ghosts coming through the portal, and when they realized you weren't there to stop them, more started coming through, and the ghost fighters that were left couldn't keep up, so they started breaching further out than Amity Park.

"Mom and Dad urged everyone to arms, and thanks to them, an all out war against the Ghost Zone started. I guess that was their goal all along, because they died peacefully, without any purpose or desire to keep on existing, and I'm pretty sure they wore specter deflectors 24/7. We discovered after you disappeared that a person who dies wearing a specter deflector can't become a ghost. Sam and Tucker never bought into the war on ghosts, and fought for ghost rights, and because of that, they ended up getting arrested for treason, and forced to wear court-ordered specter deflectors so they wouldn't become enemies of humanity after death. When they eventually died... well... that's why they're not here, but they always stayed true to their beliefs, and to yours."

That was dark... what kind of hell does a dimension have to be for them to have methods of ensuring people don't become ghosts and haunt them when they die? There was nothing remotely like that in Billy's home dimension. No wonder Danny was always so half-hearted in his attempts to return home.

"Why didn't you have to wear one?" Danny asked, and billy would be lying if he hadn't been wondering the same thing. Not that he wanted Danny's sister to be forced into something like that.

"I did for a while," she said. "But I actually got to be a pretty good liar as time passed, and eventually, I convinced them that I hated ghosts too, and the specter deflector got taken off. It... sucked, I'll be honest with you. It was absolutely terrible, living a lie like that. But I couldn't risk that you wouldn't have anyone to come back to. I needed to become a ghost so you wouldn't be completely alone if you ever showed up again."

"What about Dani?" Jazz furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, and Billy tried not to show that he was listening in, but he was confused as well. Wasn't Danny standing right there? Why would he asked about himself? "I think the archives said she goes by Phantasm now?"

"Oh! Well, yeah, she's here too," Jazz said. "She uses Nellie, now, as her nickname. In my defense, no one ever told me about her when I was alive, and I met her after I became a ghost. She's out traveling somewhere, but her lair is the mayoral mansion, since it was otherwise unoccupied."

"What about Vlad?" Jazz paused for a beat and pressed her lips together.

"Vlad was destroyed by the Guys in White a few years into the war, when they discovered him," she said after a moment. Billy was completely lost at this point. He had no idea who Vlad was, or why a bunch of guys in white would destroy him. Danny's description of the town hadn't included any of them.

"That's... jeez, you know how much I hated Vlad, but no one deserves that." What?

"Yeah..." How much damage could some white guys even do? Billy wondered. Wait, scratch that. Historically, the answer he was was looking for was 'a lot'. He could feel his brows scrunching up and tried to force a neutral expression.

"Hey, how is Amity Park here, anyway?" Danny asked finally.

"Well, when Dan was... taking care of the war in that dimension, the village ghost moved the town into the Zone through the portal... the town as it's supposed to be, anyway. No soldiers patrolling the streets, no huge military base built around Fenton Works to monitor the portal..."

"Since when does Amity Park have a village ghost?" Billy had thought, for a moment, that he might understand the conversation for a second there, when Danny asked how a whole town was moved from the real world to the Zone. But no. He was completely lost again, silently hoping someone would explain something in words he could understand.

"She started to form when the portal first opened, but you know they take decades or centuries to fully form," Jazz explained, although the explanation wasn't the least bit helpful to Billy. "We call her Mayor Amity, and she's the leader of our little realm."

"That's... awesome!" Danny said. "I always thought it would be cool to have our own village ghost! You know the town I live in now has a village ghost too, and she's super nice!"

Finally giving in to his curiosity, Billy couldn't help but ask. "What's a village ghost?" Thankfully, neither of them seemed to mind his interruption, and Danny explained without complaint.

"If there's enough ambient ectoplasm in a place, a ghost can form in the real world just like a Zone born ghost, developing slowly from the emotions of the people who live there, and basically becoming the ghostly personification of the place itself. They're usually benevolent, but also kind of territorial. Sometimes they're a little possessive of their people and don't like letting the locals leave, but they also tend to protect the town from things, or conversely, trap things in the town so they don't affect the outside world."

"And Gotham has one?" Billy asked, a little jealous. Now that he'd explained it, Billy kind of wished Fawcett city had one too. They did sound really cool.

"Yes it does. She's called Lady Gotham, and she breathes smog and has gargoyle wings."

Of course she did. That was pretty much Billy's entire understanding of the City of Gotham itself, that it breathed smog and had tons of gargoyles.

"Yeah, that tracks."

"Is Gotham... a nice place to live?" Jazz asked, clearly concerned, probably based on the fact that a ghost who breathed smog and had gargoyle wings was the personification of the city, which was valid, because Gotham was a terrible, crime-ridden, heavily polluted city.

"Yeah, actually," Danny said. "It has so so many curses on it, but it's honestly a nicer place to live for me than Amity Park was. Despite the fact that there's tons of crime and everyone has trust issues, there's a sense of community and... what's the word... everyone there stands with each other."

"Solidarity?" Jazz supplied.

"Yeah, that!" Danny smiled fondly. "My first day there, Lady Gotham kept the skies clear as a sort of welcome gift, and within a few hours, the whole city got together to reduce light pollution enough that the stars were visible that night, even though it's this massive, industrial city."

"That's... amazing," Jazz blinked in wonderment. Billy agreed, astonished.

"Is that why you insisted on living there even though it's a shit-hole?" Billy asked. "You never told me about that before. I knew it wasn't because of the gargoyles!"

"Yeah," Danny admitted. "The gargoyles are cool though, and they're everywhere."

They spent the next couple hours chatting with Danny's sister, the two boys telling her about the Justice League and all the adventures they had. Billy told her about what happened before they opened Danny's coffin and let him out, and he even told her that he could transform into an adult hero called Captain Marvel, because, hey, she was both dead and an experienced psychiatrist, so who was she gonna tell? 

Eventually, though, Billy started to get tired, and Danny was feeling it too, so he gave his sister another hug and promised to come visit her again and maybe even bring her to visit his new home sometime. They stopped by the mayoral mansion to leave a note in the mailbox for Phantasm next time she returned to her lair.

"So who is Phantasm, anyway?" Billy asked.

"She's my cousin... well... my clone, technically," Danny explained as he shoved the note into her mailbox. "My godfather slash arch-nemesis Vlad—" so that was who Vlad was—"stole my DNA so he could try to clone himself a son who would maybe kill me? And definitely take my place. But halfas are nearly impossible to make, and even more difficult to clone, so... most of them destabilized into ectoplasm very quickly. Dani—or I guess she goes by Nellie now, she was slightly more stable than the rest of them, no idea why; she still wasn't very stable, though. But thanks to some problems in the cloning process or contaminated samples, I don't know what—she came out a girl, and Vlad wanted a son, so....

