Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Danny stood from his desk, paperwork covering the surface, and huffed. “Vlad, I want to go back to the human world.”

Vlad looked up from his own work. “Are you sure, little badger? It’s only been…Actually, how long has it been?”

“Decades! We need a vacation.” Danny whined as he leaned over his husband’s shoulder. “It’s been enough time. No one will recognize us from our last life there.”

“Alright, dear. I’ll ask Sam to come back and look after things in our absence.” Vlad finished writing something before moving it to the outgoing stack.

“No, don’t bother her. Last I heard, she’s in the middle of making process with conserving some rare plantlife in a pretty distant part of the zone. What about Ellie? She’s just finished exploring that other dimension.” Danny considered.

Vlad nodded. “Okay. Can you contact the current reincarnation of Tucker to make us some identities? He is still working in the tech sector, right?”

“Yeah! Apparently, the human world is making really big strides in technology. He’s head of R&D at some corporation in Gotham. Warren Incorporated or something.” Danny was practically vibrating. “They even have people traveling to different planets. There are aliens on Earth, Vlad!”

Vlad chuckled as his husband shook him by the shoulders. “Now I see why you want to go so bad.”

“We should visit Tuck first. It’ll be nice to see him. Plus, he can give us some advice on what to go see and where to visit.” 

Vlad shook his head amused. “He just came to see us a few months ago.”

“But we were so busy that I couldn’t enjoy it. We’re finally caught up on all the back work from Pariah’s reign so now we can enjoy our afterlife.” Danny nudged Vlad, before leaning over and whispering in his ear. “Don’t you want to enjoy your afterlife with me, Vladdy?”

Vlad turned to look at Danny with dark eyes. “You don’t have to ask twice, badger. We can organize our vacation later though. I have something important on my to-do list.”

“Oh, and what’s that?” Danny asked coyly.

“You know what, you brat.” And Vlad leaned in to kiss him.

…

Danny stretched as the green portal closed behind him. “Ah, got to enjoy that smog-filled, polluted air.”

Vlad snorted(Danny really was a bad influence on him) and checked his phone. “Come on, Wayne Enterprises is this way. And remember call Tucker Theo. It’s the name of his new incarnation.”

Danny pouted. “Do I have to?”

“You do if you don’t want people questioning why you’re calling him a different name.” Vlad stated.

“I can say it’s a nickname.” Danny defended.

Vlad shrugged and continued leading  Danny by the hand toward Wayne Tower.

When they arrived, Danny looked up at it. “Nice place.”

“We live in a castle, darling.” Vlad deadpanned.

“Spoilsport.” Danny stuck his tongue out at him.

“Don’t stick your tongue out like that if you don’t plan on using it.” Vlad started leading them inside.

“Maybe I am.” Danny teased but stopped when he saw Tucker, err, Theo.

“Danny!” Tucker pulled Danny into a bear hug.

Tucker was actually kind of muscular in this life with strong features and a dark complexion. He was nearly as tall as Danny who stood at 6’5 since he hit his growth spurt from his seventeenth to eighteenth birthday. Although Danny was engulfed in Tucker's hug, due to his slim figure.

“This city is nothing like I thought it would be.” Danny told Tucker. “I saw two muggings on the way here and the air quality is surprisingly terrible. It’s hard for even me to breathe.”

Tucker laughed. “Yup, that’s Gotham for you.”

“Sam would love it here. The gothic architecture and a cause to protest and or riot. It’s like it was built for her.”

“This Sam sounds like an interesting lady.” A guy walked up to them. “Sorry to intrude on your conversation.”

“Mr. Drake! Sorry, were we being too loud in the lobby?” Tucker asked nervously.

Ah, there was the boy Vlad recognized from however many lifetimes ago.

“No, no. I was just curious. I just had to meet a friend of my best engineer.” Tim wicked at them. “It’s like Mr. Fuller here is a tech wizard.”

Yes, that is what happens when you have the memories and knowledge of several lifetimes.

“This is Danny, an old friend from high school.” Tucker introduced. “And his husband, Vlad.”

Vlad shook Mr. Drake’s hand. “A pleasure, Mr. Drake.”

“Please, call me Tim. You too, Theo.” Tim smiled at them.

“Are you Theo’s boss?” Vlad asked.

Tim blinked and looked surprised. “Um, yes, I am.”

Tucker cleared his throat. “Mr. Drake is co-CEO along with his father, Bruce Wayne.”

“Wow. That’s really impressive.” Danny complimented. “Sorry, we’ve been traveling and haven’t been keeping up with the news. We’re actually new in Gotham.”

“Oh, well be careful. Gotham can be dangerous. We have a lot of crime which can be difficult to adjust to for non-native Gothamites.” Tim warned. “Luckily, we have Batman and the rest of them to protect us.”

“Batman?” Danny started confused before Tucker interrupted.

“Of course, Batman! But Danny here prefers Martian Manhunter!” 

Tim smiled. “...Yes, well I was actually coming to talk to you for a reason. We are having a gala in a few days and I wanted to invite you. Danny, Vlad, you should come as well.”

“Sure sounds fun.” Danny giggled. “Man, if only younger me could hear me now. Vlad used to try to drag me to galas and I basically had to gnaw my own arm off to get away.”

Tim laughed. “Yeah, I get you. I used to hate them so much when I was younger. Still, do sometimes. Good company is crucial for a decent night. But I must get going. See you at the gala. I’ll send Theo the info.”

“Yes, thank you for the advice.” Danny waved as Tim left.

Vlad frowned after him. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

Danny hooked an arm around him. “We’re on vacation, might as well enjoy it with a fancy party. What could go wrong?”

