Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I feel myself slipping as I am pulled from the time line I have spent the past uncountable years haunting.

I think back to before I had came to this timeline and remember the conversation with Clockwork

“It is the best option to acclimate to your abilities, I send you over to another timeline back.. oh let’s say a few centuries. You would be able to train and experiment with no repercussions since the timeline will dissolve once you return” he says in his Preteen form.

“So let me get this straight you separate a point in time, slip me back and I train till I come into my abilities, then what? You pull me back like it didn’t happen? How does that make sense? If I stay for a few centuries my human half would pass! I think people would notice if I was always a ghost.” Exasperated I take a breath and stair at clockwork as he returns to his middle aged form.

“That’s the beauty of time, it may be centuries in that timeline, but only seconds will pass here. Which means your biological age will only be a few seconds older. Now come along no sense in delaying.” He starts to glow as he sweeps me into this alternate time stream. All I can do is pinch the bridge of my nose. This is why I didn’t want the Crown or Ring. All the titles that I’ve earned over the battles the past 3 years. I know I have to accept it though. My core hums and creaks even then due to the excess power I have building. I can’t afford to loose control of my abilities. I glance to my right and see the sealed Thermos on Clockworks shelf. I can’t become him. So I let myself be taken.

Clockwork had told me once I caught my original time point I would be thrown back, the issue is he put me too far back. It took many a millennia to accept I would just have to wait. Waiting is all I could do till I finally caught back up to my original time he expected a calling, but nothing happened. Thats when I gave up hope and broke the rules clockwork had given me. “No interacting with yourself in the alternate timeline” the only rule I was given. Granted I had done so much to this world I was surprised “I” had been born in it at all. Three years pass before I finally felt the pull of magic.

You would think that after this long I would’ve forgotten about my human life, but I have never really let go of the things that mattered. Maybe it had something to do with being in my Ghost form all this time, but the faces and memories I made with my friends still were there. Sam, Tucker, Dani, and Jazz. I could picture their faces and voices. The downside to this recall is I could remember all the negative memories too, especially those last few months with them.

As the thought pops into my head I start to try and grab at my chest as if I can still feel the injuries. The thousands of arms slapping empty void bring me back to realizing I do not even have a body capable of being hurt in this form let alone keeping scars.

That kick starts my brain, if I’m being summoned back late it might not be by clockwork, maybe it’s by my friends if that’s the case I shouldn’t be in a form that would tear their minds apart. Lovecraft may have been a horrible person, but he got it right on the way these eldritch forms effect humans.

Feeling my form shrinking terrified me. How many years had I been in this godlike form? Shoving a God into a human body was rougher than it should be. I decide to go into my Ghost King form to meet in the middle of doable and comfortable. Not knowing a hundred percent who is summoning me I put on my modern attire, a black and white Shaw Lapel suit with a tie made of the Milky Way, at least my interpretation of it. My skin stays its cosmic black swirling with stars, and I feel my many eyes become two stars. I feel my white fur pull back into shoulder length hair as it pulls itself back into a loose top know. I know this form is taller than I should be, I’m guessing it’s currently around 6’0 and very lean. The bright green Ring on my left middle finger reforms itself, and the flaming green crown above my head shrinks to match the size of my current self. It feels weird being back in a humanoid form, but this is the best I can do as of short notice. What cognitivley feels like minutes to me I know happens in a couple seconds.

Rifts of green echo energy pull me into shape and through the time lines as the summoning comes to a close I feel gravity around me again, not effecting me but present. The green smoke dissipating to reveal a green summoning circle glowing beneath my shoes, I take the first breath of air I’ve felt in decades into my body realizing I hadn’t formed lungs yet.

I open my eyes to see my surrounding, at first all I can see is a young woman in a tuxedo like outfit and a thin older blonde man in a khaki coat staring at me. They look terrified for a moment before the look slides off their faces.

‘Ok so defintley not Tucker and Sam’ I think. My growing bitterness affects the air around me, temperature dropping. My sight expands more to see more faces, instantly recognizing one cowled face. My teenage nostalgia jumps at the fact that a mere 30 ft away is Batman, The Batman.

Not just him either, many familiar faces of the Justice League pop into my view as I turn my head. A buzzing in the air reaches me and I realize the man in the coat is speaking to me.

“Ghost King Pariah Dark, lord of the Infinte Realms, I John Constantine greet you and welcome you to the watchtower.” His demeanor seems to effect those around everyone getting anxious. I assume this isn’t how he normally talks.

Letting the stars clash together in my throat I’m able to speak in this form although it takes a second I am able to get it out.

“I am not Pariah Dark.” I say flatly

His face goes through multiple emotions in a span of seconds settling on a precautionary one.

“So you are not the ghost king then? Zatana did you screw something up?” He says to the young woman beside him. She looks scared in the moment more by me being an unknown entity than his accusation.

“I am the current Ghost King, but I am not Pariah Dark. I took the title from him in a Single Combat victory. Pariah is locked away for good. You may call me Phantom.” I say hurriedly feeling bad for he young woman.

I step forward out of the circle to extend my hand to Constantine, when he suddenly jumps back with a hiss and everyone else in the room tenses up. Looking back I notice the circle I had been summoned in had a binding spell, unfortunately for them it was for Pariah Dark.

“Ah yes, not being Pariah kind of put a kind in your containment plan for me, but do not worry I am not hostile. I truly want to thank you for summoning back to my world.”

“Your world? As far as I know you are an unknown entity to this plane” Batman says to me. THE BATMAN! I push down the excitement.

“ You are correct, this form has never been in this world Batman, but I myself was born into this world before I became a ghost let alone Ghost King.”

“So you know us” he says, damn is he cool not intimidated in the least bit.

“Are we here to question my origins, or is there a reason you were trying to summon the Tyrant King? From what I remember the Justice League is a hero team, did you all start dreaming of world domination while I was away?”

Constantine give Batman a look before returning to the forefront of conversation. Finnaly reaching out to shake my hand I can feel the waves of magic of this man. Defintley not a small timer.

“Of course not, we needed to consult with the Ghost King. I had hear rumours of a change but only through unreliable sources like demons and lurkers. There has been an issue one that exclusively deals with ghosts, hence Ghost King consulting” he says this time with more casualness.

I simply laugh. I reverberating laugh that shakes the room maybe the whole structure. Panic again fills everyone’s face, but Constantine puts a hand up to calm the others. My laugh turns into a giggle before I am done.

“You would someone a Tyrant King, one capable of destroying a dimension without verifying you are summoning the right being? You should know bindings rarely effect titles and only work on names. A demons rumor led you to near damning all of humanity!” My laugh starts again as I see angry glances hit Constantine’s back. He shrugs in response.

“I love it! What year is it?”

He squints at me “20XX”

“Ancients its only been three years I’ve been gone, but it is the Infinte Realms of course they would screw something up in the mean time.”

Tapping my foot I let myself think.

“Okay, explain your ghost issues let us see what we can do, in the mean time can I get some food?”

“Your Majesty, greetings I am Princess Dianna of Themyscira. Getting you food might be an issue depending on what you eat, as you may know knowledge of Ghosts isn’t something we have available, and we don’t want to offend you by listening to more rumours. What kind of food do you eat?” Wonder Woman was talking to me. I may be an eldritch being but I am still technically a young man, I could feel the starts on my face glow a bit brighter than normal as she spoke.

“Please call me Phantom, truthfully I hate the novel titles and all it has brought. I only challenged Pariah out of a need to save my friends and family, that and he was a prick to other ghosts. I’d love it if you could call me simply and if I might be able to call you Wonder Woman as well? And to answer your question do you have any Cereals?

Chapter Text

During the time it takes someone to run and grab me a bowl of cereal I finish forming internal organs.

“Um Phantom, what are you doing if I may ask?” John Constantine asks with glowing green light flicking off him and the surrounding room.

“I haven‘t had a use for organs in a long time, I’m concentrating to reform all that’s necessary to eat the food you bring.” I answer.

“That makes sense, just let me know when you would like to hear an explanation of our situation on earth.”

“Go ahead I can multitask.”

Unsurely he looks back to Batman and Superman who both nod at him. Seeing both of them brings a question up.

“Where is the Flash?” I ask and the room grows still.

“He is off site currently, did you need something from him in particular?” Superman asks.

“No, he is just my favorite justice leaguer, probably my favorite superhero in general.”

Constantine laughs “ Bad taste ya got their Ghost King.”

“To each their own. Go ahead and explain.”

Before Constantine is able to explain Superman inches closer and starts speaking “Well to start you say you have been gone for 3 years?” I nod “ Well about 3 months ago green portals started opening up anywhere that had a high population of people, these portals have been letting out Ecto-Individuals-“

He is interrupted after I slam my hand down on the table. The whole room drops about 30 degrees and ice forms along the table.

“Do not use GIW terms in-front of me ever again!”

The sound reverbs through the entire watchtower, I see a few members of the League hunch over, Constantine nearly blanches.

“We apologize Phantom, we should’ve known not to do that after hearing about their treatment of you kind, that was insensitive.” Superman who managed to stay upright says. He genuinely looks sorry making me feel bad for my reaction.

“No I am sorry, I have a past with the GIW which is what lead me to leave these last three years… please refer to us as ghosts, that’s what we are.”

Constantine scowls at Superman “Sorry mate.. but yeah ghosts have been leaving these portals and haunting. This has caused mass panic and hysteria, which seems to put the ghosts in a state of euphoria continuing the cycle. I say this next part very gently and want to reaffirm they work separate from us, but the GIW..” he pauses to look at my reaction, probably doesn’t green much other than my stars starting to Dim at the name. “They have been gaining more notoriety due to this and we do not agree with their methods, we were summoning you to ask if there was a way to prevent the portal leaks or contains them.”

He quiets down for a moment as I lean back in my seat thinking.

“Return to the Realms of the Dead immediately my people, I have returned and call an assembly, those who are incapacitated and unable stay strong and I will release you before returning to the realms.”

The echoing declarations causes skeptic looks to be thrown from those in the room. Both Zatanna and Constantine physically shudder.

“It’s done.”

“Just like that? A single phrase and it’s all fixed?” Batman asks.

“No it is not all fixed, GIW has probably captured some of my people, and I still need to find out what is causing natural portals to be opened, but no new ghosts will come through nor will the active ones stay. As you heard if they can leave they will leave.”

“What if they don’t listen?” Superman questions next.

“It’s not a matter if they do or don’t, they will. That was a decree, something I rarely use. If a ghost disobeys a decree their core shatters. They no longer exist, not even death just gone. Would you disobey?”

“So they are gone?” Constantine asks

“Feel free to check.” I say as I turn my attention to the mini Batman walking up with a bowl of cereal. She looks young but it’s hard to tell with only half her face showing under a cowl.

“Thank you!” I say before digging into corn flakes. It has been years since I have eaten and I’m sad to say I did not eat with manners.

After five minutes and two bowls eaten. All of the people in the room react to something, I’m assuming it’s confirmation from earth stating that ghosts have been sited going back into portals.

“Damn Phantom, it must be nice to be King!” Constantine says, all I do is grunt in response as a bit of milk slips down my chin. I wipe it away nonchalantly, trying to keep up this regal act is hard. I guess even being able to converse is a positive since I’ve spent almost the last two decades in a form without a mouth.

At this point the room had filtered out leaving just my two summoners, Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, and Martian Manhunter. All but the latter going over questions they are curious about while still tiptoeing the line.

“How does the Monarchical structure of the Infinite Realms work if it is truly infinite?” A good question from Superman, I start to reply as I feel a ping in the back of my head.

I focus my consciousness and split it into two, parallel thinking a favorite new ability of mine. Why just clone your body and not your mind? The forefront though travels from my core to my newly formed brain to take home while the secondary consciousness stay settled to respond to Superman.

“The Ghost King title is more of bonding force to ectoplasm, which all ghost and the infinite realms are comprised of. While there is definitely a Monarch adjacent structure in the governmental sense it cannot cover the entire realms to actually work, nor would it work with how ghost function as sentient beings.”

In the silent part of my brain I reach out to the man prodding “Martian Manhunter, I did not expect you to be a snoop with telepathy!” I think in a joking manner.

The shock is visible on his face in the split moment I reach out to him.

Simultaneously I listen to the response from Zatanna “What do you mean by how ghost function as sentient beings?”

“I apologize Phantom, it was curiosity. When you first entered the watchtower, I couldn’t sense.. well a brain. Then suddenly I felt a new presence forming as your brain did. Still not conscious thoughts so I decided to take I look. I truly apologize for the invasion.” Manhunter responds back.

This time I speak at the same time to Zatanna as I do think towards the Manhunter.

“ All ghost have a core, this core is what makes us conscious. To Ghosts we consider this our soul. Unlike most living beings eating, sleeping, or even absorbing the suns radiation does nothing to sustain a ghost. We are sustained off our obsessions. An obsession is as it sound it something a ghost compulsively does. What we have to do to live, especially outside the realms. When most ghost “haunt” it’s a way to fuel our obsession sometimes even obsessions. The issue is impulse control leading to haunt sometimes becoming dangerous as you know.”

“All is fine Manhunter, it was a brain I created for you anyways, I wanted to have a separate conversation. I was going to ask if I could see memories of mars from you?”

I feel his hesitation and presence retreat, within moments I see Batman’s eyes twitch a bit. Seeing where this is going I stand up and slowly walk over to the huge bay window and overlook the vast infinite cosmic ocean in front of me.

“As a token of trust I will tell you one of my obsessions, and yes I have more than one. My obsessions is space, more specifically all that is not native to the planet earth.” I turn to nod toward Manhunter and Superman.

“I truly am only asking for a personal preference, like the cereal, sustenance. I have never seen mars while it had life.”

A moment more of hesitation and I feel the flooding images from a living mars. The others in the room can tell something has happened due to the glow coming from my form.

Seperating my connection from direct to more of an observer I bring my attention back to the questions.

“What happens if you aren’t able to fulfill obsession?” Zatanna again asks.

“Good question, are you asking about me or regular Ghost? Very different answers there.” I smile

As she goes to open her mouth a Semi-Robotic man I vaguely recognize comes into the room “ We have an issue. Coms on the watchtower are down, I’m working on getting them back up, but we spotted two ect..ghost entities flying forward watch tower at high speeds. Estimated arrival time is 1 minute.”

As the eyes in the room all turn forwards me I lose all sense of professionalism.

“I forgot about the other Halfas.. Oops” I chuckle out awaiting the reunion of family and enemy.

Chapter Text

-Superman-

“King Phantom, what is a halfa?” Batman asks as he walks over to look at the screen Cyborg is carrying.

“That is a good, solid question. One I will refrain from answering. Please relax everyone and let me handle them both of them.”

I glance to look over at the speaking Ghost King. I wouldn’t admit it out loud, but of all the aliens, metas, and magical beings I’ve met the creature sitting in front of me gave the worst primal feeling. The only word to describe it was existential dread. Phantom seemed so large it hurt, like he was space itself. Which made sense as his revelation about his obsession. His white flowing hair even pinned up seemed alive itself, his suit that had a more metallic look than fabric. His face though was the hardest to look into, it pulled me into it. Time slowed down the longer I held his gaze. While physically I was larger, I had doubts I could never lift up the being infront of me with all my strength if it did not want me to.

I tear my eyes away from him to search in the space between us and earth for any fast approaching objects, nothing catches my eye at this point.

“King Phantom, we can’t have unidentified visitors in watchtower, you breaking containment was one thing, but two more? We can’t do it.” I say still searching.

“I’m not asking you to let them stay, I’m asking you not be non hostile and allow me to handle situation. I apologize since I overlooked them, but I will correct the mistake!”

His voice grows but it sounds more like a plead then anger.

I open my mouth to respond when I hear a warring noise, very quiet but I recognize it. Intangiblity, a common ghost ability we have had to deal with these past few months.

I turn just in time to see two figure become visible as they rise from the floor.

The one that catches my eye first is a man; if he can be called that. What looks like a caricature of a 90s movie vampire is standing twenty away smiling, with fangs, green/blue skin, and a perfect example of a villains goatee if there has ever been one. The outfit didn’t help the white coat and cape just made it even more ridiculous. I almost laughed at the contrast between King Phantom and the intruder until the waves of energy rolled off him and I knew he was strong. He had a large smirk across his face, filled with smugness rather than actual enjoyment.

The next figure I noticed was jarring as well but in a different way. It was a young girl, probably Kara’s age if not younger. Her hair was the same shade of white as phantoms, and her eyes glowed that bright ecto green that other ghosts did, except hers were brighter when she moved it left trails of light. She was wearing a black and white dominoed skin tight outfit, almost reminiscent of the space suits we have hear on watchtower except her midriff was open exposing her stomach. Across her chest was a white D. Her face was twisted into a snarl, she didn’t seem quite as powerful as the other intruder, but it was close. The difference though was the bloodlust, I could feel it, and by how everyone else, but Phantom in the room flinched I know they could too.

“YOU BASTARD! What did you do to Danny!? Don’t even try and use a decree on us, it won’t work.” The girl spits out towards the Ghost King.

“Now now daughter, hush he is nobility after all. I would love to hear the story of how he disposed of young Dan-“ The Vampire was cut off by a beam of ecto energy hitting him across the mouth.

Skin bubbled and melted as the man’s lower jaw was exposed, the skin quickly reforming over the injury as he brought his hand up check his face.

“Was it calling you daughter or talking about the boy?”

“Hahaha” Phantom starts laughing, garnering a confused look from both the newcomers.

“I’m assuming you are looking for trial by combat Plasmius?” He says as he stands. “That’s fine, but let’s take it out there so we don’t break anything.”

Phantom stands from his chair so I say something. “ Now hold on, let’s talk it will be easier than-“ I’m cut off by the girl, who seems to have a bad habit of doing it.

“How about instead of that I help him and beat you till you tell me WHERE DANNY IS?!”

Phantom looks toward her and it might just be me but he looks sad.

“Hang here I’ll make this quick.” He says it softly as a bright white ring grows from his palm, the girl takes a half step back but before her foot touches the ground the ring has flown and surrounded her. It expands from the hemisphere become a globe of translucency trapping the girl.

It looks like she is screaming as she smashes the spectral cage with her glowing fists, but no sound reaches out. Phantom turns back torward Plasmius who is now looking a little nervous.

Trying to keep up the bravado he says “I don’t think you have any right to decide how and where this goes.”

Phantom chuckles again and holds out his hand at Plasmius.

I reach out for phantom to stop and as my hand goes for his shoulder I feel his body loosen. My fingertips slip through and he moves. It was diffrent than intangiblity, similar to trying to grasp a liquid.

Plasmius had just barley put up some kind of violet shield infront of him when Phantom grabbed his throat from inside the shield zone.

“Come on fruitloop, let’s take a trip.” The vampires eyes widen as Phantom steps out through the observation window.

-Dani-

This new king was powerful, I could feel it from the moment the decree resounded. Powerful but foreign, it didn’t feel like Danny. Now I trapped in this construct that I can’t seem to break with the damn Justice League ogling me.

I wanna stay furious, but I can already feel the tears building in my eyes. I left in such a hurry I couldn’t even tell Jazz, what I had felt. When I got here seeing that “thing” I knew Danny was gone. It had been three years since the last time I had seen him.. after the incident. Thinking back to then made me shiver. I had been the one to pull him out of there, injured in a way no living thing should. Shouts rang behind out, but of sadness and denial. Pulling Danny into the Zone I was able to get him to Frostbite. I had stayed until he was stable before leaving to check on everyone else. That had been the last time I had seen him.

A thudding infront of me brought me back to the present. Lying on the ground right inside the windows was the fruitloop mid transformation back to a human, totally unconscious. The thing reaches up to adjust its tie, not because it had been loosened but like a nervous tick. They hadn’t been outside for more than a few seconds.
Dread filled my stomach, even if I hated its Vlad was stronger than me. I stood no chance, I doubt even together we would. The tears finnaly fall down my cheeks.

The creature walks up to the shield he places around me and places a hand upon it.

“Hold still, this might be the closest I can get to forming that form again.”

What was it saying? Of course this new king would be a weird one. The creatures “eyes” never left me, I could feel the gaze going over my body. Strangely it didn’t feel invasive. It looked sad, and like they were struggling.

“Why don‘t you let me out? I could show you more from out there!” I say raising my fist infront of their face.

It starts chuckling again, as a white neon ring forms around its waist and splits into two. My body tightens as the slowly spread in opposite directions of eachother. The suit on his body fading into a black skintight hazmat suit with whit highlights. It isn’t until it gets to the chest and I see a D design that a sob catches in my throat.

I knew it could be a trick, but every experience I had told me this was real, Danny was back.

Chapter Text

Don’t let anyone tell you immortality has no downsides. I have half-lived longer than any being should. That has led to me not being quite as in touch with humanity as I once was. If I am being honest with myself up until the sudden interruption of the two others of my kind I had been forcing some show of emotional response.

That changed when Dani and Vlad phased through the floor. It felt like someone had grabbed my bare core and squeezed. I was stunned.

YOU BASTARD! What did you do to Danny!? Don’t even try and use a decree on us, it won’t work.” Dani screamed at me, not just a normal scream I could feel a wail building up in her voice. They didn’t recognize me…

“Now now daughter, hush he is nobility after all. I would love to hear the story of how he disposed of young Dan-“ Vlad’s voice was somehow appealing to hear, regardless of how much of a creep he was. The familiarity made me buzz.

His talking didn’t last long as Dani let out a vicious ectoblast at point range shredding Vlads jaw. The shocked faces of those in the room mirrored my internal expression. That had been without hesitation, she was really pissed.

“Was it calling you daughter or talking about the boy?” Of course he would just quip the situation off. That feeling in my core Finally spread enough to realize what it was. I missed them. Both Dani and Vlad, although the former much more.

They were my fraid, my family. How long had it been since I felt the pull of something other than logic dictating my actions. I could feel my expression actively softening.

“Hahaha” A laugh escapes myself and while most of the room freezes in anticipation, the two Halfas in front of me just look confused.

“I’m assuming you are looking for trial by combat Plasmius?” Guessing why Vlad had rushed here as quick as he did, who wouldn’t take the opportunity to test out the new shark in the water. “That’s fine, but let’s take it out there so we don’t break anything.”

I start to stand, I need to move Vlad out of here, he has never had any thought when it comes to property damage. Destroying a space station felt like a bad idea. “ Now hold on, let’s talk it will be easier than-“ Superman starts to speak before being cut off.

“How about instead of that I help him and beat you till you tell me WHERE DANNY IS?!”

Oh Dani… it had only been three years for her, but I could hear in her voice how hurt she was. I started to try and reach out to her core before catching myself. That could wait, Vlad was already charging energy into his body.

“Hang here I’ll make this quick.” I can’t let her get hurt trying to step in, Vlad may have taken the hit earlier but he would never slow her to interfere in single combat. With not much more than a thought I create a shield around her and tighten it. No phasing or attacks should break it, inside or out.

I add a layer of soundproofing while I’m busy and turn away from her screaming figure. I don’t like doing it, but I can’t have her divulge more than I want her to. Looking at how the league members stare at her it was the right decision.

Vlad looks to me and put his best face on “I don’t think you have any right to decide how and where this goes.”

His core screams out toward me

~Shock~Fear~Firm~Guilt~

I return it back to him while laughing, how could this man who was talking about my demise earlier feel guilt. My core thrummed.

~CONFIDENCE~PITY~

I could feel hands reach for me, as Superman’s fingers touched my shoulders I could feel them clench the nebula I am even if for a moment it was impressive. I may be all powerful, but it was humbling to know I wasn’t untouchable.

Plasmius had just barley put up some kind of violet shield in front of himself as I stepped through the space between us, not using my speed just taking a step .

“Come on fruitloop, let’s take a trip.” The vampires eyes widen with realization as I step us out into the void.

I release him as we are out of eyesight from the station, and smile.

‘Danny? Is that you my boy?’ Oh what’s this? Glad had learned telepathy since I had been gone.

‘My boy? Weren’t you just grinning about my “demise” I push back.

‘Daniel..I..let’s just calm down and talk’

I feel like this is when I should throw out a quip, or a pun.

‘What? Need me to hold off a moon-ite?’

Ancients that was lame, I cringe inwards. I’m too far off my game to deal with this.

Before Vlad can recover from that mental attack I just assaulted him with I step forwards. Not flight, I push my foot against space itself dragging me forwards as I throw a fist into his stomach.

Vlad shutters and gags in the vacuum as I knock whatever breath he is holding out. Eyes going wide he looks at me reaching a hand out to my face.

I pull back and grab him by the coat, I reach with my other hand and phase it into his chest touching his core. He passes out as soon as contact is made.

I could end him, here and now. I don’t hate him, truthfully after all the time I spent away I knew he was just.. made this way. His obsessions drove him, an obsession he could never truly have. It corrupted him and he did horrible things, but he loved Maddie and me. I forgave him long ago, but why should I spare him now after he challenged me.

Turning back forward the watchtower I looked into it, I might be out of eyesight to most but I made eye contact with one.

Superman was looking right at me, with a disapproving look, if he had been alone I’m sure he would fly through the glass to stop me. That’s the kind of hero he was, that I was once.

I’m back in my own world, my own time. I can’t just end him, I have to be better now. I relax my grip on his core and force his transformation to lift. I turn him intangible and toss him back forwards the station. Taking a deep breath I walk back to the tower.

‘Time to see Dani’ I let a smile form, not an excited one like earlier but a nervous one. Who knows how mad she will be that I’ve been gone all this time.
—
Standing in front of her sobbing breaks me, but changing into this form. Phantoms form breaks me as well just more physically. Going back to my old shape is harder than it should be. While still a Ghost form it’s a strictly humanoid form, less room to contain the power I’ve amassed over time. I fall to my knees with a thud as the shield around Dani breaks. It’s like time starts up again with bother her and League members surrounding me.

“Da-Phantom what’s wrong” Dani fussing over me trying to check my condition.

“King Phantom, were you injured?” Who would’ve thought I led ever have Wonder Woman fussing over me.

I can see Batman leg bracers in my peripheral but he says nothing.

“He's a kid..” Superman says despondently.

I hear a smack as Constantine says “Kids die too, don’t be an arse.”

I try and chuckle at that, but all that comes out is ectoplasm and a lot of it.

All powerful my ass.

“Dani” I say catching my breath “Get us out of here.”

“Wait Phantom, we still need to talk. Who is the girl, and why is Vlad masters lying over there?” Now he wants to talk when he has questions.