"I managed to free her from Vlad and destroy his cloning lab, and she finally got to run free wherever she wanted with someone she could come back to who would always help her, instead of trying to control her. The problem with cloning a halfa, though, is that without a ghost portal to stabilize the two halves, the ghost half starts to consume the human half, and they'll destabilize if it happens too fast. I was able to stabilize her enough to slow down the process to a safe rate."

"So... she would die slowly?" Wasn't dying slowly worse than a quick death? That was what Billy had always heard, anyway.

"She was born half dead," Danny said flatly. "I watched so many other clones melt, gone forever, and I wasn't going to let that happen to the one who survived. Better a full ghost than a puddle of ectoplasm."

"Well... sounds like you handled it better than Superman."

"Uh... I don't know what that means..."

"Oh," Billy hadn't really meant much by the comment, but he'd basically forgotten that Danny had only been in his dimension for a relatively short while and didn't know all the old Justice League drama, like the Cadmus Clone Debacle from almost five years before. "When Superman found out Lex Luthor cloned him in order to destroy and replace him, he was not happy," he explained. "He basically acted like Conner didn't exist and never interacted with him."

"What a dick!" Danny said, obviously disgusted by the thought. "I thought Superman of all people would be better than that! Isn't he supposed to be the blue boyscout or whatever, paragon of justice for all? Was Lex at least a decent father to him?"

"Dude, Lex is a supervillain, he treated him like shit."

"You're telling me, his creator treated him like shit and his father ignored him?" Danny asked, significantly more pissed off than Billy would've ever expected him to be. "Who the hell was he supposed to rely on? Who was making sure this kid didn't turn into a supervillain all by himself?"

"Him and three other teen superheroes formed the Young Justice team, and they do covert missions together," Billy assured him. "They've been tight for years now."

"At least he had somebody."

"He and Supes are good now, too, though," Billy said, feeling obliged to defend his own teammate, even though when all that first went down, he'd thought it was pretty mean for Superman to treat his kid like that, especially since he'd only been eleven himself at the time, and he'd empathized with Superboy a lot, since his parents hadn't wanted him either. "It took 'em a couple years, but once Supes was sure Conner wasn't gonna try to kill him, they fixed their relationship, and they're like brothers now."

"I guess anyone can grow," Danny grumbled. "Should've been like that from the start though."

"I guess... I don't know what I'd do if Dr. Sivana or someone ever tried to clone me, though," Billy admitted. He was just a kid himself after all; being the champion of magic aside, he didn't know if he could handle that kind of responsiblity, especially since his clone would probably be biologically Captain Marvel's age and not his own. Could he even parent someone older than he was? "I guess it depends on whether they're openly evil or if they're being manipulated. Actually, I don't know if Captain Marvel even has DNA to clone." Danny snorted a laugh.

"I think it's probably time to head home, don't you?" Danny asked.

"Probably. I'm guessing it's about one AM back home," Billy agreed.

"Your new foster family is probably worried sick," Danny said with a smirk and Billy groaned.

"Don't remind me." His new foster 'family' was the last thing he wanted to think about.

"Think of your room," Danny said, pulling him flush up against his cool body, "and I'll take us there."

Billy pictured the cramped room in the new foster home that was only 'his' in that his meager belongings were being held hostage there. He felt the buzzing sensation in his chest ease, and fluorescent green flooded his vision. Before his eyes had even adjusted, he heard a scream.

"Shit! Freddy!" Billy pushed Danny away and ran over to cover Freddy's mouth with his hand. "Shh... be quiet." Freddy's eyes were wide as saucers.

"Freddy?" a voice called up the stairs. "Something wrong?" Shit, Rosa! Why was she even still awake? He had to let Freddy go to cover with her.

"If I take my hand away do you promise not to scream?" Freddy nodded, and he took his hand away.

"Everything's fine, uh, Rosa!" Freddy called, stammering anxiously. "Billy, he just came back, and he s-startled me!"

"Billy?!" she shouted back. "You're back? Come here, let me see you!" Billy shot Freddy a glare.

"Yeah, I'm back!" he shouted. "I'm just gonna go to bed though! It's pretty late!"

"Oh. Alright!" she said, reluctantly. "I'll see you in the morning then."

"Yeah!" he called to her, then whispered harshly to Freddy, punching him in the shoulder. "What the hell was that for?"

"You were gone all day!" Freddy said back, just as angry, rubbing his now sore shoulder. "Nobody could reach you, and we thought you ran away again. Why would you do that?"

"I have a life outside of you guys," Billy snapped. "I barely know you guys."

"Apparently so," Freddy saidm, gesturing behind Billy. "Speaking of, who's your friend who just teleported into our room?"

Billy whipped his head around to see Danny, still standing there. He waved at Freddy awkwardly.

"Technically, I warped here," he said. "I can't teleport; there's a distinction. Also, I didn't know Billy had a roommate, or else I would've warped somewhere with less risk of clipping someone. Freddy, right? He told me about you. I'm Danny." 

"Hi..." Freddy maintained his hard-edged glare for longer than Billy would've expected before it crumbled and his inner hero-geek took over. "Are you a meta human?" he asked. "How do you warp? Is it like a bending space-time thing, or more like opening a warp gate? How come Billy never mentioned you?"

"Oh wow, uh... yeah, I guess technically I'm a meta human," Danny answered. "I warp by opening a portal that lets me take a shortcut through another dimension which shrinks the distance between two places to almost nothing. And I'm guessing Billy never mentioned me because he's not a big sharer."

"That's an understatement." Freddy snorted. "Can you portal to the alternate dimension or just through it? Can you go to other dimensions?"

"Okay, that's enough interrogating my friend," Billy interrupted, attempting to save Danny from explaining interdimensional travel and the Ghost Zone to Freddy for the time being. He heard Danny sigh quietly in relief and knew he'd made the right choice. "Why are you even still awake?"

"What do you mean? It's not even ten," Freddy said.

"What?" Billy asked. "No way, it's gotta be at least one AM?" Confused, he turned to Danny who just shrugged.

"Time differentials," Danny said simply, like Billy was supposed to know what that meant. He did not. Freddy apparently did, and he gasped.

"Did you spend all day in another dimension?!" Freddy demanded excitedly.

"Uh... I think I'm gonna go," Danny said hesitantly, gesturing over his shoulder like he was just going to leave through the window. "I'll leave you guys to it." Green light filled the room, and when it faded, Danny was gone, leaving Billy to placate his new roommate by promising to tell him all about it the next day, since his body still thought it was one AM and he really needed to sleep.

