Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tim nearly fell out of the bed because his leg was tangled up in the blanket. He prepared himself to fall, but with a weird pose, he managed to stand up. He couldn't help but gasp as he looked up. Tim was looking at the strangest thing he'd ever seen, and he'd seen many bizarre things in his life.

As the third Robin, now known as the "Red Robin," he felt that nothing could surprise him.

But this thing looked like something out of a cartoon. It could only be described as a floating green blob. It didn’t really have a shape, but strangely, it had something that looked like eyes, if you could call two black orbs eyes. He was taken aback by this bizarre creature that had suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Uh," he muttered after starting for a while, “ I should have eaten before I went to bed. Now I’m hallucinating things.”

Walking to the kitchen and starting the coffee machine, he knew that not eating wasn’t the real problem. Even so, he opened the fridge, thinking that eating wouldn't make things worse, but of course, there was nothing edible in the fridge. He sighed in defeat and threw the empty carton he found in it away.

“I have it bad. My fridge contains more samples obtained from the crime scene than genuine food. Alfred would be so disappointed if he knew that this is where I keep the samples.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw the green floating blob. It was indeed floating rather than flying; he had seen people fly previously, and this creature was not doing that; rather, it appeared to be in water. The thing swayed gently as it emerged from the bedroom.

Tim began to panic; hallucinations had never lasted this long before. He saw things when he was exhausted, but now he was well rested, which was unusual on its own. The first was seeing things in this state. He could see the glop right in front of him. Tim reached out cautiously to touch it, but his hand passed through without touching anything. He stared in confusion, unable to make sense of what he was seeing.

"So this is really a delusion," he said, shaking his head. "Of course, it's not real. Don't be a moron."

He looked at the phone, which was left on the countertop, and considered telling someone, but then just shrugged, "It will go away soon, there is no need to bother anyone,” chuckling softly. “Half of them would just laugh, especially Jason and Bruce, who would want me to do a mental health examination." His laughter slowly subsided as he considered how his friends would react if he told them what he was seeing.

While his family was different, he didn't like to think about his friends' reactions, especially Kon's. He thought about how his friends would view him differently if they knew what he was going through, and while he wanted to reach out to them, he also didn't want to be a burden.

Tim began drinking his coffee and making a shopping list, even though he doubted that he would actually go shopping.

Despite having slept for a few hours, his mind was just not in the right place. Given that the green blob was still there, he was in even worse shape than he had anticipated. His feelings of uncertainty and insecurity had taken a toll on his mental state.

Overall, it wasn't too shocking; he'd had some difficult weeks behind him. Yesterday he finally solved the latest serial killer case, which had been ongoing for several weeks and claimed the lives of 17 people. In his mind, he cursed himself, thinking that if he had realized the motivation sooner, fewer people would have died. He had worked tirelessly, trying to stay one step ahead of the killer. He had tracked the killer's movements, interviewed suspects and witnesses, and poured through piles of evidence. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to prevent the killings.

But who would have suspected that the murderer was motivated solely by the victims' red shoes? Because the bodies were discovered naked, everyone assumed it was the work of a sexual predator, even though there was no evidence of rape. He was perplexed until a neighbour of the most recent victim mentioned that the victims had recently purchased extremely expensive bright red shoes. He asked if the other victims had red shoes. After that, the clues came together. It was just a hunch, but fortunately, it worked. With this information, Tim had the pieces of the puzzle he needed to solve the crime.

All that remained for him was to write the report, which shouldn't take long. He'll then get some free time. Even then, he'd probably go see some of his friends rather than go grocery shopping. He'll eat the energy bars he got specifically for this kind of occasion. Tim knows himself well enough not to rely on having food at home. He never has, so why start now? He's content with having snacks and energy bars on hand because he knows it saves him from the frustration of grocery shopping when he's already tired from work.

“I'll just go to the mansion to give Bruce my report, it will be good seeing him and Alfred before eating there. Alfred's food is always the best anyway. And even the Demon brat isn’t home for the weekend.”

The green blob was in his hair, making it impossible for him to ignore it. Tim believed he could feel it, but was unable to touch it. He tried to brush the blob away, but it didn’t seem to move. He felt a little bit cold, but nothing more.

“Ignore, ignore, ignore. It will go away if you just ignore it.” He repeated this mantra to himself, but the blob stayed stubbornly in place.

Chapter Text

Tim sighs as he stretches. "It took a lot longer than I expected," he said as he stood up. "I finally came up with a better way to say that the murderer killed all of these people because she despised red shoes. It was also difficult to explain how I realized it," he grumbled. He finally settled on the words, "I observed that a common trait amongst the victims was that they all wore red shoes, indicating to me that the murderer had an obvious grudge against them."

He looked at the time, it was past 10 p.m., but he doesn't do what a normal person would. Instead, he walked into the kitchen and made a new pot of coffee. He was still deep in thought, pondering the reason for the murderer’s grudge, even though he knew that he hated them, he didn't understand why he would kill because of them.

“Tomorrow I really should eat something other than this crap," he said, munching on an energy bar. “ I will just go to the manor as I planned,” he says.

He finished his coffee and deliberately didn’t look at the green blob that was still there. He thought about taking a shower but decided against it. Even if it's simply a delusion, he didn’t want to be naked in front of it. He places his mug in the sink and goes to his bed, attempting to sleep.

“One of the few occasions I go to bed without collapsing, and I can't sleep,” he mumbled after some time. “ But if I don't go to sleep now, Alfred will notice.”

He remembered the times when Alfred saw that he was tired and had no reason to stay up because there was no case. Tim squirmed just thinking about it. He tried every trick he could think of to fall asleep. He tossed and turned and counted imaginary sheep while reciting his multiplication tables. It must have worked because he fell asleep.

He awakens with the hope that the green blob has vanished. As he sat up, he didn’t notice it. He didn’t see it as he drank his coffee or when he eventually decided to take a shower. He cautiously got naked, and he didn’t relax until he was done.

After dressing up, he started to think that he was no longer hallucinating. He left his brownstone with a smile and made his way to his car. He got into his car and took a deep breath, relieved that he could finally relax.

"Perhaps the others are right, I just need to sleep more often." He closed his eyes and took a moment to savour the feeling of calmness that has come over him. However, as he started the car, he noticed the green glob in the mirror.

He will forever deny the sound he made. His heart rate increased and his breath quickened as he realizes what he saw. Tim carefully placed his face on the steering wheel; he didn’t need a concussion on top of everything else, even when he felt the need to bang his head on the wheel. His mind flashed back to the previous night's events.

He inhaled slowly and ignored the blob, saying, "I should call it something else," before restarting the car. “Or would it increase your presence?” He thinks to himself as he drives away.

As he drove to the manor, he wondered if the blob had any purpose. Tim often had hallucinations in which he saw things that would help him with a case or his feelings. He assumed that was his subconscious. He found comfort in the thought that the blob may have some kind of purpose or meaning, something that could help him find closure and make sense of things. But the blob did nothing; it was simply there. It’s not like the time he hallucinated Dick almost naked.

“That was fun.”

He vividly recalled that time. He initially believed it to be true. It happened after a similarly difficult case; he was so exhausted that he wanted to sleep forever, but when he went home, he saw Dick in his kitchen making food, wearing nothing but an apron. When he awoke the next day, he knew it couldn't have happened.

Firstly, Tim didn’t own an apron, and more importantly, Dick doesn’t know how to cook. If Dick had cooked something in his home, it would have left a mark. Tim was aware that his mind was trying to tell him that he isn't straight, but he rejected it at the time. Tim felt overwhelmed by his dream and its implications.

After that hallucination, he started to see naked men on occasion, and the delusion only ended after he finally admitted to himself that he was, in fact, very gay.

He has no idea what the blob's purpose could be. He thinks about it the whole way, but he can't figure anything out.

“What could a green blob possibly want to tell me?” he said as he got out of his car.

He took the stairs two at a time, went to the kitchen to drink coffee, and see if there was something good to eat. He emptied the coffee pot and started looking around for food.

“Master Timothy, it is a pleasure to see you, as always. I wasn’t aware you were visiting,” he heard from behind.

Tim turned around quickly, holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a sausage in the other, and began to panic. But his fear was replaced with a wave of relief when he realized the speaker was a friend.

“Ah, Hi Alfred, I didn’t hear you coming. “ Tim showed his hands behind his back, almost spilling out his precious coffee. “What are you doing here?”

“I believe it is I who should ask such questions.” Alfred raised one eyebrow.

Tim laughed nervously and, reluctantly placing the mug and awkwardly holding the sausage he took from the fridge, quickly ate it. He looked around nervously, not wanting to make eye contact with Alfred.

“I just want to hand my report in,” Tim remarked while looking secretly at Alfred to see if he noticed the floating green blob in the kitchen. However, Alfred didn’t seem to notice.

“And why didn’t you just send it as usual, Master Timothy?” Alfred asked, his tone knowing, and Tim is well aware that he cannot keep the plan secret from Alfred.

So he admitted, “I didn't have anything to eat at home, so I figured I could eat at the manor?” What began as a statement became a question.

“Of course, Master Timothy, you’re always welcome to visit the manor,” said  Alfred as he walked further inside the kitchen. “Now, why don’t you hand your report in quickly, while I cook something for you to eat?”

“I will hurry back." Tim was aware that if he did not return before Alfred had finished cooking, he would regret it, as he has in the past.

He dashed through the manor and into the cave. Bruce was in the cave, working on the computer.

“Hi Bruce, What case are you working on?” He approached Bruce while looking at the screen and found him working on the newest villain case. The villain always vanishes before Batman could capture him, and the figure in the cowl video feed appears distorted.

Bruce simply mumbled something incomprehensible and kept checking to see if any of the city's cameras could get a good look at the villain. Batman had been after this villain for weeks, but he was always one step ahead of him.

“So, I completed my report on the previous serial killer case. You wouldn't believe the motivation.” Tim attempted to sound cheerful, but it came out forced. Batman responded with a nod and a grunt, his mind still focused on the task ahead.

Bruce didn’t even look away from the computer when he said, “There was no need to come in person to hand in your report.”

Oh, that hurt.

“I just wanted to visit you and Alfred.” Tim laughed awkwardly. He swiftly laid his report on the table. He had to get out of here.

“I will just go then. By Bruce.” He rushed back upstairs. He didn’t notice Bruce's concerned gaze.

Just as he stepped out of the lift, he realized he hadn't checked to see if Bruce saw the green blob.

Chapter Text

Tim was emotionally drained when he finally returned home. He went to the manor and saw Bruce and Alfred, thinking the day would be fine. But, in the end, it was a mess. 

Bruce didn't even look at him and didn't want him at the manor. It was difficult to pretend that nothing was wrong. Tim hastily excused himself since he didn't want to show Alfred how miserable he felt. He knew it was nothing new, yet he couldn’t stop himself whenever it happened.

Since no one else saw the green glob, it was safe to assume it was a delusion. He hoped, at least deep down, that it was something else. After all this time, he should have known better. 

Nothing good ever happens to him.

At least Tim didn't have to pretend at home. While he didn’t want to express his emotions at home, he could do something about his other issue.

He looked straight at the blob that floated before him.

“How can I make it better?” he asked “I'll do whatever I can,” 

He thought the blob was his repressed feelings personalised. As a result, he believed that dealing with it directly was the best option.

The blob did nothing at first, then gradually approached Tim. He leant away from it, but it ultimately touched his face and nuzzled him like an animal. Tim panicked on the inside while he remained calm on the outside.

 “Um, just what are you doing?” After the blob had nuzzled him for a while, he asked.

The blob suddenly moved away from Tim and then circled around him. In the end, the blob seemed to vanish.

“Well, that was easy,” he muttered, finally alone.  

He went out as Red Robin that night, trying not to think about how this is his life. He remembered the good old days before reality hit him. The early days when he followed Batman and Robin. The first days as Robin. He didn't know when everything started to fall apart.

He assumed it happened when Jason returned as the Red Hood and cut his throat. Or when Damian arrived, or maybe when Dick took Robin away from him.

But then he recalled Stephanie's death, or at least Tim's belief that she died. Then there was the entire Bruce's supposed death scenario. He was the only person who knew Bruce was still alive. Unfortunately, no one believed him, and the others planned to lock him up. In the end, he proved that Bruce was still alive, but was lost in the time stream.

He felt that things would get better after that. Dick would apologize for taking Robin without telling Tim. Bruce would consider him a worthy son. The Demon Brat would quit attempting to murder him. He even entertained the thought that Jason would stop calling him Replacement.

He just said he’ll try not to think about it. 

‘You just can’t stop yourself, can you?’

He almost wished someone was in danger so he wouldn't have to think about it.

Tim heard a scream just as the thought crossed his mind. He rushed towards it, feeling guilty. When he arrived at the site, it was nothing as he expected. He found a woman with a horrified expression looking at something.  

Something even he finds disturbing. It was a body, a dead body. He had seen dead bodies as a vigilante, but nothing like this. The body was missing several limbs. He was missing his head, legs, arms, and most of his organs; the even more horrid aspect was the how.   

Someone appeared to be experimenting with various techniques on different limbs. One arm had been torn off, and one leg had been sawed off. Tim noticed acid and fire burns. The organ removal appeared to be performed by a doctor as if it was done professionally in a hospital. 

He initially assumed that organ traffickers were responsible. That, however, did not make any sense. It didn't make sense to do this to the body if the goal was to divert attention. It would simply attract even more attention. There were also more uncomplicated ways to dispose of a body.

The woman who screamed fell unconscious, causing Tim to move. He checked the woman as he contacted Oracle on the coms.

“Red, What's the situation?” Oracle asked.

“A woman unconscious at my location, there is also a dead body,” said Tim.

“I’m sending an ambulance there and reporting to the police,” Tim sighed as he heard Oracle reply.

“Aa, maybe tell the cops to not bring newbies,” the suggestion was met with silence. “I mean it's pretty gruesome here,” Tim continued.

“Red, What exactly happened?” 

Tim began to inspect the crime scene noting that the body was relatively fresh but was brought here. There was almost no blood under the body. But the blood that remained was not dried.

“The body is missing all four limbs and its head. I don't know what occurred here but I will find out,” 

Tim heard the sirens so he moved away, knowing that the cops would want to speak with him. He'd continue his patrol and see what the cops discovered by tomorrow.

“I’m continuing my patrol, could you try to see if the cameras could capture anything?” Tim asks, knowing that Oracle would do it without saying.

“I will, but be careful Red, it doesn't seem the easiest case,” 

“Yeah, but then it's Gotham, when is anything easy here?” Tim grappled through the city paying attention so he would notice if someone was in danger.

“Red, I'm serious; there appears to be an unusual amount of abnormal death, even for Gotham, lately.” Oracle's tone was grim.

“What do you mean?” Tim asked, dreading the answer.

“More people were killed in the last week than in the previous two months.” Oracle’s voice tried and began to lose the professional tone she preferred to keep while on coms. 

The answer was far worse than Tim had feared.

“That's not good, does anyone have any idea why?” Tim found some thugs and easily knocked them out.

“Bruce believes it is because of the new villain. He has no explanation other than that he is suspicious, and you know how he is with that.”  Oracle typed louder. Which was a hint, to everybody who knew her, that she was angry.

Tim stopped one mugging before he could ask. “Why would he think that? I thought the new villain just stole things?” 

“He says it is because the new villain, we really should give him a name by the way, reeks of death.” 

“You know we can’t, it’s Dick's turn to name him and he didn’t even see him because the recordings are too distorted. He wanted to call him something like Cameraman but nobody let him. We hope that the new villain finally tells somebody his name. And Jason just calls him the Newbie,“

Tim finally felt ready to go home.

“And what do you mean reeks of death, like he is decaying?”

“You really should speak to Bruce, Tim,” Barbara says “ And no, Bruce says that he smells death near him, I don't know what he means,”

“Yeah, yeah, I know and I will, he's just so hard to talk to. It always feels so awkward and I don't know what to say and he doesn't say anything” Tim babbled but he cut himself off as he heard clashing in the alley near him. 

He jumped down and stopped the man from doing anything more to the girl. Before Tim could say something the girl ran away. Tim shrugged and knocked out and tied up the man for the police.

“I still don’t know what Bruce means reeks of death but thank you for telling me. What are the others doing?” Tim returned home and began to remove his suit.

“Damion is at the Kent farms for the weekend, Dick is in Bludhaven and Jason is out for the night. Bruce is still in the Cave investigating the new villain. Cass and Stephanie are working on a case for me. But I believe you know all of this already, stalker boy,” Barbara's tone was joking even if she was technically right.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want, you are more like a stalker than me,” Tim knew Barbara has everybody in the family tracked all the time. “I’m off for tonight, you should go home Barbara,”

“I have a few things I need to do so I can’t. But you have a good night, Tim. Bye,” her voice was exhausted but firm, Tim knew there was no use arguing with her.

“By, Babs” Tim took out the coms and turned them off.  

He decided to take a bath, not just a shower. He washed his hair and then went to wipe the water out of his face when he noticed the blob. It’s floating near him.

He jerked while still in the bathtub if he had been standing he would have fallen. He remembered almost falling the first time he saw the blob.

“I thought you were gone,” he pulled himself together and swiftly got out of the tub. 

The blob almost seemed to nod before moving out of the bathroom. Tim didn’t have a choice; he put on a robe and followed it.

 As he went to the living room, he saw the blob trying to push another blob towards Tim.

“There are more of them,” whispered Tim, falling onto one of the chairs in shock.

Finally, it seemed the first blob won as the second moved closer to Tim. It moved in a way that Tim thought of it as shy.

“I need more coffee for this.” Tim stood and went to the kitchen. He felt that it wouldn't be easy to stop these hallucinations.

Chapter Text

Tim spent the day dismissing the blobs as much as he could. The first one seemed to be content with it, but the second wanted something from him. He could somehow ignore it during the day, but as he started his patrol, the second blob became more determined. 

The blob floated in front of him in such a way that he couldn’t see anything. When he was finally able to grapple off the roof, the blob came at him in surprise, making him start to fall. He was able to land in an alley without injuries but knew he couldn’t continue like this.

“Just what do you want?” Tim angrily questions the blob, which upon being addressed seems to do a happy little dance, ‘Cute,’ immediately after the thought he flinched ‘Perish that thought right now,’  

The blob moved away from him and looked back. It clearly wanted him to follow. He thought about not following but he was unable to come up with an alternative. He couldn’t touch it and make it disappear. Even during the day, he had a hard time pretending in front of everyone that it wasn't there. And it didn’t actively try to trouble him, unlike right now. In the end, he followed the second blob.  

Let it be stated that Tim was not stupid but rather smart. Everyone said so… well almost everyone. Even Ra's said Tim was intelligent. Sometimes even Brucie said it. He was the Robin who was famous for his brain. Dick for his acrobatics, Jason was the dead one, and Damian the one with the katana. So it was safe to say he was clever. And he himself would have said that he is intelligent, before now.

He looked at the severed head that the second blob guided him to. Then he looked at the blob, which appeared to be proud of itself.

Perhaps it isn't that smart after all. He stood there, unsure of what to do. The blob undoubtedly guided him here, but how could it have known? 

Or was he having hallucinations of severed heads, now?

Tim needed to check if others saw it because he would not touch the head. The head was missing its eyes, jaws and a part of its skull.

"Babs, do you see this" he contacted Oracle as quickly as he could, his tone panicked, which explained the immediate answer.

"Use codenames" Babs tone was soothing "I'm checking the camera feed of your mask. Tell me what happened,"

"Tell me what you see," Tim refused to admit seeing things. If Babs didn’t see the head, he didn’t know what he would do.

"You are acting weird," Her tone has changed, and it is evident that she wants Tim to tell her what was happening.

"Ah, I see. It probably belongs to the person found yesterday,"

Tim was so relieved he sways. He tried to stay still to not alert Babs that something indeed was wrong.

"But how did you come across it? This location isn’t part of your usual patrol route, and you've only just started your shift." Barbara sounded curious and a little bit worried. "You immediately came here instead of starting your patrol. What's going on, Tim?"