“Fruitloop is here to challenge me, so what you want with him.” I turn to look up to Dani as she looks at me.

“She is my daughter” “I’m his sister”

We say at the same time earning us more glances.

Trying again I say “I am her brother” “He is my dad”

Well we were getting nowhere with this I smile weakly at her and she nods.

“She is my clone.” “ I’m his clone.”

Got it that time, looking back to the group in front of us that answer seemed to satisfy most, but Bruce still looked like he needed more.

“Look I’ve been gone a long time, I need rest. Find out where the GIW is keeping any remaining ghosts and I will be back to get answers. Depending what you have for me I’ll even let you interrogate me, but for now we are leaving.” Dani’s Grip tighten as we phase through the floor and leave the watchtower.

She keep glancing at me with a worried expression.

'Am I looking a little green?’ I think to her.

She snorts, or tries to. That enough for me and I close my eyes.

~Safe~
~SAFE~

Chapter Text

-Dani-

Saying I was overwhelmed was an understatement. Less than an hour ago I had been in Phoenix helping push back a ago I, a mostly harmless ghost, back into a natural portal. I had been helping where I could during this invasion the past few months where I could while trying to keep low profile. Thankfully what was one more ghost girl to the thousand popping up all over the world.

One second I was leading the ghost through bridge support beams to tie them up and they next a foreign voice hit my ears. From the way Nagini froze he heard it too.

“Return to the Realms of the Dead immediately my people, I have returned and call an assembly, those who are incapacitated and unable stay strong and I will release you before returning to the realms.”

The echoing voice in my head strained my core. Almost instinctively I looked toward the portal that was in eyeshot. It took some resisting, and definitely some pain but I was able to stay put.

Nagini however lost interest and started to turn toward the portal.

“Ey wait wha was tat?” I exhaustively slurred.

“The King callsss usss to return” was all he responded before slithering away.

That voice wasn’t the king.. it couldn’t be, I knew Danny’s voice even after the past few years I could never forget templates voice..

Regardless of my denial I knew that what I had just heard was a Decree. Something only The Ghost King could do.

My heart broke, hell maybe even a few cracks formed on my core. The king title could only be passed through combat. Danny had been gone years. I may not be the smartest, but even I could put two and two together.

Tears formed in my eyes as I shot up, screaming. My throat hurt, my body was pushing itself far past what it should. Have I ever gone that fast before? I just knew that I had to get to where the decree came from and make them pay.

Now here I was, tears still in my eyes carrying an unconscious Danny down from the atmosphere. He hadn’t said where they should go before he clonked out, and portals were not something that could be opened by myself. The best bet was to go to the most reliable person I knew, Jazz.

Heading toward the direction of the Gotham University dorms I thought back to a few minutes ago.

“She is my daughter” is what Danny had said first. Is that how he thought of her?

Before he disappeared I would tease him by calling him dad whenever he would consistently nag me over calls on my trips around the world. Even in person we would joke that way. Our relationship as “cousins” had started as a cover, but never stuck. Almost everyone who knew me knew I was his clone, so no need to use the cousin like really. Sister-daughter-cousin it all depended on context but we had never actually put it into words.

Feeling the blush of my cheeks I push the thought away and wipe my tears. I could see the university below coming up. I made us invisible with before we slipped through Jazz’s dorm. As soon as I verified her roommate was gone I came back into sight while I laid Danny down.

Looking over him he seemed physically fine. I notice he’d still looked sixteen like he did when he disappeared, why hadn’t he changed at all? My ghost half aged with my human, and I knew his did too. Danny had hit a growth spurt at fifteen and Phantom grew with him, but he looked the exact same as he did the last time she had seen him. What made less sense was he was still in his phantom form. Normally when a halfa pass out we revert to our human half.

I didn’t have long to process this chain of thought before the door to the room opened.

Jazz stepped in holding a laptop open in her hand. She barley glance up before registering me in the room.

“Dani! When did you get here? Last I heard, you were in Nevada. It’s so good to see you, but maybe you should transform though before my roommate gets in and sees-“

She doesn’t finish her sentence as she spots Danny on the bed. The laptop falls from her hand, expecting it I had already jumped past where she was running to catch it. Jazz was human, but extra liminal due to constant excto exposure that she definitely didn’t move like one anymore. She was across the room and by the bed before the laptop touched my hands.

“How? Where was he? When did you find him? How long has he been out? Is he injured? I still have have a first aid kit for you here. We can give him a Ecto-Dejecto.” Not stopping for a breath she starts to reach under her bed. I grab her shoulder as soon as I set her laptop on the desk next to us.

“Jazz no, I don’t think he is lacking any, if anything he feels like he has to much in his body. He was throwing up ectoplasm before we left space.”

“He was in space this whole time!?”

“No Jazz, look I don’t know the full story, but sit down for a second and breathe I’ll tell you what I know.”

With tears running down her face I lean to hug her tight and push her toward a chair.

I spend the next few minutes explaining what had happened in Phoenix and about the Justice League's hangout spot, even about Vlad having showed up.

In Jazz fashion her emotional side took the sideline pretty shortly after sitting down. She didn’t interrupt but a couple times and only for clarification. Just what I would expect from a fancy brain doctor to be.

When I had finished telling her all the events that had happened I expected more questions from her, but all she did was sit and purse her lips.

After what felt like minutes of silence and side long glances as Danny she finally spoke.

“That is definitely Danny right? I mean you saw him transform, but could it be a trick?” I had thought the same for a split second too, but that awkward demeanor and horrible sense of humor killed any doubt.

“No, it’s him. He made a pun about looking to green after he had thrown up some ectoplasm. It’s definitely the dork.”

Jazz chuckled at that. “ Let’s order some food then, my roommate said she would be out tonight. I’m not sure if she will change her mind, but we can cross that bridge then.”

“Just nothing vegetarian please?” A wheezing voice followed by a wet cough said from beside us.

Jazz and I both whipped our heads forward the bed. Danny’s eyes were slightly open with that same shit eating smirk I remember pasted on his face.

I don’t know who landed on him first, but we were suddenly in a pile on Jazz’s bed hugging. The sobs could probably be heard throughout the whole hall.

-Danny-

What a lame reunion, I had imagined it close to a million times by my estimation, and passing out in Dani’s arms was never in any of the fantasies.

Seeing my older sister when I woke up was amazing though. She was skinnier than I remembered, and unlike Dani who had grown her hair out, Jazz’s was shorter barley above her shoulders in a kind of wolf cut that had grown out a bit. My core hummed seeing both of them side by side.

After being covered in what I hoped was only tears, we all separated. My body still wasn’t listening as I tried to move. I knew the issue was access ectoplasm in my body, but even after I expelled so much on the way back down from the Watchtower more kept refreshing inside me.

Before I could work on the issue Jazz grabbed me by the shoulder shaking me. “ Daniel James Fenton where have you been!? It has been three years!”

“I know Jazz, but however long it’s been for you don’t forget it’s been longer for me. Lay off a bit.” I say with a little more venom than intended. Three years was nothing why was she getting mad at me, blame clockwork.

“What are you talking about?” Dani asked looking lost, Jazz’s face reflected the question.

“Did that cryptic old Grandfather Clock not explain what he did? When I find him I’m gonna kick his-“

“Danny are you talking about Clockwork?” Dani asked with a twinge of grief in her eyes.

“Yeah? He is the one who sent me off, who else would I be talking about?”

“Danny listen, Clockwork isn’t around anymore.. he retreated into his core around the time you went missing.” Jazz continued “ It threw the whole of the Infinite Realms into disarray when both the High King and former reagent disappeared. By the time his core was found and taken to frostbite any trace of you or what had happened was gone. No one told us anything about where you had gone Danny.”

That actually made a lot of sense. With how far back CW had sent me, even if he was twice as strong it would’ve drained him. No wonder no one had summoned me back. No one knew where to look. That opened up a whole new can of worms. Suddenly my chest flairs with pain.

“Look I will explain everything, but I need to fix the issue of the excess ectoplasm in me. Can one of you grab a towel I don’t want to make a mess on these sheets. Where are we anyways?” Jazz stands up to grab a towel from the bathroom.

“Gotham University this is my dorm, I’ve been here for a few years since learning what mom and dad had done.” She flinched at the memory. I couldn’t lie to myself, I flinched as well. Tossing me a towel and changing the conversation quick she continued to talk.

“I moved here around three years ago, I have a roommate to her name is Cass, but she is rarely around. Danny are you sure you should be messing around with your health? We should get you to Frostbite or at least call Sam and Tucker.”

“No, as much as I’d love to see all of them it can’t wait. This needs to be done now if I want to keep this shape.”

After getting the towel across my lap I make my hand intangible as I reach into my chest earning a small gasp from Jazz and a look from Dani. Feeling around for what I’m looking for takes longer than it should. I’m exhausted, but this well help fix that. Finally I find the core I was looking for and pull it out of my chest. It comes out with a wet pop and green goop pours down into my lap onto the towel.

This earns more than just a small gasp from both girls. Dani screams while Jazz starts to shout.

“Danny you can’t pull your core out like that put it back and let’s get you to Frostbite now.”

“Relax Jazz it’s not my core, mine is still perfectly inside myself.”

“Then whose core is that!?” This comes from Dani this time, bordering anger.

“This is Eridanus!” I say holding up the Core as proudly as I could muster.

There is a beat of silence before I continue “My son!”

Chapter Text

“Your what!?” Both girls scream simultaneously.

I put on the biggest smile I can. “Suprise Aunt Jazzy and Big Sister Dani!” Dani’s cheeks turn a shade of red I’ve never seen and Jazz starts sputtering giving glances between the three of us.

“How can you have a kid… and that’s a Ghost core? It’s only been a few years, Danny don’t play with us!”

“I’m not playing Jazz, like I’ve already said I was gone for a lot longer than three years. For your other question about how, when a mommy or daddy ghost and another mommy or daddy ghost love eachother very much the emotions can-“

“No! I do not need the Ghost kid talk and Dani sure does not. I am not equipped for this.” This alone was worth the reveal, to see Jazz this speechless might be a first and last.

“Why is he in his core?” Dani asks quickly, unlike Jazz she seems even more excited to speak than before.

“That’s would take a bit more explanation, I would need to explain the full situation. Which I won’t be doing now.” I say and see both Dani and Jazz flinch as their breaths mist from their mouths. I must have dropped the temp down.

“Mhm, sorry.” I grumble as I fix the temperature of the room.

“It’s fine Danny, tell us when you are ready.” Having recovered Jazz goes right into mother henning.

“Look let’s eat, afterwards I need to go see frostbite and then address the council. I’ve been gone awhile and need to catch up. Come with me, I can tell the story there so it doesn’t not have to be repeated as much. Deal?”

“Deal” “Okay Danny I just want to make sure you are ok, I’ll go get some food ordered.”

Thirty minutes later and I am happily scarfing down some orange chicken and rice. Jazz and Dani catch me up a bit on things from their ends.

Dani had apparently traveled more than ever before after I left, both in the Realms and on Earths, yes she even went to different dimensions to look. I felt guilty while she explained which she must have picked up on.

“Don’t worry Danny I would’ve been traveling anyways, it was an amazing experience. I went to this one world that was straight up just a hippie world. The Justice League was called the Love Syndicate, Superman was called Sunshine Superman and had an Afro. Hahaha, Jazz would’ve loved it!” She laughs and slaps the table.

“Heyy!” Jazz yells back looking embarrassed.

I let myself laugh too.

Jazz had already left for Gotham U before I had left, but was living off campus at time due to a collapse of the Dorms during a rogue attack. She has moved in just last semester. She talked about her roommate, Cass. A quiet girl who is majoring in fine arts, apparently she is a amazing dancer. I instantly pick up on her tone when talking about her.

“Jazz did you replace me with another younger sibling?” I interrupt with her with a mock hurt.

“Of course not! I can have more than one sibling okay?” She snaps back as I laugh at her response.

After the laughter dies down Jazz continues on until she gets to information I’m not ready to hear yet.

“Sam and Tuck-“

I put my hand up stopping her. “Sorry Jazz can we not about them yet? Don’t get me wrong I miss them more than words can explain, but I’d rather hear it from them.”

“Of course I understand that. Let me call them real quick.” She pulls out her phone and I’m tempted to let her continue. Coming to my senses I reach over and put my hand over her phone. The phone blinks green and shuts off.

“Hey Danny! Why did you do that?”

“Sorry Jazz, but I’ve already said I need to go to the Realms. Things are serious, I’ve been gone years but only now ghosts decided to invade? Something else is going on, and I also issued a Decree and the longer I wait to address it the more issues it will cause. As well as the problem of the GIW having ghosts in captivity. I asked the justice League to get all the information they could for me before I go back to meet them.” Her eyes widen as I mention the Decree. I had always sworn I would never use it, but I had broken that rule long before today.

“Okay, what should I bring with us for our visit?” I smile at her for not questioning me.

“Warm clothes we are going to the Far Frozen first. Past that grab some snacks, who knows how long this council will last.”

I look over to Dani “Has your wind core developed at all?”

Her eyes go wide in excitement and I can feel her start buzzing as Jazz gets up to go pack a bag. “Yes! It’s only happened last year, but I developed a kind of static feild around my core! Frostbite says I might be developing a storm core. I’ve been visiting Vortex a lot lately, he has really calmed down since you last saw him.”

“I highly doubt the Ancient of Weather has truly calmed down, and if he has that’s just an ill omen for what comes next. I am glad to hear you have had help though.” I reach out a hand to ruffle her hair. Looking toward the hall Jazz had walked down I make sure she isn’t in earshot.

“Look Dani about calling you my daughter before, I shouldn’t have done that without talking to you first. I know you have bad memories when it comes to father figures. I’ve just been gone a long time, mentally I’m older than most ghosts you know. What I’m trying to say is I’m sorry. I won’t force you into a relationship you aren’t comfortable with, Father-Brother-Cousin I will leave it up to you to decide, but know I meant what I said I do see you that way. Having Eridanus really put it into perspective how I felt about you and always will feel.” I smile at her as she looks down at her feet. Silence settles only for a moment before she responds.

“We can try the whole father daughter thing, but I swear if you start trying to make more clones or any other cheesy villain tropes I’m kicking your butt.” She says as she shoulder checks me.

I reach an arm around her and pull her into a hug. When Jazz walks back in we both stand.

I walk over to pick up the bundle of sweater that Eridanus’ core was in. I carefully fold the sweater full around him and pick him up in one arm.

“Alright everyone ready?” They both nod.

“So how will we get there, know of a natural portal still open near by?” Jazz asks.

“Nah, we get the first class royal treatment.” I smile as my hand reaches out. The tip of my finger stretches into a claw as I cut open the fabric of this universe leading into the realms.

Both Dani and Jazz looked shocked.

“What? If Wulf and Cujo can do it why shouldn’t I be able to hmm? Now after you ladies.” I stand and gesture them forward the portal. Dani takes Jazz’s hand and they both step through. Taking a deep breath I follow.

-Frostbite-

While we of the Far Frozen do not need sleep, I can feel the grips of exhaustion gripping my whole body. Not only have I been dealing with injured denizens of the realm for the past few months, but I’ve been in council meeting near daily due to the issues at hand.

I had just put the paperwork from this last council meeting in my personal desk when I felt a Decree push through me. All of the denizens of the realms felt it. It was the first Decree made in thousands of years, before Pariah Dark had been shut away the first time.

The voice was an unfamiliar one, dark and old, comparable to one of us ancients. My Core cried out for I knew that the voice could not be the Great One. For as Great as he is, he was a babe amongst ghosts.

A Decree could only be issued by one who has harmony with both the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage. I arrived home in the Far Frozen to my people as we all went into a state of mourning. Young Daniel had passed, a new King had been chosen by the realms.

The only upside to the revelation is that the invasion on Earth had been put on hold, and it seemed the new king planned to rescue those that had been taken captive. I still held hope that the new king was no tyrant.

I step away from my people to go to my personal lab and mourn alone, when I see a portal opening in the middle of the room.

From the portal I see Princess Jasmine and Princess Danielle step through, both looking extremely happy despite recent revelations. Princess Danielle shoots forward hugging me.

“Frostbite you won’t believe it look!” She screams into my fur as she points forward the portal.

Crystalline tears form at the edges of my eyes as a familiar figure steps through the portal and closes it behind himself.

“Hey Frostbite, I’m home!” The Great One walks up to me and joins the hug with his free hand squeezing me.

“Oh Great One, I was so worried after hearing the Decree. I dreaded that the new king had ended your unlife during combat. I am glad to see you persit yet and are back with us!” I do not control my voice and let my core boom along with my voice.

“Yeah about that Frosty..” Young Daniel pulls away and points above his head, on his finger I see the Ring of Rage. I look above his head to where his is pointing and see the Crown of fire floating about him.

It didn’t make sense he had felt the ancient energy coming off the Decree.

“But how..?”

“Look frostbite I promise to explain but I need your help.” He pulls the bundle of clothing from his side and starts to open it.

I gasp as I see a Core wrapped up humming softly. It’s an infants core, freshly formed.

“He hasn’t been able to form yet, can we get him into a chamber before we start this conversation?”

“Frostbite look at Danny’s condition as well, he collapsed and threw up ectoplasm before he pulled the core from his chest.”

This news was more shocking than the core itself, the Great One had been hosting this core.

I reach out softly and take the core in my palm. It’s a Water Core, rare indeed. I adjust the setting on the personal vat I keep in my office before letting the core into the Pod.

After verifying the healthy vitals of the Core I turn to the Great One.

“Come Daniel, let’s take a scan of your core as well. Danielle can you and Jasmine step out and speak with Blizzard tell him to spread the news across the Far Frozen that the Great One is alive and here? We were in mourning and I’d them not to hurt any further.” They both look hesitant but step out.

I get the machines set up to view Daniel’s core and push the results onto the screen. The changes to his core seem impossible, could it be this being isn’t the Great One. After seeing the look I give to him he says “Frostbite I’ve been gone along time… a lot longer than three years as you can see. I will explain that during the council meeting so please wait till then, but I am still Danny I promise you.”

His pleas are sincere, I hug him before returning my eyes to the screen.

“Congrats my King, your core has become an ancient Core, first of its kind. Do you know what it is called?”

“Yes, overtime my obsessions settled in place around my ice core and developed. It’s no longer Ice as you can tell, but a Cosmic Core. The ice has developed from frozen water to the coldness of space.”

This is wonderful, the first ancient in untold years. I can still feel the unrestful cold coming from the core, stronger than ever before. The center of the core itself was now shaped like a star, around it I could see smaller sub-cores having formed circling the center one in shapes of planets. On some planets I saw molten lands, and on others I saw vast oceans and rich lands. There were some barren and others covered in gases. A type of magnetic field covered the entire solar system inside him forming the outermost part of his core. The only core he had ever seen close to this intricate was Clockworks gear like mechanism core. Cosmic was truly the only word to explain the beauty of it. This led him to understand why an additional core would’ve hurt him. The one inside him produced ten times the amount of ectoplasm a normal core should, another one on top of that would push any being over their limits.

“The core you were hosting was it..?” I trail off allowing Daniel to speak.

“My son, I had to host his core frostbite. He was born in an alternate timeline, one I knew would collapse when I was brought back. The only way I could think to bring him with me was to host his core.”

I nod, I could guess what he meant by timeline due to the discovery of Clockwork’s core the same day Danny had vanished. I started to piece together the puzzle.

“I won’t judge about the Taboo you committed as I know that was the only way you could bring him with you, but I would advise the Princess’s to keep the knowledge hidden. The last thing you need is denizens coming after you for it. How long have you hosted him?”

“Thank you Frostbite, I’ve hosted him the past four years in preparation for being summoned back. Do you think he will be able to form himself again?” The desperation in his voice hurts. I nod to him trying to give him words of comfort.

“His core is perfectly healthy, it may take time, but he will form again. I will make sure the Heir apparent stays healthy and safe during his stay here. I should also say you are in perfect health in this form, have you switched to your Human form recently?” Daniel twitches at that question.

“No, my human form died long ago in the other timeline. I have not switch back since returning, I’m afraid there would be nothing left of myself if I do.”

That was interesting knowledge he had just provided. There was much debate on what would happen when his human side passed. As much as I wanted to further question about this I pushed the thought aside for another time.

“I can promise you Great One your human side is still there, I could see it in scans, healthy as well.”

Daniel blows out a sigh of relief filling the room with a chill that even I feel. Shivering I smile at him.

“Let me summon a protector for Eridanus before we leave, but we need to go speak with the council as soon as possible.” I nod to him.

Chapter Text

-Green Lantern/John Stewart-

Looking out across the table at the six frowning faces I am reminded of children getting put in timeout.

“I could expect this kind of thing from Constantine, but the rest of you? This is why we have Diplomatic training! Let’s recap.” Starting with Zatanna and Constantine I continue “ Zatanna you convince the league to hold an impromptu summoning of someone Constantine says ”Is knowledgeable about theses Infinite Realm Beings” and you take him at face value? Him?”

Her shoes must be Swiss the way she is staring down. “ Yes, in regard to hierarchical structure of other dimensions Constantine is typically the specialist.”

“In fairness, I did bring someone who could fix the issue. It might have been the wrong king, but still one all the same.”
Constantine says back nonchalantly. He is right, he should’ve explained better, but from the audio log I listened to he behaved better than some of the others.

“Then tell me the original king, Pariah Dark, the new king stated he was a world ending tyrant correct?” That one gets him to react  a bit.

“Ya, I knew bout that. In fairness we deal with World Enders at least bi-annually.”

“Yes, and we discuss those threats as a team. As well as ways not to piss of said being!”

I let the statement sit for a minute.
“Back on track, we still summoned a king here, and decided to use terms we have learned from a Government Agency that we know is actively attempting genocide on an entire dimension? Constantine you have to give us the terms used when summoning.”

“That’s my fault, for future reference its Ghosts or Infini-Ghosts would also work.”

I shake my head “Superman, why did you call him a child?”

The room that was already quiet somehow stops in time almost. “ After he transformed he was a child.. I was just shocked. I shouldn’t have announced it, but the fact a child is leading an entire realm with no training..”

“Do you know if they have no training? No Regent or guide? Or is this about not having the Justice League train him? I know Constantine didn’t explain the Infinite Realms well so I will. Before the Green Lantern Corp had even become a full entity a being named Ridwān arrived to Oa. This was the current High King of the Infinite Realms, he arrived because our universe had finally had enough death in it to create a Realms Being, what the current King and us call a ghost. It was the first ghost of this Universe something King Ridwān said was the first step to being a functioning universe. It was then he told of the Infinite Realms. You all know about different timelines and the multiverse by now correct? No need to explain that again?”

I let my statement sit with a few heads nodding.

“Well the Infinite Realms are what hold the multiverse together, the timelines too. Its name is no exaggeration, it is truly infinite, it is what keeps the living realms together and where the souls of the dead go. All souls pass through the Infinite realm to get to their afterlifes. All afterlifes exist either in or through the Realms. If the realms were every destroyed or ended so would all of reality. It would collapse no afterlife, no worlds, and no universes would survive. The High King is the voice of that Realm. The King is one step below creation itself, the closest thing to a God, and that's a capital G, that will ever be seen in the multiverse. You all just called God a child  to his face and questioned him without proper respect. Diana, your father would grovel on his hands and knees before the High King of the Infinite Realms if he found out how he was treated here!”

I let the statement sink in, while I do exaggerate some, it is true that the High King is that important. They need to understand what they did. By the grim looks on their faces they partially do.

“All of us have a lifespan, which means we will all die at some point, and regardless which afterlife you end up in, that “Child” as you call him is in charge of it all. Regardless of his title he is to be respected due to power alone. Ridwān ruled for eons before being overthrown by the next High King Pariah Dark-“ before I can continue Batman briskly interrupts me for his own question.

“How does that work, is the title not passed by heritage?” That was a great question actually, and while I didn't like being interrupted it was one I would answer.

“Not always, from how it was explained to us not all Realm beings can even produce children. While a High King can have an heir the way to succeed is different from most monarchies. Infinite Realm Beings have a culture based around fighting, what we consider fights to the death is them playing around. It’s culturally accepted to fight someone you meet for the first time. Due to that strength is respected there. The main way the Crown can be won is through Single Combat, this is how the past two transfers of titles have been decided. Although if a King is destroyed by a group, or by a non Realm Being then the title can be passed to an heir.” Batman nods silently at this.

Sighing I continue “When King Phantom was summoned and mad about Pariah Dark being the target of summoning, there was a reason for it. Pariah Dark was a Tyrant King. He destroyed any ghost who went against him and made unreasonable Decrees, after untold years on the throne a revolution naturally happened. A group of Ancients banded together to seal Pariah.”

“Ancients?” Superman asks.

Before I’m able to answer Constantine speaks up “Ancients are beings directly related to Concepts, Gods to other gods. Wonder Woman over there is a Granddaughter of one. The Ancient of Time, Kronos is what you refer to him by.”

I nod in agreement “That’s correct, and it took a group of those beings to even seal Pariah Dark into eternal sleep. This is where we get to information Constantine doesn’t seem to know.” A pointed glance makes the old magician flinch. “5 years ago our time a meddling realm ghost the same one we currently have locked up here named Plasmius or as we know now Vlad Masters, unsealed Pariah. As he came out of his eternal sleep he reacted with anger and pulled an entire city into the Infinite Realms. That city just happened to be Phantoms Haunt, his place of origin.

That “child” which isn’t even accurate in Realm Being standards he was a infant, was able to defeat Pariah Dark alone and reseal him into eternal slumber earning the crown by accident. That is the equivalent to a child walking up and knocking out Superman over there because superman landed in his house. High King Phantom’s power is unfathomable, and from the rumours heard throughout the Universe he is a Good ruler, better yet he is a King born from this universe. Oa celebrated for days when we received the news. Yet he was summoned here and insulted! Oa only allowed me to come here through a Boom Tube not to admonish you for this, but condemn you. I’ve been instructed to apologize to High King Phantom and assist in the freeing of his people, even if that means going against Earth's Governments. Constantine you are to destroy all summoning related documents for the High King as well.” My last few sentences settle over everyone. I stay silent to let them process. It takes a few more minute before anyone speaks up.

It’s Batman who finally does “Call all available League members to the watchtower, let’s get all the information we can on GIW laws, personnel, and locations. John can you please get in touch with the UN and advise them of the urgency of the situation. We will assist Phantom with freeing his people who are being treated unjustly as well as getting the laws that allowed it to happen removed.” I nod to him and leave the meeting room to get in touch with the United Nations.