It wasn't until he'd changed and laid down that he realized he could no longer feel Danny's portal in his chest, like a tiny swirling storm cloud right next to his heart. Strangely, he missed that feeling, and knowing that Danny would be able to come to him wherever he was, if he was lost, or in danger. It was probably for the best though, since he hadn't forgotten that apparently the Ghost Zone was slightly radioactive. Keeping a portal to the place inside his body probably wasn't the best thing for his health.

Chapter Text

The next day, Danny pulled the cheese platter Jason had helped him make out of the fridge at the safe house, transformed, and opened a portal to his home dimension. Before he stepped through, however, Jason stomped through the back door in full Red Hood garb and into the kitchen to stop him.

"Wait just a minute!" he demanded. "I wanna meet this new mentor of yours!"

"Uh... okay... but why?"

"The only thing I know about the ghosts you hang out with is that they're powerful and potentially very dangerous," he said, crossing his arms over his chest and wearing what Danny was sure was a stern expression, though he couldn't see it under the helmet. "I know you can take care of yourself, but I still think someone should know where you are and who you're with just in case. Last time you met this guy, you were gone for over a week."

"Paranoid much?" Danny teased, then he shrugged and put one foot through the portal. "Whatever. Come on." He disappeared through the portal and Jason followed. As soon as they stepped through, Dan shot a ghost ray at them, and Danny put up his ghost shield to protect them. "Welcome to my home dimension."

Jason looked around stoically. "You... lived here?"

"It's... changed... in the last few eons since I actually lived here, but... yeah," Danny confirmed. "Hey Dan!" he shouted. "What the hell are you shooting at us for?!"

"I always shoot at unexpected visitors," Dan responded. He was floating on the runoff pool again, just as he had been the last time Danny had been there. Disgusting. "You know this. Did you bring me a cheese platter?"

"I did, but I don't know if I want to give it to you after that."

"Don't be stubborn," Dan said. He floated off the surface of the pool, pouting. "You're not hurt or anything, just give it to me." With a sigh, Danny peeled the plastic wrap off the plate and held it out for Dan. Dan grabbed it excitedly and immediately shoved a cheese cube into his mouth, moaning contentedly.

"I'm glad you're enjoying it," Danny said. "So, what're you gonna teach me today?"

Dan shrugged and hummed an 'I don't know'. "Who's your ghost-adjacent friend?" he asked after swallowing his cheese, then immediately put another cube in his mouth.

"I'm Red Hood," Jason introduced. "Who're you?"

"I am Dan Phantom," Dan responded, paying very little attention.

Jason turned to face Danny, tilting his head curiously. "Any relation?" he asked.

"Dan is an evil, alternate version of me from a timeline that no longer exists, and never will again," Danny answered. "Clockwork, one of the Ancients, trapped him in this dimension, imprisoning him here."

"Seems kind of harsh to imprison him on an apocalyptic wasteland of a planet like this one," Jason said. "What did he do to deserve this?"

"It wasn't an apocalyptic wasteland when he was imprisoned here." Jason's posture stiffened, and Danny knew he suddenly had a much better idea of the ghost floating in front of them, stuffing cheese cube after cheese cube into his face, looking happier than Danny had ever seen him. "Anyway, you said you'd teach me, Dan. You don't get something for nothing."

"Alright fine..." Dan grumbled through a mouthful of cheese. "Let me think... hm... How many stable duplicates can you sustain at a time?"

"Right now? Five duplicates, not including myself, as long as I'm not doing much else," Danny answered. "If I'm mid battle and can't concentrate, or if I've already used up a lot of my energy, I can't do as many."

"Oh, well that simply won't do." Dan shook his head in disappointment and Danny felt a pang of shame. He quashed it instantly though. He had nothing to prove to anyone, and especially not to Dan. "Show me. Just do one duplicate for now."

Danny did so, creating a single duplicate while Dan watched closely. "So?" both Dannys asked at the same time. "What do you think?"

"You're doing it wrong," Dan explained. "You're expending too much energy in the duplication process, and creating a duplicate that possesses only half of your own power. When done properly, creating a duplicate should double your power, split between yourself and a duplicate, not cut it in half. Who taught you?"

"No one did. I had to figure it out for myself," Danny answered, crossing his arms bitterly. "Not all of us have the benefit of Vlad's ghost memories to learn new techniques."

"I suppose that's true," Dan agreed, popping another cheese cube into his mouth. "Reabsorb the duplicate." Danny did so, and his alternate self looked horrified. "Unbelievable! You actually expend more energy when you reabsorb a duplicate! That's not how it's supposed to work! You're not supposed to expend any energy to reabsorb a duplicate. It should happen naturally."

"Well, teach me how to do it right then!" Danny demanded, throwing his arms up in anger. "What the hell did I bring you cheese for if you're just gonna judge me and not help me!"

Jason looked between the two of them, but remained silent. Just watching as Danny's alternate self spent hours trying to train his bad habits out of him and replace them with proper technique. After a while, he got bored, and decided to explore the crater, sift through the rubble for clues about what Danny's life might've been like before he ended up in that coffin. When the sun sank below the horizon, Danny flew over to him.

"Sorry if you were bored," he said. "But you're the one who wanted to come."

"You're right," Jason replied with a shrug. "What's with this dilapidated hexagon next to the Lazarus Pit? Why is it the only thing still standing?"

"It's the framing of the original ghost portal my parents made," Danny answered, running his fingers over the cold metal, half nostalgic, half heartbroken. "Actually... this is where I died...."

"I'm sorry," Jason said. "I shouldn't have brought it up."

"You didn't know. It's alright," Danny said. "Hey... do you wanna see what this place was like when I lived here?"

"How?"

Grabbing him by the wrist, Danny opened a portal with a smirk and dragged him through. There was a flash of green light, and then they were standing in a quaint little city, not as cramped or industrial as Gotham, nor as shiny and bustling as Metropolis. A large, Midwestern town full of ghosts, as, apparently, its only citizens.

"Welcome to Amity Park!" Danny gestured widely with a grin. "Come on, I'll introduce you to my sister!" He dragged Jason by the wrist to an old brick building with a saucer on top and a neon sign hanging off the side. "This is Fenton Works, my old home." He knocked on the door.

"Oh, Jazz!" He called. "Psychopomp! You home?!" The door swung open to reveal his sister standing there in all her ghostly glory.

"Danny! You're back!" she greeted happily, and hugged him. "I thought it would take you longer. I see you brought another friend. It's nice to meet you, I'm Phantom's sister, Psychopomp. You can call me Psy." She let go of her brother to offer him a handshake.

