Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Aidan Al Ghul, early life:

Aidan Al Ghul, called Danny by his brother who he in turn called Dami, was born just seconds before his brother Damian. He however came out silent, only beginning his time in the world after a small dip in the Lazarus Pit. This always caused a friendly argument between him and his brother over who was older, him or Damian. Danny said it was him, well Damian said that because he wasn’t actually alive until his dunk in The Pit it didn’t count. During the minutes before his revival in the pit, his brother was screaming for his brother's return, an anger in his scream that one would expect from the Heir to the Demon’s Head. Only once his brother breathed next to him again did he finally settle and eat.

Over the years is became clear that well Aidan did excel in stealth and could vanish into the shadows at a moment's notice, he didn’t surpass his brother in any other skills. He could vanish silently from sight by the age of 3, and by the age of 5 he was skilled with a sword just as his brother was- but he was far from being able to beat his brother in a fight. Despite this, he was still more skilled than many fighters older than him, and he could spar with most twice his size and come out on top with a few exceptions. Together with his brother? Few could best them even within The League. He was pushed just as hard as his brother though, and their grandfather expected nothing but perfection from the both of them.

He was given numerous tests in the form of both training and missions, then when he failed on a mission at the age of 8? He should have been killed. His mother though had followed him on the mission as she did with either of them when possible, and though she knew what was expected the idea of either one of her sons being killed was not one that she could tolerate. So she dropped Aidan in a small town in Ohio and told him that Aidan Al Ghul was dead, and he needed to stay that way if he expected to stay alive. Her parting words to him were that if The League ever found him? Go to Gotham and tell Bruce Wayne he was her son. He didn’t understand why until almost 2 years later when Tucker showed him a picture of Bruce Wayne’s newest son.

Danny, 8 and a half:

“Aidan Al Ghul is dead, if you wish to survive he will stay that way. If ever you think the League has found you? Go to Gotham, find Bruce Wayne, tell him you are my son.”

Danny considered the last words that he had heard from his mother as he dug for something semi-edible in the dumpster behind the local burger joint, he was trying to ignore the cat that was scratching at the side trying to get out. He would help it when he was done. Hearing someone climbing up to look over the edge of the dumpster though and dove into the dark corner, the knife in his sleeve slipping carefully into his hand. Unfortunately whoever it was pushed both halves of the lid open, effectively taking away the shadows he was hiding in.

He hid the knife back in his sleeve, the head of orange hair peeking over the edge looked at the cat before looking over at him. She tilted her head slightly, reaching down to grab the cat before saying anything to him. “Hi, my name is Jazz. What are you doing in the dumpster?” Once she had the cat onto the edge it jumped down and away on its own, she must have heard. Danny didn’t answer right away, just glancing down at the half-empty bag of fast food he had in one hand before looking back up at her. He was pretty sure there were only a couple of fries and maybe a third of a burger but it was better than nothing.

She seemed to get what he was saying and smiled at him. “Come on! I was going in to get some dinner for me and my parents, they’ve been busy in their lab all day. I can get you something too. I got enough from Mom’s purse to get some extra.” Danny hesitated for a moment before letting go of the bag of food he’d found before climbing out of the dumpster and landing lightly on his feet without a sound. “What’s your name?”

“I’m…” He hadn’t thought about it yet, he’d managed to avoid people the last two months since his Mother had dropped him just outside of this small seemingly quiet town. Her voice echoed in his head before he answered. ‘Aidan Al Ghul is dead. ‘ “I’m Danny.” He could feel the pit in his stomach at that, Damian was the only one who had called him Danny. Going by that felt like a good way to remember his brother.

“It’s nice to meet you, Danny!” The girl grabbed his hand but he forced himself to relax because she didn’t seem to want to hurt him, and even if she did? He wasn’t defenseless. “If you need somewhere to sleep tonight we have an empty guest room, I’m sure Mom and Dad wouldn’t mind.” And with that, she was dragging him off into Nasty Burger.

Daniel Fenton, 10 years old:

Danny was barely listening as Tucker rambled on about Bruce Wayne and his latest adopted child as he dug through his locker, he was vaguely interested because of his mother’s words nearly 2 years ago. Tucker was obsessed with the tech side of the guy's company though, he couldn’t get enough. “Apparently he’s actually his bio son, his Mom kept him a secret until recently… He actually looks kinda like you if you had green eyes.”

At that, he stiffened slightly and looked over at Tucker. “What did you say his name was?” He barely registered the name as Tucker flipped the magazine he was looking at around to show Danny the picture, he felt like someone had a hold of his lungs and wasn’t letting anything in as his eyes zeroed in on a face he was sure he’d never see again. He realized that he was in fact breathing but his breaths were coming in small short bursts, his hand came up to his throat as he tried to get his breathing under control. He barely registered Tucker and his panicked yell for help or as another student from their class rushed over and put her hands on both of his shoulders telling him to breathe.

By the time a teacher got there he was breathing almost normal, but the girl stood with a hand still on his arm and told the teacher he needed to go to the nurse. When the teacher tried to argue she glared at them and pulled him along herself by one arm, Tucker scrambling after them and putting his hand on his shoulder at the other side. The nurse ended up calling Jack and Maddie and telling them that he had had a panic attack and they suggested he go home for the day.

Daniel Fenton, 3 weeks later:

Danny knew that Jazz was following him even if he didn’t let on that he did, he just continued out and onto the roof of the Ops Center. When he was up there he sat and pulled his knees to his chest as he looked towards the stars as Jazz came and sat next to him, she didn’t say anything but she sat close enough for him to know she was there if he wanted to say anything. He didn’t right away, they sat in silence for at least 5 minutes with both of them looking up at the sky before he spoke.

“I had a twin…” Jazz didn’t say anything but he could see her looking over at him shocked out of his peripherals. “We used to sneak out some nights to see the stars, Grandfather didn’t like that we would do it. He wanted us resting so that we could focus on our lessons, he didn’t want anything from us but the best.” He reached his hand up to point towards a group of stars. “I used to tell Dami that Grandfather was like Orion,” His hand shifted to a set of stars. “and we were like his hunting dogs.”

He let his hand drop and a grin spread across his face. “He used to insist that he was Canis Major and I was Canis Minor because he thinks he’s older, we usually ended up fighting in the dark until Mother would find and scold us. She would tell us we were lucky it was her who found us and not grandfather and then send us off to bed, so we would go back to his room and curl up on his cot because he had the better blankets-Grandfather always liked him more.”

The smile slowly drifted off his face and Jazz wrapped an arm around him as they sat in silence looking up at the stars. After a few minutes of silence, he leaned his head over on her shoulder and looked down at the cool metal that made up the roof of the ops center. “I don’t care if I have to be Canis Minor, I just wish I could see him again.”

Jazz wrapped her other arm around him pulling him into a hug, he let himself cry once his face was hidden. 3 days later when Danny came home from school there were about 10 packs of glow-in-the-dark stars on his bed, and any time he had a nightmare Jazz would crawl into bed with him and hug him.

Danny Phantom, 15:

“What!? What do you mean King!?” Danny just stared at Clockwork and Pandora in front of him, he had just come to The Zone to see Frostbite and get his core checked. He’d been getting so many new powers lately it was weird, he wanted to make sure nothing was going on.

“In 6 months on your 16^th birthday, you will be crowned. After your victory over Pariah Dark, you are his successor. Though you are still rather young even by human standards, you're practically a newborn by ghost standards. It’s highly recommended that you assign a council who will handle the day-to-day and consult with you on important topics well you learn what you need to rule successfully.” Clockwork spoke well Pandora seemed to be watching for his reaction, which was honestly panic. All he would do was think of Dan and picture the way his Grandfather would command people and serve punishment without hesitation within The League.

Finally, once he had himself back under control he spoke. “I don’t have a choice do I?” The shake of Pandora’s head was enough of an answer for him and he let out a defeated sigh as his shoulders dropped like he was accepting the new weight that he had just been shoved onto them. “Fine, what exactly does this mean?” They spent the next 2 hours talking, Clockwork explaining his new Connection to The Infinite Realms that would only be stronger after his coronation and some other information that Danny barely registered.

When he finally went to leave Clockworks citadel he was stopped outside by Pandora calling for him and floating over. “Daniel, I wanted to talk to you. As Clockwork said you…are just a child by Ghost standards. I know that you are by living standards as well, however by ghost standards you won't be considered an adult until you are at least 200 years old. Some ghost children will form their groups with each other but others…I wonder if you might accept me as your guardian here in the Infinite Realms.”

Danny opened his mouth to respond but ended up just closing it, he hadn’t exactly been expecting that but he guessed her reasoning made sense. He pressed his lips together before asking her. “How much do you know about my family? Not the Fenton’s…my birth family?” At her puzzled look he sighed and said. “Tell Clockwork I want him to tell you about the Ra and Talia Al Ghul, and what happened with Aidan specifically. Do that and let me think about it if after that you still wanna ask me again closer to my birthday.”

“Very well…I will see you again soon Majesty.” With that, Pandora turned to head back into the tower to talk to Clockwork again instead of leaving as well, and Danny flew off towards the Fenton Portal to go back. How the hell was he supposed to explain any of this to Jazz, Sam, and Tucker Jazz?

King Daniel Aidan Phantom, 16:

Danny sat with Jazz, Sam, and Tucker at a picnic table with a few bags of to-go Nasty Burger between them, waiting for some kind of response to what he had just told them. A dagger lay on the table in front of him that was slightly ornate well still appeared solid enough to do plenty of damage, finally, Tucker let out a laugh. “Oh come on, an assassin? You expect us you were an assassin till Jazz found you in a dumpster?”

“Yes. I failed a mission, my Mom would follow me and my brother when she could, and when I failed she left me here and probably told my grandfather I died. Ra…doesn’t exactly take failure lightly, in training is one thing but, on a mission… My brother and I were known as The Demon Twins. He’s…we’ll you know how I always say I don’t get why you say I look just like Damian Wayne Tuck? He uh, that’s my brother.”

“Are you trying to tell us that Bruce Wayne is your biological father Danny?” Jazz sounded like he was losing her again, the idea that he was an assassin was hard enough to swallow-he figured adding being a billionaire's son on top of it would be a lot. “I mean sure you’ve got the hair and eyes but so do most of his kids and aren’t they all adopted?”

“Except Damian, but I mean-yeah you look kinda like him Danny but you not-?” Tucker was pulling out his PDA as he spoke, he squinted at his screen as he stopped talking. He then looked over at Danny before back at his screen and then back at Danny as he exclaimed. “Holy shit dude, your Bruce Wayne’s son!”

“Let me see that-!” Sam demanded, grabbing the PDA from Tucker’s hands and doing the same thing Tucker had before he snatched it back from her. She just looked at him for a few seconds before saying. “You're not lying…you…everything you're saying is true?” Danny just nodded, grabbing the dagger from the table and putting it away as an excuse not to look any of them in the eyes.

He froze when he heard Jazz finally speak up. “An assassin…?” After a few seconds, he just nodded and waited for the question he was dreading. He was happy none of them asked if he had every killed anyone. He wouldn’t have lied to them, and he didn’t know if he could handle them leaving him.