…

Tim was following up on his gut feeling and was rewarded with nothing.

Literally.

He was looking up Danny and Vlad and found nothing.

He already looked up Theodore Fuller’s high school records for a Danny, Daniel, or other variations of the name and came up with no one.

Tim leaned back in his chair and thought over the weird exchange. Nothing was too out of the ordinary but his instinct was telling him something was off about them and it set him on edge.

Theodore was a person of interest in the first place, being scouted by Wayne Enterprises due to his genius in technology to hopefully prevent him from going dark, as many of them do in Gotham.

Theodore was always suspiciously smart, also feeling sort of off, but he always came up clean besides some disappearing acts during his vacations.

Tim ran facial analysis’s to try to get some background on Danny and Vlad.

There’s something suspicious about them and Tim is going to find out what.

Chapter Text

Touring Gotham has been amazing. It really is a beautiful city, if a little smoggy, with its impressive namesake gothic architecture.

This…was decidedly less impressive.

Vlad dragged me to this country club slash golf course to “reintroduce us back into high society.”

You would think after ruling by my side all this time he would get tired of these stuffy, superficial pleasantries with people neither of us would ever care about.

Although Danny can tell even Vlad isn’t particularly satisfied as he thought he would be.

Danny was about to make up an excuse for us to leave when one of the staff ran over to the group. “The Joker escaped!”

There wasn’t any reaction from the crowd.

“He crossed the river and is heading this way!” The man screamed.

Immediately the group dissipated as everyone got on their golf carts to leave the course.

“Is he explicitly coming here or is he just heading in the general area?” Danny asked.

The man looked at him confused. “He’s just heading this way.”

“Kay. We’ll stay here but you can go if you want.” Danny told him, patting him on the shoulder. “Thanks for telling us.”

The man hesitated for only a second before turning and quickly leaving.

“Really?” Vlad asked with an amused smirk.

“What?” Danny asked with a faux-innocent expression. “Now we can golf in peace.”

Vlad shook his head and went to play the next round with Danny.

They were a few holes in when a loud bang filled the air.

A car barrelled across the grass towards them and they jumped out of the way as it swerved and stopped near them.

The door flung open and the Joker stepped out in his signature purple suit, sporting a pout. “Finally. The service in this place is really terrible. No reception at all.”

“The course is closed today. We’re actually the landscapers.” Danny said.

Joker ran his gaze up and down at their golf attire and bag with the golf clubs in it and frown and pointed a gun at them. “You’re not funny.”

“You never let that stop you.” Danny snarked and Vlad just sighed.

“Why you!” Joker stomped like a toddler and then shot at Danny.

Danny’s smile grew wider across his face until it stretched to inhuman limits.

“That won’t work on me.” Danny stepped closer. “Can I tell you something?”

The Joker shivered, feeling a sense of unease as he gazed at this boy. “What?”

“I̸̢̼͔̭̹̳̫̭͔̜̣̭̐͑̒͋̕͜ͅ ̴̲̱̝̟̮̺̣̐͑̏̽̔̀̈́̐́̏́̕͜͝ĥ̵̺͔̰̜̤̙͔̖̮á̴͔̳͓͈̮̗t̸̡̳͍͎̘̰̦̯̺͔̤͉̝̂͗̓͊̓̈́͛͂̕͘̚ȇ̷̢̤̼̦̝͍͈̬̙̫̫̩̊̈́̊̇̈́̿̓͘̕͠ ̵̯͎̦͕̝͔̭̤̤͔̬̟̀͜c̸̡̘͎͇̥̬͉̺̮̞̍͊̃̋́̆͜͠ĺ̶̼͎̓̊́͆ớ̵̯̩͉̙̥̜͈͈̘̝̬̳̟̈͆͊͗̏̿͂́̃̌̕͜w̷̳̲̔̈́̉̀͐̓͒͆̅́́͛͘͘̕͘͠ń̷̦̼̻̣̲͈̊̐ͅͅs̵̭̆̌̃͗̄̈́̅͂̕.̸̢̨̨̟͈̩͇͒̾̏̉͆̇̀̾̄̏͋̕̕͘̕”

…

Jason wasn’t having a good day. Any day you hear about the Joker escaping once again is a bad day honestly.

He fell behind while following him to the country club and was dreading whatever damage he would come across from the Joker being out of anyone’s sight for long.

He entered the course and drove across the turf and came to an abrupt stop at the sight before him.

A gray-headed man was shaking his head in an exasperated manner at the joker and a boy fighting…well not really fighting more the Joker being beaten down by said boy.

His day was going so much better all of the sudden.

A lithe, twenty-something-year-old twink, maybe 150 pounds soaking wet, was curb-stomping The Joker.

Suddenly, the raven-haired boy stopped picked up the Joker holding him above his head, and then tossed him into the pond.

Jason’s day was going great.

“Bravo!” Jason started clapping.

…

“Vlad,” Danny whined. “Do I really have to get a new suit? I hate getting them fitted. Can’t I use one of my other ones?”

“Yes, we both need appropriate attire for the evening. Nothing we have will fit this century’s apparel.” Vlad assuaged Danny as he handed him a jacket to put on.

Danny sighed and put it on before looking at Vlad and himself in the mirror. “Hmm, we do look good at least.”

Vlad smirked. It took decades to get Danny to see just how attractive he really was. He admired the vision before him. 

Danny’s tall lean figure in a navy suit with a silver vest and tie and Vlad's in a black suit with a matching vest and tie. “Yes, little badger, you are absolutely gorgeous. I could eat you up right now.”

