Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Slush kicks up in Jason’s wake as he stomps down Gotham’s street on Christmas Day. The freezing wind slaps his face and Jason’s pissed he can’t slap it back.

Then Jason is nearly bowled over by a giant fucking rabbit speeding by, shouting that he’s late. It hippity-hops and leaps into a portal that Jason had apparently been until now too blind to notice.

"That's probably everyone," says the werewolf lingering in front of the portal and is about to walk in after the walking talking rabbit.

On pure impulse, Jason sprints down the street and charges on through. He feels the portal close behind him. Then he feels like he’s violently, painfully ill.

There’s a burning sensation inside his chest, like it was being lit on fire. His skin starts itching, nausea threatens vomit, and unbeknownst to Jason his white streak was glowing. Then gravity decides to fuck around and now he’s plummetting, spiraling downwards. 

There’s nothing more rage-inducing than being suddenly violently and incomprehensibly ill whilst in the midsts of fucking freefall. Jason’s yelling attracts Wulf. Wulf who turns around and sees what appears to be a displaced living human. 

"Nu, tio ne estas bona". (Well that's not good).

Wulf opens up another portal beneath the falling mortal. Wulf had hoped to send the young man back to Gotham. Hopefully that was where he had just left. Either way, they would no longer be in the Ghost Zone which was clearly having an awful effect on the human. But instead Wulf watches on in horror as Jason’s violent reaction to his surroundings interferes with his portal’s spatial displacement. Poorly. Wulf doesn’t know where that young man has gone but it’s not Gotham, Earth.

Wulf sends a prayer to Lady Ereshkigal. He hopes that the young man finds his way.

“Fuuuuuuuuck!!!” Jason yells out into the uncaring green void when it finally stopped spinning. The fire in his chest died down to a thrumming burn; painful but tolerable. The itch on his skin was gone and the horrendous nausea had lessened to motion sickness.   

"Hey Leather Jacket, you good?”

Coming to slow stop next to him was a motorcycle and a couple riding on it. Their skin colour was ash grey and the lady had unnatural green hair. That was fine, thought Jason. Everything was unnatural here anyway.

“You lost or something?" The man asks. Jason looks around at the swirling green void of a sky and surrounding broken lands he was floating between.

"Yeah, you could say that. You wouldn't happen to know where Gotham is?" Jason asked without much hope.

"Oh yeah we know Gotham," the lady answered helpfully. Jason felt hope surge within. Maybe, he wasn’t completely fucked. "It's thataway. Head on over and you'll find the Purple Travesty to Gothic Art Deco. Yeah, that'll be the door to Gotham.”

"But why are you heading on over to Gotham?” the ginger-haired biker asks, slouching over his handlebars. “You ain't attending the King's Not Christmas Shindig?"

The green-haired lady perks up, "Speaking of the King, bet he'd luuurve to see you."

Jason asks why a King in this Supernatural Dimension would have any interest in him but they only give cryptic answers before speeding away on their motorcycle. The two giggling, "You're his type", was the straightest answer he got. 

So Jason makes his way to the Large Purple Door. Figuring out how to move in zero-gravity in this Supernatural Realm was a bitch and a half. But he managed it. It was both a little more and not enough Tinkerbell than he’d preferred (if the power of thoughts was the trick Jason would have liked the pixie dust to give him a fucking hand) but what works, works.  

The Large Purple Door Jason is bobbing up and down in front of is not the only purple door in sight. It is however the only one that could be considered as a ‘Purple Travesty to Gothic Art Deco’. At least more so than the rest. 

Jason swung it open and for the second time that day he stepped across dimensions.

Unfortunately for him it became real apparent that the door did not lead him to Gotham City, Earth. Jason sorely wished he’d been more specific when asking for directions. It was even more obvious that he had arrived in Gotham, the Supernatural Otherworld Edition.

The sky was still a void of swirling haunting preternatural green  but he’d landed in Gotham’s streets. Or at least an Impressionist version of them. 

There was a misty haze to everything, a blur that went beyond Gotham’s smog. It was more like the defined lines of reality were brushing up against each other and smudging, the glances leaving each other more indistinct with each faint touch.

“Hello my beloved Red Knight, what may you be doing here?”

Jason spun around. What he saw was Lady Gotham. There was no way else to describe them. Like the Statue of Liberty was Lady Liberty; this blood-headed figure begowned in the velvet black of shadows, ash, and grime, with pearls around her neck. Of course she was Gotham.