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Danny squirmed slightly in his seat, fidgeting with the silver ring on the pointer finger of his right hand as his parents sat across from him. Jack had already tried to say something but at the look on his face? Maddie told Jack to give him a chance to talk first. Finally, he looked up at them as he started talking. “I um, I needed to talk to you about something but just please don’t freak out. I swear I’m still just me I…”

“Oh sweetie we won't freak out, we love you no matter what.” The smile on her face made him relax slightly, they loved him. They had taken him in with so few questions and never shown him anything but kindness if you ignored their encounters when he was Phantom, but they didn’t know. They wouldn’t be trying to kill him if they knew it was him… Right?

Before he could say anything to that though Jack spoke up, his voice booming with a grin on his face as he spoke. “Yeah! It’s like we told Jazz, we don’t care who you love! As long as they love you as much as I love your Mother, isn’t that right Fudge Cakes?”

Who he loved? Danny’s eyes went wide and he quickly spoke up before Maddie could respond, hastily telling them. “No-no-that not, I’m not- I mean there’s nothing wrong with that. But I-I’m trying to tell you that I’m Phantom.” Crap, he’d meant to do that more gently than that.

He watched them both closely as Maddie froze and Jack laughed, she seemed to be going over the possibility of it being true where as he seemed to think he was trying to make a joke. “Good one Danny-Boy! To be Phantom you’d have to be a ghost!” When Danny just looked down in response and fidgeted with the ring he was wearing he spoke again. “That would mean you died.”

“I…” How did he explain what had happened without making them feel guilty? He didn’t want to tell them everything yet, not till he was 100% sure they accepted him- The League, Dani. They didn’t need to know about those things yet. “It was 2 years ago. When the portal didn’t turn on me Sam and Tucker went down to check it out, I accidentally hit a button inside and it turned on and… I’m not entirely dead? The ghosts tell me I’m half dead and half alive, they call me a Halfa.”

“I was told that when I was dying the portal pushed so much ectoplasm into my body that it brought me back to life.” Or rather that was his guess, after he learned that the Lazarus Pit was just a puddle of corrupted ectoplasm? He kind of made his assumption, and Clockwork hadn’t confirmed it but he might as well have with the response he gave. He was tempted to mention Vlad and his accident to, someone to confirm he was telling the truth. But as much as the man annoyed him? He didn’t want his parents hunting him for sport if this went bad.

Finally, Maddie spoke, putting a hand on Jack’s arm when he went to say something to stop him. “Sweetheart, why do you think your Phantom? You don’t even look-“ Her words trailed off as Danny let the white rings flash over his body, his body changing into his ghostly form. He just looked away at the heartbroken look on her face and the confused indignation of Jack. She silenced him again though and said. “Danny honey, we still love you. We need to talk about this though, why don’t you go work on your homework and we can talk more tomorrow.”

He hesitated for a moment, he wanted to finish this now-he didn’t want to put it off till tomorrow. He’d done this now so that hopefully it would be done and over with when Jazz got back from her college tour on Sunday. Maddie seemed levelheaded though, even if Jack looked like he was about to jump up from the table and yell if it wasn’t for her holding his arm down on the table. “Alright.” He let the rings wash over him again, turned, and headed to the stairs. He didn’t let his guard down just yet though, listening for it they were coming after him. All he heard was the basement door shut, he assumed that they didn’t want him listening in on their conversation.

He let out a sigh and headed up to his room, letting the rings wash over him again and shot up into the sky and closed his eyes, laying back in the air as if he were floating in a lake. When he opened his eyes again he searched the sky for Orion and his hunting dogs, hand going up and lazily tracing the constellations. He got a little bit of relaxing in before he flew off to do a loop around town to make sure no one was causing any trouble, all he found was a few blob ghosts on the edge of town that he rounded up.

He didn’t feel like trying to get into the basement to get them back into The Zone, so instead, he pulled on the Power in the Ring of Rage to open a portal to put them through. He almost regrated it after, sure he avoided potentially running into his parents in the basement-but he was exhausted. Accessing the powers of the Ring and the crown was a lot easier in his King form, and accessing any of that power outside of the ghost zone still left him feeling extremely drained.

He headed home early after that with the reasoning that someone would get him if anything major happened. When he got home he floated down into his bed, laying and wrapping the covers over himself without bothering to change into Pj’s and passed out. He didn’t know how much later he woke up, but he knew he woke up fighting. The feeling of a ghost net wrapping around him was what woke him up, he thrashed himself out of his blankets and turned to fight as rings flashed around him changing his form from inside of the loose cage but froze.

His parents were standing a few feet from his bed, he didn’t get a chance to register much more than that before he felt a shock of electricity and let out a yell. He didn’t drop all the way though, hand on one knee as he looked up at them with a pleading look in his eyes. “Mom? Dad?” Another shock, this one didn’t end until his vision was getting fuzzy and the world around him was going black. Maybe he should have told them well Jazz was home, maybe he should have gone for his knife instead of changing forms.

He didn’t know how long he was out for this time around either, but he knew that he heard his parents talking above him when he did. His eyes flashed when they started coming at him and he put all the willpower he had into keeping himself from shifting forms in either direction, he didn’t need them knowing he was Ghost King and he didn’t need to be Danny Fenton when they were experimenting on him.

He wasn’t entirely sure how long he had been in the basement before he heard fighting, he’d been focused on keeping his form together and not changing forms? Not to mention trying his damndest not to register what was happening, it wasn’t easy. He hadn’t had torture resistance training since he was 8 years old and he wasn’t exactly in practice. The next thing he was conscious of was being lifted.

He forced his eyes to focus when he felt himself be lifted, a face of pure rage on the face of the 4 armed Amazon practically cradling him to her. Pandora was holding him with two of her arms, one of the other two holding a shield well the other holding a sword. He looked over at the sight before them as best he could around the shield, there was the fearsome ghost known as the Fright Knight there with her. He looked like he was about to swing his sword at his parents.

He tried to speak but his voice was hoarse, he managed to make enough noise that he stopped though. He used the little strength he had to put power into his voice, a power he wasn’t entirely sure he was comfortable using yet but that he needed right now. “Leave them.” His voice felt scratchy and sore, he wondered how long he had been trapped down there crying out. “Bring me to the Realm.” He needed to go to The Zone, the ectoplasm that made up the entirety of that world would help him heal. Even if it wouldn’t he could feel the Zone reaching out to him through the portal, trying to pull him into the relative safety that it offered.

Neither one of them spoke as they turned to the portal, not until they were through. Pandora let her sword and shield go back to their place and help him closer to her, whispering of how he was safe now as he gave into the exhaustion and let himself curl into himself more before he passed out.

When he woke up again he knew how long it had been even if not exactly, he had been out for nearly a week.  He could feel the Power of the Zone coursing through him and looked down at what he was wearing as he sat up in the bed he was in, it was the same outfit he had had when he’d transformed into his new Ghost King form he'd gained when he’d been crowned. He glanced around to see where he was, guessing that it was a room somewhere inside Pandora’s home because of the décor.

It wasn’t long before he stood up and closed his eyes, taking a breath as he focused on what he needed to do now and pushed what had happened to the back of his mind. After letting the breath out he opened his eyes and moved, pushing open the door and being met with a ghost who seemed to be waiting for him outside. “King Phantom! Oh, Lady Pandora will be so happy, Frostbite said that you would wake up once you had rested enough but she was so worried about you.”

“Oh, I-she didn’t need to worry, I’m fine. Just needed some sleep, I feel better than ever.” He ignored the concerned look in the ghost's eyes, if he could pretend he didn’t see it in his sister he could sure as hell do it in the face of a stranger. “So…where is she? I need to talk to her about getting back to the Living World, my friends probably think I’m dead or something by now.”

“Um, right this way Majesty.” He waited until she was turned away and he was floating after her to eye roll at the title, even if he was king now? It’d been less than a year since he was even told he would be, and he was far from mentally prepared for the titles that were being used on him now. “She’s in the meeting hall with the other members of your council, they are discussing what to do about the Hunters who confined you.”

Danny didn’t like the sound of that, but instead of saying that out loud he just nodded when the other ghost looked back at him. When the doors to the meeting room here pushed open and some ghost tried to announce him he just pushed him back through the door, slamming it shut before turning to face the group that was gathered with his back to it. They were all looking at him now, he was almost surprised that all of them were there at once.

Pandora, Frostbite, Wulf and Dora, Clockwork were there too but he wasn’t exactly part of the council and he seemed to be floating off to the side of the room just watching the others. Danny had chosen 4 ghosts he’d trusted to be part of his council, the idea being that if there was anything they couldn’t agree on he’d be the deciding vote. They seemed to be arguing amongst themselves before he came in if Dora’s slitted eyes and slowly receding claws were any indication.

“Hey everyone, this party for me?” He tried to play it cool with a grin as he floated over to the table they were all sitting at, moving to hover over the center of the table as his legs manifested just so that he could cross them. “I thought I’d only have to talk to Pandora and maybe Frosty.” He leaned himself back and bit well grabbing the front of his legs where they were crossed, flipping upside down in the air as he did so.

“We were discussing the best course of action for the Hunters, and also where in the Ghost Zone would be best for you to stay.” Danny stiffened at that, stay? He had no plans to stay here permanently, he was still half-human. He needed to come and go as he wanted, and he needed to let Tucker, Jazz, and Sam know he was still alive.

He flipped right side up before he started talking. “Shouldn’t I decide what to do about them? I’m the one they were carving up like a jack o lantern.” He felt a pit in his stomach as he finally half acknowledged what had happened to him, before they could respond he said. “The only thing we will do is make sure they can’t use their portal anymore. Turn it off, destroy it. I don’t care. As for staying here, I'm not.”

“Daniel, you can not go back there.” Pandora spoke, the lack of title deliberate and clear. She wanted them and him to know that she wasn’t speaking as a member of the council right now, she was speaking as his guardian here in the Zone. “After what they did it is not safe, The Infinite Realms quaked with the things they were doing to you. It could feel that you would die if you were not rescued.”

Danny felt his breath catch for a second, a flash of his mother holding a scalpel as she stood over him flashing in front of his eyes before he pushed it away and told them. “I’m not going back to Amity, you know I have family other than the Fenton’s in the Living World. I’m just going to have to suck it up and go to Gotham, hopefully, Dami doesn’t think that I’m some kind of trick. Hate to have more than one near-second death from a loved one in less than a month.”

He cracked a grin at the joke but it didn’t reach his eyes, they were all worried and he could tell by how they were looking at him. He sighed and let his shoulders fall along with his smile. “Listen, guys, I’ll be fine. Just…I need to let Jazz know I’m okay, and Sam and Tucker too. Even if this whole thing sucks….at least now I have an excuse my fucked up brain will accept to find my brother.”

Danny had finally convinced Wulf to open a portal for him near Sam’s house. When he did he went and quietly knocked on her window invisibly, hoping that no one other than maybe Tucker or Jazz was there. The window popped open and she looked around almost frantically as she whispered yelled. “Danny!? Is that you!?” When he made himself visible he was already in the room and behind her, figuring that she was alone if she’d taken the chance of calling to him.