"Red Hood," Jason introduced himself, shaking her hand.

"He's kinda like my landlord, I guess," Danny told her. "He put me up in one of his safe houses when I decided to stay in Gotham."

"Your landlord?" Jason asked. "Is that what you think of me? I'm hurt, I'm genuinely... that genuinely upsets me. I don't even charge you rent."

"And I'm eternally grateful for that," Danny said. "Hey Psy, you mind if I show him around?" Jazz stepped aside and let them into her lair. "This is where I grew up. My room's upstairs. The lab is in the basement. That's the kitchen where Jazz once fought a reanimated Christmas turkey. It was awesome."

"Oh, Nellie came back yesterday and saw your note," Jazz told him. "You should stop by her place before you leave unless you want her hunting you down."

"Sure thing!"

"Who's Nellie?" Jason asked.

"My cousin slash clone, created by my arch nemesis," Danny explained. "She's cool. She really likes traveling, so I missed her last time I was here. She'll be pissed if I don't go see her this time."

"Why's your clone a girl?"

"Halfas are impossible to clone properly," Danny said with a shrug. "Ectoplasm is unpredictable, and throw that into cloning and force-growth, it screws with genes and chromosomes. One of the clones Vlad made was a skeleton wearing a sheet, but all of them destabilized except for Nellie. Well, she did too, but she's fine now, just, you know, a full-ghost." Danny finished giving Jason the tour pretty quickly, then flew the both of them to the mayoral mansion that Phantasm had made her lair.

"This place is pretty swanky," Jason observed.

"It was unoccupied so she claimed it," Danny said, slamming the huge gold knockers. A few seconds later, the door swung open, and an instant after that, Danny was wrapped in a hug again.

"Danny!" Phantasm squealed. "Thank the Ancients, I was starting to think I'd have to wait forever to see you again."

"Psychopomp said you just got back yesterday," Danny laughed, hugging her back. "But I missed you too."

"Can you blame me?" she scoffed, and let go of him, pulling back to look him over while he did the same to her. She looked different. "You were gone for three thousand years already." She wasn't twelve anymore. Ghosts aged weirdly, their appearance shifting to match how they felt on the inside, their age, height, gender, whatever, so he wondered if she might look different after all this time, how she'd changed.

Dani Phantom and Nellie Phantasm were the same person, but Nellie looked older, in her early twenties maybe, her outfit was different, with visibly more pockets, and a more utilitarian style. Even the logo had changed from the DP of Danny's suit to just a P in the same style. Her hair was more or less the same, a long white ponytail, and she even had a green beanie, the inverse of the one her human form used to wear.

"Besides, you know I hate being cooped up anywhere for long. Who's your friend?" Danny introduced Red Hood to her, and she gave him a hug too, much less formal than Jazz. "Good to meetcha," she said. "Now get in here!" she grabbed them both by their shirts and dragged them through the mansion all the way to the first floor drawing room.

The place looked way different than when Vlad lived there. On the walls were portraits of various places in the Ghost Zone, and pictures of Nellie next to different ghosts and monuments. In all the rooms and halls they passed, there were display cases and pedestals and tables sporting cool souvenirs and artifacts from around the Zone, including things she definitely shouldn't have been able to get her hands on, like the Skeleton Key, which was supposed to be guarded by Behemoth, and and the Reality Gauntlet, sans gems. She'd been busy in the last few thousand years, it would seem.

She threw them both down onto the sofa in the drawing room and collapsed into the armchair across from them kicking her feet up on the coffee table. "Alright, talk. Tell me all about everything. How did you disappear? Where have you been? What have you been doing?"

"I have some questions for you, too!" Danny shot back. "Why do you have so many uber powerful ghost artifacts in your lair?"

The two of them swapped stories for hours, until it must have gotten very late, but Jason never started to drift off. Rather, he seemed fascinated, especially by Phantasm's exploits in the Ghost Zone. Finally, Danny told her they really had to get going, since he had school in the morning, and she blew a raspberry at him and moaned about how school sucked and he was lame.

"She was pretty awesome," Jason remarked as they left the mansion and Danny opened a portal back to the safe house. "Not that you aren't or anything, but I didn't expect a clone of you to be so... well traveled, I guess."

"She was cloned from me, but Nellie's her own person," Danny said. "She has her own personality and interests, but the biggest difference between us is probably our ghostly obsessions."

"I don't know what you mean by that," Jason admitted. "You don't seem all that obsessive."

"It's not a very accurate description," Danny told him with a shrug. "That's just the word my parents used, but most ghosts aren't really that obsessive about them, some are, I guess. A ghost's obsession is their reason for existing, the thing they consider most important. We don't need to constantly engage with our obsessions like my parents assumed, but we are hurt when they're directly undermined. I'm a protector spirit, meaning my obsession is to protect others. Nellie's obsession is freedom, so I guess that makes her a free-spirit. She told me once, a very long time ago, that she wanted to explore the entire Infinite Realms. It looks like she's gotten a pretty good start."

"Is that even possible? I mean, aren't they infinite? She couldn't explore all of them if she had billions of years to do it."

"That won't stop her from trying. Luckily, she does have billions of years to do it, barring the collapse of the multiverse, or her somehow being destroyed. She's a much more powerful ghost than she used to be, and she's only going to get stronger as time passes. The Ancients don't command as much respect as they do just because they're old, after all."

"One of these days you're gonna have to tell me more about these Ancients your always swearing to." Jason shook his head. "Go take a shower before bed. You stink from training."

"Thanks, I've been thinking the same thing."

The next day at school, Danny reveled in the feeling of normalcy. Of boring lectures, and gross school lunch food and the dumb teenager antics of his classmates. And sure, going into a secret room under the school to talk about the mysterious glob monster his friends had seen in the cemetery while one of them practiced magic wasn't the normalest normal, but it was normal enough for him.

Pomeline had claimed a corner of their club room for her magic practice and it was currently completely overgrown with plants while she practiced spells to control flora and speed up plant growth like Poison Ivy. Last week, Katherine had used her powers to transform into the thing they'd all seen after Danny left that day. Sure enough, it was definitely Lady Gotham. At least the monster wouldn't hurt them if they ever did find it.

When school was over, Danny warped to the House of Mystery to see if the Justice League Dark needed him for anything. Before he could even ask if they wanted his help, Raven and Zatanna dragged him to a stack of books and told him to look for anything at all on someone called Zemestres.

He groaned. "Man, I should've just gone home," he complained, but grabbed a book off the stack nonetheless and started reading. After an hour, his brain hated him. After two, the words were seriously blurring together and he had to force himself to read any of them. By the third hour, he'd stopped trying to read at all, and had started just scanning the pages for the letter 'Z'.

