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Chapter Text

Runaway Assassin

Prologue

No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself. It’s like your shadow. It follows you everywhere.

~Haruki Murakami

His hands were coated in blood. They didn’t shake.

It wasn’t the first time, but he really hoped it would be the last. He didn’t want to do this anymore. He wanted out; he wanted freedom.

Especially with what he was planning now. He never wanted to go back. Things had been feeling wrong for a while now, but he’d been too scared to let them know that.

They’d see it as a weakness.

His brother would see it as a weakness.

He pulled up the neck of his shirt and took off east. Blüdhaven was gone now. Left in her wake was an enormous crater.

He felt like he could hear her crying for her people.

For her city. For her history.

He blinked hard, chasing tears away, before climbing into an abandoned truck by the side of the road as several police cruisers and firetrucks rushed by, driving towards the wreckage.

He'd almost been inside the city when it had happened. He was supposed to be in the city.

But he had convinced his guards to wait a night. He had wanted to see the stars before getting into the smog filled cities. They’d allowed it, even though they were displeased about it. 

It had clearly saved his life, and now his guards were dead.

He’d stabbed the only one left, the one who’d stayed beside him while the others went ahead to scout their path.

Danyal wasn’t going to be their pawn any longer. He’d been sneaking in book after book back home, learning everything he could about the outside world he wanted to explore.

He'd also been doing all the research in order to properly blend in when he’d finally go live with the Bat.

Danyal knew he could still continue the mission he‘d been assigned, even if there were no assassins presently at his side. It was always meant to be his solo mission, anyway. To get inside the Bat’s home and feed information back to Grandfather. The perfect double agent for spying on the Dark Knight.

However. He didn’t want to live a lie and he didn’t want to be a killer anymore.

He wanted an actual home.

Perhaps...he could tell Bruce about what Ra’s had planned for both him and his twin.

Bruce would likely go save Damian if he knew about his existence. Through his father, they could be reunited once again.

But the Batman was also extremely paranoid, and Danyal wasn’t sure he would be able to convince him completely that he didn’t have any hidden agendas. Sometimes the truth could be more suspicious than a deception. He wasn’t sure that he would be able to get one of the most competent people in the world to help him.

He had barely convinced his guards to let him stay back and watch the stars, and they had been watching over him since his birth.

He closed his eyes and let himself mourn them quietly for a moment, before getting the truck jump-started and taking off on the road. He knew he needed to find somewhere the League wouldn’t look, which meant he basically had to take anything other than the normal routes they used.

Danyal made it out of New Jersey and into Pennsylvania before needing to stop as the truck sputtered to an end.

He stumbled across a family of Mennonites that took him in for a bit after a little bit of walking.

They asked a lot of questions, but he kept his answers vague enough to keep them from digging too deep for most of the time.

Though, upon learning that he had a twin, they became very interested in his life, constantly asking him about his brother.

Danny waited two weeks before he found the perfect opportunity to get out of there.

A truck with a lone woman in overalls had stopped nearby. She’d been distracted while getting supplies for her homestead and he’d slipped into the back with his sword and supplies, taking a moment to breathe before hiding under the cover.

It was uncomfortable, as had been the past two weeks, but he couldn’t stop his journey yet; he still had a long way to go. Danny hoped that he’d eventually find a home, but he was unsure of how to go about it. It needed to be somewhere he could be safe from the League of Assassins, that was the only thing he knew for certain.

He’d never really had a solid plan; when the opportunity appeared, it had been like a dream come true. Danny had never truly believed he would get his chance for another life.

Now that it was within his grasp, he was going to hold on as tight as he could.

The truck traveled a while before it stopped for fuel and Danyal tilted his head, hoping to see what was going on outside.

It was extremely busy, so he ducked back down and remained silent.

He could not afford to be caught.

“Alicia! How’s it going?” A man asked and Danyal could tell that they were right at the bed of the truck. He focused on breathing as quietly as possible while also listening intently to the conversation.

“It’s going good. I’m gonna be stoppin’ to see my sister in Amity. Jack and her are still together, if you can believe it,” someone answered, and Danny peeked out to see the woman in overalls talking to a man with an eyepatch that was also wearing overalls, although his were messy and undone.

Danyal found it quite distasteful but couldn’t voice his complaint.

So, the woman driving the truck was called Alicia.

It would do him good to have a name to link to the woman, just in case. Danyal ducked down again as the truck started backing up before then heading down the road.

However, Danyal felt the car stop sooner than he thought it should. He waited a bit in anticipation before the cover was pulled off abruptly.

Danyal’s sword was at Alicia’s neck the moment he figured he’d been spotted.

“Whoa there, kid,” she said, putting her hands up and backing away. “Knew you were there already, wasn’t expectin’ the sword though. Take it easy.”

Danyal narrowed his eyes as he slowly lowered the sword.

“What’s your name, kid?” Alicia asked, not getting closer this time. Danyal held onto the sword tightly, still pointing it at the woman.

“Dany…Danny,” he said. His name was unique enough that Talia could find him, but he didn’t want to give it up completely either; he felt very proud of it.

Dami had called him Danny in their down moments when no one was around. It was special and he wanted to keep it should Damian ever get out. Besides, he knew that Danny was a common enough name in the US.

“Alright, I’m…”

“Alicia, I know. I overheard,” Danny said as he stood up properly and dusted himself off. “Since you have found me, I’ll simply be on my way.”

“Now hang on a minute…I’m not kicking ya off, young ‘un. Just…it’s safer for y’all to be ridin’ in the cab than the bed of my truck,” Alicia said, and Danny could discern the accent better the longer she spoke.

She was evidently from a spot further south than they were presently in.

“Are you certain?” Danny asked, unsure about going with her now that she’d discovered him.

“Look, kid, I don’t know why you’re runnin’, but considerin’ you’ve got that fancy sword, I’m not gonna ask. I’m headin’ to Amity Park to see my sister; you got any place you need me to take ya?” Alicia asked as she put her hands on her hips.

Danny blinked. She didn’t seem to care all that much that he’d been using her for a ride.

He’d never heard of Amity Park, and it was unlikely that the League of Assassins would look for him in some backwater town.

There were too many for them to go through in this country even if they tried.

Hopefully they now believed he’d died in Blüdhaven and that would be enough to ensure no one was searching for him. But the extra precaution couldn’t hurt in the long run.

“Alright, Amity Park,” Danny said as he took care of his pronunciation, so that his accent would remain hidden.

He had worked hard to conceal it ever since he’d learned he would be living in Gotham with his father.

Now it would pay off in helping keep him undiscovered.

“Alright, get up front,” Alicia motioned for the cab and Danny headed on over and hopped in. Alicia was texting something on her phone and Danny narrowed his eyes. “Just textin’ my sister that I’m about three hours out yet. Put your seat belt on.”

Danny watched intently as she fastened her own, copying the movement afterwards.

Most of the time he could barely reach the pedals, and he’d never used a seatbelt on his missions.

Every second of delay could be used against you in battle.

But at the moment he needed to remain on the down low and therefore, he would wear it this time.

He doubted he would run into any actual Assassins at this point. He kept a knife up his sleeve just in case though. He didn’t want to be taken advantage of by anyone.

He'd fallen asleep at some point and was startled awake when Alicia reached over to jostle him.

She was a saint for dealing with the knife at her throat.

“You’re safe, kiddo. Just wanted you awake since we’re heading into Amity,” Alicia said, and Danny looked outside to see the Welcome to Amity Park sign.

A Nice Place to Live.

Danny wondered how accurate that was. He quickly put the blade away as Alicia relaxed.

She was worried for the boy after all. He was young, so very young, but also very murderous. Violent in a way that was trained. He was controlled violence, and Alicia wasn’t sure what to do.

Wherever he had come from, Alicia knew that he needed a good home that could handle him. A home that wouldn’t look too closely at the blades and violence.

A home that would have parents who didn’t pay that close attention. Danny was clearly very bright, and any attentive parent may catch on that there was something so very wrong with him.

He might even run away from them, and Alicia wanted him to be safe. She felt like she needed to make sure that he would be safe.

Unfortunately, the only people she knew who might take him in, where she could keep an eye on him without it seeming weird were Maddie and Jack. Both good parents, but they didn’t give Jazz all the attention the girl needed, and it would give Danny someone to help him be a normal kid. Maybe even help curb some of the violent tendencies he was showing.

She knew that sometimes Maddie somehow ended up reanimating dinner. But Danny wasn’t a normal child. A normal family would be too much and simultaneously not enough for him, ‘cause whatever had happened to him, he clearly wasn’t going to be able to fully blend in.

“This is where your sister lives, correct?” Danny asked, his tone reminding her of a very formal way of speaking. Alicia could see him gulp, though. His nerves had also let out the slight accent that he’d been actively trying to hide.

Foreign. She didn’t like the implications of that, and instead focused on pulling up to the Fentonworks home.

She sighed, seeing the giant ops center at the top. At least that would give Danny something of interest to hopefully prevent him from running away too soon. Sure enough, he was looking up at it in awe and some amount of confusion.

“What is that?” he asked.

“I have no idea. You’ll have to ask Maddie,” Alicia said as she got out. She went around to help Danny, but he had already gotten out and was looking up.

“Maddie is your sister?” Danny asked for clarification. Alicia nodded as she knocked on the door.

In the background, she could hear Jack screaming about someone at the door as Maddie opened it with a wide smile. Alicia smiled back as they hugged.

“Alicia, I’m so glad that you could come and visit!” Her sister exclaimed. She pulled back and only then noticed the eight-year-old next to her. “Oh my, who is this?” Maddie asked, confused. Alicia couldn’t physically bear children and she’d also been very vocal about never getting one.

“A hitchhiker looking for a place to rest.”

That night, Danny decided that he’d at least gotten far enough away in some random Midwest town that the League of Assassins weren’t going to easily put together that he survived the attack.

They would conclude that he was dead.

And so, just like that, he let Danyal al Ghul die that day, and the Fentons managed to pass everything they needed—with a few small bribes and threats--for Danny to be adopted.

Their research was interesting enough at first, but they didn’t quite have the evidence that needed to prove the existence of ghosts. Although the fact that ectoplasm looked very much like the Lazarus water was concerning, Danny took the opportunity to study the substance whenever they weren’t down in the laboratory.

In small pieces, he managed to learn quite a bit and realized it would be best if the League never found out that there was research into something so similar to the Pits, albeit with some differences.

Danny made a vow. He would make it his mission to keep the Fentons safe; if they were going to care for him, then it was the least he could do in return, should the League ever turn their sights on them.

Chapter Text

Runaway Assassin

Chapter One

The Training of One Daniel Fenton

Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.

~Edgar Allen Poe

It was three years later that Danny felt that he was getting way too out of practice with his skills. He was a trained assassin, but he was letting it all go to waste.

As much as he wanted to let it go, he knew that there would be a day when they would come. It was only a matter of time as the Fentons continued their research.

He’d made a friend in one Tucker Foley so his social skills wouldn’t be so noticeably lacking. Tucker was trying to help him integrate, but he simply couldn’t understand why Danny acted the way he did. And Danny had no plans of telling his friend anything.

He had tried talking to Jazz about some of the smaller things in his past. Like how they were overall treated, the overwhelming expectations and the intolerance for mistakes. He never opened up about his brother, but even when he wanted to or was starting to consider doing it, Jazz just often times asked the wrong questions. It threw him off and reminded him that she would probably never truly understand. In fact, he knew she hadn’t believed the many things he’d let slip by when he was sleepy.

Even when he outright tried to confirm something, she just dismissed it as a way of hiding his trauma.

So, there were things he never told his new family. He never let anyone know of the knives he refused to let go of, some hidden in his bedroom and others that he carried on himself. And he quietly kept up a light morning training, even if realistically Danny knew that if he were attacked by anyone from the League in his current state that he would lose.

That he would die.

Which was why he decided to make a list of things to work on going off what he could remember. He knew he had to do something. At least give himself a fighting chance. He looked at the wooden chest he’d stolen one day when he had been looking for a box to store his sword.

He didn’t want to pick it back up, ever, but maybe he should. He pulled out the chest only to glare at it, then shoved it back under his bed.

He could just get a new one, right? And so, ignoring how much it felt like a cowardly move, he went looking into blacksmiths in the area.

It took him nearly three weeks to find one that would work for what he wanted to do. He managed to get the funds by funneling money from the people who were acting as his parents.

They asked if he wanted to call them mom and dad. He hadn’t wanted to at first, but it would help seal his cover even more.

So, he did.

He missed his mother. He missed her calming attitude and the way she walked with confidence. She was everything that he wanted to be as a person.

But he wanted the morals of his father. The Batman.

The man whose mercy was seen as a weakness by grandfather, but Mother had seen it as strength of character.

How easy was it to kill your enemies compared to showing them mercy?

Danny had always wondered if it was a mercy, though, or if Batman sometimes wanted to extend their inner turmoil, a tortured existence which death would allow them to escape.

The sword wasn’t balanced. It wasn’t sharp either, and Danny was disappointed in the quality, but it would do for the basic stretches and moves he wanted to focus on, so he worked on that, dutifully keeping to his own daily training and soon enough he had become a teenager. Little changed in the meantime, except perhaps a new addition.

He had made a new friend, a girl named Sam Manson.

She was a rich kid who hid such fact from everyone. Although he could respect her need for privacy, Danny needed to vet anyone he planned on letting get close, so he’d uncovered that secret of hers on his background check. He had no intention of revealing that particular information to anyone else though, since he knew the importance of certain family secrets.

Neither of his friends knew of his heritage and he planned on keeping it that way. If she didn’t want people to know about her family, then he could even help with that.

Danny was mindlessly messing around with the sword when he noticed there had been a ping on his computer.

Lately, he’d been very carefully looking into his father. After getting some concerning news about his possible death some time ago, he wanted to make sure the man was okay at all times, so he’d gotten in the habit of reading most, if not all, relevant news about the caped vigilante and his brood, always carefully so as not to be traced back by either the big Bat or the League. The latest news article came with a shocking revelation.

There was a new Robin soaring in the Gotham skies, and despite the pixelated image, Danny would recognize his brother anywhere.

His brother was doing what Danny had been trained for.

Danny wasn’t sure how to feel about it, his emotions were all over the place. Idly, he wondered if Damian had to attend clandestine monthly check-ins with the League or if Batman knew about his son’s double-agent status and still took him anyway. If their father welcomed him in, despite it all, because Damian was his son and the man actually cared about him.

Or if perhaps it was a different situation altogether, where maybe his brother had escaped and ran to the Bat himself.

Either way, Danny wondered if Damian would tell their father of his dead twin who had been in Blüdhaven when it was destroyed.

The area had only just recently been deemed safe to enter. They were slowly rebuilding the city. Bit by bit, but it would always hold the scars of the millions dead at the hand of the Crime Syndicate.

He wondered if by now they had found the bodies of the Assassins and realized that he was not among them, or if most of them were so mangled, so destroyed that no one could even tell if he was there at all.

Danny sighed as he resumed going through the movements he had practiced for years in another life. When he was younger, he would brag about breezing through the basic training with his eyes closed. Now, sword heavy in his hands, he couldn’t even tell if he was being successful in executing the correct posture.

Time passed, he turned fourteen and saw the devastation on Maddie’s and Jack’s faces when their portal didn’t work. Danny couldn’t let go, he pondered about it all day and even brought it up when talking with Sam and Tucker. His friends had shown interest in the machine and pleaded to go see it, and although a bit reluctantly, he agreed.

He didn’t think anything could go wrong. After all, it hadn’t even worked in the first place.

It should have been fine.

It had hurt.

So. So. So. Much.

Green. Hurt.

Lightning. Hurt.

He wanted his brother.

He wanted his mother.

He wanted his father.

He wished that he had been born into a family that cared more about him than their agendas. That he hadn’t been the one to kill so many people.

He was just a child, and now he may never know if Batman would forgive him as he seemingly forgave Damian for the same crimes.

Would he be happy that they were twins or upset that there were two children instead of just one?

Danny screamed, feeling slime covering his body, and it hurt. Hurt. Hurt. Hurt.

He fell out of the portal, focusing on his breathing. He’d practiced breathing exercises, but he wasn’t sure that they would be enough now. He opened his eyes, and everything had a green tint to them. It was eerily familiar and he gasped at the sight.

It was awfully reminiscent of his past life, just like the cave that held the Pits. Memories slammed into him as he watched his grandfather rise from the brink of death over and over again.

A man pretending to be immortal.

He looked down at what was once a black glove. It was now silver and glowing softly. He looked up at the horrified faces of his friends.

He felt so confused.

Danny didn’t have the metagene. He knew that for certain. His mother had done all the tests to ensure that neither he nor Damian would be at risk of being used for having something like that.

Ra’s al Ghul also didn’t want the metagene to poison his bloodline.

He looked in the mirror and nearly let out a freaked out scream at his now white hair and glowing green eyes.

“Danny?” Sam’s voice was soft but it echoed in the quiet lab, and his head snapped back at her, at the reminder that he wasn’t alone before he found himself falling face first.

A quick glance down showed him that his legs were through the floor, and he was slowly sinking further down, feeling completely out of his element. So, although his stomach turned at the situation, he focused on taking deep breaths again.

He couldn’t panic. He had powers now, and he knew how important it was to take a moment and calm down to get everything under control.

He would figure it out. Just like everything else he’d had to deal with in the past.

It didn’t take long for ghosts to start slipping out of the portal, and Danny kinda wanted to know why they were coming through. Most of them tended to be more animal-like than anything, and he didn’t think much of it. They were easy to beat and outsmart.

As such he didn’t need to use most of his training, and surprisingly it did help him be a better ghost hunter. He just went completely nuts and attacked whoever crossed over. Not having to abide by specific moves during the confrontations was freeing in a way he never knew he’d needed before. It gave him a way to burn out all the reckless energy and complicated feelings he had inside without the risk of revealing how much of an expert he really was. Despite the initial annoyance, Danny quickly realized this was kinda fun and through each new encounter he slowly began to figure out more about the whole ghost situation.

One day a subtle shift happened, where ghosts that were more intelligent and some even human-like started coming through and Danny had to adapt once again to a different kind of fight. He wasn’t adequately prepared for three-sixty degree fighting at all. That was an area that he’d been supposed to be taught by Batman, since his father was better at direct confrontation with superpowered beings than any member of the League, who were primarily focused on stealth and covert operations.

Well, now Danny had to learn on the fly instead, which meant he let himself go completely feral with his punching and kicking ‘cause he had no one to impress here.

No one to tell him he was doing things wrong and punish him.

And he didn’t have to hold back either when fighting. The ghosts could take all his hits. Including the normally lethal ones.

With time, he learned new tricks and maneuvers perfectly tailored for ghost-fighting. Eventually, he managed to slip some of his former training into his fights, without it being clear that he used to be an assassin.

Then Vlad arrived. He’d gotten so used to fighting ghosts with predictable moves and patterns that he hadn’t expected to come across someone who could put up a tough fight, especially not another hybrid like himself. Someone who showed cunning and held power over him in a way that Danny wasn’t used to anymore. Someone who was just as dangerous as the people who raised him before the Fentons took him in.

In a way it was comforting to know he wasn’t alone in his unique existence anymore, but he could not give Vlad what the man wanted. Danny would never renounce the people that had welcomed him into their home and family, not unless they turned their backs on him first. And even if they did, he already had a backup plan to go to Batman should things go awry. Although it pained him to even consider it, he’d set up contingency plans for all the worst scenarios, including if his new family ever betrayed him, tried to turn him over or personally kill him after finding out about Phantom.

Still, Danny didn’t want life with the Fentons to end. He loved what he had here far too much to ever willingly let it go, and he would never consider betraying his family no matter how many secrets existed between them. And even though he’d taken up the mantle of protector of the city, Amity Park was a safe and normal place, had been for years, but most importantly it had been a place where he could get as far away from death as possible, other than the recent ghosts of the dead.

After a few interactions, it became clear to him that Vlad thought Danny was the Fentons’ biological child. Of course, he wasn’t inclined to correct the man if he didn’t have to. Furthermore, it became clear that Vlad wasn’t as calculating as Danny had feared when he’d first met him. The man was deeply flawed with a bad temper, and both his entitlement and belief that he was always right would be his main downfall one day, which Danny had a feeling would be happening sooner rather than later.

However, the misunderstanding left him pondering for a bit. It certainly was beneficial and meant another layer to his cover if people thought that he’d actually been born a Fenton. Mother had always said that people had a tendency to see only what they wanted to, but it still surprised him that the townspeople didn’t remember he’d been brought into the family later on. Most Amity Parkers tended to keep to themselves though, which was part of what he loved about this town.

Vlad, on the other hand, was constantly putting his nose where it didn’t belong, and it was getting on Danny’s nerves. He would need to deal with it eventually, but for now, as long as Vlad stayed away from any Justice League or League of Assassins business, Danny was content simply focusing on playing hero.

Some days, he wondered if Batman would be proud of him. He was trying so hard, shouldering the weight of the town’s safety by himself, but sometimes he let his inner child play a little here and there.

Sometimes that led to him annoying Vlad more than he probably should, but the man had started it with trying to take over the Ghost Zone like an insane fruitloop!

Which led to Danny accidentally ending up as some sort of Ghost Zone Savior and now there was some kind of ghost cult that was worshipping him for freeing them all from Pariah’s reign.

He wasn’t sure how to feel about that. It felt too much like what his grandfather had wanted him to be.

Vlad kept reappearing nearly constantly now in his desperation to get Maddie to love him. Honestly, it was a little sad and Danny was officially grossed out. Mother was just as crazy about Batman as well, and Danny knew now that how she acted around his father wasn’t okay in the slightest. He hoped that Batman wasn’t taking his resentments out on Damian.

He wished that he could figure out a way to get ahold of his brother without risking his cover. Without risking his life.

Those Assassins were likely still watching his twin closely to make sure that nothing serious happened to him during his mission.

Unless Damian had gotten away from the League. Danny really hoped that was the case, but he couldn’t risk himself on the off chance that Damian had given it all up to live a normal life with their father.

To live the life that Danny had wanted. All those years ago, he’d wanted so badly to go with Batman, but he didn’t want to report to mother and grandfather about his father’s plans, passing sensitive information back to them. He had just wanted to be with him and work by his side.

Maybe even be the next Robin. He wondered what had happened to the one before. The one that had taken Jason’s place.

He wondered if Damian worked together with him. Danny wondered if he was now part of Damian’s training. If the last Robin had helped him learn how to be the best Robin.

He hoped so. Still, he wished that they could’ve done so together. Two Robins in Gotham trading off and causing chaos in their wake. Of course, it was simple wishful thinking and now, Danny didn’t need Robin; he had carved his own name here in Amity Park.

Vlad became mayor because of a prank war gone so very wrong. Honestly, Danny was ready to bring his old sword out of retirement and just show Vlad what he was really capable of. Then one day, he saw a chance and took it without a second thought. The fight was a nice change in their usual encounters and Vlad had held up well considering the man had no idea how to wield a sword, simply relying on his enhanced strength to fend off Danny’s blows.

Although Vlad was much stronger, Danny had actual training. He knew how to disarm an opponent that was bigger, taller and faster than him. He’d always been good at dealing with powerful enemies.

It was the reason he’d been sent out to work with the Bat instead of his brother. Damian would remain in Nanda Parbat to continue his studies with Grandfather to take over the League while Danyal would be used to take over the mantle of Batman.

Despite the win, Danny felt disappointed in himself that Vlad had lasted so long in their sword fight. So, he doubled down on his training, but without anyone properly knowledgeable to train or spar with, he was left with just honing his skills by himself again.

Still, his training became more rigorous and with added areas to explore. He went back to using his throwing knives and other weapons, and took a more analytical stance during his fights, focused on cleaning up some of the messier moves he’d created while fighting ghosts. Danny wanted to be faster and more efficient when facing his opponents because he needed to be prepared just in case the League came looking. Whether they’d come searching for him or simply digging for information about what was going on in Amity Park, didn’t matter. They would come eventually, and he had to be prepared.

The added practice definitely helped, and he could see the results when instead of exhausting his energy to keep up in fights, Danny could deal with his opponents on equal standing, despite the fact that the ghosts escaping were increasingly more powerful than before. It was a testament to how much his skills and strength were growing every day, and although he was happy for the chance to confirm his efforts, he was certain that the escape of the stronger ghosts was Vlad’s fault.

He would beat the man eventually. He just needed to figure out how to deal with his lack of suitable training first. It was better to have all the advantages possible when dealing with an opponent like Vlad.

There was no point in asking Maddie about self-defense; he could easily wipe the floor with her.

He’d gone to a dojo a great distance away once, to try and establish what his current level was; he had easily done just that to their best fighter and the sensei too.

In the meantime, he still had to deal with Vlad tracking his family and stalking him. He’d found so many bugs in his house and especially in his bedroom. The man‘s schemes were getting under his skin and one of these days, Danny was going to blow his top, then Vlad would regret ever thinking he could do as he pleased. The man was already on very thin ice as it was, and Danny had been very patient so far.

Chapter Text

Runaway Assassin

Chapter Two

Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is the ability to take an honest look at your life without any attachment to it being right or good or bad.

~Debbie Ford

Danny crossed his arms and glared as Masters once again spoke about what his plans to better Amity Park were.

Sometimes Danny wished he could just kick his ass full stop. He wished he hadn’t allowed so much of his training to lapse. That he could fight the way he remembered being able to; the deadly precision that he had as a child assassin.

A child soldier.

He was still afraid of anyone recognizing the fighting style though. Especially after he’d spotted Justice League members checking in every few days, helping the ghost hunters when there was an increase of ghost activity. Mostly they helped with clean up than the actual fighting.

Danny knew that they studied the League of Assassins.

He also knew that some of their members had been trained by the League before the hero organization was founded. So, he needed to be extra careful around them.

Danny slipped behind his friends, concealing himself further as he studied Vlad’s posture.

He seemed cockier than normal, with a certain smugness to his movements. It meant that he was planning something, probably something big and putting it into action, and Danny needed to know what before he decided to show himself.

“Now, I’ve contacted a group who believes that they can get us some basic self-defense…”

Danny zoned out of what Vlad said next as he spotted the woman walking up to the podium.

He’d know her anywhere. She often lived in his nightmares as someone taller than life and scarier than anything else in the world.

“My name is Miranda Tate,” she introduced herself and Danny drew on himself, making sure to stay behind his friends to avoid drawing her attention. He changed plans when Vlad smirked at him, deciding to turn invisible instead despite the public place. No one paid attention to him anyway, so there was no risk and he had more pressing matters at hand. She was still talking, her voice loud and clear, just like he remembered it. “I own an organization that specializes in self-defense.”

Her split-second glance back at Vlad meant that Talia had clearly seen Masters do something, but hadn’t noticed Danny yet.

Small mercies.

He wasn’t going to test his luck, so he took off for Fentonworks, heart racing in his chest. No way he was going back with her. He’d burn it all down before willingly going back. He had prepared for this very situation, but deep down, he still hoped that he would not have to use them, so for now Danny was going to see what he could manage before he needed to enact The Plan, the one he wasn’t certain about.

Danny slipped into his room. The house was empty as he reached under his bed and pulled out the chest he had stolen so long ago.

He opened it and had to cough at all the dust that floated up the air.

There sat his sword, wrapped in the League garb he’d worn when he had escaped. Same one he had on when he’d shown up here with Aunt Alicia and her beat up truck, with a chip on his shoulder and a fear of what may lie beyond for him. He remembered it like yesterday.

He wished he could’ve brought his brother, but Damian…Damian loved the League and the fighting.

Danyal did not. He had wanted to explore the world and go places. In the isolated place he’d grown up in, he reached for the stars, learning all he could about them.

It was the only thing Ra’s had allowed him to learn that was wholly his own. Danny had argued that knowing about the stars would be helpful in guiding him home. That it’d be helpful on missions if something went wrong, and they were stranded alone.

That the sky would be excellent to let him figure out their location.

Ra’s hadn’t liked it at first, not at all, and kept demanding he stop, until Danny proved its usefulness one night.

Then his grandfather had promised that he would allow him to continue his study of the stars instead of forcing the matter.

The following night, he was tasked with doing a long-term mission.

The mission would involve his biological father in Gotham. He was to infiltrate his house and report back to the League every month with a report on what the Bat was doing and his plans. He was to gather information from him about the rest of the Justice League and anything else of importance.

Ra’s hadn’t wanted the Bat to know about Damian yet. Said his brother wasn’t ready for such a mission.

Back then, Danny hadn’t liked his mission, and he still felt gross thinking about it now.

Focusing back on the present, he grabbed the sword, unraveling the cloth around it so he could inspect its state. It was one of the finer swords he’d ever seen, and the weight was still perfectly tailored to him. He frowned mid-inspection, noticing there was some rust starting at the edge of the blade.

He’d need to sharpen and oil the metal before he could use it. Taking a step back, he flipped the blade in a familiar movement.

Even though it wasn‘t too long ago that he’d fought with a sword, that last time being when Vlad started messing with timelines while trying to use the Infinimap to rule the world, he knew his skills were rusty. That he wasn’t as good as he once was.

Regret filled his chest as he remembered that fight. He should have stabbed Vlad long before he even managed to get back to that portal. Vlad had no training, but he had a lot of force and power. He’d clearly only really used a sword to play-pretend, and Danny should’ve had no problem beating him in that fight.

He narrowed his eyes as he looked at the too small uniform.

He was going to need to take a page out of the Dark Knight’s playbook of having multiple identities.

Ra’s had informed him Bruce Wayne and Batman were the same, but that he also had several other identities that he used for a multitude of purposes. Ra’s had wanted a full list of them in the first month.

Danny glared at the dark blue fabric. Looks like Danyal al Ghul was making a bit of a comeback.

He glanced at his bedside table, where he had a framed family picture on display. It was one from his first year with the Fentons, which seemed like a lifetime ago. He stared at the faces of his new family, the one he’d found after disappearing when Blüdhaven had gone up in smoke and everything in his life got derailed.

He’d been late getting on one of the trains to town and he should have been in the city when it was attacked by Chemo.

Danny had seen an opportunity and grabbed it with both hands; he took off without hesitation.

He ran, and kept running until he came across crazed scientists who hadn’t even batted an eye at him moving in. Maddie’s sister had brought him here after finding him hiding in her truck. He hadn’t been sure about staying until he had learned more about what they were actually doing in their basement. Then he stayed because he was worried.

Jazz had studied him closely from the start and he just let her. With time, she became interested in psychology since he refused to tell her anything about his background. At least anything she deemed believable.

He never fully confided in her, and he planned on never telling her about his life story. She could know about Phantom without knowing about the assassin part of things. Even if he kept secrets from them, the Fentons were his family and Amity Park was his home; he would do everything in his power to keep them safe.

Suddenly, a cold breath escaped his lips, and Danny snapped his gaze to the window.

Looks like his trip down memory lane was done for the moment. He shoved the blade back under his bed and let the rings of transformation pass through him before heading out in the direction his ghost sense pointed to.

His feet soundlessly touched the ground as he looked around at his surroundings. He knew this was the right spot, so for now he simply waited instead of launching forward.

Despite his instincts telling him to strike first, Phantom kept his stance relaxed and unguarded. He wanted people to underestimate him. It’s what kept him alive for so long, especially against his more difficult opponents.

He twisted his body as Plasmius fired at him from behind.

“Oh Daniel, didn’t you want to stay? Miss Tate was so interested in your parents’ work,” Plasmius taunted, and Phantom was done with the foolish man’s antics. Invite the League, inviting his mother to Amity Park was going too far even for the fruitloop.

He glared at the other halfa, his eyes lighting up with toxic green as his temper flared.

“Get her out of Amity, or you’ll regret it,” Phantom promised before vanishing into the ground, not wanting to be in the other ghost’s presence for a second more.

Plasmius wasn’t worth the fight. Not when a more dangerous opponent had come to town.

His mind wandered back to his father as he flew back home, invisibility cloaking him from any onlookers passing by. Phantom had never been squeamish about the thought of inflicting death or dying himself. He had killed before, many times and without remorse. He’d also been prepared to die for the League’s cause when he was younger and tightly under Ra’s clutches. The blade under his bed had taken countless lives during his time as an assassin, even more than Damian did during the same timeframe.

It was a line he wasn’t afraid of crossing. And even though it was unlikely that he’d ever see his brother again, much less ever meet his father...

He might not feel guilty about it, but he didn’t want to upset the people he cared about either. So, for now, his hands would remain clean of new blood.

Danny landed back in his room, already having de-transformed. He grabbed the case with the remnants of his past and headed to Sam’s place.

For this next part, he would need specific supplies and she was the most likely to have the connections necessary to get them.

“You have a lovely home,” Talia commented as she walked further into the entrance hallway. Her eyes skimmed over the house’s interior, but her mind wandered back to how she’d found herself in this situation.

Although she’d mobilized many of her agents and assets to come to this town, officially the League only needed information about the beings spotted in Amity Park. The stories that leaked through from this place had caught their attention due to how absurd they seemed, but upon further inspection Talia was intrigued about how things here appeared connected to Lazarus water. She wanted to use such knowledge to her advantage, so she had decided to come here personally.

Additionally, she wanted to scout the residents to hopefully find some new blood.

“Thank you,” Maddie Fenton flashed her a smile over her shoulder as she led them into the kitchen. When the other woman’s back was turned to her, Talia swept a critical gaze over the scientist, appraising her as a potential ally.

After all, Ra’s had Dr. Langstrom in the palm of his hand; Talia needed an edge over him, which was why she’d gone to great length to hide her little detour to Amity Park from her father.

So far, the town had shown some promise. They were a tight-knit community, that had probably grown tighter as its residents stood together against those things they foolishly believed were ghosts.

Talia didn’t agree with that assessment. Unlike the Amity Parkers, she wasn’t one for superstitions, so she didn’t believe that’s what they really were, but given everything she’d heard and investigated, she could affirm they were something else. Something worth getting ahold of.

“Our lab is just down here,” Maddie said conversationally as she led the way. “Thank you so much for the training offer. I’ve been trying to get Danny interested in martial arts, but he just…he doesn’t seem at all motivated. He hates gym and…I’m so worried because he’s so scared of the ghosts. I hope he learns something that can help him.”

Talia only hummed in response. She had heard the same thing from Mr. Masters—who was definitely a metahuman. She would have to figure out exactly what his powers were so she could map out his weaknesses as a contingency. But so far, every conversation she’d held with the man ended up with him talking at length about his godson, and although one might think it was out of affection, Talia was certain those were concealed insults about Daniel.

Honestly, she was amazed that the godson hadn’t yet died of a heart attack based on all the stories she’d been told about him. Although, coupled with what Maddie Fenton had let slip about her son, something tickled at the back of her brain, something that she couldn’t yet put her finger on but didn’t seem quite right about how everyone was putting the boy down. Still, if he was as gullible and naïve as he was made to be, then he sounded like someone she might be able to manipulate. Someone she could use for her own goals.

“This is amazing,” Talia said as she stepped down, looking around the basement. The countless machines and odd-looking equipment were honestly impressive, more so if they truly worked as promised. She froze midway through her exploration after spotting a picture of the family on the desk. There stood the Fenton scientists hands on the shoulders of a red-haired teenage girl and… a boy that she assumed was Daniel… one that looked so much like her Danyal.

The unexpected sight of someone so similar to her son blindsided her, and unwanted emotions slipped through from where she was used to keeping them locked up. Regret and what-ifs were not sentiments they tolerated at the League and yet it was all she could feel when it came to her Danyal.

She wished that they had held off just a little bit longer before trying to send him to Bruce.

She wished that Ra’s hadn’t pushed for the mission, even if objectively, it had been an opportune time, since the Bat had taken in another boy to be Robin, and there had also been a new player in town causing troubles for him.

It would have been the perfect chance to give Danyal free rein of the house during the night so he could learn more about Bruce’s operations.

But then, on their way through Blüdhaven, her son was lost instead.

“Is this Daniel?”

“He prefers to be called Danny,” Maddie answered as she came over to look lovingly at the picture. “He’s such a good boy.”

“He looks like my son, Damian,” Talia said, and the woman offered her another smile.

“Are you two close?” she asked, and the assassin shook her head.

“He lives with his father now,” her voice was even as she put the picture back on the desk, exactly where it’d been in the first place. She turned to look at the scientist beside her. “What about yours?”

“We used to be,” a gloved hand came to rest above her chest over the teal jumpsuit as she sighed. “Then, he turned fourteen and he started to become so distant.” Talia nodded in sympathy. She knew exactly how the woman felt, even though the reason Damian wasn’t close to her anymore was mostly a result of her own actions.

Sometimes she wondered what would’ve happened if she’d taken them both to Bruce after they were born. Danyal would likely still be alive. The thought brought both comfort and regret every time, so she didn’t let herself dwell too long on it.

The odd moment of solidarity between them was broken when Jack Fenton burst into the room, bright orange jumpsuit and loud obnoxious voice crowding the place. After barely sparing time for a quick greeting, the man started on a long rant about all the ghost attacks and how their inventions were meant to be used on them.

Talia’s gaze hardened as she looked at him with critical eyes. The man wasn’t quite what she’d expected from the town’s scientists, but at least she could still find use in him considering how much information he was freely handing out to her. Looked like this visit was worth her time after all.

After slipping into Sam’s room, Danny dropped his invisibility with a sigh, the place looking as messy as always. He stepped forward, eyes sweeping every surface as he tried to find something he could swipe for a bit.

 “Danny, what are you doing?” A voice suddenly came from the bedroom door and Danny turned. Sam had her hands resting on her hips, and she quirked up an eyebrow when their eyes met. He looked away first, mulling over how he wanted to go about this. He didn’t want to tell her the whole plan, but he also knew she wouldn’t stand for no information at all and given that he didn’t have the connections to pull it off by himself, it would be better to concede a little this time.

“I…I need something dark to wear,” Danny started. “There’s something…going on...” His voice died out and Sam crossed her arms as she waited for him to talk again. He sighed, knowing there was no avoiding this. “You can’t tell anyone we had this conversation.”

“Danny, I already know about Phantom. Whatever else you have to tell me is…” she trailed off as Danny spread out a suit of armor that looked impressively realistic. The fabric hung before him, clearly more than a couple sizes too small for his frame. “What is this?”

“I need something similar, but that would fit me now,” Danny said, not really answering her. “I can’t tell you more than that right now…maybe some other time.”

“Really?” Sam’s voice was dripping with skepticism. Ever since becoming Phantom, Danny hadn’t been one to hide secrets from his friends, they shared almost everything. Except for his past. He tried not to let his guilt eat at him too much.

“For all intents and purposes, Miss Tate isn’t a good person,” Danny informed her, once again looking away. “And there are things that I need her not to know. At least not yet.”

“She’s only here to teach us self-defense. I mean, Vlad’s probably got another angle, but-”

“I know that! It’s just, I don’t think he’s holding as many of the cards in this as he thinks…I just need…Look. I need something with this type of armor that would fit me now,” Danny said, hoping she would make it easy for him and just stop questioning things. “And maybe a mask.”

“You already have a hero identity,” Sam pointed out, and Danny groaned, muttering under his breath. “Don’t use ghost speak.”

It wasn’t, but he wasn’t going to correct her. No point in annoying her more.

“This…isn’t going to be a hero identity,” Danny said carefully, and shuffled his feet when Sam narrowed her eyes. “It’s…complicated. Can you do it?”

“Yeah, give me a few hours,” Sam sighed as she stepped closer. She took the fabric in her hands, looking over all the details, then stretching it here and there. “This is some strong stuff.”

“I know,” Danny said. Now that he was certain she would help, he needed to get to other things, but not without warning her first. “Be careful, and if you feel like you’re being followed, let me know. I’ll deal with it.”

“I can handle myself,” Sam huffed, now fully glaring at him. Danny was unaffected by the display; this was more serious than she could comprehend.

“Against ghosts, yes,” he replied deadpan before vanishing. Sam blinked at the dramatic disappearance, turning her gaze back to the outfit he’d left behind. Her fingers traced over the cloth, head pondering at the small size of it.

She paused at certain parts that had a different texture, something that reminded her of Danny’s post-battle bloodied clothes after they’d dried, but the fabric was dark enough that she couldn’t tell for certain even directly under the light. She looked back to where her friend had been and wondered what he was getting into.

After a short flight, Danny walked into his house, but something didn’t feel right. Immediately, he was on high alert, feeling on edge and ready for a fight. He looked around in a rush, finally locating his mom and dad sitting in the kitchen.

The relief was short-lived, however, since Talia was there as well.

“Oh, look, your son is home,” she said in an amused tone, and his dad stopped mid-sentence.

“Dannyboy!” Jack hollered as he walked over to pull Danny to his side. The boy struggled, not appreciating the suffocating hug that was restricting his vision. “This is Miss Tate. She agreed to start with your classes asap!”

Danny pulled away, rubbing at his left arm before glancing at Talia. She tilted her head, the smallest gesture, but otherwise did nothing to indicate she knew who he was.

Small mercies. He wondered when those would wear off.

“Yes, Mr. Masters was worried about you, given your deep fear of the ghosts that appear around town to attack people,” she said. Danny was going to have to play this to the best of his abilities.

“Yeah, that...” he mumbled weakly without meeting her gaze, trying to avoid thinking about all the times the woman in front of him had held swords at his throat because he had messed something up.

Maybe Jazz was actually onto something when she went on about how him never wanting to talk about his past was going to lead to repressed emotions that could bubble up without warning.

“Well, tomorrow will be the first class in the Casper High Gym. I’m sure that Mr. Masters and your parents would prefer you to be there,” Talia said as she stood up. “I should get going. I have plenty of things to plan for the classes, since it seems I’ll be having far more students than I originally thought.”

“Of course, Miss Tate, have a good night,” Maddie replied in a cheerful voice as she walked ahead to open the door. Still in the hallway, Danny felt frozen to the ground as he watched Talia’s posture that gave away nothing.

He wondered if she had caught the lie yet, or maybe she was just rusty in catching teenagers red-handed, like he was rusty at lying to her.

Maybe enough time had passed that they’ve both changed.

He could only hope.

Sam was arranging the new suit she’d managed to get for Danny, all of the pieces had arrived before sunset and were now being laid over her bed. She was quite impressed with the work; everything was of the best quality she could find in such short notice. She just hoped that this was what Danny was after.

As if summoned by her thoughts, Phantom soundlessly appeared right next to her. He approached the suit and looked it over without saying a word.

“Well?” Sam broke the silence when it had stretched too long, her voice showing she was slightly annoyed with his attitude. Phantom looked up at her. 

“It’s perfect.” He announced as he picked up the black and dark blue armored pieces. “Now, do not say anything to anyone about it.” Sam crossed her arms, the mask dangling from her hand. It was a simple domino that would hide most of his face.

“What do you plan on using it for?” She pressed again, but he simply grinned mischievously at her.

“You’ll see—gotta give it some time. There’re some other things I need to gather first, but,” he held out a hand towards her, “I’ll explain everything when I need to.” Sam narrowed her eyes at him before handing him the mask.

“I expect answers soon,” she said, and Phantom nodded before leaving through her wall. He probably had time to come up with some kind of lie to tell them.

And if he did have to tell them the truth, well, he’d leave that as a last resort.

“Ugh, I don’t want to be here on a Saturday,” Dash complained as he slammed his locker door. Danny discreetly checked the long sleeved under armor he had on to hide his scars. His friends thought that they had come from his fights as Phantom, but the truth was that Phantom’s wounds often didn’t scar or even hurt for too long before they healed.

That was the bonus of being basically a ball of slime as Phantom. The hits he took wouldn’t leave anything much behind.

Occasionally, he would get bruises as he tried to find a place to transform into his ghost half, but as Phantom, it was really hard to hurt him and have it show on his skin.

As he walked into the gym, he was greeted to the sight of Ms. Teslaff and Talia standing in front of the bleachers.

Most of the students were sitting there as they waited for class to start. Danny knew that sitting unless commanded by your teacher was a sign of disrespect to the League, so he found a spot to the side of the bleachers, away from most students and where he could remain standing without blocking anyone’s view.

Just in case Talia did realize his identity, Danny figured there should still be a show of respect, that way it might assuage her anger and lessen whatever punishment she’d inflict on him for running away from the League. Danny clenched his trembling hands behind his back, trying to appear unbothered, but the thought of being punished filled him with dread. He hadn’t realized how much he still feared her, since he’d buried that feeling deep within for so long, but now, he was being confronted with all the things he’d wished remained in the past.

“Alright, kids. I need all of you to stand in line!” Teslaff yelled before blowing her whistle, a loud shrill that made everyone wince.

As his classmates shuffled to their places, Danny glanced at Talia’s face, and found her smirking at the teenagers. The familiar expression sent a shiver down his spine since it was one the Al Ghuls only showed when they had their targets right where they wanted. Once again, Danny had a feeling Vlad was being played at by his mother, but the foolish man probably thought he was the one with the upper hand.

Danny snorted. That should have an interesting fallout. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head.

He’d simply play them both instead. Danny held all the cards this time, and he just needed to play them right. With what he had in mind, Talia might not catch on to it quickly, but Vlad certainly would, and the man wouldn’t be able to do anything about it without revealing some of his own hidden aspects first. Danny likely wouldn’t get out of this whole situation without blowing his cover, but maybe he’d manage to minimize the collateral damage on those he cared about.

And for the first time in a long time, Danny felt like he had an idea of how to pin his opponents against each other, while he sat on the sidelines and enjoyed the show.

“We’ll start with stretches,” Talia said as she stepped forward, and Danny was happy that she was at least willing to start slow with his class.

He once again pondered what her angle could be, but with the absence of Assassins actually treading around in Amity, the possibilities for her visit were endless. Not for the first time, he wished he had more information on what the League of Assassins was working on now, so he could prepare adequately.

Danny took in a breath and slowly followed Talia’s lead, careful not to show either too much or too little skill. He needed to play this just right in order to fool both Vlad and her. As he let his body follow the movements, his mind drifted to what was to come.

He’d need to do a little practicing of his own later in the day, before he put his plan in motion. Sam would likely easily clock him, since she helped him in the first place, but he trusted her not to say anything except maybe to Tucker.

Although they were both good at keeping his secrets, his friends would probably confront him about it later. He wasn’t too concerned, though, because he trusted them. Danny was even thinking of telling them the truth after everything blew over and his plans were successful.

Hopefully it would all come together in a spectacular show.

Or it’d all go very wrong, and he’d have to find plan B.

Which would probably involve getting ahold of the Dark Knight and asking for help.

He hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but at the same time, he sort of wished it would.

“And how was the first day?” Vlad asked as Danny rounded the corner. He was flirting with Talia, and Danny nearly gagged.

It was bad enough when he did that to his mom; now the old fruitloop was doing it to his mother too.

So gross.

“It went rather well. Mr. Fenton performed quite adequately,” she responded, and Danny confirmed from her answer that he’d achieved his goal of doing just enough to get her attention but not too much to deserve a compliment. He just needed to maintain his cover and stay on that edge for a bit longer.

“Oh, Daniel,” Vlad flashed him a too wide grin, and Danny could see the moment Talia clocked something was amiss with the man’s creepy smile, since her hand reflexively reached for her side, flexing as if she were to grab a weapon before aborting the motion.

Her reaction might prove to be helpful information later, but for now, he focused on nailing this act.

“Yes, Vladdie?” Danny asked sweetly, and he could tell that Talia had to stop herself from whipping her head around to stare at him. He smiled up at Vlad, so unlike his usual attitude that the action had the man narrowing his eyes. He was internally smirking, knowing that Vlad couldn’t say anything without giving the game away. Which Danny really didn’t want him to, since this way, Talia was going to help him get rid of Vlad, and likely without even knowing it.

“How’d you like the class?” Vlad asked, and Danny was ready to put on the best show.

“It was amazing. It is such a great idea to get us training to fight,” Danny said clapping his hands together to add a bit of spice. “You’re the best!” Danny blinked a bit too much and he could see Vlad became a touch uncomfortable.

The man remained silent as he seemed caught off guard. Danny watched from the corner of his eye as Talia studied them, not understanding exactly what their dynamic was. He refrained from letting his grin widen any more as the seconds of confusion trickled on.

“Well, I should be on my way,” she said while giving them a quick nod then walking away. Vlad watched until she was out of sight before turning to Danny, who had relaxed his face now that he didn’t need to put on a show anymore.

“What are you playing at?” Vlad hissed, glaring at him.

“Likely your kidnapping or execution,” Danny answered, blandly looking at where Talia had disappeared. “Unsure at this point. Have fun deciding if I’m fucking with you or not.” He walked away, leaving Vlad to glare at his back.