Danny blushed and joked. “Be still my forever unbeating heart. We’ll be the talk of the gala.”

Vlad was going to kiss him before being(ever so rudely) interrupted. “Excuse me.”

They turned to a tall man with black hair and blue eyes, who smiled vacantly. “Sorry for interrupting. Are you talking about the Wayne Enterprise’s gala?”

“Yes. And you are?” Vlad asked tone just on the edge of polite.

“Sorry, I’m Bruce Wayne.” The man, Bruce, smiled widely. “Tim was right, you guys are a hoot. It’s pretty rare for people not to recognize us in Gotham.”

“Oh, you’re Tim Drake’s dad. It’s nice to meet you.” Danny greeted. “Sorry about that, we’re not from around here and we’ve been pretty out of touch with the news for years.”

“Yeah, Tim mentioned that. Something about traveling?” Bruce asked friendly.

“Yeah, we’ve been here and there,” Danny said.

“I’ve done a lot of that myself. What do you do for work?” Bruce asked.

“Vladdy here is retired so we’re trying to blow all his money.” Danny joked. “He gets a good amount of dividends on his investments though so it’ll last us several lifetimes.”

Bruce laughed softly and replied in an airheaded tone. “That is how you win the game of life. By enjoying life to the fullest.”

Danny and Vlad share a look. This was weird.

“Well, I have to go. Business to attend to, unfortunately. It was a pleasure talking to you Mr…” Bruce trailed off as he extended his hand.

“Nightingale. Vlad and Daniel Nightingale.” Vlad replied as he shook the man’s hand.

“I look forward to seeing you at the gala, Vlad, Daniel.” Bruce smiled before leaving.

“...That was weird, right?”

“Oh, yeah.”

…

Oleksandr was having a great time since he came to Gotham.

The city was so crimeridden that his feeding was completely unnoticed by the authorities.

He let the drained body drop to his feet and cleaned his face.

He left the alley and walked down the dark empty street.

Not even Batman can find him, let alone beat him.

Chapter Text

Tim looked at the report with a heavy gaze. 

Bodies found drained of their blood.

Tim sighed before thinking of all the possible reasons. Serial killer motif. Cult killings. 

Steph looked over his shoulder, groaning. “Please, don’t tell me it’s vampires.”

Tim blinked. Vampires?

He reopened the other case he was working on recently, the Nightingales, and expanded the parameters for his background search.

Soon there was a ping. 

“I found them.” Tim breathed out.

“Who?” Steph asked, leaning in.

“The Nightingales!” Tim exclaimed as he read over the preliminary results of the program’s search.

Vlad Masters born on March 21, 1966, and Daniel Fenton born on April 3, 1990.

He pulled up pictures he could find of them and…

It was them.

“Fuck, it is vampires,” Steph whined. “Do you think this is big enough of an emergency that we can raid Alfred’s garden for garlic?”

Tim shook his head. “Nothing will ever be a big enough emergency for that.”

“So, new rogues,” Steph said. 

“Looks like it.”

…

Usually with galas, only Bruce and one or two of his kids attended. Bruce could never force his kids to…do anything really but trying to force them to go to galas would just end in destruction and/or bloodshed, as he learned in the past.

But this gala was different. Nearly all his kids were in attendance.

It wasn’t every day when you could witness the beginning of new rogues, let alone when they were possibly vampires.

Bruce sighed internally(although he retained an airy smile in front of the crowd). He hated dealing with the supernatural. It never made any sense, from magic itself to magical beings.

From what Tim gathered and witnessed personally, they had no discernible motive for being in Gotham. Personality-wise they lacked the extreme personalities that all Gotham rogues had. 

Daniel Fenton, from his lacking records(it seems from a combination of age and intentional destruction of the records), was a normal teenager who disappeared from the world when he was twenty.

Vladimir Masters, on the other hand, had more available information. He was a billionaire from the late 20th century to the early 21st century, who came across his wealth under mysterious circumstances. He appeared to go to college with Daniel’s parents and was Daniel’s godfather( “Ew, that’s so gross.” Stephanie wrinkled her nose.) although who Daniel’s parents are and any records of their stories were corrupted and any attempt to dig into it caused the Batcomputer to crash.

They currently had no idea what the Nightingales’ connection to Theodore Fuller is. Tim was theorizing that Fuller is their…thrall. “A Renfield to their Dracula.” He said.

Bruce made his way over to the couple as soon as he spotted them.

“Daniel! Vlad! Good to see you again.” He exclaimed happily when he got close enough.

“Bruce, it’s a pleasure.” Vlad shook his hand.

“Hey, nice to see you. And please call me Danny.” Daniel, Danny, smiled.

They exchanged small talk for a little while.

“So how did you two meet?” Bruce asked. “You make a lovely couple.”

“Actually, we had a rough start to our relationship.” Danny laughed. “We actually kind of hated each other.”

“Oh?” Bruce raised an eyebrow.

“I wouldn’t quite say that.” Vlad cleared his throat.

“Vlad, we used to beat the shit out of each other,” Danny smirked at Vlad. “We’ve done so many things to each other out of spite and somehow through the years we’ve fallen in love.”

Bruce hmmed. That’s interesting. How antagonistic is the relationship still?

He had flashbacks to when Joker and Harley were still together.

Is this another villainous abusive relationship?

Before he could inquire further, Jason walked up to them. Bruce didn’t know that he was here.

“Hey, pops. Who’re you talking to?” Jason asked turning toward them.

“Jason,” Bruce said strained. “This is Vlad and Danny Nightingale. Vlad, Danny, this is my son, Jason.”