-Batman-

Hours pass and John’s words haven’t left my head. We had screwed up bad this time, I would have to do anything I could to fix the issue.

Constantine started to walk out of the meeting room after being dismissed, I got up and grabbed him by the arm.

“John, abide by what was asked of you. Destroy the summons, but keep the binding circle, work on getting it to be of use on Phantom. As well as any other information you have on the weakness of realm beings that haven't already been brought forward during the invasion.” His eyes widen for but a moment.

“Mm you got it Bats.” Sighing shaking his head he walks away.

I see Clark look at me from the table with his signature disapproving stare.

The mechanical voice of the Zeta tube echoes through the room.

Admin Override: Recognized Phantom P-0-1

The whole room freezes myself included.

Chapter Text

-Danny-

Standing in Frostbite's office I stare into the vat with Eridanus in it. I place my hand on the glass.

“I’m so sorry.. please wake up soon, please so we can talk.” I whisper both vocally and with my core.

The sound of shuddering metal clinking in on itself comes from behind me. I smile turning around “Frighty my knight, how have you been?”

He responds by picking me up off the ground and into the air.

“MY KING!! Oh how I’ve missed you, they doubted you were alive, but I knew you could not be defeated so easy. It all but confirmed it when you used a Decree, no one but you could put forward such a painless Decree.”

“Damn Frighty, I missed you too. How is NightMare? She doing okay?”

“Of course, she awaits outside to see you as well as escort you. I heard I was here for protection, but honestly My Liege I don’t think anything in the Realm but the Realms themselves could hurt you. How did you gain so much power, it’s radiating off you!?”

I laugh missing this overactive protector, as a spirit of fear and Halloween he was a hassle of an enemy, but was my greatest retainer. He may be truly loyal only to the Crown, but his personality is so much different based on the king he serves.
“I agree with you there, it’s not me who need protection. It’s him.”

I turn forward the vat and point. If Fright Knight had a jaw, it’d be scraping the floor.

“Fright Knight Spirit of Halloween, Ancient of Fear, I introduce to you my heir, Eridanus. You are charged with direct protection of the Heir apparent until the council meeting is over and Frostbite can return. After that point you will defend the Far Frozen and Frostbite's office, no one outside the court may be allowed in without express permission from me or Frostbite. Are your orders clear?”

“Yes my liege! You shall not worry while I stand guard. It is the greatest honor I have been bestowed in centuries!” I can feel him radiating with enjoyment. It took years to realize Fright Night has a secondary obsession with knightly protection similar to mine. No one could do a better job in the Realms.

“We are off the Frighty, be observant, I can’t lose him.” With that I turn and walk away with frostbite who is outside the doorway.

“Off to the council Great One! Blizzard and Sleet have set up a carriage for us and the princesses.”

“Snow time like the present!” I exclaim getting a groan from Jazz and Dani as we walk up, Frostbite loves it though his laugh shakes the ground. Yeah I still got it.

--------------

From a distance I see my lair coming into view. The large observatory/mansion on a floating moon is hard to miss. It was vastly different than the previous tacky torture keep of Old PD. After getting the crown it changed rapidly, I wonder if it will change again due to my experiences.

The surrounding outside is filled with hundreds of ghost awaiting reception and filtering in. As we start to come in for landing in the roof deck hundreds of hands point up to us. Dani hangs over the edge and waves like her hand is on fire. It gets a small laugh from all of us.

We land and go in through the deck, Jazz and Dani stand on my left and right while Frostbite follows behind.

“Danny how are we doing this?” Jazz asks.

“Don’t worry sis, got it all planned out. You two go in and take court seats, Frostbite you go into the council area, and I will go through general admission spot and command respect as I walk up to the throne.” I grin and they all laugh and shake their heads.

We split up and I go invisible, not the regular kind of invisible either. I go full on different plain of existence invisible and walk right into the general admission doors. I admire the council room, the last room I created and the one I put the most effort into.

Lairs are weird, they subconsciously shift to how you want, but you are able to focus and change it further. This typically takes a lot of time and effort, but with the crown and ring it only took a few months.

The room itself get the whole tardis treatment, from outside is shouldn’t be bigger than a regular auditorium at a broadway show. Inside though it’s bigger than any stadium on earth. At the furthest end is the court seats like my throne made of part ectoranium part meteorite glowing between greens purples and blues. On either side are two smaller seats, one of which is brand new and an etheric blue wave of water shaped into a chair, I know instinctively that it’s Eridanus’. On the other side is a soft green one with sparks of lightning popping around inside it where Dani currently sits. Beside her is a open red one made completely out of tech and the furthest on the end is a copy of that one just with natural ectoplasmic green and tablets coming up from the arm rest.

On the opposite side next two Eridanus’ throne is a throne of clouds with a purple hue to it and Jazz already sat down. The furthest on that side is a seat completely made of plants all slight shifting and moving constantly.

On the right side of the throne is the Council spot, in it I spot the ancient I know and love. Frostbite obviously, but plenty of others including Undergrowth, Vortex, Pandora, Nocturn, Vulcan, Prometheus, and even Cthulhu who almost never comes out. On the opposite from them are the Observants, the gross little things staring at Jazz and Dani already putting the pieces together that there probably isn’t a “new” king. Clockworks spot in the center of them is empty, I feel my chest tightening. I’ve been trying not to think of Clockwork these past few centuries. For a long time I wanted to strangle him if I ever came back, but knowing him he would make a joke and let me do it. I should talk to frostbite about seeing him soon.

The rest of the stadium is made up of general seating for any ghost wanting to attend. I see plenty of familiar faces past by me walking inside as I stand there in my own little world. Johnny and kitty shoot by me on there bike with shadow trailing behind. They break next to an open area that are filled with my original rogue gallery. I see Ember, Youngblood, Skulker, Technis, Desiree, Dora, Sydney, and even Walker although he look pissed.

I attempt to look for more familiar faces before I realized ghosts have stopped trickling in, I waited long enough. It was time to make my appearance.

I take a step forward forwards my Throne, I come back into visibility shocking most people into silence. Plenty of ghosts here knew they should be able to see or sense me invinsble or not. That wasn’t me anymore, my limitations were near non existent. Each step I took got louder, and the audience got quieter. It took a lot not to smile up at the people I knew, but now was not the time.

Halfway to the the throne I started to let my form change into my Formal attire same as the watchtower, the difference is the cloak that extended from my neck piece. Now my step are shaking the room, and no one is speaking. I grow in size now closer to nine feet tall, and I let the ring form on my right hand. Energy rolls out in waves, sounds are popping back up but mostly the sounds of weaker ghosts grunting in exhaustion. I’m 3/4 of the way to my throne as I let the crown form above my head. The reaction to that is minimal compared to what I do next, I let the second crown manifest. It’s a smaller crown and in orbits the first one in a set axis motion, truthfully it’s power is minimal and just for show, but each ghost in the room can see it for what it is. It’s a real Crown of Fire, a second one. I, High King Phantom, ruler of the Infinte Realms was twice crowned.

Stopping infront of my throne I look at Jazz and Dani they to look shocked, but I give them a little wink. Judging by their reaction, winking with stars for eyes might not convey the message as well as it was meant.

I take a deep breath and turn, looking from the Council on my left all the way around ending in the observants to my right. I clear my throat, the noise is simultaneously everywhere in the room at once.

“It’s good to be back here with you all. I know you all must have questions, but for now I will speak without interruption. First and foremost I apologize.” As soon as I finish I give a slight bow, the volume of the room goes to shit.

Screaming and fighting breakout, some people leave their seats and rush toward me. I raise a hand and clench it tight, suddenly the pressure in the room hits tenfold. No one can move, those who were yelling and fighting are now quiet. With a wave of my hand those who left their seat are now back in them looking confused.

“I said WITHOUT INTERRUPTION!” The show of power goes way better than I thought it would, not a single person moves. The room is like a still image.

“I will explain what happened with my disappearance 3 years ago. It all started when I came home and fell asleep too exhausted to even transform back into my human self.” I look over to Jazz, who is most likely the only one to know this part of the story in full. “Unfortunately two hunters found me in my bed. They hit me with a new weapon, a disgusting invention the triggered an episode similar to that of my death…” I let that sit, all ghost who had lived know how serious one’s death was to them.

“It stunned me enough to make me revert back to my human side and pass out. It was then the hunters assumed I had overshadowed my own human side, their son.” Letting that sink I skip forward a bit.

“It didn’t end there, the GIW got custody of me and I was confined for weeks. I will not go into detail but you can all imagine from stories you have heard. Thankfully after weeks of studying and interviews I was able to convince my parents that I was a Halfa, and not overshadowing their sons corpse. It wasn’t easy for them to accept after what they had done. Part of me still hates them for what I went through, but they tried to change. They accepted me and helped me escape. Unfortunately I lost both of them in the escape attempt, this next part I say with sadness and no anger. I saw their cores form, they had been around ectoplasm for so long I knew they would form cores, but to see it happen so quick was amazing. The next thing I had to see was a GIW agent used a vibrational weapon meant to crack exposed cores. They never had a chance to form. I let out a wail, one I’m sure you all remember.” From the reactions I can see they all do. It was my loudest wail at the time, and I had accidentally mixed it with a Decree which I didn’t learn till a lot later one. From what I could remember millions of ghosts collapsed they day, some even injured.

“After my escape I was heavily injured and needed saftey so I flew home, set up and explosive with my sister here on one side and went through the portal and blasted it from the other side. I closed the portal in Amnity with me both this side.

“Injured, hurt, and weak I went to my most trusted mentor at the time.” I give a weak smile at my own joke. “ I went to clockwork and asked for a time freeze to heal. He offered me one better. He offered to send me to an alternate time line in the past, to slow me to train, and grow into my powers.”

The looks I was getting confirmed most people were putting the pieces together.

“Clockwork is brilliant, but even he is not perfect.. he sent me too far back and overextended himself. Before I get questions of how far back, I will not answer that. What I will say is I am spiritually far older than anyone in this room currently other than the ancients. That being said I should also admit I am also an ancient now. The Ancient of Space, to those of you who doubt Frostbite can confirm since he viewed my core.” An Uproar pops up in almost every section before Frostbite is able to stand up and announce “The Great One is telling the truth, he now has a conceptual core like us Ancients.”

I start to yell and speak over everyone to continue my story. “Clockwork told me that when my alternate timed synced up with the current I would be brought back over, keeping all my new strength with no time having passed. Like I said before he was not perfect, due to overextending himself he had to clock out of work early and has now been sleeping. He must have missed his alarm because three years passed with still no sign of being pulled back, that is until I was summoned yesterday slightly before my Decree. I am back now stronger than ever, and before we continue here with this meeting I have only one more thing to say uninterrupted.”

This part I know will either be a shit show or the calmest part of the night.

“As amends right here, right now I will accept any open challenges to the crown due to my negligence” I was right it became a shit show, this time I doubt I could calm the room short of a Decree. This would be a long meeting…

Chapter Text

Pandemonium is an accurate word for the next few minutes after I declare open challenges. Looking over to the ancients I notice none have moved or shifted, they are speaking yes but none stand. I expected to have to at least fight one of them, Vortex being the likely suspect. When none get up I look over forward the group of my old frenemies. Instead of seeing them getting up I’m met with half of them laughing and the other half grinning, Ember and Kitty are on the ground rolling around.

I look back at Jazz to see her giving a disapproving scowl and then to Dani who is also holding her stomach in laughter, it isn’t until I hear a thud of boots in front of me and the audience quiet that I turn and see an figure sporting a familiar set of Overalls and beanie standing twenty feet from me. A grin of stars spreads across my face, as the words he belts out echo through the silence.

“BEWAAAARRREE”

Laughter rages across the entire room, even from behind me and on either side, yet the ghost in front of me looks as serious as one could be.

Lifting my hand again the room quiets down. “Boxy, how have you been man? I’m glad to see you, but I never expected a challenge. You don’t even have any boxes on you right now?”

“If chaaallenging yooou is what I have to dooo too get a woord in I wiiill do it.”

Looking at his face I can see he means it, something is eating at him.

“Ok, let’s “talk” but first let’s even the field a bit mate.” I extend my hand and let a glowing perfect cube form in my hand, I infuse it with gravity then condense it as small as I can. Then I create another cube around it and repeat the process dozens of times. Finally it had been condensed to that point the humming it gave off is audible even from the stands.

“Here Boxy, a tesseract just for you.” I toss it forward in front of him before he can take control of it, it expands gouging out a piece of the ground where it touches. His eyes widen, obsession kicking in. This is my last test for him. Will he take this and run? Or stay and fight?

My answer is given as soon as he takes control of the tesseract and launches it at me. I side step 10 feet as the area I was standing disappears leaving a perfectly square divot in the ground.

“So talk with me Boxy what’s going on?”

He huffs as he recalls the tesseract to his palm, and pulls his arm back. His eyes glow with power feeding off the multi dimensional shape.

“You maaay haaave missed it whiiile you weereee gooone, but I haaad a child”

I smile “Oh! Was Box Lunch born?!”

That makes him hesitate, but not for long he whips the cube forward, I go to move again but I can feel the collapsing of gravity as the cube nears. I use a Space Step to counter it and end up in front of him. I make a show of it by raising a fist up.

“I met her in an alternate future timeline, I never mentioned her because I hoped to not interfere and make sure she was born.” Seeing the suspicion leave his eyes I let my core thrum.

~CONGRATULATIONS~DELIGHT~

I’m met back with an unsettling response

~Anxious~Depressed~Wrath~Blame~

“Sheee waaas taaaken, both Lunch Lady aaannndd heeer by the Guuuys Inn Whiite” tears form in his eyes and he pulls his hand back bringing the tesseract sailing forwards my head.

His pain hits me harder than any attack he could ever launch, I throw my fist back and crack the tesseract. It explodes and I pull the kinetic energy back inside myself. A ripple travels down my body and cracks the ground below us.

I reach forward towards Box Ghost, he flinches but I let my hand fall on his shoulder. He continues speaking once he realizes I’m not attacking. “They were captured during the original attack on the realms. Over six months they have been gone!” He has lost his vocal tic, this is a broken father grieving. The information he just gave stirs me back into action.

Letting my voice boom “I plan to get every single Denizen of the Realm that is being held returned to their rightful places. I plan on decimating the GIW, not a single facility will be left standing. You all know me as someone who defends the human life’s on that side more than the ones on this side, but I have been around along time and reflected. I plan to fulfill my role as king until I am no longer one. I’ve only arrived back a couple hours ago, but I have already spoken with the hero’s of earth, The Justice League. I’ve given them my demands, and promised my action against the GIW. What I need now is an explanation of why we were invading earth, and what Box Ghost here meant by the original attack on the Realms!” I let this sink in to all.

“Boxy I will make sure to get them home. Go sit, we will catch up later.”

~ASSURANCE~

He doesn’t say another word, and floats back up into the seating.

“Will any other challengers come forward? Or can we move forward onto the important stuff?” No one shifts. Open Challenges have ended.

I go and sit on my Throne, looking to the observants I say “No come and explain about the original attack.”

——

After what couldn’t have been less than six hours of talking I have a clear idea of what has happened. Thank the Ancients time runs slower here in the Realms, I don’t wanna leave the JL on their own to long. The power lock I did on Vlad should be wearing off soon though.

From what I’ve made sense of between the long winded self-appreciating speeches, and the baseless accusations the situation is a lot different than how the JL made it to be.

Apparently it wasn’t our side that invaded first. Six months ago earth time a new portal had been completed, whether it was a miracle or they had finally managed to make sense of my parents schematics.

When it was opened a wave of energy spread out into the zone, a kind of call. Hundreds of ghosts came forward to see if this new portal was stable, but before they could get away a type of caged was launched in and pulled them in. Witnesses who made it away said it was similar to what the Fenton Thermos would do when I used to soup the ghosts.

After the event the portal was closed and has not opened since. After months of intelligence work surprisingly lead by skulker, it was concluded that the GIW had taken the ghosts and dispersed them throughout the US. Natural portals could not open long enough to send out a real resistance force. This continued until Wulf and his pack offered assistance. The werewolf’s having a majority of members with dimensional cores agreed to assist on a large scale by opening portals and hitting the earth with guerrilla tactics.

This reveal lead me to my first question during the explanation.

“Who was in charge of coordinating the attack?” When left with resounding silence I came to a conclusion.

“So you have all been just attacking randomly for six months hoping that your nonexistent demands would be met? Of course that’s what happens what else could I expect!” Pinching what should be the bridge of my nose causes sparks as I remember I no longer have one just a flat space of stars.

“You were gone! You have no right to judge-“

“I have every right! You are right I was gone, sent away by your groups leader to “gain power and learn” but I was a child! I was promised a place to heal and learn, but instead I was thrown into an unknown world in an unknown time left to fend on my own! I did heal, I did gain strength. I fought that timelines Pariah Dark at his peak and crushed his core in my hands! I travelled the universe looking to find a way to force me back into this timeline! For all the powers I learned none are related to time. Yet as soon as I was able to return I am here trying to help! You don’t get to judge me, I am more than welcome to judge all of you. That is the RIGHT that I have earned TWICE.” I’m unsure if observants breathe but by the time was done he had gone two shades deeper green and was on his knees.

I feel a hand grip mine, looking up I see Jazz staring at me.

“Calm little brother, take a second and relax.” I do just that, I also allow my monarch from to drop as I return to my Phanom form. A sharp hiss from Jazz makes me think I did something wrong but the looks from the crowd look different.

All around me I feel one thing

~Pride~ it hits me like a million voices.

I create a sliver of ice to use as a mirror and I can see why. Phantom no longer looks as human as he..as I did. The blueish green skin tone I’m used to has become more prominent, my eyes reflect the bright green I’m used to but the sclera are now a deep ink black, my ears are point similar to what Dan's were. My face is sharper, no longer an inverted version of human side. The last thing I look at is my teeth, instead of the usual fangs I’m used to seeing they are all sharpened now. This was a fully ghost form, the crowd recognized me as a ghost the same way my body did. I’ve always been able to manipulate my phantom self, but this wasn’t manipulation the was its natural state. Looking up at Jazz I let the ice crumble.

“I’m okay now, really thank you.” I squeeze her hand back and turn forward the shaking observant. “I apologize for the way I went about my outburst, but every word was true. I will no longer lay blame on you, but do not lay it on me either.”

“Of course my King.” He bows and continues with explanation.

Once they are done I stand and close out the meeting with one last speech.

“As I said I have spoken to the hero’s of earth, to see if they are really as they say and hero’s of justice and not slaves to the government I will allow them to put forward a plan to work in collaboration with us. When I leave here I will return to them to hear an answer. If the agree to working together a timeline and plan will be formed which I will return to announce. If they do not agree to help us… than there will be war. We will descend in full force to retrieve our people. The destruction we leave will be enough to let them know never to touch us again. Just allow me time for this. Till then you are all dismissed.”

The next few minutes are spent greeting the Ancients, all are excited to see me, calling me a baby ancient now instead of baby ghost like they used to. After them I go to give my regards to the Observants only one is left, the one I yelled at. I apologize to him privately, I may not like them but I know even they can’t control Clockwork. I also leave him a promise to focus on Clockworks recovery, now that I am back his core should start to regain energy not having to feed into a collapsed timeline.

Lastly I make my way over to the four ghosts left standing in the audience.

Walking up to them Johnny shouts to me “Damn can’t call ya kid anymore now can I. A real king if I’ve ever seen one.”

“Hey I may be a king but I’ll never be stuck up enough not to go a few rounds with ya, verbal or otherwise.” Laughing I keep walking forward when I’m tackled by a blue blur.

“Babypop I have miiiisssed you!” Ember is clinging onto me as I wrap an arm around her. Before I left I had been awkward with her, something I regretted in the years after. My on again off again relationship with Sam led me to some minor reckless decisions one of which was dating ember during an off period. It wasn’t a bad relationship, I liked ember she was one of the first ghosts to apologize when they realized how young I had been. Not being able to use ghost speech was a huge hindrance, and with how powerful I was so young they all just assumed I was a rude ghost till after all the Pariah Dark nonsense. Ember hated the fact I had been dealing with it all alone that whole time not knowing what was going on. We got close quick, but at the time while I liked her I loved Sam. Ghosts are emotions, she knew how it was and ended things with me not long after they started. It was my fault and stupid. Seeing her again made me feel some guilt, but mostly I was just happy to see her and the others again.

“Hey ember, it’s been awhile for both of us. I missed you too.”

I hug her back and smile at kitty and shadow.

“You two as well, how’s things with the grump over there been kitty?” I say pointing at Johnny. Both her and Shadow laugh.

“You know how it is with us, I’m just happy we wasn’t fighting when ya called us all back. Glad we gotta greet ya all together.”

“Yeah, we missed ya kid, not as fun causin havoc when no one had a chance of catching us.” Johnny says as he revs his bike.

We all talk for a bit longer before I head Jazz coughing from behind me. I say my goodbyes and peel Ember off my with a promise to listen to her new songs soon.

Jazz, Dani, and I make our way up to my room in the keep.

“That went better than I thought.” Dani says

“Danny did you mean what you said about war?” Jazz asks, I knew it was coming.

“Yes, you heard boxy. They have kids, if they are treating any of them even a tenth of how I was treated, they deserve worse than just war.”

“And the innocents who will be caught up in it?”

“ I hate thinking about that too, I really do believe the Justice League will make the right choice, but if not we need to leave a message. One that will stick in the minds of humans for thousands of years. To not touch our realm.” She looks like she wants to argue more, but I cut her off.

“Listen, I want to try and transform back to my human side. I haven’t done it in thousands of years. In the other timeline that side of me died, and don’t look at me with pity like that Jazz it was of old age. Frostbite says my human side is back, but I don’t know what reaction it’ll have when I go back. So please watch over me if I pass out or something?”

“Of course Danny we got your back.” Dani says as she slaps mine, a little to hard.

Jazz nods so I take the opportunity to release my phantom form. It takes minutes before I feel the hold loosen. The familiar white rings pass by and I hear two distinct sheiks. Something went terribly wrong.

“DANNY!!” “Oh Come on I agree to see you as a parent and this is what I get!! Thank the Ancients I didn’t see anything”

Both have turned away a little to fast, and the realization dawns on me, I did not have any clothes on. Turning and running to my closet I yank down some spare clothes I left here for emergencies. All of it fit a little to tight. Thankfully I used to wear baggier clothes. Looking in the mirror by my bed I could notice obvious changes. It looks like I am nineteen like I should be. I’ve seen this age on my face before so I shouldn’t be shocked, but that fact I’ve missed out on three years. Three I was supposed to experience with family hurt bad. About four inches taller than I was at sixteen I am about 6’2 now and broader. I definitely get my height from Jack and know I have a few more inches in me before I’m done growing. My hair is a shock though, it’s down to the center of my back, I pull it back into a ponytail and promise myself a haircut asap.

“I’m dressed now, sorry!” I plead to my poor family members eyes.

“It’s fine Danny you didn’t know and we didn’t see anything we promise.” Jazz says to comfort me.

“I did though not what you are worried about, but where the hell did you get those scars Danny!?” Dani yells at me her face red with anger.

I cringe, and see Jazz look down. She had seen them too. From my throat down to my toes I was covered in surgical scars as well as Lichtenberg scars from left hand up through my chest to my neck. My body was a horror show, thankfully my hair covers the only scars on my head. My face was spared.

“Forget it both of you, past is the past.”
Dani is about to argue when Jazz pulls her back.

“Ok Danny so what next?”

“Next we go back to your place so I can shower, then I go get some new clothes and a haircut.” I thrown on a fake smile.

Before they can argue I rip open a portal and hop through it landing right in Jazz’s dorms living room space. Unfortunately I land feet away from a stranger. A girl similar in age to me of asian descent with shorter black hair stares up at me from a fighting position in a perfect jeet kune do fighting stance. This must be Jazz’s roommate. I put my hands up innocently and step back hoping that Jazz will be the next one to pop through the portal and soon.

My wish is granted when she comes through yelling at me “Daniel James Fenton you canning just tear holes in reality wherever you want, what if someone sees yo-“ she stops talking as soon as she looked over to see her roommate standing there.

“Oh hi Cass, this is my brother.” She says awkwardly looking like she is about to pass out.

Trying to seem nonchalant I wave a hand at her now that I’ve been introduced.

“Hi, I’m Danny. Danny Fenton.” To her credit she calms down way quicker then I’d expect anyone in her position to due, but hey this is Gotham.

She responds by relaxing her body and putting her fists down.

“Hi, Cassandra Cain.” She says quietly with a small wave.

Chapter Text

Standing there with a giant green rip in space behind me could have been more awkward that it was currently, but not by much.

After the short introduction Jazz immediately goes into recovery mode trying to explain the situation.

“Cass, I am so sorry about this. He should have known better than to just teleport us right into the living space, not that its like something he does often. I mean it may not have even been his ability to begin with. He has been living abroad and hide manners have seem to-“

During Jazz’s explanation I catch something from the girl in front of me, it’s soft but unmistakable. 

~Amusement~

“Hahaha Jazz you didn’t tell me your roommate could ghost speak! Did you teach her? Last I remember you could barley pick up on it let alone use it.”

Jazz looks at me with confusion as I cut her off and I get another twinge.

~Confusement~

Ahh, so neither knew what she was doing.

~AFFIRMATION~
~Understanding~

The exchange takes no time at all, but the look on Cass’s face says it all. She didn’t know what it was called and has probably never used it to converse before.

I smile at her and continue “It’s called ghost speak, kind of an empathic assurance. To learn it on your own is incredible and slightly upsetting.”

Before her or Jazz can respond Dani hops through having transformed into her human half. Unlike mee she looks the same has her ghost side, but inverted. Our looks are similar enough you could call us twins, which makes sense actually. The portal finally closes behind her.

“Whoa did we get caught? Good going Jazz!”

I snort as Jazz responds “Excuse me!? I don’t have the power to open that. Blame Danny.”

“Me?” “Or me?”

She gets back from us as we laugh at her.

~Confusion~Recognition~Familiarity~

Cass turns to Jazz and signs “two siblings?”

I sign back “my clone.”

She give a “Ahh” face in understanding. Another surprise from this girl. Who accepts clone as an answer that easily? My curiosity is growing.

“Danny you can’t just tell people she is your clone, and when did you learn to sign? Why am I asking you probably know every language now huh?”