“Hey, I’m fine. Not dead-no more than usual anyway.” He said to get her attention, he didn’t even bother trying to avoid it when she swung her fist full force at his forearm. If looks could kill that glare she was wearing definitely would have challenged what he’d just said, after the hit though she pulled him into a hug before pulling back to look him up and down well still holding on to either arm.

“Are you sure? Jazz-she said she got home and your parents were passed out in the lab and they told her you…” Danny shrugged her arms away at the mention of his parents and floated over to Sam’s bed, changing forms when he was a few inches above the edge in a sitting position so that he basically flopped onto it. He’d figured coming to her house would be easier than Tucker’s, unless her parents had some gala they wanted her to go to and as long as her grades were passing. They usually left her be, sam was more likely to press questions than Tuck though.

“Yeah, came clean about Phantom. They didn’t take it too well, Pandora got me out before they could…” He pulled his feet up, shoes slipping off as he did so they weren’t on Sam’s bed, and wrapped his arms around his knees. He shuddered slightly at the flash of images that went through his head. “Well…not before they could do any real damage but before they caused a second death at least…”

Sam sat on the bed next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder looking like she was about to say something. That look of pity and worry in her eyes though? He spoke before she could. “You think you could get Jazz here? Say you need help with something so that my parents don’t get suspicious?” He needed to let her know he was safe, but he doubted that she had kept how she felt about what happened to herself. Their…her parents were probably monitoring her phone because of that in case he tried to get ahold of them.

“Her and Tucker were supposed to come over tomorrow anyway so we could figure out how to get ahold of Pandora.” Danny just nodded and let himself flop back and leg his legs hung off the edge of the bed and stretched his arms out to the sides staring at the ceiling. “What are you going to do now? You can’t go home right?” She moved one of his arms as she moved up the bed to sit next to him leaning back on her hands, he was grateful she didn’t try and bring up his parents and what had happened again.

“I…was thinking I’d finally try and get ahold of Damian…” He rolled onto his side and propped his head up on his hand. “Do you think your parents could get you in touch with the Wayne’s? Tell ‘em you wanna talk to him about some of your activist stuff or something? They’d love it if you got close to some billionaire’s son, they don’t like me.” That wasn’t true, Sam’s parents didn’t so much mind Danny himself. They however were not happy about it when the two of them started dating nearly a year ago.

He grinned when she rolled his eyes at what he’d said, her parents' insistence that she should ‘date someone in their social class circle’ had been annoying at first-it had turned into an inside joke after she, Jazz and Tucker learned who his Father was. “I don't know, they've never really interacted with him before. But if you're going to reunite with your bio Dad and officially become a Wayne I can’t wait to see the look on their faces when you do, can you imagine how their going to suck up to you? Damn, it’s gonna be amazing.” She laughed at the visual of her parents making nice with Danny and the Wayne’s

“Speaking of officially becoming Wayne’s, I really should talk to Dani before I go to Gotham. Have any of you been able to get ahold of her?” He had been trying to get ahold of her for months. If it hadn’t been for the fact that she had showed up in the crowd at his coronation before vanishing again? He might be more worried, but at least she’d been alive as of just over a month ago. At the shake of Sam’s head, he turned onto his stomach and let out a groan into the bed before flopping back over onto his back. “I swear if she doesn’t return my calls before I leave I am straight up summoning her myself.”

“Aww, did your baby bird leave the nest too soon?” Danny glared at Sam for the comment which only made her laugh again before she grabbed the hand closest to her, leaning down and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek that made a blush spread across his face and he just grumbled something under his breath. “What was that?” there was a teasing tone to her voice as she looked down at him.

“I said you don’t play fair.” He told her, she just gave him a grin as he slid off the bed, stretching as best he could without letting go of her hand yet before asking. “You mind if I sleep on your gaming couch?” He pointed with his thumb to the couch on another wall of the room that was facing a large TV that was set up in her room, it was where the three of them usually played video games when her parents were home. It was better than having to stop mid-game because they wanted to use the theater.

“Not like you have any better options, I’ll get some snacks from the kitchen and extra blankets from the guest room. I’ll lock the door tonight to make sure my parents don’t come in too.” She stood up and reached out to wrap him in a hug, squeezing him for a second before she told. “Dani’ll be fine, if she shows up we’ll be here to tell her what went down and where you are.” And then she headed out of her room to get what she needed to.

Danny just let out a loud sigh and then moved over to the couch and flopped down, sliding so that he was slouched to the point of almost falling off.

Chapter Text

Danielle ;

Dani had met Batcow and had given her some love and attention, but she was quickly overshadowed when Dani caught sight of Titus and immediately flew over to the dog. “He’s so big! Is this Titus? Jason mentioned him to me but I didn’t realize how big he was!” Not that she wasn’t used to big dogs, but Cujo's larger form was probably twice the size of Titus if not more. But he wasn’t always that big, regular dogs usually stayed the same size.

“He is quite impressive isn’t he.” She almost wanted to tell him otherwise with the way Damian seemed to be preening at someone complimenting his dog, but she was too busy giving him scratches and pets.

“He is! Cujo gets a little bigger but he’s also teeny tiny when he’s small so-” She froze when a whips of air came out of her mouth, ignoring Damian when he asked what was wrong and flying off with him yelling after her to come back. She ignored him though, transforming about 10 feet away and speeding off.

Danny;

Danny could feel a pit in his stomach as he flew towards the border to Gotham, he wasn’t entirely sure if it was due to leaving Amity behind or if it was the anxiety of seeing Damian again and meeting his Father. He had wanted to see his brother for years and had wanted to meet the infamous Bruce Wayne. His father had so many children officially and unofficially that he had taken in, would he welcome him as easily?

What would he do if he found out about the ghost thing? Would he try to...? No. He wasn’t going to go down that rabbit hole right now. He felt the pit in his stomach lift a little the closer he got to the city, and then continued to do so as he got closer and closer to the manor grounds. When he was a little way into the manor grounds a wisp came out of his mouth and he paused mid-air, looking around and noticing just in time to brace himself as Dani slammed right into him.

They tumbled through the air for a moment and he wrapped an arm around her as he steadied them in the air and became visible again. “What-” He stopped and relaxed at the way she was squeezing him; that was a mistake though because the second he did she pulled back and punched him in the arm, and she was a lot stronger than Sam. “Ow-what the hell Dani!”

“What happened to you!? The realm was trying to call me back! Damian was ready to go kill the Fenton’s! I was worried, I thought-!” She must have noticed the confused and panicked look on his face at the mention of Damian though because she stopped and seemed to deflate.

“What do you mean? What are you doing here Dani? I never- how did you meet- what?” He had so many questions and the panic building back in his chest at the mention of the Fenton’s didn’t help, even facing Jazz he’d been able to push the thought of them to the back of his mind. The mention of Damian though? Thinking about why his twin might want to go after them? It made pushing that memory back just that much harder.

“I-well it’s a long story, but I met Jason Todd like 6 months ago right after I visited Amity last. But I didn’t know anything about who he was or who Damian was or any of that until right after your coronation and then whatever happened to you last week I…I felt it, I think it was The Zone trying to tell me what was happening so I could help or something and he brought me to Bruce because was worried… The rest didn’t find out about me or you until then.”

There had to be more to the story than that and Danny knew it, she had been here too long for there not to be. Not to mention the question of how they had found out about him without Damian meeting her and recognizing how much she looked like him, and what exactly had happened a week ago when he’d been in that basement. But he didn’t want to get into that, he knew that he was definitely going to have to face Damian and Bruce and explain his powers and everything that came with them today if they already knew about Dani. They probably knew by now that he was here since he had made himself visible again. “Where’s Damian?”

He tried to ignore the look that Dani was giving him after the question, like she was trying to tell out if he was alright without asking. She probably figured that he would have more questions, not asking them probably tipped her off to the fact that he was on the verge of spiraling. Sometimes he forgot how well Dani was able to read him even though they didn’t usually spend all that much time together. “He was showing me his cow and his dog, I kind of flew off when I realized the ghost I felt was you.”

He followed after her when she started flying off as she spoke. “Did you just say his cow?” He really shouldn’t be too surprised; Damian had always liked animals more than he did people, or at least connected with them easier than he did people. But the idea of his brother having a pet cow when Grandfather had never even allowed them to have a basic pet like a dog was just a little crazy to imagine.

“Yeah, Bat-Cow.” She turned around so she was flying backward and facing him with a grin on her face when she said that and he gave her a look. “You’ll see when we get there, hurry up! Damian already doesn’t like me, don’t need to make it worse by making him wait!” He didn’t have a chance to say anything before she turned around and sped off faster, and he had to speed up to keep up with her.

When they finally reached a fenced area Danny felt the anxious pit in his stomach return at the sight of his brother, seemingly calming down a cow with a mark over its eyes that looked suspiciously like a batarang. There was a large dog near him pacing almost anxiously, Danny had to resist the urge to turn and fly away when Damian turned to look at them coming toward him. When Damian's arm dropped from the cow's head it nudged him and he reached up to scratch her ear again despite his narrowing eyes before hopping over the fence and moving towards where Danny had landed on the ground.

“Uh, long time so see?” He said as he switched back to his human form, Dani choosing to float over to the dog that had been pacing around. Damian stopped in front of him and just looked for a few seconds, Danny was almost about to say something else when he quickly stepped back, barely dodging the kick that had been aimed at his side before ducking a bit and bringing his arm up to block the punch at had been aimed at him. That was a mistake though because Damian immediately grabbed the arm he had blocked with and moved behind him, twisting the arm back with him.

Danny could feel his shoulder trying to dislocate and if he was still entirely human he was sure that it would have. Sure, he could get out easy if he wanted to but he was sure that would just piss Damian off more. He reached his free arm back to try and grab at Damian but he just swerved his head out of the way and then he felt a knee in his back and next thing he knew he had a mouth full of dirt.

Danny wanted to be annoyed by the slow clapping he heard from Dani’s direction but he was a little too preoccupied at the moment for that. He barely registered. “I’ll let you two fight it out in private-” Dani called over before flying off in the direction of the large house in the distance.

“You were alive this whole time.” “Dami I-” “You let me think you died!” He was right and Danny couldn’t argue that. Even if in the beginning it had been to survive? When Damian ended up with Bruce, when he got his powers, after he was crowned. There were so many times he had the chance to go to him and not be in danger of grandfather making an example of him. He doubted Ra’s could kill him if he wanted to at this point, he relied so heavily on The Lazarus Pits? The Zone would never let him get away with it if he hurt him.

Danny turned intangible and Damian’s grip on him failed and his knee was now in the ground instead of his back. Danny floated and landed standing upright before becoming tangible again. “I did, and at first it was because I was afraid of Grandfather but then I was afraid that you would hate me for letting you think that I was dead.” He offered Damian his hand to help him up but he just smacked his hand away and stood up on his own.