“Hello.” Jason smiled a smile that reeked of trouble to Bruce. “So what are you two doing in Gotham?”

“Oh, we were just visiting my friend, Tucker. He works at your dad’s company.” Danny explained.

“Tucker? You’re talking about Theodore Fuller, right?” Bruce asked.

“Yes, Theo. Tucker is just an old nickname.” Danny smiled.

Bruce made a mental note to look into that. A possible former alias? Is Fuller also a vampire? His background checked out though with no evidence of forgery or tampering.

“So I heard about what you did to the Joker. It’s amazing. It was long overdue.” Jason laughed.

Bruce stiffened. Joker? He had a breakout a few days ago and was brought back by Red Hood extremely beaten and bruised with multiple broken bones. They were all under the assumption that Jason did that. This was his first time hearing about the Nightingales’ involvement.

“...How did you hear about that?” Danny’s smile dimmed.

“Can’t be as rich as us and not have a few sources.” Jason waved it off.

Bruce ignored the warmth he felt from Jason so blatantly claiming him as his father and focused on the Nightingales.

“Oh, we just accidentally ran him over with our golf cart.” Vlad jumped into the conversation for the first time.

“And we just accidentally back up over him after that.” Danny joked.

Bruce laughed absently as he thought over the report of Joker’s injuries. They don’t line up with injuries from vehicle accidents. Let alone something as lightweight as a golf cart.

What happened? And how does Jason know about it?

There are only more and more questions popping up in regard to the Nightingales and no answers.

Chapter Text

Bruce was pondering how to question them when Cass walked up.

“Gentlemen, this is my daughter, Cass. Cass, this is Vlad and Danny Nightingale.” Bruce introduced.

“Nice to meet you.” Cass signed with a smile.

“Oh, nice to meet you too.” Danny signed back.

“You know sign?” Jason asked. “It’s pretty rare for anyone at these kinds of parties.”

“Yeah. I interact with a lot of people who are nonverbal or otherwise unable to speak so it really comes in handy.” Danny explained, continuing to sign as he speaks.

“Oh for work?” Bruce asked.

“Yeah, something like that,” Danny said evasively.

“Danny does a lot of work in our previous community. Everyone tends to love him.” Vlad bragged, smiling at Danny.

“That’s an exaggeration. Not everyone.” Danny flushed.

Vlad gave him a look. “The only exception I can think of is Walker and that’s only because you get on his nerves. Even then since he’s found out that you're his grandson, he’s had a soft spot for you.”

Bruce added the name Walker to his mental notes before moving on. “So how long do you plan of staying in Gotham?”

Danny laughed and teased. “Trying to kick us out already, Mr. Wayne?”

“We don’t really have any concrete plans at the moment.” Vlad continued. “We’re kind of just going to let the wind take us wherever it wants.”

“Vlad has gotten a lot better going with the flow over the years.” Danny complimented. “But yeah, we’re really enjoying Gotham. We have a friend that would love the gothic architecture and aesthetic.” 

Vlad snorted. “Although she would probably join that Poison Ivy lady in her crusade of environmental extremism.”

Danny laughed. “Yeah, probably. She’s really an environmentalist and has organized and led so many protests and organizations dedicated to improving the Earth over the years. She and I are even responsible for preventing the extinction of a certain gorilla species.”

That…was a lot of information to process.

Tim popped up out of nowhere staring at a tablet. “The purple-backed gorilla, right?”

Danny snapped his fingers. “Oh yeah, that one!”

“Danny…” Vlad said in a warning tone.

“Or something like that. I can’t really remember the name.” Danny backtracked.

Bruce looked over Tim’s shoulder and saw him looking at an old article detailing the potential survival of the purple-backed gorilla from 2004, with a picture of a young Danny, two adults, and a gorilla.

So this friend is also a vampire from that era. Bruce needed to call in a favor with Andrew Bennett, a member of Justice League Dark who’s a vampire(and vampire hunter). They need to get the situation under control before it became an infestation.

“Scientific discoveries are always impressive,” Bruce said instead.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck, blushing. “Thanks.”

Suddenly, the lights went out and things went quiet.

Then the screaming and sounds of panicking started.

Bruce put a com in his ear to hear Oracle reporting Scarecrow is attacking.

Bruce pull on a rebreather hidden in his suit and started moving toward a private place to don the Batman armor, although he saw a flash of red eyes when he turned toward where Vlad and Danny were standing.

…

Vlad flashed his eyes toward Danny and grabbed his arm.

They turned invisible and intangible to float through the crowd unnoticed toward the edge of the room.

Hearing that it was Scarecrow attacking, they stopped breathing. (A neat perk of being a ghost)

“You okay?” Vlad signed to Danny silently.

Danny nodded before smiling mischievously. 

Vlad sighed and gestured for him to go.

…

The Bats tracked down Scarecrow and found him quivering.

If it was any other time, they would have suspected that he was just exposed to his own gas if it weren’t for him mumbling about glowing eyes and cold inescapable hands.

Vlad and Danny were conspicuously absent when the lights turned back on and everyone was given antidotes to the fear gas.

Chapter Text

Danny walked into the only coffee shop he found that was open 24 hours and ordered himself a latte.

Since he’s been in the city, he’s preferred to go out at night since the ambient ectoplasm in the city spikes due to fear.

Stepping out into the crisp chill of night, he walked slowly back toward his motel room, enjoying the night air.

It took longer than he would like to admit to notice that he was being followed since the person didn’t have an ecto-signature.

