Chapter Text
An eerie green glow permeated the dark cave, shapes still as statues watching as a bandage wrapped body was lowered into the Pit from a chain on the ceiling. A splash, bubbles. The red cloaked shapes still didn’t move but there was a buzzing excitement that arose in the air. It wasn’t every day that they watched a body walk out of the Pits, when their fearless leader went under, he did so in secret. The collective excitement turned to shock and horror when the body that broke the surface wasn’t the expected disoriented but coherent. No. He was screaming, ripping at his head before sinking back under the water with but a few bubbles and echoing screams as proof that his head ever raised.
All Jason knew was pain. Burning heat washing over a broken body followed by drowning. He thought he stuck his head out of the acid green water to draw a breath before being dragged down into the abyss. Thrashing, Jason tried to make it back to where he thought the surface should be but there was a tug and suddenly he was tumbling past doors, rocks, and monsters.
The burning need for air caused him to draw in an involuntary breath but instead of liquid, they filled with air that carried a sour undercurrent but still allowed him to breathe in air to SCREAM! He had to get away, he needed safety, needed his dad-
Panicking, he was vaguely aware of falling through a concentrated swirling green portal where gravity suddenly reactivated and he landed with a thud on a cold floor. All Jason really knew was he was still screaming, now tearing at the bandages that trapped his body.
Thrashing, there was a shouting and his chest clenched as he realized he was without his weapons and would have to rely on his body. A bright flash moved in front of his eyes and he opened them, starting as the bandages were suddenly ripped off of him and white gloved hands appeared on his shoulders.
A deep voice was speaking calm and low but all Jason knew was he had to get to safety.
"Dad" he gasped out a word finally, trying to swat away the hands but they held firm. "DAD! BRUCE!"
The ringing in his ears from the explosion started to wane enough to hear the voice of the man holding him by the shoulders. "Hey, you're fine, I'll help you find your dad."
Green eyes came into focus reminding him of the acid that surrounded him when he woke up and panic lit a fire in his chest anew.
"No!" Jason screamed, using his ingrained Robin training to flip the man off himself before rocketing towards the stairs despite the fire running through his body.
"How the?" The deep voice asked behind him before a large gentle hand closed on his arm.
Jason thrashed, putting all of his training into getting away but somehow he couldn't break the hold a second time.
"Off!"
"Calm down kid, I don't want to have to soup you."
A high pitched whine came out of Jason's throat. Was he about to get eaten?
“Don’ wan be lunch!”
His captor made a pained noise. “Shit, you must be really new.”
Jason could feel himself start crying frightened tears from his wide eyes but he felt like ass and couldn’t bother to feel embarrassed at this point, especially considering he was blown to bits before waking up in a glowing green hell hole.
The man carded a hand through his hair while the other held him mostly steady, Jason felt like he was floating. “I know, I know. It’s probably too soon for you to be out of the Zone. Ancients, I don’t even know how you have a form at this point.”
Jason made a small inquiring noise and managed to force his too wide, blurry eyes back on glowing green. Instead of continued fear, a small layer of calm started to sink over him as the deep voice started to speak again in a tone that would soothe a fussy child.
“It’s scary waking up in the Ghost Zone for the first time. Although, you’re definitely more ghost than shade so I’m not sure how you skipped right into a corporeal form.”
“Ghost?” Jason grasped onto the word in confusion before remembering how weird his body felt. Or didn’t feel, considering he was standing. Glancing down, he blinked in shock. He wasn’t standing at all but floating about ten feet in the air? “What the fuck?”
The other man- ghost- chuckled. “Hey, being dead isn’t half bad.”
The fuzzy headed fight or flight desperation was waning into something resembling actual rational thought and Jason locked eyes with the man. "I don't want to be dead." He whispered, body shivering as a wave of pain passed over him. "Not like this, even if I deserve it."
Green eyes widened in shock but Jason pressed on, desperate for absolution even if it was his dad he needed it from.
"I ran away, tried to save my mom. She didn't want me and it's my fault he killed her. Me. Us. Da- B is probably better off without me."
Jason sniffed, aware that a red shape had appeared on the stairs in the corner of his eye. He glanced over out of reflex to clock potential threats and the ghost holding him immediately tensed, a wave of protective intent rising up. Jason shuddered, his aching chest reaching out to the feeling. It reminded him of being bundled up in Batman's cape after a particularly cold patrol back in Gotham.
He just wanted to be safe again. Warm, not wracked with pain. He wanted to be that little boy that believed in magic, to just be Jaylad again.
His chest wrenched and Jason stiffened as he felt a wave travel up his body and oh. If he thought the pain was bad before it was nothing compared to this as he felt like one big bruise. Gravity suddenly activated again and Jason felt himself sag in the ghosts arms.
"Danny!" A voice shouted but Jason's eyes rolled back in his head and he was dead to the world once more.
Danny kissed his wife on the cheek and plucked their four year old daughter from her booster seat, tickling her tummy as he walked downstairs.
"I'm taking her back in ten minutes for her bath, Fenton!"
Danny laughed over his daughter’s happy squealing. “Come and get her, Fenton-Gray!” He called as he walked over to the basement door, flipping the Fenton Safety Switch on the wall as he headed down the stairs. Parenthood had done much to change him into a responsible adult.
"Okay Zella, you want to float with daddy for a bit?"