Danny knew that the groundwork had been laid—Talia should be under the impression that Danny at least liked Vlad.

So, if he messed up and she ended up realizing his true identity, she’d go after Vlad instead of anyone else, since the man seems to be the one under less…security. His parents were always armed and very much drew way too much attention for Talia to feel comfortable going after without knowing everything.

Good thing the other halfa liked to use ghosts instead of humans to do his dirty work. Danny was going to use that to his advantage. Vlad had no idea who Talia really was, and Danny was going to push that button until it exploded.

Danny slipped into the little apartment building behind his house. It was officially registered as extra storage space for FentonWorks, but he might have tweaked things a little so his parents were under the impression that they were unable to purchase it. They always complained about the fact that whoever got it wasn’t even using it, but never looked too deep into it. Therefore, that left the building free to use for his own purposes.

Danny had taken it over initially to hide some of the things he wanted to work on.

Over time he had also started using it to store Fenton weapons that could track or badly hurt him, especially the ones that he really didn’t want anyone else to get ahold of.

Some of the items were weapons he had stolen from the Guys in White when they attacked. The organization was a problem that he hadn’t foreseen at first, and while they were hilariously incompetent, he still had to be careful around them.

And then there was his pride and joy, which he’d been working on for the better part of three years now. He knew that Robin had a bike back in Gotham, and he wanted his own as well.

He knew that Jack and Maddie would likely disapprove, so he’d been slowly getting pieces together to build his own.

After Johnny and Kitty had stopped attacking people and just came over to mess with him instead, he’d felt they were friendly enough to ask Johnny for some tips on what he wanted to do; which was how now Johnny was the only person or ghost allowed back here.

His friend had looked at him, totally confused over everything he saw on display.

Then, Danny had for the first time in his life admitted that he was adopted and that no one was to know—neither ghost nor human.

He couldn’t risk it.

He hadn’t even told Johnny the full story, but his friend was still more than happy to help work on the ghost-like bike.

Danny pulled some of the extra ectoplasm out of his bags and slowly started to fill the small tank. Hopefully this filtration system wouldn’t burn it all up again now that he’d fixed that up. The clear tubes turned green, and everything slowly lit up as energy started to flow through the bike.

He smirked as the little Bat symbol, on what would be the gas tank on a normal bike, lit up as well while the ectoplasm started to flush through the system.

Finally, his bike’s engine started, and he could feel the metal softly vibrating under his hands. Danny grinned at how quiet it was. One of his top priorities had been to reduce noise, or even have none at all, since he wanted people to question whether the driver was a ghost or human.

Next, he walked closer to where he’d laid the outfit that Sam had gotten for him; although he’d added a few changes here and there to the design, he knew it would be enough since the whole thing was top quality.

He should probably take a test run real fast, though. He grabbed the outfit and put it on.

The gloves were solid and protected his entire hand, and while material didn’t have the catches on the outside for sword deflection, they would at least serve their purpose of keeping his arms safe while he was in battle. He pulled on the coat. It was longer than he would prefer, but it would still serve its purpose as a fire protectant. The Kevlar weave was light and moveable. Unlikely to stop a bullet, but that wasn’t why he needed it. He only wanted it to stop knives. Bullets would be the tipping point driving the need to use his powers.

If it got to that point, he’d simply have no other choice.

Lastly, he pulled on the mask. Although it was a simple domino mask, it didn’t hide his blue eyes, which was exactly what he wanted. He planned on messing with Talia’s head a bit.

Danny Fenton, the geek who’s afraid of ghosts.

Danny Phantom, the local hero that protects the people of Amity Park.

And now, Danny al Ghul, the ghost of a dead son protecting what he’s built here.

Danny looked at himself in the mirror, the outfit so similar to what he’d used when he was little, and he couldn’t help his mind wandering back to all those years ago.

There were times where he wished that he’d gone to Gotham instead, that he’d told Bruce everything, and he wondered how everything would be different. Although he wouldn’t have these powers, which were now such an integral part of himself, it was possible that growing up he would’ve had his brother at his side.

If he hadn’t come to Amity though, Jack Fenton likely would’ve been murdered or worse by now, considering all the things Vlad had done that Danny had prevented. His parents likely would’ve found another way to open the portal, and he shuddered just thinking about everything that could’ve happened if he wasn’t there to stop all the rogue ghosts. Danny had saved the world several times over by now, even if no one had noticed.

But while he was glad that he’d stayed, Danny had to admit he also wanted to know his real father. He wanted to know the Batman, the Dark Knight himself.

Wanted to know if he could gain the same forgiveness that Damian was given. Danny didn’t even need to be Robin; he had made his own name, one that he was very proud of, since he felt like he’d stepped out of the shadows by himself.

While he did love Jack and Maddie, they weren’t the best parents in the world. And sometimes the threats he heard from them about the ghost boy would get to him. Make him question his choices. Make him wonder what life would be like with someone that was fully supportive of him as he was, instead of this split belief about who he was.

Make him wonder once more if he’d made the right choice all those years ago about leaving and staying with the Fentons.

Chapter Text

Runaway Assassin

Chapter Three

Dual Identities

I think the dual existence thing is a regular pastime for all human beings, and for that matter anything in this universe.

~Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Danny raced across Amity Park on his bike. No one came out to see what was going on as the bike was completely silent. He grinned as he felt the air rush by.

This was almost as much fun as flying. Only difference was the feel of the bike under him and gravity holding him to earth. It was still one of the most amazing feelings in the world. He would definitely be having fun with this later.

He cut a corner and nearly hit a car as he righted himself and turned partially intangible.

It had taken so long to piece his bike together and he was not crashing this thing on his first outing, even if he needed to use his powers. Actually, he’d installed bits of the GIW’s tech to make it so he could apply some ghostly traits to his bike even if his powers were shorted, so his bike wouldn’t get any kind of damage.

As the streets went by, Danny tried to make up his mind, since he still wasn’t sure if he wanted to let his mother know that he was still alive, but he felt confident in the plans he’d set up should it happen.

Hopefully nothing too crazy would happen and he could remain the anonymous ghost in Amity Park. He really didn’t want her to know about Phantom, since that would throw way too many problems at him at once and it was a situation he wanted to avoid at all costs. This was more about protecting ghosts than anything else.

His bike made another turn and he cut in front of Vlad’s limo. He looked back with a feral grin, wondering if Vlad could tell whether the driver was a ghost or not.

If Vlad could tell if it was Danny driving the bike or not.

With a quiet laugh, he turned the bike once more, finding he didn’t really care either way. The bike was completely silent as he sped up, and Danny wondered what would be the most fitting name for his creation as he led it further into town, disappearing in the dark night without ever making a sound.

Sunday was a lazy day for Danny as he hung out with Sam and Tucker at the Nasty Burger. While his goth friend kept staring at him with suspicion, Tucker was completely oblivious to what was going on, focused on his PDA. Danny simply ignored her, waiting to see if she had heard about his test drive and if she would bring it up first.

“Hey, did you guys hear about what happened last night?” Tucker suddenly broke the silence, making both friends turn to him. Danny leaned forward, filled with anticipation, but Sam was quicker to answer.

“What happened?” She prompted while shooting a look at Danny.

“According to reports, there might be another ghost on a bike!” The geek boy said while showing them a dark and blurry picture. Danny had been right, this was about him, but he had been moving so fast that the camera hadn’t been able to get a clear image.

Good. It would give people a little sneak peek into what he was planning.

“Wow, did your ghost sense ever go off?” Sam asked and Danny shook his head.

“Nope, could be a human,” he suggested, and she frowned. He flashed a grin.

“If it was a ghost and they drove by my house, then I would know. But not everything that breaks the laws in Amity has to be ghost related, or my problem.” He pointed out and Sam violently stabbed her salad.

She reminded him of Damian at times like these, when she was angry but knew that trying to show it would only make her look bad.

“Well, whoever it is, I think we should investigate,” Tucker said as he clicked through his PDA. “They could be another ghost hunter if Danny thinks they’re human.”

Sam’s violet eyes kept staring at him and he wondered if she could see through him despite his nonchalant act. It was likely. They’d been friends for years now, and it wouldn’t be hard to jump to conclusions since he’d come to her for help in the first place.

“Yeah, maybe we should,” she grumbled, and the tension eased as they changed topics. Danny felt lighter, eating his burger and laughing as Sam gagged at Tucker’s manners when devouring his extra meaty Nasty Burger meal.

“Danny,” Sam called before he could change and fly away. Danny paused, turning to watch her approach. He'd really hoped this conversation could be postponed a bit more. “You’ve been acting really weird lately. What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” he immediately replied, but Sam crossed her arms. “Okay, something.”

“You were the one on the bike,” she said. It wasn‘t really a question, more like a statement, so Danny just nodded.

“Yeah, I…I have a vague plan that might possibly get us rid of Vlad,” he provided, and Sam’s eyebrows shot up.

“Care to let us in so we can help?”

“Maybe…but right now, the less you know the better my plan works,” Danny said, before Sam walked up to him, getting into his personal space and staring down at him.

He’d seen and done scarier things in life, but he couldn’t help the light flinch from years of not wanting to push her buttons because she was his friend.

“Look, if you know, then some of your reactions to the insanity I’m about to unleash might not be genuine enough…plus there’s other…more complex things that I’d rather neither you nor Tucker knew. If you do, then you might become the targets instead of Vlad,” Danny explained, eliciting a sigh from his friend.

“What kind of target are you trying to paint on Vlad’s back?” Danny’s responding grin was dark and menacing, which unsettled Sam as she had never seen him like that before.

“Now, the answer to that would give everything away,” he provided a half-answer before vanishing. Sam growled in frustration.

“I hate it when you do that,” she yelled, and Danny’s laughter could be heard as he flew away. At least that type of mischievous laugh was one she recognized from all the times her friend had a good plan to mess with people. Most of them decent plans, at least.

As Danny landed in his room, he realized he might have to switch gears. He needed Talia to truly believe that Vlad was someone important to Danny Fenton just in case she put things together, if she hadn’t already. So, he needed to lay it on thick and quick.

He slipped downstairs to see his mom talking to Talia again about some of their work.

Talia hadn’t been down to the basement yet, as far as he knew. They hardly let anyone down there anymore since Jazz had pointed out that the Guys in White had stolen some of their blueprints the last time they were there looking into Danny’s adoption. It was a conversation his sister had with their parents right before she left for college.

That reminded him that he really needed to come up with better lies to tell the government agency. Eventually they would get too curious about his past and try to dig into it. They now knew that he was adopted, so it was only a matter of time.

His cover story was one of the things keeping him safe, and the less people knew about it, the better. Still, given how much his parents loved to share information with Vlad, he was surprised that the man hadn’t actually put that tidbit together yet. The man could be really blind sometimes.

“Oh, Danny!” Maddie greeted him as he reached the bottom of the stairs. Talia’s gaze felt heavy as she studied him closely. He gulped.

Yep, she was definitely suspicious, but he’d still rather she learned about who he really was rather than anything related to Phantom. He didn’t want her to know that humans could get ghost powers, even when the person originally didn’t have the metagene. It would be far too risky for Assassins to know that.

Since ghosts were usually contained to Amity Park, none of his team had any idea what or how his ghostly powers could affect things outside. For example, he wasn’t sure if his rogues and him could go toe to toe with Superman and win, although that was one thing his friends liked to debate about. There just wasn’t enough information for them to access, without giving him away what they were doing and without putting a target on them.

Truthfully, Danny was afraid to learn if he could take on the Justice League or not. It wasn’t something he wanted to find out any time soon, especially not if it meant a possible Dan Phantom replay.

Whenever he thought back on all that happened to his future self, there was just so much that didn’t make sense. Given his past and connections, the outcome was certainly strange. Plus, the only sources he had about whatever happened were future Vlad and Clockwork, and he couldn’t completely trust either of them. Vlad for obvious reasons and Clockwork because the ghost never gave him straight answers, always omitting facts and talking about the ‘full picture’.

Still, regardless of what the truth was, he wasn’t taking any chances when it came to his friends and family.

One thing he did know for sure was that he would never end up in Vlad’s custody no matter what the other halfa thought. Danny had plans should anything happen to the Fentons and he was forced to leave. Danny had backup plans should anything happen to those plans. And he had a full flash drive of information about ghosts and one Vlad ‘Plasmius’ Masters. All his business accounts obtained by shady behavior, all the confessions he’d given throughout the years during their fights.

Danny had enough to take him down permanently if he stepped too far out of line.

Vlad didn’t know this, but Danny had been trained by Assassins and had also learned things about how Batman worked. He was always having contingences and backup plans should anything happen.

It was the main reason he couldn’t understand that future version of himself at all.

It felt like it was from a different universe altogether.

Danny walked into school and was met by a crowd of loud teenagers. Everyone was talking, clanging their locker doors or yelling across the hallways. Everything was louder than normal. He squinted his eyes, wincing slightly as the noise felt overwhelming. His advanced hearing felt under attack, and he focused on tuning out anything other than his immediate surroundings. He’d had a light headache since waking up and he really hoped that it would go away as the day wore on.

“Hey, Danny,” Tucker greeted as he leaned against Danny’s locker. He glared at his geek friend for blocking the way but the boy kept talking instead of moving. “Didja hear about how our gym classes are now being used as Miss Tate’s self-defense classes?”

Danny sighed ‘cause that was not what he’d wanted. He’d hoped today he’d be able to just take a day off and not have to worry about anything at all. But no, Talia was apparently going to be an everyday problem now until she finished whatever deal she had going on with Vlad or…Danny froze.

If Talia was willing to put this much effort into training a bunch of backwater town kids, then she was probably planning on recruiting Casper High students.

Of course, she wouldn’t come here just for whatever Vlad had hired her for, she was also looking for potential recruits for the League. As his mind whirled, Danny glanced around identifying the most likely targets among the students.

Dash was too loud, too large. He attracted too much attention for a good assassin.

Kwan was too soft. He wouldn’t have the stomach for the violence of the League.

Paulina was too concerned about herself to be of use to them. Star might be a decent choice, she was athletic, and followed orders well. They could likely get her trained up to be a decent choice.

Valerie was driven and already had some training. She’d make a decent choice if they got past her vendetta with Phantom. Talia could be the person to pull her out of her obsession if she played the cards right, like Vlad had done before.

Mikey and Nathan weren’t anywhere near the top of the list. They could eventually be whipped into shape, but he wasn’t sure his mother would take the time necessary to do it. They could be valuable in other ways, sure, but it was unlikely that Talia would try that though. It would most likely not be worth it to her.

Sam would be a decent choice as well since many of her beliefs could be slightly manipulated to be aligned with what Ra’s al Ghul wanted. She was also strong-minded and wouldn’t require much to be capable of keeping up with the pace of an assassin.

If it had been a couple years ago, then Tucker would’ve been in the same boat as Mikey and Nathan. But after all the ghost hunting, now he’d be a decent choice if the League wanted to invest in him. His friend was head strong and super loyal.

He kept running down a list of the students he knew, during the day, mentally checking whether or not they would meet the specs for League recruitment.

A terrifying number of them could be possibilities and Danny hated that. He had a head start, since he knew his classmates, but he wasn’t sure if he could sway Talia away from them fast enough. Talia wouldn’t have all that information right away, she’d wait and bide her time until she did though and that’s where the danger lay for him.

He was going to have to do things very carefully to not end up on Talia’s list of possible recruits.

He was not going back. He would burn it all if he had to.

If she pressed him, he’d find another way. He did not want to be an assassin again, and he would do everything in his power to avoid that at all costs.

After finishing putting his under armor, Danny rubbed his arms while glancing around. He’d quickly changed in a shaded corner, not wanting anyone to see his scars and comment about it. Especially now. Talia would ask questions, and that could lead to Maddie or Jack saying something wrong. Saying something that could lead her into thinking about him more than she already was.

Her interest in him was odd, it made him uncomfortable and on edge, and not for the first time, he wondered what exactly Vlad had told her to get her to watch him so closely.

“Yo, Fenton, let’s get a move on,” Teslaff yelled from the door and Danny straightened up. He headed into the gym, eyes glancing around frantically, taking in every detail around him. He felt hyper focused in a familiar way that he didn’t like. It’d been so long since he last had to use that type of training, it left him feeling completely alert.

As his muscles tensed up in anticipation of a fight or flight situation, Danny was shocked to learn he could feel his ghost half move under his skin in an unfamiliar way. Like it was responding to his anxiety and what he’d been trained to do. The feeling was foreign and unpleasant at first yet began to feel comforting somehow.

As he slightly expanded his senses, everything felt overwhelming, and he had to stop to lean against the wall at the sudden influx of information.

There were four Assassins in the gym hiding in the shadows.

He could feel their breathing, the blood rushing in their veins, their life-force, everything.

Danny opened his eyes. His own heart was racing, this new energy that prickled under his skin begging to be released and he wanted nothing more than to give in to it.

“Fenton, quit leaning against the wall and let’s go,” Teslaff’s yell broke him from his daze. He nodded at the teacher despite the glare they were sending his way.

He still wasn’t feeling quite right, but he’d have to keep going. Keep moving.

“Yeah, I’m coming,” Danny’s reply was weak as he finished walking up to his place in the gym. He fought back the urge to protect his ears with his hands. Everything was too much right now. He couldn’t help a wince as he sat next to Tucker and Sam, his classmates even louder now that he was closer to the crowd.

“You okay, Danny?” Tucker’s face was lined with worry and he even put a hand on his shoulder when Danny lightly swayed.

“Yeah, just a headache,” the halfa whispered while discreetly looking around. There. He could see them. The Assassins in the rafters. Hidden in the corners that the light didn’t reach.

He recognized them as Talia’s guards. Hand-picked by his mother and trained not to be noticed until it was too late to save yourself. He’d worked that very detail before.

Danny quickly averted his eyes, making sure to keep his head slightly down to ensure he hadn’t tipped them off with his glance. Phantom stirred once again under his skin, just slightly this time, but it still raised goosebumps on his skin, as the movement felt like ice being poured down his back.

It wasn’t entirely unlike his ghost sense, but now his body seemed to be alerting him to the danger above his head instead.

“Alright, students,” Talia’s voice cut through the chatter as she walked in front of them. “Pair up.”

Tucker quickly stepped up close to him, leaving Sam to glare at them before looking around for a partner.

Danny’s mind still felt frazzled, and he wasn’t sure he would be able to perfectly keep up his act during class, but he felt comforted knowing that having Tucker as his partner would help.

He still wished he didn’t have to deal with any of this today.

“Mr. Fenton, perhaps you could work with me,” Talia said as she stopped in front of them. Danny blinked, not believing his bad luck.

That wasn’t good. He gulped while sending a side-eyed plea for help to his friend, but Sam stepped up next to Tucker before his geek friend could say anything. Tuck simply sent him a light shrug and the pair soon walked off to the side.

Suddenly, it struck him. Neither of them was going to help because they thought this was a good idea. They thought getting some fight training would help them in their ghost hunting. He never told them of the real danger that Talia could pose because he couldn’t risk them. He also didn’t want them to know about his past or who she truly was.

Of course, in any other case, they wouldn’t be wrong to think the extra training was a good idea, but Danny knew better. If his mother really was after recruits, it meant she would train them on the basics for a while, then see which of his classmates were the types that, if nudged a bit, wouldn’t mind killing.

She’d see which ones would make good soldiers for Ra’s al Ghul.

Danny shook those thoughts away as he walked up to Talia. He needed to stay focused right now.

“Miss Tate,” he greeted, and Talia nodded before shifting her legs in a familiar League stance. Danny paused in front of her, and made a split-second decision to use a stance Maddie had showed him once, when she’d tried to give him lessons. Although his mom wasn’t bad at martial arts, Danny’s knowledge from the League meant it all seemed like kid play to him.

Based on Talia’s narrowed eyes, she likely wasn’t too pleased with his choice.

Honestly, he wouldn’t have picked this stance either, but he had a cover to maintain. There was no reason to mess that up just yet.

“Your form could use some work,” Talia said, and Danny had no chance to reply as his mother suddenly lunged for him.

After dodging the attack, he quickly realized his mistake, and Talia’s smirk confirmed he’d fallen for her bait.

Damnit, this is what he got for thinking he could one-up her.

“I think you’re holding back,” Talia muttered.

“Doubtful,” Teslaff said loudly, from where she stood close to them. “Boy’s been nearly failing my class since the start of the year.”

“You’re not looking close enough,” Talia dismissed the teacher’s comment, eyes never leaving his as she addressed him again despite the audience. “You know what you’re doing, but you don’t want anyone to know that.”

“Well, he’s a loser,” Wes piped up from somewhere on his left and Danny felt like banging his head against a wall.

“Fentina couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper bag,” Dash added, and the rest of the class started in on him as well.

“You’re focused on me,” Talia whispered as Teslaff tried to settle his classmates. “I can tell you’re already trained.” His mother took a step to the side and Danny slightly shifted his stance in her new direction. “Mr. Masters told me you were good already, but that you could do better with some training. I don’t think he knows about the true extent of your abilities though.”

“Why would I let him, or you for that matter, know anything more about me?” Danny replied in a low voice as he openly studied her. She was exactly as he remembered. Talia always moved like a deadly force of nature, ready to strike down anyone in her path without mercy or remorse. Something that once upon a time Danny had admired her for and aimed to achieve for himself.

Now, he’d caught her attention, and he could feel the full intensity of being her target. Although she likely didn’t know the full story yet, it wouldn’t take a lot of digging to figure him out.

“Good answer,” Talia whispered before attacking again. Danny barely had time to use his arms to deflect the blows, and every time he thought he might catch a break, his mother sped up, keeping him on edge while she barreled down on him with consecutive strikes.

Although he‘d wished to keep his stance mostly defensive, Danny was quickly losing ground as Talia cornered him with a fierce onslaught. He barely had time to think when a particularly vicious blow came his way, and he found himself relying on his instincts to avoid getting hit.

Which meant he slipped.

Talia suddenly backed off, eyes narrowed at him and that’s when he knew she’d spotted it. That had been a trained League move. One he liked enough to still use as Phantom during his airborne fights.

Danny gulped down air into his lungs, but soon allowed himself to relax. Too late to fix it now. He knew that this was going to be a problem.

“You could use some practice, but for now, take a break,” Talia told him, before turning to Teslaff. “I have more students I’d like to get a feel for.”

He watched as she walked away. It was likely that his mother would soon uncover his identity. Danny felt dread as it appeared like his plan was going to come to a head way sooner than he wanted it to. 

Although he’d hoped that the seeds he planted wouldn’t actually grow, now…now he figured that everything was blossoming into insanity. It felt like when Sam had planted mint in her garden and it quickly grew out of control. At the very least, he hoped that this plan would still work, since he didn’t want to deal with both Vlad and his mother any more than necessary.

Deep down though, he was torn between wishing things didn’t spiral too far, and wondering if he should let it go far enough to get the Bat to show up.

Danny kept telling himself that he didn’t want his father to know. But, he wondered how long he’d need to tell that lie before he actually believed it.

Once his school hours were over, he had a feeling that he’d need to follow Talia, but first Danny needed to make a quick pit stop.

Chapter Text

Runaway Assassin

Chapter Four

Kidnapping of the Mayor

The candle burns not for us, but for all those whom we failed to rescue from prison, who were shot on the way to prison, who were tortured, who were kidnapped, who ‘disappeared’. That’s what the candle is for.

~Peter Benenson

Vlad had just entered his office went he felt a blade at his throat.

“The boy you wanted me to keep an eye out for,” Talia said as she moved around him to stand face-to-face, blade still at his neck. Masters narrowed his eyes at her before realizing there were two more people behind him. He’d known the woman was never alone, but he still didn’t realize exactly who was following her. “Was there a point in asking me to mentor him?”

“Yes, Daniel needed a lesson, should I ask what it is that he’s done?” Vlad asked before he was grabbed and tied to a chair. Although it was just a normal rope, he wasn’t going to reveal his abilities to these people unless it was it turned into a life or death situation.

He doubted they were any danger to him though.

“That isn’t his real name. He first appeared here seven years ago,” Talia said as she walked around Vlad’s desk. Her sword was still out and still a threat. He wasn’t sure what would happen if she did try to kill him. “I did some digging, and I think I know who he is.”

“Wait, Daniel what?” Vlad whispered, not quite processing what she was saying. This conversation was taking a shocking turn, and he felt dread pooling in his gut. Should he stay and learn more or use his powers to escape? He wasn’t sure about what the woman was capable of, but revealing himself too soon might be a bad idea. Vlad had known something was up since Daniel started messing with him earlier, but he didn’t realize that Daniel knew who this lady really was.

Or that she might know more about the teenager than he did.

“His name isn’t Daniel,” Talia hissed. She’d circled back from his desk to his chair, and her eyes gleamed dangerously as she leaned into his face. “But he seems quite fond of you, and I’m going to use that.”

Vlad could only blink as Talia slit a thin line of flesh across his neck. He felt trapped under a predator’s claws.

She looked at something behind him and nodded. Vlad suddenly realized his phone was ringing. He hadn’t even noticed that one of her goons had taken it and set it to speaker.

“Hey, Uncle Vladdie,” Danny’s voice came from the device and Vlad felt a surge of irritation. Clearly the boy had figured something out since he was still putting on that ridiculous act. “I’m surprised you’d call.” Vlad could vaguely hear muffled sounds in the background, but nothing clear enough to figure out where Daniel was.

“Not quite,” Talia responded instead of Vald, and the younger halfa laughed.

“Now Mother,” Vlad felt his heart stop. “We both know this was always how things were going to be. I’m surprised it took you this long. I’ve been wondering how long I could play the part before you realized who I was, or if you’d even notice at all. Think you’ve lost your edge in your old age.”

“Danyal, I’m glad to know you’re not dead.” Although she felt a slight annoyance at the small jab at her age and abilities, not unlike something her sons’ father would say, Talia was still overcome with emotions from hearing her baby’s voice after so long. “I’m surprised you survived.”

“Are you?” Danny’s skepticism was clear through the phone. “I see that my twin made it to our father.” Talia barely spared a glance at Vlad before smirking.

“Ah, yes, your brother did make it. He even took over the Robin mantle,” she responded, and Vlad could tell that last part was meant to make Daniel angry.

This wasn’t good. Vlad kept silent during the exchange, but his mind was full of jumbled thoughts. He hadn’t known that Danny wasn’t Maddie’s biological son. He’d simply thought that…he should have been looking closer instead of taking things at face value. He didn’t like that he was missing so many pieces, especially about the mysterious woman in front of him.

“You were supposed to be the one wearing it next to your father. Be the one fighting alongside the Bat,” Talia continued. If he was reading things right, it seemed like Daniel was always meant to play hero, since he was the son of this woman and Batman.

Vlad did not like the implications of that information.

“Yeah, but the cost for that wasn’t one I was willing to pay.” Talia appeared slightly upset at the boy’s response, but still overall relieved. It made sense, since she had just found out that her son was alive. It also explained why her usual stoic face was showing so much emotion too.

“You could come back,” her voice was so uncharacteristically soft that Vlad did a double take. He could see how much she wanted her son back.

“No, I don’t need the League, and they don’t need me. I’m not going back.” Danny was resolute in his answer. “Besides, Amity Park…it’s my home now. I know her far better than you do, Talia.”

“Home court advantage can only take you so far,” the woman provoked but the boy only huffed.

“This conversation isn’t going to be about home court advantage, it’s going to be between every trick I’ve learned since leaving and your inability to change. Don’t forget, you’ve spent years thinking I was dead. I’ve spent those years planning what to do if you ever showed up to take me back.”  The line cut abruptly, and Talia simply stared at the phone for another moment. She felt unsure of what she’d gotten herself into and wondered at how much her boy could’ve changed. A movement to her left had her turning to see Vlad Masters looking equal parts terrified and confused.

“He did this on purpose,” Talia realized, as she stared at the man-sized bait sitting before her. Irritation filled her at being played by her son, but she focused on pointing her sword in front of her instead. “You won’t tell a soul…” Her voice trailed off as a red dot appeared on Vlad’s chest. She looked out the window but couldn’t see anyone.

Talia quickly ducked down and waited for the bullet, but there was no shot. Feeling like a fool, she rushed out of the room with her Assassins following closely behind. They needed to get out of there quickly and quietly. Whatever her son was planning, they’d clearly fallen into his trap.

“Find him,” She growled as she slipped out the front of the building. Danyal couldn’t cover everything in town, and although her son was well trained, he was likely out of practice for League standards. Talia wondered how much he’d retained from what she’d taught him…how much he’d forgotten and how she could use that to her advantage. She at least knew where to find his new family.

Although, if she even hinted at trying to do something to them, she might not get the response she wanted to. The Fentons were armed with weapons she did not have enough information about, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to start that fight right now.

Danny looked at Vlad’s tied up figure through the sniper scope. He wanted so badly to just pull the trigger but knew that he shouldn’t…he couldn’t risk it, not if he wanted to know his father.

If Batman had forgiven Damian for the murders, then he could hope the man would also forgive the blood on Danny’s hands. He hadn’t killed anyone since escaping and although Vlad more than deserved it, he still refrained from pulling the trigger. Maybe the Bat would see that fact as something good. That he was capable of being good even with his past.

Watching from afar, it was only after Vlad had slipped from the bindings that he called again. The man jumped at the sound but didn’t move to answer the call, instead leaning away from the phone as if it could bite him.

Danny rolled his eyes at the action but couldn’t sit back and watch for much longer. He knew his mother’s assassins would be looking for him, so he turned invisible and started quietly packing his things.

As long as Talia thought he was solely counting on home court advantage, then he was golden. After all, with his ghostly powers he had a far better advantage over her than just knowledge of the area.

Vlad picked up the phone when he had only the rifle left to stash away. 

“Daniel?”

“It’s Danyal, actually,” he replied. “I’m still staring down the scope, so don’t make any moves.”

“Well, I’m certainly impressed that you knew Miss Tate had lost son that looked like you. It was quite the act you put on.”

“I think you’re getting a little senile, Old Man. Mother would have killed you eventually. She still might.”

“This is a good game, Little Badger.” He could hear the uncertainty in Vlad’s voice despite the man’s words. It would only require a nudge to convince him of the truth. He adjusted his aim, breathed in slowly and pulled the trigger as he breathed out. Vald yelped and jumped away from the table. He stood to the side, staring at the bullet hole in his desk, a couple inches from where his hand was previously resting. Danny could see him shaking through the scope.

“Here’s your warning. You can keep playing your games for now, but threaten anyone else and the next bullet will hit home.” Danny snapped the phone closed without waiting for a response.

 He rushed to pack the rest away but still nearly ran into one of the assassins as he slipped out of the roof.

A single shell casing was all the evidence he left that he’d been here.

As he flew back home, he couldn’t help the smirk on his face. Talia was going to lose her mind when her assassins came back with nothing good to show.

“Reports of gunfire last night have sparked concern…”

Danny tuned out the news as he stared at his cereal. For all that he loved his parents, he really wished that the Fentons were better cooks so he didn‘t have to eat the same thing every day at breakfast. It got tasteless after the first years. Although they couldn’t indulge without permission, he missed the savory food at his old home.

He did not miss much else though. He wondered what Damian ate for breakfast, if their father fed him home cooked meals or had professional chefs cook for them instead, like in the League.

Bruce Wayne did seem like someone who would hire cooks instead of trying to cook himself, but he couldn’t know for certain. Those had never been the kinds of things he’d been allowed to know about his father. He was only ever allowed to know the details that would better serve his assignment and the League, nothing more.

Although he kept track of his father now, Danny still refrained himself from looking into those kind of details, lest he become too attached and end up using a domino he wasn’t sure he wanted.

A loud crash coming from the lab startled him away from those thoughts.

Jack’s booming voice followed soon after, with Maddie responding in an equally loud tone. He let out a sigh and looked at the ceiling. Maybe in his father’s house these kinds of things wouldn’t happen, he’d get to have a normal breakfast instead.

He tried to ignore that line of thinking, repeating to himself that he didn’t want to be with his father or his brother.

That he couldn’t. That he owed the Fentons for helping him hide, even when they had no idea what he was or what he’d done.

They never would’ve taken him in if they — Danny shook those thoughts away as Maddie walked up the stairs.

“Hey, sweetie. Would you mind helping us for a sec?”

Danny gulped, uncertain what to respond. It was always a struggle when they asked him for assistance, because while he wanted to see what they were working on, he didn’t want to put himself in the line of fire.

“What are you doing down there?” He asked, sort of afraid to know the answer.

“We’re putting together a dish that tracks ghosts even when they overshadow humans! Isn’t that a great idea?” Maddie said as she clapped her hands together in glee. Danny tried to hide his wince, already thinking of what a gadget like that could possibly do to him.

“I don’t know, I need to get to school,” He opted for the safest route, quickly picking up his backpack and setting his dish on the sink with his half-eaten breakfast. Those were calories he couldn’t really afford to pass on these days, but he didn’t want to stay in this deathtrap of a house for a moment longer.

Maddie was frowning when he turned back to her, and he couldn’t quite keep the grimace off his face fast enough before she spotted it. She took his previous seat on the table, prompting him to get closer with a hand.

“Danny, wait, sit down,” her voice was soft, almost a whisper as she searched his face. “What’s wrong?” He averted his eyes. “You can tell me, sweetie.”

He bit his lip. He’d been keeping so many secrets lately.

“I…I think I’d like to find my biological father,” Danny’s words caused his mom’s eyes to widen. “Figure out where I came from, ya know.”

“Is that what’s been bothering you?” Maddie reached over the table, but Danny quickly pulled his hands away. He didn’t want another shock from all the ghost tech in her jumpsuit. Her hand paused in the air, before she set it back on her lap. “Danny?”

“I just…I remember, and I…I’d like to find him.” He whispered, not trusting his voice right now. He knew how to find him, and it was likely that the man would come if he called.

He knew this. He was just unsure whether to go through with it.

“Danny, we don’t have any of his information. I’m sorry. I wouldn’t know where to start,” Maddie's reply had him gazing back at her. He took a deep breath before responding.

“I do,” he said. She blinked.

“What?”

“I know…I know how to find him.”

“You sound like you may have already.” Danny avoided her eyes by staring at the floor. The silence stretched on as she stared at his profile, but he didn’t move, focusing on the ground instead. Everything in the house, from the tiles of the kitchen floor to the chipped paints on his bedroom walls had always felt comforting, always felt like home. Now, as his thoughts spiraled towards his father and with his emotions all over the place, the walls felt too high and the shadows too dark, something cold and unwelcoming in them instead. “What about your mother?”

“My mother is not a good person, and my father likely doesn’t know I even exist…if he did…I think he would’ve come for me,” Danny commented, hoping that last part was true. Batman was known to care about the other heroes in his city. Bruce Wayne was known to be quite protective of his kids. Danny wanted that. The Fentons were protective, sure, and he never questioned their love for him, but…Phantom.

And that ‘but’ was the problem. The Fentons hated Phantom with almost every fiber of their being and Danny had no way to know if they would accept him. It just wasn’t good enough if they could only love half of him. He’d tried confirming it with Clockwork, but the ghost either didn’t know everything like he claimed to or he was omitting it from him for the sake of the timeline.

Danny didn’t want to take that chance.

Bruce Wayne had a meta son he’d taken in. He’d taken Damian in without too many issues, and Danny knew that there was blood on his brother’s hands. And his father wouldn’t hurt him if he found out that he’d been moonlighting as a hero because he was one as well.

Being a hero was apparently in his blood.

Maddie had been staring at him for a while, looking lost and unsure what to do.

“Do you know who your father is?” Her voice was firm as she asked the direct question, and Danny knew that she wouldn’t believe him if he tried to lie.

“Yes, I knew even before you took me in. I was afraid that my mother would track me though him,” Danny explained as he studied her face. Maddie knew about his scars and he could see the moment she understood what he was hinting at.

“Are you sure?” she asked softly. Danny glanced down at his hands.

“I’m not sure about many things…but I know…I know that he’d at least be happy to know that I was okay. That I was alive at least…and my brother would too.” His reply was sincere, but Maddie seemed only to register the last part.

“Brother?” Her eyes were once again wide, and Danny could see the concern in her face.

“Yeah…I have a twin,” he admitted, relieved at finally getting that off his chest. Maddie’s mouth dropped open. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I know I’ve never…”

“You’ve never spoken about your past. Of before Alicia found you in her truck,” She whispered, and her hands twitched as if she wanted to reach out to him. She’d always been one to give hugs for comfort. Danny could use one right now, but the new updates to her suit were still active and harmful to him. He looked away and stared at the floor instead.

He doubted that Bruce would wear anything that could even accidentally harm any of his children. It was a type of comparison he’s been frequently making. Danny suddenly wondered if this was a good idea. If meeting his father was really worth it, when the man might not live up to expectations. And if he told them who his father was, then if they ever found out about Phantom and things went sideways, he would have nowhere to go.

“I need to get to school,” Danny said as he grabbed his bag and exited the room, leaving the woman who raised him sitting at the kitchen table wondering what she should do.

Probably asking herself what she might’ve done wrong, but there was nothing Danny could do to comfort her without risking himself.

He texted Tucker, asking his friend for a favor.

And asking if him and Sam would be willing to play hooky from school today. He had some things he needed to tell them about his past.

Chapter Text

Runaway Assassin

Chapter Five

The Truth

The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.

~James A. Garfield

Danny was waiting for his friends in the park. There wasn’t anyone in the area; it was a little spot that they had found a while ago to use as a meetup spot. They’d done some training here, exchanging weapons and info during ghost attacks as well.

It was a safety spot for them.

Sam creeped up behind him, but Danny turned before she got the drop on him. She pouted at her failure, and he held in his smirk at her frowny face.

“What?” he asked, blinking innocently like he hadn’t ruined her fun just seconds ago.

“You suck.” She stuck her tongue out, making Danny laugh.

“Where’s Tuck?” he asked, and Sam pointed behind her.

“Dropped his PDA and is having a meltdown over it,” she said with an exaggerated sigh. He glanced behind her and could see his friend hugging the electronic close to his chest while on his knees. Danny rolled his eyes. He was nervous about this conversation, but at least his friends were the same.

He really hoped that this didn’t change anything.

“Why’d you want us to cut class?” Sam asked and he glanced at her.

“Miranda Tate isn’t who she says she is,” Danny whispered as he leaned against a tree. He watched in silence as Tucker pulled himself together and walked towards them. “It’s a long story.”

“Does Vlad know?”

“Oh, he has no idea who he messed with. I managed to play them against each other because unlike them, I’m the one actually holding all the cards this time,” Danny crossed his arms as he finished talking, a proud grin on his face. Sam looked unimpressed.

“Really?” she asked, but they both turned as Tucker reached them.

“The screen cracked,” Tucker said quietly, looking completely heartbroken. Danny snorted as Tucker showed them the little crack on the screen. Otherwise, it was working completely fine.

“I’ll get you another,” Sam said with an eye roll. Tucker sighed as he carefully put it back in his pocket.

“So why are we ditching school?” His friend asked him. “Is this about whatever Vlad is planning with Miss Tate?”

“Danny says that Tate isn’t who she says she is,” Sam cut in before he could speak, rolling her eyes as she repeated his words. Danny glared at her.

“Her real name is Talia al Ghul. She’s the Demon’s daughter,” he announced with a serious voice, making them turn to him in surprise.

“Is she a ghost?” Tucker asked, and Danny immediately shook his head.

“No, she…she’s human,” he replied, and looked away. This was it, no going back now. “You know…you guys know how I just kinda appeared one year?”

“Yeah, said you were homeschooled due to an illness,” Sam nodded, one hand pointing at him. He shrugged.

“That was the lie we told.” He admitted, and his friends turned quiet as they waited for him to continue. “I was…Talia is my mother.”

“I’m sorry…what?” Sam asked, a little annoyed. Danny fully turned to her.

“She’s an assassin,” he said firmly, but his goth friend only crossed her arms and raised a brow. “And so was I, along with my twin brother. We were called the Demon Twins since we were the grandchildren of the Demon's Head.”

“You’re saying you were an assassin?” Tucker asked skeptically. “And you have a twin?”

“Yes. I was eight when…when I escaped. Remember when Blüdhaven was destroyed by Chemo and the Crime Syndicate attacked the Justice League?” Danny asked suddenly, making his friends nod with confused faces. “I was there…I was nearly in the city.”

“There weren’t survivors,” Tucker said, and Danny glanced away.

“It was the perfect way to get away.” He looked back at his friends. “The bad news is Talia knows who I am…but she doesn’t know about Phantom. She will not know about Phantom,” He made a point to make eye contact before speaking again. “She’s a highly trained assassin looking for recruits here.”

“Recruits?” Sam repeated.

“That’s why she agreed to do this for Vlad. I might not know everything that is going on with the organization anymore, but I know their practices,” Danny replied, before tensing up. He quickly glanced around before whispering, “They’re here.”

“Who?” Sam barely had enough time to ask before Danny pushed her to the ground, right as a gunshot sounded. He pulled out a handgun and fired at where the bullet had come from.

His hit landed spot-on the enemy’s gun and the assassin fell from the tree, landing in a crouch. Danny pulled out a couple knives and twirled them though in his fingers in a practiced motion. The assassin studied the teen before pulling his own and aiming at Danny, who shot forward with flowy movements, avoiding all the slashes until eventually sliding the blade in his hand across the assassin’s chest. Danny twisted around and kicked the man’s feet from under him before pinning him to the ground.

“Interesting that you managed to find me, unfortunately, there’ll be no reporting back for you,” Danny hissed before hitting him hard enough to knock him out. The teenager closed his eyes, focused on making a copy of himself. He felt his powers respond and ectoplasm formed and swirled around him until Phantom was floating right next to him.

“What?”

“Since when?” Tucker asked, blinking at the Phantom copy who simply grinned before hauling the assassin up and flying away.

“Since like…last night. I was practicing and figured out how to do one,” Danny answered as he picked up the handgun and knives, hiding them back on his person. “We gotta go. Police will be here soon. Don’t want them to catch us.”

“You just shot someone,” Sam yelled throwing her hands in the air. He quirked up an eyebrow.

“Barely. He’ll be fine,” Danny responded while heading deeper into the trees, but Sam grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

“Danny, you can’t do that,” she growled.

“Are you going to turn me in?” he asked, and Sam clenched her fingers into Danny’s arm. He slightly winced at the pain but remained standing, looking her straight in the eyes as he waited for her response.

“I might,” she finally said. His heart dropped but his face remained impassive as he nodded and turned intangible to free himself.

“Then, I can’t trust you,” Danny whispered before vanishing into thin air, leaving Sam and Tucker to deal with what was coming.

Danny wasn’t sure he’d made the right decision, but he was between a rock and a hard place. He just hoped that they would keep the Phantom part a secret.

It was his only lifeline at the moment.

Talia looked down at the list of students she was interested in.

Danyal had made a move that wasn’t expected. He’d gotten away from the League in a way that was nearly flawless.

Talia could respect that if it weren’t coming back to bite her. Vlad was also now proving to be a problem. Danyal was clearly hiding something more, and she would bet that he knew what powers Vlad had.

She also didn’t plan on underestimating him again. He’d gotten away from her assassins without leaving a single trace.

But she knew where to hit him where it would hurt. He had made a life here, and if she really needed to, she could easily destroy it.

“I need you to follow the Fentons. Don’t engage, just follow. Make sure they don’t see you, but if Danyal spots you —”

“Ma’am,” one her guards interrupted, which earned them her glare for the disrespect. She pulled out her gun and aimed at his head. He did not flinch. “The assassin you sent to see what Danyal knew has not reported back. There were reports of gun fire in the park, but no body.”

Talia lowered her weapon.

“Follow the Fentons, do not engage. Do not be seen,” Talia repeated emphatically. She didn’t want to lose men unnecessarily.

She wondered if Danyal had killed the man or not.

Then, she wondered if keeping her children a secret from their father had been the right move. It seemed that all that had done was harm them far more than protect them.

“Well, this is a mess,” Vlad whispered reading over a report about gunfire in the park. He knew that Daniel…Danyal was likely behind it. He and his friends had ditched school today.

Vlad wasn’t sure if he wanted to engage the boy now. Danyal had shown that he was willing to use lethal force if necessary.

Maybe even use lethal force when he felt like it. Vlad wasn’t sure.

He wasn’t sure about a lot of things anymore. Danyal had clearly been playing him and Tate against each other in a way that Vlad hadn’t seen coming.

Tate being Danyal’s mother was definitely something he hadn’t expected. He stared at the adoption records of Daniel Fenton. He’d wanted to confirm the boy’s story but the reports he’d gotten ahold of merely said his origin was unknown.

It did mention that English wasn’t his first language. Vlad stared at the paper while stroking his chin. He had knowledge here, and he would use it to his advantage.

As soon as he figured out what that knowledge was.

Danny slipped back into the garage of the building where he was keeping his stuff. He’d made a go-bag since before he became Phantom.

From there, he’d kept it updated with new clothes that fit, bandages, and anything else he felt would be important if he suddenly had to go on the run.

Now that he had the bike, he could carry a bit more in it. He started attaching the saddlebags to the bike and planning out how he would get the hell out of Amity.

He’d already printed out directions to Gotham should he need it. He looked them over and wondered.

Would it be worth it? He was so close to just letting everything here burn.

His friends now seemed wary of him. He could’ve played it off as a joke, until that assassin attacked. Which, speaking of…

“Assassin is now floating in the GZ,” Phantom informed as he popped up in front of him. Danny smiled at the copy before reabsorbing it and let the memories filter in.

Talia clearly had no idea what was going on in Amity Park.

Which led to the question; did the Justice League know about what was happening here? Did anyone outside of Amity Park know about the ghosts and the attacks? About how bad they truly were or could be?

There was always a different Leaguer coming and looking over the damage, but they had yet to actually show up in the middle of a ghost fight. They never stayed long enough for it. They helped mostly with cleanup, and Phantom had gotten better at minimizing property damage.

They clearly knew something was up, but no one had died from the fights, therefore it likely wasn’t a priority.

Danny walked up to his computer setup. While he was very good with computers, he wasn’t nearly as good as his twin had been.

He could keep up with Tucker though. Which meant that now he had to see what he could do without practice and the bare minimum of what he was used to.

He needed to get a message to his brother at the very least. He may or may not stay in Amity now that he wasn’t sure his friends would have his back, but he knew at least one person he could count on.

And that was his brother. At least he hoped so.

“Sam?” Tucker asked as he followed her back to the school. He was nervously looking around feeling like they were being followed now. Sam turned to him with a glare.

“What?”

“Should we have left Danny?” he asked. “I know…I know that there was more that he probably wanted to tell us…” Tucker stopped himself, seeing the absolute anger on Sam’s face.

“He lied to us, for years,” she hissed out grabbing Tucker’s shirt and pulling him towards her. “He shot that guy.”

“He didn’t kill him, and that guy also had a gun and shot at him first,” He pointed out only for Sam to drop him on the ground. “Sam, what if he needs our help?”

“He can deal with it himself,” She growled before storming away, leaving Tucker on the ground. He slowly stood up and dusted himself off before pulling out his phone and calling Danny.

“Tucker?” Danny answered softly and Tucker sighed.

“Yeah, where are you?” He asked and could hear typing in the background before it paused.

“You know the building that my parents complained about not getting?”

“Yeah?” Tucker replied, a bit confused. He started heading towards Fentonworks.

“They got it, I just kinda…took it for myself. That’s where I am.”

“I’m on my way,” he said, and Danny hung up. Tucker hoped that Sam’s display didn’t ruin their friendship. If Sam wanted to act like an entitled ass, then Tucker wanted to be left out of it. Him and Danny had been friends long before Sam was added to the group, and he wasn’t going to let that interfere with them.

Tucker walked up to the garage, the door opening when he raised a hand to knock. He slowly entered the place, pausing at the sight of a cool bike sitting there, lit up with a glow.

He was eyeing the Bat symbol on the side when Danny addressed him.

“Hey, what’s the hardest thing you’ve hacked?” he asked, and Tucker turned to him as the door shut behind him. He blinked a few times, seeing the sick computer set-up his friend had hidden here. After a moment of silent drooling, he looked away from the three monitors to glance at Danny typing away furiously on the keyboard.

“Since when do you how to hack?” Tucker asked as he carefully made his way closer to his friend. He looked over the screens, actually paying attention to their content now as he tried to figure out what exactly Danny was hacking into.

“Since I was…like four,” His friend answered without pausing his typing. “I’m…I’m trying to send a message to my twin without it being…obvious.”

“Right,” Tucker said, a little unsure. His voice must’ve betrayed how he felt, because Danny finally stopped typing and looked up at him.