Tim had no idea how to phrase it without sounding crazy. He couldn’t tell the whole truth. ‘Well, you see, a green floating blob that only I can see led me here.’

"I got an anonymous tip," said Tim instead, trying to sound firm. Tim was impressed by his lie until Barbara questioned him.

"Where did you get it? Did you get a call as Tim Drake?"  Tim could almost see the raised eyebrow as the continual typing came to a halt.

‘Ah, I didn't think this through.’ Tim sweated as he tried to come up with an appropriate response. 

"When I got the police report there was a note" 

‘Ha, that sounded plausible, maybe I am clever.’ He looked at the blob and his shoulder dropped ‘Yeah, no, I am an idiot.’

"When did you go to the police station?" Babs asked doubtfully.

‘I’m definitely an idiot.’

“Look I can’t tell you right now,” Tim gave up lying to Babs. “But I will as soon as I can.”

“The others will be back soon. Do you think you can tell your secrets then?” Fortunately, her voice doesn't seem as angry.

“Yeah, I will tell everyone at the next family dinner.” Tim meant it, if the blob didn’t go away he would tell the others. 

“Okay, I’m waiting until then but if you don't I will find out myself,” her tone shows how serious she is. “I alerted the police, they are on the way. Will you stay to talk to them today?”

“No, I'm going to continue patrolling.” Before he finished the sentence he was already far away. “And I know you will find out, thank you for waiting.”

“It's okay, Red. Call if you need anything. Don't lose your head,” she disconnected the coms not waiting to see if Tim had something else to say.

Laughing he swung from roof to roof. 

Tim found himself home before he felt ready. He went into his apartment through the window. He didn’t do anything he usually did after patrol so he just sat on the bed edge and looked straight at the blobs.

He started to question whether the blobs were just delirium. But then what were they?  

“What are you?” Tim asked, hoping for some kind of answer even if he doubted he would get one. But the blobs started to move towards him. 

He slowly raised his hands, and the blobs nuzzled him, but unlike the first time it happened, he could touch them. They are real. Now that he looked at them, they were kind of cute. Not like they weren't until now, but he ignored that thought as he thought they were hallucinations.

“Okay, so you are real, but that doesn't explain what you are.” 

He thought that the blobs may still be hallucinations. It was imaginable that somehow his subconscious was able to figure out the location…

Yeah, no, he just deceived himself. Even thinking he was crazy is easier than acknowledging the existence of these supernatural beings.

While he was lost in his thoughts the blobs cuddled him. He was sure it created a ridiculous image, two luminous floating green blobs and one vigilante sitting in a dark apartment.

‘Well, at least I’m not delusional.’

Chapter Text

Tim finally admitted that the blobs were real. Now he didn’t know what to do. The blobs continued to cuddle him, but he just sat there staring blankly. Tim felt overwhelmed and confused, as he had been denying the blobs' existence for so long. Now that he had acknowledged their presence, he was unsure how to approach them and if they could even understand him.

He started to pet one of the blobs, and for the first time, he heard a noise coming from them. It was a very quiet but noticeable sound. It sounded similar to a cat's purr, but it was a little different. He looked at them in awe and wondered as he pet them again, and the sound got louder. Tim was surprised and excited, as he had never heard a sound like this before. 

"Are they some kind of alien animal? Can they smell out certain things like dogs?" The blob also knew he was looking for the rest of the body and had been able to find it. 

"Did they imprint on me? Is this some kind of supernatural stuff? Did I sell my soul by speaking to them?"

Tim panicked, but after a few deep breaths, he calmed down. "Let's not go down the rabbit hole."

He continued petting the blob until he suddenly realised that the sun had risen, flooding the apartment with light.

He had work to do, he stood up with difficulty and went to was up . The blobs followed him.

"Yeah, no, if you want to stay, you are not going to follow me to the shower." Tim would not take a shower while some aliens watched him. Tim was determined not to let these strange blobs invade his privacy, so he told them firmly to stay put.

Hearing this, the first blob — he really should name them — seemed to sulk. The second blob just went back to the living room.

Tim began to watch the blobs at work, what they did, and how other people acted around them. He first noticed that the first blob was primarily with him and that the second blob was trailing the first.

Thinking about them like that was exhausting. He should give them names. Floating green blobs. “Hmm. What about Bob?” No, he had a knack for giving things names. He'd come up with cute names for them.

The people around him couldn’t see them, but if the blobs got close, they sometimes felt them. Some people flinched or shivered; some looked behind themselves. 

Tim, after considering many names, made a decision. Verde would be the first one, and Neo was the second name.

He nodded and started working again. Everyone around him looked at him as if he was strange. Tim was oblivious to the stares, seemingly in a trance-like state as he focused on the task at hand. 

"What's up with him?" murmured one of them.

"Nobody knows, something's been up since yesterday." One of the workers mumbled back. They had all noticed a difference in their boss's behaviour. They eventually went back to their work. As the day wore on, the confusion only grew.

Fortunately, Tim didn’t have any important work to do today. Despite the chaotic atmosphere in the office, Tim had a peaceful day. The day passed quickly.

That night, Tim found himself in the same place: staring at the blob in front of him while dressed in his uniform. 

Verde stayed at home. Tim felt weird about that but tried not to think about how he left it home alone. Tim was used to the lonely feeling that enveloped him, but this time, he felt a little bit of guilt for leaving his companion behind. 

He shook his head. "Okay, so you can understand me," he said, nodding and placing a hand on his hip "Can you lead me to the other body parts?"

Neo immediately started moving, not waiting for Tim this time. He led Tim through the city until they arrived at an abandoned building.

Tim followed and soon found himself before a wall. Neo passed through the wall, but as Tim was a normal… almost normal human, he couldn’t go through solid objects.

Tim looked around for a way to go, but it was a dead end.

The blob was back before he could do anything and stared curiously at him. If it could speak, it would say, "Why are you not coming?"

Tim felt silly but tried to explain, "I can't go through walls."

Neo made a surprised noise while unmistakably considering something. Tim almost went back, but Neo latched onto his shoulder, and Tim felt a weird sensation going through his body.

He needed some time to compose himself before turning to face Neo "What was that for?"

Neo responded by glancing at the wall. Tim snorted and blinked. He said, "I will not suddenly become intangible just because you are here," but he reached for the wall.

He watched as his hand passed through the wall with wide-open eyes.

"You made me intangible," he whispered in awe.

He toyed with the notion. Red Robin intangible hero. He considered how much he could accomplish in this way, including helping the cases, engaging in combat, and even pranking his brothers. He had a million questions; he was so engrossed that he forgot why he was here. 

Looking at the blob, he opened his mouth to question it and saw the blob's effort.

"Oh, you can't do it for long?" Even as he asked, he finally moved through the wall. He found himself in darkness. From his unity belt, a spotlight emerges. His eyes were immediately fixed on a severed hand.

"So you really can lead me to the body parts," he said as he moved closer to the hand. "Good job"

Neo preened at the praise. Tim noticed that the fingers on the hand are missing. "Bloody hell, it will take forever to find all the parts. How will I find the killer at this rate?" He didn’t count on an answer.

Neo made a new sound, one that Tim hadn't heard before, and moved in circles.

Tim needed to consider the potential causes of this response.

"It means you could lead me to the murderer?" Neo made a gesture that clearly indicates "yes" while not appearing to notice the irritated tone.

"You could have done that before I followed you through the city for hours." Tim made an angry statement.

The blob simply appeared perplexed, like a dog. "I did what you asked me; did I do something bad?"

Tim couldn’t stay mad at something so cute.

He breathed out, then started to look for a way out. He noticed a hole in the ceiling above the hand that was obviously dropped from there, but it was too small for a person to fit through. He didn’t see any other way out of the room.

"It looks like you need to do that thing again," said Tim, the blob wasn’t happy hearing that but went to Tim.

Now that he was aware of what was happening, Tim paid close attention to the sensation when he became intangible. They quickly left the place.

They ended up on a nearby rooftop. "Now you can lead me right to the murderer," he said, sounding sarcastic as he doubted the blob's ability to interpret that.

But the blob did just that. After a long time, they approached a place where he remembered leaving a motorcycle.

"Is it far?" The blob clearly didn’t know. Tim started to get tired, so they went to get the bike. He could hardly believe it, but there it was, still standing in the exact same spot.

He took his bike and followed Neo. The house they ended up in was in a wealthy neighbourhood. The houses were not as huge as the Wayne Manor, but they were large. Tim was surprised to see the large houses; it was a stark contrast to the neighbourhood they had come from. He didn't think the killer lived there.

The blob led Tim to a bedroom where a man in his 50s was sleeping. He seemed to be the nice old man you sometimes see, a bit fluffy with laugh lines at the corners of his eyes and snoring.

"Are you sure about this?" Tim was doubtful, but Neo was sure about this. Neo was certain about the man's identity; there was no doubt. 

Tim sighs and moved, and the man found himself tied to a chair before he even fully woke up.

"W-what is happening?" stuttered the old man, "What d-do you want w-with me?"

Tim wanted to end this quickly "I know you killed a man and scattered his body parts. I want to know where they are."

The old man's facade fell for a brief moment before quickly rising again. Tim caught it.

"What do you mean? What man?" The old man's acting was very convincing, but Tim trusted that the blob led him to the right person si he wasn't convinced.

"You don't need to act; we have proof that you are the killer." Tim bluffed, hoping for the old man to betray himself. And just as he hoped, the old man's entire demeanour changed.

"Then why am I not in police hands?" The old man smirked evilly.

"I knew you wouldn’t tell the police where and how you killed him. I can be a lot more persuasive," Tim thought of cracking his knuckles and threatening the old man with violence, but instead, he started to smile icily. He learned this smile from his mother, who could frighten men, twice her size with it.

The old man didn’t seem to believe him, but before Tim could decide how he could make the old man confess, the windows broke. Tim flinched and put his hands up, ready to defend himself. Suddenly, a man appeared in the room, dressed in all black and wearing a hood. He threw a knife into the old man's throat before Tim could stop him. Tim went to save the old man but realized it was futile. When he looked up and then out of the window, he couldn’t see anyone.

Chapter Text

Danny Phantom was doing his kingly duty. He was sitting on his throne. His blue-tinged pale skin shined unearthly, with devilish claws and fangs, and his gravity-defying white hair slithered in an invisible breeze forever and ever, with the Ring of Rage on his finger and a Crown of Fire over his head. He had several blob ghosts hovering around him. He was the ruler of an alternate universe, whose inhabitants knew him as their protector. 

The administrators in the room gave him adoring looks and they assumed that Danny must put a lot of effort into work. They worked on tasks on one side of the throne room, always feeling secure in the knowledge that he would stand up for them if necessary.

Danny was unaware of the looks. He had been pondering over an important question since yesterday. On his castle's left or right wing, should he build the second observatory? As he considered the benefits and drawbacks of both, his gaze was forceful. The left side, where his bedroom was located, was where he decided to build it. After a day of careful consideration, he nodded in agreement with his choice.

The officials around him noticed him nodding, and they all began to murmur with excitement.  “The king is so majestic, he works so hard for us”.

The Ghost Zone operated largely on its own. However, ghosts began approaching him and requesting to be his people. At first, he had no idea what they were saying. He didn't know that he was a king or what that meant.

Danny was given an explanation by Clockwork, who claimed that the Ghost Zone selects the king who would hold the crown and that victory over the reigning monarch was the only way to do so. Danny defeated Pariah Dark and took the throne as king. However, Pariah Dark's lengthy incarceration meant that the Zone was left without a king, leading to its independence. The weaker ghosts joined together in the hope of a better afterlife, and the stronger ghosts gained territories. But they never became the King.

There were decent leaders like Frostbite and Pandora, but there were also terrible leaders like Nocturn, Undergrowth, and Vortex. Ghosts didn't serve them voluntarily. When the ghosts heard that there was a good king, they went to Danny's territory.

Danny didn't want the throne, but he did have Pariah Dark's whole domain. The first ghosts quickly appeared and requested to serve him. Danny was hesitant at first, but eventually he realized that having an organized system would be beneficial for other ghosts. He couldn't ignore the request because his primary obsession was protection.

He quickly gained a country's worth of ghosts; the majority of them were blob ghosts, and animal ghosts fled from other theories. Danny was taken aback by the sheer number of ghosts and overwhelmed with the responsibility. With Clockwork, Frostbite, and Pandora's help, he created a system where he assigned the ghosts specific tasks (so he didn’t need to do everything).

He sometimes needed to do paperwork, mostly requests from other ghosts. This system worked well, and soon Danny had a well-organized ghost community. Danny sometimes just sat on his throne to help the ghosts feel more connected with their work and for them to be able to see the leader of their community. 

He assigned tasks there as well, and this was where the ghosts reported when they came back. He was anticipating a report today. He gave one of the ghosts a significant assignment.

As Danny waits he looks at the blobs around him "Such wonderful creatures." 

They are not completely formed ghosts, either because there wasn't enough ectoplasm or strong emotion when people died. These "blobs" are the remnants of the dead.

The blobs weren’t powerful, but they had an amazing skill no other type of ghost had. It's their invisibility, normal ghosts were only able to hide from humans. Blobs could hide from anyone. Even Danny couldn’t do that. Blobs were even able to choose who could see them, so while Danny saw them, the others in the room couldn't.

One of the blobs came near and started to speak to him. For everyone else, it would be just various strange sounds from the blob's core, but to Danny, it's a language only he could understand.

The blob's name was Frank. He told Danny about a human who helped the blobs. "Oh, tell me more," Danny said, and the blob in front of him started to tell him everything about the person who helped find the killers of the blobs.

He learned that one blob stayed close to a man who did everything in his power to catch the blob killer, forgetting to eat and sleep in order to bring justice to the dead. He learned that the first blob started to show itself to the man after he successfully caught the murderer and put them behind bars. 

"He must have found the killer pretty fast, usually the blob would come to the Zone soon after it was born," said Danny. 

The blob continued to praise the man, whom all the blobs adore.

As Danny and the blob talked to each other, the officials also started to speak. "Who is he talking to?" asked one.

"He can clearly communicate with people who are far away." one proclaimed in a superior voice.

"He must be extremely powerful to do that," said a newly appointed administrator with a worshipful tone.

Finally, the doors slammed open with a bang as Wulf entered. 

Danny was informed of the ring's origin and crown by Clockwork, who also revealed the existence of a third object. The ghost zone originally had two ghosts leading it. The king and the queen: the king was the one who had the ring and the crown, and the queen had the locket. The Locket of Luck. Danny was tasked with the critical mission of retrieving the locket, which had been lost.

"Did you find it?" Danny asked Wulf. Wulf could rip open passageways connecting Earth and the Ghost Zone. This was why he was assigned this critical task. 

He only told Wulf about the locket's existence because he was aware of the locket's power and didn't want it in the wrong hands. He scanned the Living Realm for a high amount of ectoplasm and found a world where the locket could be.

Wulf shook his head. But Danny wasn’t too disappointed, as he didn't believe he'd be lucky enough to find it without putting in a lot of effort.

"My King, I didn't find it, but I found something you would like to hear," Wulf said, his voice cautious, knowing how Danny would react to the news he brought.

Danny motioned with his hand for Wulf to continue. "There is an organization similar to the one you destroyed in the city you sent me." Wulf held his breath for the answer.

"Everyone but Wulf leave the room," ordered Danny frostily. The officers and even the blobs quickly vanished.

"You do not mean the GIW, right?" Danny asked, his calmness forced.

"I’m sorry, My King, but I do. It's not a government-funded organisation, and they don't want to catch a ghost." Wulf almost trembled as he sensed Danny's imposing presence emanating from him.

"Then what is the similarity?" Danny still tried to stay calm.

"They want ectoplasm." Wulf panted, it was too hard to breathe.

"For what reason?" Danny noticed what he was doing unknowingly, and pulled it back with effort.

"I do not know, but they are willing to kill for it." Wulf burst out.

"They kill ghosts?" screamed Danny, losing control over his power. The temperature in the room dropped below zero.

"No, they kill humans and somehow can gain ectoplasm from their deaths." tried to explain Wulf, hoping to calm down Phantom. It didn’t.

"But why?" he inquired.

Wulf knows that the King was still young and didn’t know everything, but he didn’t want to be the one who told him this. He didn’t have a choice.

"I saw them collecting ectoplasm while slowly killing humans," Wulf tried to explain. "When people die near ectoplasm, even if it is not enough to form a ghost, The ectoplasm is still increasing."

"You mean they don't care about ghosts and kill to get more ectoplasm?" Danny was perplexed. 

"I couldn't stop them from killing when I saw them, but I did notice a blob forming, which they ignored. It couldn't have turned invisible because it was a newborn blob." Wulf said.

"Call everyone I need to go to the Living Realm," Danny instructed.

As quickly as he could, Wulf rushed out the door.

"And this day started so well," Danny muttered to himself.

Chapter Text

"I don't even know what his name is," he said, shaking his head.

Tim was unable to comprehend what happened or why. Neo wandered close to the old man's corpse. The blob appeared to be ecstatic. Tim looked at Neo in disbelief, his mind was racing with questions.

"It won't be easy to tell this to everyone." Tim grimaced. He contacted the necessary person and hoped for the best.

"What happened now, Red?" Oracle's voice was picked up by the com. Tim needed to carefully think about how to tell her what the heck happened. The blob latched onto the dead man and started to glow. Okay, Tim has officially lost the plot.

"Truthfully, I have no idea what happened. Send someone to my location, please." Finally, he was honest. It was time to let other people know what was going on with him. Maybe they could help.

"I have already alerted the closest person. ETA 15 minutes. Are you injured?" Oracle spoke rapidly but didn't even wait for the answer. "What are you doing there?" asked Oracle, confused. "Who is the dead man?" she asked, obviously watching through Tim's cowl camera.

"I don't have any idea." Tim was exhausted and didn't want to consider how long the night would last.

Neo turned away from the dead with joy; whatever the blob did, it gave him a little more mass and radiance.

"Do you have a concussion? Do I need to call Agent A to prepare the med bay?" her tone was half jesting, half serious.

"No, I'm uninjured."  The sound of an engine can be heard nearby. Tim went to the window and peered out, and he saw a motorbike stopped in front of his house, next to his own. He immediately recognized the person.

"You called Jason?" Tim grimaced. He and Jason are better than they were, but Jason was a person who would laugh at Tim if he wasn’t in a life-threatening situation. The current situation, while strange, is not life-threatening. Therefore, Jason likely wouldn't be very sympathetic.

Before entering the house, Jason gave Tim a wave. After seeing Tim, he must have calmed down because he was driving erratically to get here as soon as possible. Tim's expression must have shown Jason that things weren't as dangerous as he had anticipated.

Jason was already in the room before Tim could formulate a plan.

"Damn Replacement, I didn't know why Babs would call me, but now I see," Jason whistled.

"What are you talking about?" Tim felt the need for coffee, he just can't deal with all of this anymore.

"Well, you obviously snapped and killed someone." Jason gestured toward the dead body.

"Why would you think that?" Tim would deny it, but he definitely whined.

"I can see your handy work by the way he was tied to the chair." Jason removed his helmet and raised one eyebrow. "Daddy will be so disappointed when he finds out you used the technique he taught you to tie up and kill someone." Tim finally realized Jason was merely mocking him. It was Jason's way of asking if he was okay.

Jason subtly checked Tim for injuries before starting to look around.

"I didn't kill him." Tim felt guilty because he thought Jason was worse than he really is.

"The killer was an assassin; I have no idea where he came from or went." Oracle joined the conversation. Tim and Jason exchanged glances. They were good, not even Oracle could find a trace.

"It's time to explain what happened, Timbo." Jason crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

Tim frowned at the nickname, even though he was thrilled that Jason did not call him Replacement. He wondered how much he should tell them. In the end, he told what happened but left out his reactions.

"A few days ago, I began to see a floating green blob." Was it just four or five days ago? It seemed much longer. "Later, it became two blobs. I discovered a dead body with missing parts, and the second blob led me to two of the missing pieces. One should have been impossible. Then I asked if it could show me the killer that led me here. I started to interrogate him, but the assassin killed him before I learned anything important," he said in one breath. He blushed when the only answer was silence.