“Every human, and a few alien languages.”

~TEASING~FUN~

I wink at Cass and she covers her mouth and her shoulder shake a bit, even her laughter is quiet. Cute.

“Not you too Cass, resist their childish antics!”

“As much as I’d like to continue this, we have been gone for around an hour and a half. I’m going to go home to check in with the gang, I kind of left inn the middle of a conversation. Danny I’m living out at your old place in Amity, do you want me to tell Sam and Tuck?”

Shaking my head “No, let me tell them please I have a lot to do and I will sit down with them as soon as possible. Cover for me and I will come visit you ASAP though!”

~LOVE~
~love~

And with that Dani waves to us all before walking out the door. I can see Cass out the corner of my peripheral wide eyed.

“With Ghost speak you can pick up on others as well, it’s an open language meant to connect.” I get a tight nod in return.

“Jazz can I shower?”

“Of course Danny go ahead! Cass are you staying for the night?”

I don’t hear a response from Cass but after a few moments of silence I hear Jazz again “That’s probably best, Danny has been gone awhile and I wanted to catch up just me and him a bit, but I promise I’ll explain more to you later okay? Please keep the portal thing a secret?”

Getting into the shower I let a thrum out.

~GOODBYE~ and with a little more effort I force the speak to be clearer ~HOPE TO SEE AGAIN SOON~

A human who could ghost speak naturally, there had to be a story there.

~agreement~

I smile at the response and enjoy the first real warm shower I’ve had since being time kicked.

“So what’s the plan Danny? Just so you know, we never declared you dead. I have your wallet around here somewhere.”

“Are you asking immediate plans, or long term?” I already know the answer, but stalling is my greatest strength. “Both Danny.”

“Immediate, I’m going to transform get back to the watchtower and see what decisions humanity makes. Past that I can’t answer. Same with long term it depends how they answer.”

“Well as heros I would hope they make the right choice, so hypothetically if they do?”

“We make an actionable plan to overturn the Anti-Ecto Acts, make a game plan to save the hostage ghost, and erase the GIW. Past that I don’t know, I plan to be more proactive as Ghost King, but also I know that my human life has a timeline, longer than most humans but still limited. I want to live it out in a way I’ve missed out on. Maybe get my GED or have someone counterfeit a diploma for me and go to college? Imagine both of us going here to Gotham University! I want to get back to being Danny Fenton again.”

She nods along with me the whole time I’m talking, and places a hand on my shoulder.

“That’s perfectly reasonable, I do hope you tell me more about what you did in that alternate timeline..” she sees the look on my face darken “but it’s not something you have to do. The Justice League is a world wide organization, I’m sure if you asked for help to get your life back on track they would help.”

“I’m not sure if I want them to know about my human side just yet. Listen Jazz I need to get up there soon, but I will be back. Can you work on getting me a few things in the morning? I’m sorry to keep you up all night then ask you to miss class but it’s needed.”

“Danny it’s 3am on a Saturday morning, no class tell me what you need little brother.”

I smile and reach into my stomach earning me a gag as I pull out a 28 lb gold bar I grabbed from the treasury before we left my lair.

“Any way you could get some money for this safely? I’ll split it with you, I just need cell phone, tablet, and good laptop. Past that a good tool box that I can carry around without looking suspicious, and electronic tool sets. I can shop for clothes and get a hair cut on my own.” Jazz still hasn’t looked up from the gold bar.

Taking that as a mistake “Sorry Jazz, probably a little to expectant.”

I got to pull the bar back and she grabs my hand “No. I can take care of it safely. You don’t make it in Gotham more than a few months without knowing someone.”

“Great, for the money I should have my bank account info on my wallet if it’s still open if not put it all in yours and we will figure it out. Call Tuck if you need to help by pass any restrictions or flags just don’t tell him I’m back yet please?” She nods eyes still in the gold.

“How many of these do you have?”

“Hmm to many to count let alone all the other treasures I have. If my count from the previous timeline is still accurate then in the spirit of Gotham, my net worth probably makes Bruce Wayne look penniless in comparison.”
That was the last straw Jazz has broken.

Laughing I pat her head and stand, time for me to go.

I think straight portaling into the watchtower would give to much away, and I don’t want to fly there.

Remembering the cool little contraption they have on the Watchtower I extend my special cognition feeling for it, finding what I was looking for I smile in recognition.
Zeta-tubes, I had been around for the creation of them in the other timeline. Grabbing onto the one closest to the room I was in previously I let myself transform in to Phantom and partially overshadow the Tube. Forcing the input of my signature into it I Space Step lightly and feel myself pulled into it waves.

The Mechanical voice echoes around me.

Admin Override: Recognized Phantom P-0-1

Chapter Text

Walking in to the Watchtower I instantly get a boost of energy, the looks on the workers face in the room gave me just as much only mentally.

Realistically I knew that I was just antagonizing them by doing that, but it’s good for them to know I can mess with them like that.

I stand there and await whoever they send. Moments later a blur runs into the room, the Flash is in front of me one moment and a look of embarrassment crosses his face, he runs out of the room. He is back almost instantly this time pulling a Green Lantern and Wonder woman with him. The entire interaction is less than a second.

Before he can speak I say “Did you forget them the first time?” A look of confusion passes on his face as the two one his left and right stare at him.

“You saw that?” He asks scratching the back of his head.

“I have a very fast cognitive perception.” I give my best grin.

“King Phantom is everything alright? Your appearance is different than I last saw?” Wonder woman looks truly concerned so I answer in kind.

“I’m fine, I haven’t settled into a humanoid form in along time, the previous one was me copying the young halfa from before. This is more of a settled in form.” She nods and relief hits her shoulders. The Green Lantern starts to come forward and extend his hand.

“High King Phantom, it’s an honor to meet you, I am-“ I cut him of meeting his hand shaking profusely.

“John Stewart Green Lantern, it’s great to meet you as well. Is Oa doing well?” I had to give it to the man, fluster does not touch his face.

“Oa and the Corps are doing great, the Guardians extend an open invitation at any point for you King Phantom.”

“It’s been centuries since I last visited, I would love to, unfortunately we have things more locally to clear up.” He smiles and nods.

Flash steps forward and a grin grows on my face. “Nice to meet you King Phantom! I was sent here because I heard you were a fan.” He extends his hand out and I do not hesitate to grab it.

“Whoa quite a grip there..”he says tensely.

“Barry Allen I was hoping to meet you, I’m glad the league delivered that lie to you.” I use my other hand to reach. Into my chest earning me looks of horror from all three.

I feel Flash start to try and phase out of my grip so I shift my density to match his and keep the grip.

“Lie hah? So I’m not your favorite?”

“Of course not, you might be my least favorite which is party why I wanted to meet you so bad” I say as I pull a green envelope out of my body and push into flash’s free hand.

He looks down at it as I continue finally letting go of his hand

“You’ve been served Flash Barry Allen, you and a few other speedsters. The Time Wraiths were on my case the minute I became king about correcting you all. The summons is the nicest of the options they gave to handle you all, quit messing with the timelines pal.”

“He was doing what?!” Green Lantern looks like his is about to blow.

“It’s fine Mr. Stewart, that summons will handle it. He won’t be handed too harsh a punishment, just some light time traveling to correct timelines he broke. A few hundred years as a Time Wraith after death, I think you’ve met yourself as one haven’t you?”

That is what does it the flash falls to his knees a broken a broken man. I pat his shoulder “It’s ok Barry, it’ll only be a few hundred years just for you since it’ll be carried out in the time stream. After you can pop back into your chosen an afterlife to be with your loved ones right where you left off.

Taking that as the end of the conversation I walk with Wonder Woman and Green Lantern to the meeting room.

Chapter Text

It took about twenty minutes for the individual apologies for the meeting earlier tonight. The room was now filled with the founding members of JL as well as some additional guests.

When it was Batman’s turn he had two stragglers following along, the first was a Robin. Even as far outside of League knowledge as I am, I could recognize a Robin, but this one was too young to be the one her remembered. The other straggler I recognize from earlier in the night, it was cereal girl. A young blonde haired woman in a purple suit whose side eye might actually be causing me pain. Both stood quiet as Batman gave the most rehearsed apology ever, place a hand on my shoulder and turned away. Feral girl waved as she turned and stood behind the chair Batman sat in.

Lastly it was John Constantine and Zatanna to apologize, in her defense Zatanna did well it sounded real, but it was all fear. Constantine though spoke indifferently as he had ever since I requested him to.

“Here mate, all the summonings and BINDINGS, I have on ya.” He put emphasis on the word binding, I’m assuming he was told to keep those for the League. Nice to know he knew who was incharge in the grand scheme of things. Seeing as he is trustworthy enough it was time to earn some favor. I reach into my side and pull out a jar.

“I appreciate that, see I recognized your name before so when I was back on the other side I looked you up. You are quite a popular man, Hellblazer, The Laughing Magician, people on my side even call you the Soul Whore. Which brings me to this, as thanks for giving over all you had, I give you back the portion of your soul the Crown held. Should be around forty percent of it.” Constantine goes Bug eyed as he holds his hand out for the jar.

From behind I hear a shout “I get a Afterlife court summons and he gets his soul back, what has the world come too!”

“Flash buddy, how many trillions of lives did you change across the universe playin around with time? How many people don’t exist anymore? It’s heavy stuff, but you are getting off light. So cheer up. ”I’ve turned to pat his shoulder he looks like a mess.

“Moving on from apologies and gifts, I think we should all have a long talk about the GIW and plans to retrieve my people.”

They spend the next hour assuring me they are absolutely against the Anti-Ecto Acts, all of them truly do look disgusted with it. Thank the Ancients, one timeline where I destroyed the Justice League was more than enough for my conscience. I also inform them of the incident that cause our side of the invasion. How six months ago our territory was breached. This puts grim faces on most of the people in the room. This wasn’t a one sided invasion from our side, it was an unorganized rescue mission/revenge. They knew they lost any diplomatic or ethical justification to have our side stand down.

“Do we know how many of your people are unaccounted for?” Superman asks.

I hesitate to answer, but decide it’s better to share that information then not.

“Do you mind if I bring a messenger over who could have an exact number?”

It’s Batman who responds first “Are they trustworthy enough to be brought up here?”

“They are a more known source than when you all brought me up here. He does not care about the living and rarely the dead either so secrets are safe with him.” I get a nod from him as a go ahead, and pull out a dog whistle from my left knee and give it a sharp blow. Moments later a giant green dog is bounding over to try and knock me down.

“Hey Cujo! I’m so glad to see you buddy. Glad you didn’t get caught!” He licks me leaving me soaked. I laugh as I pet and squeeze him.

“Father!” I look over to see the Robin looking at Batman expectantly, unlike his poised presentation before he was now in position that felt forced. He was excited and wanted to play with Cujo, definitely a kid.

“Cujo shrink.” The dog shrinks on command and I reach to pull papers out of his collar's pouch. I phase his slobber off me and sit at the table.

“Robin, you can call Cujo over. He may be over excited right now, but as long as he stays small he is harmless.” Robin looks at Batman again who nods.

“Cujo come!” He says and Cujo bounds over too him excited to have someone to play with. Most of the League spends the next minute watching the boy play with the glowing green dog as I read through the papers.

A give a small clearing of my throat to get attention back. “One hundred and eight, five of which are neverbornes. Almost all were former humans from this side of the Realm, possibly this world. It seems the call they used to attract the Ghost felt like a homing beacon according to the ones who we able to escape the trap. Congratulations your government is experimenting on your ancestors.” I let my voice echo and release some of my hostility before continuing. “This is the most accurate account that can be made at this time, it could be more or could be less. The Infinite Realms are truly infinite, not everyone knows everyone. Lastly there is a ghost that was captured, her name is Box Lunch, don’t ask about her name. She is less than a year old, being a neverborn, she looks to be about four or five. Her recovery is an immediate demand of all other negotiations are off the table. If she has been destroyed already than war is a definite. I understand recovery for all will have to wait until the UN has conferred, but use whatever is necessary to find out if she is okay first. Hack them, spy on them, or tear the facility apart to get her. On the day of the UN meeting I expect her returned before any other decision has been made.”

“I will personally go to recover her if necessary.” Batman says as a fact. It surprises me, but seeing as how he collects kids as heroes the guy has to have a soft spot for kids in his own twisted way.

“Thank you Batman. Now I need to inform my council when this meeting will be and how many representatives can I bring?”

Green lantern takes over here “The UN will meet as of next Friday, in six days this was the earliest we could get the countries to meet. As for representatives, One person is the usual, but as a foreign diplomat you will be welcomed as well as a translator and representative.”

“I understand, I will inform my court and get you the information of who will attend by this Monday.” I let my finger drip with a tiny bit of ectoplasm and use my finger to sign the papers in front of me to inform Frostbite of the decisions made here. “Robin, unfortunately it’s time for Cujo to go, but if you’d like I can give you his whistle. He can hear it from anywhere in the multiverse! I’m sure he would love to play more just let us get past this UN meeting before you go and call him.” Robin nods and scoops Cujo up to walk him over, I hand him the whistle and he gives a pat on Cujo's head before putting him down and turning away. I place the papers back into Cujo's pouch.

“Alright Cujo, go to Frostbite!” All it takes is a simple command and he bounds through his own little portal system.

“Now if that’s all, I’ve been off world for three years I’d like to catch up with some things.”

There is another round of Handshakes and goodbyes, the meeting ending far more productive than last time. To their credits not a single one tried to question me about my abilities, qualifications, or personal situation the entire time I was there. Someone must’ve caught them up to speed of does and don'ts while I was gone. I step through the Zeta tube, feeling myself be pulled toward Arizona I take a step out of the portal mid transition. I land back at Jazz’s this time in her room to be safe.

Looking at her dresser the alarm says 8:17 am. I transform back to human and yawn. I think about laying down to sleep. Not out of necessity, but more the fact I haven’t slept since before my human side passed. I missed the feeling, but before I could decide one way or the other I hear a door open outside Jazz’s Room.

A quiet voice comes next “Jazz?”

I was sure I had been as quiet as I could coming in, that was probably Cass out there. Smiling I decide to tease her through the walls.

~NO~/~GREETINGS~

It’s dead silent in the Dorm for all of thirty seconds before I get back

~greetings~

I reach for the Doorknob.

Chapter Text

Coming out into the living area I spot Cass dashing back into her room. Hopefully I didn’t scare her away. I step into the kitchen to look for some breakfast, but don’t see anything worthy of a meal. I'll have to get on to Jazz for that later.

~HUNGRY?~

Damn am I awesome, I can do a questioning version of ghost speak as well. Old Dog learning new tricks everyday.

~Hungry~

With that I step out a portal and into an alley. I kind of went with my gut on this one, so as I step around corner to see me in front of a Bat Burger I laugh like a mad man. People stare at me, and with the way I look its fair.

A tall well built guy with black groomed hair comes and stand next to me arms crossed “I know Batburger is the best, but that seemed a little more than just excited. You okay buddy?”

I look up at the guy, I’ve never seen blue eyes that deep, mine are a bit brighter but that is more supernatural than anything. This guy definitely has a cop vibe going better turn down the crazy alley guy act, but just a bit.

“First Nasty Burger is the best, second it’s just ironic that I accidently end up here of all food places in Gotham. You got cash on ya?”

“How a place could be great when called Nasty Burger is something you’ll have to explain, and yeah I got some to spare. I’m Dick.”

He reaches a hand out, I take it.

“No way you are commenting about my burger joints name when that’s how you introduce yourself. I’m Danny.” I say in between laughs. “Come on you’ll be buying me and a pretty girl a meal to go today.”

Dick gives him a funny look then shrugs his shoulders “Sure why not, gotta teach you how amazing Bat Burger is.”

We walk in and I let him order all three meals since he wouldn’t stop suggesting menu items.

We chat for a bit and Dick is a real crack up, my type of humor all the way. Finally our food is brought to us and he hand me my bag.

“Thanks Dick, don’t let no one tell ya you ain’t the man. Take this since ya paid for me.”

“Oh no man it’s my pleasure, no need to pay me ba-“ I reach into my pocket and through my pants to grab a little Gold Plate, probably a pound or so, and toss it high in the air for him to grab. As his eyes go up, I go invisible and step back.

“Whoa is this real? Where…? What the hell was that?” He says looking around any close by corner for me. I step around the alley and portal back. Sitting on the couch is Cass a lot more relaxed than the first time I came in that way. Her hair is wet, she must’ve just gotten out of shower when I got back earlier. She is in lounge clothes now bundled up with a blanket, their TV is on playing C.H.U.D.

Holding the bag up I say “Hope ya like Batburger for breakfast, mind if I sit with ya and watch? Love me some sewer monster flix.”

She smiles softly and pats a spot next to her as I get out or food.

She signs “Jazz is out. Left for a bit she said.” 

“Yeah, I asked her to help resurrect me. I’ve been out of touch for a few years and needed some favors. Top of the list is a haircut!” I say and pull my bound of hair back behind me. “Care if I bother ya until she gets back? I’m guessing you were out all last night. If ya need to sleep go ahead.”

“I might after I eat and the movie, to wound up.”

She must’ve been exaggerating because within five minutes of finishing her food she was out, head propped on my side after I had leaned back arms stretched across couch.

This was nice, she didn’t ask questions, or bug me to let my emotions out. Just some good old Human to Interdimensional monster hangout time.

About halfway through the movie I hear two pairs of footsteps walk up to door, I put up a sound barrier as to not wake Cass up and ready myself for whoever is coming through.

This first person to walk in is Jazz, I put a finger up to my mouth and point to Cass, she nods and turns to the other person still out in the hall. As she comes through the doorway I see the second person. It’s a monster of a man, about my height but broad as the door even in a coat I can tell the man is a tank. Damn Jazz, missing dad much? The guy has black hair with a white strip through the front that does not help her case at all. Then I notice it, he is liminal, not even just a little bit. The guy has a proto-core, he is a revenant! I drop the sound barrier and sign to Jazz “You okay? The fridge over their didn’t follow you home did he?”

She smiles and goes to sign when the man does first “The fridge has a name, it’s Jason. Mind telling me why my sisters sleeping on you? And who you are?”

Ain’t that a coincidence I’m about to hop on his case for being around my sister when his is literally laying on me. “Danny, this is Jason Todd. A friend and Cass’s brother. I also second his question. How did she get like that? She never lets me cuddle.”

“Charm and Exhaustion, hi Jason I’m Danny, Jazz’s Brother.”

“The missing one?”

I look at her and she shrugs “He is a close friend”

“Dead, missing, resurrected. You know the deal” I wink at him as his face goes through a few different emotions at that.

“So how much did the gold go for?”

“500,000 cash, that’s why I called Jason, can’t walk around Gotham with that without a bodyguard. That and he is on first name basis with half the trustworthy fences in Gotham"

I nod and use a sweep of telekinesis to clear coffee table of trash.

Jason stands for a second then shrugs and come over to a chair. He looks at me and Cass and signs “No Jazz is right how did you do that? It took me months to get her guard down around me when she first came into the home. Charm isn’t enough and our family thrives off exhaustion.”

“Maybe not your charm” I respond with a single shoulder shrug.

Jazz opens her bag and slowly pulls things out. First is a phone inside a Box that has been opened, as well as a tablet, and Laptop. Next she pulls a small box of electronics tools out to mess with the tech in Front of me. Lastly she pulls a taped bundle of bills out, stacks of hundreds.

“Jazz split it into half, take half and hide it in your room. Give Jason a couple stacks from mine.”

He puts his hands up “I’m rich. Well rich adjacent”

I smirk back “yeah, but I beat you out in both charm and richness. Since you are stuck with one take some of my other.”

He flips me off, but stops Jazz after only pocketing one 10,000$ stack.

“Care if I take a picture of her for blackmail?” He asks

“Go for it.” I smile and throw up two bunny ears behind her sleeping head.

A second later he snaps a few pics, and giggles to himself. Jazz leans over to look and whispers to him “Send me it too.”

I smile and slowly move my arm to wake Cass up.

Out loud I say “Hey Cass, I got to go handle some things. Don’t wanna wake ya but can’t stay.”

Seeing Jason and Jazz sitting there with his phone in hand she turns a bit red before launching herself at him. They flip back over chair and roll around for a second. They may be playing, but damn they are professional level at ground fights. Jazz laughs at them so this must be normal. I start throwing money into my chest while they are distracted.

“That’s so gross Danny, go get a bag or something please?” Cass manages to swipe the phone away but it looks to have already locked. She throws it down at him and defeat and huffs back over to her spot on couch.

“Yeah yeah I will, can I leave the tablet and computer here?”

“Yes, that’s fine. Your phone is active now and my number is in there. I also put Dani, Tuck, and Sam in there when you are ready to call.”

I smile at her, I doubt I could’ve ever made it to where I was without her.

“Thanks Sis, catch you later Jason, be nice to my sister. Or Wealth and Charm won’t be the only ways I beat you.”

~GOODBYE~

Jason and Jazz both shiver, but Cass smiles and takes my phone from my hand. A minute later and I am looking at a new contact

C.H.U.D. Fan :P

“You fell asleep through it how are you a fan?” She shrugs and sits back on couch.

I wave at the three of them and walk out the door.

A minute later I’m in the shopping district of Gotham. I look for the closest barber shop and go in.

Sitting in the chair I try to decide how to do my hair, remembering how Jazz has hers I ask for a Wolf cut/Mullet that lets me keep it in a half down/half up bun and to leave the back down to my shoulders. I also ask for a fresh shave to get the stubble off. This will keep some scars covered while fixing the homeless vibe I got going on.

Wait I am homeless, at least till I get the courage to go back to Amity Park. I pull out my phone during the haircut, I look at Sam and Tucks numbers. Deciding against anything I put phone back in pocket for now.

The haircut looks great! Another two hours shopping for clothes and I’m dressed in something I’m happy with. A long black turtleneck, with a black and white thin winter coat to top it off. Fit dark jeans, and some black Chuck Taylor’s and I’m all set. Now for the fun stuff. I walk into the closest tattoo shop. The guy at the counter barley glances up as he says “Welcome to Twisted Sands, do you have an appointment? We aren’t taking walk ins today.”

“Hey” I pause to look at shirt the guy at counter is wearing, he surprisingly has a name tag “Ricky, I know it’s unusual but I got a few necessary pieces I need done today, mind if I get a tablet to draw them out? I’d also like to get some piercings done while I draw them.”

His mouth starts to form the words no until I pull a 10,000$ stack out to place on counter.

“Sure man here is my tablet. I’ll set ya up with piercings too, any idea what kind ya want?” Man money sure does change the way people treat you.

Chapter Text

After a couple hours I now have around thirteen sigil tattoos up my left arm with some filler pieces to complete a partial sleeve, it looked like thorn vines going up my arm and instead of roses blooming it was the sigils blooming. That along with the industrial bar piercing and the 14 gauge lobe piercing I felt right as rain. I stood up to check the work in the mirror liking how it looked before the artist wrapped it. It would need some shading done later but this was good for now.

On the TV the news was talking about there not having been any reported ghost attacks around the world in the past twelve hours for the first time in months.

“Heard a rumour the Justice League made a deal with the Haunts, think that’s true?”

“Oh it is, I’ve heard the same rumour, it spread pretty quick.” He nods, looking upset he wasn't able to give the news first.

“So what do those designs stand for?” 

I laugh a bit and say “These are actually tricks I learned from a magician specifically to deal with those ghosts. These are ghost sigils, decided to prep before they come back.”

The man give that “so he is rich but crazy look” before nodding at me. “What do they do?” 

I spot a blob ghost walking close to get a look at me. I pull the tablet back up and move to the image of the one on my wrist, and say “so this one is called a touch sigil, it lets you grab a ghost without using any extra energy or special ectoplasm device, runs of pure magic which is great for Gotham because of all the Leylines. Watch.”

I show him my wrist then reach out and grab the Blob, my sigil glows green on contact. Immediately it turns visible as I hold it in my outstretched hands. The artist jumps back and lets out a yelp.

“There was a ghost here the whole time!?”

“Just a blob ghost, see these ones are kinda like the animals of the ghost world. Not smart and just kinda wonder, they are too weak to interact let alone attack.”

He relaxes at this a bit “so these are real magic sigils huh?” I go through and immediately delete the more dangerous sigils from his tablet.

“Sorry bud some of these are dangerous, but I left you three. The touch sigil from earlier, a sight sigil that allows you to see weaker invisible ghosts, and a guardian sigil. Protects you from overshadowing, that way a ghost can’t use you as a meat suit. Just don’t sell these off, keep them private the more people that use them the weaker sigils get.” I say throwing in that last line as a lie to keep him from it spreading. He nods and says thank you. I pull out the second ten grand stack to hand him. “Also tell anyone I was here or describe me and I’ll come back to show you how the dangerous sigils work, got it?”

He slips money in his vest and does the lips sealed gesture. I wink at him and turn invisible. The way his eyes widen lets me know I have nothing to worry about. 

I pull out my phone to message Jazz, a teasing urge comes over me and I switch to a different contact.

Me: 
Heyy! It’s Danny, Jazz still over, I was gonna stop by before I leave again?

It takes a few minutes before I get a response.

C.H.U.D. FAN :P:
She is here, I am sleeping 😴. Work tonight☹️☹️. Coming back later?🤔🤔🐈‍⬛

I laugh, did not expect the use of emojis like that.

Me:
Yeah I’ll be back by tomorrow, got a few more things to take care of. Go back to 🛌, I’ll try to not wake you.

I switch over to create a group chat and set some Nicknames

Schrödinger’s boy:
Hey, I’m stopping back by your place Jazz then I’m going to go out and meet up with Dani in Amity Park, Dani you busy?

Loomis:
Why am I named after a therapist who never helped their patient? That’s fine, your new "friend" is sleeping though sorry to tell you 😭, but me and Jason are still here.

16 but 5:
Rude!

The better version:
There we go

The better version:

yeah I’m free today come by whenever ya want Ill be close by!

Schrödinger’s boy:
Alright see you both soon, love ya both!

Better than Loomis:
See ya soon, you too!

Just 5:
Danny quit!! Love you too..

I turn off phone and go to step through a portal when I look down the road and see a black and yellow figure fly out of an ally and bounce off a car.
 
The figure stands up and it looks like a Batman rip off, I can’t see his face as he looks down the alley but his frame is to small and suit to bright to be Batman. A new bat family member?