Eventually, Raven found the information they were looking for and Danny was off the hook. Thank the Ancients. There was nothing else they needed him for right away, so he waved goodbye, headed home, and got started on his homework.

When he moved into Gotham, he promised himself that he wouldn't get involved in heroics in the city unless he was asked. After all, Gotham had, like, fifteen vigilantes, all of them highly competent, and they didn't need him. It was their city to protect, not his, and Batman had already demonstrated the ability to ask for help when he needed it by asking Danny to help with his ghost problem months ago. Ever since he made that promise to himself, his grades had vastly improved. His GPA hadn't been so high since middle school, before the portal accident.

And now, with no Justice League activities, he had even more time to devote to his studies. The Justice League Dark wasn't as active as the regular League. All the members more or less dealt with their own problems, helping each other only on the rare occasion they were needed. Danny fell into a comfortable rhythm after quitting the regular League.

On weekdays, he'd go to school, spend lunch with the detective club. After school, if there were no club activities, he'd drop by the House of Mystery to see if he could lend a hand, or sometimes just hang out with whoever was there for a little while. Then he'd go home and do his homework. Saturdays were his free days. He'd often spend them with Billy or one of the Gotham vigilantes, if they weren't too busy. And Sundays he'd get some snacks, or a book, or a succulent, and portal to his home dimension for training with Dan for a few hours.

Falling into a rhythm was always a dangerous thing, because inevitably, that rhythm would be disrupted by some bullshit that Danny had to deal with. It was a Tuesday, and Danny was in fifth period when he jolted forward, almost slamming his head onto his desk accidentally. It was a tug of energy in his core, like someone was tapping into his power. Not a lot of it, so it was probably not a big deal, but then, the last time he'd thought that, someone was using the royal artifacts to control the whole Justice League, so maybe he should check on that.

He raised his hand, trying to remain calm. "Sorry, can I go to the bathroom? I just suddenly got a really back stomach ache and I—"

"Just go," his teacher said, and he snatched the hall pass from by the door and racing to the restroom where he could open a portal back home in private.

As soon as he stepped through he raced to his bedroom. He'd phased the crown and ring under the floor to ensure they couldn't go anywhere or be stolen. At least, not by any human. He would have to find a more secure location for them soon, but it worked for now. Both the royal artifacts were exactly where he'd left them.

Strangely, he was still feeling that tug in his chest, not a slow ebb, but an increasing drain. Still not enough to seriously affect him, but enough to make him worry. He put the crown and ring back and portalled back to school. The last thing he wanted was to get a reputation for skipping class... again.

Instead of going back to class, he went to the nurse's office. He told the school nurse that he wasn't feeling well, and asked if he could call home. That would of course mean that Jason would have to play his dad again and come pick him up, but once Danny told him what was going on, he wouldn't mind.

"Uh... hello?" Jason's voice asked from the other end of the line. He sounded groggy, like he was just waking up.

"Uh... hey dad," Danny said, immediately tipping Jason off to the situation. "Can you come pick me up early. I'm not feeling well."

"Kid, what the hell is this about?" Jason asked. "What's wrong?"

"Uh... I just feel really crappy... like something's draining all my energy," he said, trying to make Jason aware of the situation without making the nurse suspicious. There was silence as Jason processed the information.

"Shit," he said. "I'm on my way."

Jason was there to pick him up eight minutes later dressed up once again to make himself look older, and in his fake Midwest accent, he thanked the school nurse and apologized to the school nurse. As soon as they were in the car, he dropped the act and turned to Danny with a serious expression.

"What's going on?"

"No idea," Danny answered. "About ten minutes ago, I started to feel the sensation of someone else using my power. I already checked that the royal artifacts aren't involved this time. It's probably just Constantine, hopefully, but the most concerning thing is that it feels like my energy is starting to drain faster as time passes."

"Do you need my help on this?"

"Only to get me out of school early," Danny answered with a shrug. "Sorry to bother you it's just I really don't wanna get labeled as the trouble-making lost-cause again. You give my class-cutting legitimacy, so thanks."

"Yeah, fair enough. It's no problem."

"Cool. I'm gonna portal to the House of Mystery and see if I can't get in contact with Constantine," Danny opened a portal right there in the car and crawled through it, coming out in the library at the House of Mystery. The rate at which Danny's power was being drained was getting dangerous. If it really was Constantine's doing, channeling too much more could kill him. "Hey is Constantine here?"

"Who are you?" Raven asked, staring in shock. "Wait... Phantom?"

"No time. Where's Constantine?" Danny demanded.

"I—I don't know," she said.

"Do you have a locator spell?" he asked. "It's kind of important."

Raven closed the book she'd been reading and grabbed an atlas off the bookshelf. She opened the cover and uttered a locator spell. The pages flipped rapidly until they stopped, and a drop of blood fell from nowhere onto the open page. "He's there. Phantom, how are you human?"

"Another time," Danny insisted, already opening a portal to the new location, the coast of Florida. On the other side of the portal, the sun shone brightly on the white sands, but the whole beach was abandoned and cast in a strange green glow that Danny knew all too well. "Constantine!" The source of the light was a man in a tan trench coat that Danny was also very familiar with.

Constantine was kneeling in the sand, clutching at his chest, his eyes a bright, ectoplasm green as similarly glowing veins crept across his skin. In front of Constantine was a huge swath of green glass. It looked as though whatever enemy he'd summoned Danny's powers again had already been vanquished, but for some reason, the connection hadn't been severed afterwards.

Danny was at his friend's side in an instant, but he didn't know what to do. The only person who'd ever channeled Danny's energy before was Nellie, and Constantine had assured Danny that he knew how to do it safely when they'd made that deal. His core ached as he began to think there was no way to save Constantine. Something was clutched in the Brit's hand, a solar cross carved out of black stone, covered in cracks.

It dawned on Danny that Constantine must've been using the symbol to channel the ghost's powers, but it had been overwhelmed or damaged and he'd lost control. Now, the power was being channeled through his own body as well, and it was burning him up from the inside. If the solar cross wasn't still channeling some of the power, Constantine would have been dead already. Danny pried the symbol out of his grip and encased it in ice, blocking the spell.

Constantine's eyes went fully white and then fell shut, the green glow slowly but steadily fading from his as Danny sighed in relief. He opened a portal back to the House of Mystery and carried Constantine through it.

"I found him," Danny said as he dragged the wizard into the library. "He'll live... probably... or if he dies he'll become a ghost, at least." He put the solar cross down on a nearby table, unsure what to do with it. "I don't know when he'll wake up though."

"Start explaining," Raven demanded.