He stepped into an alley and walked to where he was out of sight from the street.

“Can I help you?” Danny asked confused, looking directly at Batman where he was hidden in the shadows.

It was silent for a moment before Batman walked forward into the dim light and stared menacingly at Danny.

“What are you doing in this city?” The Bat asked, or well demanded.

“Visiting? Sightseeing?” Danny said confused. “Why? I don’t think I warranted your attention. Unless it’s about the whole thing with the Joker?”

Batman remained silent.

“Look, I didn’t mean to interrupt the whole cat-and-mouse thing you have with him.” Danny sighed. “A word of advice from someone who’s been where you are, just kiss already.”

The silence continued although had a remarkable feeling of befuddlement.

“Just because you think they’re evil, doesn’t mean they are. A lot of the time villains are misguided or misunderstood and just need to be shown the right way.” Danny continued, unaware that the Bat was completely confused and forming his own conclusions on the Nightingales’ relationship.

“Danny.” Vlad dropped from the sky to land next to Danny.

“Hey Vlad, what are you doing out? I thought you had things to do at the hotel?” Danny asked, forgetting Batman was standing a few feet from him and forgetting that Vlad being in his ghost form wasn’t normal.

Two centuries of being mostly in their ghost forms made switching between forms a nonissue.

Batman observed ‘Vlad.’ Blue skin, red eyes, fangs. Common features of vampires besides the skin color.

“It’s almost dawn, love,” Vlad said amused.

“Oh, shit,” Danny said. He had forgotten that they had plans in the morning. “Sorry, Mr. Batman. I have to go. Remember what we talked about.”

They walked out of the alley and turned the corner quickly.

Batman went to follow them only to discover them gone. He checked the tracker he placed on Danny only to find the signal lost.

…

Tim hasn’t slept in days(which is fairly typical for him honestly). He has been trying to dig into the Nightingales’ past and has been met with absolutely no success.

Currently, he was just searching for information on older vampires in general and went down a rabbit hole of cults in the past that were suspected of either worshiping vampires or were run by vampires.

He was currently reading about one that has a start from around ancient roman times. Apparently, they were formed when a tyrant emperor was overthrown, who looked like the stereotypical vampire. Then he sees a picture of a mosaic the cult created of this event and freezes.

A figure white-haired and green-eyed was standing over a defeated black-haired blue-skinned and red-eyed emperor…Vlad.

Tim pulled up Bruce’s digital recreation of what Vlad Nightingale’s other form looked like and sighed.

“Fuck.”

…

Danny and Vlad were having drinks at the Iceberg Lounge and enjoying it immensely.

The staff was looking them over after they consumed enough alcohol to kill men three times their size, unknownst to them.

“Do…do you think Batman ever drinks here?” Danny asked, laughing. “It’s like when I go to Ember’s concerts. Like oh, you tried to kill me before but I’m here to support you in your venture.”

Vlad snorted, hiding his smile behind his glass. 

Suddenly, the door was kicked open with a loud bang and a shout, “Penguin! Get out here!”

At the doorway was Mr. Freeze.

Danny got up and walked toward him. “Hey, Mr. Slushee! I wanted to meet you.”

The people running away paused for a second to look at this crazy guy before continuing to find a place to hide or escape.

Mr. Freeze looked at the boy in front of him. “Get out of my way, boy. I have business with the Penguin.”

“I, I wanted to challenge you to an ice sculpting contest. I bet I could do better.” Danny slurred. The alcohol hit a little harder when he stood up. A blue ray came out of his hand to make an ice sculpture of himself.

Mr. Freeze froze in place as he examined the boy and his creation. A meta with ice powers?

“Now you,” Danny demanded.

“What is your name, boy?” Mr. Freeze narrowed his eyes at him.

“Danny. Now you create something.”

“I can’t, my freeze ray doesn’t have the fine control to create intricate details.” Mr. Freeze explained, still examining the ice sculpture.

Danny digested the words for a moment before cheering. “Yay, I win!”

Red Robin and Black Bat dropped from the ceiling.

Red Robin turned toward Danny. “I need to talk to you.”

Danny raised an eyebrow at him but stepped away from the now-fighting Mr. Freeze and Black Bat.

When they were in a more private area with Vlad walking with them, Red Robin started. “You’re impossibly fast and strong. And your skin is pale white and ice cold.”

“How does he know that? Red Robin never touched me before, did he?” Danny whispered to Vlad and Vlad shrugged.

Red Robin continued. “Your eyes change color and sometimes you speak like you’re from a different time. You don’t go out in the sunlight. How old are you?”

“Twenty-two,” Danny answered.

“How long have you been twenty-two?” 

“Awhile?” Danny said, where is this going?

“I know what you are.” Red Robin stated.

Danny and Vlad tensed. “Say it.”

“Vampires.” Danny and Vlad froze before Danny burst out laughing.

They were gone before Red Robin said anything else.

…

Batman looked over the information he had and sighed.

It was time to call in the supernatural experts in Justice League Dark.

Chapter Text

John Constantine has been having a shite two weeks.

First, he hears about the fecking High King of Ghosts coming to the mortal realm and now bloody Batman contacts him.

Constantine and Batman have a mutual, if unspoken, pact of noninterference on the basis of two-way loathing.

And it’s bloody vampires. Maybe literally.

So now, I…Vampire(the brooding bastard) and Constantine must go to Gotham to deal with some vampires.

Brilliant.

…

Danny was having a wonderful time. He was having tea with Drs. Isley and Quinn(Harley, she insisted), striking up a wonderful conversation.