Out of the alley steps Bane. The bat hasn’t regained his balance yet, as a fist flies toward his face. I dash forward quick enough to catch the punch, and flip Bane over my head. Even in my human form I’m strong, so I hold back enough not to kill the big guy. As I swing him over and bounce him off the pavement cracks spread all around us. Maybe I didn’t hold back enough. I reach down to check the now, hopefully, unconscious luchadores' pulse. He is still alive thankfully, reaching around I end the job by ripping the venom tubes connected to the contraption on his back. A gross green liquid squirts and forms a puddle on the ground. 

I stand and turn to look at the Bat and am met with a face filled with horror.

“Are you a God?!”

What did the kid just say? That’s when I see it. His Aura is focused around his eyes, he must have some type of soul vision like me. I repress the aura of my soul as much as possible.

“Shit sorry kid, are your eyes okay? I normally let my soul run wild to keep pests away. Not good for a normal person to see. You are a normal person right, minus the furry suit?”

“I-it-it is not a furry suit! How can you change your aura like that? And yes I am human, are you!?” 

“Just a trick I can do, kinda like a Polyphemus Moth. A way to scare away predators, most things that can see souls are dangerous. I am human currently yeah! So you like The Yellow Bat?”

“No, I’m Signal! The day time Gotham hero.” 

I burst into laughter “Please tell me Batman named you that! I would love to know he has a sense of humor.” 

“Yeah he gave the Code name, how is it a joke?” Signal looks less scared now, but getting increasingly confused. Sirens start coming down the road.

“Guess that's my SIGNAL for me to get out of here, look buddy hate to break it to you, but you are part of the bats. Your name is Signal, you are the Bat Signal for the daytime. It’s funny, oh look over there it’s The Riddler!” I point and before he can get flustered about his name he turns fast to try and see where I’m pointing, I shift planes. If he can see souls regular invisibility won’t do anything to hide me from him. He turns back to look at me and his mouth drops, he starts turning left and right as police cars pull up. I laugh away as I space step to Jazz’s dorm door.

-Jason-

Jazz and I have been sitting on couch together talking about Mark Twain controversies, and if he did more to improve literary standards or hurt them. I couldn’t win this argument, ethics vs culture, this was a battle of who could talk the longest. Truthfully I gave up hours ago, I just kept going to hear the girl in front of me continue. I should’ve left hours ago, but after the surprise of Cass cuddled up next to a stranger, who turned out to be Jazz’s brother I just couldn’t shake the feeling I needed to stay a bit longer. The cocky brats voice echoed through my head.

“be nice to my sister” I was always nice to Jazz, we met a few months ago when Cass invited me, Steph, and the Replacement over for a game night. I won’t lie to myself, it was an instant crush. The Pits agreed too, anytime he was around her they got quieter than ever before. This morning was different, as soon as Danny had looked up at him the pits got silent. He was clear headed for the first time in years. He should be suspicious of the new guy in the room, but his whole body accepted the presence. Now here he was hours later and with the urge to prove he had been nice for Jazz like he was told by the scruffy looking kid in his undersized clothes. 

When Jazz checked her phone and smiled I knew he was coming back. That was an older sibling smile, Dick had one just the same. He decided to stay a bit longer. 

A few minutes later the door opened and the pits got silent again. This was the only way he recognized that the person in the doorway was Danny. 

The guy had cut his hair in a similar way to Jazz’s but longer in the back with the sides pulled into a  small bun on top. He was clean shaven showing off his face. Damn the guy was right earlier he does win in charm. Face alone he beats me, even having been called handsome my whole life. If pretty boy had a poster face it would be Danny's. His blue eyes still shine the same way they did earlier but now out in the open they pierced my soul. Speaking of piercing he was now rocking some industrial bars in both ears, and the starts to gauges. He was wearing a nice outfit too, Cass would be mad that she missed out on sight. That’s what I thought before Danny looked at her door and smiled, I could sense a something between the doorway and him. It reminded me of when he had left earlier how he looked at Cass before he left. A second later Cass opened the door looking groggy, she eyes opened a fraction more than her usual uncaring gaze before she signed “You look nice, goodbye.” And slipped back into her room, I swear I saw a hint of a blush on her face. I get it though, I think even I might be blushing at the guy who I for sure knew was a Meta of some kind now. Only way to explain it, telekinesis and telepathy.

“Danny! Wow you really grew into your looks the last few years!” That’s right Danny had been missing the past three years. This was probably her first time seeing him cleaned up in along time.

When Cass and I first heard the story we looked into it, an article had stated that both Jack and Madeline Fenton had died along with their youngest child in a Lab accident a few years ago. We questioned Jazz one day after some pushing because the young girl had held a funeral for her parents, but never her younger brother. All she said at the time was “He is still around, Dead or not, Danny will come back to us.”

We decided not to push thinking she was in denial, we dropped the “us” part of that statement too, due to her being the last member of her family left. When I had met Jazz earlier this morning she was happier then I had ever seen her, which now made sense.

“Yeah kid, a real lithe Adonis!” The boy smirks back at my comment. 

“I just came to say bye to Jazz and Cass didn’t know you would still be here fridge.” Calling someone a fridge might sound like an insult but the way Danny said it made me want to smile like a giddy teenager. 

“Jazz and I were having a great time talking, where are you going?”

“Why don’t you take some of that money I gave earlier and take my sister out! I’m sure she would love to go on a date with you.” 

“Danny!” Hearing Jazz shout I grow red in the face. I had planned on asking her out soon anyways, but this kid went and made it all awkward. Yet here again, I felt his words echo in my head. 

“You know what he is right we should go out, what do you say Jazz? Make a date out of the night?” I turned to look her in the eyes and she is just as red as me.

“Yeah that sounds nice.” She quietly gets out.

“Great, you both have a wonderful night I should be back tomorrow. Oh and to answer your earlier question I’m off to see my kids! Bye!” Danny smirks dropping the bomb shell before turning quick and running back out the door. A thud from Cass’s room lets us know she heard as well.

I turn to Jazz who had her face in her hands shaking her head. 
 
I would definitely be grilling here about that, but maybe later. After their date.

Chapter Text

Sometimes I wonder if I go to far teasing, it has to be a ghost thing. Hell in the other timeline I practically introduced the culture of pranking. It should be fine, they should find it funny. I’m standing in between the portal I opened outside the dorm door and the one infront of me to Amity Park. I know I’m just stalling, taking a look around I see the ocean of green. I love the Infinite Realms, Ghost Zone, The After, The Inbetween, but it has never been home. I’ve had to stay away from Amity Park since its founding in the other timeline, didn’t want to break CW’s no paradox rule by meeting a Nightingale ancestor.

This would be my first time returning home since before I was taken into captivity. A shudder runs through me as I let out a chattering sigh. I paste a new fresh smile on my face and step through to see where I end up.

-Danielle-

This was not what I needed happening after I got Danny’s texts. I wanted to run to Nasty Burger and grab him a meal before he got here but ended up getting stopped by the nuisance. This is why I should’ve just gone in my Ghost form invisible.

“Listen Ellie, I get you can't tell me any details, but please just give my number to Jazz. I need questions answered! You’ve been back for three whole months and continue to dodge me, not this time.”

“Listen Nuisance, I already told ya, when Jazz comes back if she wants to talk she can. Now buzz off so I can get some errands done.”

The giant of a man reaches out and his hand grins my shoulder, he is dripping so much emotion it’s bordering ghost speak. The regret, anxiety, and guilt pour off him which is the only reason I don’t break his hand.

“Move your hand Nuisance, I won’t change my mind. You and everyone else in this town can wait for answers, although in my opinion none of you deserve them.”

I go to walk out of his grip and I feel myself stuck in place. The guy may be big, but his strength shouldn’t be anywhere near enough to keep me held down even in human form. Damn this town is just full of too many liminals. He probably doesn’t even realize he has enhanced strength around me.

“No Ellie you are gonna stay here and give me some answers finna-“

He is cut off as his hand is wrenched away effortlessly, and he is pushed into the wall next to the house entrance. I look up to see a familiar space and smile, it’s Danny! He looks so much better than before with a haircut and shave. Wearing clothes that actually fit him doesn’t hurt either. My cheeks burn realizing he was here to help me. 

"I could've done that myself you know!" He just gives me a knowing look and goes in for a hug.

~Excitement~Content~Embarrassed~
~EXCITEMENT~LOVE~PROTECT~

Danny’s Ghost speech is so loud if it was regular speech it would hurt my ears, instead it’s like being wrapped in a blanket of his emotions. It makes you want to get closer and listen not back away and cover your ears.

He turned his head back and a look of confusion spread over his face, looking down I could see the Nuisance had a similar expression.

“Fenton?””Dash?”

There was silence for half a beat longer before nuisance shot up and picked Danny up into a bear hug.

“Fenton you’re alive!!!” His voice echoed through the street. Thankfully it’s an empty enough road no one really notices.

Danny lets out a small laugh “Dash you got huge! I think you are about as big as my dad was or close to it.”

Tension dissolves off Danny shoulders as he calms down. The bear hug lasts about another thirty seconds before Dash puts down Danny with tears dripping down his face.

“I didn’t know you would care so much Dash, care to explain why you were grabbing on my kid?”

If guilt had a defined look it would be the one nuisance was wearing. The big man practically shrunk in front of us.

Turning to me he said “Sorry Ellie, I shouldn’t have been so pushy!”

Backing away as to not get tears on me I reassure him “It’s fine, Danny he has been hounding me since I got to town to get him in contact with Jazz. Tucker and Sam won’t tell him nothing and Jazz left after your parents passed. He wanted to know what really happened, he has been asking about you every time I see him. He never believed the Lab accident story.”

“Of-of c-course not, your parents might have been mad scientists, but they never would’ve let you get hurt with them around.”

Danny tenses, and after hearing what he went through before he escaped I know why. I put a hand on his shoulder, he looks over to me and smiles with a nod.

“I survived Dash, my parents did not. I was actually going to go to the cemetery to visit after talking with Dani-er-Ellie?” He gives me a look.

“I go by Ellie around town, hurts people less with us looking so similar. Call me however you want.”

“I’ll try out Ellie and let ya know, I always felt guilty you had to take a name after me didn’t seem right.” Ahh the cloned one guilt, I forget he had never gotten over that.

“We can try it out, listen I was gonna go to Nasty burger and grab some dinner before Nuisance interrupted me. Why don’t you to go to the cemetery and I’ll go get dinner for the TWO of us?” Nuisance Finnaly perks back up being included in the conversation again.

“Yeah, come on Fenton I’ll give ya a ride.” He points back to his hideous red truck.

“Ok Ellie, I’ll see ya home in a bit, be safe.” Danny says and kisses the top of my head. My face flushes.

~LOVE~
~Love~Embarrassment~

He turns toward Nuisance “Let’s go Dash and catch up.”

I watch them drive away before I switch forms and fly to NB invisible.

-Danny-

Dash has been chatting about how everyone’s been since I’ve been gone, well at least the people he stays in touch with. Most have are still in school going to Amity Community College. I can tell he is just giving me idle chatter due to being nervous.

“Yeah Kwan and Star’s newborn is the cutest little guy you’ve ever seen, still too scared to hold him though. I feel like he will fall apart if I hold him in my mitts.” That gets a laugh out of me.

“Haha yeah I get that, when my son was born it took me hours to feel comfortable holding him” Dash gets quiet.

“Is that where you have been, with your kid?” Ahh finally getting brave enough to ask.

“Do you want the whole story Dash or a simple answer?” He takes the time to contemplate, more thought into his answer than I ever saw him put into schools or his bullying.

“I want a full answer, the whole story.”

“Let’s wait till we get to my parents grave first then.” He nods, but continues speaking.

“I’m sorry Danny, for a lot, I shouldn’t have waited till you were gone to feel that way. I bullied you and made your school life miserable, after people said you passed away it made me take a look inwards. I don’t expect forgiveness, but I want you to know I changed. I never picked on another person since, and I’ve spent the last few years doing a lot for the community to make it a better place.”

“Dash I forgave you along time ago, we were kids. I’m glad to hear you’ve changed but I didn’t need you to tell me. I can see it, hear it in how you talk. You seem more complete, not some copy and paste cartoon bully.” We have finally pulled up and we are both getting out as I finish speaking.

“Lead the way? I haven’t been here before.” I ask him, he nods and we walk to the headstones in silence.

In a small corner I see a section plot, looks like dad wasn’t joking when he said he separated our families graves as not not infect the other inhabitants with our ecto-contamination.

It’s a nice plot, room for four with only three headstones. The site is well taken care of. My headstone gets my attention first. It has flowers on it fresh ones too.

“Ellie puts flowers out for you a lot, she has always said she doesn’t believe you are gone, but that you still deserved the flowers.” My eyes water as I read the stone.

Daniel James Fenton
XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX

A blessing to the world loved by many, and an amazing friend and brother.

I choke up a bit noticing the death date. Most people might think it was a typo, but I know it’s the date of my portal accident. My original death date, the one it took years for my friends to accept. This is a true memorial for me something I never knew I needed.

Pulling myself together I glanced at Mom and Dad’s side by side as they always were in life.

“Dash is anyone else in the graveyard?” I ask without looking up.

“No, just us why?”

“I told you I would give you the whole answer so here it is” I let the familiar white ring form around me, I slow the transformation down so that I can control it and make it look more familiar and human, easy to recognize. I hear a sharp intake of breath from Dash.

“Phantom..” Not a question but not quite a statement.

I look at him “I’ve always been Phantom, look at your face. Haha you bullied your own favorite hero!” His face turns red.

“Calm down Dash.” I say is I drop the transformation.

“I thought Phantom left after your house’s portal was condemned.”

“Close, I was captured by my parents, the followed through with their word.” He flinched and looked at me. In response I pulled my shirt up to show him the horror show under neath. He froze for a moment than realization hit. He turned and ran to the treeline, I could hear him throwing up and mumbling “molecule by molecule…”
My parents catch phrase.

It took a minute before he came back. I continue without letting him speak “They thought that Phantom, had killed Danny and was Overshadowing him. I can understand the hurt they felt no matter how misinformed. They turned me over to GIW after a few weeks of experimenting. I knew we weren’t home due to the unfamiliar lab, must’ve been a safe house of theirs. I got lucky, maybe because I still reminded them of “Dann-o” they never cut into my face. After transferring me to the GIW and getting access to more tech, their overshadowing theory didn’t hold up as well. I was too convincing, too many memories, too raw for them to continue and ignore the fact that I was both Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom. It might’ve been too late to fix their mistakes but they said they would get me to safety. They kept their word but died in the process.”

I wait a few more moments of silence before I continue "After I escaped from the GIW I took refuge with an went back to the portal in my parents house. Before leaving I wiped all the blueprints and computers in the house, and set small timed explosives onto the portal to make sure it would go down after I escaped. I made it to a powerful ghost in the Ghost Zone named Clockwork."

"I'm guessing a time ghost?" I jump a little, I had almost forgotten I was telling the story to someone and not just recounting it for myself. I take a shuddering breath and continue.

"THE Time Ghost, Clockwork, Kronos, Ori, The Norns, Father Time, all names to refer to him by. He watches over the timelines, throughout all time, he was a mentor for me. He offered me a way to get stronger and train. He told me he would stick me in an alternate timeline, that way I had free reign to grow into my powers. He said that once I completed my training he would pull me back to the moment I left. He messed up, I got lost for three years."

"Is that alternate timeline where you had your son? How long were you in the other timeline?" I smile happy to talk about my kid.

"Too long Dash, longer than sentient creatures should live to see. My son is Eridanus, he is six, technically ten but six years physically don't ask. He is amazing, I was lucky that I found a way to bring him with from from the other timeline."

"I would love to see the little Fenton!"

"I will bring him by eventually, he is recovering from coming back as well. We only got back yesterday." His eyes widen at that.

"You stopped the ghost invasion!!" I laugh at his reaction.

"Yes The Justice League is the one who actually helped me get back from the other timeline I owed them a favor, it wasn't an invasion though it was a poorly planned recovery mission. GIW is at work again, they managed to get a working portal and captured over a hundred ghosts. You will see more on the news soon, keep an eye out." He looks like he wants to continue asking questions, but I am ready to spend time with my other kiddo.

I reach down to touch their graves. From all evidence once a ghost core is shattered that being is truly gone, but I hope in some part of my I am wrong and that even ghosts have a place to go after. “I forgive you both.”

Standing back up straight I look to Dash whose face has hardened even with the tearlines dried.

“Come on Dash give me a ride home and tell me more about your community outreach. Oh and please don’t tell anyone I’m back yet!”

Dani-er-Ellie and I were sitting on the couch in my old homes living room. I haven’t left to explore most of the house, I’m not ready to see the Lab or rooms yet. Ellie had take Jazz’s old room being the only one that had been properly cleaned out. I kept spacing out thinking and was caught unaware when I was shoulder checked off the couch and into the floor.

“Come on dork, pay attention. Dissociate later and spend some time with me before ya leave again.”

“I can portal almost anywhere, even if I leave I’ll be back.”

A sad look crosses her face “Things happen, don’t take our time for granted and spend it like you can’t portal anywhere.” She is right, I throw on my smile.

“You’re right dork squared, let’s enjoy our time.”

Getting her smirk back she asks “So what’s the plan? When are you going to see them?”

“Who?”

“We both know you aren’t stupid, you know who. Sam and Tucker.”

“Yeah I plan to see them before we leave tomorrow, just gotta find a way to meet them both.”

“Well that’s easy, I’ll give you an address go see them tomorrow quit stalling weirdo. They deserve to know you are back.”

“Fine, now quit bugging me about them. After that I plan on us going to check on Eridanus, then I’m going to CW’s Keep to pick up something, and lastly if you wanted to come with me I was going to stop by the watchtower again and pick up Vlad. He should still be passed out.”

“Yeah I’ve been meaning to ask, but how did you do that? Shut him down like that? Also was that smart, he could tell everyone you’re Danny Fenton now?” I nod at her.

“Yeah, he can and probably will tell, but why should I care? Before it was to hide from the GIW and my parents, I don’t need to hide now. I’m stronger now than ever, strong enough to protect myself and all of you. I don’t see a reason to stay hidden, and you don’t have to either if you don’t want to. For your other question that’s simple, I cut off his ectoplasm, he can’t use it or produce more. The trick is wearing off though he will wake up in a couple days if nothing is done I assume.”

“You gotta teach me that trick!”

“That and more, I’ll make ya the strongest woman in this universe if ya give me the time to teach.” I say and playfully flick her head.

“I think it would be nice not to hide my powers, or my other form. I think I’ll wait till you and the League take care of the GIW though just to feel better about it..”

“That’s fine, whatever you are comfortable with.” In response she leaned forward and burped into my face. I might be near invincible, but a Nasty Sauce burp might be my kryptonite. My enhanced senses did not help.

“You little Brat!” I jump up to grab her but she goes intangible through the couch, changing to her ghost form. She flies through the house faster than I ever was at her age. I don’t transform, but still chase after her. My anxiety of going into other rooms gone with a game of ghost tag.

After playing around a bit more and the movie finishing we start winding down for bed, I still have yet to sleep so I’m excited when a thought pops into my head. I still needed to clean the rotten food out of the fridge.

“Ellie! I’m gonna step out for a minute, be back!” Without waiting for a response I portal out to Gotham.

Bringing my phone up I send a quick text.

Schrödinger’s boy:
Jazz, you make it home from date safe? It’s almost 11! Don’t be getting into any troubllleee😉

Better than Loomis:

Quit texting like that, and he is just walking me back to my room now. Now mind your own business, and send me some pictures of you and Dani together.

Schrödinger’s boy:
Sure, btw we are gonna start calling her Ellie for a bit, trying out something new, goodnight sis! Love you

I don’t wait for her response, but instead slip my phone in my pocket to go invisible.

-Jason-

Leaving Jazz and Cass’s place I practically skip out. My first date in forever and it went really good. It was just a simple dinner, but with my emotions so calm today and how happy Jazz has been since her brother got back it was like a perfect ending to the day. I step off campus to head toward my bike when I feel hand grab me one over my mouth and the other around my waist. Suddenly I’m pulled backwards and the skyline shifts, from an open parking lot to a darkened alley. The hand let me go and I turn swinging an elbow.

Whoever grabbed me catches is and pushes me up against the wall. I hear the bricks crack beneath the pressure, but feel no pain.

“Relax Fridge!” A voice hisses at me.

“Danny what the hell are you doing? How’d we get here?”

“Look I’m trying to be quick, my daughter I’ll give me shit if I’m gone for to long so hold still while I fix your issues.”

I go to respond, definitely with more venom in my voice than before, but before I can Danny shoved his hand into my chest. Not just into it, through it.

Shit, I’m going to be killed by my crush’s brother. Shit Cass’s crush is gonna kill me. I can’t move or resist I feel paralyzed. I see him pull a jar out of seemingly nowhere. He is gonna rip my heart out and keep it.

My mind jumps from scenario to scenario each getting increasingly worse as my vision turns green. I feel a flicker of cold as I look into Danny’s eyes. Shit they were green now, Lazarus Green brighter than mine have ever gotten. I needed to warn Jazz and Cass. This wasn’t the Danny they knew, it was a League sent clone or some shit. Forcing my hand to move for my gun takes more effort than anything I’ve ever done, but I feel my hand moving.

“Jason ~RELAX~ I’m just getting that nasty shit out of you. Can’t let you be around my sister with it.”

My body does as he says surprisingly. Moments later he pulls his had back, I expect a lot to happen. Blood to gush out, my heart in his hand, or my vision to go black. I do not expect to see gooey green hissing..thing in his hand. He rapidly sticks in in the jar and put the jar into my free hand. With my other patting my chest I feel no injury.

“Keep that thing or put it away. It doesn’t need to eat or breathe, even keep it as a pet if you want although it might be one mean motherfucker. Just don’t let it out somewhere it can get to someone else. Don’t want them going all crazy.” He says before stepping backwards and disappearing.

I stand still for a good five minutes before finally moving. I take a look at the creature in the jar and notice how clear headed I feel. I thought it was because of Danny, but even after leaving I feel this way still.

Holy shit, the creature in the Jar is the Pit Madness….it's not in me anymore.

Chapter Text

-Jason-

Walking into the cave from the staircase I can over here dick’s loud ass voice hollering.

“He just flicked it up at me and ran, how weird is that? I couldn’t catch up to him at all!”

Tim replies back sounding exhausted “It is weird, I will take a look at it but late. Too much to do around Gotham and with B, Robin, and Spoiler out we don’t have time to look into mystery millionaires. Batwoman, Bluebird, and Batwing are already out on the streets picking up the overflow. If B is gone another few days I will need you to suit up in that Bat-suit Nightwing.

I hear Dick’s excited squeal before I make it to the edge of the lights in cave and everyone turns toward me and gives me the look.

“Hey Hood, nice of you to finally show up! Guess your date lasted longer than you planned huh?” Dick says doing a little twist with his eyebrows.

“Who snitched?” I try and growl, but I don’t have that kinda emotional energy to do it.

“Me.” Cass whispers.

“Yeah well did you snitch on yourself for having a boyfriend finally?” The room blows up, thank god Steph is gone cause her voice added to this would be a mess.

“Not boyfriend” she looks irritated and signs to me.

“Oh yeah? Got a picture of yall cuddling that says otherwise!” She stares me down, if she had he suit on I wouldn’t be able to tell but looking now she was blushing all over.

“Awh my little sister is finally growing up! Who is the lucky guy?! I need to see that picture.”I shake my head.

“Nah, it’s in blackmail folder for now, but I do agree with your first question. Cass who is this guy!” She gives me a confused look knowing I already met him.

That’s when I bring out the glass jar and half the table jumps as I slam it down on the top.

The little green thing hisses and slams against the green tinted jar, bouncing off it crawls around and continues to make noise. It especially has issues with Tim, which makes since I can’t imagine how it would act if B was here.

“That’s a Pit Demon!” Tim yells “Where did you get a fucking Pit Demon Hood!?”

“From the Lazarus Pits obviously, come on RR be smarter.” I grin watching his face contort.

“Hood come on, stop teasing him.” Dick says admonishing.

“Technically that’s where I got it from though, that my pit demon. Everyone you are looking at my pit madness, fully out of my body. Say hi to little Todd!” I tap on the jar. Dick looks like he is about to cry.

“Oh Jaybird! You are serious! That is amazing, how do you feel?” He reaches out and pulls me into a hug.

Tim picks up the jar “Is that why it keeps hissing at me the most? How did you get it out.”

“I didn’t Danny did, he is a meta of some kind.”

“My Danny?” Cass signs looking at the jar shocked.

Dick hops on it before I can “Oh so he is your Danny huh?” Cass flushes.

“Yeah your boy cornered me teleported us into an alley. The he proceeded to put his hand through my chest, pulled that thing out with no injury to me. Shoved it in a jar and disappeared right after telling me to do what I want with it.”

“I met another meta today, the guy tossed Bane like a sack of Potatoes the disappeared on me. Any connection? He was a powerful meta, his aura lit up like a Christmas tree!” Duke finally chimes in.

“Describe him.” I say.

“Tall but fit thin, good looking, sense of humor like Dick’s.”

“Sounds like a great guy Orphan!” Dick says poking her in the side. She grabs his finger and twists it getting a yelp out of him.

“Yeah that sounds like Danny, Oracle can you pull up cam from Signal helmet. What kinda joke did he make anyways?” I say while thinking back on the guy’s attitude.

Babs comes over the coms “On it, had to clean up footage a little bit.

Duke puts both hands to his face and sighs “He pointed out how my name is a pun! A Batman pun, B named me after the bat signal!”

Everyone in the room goes still before we all burst out laughing at Duke.

“Oh my god I never put that together because it was B that named you. That’s amazing!” Dick was on the floor rolling.

“Pulling up on screen now.” Babs says as a picture of the grinning kid appears on screen.

“Yep that’s Orphan’s Danny!”

Tim screams out “That’s Danny Fenton!”

“Yeah, Jazz’s brother, you know Cass’s Roomate.”

“I never put the connection together, but I knew Danny. He died a few years ago!” That simmers down the mood.

“RR what do you mean he died? He said he was away, and we knew Jazz said her brother was missing but never that he died.”

“I met Danny four years ago, back in civilian life. We met at a science fair, the guy was an engineering genius. If most savants think in three dimensions he thinks in four! I heard he passed three years ago though. Look here!” He pulls up an obituary, he is right it does say a Daniel James Fenton passed away a little over three years ago. A picture of a sixteen year old Danny is on screen.