“You don’t have to be okay with this,” Danny whispered, watching his friend. Tucker was clearly uncomfortable, and Danny wanted to help him. He just wasn’t sure how.

“I’m not sure what I am honestly…I know you had more to say,” Tucker said as he sat down, leaning close to peek at what Danny was typing into again.

“I…I did, but I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to tell you guys,” Danny said as he slowed down. Lines of code were still scrolling up the screen before the machine stopped and powered off. “Darn it.”

“What are you trying to hack into, anyway?”

“The Batcomputer,” Danny’s reply had Tucker choking. His voice was high-pitched when he spoke again.

“What? Why?”

“Robin…Robin is my twin.” Danny’s hands paused from starting the computer up again as he answered.

“You know how insane that sounds, right?” Tucker said, trying to wrap his head around that. His friend was usually a little shit, but this was way too out there for him to be lying.

“I know. The truth sounds insane, and it’s why it was so easy to hide it,” Danny shrugged turning to his computer. The boy was frowning as he typed again, so Tucker sighed and pulled the keyboard close to him instead.

“You can’t start the code like that…maybe a few years ago…” Tucker trailed as he met the halfa’s blinking eyes. “Yeah, you’re out of the loop, aren’t you?” Danny sent him one of his trademark grins, so he just snorted and got back to typing.

“I helped forge some of my documents but haven’t really had a reason to continue after that…kinda just wanted to settle as much as I could,” Danny muttered, watching Tucker work. He paid rapt attention to the code, intent on seeing the difference between what he’d done and what Tucker was doing now.

As his friend worked, Danny pointed at some parts, asking questions on the functions used and how their logic worked. Tucker patiently answered each one, explaining the mistakes Danny had made before and summarizing what he intended to do next. They both found themselves having fun talking code with someone who could keep up, something he never expected of Danny, but even with this new side revealed, his friend cracked jokes and made shitty puns, so Tucker felt himself relaxing into their familiar banter.

Suddenly a bat symbol appeared on the computer, making both freeze up.

“I think I got in,” Tucker whispered with wide eyes. The bat symbol seemed ominous, and Danny nearly told him to shut it down. His friend must’ve seen something on his face because he said, “You look spooked. I should warn you; we probably don’t have a lot of time.”

Danny motioned for the keyboard, quickly creating a file in the system and naming it ‘Danyal’ before putting his address inside. Tucker watched as he backed out of everything.

“That was cryptic,” Tucker teased as the computer went back to their home screen. Danny kept quiet though, simply staring absentmindedly at the screen. “You okay?”

“I just…I haven’t seen him in so long,” Danny whispered as tears formed in his eyes. “I miss him, and I’ve been telling myself that it was fine…”

“But it’s not,” Tucker finished for him when he trailed off. His friend had paused as he tried to hold himself together.

“No, it’s not fine. We never should’ve been split, but…our grandfather…he wanted—” Danny cut himself off. Tucker waited patiently for him to open up, but seconds turned into minutes without another word.

“You can tell me. I won’t tell anyone. Just like I haven’t said anything about Phantom,” Tucker’s promise seemed to do the trick, and Danny sucked in a deep breath before talking.

“I was supposed to be a mole in the Bat organization. They wanted me to pass on information about his movements, resources, plans… part of the reason I didn’t just go to him to begin with was that I didn’t have a way to keep Dami safe.” Danny closed his eyes at the thought. No eight-year-old should have to be worrying about their brother being harmed by their family.

It was a harsh truth he’d had to face once he’d settled into this life.

“Dami?” Tucker’s voice brought him out of his thoughts.

“Damian. It’s my twin’s name,” Danny looked into Tucker’s eyes as he answered. His friend simply tilted his head, waiting for more. “He’s with our father, that’s why I contacted him.”

“Wait…wait…are you telling me that—?” Tucker started before the computer’s screen glitched.

Danny also turned to look, his instincts telling him to stay alert. When nothing happened, he glanced back at Tuck, confirming what his friend must’ve pieced together.

“My father is Batman?” Danny might’ve even done jazz hands, but at that instant the camera’s light turned on, a signal that someone was spying on them. He sucked in a breath and Tucker gulped as they both stared at the blinking light, unsure of what was to come next.

Chapter Text

Runaway Assassin

Chapter Six

Gotham

If I cannot inspire love, I will instill fear.

~Mary Shelly

Tim glared at the small file that had appeared out of nowhere. Someone had managed to hack into the computer and the only change they’d made was adding that suspicious file. He wasn’t up for opening it. He had just wanted to look at some cold cases.

Yet.

Danyal wasn’t a name he was familiar with, and he wanted to go digging but nothing was really coming up with simple searches.

Tim hovered over the icon, before reluctantly clicking it open, heart pounding from apprehension and excitement of the new mystery, but mostly apprehension. They had many enemies after all. A simple document with an address for Amity Park, Illinois was everything inside it. He double checked it for good measure.

He quickly looked up the address before back-tracking the signal to the hacker’s IP geolocation.

They matched. Tim glared at his screen, unsure what kind of trick this was and what to do next. He settled on trying to get into the computer that had hacked them in the first place.

It was laughably easy, and he got a little concerned that this was a trap before he tapped into the microphone.

“…my twin’s name. He’s with our father, that’s why I contacted him.”

Tim blinked as things turned quiet for a moment before another voice took over.

“Wait…wait…are you telling me that —?”

“My father is Batman?”

Tim had also tapped into the video feed, and there was a slight delay before the screen showed the feed of someone looking straight at the camera that looked almost exactly like Damian.

Tim swallowed, feeling the light blue eyes that matched Bruce’s stare right at him.

He grabbed his phone and called Bruce as he waited for the computer’s connection to be cut off. Whoever was on the other side, he clearly knew that Tim had hacked into their computer, but he wasn’t doing anything.

Just staring at the camera.

“Tim, I’m busy at the moment.”

“I think Damian had a twin he didn’t tell us about…either that or Talia cloned him again,” Tim rushed out. Bruce was quiet on the other end. Tim worried when the silence stretched on. “B?”

“I’m on my way.”

“Also…I think they need help… or it’s a trap.”

“What?” he asked in a serious voice and Tim wasn’t sure how to respond to the tone.

“I don’t know! Someone hacked into the Batcomputer and left a file with the name Danyal and an address to a place in Amity Park. I hacked back into the computer and there was a camera…the person staring at the camera looks eerily similar to Damian and he said something about a twin,” Tim explained as he started digging a little more into the address. He wanted to know everything.

“I can’t speak now. I want a whole report by the time I get home. Don’t ask Damian anything yet. I’m not entirely sure if he would know anything or not, and I don’t want to send him off on his own if he does.”

“Copy that,” Tim said as he started researching more about the address. Bruce hung up and Tim focused on his task.

Fentonworks was a registered business there along with a residence. The Fentons were ghost hunters that built and designed weapons along with research about ghosts. The papers that Tim was skimming over were sounding horribly biased though.

Then he started investigating the family itself and the youngest boy made Tim freeze.

Daniel Fenton was the name that he was going by now, and he looked exactly like the boy that was on the camera. Tim looked at it only to see that he still had the camera up even though he was sure that he’d been made.

Which meant that Danyal didn’t care that they had gotten access to him. Tim sighed before going through some more recent news, only to freeze up again at what he found.

Mayor Masters Hires Self-Defense Instructor for Amity Park Students

Tim skimmed over the article explaining the ghost attacks and the self-defense instructor. He felt a bit of dread while reading, unsure of why until he noticed a particular name.

Miranda Tate. A known alias of Talia.

It was more than likely that Danyal was in trouble and was reaching out for help.

Or Talia was leading them into a trap of her own.

Tim wasn’t sure which one would be better for them since he knew that one of the things that bothered Bruce about Damian was missing his first years.

He would definitely be upset if Talia hadn’t just hidden one child from him, but two. Tim started digging a bit deeper into Danny’s life before he figured things out.

Danny had appeared out of nowhere seven years ago. Forged paperwork and what looked like some bribes got him to stay with the Fentons, but Tim wasn’t sure of the whole story. It seems he’d have to ask Danyal.

He looked at the computer again and noticed that Danny was still there, working on something in the background, seemingly unconcerned with being watched. Tim typed up on the computer before activating the speakers.

“Hello?” Tim asked, checking if it worked. Danny’s head jerked up and looked back at the camera.

“I didn’t think anyone was actually going to say anything,” Danny said as he walked over to his computer.

“So, you knew I was watching?” Tim asked and Danny nodded.

“Yeah, but…I just didn’t see the point in…”

“You wanted us to find you,” Tim said, and Danny looked away as something exploded in the background. Tim tensed. “Everything okay?”

“That’s fairly normal, actually. It’s Fentonworks.”

Tim became slightly more concerned with the safety of Danny, even if it was a clone or a trap. Tim studied him. The boy was cleaning some grease across his face, a result of whatever he’d been working at, when he suddenly hiccupped cold air.

Danny tensed as he looked up at the sky.

“Everything okay now?” Tim asked, seeing Danny stand up.

“Nope, not now,” Danny whispered as he seemed to follow something that Tim couldn’t see. “How much research have you done on Amity Park?”

“Not a lot,” Tim said, and Danny nodded before running out of frame with a flash of light, before the screen glitched completely. “Danny?”

No one answered. Tim got back to researching.

Bruce did a quick search into Amity Park when he had some downtime. He hoped that Tim would focus on tracking whoever had hacked them while he looked into Amity Park.

There were several reports to the Justice League about what was going on there with ghost attacks, but every time someone arrived, all they were met with was the fallout. They helped a bit with the clean up but found no evidence about what had happened.

According to some of the people they’d interviewed, there was a ghost named Phantom who had been the one causing the most damage. Bruce tried to get more information, but most of it was about how Phantom had stolen a bunch of things and taken the previous mayor hostage.

There was quite a bit on how Phantom was a menace and was constantly attacking ghost hunters. Bruce narrowed his eyes as he read a blog from the Casper High Students.

They all called him a hero. Phantom had saved many of them from other ghosts and as Bruce read further into the stories, he wondered what was really going on.

Adults in the town clearly did not like their ghostly hero based on what he was reading. That’s when he found the resident ghost hunters that had more information than the rest. The Fentons were known for their groundbreaking research into ghosts and ghost hunting. Most of the information was coming from them.

He narrowed his eyes. He did not like only having one source of information; he started looking more into ghost hunters, seeking any and all information from others, and wondering if maybe the League shouldn’t get more involved, perhaps by getting someone there on the down low.

In a more permanent way too if they could find a way, considering they kept on missing the actual attacks, it would be beneficial. Bruce knew that the league was spread thin already.

Then there was the government-sanctioned agency, the Guys in White. He tried looking into them but there wasn’t much information he could easily access without the cave’s computer. The ghost attacks had only been a problem for the last year or so, and no one had died during that time, but there was already a government agency.

Bruce didn’t like what that might mean, and as he started to dig a little deeper into the GIW, he stumbled across their horrifying creation.

The Anti-Ecto Control Acts.

His eyes widened as he skimmed over them. This wasn’t good.

If left unaddressed, this could be cause for a possible war with other entities, but Bruce wasn’t going to let that happen on his watch, not at all. Those laws never should have been able to get this far. They weren’t going to be a problem for much longer, not if he could help it.

Bruce was brought back to the present when he spotted a familiar face on the front page of the local newspaper. She was standing on a stage, slightly behind the mayor, but Bruce would recognize her anywhere.

Talia.

Bruce sensed they were missing the bigger picture, the whole situation smelled like a trap, and he really hoped that Tim would have better information than what he’d gathered at the moment. His secretary walked in, reminding him about the next meeting and he knew his time for investigating was over.

He wished he could skip on his responsibilities for the day, but he had already missed most of the meetings from last week.

Besides, he’d already tried to leave earlier, when he’d told Tim that he was coming back home but Fox had prevented him from doing so. The man would not take kindly to another escape attempt and dealing with an angry Lucius was something Bruce always avoided if he could.

Tim was getting nervous about how long Danny had been gone. He knew that Danny didn’t actually live in the little garage that he could see, but there weren’t any nearby cameras that Tim could access to try and find where Danny could’ve gone off to.

It was a fact that bothered him, even as he kept researching on what Talia was doing in town. It appeared that Masters had hired her organization to train the students on self-defense, claiming it would help minimize damages and wounded children during the ghost attacks.

Tim wasn’t sure if that would work considering ghosts could just easily avoid the attacks by going intangible. Some of the research he’d read focused on the entities’ powers and it was definitely something to be concerned about, seeing that it left him pondering if ghosts might be able to get almost anywhere undeterred. Tim wondered if Danny would have more information about it.

According to the records, Danny was part of Fentonworks, a registered ghost hunter along with his parents and sister.

So, he hoped that maybe, if Danny was really Damian’s twin, that they would be able to get ahold of some of the tech to help stop ghosts. Afterall, this seemed like a threat that the Bats weren’t prepared for. Tim mused about that for a bit, before turning his research somewhat broader, looking over the incidents in Amity Park as a whole, to try and catch any interesting leads he might have missed.

Like one small-town hero that went by the name of Phantom. Tim rolled his eyes and wondered why they hadn’t tried to get in contact with the hero yet, considering he was the one saving Amity Park from all the ghost trouble.

However, he quickly found out the reason while reading over the documents from the League database.

The adults harbored a severe dislike for Phantom and wanted him gone from the town. In fact, they blamed him for the attacks happening in the first place and claimed he was the one doing most of the attacking. Tim read all the reports and found himself questioning a good chunk of them. There were just too many consistencies and the wording used in them rubbed him the wrong way. Each report he read helped give credit to Tim’s gut feeling that these were closer to scripted scenes than actual interviews. Once he knew what to look for, the pattern was obvious. They had a template and just did enough tweaking to make it look distinct at each interview while retaining the main idea: Phantom was responsible for the attacks and needed to be destroyed.

None of the other JL members had questioned it. Simply stated that they should get a team together. It was never a priority.

Tim let out a sigh as he looked up at the bats that were sleeping on the ceiling. There was clearly far more going on in this town than what they could research from afar. They should probably get a team to head out there.

If they were going to Amity to check what Danny was up to and if he was really who he claimed to be, then they’d need to make sure that no one else from outside the Bats knew. Bringing in anyone else from the Justice League would likely result in things going wrong way too quickly.

They needed accurate information, and that meant they needed to make sure that no one knew they were coming.

Bruce walked into the house to see Damian working on what he guessed was homework at the dinner table. Usually, Alfred preferred that they take their personal businesses to their own rooms, but Damian was the exception since he focused better when working on it here instead. Bruce sat down next to his son and simply watched for a while as Damian filled out part of a report. Soon enough though, his youngest paused his task and glared up at him.

“What is it, Father?” Damian asked as he set his pencil down. “Are you here to tell me I’m not allowed to patrol tonight?” He looked ready to start a fight should Bruce say that Robin was getting benched, but he didn’t have any intention nor any reason to do so. Damian had earned the chance to patrol tonight; he wasn’t going to take that away from him.

“No, actually, nothing like that. I got some…concerning information about your mother…and I have a question for you,” Bruce said, and his son turned his full attention on him.

“What is the question?” Damian prompted with a bit of tension to his voice after seeing the seriousness on Bruce’s face. He looked into his son’s green eyes before speaking.

“Was there another child? Did you have a brother?” He said and could immediately see Damian shrink in on himself a little. “Damian, what happened?”

“I…Mother was sending him to you. They were coming through Blüdhaven,” Damian started, face turning downwards to stare at his homework. “But then, there was the Chemo attack and it killed him and his guards.” Bruce narrowed his eyes.

“Why haven’t you told me this before?” He accused and Damian glared up at him, a fire in his eyes.

“Because after his death, I lived in his shadow. I was constantly being compared to him even though I was the better twin,” Damian hissed out and Bruce felt shocked, seeing his son openly show how upset he was. “I did not want to deal with that here as well. I didn’t want to live in my dead twin’s shadow again.”

“He hacked into the Batcomputer today,” He informed, the statement making Damian’s whole body tense up as he stared at his father. Bruce could see something in his son’s eyes that he hadn’t recognized before.

Grief.

“He’s dead.”

“Or he got out and ran away,” Bruce retorted as he contemplated the possibility. It would have been an excellent way to hide from the League, given how much destruction the incident had caused. “That attack would have been perfect cover for him to escape.”

“Mother informed me that his body was destroyed,” Damian said as he sucked in a breath thinking about it. “It’s unlikely he survived. Whatever is going on may be Mother trying to throw us off guard. Compromise us both at once.”

“Perhaps,” Bruce answered softly, seeing where his son’s logic was coming from. Talia would certainly be capable of tipping him off to a son he hadn’t known about and that was already dead, just to send him into a tailspin for a bit. He couldn’t deny that he was already feeling like the ground was giving beneath his feet and he would fall into a void with nothing to catch him. But Damian was here. Bruce held on to that, for now grounding himself with the fact that one of his sons was still alive. If Danyal was truly dead, then he would mark a spot with a stone on the Wayne’s private grounds to honor him.

Danyal deserved a memorial at the very least, and Bruce would be able to mourn another child taken from him far too soon.

But. Tim had seen him in through the webcam. He’d talked to him for a little bit, before the boy had taken off in a weird and abrupt manner. Bruce wanted to ask Damian more questions though, before the both of them went down to check everything that Tim had investigated while he’d been at work.

“Please tell me she didn’t clone him too?” Damian asked, looking incredibly young with his face so openly displaying his emotions as he stared up, eyes full of hurt and fear. Bruce let out a small sigh, unsure of what to tell his son. He would likely become emotionally compromised if this was a trap, just like himself.

“I don’t know, but someone claiming to be your twin hacked into the Batcomputer and left an address to a city in Illinois. Talia is also there right now,” Bruce said while standing up. “Come meet me in the cave and we’ll see what else Tim managed to find.” Damian nodded as he started to pack up his stuff.

Bruce could see the minute shake in his hands as he packed the work into his bag.

Damian was clearly affected, and Bruce knew that despite everything his son said, he’d clearly missed his twin.

Tim was keeping an eye on the camera’s feed as he organized a presentation of his findings, when he heard footsteps approaching from the stairs. He looked up to see Damian walking down with crossed arms and a closed off look.

He really hoped that this whole ordeal didn’t end with him getting a new stab wound. He’d finally started feeling better about being alone in the same room with the gremlin child. Damian was finally overcoming some of his more feral tendencies and Tim hoped that this didn’t bring any of those back.

Bruce followed Damian inside the cave, attention turned to whatever he was checking on his phone. He put it away upon reaching the desk and looked at Tim, who just kept watching them.

“Tim. Report.” Bruce stated, shaking Tim out of his head. He turned to the computer and opened the first slide.

“This afternoon someone hacked into the Batcomputer leaving this file.” Tim pulled up the file with the name and address in it. “I did some research before looking into the file. It only contained that address.”

“That is the correct spelling of Danyal,” Damian said, leaning in as he looked it over. Tim took that as his cue to pull up a screenshot he’d gotten from the other boy’s computer’s camera. Damian froze, eyes glued to the monitor.

“He does look like you,” Bruce whispered, but he could already spot the differences. Danyal had blue eyes that matched his. His skin was a little paler although it was springtime, and he also seemed to be more on the lean side, much like a swimmer. Damian had a bit more thickness to his body than Danyal did. It was likely a lack of muscle on the boy, more than anything. There was also a small scar visible on his neck.

More importantly, Danyal looked sick to Bruce. He didn’t like it.

“Amity Park has been plagued by ghosts. Every time they've asked the League for help though, the problem had already been taken care of.” Tim pulled up reports from last month. “The government has been blaming the constant attacks on one ghost named Phantom. Kids and teens believe him to be a hero while the majority of the adults believe he’s behind the attacks.”

“Tt, Danyal will likely be in the right. What are his opinions?” Damian chimed in, and Bruce and Tim just stared at the youngest. He glared back at them. “What?”

“What happened to Danyal being dead?” Bruce asked, lips quirking up in a tiny smile. Damian simply glared harder. After a moment though, he turned to the screenshot, pointing at the scar that Bruce had previously noticed.

“That scar…Mother never knew what happened, and she never indicated having noticed the mark,” Damian started. “Danyal had been tasked with the murder of a foreign diplomat and…he got hurt. I bandaged it before we hid it from Mother. I am certain that she was likely aware but she never spoke of it.”

“So, we have another brother?” Tim teased but Bruce kept silent, staring at the screenshot. Danyal looked worn down, a certain look he was used to seeing on seasoned Leaguers when dealing with complicated enemies. As if he were bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders, a tired weariness that could be spotted encompassing his frame, and yet, Bruce could also see thin smile lines on his face.

Ones that had been missing from Damian’s face before he came to live here. Ones just now starting to form on his son’s face.

Danny had been happy wherever he’d lived for the past few years, and Bruce wasn’t going to take that from him.

He wasn’t going to fail another kid, even if his heart broke at the thought of all the missing time.

“Damian, get the jet ready,” Bruce ordered before turning around to go prep things for an extended stay in Amity Park.

He wasn’t going to keep failing this one.

Bruce needed to update his eldest as well. He would be going as Batman, but he wanted to remain under the radar as much as possible.

And he knew that Damian would be going with him no matter what he said. Bruce made a mental note to call the school and tell them there was a sudden family emergency.

Chapter Text

Runaway Assassin

Chapter Seven

Vigilante

The appeal of the Golden Age heroes for me is their simplicity, even their naivety - they represent the fundamental building blocks of the whole superhero genre, whether it's a 'super' man able to lift cars, or a vigilante who terrorizes criminals at night like Batman.

~Adam Christopher

Danny had hoped it would be Bruce who hacked into his system. That his brother had finally revealed his existence and now his father was calling to meet him. That Bruce would take the first steps in reaching out and setting things right, and Danny would just follow his lead.

Instead, it was Tim Drake. The third Robin, now known as Red Robin.

Danny wished he could say that he kept himself up to date with all the details, but the truth was a different matter. From afar, he’d only been able to keep track of each Robin’s hidden identities. But truthfully, he’d wanted to know who they really were under those masks, what each of them liked, what they did for hobbies, what funny little habits they had and most of all, he wanted to know if his brother was happy with them.

If Damian had found peace in who he was now and if he was finally free from the League of Assassins for good.

Then, his ghost sense went off and he had to investigate it. This wasn’t some task he could just ignore and hope for the best that it’d solve itself. It was his responsibility and he needed to make sure that the ghosts wouldn’t hurt anyone or that the ghost hunters wouldn’t hurt any of the ghosts.

Phantom watched as Skulker landed on the roof of a building and typed into the computer screen embedded on his mechanical wrist.

He narrowed his eyes. From his experience, he’d bet that Plasmius had hired Skulker for something. He sucked in a calming breath before vanishing from sight, silently reappearing behind Skulker and positioned just right to look over the other ghost’s shoulder.

Skulker seemed to be tracking something on his radar, which was never a good sign.

Did Vlad stick a tracker on his suit again?

Phantom frowned before speaking up.

“What are you doing?”

Skulker startled, jumping in the air and aiming a gun at Phantom’s face. His eyes were blown wide inside the sockets, as he stared at the teen. Danny always found it funny how expressive the guy’s suit could be despite being metal, but he attributed it to some ghostly effect.  

Phantom simply raised a brow while the other ghost collected himself.

“I’m waiting on an answer here.”

“Whelp,” Skulker hissed before dropping the gun back on its holster, to Phantom’s great shock. “Plasmius has me tracking…some human. Of course, I protested because it’s below my paygrade to hunt mere humans…”

“But you can’t track her, can you?” Phantom teased, a smile stretching on his face after connecting that Vlad had likely sent the hunter after Talia. Skulker narrowed his eyes at the hybrid before bringing his gun back up.

“I could just take your head to him,” He suggested before Phantom grinned darkly.

“Oh, Skulker. I don’t feel like playing tag today. But you should know, the woman he sent you after is my biological mother, and she’s also a trained hunter…well assassin actually.”

Skulker couldn’t reply though, as he was then blasted out of the sky by a green burst of energy coming from below. Phantom looked down at his original, the one who’d thought that this scene would make for a great debut.

And they were clearly right, considering a crowd had begun forming when the masked hunter didn’t fire at Phantom next.

“Uh, who are you?” Phantom asked, voice louder than normal as he pretended to be confused.

“Al Ghul,” Danny said as he got off the bike, and leaned against it, blaster twirling in his hand to distract from the fact that he was using his body to hide some of the bike’s most distinct designs. He didn’t want to end the game that easily, and so long as Vlad didn’t realize who Al Ghul was right away, he could keep the ruse and confusion running high among pretty much most of the people in Amity. He looked up, “You are?”

“Well…my name’s Phantom,” The ghost duplicate answered, trying to keep his face straight. It was getting increasingly harder not to laugh at the ridiculous situation unfolding. Although it drained his energy, the upside to duplication was that he didn’t have to simultaneously control his doubles, instead they each acted independently and, in this case, meant they could focus on keeping up their acting.

“Right, the little ghost hero,” Danny replied, a feral smirk settling on his face. He gave one last spin with the Fenton gun before putting it back on the holster. “See ya around then.” He hopped back on the seat and took off on the bike, leaving Phantom standing there along with several citizens that had witnessed the exchange.

It was going to be so much fun seeing what happens next.

One new ghost hunter.

One old ghost hunter.

And hopefully, an answer to what the hell he was going to do when eventually, this plan to confuse the shit out of everyone went to shit.

Phantom vanished into thin air, flying back home to merge with the original.

No matter what, the plan’s main focus was to keep Phantom’s identity a secret from everyone else.

Al Ghul would be the new ghost hunter in town that had a truce with Phantom, and hopefully the other ghosts would along go with him, or…or there would be a lot of cleaning-up to do. And Danny hoped that, if his plan blew up too soon and he was forced to run away from everyone, he would have a safe place he could go to.

He really hoped that Batman would believe him that not all ghosts were bad over what the supposed experts said. His father’s reaction was the one thing that preoccupied him the most.

Danny walked into his house to see his parents freaking out over the new ghost hunter in town that rode on a bike.

“He had the perfect opportunity to take out that ghost scum and he didn’t take it!” Maddie yelled and he flinched.

He knew that his parents would flip at first, but it was one thing to know it would happen and another to watch it play out in real time.

Danny hated this part where they went on and on about the no-good lying dirty ghost, the one that was actually secretly their own son.

“At least there’s more ghost hunters!” Jack said excitedly from his seat on the couch. “Maybe we can get ahold of him to talk. That bike was so cool! And we could help train him!”

Danny rolled his eyes. He certainly didn’t need their help.

“Also, Al Ghul? Why not just use his actual name! There’s no shame in ghost hunting!” Maddie yelled and Danny just rolled his eyes again.

Everyone was a critic.

“What if it is?” Danny chimed in, making both his parents jump. Maddie put a hand to her chest, looking at him disapprovingly.

“Don’t scare us like that,” she said, while breathing in deeply to calm herself.

“OHHOHH, He could go by Ghoul Hunter!!” Jack exclaimed loudly, jumping up from his seat. Danny winced at the name. It was almost as bad as the Inviso-bill, although that name was hard to outdo.

Although, if anyone could achieve that, Jack Fenton would be the one to do so. Danny hated it.

That was not what he wanted, but like everything else…what did it matter what he wanted?

“How was school, sweetie?” Maddie asked and Danny just shrugged in response. He hadn’t gone at all. He’d skipped, but he had a valid reason to do so. And if the Fentons didn’t already know, then it didn’t matter after all.

“Fine,” he lied before getting a weird look from his dad, face scrunched up like he did when he was trying to remember something important. “I’m going upstairs.” Danny gave them no time to respond, quickly running up and shutting his bedroom door.

In seconds, he’d changed clothes and had already hopped out the window, entering the building behind Fentonworks.

He walked in, looking around as he checked all the details. No one had broken in, so it seemed he was still safe for now.

Skulker could still pose a problem, but if the hunter wasn’t coming after him, then Danny would use that as a warning for Talia. She could tangle with the ghost and see just what she’d gotten herself into.

He sat on the chair, glancing down at his computer. The camera was still on, he noted, before looking into hotel records to check where Talia was staying. He’ll start there for now, to at least try and see how long his Mother might think that this whole thing would need to go on for.

Also, maybe see if he’ll be able to learn anything new about her plans other than just guessing about the bigger picture. He could check how many of her people were here in Amity, too. Feeling better now that he’d mentally written a to-do list, he parsed through the research results quickly, seeing if anything popped out at him.

He was mostly looking for hotel names and other places she might be lodged in, more than anything.

“Not sure that’s helpful,” a voice suddenly spoke up, making Danny go tense. It was deeper and rougher than Tim’s, yet it still came through the computer’s speakers.

“Don’t really have any other choice. I don’t have a supercomputer,” Danny replied, and the voice laughed before his screen went dark, and suddenly he was getting a view into the Batcave instead of whatever research it’d been showing him. His eyes widened, taking everything in the background. “Whoa.”

“Talia wouldn’t be staying in a hotel. Not under a name that’d you’d recognize at least.” Danny turned his attention back at the man who had taken upon himself to protect a city and had yet to yield on that task.

“She’s here for recruits…and there’s going to be some that she’d likely be interested in,” Danny said as he tapped the edge of his keyboard, a nervous habit. He was starting to doubt that this had been a good idea.

Perhaps he shouldn’t have contacted them, but there was no turning back now. He’d already taken the leap of faith, now he just needed to hope he wouldn’t fall. That someone would be there to catch him.

“How are you? You didn’t attend school today,” Bruce said, abruptly changing the subject and making Danny freeze up.

Bruce somehow knew he’d skipped today even though he was hundreds of miles away, while his parents had been at home the entire time. The school would’ve called to inform them, but as always, they hadn’t paid attention. They hadn’t known that when they’d asked him about school earlier.

Danny gulped, eyes looking down at the keyboard, head spinning at the realization that it was likely the Bat had dug into everything he could about Danny Fenton.

“I didn’t want to see her today…I knew what I was getting into here, and…” Danny trailed off. It was a poor excuse, he knew. After all, he could’ve gone to his normal classes and just skipped gym period.

But. There was still a chance of running into each other.

Danny wasn’t leaving things up to chance this time.

“Did she threaten you?”

“No, I…I may have taken the first shot, just to rattle her. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to happen. I’ve pictured our reunion in so many ways,” Danny started, as he closed his eyes. “I don’t know what I want. I know I don’t want her here.”

“You got our attention for a reason.”

“I…I could handle one problem at a time…but it’s more than that…so much more than that. There’s so much going on here, and I’m not sure I could do it by myself anymore.”

“We’ll be leaving Gotham within the next two hours to head to Amity. Can you give me any information about the ghost problem?” Danny caved in on himself just a little. He knew the Bat would have noticed it though.

“They…I…Ghosts aren’t…Ghosts aren’t bad. There are evil ones, sure, but there’s also good ones. Just like humans,” Danny started, hesitantly glancing at his father’s face. Bruce was listening and very intently, he seemed to be soaking up every word Danny said.

He didn’t know what to feel. So far, none of the adults in his life had listened to him when he’d tried to explain this. Sure, his friends would listen to him rant for hours, but his parents always shut him down immediately, and Vlad didn’t give a shit about what he said, no matter the subject.

Same with every other adult in Amity Park whether he was Fenton or Phantom.

“But there are some that just want to see the human world, maybe cause a little bit of chaos while here, but don’t actually mean to hurt anyone. Honestly, it’s never too big of a problem until the ghost hunters show up. Then usually Phantom has to step up and take care of it,” Danny said, and he almost didn’t catch the minute twitch of Bruce’s eyebrows when he mentioned Phantom.

“I know the League has been dispatched out there for mainly clean-up,” Bruce stated, and Danny couldn’t help the small sigh he gave. Right now, he still wasn’t sure if he would be completely believed, but he could see that there was a small chance here. A chance he’d never gotten before to tell his side. “Who usually causes that damage?”

It was a question that Danny didn’t think anyone would ever ask him. He wasn’t someone in a position of authority or power. He wasn’t anyone important.

“The hunters. If they see a ghost, they fire without caring about who‘s around or even if who they’re firing at is an actual ghost and not just a super pale human,” Danny quickly blurted, not wanting to pass up this opportunity. He still had so much to say, but for now, he watched as Bruce leaned forward, hands going to the keyboard before typing into his computer.

In his short fourteen-year-old life, Danny hadn’t had a great track with adults. But Bruce was showing that he was willing to take him seriously. That he was interested in helping him simply because Danny needed it. That he was ready to listen to what Danny had to say and take it into consideration.

“I’m sorry we haven’t been much help, but the hunters we contacted have always assured us that they had it handled. We should’ve looked more into it. We’re already spread so thin just by the cities we live in. It’s easy for us to lose track of other cities in need. It’s not an excuse, and I’m sorry that we…that I wasn’t there for you.”

Danny looked down with a grim smile.

“It’s okay. I had it under control. I understand that you guys were busy.” Bruce felt frozen at that statement. Danny wasn’t paying attention to him though. He seemed more interested in his lap. Bruce could see that until now, Danny hadn’t really had many people in his corner. Just from what he’d seen in the files, he only had two friends in school and a sister. Bruce wasn’t sure how close he really was with all of them either.

From League of Assassins to the Fentons to whatever was happening now, Bruce could tell that Danny was very likely used to operating on his own.

Bruce knew that feeling well, and no matter how much people believed otherwise, he’d rather be working with his team than alone. He preferred the reassurance of knowing there was someone by his side who could help when he got in over his head during missions.

His son, it seemed, didn’t really have anything like that. But Bruce would be changing that soon. Danny would never be alone again. He’d make sure of it.

“I’ve found articles online about Phantom,” he started, determined to seek more information about the hero only to pause when Danny tensed almost imperceptibly. Bruce narrowed his eyes slightly, head already starting to analyze the boy’s body language. He’d done that before, too, trying to conceal a reaction at the mention of Phantom during their conversation. Bruce was certain there was something more behind his son’s actions.

Based on everything that Tim had gathered so far, it was clear to them that Phantom was the ghost of a dead teenager roaming Amity Park, trying to help with the attacks. Bruce’s heart clenched, hating the thought of a child, no matter if dead or alive, having to take on all the town’s problems by himself; however, everyone the League had sent to establish contact had come up empty.

Perhaps, Danny would be the key to getting in touch with Phantom, and with his help they’d finally manage to get some much needed answers from the ghost.

“Yeah…I-He-He’s been helpful in some of the most dangerous situations. Phantom’s usually very quick too, managing to catch the rogue ghosts before the hunters have even realized that something’s wrong,” Danny provided, but Bruce’s mind focused on the boy’s slight stutter at the start. One might think it a meaningless hiccup, but Bruce’s gut told him there was something suspicious about it. Another piece to his unfinished puzzle surrounding his son and a certain ghost boy.

The folder Tim had compiled with all the reports involving the town’s hero came to mind. Phantom had been seen frequently using Fenton weapons but no one seemed to know how he was securing them from the ghost hunters. He stared at his son, whose body was tense and face trying not to look guilty. Bruce could think of one simple way the ghost might be getting ahold of such technology: Danny was helping the local hero. He pulled up a few of the clearer pictures featuring Phantom, hoping to spot anything to validate his hypothesis. Something else caught his eye.

More specifically, Phantom’s eyes as he glared straight into the camera, that looked eerily close to Damian’s glares. In fact, the ghost’s face as a whole looked similar, if his son had green eyes of a brighter shade and a messy silver -almost white- hair.

Bruce glanced back at Danny, whose face still wouldn’t properly meet his. Bruce slid his mouse, clicking a few times as he made sure that no one had tapped in their call. The line was still secure, so he turned back his attention to the teenager as he voiced the question that had been running around his mind.

“Do you know who Phantom is?” The reaction was immediate. His son tensed up, impossibly so, and Bruce had half a mind to regret it, thinking that he’d spooked the boy so much he’d run from the conversation, before Danny finally turned, head fully facing the camera. His gaze was heavy, much heavier than any child should display and Bruce could feel it despite the miles between them as Danny looked him straight in the eye.

He didn’t answer.

Bruce could see, though, that he wanted to say something. That he wished to tell him the truth, lay his mysteries wide open and unburden himself from whatever weighed him down. His hope was palatable but even more so was the distrust in his eyes, holding his heart back from letting others in. Such reservation was the kind that appeared only after being burned, which let Bruce conclude that his son had been greatly hurt by someone before.

The thought incensed something within him. He wouldn’t let that slide. Fiery protectiveness rose within him and Bruce could see part of it reflected in his son’s eyes. No matter what sort of secret Danny was hiding, he could tell it wasn’t the sort of omission made out of malice. No, Danny’s demeanor indicated he was trying to protect someone.

Or, Bruce had a feeling, that he was trying to protect himself.

Talia closed the image on her screen, head tipping back as she looked up at the ceiling.

Danyal was alive and it was everything she never knew that she wanted. It was really him. Both of her sons were alive and for now, safe and sound.

There was no other choice. No one but Ra’s knew about Danyal. Everyone else was dead. Damian had been the one to kill the trainers, and Ra’s had handled the rest with his need to do what he felt was necessary.

And she would know her son anywhere. She should’ve seen it sooner, but she knew now. And this time, she wasn’t letting this miracle go.

Talia knew it was going to be the hardest decision. She stared down at the list of written names of the students she seen the potential in.

Sam Manson and Valerie Grey being her top two candidates. But she looked into them more and her son was close with them both. He’d always had a good head and been good at reading people. He had been so much like his father while Damian had been more like her.

But she could see Bruce and her in both of her children. Danyal could be tactical and dangerous when underestimated. Damian cared so much but felt the need to hide it in order to protect himself from harm.

Danyal clearly had a history with the mayor, but he was treating it more like a game than an actual threat.

She was surprised he hadn’t killed Masters yet with how much the man was a creep. She’d looked into some of the laws he put in place when he first became Mayor, and she knew that he was directly trying to make Danyal’s life more difficult.

That’s when she came across Phantom.

A ghost who claimed to be a hero.

Talia huffed.

Like father, like son.

For now, she kept looking into everything concerning the so-called ghosts. It was a topic she was inexperienced in and she had no plans of flying blindly into this whole situation, thus the need for information.

She would not let Danyal blindside her again, even if she was secretly proud of him for accomplishing that. It had been a very good tactic, ambushing her like that, and her heart brimmed with newfound respect of her son's willingness to use such a strategy. Looking back, it was obvious he’d been leading her into a trap. Danyal had let her underestimate him, pulling up a believable facade he knew would entice her just so without revealing his goal.

He’d added fuel with his acting, letting her believe the lies she’d been told about him in order to gain the upper hand.

He’d always been a clever child, the Al Ghul blood on his veins a testament to that. Talia felt thrilled that he’d grown up in such a spectacular way, his talents and skills blooming despite the years apart. Despite his so-called new family. 

Aside from the ghosts themselves, she’d been delving deeper into investigating the town’s ghost experts and her research made her certain of one thing: the Fentons were dangerous. Far more than she had initially thought. Talia might not fully understand yet the world they spoke of in their papers, the one that included ghosts and ectoplasm everywhere, but she did know one thing.

The Fentons were a threat to her son, and she wasn’t going to stand for it.

She knew she might not be considered the greatest mother, that she may have failed Damian before, but still, she would not let any more harm come to her sons. Not to her Danyal. Not if she could stop it. Especially not from these self-proclaimed ghost hunters who’d never even caught a ghost yet.

She would not let them further harm her son.

Chapter Text

Runaway Assassin

Chapter Eight

Fly By

Almost everything worthwhile carries with it some sorts of risk, whether it’s starting a new business, whether it's leaving home, whether it's getting married, or whether it's flying into space.

~Chris Hadfield

Danny flinched as a high-pitched beep filled the room. He glanced at the screen, confirming that the beeping was coming from the small devices he’d set up on Fentonworks, the alarms telling him that his mom had knocked on his door to call him for dinner. He looked back at the now turned off camera, remembering the last part of their conversation before Bruce had been called over, someone shouting in the background that the jet was ready to go.

His father had promised him they would be here soon. That he didn’t have to do this alone anymore.

Danny let his fingers pass through his hair, taking a steadying breath before flying back to his room. He did his usual sweep, checking if anything had been moved or taken. It was one of the only habits he’d never broken from even after getting away from the League, his body only truly relaxing once he confirmed the place was intact.

Reaching the bottom stairs, he found Maddie standing in the living room, arms crossed and a particularly nasty frown on her face. His body locked, tensing up mid-step as his mind ran wild with all the worst-case scenarios. As always, his first worry was that his parents knew, that they’d found out and were coming to make good on all those promises shouted during the ghost fights. He relaxed slightly though, when he realized there were no ghost weapons pointed at him and the ghost shield was still down. They hadn’t connected him to Phantom yet.

If not his worst fear, then what could it be that had his mom glaring at him with a mix of anger and disappointment? Had they figured out that he didn’t go to school today? He’d almost forgotten that was a thing parents could get mad about, after Bruce’s easy understanding. They hadn’t seemed concerned earlier either, so Danny just figured that they didn’t know or didn’t care at all.

Danny turned his head, noticing that Jack was also in the room, looking vaguely upset, but his breath caught at an unexpected sight. Talia was also in his house.

However, her attention wasn’t on him this time, she was busy glaring at his mom. He gulped.

This was probably about missing school.

“Daniel James Fenton, we cannot have you playing hooky with your schoolwork. I thought I raised you better than that,” Maddie accused. He couldn’t quite hide his flinch at her rigid tone, eyes turning downwards to look at her feet instead of her disapproving face.

He couldn’t help it, getting yelled at was something he’d always hated. Nothing good ever came of it, not in this household and certainly not in the League. Now, he felt surrounded, like the memories of both parts of his life were fighting inside him, making his head hurt.

He glanced at the biggest reminder of his past at the moment, but Talia was still sending subtle glares in Maddie’s direction. Danny wasn’t sure what that was about, but he knew it was important to quickly figure out what had happened to warrant such reaction from the assassin.

“Uh, I wasn’t feeling well,” he answered softly after Maddie had pointedly raised an eyebrow to prompt a response out of him. To further make his case, he wrapped an arm around his waist, more in self-comfort than any actual pain. But the movement would hopefully serve its purpose in softening his mom’s heart.

Actually. Danny realized he genuinely wasn’t feeling good right now.

Maddie did not look convinced though. In fact, she seemed even angrier after his weak statement.

Her fury cut deeply, his chest aching more than usual at being directed such emotion from his mom. He wanted to be comforted by her, but his core recoiled at the thought of her hands on him, a deep instinct he’d developed after such a long time being on the wrong end of her barrel. He felt dazed, too many conflicting feelings surging inside him, and Danny wasn’t sure how to deal with it all. His breathing picked up, heart growing erratic when he glanced at Talia, still standing in his kitchen with furrowed frowns and down-turned lips, looking very upset and absolutely pissed. Her face sent tremors down his spine, her almost blatant display of emotion eliciting bad memories he’d repressed.

That face meant pain.

And blood.

Danny felt the room spin. Blurred silhouettes moved closer, muffled voices yelling his name but suddenly all he could see was the living room’s ceiling and as he fell to the ground, his brain focused on the weird green stain that he’d never known was up there.

It blinked at him before blackness overtook his vision and he felt bile rise at the back of his throat.

Well, at least he wouldn’t have to fake being sick now.

Inside the jet, Tim was put in charge of piloting with Damian assisting by the side while Bruce tried to gain more insight on the ghost troubles in Amity Park.

The issue he ran into was the presence of a hidden bug, whose purpose was to send a signal off to somewhere if anyone ever tried to look into Amity Park for more than a simple passing glance.

Bruce had almost missed it, so concealed as it was. Luckily, the Batcomputer’s VPN had hid them well enough from whoever had set up the bug in the first place. However, that temporarily put a strain on his investigation since he didn’t want to press it any more than they’d already had.

He wasn’t one to back out so easily, though, and the three of them hashed out new ways to approach the situation. The solution they found was a surprisingly straight-forward one since he simply reset his location to show him as being somewhere in Amity Park. 

The effect was instantaneous, his computer’s screen filling up as he got a huge influx of information about ghosts, their attacks, the town’s safety procedures such as drills and everything else that had previously been inaccessible. From the amount of incidents and how long they dated back, it was clear to Bruce that this was something that the Justice League should have gotten involved with when it first happened over a year ago. They should have gotten informed that something akin to the large-scale attacks that happened on their own cities was happening in Amity Park, and they definitely should’ve noticed it long before the meager three months ago they’d started investigating the town.

If Bruce had looked into it, maybe he would have noticed Danny long before things got to this point. Before his son had to reach out for help because he couldn’t handle the mess by himself.

“Father, we will be landing within half an hour, have you learned anything new?” Damian asked even as he continued to monitor the gauges in front of him. Bruce hummed a bit before turning to his son.

His son who hadn’t told him about his twin brother until Bruce had to question him about it. Bruce should have known that Talia would be capable of hiding another child from him.

He never should have trusted her. He’d loved her so much during their time together, but her loyalty had always been to her father.

Her loyalty was to the League of Assassins.

Truthfully, he admired her for it, but at the same time, hated her just as much.

“The town is plagued by ghosts,” Bruce started talking, drawing the attention of both his sons to him. “According to what I’ve found so far, there are ghost attacks nearly every day and the articles claim the ghost hunters are the main force in trying to stop them.” He paused, taking in Tim’s open interest and Damian’s carefully hidden concern about the town’s situation. Bruce sucked in a breath, mind racing with all the information he’d gathered by himself before thinking back on everything his new son had said. He continued; tone serious so they’d know this was the most relevant part. “Danyal had a different story to tell.”

“What do you mean?” Tim asked as the plane shook slightly due to turbulence. Damian kept his eyes on the cockpit’s monitors, body tense and ready to assist his brother. The shaking stopped and his youngest turned to him, eyes intense as he waited for the rest of Bruce’s story. 

“I spoke with him earlier today. He said that most of the damage that occurs during ghost attacks is caused by the ghost hunters themselves, instead of the ghosts’ fighting. This leads me to believe that there is much more to the story than just what we can find online,” Bruce said, gaze on the clouds that were passing by. “I also think he knows far more about whatever is going on than most. Or at the very least, he has access to more information than most. His account showed a side of this story that isn’t being told in reports or news stories.”

“Will Danyal be coming back with us?” Damian asked what had been on his mind since he’d gotten roped into this ordeal, his heart torn on whether he wanted his twin, someone so closely related to his past, interacting with his new family.

He figured that if he had to deal with a new brother, he’d rather it be one he was already acquainted with. He knew that Danyal wasn’t much one to start fights unprompted, unlike some of his new brethren, but Damian had always lived in his twin’s shadow, especially so after his death. Those next years within the League were a constant struggle as Damian kept being compared to a dead boy, never managing to live up to his brother’s accomplishments. Danyal’s death had been a dark cloud hovering over him, highlighting each of his failures to Grandfather’s and Mother’s eyes.

He hated it.

“Danyal has a family here,” Bruce said as he looked up more articles on the town’s ghost hunters. Specifically, the ones that Danny was currently living with. A year ago, there was a news article published about the Fentons claiming they had opened a portal to another world right in their basement. They said the doorway led into a place known as the Ghost Zone.

Bruce sighed. He really didn’t like the sound of that and hoped that it was all just an exaggeration.

He had a feeling though, that his hopes would not be met. That these people had put his son in real danger and likely didn’t even notice it.

Suddenly an alert popped up on his phone, indicating some new development was happening in Amity.

Danny had been rushed to the hospital after passing out in his living room. Bruce felt like the ground had been pulled out from under him.

“Father?” Damian’s voice filtered in, but Bruce paid it no mind, eyes glued to his screen as he read through the alert again and again, hoping he’d read it wrong, hoping he wasn’t too late to save his son.

Please, don’t let me be late again.

Talia felt herself reach for a weapon when Danyal collapsed. She wanted so badly to just put a new hole in one of the Fenton parents. At least Jack seemed somewhat upset that Danny hadn’t told them that he hadn’t gone to school. That he hadn’t been feeling well.

But Maddie, on the other hand, was ready to punish her son with everything she had.

Talia understood what had likely happened at that moment.

Danyal seemed accustomed to the Fenton parents being angry with him and looked like he could normally deal with that. However, he wasn’t used to Talia’s own displays of emotion. Not like with the Fentons or anyone else that wasn’t connected to the League. From his body’s reaction, she knew that it was likely just an influx of panic. Pondering a bit more about it, she could draw a conclusion about the extreme reaction her son had suffered.