"You mean to tell me that the thing you wanted to tell us at the next family dinner is this?" Oracle got it together faster than Jason, but even in her voice, the shock could be heard.

"I didn't want to bother anyone." Tim sulked. He can’t say that he thought the blobs were just hallucinations.

"That would actually explain quite a few things." Oracle joined in.

The sudden ringing could be heard over the coms by both of them. The watchtower just got an alarm. As they didn't get one personally, was probably not something they were needed for.

"I need to go, there is a robbery in the Diamond District that requires my attention, I will see both of you at the family dinner. Stay out of trouble, boys." 

Jason's look of disbelief would be amusing if Tim joked, but... 'There is no but, the face Jason makes is funny.' Tim just stood there with a blank expression, still waiting for Jason to come up with an answer. He felt that if he opened his mouth, he would start laughing.

"What the fuck, Replacement?" Jason's face went from disbelief to confusion, and then finally, he just began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Tim was confused. Did he break Jason?

"You were convinced they were hallucinations," Jason said between bursts of laughter.

"How do you know that?" Tim's confusion increased, as did the blush on his cheeks.

"I know that you were sleep deprived a few days ago as a result of the red shoes case," Jason smirked. "I know what happens when you are like that." He looked extremely pleased with himself.

"Ah, please don't tell the others. I want to be the one who tells them." Tim was embarrassed, and the blush still didn't go away.

"Are they here right now?" Jason asked, looking around.

Tim looked at Neo. "Just one of them."

"So what are they?" Jason once again looked around like he would suddenly be able to see it.

Tim just looked at him with a face that said, "How would I know?"

"You mean you didn't ask?"  Jason thought this was amusing. The smirk was still on his lips.

"Who would I ask? You?" Tim rolled his eyes.

"Well, if you are like that, I will not tell you." Jason honest-to-god pouted.

"How would you know anyway?" Tim was mistrustful. He eyed Neo, he really wanted to know what it was.

"I will tell you anyway. It will be worth the face you'll make." Jason put his hand on his hip. "If you met a supernatural being, where would you go?" His tone was as if he were talking to a baby.

"To the manor?" an irritated Tim responded.

"No, you idiot, you go to the WachTower." Jason singed. When he wanted to be, Jason could be quite immature.

"Why?" Tim snapped out, he still didn't get it.

"You know, so you could talk to Zatanna, Raven, or even Constantine. You could certainly call them too, but that would have sounded less dramatic." Jason shrugged.

Oh.

Oh.

"How can I be so stupid?" Tim facepalmed. Jason just laughed.

Chapter Text

The laughter didn't stop for a while. Jason needed to hold his stomach. Even when he finally stopped, his good mood didn't go away, he kept smirking.

Tim had never seen Jason so happy. He wasn't happy that he was laughing at him, but he was thrilled to see Jason smile. Perhaps he remembered seeing him this excited when Jason was still Robin. He was not sure.

"Oh man, if you tell the family, I want to be there." Jason calmed down.

"You just need to come to the family dinner. Everybody would be happy to see you." Tim knew how unlikely it would be but hoped Jason would say yes.

Jason looked like he didn't believe Tim. "You know what? If you tell them what you told me, I'll go," Jason said after a moment's hesitation, then nervously looked at his feet.

"You will?" Tim could hardly believe it. "If you come, I will tell them everything, even that I thought I hallucinated it," he promised.

Jason didn't usually go to these things. He sometimes went to the cave for something or if he was injured. And if Alfred called him, he would come. But he only came for one family dinner, which ended in a disaster, and after that, he didn't come to these things anymore. That was more than a year ago.

It's not like Tim couldn't understand. The whole family was there, and everybody at once was too much. The chaotic atmosphere, the countless conversations happening at once and the overwhelming sense of obligation that comes with family, can easily overwhelm anyone.

Everyone knows about the whole vigilante thing as it was just the family. They discuss both day and night "jobs".

Tim usually excused himself as soon as he could. Bruce's efforts to show emotion often come off as forced, while Damian's violent reaction to everything was just too much for him.

Dicks usually ends up on the chandelier. Stephany just laughs at everyone. The only ones who are normal are Alfred and Cass. Barbara, too, can overdo it, but she and Dick were like that with each other.

Duke should be the most normal, but he was far too willing to try anything. Whether Tim was the one who dares him to do things or not was another story.

Despite their occasional recklessness, the group's escapades tend to be kept to a reasonable minimum. Although the emotional damage was sometimes huge. Thankfully, it only occurs once every two months.

"Okay, Timmy, you convinced me." Jason sighed, but a tiny smile could be seen on his lips.

"That's awesome. Just wait until I tell them." Tim was about to take out his phone and text the others.

"No," Jason said as he approached Tim and raised his arm in a panicked gesture. "Let it be a surprise," he continued more calmly.

"Okey but you can’t take it back. You need to come." Tim felt childish, but he couldn't help himself. He wanted Jason to join the meeting.

Jason rolled his eyes. "I said I’ll go." Tim felt relieved at the response but also embarrassed.

The blob decided he was done being ignored and moved closer to Tim. 

Jason saw Tim looking at something in the room that he couldn't see and asked curiously, "What is it doing?"

"It's dancing?" Honestly, Tim didn't have the foggiest idea about what Neo was doing right now, the movements the blob made were just too weird.

"A flying, invisible blob only you can see. You have terrible luck, Timmers." Tim bristled at the new nickname but agreed with Jason. He had terrible luck.

"Let's go before someone comes." Without waiting for Tim's response, Jason walked away.

The next day Tim called Tam. "Hey, Tam," but before he could say more, Tam interrupted him, "Let me guess, you can’t come to work today?" Tim honestly feared this woman.

"Well, you see, I have this thing called--" 

"I send you the work online and cancel the meetings. How many days will you be away?" Her tone was intimidating. 

"You are an angel. I think two or three?" Tim didn't deserve this woman. She always did everything she could to help. And even if it wasn't his decision to tell Tam about his other occupation he could never regret what happened. Well, he regretted how it happened—damn Ra’s.

"Is it possible that something happens and you will be, ah, occupied for a longer time?" she asked, not knowing what kind of mission Tim will undertake this time.

"No, it is not." Tim sure hoped so. He just needed to go to the Watchtower. Last night, he already requested a supernatural expert so he could find out what kind of creature the blobs are.

“If you are sure.” Tam's voice was doubtful.

Almost immediately after they hung up, Tim received his work from Tam. He checked the time; he had some time before he had to be at the watchtower.

Tim arrived at the Watchtower at the agreed time, but just barely. The blob didn't come with him no matter what Tim did Neo and Verde couldn't use the Zeta Tubes.

 Zatanna and Constantine were already here, both sitting in one of the smaller meeting rooms. Constantine looked like he wanted to smoke, but he knew he couldn't.

Tim was surprised that Constantine was even here "You're already here?" looking directly at Constantine he asked.

"Yeah, I had other things to do here, that's the only reason why I agreed to meet you. Couldn’t you bats just call?" the second half was muttered, but Tim heard it.

He actually would have preferred to do that, but after some villain successfully eavesdropped on one member's call, Bruce didn’t let people talk about important things on the phone. Bruce's middle name was paranoia.

"You know Batman doesn’t like that." and he always knew these things, Tim thought to himself.

Zatanna clears her throat. "That's not why we are here. You mentioned seeing something?" she crossed her legs.

"Yes. There are two floating green blobs that only I can see following me," he said flatly.

Zatanna and Constantine looked at each other. In the end, Constantine bluntly asked, "Did you hit your head lately?" Tim sulked at that.

"No, I did not. They are real, one of them led me to a severed hand." that came out wrong, he thought.

"What?" Zatanna uncrossed her legs and raised an eyebrow. Constantine just looked at him.

"There were a body missing limbs, and as I searched for the parts, one of the blobs led me straight to a hand I otherwise wouldn't have found." Tim really tried his best to explain but felt stupid after saying all of that.

The other two looked at each other once again, this time longer.

"It sounds like some sort of spirit." Zatanna started.

"But he said there were two of them," Constantine argued. "All kinds of them are incredibly rare, it shouldn't be possible to have two of them in one place at the same time," he said, scratching his head.

"I don't know about any that are green and have the form of a blob." Zatanna tilted her head.

"The green is not that big of a deal, but the shape is more important. They are usually human-shaped or close to it." Constantine leaned back in the chair and threw his legs up on the table.

"So neither of you knows?" Tim interrupted them.

"From just this, no. What more can you tell us?" Zatanna looked at the legs on the table disapprovingly. 

Even after Tim told them everything he knows, the two members of the Justice League Dark didn't know what kind of creatures the blobs were. They thought they were possible spirits of some kind, but when Tim said that one of them made him intangible, they both looked uneasy.

"I will ask around, but I don't know, kid." Constantine considers the topic closed and left; "I need a fucking cigarette" could be heard before the door closed behind him.

Tim looked at Zatanna with hope, but she shook her head.

"I'm sorry; I also don't know. I will look in the books I have on spirits, but I can’t promise anything." Tim was then left alone after she also departed.

Tim saw the earth when he looked out the window. " Even if I didn't get to know more about them, it is always worth coming here for this view. It is beautiful ."

Chapter Text

Tim turned to look out the huge window, which extended from wall to ceiling and provided a magnificent view of Earth. The stunning view from space was something he could never get over. Tim felt that he was part of something so much bigger than himself and that, while he was doing his part to protect each and every life, in the grand scheme of things, he was merely a small cog.

It took him a while to be able to pull himself away from the sight. He needed some time for himself. He knows that everything is about to change. He experienced the same feelings as when he became Robin or when his parents passed away. He didn't know how, but sometimes he was able to tell if something big would happen.

When Jason came back, he was the first to know it was not just a simple new villain. If he tried hard enough, he may recall having a similar feeling when he first visited the circus and met Dick.

He usually got this feeling before something terrible happens, but not always, and he desperately hoped that the change would be positive this time.

He tried to ignore this feeling, but he knew better than to continue this way.

He returned to his apartment, lost in thought. The blobs were waiting for him.

"You two are very big mysteries. Not even the two most famous magic experts are aware of what you are." He was not happy, but the thought was amusing enough that he let out a chuckle.

The blobs didn't seem to understand, but that was not a problem.

Today he had nothing more to do, so he could enjoy himself. He considered going outside and taking pictures. Then he looked at the blobs and shook his head.

I would be able to really pay attention to something other than them. But the thought gives him an idea. He already tried to see if the blobs were visible on the normal camera. But now he had the opportunity to see if they would appear on something like a heat sensor.

The experiment was unsuccessful. Tim got a little annoyed at this. He knew that sometimes people felt cold near them, but the camera showed nothing of this. In his frustration, because he could not figure this out, he read what happens when different creatures were filmed on the internet. Glitter or static was the most popular belief online, but he couldn't make even that. The blobs remained invisible no matter what you tried.

No glitching, no static, nor a cold place.

"How can I make it so you show up on camera?" he ended up shouting in frustration.

Verde tried to comfort him, nuzzled his face more precisely, but it was not working. The strange sounds from earlier started up again. A strange mix of birds chirping and a cat purring filled the room. The sound became faster and louder with each turn.

Tim didn't understand what was going on. Lately, he often felt like he didn't understand something. He was used to understanding everything, the fact that he didn't understand now was very new to him. He did not like it. 

He wondered if it was the feelings other people felt when they didn't understand something. Like when his classmates used to struggle to understand math, at school. If so, he was very sorry for treating me so rudely. Not understanding something was a terrible feeling.

The blobs finished the conversation as Tim reflected on his now-clearly shameful past in school. Verde is the one who went to Tim and almost poses. He didn't understand at first, but when Verde moved toward the camera, he understands.

"You will show up now? Are you able to control it?" Tim asked.

He quickly moved the camera so that it faced the blob more and took a photo. He didn't know what he thought would happen, but not this, that's for sure.

Instead of a blob, there was just an oval object, much smaller than Verde, but it was hard to see because the whole picture was blurred. Verde moved to see the picture, and Neo came too.

They blocked Tim's view, and he automatically reached out to move them, realizing too late that he could not touch them. He expected his hand to pass through them easily. And he was half right. His hand goes through Neo easily, but he was able to touch Verde. He immediately pulled his hand back. Tim couldn't help the full body shiver that went through him. It was nothing like he had ever experienced. His heart raced, and the hairs on his arm stood up.

It was like the coldest thing he ever touched, but not physically. It was like it could touch his soul. He was terrified, and he couldn't explain it. He got goosebumps all over his body. He didn't know what to do. He wished that he could talk to someone who saw the blobs.

He suddenly remembered, as if struck by lightning. Who in the family saw things that no one else can? Well, not counting Tim, but he usually couldn't see invisible things.

No other than Duke. He quickly traced in his mind where Duke would be. It was Thursday, and Duke goes to Gotham University; if Tim remembered right, he had classes until nightfall today. Tim looked out the window; there was still light streaming in. He didn't want to go to the manor today, he needed to hurry if he wanted to catch Duke before he left the university.

He eyed the blobs and asks, "Would you follow me?" there would be little point in rushing if the blobs were not coming. Although maybe was. Duke could also see things in pictures.

He never understood that. If the cameras weren't able to capture the sight, then Duke wouldn't be able to see it, but if they do catch it, why wasn't it showing up in the picture data? And how was he able to do that to printed photos?

He shook his head. It's not the right time. He just gets confused every time he thought about this. Duke attempted to explain to Tim that his ability did not work as Tim believes it does. However, he was unable to explain to Tim how it works instead. 

They latched themselves onto Tim. "I guess that's an answer in itself," he chuckled.

He rushed out the door and dashed into his car. He was driving like a madman, but it was worth it.

Duke's class ended just before Tim arrived. Tim knew that Duke usually goes home alone because he didn't want to bother anyone. Alfred wanted to oppose, but Duke was astute and played someone who desired independence rather than the truth. 

Tim thought Alfred knew it anyway but let it go because he hoped Bruce took on the task and did it himself. All of Alfred's comments so far have been in vain.

He got out of the car and walked toward Duke, who is just saying goodbye to his friend. Duke is surprised to see Tim and opens his mouth to ask why Tim is here when he caught sight of the blobs. Duke dropped his jaw.

"W-what is that?" he stuttered.

Tim was very proud of himself. He smirked and says, "What is what?" he decided to prank Duke just because he was such a good bother.

"There is no way you don't see it, they're touching you," Duke finally whimpered after searching for the truth on Tim's face.

Damn, Tim pranked his brother too often; Duke could tell when Tim bluffed. Even Bruce would need more time to decide if Tim was telling the truth.

"You caught me, but I actually don't know what they are. Only I was able to see them until now." Tim petted Verde. Since Duke asked what they were, Neo had been hiding behind him.

"How are you not freaking out as it touches you? It looks horrifying." Duke shuddered and even stepped back from Tim.

"What? They're kind of cute, in my opinion." Tim defined the blobs. They grew on him.

Duke looked at him like he is crazy, which was not based on anything, nothing at all. Tim was totally sane.

"They look like they're from some kind of horror movie." Duke couldn't bear to look at Tim, so he turned away.

Tim definitely thought that the blobs were weird, but not horrifying. "What exactly do you see?" he asked, tilting his head.

"There are two of them, one of whom is naked, and one whose body parts aren't connecting." Duke looked at Tim strangely as he explained.

"Who are you talking about?" Tim was astonished.

"The dead bodies that are clinging to you," Duke said as if it was obvious.

Chapter Text

Tim stared, and then stared some more. 

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that, I heard that you see dead people touching me." Tim's voice was desperate; he knew that Duke wouldn't lie about something like this, but hoped this was just a misunderstanding. Yes, this whole thing was just a misunderstanding.

Duke shook his head and said firmly, "One woman around 25 next to you and one man behind you; I can't guess his age, though, because he is too damaged to do that." Duke responded similarly whenever Bruce asked for reports .

"No, that can't be; this must be some kind of mistake." Tim gestured toward the blob. " They are cute green floating blobs." He looked at Duke, trying to convince him that Tim was right.

Duke finally brought himself to look at Tim and the corpses. He simply looked at Tim and asked, "Do you want me to repeat it?" His voice was small.

Tim's eyes, Duke " Jason told you to do this, right? He knows that I see things. You can stop." He hoped that this was just a prank.

"No, he didn't tell me anything. And since when are you able to see things like these? And if it's about an invisible being, why did you speak to Jason before me?" Duke was confused and a little hurt.

Tim just didn't understand. 

"I just don't understand what's happening anymore." Tim can't cope with all of this. "There are two random, kind of strange but still cute blobs, that follow me, and now you tell me that they look like human corpses to you."

Duke didn't know what to say to that, so he stayed silent.

"Can you touch them? I can't. " After some time, Tim asked. If they were really corpses, he didn’t want to touch them, but it's not like he could make them move. Tim couldn’t touch the blob if they didn’t want it. He hoped Duke would be able to help.

Duke hesitated, but seeing that Tim is desperate, he slowly moved closer to the actual human woman's corpse instead of the blob Tim called Verde.

Duke was also unable to touch her.

Huh, at least now Tim knows what their genders are, he felt bad saying "it". But he didn't know what to call them, and saying "they" when there were two of them could be confusing.

"If only we would just know what they are." Tim wondered aloud, and without meaning to, he petted the blob. He realized that he could touch her, right now, but hesitated when he began moving her away. "What if it will hurt their feelings? And anyway, I can't see them, so it's not disgusting or terrifying."

 "Well, obviously they are ghosts." Duke easily said.

Tim was deep in thought, so when he heard the response, he abruptly lifted his head and turned to look at Duke rather than Verde. 

"What are you talking about?" questioned Tim. "Ghosts aren't real. Well, there is Deadman, but he is brought back by magic." 

It was possible to see a light bulb light up above Tim's head. 

"Are you brought back by magic, too? That would explain things." Tim started to smile, feeling accomplished. He finally knew the answer. He frowned; this doesn't explain why Zatanna and Constantine didn't know the answer. Let's not jump to conclusions too quickly. 

"I don't want to interrupt, but ghosts are real," said Duke. 

"Ghosts like in the movies or Supernatural? Are they anchored to me? Did I fail to save them?" 

In his fear, Tim's eyes were wide open. 

"Or did I kill them accidentally?" Tim's mind wandered; did he do something so heinous to these two people that they decided to haunt him? He was terrified just thinking about it.

"What no. It's just that when people die, they can become ghosts when there is enough special energy— I don't remember the technical name for it. I know that normally they are kinda green and able to fly, so I guess that matches. I saw them when I visited my uncle with my parents. It was before that happened to them." 

Tim was amazed, even if the situation were bad because it was extremely rare to hear Duke talk about his parents. He wanted to ask more, but saw Duke's face and decided against it.

Instead, Tim inquired about the corpses' appearance. He didn't know what to hope for, was it someone he knew or someone he didn’t?

What if it was his parent, but his mom was older than 25 when she died? Sometimes ghosts were not at the same age as when they died, at least in the films, but then why would she be naked?

But if he didn't know them, how would he be able to help them move on? His thoughts just kept racing through his head.

"It is hard to describe. They're both blue, even more so than normal corpses, and they don't glow like ghosts usually do, but they are kinda blurry. Not when you just glance at them, but if I want to see what kind of colour the woman's eyes are, it becomes blurry. It is so weird. The woman is young and naked, she has brown hair and is small… in every way." Duke blushed profusely as he said this.

Tim found his brother's actions amusing, but otherwise worried that brown hair and being small were not a good starting point.

"The man has a severed head and arm, I can't really see him. He is hiding behind you. But he is floating? Well, anyway, I don't see his feet touch the ground. I don't see his feet, at all."

Now that rings a bell. "Does he also have brown hair and a broken jaw?" If so, Tim has an idea of what this could be.

"I think so. I feel strange. He seems bloody, but if I look for it, there is no blood." Duke actively tried to see the details, but he couldn't. He rubbed his temple, looking pained.

"It's fine; you don't have to keep going. Take a look instead." Tim pulled out his phone and searched for a certain photograph. He showed it to Duke.

"Why would you show me this?" he asked, looking pale.