“Jason’s girlfriend has always been adamant that Danny was not dead, but missing. Guess she was right.” Cass signs.

“Jazz and I have gone on one date we aren’t together yet.” I realize my mistake when Dick grins.

“You said “yet” you liiiiike her.” Since he wants to act like his namesake I’ll get him and Cass back.

“Yes, I do like her, and she is a red head. So try not to fall for this one Dickhead.” I give my prettiest smile I can give and pull out my phone while Babs laughs over the comms at that one. Moments later the family group chat has a photo in it. It’s Cass in full view laying on Danny asleep, Danny awake grinning at camera as he holds up bunny ears over Cass’s head winking at camera.

Everyone looks at there phone then to Cass who is starring at hers.

“Rude.” She whispers.

Dick flounders at my insult for all of the three seconds it takes to pull his phone out.

“Damn Danny, he must’ve gotten a haircut and shave since this picture.” Duke says.

“Yeah he went and got one earlier today, said he hadn’t been able to since he went missing.” Thinking on that, where had he been he couldn't cut his hair or shave?

“This is him! This is the gold man from Bat burger! Orphan you are dating gold man!” Dick yells out. I don’t give her a chance to respond.

“Danny and Orphan ate Bat burger before we got back, how did you know about the Gold?”

“How did I know? He gave it to me, how did you know?”

I explain to him about Jazz needing to fence a giant gold bar her brother gave her, and dick tells about his bat burger experience.

“I guess the cute girl he mentioned the food was for was you Orphan!” He finishes.

She squirms at that.

I pick up the gold plate and see the same marking on it as the gold bar Jazz showed me this morning.

“Yeah that matches the other gold, but this is nothing compared to what he had. Man he did mention being rich, said he was richer than me the little prick.”

“So Orphan’s boyfriend is rich, a genius, handsome as hell, and a meta? God has his favorites I guess.” Tim sighs.

“RR you are three of those things don’t be too sad.”

Duke pops in “I am also three of those things, but to be all four? Red is right, it’s not fair.”

Babs speaks up “So who is gonna tell B about the Meta in Gotham sticking his hands through chests.”

Dick finally gets away from Cass and sits back down to say “A meta we have all coincidentally met at one point or another. He won’t like it at all.”

Tim speaks next “Danny was always a good guy, I grieved when I heard he passed. I’ll see what I can do about holding off B for you Orphan. Him and the others have been pretty busy on watchtower so you should have time to figure it all out.”

Cass smiles and signs “Thanks” before adding “not my boyfriend though.”

“Good now can I borrow “little Todd” to take a look at him?” Tim asks me. Chuckling I respond.

“Sure, no experiments though. He may be a little monstrosity made up of my hate and anger, but he is still part of me. You all dealt with my madness over the years respectfully, transfer that on to little Todd.” Tim shakes his head but agrees.

-Danny-

After yet another pacing filled night of no sleep I am standing in front of a townhouse close to the Amity community college trying to not back out of this.

From next to me Ellie says “Come on just knock, they know I’m coming over so if you back out I’ll just tell them. Sam might actually kill you again if she finds out from me.”

I don’t know why I agreed to bring this little rat “It’s not that simple! They’re things you don’t know about the situation!”

“Danny I know you and Sam were talking about an early marriage before you disappeared , we all know. You’ve been gone three years and we only had each other to talk too. Grow up and handle it like a man.” I glare at her and sigh.

“You are right, throw me in front of an mindless ancient monster that destroys minds by just being visible and I have a fun little spar, but make me talk about feelings and I start shaking. It’s pathetic..”

“No I get it, I’m part of you remember. Confrontation anxiety gets me too, but that doesn’t mean you can ignore the problem.”

“You’ve spent to much time with Jazz.”

“Yeah I have, now knock.” I go to knock but hesitate.

“I can’t do it I’ll come back after the UN shit. Come on Ellie let’s get out of..” I turn around to grab Ellie and portal out when a noise catches my attention from the sidewalk.

“Oh come on Sam why would you drop those!? Do you know how much those electroni-“ a second thud comes as another bag is dropped to the ground.

Twenty feet from us are my two closest friends in the world. Sam who dropped her back first has her mouth hanging open, she hasn’t gotten any taller since I saw her last, but her styles changed. Not so much that she isn’t goth anymore but half her hair has grown back out to her natural blonde color, while the other half is dyed black. The sides of her hair are shaved and the rest in a top knot. Her outfit has some actual color to it as well, only shades of green, but still color. Tucker dressed basically the same as he always did, except he has broadened out a bit, still same height though. Without the baby fat he is handsome, must have switched to contacts as well because no glasses. He has a head full of dreads that come out from under his ragged red cap.

“Danny..” he nearly whispers.

“Hey guys, I’m back.” I say awkwardly rubbing my neck and grinning.

The both run at me and pull me into a group hug. Ellie can’t resist and joins in as well.

The hug lasts along time, long enough that both of my friends are able to hide the fact they were crying into me. My shirt however is wet with the proof.

“Danny where have you been?! We thought you were dead!” Sam says and I get a punch in the shoulder from her. I take it and let myself be swayed, she deserves that.

“Can we go in? I’ll tell you both the whole story, but not on the street.”

Sam and Tuck lead us into their place, we sit at the table and I tell them the same story I’ve given everyone else. What happened without acknowledging anything that happened in the other timeline.

There are a lot of tears and anger throughout the story, but by the end it’s met with silence.

“Sam, I need to tell you something..” I hate this part, I’ve been dreading it.

“No, we need to tell you something first Danny.” Tuck says and Sam nods. Two against one I will let them go first.

Sam starts “Danny it tore us all up when you disappeared we looked everywhere for a year before finally focusing back on our lives. Even then we never stopped keeping an ear out we want you to know that.” I nod, I’m more upset that they put a year of their lives into it than the fact they stopped looking. I hate clockwork for how much everyone worried for me.

Tuck continued this time “but you were gone and we only had each other to rely on. We love you Danny but we had our lives and we eventually moved forward with them. That’s doesn’t mean we ever forgot you though.” I go to speak and say it’s all ok but Sam puts a hand up.

“Let us finish Danny.” I nod for her to continue.

“Look Tuck and I stayed in Amity, meaning we only had each other to talk to in person most of the time. That lead to us getting closer.” I can see where this is going I look between the two and notice for the first time their hands. They both have rings on them, matching ones.

I freeze and they notice my gaze, slowly the reach out and grab each others hands.

“We got married six months ago Danny, please don’t hate us or be mad.” Tuck says.

I start laughing “Hahahahaha!” I slam my hand on the table and get a look from all three in the room.

“He’s lost it.” Dani says

“Is this worse than yelling?” Tuck squeaks out.

“I don’t know, but this is not how I expected things to go.” Sam says quietly.

I continue laughing and I stand up to walk around to my best friends and grab them both into another hug.

“Congrats you guys I’m so happy for you. And thank you for making this so easy on me!” They look confused, Ellie starts laughing as well.

Putting them down I take a step back and explain my reaction “Look guys, however long I was gone for you both, it was a lot longer for me. I moved on too, I had lives over on that side. I have a kid as well. The whole reason I was stressing about coming over was having to give the break up talk to Sam! I couldn’t be happier that you to are together. I’ve never wanted anything, but you both to be happy.”

“You have a kid!!” Tuck tells in my ear.

“Two counting Ellie, I have a son named Eridanus. He is in the GZ recovering from the trip, hopefully you can both meet him when he is better.”

I let them go and go to sit back down. I really meant what I said to them. I’m glad they have each other.

“So now that all that is out of the way, tell me about how Queen Veggie and King Meat decided to get together?”

It takes them a minute to recover, but once they do we all sit there trading stories for the rest of the morning.

Chapter Text

Things have been going great at Sam and Tuck’s. After the initial talk it’s been positive stories, it took us no time at all to get back to what we were. Looking at my phone I notice the time.

“Shit it’s already past noon, Ellie we have to get a move on.”

Tuck looks like I just kicked a puppy “You just got back after years and already made plans?”

“Yeah Danny, you can spare a day to catch up.” Sam give me her signature scowl.

“Sorry, but I really can’t. I left Vlad up in space with the JL and don’t want him to wake up on them. Last thing we need is a overshadowed Superman in space. Plus I wanna go check on Eridanus, and prep for the UN meeting.”

“Fine, but only because the whole Vlad in space thing. The rest you could invite us to you know, we still technically have court seats.” Tuck mutters.

“Not just technically, the Court Hall got an update! Our thrones look sick as shit!” I reach over and flick Ellie’s head.

“Ow! Well they do, the whole keep just feels powerful to stand in.”

“Probably because my second crown.”

“Whoa dude you got a second crown? How does that work?” Tuck ask pulling out a tablet.

“Damn Tuck finally updated from PDA’s huh?”

“Got forced to now answer the question Danny!” Sam shouts over her husband before he can go on a tech rant. I really thought I could give him the slip on that. Looking over I see Ellie has big old puppy dog eyes waiting for the answer too.

“I fought Pariah Dark in that timeline too, it’s pretty simple. They used to be the same size and kind of crossed into each other like a gyroscope but all floaty. Once I got back to this timeline the other crown lost a lot of power and kinda orbits my other one.” I let the go of the invisibility on the crowns and the all give me a sarcastic oooh and aaaah.

“Yeah yeah hardy har!” I pluck the smaller crown off my head. And look at it. My main crown burns changes shape constantly, between its original green flaming crown, to a high tipped ice crown, and even an aurora halo sometimes. The smaller one never really changed.

I play around with it in my hands when Tuck continues the line of questioning "You seal him in the sleep sarcophagus again?"

Taking a deep breath I say "No, I befriended him before he took the throne. I tried to help him adjust to the Ring and Crown, lead him down the right path."

"What do you mean the right path, he wasn't always an evil tyrant?" Sam says looking incredulous.

"No, he was an a knight working under his predecessor High King Ridwān one of the longest termed rulers of the throne. Ridwān decided he was ready to move on and fade, so he ordered Pariah to challenge him thinking he was the most likely to succeed him in an actual fight. Ridwān took the crown and ring off and they fought for days, it was amazing to see. It made me realize that's how I want to go out as well. See you can't purposely lose or the crown will reject the Challenge, after awhile Ridwān started to lose momentum till he was eventually forced into his core. After an hour or so his core started to fade. I saw Pariah weep that day, cried from losing a King and a father figure. It gave me hope I could help him." All three gave me looks of sadness, they are realizing that version of Pariah was a friend for me.

"Five years he handled the royal relics, Pariah Dark had five years as a good king. The corruption of the ring got to him in the end though, he was paranoid of the other ancients. So sure they would stage a coup, I guess in our timeline he was right in the suspicion, but i'm assuming it happened the same. He pushed the ancients to revolt by his mistreatment of them out of paranoia and madness. Then he came after me, he had lost himself completely. The version of him I knew before the throne would never have wanted to act that way, nor would he want to be locked away for all time. I ended him, completely shattering his core." I can't look up at them after I finish speaking, instead I play around with the crown. After a long silence I decide to change the somber mood. I smirk knowing what to do with the spare crown.

“Here take this since you all wanna rag on me about how it looks.” I place the crown above Ellie’s head, and everyone kinda freezes when it sticks.

Moments later Ellie’s transformation kind of automatically triggers and the crown vibrates till it changes. It become a kind of wreath/halo of arcing lightning yet perfectly silent.

“Danny what the hell was that!? You can’t just crown me without saying anything! I don’t want responsibilities! I thought you said Eridanus was the heir apparent, shouldn't you save the crown for him?” I laugh at how flustered she is getting.

“Dang I was gonna ask for it.” Tuck huffs.

“It looks good at least Ells! Even though he should’ve asked permission.” She affirms then give me a side eye from my nightmares.

“All of you relax, the crown is all for show. Like I said no real power OR responsibility. Eridanus will still be heir apparent unless you change your mind, but if I gave him that crown he could never take the one for this timeline. Just think of it as a princess crown.” I say and reach out to pinch her cheeks, she proceeds to bite my hand before I reach her face.

We all laugh. This has been a way better day than I expected it too even after all the depressing conversations.

“Look Danny I know you have to go, but what’s the plan after the UN meeting? If GIW goes down then what you joining the JL? And Ells now that he is back you should really start travelling again, it’s not good for your core you have been here since the ghost invasion started. Now that it’s over we don’t need the constant protection.”

Ellie bites her lip and looks like she is thinking. After a few seconds she give me the 'help me out' look.

Sighing I say “No JL for me, I kind of merged my obsessions in a way so as long as the world isn’t at risk I won’t have to do much. I think I wanna go start college, work on some engineering projects. I kind of fucked up some in the other timeline and see everything back like two decades somehow so by the time things caught up to the current year it was like the 90’s there.” I take a breath and see the dumbfounded looks. “The butterfly effect is real! I’m surprised all of us were born on that side of time. Well all accept you Ellie, I kinda saved Vlad from his accident. Wanted to see how he would turn out, so you are an original still!”

She snorts at that “Calling a clone an original is kinda jacked Danny.”

I laugh too, Tucker works up his question “So moving back to Amity for the community college or..?”

“Sorry guys I can’t, I don’t wanna stay in Amity ever again. Not long term at least, I can visit anytime no problem. I think I might go to Gotham, to be with Jazz. Ellie you are welcome to stay here or come too, traveling is no issue. I can teach you to open portals that way you can have free reign.” That gets a smile from her. Sam and tuck both have smiles as well, but more like resigned smiles.

Sam starts first “I kinda figured you would never come back here at all, I’m just glad you came to see us.”

Tuck follows up “ You better keep your promise and visit a lot, take our numbers too!” I pass them my phone.

After another ten minutes of goodbyes I portal Ellie and I out. We stop at Fenton works so she can grab a go bag. While she is doing that I go up to my old room finally. When I was chasing Ellie last night we passed through but I kind of just went with the mood and ignored a lot of it. I assumed everything would be covered in dust and left how it was. Obviously someone had done some cleaning. Half my stuff is in boxes and the furniture looks like it was covered in plastic till recently. The bed looks kind of slept on. I smile knowing it must have been Ellie.

I realize all my sentimentality is gone when it comes to the objects in my room. It was the people I really missed, they were the ones I kept in my memory. Walking out I shut the door and see Ellie in the hall.

“You ready to go template?”

“You sure you don’t wanna take another nap in my old bed before we go?” I snap back at her. Her face goes red and I see a punch coming at me. Damn she is fast! Even in her human form she might be as fast as me in mine. I’ll have to check her speeds when we go into the realms.

“You’re an ass you know that!”

“Watch your Language young lady that’s no way for a five year old to speak!” I say in mock offense, before she can throw another punch I let myself fall backwards and tear a portal using my body weight slipping into the Realms. My pocket vibrates as I do, and I see Ellie following me through.

‘Goodbye Amity Park’ is my last thought before the portal closes again.

Our trip to the Realms gave some complicated results. On the positive side of things Eridanus was settling in perfect. There wasn’t any fighting between the council, Observants, and I for who would be attending the UN conference with me either. We settled on Pandora and Frostbite, which was probably the best combo we could get to prevent a war. Fright Knight was glowing purple with how much his core was being fed. “Protecting” someone stronger than you can’t really feed an honor obsession like his. Both Pariah Dark and I were always stronger than Fright, but protecting a royal infant core was boosting him like a power plant. He has always been in the middle ranking in terms of power for an Ancient, but I doubt any of them could touch him one on one except Pandora currently.

On the negative side I made a fool of myself for yelling at Pandora and Ellie, the latter actually left to cry.

All I said was one word “No!” What I didn’t realize is I let out my aura and infused it with ghost speak. Both the warrior and my kid were hit full force with my emotions. They didn’t deserve that, all Ellie did was ask about Eridanus’ other parent.

After calming down I asked Pandora what I said in ghost speak, she gave me back a single response.

~Grief~

I sighed and said goodby before going to find Ellie. I found her inside some kind of stream zone that cut across the Realms like a river. When I entered it I found her floating in a sitting position, but all around us images throughout time were popping up. I sat next to her and just let the silence sit till she was ready.

Time didn’t really feel right inside the stream, this felt like it was outside my power set. I thought I might be like Clockworks lair, but it was different. It showed past possibilities, like if I reached out for one I could change history.

“This is my lair, I haven’t named it yet. Also don’t ask for an explanation I don’t understand it yet either. Pandora told me it’s always been here, but I was the first to ever enter.” Realizing what that meant I gave her a somber smile.

“That means you are probably an ancient to, did Pandora explain that?”

“Yes..”

“I’m sorry.” I say and pull her into a hug, it’s a double meaning apology.

“For being an ancient? Or hitting me with the hardest mood swing of all time.”

“Both, you didn’t deserve that, and it definitely wasn’t on purpose. That wound is still too fresh and I didn’t think before I spoke.”

“I understand, it just hurt to feel your hurt if that makes sense. Why apologize about being an ancient? Everyone else who knows keeps congratulating me, it’s kinda why I was ticked off about the crown thing.”

“I said sorry because You and I are similar at heart, we still have a human side. Being an immortal being that represents a concept is hard to imagine. We have different starting point than most other ancients.”

“Most? Not all?”

“No, there is another ancient who started out as a mortal like us. You know him too.”

“Please tell me it’s not Vortex, I can’t imagine him as a mortal ever.” I laugh agreeing with her.

“No, there was a human mortal man named Morpheus. I met him in the other timeline which is how I found out about it. He was a simple man born with a talent for art, and a serious case of narcolepsy and hypersomnia. I was friends with him, and he was always sad because he never had enough time to paint or sculpt. He often slept up to twenty or so hours a day, but one day he found me and told me a trick he was able to do. He told me he controlled his dream, I told him it was called lucid dreaming. From that day on I took care of him as he slept, when he would wake up he told me of his dreams. One day he went to sleep and never woke up.. I found him in the infinite realms a few years later, yet somehow already thousands of years old. He still greeted me as he always did, but instead of his old dreams he told me of the new dreams he gave to others.”

“Nocturn?..” she says it as a question, but she already knew the answer. I nod anyways.

“You can always talk to me when that dread hits you, or you can talk to him if I’m not around.”

She moves into my hug and snuggles up a bit deeper and we just sit for awhile.

It could’ve been years that we sat in silence, but once we left the stream I looked over to our right and I saw myself entering it. A shiver runs down me as I’m reminded of my other goal while in the realms.

“Ellie have I ever told you about Dan?” I say as I pull her with me toward Clockwork’s keep.

Chapter Text

“So if I understand right there is a future version of you who cannibalized Vlad, then went crazy and destroyed the world and all the heroes without the power of the Crown and Ring? And now you want to go pick up this imprisoned version and try to reform him? Does that make Dan like my full parent both mom and dad?” Ellie asks.

“First don’t refer to Vlad as you mom unless it’s to his face, second technically no, because it was strictly our ghost half that combined so still half a parent. Yes I want to reform him, but we would need to make him a human body first and help reform his obsession before freeing him.”

“Sounds like a great idea, sure so how are we gonna get their human side back?”

I look forward away from her during the flight so that I don’t see her reaction. “Look you are gonna be pissed, but I don’t see another way to do it..”

“You’re gonna clone yourself aren’t you?”

“Yeah, it’s the best option. Probably mix some Vlad DNA as well to stabilize him.”

“So a Sibling, Uncle, or Parent?” She asks with resignation.

“That’s up to him and you as well, I just think he deserves another chance. It took a long time to feel that way, but I want to give him the opportunity to change at least.”

“Fine, but if it goes wrong I’m calling YOU mom from now on.”

“Call me that now if you want, it’s all the same to me anyways.”

“They/them now?”

“Not particularly, it’s more fluid than anything, call me how you like.” I say and point forward “Look there’s CW’s keep. Race ya there?”

She give me a crooked smile before throwing an ecto blast at me and dashing off. She is definitely faster than me in ghost form I notice, I would need to use the Crown to keep up. I space step into the keep to win regardless.”

Appearing I see the familiar portals showing current events everywhere. Ignoring that I look for the familiar container my other self is in.

On a shelf with many other artifacts I see a Fenton Thermos locked away, as I reach up to grab it I hear Ellie fly in behind me through the porthole.

“There is no way you beat me! Cheat!”

“Nah just to quick for you to see.” I wink at her and put the thermos into my chest.

“We will have to wait until I have free time to do anything with him yet, I’ll probably have Fruitloop help since I’m sure the creep still has the appropriate equipment. Speaking of you ready to go pick him up?” I ask her.

I get back a deep growl from her stomach “Think we can grab a bite first? Flying like that always makes me so hungry!”

I reach out for the tether I have on Vlad’s core, after a few seconds I feel the connection. It’s super thin and will probably break soon letting him wake up.

“If we do we have to be quick so I pick the place, deal?”

“Fine where too?”

“Ever had Bat Burger?” I ask giving a large grin.

-Dick-

After a long night on patrol I crashed hard not waking up until, Jason finally left and went home. Around noon Tim, Cass, and myself were starting to get up. Alfred had left an hour prior to go stock up on some things, giving us the perfect opportunity to eat out at my favorite Gotham food chain.

I listen to Tim talk about ‘Little Todd’ and his theories on how it could be used to mess with Ra’s. Tim and I are shoved in the booth together since Cass decided to gatekeep her side all to herself. Our food finally arrives and I go to dig into my Jokerized Fries when the door chime rings and a see a familiar looking girl skip in. I couldn’t place the face until the second figure walked in behind her, it was Danny! The girl was nearly a smaller carbon copy of him.

I slap Tim’s shoulder and point and he tenses up and stop talking, Cass turns around and spot them as well. She smiles and signs to us “Not telling, funnier that way.”  I assume she is referring to the girl.

“Alright since I’m the expert on Bat Burger I will order for us!” Danny yells out as loud as he had been the day before. Why he called himself an expert after only eating here once is beyond me. I ordered his meal before also, I don’t think he has ever even looked at the menu. He confirms my suspicion by freezing at the counter and squinting at the menu options.

“Come on Danny I’m hungry!!”

“Nice to meet you hung-“ he is cut off by a faster than human punch to the liver. Judging by how he twist it was stronger than human too. I guess we have two open metas around Gotham now. I look over and see Tim typing in a tablet looking up to them then back down. Cass is hyper focused in grinning at the pairs actions.

“Don’t, you are better than those jokes Danny now order.”

He proceeds to order two large Batmeals and a Robin Meal.

“Gotta get you a kids meal, you needa act your age more often!” She growls at Danny in response.

“Hush and go find us a spot to eat while I get drinks and pay.” He says and the girl turns away from him. Pretty quickly she spots Cass, smiles and waves at her. She trots up to us and pulls a chair from a nearby table to the edge and props her feet up.

I reach a handout across the table to introduce myself. “Hi, I’m Dick. Dick Grayson." She snorts then the little gremlin kicks a shoe off and grabs my hand with her toes. I cringe, but maintain a smile.

“Need to find a better name, I’m Ellie. First name is all you get. Hi Cass!” Cass laughs and waves at her.

“I’m Tim, Tim Drake-Wayne. I'll keep my hands to myself though.”

“Like the rich Waynes?” Is all she says Tim nervously chuckles and nods. Then he turns to see Danny walking toward us and hops up.

“Danny!”

“Ancients, is that you Timmy!” Danny sits the drinks down on the table without looking and pulls Tim into a hug. Seeing my little brother return it with the same effort I think Tim undersold their friendship, although him admitting to actually grieving should’ve told me everything.

He pulls back and grabs Tim’s face like he was the one who was presumed dead this whole time, that’s when he spots Cass. For a moment they are both silently staring at each other. Suddenly they both smile wide at each other and Ellie is fake gagging.

“Guys I can hear ghost speak to, don’t flirt in front of me please.” Cass blushes and Sanny turns to flick her ear.

“Ow!”

“Hush you’ll understand when you are older kiddo.” She growls at him, but says no more. Tim gives me a look, and I shake my head he quickly goes back to typing on his tablet.

Danny sits down right next to Cass naturally and looks at all of us “So Cass, Timmy, and Dick walk into a Bat Burger..?”

“Brothers” Cass signs.

“Jason and you are Wayne’s?” She nods.

“Cool, but also now I feel bad because I was talking about how cute you were to your own brother.” He says giving me a look. I give him a nonchalant wave.

“Want your gold back now that you know we are rich?” I say.

“Nah, I’m still richer than you. Keep it as a tip Dickyboy”

Ellie speaks up “I’ll take some gold!”

“No, you won’t! I’ll get ya set up with a fund and some gold later behave.”

“BeHaVe..” Dani mocks back.

Tim clears his throat “So Danny, back from the dead how’s that feel?”

He grins and says “Only halfway back so far, i’ll let ya know when I get the rest of the way back.”

Ellie hollers at this like it’s the best joke he has ever told. I feel like I’m missing something.

Danny continues “ I am happy to be back, gotta get undeclared dead and my identity back in order, but overall things have been great. It’s weird I’ve met the majority of your family since getting back though.” He says what we were all thinking.

I speak up “Yeah, but hey that’s Gotham. You could run into anyone, but speaking of I have something to say. Thank you for helping out Jason, that’s from all of us.” Tim nods and Cass reaches out and squeezes Danny’s hand. Without hesitation he flips it over and squeezes hers back. I almost comment on how cute they look when I see something on his hand peeking from under his slightly to long sleeves.

“Nice ink! It looks new?” Tim says before I’m able to.

“Yeah got it yesterday! Still fresh.”

“You got a tattoo without me!” Ellie yells.

“You went home early, snooze ya lose.”

As he says this a employee in uniform similar to my old Robin outfit walks over with three trays balanced bringing their food.

Danny takes the trays.

“Did you really get me a Kids meal just to mess with me? I told you I was hungry!” Ellie whines.

“Relax dork, the Robin meal is for me I wanna play with the toy.” Danny says and all of us at the table laugh as he puts both large meals in front of her.

“I should get a job here Danny, it would be cool to dress up as Robin! Not that one, that suit is dorky, but the current Robins.” Tim snorts and should checks me slightly.

“If that's the only reason then I can just steal the real Robin's suit for ya, you are both shrimps so it should fit.”

“I’d be careful the current Robin is called the stabby one for a reason.” I warn.

“Really? I’ll just bring a ski mask and Rabbit to trade then. Should keep him busy enough if I leave his sword alone as well.” Both him and Ellie laugh at this. Tim and Cass smile, I give a nervous one because honestly that would probably work.

Danny continues “You’d be the youngest Robin ever!”