“I do not hate you, but I am not happy that you continued to let me think you were dead all the while knowing that I was in Gotham. Danielle told us that she once caught you looking up our family, are we…am I nothing more than a convenient escape for you?” Danny felt himself deflate a bit at the question, he knew how Damian felt with that question. He’d felt that way so often when Grandfather would watch their sparring matches, after he’d gotten his powers and his- the Fenton’s kept hunter ghosts.

The feeling of not being good enough wasn’t something he ever wanted Damian to feel, but honestly? Damian had spent so much time looking out for him in The League? Maybe he had, maybe Danny just hadn’t noticed because he was so much more gifted than he was. “Of course not Dami, but what was I supposed to do? Come here and give Grandfather a target? I failed a mission, I let someone live because his kid walked in and I don’t regret that but we both know what happens when someone fails a mission he gives them.”

Damian just scowled at his words and let out a short “Tsk.” Sound and Danny grinned, knowing that he was at least mostly forgiven. At the very least Damian wasn’t going to attack him again, and so he moved to throw an arm over his shoulders, ignoring the fading ache in his shoulder as he did along with the weight that the action seemed to lift off of him and telling him. “Now that that’s out of the way, why don’t you fill me in on what I’ve missed?”

Chapter Text

Dani;

Dani flew towards the Manor, not quite as fast as she had flown to Danny but fast enough that she needed to slow down when she noticed that Titus was trying to chase her. She grinned as she landed on the dog's back to lay with her arms around his neck, she was mostly flying to keep her weight off him but was letting him pull her along. “To Alfred, Titus!” He wasn’t sure if he would understand but with the little interaction she’d had with Damian around his animals she figured there was a good chance he would at least try to find Alfred at the mention of the older man.

She was right, and soon enough they were bursting into the kitchen where Alfred turned and looked at them, Titus looking down and sitting in front of him giving award-winning puppy eyes. Dani let herself ‘fall’ off of Titus when he sat and rolled over onto her back before floating up so that her feet were above her head and she was upside down in front of the unofficial Grandfather of the family with a grin on her face, an eyebrow being raised at her in question. “Danny’s here!”

“I’m aware Ms. Danielle, we adjusted the sensors to pick up lower temperature readings when we learned about you and Master Daniel.” Alfred told her before turning back to what he had been doing, he had a plate of snacks that he seemed to be getting ready and a tray of drinks. “You however should not be riding on the back of Titus, no matter how large he is.” He held a glass out to her as he spoke and Dani took it and mumbled into it in ghost speak before saying for Alfred to understand.

“I wasn’t actually riding on him, I was mostly floating and letting him drag me. I was going too fast for him to follow when I was flying myself…” She sipped the slightly off-white milk in the glass, silently buzzing at the fact that Alfred had put caramel into her milk. He must have made Jason tell him what she liked because when he first brought her food and a drink in that hospital bed it had been super cheese ravioli with alfredo sauce and a glass of Carmel Milk, She would never admit aloud how much it meant to her that someone had gone to those lengths for her. But she would in fact destroy anyone who tried to hurt this man.

“So long as you know not to do so when not floating, then I suppose that it’s fine.” He reached a hand up again, one of the fancy dog treats Damian buys in it. Titus walks over and sits, looking up at Alfred with big eyes before the butler gives him the treat once he’s still. “Why don’t you do me the favor of telling Master Jason that we are having a family dinner tonight at the manor, I’m sure that you're excited for him to meet Master Daniel. Master Bruce is on his way home now to meet him and find out everything that happened when you collapsed. Dr. Thomkins is on her way as well.”

Dani was about to fly off before he mentioned Dr. Thomkins but stopped, hesitating as she looked at Alfred mouth opening and shutting before he turned to look at her when she didn’t reply. “I-it’s just…if it was the Fenton’s that hurt him… Maybe find out everything that happened before having a Dr poking at him. They aren’t exactly known for being gentle with ghosts they catch, I saw them with a blob ghost once and-” She shuddered at the memory. “Let’s just say that Danny didn’t let their latest weapon survive after we got it free. He almost destroyed the portal that day… Besides, he seemed fine so I’m sure Frostbite already looked over him- and he can do more than a living doctor could anyway.”

“Very well. I’ll let Master Bruce know we should wait and hear what he has to say before anything else. Now off you go, make sure that Master Jason makes it to dinner.” Alfred told her, turning back to what he was doing.

“You're the best Alfy!” She downed the glass of caramel milk and put it down on the counter before saying. “Also, Danny loves barbeque corn chips and roast beef sandwiches!” With that she transformed and turned invisible, flying up through the ceiling and heading toward Crime Alley.

Danny;

It took a while to get back to the Manor walking at a normal pace, but Danny pointedly kept the conversation off of himself by asking Damian about their siblings and Father and everything that had happened with him since they had last seen each other. He was glad to hear that Ra’s was as close to dead as he could get, locked away and buried in a grave that only Mother knew the location of; even if he did worry what might happen if he passed and ended up in The Zone.

It wasn't until they were maybe a hundred yards out that Damian tried to ask something about his life, so he did the only logical thing. He took his arm from where it was still slung around his brother's shoulder and turned around to walk backward facing him, a grin on his face as he did. “I'll race ya, no powers. Bet I still win.” He knew how competitive Damian had always been, he was counting on that not having changed.

He could see him hesitating though, probably realizing his lame attempt at changing the subject. After a few seconds though he got a cocky smirk on his face. “You only wish.” with that, he took off running before Danny had even turned around, and he whipped around and ran after him.

“Hey! No fair, that's cheating!” Danny yelled after him, but he was laughing as he started after his brother. Damian had gotten faster since they last saw each other. He's always been stronger and just as agile as him, but Danny had always been faster and better at disappearing; two sides of a coin is what their mother had referred to them as. Damian made up for Danny's shortcomings and Danny Damian's, even if most outside the league wouldn't have been able to see the difference in their skill at a lot of things it worked for them.

Now though holding back his powers Danny barely managed to catch up with him 5 feet from the house, diving at him with a grin on his face before he could manage to open the door. He made sure they both passed through the door and part of the wall without injury as they fell, letting go of his brother and laying on the floor laughing as he got up with a scowl on his face.

“That was not funny, Aidan.” His laughter slowed at the name as he looked up at the ceiling before sitting up in his spot on the floor to look at Damian, it was a second before the other finished straightening his clothes and he looked over at him. “Is…do you no longer wish to be called Aidan?”

“No that's not…” He didn't mind but it had just been so long since he heard it? “I guess I should have expected it I just…I've been Daniel for as long as I was Aidan at this point, even if most people just called me Danny. I guess it's just been so long since I thought someone would call me that...” Not that anyone calling him Daniel ever really felt right, it was just… who he was to them.

Damian offered a hand to Danny to help him up and he took it even though he really didn't need to, he pulled himself up with his brother's help. “Then we will only use Danny until you are sure which name you would like to go by.” Danny couldn't help but grin at the statement. He turned around at the sound of someone clearing their throat, moving so he was standing next to Damian but still keeping a hold of his brother's hand.

He had heard someone coming up behind him even if he hadn't been entirely sure who it was, Damian hadn’t reacted to their presence though so he’d figured he was fine. When he saw that it was Bruce Wayne? He fought the urge to go invisible even if just barely, even if he was known to take in a lot of kids? That didn't mean he was entirely on board with him showing up out of nowhere, then again apparently it wasn't as out of nowhere as he thought that it would be.

He felt Damian give a slight squeeze to his hand before taking half a step forward and speaking. “Father; meet your youngest son, Danny.” Danny followed Damian's half-step forward as he was introduced, giving a grin and opening his mouth, about to introduce himself.

Then he realized what Damian had said and decided on something else. “Actually, I was born first so Damian is still the youngest son.” The grin on his face just grew as he felt Damian's glare on him, entirely anticipating the response.

“You seem to have forgotten that I was born before they dipped you into the pit, which means that I was living in this world before you. Which makes me the eldest.” Danny just laughed at the familiar argument before glancing at Bruce, pressing his mouth shut at the look on his face and glancing down at his feet as they both mumbled out. “Sorry.”

Bruce might not be Jack Fenton, but he sure as hell was just as bulking and much more intimidating. “We've all been very worried about you Danny, why don't you both come with me and we can talk. I think Alfred is getting together some snacks, you're probably hungry. It's a long way here from Amity Park.”

Danny felt a pit in his stomach as he wondered exactly how much they all knew, glancing over at Damian and calculating the likelihood of him trying to kill the Fenton's. He didn't know him anymore though, not really. He was sure he still knew who he was at his core, he was kind- but he didn't know who he was out from under Grandfather's thumb. Not really. He looked back over at Bruce when Damian's expression gave him almost nothing to work with. “I could go for some snacks.”

Damian;

Damian listened as his brother explained what he had been through since their mother had left him near Amity. He couldn't help but feel disdain for the Dr's. Fenton when he told them about his accident, and jealous of Jasmine for being able to be there for him when he couldn't. That shifted though when Danny explained exactly what had happened nearly 8 days ago when Todd had shown up in the Cave with Dani, the only thing that kept him from standing up and going after them right then was the excuses Danny was making for their reaction and the look his Father was giving him.

He stood partway through Danny explaining who had saved him from the Fenton's lab, an excuse of needing to use the bathroom and soon enough he was in the training room off of the main Bat Cave area. He had a training sword in hand and it wasn't long before he snapped it on the dummy, he threw the broken training sword down and spun around to look at Tim who had been standing in the doorway watching him. “What do you want Drake? Weren’t you working on some project?”

“I was, I thought you might want to hear my progress with info gathering about the GIW but if you’d rather continue murdering dummies and wooden swords I’ll just go back to what I was doing.” That perked his interest and Damian immediately started towards the door, the glare still on his face but now having something to direct his anger at without Danny trying to convince him they were innocent.

“How close are you to finding their base?” He knew that Danielle had been giving him all the information she had on the organization, and Cain had also been sent to get any information that Master’s had on them. He had been preoccupied with digging up information on the Fenton’s and trying to find anything he could about Danielle herself, JLD had been somewhat helpful even if not entirely. Zatana had gotten some information on The Infinite Realms and The Ghost King from Constantine once he had Dick reach out, but there had been more to learn about the Former.

Apparently, the new Ghost King’s subjects were loyal, there was more information to be found about his predecessor Pariah Dark. Both the information about Pariah Dark and the loyalty of the Ghost King’s subjects made Damian feel a mix of proud of Danny and so much more alienated from him than he first had after learning he was alive. “We found their base 3 days ago, Barbara and I are figuring out what kind of security measures and fail-safes they have in place now so that we can decide the best course of action.”

Damian had figured Barbara would be helping, even if Drake wouldn’t admit as much she was better with computers than any of them. Not getting her help would have been foolish to say the least. “We’re also trying to see if there’s a political way to take them down before we attack them, that way they don’t have the means to rebuild as easily after the fact. A lot of that hinges on JLD and making a case that they're falsely claiming that the beings that reside in that world are soulless and non-sentient. We might call in the help of the Lanterns as well since it could be classified as an unprovoked declaration of war on an extra-dimensional society.”