He was in the middle of relaying secondhand information about environmentalism and psychology from the early 21st century he got from conversations with Sam and Jazz when he noticed a certain little bird hidden in the shadows in a corner of the roof.

“Hey, Dr. Isley, is your venus fly trap big enough to eat small birds?” Danny smiled and sipped his tea.

Harley, the ever-proud and enthusiastic girlfriend, bragged about the plants while Isley searched around with narrow eyes, catching my meaning.

“Little Bird, little bird, fly around, Up to the sky, down to the ground.” Danny sung.

Robin dropped down with his sword drawn and pointed at Danny.

Danny chuckled. “Little bird, little bird, flap your wings, Open your beak, and sweetly sing.”

“I refuse your plague on my city, Nightingale.” The baby bird(bat?) spat out. “You and your paramour will leave or face beheading. Even vampires will die if beheaded.”

“I-” Danny was struggling to not fall over laughing again, let alone keep a straight face. “I don’t know where your family is getting their information.”

Suddenly, two more birds flew through the windows. Nightwing picked up Robin while Red Robin threw garlic at Danny, yelling. “Sorry, don’t eat him!”

“Oh no, not garlic!” Danny yelled dramatically flopping to the floor and was left laughing like a maniac while the two women were left questioning many things.

When Danny finally got himself under control, he said the last line of the poem. “Little bird, little bird, fly to your nest. Now it is time to take a rest.”

…

Tim was once again on the hunt for information. Only this time, he was doing some in-person investigation.

This led Red Robin to be standing in front of the Nightingales armed to the teeth with wooden stakes, garlic, and holy water which he was doubting the effectiveness of so he made some UV light emitting batons.

“Look, I know you’re probably used to ruling.” Tim addressed Vlad. “But Gotham is not interested in having rulers.”

Danny, as he seems to always do whenever Tim is around, started laughing again. “Where’d you get that idea?”

“What idea?” Tim asked confused.

“Actually, I’m the king and Vlad is my consort. I could beat his ass any day of the week.” Danny proclaimed cheekily.

Vlad glared at him. “Really? You just had to say that in front of the heroes of this age?”

“You aren’t denying it~,” Danny said in a singsong. “Plus, I know you like it when I toss you around the bedroom.”

Vlad stayed conspicuously silent.

Tim…Tim didn’t know what to do with this information.

He made a strategic retreat to regroup and reorganize the information they had.

…

Constantine and Bennett sat in front of the Batclan as Red Robin went over all of the information, in an increasingly unhinged way.

“So…is it the old king of vampires that revived or a new one?” Constantine asked. “I killed the old one and as far as I’m aware, he’s still dead.”

Batman made a note to research the previous king and how Constantine killed him before speaking. “Unknown.”

Tim brought up the best picture they could of Daniel Nightingale nee Fenton, a very blurry shot of the side of his face.

Constantine looked at the photo before shaking his head. “No, it’s a new one. The old one was a James Dean lookalike bastard. I’ll see if I can get a tracking spell but no promises. Besides, I don’t really have any use in vampire hunting besides my toxic blood.”

“Do they show any signs of being related to Mary? Or her order of the Blood Red Moon?” Bennett asked.

“No apparent relation to the Queen of Blood or the Cult of the Blood Red Moon.” Red Robin muttered. “They haven’t made any moves against us or set up anything that we can find. If it wasn’t for the bodies, we would judge them as nonmalicious. From the amount of exsanguinated bodies, we can hesitantly say that it is only the two of them.”

Bennett nodded gravely. “I will work on tracking them down and confronting them.”

“They are usually not hard to find.” Red Robin told him. “Danny in particular seems fond of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. He visits them fairly often.”

…

Danny jumped across the gap to the next roof following Catwoman, Harley, and Ivy.

They invited him to girls' night and they may or may not have blown something up. 

Either way, Batman, Robin, and Red Robin were running after them, with Red Hood joining in after a while.

When Danny saw the first signs of sunlight peaking over the skyscrapers, he got an idea. He started growing out his fangs and when he was temporarily out of sight he drew out a black cape from a small portal he opened.

Running and purposely making them follow, he led them back to a slowly flowing stream of water from a hose that wasn’t turned off all the way that he noticed earlier. “Oh no! Running water! My only weakness!”

He made a sharp turn and keep freerunning over roofs until he got to one with a jagged wooden fence built on part of it. “Oh no! Wooden stakes! My only weakness!”

He heard the sounds of Red Hood laughing at him and Red Robin letting out a confused, “What the fuck?”

He eventually got to the highest roof he could get to with the sun starting to peak out more. 

He took a breath and yelled, “Oh no! Sunlight! My only weakness!” He dramatically swung his cape in front of his face before turning into mist and floating away.

Unfortunately, he didn’t know how to turn into a bat although he wouldn’t be surprised if he could with his menagerie of powers.

The Bats were left behind gaping at empty air with only the sound of fading cackling.

Chapter Text

Oleksandr smirked as he entered his hotel room suite. He hypnotized the owner of the hotel and has been staying here living the highlife for months already! And the best part is, none of those stupid Bats had an idea that he was here.

He led his dazed guest for the night over to the bedroom, kicking open the door.

Oleksandr yelped as he was grabbed by the throat and thrown to the floor.

Looking up at his attacker and scowled, he recognized the man. “Andrew Bennett, I don’t believe I warranted your attention.”

“You’ve left a trail of bodies, that warrants my attention, Olek.” Andrew, the self-proclaimed, I, Vampire, scowled back at him.

“I heard the Bat doesn’t like it when other heroes come into his territory,” Oleksandr smirked as he stood up. “I’m sure he would love to know you’re here.”