Seeing her during a moment of reproach, especially when Talia knew she hadn’t been outwardly controlling her anger that well, was likely to have resurfaced some of the bad memories every Assassin trainee acquired after failing or disappointing their teachers. A graduated Assassin would, of course, been trained out of flinching during the reproaches, but Danyal had been gone from the League for a long time, perhaps too long to properly handle what he’d once been able to breeze through.

Regardless, Talia’s present bubbling anger was not directed at her child. No, she felt a deep rage at the Fentons for immediately assuming the worst of her baby. Danyal was such a good boy. Granted, he’d had too much of a soft spot for the League standards, despite being excellent at most missions he’d been tasked, but that was a trait Talia always overlooked, unlike the rest of the League or her Father, who’d tried to beat it out of him. In fact, seeing his new life showed her that no matter how much the world, herself included, tried to destroy his soft heart, Danyal would persevere. Her son was so much stronger than they’d realized, something they’d always considered weakness might be his greatest asset, and Talia’s heart overflowed with love, as well as shame.

She’d never deserved her son, either of them, despite her best efforts to be a good mother and raise them for all the greatness they were owed. There was nothing she could do about that now, though. Instead, she focused on the matter at hand.

“Did he tell you anything?” Talia asked the Fentons as she watched the medics strap up the teenager, doing her best to keep her voice controlled. Maddie wasn’t going anywhere near him again. Not if Talia had anything to say about it.

Guilt did funny things to people when they knew that they were the ones in the wrong. She knew that from many personal experiences. She’d never say that to anyone but herself though.

The EMTs had Danny loaded in the back of the ambulance, but unlike the normal procedure, they never asked about anyone riding with them. Talia had made sure that her people had gone undercover and taken over her son’s transportation. Her plan was a simple one this time.

Danny would go to the hospital first. She would ensure that he was recommended to stay there for a long time, far from those pathetic Fentons and close to where she could keep an eye on him. Then, she would get in contact with her Beloved.

She would tell him the truth, that they had two kids together, instead of just the one he knew about. She would reveal that Damian’s twin was alive and had been living a normal life in Amity Park.

And lastly, she would allow Danyal to decide when to tell the Bat about his own powers. After all, even if she was about to send her son to live with the greatest detective alive, he should be permitted to decide when to reveal such a secret. Besides, knowing he’d been playing hero as Phantom, she was sure he would want to help in Batman’s territory, just like Damian, and revealing his powers would certainly help him accompany Robin and the Dark Knight.

Danyal’s town may not have been as bad as Gotham City in terms of psychotic uncontrolled rogues that caused mass-fatalities, but at least Gotham had the bare-minimum of respect for her heroes.

Amity Park, on the other hand, was trying to end her sole hero, and Talia would not let that stand. Even if she had to burn this wretched city to the ground, she’d make sure Danyal was met with the dignity he was owed. Her son deserved to live somewhere people didn’t fear or loathe such an integral part of him.

“Danny’s been taken to the hospital,” Bruce whispered. The statement caused Tim and Damian to straighten up in their seats, eyes wide with alarm. He avoided their eyes, feeling powerless in a way only his children could make him feel, and focused on the cockpit’s displays. They would be landing soon.

“What for?” Damian demanded, voice thick with emotion and he glanced back at his son. His eyes were bright, eyebrows set in determination and Bruce was struck at how much protectiveness Damian was exuding. He seemed ready to burn down cities for his brother. For once, Tim was the most controlled one, having switched back from alertness to simply watching him, a Robin waiting for instructions. Bruce took in a deep breath. He wasn’t alone.

“I don’t know yet. He was taken by ambulance,” Bruce said, as he read through the report again, trying to find any new hidden information between the lines. It was frustratingly short.

“Hey, uh, B?” Tim cut in as a ping sounded from the computer. Bruce looked up to see his son’s face filled with wariness, and he felt reluctant to know what happened, unsure if he could take anything else right now.

“What now?” he asked anyway.

“Talia’s contacted the cave looking for you,” Tim said as he pointed at the computer screen showing an incoming call from Talia Al Ghul. Bruce sighed. If she hadn’t been the cause of the current crisis, he would have ignored it.

“I’ll take it,” He stated, already standing up and heading towards the back of the plane. He didn’t want either of his kids to hear what he had to say to her.

At the end of the day, she was still Damian’s mother.

He locked the door and closed his eyes, taking a moment to compose himself from all of the day’s turmoil before answering.

“Hello, Talia. To what do I owe this surprise?” He began with false casualness, not wanting her to catch this early on that he was aware of Danyal’s existence, just in case she hadn’t figured it out yet. Knowing his former lover, she might already have an inkling, but it was always safer to have the upper hand in information when dealing with any of the Al Ghuls.

“Hello, Beloved.” Talia’s voice sounded uncharacteristically meek, and Bruce braced himself for whatever was to come next, “I have…some information I believe you may find interesting.” He could hear occasional beeping and rushed voices passing by in the background.

It seemed Talia was with Danyal at the hospital. She may even be the reason he was sent there to begin with.

“What are you talking about?” Bruce would play the ignorant card and see where this was going for now. Even through the phone’s slight distortion, he managed to hear it crystal clear as Talia sucked in a breath before gulping, another unusual display of nervousness. It hackled his feathers. Something was up and Bruce wasn’t sure if he should trust anything she said next.

“Damian has a twin.” She stated, curt and straight to the point. Another alarm rang in his head. Talia wasn’t one to simply hand out information, not for no reason at least. She was planning something here.

“How do I know you’re telling the truth, and this will not just be another clone you’ve sent to kill us?” He accused, knowing that was still a possibility. Bruce would hate himself if it was true, but he’d hate himself even more if they acted with that in mind and it turned out that Danyal was not a clone.

“Because he’s hurt and I-,” She paused, and when her voice came back it was full of vulnerable resignation, as well as frustration, “I can’t protect him, not from this.” She finished, and the admission had Bruce believing there was something Danny hadn’t told him about. Something that maybe Talia had already figured out.

He hated that his conversation with Danyal had been so short. They kept finding new layers to this whole situation, too much unknown was happening at once, and Bruce wasn’t sure what to do beyond what they already were. His investigative instincts took over though, and he readied himself to fish out more information out of her without giving any of his away.

“What do you mean by hurt? And what exactly is it that he needs protection from?”

“He’s been sent to Amity General Hospital. It’s in Amity Park, Illinois. Apparently, he was not feeling well and did not go to school today.” Bruce already knew this from their conversation over the hacked computer, Danny hadn’t wanted to see his mother there, so he’d skipped. He couldn’t blame his son for doing so. “He needs protection from his adopted parents.”

Bruce felt his heart drop. He searched his brain from what he’d seen and heard of the boy. Danny hadn’t shown any signs that his parents were hurting him, or even that there might be a problem, but Bruce had been distracted by everything else happening during their call. He knew that they were neglectful, had concluded that by himself over what he’d found online, but if Talia was calling him about how dangerous they were to Danny...

Then, the greatest detective had missed something.

“Why?” he prodded, voice tight as his mind reeled from having missed something crucial, something that might endanger Danyal. He wanted to know more, needed to know more to properly protect his son. 

“That’s not my secret to tell.” Talia hung up and Bruce took a breath that did nothing to calm him before slamming the phone on the ground.

Danny groaned as he came to; eyelids and body feeling heavier than usual. Moving a bit in his bed, which was more uncomfortable than he remembered, Danny tried blinking the fogginess away. The small movements of his body quickly made him notice his state. Everything felt sore. Moreso than usual, like it did after one of the harder fights, but he didn’t recall having recently clashed with any of the more powerful ghosts. The last thing he remembered…

Panic.

Suffocating and overwhelming panic.

The realization had him alert in a split-second, shooting up from the pillows and looking around for any threats. Despite now remembering he’d been in his living room before fainting, Danny found himself in a hospital bed, though thankfully he wasn’t wearing one of those awful gowns. That thought was barely a comfort though, and he couldn’t keep his breathing from quickening.

“It’s okay,” A voice whispered from nearby, causing Danny to jump off the bed, twisting around to find the speaker. Talia looked down at him, expression almost looking soft. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Why am I here?” He demanded, eyes wandering around to check for any details and potential threats, but never quite losing sight of the assassin before him. He knew better than to let his guard down around her. He found nothing, the only thing of notice being that this was a private room and neither of his adoptive parents were present, even though they’d been there before he blacked out. “Where are they?”

“The police officers had quite a few questions for them due to your condition when you were brought in,” his mother provided, faux innocence on her face. He narrowed his eyes, not bothering to conceal his wariness. She sighed, seemingly resigned that he wouldn’t comply without some answers, before admitting, “I may have pulled some strings to have you listed as Danyal al Ghul in your paperwork. I needed to buy some time.”

“Why would you do that?” His breath came out shaky. He felt blindsided by this new development, different emotions battling inside him before he settled on anger. There likely went his little ghost hunter plan, since his mother’s interference would mess up everything he’d carefully prepared. Perhaps using his old name was a mistake, but it didn’t matter at this moment.

“To prevent the Fentons from being able to barge in. They won’t be able to find you if the name listed isn’t one they know,” Talia walked around the bed to the other side, getting closer to Danny as she spoke. When the distance became too short for Danny’s comfort, he took a few steps back, hands curled up in trembling fists by his sides. His mother stopped, and he had a passing thought that her hawk-eyes had probably spotted some of the panic he felt creeping up. Talia, on the other hand, focused on avoiding getting her son spooked. As he presented signs that he was more than ready to bolt out of there, it felt like she’d need to coax him as one did to wounded wild animals, especially now that she knew simple concrete walls were not enough to keep him inside a room.

“I’ve called Bruce.” She started, going for a placating tone, “He should be here within the next few hours.” Danny’s head tilted as he looked at her, brows furrowed in thought before he realized something.

Talia didn’t know that he’d already done that.

That Bruce should be here within the hour.

“Why?”

“The Fentons are a threat to you. A threat I will not allow to go unchecked any longer.” He narrowed his eyes, anger rising once again at the dismissive tone she used to talk about his parents. As if he’d never been hurt by her during his time in the League, as if she had any right to judge how his new family treated him.

“That you won’t allow?” He hissed. She didn’t even have the decency to look guilty for coming here, to his town, with his family, and wanting to destroy everything he’d built so far. No, her face remained calm even as the air turned a bit chilly, his powers buzzing under his skin wanting to be let loose. “What do think you know about them or about me, to be meddling here? While you’ve been apart from me for years, the Fentons have been there for me, they’ve-”

“I know you’re Phantom,” Talia interrupted, and the fight drained out of him just as fast as his body entered hyperalert mode. Danny felt frozen to the spot, mind running wild trying to make sense of how she’d figured it out, how … how could she possibly know that when he’d been hiding it for so long, from everyone, from his own parents…

He didn’t want her to know that. Really, he didn’t want anyone to know about it. He’d considered telling Bruce, just for a moment during their conversation, but in the end, he couldn’t.

It was too dangerous.

He couldn’t risk it. Getting rejected for being Phantom, especially by the people he cared for, was one of his greatest fears.

And despite sharing such fear, despite letting such vulnerability be seen, he’d only ever gotten brushed off when he talked about it. Over and over, being told that such a thing would never happen, even though he knew it was very much a possibility.

“What?” Danny tried to think of how he wanted to handle this. He had all these plans for when he’d meet his mother, but none of them came to mind. He felt lost. Getting his secret outed by his mother had shaken him, he couldn’t even muster up enough energy to pretend or brush off her statement.

“You’re a lot more like your father than I thought,” The culprit of his spiraling emotions spoke up again, putting her hands up as if to soothe him from where she stood, to little effect. “I’ve already made plenty of mistakes when it comes to you and your brother. This…I never thought it would be possible. I thought…I believed you had been killed in the Chemo attack. I wondered for years if it hadn’t been Ra’s plan to kill you before you ever made it to your father’s home,” Talia paused, gaze intent on his face before she dropped another bomb in a matter of minutes. “Ra’s knew about the attack.”

“He what?” Danny whispered, eyes wide in disbelief.

“At that time, I hoped that you would still make your way to Gotham. When Bruce never contacted me, and I heard nothing about you or the guards…I looked for your body in the wreckage. I wanted to bury something of yours. I hoped that something had survived,” Talia explained, slowly taking a step forward. She took it as a good sign that Danny didn’t back away.

“Grandfather knew that he was sending me into an attack?” Danny repeated, feeling a surge of anger. This one was different than before, a deep-seated fury mixed with betrayal from the man he’d once admired.

“You…” Talia sighed, avoiding his eyes for the first time since he’d woken up. “You were asking too much, questioning him and his decisions, and that made him angry.” Danny looked down, trying to quell his emotions and Talia saw it as her chance to take another step forward.

It had been so long since she’d been able to hug her son. Last time he’d been eight, just right before he’d left on that fated mission. She had given him a tight hug, not really wanting to let go. Talia knew he’d only let her because he thought she was being sentimental about his move into Bruce’s, unaware that she was fearing for his life instead.

“You knew what the League was sending me into as well,” Danny practically growled in a low voice, and as he turned his head back up, she found herself getting glared at by toxic green eyes. The hairs on her skin stood on ends, every instinct she’d been cultivating for years was telling her something dangerous was lurking here, a bigger predator. The room temperature drastically dropped, and Talia could now see her breath fogging before her. She focused on trying not to shiver even as she maintained eye contact with her son. His voice had traces of static when he spoke again. “You were part of it. You also happily sent me to my death when I was just a kid. It doesn’t matter that I didn’t die in Blüdhaven.”

“But you’re here now,” Talia said, and Danny’s hand lit up with energy. It was pointless at this point to pretend that Talia didn’t know about Phantom.

Danny let out a humorless laugh. “You think I became Phantom because I’m not dead.” He grinned, something feral and mean in it and Talia felt her heart drop at what he might say next. “I’ve been dead since last year, when a portal to another dimension opened on top of me,” he took a step forward. Talia watched the anger guide him. It wasn’t unlike that of the Lazarus Pit.

She wondered briefly if the Pits weren’t connected to the so-called Ghost Zone.

“I’m sorry,” she admitted, feeling genuine regret. “I wish there was something else I could’ve done to help. That things never came to that.”

“You should have sent me and my brother to our father sooner,” Danny stretched one hand and blue energy appeared there, a beautiful and hypnotic swirl right on the palm of his hand that, as time passed by, took on a more solid shape. A few seconds later, a sleek and elegant sword was resting in her son’s hand. Talia took a big step backwards. The thing had a layer of mist above its blade, radiating bone-chilling cold even from afar, and most importantly, feeling like it’d been soaked in death energy. “I should not have to pay for your failure.”

“You’re right, you shouldn’t. But let me help now,” Talia pleaded, risking a step forward only for Danyal to point the sword at her chest, right above her heart. Suddenly, the cold seemed to have increased ten-fold.

The tables were completely turned now that Danny was displaying his control over ice. She put her hands up in surrender.

“Then you can go live with him now. When he shows up, I’ll make sure that he is listed as your father. He can get you out,” Talia started making her case when something slammed at the hospital’s exterior, making the whole building shake. Danny’s head twisted around in confusion before a blue mist left his mouth and a figure jumped through one of the walls. Skulker aimed a shot at his mother, but Talia was quick at adapting and swiftly dodged it. Danny found himself protecting the woman he’d been threatening moments before, landing a big ecto-shot at the ghost’s chest that sent him phasing through the wall.

“Damnit,” Danny grunted out as he commanded familiar rings of light to form around his waist, letting his transformation into Phantom wash over him, before he floated up and glared at his mother. She seemed uninjured after the attack, face painted with confusion. “You threatened Vlad, and now he’s going to send as many ghosts as it takes to take you down. Skulker will only be the first, and he claims to be the Ghost Zone’s greatest hunter.”

Talia glared as Phantom disappeared through the wall, leaving her behind in an empty hospital room.

Unlike Bruce, she could not follow him.

She could not protect him from this.

Bruce finished putting his coat on, checking that the Batsuit‘s under armor was properly hidden underneath his civilian clothes, before hoisting up the bag that contained all other essential parts that wouldn’t be so simply concealed. He turned, seeing that Robin and Red Robin had similarly gotten ready. Their get-ups weren’t the most comfortable or stylish ones, but they needed to be prepared for any upcoming battles without attracting any unwanted attention. Not just yet.

“Amity General is only about two blocks down from this building,” Tim informed them as he adjusted the hat on his head. “It shouldn’t take us long.” Bruce nodded, and the trio stepped off the plane. They briefly stopped to check that the camouflage setting was working fine and that their hiding spot was secure before heading in the hospital’s direction. They didn’t make it two steps before something crashed at their feet.

“Oh, don’t mind me, just dropping by,” a young voice spoke up, before the person stood up, dusting a bit at their knees. The teenager, he looked too young to be anything else, paid them no mind as green energy lit up around his body and he blasted into the sky. Damian tracked the trajectory with his eyes, watching with newfound interest when he noticed another figure floating up high, this one seemingly sporting a metallic body along with floating green hair. As the white-haired ghost reached him, said metal man raised a sword and swiped at the younger one. The scene had something click in Damian’s mind.

“That’s Phantom?” He sneered, crossing his arms, and raising an eyebrow to get across to his companions how unimpressed he was with the so-called town’s hero. Phantom’s movements were barely passable of what one would use in a brawl, and he came off as too impatient and impulsive, launching himself seemingly without any strategy besides landing a few hits on his opponent. Damian could barely recall having seen such an atrocious fight before, and he was about to prompt his Father into heading to the hospital when Phantom flipped around in the air.

Truthfully, it looked a bit stilted and awkward, as if the action wasn’t meant to be done mid-flight in the first place, and Damian would have brushed it off if it hadn’t been one he was intimately familiar with. If it hadn’t been a League move. Damian’s arms dropped to his sides as he gaped at Phantom, and he watched as the hero used the move to gain the upper hand, landing on the ghost’s metal shoulders and firing a green blast on their head. The metal-man's head flew off and before it could drift too far, Phantom had reached inside the armor and produced something green and small, the thing squeaking the whole time before it was sucked inside a cylindrical container. Phantom kept floating, chest going up and down as he seemed to catch his breath, before turning around and flying straight through the hospital’s outer wall.

Broken off from his shock, Damian turned to his father, whose face was likely a mirror of his, mouth set and eyes narrowed in thought. It was all the confirmation Damian needed to know that he’d also recognized the move Phantom used.

“Seems like there’s a lot more information that we need to find now. I’ll track down Talia first.” His father’s eyes looked back at the spot where the teenage ghost had disappeared into, probably trying to figure out which room that was.

After another moment, Bruce headed towards the hospital, set on getting some answers.

Talia was stepping into the lobby when the sight of a certain someone made her pause. Bruce was standing there, in one of his less expensive clothes to blend in with the other people milling about. With his arms crossed and his back to the wall, Bruce’s eyes had been sweeping the area with a calculating look before she’d entered, the movement causing him to turn his intense gaze towards her. Surprise at the unexpected encounter made her pinned to the spot. 

“I didn’t think…” she started; eyes wide as she struggled to comprehend how he’d gotten here so fast. The words died down when the culprit became clear, and her shoulders drooped slightly. “He’d already called you before I did, is that it?”

“Yes.” Bruce walked up to her; eyebrows set on his typical no-nonsense frown. He didn’t waste any time before getting straight to the point, “What did you mean about his adoptive parents being a threat?”

Talia crossed her arms, contemplating how much to tell. She settled on leaving the choice to Danyal.

“He’s in room thirty-seven.” Two figures walked closer, drawing her attention from her Beloved. She did a once-over Damian’s body, barely sparing a glance at the Drake child. Her son appeared uninjured, face perhaps a bit tired but otherwise healthy. She noted with a sad heart how he’d grown another couple inches since she’d last checked on him from afar, and quelled down any urge to hug him again, focusing on keeping her composure instead.

Talia was aware that she’d long ago lost her chance at giving him the proper affection and care, even more so now that everything involving Danyal’s departure from the League would come to light. She had raised her sons to never forgive betrayal, not even if it came from their own mother.

Bruce cleared his throat, and she looked back with a raised eyebrow. “It has to do with Phantom and the fact that his adoptive parents are ghost hunters,” he inquired, and Talia nodded, knowing he wouldn’t let her go without some sort of answer first.

“I’m going to pull back my operatives. Had I known…I wouldn’t…” Talia trailed off. Truthfully, even if she’d known her son was here, she wouldn't have changed much, except perhaps she’d try to recruit Danyal instead. Perhaps, that would’ve been worse. Either way, she wasn’t one to dwell too much on what ifs. “He doesn’t need me. But I do believe that he needs you.”

Bruce gave her a curt nod, clearly done with the conversation. Her Beloved had probably memorized the hospital’s floor plan beforehand since his steps didn’t falter as he made the trek to Danyal’s room. The previous Robin followed along, never once fully turning his back to her, watching her with narrowed eyes until he turned a corner and disappeared. Damian stared at her for a moment longer, eyes filled with different emotions despite the calm facade, but soon enough he sent her a glare full of distrust, the kind he’d learned as a kid and she’d always been proud of when he’d used on others, before also leaving her behind. Her eyes stayed glued on her son until he was gone, and only then, did she start heading out.

Right now, Talia had no moves she could execute that wouldn’t cause harm to her children. Even just her presence would likely further complicate the situation. As she walked towards the safe house she’d set up months prior to this whole mess, she realized the only thing she could do was hope that Bruce would save the day.

Once again.

Even if she wanted to be the one to save her son from the dangers of this town, she knew better than to try, since that bridge had already burned to the ground. As things stood between them, Danyal would never accept her help.

She could only hope that he would let the Bat help him instead.

Chapter Text

Runaway Assassin

Chapter Nine

Untold Souls

There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.

~Nelson Mandela

Danny sat on the hospital bed, finger tapping on one of his crossed legs as he glared down at his lap. The thermos he’d trapped Skulker in rested there, a heavy reminder of his situation. He couldn’t just vanish yet. For now, he was stuck here, especially now since Bruce had been called and told that Danny could be found in the hospital. Talia had once again meddled in his plans, but this time it was something that Danny hadn’t prepared for.

She knew about Phantom. It was the one thing he’d been avoiding, the one secret he didn’t want revealed to the League. And now, he was stuck here, unsure of what she’d do with the information. Danny wasn’t certain he could ever trust her again or if he could even do anything by himself about what she would plan, but he knew what his next step had to be. He needed help, desperately so.

He’d have to tell Bruce about Phantom. Danny’s fingers stilled and he tried swallowing down his nervousness. If it came to that, if he told his father and Bruce didn’t accept him...He wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle the rejection.

Someone knocked on the door and Danny startled, wincing a bit at having let his thoughts distract him from his surroundings. He stared at the door, buzzing with anticipation and dread as it slowly opened.

Bruce walked in. The man looked bigger than what Danny had expected based on their video call.

“Ah,” His voice drifted, unsure of how to address his visitor. Bruce might be his biological father, but he was also basically a stranger to him.

And Danny doubted he’d appreciate being referred to as Batman when he wasn’t wearing the mask.

“Hello, Danyal,” Bruce spared him the awkwardness by speaking first, although the man seemed distracted, looking over his shoulder. Danny found out why soon enough when Tim followed inside, sending him a comforting smile that had the desired effect for a whole second before Danny’s eyes fell on the last person to walk in.

Damian.

His brother stepped fully inside before softly closing the door behind him, only then turning his body to face the room. Damian’s movements were controlled and precise, his twin’s shoulders remaining straight as he walked to stand behind their father, and he had the spare thought that his twin had remained uptight even after moving in with the Wayne’s, before Danny was frozen on his spot. Damian had finally looked at him, those eyes he’d so dearly missed were looking at him, but Danny found nothing except a deep anger within.

Danny had struggled so much with wanting to see his brother again but knowing that it was more than likely that Damian would be upset at being left behind. He’d always wished he could’ve gone back and take his twin away but knew they would probably meet death instead of freedom in the escape attempt.

Even after gaining Phantom’s powers, Danny hadn’t been sure he would manage to rescue his brother from the League, but then he’d figured out Damian had become the newest Robin, just like Grandfather once planned for Danny, and suddenly, he wasn’t so certain of where his brother’s loyalties laid.

Would Damian be faithful to their father, or would he be playing the double agent like Ra’s wished? Danny couldn’t take the risk. Seeing that his brother was here now, he wanted to hope for the best and so he reached out first.

“Hi, Damian,” Danny greeted with a small wave only to get a sharper glare in return. He gulped a bit, unsure of where Damian actually stood with the family or if Damian thought he was a problem that they’d have to deal with.

“Hello, Danyal. It’s been a while,” his brother greeted back after a moment, with that same air of arrogance the Al Ghul’s wore proudly but that grated a little at Danny’s nerves now.

“Yeah, it has.” His response was bland, as he pondered how to tread around the boy he’d once been the closest to. A glance at the side showed him that Bruce and Tim were looking between them as if expecting a fight to break. A stiff silence settled in the room and Danny was reeling a bit from the awkwardness. 

“Talia called,” Bruce broke the quiet, and Danny nodded at the statement, now completely looking at the ground. He wasn’t sure he was ready to face the man yet. “Your mother said she was worried about your parents hurting you. And that I needed to get the information from you.”

His head snapped up in surprise. Talia had told…he swallowed the lump at his throat and looked over the other two. Damian was trying to pretend he was a bit lost about the conversation while Tim simply stood there, eyes glued to Danny’s face. Red Robin looked ready to analyze every one of Danny’s reactions, but he didn’t seem surprised, more like he was expecting there to be more to Danny’s stories.

Tim tilted his head to the side and pointed a finger. Danny’s head looked down, following the direction to the thermos lying on his lap. Goosebumps settled on his skin as Danny realized where this conversation was going.

“Earlier when we talked,” Bruce took a step forward, hesitating slightly beside him before continuing, “I asked if you knew who Phantom was.” Danny couldn’t help it, he shrunk on himself, hoping the man would stop his questioning but Bruce only took it as a cue to gently rest a hand on his shoulder. The action brought no comfort and his heart picked up the pace instead. When it was clear he wouldn’t speak, Bruce prompted him again, “Danny?”

“I…I can’t,” Danny barely had the strength to whisper, trembling as he found himself unable to force the words out. Bruce finally realized the state he was in and kneeled before him.

“You don’t have to.” His father’s hand gently turned his body before he was pulled into an encompassing hug. Danny tensed for a second, but Bruce was so warm and big, and Danny hadn’t felt such safety since Jack Fenton had stopped giving him bear-hugs, so despite his wariness Danny felt himself relaxing into the embrace. His father continued talking with a soft voice, “I don’t need you to say anything, just know that I will do whatever it takes to protect you.”

Danny sucked in a breath and Bruce held just a little tighter. He wrapped his own arms around the man, and Bruce’s fierce protection was practically tangible. He wondered if this was simply the Batman’s instincts showing up, while on the other hand, Bruce was vowing to himself he’d never let any of his children get hurt again. Damian had never been a fan of hugs or any sort of unsolicited physical touches, not even for comfort, so Bruce was feeling relieved Danny hadn’t pushed him away. He couldn’t stand the thought of leaving his kids hurting, not if he could do anything about it.

Even if it was only something as small as giving out a hug.

The moment was broken as they heard screaming. 

“Where is my son?!” Someone shouted from the hallway and Danny’s whole body winced before scurrying away. His son was back to trembling slightly, eyes wide as he stared at the door.

“Ma’am, we don’t have anyone checked in under that name,” a feminine voice was saying, one of the nurses that had been at the lobby if Bruce was remembering correctly. He turned to his other sons, and at his nod Tim walked outside. Bruce shifted Danny slightly, getting him out of the hallway’s line of sight while simultaneously shielding his son with his own body. His efforts proved necessary when he spotted a woman in a teal hazmat suit rushing by followed by a group of nurses trying to stop her. Her red hair had been disheveled and the goggles at her forehead added to the messy look.

“This is the only hospital he could be at!” The woman shouted again, a bit farther this time. Bruce turned to address Damian, only to find that his son was examining Danyal’s clothes with a calculating look. He glanced at himself next, and Bruce didn’t need to be a detective to know his son was considering switching places with his twin. He shook his head, cutting the boy’s plan before he even voiced it.

It wouldn’t be a good idea to use that trick right now.

“Talia said I was under the name Danyal al Ghul,” Danny said weakly, and Bruce turned back to him. His eyes were still wide, and his lower lip trembled as he watched another nurse rush by. “Talia, she…she knows...that…” Danny couldn’t say it.

It was too much. He didn’t want to explain the accident, and he didn’t want to tell anyone. He wasn’t even sure how to.

“That’s okay,” his father said while standing up. “I looked over the hospital records, and while I’m not exactly happy about what she did, it does protect our identities and give us a way to get you out of here without too much fuss.”

Danny let out a breath as he looked down at the room’s cold tiles. Maddie’s shouts were fading now, and he felt like he could breathe a bit better, although a heavy weight sat at his heart. He’d been so confident before, and now he wasn’t sure about the path he’d chosen. He’d had plans, sure, but now, should he put them into action? Could he even go through with them?

Actually seeing things unfold was a completely different thing than simply imagining everything that could go right or wrong during his plotting.

“We should leave,” Tim suggested as he grabbed Danny’s chart by the end of the bed after walking back into the room. His eyebrows soon rose with surprise, “Talia thought you had a panic attack?”

“Yeah,” Danny whispered as he gathered his things, not that he had much in the first place. A folded coat by the bedside table and the thermos with Skulker were soon bundled up in his hands. His mom’s shouts gained strength once more, and it took everything in him not to yell back that he was fine.

Maddie was still his mom. He knew that they cared about him, but he wasn’t confident that’d be enough right now.

It never seemed enough, not really, not even before. That’s why he never told them about the portal or his powers. Deep down, Danny knew he was afraid of them.

Over the years, he’d come to learn that the Fentons were fine with the concept of meta-powered people, they even talked excitedly about them a lot, but if Danny looked a bit closer, if he actually listened to what they said, then there were more than just a few times where his parents had talked about metas with the tone they reserved for studying ecto-entities. Those few occurrences made him realize that Maddie and Jack, in fact, believed metas might be ghosts in disguise and he’d listened firsthand one night about all the ways they wanted to try and prove that theory.

It scared him far more than he was ever going to admit.

“Danny-boy?” Suddenly, Jack’s voice joined his mom’s in the hallway. His parents’ nicknames for him always had him feeling lost, the love he felt in their voices almost outweighing his fear of them. His dad’s calls turned fainter as he walked by his door, and more people passed by after the man. Danny’s heart ached and he looked away from the door’s glass.

“They care,” Danny whispered, and Bruce looked down at the teen. He could see it too, how the Fentons were showing that they cared about his son.

But Bruce didn’t believe for a second that they cared enough to override their obvious hatred of ghosts. He could see at a glance how much damage that their bigotry had caused his son, and the fact that Danny wasn’t going to give them the full answer about Phantom only added to that belief. Bruce knew that he might not win any parenting awards, but he did his best in making it crystal clear that his kids could trust him when things went wrong. And he liked to think that they would come to him if something like this happened.

In fact, he knew that they could come to him when in trouble and that he’d try his hardest to help them. They’ve done it many times already over the years. Sometimes, they’d told him about things that they were struggling with, others about situations that were troubling them and a few times…they’d simply come seeking for a safe spot. Bruce had many regrets, but he felt most proud of the fact that, at the very least, his kids knew they were safe with him.

“Okay,” Bruce whispered back, not wanting to take that away from Danyal. He would do everything in his power to ensure his son’s safety, but he didn’t want to meddle in such a delicate area and end up harming the relationships Danny had forged in this town.

Not without knowing everything.

“So, how do we get out of here with Danny without letting the Fentons know?” Tim asked as he set Danny’s chart down. “Cause, it looks like Talia had her people admit Danny and sort things out so that the Fentons couldn’t just come in here and immediately take him away. Talia set it up so we would get here first.”

“Mother wanted us to get Danyal. She wanted us to take him from this city,” Damian concluded as he watched his twin closely. Danny was still staring at the ground. Bruce grimaced slightly, wishing he could do more to help his son even as the shouting slowly died down. He felt Damian’s eyes land on his face and quickly schooled his features, before taking a step towards the door.

“We should get out of here first,” Bruce stated, eyes outside for a moment before turning to his son. “Danny, is there a place we can stay without notice?”

“Yeah, the building behind Fentonworks is something that I got ahold of. It’s actually listed as part of Fentonworks, but my parents never realized it was theirs. I made sure that they never noticed so I could store some of the things I didn’t want them to know about. I never told them about my past…I think Alicia knew something was up, but never…” Danny trailed off unsure of how to proceed. How much of the story he should tell them. How much he should trust them.

“Alright, let’s get out of here and strategize about next steps,” Bruce said as he grabbed his phone and typed into it. The Bat-plane was still hovering over where they’d left it, but they wouldn’t be able to keep it there for long. Especially not if they ended up staying longer in Amity Park.

He glanced up just in time to see as a fog left Danny’s mouth, his son tensing up and turning to the window.

“What was that?” Tim’s voice was alarmed, proving Bruce hadn’t been the only one to see it. By his side, Damian started reaching down to where he’d concealed his sword, and just like Bruce, his eyes were glued to Danny’s spot. Bruce watched as he quickly closed his eyes, inhaling a deep breath, and when he let it out his shoulders were set straight, blue eyes looking out the window in determination.

“I need-” Danny took a step towards the window. “There’s a ghost.” When he took another, Bruce grabbed his arm. The protest on the tip of his tongue died out, though, when Danny turned back his head and Bruce found himself staring into glowing green eyes.

This answered without a doubt the mystery of who the town’s hero was. Danny was Phantom.

Which gave a whole other meaning to Talia’s call and what she’d been implying when she said they needed to protect Danny from his parents, the ghost hunters with an open hatred for anything ghostly. It was why she’d asked Bruce to take their son from here in the first place. And upon this revelation, it took everything in Bruce not to proclaim that they were all immediately going back to Gotham, and just take his son away from the dangers Amity Park posed. Instead, Bruce focused on the matters at hand.

“Give your shirt to Damian,” he ordered, unconsciously slipping into his Batman voice. The three of them had managed to slip in, and now they needed to get ‘Danny’ out of the hospital. Preferably without the Fentons realizing it.

Damian and Danny looked similar enough in terms of body type that they could pass as each other, but only at a glance, anything more and their differences would have people staring, asking themselves if this was the right person.

Despite his apparent confusion, with just a few movements, Danny had taken his shirt off and handed it to Damian. Danny looked slightly antsy, and Bruce was quick to explain, nodding his head while he tried to appease the boy.

“We’ll meet you behind that storage unit in fifteen minutes. Do not be late,” He said those last words sternly, and Danny nodded once before vanishing into thin air. Damian had finished slipping his brother’s shirt on and now turned to his father.

“Are you certain about this?” He questioned, straightening the shirt while feeling somewhat annoyed at how it fit over his Robin suit. He glanced back up to see his father staring at the window with narrowed eyes.

“Not entirely. We still need answers, but I’m afraid that if we push Danyal too much, he’ll shut down and isolate himself. Then, we wouldn’t get any of the answers we want, but most importantly,” Bruce replied in a low tone as he put a hand on Damian’s shoulder and led them out of the room, waving a hand to get the nurse’s attention. He glanced down and could see the same fire in him reflected in Damian’s eyes, “I’m ready to take my son home now.”

Phantom slammed his body into Plasmius, sending them both flying into an abandoned building. His opponent rolled a few times before landing on his feet. The older man glared when he found that Phantom already had a sword in his hand and was steadying himself for a fight.

“Ah…Daniel,” Plasmius started as he dusted himself off, but froze when the tip of the sword was suddenly at his throat. He gulped, quickly realizing his mistake before correcting himself, “Danyal, then.”

“What do you want?” He hissed, keeping the blade steady even as Plasmius reached up and nudged it away. Phantom let him but kept his weight even. It wouldn’t take much for him to stab Plasmius if he pressed forward. If he pushed his advantage.

“Miss Tate has left. She said that she was no longer interested in helping,” Plasmius scowled. “She refused to give me a refund for her services since you showed up and ruined everything.”

“You’re lucky she let you keep your life, you creep.” Phantom growled, dropping the sword’s tip a bit lower. The other ghost rolled his shoulders before staring down at him. Phantom was ready to end this, so he went straight to the point, “Why are you here?”

“I heard about a new ghost hunter. I’ve heard he made a sort of deal with you,” Plasmius declared, and Phantom took a moment to remember what the fruitloop was even talking about.

Oh yeah. He’d nearly forgotten about that little plan he’d spurred into action just in case. That felt like ages ago.

“Al Ghul?” Phantom kept face blank. He needed to play this well. Plasmius grinned.

“Yes, a new player in town suddenly turns up at the same time your mother appears. She wouldn’t happen to know about…your unique status, would she?” The vampire-wannabe asked with a threatening edge to his voice. The teen narrowed his eyes and discreetly adjusted the grip on the sword in case he needed to strike.

“What would it be to you?” He gave a vague answer and in a split-second Plasmius had launched himself forward. He responded in kind, swiping the sharp blade at the older halfa’s abdomen, and the wound was enough to get him to back away. Plasmius wrapped an arm around his torso, trying to prevent any more ectoplasm from leaking out.

“Because if she knows, then I’ll do everything I can to destroy you,” Plasmius growled. “You will not be telling anyone about me.” His hand lit up with pink energy and Phantom twisted away while swiping at him. The other ghost screamed as his blade found a mark, he could see a new cut appearing on his opponent’s arm even as he dodged Plasmius’ blast.

“You won’t. You don’t have the power or control you think you do,” Phantom warned, before twisting around in the air to aim his own blast. The older halfa dived out of the way by throwing himself on the ground, arm moving a bit to reveal that his middle was steadily healing.

Phantom touched down on the floor, his steps deliberately slow as he walked over to the fallen ghost. He towered over him, sword now pointing down at his neck.

“Lucky shot,” Plasmius huffed, the sound interrupted when Phantom stepped on his stomach, pressing down on the wound. A startled groan escaped the man, and he twisted a bit, trying to get away from under his foot.

“None of this is luck. This is all skill,” Phantom said, voice gaining that menacing tone he’d spent years in the League training to nail. He found it came to him naturally in this moment. “I’ve been holding back for a while now. Listen closely. You will not say a single thing about me, or what has happened to me. If you hurt any of my friends or family, I will come for you, and I will end you.” He leaned forward, putting more weight on the wound until he heard Plasmius groan louder. “And there will be nothing you can do to stop me.”

Phantom vanished and Plasmius finally felt like he could get air back in his lungs. He gasped some more, the ground hard under his back. His mind caught up to what happened. No, he’d simply been caught off guard this time. A pained grunt left his throat as he rolled over to his side. Phantom had taken him down so quickly. He gulped. The boy could have killed him if he wanted to. Plasmius gently pulled his hand away and looked down.

Had he been human, that strike would have killed him.

Plasmius glanced back to where Phantom had vanished. He knew Daniel and the boy wouldn’t hurt anyone.

Danyal on the other hand was an unknown player. One he planned on either getting fully on his side or ending him.

He ignored the little part of him that told him to run.

Danny rushed back, only stopping once he’d reached the door to the storage garage. He could tell it had been tampered with. It was probably only Bruce and the others, but he was unsure. Danny didn’t want to go in.

He didn’t want any of this to be real. He wanted to go back to simply worrying about ghosts and avoiding his parents’ weapons. Danny leaned his head against the door and closed his eyes.

It all felt like too much right now. The stress was so much he was even feeling chilly as well. He blinked some before looking down. Oh.

He didn’t have a shirt right now. Danny took a deep breath as he opened the door. A quick look around let him know Tim was messing around with his computer setup while Damian looked over his bike.

On one of the far walls, Bruce was looking over his weapons display. His mouth was set in a disappointed frown as he stared at the sniper rifle near the front. Danny had made sure to properly put it back in its spot, but since Bruce was a great detective, he’d likely seen the signs of recent use. He sighed as he closed the door with a thud, making everyone present turn to him at once.

“Can I have my shirt back?” he asked, walking closer to where Damian was standing. The shirt had been lying on the bike, but Damian spared him the walk by throwing it at him. He could feel his twin’s eyes scanning the scars on his body. There weren’t many caused by ghost fights since Phantom was more like a ball of ectoplasm and healed everything afterwards.

But he was aware of the number of marks he had from the League, as well as some small ones he hadn’t managed to avoid while fighting in his human form. Plus, the added shadow of the Lichtenberg scars, and Danny knew it must be a horrible sight. He quickly slipped the shirt on.

“Is everything okay?” Damian asked. Bruce was still standing by the weapons, and Danny had a feeling the man was debating whether he should lecture him or not. The concept almost amused him, but he was broken out of his thoughts when his brother took a step closer, hand reaching out. Danny immediately flinched away. Damian raised his hands up placatingly, the movement instinctive in a way that told him it was probably what he did to calm kids in Gotham while he was Robin. “Hey, it’s alright. Danyal. You’re safe here.”

“No…I…” Danny shook his head and took a step back. Damian followed. Bruce had also moved, but he stepped closer to Tim instead, watching the scene carefully. He didn’t want to make Danyal feel crowded, not while in such a state. The teen could disappear at the drop of a hat, and Bruce didn’t want to push him too much. He didn’t want to risk Danny running away, after all, his son had already suffered one panic attack.

“Danyal,” Danny froze on the spot as his brother called out his name, pronounced correctly and with that soft tone he’d always used when they were alone and away from prying eyes in the League. Damian stepped closer, slowly reaching out before gently grabbing Danny’s arm to pull him into a hug. “You are safe now.”

“I can’t,” The halfa whispered as he wrapped his arms around his brother for the first time since they were eight years old. His voice was weak despite the warmth in his heart. “I can’t do this…” Damian sighed as he rubbed small circles on Danny’s back.

“You are not alone,” His brother promised in a tone that left no argument. Danny still couldn’t fully trust his twin, but so far, his story has checked out and they’d even aided him in getting out of the hospital. He was clinging to his brother, his words of support echoing in his mind.  Danny’s crying was quiet, but Damian could feel the vibrations of sobs. He held on tighter as Danny wept. Damian looked over his twin’s head towards where the others stood. Tim was making a poor attempt at pretending nothing was happening by messing with the computer.

His father was watching them closely. Damian felt better knowing that Bruce would warn him if Danny made any moves to stab him in the back. It didn’t seem like that was the plan, though, so Damian refocused on holding his brother through his breakdown.

Danny didn’t know what was wrong with him, but he felt so safe here with his brother. He didn’t think he’d ever get the chance to reunite with Damian. Not after everything was said and done, but maybe there was a chance.

He really wished he would stop thinking about worst case scenarios. Good things could happen, but Danny was so used to being wary and preparing for every bad possibility that he never thought that this would actually happen. He’d dreamt about it all the time, sure, but for it to be real, for Damian to be holding him right now, it felt like a dream instead. Finally, he was back together with his brother but a part of him dreaded, unsure how long this miracle was going to last.

He would hold on tightly to his brother, though, for however long he could.

Bruce watched as Damian led Danny to the couch set up against the wall at the other end of the garage. Danny still hadn’t let go of his brother and the sight of it had Bruce concerned. Unlike what he expected from an ex-League member based on his experience with Damian’s closed off emotions, Danny seemed to have no reservations and had broken down in tears, his heart easily laid bare for all to see. But Bruce could understand how it could have gotten to this point.

After all, Danny’s parents had openly turned against one of his identities, rejecting such an integral part of him, which would certainly weigh heavily on his son. And now, he was also dealing with so many recent changes. With Talia coming to town, Danny had to meet one of his childhood abusers again and then his whole world was uprooted by having one of his most closely guarded secrets discovered.

With a heavy sigh, Bruce turned to Tim, who had finished getting access to the Fenton’s network and was now going over their research, if it could even be called such a thing. Most of the papers he’d read so far had been so heavily biased, to the point that Tim wasn’t sure why anyone would consider sending funding to the Fenton pair.  

“We still don’t have a lot of actual information on ghosts,” Tim said as he looked over the files he’d gotten ahold of. “But according to what usable parts I did find, ghosts are from another dimension called the Ghost Zone. They opened a portal in their basement that led there.”

“Great,” Bruce grumbled with a glare, the new information not sitting right with him. “What’s that?” Tim paused his scrolling on top of a recent local news article talking about a ghost hunter that had struck a deal with Phantom. One that had a very familiar name to them.

Al Ghul.

“Is he?” Tim voiced his confusion. “I thought that he was…” Bruce half-turned his body to look at the bike, an exact copy of what appeared in the news. Which meant, clearly Danny was this Al Ghul ghost hunter, but Bruce had been under the impression that he was Phantom instead. Danny had even hinted at that before he’d left the hospital.

After all, the powers he’d exhibited were so similar to Phantom’s.

“So did I,” Bruce muttered, his mind replaying all the facts he’d thought pointed to such conclusion. When he’d first spoken to Danny over video chat, he’d had a fleeting suspicion that might be a possibility, since Danny’s behavior had been suspicious whenever Bruce mentioned Phantom. And then, Talia had also hinted that Danny was hiding a secret identity. So, this didn’t make any sense...

“I am,” Danny’s voice came from the other side of the room, making Bruce and Tim to fully turn his way. “I am Phantom and Al Ghul too. I can…duplicate. I’ve been practicing.”

“Wait…what?” Tim’s eyes were wide as he processed the information. He stared at the boys, noticing that Damian still had an arm over Danny’s shoulders, holding him close.

Bruce walked towards them, taking deliberately slow and careful steps closer to his sons. As he reached them, he crouched to get level with Danny’s eyes and gently put his hand on Danny’s knee, feeling happy when he didn’t turn away from the small gesture of comfort.

Suddenly, a toxic green oozed from his son’s body, the amorphous substance twisting and growing until a few seconds later a perfect copy of Phantom was sitting next to Danny.

“It takes some concentration, but once separate, I can basically be split,” Phantom said, and Bruce ran critical eyes over his form, soon finding that there was nothing that distinguished him from the original. The ghost started leaning towards Danny, only managing to get slightly closer before his form gave way, his face and body distorted beyond recognition as he seemingly melted back to green goo.

It was a horrifying sight and one that Bruce never wanted to see again.

“Once I merge back, the memories of the duplicate are transferred back to me. So, while useful in battle, since it’s basically like having a coordinated team, merging back can be overwhelming. And power draining,” Danny explained, eyes still glued to Bruce’s hand since he‘d put it there. Damian was still attached to his side, a steady presence cutting through his turmoil.

Danny hadn’t realized how much comfort his brother brought him until today. He felt like nothing could hurt him right now.

Although, the logical part in him whispered that Damian could and would hurt him if necessary. Danny still wasn’t sure about where his brother’s loyalty really laid.

Was it with his father and what the Batman represented? Or with the League of Assassins?

Or did Damian have other plans?

Danny sighed and decided to try to get his mind away from those thoughts for now. He had other urgent matters.

“Mother left,” Danny broke the quiet, making Bruce only hum slightly in response. The man had figured she would go now that he was here. She would leave him to clean up the mess she’d left behind. Talia tended to frequently do that to him. Damian looked over to the desk with a raised eyebrow, where Tim was observing them. Red Robin took it as permission to probe for information and directed a question to Danny.

“Why would she leave?” Tim’s expectant face was met with a simple shrug and a vague answer instead.

“Don’t know. Vlad was mad about it. That’s why I left the hospital. He was outside. She wouldn’t give him a refund for her services,” Danny said in a nonchalant way, but he was swallowing nervously and avoiding their eyes by the end.

“Vlad Masters?” Bruce repeated, sensing a bigger story and needing some answers.

There were so many questions, but he had a feeling he might not have enough time for all the answers.

Still, he was determined to obtain as much information as possible now. He wanted to cover his bases before taking all of this head on.

And Danny seemed willing to share it with them right now.

“Yes,” his son whispered, slightly caving in on himself. Damian frowned at the display, feeling unfamiliar with this side of his twin.

It was jarring for him when the last he remembered was Danyal being excited to do a solo mission.

“He is also part ghost,” Danny admitted after a few moments of silence, bringing a heavy sigh out of Bruce at the implications.

Supervillains.

“Alright, we’ll come back to that. I read some of the reports about what the Fentons created and we read some of their research.” Bruce gently put a hand to Danny’s cheek. “I know that Talia wanted you to come with me. Looking at those files, I know why now, and I…”

“I don’t want to leave,” Danny whispered looking up at Bruce. “Please. I…this is my life. My friends…my family-” He cut himself off, struck by a realization. He had family in Gotham too. They just hadn’t known it until now, so Danny had cut off that part of his world and made a home for himself here. He had…Danny buried his head in his hands.

“But are you safe here?” Bruce asked as he gently put his hand on the back of Danny’s head. “Danny, are you safe?”