Jason bows. “Lady Gotham” he greets. “I seek your help. I’m not where I wish to be.”

Gotham laughs. It’s the screech of a night owl, the scrape of fork against a china plate, the titter of a socialite. It puts Jason’s teeth on edge. 

Then she abruptly hands him over to her Dark Knight and Boy Wonder. The Dark Knight is an amorphous spiked shadow-blob from the neck down and a facsimile of a horned shadowy head with a pair of white beaming eyes from the neck up. 

Boy Wonder is a five foot nothing dark haired kid dressed in booty shorts, a colourful top with matching pixie boots. His indistinct youthful features behind the domino mask place him anywhere between the age of 8 and twice that. 

They talk. It originally starts off OK but eventually the conversation degenerates and Jason leaves in a huff so that things don't get violent. He tries to find Lady Gotham again. She finds him instead. She standing next to a carriage drawn by terrifying black pegasi wearing bone armour. 

Jason asks about going home, Lady Gotham says I’ve got a festival to get to and stable portals are infrequent and random. His best chance to return back home is to go with to the Festival and then take a portal from there back to the Physical Realm. "Wanna come with?" She asks with sadistic mirth in her eyes. Jason goes with. "But first" she declares, "I will help you get ready. Here Drink This." Lady Gotham fixes him up. She hands him a potion that transforms into his halfa form for the first time. His clothes largely stay the same, except there's a luminescent unearthly quality to them now. His brown leather jacket burns red under the hooded shroud of feather and fire he's wrapped in. It's an overwhelming crimson with peeks of gold and Robin Green in the underwings. Jasson suspects his white streak is glowing too. What he doesn't realise is that his eyes and mouth have become a haunted void of green, with wisps bleeding out. Lady Gotham, pleased with Jason's makeover, glides into the carriage. Jason clambers on after her. From out the window Jason sees Batman and Robin make their way into a second carriage.

During the carriage ride Lady Gotham informs Jason that there's a time limit on the potion's effect. Once 12 hours are up you'll only have around 12 minutes before you turn back and begin feeling sick even worse than before.

 So they arrived at the Festival. Lady Gotham immediately ditches him to go talk to Mr Fawcett, Night Vale, London, and Notre Dame.

Boy Wonder is snatched away by a white haired kid in moon PJs (The Collector) and a green haired kid wearing a pirate hat and coat (Youngblood).

"Argh me hearties" the green haired kid greets

"Robin, Robin, Robin," the kid in PJs bounces up and down, "let's go, let's go, let's go. I bet I can win more prizes than you". The three of them disappear into the Festival's crowd.

Jason walks away from the Dark Knight, wanting to escape being alone with him.

Jason's still acoping the place out when floating high in the sky is this giant intimidating ghost dressed in Space Themed Regalia. It’s King Phantom and he gives an address that basically: Welcome everyone, glad you all could come. The truce will stand so no fighting. Presentations about the stellar event will be happening at various podiums up to an hour prior to the event. Then there's the Danse Macabre parade which will lead to the supernova. After which there's a concert and dance party. Once the concert is over, portals will be available to travel through which will take you back to your Haunt or Lair. Now go and enjoy the festival, I hope you all have a good time. 

"KING PHANTOM, KING PHANTOM, KING PHANTOM" chants the cheering crowd.

“This is the King? He’s adored. Why would even have the slightest speck of interest in me," wonders Jason.

So Jason is just wandering about enjoying the atmosphere because this is actually a pretty awesome way to spend Christmas. He’s on an alien planet, attending a festival and he’s gonna watch a Supernova first hand in real time. 

Debating to himself whether or not eating the offered food will mean he’s doomed to stay in the Ghost Zone forever, he knows the folklore, he meets another human looking teen twink who introduces himself as Danny who helps him navigate the floating menus which are being carried around by blob ghosts. They hit it off. Jason doesn't know Danny is King Phantom

Then when the bell for his portal is called. Leaping onto a departing carriage he leaves through the portal and arrives at Phantom Palace, Portal Hall. He is then chauffeured by Wulf who quickly Portals him back to Gotham City, Earth. He arrives back in Gotham Graveyard at 12 midnight Christmas. He goes to sleep. The next day he wonders if it was all a dream.

Chapter Text

Right so finally making headway on that Extended Version. The first chapter is up. Go check it out. It's the next work in the Ciniderella Wonderland series and is part of the Crossover Danuary Series. Which youshould also check out (shameless self plugging)