"Is that the man you see?" Tim moved away from Duke, who seemed to be more ill as he got closer. Probably because of the blobs, and the picture of a severed head definitely didn't help.

"Yeah, it is him," Duke said, looking surprised by Tim's cheer.

"It means that I didn't hurt them."

Tim also displayed photographs of various women, and Duke remarked, "The fourth woman is the one latching to your shoulder."

"So for some reason, two victims of my previous and ongoing case are following me as ghosts." Tim finally figured it out. He wasn’t exactly sure what they were, as he still doesn't know what exactly these ghosts were, yet, but at least he knew the blob's identity.

He thought he was going to face an extremely complicated puzzle. Things would get more complicated as time went on.

Chapter Text

Tim is once again home, sitting on his sofa. After he and Duke realized who the blobs were, they decided to go home. Duke wanted to tell the others right away, but Tim convinced him to wait until the next family dinner, which will be there pretty soon.

Duke agreed, but made Tim promise to inform the family about what was going on at the dinner. Tim already promised Jason, but that was before he knew the blobs are probably ghosts. He shudders, he doesn't want to think about what will happen after he tells the family that he is haunted.

So the blobs are actually dead people. He doesn't know how to find out what blobs are. Duke said that they are ghosts, but Tim doesn't completely believe him. Especially after Duke revealed that he saw the ghost when he was six years old. It will take time as he checks everything out, but he is working on it. So rather, he turns his attention to something else.

What he knows he can work on right now is the murderer who gets murdered in front of him. It shouldn’t be fun, but he just can't help imagining it as a joke. It would be laughable if it were not about death.

A murdered murderer murderer is the one whose identity he needs to figure out. Now that he is thinking about it, it would be a good tongue twister.

"The murderer murdered the murderer. It sounded better in my head. And it was less confusing."

To recap, one old man, whose name he still doesn't know, was killed before him by an unknown assassin. In theory, that old man was Neo's murderer.

He quickly fixes the first problem: Colson Maximillian Harlan Ashton was the old man's name. He was 64 years old and quite rich. He had no children, and his wife died 26 years ago under suspicious circumstances. He looks into it, but the suspicion is that it was not an accident but a suicide. It seems that the old man didn't murder his wife.

Other than that, there is nothing interesting in his police file. Well, nothing about that would explain why he killed a man and then cut and hid his body parts. He didn't show up for the cameras, and neither did his car. No motive and no opportunity Tim can see.

Tim looks at Neo and says, " It would be so much easier if you could just tell me." He honestly hopes Neo will suddenly be able to speak; it would be a surprise after all he did. Making Tim intangible is more surprising than his ability to speak would be. 

Neo readily starts to make sounds, and Verde joins in too. The still weird sound is incomprehensible. " I can't understand you." Tim shakes his head.

Tim now knows that they are dead people, basically corpses, but he still thinks of them as cute. If they don't touch him, they will be good. And anyway, Jason too came back from the dead, and nobody seemed too miffed by that.

"At least not any longer. They will soon get used to the blobs too," he mutters.

Neo's angry chirp can be heard. "You don't have a hand, so you are not able to write, and I don't see if you nod or shake your head." Tim thinks aloud, feeling weird to think in silence when there is someone in the room.

"Should I try to learn it?" how hard it can be. Even if it isn't the whole language, he can get "yes" and "no" fast. Like when he learned hand signals in a few days to be able to talk with Cass.

"Say yes." The blobs were making two very different sounds. "Say no." Yeah, no, he can't hear the difference. What a bummer.

Wait, they can move. 

He brings paper to the living room and writes "yes," "no," and "maybe." Place them far apart on the ground to make it clear what the blob chose.

"I will ask questions, and you will answer them." Tim feels proud of it, thinking it is a genius idea. And he definitely didn't think of it because he'd seen a viral video of a dog doing it.

"Do you know who you are? Do you remember your life? Your death? Do you know your killer? Why were you killed? Do you know what you are? Do you need help to move on? Why are you still here?"

He asks a bunch of very different questions. As he sees the blobs responding, he becomes more and more confused. 

They say yes to most questions. The blobs know who killed them and why they were killed. Also, they know what they are. 

But, if he got their answer right, they don't really remember their lives because they both moved over to the maybe paper. 

And they answered no to the last two questions. Perhaps should invest in a large Ouija board. 

"Are you ghosts?" Tim asks, thinking it would be an easy answer, but the blobs just move to the middle ground between yes and maybe.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Tim is in despair. "Are you or are you not the souls of dead people?" 

The blobs stay where they are. Tim wants to tear out his hair. Tim is overwhelmed by the absurdity of the situation.

"Are you not ghosts?" They move to the no paper.

"So you are ghosts." They move back to the middle, between yes and maybe.

"Okay, this is certainly not working." Tim needs to think of a better alternative for this. 

He searches on the internet for the biggest Ouija board and buys it. The shipment will be there in two days. That fast, but not fast enough. He will just make his own board.

He writes the ABC on paper and rearranges the couch and coffee table so that the room has a bigger space in the centre. He also has paper with numbers on it, and the "yes," "no," and "maybe" stay.

He lays the papers down and asks, "What are you?" 

It takes a long time, but the blobs spell out "ghost". Tim waits for a few seconds before starting to shout.

"But then why didn't you move to the yes paper when I asked you this?" he starts to get angry.

Verde starts to move it takes even more time, but she spells "no souls of death".

"Then what the fuck are you?" Tim usually doesn't swear, but right now he doesn't give a crap. He is too angry and desperate for answers. He is not used to not knowing things for this long.

Tim feels like it's going on forever, but in reality, probably not even a minute has passed.

Tim is baffled, after seeing what Neo spelled out, he asks, "What the heck is ectoplasm?"

Chapter Text

"Why can't we simply use force to make people do as we please?" The Fright Knight asks confusedly.

"Then more humans would become aware of us. One way or other." Danny shakes his head.

"Why is that a problem? They cannot match our strength." The other audience members in the throne room and Fright Knight are both perplexed.

When they learned that the Great One intended to destroy an organization, they started to prepare for war. Nobody can fathom the king's refusal to employ brutal force. He most certainly possesses the strength to do so.

"Only a small number of people are currently aware of Ghost. Just as not all ghosts are the same, there are both good and bad people in the world.

But even if 1% of people worldwide want to harm ghosts and use ectoplasm for immoral purposes, that would amount to about 40 million people. There are 8 billion people on the planet; if we were optimistic, half of them would learn, and out of them 1% would hurt ghosts.

I don't worry that people will invade the zone and try to annihilate us. I can protect the Zone. However, I am concerned about the ghosts that appear in the living realm.

The young, curious, and occasionally frail ghost. The young ones were interested when they learned about the living realm. They would want to visit the living realm even more if I forbade it. What you forbid is just like a forbidden fruit—it is alluring. I can't guarantee the safety of each and every one of them.

People will become aware of our existence if we force our way. What would happen if religious people's faith was shaken because they discovered there was no such thing as heaven or whatever else they believed?

I can't risk that."

Danny's speech was followed by silence. Everybody who heard him fell a little for him. He is powerful but not arrogant, and he is considerate. He will go to great lengths to protect the weaker ones.

Fright knight bowed. "Of course, my king, you are so astounding," he said worshipfully, still not looking up.

Danny intends to return to the world of the living and look for the organization as a human. He will first return to Amaty Park before travelling to the city where Wulf has been so he can launch an investigation there.

He thought about going to the Justice League for help, but he wouldn't risk the possibility that they would want to tell people about ghosts. He knows that it is possible they wouldn't do that, but he also knows that just because someone generally or occasionally acts honourably, they won't act dishonourably.

He found out from Dani and Val that Superman, one of the most well-known heroes whom everyone considers to be perfect, dislikes clones. He noticed that Batman permits children to fight crime.

The only one he didn't hear poorly was Wonder Woman. If he can't resolve this on his own, he will approach her and request assistance.

He has identity documents he can use in Amity Park; he could also use Tucker's assistance, who still lives there, or perhaps even Technus' additional help, even though he is mostly in the Zone.

He might be able to convince the goth girl to go with him. Sam would likely enjoy visiting Gotham for its gothness. It would be less suspicious if he didn't go alone and went with a plausible reason.

He could simply go after the murderer, but Wulf had informed him that they are nothing more than puppets. The majority of them aren't even familiar with ectoplasm.

For him to be able to look into things, he must somehow join them. 

He arrives at Amity Park without fanfare. He already sent a ghost to Gotham who can spy and wouldn't risk exposing ghosts. 

Luckily, Sam and Tucker are both at Amiry Park and aren't busy. Before he goes to his parent's home, he meets Tucker and Sam at the Nasty Burger. He quickly explains what's happening.

"We just talked a few days ago. How do you always get into trouble?" Tucker asks, bemused.

"Ghost boy is always a trouble magnet, didn't you know?" says Sam while looking at Tucker with disgust as he eats the extra meaty hamburger.

"So will you help?" Danny is dressed in his typical NASA pullover, jeans, and red sneakers while in his human form.

"Of course, we will. When didn't we help?" Sam nibbles on her fries.

"Yeah, man, we will." Tuck immediately pulls out his PDA. "No one will be able to tell that the new company I'm creating is fake because it will be so convincing. Would you prefer to take on a new identity or go as Fenton?"

"I decided that going as a Fenton would be more feasible because I need to leave as soon as possible. But go ahead if you believe you can build an identity in a week that even Batman won't be able to spot," Danny challenges Tucker.

Despite the fact that it differs from his original plan, if he can choose not to put his loved ones at risk, he will do it that way. He puts everyone in danger if he poses as a Fenton and is caught. But time is also important, he can't let the organization get what they want.

"You doubt me? The genius Tucker Foley? "Within a week, I will undoubtedly be able to create a new identity that no one in the world will suspect is a forgery." boasted Tucker.

"Would you perhaps want Technus to help with that?" Danny inquires, amused.

"Yeah, that would be good." He's blushing a little but doesn't look up from his PDA.

Danny takes his time walking toward his childhood home. 

It will take a week or more before everything is prepared for him to leave. Danny will remain here until that time. It's not like he never comes, but he usually only stays for a weekend or less.

His parents struggled immensely to accept the fact that he is a ghost. When he was only two months away from turning eighteen, they discovered. They requested that he leave for a short while.

Although their relationship has improved over the years, there is still tension in every aspect of it. They went to Vlad for an explanation because they didn't understand how he could be a ghost. Vlad said he was like Danny, or at least a lot like Danny. Vlad explained the nature of ghosts and how they become one themselves.

His parents, for some reason, were more accepting of Vlad than they were of him. He was initially upset about it, but after Jazz badgered them for some time, their parents finally gave an explanation.

Because Vlad wasn't their responsibility and was older when it happened, they could accept it more quickly. Their guilt contributes significantly to the tension. How they permitted it to occur, why they failed to notice it, and how they acted towards Phantom.

Danny didn't hold his parents responsible, and after hours of discussion with Jazz, he came to terms with their responses. The outcome was not as bad as he had anticipated.

He eventually arrived. He announces loudly, "I'm home."

Chapter Text

Tim almost immediately searched for the word "ectoplasm" on his phone, but he refrained. He reasoned that there could be a number of outcomes.

Information exists, and it's reliable, unlikely.

Information is available, but it is inaccurate, more likely.

Information exists, but looking for it makes undesirable people aware of it. Even more likely.

No information is available, and it also notifies adversaries. The most likely.

He would need to go to the cave to be able to search safely for ectoplasm, but that would alert Bruce about what was happening, which he doesn't want.

He's still pondering the best way to inform everyone. They need to be in a good mood. But if he waits too long, Bruce will scold him because he didn't tell him sooner. He needs to get answers before approaching Bruce in order to soften him.

Asking the blob is a slow process as they take their time to answer, but right now it is less risky.

"What exactly is ectoplasm?" Tim waited for the reply agitatedly.

Energy death

"Death energy, similar to necromance magic?" He really does not want that.

Verde goes above the "no" paper.

"So it is not." He feels revealed, but his mind wanders to negative thoughts. "Did someone bring you back?"

Neo goes between the "no" and "maybe" papers. "Yeah, you need to spell it out. I don't understand."

It is really slow but Verde spells out.

No bring back becoming. No intention .

"So you just became one, but it wasn't your intention." Tim nods; they are finally going somewhere.

But Neo goes no. "Now, what it is?" Of course, it could be that simple.

Not our intention.  

"Yeah, okay, I understand you didn't want to become one." He is obviously missing something, but he doesn't know what.

Made

"So someone made you, but not intentionally. Was it just an accident?" He is uncertain about what to believe. This case is very confusing. The absence of a dangerous fight, at least not more so than usual, makes him feel awkwardly happy. His physical health is secure, but his mental health is not.

Additionally

"To what?" How a ghost could be created as a side effect of something.

Want ectoplasm'

"So someone wanted to gain ectoplasm, that someone did something that resulted in you becoming a ghost."

'Injection'

"With what?"

'Ectoplasm'

"Ah, I see. While you were dying, you were injected with ectoplasm, which resulted in you not dying entirely but becoming a ghost. But how do they gain more from that, he is using it?

'dying make more'

"So dying around that stuff makes it more, but then how are there just two? Or there are more of you?"

'More,' Verde pauses before continuing, 'not always.'

"Every death means more ectoplasm, but not everyone becomes a ghost." This time Tim waits for an objection, but it doesn't come.

"Have I finally gotten it right?" Both of the blobs move to the "yes" paper. During the questioning, they were quiet, but now they are making their unique sound again. It is proud and happy. Which Tim feels weird about. How does a sound convey complex emotions?

But mostly, he is relieved.

The blobs come toward him, and he thinks about stopping them. He knows now that he just needs to ask, and they won't touch him, but that would make them sad. He can’t do that. The blobs seemed to understand his intentions and responded with movements of their own.

He stands still as they wrap around him like a cat nuzzling him. He pets them and does not feel the coldness that he felt the first time he touched them.

Tim had to be on duty that night for the patrol. This time, both blobs followed him.

The night started fairly uneventfully. if you don't include the countless assaults and robberies. It wasn't really anything out of the ordinary until Neo suddenly came in front of him.

Tim had deja vu. He knew that the blob wanted him to follow. So he did. Despite his confusion as to where they were going this time and why, he trusted his instincts and followed the blob.

They arrived at an abandoned warehouse, not cliché at all. Note the sarcasm. Inside the warehouse, there was a staircase that descended into what looked like a laboratory.

Tim wanted to go in, but the blob stopped him. He should somehow get a portable ouija board or something else, too. This inability to communicate bothers him a lot. Even Bruce's grunts are better.

He opened his mouth to ask why he shouldn't go into the laboratory, but Verde grabbed him. He first thought that she was trying to make him intangible as Neo did, but the feeling was different. That time it was in his bones, but now the weird feeling was in his skin and blood. Verde might be doing things differently. But he is not going through the door as he approaches it. So it is something different.

He is thinking about how to find out what happened to him. 

There is noise coming from the lab. The door has a window on it, but he can't see anything and can't hear clearly. He very carefully opens the door.

"Did you hear that?" is the first thing he hears as he goes into the room. He can now see two weird looking people.

Tim starts searching for a faster exit than the door because he thinks he has been discovered, but is unsuccessful. When the two strange-looking beings look at him, —who he is now that he has looked closer—he doubts that they are humans.

Tim starts to panic, he is in a small space with two other opponents whose abilities he doesn't know. He knows his strength, which is not brutal force.

"I don't see anything, do you?" one of them asks.

"No, I don't." is the answer.

Tim is completely frozen; he doesn't dare do anything, not even breathe. The beings don't see him.

"We didn't find anything satisfactory there. How can we tell the Great One this?" the taller one asks nervously.

"It is not nothing. The ectoplasm is so easy to notice here that it is obvious that the humans did something. And His sole command was to remain unseen." The smaller of the two responds.

"That is true." the taller man says, calming down.

"You'll be the one to tell him," the smaller says.

"What, why would I be the one?" exclaims the taller, enraged.

Tim doesn't listen to the rest; he quickly and quietly backs out of the room.

He goes home as fast as he can. He can see that Verde made him invisible now, but he still can't get his heart to slow down.

"What was that?" he asks, panting as he gets home. On the way, Verde got separated from him.

Neo is the one who begins spelling at the remaining ABC papers on the floor.

'Ghosts'

Chapter Text

The blobs had no idea what the other ghosts were up to. They knew there were other ghosts in the area, but the blobs had no knowledge of their plans or intentions. The ghosts can sense each other, the blobs are just able to block the other ghost from sensing them.

"Who is the Great One they mentioned?" Tim asks while trying to relax on the sofa. He is filled with questions, but he is aware that it will be some time before he receives an answer.

Tim learns that there is a ghost king, who is a relatively new figure, having only recently been crowned. The last king was a tyrant who ruled for more than a millennium. The tyrant challenged the then normal ghost territory but was defeated. The blobs somehow hesitated before spelling normal. Tim wonders what that means. Anyway, that is how the new king came to be king.

He assumed that the new king would be the one to kill in order to gain more ectoplasm.

The blobs assured him that the king is righteous and wouldn't act in such a way. Additionally, it appears that he has an infinite realm of it.

Yeah okay. Of course, why not.

Ghost King and a whole other dimension.

Where the sky, which is not even a real sky, is green and there are floating islands everywhere, always shifting. Everything is glowing, from the building to the sky to the residents.

The king is wonderful, and he has his own island where everyone is accepted.

The blobs never went there, as they became ghosts in the human realm and chose not to go there just now. They want to know what happened to them and why. 

And how do they know all of this?

Ghosts have known these things since "birth". All ghosts have special powers but are similar to other ghosts too. Intangibility and invisibility are things like that, but the ghost has a different strength to it. Also, they are powerful, like Superman.

Even the weaker ones are considered more powerful than humans. And as they cannot be touched by normal means, even blob ghosts are strong. Kinda. They don't have an attack power, they can drain energy from humans and dead people. That is what Neo did with the old man.

There are also different types of ghosts. Animals, blobs. How they died and what they were before they died. There are the neverborns, who are never actually alive, they are "born" as ghosts. The Ancients, who are basically gods.

He can hardly wrap his head around it. Even if he has time to comprehend because the answers take a long time. The blobs have a hard time spelling things out.

He also asks things that the blob can't answer. What is the king's name, and how old is the king of ghosts? He suspects the blobs know, but they refuse to respond.

The two blobs take turns answering his questions. While one of them answers, the other cuddles with Tim. He has the absurd thought that they are like emotional support animals; either way, it is working. He's not as hysterical as he would be without the blobs' comfort.

All night, he asked the blobs anything he could think of. At sunrise, he is still going on about his questions, but he has become extremely exhausted. His worldview is shattered by the new information.

He knows he needs to go back to work today. The case will require his complete attention, so he needs to organize and arrange things so he can leave for more time.

He just starts to think about how to explain this to Tam when his phone rings. He looks at it, and it is Tam. He is afraid to answer the phone, but he knows it would be even worse if he did not answer it.

"Are you coming?" Tam asks without saying anything else.

"I asked for a few days," Tim said, noticing that the whole night he was in his Red Robin getup. He must smell terrible.

"Yeah, but now you know that the thing is bigger than you originally thought, but you don't want to avoid your responsibilities, so today and perhaps tomorrow you will come to work, and then don't for more than a week." Tam says this like it is obvious.

"How do you know me so well?" If Tam wanted to take over the world, nobody could stop her, not even Tim. It is lucky that she is a good person.

Tim quickly showers, and he once again needs to tell the blobs that they can't follow him there. He drives to work and sees that it is earlier than usual for him to go to work, so he goes to get breakfast and coffee—a lot of coffee. He needs it.

He works extra hard that day. To make up the missing days and to work ahead so that he can take some more days off without feeling guilty.

Later that day, Tam comes up to his office to discuss a few things. Tim feels guilty because Tam has to work overtime because of him. In the end, they finish quickly because of Tam's effectiveness.

"Are you ready for the dinner party?" Tam asks before she goes home.

"What dinner party?" Tim is absentminded, as he doesn't pay much attention to Tam because he concentrates on his work. He has so much to do before he can go home.

"The family dinner party you guys have every two months." Tam stops just before the office door.