Danny’s refusal to answer was enough for Bruce.

“Are you certain?” Ra’s asked as he tapped a few fingers on his throne.

It had been a long while since he’d heard about the dead twin. The one whose death Damian had been so devastated upon learning the news.

At the time, Ra’s had been harsh in the punishment, but Damian had needed to learn how to deal with loss.

And Ra’s didn’t have any hope that Danyal would stay loyal to the League once given over to the Bat. The boy had been questioning too much and had always displayed a more independent side than Damian.

Ra’s had feared that Damian would follow Danyal, if given a chance.

“Yes, Talia was spotted in Amity Park intent on recruiting new flesh into her armies,” the assassin reported, his daughter’s name causing his fury to ignite once again, the reminder of what she’d done still present on Nanda Parbat. Ra’s resisted the urge to strangle someone or to glance over his shoulder, where ashes still floated from the burnt out remains of the depression where his Pits once resided in. He kept his composure though, and the well-trained assassin noticed his attention was back on him, taking it as a cue to continue. “There she came across a student named Daniel Fenton who had the mayor’s attention. We later uncovered that he is Danyal al Ghul. She has now pulled her people.”

Ra’s sneered. Through his daughter’s meddling, he’d lost the one he’d been molding into an heir years ago. Damian may no longer want to help him achieve the League’s goals, but Danyal.

Perhaps he could convince Danyal to help.

Perhaps he could use Danyal against the Dark Knight and finally take him down.

Plans began to take solid shape as the records of a certain organization fell into his hands. He already had a couple people in place there, it would be easy to get more infiltrated. Ra’s tapped a finger on his throne, as he watched his assassins disperse to spread his orders. 

This would be a piece of cake.

Chapter Text

Runaway Assassin

Chapter Ten

Government Clearance

In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?

~Saint Augustine

Bruce had gathered Danny at his side. It was creeping up on midnight and Danyal had fallen asleep against Damian.

Damian needed to get out, and Tim suggested they do some investigating on their own.

Bruce looked towards the ecto-weapons and wondered if he should have sent them out with some.

The problem was that Danyal was asleep and Bruce didn’t want to poke around too much until they had more answers.

So, he sent his sons to investigate and told them to not engage in anything yet. To just gather data and report back.

That had been about half an hour ago, and Bruce had sent out a text asking for updates.

He got a frowny face emoji from Tim and Damian had simply said that he was considering tearing his hair out since the Fentons were recklessly driving all over town while looking for Danny.

Bruce felt bad, but Danny had clearly been through the wringer for the past week at least. Bruce gently brushed some of his hair back and studied the boy’s face.

He looked nearly identical to Damian and Bruce wondered about what happened.

The only differences were the faint lines on his face. Danny had clearly been smiling more than Damian. Bruce had hoped to change that. To get Damian to laugh more, and he knew that he had at least gotten him to lighten up a bit.

He even joked now instead of taking things too seriously when it wasn’t necessary.

Although, Bruce was sure that was more his other kids’ influence than anything he really did.

Danny groaned slightly and pulled his legs up under himself as he cuddled closer.

Bruce smiled. The last time one of his kids felt safe enough for this was after Scarecrow attacked.

Bruce leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling.

Considering how spotless this place was, he wondered what happened to stain part of the ceiling green. He’d have to ask Danny about that sometime later.

Damian felt like beating his head against something hard. The Fentons were being nearly insufferable. He’d been tracking them by the rooftops which were much lower than he was used to for nearly half an hour now. He’d stuck with Maddie as Tim followed Jack.

“Ya know, Danny. You could just go and tell them you’re okay,” a voice said from behind him, and he hid his surprised flinch well.

He wanted to ensure that whoever was talking didn’t realize their mistake.

“Why are you even running this time? Did they find out your big secret?” the feminine voice asked, and Damian heard her take a few steps closer. Damian turned to see a girl, wearing mostly black clothes, with her hands on her hips and looking very angry. “They ready to turn you in?”

Damian wasn’t sure how his brother spoke with other teenagers, so he simply studied the girl who was getting increasingly angry at his silence.

“You know what, Danny, fine.” She said before yelling down at the Fentons. “I found him!!”

“Danny!!” Maddie cried out, looking up as she walked closer, and Damian gathered that his brother still liked the high ground.

The fact that he could fly now probably contributed to that too.

Damian turned to look at the girl.

She glared back at him as Maddie raced to get up the side of the building. Damian waited still half covered by light.

There was information here on his brother and he was going to get as much of it as he could.

Maddie pulled herself up and was glaring at him as well.

Neither of these people were good at reading body language clearly if they both believed him to be his brother. He wondered how Danyal dealt with them or if he used this to his advantage.

“Daniel James Fenton, do you have any idea how worried we were?!” Maddie screeched as she wrapped him in a hug.

That was crossing a line and Damian lashed out as he threw Maddie to the ground and the point of his sword aimed at the other girl.

“I am not Daniel,” Damian growled out looking between the two. The girl looked freaked out while Maddie stared at him in shock. “Perhaps you should learn situational awareness.” Damian slipped into the darkness and disappeared.

If only Maddie hadn’t tried to hug him. He might’ve been able to get more intel, but he was not allowing them to touch him. He could barely stand when his brothers hugged him.

Tim had followed Jack around as he went to a friend’s house.

The friend that was with Danny when he first hacked into Danny’s systems. Tucker Foley.

Tim watched as Jack talked to him, the man looking increasingly upset.

Tucker looked very annoyed on the other hand. Tim tilted his head. He would bet that Tucker knew about Danny. About Phantom and likely his past with the League as well.

Jack’s phone rang, which startled them both. The bulky guy looked down at the caller’s ID then quickly took the call while walking away. Tucker remained in his spot, watching Fenton carefully and Tim took the distraction as an opportunity to slowly crept closer in the hopes of hearing anything.

“…so still no idea where he is?” Jack’s voice finally became clearer, but Tim couldn’t suppress a wince, feeling bad at how heartbroken he sounded.

“Years spent with Danny tells me when someone is near, ya know,” Tucker suddenly said from right next to him, almost making Tim scream in surprise.

He was not expecting that type of stealth from the teen. Tim turned to look at him and Tucker’s eyes widened with recognition.

“Hey, I know—” Tim dashed forward, quickly covering Tucker’s mouth, and pinned him against the wall to conceal them both.

“No, you don’t.” He emphasized in a low voice while glancing around them. “I wasn’t here, got it? I know about Phantom.”

The boy looked horrified at the threat, and Tim would feel bad for using it if this whole situation wasn’t a danger to their identities as well.

He pointedly raised an eyebrow and didn’t let go until Tucker nodded back at him. Tim made certain to glare at the teen the whole time though, a warning against any funny ideas.

“Please, he didn’t do anything wrong.” Tucker looked ready to cry as he pleaded for his friend. Tim held back a sigh.

“I know, but no one can know I’m here,” his words seemed to click something in Foley’s mind.

“You’re also hiding,” he whispered, looking Tim up and down with new eyes. Tim did sigh at that.

Bruce would love this one too.

Danny could feel a headache coming when he woke up. He was leaning against his dad.

Jack was always so comforting when he felt bad…

Oh. Danny swallowed as he realized that he was not, in fact, leaning against Jack. His dad always smelled like fudge, and whoever he was leaning against now smelled like a forest.

“You awake?” A familiar soft voice asked, and Danny groaned as memories flooded his head.

Bruce Wayne aka Batman was here.

“Yeah,” he whispered in reply, unsure what to think or do. He felt a little off.

Danny should get off the man, but the hand that was gently rubbing his back was so nice. He felt comfortable and safe, half lying there on his father.

“I know it’s been a…hell of a day,” Bruce commented, voice a bit strained as he looked over at the weapons that were on the table. He paused, unsure if he wanted to have that conversation with Danyal just yet. It never helped or changed anything with Jason.

Danny sighed as he slowly sat up and looked at where Bruce was staring.

“You really don’t like guns,” he whispered not really certain on what else to say. He figured going with an observation would be a good start.

How did one talk to someone who was their biological father who was also Batman who was also full of Trauma^TM?

Danny sighed as he tried to think of anything else to say.

“I don’t,” Bruce stated, looking closely at Danny’s face. He could see so much of Damian in him.

He could also see bits of himself, of Talia and of someone else entirely. Danny was his own person, and if even half of what Bruce had learned so far about the heroics Phantom pulled was true, then he could confidently say he was a very proud father.

There were still lots of questions that needed answers, but Bruce was willing to wait.

“How are you feeling?” Bruce asked after a moment of silence, seeing that Danny was at a loss for what to do next. His son simply stared blankly at him.

“I don’t know,” he answered, rubbing his eyes in frustration.

None of this was what he’d wanted to happen.

Or was it?

He knew deep down that he wanted to meet his dad and to see his brother again. But he was also aware of what could happen afterwards if that happened. Of what that would mean.

Still, he wasn’t sure what to do next. His heart was torn, and his mind was complicated.

“It’s okay to not know,” Bruce’s voice was soft as he wrapped an arm around Danny’s shoulder and pulled him close.

The gesture was familiar, something that Jack would also do to him, but his dad always held so hard that sometimes Danny worried it would kill him.

Worried that Jack wanted to squeeze him hard enough that he would explode. Jack had never bothered to ask if Danny was okay with the physical comfort, either.

On the other hand, Bruce was gentle and hesitant when approaching him. Bruce was willing to allow Danny to dictate the way he wanted to be comforted.

Bruce was big, warm and steady. Grounding in a way that his dad had never been.

Jack was a whirlwind of movements and emotions, randomly dropping by and then gone in the blink of an eye, oblivious to what or whom he left behind.

Bruce was a rock one could hold onto while weathering the storm, his presence reassuring with a silent promise to be there no matter how bad it got.

“I know you want to stay, but we both know that it’s dangerous for you to do so,” Bruce started, and Danny shook his head.

“They don’t know…it’s fine…if they…” Danny cut himself off with a groan, unsure where he was going with this. He was never certain what the outcome would be if he ever told them. Even after everything that he’d been through, there was still that fear of the unknown, a fear that they might decide that Phantom wasn’t part of him and what they’d do afterwards.

Bruce grabbed his hand and held tightly.

“I may not…I know we just met, and I know I…I know that I’m not the best at the whole parenting thing, but I can tell you right now. You will be safe,” Bruce said as he gave a gentle kiss to the side of Danny’s head. “I will never hurt you.”

Danny could feel tears forming. Those were the words that he’d always wanted to hear.

Just not from Bruce.

He’d wanted Jack and Maddie to make that promise. He knew they never would though.

They hated ghosts more than they loved him.

Alicia groaned as her phone rang. She was almost done replanting the patch of her garden where those two boys had tried to burn everything down.

Dumbasses. They all were.

“Ello,” she answered not bothering to see who it was.

“Alicia, Danny’s missing…” came Maddie’s pained voice. It sounded like she’d been crying. “Has he…has he tried to get ahold of you?”

She silently sighed. Danny had been through a lot so she knew that the boy could handle himself. Honestly, she had been waiting for a call like this for a while now. She was surprised it took so long.

“No, he hasn’t. What happened?” Alicia asked. She wanted to help, but realistically, she was in the middle of nowhere and several hours away from them. There wasn’t much she could do right away.

It wasn’t the first time she wondered if she made the right decision all those years ago leaving the boy with her sister.

She loved her sister with her whole heart, but half the time Maddie was just as scatterbrained as Jack. Sure, Alicia knew that Jack was probably worst, but she still wished that Maddie had found someone that could help keep her from getting lost in a project instead of enabling it.

“He fainted…there was another woman. Miss Tate? She was hired as a self-defense instructor…” Maddie told her about Danny skipping school and then vanishing from the hospital.

“Maddie…” Alicia trailed off as she put together some of what must’ve happened. It wasn’t hard when she thought back on the day she’d met Danny.

She never told Maddie about the sword he carried. They’d made a deal to keep it hidden before she left him there so long ago.

Alicia made him promise to keep that from the Fentons. She didn’t want them to worry or to accuse him of being a ghost.

“What am I going to do? This wasn’t a ghost who hurt him this time?”

“You’re gonna go home. If he shows up, you’ll hug him'n tell ‘im that you lov’em and tell ‘im that nothing he says is goin’ change anythin’ no matter what,” Alicia said, wondering if the boy’s past hadn’t caught up to him yet.

It wasn’t that long ago after all.

There was silence for a moment on the other end of the line before Alicia heard her sister take in a shaky breath.

“Alicia, what do you know?”

“I know that boy isn’t as…innocent as you’d like to think. There’s a monster under his skin,” Alicia said before realizing that that wording wasn’t the best. That Maddie might not understand what she was saying and think that there was a ghost.

She really wished that her sister wasn’t so obsessed with those beings.

“What do you mean?” Maddie asked harshly and Alicia prayed to a God she didn’t believe in.

“Maddie, I love you, and I trusted that you’d at the very least ensure that boy was fed with a roof over his head, but the truth? I don’t think he really needed you,” Alicia finally said it, hating herself just a bit. “He stayed ‘cause you were interestin’ and he felt like he should’ve. Danny was already a grown up ‘fore he met ya. I dunno what he’d done before, but I know it ain’t good.”

“What does that mean?”

“I mean that Danny didn’t need you to protect him. He never did. That boy pointed a sword at me the first time I seen ‘im. I wasn’t lyin’ ‘bout ‘im in the bed of my truck.” There was silence.

“Where’d he come from then?”

“N’ver said. He wouldn’t say much about his past, but his actions spoke much louder.”

Danny had been looking over security cameras that showed the police and the Fentons running all over Amity Park searching for him.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about it.

The Guys in White were also helping in some way, probably to get close to the Fentons for whatever reason. But.

Something was wrong.

Danny observed them more carefully. Operative O and K were missing. Plus, the rest of the goons were operating too smoothly compared to their usual behavior.

Something pinged in the back of Danny’s mind, on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t quite place it.

He looked over at Bruce, sitting behind him while reading over some of the intel that he’d been gathering. He’d said he wanted to know as much as he could about what was going on in Amity Park, and Danny didn’t see any reason not to tell Bruce.

In fact, seeing how invested his father was, maybe he could get help with getting the government to stop hunting ghosts. He wasn’t completely sure how that would work, but having Batman in his corner certainly wasn’t going to be a bad thing for that goal.

At least that’s what he was hoping. Bruce really seemed like he wanted to know him. Like he cared about Danny simply as Danny.

Not as Phantom or because of Phantom. Nor did it really feel like Bruce only cared because he learned that Danny was actually his son. Bruce cared because that’s what Batman does.

Although Danny was sure that Bruce was acting a bit more protective because he was his son, which left him with conflicting emotions. He’d never really wanted or needed protection.

Jack loved him and cared about him. He’d always been there whenever Danny was feeling hurt or when he was still learning about how people’s minds outside the League worked.

His dad was loud and overbearing in his caring, and Danny had thought that was normal for over a year before meeting other people and learning more about what was going on in the world. People were very different from one another.

It was a bit of a shock for Danny at the time.

He stared some more at the computer before standing up.

“I can’t let them keep wandering around town looking for me,” Danny announced, hoping his voice didn’t shake. He gulped down his nervousness and rolled back his shoulders before risking a glance at Bruce, who was intently watching him. Danny shifted a bit as he looked towards the back wall, where Fentonworks could be found on the other side.

“I won’t stop you, but I’ll be here. I know…I know we just met, but you are still part of this family even if I didn’t know you until recently,” Bruce gently reminded Danny instead of arguing against the decision. The hybrid nodded once before vanishing, knowing this would be easier while invisible. The display left Bruce feeling a little off balance.

He always hated it when his kids vanished, and now Danny just made it a hundred times worse for him.

How was he supposed to keep track of his son when the kid could literally disappear?

Danny closed the back door behind him as he stepped into the kitchen. He looked around and found Maddie sitting on the couch by the phone with tears in her eyes. Bracing himself, he took in a breath as he silently walked closer towards her. She was there when the ambulance showed up and everything seemed to immediately go to hell.

“Mom?” His voice caused her to quickly turn to him while she’d been wiping her eyes.

Something was wrong, though.

Danny took a step back, immediately alert as he studied her to figure out what was wrong. Likewise, Maddie observed him for a moment.

She’d never noticed the way he stood before. How his stance showed that he was always prepared to either run or fight in a confrontation.

“Where have you been?” She asked, trying to keep the anger out of her voice and maintain her composure.

It wasn’t enough as Danny took another step back.

Give ‘im a hug’n tell ‘im you lov’em.

“I…I really don’t know a good way to answer that,” Danny admitted as he looked his mom up and down. He felt on edge and his emotions were storming around inside his chest. “I…I know everything got a little too much, and I think I panicked…Doctors said it could’ve been a panic attack.”

“You weren’t at the hospital.”

Give ‘im a hug.

“I was…but…Miss Tate…she isn’t who she said she was. She’s…” Danny trailed off and looked away from Maddie. He wasn’t sure telling her was the best thing right now. If he talked, then he would have fewer and fewer places to run and hide. Maddie could track him though his birth family if she ever found out.

It was one of the reasons why he’d kept who they were a secret. It had always been a backup plan in case anything forced him to run again. It was also why he distrusted Clockwork and would never take refuge in the Ghost Zone. Bruce Wayne had always been his backup in case his parents found out and didn’t accept Phantom, or if anything had happened to them he’d have a place he knew he would be safe if anything had happened to the Fentons at all. It was something he had grown used to relying on. A plan he never told his friends whenever they discussed contingencies. Telling his mom about Tate would open a line of discussion that might end up with him telling her his father was here now.

“Blaming someone just because Vlad is the one who hired her is not going to get you out of trouble, Mister.” Her voice was firm as she took a step forward. Danny shifted his weight and widened his stance.

Tell ‘im that you lov’em.

“Daniel Fenton, you can’t just…” Maddie trailed off, unsure of where she was going with that sentence. Danny had slipped his left foot back slightly and shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet.

He was ready for a fight.

Maddie blinked.

Danny had hated it when she’d tried to teach him some self-defense. He’d either always made some poor excuse or claimed to be busy. He hadn’t wanted to be in the class that Miss Tate was teaching either.

He already knew how to fight. He’d learned from somewhere and didn’t tell her.

There’s a monster under his skin.

Maddie had never noticed when Danny first showed up. He was shy and quiet and took everything in like he wasn’t sure that being here was safe.

But she was so focused on the child with no family that she didn’t think about the child himself. What horrors he’d seen or what else he’d known. He had been a bright kid and learned things quickly.

“Look, I’m here now, and I’m okay…can we just…not tonight?” Danny asked, sounding defeated.

His stance never changed. Maddie would never have really noticed it before. However. She was looking for it now.

Danny had a good stance, but it was one that spoke of practical training and not commercial. He had specialized training from somewhere, and if he was hiding that, what else had he been hiding?

“Danny, you disappeared in an ambulance and have been gone for hours now. I need to know where you’ve been,” Maddie said with a slight glare. Her son was caught up in something, and she needed to know what.

“I got checked in the hospital under my birth name,” Danny informed, as his hands came up like he was going to cross them.

He changed his mind halfway, letting them fall again. He then caught himself before he could wrap his arms around himself.

Danny knew such a position could trap his arms in case this conversation became a fight, which seemed likely since the more Maddie pushed, the more Danny was determined to defend himself.

He did not deserve this scolding.

“Why?” Maddie pressed, crowding him as she took another step closer. Danny narrowed his eyes, slightly raising his arms as he responded.

“Because Miss Tate thought that you were a danger to me,” his voice was cold as he answered. “Are you going to prove her right?”

Give ‘im a hug’n tell ‘im you lov’em.

Maddie shifted herself into a fighting stance as she studied her son.

There’s a monster under his skin.

Danny refused to make the first move but kept a close eye on any sudden movements from her. The following seconds locked in a tense impasse seemed to stretch forever, only broken off when Jack burst into the room.

“I asked Tucker, and he didn’t know…” Jack trailed off when he caught sight of the two of them. Maddie had jumped in surprise, momentarily turning away from Danny while letting her guard down.

Still, Danny kept himself steady and remained focused on Maddie’s next move. His guard never wavered with the distraction.

“Jack, look who showed up,” Maddie pointed at him as she relaxed slightly. Danny did not. He continued to assess what was going on as Jack looked towards him.

“Danny-boy! You’re safe,” Jack yelled before racing forward and grabbing him in a hug. “I was so worried!”

Danny grunted as he was squashed against the man, but he wrapped his arms around Jack’s neck.

Give ‘im a hug’n tell ‘im you lov’em.

Maddie should’ve listened to her sister. Danny watched her carefully. The green stain had moved, but neither had noticed as they studied each other. A shadow appeared in the corners of the room before vanishing once more.

“Report,” Bruce said as Tim and Damian slipped back inside the garage. Tim was already typing something on his phone, so he prompted Damian to go first with a look, to which his son glared in response before speaking.

“I got mistaken for Danyal by some girl who knows he’s Phantom,” Damian sounded immensely annoyed. “She did not seem all too happy about seeing him either. She is a security risk.”

“I followed Jack to Tucker Foley’s place. Tucker caught me, but he seemed concerned. He also knows about Phantom, and he recognized me,” Tim informed as he looked up. “But I don’t think he’ll say anything about it. He seemed more concerned about Danny. He was with Danny when I first got into his system.” Tim looked back down at his phone and continued to type on it while speaking. “I’ve got his information and number.”

“I don’t want either of them to know who we are,” Bruce said as he looked over his sons. Both of them had come a long way, but Damian was still hostile towards Tim most of the time.

“I think Sam Manson is who you ran into, Damian. Looks like she’s Danny’s other best friend. He hasn’t said much about his friends, he mostly told me about what was going on in Amity Park, all the ghost attacks and the Guys in White.” Bruce commented as he looked down at the files on the table. “There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done.” Both Tim and Damian nodded, looking expectantly at him as they waited for instructions.

Jason growled as he wacked another thug upside the head. He knew that the Bat had to high tail it out of Gotham for whatever stupid reason, and while that left him annoyed, it wasn’t a big deal.

No, the thing that left him really mad was that Bruce took Tim and Damian along, therefore leaving Gotham to Batwoman, Black Bat, Nightwing and him, during a dangerous and busy time for the city.

Black Mask was making moves again, and they still hadn’t found Killer Croc or Scarecrow from the last breakout.

Not to mention that there was another serial killer running around and Elliot had disappeared from his cell the night before.

Jason ran up to the last thug and wiped him out. He watched as the man fell on the ground and remained there groaning in pain. Jason was about to fully knock him out when he heard the soft swish of a cape.

He quickly turned around to see Black Bat hanging off the side of the building, and while he couldn't see her eyes, he knew she was looking at him. She put a single finger where her mouth would be and Jason nodded, agreeing to remain quiet and just like that she slipped back into the shadows.  Just in time it seemed, as not a moment later, a bunch of guys came over to look over the edge and barely missed by a few feet.

“What the hell?” one of them exclaimed, staring in horror at the havoc below.

“There’s no way that bitch was able to do that in such a short amount of time,” another commented, nervously glancing around the area.

Jason wasn’t sure how Cass did all that, but he was always in awe of her skill.

“Maybe there’s more than one in the area, we should get the fuck out of here,” a third one suggested, already midturn, and Jason heard him running away a second later.

“Fuckin’ coward,” the first spat out as they all slowly turned away from the ledge. Jason looked up at Black Bat who nodded before silently following them somewhere.

Whatever she was looking into wasn’t his problem.

His head was so preoccupied with other things, that he missed the dark shadows clinging to him as he walked away.

Danny sat on his bed and wondered if he shouldn’t just go back to Bruce. While Jack had held on to him for a while before letting him go off, his mom was acting weird and distant. It was very concerning.

Sighing, he let his shoulders slump down. He wasn’t sure what to do about anything right now. There were so many paths that he could take, and his heart was so conflicted. Part of him wanted to stay. Amity Park was his home and they needed him.

Part of him wanted more than anything to stay with his brother. He loved Damian, and they had gotten along well enough. Although they had been separated for so long, Danny was sure that they could repair the damage that was done.

Damian was his twin after all.

Danny buried his head in his hands with a groan. A knock on his window startled him out if his dilemma, and he flinched in surprise before looking up to see his brother standing on there on the fire escape. He walked over to open the window.

“What are you doing?” This was the first time since they reunited that Danny had an opportunity to actually talk to his brother with no one else around there, and he was feeling slightly nervous about it. Damian huffed and noticeably inspected his room as he stepped inside.

“Your security system is pathetic.”

“It’s designed for ghosts, not people,” Danny said as he crossed his arms, rolling his eyes a bit. His light mood slipped away though, and he looked away from Damian for a moment, feeling himself slightly hunch over as he gathered enough courage to ask the things he needed to know. “How long were you with the League before Father?”

“I was ten when I met him,” Damian said as he finally turned to look at Danny. “How long did it take you to get here?”

“Not long actually,” Danny smiled. “Maybe like three or four weeks? I know I got stuck in Pennsylvania for a while before I ran away from there due to some creepiness from the locals. Then I jumped in a truck and hoped it was headed away from the East.”

“That’s how you ended up here?” Damian asked with a raised brow. Danny shrugged.

“I was eight and had a sword in case my plan of faking my death and hiding from possible Assassins on my tail didn’t work,” Danny said as he looked out the window. “Alicia Walker was the owner of the truck. She noticed me hiding and waited until we were away from people before saying something to me. She’s Maddie’s sister.”

“Why didn’t she just take you in?” Damian asked and Danny rolled his eyes.

“She never wanted kids, but I think she wanted to know if I was okay. She dropped me off here, and I was curious about…well everything. The Fentons were kind in the beginning. They just wanted to prove that ghosts existed.” Damian had been closely studying his brother's body language and he could see that Danny was closed-off and afraid of something. He felt odd for not knowing what that could be since he used to be so in tune with his twin when they were little, and although he was loathe to admit it, Damian wanted to be like that once again. It had been so nice to be able to rely on someone when he needed it during their time together in the League, and Danyal always had his back when things went wrong.

“You’re afraid,” He stated, and Danny visibly flinched before taking a step away from him.

“I am not.” His brother said with a glare that did nothing to convince him. Damian sighed and sat down on the bed before patting the spot next to him. Danyal had already cried on him once anyway, and Damian knew that Danyal likely had the same problems he did when it came to trusting people. His twin had always relied on Damian to have his back and they had both gone years without that safety net. They had others now, but it wasn’t the same.

“You are afraid of them,” Damian said with narrowed eyes. “Danyal al Ghul, I’ve known how you process your fear since we first started our training.” Danny’s sigh was a resigned one and Damian felt smug. His brother also wasn’t used to people being able to read him that well either.

Maddie felt the world tilt. She had come up wanting to apologize to Danny but then heard two voices that sounded very similar inside his room. She was about to barge in and yell at him for having friends over without permission when—

I was eight and had a sword in case my plan of faking my death didn’t work and there were Assassins on my tail. 

Maddie froze as she thought that over and everything it implied. Whoever was in Danny’s room was someone from his past. Someone from before he started living with them. Amidst that revelation, she heard the other voice call her son something else.

Danyal al Ghul.

It sounded foreign, yet familiar, and it struck her how she never really considered that Danny hadn’t been from America. She had assumed that he was simply running away from an abusive family. That meant his name and any other information had to have been fake when they started the adoption process.

Now that she was thinking about it, there hadn’t been a lot of questions about it. The social worker had stopped by a few times in the beginning before they were cleared, and then everything had gone smoothly.

Smoother than it should’ve been to adopt a child. At the time, she never realized it or looked closer because they had been so busy with their work on the portal.

Maddie raised her hand to knock, needing to know what was happening, but also knowing that whatever it was couldn’t be good.

For her or her family.

Wait. Danny had mentioned that he was interested in finding his father, and perhaps maybe she should help speed that process along.

In the end, she couldn’t put her hand on the door to make noise, but she had a name as she walked away.

“After you died, things…weren’t the same,” Damian said as he looked down at the floor and noted the slight discoloration of the carpet that spoke of something had been spilled and cleaned up many times. “Mother was angry, and Grandfather was demanding more and more of me.”

“I’m sorry. I wish I could’ve gotten you out too, but…but I couldn’t risk it. If I had tipped off anyone that I was alive at the time…”

“They would’ve come and killed you, and likely the Fentons as well for housing you,” Damian finished in understanding. He also knew that at the time; he may not have forgiven Danyal for pretending to die even if he did get that far. Danny nodded before Damian gently reached out and grabbed his arm and pulled him closer to the bed and forced him to sit next to him. “I do not blame you.”

“Thanks,” Danny whispered as he leaned against his brother. “I didn’t blame you either. Grandfather knew he was sending me to my death anyway.”

Damian tensed. He hadn’t known that; he wasn’t aware of that.

He never thought that Grandfather would…

“Did Mother know?” Damian found himself asking, already knowing that their mother had killed him at one point. That Talia hadn’t always been the best parent for either of them.

“Yes, she knew,” Danny’s voice was cold as he answered, his anger still fresh at that revelation, but suddenly he gasped as a fog left his mouth. “Damnit.”

“Another ghost?” Damian asked as Danny stood up and looked out his window for something.

“Yeah, it’s actually fairly normal,” Danny said as he looked at the door. “I’ve got to…”

“I’ll stay just in case someone comes in,” Damian said as he pushed the blankets back and laid down. “Be safe and hurry back. We still have much to discuss.” Danny nodded before transforming and flying out the window.

 Damian watched in awe and knew that he was the first in the family to see this. Danny had just been vanishing, and Damian felt special at being able to share this first.

Chapter Text

Runaway Assassin

Chapter Eleven

Unfortunately

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

~Oscar Wilde

Phantom was floating above the park, trying to track the ghost when he was shot from behind. He hit the ground hard and held his head with a groan before looking up at his assailant.

Valerie.

“Got you,” she gloated as her weapon whined and whirred, preparing for another blast. Phantom leaped away as she fired.

“Look, you don’t want to do this,” he said as he dodged again. She kept on him as he tried to fly away from her.

“Get back here!” She yelled out, relentlessly pursuing him for a while before landing another hit that sent him back to the ground. Phantom quickly pushed himself up as Valerie landed, aiming another gun at him. “Finally.”

“Not quite,” Phantom muttered, instantly creating an ice sword and deflecting the blast sent at him. He twisted the blade around and pointed it at her. “I’m not letting this continue. You won’t listen, and I’ve about had it.”

“Really?” Valerie asked as she aimed again. Phantom watched her carefully waiting for the moment she decided to pull the trigger. “That new ghost hunter in town seems to think you actually care. I wonder what he would say now?”

“He’d say that you are way over your head, little girlie,” Al Ghul’s voice cut in. Valerie turned to see him leaning against his bike a few feet away, a grin on his face and a gun in his hand. It was far smaller than most of the weapons she was used to seeing, but she knew from experience that ecto-weapons could pack a punch regardless of their size.

A beat later, she realized what he’d said and promptly turned her weapon at him.

“Awe, think you can play in the big leagues,” he taunted as he adjusted his aim on her. “You don’t get to where I am without learning how to read a situation.” His chuckle had her narrowing her eyes, before realizing her mistake and turning her head back to Phantom. The ghost’s hand was filled with green energy, an ecto-blast charged and ready, aimed right at her.

“You learn to adapt to the game and play long enough to find someone for backup,” Phantom continued, eyes tracking her every movement as Valerie fully turned to face him. Her next words, however, were aimed at Al Ghul.

“He’s the enemy,” she hissed.

“Really? He explained what happened to you. He knows who you are.”

“He ratted me out to my dad,” Valerie gritted her teeth, her finger tightening on the trigger and Phantom raised the sword with his other hand in preparation to block a blast. Her voice was bitter as she questioned the other ghost hunter, “And you’re protecting him?”

“He seems to get the job done, and I don’t discriminate against people who try to help,” Al Ghul responded as he looked her up and down. “Put down your weapon and agree to a truce, or I will become your new problem, and I warn you, I will not be as kind as him.”

“You think you scare me?” Valerie asked, firing at Phantom without hesitation then rapidly turning around to fire at Al Ghul, who simply pressed a button on his bike and a shield flickered into existence, blocking the blast.

Phantom approached from behind, kicking Valerie’s feet out from under her and pointing the sword at her throat.

“We should scare you,” Phantom said, his face and voice sent a chill through her from how cold he seemed. She didn't remember ever seeing him like that before and the change was a little bit unsettling. Al Ghul walked up next to him and aimed his gun.

“We’ve been working together for a while now, just decided to make it…more public,” Al Ghul flashed her a feral smile before blasting a hole next her head. “He’s the nice one in this partnership. Take the truce or stop hunting altogether. Those are your only choices. I’ll give you twenty-four hours.” Phantom vanished at the last word, and Al Ghul walked back to his bike.

“Phantom will turn on you,” Valerie warned as she slowly stood up, glaring at Al Ghul.

“I’ve spent my younger years as an assassin, you think I won’t consider every possibility?” Al Ghul scoffed as he sat on his bike, seemingly done with the conversation since he quickly slipped his helmet on before taking off, not sparing her another glance. The whole time, she never heard a single sound except the light flap of his coat, which sounded like heavy fabric, and it didn’t take long before there wasn’t any noise making it to her.

Valerie grabbed her board to take off but paused near Phantom’s sword.

It was stabbed deeply into the ground, little bits of frost forming on the ground around it, and it exuded a chill that seemed to cut even through her suit. Valerie gulped, unsure of what to do next.

“There has to be a ghost around here, somewhere,” Phantom whispered as he flew. He was glad he had the forethought of slipping his bike out earlier with a duplicate on standby. He’d also been quick to not let Bruce or Tim know that he was taking it.

His father had been asleep at the desk while Tim was sprawled snoring on his couch. So, considering the thing was practically silent to human ears, it wasn’t too hard to get the bike out when he left.

Phantom flew down towards the abandoned warehouse where he normally spotted Box Ghost just to see if maybe he was the one who’d set off his ghost sense. No such luck, though. There was still a ghost out here somewhere, and he needed to find it before another hunter did.

He’d sent the duplicate out to the other side of town to check there.

Phantom sighed as he twisted around in the air, trying to figure out where exactly the ghost could be. He didn’t want to be out here all night. He let out another deep sigh, momentarily looking up at the sky with exhaustion. He really didn’t want to do this tonight.

He decided he wouldn’t. Phantom launched himself back towards Fentonworks. He had better things to do than track down some random ghost and he was determined to do them. His trek was interrupted by a loud crash not far from him.

“Please, will you be my friend!” Klemper’s voice reached him as he floated closer, and he could now see the ghost chasing a few night workers outside a storage house.

“Klemper!” Phantom shouted, getting the other guy to turn towards him.

“Phantom, Friend!” Klemper yelled as he flew up towards Phantom with his arms raised as if to hug him. Phantom blasted him backwards.

“No, you need to go back to the Ghost Zone.”

“You don’t want to be my friend?!” Klemper cried out before blasting ice at Phantom, who simply grabbed it and threw it back at the other ghost. Where the ice connected he froze it to the ground, effectively keeping the troublemaker still ling enough so he could grab his thermos and suck him inside it. The scuffle was over in an instant. Phantom sighed before spotting the workers in the ground, who still looked freaked out.

“Hee, Hi. I’m going to take him back now,” It was only through sheer force of habit that he managed to spare them a few words of reassurance and a small wave before taking off again for Fentonworks. Thankfully, the fight hadn’t dragged on for too long, and he was even considering allowing himself a small nap break before getting back to his other tasks if he made it back home quickly enough.

As he reached the house, Phantom floated outside his window. Damian was still curled under the covers, but his bedroom door was being opened. He felt the duplicate merge back into him and got his memory of putting away the bike without awakening the others and with limited use of powers. Having a duplicate really was super handy. He leaned against the wall as their memories finished fusing, his attention now back on the room where he could see Maddie walking over towards his brother.

Damian was clearly still awake on his bed, but he wouldn’t do anything. Not yet at least.

“Danny?” Maddie asked softly, and Phantom kneeled close to the windowsill, turning his invisibility on so he could watch.

His twin shifted a bit, just enough to show that he’d heard her.

“Danny, I talked to Alicia and she told me how she found you,” Maddie continued, glancing around the room then at the window. Phantom quickly ducked, spooked since it seemed like she’d been looking straight at him. He breathed in, trying to calm himself down. There was no way that she’d seen him. “I need to know if you’ve contacted your family yet?” Phantom peeked back over the ledge.

Damian had twisted on the bed, his eyes now open and locked on Maddie. On the other hand, his mom was looking at the ground.

“I think it’s a good idea to get them involved. Find your roots, you know,” she started, and Damian twisted a bit more in the bed, preparing to launch himself up if need be. Phantom doubted that Maddie would catch that movement though. “I just…I heard you talking earlier…Your name was Danyal al Ghul? Right?” At that, Damian sat up, the covers falling off to the side as he glared at her.

“You listened in on a private conversation?” he accused, and Maddie finally realized that this was not Danny.

“Who are you?” She asked, taking a step back and reaching for her weapon. His brother was quicker, though, already having slid a knife into his hand.

“I’m his twin,” Damian answered as he slipped off the bed. “He did reach out for help, and had I known he was still alive, I would have found him sooner and taken him away from the likes of you.” Maddie aimed her ecto-weapon at him, but it was immediately knocked out of her hands and pinned it to the wall. There was a little bit of sparky energy from where the knife had embedded in the gun. Maddie stared at the remains, completely caught off guard. “You are a threat to him.”

Despite the less-than-ideal situation, Phantom felt his heart warm a little, as Damian’s words seemed to indicate that his brother still cared about him, and that fueled his hope that Damian wasn’t secretly aligned with the League.

Maddie backed away slowly, her hands up as if to appease his brother, but he could see the fear in her eyes despite the goggles. Phantom felt like screaming or slamming his head into something. This was not how he wanted his parents to learn about his biological family. He flew into the house through the bathroom wall and transformed back before walking to his room in a rush. He slipped inside as quietly as possible.

“Mom, what are you doing?” Danny asked from the door, which caused Maddie to scream and whip around to face him. She paused, looking between the two boys, seeing the similarities and differences between them. “Why are you in my room?”

“You said…” she started. “You said you hadn’t…”

“I lied, how is that surprising?” Danny replied, crossing his arms in annoyance. “You were ready to hit me ‘cause I was taken against my will by my Mother.”

Maddie froze at what that implied.

“Miranda Tate is an alias our mother uses to get information,” Damian said as he walked over to stand by Danny’s side. “She then contacted us since she was concerned for Danyal’s safety. Because of you and your work. You are putting him in a danger that you can’t even hope to contain.”

“We can protect him just fine,” Maddie hissed, while both Danny and Damian tilted their heads. It was a little horrifying how synchronized they were despite the many years they had gone without each other.

“It’s not protection I/he needs,” they said at the same time and Maddie had to take a breath. She needed to remain calm, but her nerves were alight with anxiety seeing them together.

There was something else under the surface with them. Something dangerous.

There’s a monster inside of ‘im.

“I never needed your protection.” Danny glared at her. “You provided me with a place to stay and food, stability, and that’s all I ever really needed. I can do more than just protect myself. I never truly needed to stay here.”

“You were eight,” Maddie said, and Danny glanced at his brother before rolling his eyes. She felt a little off balance from the way Danny was acting and how much the two boys seemed to lean towards each other. They felt almost like mirror images, from the way they stood side by side to their near-identical faces. It was unsettling her,

“We hacked into NORAD when we were four,” Danny dismissed her comment as he loosened his arms and wrapped one around his brother, smiling a bit. He felt a little better with Damian at his side; he felt like he could finally stand up to them both as parents and ghost hunters. It was the courage he needed to finally admit to her the truth, “We were trained to take over an assassin cult.”

“You…” Maddie took in a breath. She wanted nothing to do with that. She’d already seen some of the damage done by people like that. She wasn’t risking her family. Not again. “I want you out.”

Danny lost his smile. Damian quietly put one of his arms around Danny’s back, a small comforting attempt considering the emotional whiplash his twin had just gone through. It was also to ensure that he didn’t lose track of him in case his twin turned invisible again.  Damian didn’t have much information when they first came to Amity Park, but there was one thing he was certain of upon reuniting with his brother.

Danny had wanted to stay.

Despite their odd ways and eccentric behavior, Danny clearly loved the Fentons, even though Damian couldn't really understand how. The passion with which they spewed hatred about ghosts was something on par with their Grandfather's obsession with immortality, which didn't sit right with him. Still, his brother had gone to great lengths to keep the town where his family resided safe from human and ghostly threats, even when they frequently pointed their weapons at his ghost form too.

And yet, his twin had been so focused on the Phantom part of his secret, that he never stopped to consider that they wouldn't accept him because of his past. That they would have issue with him being raised as a child soldier. Danny believed they would accept that from him, knowing it wasn't his fault.

He trusted that they wouldn't shun him for a heritage he never asked for in the first place or for all the things he had to do to survive. Things he was determined to never do again and a life he wanted desperately to leave behind. He didn't think they would hate him for that.

“Mom?” Danny’s voice was hesitant, barely above a whisper. Maddie’s gaze remained cold on him, and she didn’t even grant him any sort of response before leaving the room. Damian watched the interaction with wide eyes.

Danny had called her mom. Although she didn’t give birth to him, his brother still viewed her as a maternal figure, which meant an even deeper bond than Damian had thought, especially given how his twin’s voice shook with that single word. And still, Danny was left high and dry. Damian grabbed Danny’s arm before he could pull away from him.

“It’s okay,” he whispered. “I’m here.” Damian could see the tear tracks running down Danny’s face, and his heart wrenched as he watched his brother silently cry for the family he thought that he had found.

Neither noticed that Maddie’s shadow lagged behind her.

Maddie wasn’t sure if she was making the best decision, but if what she had overheard was true, then she wanted nothing to do with it. That kind of background could put her only daughter at risk, especially since Jazz wasn’t home anymore. She was at college and so far away that Maddie couldn’t protect her.

And Maddie wasn’t going to let anything happen to Jazz. That was her baby. It didn't matter how miserable the decision would make her or Jack.

She only took Danny in the first place because Jazz had fallen in love with the idea of a baby brother and Danny was her candidate of choice. So, Maddie agreed because the boy’s age meant that she didn’t have to worry about changing diapers or potty training. Alicia wasn’t around enough for them to even hang out, and she never wanted kids anyway.

Danny was old enough to care for himself or required so very little care that her daughter could do so by herself. His presence meant Jazz had someone to play with while Jack and her could focus on finishing their portal.

But now, not only was he another distraction from their work, he was also in the way of them finally catching that ghost boy. He had another family that could take him in, so he no longer needed to be her problem. Jazz didn’t need him anymore either.

She walked into her room only to be met with Jack standing with his arms crossed.

“I heard you,” he said, sounding uncharacteristically angry. It was an attitude she’d rarely seen in him before, since he was a man that was hard to get truly mad. “You did not discuss any of this with me.”

“He’s an assassin that’s been hiding in our house for years now,” Maddie hissed, with more venom than she expected on her voice. She still meant every word, though. “How can we trust him?” Jack slammed his hand on the dresser, startling her.

“I don’t care! He’s still our son! We raised him, and he’s been a good kid,” Jack screamed as he walked closer to Maddie. She retreated a few steps, raising her arms, ready for a fight. Jack paused, face incredulous at her movement, before grabbing a suitcase that’d been close to the door and her previous spot. He shook his head. “Until you get your mind back together and straighten out your priorities, I’ll be taking Danny and we’ll be staying in a hotel. I’ve already locked the lab up so you can’t go down there without me.”

“And his twin?” she taunted, and Jack froze at the question. Clearly her husband was the one truly out of his mind, he didn’t even have all the facts, yet he seemed willing to put all of Amity Park in danger for a kid that wasn’t even theirs to begin with.

“Then I’ll take him too.” He left her behind, heading towards Danny’s room. Maddie would have a hard time finding anything to distract her without the lab, but that was exactly what he wanted. Make her actually mull over what she’d done and said to their son.

In truth, Jack hadn’t really wanted another kid, but he’d seen the distrust and curiosity in Danny’s eyes when they first met. There was something fierce in the kid, along with a thirst for knowledge, and he was more than happy to welcome a little one who actually listened to his rambles on ghosts. Of course, that was years ago, but Jack had always thought that Danny would one day make an excellent ghost hunter, and tonight he’d seen the name Maddie had written down to look into later.

It wasn’t hard to put together who Danny was. Al Ghul, it was clever, even if a bit obvious for those who knew his real name, but Jack knew it was fate. He was a little upset though that he’d made fun of Danny’s actual name. He hadn’t considered that when he had said something earlier about the new ghost hunter, so he’d need to apologize to him now. Still, he wondered why it had taken so long for Danny to finally take part in the family business. Although one could say he was more of an independent player.

Regardless, Jack would also have to talk to him about making friends with ghosts. That couldn’t be a good idea, but he trusted his son and wanted to hear his side of things.

Damian helped pack some of Danny’s clothes into his beat-up suitcase. His brother was quiet; it reminded him of the times they’d been hurt in training and were trying not to show it to others.

Danny could never really stop the tears from coming out when they were alone, but he would move around much better than Damian had, expertly camouflaging his wounds. Danny worked through the pain better, but it always showed in his eyes, especially to those that knew him well. On the other hand, Damian was better at hiding his feelings, he’d perfected his emotionless mask, but he did tend to limp or hunch over more when in pain.

“Danyal,” Damian whispered, putting a hand on his shoulder to stop packing for a second. “Father will welcome you. Had I ever told him, he would have mourned you and done everything in his power to figure out what had happened.”

“Danny?” Jack’s voice came through the door. “Can I come in?” Danny was frozen and clearly unable to handle that right now, so Damian marched to the door and threw it open, glaring up at the man on the other side.

“What do you want? I do believe your wife had enough to say to my brother,” Damian growled, seconds from ripping the door off and throwing it at the hulking man. Jack paused, blinking at Damian before looking at Danny who still had his back turned.

“I…I booked a hotel for us…I know that Maddie is mad, but you’re still my kid,” Jack declared, and Damian noted the suitcase next to him. “Your brother is more than welcome to join.”

Danny closed his eyes and straightened his back. There was work to be done, especially since he was seriously considering the option of leaving.

Which would now take two ghost hunters away from Amity Park. It would leave the town nearly defenseless and give the government too much free rein to harm the Ghost Zone and her inhabitants.

“That’s unnecessary. I have a place we can stay,” Danny said as he turned to his dad. He looked Jack up and down. The man was being honest, he was willing to stay with him. To help him, instead of staying with the woman he loved more than anything, or so Danny had thought. “You can come if you want. It’s not far.”

"What?" Jack asked confused. "There aren't any hotels nearby..."

“Danny stole a building,” Damian said with a roll of his eyes and Danny flashed him a feral grin. Cause when you put it like that, yeah, Danny absolutely had successfully stolen a whole building.

Jack felt relief at the light interaction between the siblings, glad that Danny had someone to distract him from all the hurt Maddie had inflicted him. But more than that, Jack observed the mischievous smirk Danny‘s brother sent him back, how they were practically identical side by side, and hoped they never decided to switch places.

He would never be able to tell.

Danny loved a bit of chaos; it was one of the things that Jack had always loved about his son. How after the first year in their care, he’d opened up more and shown his more playful side. Shown how much joy he could bring when snarking in puns or playing silly pranks on others. Jack could only imagine how chaotic he could be if he convinced his brother to play along too.

The room was silent except for the sound of fast typing in a keyboard. Bruce was looking up a few things about a certain law that had never actually been passed: the Anti-Ecto Control Acts. And so far, none of what he'd found was any good.

The local and state governments were giving money to fund the ridiculous act. Illinois had passed part of the Acts in order to make it so people could hunt ghosts without needing training or proper authorization. It had given way to complete chaos in the town of Amity Park.

Given how many people had migrated to town, Vlad Masters had decided to put in place a registry of Ghost Hunters. In case of a ghost attack, the civilians would have an easier time finding a number to call for help. However, it seemed to Bruce that the thing wasn't being used the way it was meant to, as many of the numbers led to the Guys in White instead of the registered ghost hunters. There weren't many names listed either.

It wasn't the only odd thing.

As he continued to look deeper into ghost laws, Bruce's mood fell further. The things the Acts claimed to want changed were horrifying at best and extremely dangerous at worst. It would restructure their whole society and not for the better. To add insult to the injury, from his preliminary research, it really looked like whoever was backing those laws had enough power to do whatever they wanted.

It was worrisome how such a thing had slipped past the Justice League.

Bruce didn't let himself despair though. He remained focused, combing through the files he'd compiled, frequently consulting the League’s system when things seemed suspicious and tirelessly reading through the numerous pages of legal documents.