Tim speaks up “Actually the youngest Robin goes to the current one at ten, sorry Ellie.”

“Nah I got him beat by five years.” Both Tim and I freeze and give them a look, Cass laughs a little. This must be what she wasn’t telling us.

“Tim, Dick, I should introduce her better. This is Danielle, she is my daughter, as well as my clone and only five. Cass looks like she came to a realization, she had to know about the clone thing so it must have been the daughter part that clicked for her.”

Ellie looks scared and elbows Danny a bit. Tim must notice the signs of her getting defensive so he quickly speaks up.

“Don’t worry Ellie, clones are welcome around her. My best friend is a clone as well no worries.” Tim says and Ellie’s posture relaxes slightly. I will have to get on to Tim for giving that out so freely, but it's nice to see the girl relax.

After talking for much too long we all dig into our food and it’s all small talk from here. Tim and Danny talk about tech stuff and Danny’s plans going forward, mostly about college. I notice Cass and Danny's arms crossed a bit, probably holding hands under the table. Which is crazy to see, Cass rarely opens up outside of family members and from what I know they only met two nights ago.

It’s bittersweet to see but also worrying, I don’t want to see her get hurt. With as many mysteries as this guy has it’s a strong possibility that’s how it will go. Granted he is pretty open about himself which is a good sign. Hopefully Bruce won’t push him away.

Danny finished his meal first and with his free hand he pulls out the bat figure toy, it’s a Red Robin one. One of the few I don’t have.

“Dang pulled the nerd Robin!” That gets a good laugh out of Cass and I.

“I’ll trade ya for a spare Orphan one I have, I’m missing Red Robin. I feel that one might be more your taste.” I feel Cass kick me under the table.

“Sure! Until then this one will work.” Then with his free hand he hovers it over the toy.

A moment later a bright green drop of what looks like Lazarus water drips from his hand onto the toy. The drop spreads across the whole figure causing it to slowly start glowing. We all freeze including Ellie, so she must be seeing this for the first time as well.

“Danny should you be doing that out in the open?” Ellie asks skeptically giving looks between Tim and I.

“Why not? Cass saw my portal, and I shoved my hand through their other brothers chest last night. I’m sure they know we have abilities. They are cool.”

“But doesn’t Batman like hate powers in Gotham?”

I speak up at that “That’s actually a misconception he doesn’t hate metas, he just doesn’t want metas in Gotham interfering or playing as heroes. Especially no villains, so you are both good at least i'd hope.”

“Yeah relax Ells and watch.” He then blows on the now glowing green Red Robin toy when it starts to shudder.

Moment later the toy turns its head and looks at Danny.

“It’s ALIVE!” He yells.

The toy starts doing parkour off the trash spread throughout table.

Tim decides to lose his grip at this moment, seconds later his head hits the table.

“Timmy you all good bud?” Danny asks.

I nod “He has been up almost 60 hours, it was bound to happen at some point. Do you both have any plans today?”

“We do actually otherwise I’d suggest we all spend a bit more time together, you still owe me a movie without passing out.” Danny says to Cass who grins and nods.

“Can’t we skip picking up the fruitloop? These guys seem way cooler.”

“Yeah Ells that’s a low bar though most people are cooler than him.”

I go to ask about this “fruitloop” when the living action figure falls down suddenly still.

“Shit speak of the Devil, Ellie we have to go now, he is awake.” Ellie’s eyes go wide and she shoves back out of her chair.

“Well come on and portal us there!”

“No portals, can’t let them know I can do that. I’ll show ya how I beat you in that race earlier. Dick it’s been good meeting you for real this time, tell Timmy I said bye and I will see him again soon.”

Cass signs “Text me?”

He signs back “Definitely, you can give my number to them as well.” They share another long glance and Ellie has the same reaction as before.

“Come on Danny that can wait till later!”

They both stand up and Danny stands behind Ellie then grabs the back of her head and waist.

“Later!” He says and then he steps forward, the space around us shifts and pulls and they are gone, no portal or lights just a sound that reminds me of a Zeta tube.

The employees and other guest are all looking at us. I turn to Cass and sign “What’s up with those looks you two were sharing?”

“Mind your business.” Is all I get back. Guess I should wake Tim up and get us all back to the manor.

Before we leave I swipe the Red Robin toy off the table.

Chapter Text

As Ellie and I are in the Zeta stream I push out some ghost speech to warn her.

~TRANSFORM~

Even though my body is being pulled and pressed I still feel the white rings form from myself.

Recognized Phantom P-0-1

Recognized {Redacted} P-0-2

Looking around it seems we ended up outside of the mess hall this time. We get a few glances from surrounding watchtower employees and a few heroes, no one I recognize though. I pull Ellie’s awestruck figure over to the mess hall bay window as we soak in residual obsession energy.

“How’s this for travel kiddo, you didn’t get to enjoy it last you were here.” As we stand I let my core search the space station until I find who I’m looking for.

“I’ll be right back, don’t break nothing.”

“I’ll think about it, also while we are here call me Banshee.”

“Oooh fancy!” I grin as I back step through three floors into the holding cell where a groggy Vlad is sitting up.

“Is.. is that you da-“ I cut him off.

“Don’t say my name again, I already had to adjust memories of the heroes once. Don’t wanna scramble their brains with powers I am barley used to using. Nod if you understand me.” Instead of nodding he glares and goes to transform.

This time I reach out and grab the violet rings before they can cover him and hold them in place. A pained look crosses over his face.

“Aghhh p..p.please stop it huuurts!!” He whines.

I sigh and close off his core again, this time I leave enough that he can stay conscious even if he can’t use his power.

He falls to the grown heaving, and I pull out a cheap plastic Dracula mask and throw it in front of him.

“Wear it or not, if you put it on I’ll wipe the memory of you from the tower as well.”

He spits up the bile in his mouth, grabs the mask and sticks it on.

“Glad to see you haven’t matured at all little badger.”

“How are you alive? Did your obsession change?” I ask needing the answer. He goes and sits on the bench in the holding room and leans his head back on the wall.

“Yes, losing Madeline, you, and even Jack surprisingly almost killed me. I lost my mind for a few weeks in the Realms. It wasn’t looking good, but over time my core changed from specific relationships to family itself. I’ve been living off D…your clone and your sister.”

“My daughter and sister, congrats by the way. Banshee and I have decided you are her mom and I’m the dad.”

“Hm of course that’s the route you two would go. I’m sure you think that will bother me in some aspect, but I just told you my obsession is family now. Being called a mother still fuels me enough.” I can hear the smirk in his tone.

“Go home Plasmius, I’ll see you there. I grab him and push him through a portal.

Of course the Fruitloop would be creepy enough to enjoy being called a mom. I shiver and decided to tell Ellie nevermind and that he is banned from all parental terms in my presence.

Stepping back into the mess hall I see Ellie surrounded by a group of young heroes, one of them I recognize.

“Yo cereal girl, why are you all surrounding Banshee?” The blonde and purple spins around.

“King Phantom, we were just trying to find out where you went.”

“I took back Plasmius to process him in our side. The main force here? I got news from the Realms for them.” She nods and give looks to the other three standing around Ellie.

“I will inform them you are here now, you can follow behind us.” She says, the shaggy brown haired kid in goggles takes off ahead of us. Must be another flash, wonder if he was told about the summons.

As we walk Ellie keeps glancing toward the guy in the leather jacket and sunglasses, underneath his jacket I see a Superman shirt. I take notice of his soul and smile.

“So neverborn, why the sun glasses up here? All the windows have have a filter already, is it just for the looks?”

~Stop~
~TEASING~

“What did you call me?” He growls and tries to get into my face.

“Superboy!” The others yell grabbing at him.

“Relax, that’s the respectful term the Realms use for our kind.” Ellie says toward him and continues “He is trying to tease me by causing a scene. I’m a clone too.”

He relaxes at this, but his eyes widen a moment. “Oh, sorry King Phantom, I didn’t realize that was proper terminology.”

“While it is the proper term, she is right I said it to get a reaction out of you. Banshee’s only experience with other clones hasn’t always been the best. I wanted to see what you did.” I say and continue walking forward. I listen and hear behind me.

“Sorry about that, he can see the shapes of souls. Due to that he thinks it’s funny to shock people by revealing their natures.” Ellie giggles, I hear the others respond, but I stop listening.

Moments later we enter into the familiar meeting room, which happens to be a lot fuller than the previous times I’ve entered. I get a full round of greetings from the familiar faces before a boisterous voice booms out “PHANTOM!”

Looking forward I feel a familiar soul, in front of me I see the young patron I had gotten close with before I went over to the other side of time.

I dart forward at the hulking figure “Boy Wild!” The room goes silent as I grab the man a head taller than me and pull him into a bear hug.

I pull him back down and pull his face to me. His eyes are starting to water. “How have you been little brother, matured any?”

“About as much as you ‘Oh High King of the Infinite Realms’ how long has that been a thing?”

A voice from our left breaks up the reunion “Your Majesty, I wasn’t aware of your familial relationship with Captain Marvel, were you unaware he was apart of the Justice League?”

I want to ignore her and continue to dote on Billy, but at this point he has tears in his eyes and does not need anymore embarrassment.

“We are Brothers only by bond, I was present when he first started learning his abilities and taught him what I could.” Memories of stumbling upon the Rock of Eternity return to me. I had been injured in a fight with Skulker and Technus, but was able to stumble through a Realm door. Next thing I knew I was in front of a twelve year old hanging out in a magical lair. Instead of being afraid of the bleeding ghost that broke into their lair Billy had helped fix him up, we spent the next few months in slow time zones training.

I knew Billy had wanted to join the JL, it made him smile to know he achieved it. I wonder how well he has kept his other side hidden. 

“Let’s talk more later Boy Wild.” I pat his cheeks and step away from him.

“Why don’t we all take a seat so we can continue to talk? King Phantom would you introduce your guest this time?” Batman asks in his gravelly voice.

I turn to where Ellie was to see her hanging off Billy’s cape whispering to him. They had always been pretty close, I wonder if they kept in touch when I was gone. A sharp crack of lightning pops off of Ellie's head and travels down Billy as he shivers. I notice some of the supers with scowls on their faces.

“Don’t bother trying to spy on their conversation,” I direct to Superman but announce to the room “ghosts can interfere with sound waves that’s why all you hear is static.”

Superman recovers quickly “Sorry it wasn’t intentional, I always keep tuned in all around me in case of emergency.”

Ellie has stopped talking and I wave her over.

“Introduce yourself however you would like, it’s up to you I know you don’t like the whole regal thing.”

“Yeah, it’s weird hearing you talk like that. Hi everyone I’m Banshee, I’m Phantom’s clone kid. Technically a princess, but titles feel weird and I’m not in the line of succession so just Banshee is ok.”

Short polite greetings go across the room and she floats back over to Billy.

“King Phantom would you mind if we ask some questions of you? There is so little information on both you and the Infinite Realms and we do not want to use GIW terminology when preparing for the UN Conference.”

I think for a bit then decide to give them something. “I will explain about the political and cultural side of the Infinite Realms, I will also provide a summons for Frostbite who will be attending the UN conference. He is Chief of the far frozen and second best in the Realms when it come to politics, and the most knowledgeable of cultures overall. Anything I can’t or won’t answer he can provide more information on. When it comes to me or more personal question, I will answer one question each from the current attendees in the room. Fair?”

Batman nods and looks to those sitting directly at the table which includes Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, Flash, and Aquaman who nod as well.

The next hour or so is giving simple explanations of the Infinite Realms, the lawless time period before I took the throne, and ectoplasm. Batman and Flash seems to enjoy that I explain most things in scientific terms or as close to it as I can. Once questions on that settle down the first personal question comes.

“How long have you held the Throne?” Wonder Woman asks.

“Chronologically around five years, but as I’ve explained before time is different in the Realms, as well as time travel shenanigans giving an exact timeframe is hard.” She nods and doesn’t ask further, it’s nice to see my rules respected.

Batman decided next and I hear him ask the same question he has before. I ignored him then but won’t this time.

“What is a Halfa?”

“Well Batman technically it’s a slur for my species of Realm Denizen.” I hear people at the table shift and grow uncomfortable.

“Wait Halfa is a slur?!” I hear Ellie yell from behind me.

“Yes, but I didn’t find that out til later I left you before. To go in further to save questions for your associates, all we ever knew about our race is what others called us. We are a rare race with myself being the only true one of our species currently around, the other two both have circumstances that disqualify them from being true ones. We are a rare race that only come around every few centennial millennium. Due to that the slur is the only thing we have been called. Do not bother asking what makes our race different just know that it’s why I was able to take the throne as an adolescent ghost.”

Batman nods and waits for someone else to ask their question. The next one comes from outside the table.

“How much stronger are you now than when I saw you last?” Billy asks.

“That’s a weird one to answer, a simple answer would be around fiftyfold, but it’s not simple. That’s raw energy, but back when we last met I had maybe thirty or forty powers. Now it would be easier to count what powers I do not have. Remember as I said earlier ectoplasm is a pure substance of perpetual energy. Since it’s a plasma it can be manipulated into any form of matter, and I have a near perfect handle on manipulating it. My limits are my imagination and aspirations.” Billy looks on at me in awe, but I see the quick faces of horror flash across the room.

Green Lantern decides to hop into another topic “I noticed how similar the ring you wear is to the Green Lantern rings, is that on purpose?”

That one I smile at “Yes, so my ring is actually apart of my Royal Regalia, it’s inherited with the Crown. Formerly called the Ring of Rage by the previous owner it’s now called the Ring of Retribution. Have I or anyone else explained how “Ghosts” are formed?”

Everyone shakes their heads no so I continue “Not all Denizens are former mortals. All dead go to the Realms, but not all residents have died. There are three main categories for Denizens, first are spirits. Souls of the dead who cross over to the afterlife who have “moved on”. Second are the Neverborns, beings who formed one way or another without ever being born a mortal. Now clones like Banshee are also considered neverborns by others of their kind even if they weren’t born in the realm. The last category are what you all refer to as Ghosts. When a soul forms with enough emotion it effects the ectoplasm in the air. The less ectoplasm or weaker the emotions the weaker the ghost will be. With enough emotion or ectoplasm a powerful ghost will be born. We are creatures of emotions. When the former Ghost King visited Oa he instilled an artifact with pure ectoplasm, that can be manipulated with emotions. A ghost abilities can be colored too.” I say and with a flourish I create a ecto-construct of a lantern in front of me. “Look familiar?” He nods “I’m sure I don’t have to explain the emotional spectrum to you, but due to us being made of ectoplasm ghost can do a lot more than just constructs. I’m guessing when the Guaridans were creating artifacts to harness the energy they based it off the King’s Ring since that’s what it’s for. The ring helps me more finely manipulate ectoplasm. That’s why it comes so similar, the Green Lantern Corps are kind of the mortal equivalent of us.”

“That’s amazing to learn, does that mean their is a green lantern corp in most other dimensions?”

“Sorry GL, no second questions.” He doesn’t look upset just curious, I gave him more answer than he asked for initially so he should be satisfied.

Next a question comes from Flash “Is there anyway to defer my sentence that you told me of previously?”

Batman mumbles something about being on task and Superman smirks.

“Honestly, I could overrule it, but would be met with backlash due to universal favoritism. So I won’t be helping, but if my theory about who your Boss in the afterlife is right then I will ask them to defer or not. Truthfully though since you’ve already met the Time Wraiths, that means your sentencing most likely was already processed.” He looks depressed but nods.

Zatanna speaks up “King Phantom, how does magic work in the Infinite Realms?”

I think on this one, it might be too serious to give away without talking to someone from my court. “I can’t give a full explanation due to my involvement with magic. I’m sad to say but it’s not something I am good at, I have a mind that tends to look for the reasoning behind things and usually from a scientific standpoint. I do use magic, but the kind I use was created by myself for myself so it’s not exactly a good example. There is magic users in the Realms, but they work different than the magic I’ve seen over here. I can ask someone more knowledgeable to consult with once the UN meetings are done.”

Martian Manhunter quietly asks his question "The individual named Plasmius in our holding, What will be done with him for challenging you?"

Tilting my head side to side I say "I will let you all know now I have already taken him back into my custody and he is off the Watchtower as of now. He will come under no retaliation for challenging me, any being in the multiverse may challenge me at any time for my crown. Though Plasmius has other crimes to answer for so he will be sent to the Realms for processing." Batman looks over to Cyborg who nods to hum. I hear a grunt of irritation come from him so quiet I almost miss it.

Superman finally speaks up “That leads me into my question, what will happen after the meeting if the anti-ecto acts are dissolved? There is already a lot of prejudice forward ghost due to the invasion and lack of information to the public. Will our two sides be able to have a hospitable relationship?”

I nod to him “Yes, I can’t say they will for every universe, but this one is my haunt. If I am not met with disrespect neither will this world be. If need be I could even ban entry to this world other than me and my family to make it a ghost free world. Granted that would be hard on me again, and I’d prefer not. I can promise there will be no hostility on my side if it’s not received first.”

“Well I do hope that once these unjust acts are gone we can talk again about our future relationship with the Infinite Realms.”

Past this point the rest of the questions I am asked are about my abilities, and roles in the realms on the day to day. A few people in the room ask Ellie questions, which leads people to finding out she is only chronologically five. Surprisingly no one says anything offensive, and Superboys says he is only six to make her feel more welcomed.

Once it’s time to leave I give Frostbite's summoning to Zatanna, say my goodbyes to the people in the room. I give Billy my phone number, and step out with Ellie back to Jazz’s room before portaling into my Keep in the Realms.

Standing there in front of us is Vlad sitting at my work bench.

“Hello children, is it finally time for us to have our talk?”

Chapter Text

“Pfft! What are you wearing” Ellie laugh and points at Vlad who still has the cheap plastic Dracula mask on.

“Yes, it seems Daniel has not lost his pranking mindset.” He goes to tug it off but it doesn’t move. Ellie laughs harder and I join her.

“I infused it with the ecto I siphoned off of him before, it’s as much his face as his own for the next few days or so.”

Ellie howls with laughter and Vlad just grunts.

“Yes yes laugh at me get it out of your system. I’m glad to see you both together though it almost brings tears to my eyes.”

“You aren’t capable of crying, and you know it Fruitloop!” Ellie yells back at him while wiping the tears from her own eyes.

I let my transformation fall and go back into my human form, Ellie follows suit.

“I’m assuming you have questions for me before I decide what to do with you?” Vlad nods.

“I guess I will catch you up on the majority of it.” I start to tell me story then.

It takes around 15 minutes to really get the hard points covered, I still leave out a lot. I don’t give either more than anyone else has heard. For ellie it was mostly all a recap of my talk with Sam and Tuck. Vlad’s ghost speech is flairing off him, it’s so jumbled I can’t make heads or tails of how he feels.

Once I’m through Ellie looks utterly depressed again and Vlad’s eyes look hollow.

“Daniel, we have a lot of difficulties with each other. We may never get along or see eye to eye, but you have gone through something no other being has and come out sane. I don’t know how long you were there, but I can only imagine since you are now an Ancient. I’m proud of you for staying sane, and coming back.”

“I rarely agree with him, but I’m happy you are back too.” Ellie follows up.

I breathe out a heavy breath, it’s weird to hear Vlad talk like this. Putting consideration of that aside I reach out to pull Ellie into a hug.

“Thanks Starlight..”I squeeze her.

“What do you think, Mom, wanna join in?” She says trying to read Vlad.

“Wait Ellie no!” I yell to late, Vlad shivers and I can almost see the grin peek through his mask.

“Oh why of course darling, a family hug would be amazing.” In one fluid motion Ellie’s jaw drops and Vlad has us bundled in a hug.

“Wh-what’s going on? Did he finally crack?” Ellie sputters out.

“No, that’s my bad I meant to warn you. His obsessions changed from Mom and I to Family bonds of some sort. Calling him Mom is the most he has fed his obsession since I’ve been gone.”

“Yes daughter, dear old mom is here for you. Don’t worry Daniel, I know my limits on the "creep scale" for toleration. You don’t have to refer to me in contrast to her. You may be her dad and me her mom with no strings attached. I do love this family hug though. Thank you son!”

I gag a little.

We have moved from my little work bench to my library and have been discussing more. Mostly it’s been Vlad going on about the growth of Vlad Co. I hate to admit but if he is being truthful I am impressed. He hasn’t overshadowed anyone for a business deal in years. Apparently he hasn't needed too. His company is in the big leagues with Wayne Enterprises, LexCorp, and Kord Industries. I smile knowing that my Treasury still surpasses any fortune he could acquire. Although a thought comes to mind.

“Vlad I have a lot a currency in my treasury. How hard would it be to get some funds in an account for both Ellie and I?”

“What amount of funds are you thinking?”

I kind of bob my head back and forth thinking “Two or three billion each?”

Ellie gives me a sharp look “I don’t want his money Danny”

“It won’t be his it will be mine, but if I suddenly show up selling gold and jewels trying to get that amount on my own it will cause issues. I’ve been declared dead, and you don’t have a real identity. Vlad owes us the help, think of it as child support.”

“We can come up with a cover story for your miraculous recovery Daniel, and for Danielle we can create a cover story. We can have you Daniel listed as your guardian or even have him legally adopt you. You are well travelled, do you speak any foreign languages?”

“A few. Czech is an easy one for me, Danny speaks it too” She respond shortly and I nod.

“Well we can say Danny went abroad after the US government betrayed him, where he met you in a foreign nation. An orphan who reminded him of himself, both physically and spiritually. When he came back you did as well and I got my Godson back. From there I set up trust funds solely in your names. Of course this would all have to be after the UN conference.”

“Yeah sure, that all sounds good right Danny? I mean if they even get rid of the stupid anti-ecto acts.” She says shyly at first then the venom in her words came out.

“They will, I wasn’t joking with the League or the Council. I will declare war on the US if the acts and GIW are not dismantled completely. That sounds like a good idea Vlad, go into my treasury room and take what you need to fund us. Take a single artifact that you like as well then leave. I will visit you later.” I say and reach out to burn a pass into his palm. He hisses and pulls back when I’m done.

“I do have one more clarifying question that pertains to us three if I may?”

“Go ahead.”

“Since you are in your human form, and you were there so long… is our kind immortal? Both halfs?”

Ellie’s eyes go a little wide she must not have thought about it.

“No, my human side died there. I do not understand how I acquired my human side back yet kept the core I formed. Only Clockwork could tell, so that will have to be put aside for later. Are you sure you want an answer how it works? Both of you?” Both nod at me so I continue.

“Our kind have a lifespan of around ten times that of a regular human. My human side died there at around eight hundred or so. I turned into a Halfa at fourteen, and you turned at thirty right?”

“Twenty-Eight actually.”

“Then i'd assume you will live around six to seven hundred years. Ellie I have no idea how it will work for you, but I assume it will be around eight to nine hundred years for you.”

I let the information sit with them while they process, but Ellie asks the next question first.

“And after?”

“We become full ghosts, at least I did. It wasn’t pleasant I won’t explain my natural death, but once it was over I just sat up. My core left my chest as my Ghost half formed around it, like I stepped out of my own body. You should both experience the same.”

We all sat in silence for a bit before Vlad go up to leave.

“I shall go start to prepare your resurrection, and Danielle’s identity. I will see you both after the UN conference.” He leaves shortly after, I stop by a few places in the Realms before we leave. Afterwards we portal back into Jazz’s room.

Ellie steps out first and I can hear Jazz yell in excitement. I check my phone finally and see it’s slightly after nine in the evening. I also see multiple missed texts

Better than Loomis:

Hey! Movie Night at my place if you are done with everything. Cass and Jason finally have a night together. Bring Ellie too!

Sam:

Listen jackass do not disappear on us again or I will personally kick you ass next time no matter how powerful you are!!!! We still love you though glad you are back

Schrödinger’s boy:

I won't be disappearing again, I promise give it a week and you'll see more of me than ya expected 😉 {keep an eye on the news} 

Love you both, once things have settled I will bring you both out on vacation to Gotham, Promise!

Tim DW:

Hey Danny, It Tim Drake-Wayne. I know you just got back, but when you get settled come see me at Wayne Enterprises. Don't think i've forgotten what kind of things you can do, nepotism or not you are on the top hire list! Happy you are back and alive.

Schrödinger’s boy:

Happy to be back too, and I will have to give my most heartfelt rejection ;( My other nepotism offer probably beats out yous,

For I am Daniel James Fenton AKA Godson of Vlad Masters, CEO of Vlad CO

But we can always collab on some personal projects once I get a workshop up and running I will let you know!

C.H.U.D. FAN 😛:

Come watch movies with us, Dick will be here too. I know you can teleport so no excuses be here. Bring Ellie I wanna get to know you and her more! See you soon 😘

Reading her last text I smile and step out to see them all in the living area.

“Hey everyone.” All wave back at me as Jazz stands up to give me a hug. I squeeze her back.

“Cass I needed some fresh air wanna come take a quick walk with me?” She smiles and nods. She moves to her room to get dressed into something less pajama-y I guess.

“Oh don’t wanna flirt around us?” Jason asks giving his best easy to see through scowl. Dick laughs and pats his shoulder.

“At least wait to give the shovel talk till something is official.”

“Yeah, big man chill out.” I say as I walk by and touch his neck. I let a little ice energy out enough to make him yelp and jump up from his spot.

I laugh and continue “How do you feel after getting the little creature out of ya?”

His face mellows out “Honestly I feel better than I have in years, seriously thank you Danny.”

“Yeah, Jason told me about the pits and what you did. That was nice of you, but we need to talk about how what you did was invasive at some point.” Jazz says, thankfully before she can go on a rant I see Cass walk out of her room.

“Yeah Jazz I got it we will talk later, need anything from anywhere Starlight?” Ellie looks up to me and shows me her go bag.

“Good on essentials, but I’d love some food and snacks?”

“I gotcha! Jason, Dick, Jazz hungry as well?”

Dick speaks up “I'd love some food, surprise us from where. Here take this.”

He goes to pull out his wallet and I hold a hand up “I’m good Dickie, I finally got some cash. We will be back!” I say and hook Cass’s arm as we walk out of the door.

“Wanna go see some stars?” I whisper as we walk through the empty corridor.

Cass give a big grin before nodding.

“Let’s take the fast way, mind if I hold ya tight for a second?” She blushes but nods as I grab her waist and space step us off the campus.

-Jason-

‘Well there is another meta ability he has’ I think as I rub the chills out of the back of my neck.