"I have time for that," Tim answers, still concentrating on work.

"It is tomorrow night." Her voice is amused.

"What it is not." Tim looks up at Tam with astonished eyes.

She just looks at him with a raised eyebrow.

"It isn't," he grumbles. "It can't be. I have time before that," he says, in denial.

"So you forgot." Tam's voice is even more amused than before.

"I did not forget; I just thought I had more time." Tim disagree. He puts his head in his hands in despair. He is not ready to tell the others about the whole ghost thing.

 "Well, you don't." With that, Tam strutted out of the room, leaving Tim alone in his misery.

Chapter Text

Tim returns home exhausted and agitated. He didn't find out much, so he knows he won't sleep today. When he gets home, he makes coffee and drinks it quickly.  He worked after sunset. Tim sits down in the living room, unable to shut off his mind. He plans.

He gets dressed in his uniform. The blobs follow him again as he goes out. There is no routine patrol scheduled today for him, but he has plans. 

He asks Verde and Neo if they can lead him to the other ghosts again.

Tim plans to find the other ghosts and listen to them to find out what they are planning so that he can report on what happens, tomorrow. He thought about not going but knew it wouldn't be possible. Any excuse would be seen through by Cass and Alfred, who knows every time he is lying.

He probably won't be able to sleep today. He shrugs. Perhaps a quick nap before dinner is possible. It is not like this will be the longest time he spends awake.

He was able to do the work he needed to do, so he didn't need to go for at least a week.

The blobs can indeed lead him to the other ghost.

Now they have found an office building somewhere in a better neighborhood. He knows better than to doubt the blobs, but it is still weird to follow them blindly into the building. He only had this much faith in a few people.

"Can you make me invisible again?" Tim feels like he is using the blobs, but they always seem so happy if he asks anything. except when he asks them to leave, especially when he is about to take a shower.

This time, Neo makes him invisible, and Tim follows Verde's lead. The same ghosts from yesterday are present and speaking. Tim gets close to them as quietly as he can.

"I can't find anything. The king will be angry." He quickly names them, later he would have needed to do it anyway for the report.

"What are you talking about? The king wouldn’t be angry. And you know that he plans to come here soon to investigate the organization himself." Odin says, looking through some papers.

"I don't understand why we need to do it in secret. We could just overshadow someone and be done with it." Faible answers He is looking out of the window; who knows why.

"The king doesn't want to use force, he fears that the humans will become aware of us. " Odin sighs dreamily, "I was there when he made the speech; he is so majestic."

"Well, that's true, but why wouldn't he want to overpower humans when he could do it easily?" Faible is still staring out the window now, looking bewildered.

"He fears that they will do what they did in the past." Odin moves to another stock of paper.

"But we can protect ourselves." Faible looks confused at Odin.

"Yeah, but there are weaker ghosts, and he fears that the humans will go after them." So says Odin, but it looks like he too doesn't understand.

"I think it is more likely that they start killing each other, either so they become ghosts or they gain ectoplasm." Faible stroked his chin like a great detective in a movie.

"It's lucky that that thing called the Anti-Ecto Act was not speared wide." Odin quickly read through another stack. The pace he reads at is inhuman.

"It would be bad, especially if humans knew that almost everyone was contaminated with ectoplasm, even if it was just a little." Faible attempted, but failed, to look over the other shoulder.

"Yeah, like in this place. Everyone is contaminated, even more so than other places." Odin doesn't even notice what Faible wants to do.

Finally, Faile's stars float so he can see over Odin's shoulder.

"Yeah, they legalized killing basically everyone." Tim notices the eye roll even though he is quite far away. "And torture," Faible adds like an afterthought. 

" What the fuck. What are they talking about . What anti-ecto act? Killing and torture—that can't be real. "

Tim can't stop himself from letting out a sound. Interestingly, the ghosts don't seem to hear it.

He needs to go out of here before he reveals himself. He books out of the office building.

Tim doesn't want to go to the cave, but he is forced to because he has no other option. Even if he has to tell Bruce about these things, it doesn't matter.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, nobody occupies the cave.

Tim looks for an anti-ecto action. He is horrified by what he finds. He doesn't know how this could have happened. He cannot believe that something like this is possible without the Justice League's knowledge, and he begins to question how such a thing could have happened.

He searches when. It passed because no one believed ghosts were real, and because many people were bribed. He looks into it. He soon discovers that the law passed through parliament without any debate or publicity because the influential members of society wanted to keep the public in the dark.

Someone obviously started this thing; the bribery and timing did not happen by chance.

He can't find out who. The act is still effective, and he needs to stop it. He panics. He reads the fine print on the document and realizes that, if he reads it correctly, which he does, he could be legally killed and experimented on because he is associated with the blobs.

He swore he would never allow anyone to harm his blobs.

First, he needs to search for everything he can find.

He finds Fentons in Amity Park when he searches for ectoplasm, but their thesis is so wrong that he ignores it. He tries to find out what happened to the government section of the Ghost investigation but discovers that it is no longer operational. He can't find out why or how.

He searches until he hears the alarm, which warns him that the batmobile is on its way back. He dashes out before the others can see him. He deletes all traces of his presence on the computer.

Chapter Text

Dinner is set for tonight. Tim spent the majority of the day doing research and formulating the ideal strategy for telling his family. He would give a presentation, no, that wouldn't work.

The best strategy is straightforward. He explains what happened in a nice way, as everyone remained silent. What could happen?

He had imagined the worst possible outcome. Everyone yells incoherently. Once more, Damien tries to murder him. Jason ends Bruce's life. Dick ends up crying? Alfred loses his cool?

"Don't be so dramatic," Tim says, shaking his head. The situation will be fine. There's no reason to freak out.

Even his suspicion that the Lazarus Pit contains ectoplasm is true, and the government is allowed to execute everyone and worse.

Everything is okay. No need to panic.

He is surrounded by the blobs who don't fully comprehend the situation. They really resemble tiny animals in many ways.

He spent the remaining night and most of the day thinking. He had been up for more than 55 hours at this point. Not that he hadn't done more in the past; he just wasn't in the mood to go to sleep. Now, he would prefer to sleep if he could.

Time passes quickly. Before he realizes it, he must leave if he doesn't want to be late.

It wouldn't do any harm to be a little late, right? Exactly enough to avoid having to wait for the others. He ought to come last.

He drives to the manor. He is reluctant to go inside. Before entering the house, he complains to himself in the car.

He is almost the last one. Well, Jason said he would come, but he is still not here. But everyone else has arrived.

Bruce, who is sitting at the head of the table, has Damian on his right side. Cass, Alfred, Stephany, Duke, Dick, and Barbara are all present. Tim's place is free. Jason's spot was also left open; no one appears to be expecting him.

When he walks in, everyone looks up.

The other just says hello, while Cass immediately displays concern. Well, Damien made fun of him, but he spoke to him in that manner.

Tim sent Cass a subtle signal that he would explain later.

He'll hold off until the meal itself is finished. He wants to avoid creating problems.

Just before Alfred brings out the food, Jason appears.

Everyone hides surprises differently. The only one who openly shows surprise and joy is Dick. He gets up and runs with Jason, without stopping. Dick is clinging to Jason like an octopus and won't let go.

"Little Wing, you are here," Dick shouts. Ignoring Jason's opposition.

"Get away from me," Jason yells, his face filled with pure disgust.

Even if Tim is stressed out, he can't help but smile at their actions.

Jason sent a meaningful look at Tim after he finally freed himself from the hug.

Tim gulps. Well, there is the hope that he doesn't need to tell anyone. Barbara and Duke could be convinced to not tell anyone, but not Jason.

The dinner goes as usual. Bruce is quiet as always but more content than usual. When Jason sends him a look, Tim doesn't speak up. Damian makes comments about everyone eating meat. Barbara and Dick act like a couple, but he never knows when they are together and when they are not. Dick types are redheads. And Jason, whose lover is also a redhead. Does he have a problem like that too? No, Tim doesn't like redheads.

Jason's expression became more hostile after dinner. The others began to notice. Cass has most likely already noticed. And Babs knows what's happening.

He begins when he finally has the courage to do so.

Tim clears his throat. "I want to tell you something," Tim said, but even with all of his plans, he couldn't continue.

"Did you get a boyfriend?" Dick asked excitedly.

"Why would you think I wanted to tell you something like that?" Tim stutter.

"You are nervous; you never do that with cases just about relationships." Dick shrugs.

How can he always forget how clever Dick is. 

"It's not about a boyfriend," Tim says, feeling the courage leave him.

"Aw, I hoped you'd find someone," Dick pouts.

"Oh, he did find somebody," Jason says.

"Why would you say that?" Tim whines

"Why it is true" Jason smirks

"What are they talking about, Tim?" asks Bruce.

"It's nothing like that." Tim tries to explain.

Duke can't stand the tension in the room, so he says, "Tim has pet corpses." 

"What the fuck, Duke?" Tim can't believe the betrayal.

"Corpses?" Everybody shouts.

"It's really not like you think."

"Then what?" Bruce's voice was commanding.

 Tim responds as if he was on the job.

"There are two floating green blobs following me. The first Verde is the victim of a red-shoe killer. The second is Neo, who is the victim of Colson Maximillian Harlan Ashton. They are something called ectoplasmic entities. Ghost. Duke seems to see them as corpses."

Reactions vary; Duke looks like he remembers something. Almost everyone is shocked.

Tim doesn't let them ask questions.

"They can lead to specific things. Neo could lead me to his killer and various body parts around the city. Ectoplasm is the energy that death generates. I have a suspicion that the Lazarus Pit is made from it, or something similar. There is an entire realm where these things are, possibly organized, and there are definitely hierarchies. There is a king. He is a new king who won a fight with the previous king. He ordered his subject to investigate Gotham because there are some people who kill people to make ectoplasm. Verde and Neo, someone like that. There are two ghosts here in Gotham that I'm aware of, the blobs can lead me to them. The ghosts can sense each other. Blobs can be both invisible and intangible, as well as make humans become like that. But it takes a lot out of them. They spoke about how the king has the power to make anyone do what he wants. But apparently, he doesn't want to force it because he doesn't want people to know about ghosts.

Furthermore, the US government passed legislation that makes it legal for them and anyone else who agrees to kill and experiment on people who are contaminated with ectoplasm. The definition in the anti-ecto act is so broad that the government could potentially kill anyone."

Tim hurriedly said.

Chapter Text

The reactions were worse than he anticipated. 

Barbara immediately pulled out a laptop from somewhere and began typing furiously.

Cass and Stephanie started to talk to each other quickly.

""The Next Time That Somebody Tells You, "The Government Wouldn’t Do That," Oh Yes They Would" they really would." As the conversation between Cass and Stephanie heated up, Duke began to murmur the famous line from the video.

Bruce just sits here. Damian was shouting at everything.

That was not really that concerning.

What was concerning was the other person's reaction. Tim knows this is bad—worse than he imagined based on the reactions of others.

Dick had a solemn expression on his face. Dick is a very emotional man, and even if he always smiles more so the family is happier, it is weird to see him this serious.

Alfred dropped something—he actually dropped something on the floor.

And Jason was supposed to do what Damian was doing. Shouting and seeing to harm every official. That Jason was quiet, too quiet. Scary quiet.

It was unsettling to witness Jason behaving like Bruce, completely motionless.

The silence was long, and the first to break it was Barbara.

"The law states that all people who come into contact with ectoplasm are legally allowed to be experimented on and that ectoplasm entities are non-sentient. Based on what I could find on ectoplasm, everyone here falls under the law, and Jason could be counted as non-sentient." She tries unsuccessfully to sound calm.

"I don't care about that shit. What do you mean people want to gather fucking Lazarus' water? And the things that followed you are pit demons?" blows up Jason.

The silence was just like before the storm. And now the storm has hit.

Before Jason can continue or anybody else can say anything else, Bruce speaks.

"In the cave." He did not say anything more, but everyone followed him as he went out of the dining room.

Even Jason, thought he was grumbling. "Not a dog."

Alfred also comes, which he doesn't usually do, but he appears to want to join in on the conversation.

Tim thinks about the fact that the elevator can fit them all.

"Why couldn't we just speak there?" Jason is clearly unhappy.

"The cave is the most secure. If Tim is right, there are unknown entities who can be invisible."

"They're right there," Tim thinks as he looks at the blobs, but he doesn't dare to say so. He forgets that he is not the only one who can see them.

"They're here right now, too, tough," the moment they stepped out of the elevator, Duke says, perplexed.

"What?" a few people shout.

Bruce grunts, and for the family members who can understand him at least better than others, it's clear that he wants quiet.

Bruce goes to the most extensive table, and Alfred brings the needed chairs so everyone can sit. When Alfred placed the chairs around the table, everyone took their respective seats.

"Tell me more, Tim, about the so called blobs. How do you know all of this?" Bruce orders.

"They can't speak or communicate aloud. Well I mean, they can chirp and purr."

Three voices are heard before he can continue.

"Like cute little animals," Dick says, knowing him, he just wanted to try to ease the tension.

"They are dead people, Replacement." Jason is still upset.

"So you did get pets," Stephanie jokes, most likely because she is a troll.

Tim tries not to blush, but is likely unsuccessful. Jason glares at Stephanie. Stephanie shrugged, not fazed by Jason's anger. Jason gives her his middle finger in return.

Tim attempts to brush off the comments, trying to continue.

"I tried to get a general idea of their sounds so I could guess what they were saying, but the sounds for the same question were clearly different. And even if I just asked them to repeat yes, it was different each time."

"You forgot to mention when you thought it was all just hallucinations." Jason interrupts.

"Why don't you just remain silent? In the dining room, you were. Jason, please stop referring to the blobs as it as well. It is not polite." He has a strong opinion, but he keeps it to himself. He just kept going as if Jason hadn't said anything.

"I have written the ABC on paper and begun my questioning. The blobs can spell, but slowly. This, as well as later research into the subject, was how I knew things."

"Why didn't you just use an Ouija board?" Damian asked as if Tim was the stupid one here.

"It's not like I had one dipshit," Tim can't say that, so he says calmly, "It wasn't an option." Okay, that was perhaps a bit curt. "The blobs are bigger than that, and it would have been harder to guess what they mean." Yeah, that was better.

"The blobs led me to the ghost and made me unnoticeable, so I eavesdropped on their conversation." Tim continues. "That's from where I know the rest of the information."

"We must decide what course of action to take," Bruce says. "It's a Gotham problem right now, so it'll stay here. But if we find ghosts misbehaving outside of Gotham, we'll bring the issue to the Justice League."

"What about the theory that the Lazarus pit is ectoplasm?" Jason is still upset about that. His eyes were just a little green.

"I would need to run a labor test to be sure." Tim has a hunch that he is right, but that is not enough for the others. At least it is better than it was in the past. After he brought Bruce back from the "dead" people were more willing to believe him. They don't even question if he is right. Even if the situation is bad, it fills him with complacency.

"I can get a sample from the Lazarus water if you have ectoplasm," Damian says.

"How would you do that?" Jason raises an eyebrow.

"I am the heir. " Jason just raised his brows even more.

"Mother would give it to me if I asked for it," Damian admits sullenly.

"The ghost king will be coming to Gotham. I am sure we will welcome him here, talk to him, and try to be diplomatic. Until then, we will look for the people who kill humans to gain ectoplasm. And if Lazarus' water is ectoplasm. You don't have to tell your mother; I'll handle it." Bruce declares.

Chapter Text

Danny's parents weren't home currently and Jazz no longer lived there. He went upstairs and let himself into his childhood room. The fluorescent stars were still on the wall and the ceiling where his dad put them. They weren't in the right order to form any constellation, which was an outrage to the younger Danny. Being here brought back memories.

He remembered simpler times, when villains attacked and school was difficult; now he bears the fate of an entire realm. Danny was happier then, but unlike when he was younger, if bad things happened, he didn't want to change them or blame himself for them. He accepted things as it was.

Jazz helped him a lot with that, with not being angry and blaming himself for things outside of his control. She explained that there is a balance between saying "everything bad happens because of me" and saying "nothing bad happens because of me." The former are martyrs, while the latter are similar to Vlad, the ones who say they did everything right, but because of someone else, things got bad, and they don't take responsibility for their own actions.

Danny never considered the second one, but he had believed that everything happened because of him in the past. If he didn't trip over the cable and didn't switch the portal on. And there were so many similar thoughts. Jazz explained to him that because sometimes he admits bad things happen outside of his control, he won't be like Vlad.

He didn't believe her after the first explanation, nor after the second. It was a long road, but Jazz beat into him until he believed her. At one point, she literally beat him with a book about the topic.

Danny tried to remember the title. It was something like "How to Stop Blaming Yourself and Others."

Danny recalled Jazz being similar to Vlad with this book, but for the opposite reason why she did it to Danny.

After Danny's parents arrived home and he explained why he came, the tension was high. Danny's parents blamed themselves for what happened with the GIW, claiming that if they hadn't made so many weapons, nothing would have happened.

Maybe Jazz should also have a talk with their parents about self-blame.

"Do you think this new organization has somehow stolen one of our inventions, and that's how they can gather ectoplasm?" Maddie worried.

"Or did they steal our notes and learn about ectoplasm from them?" Jack seemed to be ready to cry.

"Do you think we should go too?" Maddie nodded to herself. "We should correct our mistakes." Maddie was ready to pack and go straight to Gotham.

Yeah, Jazz definitely should talk to their parents about self-blame.

Danny holds up his hand to calm down his parents "You don't need to come. I can do it myself." He'll probably ask for assistance from someone else, but it would be malicious to claim he didn't need his parents' help specifically.

They appeared to be rejected, but Danny didn't take back what he said. They could only accept it in the end.

Tucker, with a little help from Technus, really worked wonders. Danny was given an indestructible fake identity by the two tech geeks within a week.

Danny was pleased until he saw the name. "Dwanye Pharotis, I'm going to Gotham, and you give me the name Dwayne Pharotis. Gotham, where the Waynes and Batman live." said Danny with a flat face and an even flatter voice.

"Dwayne means dark one, and the pronunciation is different, and no one would know what Pharotis means," Tucker explained, but he couldn't keep it serious for long. "You should have seen your face." Laughed Tucker.

"So it was a joke," Danny scoffed.

"What? It is really your new name." Tucker tried to convince him, but Danny didn't fall for it twice.

"Give me the real one." Danny said as he extended his hand.

"Aww man, I worked hard to find a name like that. It took a long time to find a name that meant "bat." Tucker shakes his head in disappointment. "Even if Pharotis is the formal name of the New Guinea big-eared bat." he mutters, thinking Danny can't hear it. Tucker frequently forgets that Danny, even in human form, has super hearing.

"Oh, I'm sure," said Danny, and he didn't bother to react on the second half.

Tucker places another folder in his held out hand.

"Danica? What kind of name is that?" Danny asked with confusion. He is happy with the second name "Nightingale" and knows where the idea came from.

"It is a very uncommon name. In Slavic, it means the "morning star". "Its nickname is still Danny, so don't worry about not responding to a new name." Tucker explained.

Danny was moved by Tukcer's thoughtfulness and said, "Thank you."

"Does that mean I'm Slavic?" Danny asked with a frown.

"Your mother named you in honor of your grandfather, whom you didn't know. So no."

"I can speak Slavic, you know, but I don't know anything about the culture."

"How would you know how to speak Slavic?" Tucker made a surprised expression.

"It is a ghost ability, I can speak every language that the dead spoke when they were alive." Danny said

"But then how do you not know about the culture if you know the language? Culture is a language in itself. Language always carries meanings and references beyond itself." Tucker is totally lost.

Danny is concerned for Tucker, who has a blank expression after realizing the ghost knows languages but not the culture.

"That cannot be real, you must know the culture." Tucker stated with a blank expression.

"It's more like a learned language than a mother tongue. I need to translate something, and it's not automatic. I also don't know the place's history or even its food. It's mostly as if I had Google Translator in my head. If there is a phrase like "it rains cats and dogs," like in the UK, I can translate it literally, but I cannot comprehend the meaning behind it," Danny tries to explain.