Damian nodded at the information as he walked with him over to the BatComputer, there were pros and cons to calling on The Lanterns for this. The first was that Father preferred to not get Hal Jordan involved in their fights when he didn’t need to, the main con though was that meant likely letting the Lantern Core know who Danny was as both Batman’s son and The Ghost King. “If we want to get the Lantern Core involved then we will have to talk to Danny first, that would require his help seeing as he is King of the Infinite Realms.”

Tim had taken a seat at the computer to start pulling things up before Damian spoke, but at that, he paused and spun the chair partway to look at him. “Do you think he’ll go for it? It could make the government back off and rethink the Anti-Ecto laws they're trying to pass that basically give them the right to kill his people with no repercussions.”

“Tsk, how should I know?” Damian crossed his arms and leaned against the end of the council, refusing to look over at him. “Danny had always been soft, but now he is upstairs making excuses for the people who by default promised to protect him by taking him in and did the exact opposite. When they found out what their machine had done to him they tried to do a live autopsy on him, that’s why Danielle felt his realm calling to her.” Tim didn’t respond at first, but he heard him move and looked at him out of the corner of his eye to see he’d turned back to the computer.

“Sometimes it’s hard.” Damian didn’t respond. “Maybe they aren’t his birth family, but they were his family for years- they were his parents. He probably just wishes that they had loved him enough to see past the hatred Dani says they have for ghosts.” He didn’t respond right away but he knew he was right. Damian had his own experience with trying to please someone who probably never would be entirely proud of him and so did Tim. For him? it was his Grandfather, for Drake his parents. Danny had dealt with it from Grandfather first, and when he was finally free from that pressure he had been changed into something that his new family saw as an abomination and a threat.

His anger at the Fenton’s was still there but if he was honest with himself it was a mask, he was angry that he’d let Danny go on that mission alone, he was angry that he hadn’t been there to cover for his failure, he was angry that he hadn’t realized his mother’s deception and found him the first chance he had once he was with their father. “Tell me when you have a plan to take down the GIW, I vote we try to do both plans. Destroy their credibility and then bring Danny in and ask him if he wants to get the Lanterns involved. We shouldn’t bring this to him before he’s settled in though.”

“Yeah, Babs was saying something similar. We shouldn’t push him to help us with this until he trusts all of us more, he might trust you and maybe Jason because Dani trusts him. But neither of them really know the rest of us.” Damian was about to say something else but suddenly someone appeared in the cave through the ceiling and he forced his clenched fist to relax.

“Bruce said he didn’t think you were really in the bathroom, come on Dami; Alfy made tea. I haven’t had good tea since I was 8!” Danny landed in front f him and grabbed his hand to pull him up the stairs, Damian pointedly ignored Tim holding back laughter behind him and let Danny pull him back to where Father was waiting.

Chapter Text

Danny;

Danny had been given a room next to Damian’s after talking to Bruce and Alfred, now he was in the ensuite bathroom brushing his teeth after a shower. As he looked in the mirror he turned his eyes green out of habit, after he was done he stared for a moment digesting the fact that he didn’t have to do that anymore before blinking and fading them back to blue as he noticed Damian come into view in the doorway. “What are you doing? I called for you, you didn’t answer.”

He rolled his eyes and rinsed his toothbrush as he easily avoided and hoped that he hadn’t noticed him staring in the mirror that way, he already got enough lecturing from Jazz about how bad that coping mechanism was. “I can’t exactly answer with a mouth full of toothpaste, Dami.” He dropped the new toothbrush into the cup by his sink and turned around, Damian didn’t say anything and just eyed him. “What? Did you want me to dribble all over myself? Not very royally dignified.”

At the joke, he finally spoke, though he kept giving him that weird look. “Alfred said that most of our siblings are coming tonight for dinner before patrol, the only one who can’t make it is Cain. She is in Amity Park getting information and some equipment from Masters.” At that Danny perked up a bit, what were they doing anywhere near Vlad? That just spelled trouble.

“You guys shouldn’t be anywhere near Vlad.” Danny didn’t give Damian a chance to speak when he opened his mouth, continuing to say what he was thinking. “Vlad is my problem, and you don’t need to be drawing attention to him now that my parents know about me. It’ll be a miracle if they don’t put together the fact that he’s Plasmius knowing that I’m Phantom, he’s an ass but he doesn’t deserve to have his oldest friends hunt him for sport. And even if she won't admit it Dani would be worried sick.”

“Hasn’t this man tried to kidnap you? The only reason Danielle exists is because he went to great lengths to clone you but couldn’t figure out how to make an exact copy.” Danny got what he meant, but he also knew more about Vlad’s reasons than Damian did. Even if the guy drove him nuts and he wouldn’t ever even consider letting him take him in…

“I mean yeah, but he doesn’t… Ghosts have these things called obsessions and they aren’t exactly something you can ignore for long.” He walked back into the bedroom as he spoke, flopping down on the bed as he looked up at the blank ceiling. He wondered where in Gotham he could buy some plastic stars, they might look a little tacky in this place but he missed them.

“If you do then you get weaker, I’m pretty sure Vlad had two, I think he has three now. From what I can tell the first was learning as much as he could about The Zone, and the second Maddie Fenton. When he learned about me he became obsessed with making me his son because we’re both Halfa’s. I’d rather him focus on that one right now than Maddie, that makes him a target. I’ll just beat his ass, but them..” He didn’t have to say it, he’d already told Damian what happened when they learned the truth about him.

He could practically hear the gears turning as Damian processed the information he had given him, it was a full minute before he felt the bed next to him dip as he took a seat next to him. “All ghosts have obsessions?” Danny turned his head slightly to look over at him, already guessing where this train of thought was going. He just nodded slightly, he assumed Damian saw even though he wasn’t looking directly at him in favor of staring at the door. “How many do you have? And what are they? If you get weak when they aren’t fulfilled then we should make sure you can do so.”

Danny reached his arms over his head and stretched as he thought about telling him his obsessions, it couldn’t hurt but it was also weird being able to talk openly about them with someone who wasn’t Sam or Tucker. “I have three I think, Sam says it’s probably four. She thinks that the Star’s one is more an obsession with the stories and the Space is a separate thing, she came up with the theory after I made her listen to me go over the stories of the constellations for three hours floating over Amity one night.”

Danny saw that he looked at him out of the corner of his eye that, he probably wanted to ask about Sam but he kept going anyway. “There’s also the one with protecting people I care about, Frostbite says I’ve only been half fulfilling that one because I was avoiding coming here. After I was crowned I realized I gained the obsession of protecting The Zone and bettering the lives of those inside of it. Which I guess could technically be considered two but they're directly tied to each other so…”

“You can’t see the stars in Gotham, but we do have a fairly large library. If there aren’t enough books about the stars and their legends in there we can get more, next time Batman and Robin have to go to the Justice League's Station you can come as well. We’ll need to introduce you to them as Phantom at some point either way, otherwise they’ll all start asking questions.” Danny looked away again up at the ceiling, he wasn’t super thrilled about meeting some of the Justice League. He’d heard rumors about Superman’s…rocky relationship with his clone and he wasn’t all too sure in general about John Constantine with some of the things he had heard; even if he was technically Justice League Dark.

After a few seconds, he sat up and moved so he was floating upside down in front of Damian with his legs crossed. “You mean I get to see a real space station? If I try to fly around outside will it try to shoot me? What about you, do you have a space suit so I can drag you along out there?”

Damian;

Damian knocked on Danny’s door, and when he didn’t answer he pushed it open. “Danny?” He held himself back from panicking at the lack of response, he could hear the water running in the bathroom sink so the chances were that Danny was still there. He made his way into the bathroom and almost did a double take when he saw Danny’s face in the mirror over his shoulder, his eyes were the same green color they had been before he switched from his ghost form into his human one when he’d first shown up on Danielle’s heels at the barn.

When he blinked though they were back to blue. “What are you doing? I called for you, you didn’t answer.” He didn’t miss the roll of his eyes as Danny looked back at him through the mirror before rinsing his toothbrush and dropping it in the cup on the sink, everything in the room was pretty bland and uniform. Before now it had been kept as a guest room for if any of Damian’s friends came over and wanted to stay the night at the manor along with the room on the other side of his.

“I can’t exactly answer with a mouth full of toothpaste, Dami.” When he didn’t answer Danny turned around and continued. “What? Did you want me to dribble all over myself? Not very royally dignified.” Finally, Damian relented and spoke.

“Alfred said that most of our siblings are coming tonight for dinner before patrol, the only one who can’t make it is Cain. She is in Amity Park with Zatanna getting information and some equipment from Masters.” Damian didn’t miss the slight tension of Danny’s shoulders at what he said or the way that he seemed to straighten a bit.

“You guys shouldn’t be anywhere near Vlad.” Damian stiffened at the tone as Danny said that and the slight green glow that came to his eyes before fading away. “Vlad is my problem, and you don’t need to be drawing attention to him now that my parents know about me. It’ll be a miracle if they don’t put together the fact that he’s Plasmius knowing that I’m Phantom, he’s an ass but he doesn’t deserve to have his oldest friends hunt him for sport. And even if she won't admit it Dani would be worried sick.”

“Hasn’t this man tried to kidnap you? The only reason Danielle exists is because he went to great lengths to clone you but couldn’t figure out how to make an exact copy.” Damian couldn’t help the annoyed tone that was bordering on anger at him on the edge of defending yet another person who had done him wrong.

“I mean yeah, but he doesn’t… Ghosts have these things called obsessions and they aren’t exactly something you can ignore for long.” Damian just watched with his arms crossed in annoyance as Danny walked past him, staying in the bathroom doorway and turning to watch him as he walked over to the bed and flopped down backward on the bed. Danny didn’t seem to be looking at the ceiling as he lay there, even if his eyes were on it as he spoke.

“If you do then you get weaker, I’m pretty sure Vlad had two, I think he has three now. From what I can tell the first was learning as much as he could about The Zone, the second Maddie Fenton. When he learned about me he became obsessed with making me his son because we’re both Halfa’s. I’d rather him focus on that one right now than Maddie, that makes him a target. I’ll just beat his ass, but them..” He didn’t have to say it, he’d already told Damian what happened when they learned the truth about him.

Damian didn’t respond at first as he processed the information he’d been given, if that was true that these obsessions could change and evolve. Maybe there was a way to redirect Master’s obsessions so that they didn’t involve Maddie Fenton or Danny, he would have to talk to Father about possibly trying something like that once he gave him that information. He moved over to the bed and sat down next to Danny, looking ahead of them at the door rather than over at him. “All ghosts have obsessions?” He watched out of his peripherals as Danny looked over at him and nodded.

He was sure that Danny knew exactly where he was going with that question but he asked it anyway. “How many do you have? And what are they? If you get weak when they aren’t fulfilled then we should make sure you can do so.” He felt Danny shift next to him and saw his legs move so they were sticking out straight off the bed before falling back to hanging over the edge again.