"He was tapping into my power, but it overwhelmed his focus or something and it started to crack, which forced him to channel some of my power himself, with the focus acting as a slight buffer," Danny explained. "It also meant he had less control of how much he power he was taking and... well... look at him. At least he succeeded in taking down whatever it was he tapped into my power for."

"I'm amazed he's still alive," Raven said, and Danny nodded, trying to come across as nonchalant, even as he hid his trembling his hands behind his back. "I'm more amazed that you're alive though." She side-eyed him. "Care to explain that?"

"Oh... that... well, I'm actually not a full ghost, I'm a halfa," he said, hoping she was magic-savvy enough that he didn't have to explain further. She was an interdimensional cambion after all. If anyone knew what a halfa was already, it would be Raven.

"I thought the existence of halfas was theoretical," she said. "Possible, but so incredibly unlikely as to be basically a myth." Danny nodded.

"Yeah, pretty much," he agreed. "In this form, I'm just Danny. I won't make you keep this a secret, but I would prefer the information stay in the Justice League Dark and not make it to the main League. Although, Captain Marvel already knows." 

"I can understand that." Raven nodded once. "Does anyone else know?"

"Uh... pretty much all the Gotham vigilantes except Batman," Danny said, trying to recall if he'd told anyone else. "And it's not a secret to ghosts, although... come to think of it, I don't know if Deadman knows yet." Constantine groaned and started to stir, forcing them to drop the conversation for the time being. "Welcome back, Connie."

"Blimey, what the fuck," the man grumbled. Suddenly he jolted upright, his hands patting his body frantically. "How am I still alive?"

"Because you're one lucky son of a bitch with friends in high places," Danny answered. "I noticed that my powers were being tapped into too much and Raven tracked you down for me. You're welcome."

"Cheers," Constantine said with a hint of nervous laughter. He reached into his pocket for a cigarette and pulled out a handful of ash. Finally, he looked up at Danny and his eyes widened in shock. "And who the hell are you?"

"Phantom," Danny said. "In this form you can call me Danny. I'm actually a halfa."

"And what does that mean?"

While Danny was explaining the concept to Constantine, Zatanna came into the library to drop off a grimoire she'd taken from an evil wizard a few days before and forgot to bring in. Then Danny had to start again from the top. All the while, he was more concerned with making sure Constantine wasn't about to drop dead or develop ghost flu from overexposure to ectoplasm, but he looked fine, if frazzled. Interestingly, it seemed like his divided soul had worked in his favor, allowing the ectoplasm to pass through him more or less safely.

By the end of the day, most of the Justice League Dark knew Danny was a halfa, and about his secret identity. A year before, that thought would have terrified him, but he found he was actually comforted by it. He felt safe in the knowledge that his friends knew the truth, and accepted him. He wondered if the main League would be more or less comfortable around him if they knew he was still half human, but he wasn't about to go find out the answer right away.

Before he could even think about anything like that, he had to find a more secure place to keep the royal artifacts than the floor of Jason's safe house. He supposed now was a good a time as any, before he forgot again. After portalling home to grab the crown of fire and the ring of rage, he went to the Ghost Zone. It was better they be kept there than on Earth where a human might find them, and it was past time for Danny to get himself a proper ghost lair, anyway.

His first thought was to just move into Pariah's keep, seeing as it wasn't in use anymore, but he quickly nixed the idea. That place was creepy, and he would rather not call it home if he could avoid it. Not to mention keeping the royal artifacts that close to the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep was asking for trouble. So no, he would not be laying claim to the keep. Maybe there was a vacant property in Amity Park he could move into, instead.

Danny drifted through the Zone, headed back to his home town, hoping that he would find a sanctuary there. The brick buildings and trees of Amity Park rose up to meet him, welcoming him back as he landed in the park. He had a few thoughts regarding where he could settle, but he knew that he should ask Mayor Amity first and foremost. Even if he was the king of all ghosts, this was still her realm.

"Uh... Mayor Amity?" Danny asked hesitantly, unsure whether a village ghost worked the same in the Ghost Zone as it did on Earth. Evidently it did, because Mayor Amity appeared before him almost immediately.

Mayor Amity looked more human than Lady Gotham, but still towered over him, even taller than his father had once been. Her skin was pale green, and she had pure white eyes with no iris or pupil, and long ivory hair that cascaded around her until it faded into a mist around what would be her ankles. She wore a white waistcoat, trousers, and gloves, with a sheer white capelet around her shoulders, and white witch hat, one with a very wide brim and a tall point that slouched over.

She had an angelic, ethereal look about her as she smiled at him with blue lips, but the look was ruined by the huge black scars that criss-crossed her skin. The scars were thick and jagged, and gave her the appearance of having been been ripped to pieces and stitched back together once. Her village had been through a lot over the centuries, and it showed.

"Your majesty," Amity greeted, thumping a hand over her chest twice and bowing. "To what do I owe the honor of an audience with you?"

"Mayor Amity, the honor is mine," he responded. "This meeting should've happened a while ago. I was really excited when I heard that Amity Park had developed a village ghost."

"I'm pleased," she said. "Was there something you wished to speak to me about, sire?"

"First of all, please call me Danny, or at least Phantom," he told her. "You're my home-town's village ghost, and you started to form when I turned on the portal, which makes you basically my little sister or something, right?" Her smile widened and she nodded. "Second of all, I was wondering if there are any places in your realm that I might claim as my lair?"

"I think I know just the place," Mayor Amity said, and the whole realm shifted under them until they were standing in front of the abandoned observatory on the hill. "Psychopomp has told me much about you, Phantom. She says you always loved the stars. I had been saving this place for you, in the event that you ever chose to return here. You are welcome to lay claim to this observatory, and change it as you wish."

Danny's mouth fell open as he stared at it with awe and childlike glee. When he asked if there was somewhere he could move in, he was imagining an empty house in the suburbs or maybe a vacant mini-golf course, not the greatest place in existence. "This is perfect!" he said.

He felt it when the observatory became his lair, like a puzzle piece snapping into place somewhere in his soul, and just like that, he was connected to the place. It was part of him. In the same instant, the wear and grime of the building rapidly faded, making it look newly build, and a bloom of night and stars burst across the green sky over the observatory.

"I'm so pleased you like it," Amity said, once of her hands came to rest on Danny's shoulder, barely even having to bend her elbow. "Welcome home."

"Thank you," Danny told her earnestly. "It's really good to be back." Once he built proper storage for the royal artifacts, they'd be safe there, and as long as they were in Danny's lair, they would be satisfied, and wouldn't try to seek him out through other means.