"You have a lot of unreasoned power, like the thing that happens to your leg when you fly"

Danny interrupts Tucker "You mean my ghost tail?"

Tucker doesn't pay attention to it and continues "But this is nonsense. The why and how are just argh." Danny is insulted; his abilities are cool.

"It doesn't matter. I have the identity now, so I will leave soon," said Danny, waving his hand.

"At least say goodbye to everybody." Tucker gave up on understanding Danny's abilities. He just can't.

"Okay, I will. Goodbye to you." Danny rolled his eyes, and hugged Tucker.

Before he went to Gotham, Tucker gave him a phone. "It's untraceable and contains all of our contact information, so you can text or call us without worrying about confidentiality."

Danny grinned, he really loved his friends.

Chapter Text

Bruce will ask for Lazarus' water and look into the anti-ecto law. The girls will look into the organization, and the others will also help. Damian and Dick will look into the ghost king.

Bruce attempted to tell Jason to stay out of it, but Jason refused to comply.

"I will look into it either way. I can either do it with your help or I can do it alone." Jason was strangely calm about this. Other times he would already have been shouting and swearing at Bruce. So Jason will look into the killings.

Tim was sort of happy with his task. Investigating the Lazarus and ectoplasm connections before Bruce obtains either of them will be difficult but worthwhile. Also, he needs to look into ghosts.

He didn't go out to patrol after the talk. He mentioned that he was awake for a longer time and that his family made him sleep.

He wanted to go home, but Alfred didn't let him. Well, it was more like after he told them he wanted to go home Alfred looked at Tim, and Tim decided to stay. Alfred had that kind of look. Weirdly, he easily fell asleep.

He stayed in his room at the manor well into the next day.

He spent the day researching, but he had not found any new information. The ghost was strangely silent on the subject, which was strange, until he asked about the king, they always told him what they knew. As at home, he also wrote the ABC on paper and laid it on the floor in the manor. But the blob didn't answer him.

Still, he didn't give up. But after hours of fruitless searching, he went back to Fenton's work. He read it but found out that Fenton doesn't have any idea about the ghost. The main thesis, that they were just imprints and not sentient, is incorrect. He was just about to give up when he found out that several later chapters were about technology, which, while sometimes incomprehensible, had good information.

It was hard to understand, but he was able to do so after several reads. The idea was that instead of electricity, the power is ectoplasm. That could be true. Tim needed to try it out. He could until he gets ectoplasm, which he doesn't know how to gain without hurting anybody. He could ask the blobs. Fenton wrote that ghosts are basically ectoplasm and that they can gain ectoplasm from them. Tim is unsure if it can be done without harming the ghost, which he does not want to do, but the Fenton's basic premise is that ghosts cannot feel pain. He does not believe a ghost cannot feel pain.

Tim didn't stay for long. As he was going home decided to stop at a coffee shop. The blob didn't stay with him but instead went away for something.

Tim found it weird, until now they followed him everywhere.

In the end, he shrugged, it's not like he won't see them anymore. They probably went ahead of Tim and were already home.

He got out of his car and instead went to the coffee shop. He ordered as many shots as he could and then began to wait for his order. The shop wasn't crowded, but there were a few orders ahead of his.

The barista called his order, and he stood up and went to fetch it, but someone already had it.

"Uh, sorry, I thought it was mine," said Tim. The man who had his order turned around.

The man looked him over. He was incredibly handsome. Black hair and blue eyes. But it was also weird, in the family, there were plenty of handsome-looking guys. Like Dick, and even Jason had a kind of bad boy look. Bruce was also handsome but more like an older guy, and it was hard to see him as handsome as Tim thought him to be as his dad. But this man was on another level. He was just a bit taller than Tim and a bit more muscular. He looked otherworldly. He wore simple jeans and a white t-shirt. and red shoes. He wanted to warn the guy instantly, but then remembered that the guy who would kill because of the red shoes was already in prison.

"It's all right, you can have it. It is rare to have people with similar tastes." The handsome stranger said.

"Yeah, I don't think I ever met one like that," Tim replied while staring at that face. He must have looked weird.

The man held out his hand "My name is Danny. It's very nice to meet you."

He smiled; his smile was too charming, causing Tim to falter in his response.

"It's nice to meet you too. I'm Tim." He felt like his body was moving outside of his control as he shook Danny's hand.

"Well, Tim, do you need to go to work and need the extra energy, too?" Danny was seductive even when he just asked a simple question.

"Oh, no, I'm going home." Tim just blue-screened; he was usually wittier than this.

"Ah, you work normal hours then?" asked the insanely gorgeous man.

"Well, yeah, but today was a free day," Tim noted that this meant that this person worked in the afternoon. Tim didn't do anything but knew if he didn't stop himself, he would end up obsessing over this man.

"Oh, how lucky; I would like that too." Danny sighs

Tim began to open his mouth to say something. But abruptly, Danny looked like he saw something and apologized, saying that just now he realized how much time had passed and that he still had to go to work, right now, if he didn't want to be late.

The blobs almost immediately appeared after that.

But as he went home, he began to suspect that there was something amiss. No one this handsome and nice would just randomly talk to Tim.

And he was simply too handsome. Nobody was this handsome, and he has a nice personality too. Tim felt as if he had been charmed or given a love potion. He needs to run a background check on this guy. He's probably a magician, and he knew Tim was wealthy, so he portrayed himself as Tim's dream man for Tim to give him all of his money. Or something like that. 

Chapter Text

"Babs, I need to look into someone. I cannot find anything about him." Tim called Barbara out of nowhere.

Have you identified a suspect in one of the cases? Barbara answered appropriately.

"No, I think I found my soulmate," said Tim cheerfully.

"What?" She started to sound weird.

"He is too handsome. And he was too nice. He gave me coffee, Babs. Coffee. Nobody gives me coffee. I need to know who he is so I can marry him," said Tim with a sigh.

Barbara shouted, "Marry?!"

"Yeah, we will live in a house with a big garden and will have a cat and a dog. No children. 

We will date for two years before marriage. One in which he is unaware of my night job, and one in which we live together after I tell him. We will be the godparents to your and Dick's children, and I will be the best uncle. But I cannot do that if I don't know who he is."

"Tim, what are you talking about?" Barbara asked.

Tim suddenly sat up in bed, panting. ' Oh, thank God, it was just a dream. I didn't call Babs and ask her to look into Danny.' thought Tim, relieved.

Tim realized yesterday that he had overreacted; just because someone was nice and handsome didn't mean they were evil.

Tim really started to become like Bruce. He is too paranoid. He shuddered at the thought.

He will just forget all about it. They are unlikely to meet again. Even if a small part of him hoped to meet Danny again, he wouldn't look into it.

Bruce called someone from the assassin's league (everybody knew it was Talia), and the Lazarus water arrived at the manor fast. It was Barbara who informed Tim about it and told him to go to the cave so Tim could begin the experiment with the two strange substances.

He went to the cave right away.

Tim asked Verde and Neo for some ectoplasm. They reluctantly gave it to him, and only after I assured them that he wouldn't do anything bad with it.

Tim thought he would use a needle, but Neo just went over to the table and sort of threw up.

"Yeah, okay, why not." The blobs will never fail to surprise Tim.

The experience didn't go well. The lab couldn’t handle the ectoplasm. It was even more strange than Lazarus' water. However, based on the appearance, it was possible that the two things were at least similar, as both were glowing green fluid. And the blobs' reaction to it was weird. Tim would describe it as disgust.

"Did you get something?" Barbara's voice suddenly came from the computer.

"No, the ectoplasm is too destructive. I can't get a good reading on it." Tim was once again relieved that he had just dreamed about the conversation with Barbara about Danny.

"Then what will you do?" Babs asked

"There are scientists who somehow were able to make it work, and I'm sure I can do it too." Tim was confident that he was smarter than the Fentons, seeing how they wrote, it couldn't be that hard to figure it out.

He was not clever enough. He couldn't figure it out. Nothing he tried worked. He needed a break.

He gave up and went upstairs, leaving the cave.

"Ah, master Timothy, it is good to see you. I was just about to go down, calling you to come to eat." Tim jumped in surprise as Alfred spoke.

Alfred is so quiet Tim didn't hear him coming.

Dick stayed at the manor and didn't go back to Bludheaven. Duke and Damian were here. Alfred somehow convinced Bruce to be there too. Cass was with Stephanie somewhere. The dinner ended soon. Everybody had a task, so they hurried up. Only because Alfred was present did they sit down to eat.

After dinner, the others went on patrol, except Duke, who went to sleep, but Tim decided to stay in the cave and work on the ectoplasm.

The others had already gone out when Tim looked through Fenton's work once again. Maybe after reading it again, he will understand.

He still couldn't.

He decided to look into the Fenton family so he could know them better. Sometimes knowing the author's background makes it easier to understand their work.

He looked through their childhood, education, and marriage. They were friends with Vlad Masters, who was already on Batman's radar for how he gained his wealth under suspicious circumstances.

They have two children and work from home. It wasn't in the book, but they tried ghost hunting and weren't successful.

They live in Amity Park, but the children have moved out.

Then he saw a family picture.

"It can't be," Tim said.

The handsome guy he met at the coffee shop was there in the photo.

'Wait, it is possible that they just look alike.' He looks into it more.

The guy is called Danny, too, and was around Tim's age. He searched for a more recent picture of Danny. He really was the coffee guy.

It still didn't mean anything.

Tim was still investigating the guy. Currently, his living situation was unknown, as was his job.

Tim looked into Danny's childhood. He had an accident when he was around 14 in his parents' lab. He died but was brought back in time. And was contaminated by ectoplasm.

Danny was changed after the incident, the teacher said that he was more aggressive and less studious. In some cases, he purposefully destroyed or damaged public or private property. And there were even some people who said he hurt them. There wasn't any evidence, so nothing happened. Then there is the godfather, Vlad Masters.

What is the chance that there is a person in Gotham who must know about ectoplasm, the son of ectoplasm scientists, and that there is someone who kills to make more ectoplasm? It all fits.

Of course, the handsome guy was a villain. Tim was really unlucky.

Tim would have been happier if he never heard about Danny again. Instead, Tim will probably need to catch him and put him in prison.

Well, Tim still doesn't know why Danny approached him, but he will find out.

No matter how handsome Danny was, it wouldn't stop Tim from catching him.

Chapter Text

Tim was about to dig deeper into Danny Fenton when the other returned from patrol. Nobody was injured, but Bruce quickly left the cave, which was unusual. Damian left after his father, and only Dick stayed.

Tim looked at Dick questioningly.

Dick suggestively moved his eyebrow and winked. Tim didn't understand at first what Dick suggested, but after Dick looked at the Lazarus water, he finally got it. He grimaced in dismay; he didn't want to think about what Bruce would do for the Lazarus water. He just hoped there would be a new sibling.

"What do you do, Babybird?" Dick asked and smiled, amused by his brother's distress.

"I found a person who is possibly connected to the ectoplasm case," Tim said.

"Oh, why?" Dick leaned on Tim's shoulder and hugged him. Dick always liked to hug. When Tim just joined the family, he didn't know what to do with it, but after all this year, he can say he's become used to it.

"His parents are ectoplasm biologists," Tim said, enjoying the hug. "He is here in Gotham."

"How do you know that?" Dick asked and tugged at Tim's hair playfully.

"I met him in a coffee shop; he was suspicious, but it wasn't until I saw the Fenton family picture that I realized something was wrong," Tim recalled, trying not to blush.

"Oh?" Dick must have seen something, because he suddenly became more interested.

"Yeah, I think he is one of the people who are killing for ectoplasm," Tim told his suspicion.

Dick quickly read what was on the screen and began to giggle.

"What's your problem?" Tim has deja vu but doesn't remember exactly why.

"You have a crush," Dick said, or rather singed.

"What are you on about?" Tim remembered why was he feeling like this happened before, Jason too started suddenly laughing at him not long ago. And Tim didn't understand what was funny.

"You only jump to conclusions if you are attracted to the person," Dick said happily while smothering Tim in hugs.

"Just because I think he is handsome, I don't have a crush." Tim tried to escape Dick but knew it was in vain.

"Yeah, but you think he is evil and apparently handsome too," Dick said, like it was obvious what he meant.

"Why? It is possible." Tim sulked, perhaps he jumped to conclusions a bit quickly, but it was not like he did it without a reason.

"Timmy, he doesn't need it." Dick's voice was like he was talking to a five-year-old.

"What are you talking about?" Tim didn't understand what they were talking about anymore.

"His parents have a portal to the zone, and the zone is made of ectoplasm. Why would he go through such haste if he can just get it from there?" Dick explained, pointing to one of the screens.

"What?" Tim, look through the section Dick pointed to. "But he was so nice. He gave me a coffee." He spoke as he read.

"Really?" Dick became happier for some reason. 

"Yeah, even if he isn't the one killing for the ectoplasm, he is suspicious. Why would he be in Gotham?" Tim saw that Dick was right, but he still couldn't let it go.

"That's a good question, but I don't think you should be the one asking it. Did you look at his social media or into his friend?" Dick still talked like Tim was five years old.

"No," Tim grumbled, only looking at hospital and school records. There was a school psychiatrist who had a lot to say about Danny.

"Did you think of anything else since you found out, Danny?"

"Well, I just did it recently."

"Yeah, but your task is the ectoplasm, and the girls are the ones who investigate the organization, and Jason too. You didn't mention this to them, did you?" Dick already knew the answer.

"Why would I need to?" Tim brooded.

"Because normally that's what you do. If Bruce gives you an order, you usually follow it. But not if you have a crush." Dick sings

"Shut up. I don't have a crush." Tim blushed.

"You so do. You are cute, Babybird." Dick ran his fingers through Tim's hair, messing it up.

"Hmp. I am not cute." Tim patted Dick's hand away and tried to smooth his hair down.

"Ah, you become dumb if you have a crush." Dick was delighted. "Babs, did you hear it? Timmy has a crush."

Tim couldn't figure out why Dick would just say it. He should call her if he wants her to know they want to talk to her.

"Oh?" Babs said. 

It seems Tim was wrong about a lot of things, as Babs immediately answered. She doesn't do that to Tim. Or at least Tim hoped Babs didn't listen to him without him knowing.

"Yeah, he thought the guy he met at the coffee shop was evil," Dick said

"That is not true. I thought he was a suspect." Tim tried to save face.

"We will look into him, don't worry," Babs said, but her tone showed that she was just being indulgent.

Babs and Dick continued to talk, but Tim tried to ignore them; he was brooding, not pouting as Dick said to Barbara.

After a while, Dick said goodbye with a last hug and left the cave. Barbara also said her goodbyes. Leaving Tim alone in the cave.

Tim guessed he could understand that he jumped into assumptions. He would leave the investigation to the others.

Tim didn't want to go home until at least he reached some point in the experiments with ectoplasm and Lazarus water. After reading through Fenton's other works, which he found after a lot of investigation, not just the book he first found. He learned that if you pour ectoplasm into the device you want to use, you will be able to do it.

The details were vague. They didn't mention how much and where. He guessed that, as ectoplasm was some kind of energy, he would need to pour it on the electrical circuits.

He didn't want to pour ectoplasm into the expensive machines, as they could go wrong, so he used it on one of the spare cameras he had in the cave.

It worked, at least to some extent. The blobs are still not clear, but at least they show in the picture. He wants to try it on the lab equipment, but first he wants to test it with something else.

At home, he has cheaper lab equipment, so he will try it on that.

It was already early morning, so as he went home, he once again stopped at the coffee shop. He ordered the same drink, but Danny wasn't there. Not like he hoped he would be there.

As he stepped out of the shop, he ran into someone, which in itself was strange. He usually notices people. He looked up and saw Danny.

"Hello again," Danny said brightly to Tim.

"Hi." Tim didn't know what to do. Just because he no longer thought Danny was a killer, it doesn't change the fact that he is an unknown. And Dick wasn’t right; it's not because he has a crush on Danny. That would be ridiculous.

"I didn't introduce myself properly. My name is Danica Nightingale," Danny said charmingly, extending his hand for a handshake.

Tim repeated the name, confused, but he shook Danny's hand.

"Yeah, my mother was Slavic," Danny said, chuckling like that's what Tim's confusion was about.

"But I thought you were a Daniel Fenton," Tim mumbled. Normally he wouldn't say something like this, but there is something wrong with him. He still held Danny's hand.

"How the fuck do you know that?" Danny's smile remained unchanged, but it now appears threatening rather than charming, and his grip on Tim's hand became firm

Chapter Text

Tim didn't know what to say. He can't say that he stalked Danny, which in this particular case was not even the truth, or that he was Red Robin, that he is trying to catch a killer who probably wants ectoplasm, and that he knew Danny's name because his parents are ectoplasm scientists. He could say that he is a detective, but that lie could be easily detected, as Tim was sort of famous.

He considered interrogating Danny, calling someone, or fighting with him, but a feeling of lightness overcame him.

Tim weirdly felt like he should tell the truth, which made him wary. Even Bruce didn't make him want to do that. He can lie to anyone if he wants to. But he somehow didn't want to lie right now.

But he sure as hell doesn't want to tell the truth. It was the weirdest feeling ever.

As Tim thinks about this, Danny starts to look more and more menacing.

Tim opened his mouth, but he didn't know what he would have said as Verde and Neo appeared next to him. As soon as they saw Danny, they became frenetic. They started to chirp and purr.

Tim was a pro at ignoring them, so he didn't give an outward sign that they were here, but he didn't know what they meant by doing this. Was Danny a bad person, or the opposite?

Tim's hand was still in Danny's grip, and as the blobs made their sound, Danny's hand gripped Tim tighter.

At first, Tim thought Danny had gotten fed up waiting for his answer, but that wasn't what happened.

"You are the one that the blob can't stop praising?" Danny began gripping Tim's hand even more strongly, causing Tim to flinch.

"I don't know what you are talking about," Tim said. Even if it's not a good, believable lie, he can still lie to Danny. That's a relief.

"You are a vigilante?" Danny asked after another wave of blob sounds, ignoring Tim's previous answer.

"What? No, of course, not." He automatically denied it, but as he realized what had happened, he yelled, "You can understand the blobs?!"

"You are a very bad liar." Danny said and didn’t answer the question.

Tim definitely wasn't jealous that Danny could understand the blobs and wasn't sulking.

"Excuse me, I'm a good liar." Tim was an excellent liar; he could deceive Bruce without batting an eyelash. It was not Tim's fault that Danny seemed to have triggered something in him that made Tim want to tell the truth.

Danny looked like he didn't believe that.

Tim admitted defeat, saying, "We can't talk about that here."

"Yeah," Danny said, holding Tim's hand with a much softer grip, almost caressing it.

Tim definitely wasn't blushing because of that.

Danny looked at Tim and said, "Curious."

"What are you talking about?" Tim felt weird under Danny's intense gaze.

Danny smiled and finally let go of Tim's hand. "As you said, we can't speak about these things in there. Do you have any ideas where we should go?" Danny inquired, a slightly amused expression on his face.

"Well, yes but …. " Tim didn't know what to say. He didn't trust Danny, but they rarely needed to speak. He cannot bring him home, and he seems to know that he is not normal. And he wanted to ask what Danny meant by curious—what was curious?

"Yeah, just follow me." was what Tim ended up saying. He will lead Danny to one of his rarely used safe houses. It is quite close. He will ask when they are in a more secure location.

"Okay." Danny said. The blob was clearly happy with this outcome.

Tim was anxious; he should tell someone about this, but how? He doesn't have anything on him, no gadgets. He could just text because he had his phone, but Danny seemed like the type of guy who would notice. The situation is not so dire that he would need to give an emergency signal, but he gets ready to do it at any time.

They walk because Tim does not want Danny in his car.

They arrived at a simple-looking apartment complex. Tim led Danny through the back door to his basement hideout.

"You're just following me to an unknown location." Tim didn't know what that could mean. Danny didn't seem like a guy who easily trusted someone, so why was he trusting Tim to lead him?

"You're still saying you're not a vigilante?" Danny said, ignoring Tim's question as he looked around the basement.

"I could be a serial killer," replied Tim flatly, mad that Danny ignored his question.