"Yes! Float time is fun time!"
Danny smiled at his daughter, her teal eyes staring back in excitement as he let his transformation wash over him just as the last of the lab finished locking down. He had created the baby button when he first learned Val was pregnant, wanting to keep his daughter safe in a way he hadn't been as a child. Cabinet doors automatically locked behind ghost proof shields and the lab tables had their own shields come up to stop small hands from wandering, be it human or ghost. Heaven knows Box lunch kept sneaking in for playdates and wasn't that a trip the first time she came in and poked one of his samples. Their home was bombarded by cardboard and assorted meats for a week.
Frowning, he noticed the portal was open. Odd, that was supposed to be locked down at all times unless he or Valerie was in the lab to monitor it or the portal bell was pressed. (Explaining the concept of a doorbell to some of the ghosts had been a trip, but most of them used it. At least some of the time.)
"Hey Val?" He shouted up the stairs, about to ask if she had opened it for some reason when it turned purple and teal for a flash before lighting up green again. A mummy fell through and landed with a smack on the floor.
Then the mummy started screaming.
"Go find mom!" Danny told Zella as he set her on the stairs and watched her scramble to the top before allowing his ghost form to punch through. He could have sworn it was a second behind another flash but he decided it was a trick of the eye as he watched his daughter reach the top step and sprint off calling for mommy.
Danny turned to the screaming mummy he just discovered in his lab, who was ripping at his bandages while writhing on the floor. Floating over, Danny braced for blood blossoms or something that would attribute to the kid’s screaming but nothing changed in the air as he got close enough to grab the ratty bandages and phase them off the writhing body. He was prepared for bones, desiccated skin, a full on zombie- what he was not prepared for was a young ghost. A young ghost wearing a black mask and what looked like a red superhero suit.
Danny had a second to take in the white and black hair as he tried soothing the screaming boy who looked barely older than Danny himself when he died. His core clenched in sympathy when he asked for his dad.
"Hey, you're fine, I'll help you find your dad." Empty platitude unless the dad was also dead in the Zone and it did little to calm the terrified boy who screamed and then threw Danny off .
“How the-?” Shocked the kid actually managed to get away, Danny still flew after him and grabbed his arm as gently as possible so he didn’t go flying up the steps and into a confused trigger happy Valerie. It was like trying to hold onto an eel
"Calm down kid, I don't want to have to soup you." He knew the Zone itself trembled at the threat of soup time but a terrified noise came out of the kid.
"Don' wanna be lunch!" The boy slurred out through his tears, once again shocking Danny.
How did this baby ghost manage to get this far? "Shit, you must be really new."
The ghostling needed comfort and a healthy supply of ectoplasm so Danny ran a hand through his hair and shifted them slightly towards the portal, muttering to himself- damn if that didn’t make him feel like his dad. One crisis at a time, Fenton.
Danny forced himself to project calm toward the ghostling, feeling the immature core stutter at the feeling even as the boy started to calm himself. “It’s scary waking up in the Ghost Zone for the first time. Although, you’re definitely more ghost than shade so I’m not sure how you skipped right into a corporeal form.”
The boy stiffened. “Ghost?” He looked down and finally noticed them floating mid air. “What the fuck?”
Unable to hold back his chuckle at the surprised look on the kids face behind the mask, Danny also couldn’t help making a joke. "Hey, being dead isn't half bad." Unfortunately, since the kid didn’t have the luxury of being half dead, fear filled his face and the empty white eyes locked with Danny’s green ones.
"I don't want to be dead." He whispered, body shivering as a wave of pain passed over him. "Not like this, even if I deserve it."
Okay, that punched the figurative air right out of Danny’s chest, especially as the kid kept talking. Shocked and sad as Danny was, he still noticed the moment Valerie appeared on the stairs in her Huntress gear. The ghostling noticed too and Danny felt a protective urge well up. Sob story or not, he would protect his family before all else but- instead of more fear coming from the young ghost he felt the tiny core reach out to his for a slice of that protection.
What fucked up life had this poor kid even had if that was how he was reacting?
Danny heard him mutter something about being a kid again before he was stiffening in Danny’s arms. For a moment, Danny thought he was going to deform and prepared to rush him into the zone but instead of fading, a pulse of red light made it’s way up the child and “Oh, FUCK!” Danny shouted as the red suited ghost boy turned into an actual boy wearing tattered clothes. Danny was so shocked he almost dropped the kid which prompted his lovely wife to start shouting.
“Danny! What happened? Who is that? Don’t drop him, bring him down!”
Lowering himself to the lab floor, he gently set the kid on an empty workbench.
“I didn’t do it, no clue, and I didn’t drop him, he surprised me!” He grumbled, placing the boy into a recovery position. “Grab me the med bag Val, he’s in rough shape.”
Valerie quickly appeared with the black and white bag instead of the red or ecto green and Danny gave her a grim thanks. Now that they knew they were dealing with another halfa, Danny’s own personal med kit would be more helpful in the moment rather than the fully human or fully ghost bags they kept on hand. Hooking up everything to monitor vitals, Danny couldn’t stop thinking about finding another halfa and what that meant for his family and the poor kid that couldn’t have been much older than Danny when he had his accident.
The world has a nasty habit of repeating itself and Danny couldn’t shake the thought that something or someone brought this broken boy straight to his doorstep.