Finally, after hours lost in the research, Bruce found a respite. Whoever had whipped up the document was good, but even they hadn't been able to avoid using wording that directly contradicted another existing law, the Meta Rights Act.

And Bruce was going to ensure that would be their downfall.

He heard keys at the door and turned, expecting to see Damian, but was surprised to find instead Danny and Jack there. Bruce narrowed his eyes and Danny shook his head.

“Mom…Maddie kicked me out after overhearing a conversation about me being an assassin,” Danny explained as he threw his bag on the ground next to the table. Tim snored slightly before twisting around on the couch, oblivious of what was happening and this change of plans.

“Mr. Fenton did not approve, but he does not know everything either,” Damian provided as he walked in, his stance telling Bruce that he’d been checking to see if they’d been followed or under watch. Jack kept his eyes on Danny for another moment before turning at the other adult in the room.

“Who are you?” He asked, and Bruce looked him up and down while considering how to respond. He did not want to tell this man anything about who he was. But Mr. Fenton should at the very least know that he was Danny’s biological father. Bruce was still pondering how to deal with this new turn of events, but he did know that Jack wanted to support Danny. For that, he couldn’t be mad.

“He’s our father,” Damian said as he walked over to the computer station, and Bruce knew that was all that was needed. Jack seemed to deflate slightly at that information before looking at Danny who just stared at the ground.

He looked so lost.

“Danno?” Jack asked softly before kneeling in front of him. “I’ll always be here. I promise.” Danny’s eyes filled with tears. Jack wrapped him in a gentle hug. “I love you.”

Bruce watched and knew that at least one of Danny’s adoptive parents weren’t going to just let him go. No matter how much Bruce would like this to be easy and just take his son, he also couldn’t just take Danny away from his family.

Bruce stood up and stayed next to Damian with a hand on his shoulder. Damian looked up at him.

He looked conflicted, and Bruce knew that his son had wanted his brother at his side, but also knew that Damian felt threatened by Danny.

Damian had already told Bruce about how Danny was used against him in the League and hadn’t wanted to live in his twin’s shadow.

How Damian felt like he was never enough after his brother’s supposed demise.

Bruce would do his best to never let Damian feel that way. He knew that Damian had a lot of issues when he first came to live with them, and Bruce could see where that first spite came from.

Damian was competing with someone who wasn’t there. Someone who couldn’t ever truly prove themselves one way or another. It explained Damian’s hostility to Tim when they first met.

Bruce could see some of Tim in Danny and he wondered if Damian did at first as well. Tim snored again before rolling off the couch making everyone turn to him as he shot up with wide eyes.

Bruce maintained his blank face, but he couldn’t quite stop the little smirk. Jack looked at Tim concerned and let go of Danny to make sure that Tim was okay.

“Awe man,” Tim whined seeing that he was on the floor now instead of the couch before looking around the room to see everyone staring at him. “Uh, hi?” Tim could see a new face, and he didn’t know what was going on. Jack was only a couple of feet away from him and Danny looked like he was trying not to laugh.

Although Tim could tell that something big happened while he was asleep, it was a little disconcerting not knowing what was going on.

“Uh, I’m okay,” Tim said unsure of what else to say.

“I would hope that a simple fall from the couch wouldn’t be enough to end you,” Damian said as he crossed his arms and looked entirely unimpressed. Bruce shook his head as Danny covered his mouth with his hand.

“Ha, Ha,” Tim mumbled as he stood up and dusted himself off. “And who are you?”

“Jack Fenton,” Jack answered seeing the confusion on Tim’s face. Although Tim was trying to hide it since he didn't recognize the man even after following the night before. “I’m Danny’s…dad.”

“There was an issue, for now we keep working,” Bruce said as he looked over to Danny. “Whatever happens next we will be there.”

“Yeah!” Jack exclaimed still reeling a little by everything that was going on. Bruce watched him closely. Jack may have looked over Danny’s past, but Bruce wasn’t sure he would be as accepting of Danny’s present.

After all, Danny was still Phantom. He was still something other than human, and something that Jack Fenton had openly stated he’d hunt and rip apart at any given opportunity.

“So, what’s the plan?” Danny asked looking at Bruce. Bruce could see how lost Danny seemed.

“We gather more intel, and we rest,” Bruce decided as he looked back at the computer. He had a few emails to send to the Justice League and some people he wanted to talk to before making any big moves.

His first priority would be to ensure Danny’s safety though. He looked at Jack and knew that he really needed to talk to the man to get more information on ghosts without the bias.

Talia looked over again at the letter her informant had sent.

A mole, working under Father’s command. It seemed like he knew now about Danyal, but he didn’t know about Phantom. Nor did anyone know that Bruce was also here.

That was another thing she’d kept from everyone. She growled in frustration and stalked through the hallway of her safe house, this one right outside of Amity Park.

She had already sent everyone else out.

Talia didn’t know who she could trust, and she’d now been informed that her father was on his way here now.

It was obvious why. He would hunt Danyal down, and that was something she wasn’t letting happen. She would rather damn herself under her father’s ire than ever let him near Danyal again.

She’d already done what she could to protect Damian from him. She would do the same for Danyal.

Slipping out of the house, she started her trek back to Amity Park on foot. It would be a long walk, but she would need to remain alert of her surroundings the whole time.

No one followed her.

Chapter Text

Runaway Assassin

Chapter Twelve

Ghost Investigation Ward

The government of the United States doesn’t want peace. It wants to exploit its system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war.

~Hugo Chávez

Ra’s was walking through Axiom labs studying everything they had there. Most of it seemed high tech, and had he not always been learning more about technology, he would’ve been impressed. There was even a supercomputer that the employees claimed could be used to hack into nearly anything, and Ra’s wondered if it would be able to get into the Justice League’s mainframe in space. That might be handy.

“Sir, we’ve looked into the Fentons,” one of his men said as they walked up behind him. Ra’s turned to him, a silent command for him to finish reporting. “Danyal has shown back up from wherever it was that he’d been hiding. He’s at home now. What would you like us to do?”

Ra’s looked over the disgustingly white suits that his men had to wear to get into this agency. It hadn’t taken more than a few shows of skill for them to hire his people, and then it was laughably easy for Ra’s to take over it. Most of the other agents were dispatched as soon as they had their claws in.

“Keep an eye on the building for now. Send hourly updates.” Ra’s ordered as he walked over to the other side of the room, where he could find numerous ecto-weapons spread over several desks. The team had taken them apart in order to learn more about their inner workings and were now in the stage of rebuilding them. “What do we know about these beings?”

“They are…strange,” Dr. Langston said as he looked over all the information they’d gathered. “My expertise is in biology, not ectology. I did a little bit of digging and found that the Fentons graduated with ecto-degrees, so did the town’s mayor. They may know more about the technology.” Ra’s simply hummed, making Langston wince slightly. “I would say maybe getting one of them.”

Ra’s turned and walked away. He’d already had reports on how the Fentons worked, and he was…unimpressed and uninterested. They were chaotic and uncontrollable for what he was looking for.

He paused, considering the other option.

Vlad Masters. The mayor.

Ra’s grinned as he turned to look back at Langston, who was checking through a microscope some of the ectoplasm samples the GIW had laying around. The scientist certainly looked out of his depth, although he was giving his best.

“Agent W,” Ra’s called. The man in question quickly straightened up and stood at attention awaiting orders. “Get me the town’s mayor. Don’t worry about being gentle. I’m sure my daughter will be on her way, and I’d like to get a head start on any of her plans.” The agent nodded before vanishing towards the front of the building.

Masters would serve as their ecto specialist and Ra’s would find a way to use the technology for his own gain.

Walking back to the main office, Ra’s picked up some of the reports that they had gathered on Danyal, and he was soon deeply disappointed upon reading about Danyal’s academics. It was like the boy had stopped caring. That wouldn’t do. Ra’s would ensure to change that as soon as he got ahold of him.

Talia slipped into the mayor’s manor. She knew that it was likely that her father would look for an expert to help understand all the ghost side of things happening in town, and if he knew about the Fentons being Danyal’s adoptive parents, then he would go for the next available person with a similar degree.

Vlad Masters.

The creep who seemed to want to take Danny away from the Fentons in some weird he-should-be-my-son kind of thing.

Talia wished she knew more about it, but back then she hadn’t wanted to pry at the relationship as she’d been focused on getting more recruits. Although Vlad had claimed he'd wanted to get Danny in fighting shape, she had been unsure why he would want that if they were already having some kind of spat.

But then she'd learned about Danny being Phantom, so now she was worried that Vlad was also in the know and that getting Danny into fight training was some kind of twisted way to prove a point between them.

Training, in fact, that Danny already had since he was a child and that he seemed to be deliberately trying not to use. Talia had taken some time to study the ghost fights posted online and noted that much of what Phantom did was airborne brawls. As such, many of his moves blended together, and although her son had gone to great lengths to modify them enough that a cursory glance wouldn't give him away, she could spot some of the League's training bleeding through since she was looking for it.

That train of thought was interrupted as Talia finally reached her destination, silently slipping into the office where Masters was pacing back and forth.

“I don’t care, Skulker. I got you out almost as soon as Daniel had thrown you back in the Zone…well then, stop getting caught by him,” Vlad stopped and growled into a communicator. The sound echoed oddly in the room and Talia paused her advances.

Danny’s voice had done something similar when he’d let his powers loose. She narrowed her eyes as she studied the creep. Talia already had her suspicions that he was a meta, at the very least, but now she wondered if he wasn’t actually similar to Danny in a ghostly way.

Which meant that she didn’t have any upper hand in this. She needed to leave.

She slipped back the way she came and headed towards Fentonworks. She needed to warn Danny that Ra’s was in Amity Park now and hope that he would listen to her.

That he would let her help. The only reason she didn’t stay and attack Masters was because she knew that Ra’s men would have issues if she was right about Masters having the same or similar powers to Danny.

She could only hope that Ra’s never put it together that Danny was Phantom.

Bruce looked over at his sleeping children. They were laid out on some sleeping pads that Danny had stored in case he ever needed to lay low. Bruce remembered how Jack Fenton had stood there, watching as his son went through several bags filled with other resources before finding the sleeping mats, the extent of Danny's contingencies finally hitting the man, although Bruce wasn't sure if Fenton had realized he was part of the reason Danny had needed to prepare in the first place.

The man now was laying directly on the floor, face looking absolutely lost as he stared at the poorly lit ceiling. It was a feeling Bruce understood better than anyone, even though he always did his best to mask such emotions from his face. With a sigh, Bruce walked towards him.

“Is there anything specific you’d like to get off your chest?” His voice was low, careful not to wake the children. Hopefully this would be a good opportunity to get more information about Danny and his life here in Amity. Jack glanced at him before sitting up, wrangling his hands together in his lap.

“Are you going to take Danny away?” He asked, voice slightly shaking, and Bruce took a deep breath. He wanted to. How Bruce wanted to take Danny home to Gotham, where he could protect him and keep him safe.

“That’s up to Danny. I think he wants to come, but I also think he wants to stay. At the end of the day, it will be his decision,” Bruce said as he looked over at the sleeping boys. “I want to bring him home with me, but that isn’t my decision to make.” Jack huffed and glared at the far wall.

“After what Mads did, I’m surprised he’s still considering it,” he said bitterly. “I loved her so much. I’ve always wanted a couple of kids while she only ever wanted one. She loved Jazz so much, and then…Danny came along, and she let us keep him because she didn’t have to do much to raise him. The hard part was already over with, and Jazz loved him,” Jack sighed as tears formed and slowly fell down his face. “I never thought that she would…”

“Danny has not opened up to many people. I can tell that just by the way he interacts with everyone else around him,” Bruce said as he sat down next to Jack. “He’s distrustful of the things that happen around him, and given what I know about his past life, I know that he is protecting himself first and foremost. Every decision he has made so far has been because he thought it was either the right thing or a way to keep himself and his family safe. He still refers to you as dad. And while I do believe that your wife has harmed their relationship, there is no reason that you should also suffer.”

“Where do you even live? Would I be able to visit if he chooses to go with you?” Jack asked, looking at Bruce again.

“Gotham. We’re from Gotham,” Bruce answered, and the other man paled horribly. He watched as Jack's gaze drifted to the shadows, a haunted look in his eyes as if he expected them to suddenly come alive and attack him. It was only when the man's body showed slight tremors, his breath hitching on his throat, that Bruce realized he was entering a panic attack, not unlike what Danny had gone through earlier. “Breathe, Jack.” Bruce’s voice was gentle, and he slowly counted breaths until Jack calmed down.

“I grew up in Gotham,” Jack whispered, and Bruce understood that fear.

Gotham was not kind.

“It was what got me interested in ghosts at first. The reason why I chose it,” Jack whispered as he looked down at the floor again. Tears were still flowing from his eyes. “My dad…he worked for the Cobblepots for a long time, before Batman’s first real raid on the Iceberg Lounge. He was a bouncer and barman. He was good and made decent money…looking back I’m sure he was doing things he shouldn’t have been, but…” Jack trailed off unsure of what to say.

Bruce nodded trying to remember those early days. Taking down the Penguin had been one of his first moves after a Joker attack. Bruce was fairly certain that he sported way too many concussions at the time for him to really remember, but the name Fenton didn’t ring a bell.

“What was his name?” Bruce asked and Jack huffed.

“Our last names were Nightingale in Gotham. We had dropped the Fenton part because my father believed that Fenton-Nightingale was too long, and Gotham was a dark gloomy city. Our family history was into studying the supernatural. We used to hunt all kinds, and I’m not proud, but some of my ancestors did try to burn witches,” Jack explained as he shook his head. Bruce thought that name sounded far more familiar than Fenton and decided that when they got back he’d go digging a little more. “Then I went to college and tried to keep up the family studies. There was a new lab opened in Wisconsin that involved ecto-sciences and ghost studies. I joined and met my best friend, Vlad Masters, and Maddie.”

Bruce looked over at Danny. Vlad Masters had been the one to hire Talia, and he could tell there was something off with the man. Plus, Danny had told him about an accident that had turned Vlad into a half-ghost. That happened back in college.

Pieces were starting to fit together now, and Bruce could see where everything was leading up to. He sighed. It wasn’t perfect, but maybe he could use this conversation to lay some lines in the sand about what Danny really was and ensure that his son didn’t lose everything in the family he’d built here.

“So why do you hate ghosts so much then?” He asked and Jack’s head shot up with wide eyes. Bruce had seen that sort of stare before but he wasn’t sure if it was fear or something else. Bruce was leaning more towards fear though.

“I…they…” Jack trailed off, still staring at Bruce. “No one’s asked that of me.” Bruce glanced at his boys again. Years with his kids let him know that Tim wasn’t asleep, and Damian seemed to be on the edge of waking up. He wasn’t sure if Danny was asleep anymore.

“So why?” Bruce pushed, knowing that if Danny was awake, this was the perfect way for him to know more about how Jack would feel about Phantom.

“I didn’t at first. I thought that a whole new world was interesting and exciting, but then there was an accident in college that hurt my friend,” Jack said as he remembered the screams of his best friend and the hospital stay. “I…Vlad had been hurt. Then I was upset because we couldn’t see him no matter what we tried. We called around, and tried to get a hold of him to see if he was okay and we always got a run around. It was months of getting the same answers whenever we tried to visit: You aren’t family, he’s not here, sorry, the name is familiar, even if he was here, I couldn’t tell you.”

Bruce nodded understanding that part fairly well after reading some reports.

“Then I started to date Maddie and one thing led to another, and we started a family. Vlad was supposed to be my best man, but he never showed or answered any of my invites or calls…then one day out of the blue, he calls us up and invites us to a reunion in his mansion,” Jack grinned. “A ghost attacked of course, but we were friends again.”

“That doesn’t answer my question for your hatred.”

“Then ghosts started appearing every day and attacking people. We always got called for cleanup, but we could never catch Phantom.” Bruce narrowed his eyes. Phantom was the one fighting the other ghosts and catching them because he would be the first one there. Jack huffed a sad laugh. “I even worked with Phantom once to save my family. I’m surprised he kept his end of the deal.”

“Are you?” Bruce asked. “I’ve done a bit of research into what all goes on here. Phantom seems to be the one actually handling the problem while all of you hunters seem to just go after him.” Jack glared at him.

“The other ghosts wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Phantom,” Jack spat out, earning him a blank stare from Bruce.

“Is it because of Phantom, or the portal in your basement? Don’t blame someone else for the world in which you create,” Bruce’s rebuttal had Jack dropping his head to stare at his hands, as he finally realized that it was likely that the portal was the real problem. It was his life’s work. Years of research and failure after failure until they’d finally succeeded; he’d done so much just to prove another other world existed and now, he couldn’t claim his hands were clean. He wasn’t sure that he wasn’t the reason that so many people suffered from the ghost attacks.

Talia finally reached Danny’s bedroom and looked in through the window, expecting to find him there.

He was not.

She growled in frustration as she slipped inside, hoping that he’d show up soon. Settling in a shadowed corner, she pulled up the Amity Park database she’d previously hacked into to now try and find where her son could be. It was likely that he’d gone off to deal with some ghost attack and she was looking into any lead about that when the sound of something crashing came from below, followed by a scream. She narrowed her eyes and kept herself in the shadows as she walked down the stairs following the angry yelling.

It soon became clear that it was Maddie Fenton.

She watched as the woman beat a kitchen chair into the basement door while cussing out Jack and his love for a kid that wasn’t theirs. Talia slid into the kitchen, keeping far away and to the woman’s back, not that Maddie was in the right mind to even notice, considering she was busy throwing another chair across the kitchen and into the living room. The red-haired woman breathed heavily for a moment, as if to try and calm herself, before she began screaming anew, shouting about how she blamed Danny for this, how her family falling apart was his fault. Talia felt righteous anger hearing those accusations about her son. Maddie looked miserable, and Talia believed that she didn’t deserve to look like that either. She wasn’t going to let this go.

“Why did you take him in if you didn’t want him?” She asked harshly as she stepped out of the shadows, a gun aimed at the other woman, who twisted to face her too quickly, nearly falling down.

“How did you get in here?” Maddie demanded as she reached for one of her ectoguns lying on the table. Talia shot it away, glad that the silencer was on.

She didn’t want anyone calling the cops for this. Or alert anyone in case someone else was in the house. She wasn’t sure when Danyal would show up, and she knew it was unlikely that she would even know he’d come back since he could just go through the walls.

“I was looking for Danyal,” she said when Maddie finally raised her hands in surrender. At least the woman knew when she was beat.

Or so she thought, before Maddie ducked to the side, throwing something that made smoke form around them. Talia put her arm around her face and listened intently for Maddie’s location, which was easy when the other woman charged her. Talia shifted to the side, causing Maddie to crash into the ground but she was undeterred and tried to swipe the assassin’s feet from under her. Talia moved again, but Maddie was up again and walking right up to her.

She just needed an opening to strike as Maddie turned all of her anger and frustration on Talia.

“Why did you do this to my family!” Maddie shouted before suddenly pulling out a retractable boostaff out of nowhere, and the unexpected move resulted in her actually hitting Talia. The assassin twisted herself around to minimize the impact, while extending her arm behind the other woman to hit a pressure point that should end this quickly. Unlike what she expected though, Maddie did not go down and Talia soon felt the full force of the staff against her back, which sent her to the ground.

She used the fall to roll away for a few feet, then jumped to her feet in a swift movement, quickly advancing on the other woman to grab the staff and twist it away from the opponent. Talia twirled it around in her own hands a couple times, but Maddie was quick to recover and charge at her even without a weapon. Talia slammed the staff on the ground and used it to propel herself into the air and take Maddie to the floor with her legs wrapped around her neck and the staff pinning one of her legs. Maddie struggled slightly before the lack of air started to get to her, but Talia knew better than to let go too soon, so she held on until she was certain that the woman was out.

Talia allowed herself a moment to catch her breath and assess her injuries. Still lying on the floor, she quickly concluded the worst hit was the first one to her side, although the one to her back came close too. It would definitely bruise, but she’d be fine.

Finally done with that, she got up and dusted herself off while looking at the other woman sprawled out on the floor, still unconscious and her breathing shallow. Talia walked towards the door she’d been pounding on and screaming at.

There was a lock on the door with both a pass code and what seemed like a fingerprints scanner. She studied it closely.

Clearly Mrs. Fenton didn’t have access anymore to the systems, so Talia kneeled and started looking through some of the connections, after all, she’d hacked into much harder things, surely this one would be just as easy. Halfway through her poking around, Talia pulled away in a rush, there was a green goo attached to the wiring, and she did not want to touch it.

It seemed like a much brighter and denser version of the Lazarus Pits. She paused.

Suddenly, things made a lot more sense. Danyal would’ve stayed if he thought that whatever the Fentons were doing was closely related to those pits. He would’ve done so either to gain knowledge and an upper hand against the League, or just to ensure that the family would have some form of protection. Talia pulled out a small vial and collected the sample. She’d need to find Danyal to confirm, but she was pretty sure whatever this stuff was, it had some sort of relation to the pits and maybe they could work together to stop her father from dividing the League more than it already was.

Talia was walking towards the back door when a knock sounded from the front door. She paused, considering approaching to try and identify the visitor, but it proved unnecessary, because soon a familiar accent came from outside.

“This is the Guys in White, please open up,” the voice said, and Talia was quick to slip out the back.

Her father had moved much quicker than she’d expected, based on the information the mole had given her.  

She'd have to be more careful about who she let in her circle from now on. Ra’s had far more pull than she was comfortable with. Talia stepped into the street, her attention was so focused on checking if there were other assassins around, that she never noticed the darker than normal shadows watching her as she walked by.

Bruce had just stepped outside for a moment to check the perimeter when Talia appeared around the corner. They both stopped moving when they noticed each other.

 “Beloved?” Talia whispered in surprise before looking back the way she came as voices sounded closer. She ran up to him and twisted them into the alley, kissing him deeply as people swarmed the area.

They were easily avoided as public displays of affection often made others uncomfortable. Bruce discreetly watched as around them agents dressed in white suits descended on Fentonworks. They kept the act up until the alley was devoid of any other people again.

Talia started pulling away but Bruce was quick to grab her arm and shove her into the storage building, before pinning her to the wall next to the door.

“What is going on?” He demanded, in no mood for games. He’d thought that she had left. She’d said that she had left.

“I had a mole, and my father knows about Danyal,” Talia informed without delay and Bruce let her go, running his fingers through his hair instead, even pulling at it slightly when the seriousness of the situation hit him.

“I hoped we’d had more time to sort it…” Bruce trailed off, confused as he looked at Talia a little closer. “What happened?”

She was looking over his shoulder towards where everyone had gone back to sleep, except for Danny who’d heard them and was now sitting up watching the pair quietly.

Talia glanced back at Bruce before motioning towards Danny. Bruce backed off to include the boy in the conversation but remained in position between Talia and his children.

“I found out that my father had a mole in my organization. I gave orders for everyone to leave Amity Park then slipped back. I was going to question Masters, but then…Danny had said something about him working with ghosts, and I knew he had at the very least meta-abilities,” Talia paused here to look at Danny, only to find that his eyes were glowing green in the dark room. The sight made her feel unsettled.

“What were you doing at Fentonworks then?” Bruce questioned and Talia crossed her arms, annoyed that Bruce didn’t put it together.

Or he did and just wanted her to confirm.

“I wanted to warn Danyal of the coming danger,” Talia said, watching as Danyal stood up. She realized that Damian wasn’t asleep either. He’d woken up when Danyal moved and now watched as his brother walked towards their parents. Despite the pressing matters, it warmed her heart seeing her boys together.

“What kind of danger?” Danny asked as he stopped a few feet away from Bruce, who was still observing Talia. He would ensure that she couldn’t hurt his children again so he kept skeptical to everything she said, after all, it wouldn’t be the first trap she’d led him into. Talia rolled her eyes as she stepped forward, only for ice to cover her feet and trap her there. She balanced herself before she could fall and glared at Danny. “Answer.”

“Your grandfather had a mole inside my division and found out about you. He’s already here and has people inside the Guys in White,” Talia said as she glared down at the ice that was trapping her. “I doubt he knows about your powers, but it won’t take much to put it together.”

“It will be okay as long as he doesn’t know about all of my abilities,” Danny said as he looked at his bike. Talia also looked at it, confused at what he was getting at. “I started this as a way to stop Mother from knowing, but it could still work. The groundwork has already been laid for it.”

“What?” Talia asked for clarification, but Danny just flashed her a feral grin before walking over to his bike and leaning against it.

“I needed a way to sway ghost hunter and public opinion about ghosts, so I made a truce between a new ghost hunter and Phantom,” Danny answered as he crossed his arms. “Dad…he put a lock on the portal in Fentonworks which is why there aren’t too many ghosts about. We need a ghost attack.”

“No,” Bruce promptly cut him off, but Danny glared at him.

“The only times a ghost attack has actually truly hurt anyone were massive ones like the Ghost King or some high-level ones. Those don’t happen often, and I made a few friends who would likely help to set the stage.” Danny grabbed a pile of dark clothing from inside the bike.

“We cannot risk…” Bruce cut himself off seeing the green in Danny’s eyes that reminded him of Jason’s anger. He couldn’t help but get slightly defensive waiting for Danny to blow up.

His son didn’t; he just grinned. A grin he’d seen many times on Dick’s face when he’d come up with a crazy plan to get the upper hand. It was definitely menacing, and Bruce wasn’t sure he wanted to support whatever this was, but Danny did have more knowledge about what was going on here than them. So for now, he’d follow along.

“There won’t be a risk. It I…I had already given a name for this,” Danny said, and Bruce just stared at the ceiling wishing that at least one of his children would not pick an insane plan to enact. He just needed to make sure to be there in case this blew up, but after reading some reports while Danny changed, he realized that his son was right.

He’d already laid the groundwork before and in a way that would make this a little easier to keep Ra’s from realizing that Phantom and Danny were one and the same. If he knew that the new ghost hunter was Danyal instead, he wouldn’t question it, since no one seemed to know that one of Danny’s powers was making duplicates of himself. Much less that there was evidence that hybrids existed in the first place.

“There’s been a new ghost hunter that has shown up in the last two weeks,” Agent W said as he walked up to Ra’s. “He’s been going by the name Al Ghul.” He handed Ra’s a file that the Guys in White had started on Al Ghul.

Ra’s looked it over, flipping the pages as he considered this new information. Danyal may have been secretly saving people for a while and just finally decided to make himself known. He smirked, if he used the right buttons, then this could be useful in getting the boy on his side.

“How many fights have been recorded?” Ra’s asked, frowning at how little information there was.

“There has only been a couple, and the only part recorded was a truce with the local hero known as Phantom,” Agent W informed as he pulled up the video of Phantom and Al Ghul coming to a deal. Ra’s glared at the screen, it seemed like Danyal had been trying to get a truce started between ghosts and ghost hunters.

“Then we have something on him. We ruin any chance of a truce,” Ra’s declared as he looked over the reports the GIW had on the strange beings in Amity Park. Ghosts shouldn’t be too hard to beat considering the previous agents were able to stop most of the attacks without much help. He ordered without looking up, “Get me an army. We’re going to war with the other side.”

Chapter Text

Runaway Assassin

Chapter Thirteen

Good Men Don’t Need Rules

Demons run when a good man goes to war,

Night will fall and drown the sun,

When a good man goes to war,

Friendship dies and true love lies,

Night will fall and the dark will rise,

When a good man goes to war.

Demons run, but count the cost,

The Battle’s won, but the child is lost.

~River Song

“Ra’s likely doesn’t know that you are here,” Talia said as she leaned against the counter and admired Danny’s sniper rifle. She was quite impressed with the quality and care Danny had clearly put into it. She was certain that Bruce hated it, but she could respect why Danny would have an armory.

“That’ll just help us make sure he’s confused as fuck,” Danny said with a grin as he passed by, walking towards the computer to discuss the plan he’d come up with his brother.

Bruce muttered his disapproval under his breath, still not liking Danny's plan, but knowing he couldn't really complain since it was the most thought-out one they had right now, and at least this way his son's powers would remain a secret. They were already flying blind into this but Danny knew more about ghosts than anyone else did, and Bruce couldn't lie about the fact that this was Danny's field.

This had to be his decision.

“What’s going on?” Jack asked as he stood up; he’d woken up to see everyone already up and most surrounding Danny’s computer setup. He was impressed that Danny managed to gather all this stuff without either him or Maddie knowing.

“We’re planning something…” Danny started as he turned to look at Jack. “I still don’t know what I want to do…Mo…Maddie doesn’t seem interested in being…well, in my life I guess. But I still have a life here, no matter how broken it’s become.”

“It’s not your fault,” Tim piped in, causing them to turn to him. He was leaning against the wall with a cup of coffee he’d made from a swiped maker that Danny had in storage just in case. “That’s why we all came together. We’ve all been part of a broken family for one reason or another. We build each other back up.”

“Good to know that your brain isn’t entirely damaged,” Damian sneered and Danny laughed at Tim’s offended look.

“That’s mean,” Tim grumbled as he took a sip of his coffee while glaring at everyone. Bruce sighed and just looked at the computer. There wasn’t enough here to really have a good set up the way he was used to, but it was all he had for now.

“You’ll be fine,” Danny said as he checked his outfit one last time. “I’ve got a ghost to talk to, and a plan to start.” He walked to his bike, fixing a mask to his face as he got on the seat. Jack swallowed, nervous about letting his son go out there, but apparently this was a plan to try to get Ra’s or whoever to show a bit more of their hand. Jack wasn’t sure he understood anything that was happening and decided that moral support would be best. Wait—

DANNY WAS MEETING A GHOST?!!

“Mrs. Fenton, so good of you to join us,” Ra’s said as he walked around her. Maddie glared at him as she tried to get her bearings. She was tied to a chair in a dimly lit room that smelled vaguely of piss. She wanted to throw up.

“Who are you?” She demanded as Ra’s stopped before her, analytical cold eyes glued to her face. She suddenly felt very small.

“My name is unimportant, but what you can know is that I have evidence that your son is trying to get in league with ghosts,” Ra’s smirked as he noticed the unbridled anger rear up in Maddie’s eyes.

There was also betrayal there and he was going to make sure to use it all. For this plan, he just needed a spark, and the best way for that would be to send Danyal’s adoptive mother out to kill Phantom. And to do that, he wanted her to go after the new ghost hunter first, to really home in the betrayal. This would throw Danyal into a tailspin until Ra’s could come in and present himself as a rock that the boy could cling onto. Then he could bring him back into the League.

The first ghost Danyal had planned to start this little truce thing with, and Ra’s was going to make it into an example for the ghosts to take back to their world.

Vlad paced in his study as he tried to think of his next move here. Skulker was nearly useless since he couldn’t seem to keep track of Phantom nor find Miss Tate. Vlad slammed his hand on the desk and glared at the tracker that was showing that Miss Tate was still here in his manor.

The tracker had never left, and he was unsure of how on earth she had found it. He drummed his fingers on the desk, trying to figure out what he was going to do about that when he suddenly sensed another presence in the room. He looked up to find someone standing at the door. They hadn’t been there a second before.

Three agents from the Guys in White stood behind the person, as if to escort the man before them. Vlad straightened up, confused about what was happening but determined to put up the nice mayor act while sending those people away.

“Excuse me, you can’t be in here,” He said as he walked around his desk, trying to keep most of the annoyance out of his voice.

“You’ve studied ecto sciences, correct?” The mysterious guest asked with an accent Vlad couldn’t pin down. The halfa looked down his nose at the man, preparing to send him away, but as he prowled closer he noticed something was off.

Those weren’t normal Guys in White agents. They were…too quiet. Too controlled.

Something was very wrong.

“I did, but that was a long time ago,” Vlad informed, now eyeing them all warily.

“Good,” the man grinned before giving the men a motion and they suddenly had guns pointed at him. Vlad raised his hands.

Once again, real guns were being pointed at him and he couldn’t do anything without revealing that he had powers.

He’d have to wait for the right time before striking, but for now, information was power.

“Who are you?” He demanded as two of the agents walked up to him and cuffed him. The man grinned.

“My name is Ra’s al Ghul, and I’m in need of an ectologist.” Vlad found himself wishing he had never taken those studies in school. He side-eyed the leader, trying to recall if he’d ever seen him before, but it seemed the man was new to Amity Park because he couldn’t remember ever seeing him around town.

But the name Al Ghul did give him a ping, he just wasn’t sure where he’d heard it before.

Damian was dressed in a darker version of the Robin suit, one designed for stealth. He’d been hoping that he could swipe Danny’s bike, but they needed Danny as Al Ghul for now to make the plan work.

He climbed up the last building he’d found at the edge of town that had an adequate height and watched from the rooftop as Danny drifted a corner and vanished from behind a police car.

All without using any of his powers.

Damian wished that they would’ve had more time to relax and get to know each other again before getting sent to work on a mission together, but at least they did find out that they still worked in tune with each other.

Even if Danny had the maturity level of Grayson.

Damian had finished readying his grapple for this next jump, one that was going to be cutting far closer than he was usually comfortable with, when he heard it.

A revving bike.

Damian watched as another bike came through the street, two people on the seat. Or more accurately, two ghosts. Johnny Thirteen and Kitty had agreed to help Danny establish Al Ghul a bit more. Johnny had even seemed excited to see Danny’s bike in action now. Apparently, he was the only ghost to have been helping his brother with the build. Damian was upset to have missed that, but also wondered if Danny would be interested in helping him rebuild his own bike, or even build one from scratch.

Danny’s bike was terrifyingly quiet, and Damian knew that Father was interested in that.

There wasn’t even much of a hum from the tires on the road either unless Danny willed it, and Damian was unsure if that was because of his ghost powers or because of ectoplasm that the bike ran on.

“Robin, you there?” Came his brother’s voice, and Damian was glad that Danny decided to use codenames.

“Yes, I’m here, Johnny just passed me,” he informed before jumping off the roof. Damian knew that he came within inches of hitting the ground, but he continued confidently as he pulled himself back up to the nearest building. The next jump was going to be better since the building was taller on that side.

“Awesome, I’m almost to the mall. Since it’s early morning and still a school night, it shouldn’t have many people in there,” Danny’s voice cut out for a moment. “…is going to stay out of this.”

Damian wasn’t sure what Danny meant, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to leave his brother on his own to deal with a staged fight, not when there was such a high risk that it became something more.

“This is amazing,” Maddie whispered as she looked over all the new shiny equipment that Ra’s had provided from the GIW’s vault.

“All you should need to take down Phantom permanently,” Ra’s allowed himself a grin as he felt his plan coming together. It was simple. All he needed to do was destroy everything Danyal had built here, and the boy would come back to him.

And all of it before the Dark Knight would even notice, since he was last seen partying at some club in Gotham. Ra’s wondered vaguely what the Detective was investigating to have been so deep in character that the man had actually gotten a little drunk, according to the reports.

“This is so much better than what we had access to,” Maddie muttered as she gently petted down the barrel of an ecto-blaster. It was almost the size of their bazooka.

A red alert went off in the room, and Maddie smiled as an automated voice stated that there was a ghost attack nearby.

“Don’t forget, I want Al Ghul to think Phantom betrayed him,” Ra’s reminded as he read that his men had Al Ghul on sight.

Phantom shouldn’t be far behind, then.

Finally, Maddie thought, something to help her blow off some steam and maybe clear her head a little before trying to mend her relationship with Jack. She headed out right when her phone started ringing.

It was Jazz.

Al Ghul skidded to a stop in the middle of the food court, then looked up to find Kitty grinning widely at him. Her hands lit up with ectoplasmic energy right before Shadow phased through the ground right before him, forcing the ghost hunter to dodge out of the way in a controlled tumble.

He quickly got up and immediately fired his weapons, forcing Shadow down and Kitty to duck for cover. At the same time, he glanced around for Johnny, who’d already been shot off his bike.

“Ya know, kid, that was pretty slick,” the ghost in question said as he grinned and spit out some ectoplasm. Al Ghul smirked before both felt the vibrations of their alerts warning of incoming agents. “Damn, had hoped I’d get away with a least a little ass kicking.”

Kitty vaulted over the counter and Al Ghul ducked before twisting and opening the thermos to suck her in.

She screamed right as two agents came bursting in and aiming their weapons with too much accuracy at Johnny, who managed to get away from the men just to be sucked in the thermos along with Shadow.

Then the agents aimed their weapons at him. Al Ghul grinned as he sucked Johnny’s bike in then clipped the thermos to his belt.

“Well, well, looks like y’all got an upgrade,” he said as he studied the surrounding agents. Danny doubted he could’ve taken them all on his own, but he was comforted by the thought that Robin was right outside.

Waiting.

“Al Ghul,” one agent started, going as far as taking a step forward, but Danny only flashed them a feral grin before the lights went out.

A second later, Al Ghul was riding his bike right through the front doors, and when the lights came back on, the assassins disguised as agents were left standing there confused, since no one heard him leave and they couldn’t find a single trace of him nearby.

Danny was a couple streets away when he was suddenly forced to take a sharp turn, as the GAV came barreling down the road. Al Ghul turned again as the GAV locked its pursuit.

Another turn and he became certain that Maddie was behind the wheel.

“What’s going on?” Robin asked through the comm as Al Ghul took another sharp turn and quickly backtracked himself. He knew that the GAV wouldn’t have the mobility for it unless Maddie took a different route altogether, but that was such a risky move that he didn’t think anyone would follow through.

Al Ghul was about to sigh in relief when the GAV launched into the air and landed hard behind him. He laid into the accelerator and didn’t dare spare a glance behind him.

She had taken that route. Maddie was being serious. Danny felt himself start to panic slightly.

They’d chased him as Phantom before, but this was a whole new level.

Danny knew that the Fentons had confirmed that he was human before, and still Maddie was coming after him. He wasn’t sure what to do, he felt lost and off-balance now.

“DANYAL?”

“I’m okay, she’s just not backing off,” Danny quickly responded as he took another sharp turn.

He hadn’t considered this during his planning sessions. He didn’t want to talk to his mom.

Not even as someone else. His heart felt heavy, the air on his lungs started feeling insufficient and it seemed that all he could hear was the rumble of the GAV's engine behind him, but soon he heard the familiar whirl of a grapple above him. A shadow flew through the sky, filling the area behind it with smoke and Danny felt Robin land on the bike behind him. He felt like he could breathe again.

“How far out of town can you get us?” His brother asked, silently adjusting his body weight during each curve that Danny took, since he kept taking sharp turns to try and distance them from the GAV. Danny had thought that his dad’s driving was insane, but Maddie was crashing the thing through walls and driving even more recklessly than Jack ever did.

“I’m not sure,” Danny answered before touching a button that left a trail of goo behind him, finally forcing the GAV to slow down to avoid slipping over the substance. Danny didn’t look back as he felt the bike shift with the change in weight. “But I can figure it out.”

Damian held on a little tighter as Danny tipped the bike almost completely horizontal then used some intangibly so they could coast under a trailer without any wounds.

“Maddie wouldn’t…shouldn’t…she wouldn’t…” Jack stumbled over his words while trying to tell them that his wife would never go after a human. Bruce raised an eyebrow.

“You can’t be sure about that, especially not now that she is currently chasing Danny and Damian,” He said as he crossed his arms. While he was concerned about them, he knew that they could handle it as long as they were together. “Your wife has even changed her mind about keeping Danny. That’s why you two fought, and now you want to defend her as she is chasing them relentlessly across the city without a break.”

“There…maybe she’s tracking the ghost that they…” Jack started only to be fixed with a flat stare by Bruce.

“Doubtful, she knows exactly what’s she’s following,” Bruce said as he looked back at the screen. Danny’s and Damian’s dots were on top of each other and heading towards the edge of the city. Bruce wasn’t sure what the plan was, but at least they had each other. And for now, that had to be enough.

“She wouldn’t…” Jack trailed off, shaking his head as tears formed in his eyes. He stared at the trackers on the screen. It felt like the shadows at the edges of his vision were closing in more and more.

Danyal grinned as he drove past the sign that he’d first seen when coming into Amity Park.

A Nice Place To Live.

There had been so much hope then. Even when he tried, he never could quite smash down that persistent hope that had bloomed in his chest.

Amity Park had been a new start away from the blood on his hands. Away from his brother. The same one that had his arms wrapped around him now. Danny watched from the rearview mirror as the GAV crashed through the sign, because of course it would, while he shot off the road. He pressed another button and the bike held tight to the ground.

The GAV didn’t have nearly that type of technology and soon Maddie had ramped it into the air past them, with no hope of control as it flipped. Danny was quick to get his bike turned back around. Damian had gotten ahold of the authorities to help with the mess that the GAV was now in.

“Are you alright?” Damian asked after finishing his call, as he felt Danny shift again.

“No,” Danny said plainly. Damian held him just a little tighter in comfort.

“Phantom never showed?” Ra’s asked, annoyed. Phantom should have shown up to that ghost fight. There had been three ghosts during that attack. He knew his grandson and he wouldn’t have taken the risk with that.

He wouldn’t have risked that. That could only mean… Ra’s looked at his agents.

“Look through all the cameras in the area. He had backup somewhere, so go and find it,” Ra’s ordered before going back to staring at the screen where he could see Danyal driving through the city. He had seemed to retain a lot of his training, which had Ra’s wondering how he’d managed to upkeep his training in this backwater town.

He wasn’t nearly up to the standard of his soldiers, but he still managed to take on three ghosts, some of his agents, and his adopted mother. Ra’s grinned, Danyal had a good standing point, but there were still openings.

Still weaknesses.

Ra’s looked over again at the family picture they’d taken from Fentonworks. Danyal had links here. People he cared about, and Ra’s knew that was likely a good way to get him out. Jack was in the wind, and he already had Maddie under his thumb. She had a good foundation which would be good for her training, considering that he could manipulate her into joining their ranks. It wouldn’t be that hard, the woman had a lot of hatred in her heart; those had always been the easiest ones to recruit.

And then there was his adopted sister who was…somewhere. He wasn’t sure where, and Maddie had declined a call from her when she’d gone out earlier after Al Ghul and the ghosts. She might be harder to find without having all the information, and regardless, he doubted that Danyal would be easy to fool even if he did send someone to get her.

There might not be enough time, but still, he would send someone to look into it.

For now, the two in the picture that seemed to be his friends would be good ones to use, since they were much closer and easier to get ahold of.

“I want the names of his friends,” Ra’s said out loud, not even bothering to look up as another agent seemed to rush to figure that out for him. He grinned.

Sure, he didn’t have a full plan here, but he didn’t need one to get Danyal to do what he wanted. He just needed one successful mission to gain the upper hand against the world’s heroes. It was simple, really; once they’d managed to get Damian out of the picture, he’d be able to use Danyal’s likeness to his twin and get him to infiltrate the Justice League. Then, if he played his cards right, Danyal would not only unearth important secrets from the organization, like their hidden weaknesses and even real identities, but he’d also plant the new virus Dr. Langston had developed, one meant to keep track of them all while remaining undetected.

Ra’s grinned, eyes still on the screen. Maybe he could get Phantom to show after all. They had enough information about the ghost to use their backup plan.

They had finally entered the street that led to Fentonworks when a green burst of energy hit the road before them, destroying it beyond recognition. Danny just barely managed to dodge it by swerving his bike.

He looked up towards where the blast had come from just to come face to face with…himself.

Phantom was floating there with his hands lit up in energy. Robin got up from where he’d fallen on the ground and stepped next to Danny, frowning at the new presence.

“Well, that’s a problem,” Danny muttered at a loss for what to do. Sure, he could make a copy of himself when he was Phantom, but he still didn’t understand how this was happening.

“I take it that’s not you,” Robin replied quietly, as he took out his sword, readying himself for a fight.

Phantom continued to float there, but the edges of his silhouette began to glitch. Danny had seen something similar before.

“It’s a hologram,” He whispered, then grabbed one of the blasters from his holster and aimed at this fake counterpart, before shouting, “What are you doing?”

“I decided I didn’t want a truce,” Phantom hissed out before vanishing. Danny blinked before looking back at Robin.

“The fuck just happened?”

“What the fuck is Ra’s even doing?” Tim mumbled as he typed into the computer, moments after the twins had told them what happened. Bruce had his arms crossed as he watched Danyal clean his ecto-gun. Damian had proclaimed he’d take some time to relax on the couch, which translated from Damian-talk just meant he was sharpening his sword.

Bruce wasn’t sure what to think about the ecto-guns. They were guns, but Jack had explained how they weren’t lethal to humans, and that they weren’t even lethal to ghosts, the man admitted, as much as they had tried. Bruce was even more unhappy to hear that, and he ended the conversation there. He would like to bring it up with Danny at some point but knew that the boy was still shaken right now.

Ra’s sudden move had put at risk his plan to get the ghost hunters to back off the ghosts. Danny was upset because footage of the fight had gotten leaked, which wouldn’t be too bad, but Ra’s people had edited it with bits from the staged fight and ended it with Phantom saying that he didn’t want a truce. The thing would look authentic to anyone who wasn’t in the know of what had truly transpired.

“Why would you even want to work with the ghost?” Jack asked, genuinely confused, and Danny turned to fix a dark glare at him. Bruce smiled as Damian mirrored it. It was a bit unsettling how well they mirrored each other, but he found amusement in his sons’ similar mannerisms.

Jack looked at his son unsure how to tread on this subject. He likely could’ve handled just Danny, but Damian remained close by, and he was certain the boy was purposefully making sure Jack could hear the scrape of the brick along his sword. The sight had him thinking back on his past.

He remembered his father in that godawful city, all the fear he’d felt there as a boy and the seemingly constant screaming on the streets. Gotham was like a painful infected wound and Jack didn’t like that Danny apparently had the same kind of connections to that cursed city. His son held that same look in his eye, as if he were haunted by something, but still with fire in his veins.

It looked like Danny wasn’t going to back down from this fight. Jack didn’t know what to do now; he didn’t want his son in league with ghosts, but he also wanted to support him when it came to staying away from Maddie, especially now considering what she had done.

“Danny, ghosts aren’t…I mean… just look at Phantom—”

“That wasn’t Phantom!” Danny yelled, his eyes glowing green as he stood up. Jack took a step back, fear gripping him, almost paralyzing, but even as the temperature in the room dropped, he couldn’t look away from his son’s toxic green eyes.  Danny felt anger and frustration surge through his body as every plan that didn’t work, every moment of stress, every tiny betrayal all slammed into him at once. “I’m Phantom! I’ve been Phantom the whole fucking time and none of you even noticed! I was hardly doing much to hide it at first, but you and Maddie insisted that all ghosts were monsters and would destroy the world! But me? I’ve seen monsters! I was raised by one who forced me to do…unthinkable things. Whatever is going on isn’t me!”

Danny took a breath, and it finally dawned on him just exactly what he’d done when he saw Jack taking another step back.

His face was horrified, and Danny would’ve felt bad and probably a bit panicky if it wasn’t for the grounding hand on his shoulder.

“Mr. Fenton, I would suggest, that with this new information, you tread very carefully,” Bruce warned, feeling the slight shake in Danny’s body. Jack just stared at them with wide eyes. Bruce stared back, his gaze cold and determined, since he’d promised himself to never let the man hurt Danny again.

“Uh, guys?” Tim interrupted from his seat at the computer. “The Guys in White just announced that they will be considering taking the fight to the Ghost Zone. Maddie Fenton is leading the charge.”

Everyone turned to him as he pulled the broadcast up on the large monitors, now showing Vlad Masters on a podium. His body language betrayed that he was annoyed at having to make this announcement, but also confused about what was going on with this truce thing.

“He knows too,” Danny reminded, and Bruce almost groaned in frustration. This was turning into dangerous territory for their identities now. He didn’t like that there were this many leaks on his son’s identity, and the only thing really helping was the fact that they weren’t in Gotham.

No one here seemed to recognize who they were, but if they were to go back, then it was likely that someone might put two and two together about where Danny came from. They would need to put in a lot of work on their part to keep this all under wraps.

Bruce would consider lecturing Danny on secret identities, but he knew that the boy knew how important it was to hide. He just needed to know how the mayor came across that information, even though he knew that the man could never use it. Danny had told them they were stuck with mutually assured destruction.

One way or another, Bruce was going to fix that issue, but for now, they already had one problem in the form of Ra’s al Ghul. To top it all off, they weren’t sure what the man knew about Phantom, or if anything at all.

Talia might come back with new information about that; she’d gone to City Hall to try to get more information on the Guys in White and see if she could find something to use against them. There were agents around the podium, standing close to the mayor as he continued his speech. Bruce watched carefully as Masters’s body language kept at odds with what he was saying. If he were to go by Ra’s usual methods, then it was clear that Vlad had been threatened into doing this.