"A serial killer wouldn't say that. And more importantly, I know you didn't kill anybody ever." Danny finished looking around and got comfortable in one of the chairs.

"How would you know that?" Tim didn't like this.

Danny just smiled mysteriously at that. Tim didn't find it attractive at all.

The blobs begin to speak again, and Danny and Tim look at them openly now that they are in a safer location.

Danny's smile became brighter, and he let out a little laugh. "You named them Verde and Neo?"

"You really can understand them." If Danny could ignore Tim's question, Tim also didn't need to answer all of Danny's questions.

Danny's smile was so big that it showed all of his teeth. Tim noticed that Danny had short fangs, which were definitely not attractive. Nope, not even a little.

"You named a floating luminous green blob Verde, which means green in Spanish, and another Neo, which I assume is short for neon. I'm right?" Danny said teasingly, still smiling.

"I'm not sure what you're on about." Tim denied it, but felt weird, Danny got it, no one knew why Tim named the blob like that but Danny. It made Tim feel odd.

"And how do you know that, anyway? How can you understand the blobs?" Tim asked.

"It seems that both of us have questions. What do you think about playing a game?" proposed Danny.

"And then the winner can ask questions, and the loser needs to answer them?" asked Tim, confused.

"No more, like, 21 questions. I ask something, you answer, and then it is your turn to ask." Danny explained.

"How would I know that you are telling the truth?" Tim had doubts.

"You need to trust me, and I need to trust you." Danny's smile was really too charming.

"Okay, but I've got to ask first." Tim said it stubbornly, thinking that Danny would agree with that.

But Danny agreed. "Okay. What's your first question?"

Chapter Text

Tim opened his mouth to ask his first question but quickly snapped it shut. That son of a bitch.

If Danny wants to play like that, then so be it. Tim will beat him at this game.

Tim wanted to ask how he could understand the blobs originally. Damn it, it was not the most important question, but Tim wanted to know. He too wanted to speak with the blobs.

Tim should ask something simple but important, one to which Danny cannot vaguely respond. If Tim asks who he is, he could just say his name. And if he asks why he is here, he could answer that Tim was the one who brought him here.

Tim's first question ended up being, "What are you exactly?" It was a simple but effective way to gain knowledge from Danny, or at least Tim thought so.

Danny tilted his head and raised one eyebrow. "I am an ectoplasmic entity under the current law. In simple terms, I am something called a "half ghost."

Tim dropped his jaw; he knew what that meant. Did Danny trust him so much that he told him something like that?

Tim observes Danny and gulps. 'Is it more likely that if he doesn't agree with my answers, he will kill me?' The first time since Tim brought Danny here, he starts to doubt if it was a good decision.

If Danny was indeed an ectoplasmic entity, who can guess what powers he had? He knows from the blobs that different kinds of ghosts have different powers, and Danny seems confident in his abilities.

Possibly, taking him someplace where no one could see them wasn't a good idea. Even the blobs disappeared.

Danny chuckled, bending forward and placing his elbow on his thighs "What will you do 'exactly' with the knowledge I just gave you?" His tone was mocking when he said 'exactly'.

Tim realized it was a trick. If he says nothing, he would obviously be lying. He sure won't tell the government about it, but the question wasn't what he wouldn't do but what he would do. It has a double meaning because Danny didn't just mean himself but the blobs too. But Tim was not stupid, even if lately he began to doubt that.

"I will keep that knowledge from the government." Tim knew it was just different wording, and Danny didn't ask this, but he wasn't lying, so it was fair.

Danny seemed to think it was funny as he began laughing, looking amused at Tim. 

Tim realized that he looks different than in the coffee shop; he looks more sharp and intimate, less like a human and more like an otherworldly being. It was a weird change, as it was not in Danny's appearance but more in his aura or the air around him. Tim could easily believe Danny wasn't completely human.

Danny waved his hand, signalling it was Tim's turn.

This thing took an entirely different turn than Tim thought it would. He wants to ask Danny about his abilities, but there are more important things to do.

"What will you do with me after I answer your question?" 

"I will do nothing." At first, Tim was relieved, but then he noticed the 'I', it was possible that something would happen to him, but it wouldn't be Danny who did it. Tim shook his head, pressing his lips together; he had asked the wrong question.

"Who did you inform about the existence of the blob?"

Tim panicked; he won't answer this question; it is enough that Danny has seen his face; he won't bring the others into it. Now that he thinks about it, he ought to press the emergency button on him so the others will come, and he will stall Danny until then.

As Tim moved to press the button, he felt energy wash through him. He knew this feeling; it was magic. It made him answer, and he couldn't lie, and he knew then that when Danny made him agree to the game, which was like a pact, it was like an agreement with a faerie or a demon.

Tim didn't know what action to take—should he tell Danny the civil or vigilante identities of the people who knew about the blobs?

"My family." Tim snaps out. It was risky, but it was vague enough that he felt it was the best answer. "What do you plan with us?"

Danny answered, "If you are a threat, I will destroy you." Looking straight into Tim's eyes.

Tim could see Danny was serious. 

"What is the name of the people you consider your family?" Danny asked 

Tim tried not to answer, but the more he stayed silent, the more he felt the magic taking over him. If he answered quickly, he has more control over what he says, but if he stays silent, the magic will make him tell the whole truth. He was aware that trying to flee or attack Danny would be foolish.

Tim knew that it was a bad situation, but Danny has seen his face. If he tells him Batman and the other things, it is a risk, but telling Danny his family's civil names is another risk. He didn't know what to do. He tried to tell Danny that they were not important, but he couldn't. The magic didn't let him.

In the end, Tim tells Danny his family's civil ID. "Bruce, Dick, Jason, Damien, Duke, Alfred--" But he asked, "What do you know about who kills in Gotham for ectoplasm?" Tim now knew that Danny was on the ghost's side and wanted to show that he was too, in the hope that Danny wouldn't kill him at the end of the game.

It appears to work as Danny said, "They know about ectoplasm but probably not about ghosts. What do you know about the people who kill for ectoplasm?"

Tim hoped that if he told Danny what he knew, he would show that he was also on the side of the ghosts. "The actual killers don't know anything about the ectoplasm; they are just puppets, and if it seems that they are on the verge of exposure, they are killed."

Danny once again looks at Tim with a somehow less firm look. Tim was really glad. It seems his plan worked, and he won't end up dead.

"Who sent you?" Tim wanted to know if Danny knew about the ghost king. If Danny knew the ghost king, he could potentially introduce Tim or Bruce to him so they could reach an agreement.

The question seemed to further amuse Danny: "Nobody sent me. What do you think about the Anti-Ecto Act?"

"It is horrible and shouldn't exist." That was an easy question; Tim didn't need to think about the answer. "How did you know something was going on in Gotham?"

" A ghost named Wulf told me. What will you do about the Anti-Ecto Act?"

"I will try my best to demolish it. Who are Wulf?" Tim doesn't need to ask if Danny knows it; he is sure to know it if he is here with a fake identity and asking all those questions.

This time Danny seemed to think about the answer more carefully, but Tim didn't know why. "He is one of my subjects." Tim was perplexed by the response and attempted to ask a question, but he was unable to do so because it was Danny's turn. "Which vigilante are you?"

"Red Robin." Tim's brain finally grasped what Danny had said. "You are the Ghost King?" Tim yelled.

Danny smiled and said, "Yes." He was unmistakably amused.

Tim was in shock. He had so many questions, but it was once again Danny's turn.

Chapter Text

Thinking about his next question, Danny sat in the basement, where the cute guy had led him. He has had an interesting time lately.

He arrived in Gotham a few days ago. He spoke with the ghost he ordered to investigate the organization. That was simple.

The ghosts didn't find the leaders; they found places that reeked of ectoplasm, but they couldn't say why. The killing didn't happen here, and if they did something, it didn't show up. This was still fairly simple if a bit troubling.

The ghost at first asked why he thought it was an organization and not one person. No one could do this alone, or at least Danny hoped it was not someone so powerful that they could do it alone. They must have at least some subordinates, even if at the top there is just one person.

Danny doubted he could have done something like this alone without his people. Danny was a powerhouse, he knew, but for this, the organisation also needed subtlety and cleverness alongside power, and no matter how much he hated it, he needed to be realistic with his enemies' abilities.

He found a coffee shop where there was an ectoplasmic imprint. He met a man who felt like one of his subjects but was different. The guy seemed interesting, cute, and had good taste. He introduced himself as Tim.

Danny wanted to speak with him more, but suddenly he noticed a ghost nearby who was in agony. There, things started to go wrong.

Danny thought the worst; the organization captured a ghost, and currently, they are experimenting on it. He quickly excused himself and rushed towards the ghost, but before he could arrive at the location, the ghost had disappeared from his radar. Now, this was straight-up distressing.

Danny didn't understand what happened; the ghost didn't cause it to exist, he would have felt that. But he suddenly couldn't perceive the ghost's presence.

Worried, he investigated the place where he felt it coming from but could not find anything. He didn't even feel that someone was there. He had the worst idea about it—the organization could deceive his senses or they could hide ectoplasm from him. And this was a disturbing theory.

It means that he couldn't just follow the ectoplasm. He knew that the other ghost that was here couldn't, but he hoped that he could. And that it would lead him to the organization. But now he thought that he couldn't rely on his ghostly senses.

He spent the following day going to the places the other ghost had already looked, hoping he could notice something that could lead him somewhere, something that the other ghost couldn't sense.

Danny couldn't gain any new information.

Danny's conclusion was that he needed to investigate even more humanely. He knew already that he needed to do something about it as a human, but he thought it would be because he didn't want other people to know about him and not because he couldn't do it.

He supposed he could either go rampaging through the city until he found the people behind this or just order his army to come and raze this place to the ground.

Going to the Justice League was also an option. He calmed himself down. There is no need to go totally hostile.

He remembered that he didn't investigate the coffee shop because he was distracted by the unified ghost, so he returned.

Danny once again met the cute boy who felt like he had died but at the same time had not.

He introduced himself with his full new name. From there, things took an interesting turn.

Tim knew Danny's real name.

He almost attacked when two blobs appeared.

Luckily for Tim, they explained quite a lot. Tim is the person the blob has been praising recently, and he appears to be a good guy. Danny trusted the blobs but wanted to see if Tim was indeed a good guy, so when Tim proposed that they go somewhere private, he accepted.

He ordered the blobs to tell him everything, and he could see the loyalty in them for Tim. They didn't want to tell him everything. While he can order the ghosts to do his bidding, if they are really against it, they can oppose it. That really convinced him that Tim was a good guy.

Tim also asked how he was able to understand the blobs, and he seemed jealous of it. Danny is really glad that he can communicate with the blobs without Tim noticing.

Danny suggested that they play 21 questions. He could ask things to be sure, and a few that the blob didn't want or didn't know the answer to.

Tim seemed to draw the wrong conclusion, as he looked terrified after some questions.

Danny saw that Tim didn't want to answer some questions but felt the need to. 'Interesting, he feels my order but doesn't seem to understand that it is not absolute.'  He played on it so Tim would think he could not lie, and neither could Danny.

Danny asked a few questions, already knowing the answers thanks to the blobs, but he didn't want Tim to know what the blobs told him.

Danny even hinted that he is the ghost king, after being sure that Tim would take the side of the ghosts. And Tim noticed it.

"Are you the ghost king?"

"Yes," Danny answered. Then he stayed silent, as he didn't know what to ask.

He wanted to cooperate with Tim to catch the person responsible for this situation, but he didn't want to show that he couldn't do this alone. Or at least not without brutal force.

Should he ask more things than the blobs have already told him? Or should he be flirty and ask for Tim's number? He really didn't know what to ask. After so many serious questions and the topic is still serious, he shouldn't ask if Tim wants to go on a date with Danny if this case is all done. He wanted to do that but knew that now was not the time for it. No matter how good-looking and adorable Tim was.

"What do you think of me?" Danny would ask Tim outright if he wanted to go on a date with him, but in the most subtle way he could think of. Danny couldn't stop himself; he needed to know.

"You are incredibly handsome and most likely incredibly powerful. How is it possible that you are the Ghost King?" Tim blushed at his own answer but kept eye contact with Danny.

Danny is screaming on the inside, but on the outside, he has a calm facade. It was more than likely that he was so shocked that he couldn't do anything. Handsome, like Tim, thought Danny was objectively good-looking or was it more?

Chapter Text

Tim wanted to ask so much about how Danny is the ghost king that he didn't even want his own answers and just said the first thing that came to mind. Now he regrets it. How could he say that Danny was handsome to his face?

Danny seemed surprised at that, as he just sat there and didn't answer the question for a while.

"I won the crown from the previous king." Danny answered like it would explain what happened. It did not.

'I understand that, but how did that happen? Was it a battle, and why did it happen? but once again it was Danny's turn. Tim was getting tired of this game.

Instead of asking something, Danny just stared blankly at Tim, leaving an awkward silence in the room.

After some time, Danny finally asked, "Are you attracted to me?" His smile got a wicked edge as he asked.

'What kind of question is that?" Tim blushed and squealed; the latter luckily happened in his head, not aloud. "No, I'm not." It was obvious that he was lying, but it was surprising that he could do it, even if it was poorly done. So his next question is, "I can lie to you?" The other questions were pushed into the background.

"Yes, you can. Why would you think that you can't?" Danny innocently asked and relaxed back into the chair.

"I thought this game was like a pact with a fae or a demon. If it's not why do I feel like I need to tell the truth?" Tim didn't believe Danny's innocence; he must have done something. Tim also didn't forget about the question of how Danny became the king, but right now those felt more important.

"I'm not sure, my subjects usually feel like that, but you are not a ghost," Danny said, like that was helpful. "So when you said you were not attracted to me, you lied?" he smirked.

"No, I didn't." Tim blushed even more and looked away from Danny. It was easy to see that he was once again lying. Danny could see it too, if the wicked smirk on his face was any indication. Tim decided to change the subject. "Why did you become the ghost king?"

"The previous king attacked my territory. Do you know the reason why you feel like one of my subjects?" Danny at least didn't ask Tim another awkward question.

Tim could imagine 'Do you want to kiss me, Tim? Did you dream about me, Tim?' If Danny asked something like that, Tim didn't know what he would do with himself. especially if Danny looked seductive during the asking.

Tim thought about asking something similar but was not brave enough. He could handle it if Danny said he was not attracted to Tim.

"I can only imagine that I had been around something that was similar to ectoplasm. Did you not intend to become the ghost king?" From Danny's words, it didn't seem like he wanted to become the king.

"You discreetly hid the answer in your question." At Tim's confusion, he said, "I indeed did not want to become king. What substance are you talking about?" Danny's attention was completely focused on this.

"It is called Lazarus water, and it is a boiling, luminous green liquid." At this Danny become alerted. But now it is Tim's turn.

Tim wasted the time because it was refreshing to see that Danny, for once, struggled to keep his mouth shut and not Tim.

"Are you open to having a meeting with the Justice League?" Tim was already planning how to go about that as he asked Danny. Obviously, he would first tell Bruce, and then they would take the issue to the League together.

"No." the answer was curt. Demolishing the admittedly hastily made plans that Tim started to do. "Where is this Lazarus water?" Danny was still on the Lazarus water topic.

"Nanda Parbat, the League of Shadows headquarters. Why wouldn't you want to have a meeting with the Justice League?" Tim was baffled.

"I don't trust them." Danny waved it off as if it were not important. "Do you have any idea how Lazarus' water affects people?"

"It was supposed to kill the living but heal the dying. Why don't you trust them?" Tim started to panic. What if Danny doesn't trust people? Tim doesn't want to start a fight against the ghost.

"I heard numerous bad things about several of them. Do you know a person who had an encounter with ectoplasm?" Danny was still focused on the Lazarus water.

"Yes, I know a few of them." Tim was relieved but also worried. What had Danny heard about the League that made him want to avoid meeting them? Did he hear something about Tim? Tim knew that there were quite a lot of negative rumours about him. "Do you have someone who you trust?"

"You." Danny said it simply. Tim was surprised and relieved. 'He trusts me.' He knew that it was not easy to earn someone's trust, especially someone like Danny's. Or at least Tim thought that Danny was not someone who trusted others easily.

"Are you able to arrange a meeting with one of them?" Danny asked eagerly.

Tim thinks about Jason. 'Well, even if it's not arranged, I can lead him to Jason so they can meet.'

"Yes, I can. But why do you want to meet them so much?" Tim didn't understand. It is obviously more important than Tim first thought, but even if it were ectoplasm, he doesn't understand why Danny is focusing on it so much.

"Ectopalm has a lot of different forms, but if it is boiling, it is definitely not a good sign," Danny said gravely. Seeing Tim's confused look, he asked, "Did you not experience something weird about the person who had concocted this so called Lazarus water?"

"Well, they are prone to madness. Do you know why?"

Tim knew Jason said that when he was angry, it was because of the pit madness, but Tim always thought it was more because of trauma.

Jason died and returned, and both of these things happened traumatizingly. Tim had a theory he didn't tell anyone, Jason came back before the Lazarus water but awoke in his coffin when he finally dragged himself out of his grave, he was brain dead, and Lazarus couldn't fix this completely as it was mostly used for the physical injuries and not the mental problems.

That would also explain why Damian wasn't like that after his dip into the pit.

"What you described could mean that it is a gathering place. Does the person involved act differently sometimes?"

"I don't think so." Jason was sometimes more aggressive, violent, and paranoid, but it was all already there, just in the background. "What do you mean by gathering place?"

"Ghosts are created as a result of two things: there needs to be ectoplasm, and there need to be strong emotions. If one of the two things is not enough, the core cannot be forged. But sometimes, even if a ghost hasn't created the ectoplasm, it can still exist. These frequently attempt to unite, and if we're lucky, they simply create a new ghost. Rarely, do these gatherings simply turn into contaminated ectoplasm ponds.  It can possess people who have encountered it and turn them into totally different people. Making them more of a monster than a human or even a ghost."

'What the fuck?" Tim thought.

Chapter Text

"What the fuck?" Tim repeated this again aloud.

Tim went to his laptop, turned it on, and began looking for Jason's location. Tim is happy that he has laptops or computers in all of his safe houses.

"You can arrange a meeting with one of them?" asked Danny.

"Yeah, something like that." He does have a tracker on Jason's favoured gun, which Jason must be aware of. He spent so much time maintaining it that he must have noticed. And the fact that Jason didn't take it off is basically permission to track him. "This is more important than our game."

"I agree." Something warm could be heard in Danny's tone.

Tim found Jason in one of his favourite safe houses, the one in the center of Crime Alley.

Tim wanted to talk to Danny about Jason, but bringing an unknown into Jason's home was bad enough; there was no need to make it worse by telling Danny Jason's personal stuff.

They cannot go by themselves. It is not within walking distance. If it were different and Tim was in his Red Robin outfit. This place has some emergency gear but not the whole lot, and Tim won't go in a mask and in his normal clothes grappling through Gotham. Even if it was a funny image.

Taxis don't go that far into crime allay. With good reason. Even public transportation avoids that place.

They could go in Tim's car, but by the time they go into Jason's home, it would sure be stolen. The car was Tim's favourite, and he didn't want to lose it. That is his normal car, and all it has is a tracker, not the usual things his Red Robin things have. The first thing the robbers would do is take apart the car so quickly that Tim wouldn’t find it in one piece.

Although he probably could follow the part, that would be a waste of time.

By the time he thought through this, he had already searched for a nearby car that has insurance, so when he steals it, he won't feel that much guilt as the owner will be compromised. Or from somebody who deserves it a cheater or a criminal. But that would take longer. Looking into the nearby cars by their number plates would reveal the insurance they have sooner than the owner's wrongdoings.

When they walked here, Tim saw the plates and remembered them so he could search for them. And it is easy to see if the car has insurance, seeing who the owner is would be a step further, and he didn't want to spend time doing that.

Tim will steal a car, not like it would be the first time.

Tim didn't want to think about how Danny would react, so as they went outside and looked at the car Tim chose, he tried to act like he had another car.

"We are stealing a car," Danny said, causing Tim to stumble.

"How do you know that?" Really, Tim starts to think Danny can read minds. But surely he cannot, right? Right?