“I have three I think, Sam says it’s probably four. She thinks that the Star’s one is more an obsession with the stories and the Space is a separate thing, she came up with the theory after I made her listen to me go over the stories of the constellations for three hours floating over Amity one night.” Damian had to stop himself from asking who Sam was, he was sure that knowing where he was from he could figure out the information on his own even without asking Danny, but information about his life as Phantom? It would be hard to get it without getting it from Danny himself.

“There’s also the one with protecting people I care about, Frostbite says I’ve only been half fulfilling that one because I was avoiding coming here, he also said that I could get more because I’m still young and more powerful ghosts tend to have more obsessions. Pariah Dark had quite a few before he lost it. After I was crowned I realized I gained the obsession of protecting The Zone and bettering the lives of those inside of it. Which I guess could technically be considered two but they're directly tied to each other so…” Damian had already been thinking about how to help him fulfill his obsessions before he even told him all of them, a couple of them would be harder to help with.

“You can’t see the stars in Gotham, but we do have a fairly large library. If there aren’t enough books about the stars and legends in there we can get more, and next time Batman and Robin have to go to the Justice League Station you can come as well. We’ll need to introduce you to them as Phantom at some point either way, otherwise, they’ll all start asking questions.” He waited to see Danny’s reaction to that before making the last suggestion he had, after a bit of silence Danny moved, sitting up and crossing his legs before floating into the air so that he was upside down in front of him with his hands on his legs.

 “You mean I get to see a real space station? If I try to fly around outside will it try to shoot me? What about you, do you have a space suit so I can drag you along out there?” Damian felt a bubble of pride that his suggestion had been met with such enthusiasm, but he also knew that he probably should have run it by his Father first.

“Yes, we can alter the defenses, and yes I have a space suit as well as a spare so that you can fly me around with you outside.” Danny seemed to want to say something to that, but before he could there was a knock on the door. Danny turned right side up and landed on the floor as he glanced over at him, and so Damian called out through the door. “Come in, Richard.”

He slid his feet a couple of inches to the ground so that he was standing as the door opened, he figured that all of their siblings would want to meet Danny eventually. Cassandra had seemed particularly interested in meeting him after he told them that he had always been more adept at disappearing into the shadows than he was, on top of wanting to meet him though he was almost positive that he wanted to check and see how he was doing now that Danny had arrived. He didn’t like the look he gave him before turning to his twin with a smile on his face. “You must be Danny, I’m Dick.”

The rest of the evening went by fairly smoothly, outside of Dani throwing a roll directly at his face when he called her Danielle. After dinner Father suggested that he stay home from patrol for the night, he had been getting less sleep the last week and he was sure that he thought he might be able to actually sleep now that Danny was here and safe. Unfortunately for them both that wasn’t the case.

He had been in bed for maybe an hour, alternating between facing away from the wall his room shared with Danny’s to turning back over and staring at it as if he would be able to see through if he glared hard enough. Titus had gotten annoyed with him and was now sleeping on the floor. After another half hour of that, he flung his blankets off and moved silently out of the room, Titus lifting his head to look at him for a second before laying back down and deciding not to follow.

He reached up to Danny’s door tapped on it with one finger a few times and listened for a response. “Yeah, I’m awake.” Danny’s reply sounded as if he had not been awake before. “Come on in Dami.” Damian opened the door to the room and looked in, the lights were off but the window was open and there was enough light coming in that he could make out that Danny had flipped the edge of the blanket over.

He stood there for a moment deciding if he was going to go in or head back to his room now that he had seen his brother was still there, finally after about 10 seconds he quietly clicked the door shut and moved to the bed. He climbed under the covers and pulled them over him, rolling over so that he was facing Danny and reaching out in search of a hand.

When he found it and felt Danny’s half-asleep squeeze he relaxed a bit and closed his eyes, if it wasn’t for how much softer the bed was and how cozy the blankets were he could almost pretend that they were just children again curled up after getting scolded by mother for sneaking out so that Danny could see the stars. “I’m not going anywhere Dami, go to sleep.” Danny’s words were barely a mumble but they did the trick, Damian was out in about 5 minutes after that.

Chapter Text

Danny was still exhausted from everything that had landed him here, even if he had fully healed minus the scar he now sported over his chest? He'd healed from so much so quickly that the human half of him was still catching up, Frostbite had said he needed to try and get more sleep than he usually did for at least a week after leaving the zone. He had managed to sleep pretty well at Sam's house, even if he had woken up on the couch with her sitting on it letting him use her lap as a pillow. He hadn't asked but he assumed he'd been having a nightmare.

Because of that he passed out nearly the second his head hit the pillow after dinner, not even having a chance to fully think about the look Bruce and Alfred had given each other at the way he'd told Dani to ask people nicely not to call her something before throwing bread at their face. It wasn't exactly a restful sleep though, he felt like he was waking up every few minutes. He didn't want to fall into a nightmare again and wake someone up with his yelling; Sam hearing it had been one thing, and maybe Damian hearing it would be okay. But the others? He didn't need to make that kind of early impression on them.

He had just woken up and was trying to fall back asleep when he heard the small taps on the door, it took him a second to decipher what it was ‘Its Damian, are you awake?’ it'd been a long time since he'd used Morse code. “Yeah, I’m awake.” He was sure he barely spoke loud enough to be heard through the door, and he rolled over towards the door and flipped the blanket by the edge of the bed over. “Come on in Dami.” 

He opened his eyes and watched as he opened the door, being careful that they didn't start glowing in the darkness of the room. When Damian finally pushed the door shut and moved into the room towards the bed he closed his eyes and scootched back a little to give him more room, reaching out with his own hand when he felt him shuffling around in the blankets. He gave his brother's hand a small half-asleep squeeze and could feel his grip relax a bit and realize why he was there.

“I’m not going anywhere Dami,” How could he, he had missed his brother so much. Even if he still planned on visiting Sam and Tucker, and Jazz would always be his sister? He couldn't leave him behind again, and now Dani was here too. “go to sleep.”

When he woke up the next day Danny had to practically push Damian out the door to go to school so that Bruce wouldn’t get upset with him, he didn’t need him upset with Damian about not going to school and for that to make him upset that he had shown up and caused issues. He was still arguing with him about how he needed to go and he would be fine till he got back, Dani wanted to show him her favorite places around the city anyway. “Damian just go or I’ll pick you up and put you in the car myself, I don’t need Bruce getting upset with me when I haven’t even been here a full day yet.”

Tim had been in the kitchen with them sitting on the other end of the table messing with a phone with the another two sitting on the table in front of him, at the comment he glanced over at them before pushing himself up and walking towards them still pressing some buttons before shoving the phone into Danny’s hands right as Damian’s went off. “I was trying to get everyone’s numbers in there first, I’ll just text you the rest of them. I put the one for the phone I gave Dani, Damian, Bruce, Alfred, Jason and me in there. Texted Damian so he’d have the number too, I’ll send you the other’s numbers and add you to the group chat later.”

Danny just stared at him for a few seconds before shoving the phone in his pocket and turning to Damian. “There, see? You can mother hen me worse than Jazz from school, go.” He was exaggerating, he doubted that anyone couldn’t motherhen him quite as relentlessly as Jazz did. The glare Damian gave him though told him that he was going to try.

“Fine, but I’m skipping my free period last block to get out of school at 2PM today. Don’t let Todd and Dani get you into trouble before then.” Danny just let out a laugh at his reluctant use of Dani’s nickname and pushed him towards the door, knowing full well that not being able to fight against his ushering annoyed Damian.

“I’m not making any promises, last time Dani was in Amity we staged a breakout at Axion because the Guys In White were using it to hold a couple of ghosts she’d made friends with.” He would have lost an arm if he hadn’t managed to make the limb wispy like his ghost tail, but Damian didn’t need to know just how close he’d come. He seemed less than enthused about leaving once again so Danny added on. “But I’m the Ghost King now, gonna take more than a day in Gotham to get rid of me.” 

“Master Damian,” Alfred was at the door to the manor, holding it open for Damian as Danny pushed him towards it. “you know the deal that you and your father made. If you would like Master Bruce to allow Master Danny to come on patrol with you tonight then you need to go to class.” Danny paused in his pushing at that, Damian hadn’t said anything to him about going out on patrol but it made sense. He had said that he wanted to make sure that he fulfilled his obsessions and protecting was one of them.

He darted forward and hugged him without a word before giving a small push towards the door again and speaking. “Go to school! You can't follow me into the sky anyway, I need to go find out why Dani is so attached to the zombie.” And with that he went ghost and flew up through the ceiling, zipping up past the smog of the city to take a breath of fresh air and floating with his eyes shut for a moment.

As he expanded his senses to get a better feel for the city than he had the day before he did his best to ignore the happy buzz of energy he could feel his core thrumming out, there was one thing that was at least partly right in The Fenton's research. Strong emotions affected ghosts, namely they could give their Core a burst of energy. In his experience it felt different depending on the emotion, anger gave you a more explosive burst but happiness gave you a more steady stream of it.

He was definitely feeling that energy now with the knowledge that Damian was so intent on helping him fulfill his obsessions. Before he had gotten to Gotham he hadn't been sure how to go about revealing he was alive to Damian, let alone telling him about the whole halfa and Ghost King thing. If he was honest he probably would have hidden it until he couldn't anymore if Dani hadn't been there, so maybe it was a good thing. At least Damian hadn't been the first one she had met, he would get the reasoning but he'd also be pretty pissed if he had attacked her.

He was distracted from his thoughts about the way they all seemed to accept him so easily before he could get to the 'its too good to be true' bunny trail, his Core pulsing and causing a faint image of his crown over his head as he started to feel just how many ghosts resided within Gotham. He really shouldn't have been all too surprised given the high amount of ectoplasm in the city on top of the amount of traumatic deaths that happened within it, but it was still more than he thought it would be.

Once he finally managed to find Dani's core which was almost identical to his, just different enough that it was distinguishable he pulled his aura back in, the faded crown over his head vanishing as he did. He let himself fall back towards the city, leveling himself out invisible above the rooftops as he flew to where he sensed her. As he made it closer to where she was he realized she must still be at Zombie Guy's place and carefully peaked in a window to make sure it wasn't a bathroom or something before zipping through the wall and dropping to the floor in his human form right behind him.

“Hey Walking Dead, where's my sister?” He almost fell over laughing when Jason whipped around in a panic with a pan that previously had sausage in it just a second ago held up like a weapon. “No wonder Dani likes hanging around you so much.” He barely got the words out through his laughter, finally collecting himself when Dani lazily floated out through a door. “Oh, hey Dani.”

“Why are you being so loud, I was trying to sleep.” When she finally fully looked over at them she just stared for a moment at the defeated look on Jason’s face, the sausage on the floor, and the grin he was sporting before laughing. “Did you ghost-scare him? Ancients, I wish I had seen that.” She let out a laugh as she spoke and got her own grin as she landed next to him.

Danny watched as Jason turned back around towards the stove and turned it off. “Fine, you can get your own breakfast, Little Ghost.” He grumbled a bit as he said it but Danny could tell he wasn’t really angry, usually, he tried to block it out but he could feel a shadow of what other ghosts felt when he wanted to. It was almost like sensing their cores which he had gotten the ability to do once he was crowned, even if it felt a little weird with the partially formed one that this guy seemed to have.