What he couldn’t figure out, though, was why they would go after the truce that Danny was trying to set up. He wasn’t sure what Ra’s could even begin to want with that, unless it was a ploy to get Danny to work with him.

Bruce thought about it for a moment, trying to figure out what Ra’s knew. He’d probably put together that Al Ghul and Danny were the same, but there wasn’t a good standing for him to know that he was also Phantom.

Phantom hadn’t mastered duplication, and Bruce had been told that Danny’s entire existence didn’t make much sense, and it was unlikely that Vlad would willingly give that information up without a fight or a lot of overshadowing, at least according to Danny.

 Bruce still wasn’t sure how much he was willing to risk, but he trusted his son when it came to people, and after finally meeting and talking again with his brother, Damian hadn’t said anything about being concerned about Danny’s loyalties. Bruce might still have a lingering fear that this whole thing was a trap, but so far, all the evidence he’s gathered aligned with what Danny was telling him.

He’d also learned that Danny had just understated some of the things that were going on; Bruce had managed to figure out what it was that ghost hunters wanted from him. Or more accurately, all the terrible things they wanted to do to him, and Bruce was tempted to just take his sons and run.

Run from this city that he didn’t need to protect and let them suffer for their belief that a young boy should be treated as nothing more than an experiment to be after he had saved them over and over again.

Bruce frowned as they watched Vlad further condemn Phantom to the hands of the Government, then demand for all ghost hunters to show no mercy to the ghost. He glanced at his son, who’d started shaking but was now trembling even more. Bruce pulled him to his side, putting a hand over his son’s eyes. He turned to look at the other adult in the room, only to find that Jack was now gone.

“Damian, go after him. Damage control,” Bruce ordered, and Damian nodded before taking off in a rush to follow Fenton. He hugged Danny tighter, then glanced at Tim, finding the boy already looking at him. “Get into their system and do whatever it takes to either slow them down or take them down.”

“What do you want me to do?” Danny asked softly and Bruce felt his heart break seeing how even in his shaken state, Danny needed something to do. He looked over the room, stopping at the weapons on the armory, pondering over how most of them had been changed into something that was ecto-based.

Something that could be used to fight ghosts. It was something he hadn’t considered before because he didn’t think it would be a problem.

“I need you to get some weapons together that we could use and adapt to our weapons. Just in case,” Bruce said, and Danny nodded even though he remained there for another moment, looking at the ground. Bruce could spot a few tears falling down his face before he turned, hand wiping them down as he headed towards a little workspace in the corner where he started to pull some things together. “Tim, I need you to watch him, I want to do some recon of my own.”

“Is there a tracker on him?” Tim asked without looking up from where he was typing, bringing up a new window with the trackers they’d put on members of the family.

“Yes, but I can’t tell if he’s aware of them all or if they’ll even work if he uses his powers,” Bruce whispered discreetly while he leaned down to grab a comm, going through his bag to also grab a jacket. He finished shrugging it on his shoulders then grabbed one of the bo staffs that Danny had previously given them. He looked back at his son, seeing someone that was currently going through the motions.

He’d just lost everyone while fighting tooth and nail trying to keep them safe, but what made things even worse was that none of the people he was holding onto was even dead. Bruce would do whatever it took to make sure that Danny wouldn’t fall into despair.

Even though he hadn’t known him for long, he would be there for his son.

“Damnit, Mom,” Jazz grumbled as the call was declined for the eighth time. She pulled up Danny’s number. She’d only called it twice and it had just continuously rung, never going to voicemail like it should’ve at some point.

It had just rung and rung for what felt like forever. Never getting answered and never going to voicemail.

She called again. This time it rung four times before there was a click. She perked up and waited for Danny’s sigh of ‘what do you want, Jazz?’

“Jasmine Fenton,” an unfamiliar voice came through. “I hope you know that your parents have officially disowned Danyal.”

“Who are you?” Jazz demanded, wondering what had happened in the past couple weeks during her finals. There was no way that everything could have fallen apart that quickly. Danny would’ve called her. It was one of the plans if their parents ever figured it out on their own, which was the only reason their parents would ever know about Phantom, since Danny had told her that he would never tell them.

He didn’t trust them with that information.

“Well, I’ll soon likely be his adopted brother. You are aware that he’s adopted?”

“You’re not getting your hands on my brother,” she hissed out menacingly, but she heard the person laugh instead.

“Considering you’ll be going up against his twin, I doubt there’s much you can do.”

“Where’s Danny?” she demanded and the voice huffed, and somehow that was enough to let her know that whoever this was had just rolled his eyes.

“In protective custody,” the voice said and before she could answer she overheard another voice in the background.

It was Danny’s, she’d recognize it almost anywhere. She just couldn’t tell what was being said.

“He said he’s not sure he’s ready to talk to you. You’ll have to give him some time. His life did just get flipped upside down.”

“Put. My Brother. On. The. Phone,” she fiercely demanded again only for the line to disconnect. She immediately tried calling again, but the number came up as unavailable.

She felt tears of frustration build up as she tried to think of what to do next. Suddenly she had an idea of who to call.

She’d get more information from her first.

Sam glared down at the number calling. She wondered if Jazz knew.

If she knew that her brother’s hands were stained with blood. She took the call.

“Did you know?” Sam immediately questioned, and Jazz cut herself off from whatever she’d been about to say before asking.

“Know what exactly?” She clearly had something else on her mind.

“That Danny is a killer?” Sam shouted and she heard Jazz’s breath hitch.

 “Danny wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose. What happened these last two weeks?”

“It was before all that! Danny admitted to being an assassin!” To that, she unexpectedly heard Jazz let out a deep sigh, the sound seeming more tired than shocked. As if she’d heard this story before and didn’t believe it for one second.

“He’s back to that? Yeah, he told me that he’s killed people, but he was eight! He was just trying to sound cool!”

Sam stopped breathing for a moment, as she let Jazz’s words sink in. She hadn’t even considered that Danny was just messing around, and considering how much her friend liked to goof around it wouldn’t be unlikely that this was all just a prank, but…Danny hadn’t been the one on the roof, that had been someone else.

His twin, if he was to be believed.

“Sam? What’s going on?”

“Danny wasn’t lying. He…his family…from…his biological family is here,” Sam, chewing a bit on her nails. It was a nervous tick her friends always called her out for, but they weren’t here now, and she was feeling increasingly nervous and lost, unsure of what to do next.

Jazz had been told before about his past, but she hadn’t believed it. Should Sam even believe him? She couldn’t think straight right now. Her best friend had hidden this whole life from Tucker and her.

He'd lied to them about his origins, and one of the first people he likely told didn’t even believe him.

Why would he tell them then? Sam clenched her fists making her phone creak slightly from the pressure.

“Sam, there’s no way.”

“You’re no help then,” Sam hissed before slamming her phone on the bed. She let herself fall after it, screaming into the mattress.

“Sounds like you’ve had a falling out with my grandson,” a voice said, and Sam flipped up in a rush, then getting faced with a man standing in the corner of the room.” Don’t look so surprised. I trained Danyal to be one of the best. He just never surpassed me.”

Sam opened her mouth to say something, but it was unlikely that this man knew of Danny’s powers.

It was the one thing he’d asked her to keep quiet about. She closed her mouth and glared at him instead, trying to think of a way out of this. She knew enough to gather that this was probably the man responsible for the murders that Danny had committed. He’d said himself that he was responsible for Danny’s training.

Although Danyal was a weird name, and she made a note to make fun of Danny later, she had other things to focus on right now. Sam took a couple steps back, stopping when her back hit her dresser, then she leaned back against it, using the movement to stealthily slip a knife to one hand and turn on her wrist blaster with the other.

“Who are you?” she asked as the knife slipped into the back of her skirt, concealing it for later use. She adjusted the wrist ray and aimed it forward, but the man simply laughed.

“My name is Ra’s al Ghul,” he introduced himself as he walked around her bed. She followed his movements with hawk eyes, but soon felt unsettled at how unconcerned the man remained despite the weapon trained on him. “Danyal al Ghul is my grandson, and you are apparently his best friend…or at least one of them. Now, you’re going to come with me, and I’m going to get him back at my side.”

“You think that taking me will make that happen?” Sam asked annoyed. Why did old creepy men who likely were rich seem obsessed with Danny? “That Danny would just…leave his family here and go with you?”

“I’m already aware that his parents have disowned him…well, at least his mother. She wasn’t too…happy, to know that her dear little son was actually a killer,” Ra’s said as he paused, resting both hands against his cane. He studied her. “I know you slipped a knife as well.”

“Danny has plans for if something like that happened,” Sam grabbed her arm with the other, to steady it as the weapon charged. She said confidently, “He will stop you.” Ra’s laughed again as he made to grab her, but Sam fired, blasting him into the wall. She grinned at the sight for a brief second before rushing to the door, only to be stopped by two assassin guards. They grabbed her arms and forced her down as Ra’s slowly stood up.

“That was unexpected, I’m pleasantly surprised to see you’d pull the trigger, girl,” the man grinned as he dusted himself off. “Oh, you will do well.”

One of the assassins quickly used a needle to sedate her before she could do anything. Sam struggled briefly before closing her eyes, falling unconscious.

“Well now, next stop, the Foley’s,” Ra’s grinned as they walked out of the house, his mind going through different ways that he could use to get in touch with his grandson. He needed a way to do it without raising too much suspicion about what he was doing.

He didn’t want Phantom to realize what was going on yet. Although, the ghost might be currently preoccupied with other things, since Maddie had reported that she’d managed to send a message to the Ghost Zone, so Phantom would probably stay there to prepare for a war. One that wasn’t coming just yet.

Ra’s planned on letting the ghost hunters have their war, but only after Danyal was at his side.

Tucker looked down at his phone. The article about Phantom breaking the Truce with Al Ghul didn’t make any sense. Danny wouldn’t have risked that. He picked up his phone and called his friend.

“Please hold,” a familiar voice answered on the second ring, and Tucker blinked, confused for a moment, as he tried to remember where he’d heard it before.

“Uh…aren’t you…?” Tucker trailed off as he noted someone outside his bedroom window.

It was Bruce Wayne…or in other words, Danny’s father.

“You know what? Never mind,” Tucker hung up and opened the window. “What are you doing here?”

“My son told me you recognized him when he was investigating some things in the city,” Bruce said as he quietly slipped inside the room. “I wanted to assess what you knew before deciding if you could be fully trusted.”

“I know that my best friend is a superhero…that he was adopted—” Tucker started but was interrupted by a scream downstairs that sent chills down his spine. They both stared at the door as the noise went on, but soon the house was quiet again. Somehow, the silence unnerved Tucker even more than his mother’s screams. He didn’t know what to do.

“Get out the window, I’ll be right behind you,” Bruce whispered, wondering if he’d be able to save the boy’s parents. Running on instinct, Tucker grabbed a thermos and a wrist ray before slipping out his window. Bruce was quick to cover his tracks, not wanting to get into a fight here and end up revealing to Ra’s that he was in Amity Park. He knew it was likely that Ra’s was expecting him to come soon, but apparently, the news had reported that he’d been drinking all night at a gala, so he was still in the clear.

He had a lot of work to do when he got back to Gotham, but for now, Danny took priority. So did this kid by his side, who was smart enough to put together who they were from just one encounter.

“What about my parents?” Tucker whispered, voice trembling as he spotted someone entering his room. Bruce put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him along, away from the house.

“I’ll see what happened to them, they may be fine. Ra’s…if he’s going after you, he may have gone after Sam as well. He wants Danny back, but he’s going about it all wrong,” Bruce said as they avoided all the cameras on the way back to the storage house. He pulled out his phone and sent a message to Tim, warning him about what Ra’s was planning next.

“Where are we going?” Tucker asked, vaguely acknowledging that stranger danger should have been a thing, but he felt safe with Bruce.

“To your friend’s safe house,” he answered as he guided them back quickly. “We just need to ensure that no one notices us.”

Tim looked at the message. Tucker had just called Danny’s phone, and now his family might be in danger. He looked over to Danny, who was now messing with Tim’s utility belt since he needed something to do to occupy his mind and Tim did want some ghost weapons on him.

He tapped the side of the keyboard as he thought about what he should tell Danny. He should probably tell Danny that he’d hacked his phone, but he’d been concerned about leaks, and for now, it was safer for them if he controlled who called him, just in case.

But it seemed like people just wanted to yell at the boy or blame him for something. At least that’s what it sounded like to him. Jazz had called, but Tim didn’t think that Jazz was able to do what was necessary to protect Danny.

The more Tim learned about what was happening in Amity Park, the more he wanted to bring Danny back to Gotham. Danny deserved a home where he didn’t have to hide part of himself. Somewhere that he could be his true self and feel safe while doing that. He looked up to stretch out his neck and blinked, noticing a green stain on the ceiling, he narrowed his eyes, trying to get a clearer view—

“Tim?” Danny’s voice came from right behind him. Tim jumped and nearly screamed as he twisted himself to stare up at his new brother, who just let out a small chuckle at the display.

“Sorry, but I think I’ve gotten it. So, one of your pockets in here seems to be bigger on the inside?” He asked and Tim nodded.

“Gift from Zee,” he answered as he glanced back at the one of the monitors. Damian’s tracker was now at City Hall, and he wasn’t sure what Jack was planning, but he knew that Damian would do whatever it took to keep Danny safe from their enemies.

And even from his own family.

Chapter Text

Runaway Assassin

Chapter Fourteen

Family Ties

Letting it get to you. You know what that’s called? Being alive. Best thing there is. Being alive right now is all that counts.

~The Eleventh Doctor

Jack pulled up to City Hall. He knew that Maddie should be here and he wanted answers. She wouldn’t have just…gone off the deep end. Declaring war on the Ghost Zone was a step too far. They couldn’t even hope to win something like that. Realistically, they didn’t know enough about ghosts, and Jack thought she’d been fine with just hunting the beings whenever they showed up here, like he was.

To go to war was something he had never wanted or even really thought about. Why go to war?

As he entered City Hall, frantically looking everywhere for his wife, Jack didn’t notice the darker-than-usual shadow trailing along. He was too busy feeling like his life was falling apart. His son was a ghost, his daughter was across the country, and Maddie had seemed to think that calling for war on ghosts was a great idea.

He looked around, just now noticing how many agents from the GIW were present, and he felt dread in his chest. They were going to hunt Danny to the ends of the earth if they ever found out. Danny wasn’t protected by the Meta Human Acts because of the ectoplasm in his blood. Instead, he was considered an ecto-entity, less than human and up for hunting. Jack needed to do something, he needed…

Jack knocked on the door to his best friend’s office and didn’t wait for an answer before walking in, only to be greeted by the sight of Vlad hunched over his desk, looking extremely worried and uncomfortable.

“Vladdie?” He asked, voice more quiet than usual. “Have you seen Maddie? She…she wants to…”

“I know what she wants,” Vlad hissed out, carding a hand through his hair as he tried to figure out what to do next. He could not to let these humans know about his powers, so he was still in a bind, and he really didn’t have the patience to deal with Jack right now. “Look, I don’t have time to deal with whatever plan you’ve cooked up in that airhead you have.”

“Maddie needs to be stopped,” Jack said with conviction, and Vlad did a double take, completely taken off guard. He’d have guessed that Jack was the one who decided to go full war time mode.

“You think…” he trailed off unsure. He could use this to get rid of Jack, but then that would leave him with Maddie, who apparently was willing to go in guns blazing into the Zone to destroy the whole place.

“There’s so much she…we don’t know. I wanted to research, not become…” stinging gas, choking air, fear.

Fear.

Fear.

“Vladdie, I don’t want to be the ones who start a war with a race of…aliens,” Jack stated knowing if he said ghosts it would mean that his Danny-boy was dead.

Instead of just some genetic anomaly that gave him powers.

Vlad raised an eyebrow, completely lost on what could have happened to cause all this change. This wasn’t just the result of continued fallout from him pushing Danny to get some training, which he did to prove that the boy would need him to protect him.

That the boy would need him to fully learn about his powers.

But now he knows that Danyal had training under his belt. He could’ve gone anywhere for training if he wanted and chose to stay with the Fentons for some reason.

Danyal could’ve gone with his father, The Batman, if he wanted to. Vlad had nothing to offer him that the boy couldn’t get himself.

“Aliens?” Vlad asked, wondering about the word change. Jack groaned as he looked around before hanging his head.

“What have we done?”

Maddie stared at the glitching hologram. It had been helpful in tricking the new hunter into believing that ghosts were nothing more than creatures of destruction. Hopefully he’d see the light now.

“Mrs. Fenton, do you know where Daniel is?” Agent O asked, hoping that the woman would have a way to get ahold of the boy. He’d always had a feeling that the boy knew more about the ghosts than he let on. Now with their organization under new management, he knew he could finally look more into it.

Even if technically, he’d been told by the upper ups to just stick with inventory.

“No, and I don’t care. He’s probably with his twin,” Maddie growled out before Agent W leaned close.

“Twin?” He questioned, knowing that none of the Bats should be here yet. Bruce had just been spotted getting inside the Wayne Enterprises building.

“Yes, he contacted his biological family a few days ago,” Maddie huffed, rolling her eyes, but she froze as a blade appeared at her throat.

“Are you telling me that the Bat is here?” He hissed out and she felt fear crawl down her spine at the man’s seething anger in those few words.

“The Bat?” She repeated, clearly lost about what was going on. The agent narrowed his eyes while behind them, Agent O took several steps back.

It dawned on him. Daniel knew more than he let on because he had connections to Gotham. O swallowed quietly, before rushing out of the room, leaving Maddie to her fate.

Agent W lowered the weapon. Clearly this woman didn’t actually know anything of use other than that Damian was in Amity.

“Is anyone else from his family in town?” Agent W demanded but Maddie just glared.

“I don’t know, and right now I don’t care,” she said apathetically. He cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. The woman had been extremely emotional for the past few hours. It wasn’t like the behavior he usually dealt with from her.

Suddenly, he caught movement from the corner of his eye, but when he turned his head, he could only spot the tail end of a shadow retreating into a dark corner. He flicked his light in that direction, only to find it empty. Unsettled, he marched forward, checking all the spots where someone could’ve gotten into, but came back empty-handed. No one could be that skilled, not even the Bat could have disappeared into thin air like that. He gulped, eyes shaking slightly behind his dark glasses.

Something was wrong.

Danny sat by the side, watching as Tim worked on the computer. They were like a well-oiled machine. After a while, he spotted his phone on the desk and grabbed it to get up to date on the local news. He paused.

He’d gotten calls from Sam, his sister and Tucker, but he hadn’t heard his phone ring. Furthermore, it seemed like those last two had been answered. He looked up, making eye contact with Tim, who’d been trying to stealthily glance at him while he went through his phone. The teen looked away guiltily.

Right.

Danny was rhythmically tapped on his phone’s case, debating if he should call them back, when his phone lit back up.

Sam.

“Hi? Sam? I’m sorry,” Danny said quickly, hoping she wouldn’t hate him even more for ignoring her call.

“Hello, Grandson.”

“Ra’s,” Danny breathed, and Tim sharply turned to him, narrowing his eyes for a second before turning back to type on his computer.

“It’s nice to hear your voice, dear boy. You have no idea how much I missed you.”

Danny swallowed dryly, unsure of what to say.  Honestly, he hadn’t thought about his grandfather in a while, he hadn’t wanted to think about the man at all, not after everything he’d been through under him. Especially not now that he knew he’d sent him to death. The thought sent a jolt of fear through his chest, and he felt his powers buzz under his skin as anxiety prickled up his spine. Tim stood up from his seat and grabbed Danny’s hand. Silently encouraging him to keep going.

“Your friend here seems to be under the impression that you won’t come for her. I’m assuming that’s wrong.”

Anger surged through him.

“Don’t you dare,” He growled out and Tim shifted, leaning away but not quite letting go as the temperature drastically dropped. “You hurt her, you won’t like what happens next.”

“Well, it seems like all your friends have decided that you’re not worth it. Phantom decided to break off the truce. Tucker seems to have vanished off to somewhere…”

“You think that Phantom won’t uphold his end.”

“I know so. He’s here, trapped as well.”

Danny rolled his eyes as he let out a breath, silently calming himself. Sam was probably fine, he’d make sure of that and Tucker was with Bruce. They should be here shortly.

“What do you want?” He asked, trying to get straight to the point already. He hated this, hated not knowing everything. It was different with Vlad. He could handle Vlad. This time he was glad he had taken that leap. Tim’s steady presence was helpful even though it wasn’t exactly who he wished was here.

“What I want is you, by my side again.”

“Damian said no, didn’t he?” Danny smirked, thinking about his brother and his stubbornness. All he heard was Ra’s low growl before Sam let out an earth-shattering scream and Danny paled.

He had her. He’d really captured her.

“You won’t have Phantom’s help now, and I doubt you’ll manage to get anyone to back you up in an hour. I’ll meet you at the City Hall. I’ll let your friend go, and you will come with me.” Ra’s voice was cold as he hung up, leaving Danny there, standing up with a blank face. Tim put both hands on his shoulders, gently shaking him out of his stupor.

“Hey, remember, we’re here now. We can help,” Tim said before falling silent, feeling at a loss of how else to comfort him. Thankfully, that was the moment that Tucker entered the building, with Bruce right behind him. Tim explained in a few words the crux of what just happened, stepping aside so Bruce could come forward. 

The man was quick to wrap Danny in a hug.

“Oh my god,” Tucker whispered, eyes on the Red Robin uniform that was laying across his friend’s worktable.

“Danny?” Bruce asked in a low voice, pulling away slightly to look at his son, whose face had tears pouring down his cheeks. “We are going to back you up. You can do this. Tim, call Damian, warn him of what’s happening.” The teen nodded as he grabbed his phone, quickly typing out a message. “Tucker, you will be running comms from here. Tim will show you what you need to know.” The boy gulped once before nodding, face turning determined as he walked over to the computer.

The same one he’d used to hack into the Bat computer. Tucker sat down, thinking it didn’t even seem like the same machine, there were so many more programs running on the screen than what he’d used with Danny last time. Most of them he’d only ever heard about on forums, he’d never dreamed of actually getting to use such high-end apps. He looked up as Tim Drake sat beside him, motioning with the mouse at some of the windows.

“Okay, so…”

Damian wanted to scream. It seemed like everything was being thrown at them at the same time, they barely had time to process all the things that were happening. He ran a hand through his hair, something he only did when he was feeling utter frustration.

His brother was a wreck. Damian wanted nothing more than to just grab him and go back together to Gotham, where believe it or not, things appeared to be less crazy. Which by itself, already spoke volumes about how this trip to Amity Park was going.

Damian snapped his head up when he spotted Jack walking out of City Hall, looking lost and confused. He didn’t know what to feel about the man. Sure, he’d sided with Danyal at first. But his reaction after finding out about Phantom didn’t inspire confidence on the man’s alliances. Plus, another person knowing his brother’s secret put them further in harm’s way. Damian waited a few beats before discreetly following Fenton into an alley, where the man had stopped to slump against a wall.

“I didn’t know,” Jack was whispering to himself when Damian walked up to him. “I didn’t know.”

“That’s not good enough. It shouldn’t have mattered wither way. Phantom is still a child,” Damian coldly stated, and Jack nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden presence. Looking up, he was greeted with a face so similar to Danny’s, yet so very different in many ways.

“Ghosts…” Jack started, trying to justify himself but stopped when he caught sight of the anger in the boy’s eyes, one so similar to what he used to see in Gotham. His head slumped down again. “Are you taking him? Are you going to take my son to Gotham?”

Are you going to take my son to the one place I can’t follow? Jack thought.

Damian didn’t respond immediately. He wasn’t sure what the plan was, what Father was thinking of doing. He knew what he wanted, though. He wanted Danyal at his side once more.

“That is ultimately up to him. It’s his decision, but it seems like you and your…wife…have already decided for him,” Damian said, making sure to put as much venom into the word wife as he could.

“He should go with you. He’ll be safer,” Jack whispered, and Damian agreed, knowing that was probably true based on everything he’d seen. He also realized that Fenton seemed truly remorseful about his actions.

“He loves you. He cares about you. He wouldn’t have risked so much if he didn’t,” Damian sighed, knowing this was the right thing to do for his brother. He remembered how his father had been trying to lay the groundwork to mend this relationship. He crossed his arms, frowning when his phone pinged. “I will not hold your hand or tell you what needs to be done. Danyal has lived a hard life, and while I…dislike that he had left me behind, I understand why he had to. Do not make his choices for him.”

Jack looked up at Damian, really looking at him for the first time. He felt even more at a loss, unsure of how to feel about a teenager sounding so wise.

Sounding so very lonely too.

Batman and Red Robin were following Danny’s bike towards City Hall. Talia had also been updated and was already there waiting for them. She’d reported that the Guys in White Agents were now using real guns.

She didn’t see any of the agents there carrying ecto-weapons though. Still, just in case the weapons were hidden, they had Phantom invisible and waiting outside. Danny had protested at first, saying they didn’t need to use his ghost form just for this, but reluctantly agreed when Bruce pointed out that he’d rather have backup they didn’t call upon, than wish mid-fight that they’d had a duplicate on standby.

Danny had forced himself to calm down, calling upon his power and focusing until he felt himself split up. He felt a little woozy afterward, but Bruce stood there, coaching him the entire time, a hand on his shoulder to ground him. It had felt nice to have someone by his side who knew what to do, although he was fairly certain his father was playing it by ear when it came to his powers.

Danny accelerated before turning sharply, then drifting into a parking spot, ending his stunt right in front of several agents. He didn’t recognize any of them, which meant they were all assassins.

And there wasn’t a single ecto-weapon on them. Danny hid a smirk.

Things were going to be interesting, he thought, right as Ra’s appeared from the front doors, Sam in tow. They made eye contact, and she looked at him with wide fearful eyes. He glanced up and down, checking for any injuries, before finally stopping at her face. He frowned at the gag covering her mouth.

Just then, Maddie appeared from behind, glaring at him with unbridled anger.

“You were willing to betray your own kind,” she hissed, leaning forward but Ra’s raised his hand to silence her. Danny glared at them both.

“I knew you would do what was right, Grandson,” Ra’s calmly said as he pushed Sam down the steps. Danny was quick to rush forward, catching her mid-stumble then taking the gag off.

“Are you okay?” He asked, discreetly handing her a comm unit. She caught it, holding it tight in her hand as she wrapped her arms around his torso.

“I’m so sorry, Danny,” she whispered, voice teary but the moment was broken when the agents surrounding them suddenly pulled out their guns and aimed. Danny simply glared and soon half of them had vanished into the ground, being dumped into the sewer.

“What!?” Ra’s exclaimed, seeing that so many of his men had just disappeared. Danny looked up at him.

“Oh, sorry. My bad,” he grinned as he stood up, rolled back his shoulders a couple times before a sword appeared in his hand. It glowed green for a second, then became engulfed in fire. “I have this thing on my bike…stole from them, actually, and then destroyed all their blueprints to make more. It was an interesting midnight workout. Child’s play, really.”

Ra’s pulled out his own sword as Maddie lifted her ecto-blaster. Danny observed them carefully, making sure to keep Sam at his back. Considering all the battles they’d fought together, she felt a bit annoyed that he was trying to shield her, but then she noticed a small movement with his hand. It was a sign they’d come up together some time ago.

He was asking her to watch his back. To warn him if something else occurred. Sam turned, sending her best glare at the other agents behind them, who were still aiming guns at them.

It'd been a while since she was genuinely unsettled by being at the business end of a gun, but she could do this. She just wished she had a weapon of her own to fire back at those fake agents.

She lifted a hand up, pretending to straighten up her hair so she could quickly slip the comm in her ear.

“Five minutes.” An unfamiliar voice came across the line before Tucker responded.

“Hey Sam, we’re working on getting you a weapon. Don’t let them know you have eyes or ears on you.”

Sam didn’t outwardly acknowledge him, opting to scan the region instead. As she looked farther out, she could spot a shadow quickly approaching, swinging from one building to the next. Ugh, she hated being out of the loop.

“I’ve got eyes, Batman.” A voice startlingly similar to Danny’s came in and Sam took in a breath, readying herself for whatever was to come.

Agent W had been running around trying to find evidence that the Bat was in town. He was coming up with nothing. No trace of the man in Amity Park and to make matters worse, there was now a live video feed of him getting drunk back in Gotham, where Richard Grayson could be seen grabbing him and pulling him from a tub of women, frowning the whole time. It was no wonder, Agent W thought, that Grayson was that angry, since Wayne looked completely smashed.

Truly, it was remarkable how that man could be Batman. The agent sighed, walking back out the City Hall just to see that the meeting had already started. He stopped on his tracks, frozen in fear.

He'd lost too much time with his little side investigation. Arriving after the enemy was utterly unprofessional, something he knew their new boss would never forgive. He was going to die, he was certain of it. Cold sweat started dripping down his face as his mind raced, trying to think up what to do. Suddenly, he felt a blade across his throat. This wasn’t their leader, though, the blade was too low.

“You’re going to tell me everything,” Talia hissed in his ear as she steered him somewhere else.

Perhaps, he thought to himself, this could be an excuse to the Demon Head, enough to avoid getting killed.

As long as he survived this encounter, of course.

Batman landed silently nearby, watching as Sam covered Danny’s back, remaining close enough that she could warn him of incoming danger.

He wanted to strangle the man that had constantly been harming his family since the beginning. Now seemed like a tempting time, with Ra’s standing there with half his men down and no idea what was going on.

Bruce wasn’t entirely sure either what had happened, but he did see the bike glow for a split second before the incident. Besides, it seemed like Danny was in control of that and that was good enough for him right now. He stood up, ready to move closer when he heard a light noise on the roof behind him. He had a batarang on his hand in a split-second, but paused when he felt the unnatural chill in the air.

Instead, he pulled out the bo staff Danny had given them, just in time to block the hit of nunchakus. He glared at the green ninja ghost before him, and then dodged as its form changed into a large cat, prowling towards him. It looked like he was going to be busy right now.

Danny felt the cold of his ghost sense tickle his chest but he shoved it down, focusing instead on Ra’s approaching figure, as the man took his time walking down the steps.

He let out a slow exhale, letting a bit of the cold fog escape.

“You think you have the upper hand here, boy?” Ra’s asked when he finally reached the base of the steps, pausing there. Behind him, Maddie adjusted her aim with the ecto-blaster, but it was her shadow that caught Danny's eyes, the thing had shifted, almost unnaturally so— his head snapped back to his grandfather upon the man's next words. “You have no one else in your corner.”

The words were barely out of Ra's mouth when Maddie looked up in a rushed move, spotting something from over Danny's shoulder. He glanced up just in time to see a peculiar sight.

From above, two figures came crashing into the ground, and it was only after Phantom showed up, blasting one of them, that Danny could identify Batman as one of the forms. A few feet away, a huge panther was shaking its head, the green of its skin letting Danny know this was a ghost.

“Well, this wasn’t quite what I had in mind,” a new voice sung at the same time as Maddie’s shadow rippled then shot away, making her jump back in surprise. The shadow continued shifting as it pulled itself from the ground, and only then, did it give form to jagged teeth and cold red eyes. “But I must say, patience is surely a virtue. So much pain and misery.” She cackled.

“Spectra,” Both of Danny’s forms hissed in unison. Spectra looked down at them and narrowed her eyes before a sly grin appeared.

“Awe, you’re learning,” she taunted, before being blasted into the ground. Everyone turned to see Jack Fenton holding a smoking gun. He grinned, noticing the attention, and blew the smoke from the end.

Ra’s took a step back up the steps, looking uncertain for the first time, and then all hell broke loose.  Maddie had been shaking her head, as if to clear out a fog, but when she stopped her face was determined and she didn't waste time before aiming her weapon and firing at Phantom. The ghost immediately pulled up a shield to protect himself, while Danny shot at his mom from the ground.

A few feet away, Batman stood with the bo staff, blocking Bertrand from getting closer to his mistress and Red Robin launched himself at Maddie, distracting her from her attack on Phantom. Robin moved to stand by Danny's side, and they both promptly turned to Ra's.

“I didn’t think they’d make it here after all that partying,” their Grandfather sneered, causing the twins to pause, glancing at each other in confusion, before raising their weapons together and charging.

“You can’t do this!” Thomas Elliot screamed as he was taken away in cuffs. Nightwing rolled his eyes, annoyed at the man’s antics.

“Bruce Wayne is currently on the other side of the country for a meeting, and you thought that your plan would work?” He asked mockingly as Elliot continued to holler at anyone close by, shouting about how they couldn’t do this and that he was the real Bruce Wayne.

Nightwing just nodded to the commissioner before running towards the buildings, shooting his grapple gun to get out of there.

Bruce would want a full report when he got back. They’d also have to go over everything in the past week to check everything that Elliot had messed with during his little impersonation act.

In the midst of all the fighting, Spectra launched a huge fireball at the ground, making everyone scatter away from the center of the lot.

“Do you have any idea how delicious this all was?!” Spectra grinned as she gathered up her power, wisps of fire crackling close to her. “Every single one of you is so full of misery! It’s been fantastic. I didn’t realize how much I’d be able to feed between all of you.” She released her power, the fire expanding to form a circle around her, the scene even more alarming as she laughed and laughed at them.

Anger coursed through Danny, and it seemed like his duplicate felt the same way, since Phantom was quick to blast her with ice, though to no avail as it melted before hitting her. 

Bertrand used the momentary distraction to pounce on his opponent, and it was sheer instinct that had Batman successfully blocking the attack. Up the stairs, Ra’s seemed to decide to add to the confusion, as he ordered his men to go after the heroes.

It was utter chaos, Danny and Robin had to switch targets and focus on keeping the Assassins at bay, while Red Robin joined Phantom and they tried to tag team Spectra.

Now free from Red Robin's assaults, Maddie returned to constantly shooting at Phantom and Jack ran towards her, yelling pleas to get her to stop, but ultimately got pushed back by the assassins and all the fighting in general.

A single gunshot stopped everything.

Talia stood at the top of the stairs, but everyone's eyes were on Agent W, as his body fell to the ground, a single bullet hole in his head. Blood seemed to slowly drip down the steps from the wound.

Batman frowned at her, but she paid him no mind, glaring down at all of them.

“Are we finished here?” She asked, aiming the gun in their general direction, and the humans remained still in their spots. Bertrand, on the other hand, growled in frustration before launching himself at her while Spectra used the moment to blast Phantom and four nearby Assassins across the street.

Talia scowled, moving away from her previous spot. She didn’t have any ghost weapons right now and as she turned, hoping to find one discarded or someone to take it from them, she spotted Maddie aiming at her son's ghost form again.

Seeing red, Talia lifted her gun and shot Maddie in the hip, barely restraining herself from shooting somewhere more fatal. The action caused Fenton's weapon to clang on the ground, her hands holding the wound instead, to try and stop the blood flow. Maddie looked up, meeting her eye.

“You will not harm my son,” Talia hissed, relishing a bit at Jack's horror when the man saw the scene before him. While he walked closer to his wife, Talia turned, assessing the rest of the fight.

Batman had thrown a batarang towards her in warning, but its trajectory got cut off when Bertrand took it to his mouth, making a show of chewing on the object before spitting it on the ground. The shapeshifter flashed a wicked grin with too many teeth, before changing target from Talia and launching himself at the Bat. He didn't get far, though, since Danny blasted him away with an ecto-gun, the boy barely spared the ghost another glance before turning around, swiping one of the approaching Assassin's feet from under them.

Danny twisted his gun around, lighting another white suit on fire before blocking an incoming shot with his sword. He saw more people readying their guns at him, so he flipped a button on his wrist, activating the shield generator he'd created the previous night.

It worked for a second before glitching and he cussed the thing before ducking, making the decision to use his powers instead. A green shield blocked more gunfire ahead, at the same time he felt someone press against his back, and he glanced behind to see Robin there, holding his sword high as two Assassins walked up towards them from behind.

Before the men reached them, Red Robin landed at the twins' side, throwing smoke pellets that created a fog around them, making it hard for everyone to see.

“ENOUGH!” Spectra yelled with finality, and all the humans collapsed as she pulled on her power, sucking their vitality as she fed on them. “This is my win!” She shouted in frustration, before firing another blast at the ground, causing everyone to duck away.

While she gloated at the mayhem she caused, Phantom had snuck up above her, and he took the opportunity to blast her into the ground. But it proved to be a mistake, because as he focused on the enemy in front of him, he didn't see that Maddie had crawled towards her ecto-gun, aiming another shot at him. The blast hit him hard and head-on, and Phantom's scream got cut off as his body dissolved, his ectoplasm falling to the ground then gurgling there, before evaporating. It was a shocking scene, but Maddie could be seen smiling through gritted teeth, satisfied despite the pain in her hip. 

Everyone froze at the gruesome sight.

Sam was the first to recover, and she was quick to grab the thermos Danny had shoved at her and hit the back of Ra's head as hard as she could. She’d moved up the stairs during the fight and turned out to be near to the old man. The sound of the man collapsing on the ground was enough to make the remaining Assassins turn to her, full of hostility as they realized she'd attacked their leader.

Red Robin rushed up, jumping before her to defend against the onslaught of agents, and although Sam wished she could also fight, she still didn't have a weapon on hand except for the thermos. On the ground, Bertrand was howling in anger, and although he tried to get closer to his mistress, Batman stood in his way. As he charged against the Bat, Danny slipped behind him, grabbing his own thermos with the intent of sucking him inside, but the ghost sank into the ground instead.

Jack had tossed Maddie's gun away, but he now kneeled by her side as she laid on the ground, blood seeping from the wound she'd aggravated by moving around. His hand hovered over her body, trembling at all the blood he could see, and as he frantically looked around for anything to help, he made eye contact with Batman, sending the other man a silent plea for help. The detective lifted a hand up to his comm, already requesting medics.

Bertrand had attacked Red Robin, deciding to go for one of the Bat's partners instead, but the vigilante was proving harder to best than he expected. The teenager expertly wielded an ecto bo staff and the longer they engaged in the fight, the more Bertrand had to back away. Eventually, Red Robin sent him sprawling down and Sam immediately sucked him into the thermos.

A few feet away, Spectra had been lying on the ground in her human form, recovering from the fall, but she screamed when her ally got defeated. She pushed herself up and grabbed Danny by the neck, growling with anger as she tossed him towards his parents.

“You definitely gave me some interesting material, little freak,” she hissed as her hands lit in blue fire. Danny shook his head, slowly getting up and aiming one of his weapons at her. It remained steady even as she mockingly laughed at him. “You left your brother behind, you hid away in a new town and made sure that no one knew anything about your past…” Spectra leaned a bit closer. “That pain I thought was just normal teen angst, it was guilt and pain about your past…about you killing people. I didn’t think I’d enjoy that kind of pain, but coming from you?” She fired ahead and Danny touched his wrist, pretending to activate his shield when he was actually tapping into his powers to block the blast. She continued firing at him, her voice lingering with that ghostly echo as she talked. “It’s so much sweeter than I could have ever imagined.”

As the blast kept pummeling against his shield, Danny began to struggle, already weakened from losing his duplicate, and soon he found himself down on his knees, groaning in effort. Spectra giggled at him, her face practically glowing with all the power she’d been hoarding the past week, sneaking around them to feed on everyone’s misery. Danny tried to remain focused, even as he felt her pulling on his pain, sucking it to fuel her even more. His vision began to turn blurry at the edges and he looked towards his brother for help, finding him just off to the side. He picked up the Bat’s boostaff, glancing back at Danny before aiming the thing at Spectra.

The ghost simply grinned, something toothy and inhuman, before raising her other hand and blasting Robin back. The vigilante twisted himself, trying to dodge but the blast grazed his side, and that was enough to send him to the ground. Spectra’s laugh rang in Danny’s ears, and he took a deep breath before pushing more of his power into the shield. His mind was racing, trying to think of a way to weaken her instead of focusing on his brother, wounded and on the ground, then a scream had him snapping his head up. Batman had snuck behind her, using the shadows to conceal himself, before getting close enough to kick her feet from under her.

Spectra landed hard on the ground and Batman pressed his luck even more by trying to land another hit, only for his hands to go through her.

“And you,” she growled out, grinning when she got her hand on him, cupping his face with her long nails. Batman struggled, trying to get out, but she just dug her claws in deeper, almost drawing blood from the pressure, when a green blast shot her away from him. Talia stood behind her smirking, finally having gotten her hands on an ecto-gun. She winked at Batman before rushing towards the enemy, catapulting herself in the air to tackle her, only to also pass harmlessly through her.

Spectra launched herself into the air, changing into her ghost form and laughing at Danny, knowing he couldn’t follow her in this form. She giggled heartily as she twirled around, throwing out fireballs without direction, making everyone scatter for cover. Robin grabbed Danny by the arms, pulling him behind a nearby low wall, where they found an already ducking Red Robin.

“Are you alright?” Robin asked as he peeked over the wall to reassess their situation. The most noticeable thing was that Ra’s was now missing, as were all the Assassins he commanded. They’d taken advantage of the ghost attack to retreat. Danny frowned as he looked around, catching sight of Jack on the far side, blocking Maddie from view and from the ongoing fire assault. He quickly glanced around, confirming the place was deserted except for them, before calling the rings of his ghost form. Red Robin gawked, staring as his new brother did the impossible. He‘d known that Danny was Phantom, but he hadn’t realized how that transformation happened.

It was amazing.

“The little ghostie is coming out to play now?” Spectra taunted from nearby, but Phantom didn‘t answer, opting instead to phase into the ground.  He appeared back a couple feet ahead, shooting from under her and blasting her further into the sky. Phantom kept up the ecto-blast, gritting his teeth even as tears formed in his eyes.

He was nearly spent, having used so much of his power already, but he forced the pain, exhaustion and agony down, focusing on defeating his enemy for now. Spectra dodged his blast, sending one of her own at him, and he twisted himself in the air to avoid it. He paused for a second, hoping to catch his breath, and the other ghost noticed his teary eyes, grinning as she anticipated another good meal.

She pulled on her power but hit a wall instead. She tried a couple more times but when nothing came through, her smile fell and she stared at the superpowered teen, confused why this wasn’t working.

“I know exactly who and what I am,” Phantom said confidently, as power condensed around him. Spectra’s eyes widened when she saw green fire racing towards her. She quickly put her hands up, but the blast was so intense it shot her out of the sky, and she hit the ground hard. She shook her head, but when she glanced up, all the heroes were surrounding her.

“You will not win,” Spectra growled out, looking up at the hybrid that caused all of this floating high over them. She raised a hand, clearly still up for a fight, but Sam simply aimed the thermos, sucking her in. The cap closed with a loud sound, the finality of the fight hit everyone at the same time, leaving them feeling off-balance from the sudden end. Phantom landed, his feet making a soft sound as he slumped with exhaustion. Movement grabbed his attention, and he glanced to the side only to see Maddie still lying on the ground, frantically looking for a weapon. Jack was shaking his head, a hand on his mom’s shoulder to try and stop her from moving.

“It’s over,” the man whispered to her, glancing up to meet his son’s eyes. Phantom held the stare for a second, before the sadness in his dad’s eyes became too much and he looked away, glaring at Maddie instead. The woman looked at him full of hatred, and any hope he might’ve had shattered in that instant. He turned his back on her, finding his biological parents standing to the side. 

“Miss Tate?” Maddie asked, clutching her side as a new wave of pain rolled over her. She seemed a bit out of it and very confused about what had just transpired, but she still looked up when Talia took a step forward, a murderous look on her face.

“You have caused enough issues,” Talia stated in a cold voice, raising her gun again but Batman stepped between her and the Fentons.

“That’s enough. It’s over,” he warned in a low voice. He wasn’t going to let her kill the woman, much less let her harm Maddie in front of Danny, further traumatizing the boy. Talia slowly lowered her weapon, reluctantly accepting that this wasn’t a fight she wanted to have right now, but she still sent a dark glare over his shoulder towards the Fentons before turning around.

She walked over to Sam, offering a hand and whispering something to the goth girl. Soon they were both leaving.

Robin had tucked himself under Phantom’s arm during the exchange, and he held his twin closer as he saw the pain in his eyes.

“He’s a ghost!” Maddie suddenly yelled, before yelping in pain when Jack pulled her close. She looked like she wanted to struggle but was too weak to do much right now. Jack looked up, locking eyes with Batman, and although his gaze was heavy with sadness, he nodded, knowing it was best to let Danny go with them. Batman nodded back, acknowledging the man’s hard decision to keep their son safe by letting him go.

To keep him away from the city that wanted his head.

“We need to go,” Batman said, turning to look at all his children. Robin adjusted his grip on Phantom, pulling his brother close while sending a death glare at the Fentons, before walking away. Red Robin led them back towards the bike, where he helped Phantom get on the seat. Robin hopped on the back, keeping quiet as his brother finally turned to look at the Fentons. He sneered as he let the transformation rings snap into existence, changing him back into his human form.

“I will destroy everything you’ve researched if it’s the last thing I ever do,” Danny promised before taking off. Batman sighed as he hadn’t wanted Maddie to know about Danny, and when he turned around to tell them that he would back that threat up if they ever threatened his son, Maddie looked horrified as though everything she had ever known was turned upside down.

“Danny isn’t going to be staying here. You will turn your portal off, and I suggest you find new work,” Batman warned before aiming his grapple and taking off. Soon they were alone with Red Robin.

“They’ll be the kind ones if you say anything about what you’ve learned tonight. I won’t stop my attacks if you ever even hint at what has happened,” Red Robin warned before he took off.

“Maddie,” Jack whispered as he helped held her closer, but his wife didn’t even react, face frozen in horror since Danny’s transformation, as she slipped into a shocked state. Two minutes later an ambulance showed up and the medics got out looking confused at the lack of police around before helping Maddie into the back. Jack followed her.

Danny pulled into the storage unit and slammed the brake. Robin jerked slightly at the sudden motion, but was quickly distracted when Danny hopped off, screaming at the top of his lungs and tearing into everything that was nearby. He knocked down his gun stand and crashed something into his computer setup.

Robin simply sighed, knowing that his brother needed to get this out of his system. The safehouse would need to be burned and most of the stuff was going to need to be destroyed before they left anyway; plus Danny clearly had a lot of emotions to deal with. Walking away past the wreck, Damian spotted a post-it note on the wall near the entrance. He walked closer, soon realizing it was Tucker’s, where the boy informed them that since the Assassins seemed to have disappeared from town, that he was going out to check on his parents, but he’d come back to see them again afterwards.

Leaning against the wall, Robin thought back on the day’s events. They would need to know more about that ghost. Spectra seemed capable of hitting everyone’s nerves, hitting every little insecurity and maximizing the pain she caused on her targets.

He knew that she had probably been partially, if not wholly responsible for most of what had happened with Danny’s family. His brother screamed one last time, throwing a crowbar across the room. Robin closed his eyes, flinching slightly at the echo before he noticed that Danny had fallen to his knees and was full-on crying now. Robin raced to his brother, kneeling by his side and holding him close.

“I promise, everything will be okay,” Damian said, full of determination. He was going to do everything in his power to make sure that his brother would be taken care of. That Danny would be safe. Damian felt himself tense up, snapping his head to the door as he sensed a presence approaching. Soon, Bruce and Tim entered the building. He let himself relax as they stood just inside the door, taking in the damage.

“What happened?” Tim asked as he carefully walked over the carnage. Bruce, on the other hand, was silently observing the twins, already having put it together.

Danny had gone through a breakdown over everything that had just happened. He sucked in a breath.

“Tim, try to get everything necessary in this room that we have to take with us. Damian,” Bruce paused seeing the absolute menace in his son’s eyes at the mention of his name. “Can you slip into Fentonworks and get Danny some clothes to bring with us along with anything you think will be important?” He could see Damian gearing up to argue.

“Please, Dami,” Danny whispered. “I don’t think I can go in there ever again.”

Damian huffed before standing up, but his silence was agreement enough. Bruce quickly took his place, closing his arms over Danny’s shoulders. Damian headed towards the door, the place filled with a solemn quiet until a crash sounded by the side. Tim had dropped something, and he froze looking like a deer in headlights when everyone looked at him.

“Ah, sorry,” he said with wide eyes. Damian just shook his head. He had a room full of belongings to go through.

Chapter Text

Runaway Assassin

Chapter Fifteen

Homeward

To be homeward bound, no matter what tragic memories you have harbored, is unlike any voyage a man can ever make.

~Leon Uris

Danny leaned against the window as the Bat-plane was prepped for lift off. He hadn’t wanted to leave with them, but he knew.