“So Ellie, while we wait what movie do you wanna start with?” Dick says as he sits down next to the young girl in the spot Cass was before.

Looking at her close it’s shocking. I know the others said she was a clone, but due to her coming out as a girl I assumed the looks wouldn’t be so identical. Granted while Danny had sharp hard features it came from the way he held himself, Ellie’s seemed sharp in a fae way. She was smaller than him too, both were skinny but Ellie was easily a foot or more short.
Danny and I are both around 6’2 with me pushing 6’3, but Ellie can be more than 5’1 or 5’2. Her hair is long too, since his haircut Danny has a partial wolf cut like jazz that he pulls up, but hers is just grown out. You can tell it’s regularly trimmed but it falls to her waist. If she has any other donors it’s hard to see any features from them other than height. Even compared to Jazz who is 6’0 and with a whole different set of features. She speaks breaking me out of my thought process.

“Shouldn’t we wait on Danny and Cass?” She asks innocently, I give a small laugh in return that gets a glare from Jazz.

“No honey, most likely they will be side tracked for a bit before they pick up some food. Let’s get you a snack and pick ya out a movie.” Jazz says and gets up to head to kitchen area.

“That’s lame! Fine I wanna watch Alien. If he is gonna ignore us then we can watch his favorites without him!” Oh I like this gremlin kid.

Dick laughs as well and starts to pull up the movie. I get up to help Jazz grab snacks. When I walk by I kiss her on the cheek and say “I gotta ask, how many abilities does your brother have? The ice to my neck was a nice touch but I’d like to be prepared next time.”

I get a sigh from her back “I don’t know actually, back before he left we had a list and it was hitting around sixty, but he was getting new powers like every other week. Now after all these years, I couldn’t even guess.”

I try not to let that dread hit me, and smile through my next sentence. The Old Man would not like a meta with unknown abilities in “his town”. I made the decision now to convince our siblings to keep it hidden as long as possible.

“That’s incredible, you don’t ever get jealous?”

“No, I have my own abilities why would I?” She asks innocently and give me a smirk.

“Wait, you have abilities too? Does Ellie as well?” I ask even more confused.

“Yes, she is his clone. Why are you acting so shocked, what about your abilities?”

“I don’t have any.” I say confused by what she meant.

“Jason, if you had ecto-corruption in your chest then yes you do. If you don’t know what they are maybe the corruption was feeding on them. Now that your system is clean you should develop abilities since you are liminal as well.”

“Liminal?” I am familiar with the term, but not in reference to a group of people.

“People who have been around ectoplasm in either steady amounts or high amounts all at once. You do know what ectoplasm is right?”

“The stuff the ghosts on the news are made out of?” During the invasion nothing really happened in the Alley so I had no direct contact. Gotham was relatively untouched for the most part.

“Yes, but in its natural state it’s a viscous neon green glowing plasma. Since you were infected with corruption I’m assuming what you saw was more like liquid. Possibly with a nasty film residue over it?” I go still, that’s Lazarus water she is talking about.

“How do you know so much about ectoplasm?” I deflect, by the looks she give me she knows I’m deflecting too. Thankfully she gives in and doesn’t push me.

“My parents were both Ecto-Scientists, my mom was an “Ecto-Biologist” and father was an “Ecto-Engineer”. For the majority of my life before they passed they were considered nutjobs in the science field. If they were still alive they would probably be world famous by now.”

“I’m sorry for you loss.” I whisper, but she just gives a sharp harsh laugh.

“Don’t be. After what they did to Danny, and how they treated us the majority of our lives I’ve put their deaths behind me. Danny and I have been liminal since birth and it just got worse over the years. They didn’t care about their children or even proper safety.” I’ve never seen Jazz actually mad before, but hearing how she speaks on them I get mad for her. I wonder what she meant by what they did to Danny.

“On a positive topic, what’s your abilities?” I say and give a little wiggle of my eyebrows, she laughs as the microwave goes off.

She pulls out the popcorn and sets it to the side. Walking around the counter she puts her arm up to arm wrestle me. I can tell how it’s gonna go but humor her.

Putting all of my weight into it I try and force her arm to budge but nothing. I knew it, my crush is stronger than I.

She smiles and quickly puts my hand to the counter with a loud thud. Smiling she grabs popcorn and snack and says “Grab the drinks.” Before blowing a kiss and walking away.

I rub the top of my hand but listen to what she says. We all sit down and chat a little as the movie comes up. Jazz comes over and sits in my lap on the chair, while Dick and Ellie are on the couch. She has now fully taken over and is using Dick as a leg rest, granted knowing him he is just happy to have someone comfortable enough to do that.

It isn’t until about an hour later when all of our phones go off with an alarm, other than Ellie’s. Looking we see a public notice.

Emergency Alert:

X X, 10:18 PM

Take Shelter and utilize gas masks. An ATTACK at Gotham University by Scarecrow has been reported.

In addition to multiple sightings of both Scarecrow and his armed men, Fear Toxin has been released.

If possible evacuate, Police presence in southeast parking lot. If evacuation is impossible secure yourself in a room.

Close any doors or windows. Close all air vents and shut off your air conditioning or heating units.

As I adjust and shift her out of my lap to stand up I hear Jazz say “Oh no, please tell me that’s not Cass’s phone!”

Looking at the coffee table I unfortunately do spot her tacky harlequin patterned phone.

“It’s alright we can just message Danny.” Dick says assuredly.

“Good luck on that Danny checks his phone like once a day if that.” Ellie says and Dick’s face drops. I put both hands into my face and groan.

Chapter Text

-Jason-

“They will be ok. Danny won’t let anything happen to her, but we need to get out of here. I’d rather not risk being barricaded in. Ellie go in my room and grab the gas mask from under my bed, any weapons I have too. Jason are you carrying?”

I smile in response and flash the pistol under my jacket. “Always.”

“Good, Dick?”

He shakes his head “No guns for me. Sorry..”

“You are good, you can use the creep stick. I’ll grab the masks from Cass’ room. We should both have two enough for all of us.”

“I’ll grab it Jazz!” Dick says quickly covering so Jazz doesn’t see anything she isn’t supposed too. She nods at him.

From the other room I hear Ellie yell “Leave one for Cass just incase, I don’t need to breathe so I’ll just hold my breath!”

Dick and I give matching looks to Jazz as she is getting up to look out into the hallway, she just shakes he head and says “It’s fine, she is to stubborn to argue with.”

I see Dick slipping in his com as he walked into Cass’ room. He should get oracle updated, I don’t put mine in. No use of I don’t plan on leaving Jazz and Ellie.

Ellie walks back out with two masks, a modified pistol of some sort, and a bat with a bright green sticker on it. She tosses me a mask and one to Jazz. Dick comes out with a mask on and another in hand.

“Ellie put on a mask please, Cass will be okay!” His big brother instincts are in overdrive.

“Nah leave it on the table with her phone, Danny can hold his breath too. Here take this though!” She tosses the bat to him “Use the creep stick responsibly!”

Pushing past the sputtering gymnast she makes her way to the door to hand Jazz the pistol.

“Here set to non lethal, I’ll go out first how many?” She ask without a hint of stress.

“Hey kiddo, I can take point.” I throw in but she grins.

“Noppe” she pops the p “I’ve been getting bored the last few days, let me have this.”

Jazz smiles at her as she secures her mask and says “Three in corridor, all armed. Whistle when it’s clear.”

She then opens the door to let Ellie out before either Dick or I can step forward.

“Jazz!”

“It’s fine, she can handle herself. Anything she does will be considered in self defense though yeah?” We both nod.

“Good then no worries.” That’s when the first shots fire off. Two sets only a shot or two each definitely from rifles. The third one gets about three or four shots before a loud thud echoes through the corridor. I hear a scream the another thud. Lastly I hear a man pleading before a final thud that shakes the wall next to us. Quiet followed by a whistle.

Jazz opens the door but Dick pushes out first to go check on Ellie I assume. Whatever he sees hits him because he freezes. I feel dread take over, I expect to come out and see Ellie bleeding in the corridor. Instead I see her smiling untouched in hallway, she has a rifle in her hands. She walks up and puts it in my hand. I holster my pistol and take it. To my left a see a goon crumpled on the ground whimpering, his legs and arms twisted at weird angles. Another guy sticking halfway through the wall on my right. He looks unconscious but breathing, although folded up like he was push into the wall at his enter. A third goon is in the weirdest position. Halfway down the hall I see legs dangling rim the ceiling. Almost like the man’s was thrown or shoved through the roof, I let out a laugh at the cartoonish way he is swiveling.

“Good job Ellie, I take it back you are our point man. Let’s move though before those gunshots attract.” I say still laughing, she give me a big nod and grin and takes off toward the south entrance.

Dick catches up once we start moving, probably checked to see if they were all still breathing.

Coming to the first bend two goons step from around the corner. Ellie literally walks through the first one, shocking both us and him. Jazz doesn’t hesitate, she pulls up her pistol and shoots. Instead of the normal crack of a gun I hear a sizzling sound as green energy shoots from it nailing the guy in the chest. It burns a clear hole through his close and I can see at least second degree burns if not third form immediately. He drops his weapon and crumples to the ground seizing.

“Ellie! You said it was turned down!” She yells at her and starts fiddling with the pistol.

Ellie reaches forward and grabs the rifle from the second guy, pulling it back. With her other hand she palms him in the stomach and he flies back into the wall reminiscent of the second gun in the hall that I saw.

“No, I said non lethal!” She says as she folds the gun like a clay.

I give Dick a look and he returns it. These girls are crazy, I love it. I do make a mental note to ask about who taught her to shoot. Her form was perfect. Shit I didn’t know I could be more attracted to her, first she beats me in arm wrestling then draws down on a goon faster than me. Match made in heaven.

“All ecto blasters are non lethal to humans! I just want to incapacitate them.”

“Your point!? He looks pretty incapacitated to me!”

Jazz just sighs and Ellie picks up the other goons gun to bend it as well.

“Ellie should you be talking if you are holding your breath?” She sounds defeated against this younger woman’s attitude.

“Yeah, we can manipulate sound waves without needing to inhale air. See?” This sentence comes out clearly as her others, but her mouth never moves. I see Dick shudder. I agree with his reaction plus five on the spook factor.

As we cross the corridor and turn left two more goons come from our right I brace and swivel to aim, but Dick is quicker. He throws the bat on the ground backwards and bounces it up into the jaw of the first one. He then Reaches out grabs him and flips him over the shoulder into the second who crumples under the weight. He catches the bat and swings cracking the one in the back on the temple. Followed up by another kick to the first and they are both out.

“Whoa! That’s was so cool! You have to teach me the trick with the stick.” Ellie yells looking back but still moving forwards. Her eyes are lit up and sparkling, literally. I can see the pop of electric behind the blue in her eyes.

“Comeon Dickhead save some fun for me!” I growl out hoping for a chance to show off some and earn some points with both girls.

“Jason, hitting someone with the creep stick will always be cooler than shooting someone. Sorry hun.” Jazz says without looking back. Dick pats me on the back as we move forward. I resign myself to the back and mumble “Guns are cool too..”

Jazz says loud enough for us all to hear “Courtyard coming up, this is last open area we have to pass through before it’s a straight shot to south east parking lot.”

I bring the rifle to my shoulder as we enter the courtyard. It looks clear other than a few students in the center. I hear Ellie hiss and it dawns on my that they aren’t moving. They are frozen still with glazed looks in their eyes. That’s when the screaming starts. I see a figure stand from in the middle of them. It’s Scarecrow.

“Fuck me.” I say and try to turn us back to the corridor when three more goons run up behind us and another couple to our left and right. Looking up on the second floor and opposite side I count at least a dozen more armed men. Dick taps his ear twice for immediate emergency support, the look behind his mask and hunch of his shoulders that follows lets me know they are still to far out.

“I can take them!” Ellie yells, but Jazz grabs her shoulder.

“We can’t though, if they start shooting the three of us and those students won’t last long.” Jazz is right and I hate it, I drop the rifle in my hands as she drops her blaster. Dick keeps the bat but lowers it. Ellie frowns, but takes a step back with us standing in front of Jazz.

“Oh look more test subjects, I wonder what you all fear. Step closer and let’s find out!” Scarecrow steps out from the group and starts twirling his chain scythe with one hand. The other he extends his fingers out letting us get a full view of the needles and chambers on his gloved hand full of fear toxin. He has multiple canisters strapped to his chest. I’d have to be careful if I took a shot with my pistol.

I look toward dick and throw up a quick sign to get an ETA on the family. He send back a five, and my face drops. We might just have to deal with the fear toxin, that’s better than bullets.

The thought barely finishes when the space between him and us ripples and I see a figure step out of nowhere. I guess that’s how his teleportation looks from an outside perspective. He is grinning for a moment before he takes notice of all the gun men.

“DANNY LOOKOUT!” Jazz shouts and I twist to see scarecrow arc his scythe right at Danny’s head. The shithead doesn’t jump, duck, move, or even flinch. No he gives a smirk that I am starting to get used to seeing and tilts his head, but only a bit. The scythe lodges into his shoulder and collarbone and I see the red splash through the air and his arm go limp and dangles. It cut at least three inches through before getting stuck. Jazz covers her mask and screams while Ellie gags. Dicks eyes looks mortified and I probably look the same. Danny though, he throws on a face I’ve only seen in low budget horror films. Pure fake terror.

In the most exaggerated voice he can muster he says “Oh nooooo, I’ve been injured. You could even say fatally! I’m so young with so much to half live foooorrr. How could you villain!? With All the witnesses here viewing, there is no doubt I am the victim.” He throws his face into his free hand and turns toward Scarecrow. The rogue is shivering, him teleporting from nowhere must’ve made him nervous. Danny continues as he pulls the scythe from his shoulder “Ow the pain, oh the fear, but I must be the one to step up. Thankfully all that I do from here is self defense right?”

I can’t see his face, but I can picture the smile from his last sentence even with his back facing us. The little shit is putting on a production using his own injury as a legal excuse. I can’t help it, and a smile creeps to my face as well.

Chapter Text

-Danny-

“Hope you aren’t afraid of heights!” I say excitedly as we step out on to the top of Wayne Tower.

Cass sucks in a sharp breath and it hits me that it’s fall. Thankfully I remembered to by a good coat the other day. Pulling out my winter coat from my side earns me a questioning look.

“Where?” I get a single sign.

“A lot of my powers work off the concept of space. Teleporting, portals, and pocket dimensions.” I say as I put the coat around her. A nod is all I get.

I start to slowly shift the temperature of the area to be warmer as well. I point to the edge.

“Want to take a seat with me?” A quick smile and she darts to the edge before me. Laughing I follow and sit, the lady is definitely not afraid of heights.

“Look up!” I nearly shout.

She follows my words and her eyes go wide “How?”

It’s a spoken word! I try not to act shocked, and recover quickly while filing away her voice as a permanent addition to my memories. The reason behind her surprise is how clear the sky is tonight. Gotham on the best of days is the smog capital of the US if not the world. Add in light pollution and even so high up on Wayne Tower a clear sight of stars is a miracle. Unsure of the best way to explain I just wing my response.

“The weather owes me a favor, I wanted to see the stars from Gotham tonight, and they obliged.” With a wink I turn back to the sky.

~comfort~confusion~relation~

Turning to her it looks like she didn’t meant to let that out let alone realize she did.

“Wondering why we click?” I give a sharp chuckle as she blushes a little.

“Yes. Hard for me to get close to people outside family. You are familiar. You are comforting to be around. You can tell what I am thinking without words or signs. I feel like I’ve known you for weeks. Why?” Back to signing she asks.

“I wish I had a solid answer for you. It happens though, it’s rare. Sometimes you meet someone, and can just tell how your relationship with them will be. It might be instinct, magic, or the universe speaking. I have a friend named Tucker, first time I met him we both clicked. We were kids and hadn’t spoken a word to each other. We both just pointed across the classroom at each other. We knew we would always be best friends then and there.” Remembering the memory makes me smile deep. We called it a soul bond then. He could of been an annoying sporty type, or I a stuck in book types and nothing would change between us.

“Did it ever happen again?” She looks expectantly, slightly hopeful.

“Twice after. The second was someone I became really close with after I assumed I’d never be close with another living person again. It was during my time ‘missing’ unfortunately they passed. I never expected it to happen again so soon.”

“Is that what this is? Did we both get the same…” She stops to think of the sign but doesn’t continue.

“Soul bond. At least that’s what I call it.” She nods and repeats the sign I used a couple times.

“So what will we be? You said you knew you’d be best friends with Tucker. What about us?” She signs already starting to blush in a way.

Smiling back I say “We both already know, but that doesn’t mean we have to rush into anything or call it anything. Like I’ve said it’s only happened three times to me, I’m no expert. When you are ready to give it a name I’ll be here, just know how you feel is mutual.”

She nods and smiles turing to look back up "Did you know I read body language?”

I laugh a little to loud making her jump “I did not, sorry that must’ve been jarring to see me then.

“So you know how you come off?” A sad look follows behind her.

“Yes, I don’t have natural tells. My breathing and movements are forced, it must look like a corpse pretending to be human. I’ve met body readers before and they tell me I give off ‘Uncanny Valley’. That’s what ghost speech helps with. You can’t lie in ghost speech because it’s true emotion.”

~PRESENCE~CONTENT~ENRAPTURED~
~euphoric~

We sit a while longer looking up, Cass had never really learned anything about constellations before. I took the opportunity to point them out and start giving my nerd spiel. I point out Orion which is most prominent now, then Andromeda, Auriga, Cygnus, and even Draco. Finally I point out Perseus, go off on a rant about the Meisser 34 star cluster, and even explain the Comet Ferret himself. It was easy to tell her enjoyment was from my excitement rather than genuine interest in the subject. Once I had finally shut up enough to let her process she started to tell me about her time in Hong Kong. Her signing became exaggerated and body relaxed. She kept a lot of the details vague, but it still was enough to infer the kind of bittersweet relationship with the region she had.

“You’ll have to ask Ellie her stories from there too, she would love to trade travel stories. Probably as much as I did about the Constellations.”

“She has been?” She signs with a confused look. Probably due to Ellie’s physical and chronological age.

“When Ellie was born, I was fourteen. I did not have the maturity or ability to give her a solid home life. After escaping her other DNA donor she decided to travel the world to gain self experience. Before I disappeared she had hit most countries and their capitals. I think she was planning to do another tour, but to hit more rural areas to get the culture experience. I hope she was able to do what she wanted even after...” I let my sentence drift off.

She nods and reaches out and to squeeze my hand. I let her and turn it to take hers in mine. We talk more hand and hand from there.

It was still a nice night, at least until a felt another presence on the tower with us. Swiveling I twist to cover Cass and help pull her up from the edge of the building.

~SAFE~PROTECTED~
~calm~familiar~

Cass started to walk past me as a figure stepped around the corner. Its Ancients-damned Catwoman!

“Hi Kittens, what are both of you up to tonight?” She says both, but gives a pointed look at Cass.

I remember hearing before I went over to the other time that Catwoman had become somewhat of an anti-hero. Granted Gotham heroes or rogues outside Batman rarely got my attention.

“Date night! What about you?” Cass signs while giving a suspicious glance at the leather clad woman. I relax the rest of the way, it seems Cass knows her well enough to. Date night huh? I let a large grin cross my face as I elbow her in the side playfully.

“Just playing around in your dad’s office, no harm. Came up here to see the view, and boy did I see one.” She purrs out with every R being accentuated.

Cass shakes her head in response to the teasing, and reaches in her pocket to grab something and looks confused.

“I left my phone, time?” She signs to me. Digging mine out of my pocket I see an alert that somehow never alarmed, did my ecto already kill the speakers on it.

Emergency Alert:

X X, 10:18 PM

Take Shelter and utilize gas masks. An ATTACK at Gotham University by Scarecrow has been reported.

In addition to multiple sightings of both Scarecrow and his armed men, Fear Toxin has been released.

If possible evacuate, Police presence in southeast parking lot. If evacuation is impossible secure yourself in a room.

Close any doors or windows. Close all air vents and shut off your air conditioning or heating units.

After the alert the temperature on the roof drops back down to what it was originally if not colder. Both Cass and Catwoman shiver noticeably.

~PANIC~

Cass clutches her side as my GS hits her I go to support her and hand her my phone to read.

“We have to go now!” I yell out

“What’s wrong? Something spook ya?” Catwoman asks trying to keep the teasing tone up, but not doing well after Cass’s reaction.

Cass reads and goes wide eyed. She signs something to Catwoman that I strangely don’t recognize. Catwoman does though, it seems Cass may have a bit more of a connection with her than I first assumed. She rushes to the entrance she came from and is gone from sight.

Cass hands my phone back and I pull her close while I back step us to Jazz’s room. Cass is through the door before me. The living room is dead silent.

I look in Jazz’s usual hiding spot under her bed and see the lack of blaster, and an empty spot where masks would fit normally.

Out in the main area Cass has her phone and is sending out a message on it, looking at the TV I notice the original Alien playing almost halfway through.

She turns to me “They left to evacuate, there is only one mask you take it.”

I shake my head and say “Don’t need it, that’s why Ellie probably left it we can both hold our breath you take it. Let’s go to the evac point and look for them. She nods and walks up to me wrapping her arms around my waist this time. I almost shiver at the touch. Pushing the thought out for a more appropriate time I step us to the parking lot.

The area is surrounded by GCPD as well as SWAT Units.

Cass looks to me “Let’s split and look for them. Message me when you find them." I nod and move forward the edges I would expect Jazz or Ellie to stand. I let my core expand looking for the two liminals and ghost but don’t feel a pull nearby. Grunting I extend further, inside about four hundred meters away I feel Ellie first, the Jazz and Jason. Assuming they are with Dick I go to space step toward them when I get hit with a slight flicker of GS.

~Help~

It’s Dani, expanding my senses I feel that they are being confronted by at least fourteen armed men, and who I assume is Scarecrow in front of them.

Forcing my anger not to take over, I shoot a quick text to Cass.

Schrödinger’s boy:

They are still inside surrounded

Going inside ahead to get them out

Stay safe here please!

I let my step into the courtyard in between my family and Scarecrow.

-Jason-

A thought strikes me as I see Scarecrow take two steps back yet looks to be stuck in the space he started at. Danny had broken twenty three bones in Bane as well as a concussion and internal bleeding during their encounter. He even told glow stick that he was holding back. I may hate Crane, but he didn’t need to be turned into a red stain after doing so good in Arkham lately. Nor did Danny deserve that on his conscious.

“Danny! He isn’t enhanced physically no more that what a athlete would be.” I see him nod as he hears me.

Only a few steps away does Scarecrow realize stepping back isn’t working. He fully turns and takes off into a sprint while yelling out “SHOOT! Shoot them all dead!” I go to draw my pistol and pull Jazz into me for coverage when Danny put a hand in the air. It’s slightly glowing green. As he twists his hand shouts of pain and metal clattering ring out from all around us. Looking at the closest goon I see his rifle land on the ground, and both of his hands twisted unnaturally facing opposite directions of how they should be. Looking around every Goon in the courtyard is in a similar state. Some I can even see their trigger fingers broken as well. Another example of telekinesis with extreme control. Even those out of line of sight are now howling in pain.

“Oh! You ordered us shot!? How villainous can one get! Do you also have a gun on you?! Who knows!? I guess I need to make sure you don’t!”
Danny’s theatrics are turned to ten as he reaches out and grabs Scarecrow with his good arm"

Scarecrow freezes under his grip. Literally freezes, half his body is encase in ice. His hand with the claws is solidly encased. Danny grabs his mask with his damaged arm and pulls it off like it was never attached. I see him ball his fist crushing the glass covering in the mask. Jagged edges tearing into his hand as he miraculously pulls back his injured arm before planting it into scarecrow's stomach. The impact and following crunch is jarring. I hear the bones break from here. I want to look at Dick’s reaction, but I can’t look away. Where he hit him the only bone that could’ve broke would be the spine. If Scarecrow survived this he wouldn’t be able to play the night life anymore. It was vicious and brutal, and I decide here and now that I’m adopting him as an honorary brother.

Scarecrow spits blood out involuntarily, and I see it hit Danny in the face. He flinches and wipe it off, and my stomach drops. Dick manages to get the words out before I can.

“Danny let him go and go to a paramedic now, he has fear toxin in his blood!”

“I’m fine!” He says and drops Scarecrow to the ground. The villain's crumpled form doesn’t move. Danny quickly moves over to check on Jazz and Ellie. Same as he does both hover and dote over him without touching any of the blood on him.

“Danny you can’t kill, we both know you could’ve put him down without the theatrics! You wanted him to hurt.”
“Jazz is right Danny that was stupid, the last thing we need is a Fear Gassed up you!”

“It’s fine, he got less than he deserved. I feel fine no emotional outbursts from me.” Danny assures the girls. Looking over I see Dick tapping out the signal that Scarecrow is down. From the corner of my eyes I see Batwoman hit the edge of the roof and peer down to all the downed hostile surrounding us. She speaks into her com, assuming she is telling the GCPD it’s safe to enter I relax some.

Kate hops down and walks forward us “Everyone okay?” She says before spotting Danny’s hanging arm looking even worse after throwing that punch.

“Oh shit kid, your arm is barely hanging on sit down let me start apply first aid. Wayne’s you’ve all been kidnapped enough help me.” She reaches out to grab at Danny’s shirt, and it looks like he is about to pull away before his eyes glaze over and he looks into the empty space behind me.

Quickly I turn pistol coming up, but nothings there. “Shit he is hallucinating, he got dosed BW. He is a meta, detox him first.” I turn back to see Kate has ripped his shirt nearly off his torso and I hear her and Dick’s sharp intakes of breathe. I’ve seen horrible shit before. I’ve seen people taken apart, but I’ve never seen this kinda shit in a living person before. Disregarding the deep slash that has his arm barely hanging on, I also notice the scar that I have a matching counterpart too. A deep and jagged Y stretches down his chest, it’s the most pronounced scar on him. Unlike my clean and surgical one his is crude and jagged. I have to swallow back down the bile in my throat. Whoever gave him that did it while he was awake, moving, and definitely aware of the pain. If that was the only mark it would be one thing but his skin is marred by at least six different kinds of injuries other than incisions. Burns, carvings, amputations, stitchings, electric burns, and blunt force tears envelop just the parts I can see.

“Oh Danny…” slips from Dicks lips. Looking at his face I can tell he is thinking the same thing I am. This kid should not be alive.