“Aw come on, it’s funny and you know it, Jason.” Dani floated over to the fridge as she spoke, reaching in and pulling out a half gallon of orange juice with a Phantom symbol labeling it and taking a drink straight out of it. He assumed that Jason had realized getting her not to do that was pointless just like Jazz had with him, hence the labeled jug.

“Yeah, funny like watching you try to cook. Used to wonder how you were so bad at it but knowing genetics-wise you're Bruce’s kid? Doesn’t surprise me anymore.” Jason had picked up the sausage and dropped the pan in the sink as he spoke, headed towards his room as he told them. “I’m leaving for a mission with Bizzaro and Artemis, I’ll be back Thursday. Might wanna steal a hoodie if you go out Ghost Boy, gonna get swarmed people realize how much you look like the Demon Brat.”

They spent most of the day after that wandering the city with Dani showing him her favorite places to get food, though after lunch Danny started feeling like they were being watched. It wasn’t a ghost thing, but knowing when he was being watched wasn’t something that ever really faded away. At first, he thought that maybe it was just some Paparazzi but then it kept going. Finally he dragged Dani into a store and towards the bathrooms, going invisible as soon as they were out of sight of the windows and flying up and out of the building.

There was no sign of whoever had been following them when they went outside, Danny could only hope that it was just someone who saw he looked like a Wayne kid and got curious. After that they flew back to the Manor, he and Dani raided the kitchen for snacks and brought them with them to the barn to wait for Damian to get out of school... That was how he spent his next 4 days, though one of them was spent with Dani and Damian and the last was just Damian.

During that time Bruce let him come out with them on patrol, there were a couple of incidents but nothing really out of the ordinary for Gotham from what Damian said. Other than patrols though Bruce didn’t seem to know how to react to him being there, he was nice enough when they saw each other but he could tell that he was avoiding really interacting with him. That was fine with him, as long as he could stay… he didn’t need a parent.

He was thinking about that and the fact that Jazz was going to be coming to Gotham to go to the university as he flew next to Damian well he jumped across the rooftops. He stopped when he noticed that his brother was frozen in midair behind him and turned to see Clockwork floating in the air near him. “Daniel, or should I call you Aidan now?”

His fingers twitched at the question, it wasn’t exactly one that he wanted to think about yet. In fact, he had been actively avoiding thinking about it since Damian had agreed to just call him Danny. “You should call me Danny like I keep telling you to.” He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms as he answered. “What do you want Clockwork? Pandora said I had 2 weeks before I needed to come back to The Zone.”

“I’m here because you haven’t noticed yourself being followed, or you’ve decided to pretend you don’t notice. Fright Knight was going to intervene himself, but I told him you wouldn’t be too happy if he went in sword swinging with the Soul Shredder.” He floated around Danny in a circle as his form switched to that of a child. “I don’t think you hold enough malice towards Talia Al Ghul for leaving you in Amity to want her soul tortured within the sword.”

Danny froze at what he said, feeling a pulse in his core at the panic he felt at having to face his mother. The whites of his eyes flashed to black as the scars on his arm that peaked over his collar flashed the same toxic green as his eyes. “I can ignore her following me if I want, I thought you didn’t intervene in things?”

“In the timeline no.” He faded into old age at the statement. “But I did not come because I saw something happen, I came because your Knight told the Council that he thought you were in danger because someone was following you and you weren’t aware. I checked who it was and told them to leave it. I can not promise they will for long though King Phantom. Decide how you will handle this, and quickly.” He looked to be about 30 when he said quickly, and then he was gone.

Danny didn’t move from where he was floating, his arms staying crossed tight over his chest as he simply let himself slowly lower to the rooftop. It was only a second before Damian noticed he’d stopped once he was moving again, and about 30 seconds after that when Bruce had turned around and made his way back to them. “What’s wrong, Phantom?” It was Damian who asked.

When he didn’t answer right away Bruce moved forward, kneeling to look him in the eyes for a moment. “What happened?” Right, the world's greatest detective, Danny should have known that he would realize something was wrong. He wasn’t exactly hiding the fact that he was upset, then again Clockwork hadn’t given him any time to process what he’d told him.

“Mother’s here, she’s been watching me on and off for the last 4 days at least. Never when I’m near any of you, only if I’m with Dani.” She probably figured that Dani wouldn’t notice her following them, she might be his clone but she hadn’t exactly gotten the training that he had in his formative years.

Damian got a look in his eyes that Danny couldn’t quite pinpoint, something between anger and determination. He figured he was probably upset at their Mother for letting him think he was dead for so many years, but he also doubted that he would ever entirely turn against their Mother. Ras sure, Mother? Probably not.

Bruce however stood at the statement, pressing on his earpiece and speaking. “Groups of 2, get Signal up. Hood to Oracle, Orphan meet up with Hood's partner and stay with her till she’s at the cave and then head out with Signal. Batwoman and Spoiler are together. Oracle, fill in Nightwing and Red Robin. Look for signs but do not engage, we only want her to know that we know she’s here.” And with that they were all moving to meet up with their assigned partner, Danny somewhat reluctantly headed back to the cave with Damian.

Chapter Text

Danny;

Danny felt himself go ridged the moment Red Hood stepped into the bat cave with his Mother trailing behind him almost casually, he shifted slightly so he was partly in front of Dani but other than that didn't move. Bruce was standing in front of both of them with the Bat Suit still on, Damian next to him still dressed as Robin taking a step forward. He almost wanted to laugh at the glare that he turned on Bruce when he reached over and put a hand on his shoulder to stop him when he stayed to step towards their Mother.

Damian only seemed to think about it for a moment at the small shake of Bruce's head before pulling his arm free and taking 3 almost stomping steps towards their Mother. “You let me think that Aidan was dead.” Talia didn't answer at first, her eyes shifting to him and watching him for a few seconds before looking back at Damian when he shifted his eyes away from her.

“The only way to protect your brother was to make sure that no one knew he survived his last mission, Ra's Al Ghul was never one to suffer failure. Especially from his own blood.” He decided to ignore that she was watching him out of her peripheral vision as she spoke, he didn't know what to say and Dani looked almost as unsure as he felt.

He was about to reach out and offer her his hand but then Hood made his way over and put a hand on her shoulder, asking her as he did. “You good, Little Ghost?” Quiet enough that the others could ignore it, and so instead he moved forward. He barely stepped around Batman, phasing through part of his cape and letting his transformation fade right before he stepped up next to Damian.

“Grandfather has been as gone as he can be for over 3 years. You could have told me, or at least told Damian I was alive so he could tell me.” As much as Ra's not accepting failure wasn't something he was all too worried about the last few years? Talia didn't know that, for all she knew he had thought that the danger still existed.

Danny felt a flash of longing at the familiar look in his mother's eyes, longing for his mother to hold him and love him the way most would. She was looking at him now the way she sometimes would when he and Damian were younger - as if she felt guilty for the life they lived. He had to make himself not move when she stepped towards him and reached a hand out to touch his cheek. “I checked in on you, 2 years after I left. You were settling in well, Shadow, you seemed happy.”

At the use of the nickname he finally did step away from her, eyes and scars flashing toxic green and a faded crown pulsing over his head for a moment as a feeling he couldn't quite pinpoint welled up. “H̵̜͓̑͆à̴̼̣p̶̧͋p̷͈̭͒y̸͖̳͗̈?̷̖̕ ̷̟̠͐̎ ” He didn't mean for the echo to his voice and the look on her face made a wave of panic push away whatever it was he'd been feeling, he looked over at Damian who was looking at him with concern and then Bruce who looked like he didn't know what to do before going invisible and flying off.

Bruce;

When Danny disappeared Bruce watched as Dani immediately started towards the ceiling of the Batcave, only to stop when Damian spoke. “Wait! I'll go.” He was already running towards the cave steps, Dani seemed unsure of what to do at that so he finally spoke up.

“Dani, Jason. Why don't you go and see where Alfred is, and fill in Oracle so she can update the others.” He could only imagine that Dani was probably as overwhelmed as Danny seemed to be, even if he imagined it was for different reasons. He didn't look away from Talia as he spoke, and Jason at least seemed to get that he wanted to talk to her alone.

He urged Dani to come with him to raid the post patrol snacks with him before the others got there, Bruce was glad he for once wasn't trying to be as contrary as possible. “I imagine you're quite upset with me, Beloved.” That was an understatement and Bruce was sure she was fully aware of that.

“Upset?” He pulled the cowl down so that she could see his face as he spoke. “It was bad enough knowing that you kept Damian from me for 10 years Talia, but a second child!? And you let Damian go through the trauma of thinking his twin was dead instead of bringing them here to me together!?” His anger was clear in his expression, he didn't need to be the stoic Batman right now. Right now he was an angry Father who was furious on behalf of his children.

“I did what I thought was best for both of my sons, I left the decision of telling you about Aidan or not up to Damian.” Her tone was clipped and her posture became defensive, though he doubted that she was going to actually physically attack him? He was still ready for it.

“No, you did what was best for you and your Father, Talia. Damian shouldn’t have made that choice, it’s not up to him to tell me about his brother who he thought was dead. That was your responsibility.” He shifted his posture slightly when she took a few steps forward so that she was only roughly a foot away from him, ready for any anger that she may direct at him for that statement.

“Leaving Aidan in that town alone was one of the hardest decisions I have made, rivaled only by leaving Damian here with you. Implying that I don't care for my sons more than myself is something I will not forgive even from you, Beloved. So I would choose the words you say more carefully at our next conversation as I won't be ignoring it again." There was a clear threat of making her an enemy in her tone and the body language she was using if he dared to imply that the entire situation wasn’t something that should have been handled differently.

“If it wasn’t for my love for Damian and Aidan, Ra's Al Ghul would still be a problem you had to worry about.” Part of Bruce knew that she was right, that she had done what she had thought was the best and safest course of action for both Damian and Aidan at the time. But the Father in him was still upset at his son’s having to go through what they did rather than being sent here to him where he could protect them from Ras Al Ghul’s influence.

“What is best for them is something that I should have had a say in and you know that Talia, they're my sons too and you know I would have been there for them if I had known.” They had had this argument more than once when Damian had first come to him, it had died down when he was 12 and she had helped him to lock Ras away so that he wouldn’t be a threat to his safety anymore. But knowing that he had another son out there? One that Damian thought was dead but Talia knew full well was alive? It reignited his anger at the whole situation.

He had another son who he’d missed even more time with than he had with Damian, Damian had gone through and likely still been going through the pain of losing his brother when he came to him alone without anyone knowing. Aidan had eventually died and faced threats that he could have helped with and had the weight of an entire realm thrust onto his shoulder at that ripe age of 16, even if he did claim to have the help of allies he could trust in the form of a council.