It was safer for him if he did.

Amity Park would hold. Vlad wouldn’t risk any of his plans now that he knew what Danny was capable of. Bruce had helped pack a lot of the things he’d had in the storage house on the plane.

Including his bike.

Despite what he’d said, Danny had also snuck into Fentonworks’ lab and destroyed everything the Fentons had against ghosts and then some. He’d only managed to come in once he’d confirmed that Jack and Maddie were still in the hospital, since he wasn’t ready to face them again after all that. He didn’t want to see the rejection in the eyes of the woman he’d once considered his mom.

He wasn’t sure he could handle that.

Damian had taken the seat by his side, and his head was leaning against his shoulder, already fast asleep after having spent the night working on getting everything packed away. Danny looked down at his phone, his finger hovering over his sister’s contact.

He should probably let Jazz know, but she was also one of the reasons why he’d kept his past hidden. Plus, he knew that he was part of reason that she became so interested in psychology. All those years ago, she’d wanted to know why he was so closed off and getting fixated on making-up a past as an assassin.

Too bad she hadn’t believed him.

Danny sighed, putting his phone back in his pocket.

“Everyone ready?” Bruce asked, quickly checking that he had all his children aboard. He felt something settle in his chest, knowing that he could protect Danny under his own roof instead of having to leave him behind. Damian shifted lightly by Danny’s side, who nodded before leaning back against his brother, closing his own eyes.

Bruce smiled, glancing at Tim, who looked ready for this to be over.

“Tim?” he asked, and the teenager sighed before starting the plane. Bruce let out a soft sigh, feeling content they were finally heading home. He took the wheel and prepared for takeoff.

It was a quiet ride.

Dick sighed in relief, reading the message that the Bat-plane was only half an hour away. Finally, he didn’t have to switch between being Batman and Nightwing anymore. He was finishing typing up the report on what had happened this past day, when a new ping had him checking his phone again.

Tell Alfred to get the room next to Damian’s ready.

He couldn’t believe this. Dick felt anger course through him again. Bruce couldn’t just go on a mission and not bring back another kid? He slammed the keyboard on the floor, turning to storm away but pausing when Jason stepped away, staring at him with wide eyes.

“Bruce needs to stop adopting children,” Dick growled as he walked away. He loved his siblings, he really did, but sometimes there seemed to be too many. Bruce had no business bringing someone else in when everyone was finally in a good spot.

It would upset everything again.

“Seriously? Does it say who?” Jason asked incredulously, also feeling annoyed. Dick just shook his head, heading to the manor to warn Alfred. The doors to the elevator opened up, revealing the man in question standing inside in pristine posture and holding a tray of snacks with one hand.

“Bruce is bringing another one home,” Dick said, crossing his arms and resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Alfred sighed as he set the tray down.

“Was there anything else said?” He simply asked, knowing the drill by now. Loathe as he was to admit, he was going to need to talk to Bruce about constantly taking in children; he knew the man could afford to, but it was really getting too much with just him tending to the manor.

Especially when he would have to worry about another vigilante going out at night. Considering the latest additions to the family, he figured this new one was likely someone who’d figured their night life activities and wanted to do the same thing. Although Alfred might be slightly disappointed on Bruce’s impulsive adoptions, he had to admit he enjoyed how lively the house became whenever Bruce took another one in.

“Set up one of the rooms next to Damian’s,” Dick said before what he said registered. Damian had specifically so that no one would be next to him. “Damian isn’t going to like it.” Alfred nodded, both acknowledging the request and his grandson’s comment. He turned, thinking about the room on the right of Damian’s room. It was the nicer of the two. While heading back to the manor, he wondered how long before Damian demanded for the new family member to be moved.

For now, Alfred would do as asked, and Bruce could deal with the consequences.

“Danny,” Damian whispered, gently shaking his twin’s shoulder. Danny groaned before blinking his eyes open. “We’re landing.”

Danny nodded as he leaned back against his twin, making Damian roll his eyes and buckle his twin in. The plane shook slightly as they made it through the waterfall and into the cave. His brother mumbled something under his breath and Damian just wrapped an arm around him as he looked out the window. The plane had slowed down and a moment later he could feel the landing gears hit the runway. Danny mumbled again and curled tighter in his arms.

“We have successfully landed,” Bruce announced as he finished parking the plane. He got up, turning to see the twins cuddled together. Usually, Damian looked ready to stab whoever was leaning against him, but when it was his twin, he just looked concerned for him.

Bruce liked this change of pace. Tim had also gotten up and was stretching himself a bit, he glanced at the boys before heading towards the back, where the ramp had lowered. They had quite a bit of luggage to unload, so Tim wanted to get a head start, that way hopefully they’d get it done quickly and then Tim could see if Danny would be willing to help him upgrade his own bike similarly to the Ecto-bike, as Danny had taken to calling it.

Bruce and Tim exited the plane only to be greeted to writhing looks. Jason and Dick were across the platform, arms crossed and varying degrees of annoyance on their faces.

“Another? How’s that working? Damian gonna switch out with him on Robin?” Dick asked, a mocking tone to his voice. He wouldn’t have been this upset if he’d at least been warned longer than thirty minutes ago. Bruce sighed, just barely resisting rolling his eyes at the display. After everything they’d been through the past week, he didn’t have much patience to deal with Dick’s annoyance.

“Not likely, Danny already has an established name in the field,” he informed, nodding to Alfred before grabbing the tablet he was being handed, already open with the reports on what had occurred in Gotham during his absence. “The time it took for you take down Elliot worked in our favor, since it had Ra’s believing I was still in Gotham.”

Jason uncrossed his arms, surprised at the tiredness on Bruce’s voice, so he turned to Dick, who had his eyebrows raised, similarly floored. Both felt a bit off-balance too, knowing they’d had to deal with the Demon’s Head during their stay in Illinois, when it was meant to be a light trip instead.

“New brother’s name is Danny? How’s Damian dealing with that? He try to stab him yet?” Jason asked, focusing on another part of Bruce’s comment, but the man just hummed and grinned, apparently unpreoccupied with another murder attempt between siblings.

“I’m not concerned about that,” he said, but before they could ask him about it, Tim stumbled out the cargo area, steering an odd-looking bike down the railing. He froze upon realizing his brothers’ attention was on him.

“Hey, uh…” he started but trailed off, starting the bike and driving it down instead of walking the rest of the way. Bruce frowned, discontent that he wasn‘t following protocol and that he was using another‘s bike without permission, but he knew that Danny would’ve just laughed. Tim had been bugging him to let him ride it at least once. The bike hadn't made a single noise. 

“Where’d that come from?” Dick asked, but his question was quickly forgotten because two people had appeared at the top of the ramp. He couldn’t quite believe his eyes, nor could Jason, who also stood there, absolutely floored as he stared at the two boys.

They looked almost identical.

Damian looked the same as when he‘d left, and the boy beside him was the same height, although he was clearly thinner, with less muscle to show for. Upon looking closer, they could tell he had bright blue eyes instead of Damian’s green and their hairs were styled differently, the newcomer had slightly longer and messier hair. Still, they could easily pass as each other.

“Grayson, Todd, this is my twin brother, Danyal al Ghul,” Damian introduced, and Bruce let out a chuckle, seeing the fight that Dick had been ready to start immediately die out. He couldn’t be blamed for bringing home his own kid, now could he?

It hadn’t taken long for Danny to settle in, not that he had that much baggage in the first place. They’d answered most of Dick and Jason’s questions, but kept some of the answers about more delicate topics vague. They knew his name in the field was Phantom, but Bruce had asked the boys from the trip not to divulge too many details about it, not wanting to spread that Danny was a halfa before he was ready to tell them himself.

Danny deserved to be in control about that.

Three days after getting back, and Bruce was happy enough to just bask in his children’s company, even if they were messing around the dinner table at the moment. It seemed like they’d acclimated to each other fairly quickly. Both of his eldest had gone back to their own apartments on the first day, each promising to come back as soon as they dealt with their own personal matters.

Bruce was reading over some of the reports of activities during his absence, doing it discreetly of course, since Alfred didn’t approve of work on the table. He was a bit disappointed that it had taken Dick and Jason over three days to prove that the man seen as Bruce Wayne messing around at parties was actually Elliot trying to take over his company.

Scarecrow was also still MIA, but the duo had found a lead during Bruce’s trip that they were all going to check out that night.

The table fell silent when Danny finally asked if he could go out with them, and Alfred immediately told him no. Bruce leaned back on his chair, deciding to just let things play out this time. He watched as Danny narrowed his eyes at Alfred, who tried to remain unaffected. The man had thought he’d been immune to such looks, but Danny’s eyes made him feel like the air had been sucked out of his chest, like the atmosphere seemed to still, something unnatural residing in the room with them.

“You will not go out unless I clear you,” Alfred said with finality, and Danny simply vanished into thin air. The old butler turned to Bruce, who shrugged, clearly expecting such an outcome.

“Danyal isn’t entirely human, and unless it’s something from another world, he claims that he can’t be killed,” Bruce said with a small smile. “Trust me, he’s clear for action, and according to some of the information he gave me, he needs to burn off the excess energy or it will burn him up…or maybe freeze him from inside. He wasn’t entirely clear on that part.”

“I will need a full list of his abilities,” Alfred sighed, seeing the mischief in Bruce’s eyes. Bruce had always liked to cause some form of chaos when he got one over on Alfred. He simply narrowed his eyes at him. “What are you playing at, Sir?”

Bruce gave a short laugh before walking away. Danny would eventually tell him, but he did at least get to show Alfred that Danny didn’t need to be treated with kid gloves. Alfred turned only for Danny to be standing there, completely still.

Alfred wasn’t sure the kid was even breathing before he melted into the ground.

The butler felt more grey hairs popping up.

Danny looked down at his phone. Jazz had sent over a hundred messages.

Alicia had sent one too, an hour ago.

I want to know that you are safe. That you will be cared for.

Danny wondered if she had gotten a cellphone simply to stay in contact with him. He took a breath and hit call. The thing buzzed for a moment, taking a while before connecting.

“Ello?” came Alicia’s voice, warm and comforting, just like he remembered, and Danny looked up with a sigh. There were some glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling of his new bedroom, courtesy of Damian who had been trying his best to show him that he was welcome in their life. Danny hadn’t checked, but he was almost certain that they were from his old room in Fentonworks. Damian hadn’t been able to grab all of his belongings while packing, but he did manage to grab a few of his models.

It had meant the world to him, knowing that his brother had put together how much they meant to him, and had made an effort to save them for him.

“Hey, Aunt Alicia,” he said, and on the other end he could hear her gasp.

“I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get ahold of you,” she said, and Danny let out a small laugh.

“Yeah, I wasn’t sure I was going to reach out, but…thank you. You gave me a life I hadn’t realized I wanted, and I think…what you did was what I had needed.”

“Maddie called; said you had left with your family. I didn’t understand, still don’t.”

“I…I was running. I’ve been running for a long time, and I knew that one day…my past would come for me,” Danny whispered, as he held the phone a little tighter, a bit closer. “My mother…she was not…she was not compassionate in the way that mattered at the time I’d left. My father did not know I existed.”

“Why’d you leave then? Maddie was in tears when she told me.”

“My father wanted me; The Fentons did not,” Danny put simply. He heard Alicia cuss and knew she had pulled the phone away from her, so it was muffed. He smiled. “Alicia, thank you.”

“You ‘etter keep in touch, younin’,” she demanded, and Danny hummed.

“I will. I’m living in Gotham now.”

“That’s not a safe city.”

“Neither was Amity Park after they opened the portal. It’s closed now. The Justice League is investigating, and so far, it’s not looking good.”

“Maddie was mad that they had taken almost everything. Apparently, Masters was arrested for conspiracy for not contacting the League about an interdimensional invasion.”

“Yeah, that happened. He should be charged with more…but…” Danny trailed off. “How much about Amity Park did you know?”

“I know a certain someone was playing hero.”

Danny felt the world bend a little as he thought about that. There was no way that Alicia knew.

“What?” he gasped out, feeling like his lungs were constricting. Surely if she had known, then she would have told his…she would have told the Fentons.

“Come on, kid. I knew that you’d likely do something out of the ordinary while living there. I heard about Phantom from Maddie and Jack. All they ever needed to say for me to put it together was that Phantom was playing hero although they said it was to trick everyone. Knew you’d make an impact at some point.”

Danny swallowed as he closed his eyes. Alicia had known almost this entire time.

“You knew and didn’t say anything.”

“I’m proud of ya, kiddo. I gotta go, those boys are in my rhubarb again, and I swear, if they piss in it, I’m making them a shit pie.” Danny let out a laugh as he said his goodbye, his heart feeling lighter as he hung up. Alicia had known and had been a rock he didn’t know he needed.

There was a knock on his door, and he looked up as Damian entered.

“I didn’t give you permission to come in,” Danny said, and his twin froze before scowling at him.

“Shut it, I’m here to tell you that we are going in the field together. I will show you around Gotham while Father and the others start a search for Scarecrow,” Damian informed as he sat on Danny’s bed, pausing for a moment before pulling his legs up and crossing them. Danny followed, sitting before him so they faced each other.

“You want something,” Danny said with narrowed eyes, to which his brother’s mouth quirked up a bit, not quite a smile yet.

“Father wants to continue the game of messing with Todd and Grayson. Both of which will be out tonight,” Damian started. “Drake has been playing catch up with the company and Father wanted us to work on locations and training in the field before helping with the search.”

“I don’t plan on using the Al Ghul alias,” Danny said, causing Damian to grin.

“Of course not, he’s a ghost hunter, and you’ve already told us that you want to stay as Phantom. I’ve taken the liberty of redesigning a suit for you,” Damian said, immediately pulling a backpack from behind that Danny hadn’t noticed before. He watched as his twin pulled out an outfit, a black armor with white outlines, wrapped up in a black cloak. Danny looked up, feeling a bit confused, and his brother answered, clearly feeling proud of his design. “I tried to keep the theme spooky.”

“Did you just say spooky in a serious manner?” He teased, laughing when Damian’s face blushed slightly. He picked up the outfit. “I already have a suit.”

“It is not fitted for what we are doing,” Damian informed, and Danny rolled his eyes.

“You just wanted to design it,” he accused, but stopped his teasing when he caught Damian glancing down, seemingly concerned with what Danny thought of it. “Thank you, Dami. I can infuse it with ectoplasm and test it to see if it’ll stay with my ghost half.” His brother let a happy smile cross his face, then quickly got up, probably embarrassed about it.

“I would like to be there for the process. Also, Drake was wondering how long it would take to convert his bike to run on…ectoplasm?” He asked and Danny just shook his head.

“That’s gonna take at least a week. I don’t have all the supplies I need, but if I can make a portal into the Ghost Zone, then I can probably get that done sooner.”

“Good, because Father was wondering if it could power more than just a bike.”

Danny choked on his laughter as he buried the sadness. He may have lost the family he’d built for himself, but this one was right here, willing to support all of him.

The ghost, the assassin, and the child under it all.

“Gotham, you seriously can’t just…” the Observant started only for her to laugh at him.

“Phantom was one of mine before he ever even became King, and since he is now living under my protection, it is my right to hold this court responsible for the attempted assassination on him,” she said as she walked around the room. Shadows formed along the wall, rippling and writhing, darker than any shade of black and the ghostly eyeballs flinched when bright green eyes blinked, staring at them from the shadows. “You tried to kill him, because he stopped Pariah?”

“Gotham, he’s…” the Eyeball stopped talking as a sword was shoved through their eye. Gotham glared.

“I know how you work; I know far more than you wanted me to,” Gotham warned as she sat at the head of the table. “Now I’m the one with the power, and we will do whatever it takes to ensure that the peace that has been established since the last time Pariah was free remains in place.”

“You can’t do this,” another one said, and Gotham turned to him with a grin that was wider than her head.

“Oh, and who’s going to stop me? Phantom is under my protection, and you already upset him,” Gotham laughed as every one of the Observants looked down in discomfort and some even looked a bit guilty. “Oh, I know, you’ll stick your pet timelord on me? Good luck with that.”

The shadows grew darker in the room and the Observants screamed in fear.

Dick knocked on the door, bouncing on his feet. It took about a minute before Danny opened it, but he just smiled at the boy.

“You’re Dick Grayson correct?” Danny asked, he'd just gotten back from shopping for clothes with Alfred, just the two of them because Damian was at school. Although he was tired of testing outfits in dressing rooms, he'd been about to try changing Phantom's outfit for the one that his twin designed for him.

"Yes, um, Daniel was it?" Dick hesitantly replied with a smile, but all he got in response was a disapproving look. The kid crossed his arms, frowning but clearly waiting for the older man to speak first. Okay, a moody teenager, Dick could handle that. "Right, so, I heard that you were cleared by Alfred for Damian to take you on a sightseeing tour tonight. Are you sure? Gotham isn't...Gotham isn't like where you're from."

“Oh, I know. But where I'm from, I was threatened with being a government experiment, so I think I'll be fine," Danny dismissed, with a roll of his eyes, his voice now cold instead of just polite. Dick sucked in a breath, feeling a bit off-balance.

"Okay, maybe we got off on the wrong foot here," Dick said, holding his hands up in a placating manner, while inwardly he was filing that concerning information for later evaluation. That was a whole other can of worms. He cleared his throat. "I'm Dick Grayson, I'm the oldest." He held out his hand towards Danny, who just looked him up and down, ignoring the gesture.

"You're Nightwing," he said in a plain voice. He remembered that first day and the man's attitude when hearing about his arrival. Although now he could put together what had been going on his head: Dick hadn't wanted another brother added to the mix since it could disturb the tentative peace the family had achieved. He hadn't wanted things to change. At least, that's what he could piece together from what Damian had told him the other day. He wasn't happy with that but he could respect wanting to protect your family. He ran a hand through his hair, thinking of how to meet the man in a middle ground. "I was there...when Blüdhaven was destroyed."

Dick quickly averted his eyes, staring at the ground, but Danny still glimpsed the anger in his eyes. He could understand, it was still a sore topic for him too.

"Ra's was trying to use that attack to get me killed," Danny continued, and Dick's head snapped up, shock written on his face. He was at a loss for what to say. The man hadn't been able to find much about Danny and the files that did exist in the Batcomputer had been locked down tight under several layers of security and cryptography. He hadn't had the time to hack into them yet, and now he dreaded what he'd find when he did. "Damian didn't tell you about me at all because he was under the impression that I had been killed that day."

"You faked your death to get away from the League?" Danny nodded in response. Dick couldn't help the whistle he let out.

"Alright, I'm sorry for doubting...I just...." He trailed off in his poor attempt at an apology, but Danny huffed.

"Trust me, I can handle whatever this city tries to throw at me," he said, and Dick sighed, still feeling uneasy at letting the kid roam free around town.

"Gotham is dangerous...although I guess with you havin' been an assassin before...I just...Bruce hasn't really said anything." He said, dropping his arms and slumping his shoulders. Danny just laughed at the display. "And you've clearly been out of the League for a while..."

"Oh, trust me, I'll be more than fine," Danny promised before unceremoniously closing the door on Dick's face. He sighed, unsure if he could classify that whole interaction as a success, and he turned to exit the hallway only to find Damian standing there.

"Hey Damian," he greeted, and Damian smirked at him, not even granting him a reply before he turned and headed down the Cave. Dick followed, lightly bouncing on his feet. "Are you sure your...twin is going to be able to handle it?"

"Danyal knows what he is doing," Damian informed, putting his hands behind his back. Dick sighed as they headed down the elevator. He barely held in a gasp when the doors opened up. Danny was standing there, a wicked smile on his face, but he quickly wiped that expression and blinked innocently at them.

"You were just..." Dick started, pointing at the ceiling and looking up then at Danny a couple times in confusion. Danny just smirked at him, turning to talk to Damian instead of clarifying anything.

"So, we taking my bike or yours?" The boy leaned close to his brother, who was staring at both bikes in contemplation. Dick glanced at the bike they'd brought along with Danny, the thing had a gorgeous design but he couldn't figure out the machine. 

He'd poked at it when he'd been alone in the cave on that first day, but he couldn't even get the thing to start. He knew Tim and Damian knew how to, but of course, they made a point of showing they weren't going to share that secret with him.

He did remember how silent the thing had been when Tim used it inside the cave. Impossibly so. If the way his brothers had been nagging at Danny for a ride on it, then that wasn't the only surprise the bike had.

"I think mine is more fun," Danny said, catching Dick staring at his bike then grinned with mischief at him. It made the older vigilante slightly uncomfortable. "Besides...I already tore yours and Red's apart to start the conversion."

"Wait, you what?" Damian shrieked, running to the parkway. Danny laughed heartily, then giggled when he saw Bruce approaching Dick from behind.

"You didn't touch the car, did you?" Their father said with narrowed eyes, and Dick jumped slightly in surprise.

"You've got to stop doing that," he whined.

"Nah, not yet. There's still more calculations I have to do since it's bigger than a bike. Since I know what I'm able to do with the bikes, it should only take me about five to six days to finish them," Danny informed. Bruce nodded once before looking at Dick.

"Get dressed, Scarecrow is still out there and there are rumors that he may be hitting tonight. I want as many hands on-deck as we can get," he informed, voice already slipping into Batman mode, but Dick crossed his arms.

"What about Danny?"

"Technically, it's Phantom now." A wispy voice answered from everywhere at once, and Dick turned in place, only to see that no one was standing there anymore.

"Codenames when in the suit." Bruce reprimanded as he walked into the locker rooms. Dick got his phone out, contacting Jason about this new development, informing of his suspicions that Danny was a meta. His brother just sent back a thumbs up, and a curt reply about how he was already patrolling Crime Alley.

"This is going to be so much fun," Phantom whispered into Dick's ear, and he held back a wince of surprise, hurrying instead to reach the lockers. He felt his eye twitch, already predicting a chaotic night. He needed to figure out everything the kid could do, as soon as possible.

Phantom was flying next to Robin as they patrolled the streets. His brother was steering his ecto-bike and from the looks of it, loving every moment.

He'd already asked Phantom if he wanted to trade them, but the ghost declined, saying this one was special.

"So, this is Crime Alley?" Phantom asked as he looked over the trashed-out alley. He knew of the place's history thanks to the League debrief all those years ago, when he was getting ready to be sent to Bruce.

"Yes, Red Hoods territory. At least, according to him," Robin said as he twisted up his nose in disgust. He was almost certain someone had vomited in the corner. Multiple times. Perhaps, even multiple people. The place certainly smelled like it.

"It's my territory, Demon Brat," Hood growled out, gun aimed at Phantom's head. The ghost's own hood was up, mostly obscuring his face, so the vigilante couldn't see his hair or eyes right away. He'd also paid attention to tone down his natural glow a bit.

"I've seen scarier." His voice betrayed his grin. Hood flipped the safety off, tightening the hold on the trigger, but careful not to actually fire. Phantom only grinned wider at the display.

"You think so, kid? It's dangerous here." Red Hood said, hoping his new brother was getting scared.

So far, though, he could tell the plan wasn't working. Not if the kid was as stubborn as his brother and father. Still, Jason had to try.

"You'll miss," Phantom simply stated, and Hood dropped his arm.

"The guys who shoot at you likely won't," he warned, and Phantom laughed when Robin tried to slap the back of his head only for his hand to go through. The scene caused Hood to take a step back, and Phantom grinned with mischievousness, seeing an opportunity to further mess with him. He vanished from sight the next instant. Hood visibly swallowed, "Just because you're a meta doesn't mean that they can't hurt you."

"Legally speaking, not a meta," Phantom taunted from... somewhere. Red Hood's head turned this way and that, trying to figure out where the kid was. Phantom giggled, his voice echoing oddly and making the vigilante even more confused about his location.

"He's already gotten himself killed, and unlike you, he managed to gain powers from it." Robin deadpanned while watching Hood's struggle. He glanced down when he felt sticky fingers poking then grabbing his birdarangs. "Phantom, give them back."

The next second, Hood jerked to the side as he felt someone touch his gun's holster. He looked down and, sure enough, his weapon was gone.

Phantom's laughter echoed through the alley, the sound bouncing from the walls and only increasing as he watched the two birds glancing around trying to find him.

"B, are you sure that letting Phantom out is a good idea?" Dick asked, hoping he could help convince Bruce to bench the new kid until he had some more training.

"He needs it," Batman simply commented before turning to look at his son, a frown in place. "You don't know the whole story, and right now, we have bigger things to deal with. Have you located Scarecrow yet?"

"He was last seen down by the water treatment plant. He was alone," Nightwing reported as he crossed his arms and leaned back against the seat of the Batmobile.

"Robin, Hood and Phantom are closest, sending them coordinates," Batman informed as he typed on the car's screen. He hummed slightly, thinking over what would be the best course of action.

Sending Phantom in for recon was the best option. The ghost wouldn't be seen and he'd be safe from danger since nothing could hit him if he turned intangible.

That is, as long as he was paying attention, but Batman was sure that Robin would tag along and make sure they stayed on track.

"Are you sure?"

"Remember when you used to complain and get angry every time I questioned you?" Bruce stared at Nightwing, who seemed to wilt slightly. "Phantom will be fine. He's been doing this a while, the only difference is that, according to him, these are fragile humans."

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nightwing asked, exasperated, but Batman simply flashed him a side smile then gunned the car, forcing him back into the seat.

"We are not sending your brother in." Red Hood proclaimed, as he looked over the orders sent in by the Bat. Just because Phantom could turn invisible didn't mean the kid could do this.

Robin and Phantom didn't reply, glancing at each other instead, before Phantom grinned wildly, holding out a hand to his twin.

"Shall we go haunt the place?" he asked, and Robin rolled his eyes behind the domino mask at the pun, but ultimately ended up taking his hand. A split-second later, they had both vanished, quicker than Hood could grab them. His hand passed through thin air, and he let it drop, cursed aloud. "Damnit."

Phantom pulled his brother along as they phased through the walls, searching for Scarecrow. Whenever he wanted to check another direction, Robin would gently pull at his hand, but overall, they worked quickly and swiftly, never letting go of each other and never uttering a single word.

"What do you mean, you can't find it?" Someone said with annoyance from a door down the corridor. Robin stopped, recognizing Crane's voice. He pulled his brother's hand, signaling that they should follow the sound. Phantom looked back at him, nodded then floated them into the room, where Crane was pacing with his mask off.

Robin felt a bit odd at the display, since usually Crane would immediately put his mask on once he spotted them.

Only, he would never see them coming. Not this time.

"Yes...I need that for my...fine, I'll steal it myself." The man hung up, clearly irritated. Robin made a note to inform Batman that there was someone else they needed to be looking for. Scarecrow grabbed his mask, stomping his way to the door but before he reached it, an alarm went off.

The twins tensed, hovering over the man's shoulder as he moved to check the cameras.

Hood had slipped into the place.

"Well, well, looks like we've got a toy to play with" Scarecrow grinned, a glint to his eye as he reached for a button on the security setup panel, but his hand never got that far. Phantom had turned visible, grabbing his wrist instead, and the man froze, eyes wide at the sudden appearance.

"I heard you like fear," the ghost whispered as the room grew cold. "Personally, I like mischief, but I can do fear."

Scarecrow gasped, the air entering his lungs felt like it was almost freezing, then Phantom tilted his head, just a touch too far from what a human could and the man felt a chill on his spine. Robin had showed up not too far, and he'd already unsheathed his sword, but his brother shook his head, silently asking him to wait.

The rogue lunged, grabbing at his vials in the hopes of getting a fighting chance, but they got frozen solid before he ever reached them.

"Tell me, do you fear death?" Phantom quoted, and Robin felt like slapping him in the back of the head.

"I don't..." Scarecrow started, suddenly jumping forward to try and punch Phantom, who simply turned intangible. The man stared at his hand when it went right through.

"Interesting, cause Death says that you do," Phantom grinned, stretching wider than humanly possible, before vanishing and taking Robin with him.

The sudden change sent Crane into a bit of a shock, as his legs gave underneath him and he hit the floor in a daze, uncertain of what just transpired. He knew the reaction was just emotional whiplash, but he couldn't help himself from feeling fear.

Fear from what had just happened.

"What was that?" Robin asked as they headed down the hallway that Hood was attempting to sneak into.

"Ghosts? Fear? That's a thing, you know?" Phantom said and Robin crossed his arms, demanding more of an explanation. "Alright, so...like...some ghosts can manipulate the atmosphere to feel...oppressive in a way that makes people feel like Death is there."

"And you can do that?" Robin asked as they turned a corner to see Hood standing there with his guns drawn.

"Oh yes, I used it all the time when I wanted to be left alone. Especially by other ghosts. It took me a while to learn how to use it to like...communicate with other ghosts, but eventually I got it." Phantom happily informed as Hood aimed his gun at the ghost's head once more. "Stop pointing guns at me unless you plan to pull the trigger. This is getting annoying."

"What are you two doing?" Hood hissed before they heard an engine rumble nearby. The Batmobile pulled up. "Great."

Batman and Nightwing exited the car and Robin opened the door to their current hallway, motioning them to get inside.

"We found Scarecrow, and could've learned more from him if only someone didn't set off the alarms," Robin said as he pointed at Hood, who glared at him and tried his best not to raise up to the challenge of beating up the kid.

This time, the brat had backup and with someone he didn't know the full abilities of yet. He didn't want to pick a fight until he knew better about Phantom's powers, but when he did, he planned on teaching the Demon Brat a lesson.

"You were told to wait." Batman pointed out, and Jason felt angry all over again.

“I didn’t know who or what I was working with here!” he shouted, and Robin felt Phantom flinch at the verbiage.

“So you didn’t think I could handle it?” Robin fired back angrily. He hoped to get the pressure off his twin. Phantom grabbed his hand in support and for comfort. Robin squeezed it lightly as he continued to glare at Hood.

“Alright, maybe I should’ve stayed, but I don’t know Phantom, and quite frankly, I don’t trust him,” Jason said as he took off his helmet and glared at the hybrid from behind his domino mask. Phantom just leaned closer to Robin.

“And why is that?” Batman asked, making Dick turn to him like he’d grown two heads.

“Seriously? You guys were gone for like five days and you suddenly trust some kid who claims to be Robin’s long lost twin brother?” Nightwing yelled throwing his hands into the air. Phantom sucked in a breath then the air in the room turned cold, causing everyone to look at him.

Phantom looked up at them as his eyes glowed toxic green and the wind stilled. Fear.

Fear.

Nightwing blinked and the next instant Phantom had crossed the room, blasting Scarecrow into a wall. The vigilantes hadn’t even sensed the man approaching. Crane slid down the wall with a groan.

“I warned you once,” Phantom said, as from where he’d appeared in front of Crane, green smoke rising from his cloak, the thing violently whipping around. Crane looked up at him with wide eyes. Nightwind tensed up, feeling unnerved from seeing so much fear in the man’s eyes. Phantom leaned down and whispered into his ear.

Crane screamed.

Phantom floated back up, pulling the cold to him as he rose and everyone was once more left off balance by the sudden atmosphere change.

“What did you say to him?” Hood demanded. Phantom turned to him with a smirk.

“The Dead don’t really keep secrets,” he said before looking at Robin. “Shall we continue our tour of this city?”

Robin smirked and nodded. Phantom vanished and a moment later, so did Robin.

Batman felt the ghost brush past him with a whisper.

You can tell them if you want. I want to spend time with my brother.

“What the hell just happened?” Nightwing asked, not liking this at all. Bruce smirked as he looked at his oldest.

“We’ve already ran all tests needed. Phantom isn’t entirely human, but he’s still part of this family,” Batman said.

“How is he Da…Robin’s twin if he’s not entirely human?” Jason replied, crossing his arms, helmet dangling from one hand.

“He used to be human. Something happened, and now he’s part of another dimension as well,” Bruce said as he walked towards Crane, who was still shaking against the wall. The man looked up.

“How did he know? How…how can he do that?” Crane asked, tears filling his eyes, then his gaze became unfocused, staring off into the distance. “How?” Batman just slapped the cuffs on him, without answering.

Hood and Nightwing glanced at each other before walking forward to help get Crane locked into the Batmobile.

“He said something about the dead, and Da…Robin had said something earlier about how he died and got powers.”

“He’s part ghost.” Batman rolled his shoulders back slightly as he did a couple easy stretches.

“Like Deadman?” Nightwing asked. Batman just smirked again before slipping into the car and leaving. “Hey, wait…you were my ride…”

Hood just laughed at his brother.

Robin and Phantom both heard the scream at the same time. They immediately headed in its direction, Phantom vanishing from sight as he entered the alleyway.

Robin stuck to the shadows, sensing how the alley grew slightly colder but focusing instead on the scene before him. A bulky man was crowding a woman, mouth moving but his voice was too low to distinguish what was being said. From the frightened look on her face, nothing good. Suddenly, he grabbed the woman’s elbow and shoved her to the ground. She curled up, whimpering as he raised his boot above her head, then in the blink of an eye, he found himself on the ground, at the other side of the alley.

Phantom towered over him, cloaked by the shadows he was almost indistinguishable, but his twin could spot him there. He lit his hands with ecto-energy, casting an eerie green glow on the bricks near the area and the man yelped at the sudden and weird appearance.

“I’d suggest you run,” Phantom whispered in a way that echoed loudly against the walls. “And pray I never see you again.”

Robin hadn’t noticed before, but Phantom didn’t have legs anymore. There was just a wispy tail, wavering back and forth gently.

This was one of the creepiest Danyal had been since they were reunited.

Robin already had plans to use it against his brothers as often as he could convince Danny to.

The man whimpered before scampering out of the alley, tripping and falling before running on all fours just to get away.

The green light died out as Phantom turned to the woman. His legs formed back and he slowly kneeled before her, hand outstretched but not too close so as not to spook her.

“Are you alright?” He asked, his voice now closer to a human’s and the woman nodded, although she remained looking entirely terrified of him.

“We can escort you wherever you need to go, if you wish it,” Robin cut in, finally stepping out of the shadows and he could see her relax at the sight of a familiar Gotham vigilante.

She looked back at Phantom, not leaning away anymore. Robin scanned her for injuries while his brother sent her a soft smile.

“Who are you?” She asked, knowing it was likely a new Bat. Robin would have already attacked this newcomer if he wasn’t affiliated with them, after all, no outsiders were allowed in Gotham. She was a Gothamite, born and raised, and for all that this place was a hellhole, they prided themselves on their vigilantes, even if it sometimes felt like there too many of them. Besides, the new kid probably wasn’t too bad, if his rescue was anything to go by.

“Phantom,” he replied, and she finally took his hand. She also accepted their escort, and the whole walk home, she’d never felt this safe, even laughing at some of the puns the boy did. Looked like Phantom really was one of Gotham’s now.

Chapter Text

Runaway Assassin

Epilogue

Perhaps, somewhere, some day, at a less miserable time, we may see each other again.

~Vladimir Nabokov

Maddie sat down on the bed. It’d been over a week now. Danny had simply messaged them to say that he was okay.

That he was safe.

Alicia had chewed her out for what happened, and the talk left her feeling worse about the whole thing, but Maddie wasn’t sure how to fix it.

She learned from Sam and Tucker that Spectra was a ghost that fed off misery. That she preferred teenage misery, and she had gotten a lot from what had happened in their house.

The Foleys were now looking for a new house after someone attacked their old one, and Maddie could tell from what she’d heard that it was Ra’s. She’d known the man was ruthless and hadn’t done anything.

Why hadn’t she tried to stop him? Everything had felt so hopeless.

A man who she later learned was Danyal’s grandfather and who had tried to kill him was responsible and she did nothing to stop it. In fact, she helped the bastard.

She felt awful.

But the worst of it was finding out her son’s secret.

That Danny was also Phantom.

Maddie buried her face in her hands, unsure of how to feel about that.

She had no idea how to fix what was broken. She didn’t know what to do with the information that Danny had been Phantom the whole time.

He'd been a hero the whole time. She wasn’t entirely sure what to believe since all their research suggested that ghosts were nothing more than malicious balls of intent, but…she’d seen a coldness and maliciousness in humans as well, so how accurate could that be? Besides, she’d seen how complicated Spectra’s plans were and how devoted to saving them Phantom was. She wasn’t certain of anything else anymore.

“Mrs. Fenton?” Flash asked and Maddie looked up in surprise, momentarily having forgotten that the Justice League had come to see what was up with all the ghost attacks.

They were taking over things in Amity Park in a way that she knew the government had been trying to avoid. That the GIW had been fearful that the League would be corrupted with thoughts of helping the ghosts instead of the humans, so they’d shut the town off from the outside world.

“Yeah, sorry, just been…spacey lately,” she whispered. Her phone started ringing and she looked down at it.

Jazz.

“I’ve gotta take this,” Maddie said before getting up and walking into the living room. This was the cleanest the room had ever been, their ghost equipment all confiscated by the heroes. “Hey, sweetie.”

“Have you heard from Danny?” Jazz asked, sounding like the world was crashing around her. Maddie could relate. “He won’t answer me, and he promised that he would. But he’s not answering my calls and I don’t know where he is!”

“He’s…He’s fine. He…he left to stay with his biological father. He’s been reunited with his twin brother now,” Maddie explained, and she could hear Jazz breathing heavily on the other end of the line.

“Then why isn’t he answering me?” Jazz asked, and Maddie’s heart broke. Her daughter sounded completely devastated that Danny wasn’t talking to her.

“Because we never believed him,” Maddie whispered. Between them constantly accusing Phantom of lying and the disbelief that Danny could’ve hurt anyone while he was little, Maddie knew that they had damaged the relationship before it ever really developed.

Danny had only stayed because it was safer than staying on the run.

“It sounded insane!” Jazz cried out, voice teary now, before Maddie took in a breath.

“Did you know about Phantom?” Maddie finally asked. She had wondered about it. If Jazz knew anything with her unwavering support of Phantom before she left for college.

She heard Jazz exhaling softly.

“Yes.”

Maddie felt like the world tilted again.

Maybe it was just her.

Jack glared while he watched Vlad pack up his lab.

“You harmed my son,” He said without emotion. His former best friend sighed before turning to him.

“Really? Is that why you’re here? He wasn’t even your child?!” Vlad yelled, throwing his hands up in the air, and Jack scowled. Danny was still his kid no matter what anyone else said. Vlad had only got after the boy because he had believed that Danny was a part of Maddie and now there wasn’t any other reason other than him being half-ghost, but even now, Vlad knew that there was no way that the boy would come to him.

He had Batman as his father, and he wouldn’t betray him. Vlad already knew that, but Vlad didn’t understand why Jack would care about a kid that wasn’t actually his.

“I taught him how to fish, I held him after nightmares, I listened to him ramble about space, and I know that he left partly because you are a threat to him. And now that he no longer lives in Amity, you’re leaving town. Where are you going?” Jack’s voice remained even, although the heat behind it was unmistakable; Vlad could feel the barely contained anger. An anger that he was genuinely afraid to see once released. “He is my son even if I wasn’t always the father he needed.”

Vlad swallowed before turning away from Jack, hands clutching his bag’s straps on the desk.

“It was a mistake. One I won’t make again,” He informed, hoping to resolve the matter just like that.

“I’m aware,” A silky familiar voice said from behind him, and he quickly turned, only to find Talia standing there with a lethal grin on her face. Vlad hadn’t sensed her enter. “I’m about to make sure of it.” She shifted and he glanced down at her sword, its blade glowing green under the light as she raised it. There was a fiercely protective glint in her eye and a slightly manic one, too.

His eyes remained glued at the woman, feeling like a prey under a predator’s gaze. He heard Jack leave without saying goodbye and immediately knew that the man wouldn’t be saving him. Jack had simply distracted him long enough for her to get in unseen.

“The Dark Knight has the Twins,” Ra’s muttered as he stood in front of the Lazarus Pit, trying to think of his next move. He hadn’t believed that Danyal would’ve been that competent. He should have been out of practice especially since he’d double checked that the boy hadn’t contacted anyone during the time he’d been hiding.

He was missing something, and he knew that it was likely that Talia and Bruce knew about it.

“Sir, the paper,” one of his servants said as he was presented with the Gotham Gazette.

New Hero in Town!

Ra’s quirked one eyebrow up, surprised that the Bat would’ve let Danyal out so soon before he froze at the sight of a familiar name.

Phantom.

That explained a lot more about what happened in Amity Park. He still had a lot of questions.

And he doubted that he’d get the answers any time soon. He wasn't sure if he'd ever get any of the answers either. Danyal likely wouldn't forgive him for everything that happened. With the Fentons surrounded by the Justice League and Masters was in the wind or dead there wouldn't be anyone else to ask. He threw the paper at the ground.

Ra’s was back to square one and he knew that going after Danyal now would be a waste of time and resources.

Danny had one of the bikes lifted high off the ground as he pulled the exhaust off. It wasn’t necessary for the ecto-conversion, and he was going to use it as a backup source in case it got caught in an empty blast.

Ectoplasm could be effected, but with a small storage to recharge, the system would only take two seconds to boot again.

At least that’s what he was aiming for.

Jason walked in the cave, paused when he caught him messing with Red Robin’s bike.

Tim was currently being bored to death in a WE board meeting. He knew that because Tim had been texting him to kidnap him to get him out of it, and Jason knew that there was no other reason for the begging other than the fact that Tim was bored.

“Does he know you’ve got his bike taken apart?” Jason asked when he’d walked closer, looking over some of the mess. He was wary of the green glowing stains on the floor and made sure to step away from them.

“Yes and no. Yes, he knows I’m upgrading it. No, he doesn’t know that I’m doing it at this moment. I’ve already gotten Dami’s sorted, and I’d rather do the ectoplasm pour all at once instead of twice for this,” He explained as he finally got the exhaust dropped.

“Ectoplasm? Like ghost snot?” Jason asked with disbelief and Danny glared at him.

“More like ghost blood,” he said before pulling something else loose. The man remained standing for several moments while he tweaked at the bike. It got annoying fast. “Can I help you with something?”

“Uh, Dick said something about your bike being completely silent and I wanted to check it out,” Jason said as he rubbed his hands together seeing an opportunity to get to know Danny a bit better. If Danny liked mechanical work, then Jason could probably help and bond that way. “Want some help?”

Danny considered Jason for several moments, and the vigilante was almost certain he would be sent away, but the kid only shrugged.

“Sure, I need the miniature ecto-convertor on the table.” Danny pointed to a table off to the side and Jason immediately regretted offering his help seeing a torn apart toaster, a toothbrush, green slime that seemed to be slowly moving to the edge of the table, and what may or may not be what Danny was asking for.

Jason just stared. Danny looked at him before laughing and pointing at the other table with two blenders torn apart and a tiny device that was slightly glowing.

“It’s the blender on the left.”

Yeah, Jason definitely regretted coming into the cave.

“The Government has dismantled the agency known as the Guys in White. Unfortunately, most of the newer agents that were operating in Amity were League Assassins, and many of the agents from before were executed during Ra’s takeover,” Batman announced, controlling his voice so his annoyance didn’t leak out. This was so frustrating, he couldn’t question them if they were dead, and he knew the Assassins would rather kill themselves than spill any secrets. He really hated Ra’s.

They had a single agent, or Operative, that came forward and explained the things his division had been doing. He’d only done so because he thought that the Justice League was going to help him rebuild their organization.

Now he was sitting in a cell on the Watchtower for crimes against the Ghost Zone. He’d remain there until they found out if Phantom was going to decide to press charges. Batman was going to wait and was playing the guardian card to keep him for now.

He had enough information for them to learn more about the Anti-Ecto Control Acts, and Batman wasn’t going to stop until it was all taken down.

His son needed to be safe from the government. Danyal didn’t deserve to be hunted.

“Bruce?” Superman asked by his side, and Bruce refrained from smacking him on the head. Instead, he grunted and continued glaring at the file on his hand. Just because they were the only ones in the meeting room didn’t mean that Clark got to call him by name when in costume. His friend continued as if he hadn’t heard Bruce’s grunt, which after all these years he could very well understand. “Where’d you even learn about all of this?”

“Classified,” He informed as he shut the file he’d been reading from. He looked up at the man of steel, who looked unimpressed with the answer.

“Rumors has it that there’s another kid running around in tights in Gotham,” Clark said, hands on his hips. Bruce grunted again.

He planned to keep Danyal a secret until his senior year. Alfred was ensuring his schooling, and Bruce was covering his tracks for now. He’d need to remain at home most of the time, just until the events were well in the past. They didn’t want anyone to connect him to Amity Park, just in case.

Danny had been okay with that, as long as he was able to continue his studies. Bruce had allowed him to be homeschooled, of course, which his son was excelling at now. He was proud of the kid going from nearly failing to being a near straight A student.

Bruce was also fairly certain it had to do with them knowing about his other activities and that he wasn’t the only one fighting bad guys now. He also suspected that there had been something else going on in Casper High, but he only had unsupported rumors about bullying for now. He’d need to look deeper into it.

“Bruce, what is going on? You got a new kid and immediately threw him into the deep end? That’s unlike you,” Superman said as he sat down, grabbing the file before Bruce could take it away.

The file was labeled Phantom.

“You got the info from your newest team member?” Clark asked with a raised brow. Damn his reporter friend with a too sharp eye. Bruce just grunted again, not wanting to talk.

Danny had been good at getting him to express himself, and he was now more open with his kids, but the Justice League was still a different story.

He also needed some sleep.

“Phantom knows what he’s doing,” Bruce stated not wanting to get into an argument right now. “I know what I’m doing.” He got up and headed to the zetas. Danny would absolutely love it up here, and Bruce would take him one day.

He was excited to see what his son would think of the space base.

Superman watched him leave, feeling wary and concerned for his friend. But he’d trust him, for now.

Danny was sprawled across his bed, staring at the ceiling. So much had happened, and maybe he should have been apprehensive of all the change, but he’d never felt this safe.

This settled in his life.

He smiled, feeling content. He had his family here, and while he missed Sam and Tucker, Bruce was working on setting up a zeta beam in Amity Park for them.

When he’d mentioned it, Tucker had wanted to know more about the systems, and Bruce had agreed that it’d be a good idea to teach him some of the technology so that they could have someone on hand.

His friend had jumped at the chance. They’d sent him an application for a Wayne grant to pay for classes after he graduated high school. Tucker hadn’t shut up about it on the phone for days, already making numerous plans and Danny just chuckled through it all, likewise excited for him.

Sam was also given the chance, but his father had said she’d only need to apply if her parents didn’t let her take the courses she wanted. His goth friend had nodded then immediately started a petition for renewable energy using ectoplasm as a base source. The thing had grown such a momentum that it was brought to Bruce’s attention by his own employees.

When Wayne Enterprises sent an email stating they might be interested in funding research about that, it had been enough to convince the Manson’s that maybe Sam’s career goals in a renewable energy course might be worth a shot. Tim had also been excited, rambling at the dinner table about everything they’d get to do using ectoplasm, especially since it didn’t hurt ghosts unless you made it so on purpose. His father had stated that he was interested in seeing where she’d go from there. Then he’d complimented both his friends, telling Danny how he’d been impressed with their bravery against Ra’s and his Assassins, and that they were welcome to stay at the Manor whenever Danny wanted to invite them over.

Danny grinned to himself, the thought of his friends visiting making him feel even happier. 

He was broken out of memory lane when there was a knock on the door. Danny cleared his throat, raising his voice as he said ‘enter’.’

“Do you have to sound so formal?” The newcomer said, making him laugh. Bruce let out a soft smile, seeing his son so relaxed.

“Thought you were whoever keeps knocking on my door and running away. I’d think it was Damian if he was willing to ‘lower himself to such ridiculous standards.’ But I think I do know who it is,” Danny explained, and Bruce just shook his head as he sat down on the bed.

“How are you doing?” He asked and Danny took a breath, making himself sit up straight so he could get this off his chest.

“Two weeks ago, my main concern was a movie night with my friends,” he whispered. “Then…Mother showed up and I feared that I was about to lose everything…I guess I kinda did in the end, but I gained new things.” Danny looked up with a smile. “I…I was forced to call you. I’m glad I did. Now I have a family that’s okay with everything I am, not just a part. Not just half of me.” Bruce pulled him into a hug.

“Good. ‘Cause I’m glad you’re here too. It’s like something was missing, but we didn’t know what it was until you came,” Bruce whispered, kissing the top of his kid’s head. Danny leaned forward, wrapping his arms around Bruce and hugging him back. Bruce was glad that at least one of his kids liked affection.

“Thank you,” Danny whispered, feeling happy and relaxed. He had everything he needed right here at home. It may not have ended how he first wanted, but he finally had a support system. And it wasn’t just for part of him, but all of him.

The ghost, the assassin, and the child under it all.

fin