“He’s welcome. You, on the other hand, not so much.” Nightwing dropped from the shadows of the roof, startling the vampire. “What are your intentions in Gotham?”

“Oh, you know. Just some fun. The occasional late-night bite.” Olek said casually as he started looking for an exit.

He was going to jump out of the window when a shadowy figure entered along with an unfortunately brightly colored one.

“Batman,” Olek swore internally.

“Where are the Nightingales?” Batman demanded with Robin brandishing his sword towards him.

Oleksandr blinked. “Who?”

“Daniel, king of vampires, and Vlad, his consort.” Andrew Bennett said.

“We have a new king?” Olek stared blankly at the other vampire.

They all stared at each other. 

“So you don’t know Danny? Mid-twenties, black hair, blue eyes, slight tan. Usually accompanied by Vlad. Roughly forty, gray hair, blue eyes, goatee?” Nightwing listed.

“No?” Oleksandr stated. “Am I supposed to? When did we get a new king?” 

Red Robin dropped down and whacked the vampire over the head with his UV-emitting batons and sighed. “Will we ever find out what is going on with the Nightingales?”

Nightwing shrugged and looked down at the unconscious vampire. “Anyone else feel like this night was a little anticlimactic?” 

Red Robin fastened the superstrength-resistant restraints on to Oleksandr for Bennett to take him. “Yeah, but this isn’t the final confrontation.”

…

Constantine wandered Gotham fiddling with his magic while lost in thought.

He was able to find a spell that allowed him to track vampires around him but the only vampire that was detected was that useless git.

While walking Constantine noticed a peculiar aura in the air, causing him to slow down and cautiously follow it to its source.

He turned a corner to a street that was empty save for one person.

A raven-haired young man stared at him and Constantine realized it was Danny Nightingale, who had a eerily familiar aura emanating from him.

Danny narrowed his eyes at the blonde man. “John Constantine?”

Constantine froze. It was never a good sign when the people he was trying to track down knew who he was. “...Maybe?”

“You fucker!” Danny shouted at him. “Do you know how much paperwork I had to do solely because of you?!”

“What?” To say Constantine was confused would be an understatement.

Danny waved his arm upward and several glowing green portals opened behind him.

Constantine’s stomach dropped as things clicked. He knew that color. Knew those portals. 

The reported abilities and transcriptions of previous encounters with the Bats. His remark of being a king yet no vampire or other supernatural entities seemingly hearing of a new vampire king being crowned.

Evidence of him being around since the 2010’s when roughly the old king of ghost was defeated and the new king was crowned.

Danny Nightingale wasn’t the king of vampires. He was the bloody High King of the Infinite Realms. 

“Nope, nope, nope,” John muttered as he open his own portal and stepped through it as the other launched several boxes at him.

A box(which on his second glace was weirdly curved so it was no longer rectangular) flew through the portal into the house of mysteries right before it closed.

He paused, looking at it for a second, before opening it and taking one of the sheets of paper from it.

‘Dear, High King Phantom

I am once again contacting you regarding John Constantine…

This isn’t fair…

I need not remind you of who I am…

Please intervene, I am sure you know who the proper owner is…

Kindest regards, your most faithful subject, Beelzebub’

Constantine rubbed his temples, trying to stave off a headache. He needed a smoke.

Bloody Bats.

…

Batman stared at the message Constantine sent him, eyebrow twitching hidden under his cowl. 

‘Nah, mate. I’m not dealing with the bloody King of the Infinite Realms. I ain’t a right div.’

His brood was currently looking into what the Infinite Realm is but so far there is no progress.

“Knock, knock.” A voice rang out in the cave causing Batman to turn around rapidly and observe his surroundings with a hand near his batarangs.

The Nightingales appeared out of thin air in front of him.

Bruce pressed a hidden button letting everyone know the cave was compromised.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dick creeping from where he was in the locker room toward a better vantage point.

“How did you get in here?” Batman asked evenly.

“We went through the wall,” Danny answered. “Speaking of, what is it made of? It was surprisingly hard to phase through it. I heard about the Martian Manhunter could phase-shift through objects. Is it for him? Is it true he’s a martian?”

“Babe.” Vlad interrupted his husband’s excited questioning.

Danny blushed. “Sorry. It’s just so cool there are real Martians on Earth.”

Batman remained silent as he observed them and planned. So they can move through objects. Great.

Danny turned back toward the black-clad man. “So, we figured we should explain some things. I really don’t want to have to fight any superheroes while on Earth.”

Vlad rolled his eyes. “I have no problem fighting any superheroes.”

“Really Vlad?” Danny huffed.

“Don’t worry. You’ll still be my favorite hero to fight.” Vlad put his arm over Danny’s shoulder.

“Suck up.” Danny smiled.

Vlad smirked. “Oh, I can su-” 

“Vlad!” Danny cut him off.

Nightwing walked out, in his civilian clothes but wearing a domino mask. “So you’ll explain what you’re doing here?”

Bruce shot him a look of disproval. It still wasn’t guaranteed to be safe.

“Well, I’ve been telling you guys why we’re here. We’re on vacation.” Danny said. “We’ve been working pretty much nonstop for the last two centuries.”

“Constantine mentioned that you were the King of the Infinite Realm,” Batman said in a measured tone.

“Ugh. Don’t even say his name in front of me. I have a headache just thinking about him.” Danny scoffed.

Fair. Batman conceded internally.

“What is the Infinite Realm?” Nightwing asked.

“It’s the realm of ghosts and the neverborn. It’s basically the lining of this and every other dimension and hosts every afterlife ever conceived.”