Once he was done setting up his new lair in the Ghost Zone, he returned to his room in the safe house and changed back to his human form. He headed to the kitchen, planning to make himself some dinner before bed, and saw Jason there. "Hey Jason! Guess who got a lair?!"

An unfamiliar man leaned to the side when Danny spoke to get a better look at him. "Who's this?" he asked.

"I was gonna ask the same thing," Danny said. Jason sighed.

"This is Danny, I let him live here, and he patches up whoever I drop on the doorstep," Jason said.

"It's nice to meet you, Danny," the man said. "I'm Jason's father."

"Adoptive," Jason tacked on.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Todd."

"Wayne, actually," the man corrected as he extended a hand for Danny to shake. "Bruce Wayne." Hesitantly, Danny accepted the handshake, hoping Jason's dad would be polite enough not to comment on how cold his skin was.

"I feel like I should know that name," Danny said, wracking his brain. It sounded awfully familiar.

"Bruce Wayne as in the billionaire CEO," Jason said. "And he was just leaving."

"Good," Danny said, snatching his hand away like he'd just touched something sharp. He couldn't believe he just shook a billionaire's hand. Bruce's eyebrows raised in surprise at Danny's sudden change in demeanor.

"Do you have a problem with me?" he asked. "If I ever offended you in any way, allow me to make amends in some way."

"I hate all billionaires on principle," Danny said. "Weren't you just leaving?"

"Y-yes, of course." Bruce Wayne stood up, said goodbye to Jason and left the safe house.

"Because we're friends, and you're doing me a solid by letting me stay here, I'm not going to hold it against you," Danny said.

"Hold what against me?"

"Letting a billionaire adopt you," Danny said. "I mean I'm a little disappointed that you couldn't prevent that, but I'm sure it wasn't your fault. I would rather die than let that happen, though."

"You... you know he's Batman, right?"

"WHAT?!"

"Wait, you hadn't figured that out?" Jason asked, clearly perplexed. "You know all the rest of our identities, but you never made the connection that our collective father was Batman?"

"Dude, I'm from another dimension; didn't even know who Bruce Wayne was," Danny pointed out. "I barely put together than you guys were siblings. Also, I just don't really give a shit about secret identities, so, like... why would I know that?"

"I guess that tracks," Jason said, but he was still laughing at him nonetheless. "Anyway, what's this about a lair?"

"Oh, yeah, I finally got a lair in the Ghost Zone!" he said excitedly. "Mayor Amity let me move into the formerly abandoned observatory in Amity Park!"

"That... sounds pretty cool actually," Jason acknowledged, nodding. "So... how do ghost lairs work exactly, you just pick a place and call it your lair?"

"A ghost's lair is their home, it's a part of them, and it shifts and changes to meet their wants and needs," Danny explained. "I never actually saw it in person before I got my own, but it's really cool to see. I wish I could've got a video."

"So are you gonna move into the Ghost Zone on a more permanent basis, then?" asked Jason hesitantly. "You know you can stay here as long as you want, I love having you." Danny smiled.

"I think I'll probably split the time," he said. "I like this world, all my living friends are here. Also my landlord."

"Hey!"

"Anyway, the best part of having a lair is that I can leave the royal artifacts there without worrying about them finding their way into human hands," Danny said, verbally trampling Jason's complaints. "Since my lair is a part of me, they won't try to seek me out. Oh, but I also made sure they're in a secure vault, and not just like on a table or something, so ghosts won't be able to steal them either, at least not without jumping through some major hoops."

"Good," Jason put his hands on is hips and nodded, satisfied. "You having that power is one thing, but I definitely don't want anyone else to have it." For a long moment, Danny just looked at him curiously. "What?"

"You really don't mind that I can control you whenever?" Danny asked softly. "It doesn't bother you?"

"I mean... not really, no," Jason said. "I mean, you showed up, and after we knew each other for one day, you changed my whole life. You did your little ectoplasm thing, and cured the pit madness, you got rid of the Joker, who... you know. I'm pretty sure you hold the record for fastest a person's ever earned my trust. You've given me way too much peace of mind for me to worry about something I know you'll never do. Not without a damn good reason anyway."

Jason startled when Danny shot forward and hugged him tight, but after a moment of awkward hesitation, he hugged back. "Thank you," Danny whispered.

"Yeah, thanks to you too," Jason said. "You can let go now."

"Do I have to?" So Jason let the hug last a few moments longer, before Danny finally broke it.

"So what was your dad here for?" he asked, clearing his throat. Jason went back to stocking groceries in the cupboard, which Danny hadn't realized he was doing before he walked in.

"He was just dropping off some new and improved body armor for me to wear in the field," Jason said. "It looks exactly the same as the old stuff, but he says it's eighteen percent more effective against high-velocity rounds. I think he just wanted the excuse to check up on me, the sentimental old fart. I don't know how he knew I was here though. I've been going through and making sure all my safe houses are properly stocked all week, so I could've been at any of 'em."

"Probably check that new body armor for a tracker," Danny suggested. "And your old stuff, too, while you're at it. Hey, how many safe-houses do you have, anyway?"

"Uh... six in Gotham and Blüdhaven, one more in New York, and one in Metropolis."

"Holy crap, how do you afford all of 'em?"

"Don't let anyone tell you crime doesn't pay," Jason said. "But Christ that New York apartment was expensive."

"Multiversal constant," Danny said, nodding sagely. "New York real estate is stupidly expensive in every dimension."

Jason laughed and tossed a can of chili at him. "Don't just stand around wisecracking, kid, help me put this shit away." Danny obliged, filling the cupboards with canned goods.

Before he went to bed, he texted Billy about his new lair, and got a response right away asking to see it. They agreed to go after school on Tuesday, and Danny was already looking forward to it.

—

"Where do you think you're going?" Freddy asked when Billy immediately started walking away from school in the opposite direction of his foster home.

"I have plans with a friend after school today," Billy said, trying to keep his excuse as vague and unobjectionable as possible.

"What friend?" Freddy pushed, following Billy, despite the fact that he obviously didn't want him to come. "Your friend who can warp? Are you going to another dimension? Can I come?"

"Yes that friend, and no, you can't come," Billy said. "He just moved and he invited me over to see his new place."

"Is it in another dimension?"

"NO!" Billy snapped. "Can you just leave me alone?" Freddy scowled and huffed, but turned around nevertheless.

"Fine, I see how it is," Freddy grumbled. "Have fun on your date!" 

"It's not a date!" Billy squawked, even as his cheeks flushed red with embarrassment.

"Uh-huh! Sure!" Freddy called over his shoulder, unconvinced as he headed home. Then a green portal opened up and he almost ran smack into Danny, who caught him before he contacted.