"I saw the laptop screen," Danny explained.

"But even if you have good eyesight and saw it, you shouldn't have understood, it was in a code." Nobody alive should know this code but me." Not even Bruce knew it. Tim tried to suppress the memories. It was not the time to think about that.

"Well, I am not alive fully."

"What does that mean?" Tim throws up his hand.

Danny just shrugged and said vaguely  "The dead have no use of language."

"That's total crap."

"I can understand any language anybody knew before they died." Danny ended up explaining.

"That's totally overpowered and doesn't make any sense as to why. Codes are not languages."

Danny just smiles at him.

"You are insufferable."

Tim quickly gets into the driver's seat, and as soon as Danny is in, Tim takes off.

"Why are we going in a stolen car? Couldn't we find another way?" Tim was relieved when Danny didn't sound disapproving.

Tim snorted, "Yeah, we could have, however, it wouldn't turn out well."

"Why?" asked Danny, curious.

"We are going into Crime Alley. It is not a place you can just go haphazardly."

"There isn't a bus that goes there? And what kind of name is Crime Alley."

"No, there is no public transportation in it just until it borders, and taxis don't go into it either. The place we go is in the middle, or at least farther into it than you could normally go. The name is not official, but everyone calls it that."

For the whole ride, Danny looked at Tim, which made Tim nervous. Danny should look out of the car, but if Tim says that, Danny will know that Tim noticed Danny's gaze, which Tim didn't want.

"Then why didn't we just go back to your car?" Danny asked.

"Any car will be stolen if it's parked here, but mine would be stolen even sooner than this will."

"Ah, so that's why you looked into the car's insurance."

Danni clearly wanted to hear more about the place. So Tim tells him a little bit about Crime Alley.

"Gotham in itself has crime all around; even in the nicest place, someone can rob you, but in crime alley, it is different. Park Row officially. The whole area is old. And I mean old. The building and the streets were never restored."

Danny seemed shocked as they began to go through the crime alley. Tim thought it was not weird. The streets are in unsettling condition. Even if it was during the daytime, it was like it was already night.

But as Tim looked at Danny, he felt strange; it was like Danny didn't see anything; he just looked blankly out of the car with a frown.

They arrive at Jason's place, and at the door, Tim asks Danny to stay back.

"I can be invisible," said Danny.

Tim wanted to ask what else Danny could do, but this wasn't the time for that. Now Jason is more important. So Tim noted in his mind to ask Danny later, he already had a lot of questions and just hoped he would have the opportunity to ask them.

"Okay, then you follow me." said Tim.

"Who is he anyway?" Danny looked around curiously.

"Ah, did you know about Red Hood?" Tim asked wickedly.

"The crime lord?"  Danny's expression of astonishment at that was palpable.

"Yes," Tim smirked. Tim felt good about finally doing something that made Danny lose his presence of mind. "Anyway, I am going in."

Tim walked through the door; not paying attention to Danny anymore. Tim knew the way in, so he didn't set off the alarms.

Tim walked into the house thinking of a way he could explain this whole thing without freaking out Jason. 

But the one who ended up freaking out was Tim. He dropped his jaw and let out a squeak, quickly turning around and closing his eyes while shouting, "What the ever living fuck? What are you doing?"

Chapter Text

"Replacement? What are you doing here?" Jason asked, surprise in his voice.

"What am I doing? What are you doing?" Tim could not believe that Jason was still not moving.

"What is your problem?" Asked Jason, like he didn't understand what Tim's problem was.

All while Jason, who was almost in full armor, was lying on Roy, who was naked, keeping the man's arms above his head so that he couldn't move. It suggested a quite interesting picture.

"I don't want to see what you are doing with your partner in your free time."

Jason laughed, saying, "I think you misunderstood the situation, Babybird. Roy just got drugged."

"And because of that, you restrained him in that pose while he was naked?" Tim can't believe that he is not that naive.

"What no. I have boxers on." Roy said from the couch.

Tim looked, and luckily, it was not a lie. While Roy Harper was objectively a very handsome man, he did not want to see his junk.

Okay, that was good. But still. Now this is awkward, and Tim forgot what he wanted to say.

"So why are you here?" Asked Jason, still lying on Roy, keeping their hands above Roy's head restraining him.

"Can't you be in a less improper position first?"

“No, I don't think I will." The amusement in Jason's voice suggested that he very well could, but he enjoyed Tim's embarrassment.

Well, if Jason wants to play like this, Tim won't stop him.

With a blank face, Tim told Jason, "The Lazarus water is probably more sentient than we thought, and it is possible that it is possessing you or making you go evil slowly."

This has Jason getting up quickly, probably faster than anything else could have.

"What the fuck are you talking about, Replacement?"

Before Tim could say more, Danny appeared next to him. Tim wondered whether he was there for a while and decided to become visible, or if he just followed Tim now and decided to become visible.

Jason quickly retrieved his gun from under the coffee table. Tim frowned. Could he not be such a cliché? Keeping a gun under the table.

"Who are you?" Jason aimed for Danny's head.

Danny just tilts his head to the side and says, "Even if you shoot me in the head, nothing will happen."

"Are you sure about that? Why won't we test that hypothesis?" Asked Jason with a dangerous undertone, cocking the gun .

Tim didn't know what he would have said to stop Jason from shooting Danny, but luckily he did not need to because Roy started twisting behind Jason, so his attention focused once again on Roy rather than Danny.

Jason once again resisted Roy, but now with just one hand while the other hand still held the gun, he did not point it at Danny.

"What happened? You said he was drugged."

"The case is not your business. After what happened to him, he has a weird reaction to drugs. He will be sleeping in no time. I give him sleeping pills."

Tim understands that Jason is talking about the Outlaws; in that case, he won't get more information out of Jason, especially right now and about what happened to Roy a long time ago. They didn't answer Danny's curious gaze.

Now, Replacement, what did you mean?"

Well, this is Danny, and he is..." Tim didn't know how to continue.

"I am a ghost or something similar to that."

'Danny dropping bombs so often will stop,' hoped Tim.

"I'm here because the ghosts are anxious about something happening in Gotham. Tim and I started talking, and when I showed him ectoplasm, he had an interesting reaction. After I warned him that the ectoplasm in this realm can be dangerous, he became worried, so we came here to be sure that you were alright."

"And what is the verdict, doctor? I am going to die again?" Asked Jason sarcastically.

"You are not possessed, which is what I have feared, but still, it is weird. But no, you will not die. At least not anytime soon." Danny narrowed his eyes and looked at Jason.

"What do you mean you said that he can be wrapped in madness?" asked Tim.

"He is not healthy. The ectoplasm he has is corrupted but does not have enough influence to make him evil. What happened to you?"

"What do you mean?" Asked both Jason and Tim at the same time.

"You are not halfa-"

"Which is what?" Tim interrupted Danny.

"-but you are not a liminal, not like Tim." Danny sure knows how to drop a bomb while ignoring Tim's question.

"I'm a what?" asked Tim, astonished.

"You are not a full ghost; you have ectoplasm even if it is corrupted, and you need more, or at least more pure than what you have right now. You are not alive, but you are not dead, and still you are not a halfa." Danny ignored Tim's question once more.

Yeah, I am a zombie, didn't you know?" Jason wanted to seem calm, but it was obvious that he was on edge.

"You are not. Zombies are when the body comes back to life without the so-called soul; they are not intelligent, which-" Danny raised his eyebrows "-you do seem to be."

Tim repeated the question, "What do you mean, halfa?"

"A halfa is a ghost and a living being at the same time, but he-" Danny waves at Jason, "-he is not dead right now, but he was fully dead at some point, which should not be possible."

"So I'm kind of a freak. What's new?" said Jason.

Roy made a disagreeable sound, but he wasn't really awake at this point; he almost looked like he would fall asleep at any moment. Which really shows what condition it is in. There is no way that he could have slept with a stranger in the room; Jason must have given him a lot of pills.

"You are no more of a freak than I am, but you are special," said Danny.

"Yeah, and what are you then if you think you are similar to me? Were you killed?" Jason was clearly suffering from not being able to accept what was happening right now. He was usually not this rude.

No, I was not killed; I was electrocuted in a labor that has studied ghosts. There was a huge amount of ectoplasm that kept me alive while the electricity kept killing me again and again." Danny's eyes clearly show how painful even the thought of it is.

"I was killed by a madman," Jason responded after an awkward silence. Likely he wanted to make Danny better, but he is shit at that.

"Something brought you back," remarked Danny.

"Yeah, the Lazarus pit." Jason let go of Roy's hand after he finally became fully unconscious.

“No, it does not have that ability," Denied Danny.

"I was a zombie before; I was walking and moving but brain dead," said Jason after thinking about it. Tim knows that this is a topic Jason is uncomfortable with; he is stressed but tries not to think about it.

No, you were not. A zombie does not have a soul anymore and can't gain it back. There were occasions when they gained a new soul, but not the one they had lost. If that was the situation, you would no longer be Jason, and you would not believe yourself to be Jason."

"Which makes me a freak of nature, like I said."

"Hmm, it is certainly an interesting situation." Without warning, Danny moves in front of Jason and places his hand on Jason's head. Jason flinched, but then he soon became dead still.

Tim does not know what to do. He wants to protect Jason but does not know what Danny is doing. What if he makes the situation worse by separating the two of them? He really should have thought this through better. He decides to call back. Well, he trusts Danny to a certain extent, but Jason being in danger is not acceptable. Still, he won't call Bruce; he is weird when it comes to Jason.

Tim texts Dick but tells him that it is a potentially dangerous situation, but they are all right at the moment.

In an instant, after Tim sent the text, both Danny and Jason started to glow. Tim had to hide his eyes from the light; it was so bright.

Chapter Text

Unsettling silence prevails when the light finally dies out. They look at each other. Their eyes met, filled with uncertain emotions. The weight of the darkness that was left after the bright light hangs heavy in the air.

And then suddenly, Jason throws up on Tim without any warning. The unexpected act breaks the tension, shattering the eerie silence that had engulfed them. Tim's shock quickly turns into a mix of disgust and anger as he struggles to comprehend what just happened.

Tim wants to be angry at Jason, thinking he deliberately threw up on him, but it is clear that Jason just turned away and didn't have time to do anything else; he had already started vomiting.

Tim looks at his pants, looking at the green vomit, and freezes. It looks like Lazarus Water, and he knows now that its name is ectoplasm.

Danny was already moving. He took off Tim's clothes. He grabbed Tim's pants and shoes and turned them intangible; he pulled them off Tim and quickly destroyed them.

Tim was mortified. He does not know what to do. "Why would you do that?" He perhaps imagined a different situation when Danny would take off his clothes, and it was not this kind of situation.

Tim was not embarrassed about his body; he worked hard to look like this. But that doesn't mean that he wanted to be in his underwear in front of his crush and his brother. He was just happy that Roy wasn't awake.

He looked at Roy, being sure that he was asleep, but fortunately for both of them, he still knocked out and didn't see Tim's embarrassment. Tim didn't want to blackmail Roy with any of his blackmail materials, so Roy didn't speak of this under any circumstances. He wanted to save them for something more serious, or at least advantageous to himself.

"Because what Jason vomited is corrupted ectoplasm." Danny said while he looked at Tim's legs with appreciation. Tim's thoughts wandered so far away at first that he didn't understand what Danny was talking about, but then he remembered.

'Corrupted ectoplasm: how it is different from normal ectoplasm,' thought Tim

"What the fuck was that?" Jason asked after he finally stopped gagging.

Danny explained, "You had that in your system; it was making your negative emotions uncontrollable. Luckily, it could not arise from an emotion that you did not possess originally. So you just become a worse version of yourself."

Tim was so intrigued by the conversion that he almost forgot he had no pants on. He quickly grabbed a nearby blanket to cover himself, feeling a mix of embarrassment and amusement. As the conversation continued, Tim couldn't help but wonder how he had ended up in such a bizarre situation.

"Just became a worse version? Do you know how much I suffered because I could not become a little bit angry because then I would start killing people and how much effort it was to not just kill everybody, even the ones I love?" Jason shouted, wildly gesturing with his hands.

"The alternative is that you would start to go basically evil; you would live for other people's suffering. What happened to you is horrible, but you stayed yourself; you're just a thing that lives for causing pain." Danny said, and Tim remembered that this was why they came here originally.

Dick decides this is a good time to break through the window. He attacks Danny, saying, "Nobody gets to hurt my little brothers."

Before the fight could become serious, Tim stopped Dick. "It is okay. He didn't hurt us. Please stop." While he went to stand in front of Dick, who was in full Nightwing gear.

At first, it didn't look like Dick would stop the attack, but then he suddenly brightened up, "Is he the one you have a crush on? Oh, baby bird, that's so good." Dick grinned like a loony, but when he noticed that Tim had less clothes on than he should under the blanket.

"Why have you started it here if Jason is right here? Oh, and Roy is there too?" He asked with a frown.

It seems that Dick was ready to start one of his speeches about love and sexuality, all while stating that safety was the most important. Tim heard it at least five times. Who was he kidding? He counted them; it was eight times, and this was not the situation in which he could listen to something like that.

Tim interrupted Dick before he could launch into his usual lecture, saying, "Look, Dick, we can discuss this later. Right now, we need to focus on the task at hand and make sure Jason is safe." As Tim anticipated, this was enough to make Dick focus on Jason.

"Jaybird, are you okay?" Dick's goofy eyes could be seen even though he wore a mask.

Tim immediately darted into Jason's bedroom and quickly grabbed one of Jason's pants from one of the drawers.

"Little creepy stalker," Jason said, because Tim knows where his clothes are.

"It was just an educated guess." And Tim didn't even lie; he didn't know that in this specific safe house where Jason sorts his clothes, Jason usually follows a pattern, and Tim indeed knew where he usually puts them.

Jason explained what happened with Roy and then Danny to Dick. Tim is grateful that he didn't want to be the one who explained it.

Jason said that after a long time, he finally feels calm. But he started to panic, feeling weird.

Danny explained that he freed him from the corrupted ectoplasm, and Jason will not feel like that again.

"Your name is Danny, is it not?" Asked Dick, wearing a sunny smile like he hadn't attacked Danny just minutes ago.

Danny just nodded.

Suddenly, Damian, in full gear, breaks through another window and jumps in front of Dick, declaring he will save him from danger. "Stand back, Nightwing."

Tim was feeling déjà vu. 'I wonder why,' he thought sarcastically.

"What are you doing here, Little D?" Asked Dick.

"You stormed out of the cave after receiving some signal; of course I would follow you. I can't trust the imbeciles to protect you."

"How strange that the four of you are all liminal and we've all died at one point." Danny said it casually, like he didn't just drop another bomb on Tim once again.

"What do you mean, all of us?" Dick asked, worried. "Damian, Tim, have you died?"

"Tt - the question is when you died. Todd's death was obvious, and I don't care for Drake's death, but I was unaware that you died. Do explain yourself, Grayson." Orders Damian. It is obvious that he is shaken up by the use of Dick's name in the field, not a code name.

"I think so too; everybody knows about Jason's death, and Damon Brat died by his own clone and was brought back by magic." Dick made a wounded noise and hugged Damian.

"But I was also unaware that you died, Dick." Tim could not stop his detective brain; he tried to piece together the timeline of Dick's supposed death. He couldn't help but wonder if it happened during one of their previous missions or if it was something that occurred outside of their vigilante activities.

It was also good to know that he indeed died during the surgery, as Ra's said. He always wondered if Ra's being a manipulative bastard or if he really died. Luckily, not for long, or Ra's would have put him in the Lazarus Pit, which dangers are more significant than he previously thought.

Chapter Text

Dick didn't say anything about his death; rather, he looked at Tim and asked, ”When did you died, Tim?”

And how could Tim tell them about it? They didn't even know that he had lost his spleen and that the League of Assassins helped him search for Bruce when he was lost in the time stream.

He remembered how Dick acted before he left Gotham to look for Bruce. After he came back, he couldn’t risk telling him what happened, not after he heard Dick tell Alfred that Tim was having a “mental breakdown” and that “perhaps it would be best if he spent some time in Arkham's." After Dick told the League his concerns, nobody took Tim seriously, especially when Cassie agreed that Tim wasn’t mentally sound.

And it’s not like Tim doesn’t understand why they thought he was mentally unstable. After all, he just lost his best friend, his adopted father, and before that, he lost his biological one too. Not to mention that Dick gave Robin away to an assassin child who tried to kill Tim numerous times. But at least he could understand that incident.

He and Dick had already talked about that at length. Dick told Tim that he did not give Robin to Damian, as Damian said, and wanted to talk with Tim about it before giving it away. And about how Dick believed that Tim grew out the Robin mantle and that he couldn't imagine himself as Batman with Tim as his Robin because Tim was his equal.

But Damian had realized what Dick wanted and wore Tim's Robin suit to bait him. Tim was devastated, but after Dick apologized and explained his side of the story, he understood and forgave him. So it was true that he was not in the best headspace, but he was still hurt.

So Tim deflected and asked Dick the same thing. “When did you died, Dick?”

Dick is visibly upset, but he still answers. ”The evil version of the Justice League kidnapped me, the only way to save the world was to kill me. We told you that Lex Luthor managed to stop the bomb's detonation by giving me a paralytic that stopped my heart. But in reality, I did die, but was successfully brought back."

Damian's reaction to this revelation was the most telling. He put away his weapon and stepped as close as he could to Dick. He even grabbed Dick's hand and said, "I'm glad you're back, Grayson." The relief on Damian's face was evident. It was the most emotional state Tim had ever seen him in.

Dick didn't look at anybody while he told them how he died, but after Damian spoke, he looked at him and smiled, petting his head. After Dick saw that Damian was alright, he looked at Tim and practically ordered, "Now tell me, how did you died?"

Tim still didn't want to tell them, but he knew that he had little other choice. "After a very difficult fight, I was in surgery, but my heart gave up. Luckily, they successfully brought me back." Tim hoped this would satisfy their curiosity, and he wouldn't need to clarify. He didn't want to relive the experience any more than he had to. Tim took a deep breath and waited for their response.

"That's not good enough, Baby Bird. We need more details." This time it was not Dick who spoke, but Jason. Jason who was looking at Tim with concern in his eyes, which surprised Tim as he knew that Jason was not the most caring person, especially not towards Tim. Which shouldn't be a surprise, as Jason tried to kill Tim because he believed that Tim had taken Robin from him. But recently, they were ambivalent towards each other.

Tim hesitated, feeling a wave of anxiety wash over him. He knew he would have to tell his family at one point but hoped that it would be later. Taking another deep breath, Tim began to recount the unpleasant details of his self-appointed mission to bring Bruce back.

"I was following a lead on where Bruce was so that I could prove that he was alive and was only lost in the time stream. I was in Europe when an organization called the Council of Spiders attacked; I was injured."

Tim could see the worry deepen in Jason's and the others eyes, making him realize the gravity of the situation. Despite his initial reluctance, Tim knew that he had to be honest with his family about what happened.

"More specifically, I was impaled, lost my spleen in the subsequent surgery, and was dead for a short while." Tim really didn't want to say the next thing, but he knew that he had to. "The person who helped me was Ra's al Ghul." Tim knew that revealing Ra's al Ghul's involvement would open up a whole new can of worms, but he also knew that honesty was the only way to move forward, otherwise, when it finally comes to light, it will just bite him in the ass.

Tim took a deep breath and continued, "He saved my life and helped me look for Bruce, but at a price. He demanded that I join the League of Assassins and train under him,I didn't have much of a choice at the time, but I knew it was a decision that would have consequences."

Tim knew that joining the League of Assassins would lead to a dangerous path, but he also understood that it was necessary to find Bruce. Despite the risks, he was willing to do whatever it took to save his mentor.

"With the help of the League of Assassins, I took down the Council of Spiders, and later I even blew up Ra's numerous hideouts. I learned that he wanted the Wayne fortune, and spoiled his plans. That is when he kicked me out of a window, but you" - He looks at Dick. - " saved me."

He braced himself for the inevitable questions and judgment that would follow, but he felt a sense of relief after finally coming clean. But none came. His family just stood there in silence.