Batman and Nightwing paused, digesting the information. “So…you’re the king of ghosts?”

“Yup, basically,” Danny answered.

“So are you going to do the whole steal the souls of everyone in the world thing?” Nightwing asked. “Because that wouldn’t be cool.”

Danny laughed lightly.

“Why would I want any of your souls now when they’ll belong to me eventually?” Danny said raising an eyebrow. “I’m the king of ghosts. Every soul becomes mine upon death unless prior deals were made like Constantine, that soul whore. Although most who sell their soul are not stupid enough to sell it multiple times due to the likelihood of their soul being torn into pieces when they die.”

Vlad huffed. “The only reason Constantine didn’t was because he made deals with the big three demons. The first, second. and third of the fallen who are too prideful to accept a partial soul yet can’t risk fighting over complete ownership. Plus, his unexpectedly decent relationship with Lucifer.”

Batman internally sighed. He always developed a headache whenever he worked with Constantine.

“What are your plans for the future?” Batman glared at them.

“I don't know,” Vlad said before turning toward Danny. “Where do you want to go now?”

Danny contemplated. “Hmm, how about…Metropolis.”

“And after you’re done…vacationing?” Batman asked suspiciously.

“We go back to the Infinite Realms,” Danny stated simply. “We don’t want to destroy the world. I still have living relatives. What kind of really, really, really great uncle would I be if I destroy the world? Matter of fact…”

Danny floated over towards them and handed them a glowing green phone. “You can use this to call me, even after we go back to the Infinite Realms. If the world’s ever ending and your justice league needs help, you can call me.”

Vlad shook his head as Danny floated back over to him and just said, “We are actually leaving Gotham tomorrow. We need to get moving if we want to finish seeing the world before a century passes.”

Danny waves as they go invisible, leaving the two alone in the cave.

“So-” Nightwing started, leaning on his adopted dad’s shoulder. “Should we tell Supes that two ghosts are coming his way?”

Bruce stared down at the phone, before deciding. “No, let him suffer.”

Dick’s laughter rang out as the two ghost husbands fly off to a new city.

Chapter Text

“Clark! Lois! My office now!” Perry shouted at them before stomping back into his office.

Clark shared a look with Lois before hurrying into the office.

As soon as the door shut behind them, Perry shot them a glare. “Could you tell me why the Daily Star got the news before we did?”

“What?” Clark asked confused. “What news?”

Perry stared at them menacingly as he turned on the tv in the room.

A young guy in his twenties with black hair and blue eyes was flying around a burning building using ice breath to blow out the flames leaving an icy residue on the floors and walls. 

Really Luthor? Again? Clark thought sighing and observing the man closer as he shot (green?) laser vision.

Despite initially thinking this was another clone, the boy’s features were too different to be related to Clark.

Another Kryptonian then? 

“When was this?” Lois asked.

“This morning,” Perry answered. “And Daily Star was the first to get the scoop. You are going to be the first ones to get an interview, understood?”

Clark nodded absentmindedly. Lois grabbed him and led him out of the room and then the building.

Lois shot him a mischievous look. “Anything you want to tell me, Clark?”

…

Clark(along with everyone else) have been searching for this new Kryptonian with no luck.

Lois has been using all her connections to find out anything about the kid to no effect, even allowing Jon to search as well(after his homework was done).

Then a few days after the first sighting, Clark just finished dealing with a bank robbery and was speaking with the police when the boy showed up.

“Dad!” The new Kryptonian flew over to Clark, appearing out of nowhere.

“Dad?” Clark asked mainly to himself, although he could also hear some of the cops and the nearby reporters also questioning this.

“I finally found you!” The young man looked up at him teary-eyed. “Why did you leave me?”

“Um, I think you are mistaken,” Clark told him, still confused.

“Of course not!” The boy(he really needed to get his name) shouted. “How could I forget my own dad?! You left me!”

Clark looked around at the disapproving faces of the policemen and could hear the reporters muttering excitably about this huge scoop that, literally, landed in front of them.

“We should discuss this somewhere else,” Clark suggested.

“Are you going to leave me again?” The boy questioned loudly.

“No. We’ll talk and get you situated properly.” Clark promised although fairly hesitantly. He had no idea what was going on. 

The boy nodded and flew off slowly, glancing back every so often to check Clark was following.

Clark's heart ached for the boy. Even though he might not be the boy’s father, he still was a father. Seeing a boy look so hurt and afraid of abandonment was difficult.

As soon as they landed on a distant roof, the young man straighten and glared at him.

“Hi?” Clark didn’t know what to do in this situation.

“I heard you have a clone.” The boy said in a cold tone.

Clark could feel an invisible pressure on his shoulders. “Yes?”

“And I heard you treated him like shit.” The boy said causing Clark to wince.

“I regret that. I’ve mended my relationship with him.” Clark started to explain. “I was just so angry that my greatest enemy stole my DNA and used it-”

“I don’t give a shit.” The boy cut him off. “Yes, that’s bad. But that was never his fault. It was Luthor’s.”

The boy proceeded to give Clark a verbal lashing that lasted nearly thirty minutes, before leaving.

He never got the chance to ask his name, where he came from, or how he knew these things.

…

“Superman is a deadbeat dad.” The Daily Star reporter stated as the video of Superman’s and the young black-haired man played behind him.

Clark let the noise of the T.V. fade into the background as Perry once again scolded them for not getting the scoop first.

The boy never appeared in Metropolis again causing the rumor mill to flourish in his absence. The overall constant was that Superman was a deadbeat father.