"Woah there!" Danny yelped. "Sorry, I miscalculated my entrance." He looked up and down the street. "By like half a block... wow I need more practice. You alright, Freddy?"

"Yeah I'm okay," Freddy replied, regaining his balance as Danny let go. "Are you two going to another dimension? Can I come?"

"Uhh..." Billy shook his head emphatically when Danny met his eyes over Freddy's shoulder. "Nope, we're not, and uh... you can't. I'll tell you what though, I can portal you back home if you like?" Smart, Danny. There was no way Freddy would be able to resist experiencing his powers first-hand.

"Is it safe?" Freddy asked, in a remarkable show of restraint.

"Totally safe," Danny assured him, and put a hand on his shoulder again. "Just think of your room, picture it clearly." A portal opened next to them on the sidewalk. It was a little different than the way he'd seen Danny travel by portal before. Danny stuck his head through to make sure it led to the right place. "All clear. Enjoy not having to walk all the way home."

"This is so cool," Freddy said as he went through the portal, and Danny grinned and closed it behind him.

"He's easily entertained," Danny joked, ambling toward Billy down the sidewalk.

"I don't know about that," Billy pointed out. "Not a lot of people can open up portals through other dimensions."

"Fair enough," Danny said. He stopped right in front of Billy. "You ready to go?"

"Yup." Danny wrapped an arm around his friend and pulled him close before opening the portal around them, and when the light faded, they were standing in Amity Park. Privately, Billy wondered why Danny had done that, held him close to transport them, especially since he'd just seen him open a portal for Freddy to walk through. Of course, he wasn't about to complain.

A moment later, Danny let him go and took a step back, gesturing widely to the observatory atop the hill, an inky night sky spread above it, blacking out the green of the Ghost Zone. Billy's mouth dropped open in wonder.

"Welcome to my new lair!" Danny said proudly. "Not sure what I'm gonna call it yet. Maybe the Phantom Cave? Phantombservatory? Observaspooky? Phantom Zone?"

"The Phantom Zone is like, a pocket dimension prison where Superman keeps the worst criminals in the universe," Billy muttered as he started climbing up the hill, still a little awestruck by the strange and beautiful sky.

"Huh... I guess that name's out then," Danny said, floating up alongside him. "Hey, I wonder if the Phantom Zone is somewhere in the Infinite Realms?"

"It might be." Billy shrugged.

"Come on, let me show you around inside!" Danny said, pushing open the wide front door with a flourish. Inside was a huge rotunda with a high domed ceiling. A loft circled the entire ceiling with a platform extending into the center. "It used to be two floors, but now it's just one and a loft. The telescope is on that platform."

"I don't see any stairs."

"Uh duh." Danny grabbed his wrist and flew him up to the loft. "You don't need stairs in the Ghost Zone. Now lemme give you the grand tour." He gestured to a very plush looking pile of pillows and blankets, under which there might have been a bed. "Bedroom," he said, then swung his arm to indicate the rows of half-filled bookshelves lining the catwalk, "library, comfy chairs, telescope, obviously." He pointed out the massive telescope which stuck out through an opening in the domed roof.

"The sky shifts and changes, I'm not 100% sure how it works, but I think it can show me the night sky in any dimension anywhere in the universe! It's pretty freaking cool!"

Danny went on to show off his entertainment system, which was loaded up with video games including one called 'Doomed' from his home dimension that had been his favorite but didn't exist in the world he lived in now. He also had an indestructible practice room in the basement where he could work on mastering his powers without hurting anyone or destroying anything, or at least, it had been indestructible so far.

There was also a work bench, crafting table, scrap metal, tools and chemicals for Danny to tinker and experiment with. He was hoping to become an engineer after all, now that becoming a NASA astronaut was more or less of the table. And a kitchenette. "One without a scary air-fryer, thank you very much." And a small vault in the wall behind a signed Ember poster where he kept the royal artifacts safely tucked away.

Billy couldn't help the smile as he watched his friend show off every aspect of his lair with stars in his eyes, from the bookshelves he would slowly fill with grimoires and science textbooks, to the telescope that he taught Billy how to use so he could see galaxies in other universes, across the far reaches of time and space. As the years passed, the two of them would hang out in Danny's Observatory, at Phantom Works, quite a bit.

They would go whenever they both had a free day and play video games, or they would go there to process and recuperate after a rough mission. It was Danny's safe place, and very few people were allowed inside, but he always let Billy visit. Even on Danny's death day, a day where he always hid away and avoided people, he let Billy in to comfort him. It was then that Billy finally discovered why Danny hated his lighting powers, and billy hugged him, unbothered by the green electricity that crackled and arced across Danny's skin.

Ten years later would find the two of them stopping by Phantom Works to pick up a book about ghost biology for Pomeline, a skilled witch and the newest member of the Justice League Dark. Danny's bookshelves were fully stocked now, his furniture well worn in, his workroom cluttered and marred with oil smears and gouges from projects gone horribly wrong.

A lot had changed over the years. Danny glanced at Billy in the corner of his eye and smiled softly, reminiscing. Ghost King had always been mostly a figurehead position, but the few occasions where Danny had been asked to intervene had ended positively and resulted in him having an excellent reputation as the ruler.

Danny had gone to college for engineering, and gotten a masters degree and a job in R&D at Wayne Enterprises, right under Batman's nose and he still didn't know Danny's secret identity. He had a bet going with the other birds and bats on how long it would be before Bruce finally figured him out. Dick, Duke, and Damian had already lost.

As thanks for his help with training, and on the condition that he not destroy anyone, Danny and some other ghosts had helped Dan cultivate plant-life one the Earth he was imprisoned in, and there were even bugs there now, and a couple of birds. Dan had declared his intention to cultivate this new world in his image and become its self-serving and omnipotent god.

Yeah....

He was still  little evil, but at least he was channeling that energy into something positive. His little runoff pool by the remains of the Fenton Portal was now called The Oasis of the Dark one, which he'd patiently explained to Danny would become a holy site in a few million years, after his planet redeveloped sapient life forms. Danny had nodded along obligingly, but he still thought Dan was finally started to crack after so many years imprisoned.

"Found it!" Billy declared, floating up to grab a purple tome off the top shelf. He'd gotten much better at flying in the Ghost Zone. "The Anatomy of Apparitions."

"Finally!" Danny said. "Come on, let's get that to Pom before she gets grumpy."

Billy came down and Danny wrapped his arms around him and pulled him close before letting his portal wash over them in a flash of green light. He didn't really need to do that anymore, since he could make the portal plenty big enough for them without it, or even just open it to his side for them to walk through. But that was how he'd always done it with Billy, and he could think of no reason to stop when it felt so nice to hold him close.