“But you did not know of them, because rather than listening to what I had to say when you learned of my father’s schemes you left, that was a choice that you made. I made the choice to do what would keep my sons with me as long as it was safe for them to be, and I chose to do what was necessary to keep Aidan safe when I had to even though it broke my heart. I will not listen to your judgment on the matter, you were not there. You do not get to judge me for doing what I thought was best.” 

Talia spun on her heel and walked away before Bruce could respond to the thinly veiled threat. He wanted to say more, wanted to push his points, but he knew that it would do more harm than good at the moment, so instead he just pressed his lips together and held his tongue.

Danny;

Danny had nearly gone right back to his keep in The Zone, if nothing else? He wouldn't have to face his mother there, and he wouldn't have to risk facing The Fenton's again. But he would have to leave Damian behind again, he would be leaving Dani alone. Not to mention that Jazz, Tucker, and Sam couldn't live in The Zone without a lot of magic that he hadn't learned yet. He couldn't help but fixate on the small defensive movements his mother had taken when his power had leaked through, the look of concern on Damian, the uncertainty on Bruce.

He had holed himself up in the corner of the library dedicated to astronomy, the books on the stars and their stories had been organized together since he'd shown up and it was by far his favorite place to disappear when he got overwhelmed. Currently, he was on the top of a corner bookcase with his legs pulled up to his chest with his nose pressed up against his knees, when they got back to The Cave he was shocked to find out Damian had sent out a message to her when he found out he was alive. He shouldn't be surprised, he was probably just as angry and hurt by her lying as he was him not finding him again. But it brought a lot up.

He wasn't surprised when Damian found him, he could sense Dani's core nearby and Jason's underdeveloped one close to her. He assumed that they were still with Talia, he couldn't quite tell how Dani felt about meeting her but he knew she was at least curious; reading her core was oddly harder than others, which he assumed had something to do with the magic Frostbite said he'd used on her when his memories started leaking through to her. He stayed silent in his thoughts as Damian climbed up easily, sitting close to him with his legs hanging off the edge of the bookcase rather than curling up against the wall like Danny was. He sat up just a bit and opened his mouth to speak, before closing it without really saying anything. “I'm…” Fine was what he wanted to say, but that was a load and they both knew it.

Damian scooted back and leaned against his side before he spoke, and Danny couldn't help but think about how much this family had helped his brother grow. Without him. “You don't need to worry about me, that's my job right now. I knew if you were alive you'd come back for me, that's why I believed Mother. But you did come back, even if it took a while, even if I'm upset you didn't come sooner I understand why. I was angry but…I'm not your enemy, I want to help you if I can..” He didn't answer at first, the silence stretching on longer than he meant it to. He didn't know when the tears started falling, but he knew when Damian noticed it.

He reached up the arm closest to him and wrapped it around his shoulders and the ball Danny had wrapped himself in collapsed and he turned to wrap his arms around his brother, hiding his tears against him the way they would when they were little. The first time grandfather had scolded Danny in front of high members of the league, making it obvious he didn't have any kind of special place in his eyes; late at night after Damian had found an injured baby bird and grandfather had told him that killing it was a mercy.

Hiding each other's tears was the only safe way to feel as children, he hadn’t let anyone see him cry since the night that he’d told Jazz that he had a twin; and even that had just been a couple of tears he’d been able to wipe away. “She just left me there, even if she knew I could survive she just… and the Fentons, all it took was one thing that they didn't understand and they turned on me. They–how long do I have here until Bruce doesn't want me here anymore? How long do I have until he decides I'm too dangerous to have around?”

Damian didn’t let him go, his arm tightening around him a bit before he spoke. “Mother shouldn’t have left you, and those scientists are morons. Father isn’t dumb enough to make you leave and if he is I will tell him just how foolish he is.”

Dani;

Dani felt her core shrink back into her just a bit more when Danny’s power leaked through into his voice, feeling what Danny was in that moment due to the way his wail worked. She doubted the others knew that's what was happening though, that the feeling of being lost and confused was coming from Danny's power giving them just a small imprint of what he was feeling. When he went invisible she jumped into the air to chase after him, but Damian's yell made her pause for a second and then she lowered so she was hovering in the air close to Jason.

She looked over at Talia as a million thoughts ran through her head, did she know that she was Danny's clone? Did she have any plans on getting to know her the way the Wayne and Bonus kids seemed to be trying to? Or was she going to avoid her the way Bruce seemed to be half heartedly doing? Did she think she shouldn't exist the way Damian seemed to those first couple of days before she'd overheard Jason telling him to knock his shit off from that recovery room?

She was stirred from her thoughts by Bruce's suggestion that they fill in the others and Jason's urging her to help him raid the snacks before the others got back. She got a grin on her face that was maybe a little forced and grabbed ahold of Jason's hand and pulled him alone, making him jog slightly up the stairs as she floated just above them. He didn't complain though so she didn't slow down until they got to the kitchen, half listening as Jason filled in Alfred well she grabbed a plate and filled it with snacks. Jason didn't seem to get yet that even if her hearing wasn't as strong as Superman's? It was still stronger than a human.

“Danny ran away and Damian went after him, Bruce is talking to Talia and I doubt that'll end well. Dani looked like she was about to have an existential crisis so I brought her up here.” Jason seemed a lot more willing to act normal around Alfred than he did the others since the ecto treatments Frostbite gave her for him started working, she wasn't positive but she was pretty sure that he'd told him about the treatments since they'd learned about her.

She kept herself focused on her food as Alfred and Jason talked, not looking up when Jason took a seat next to her till he stole a cookie off her plate. “Hey!” She reached for the cookie, crossing her arms and letting out a huff and a pout when he quickly took a bite before holding it out of reach. “I was gonna eat that.”

“ Was and gonna are the keywords in that sentence.” Jason told her with a grin, she just stared him down as he took another bite of the cookie with her arms still crossed. He watched her glaring at him for a few more seconds before speaking again. “You good, Little Ghost?”

Dani felt her face go red and she turned to her plate, stuffing a tiny sandwich into her mouth as she muttered. “I'm fine.” She wasn't fine and the insistent. “What was that?” From Jason didn't help. “I said I'm fine! Why wouldn't I be? I've never met that lady, she didn't even know I existed before she came here and she seems like a bitch.” She didn't miss the sound of Jason snorting and covering his laugh with a cough, but she was too busy avoiding looking at him to acknowledge it.

“Talia isn't perfect, but she loves her kids and she cares for this family even if she won't admit it. She's the only reason I'm here right now.” Dani relaxed a bit and looked over at him letting out a small noise in accidental ghost speak, he seemed to get what she was asking though which was something to think about another time. “When I came back it wasn't… right. My body was here but I wasn't.”

“You were a remnant, your body came back but your soul was still in The Zone. That's what Frostbite said most likely happened when I told him about you and Wolf opened a portal so he could see for himself.” Jason seemed to have more questions at that, but if he did he didn't ask them.

“Sure, whatever that is. Talia heard about it from the people she had watching Gotham and found me, then she tossed me in a Lazarus Pit to revive me the rest of the way and helped me get over the pit as much as she could. She didn't need to, but her love for Bruce means she cares about the kids he claims to some extent. Even if Danny didn't care about you as much as he obviously does, Bruce accepting you means she probably will too.”

Dani was about to say something else when Bruce walked into the kitchen and flopped down in his seat looking tired, Jason didn't give him any time though before asking. “What happened with Talia? Did you let her know why Danny was here so she doesn't hunt down those asshole scientists?”

Bruce let out an exasperated sigh and looked over at Jason. “I didn't get the chance, but I doubt she has any idea of their connection to him being here.” That answer just seemed to annoy Jason, the next second he was standing up from the table and headed towards the door with an annoyed grumble.

“Doubts she knows, she's a master spy and has connections everywhere. I guess I've gotta clean up your screw-up. Well I do why don't you talk to your fuckin' kids so they don't feel like you don't want them here.” Dani felt her face go red at Jason's words and she glanced over at Bruce before putting all her attention on her plate again.

Bruce;

Jason was right and Bruce knew it the second he said that he doubted she knew, even without his sarcastic mutters. The last part of what he said though stopped him from getting up to go and look for Talia himself, turning his eyes to look at Dani. As he did, she shoved the corner of a sandwich into her mouth and focused on it with an intensity that he recognized from when Damian was annoyed with him and trying to avoid having to talk about something. Sure, with Damian it was usually him destroying a training dummy. But it was still very similar.

“How are you adjusting to Gotham Dani?” He asked her, he wondered how she and Jason had hidden her presence from him for so long. Then again, they didn't tend to go to Crime Ally unless Jason called them for help.

“I'm fine, not much to adjust to. Usually only here about half the month.” At her words, Bruce thought back to the last few months. There were times that he noticed Jason was more annoyed and agitated, during those times Red Hood always seemed more willing to allow others to help him on his patrols. He assumed now that those were times when Dani was gone.

Sometimes it lasted a few days at a time, sometimes a few weeks. Then he would be in a better mood for seemingly no reason, even if he did get more territorial about them going into his space. “Why do you leave so often?” It obviously worried Jason when she went off on her own, it seemed to be a logical explanation for his more erratic behavior during those periods. Though the last month or so he seemed to be doing better on that front as a whole.

“Danny told you guys about obsessions, right? Mine is travel, I want to see places. He likes the stars, I'm just here so often because I like it here. When I get an itch I pick a random place and fly there. Simple as that.” Her nonchalant shrug seemed a little forced if Bruce was honest, but he wouldn't call attention to that for now.

“You know that you're welcome to stay in the manor, right?” He didn't miss the way she seemed to tense at that before she stood up, leaving her sandwich behind as she started floating towards the door.

“No offense, but I've already got one shitty billionaire Dad. I'm not looking for another.” Bruce would be lying if he said that didn't sting a little, even if that wasn't what he had been saying.

“Dani, I was just-” She quickly moved towards the window though well turning invisible though, and so Bruce let out a sigh and rubbed his forehead with the heels of his palms.

Alfred moved over to put a hand on Bruce's shoulder as he had a moment about what he just happened. After a second of silence, he spoke. “Perhaps you should ask Master Danny if there's anything other than travel Mrs Dani likes, you've been gathering books on the stars for him and finalized construction of an observatory past the barn. The same effort for her might be appreciated.”

Alfred was right, Alfred was usually right. But Dani seemed much harder to do that for. He didn't know how to start talking to her. The situation with Danny was weird, sure, but it was even weirder with Dani. She was the clone of a son he didn't know he had until almost 2 weeks ago, not just simply some daughter he didn't know about. At least with Danny he could get information about what he would like from Damian, he wasn't exactly on great terms with Jason and he was trying to be careful with Danny after everything he had been through recently. “I'll try talking to him about what she might like, and maybe Jason when I see him again too.”

Dani;

Dani was just grabbing some cash from the stash she knew Red Hood kept in case of emergencies when he walked in, she was out of what Sam had given her way back when she learned about Danny becoming king; she just needed enough to be able to eat. “I'm gonna be gone for a week or 2, not sure when I'll be back. Don't wait up.”

She was shoving the cash into her bag when he grabbed a hold of her arm, it wouldn't be hard for her to pull her arm away and she knew it. Instead, she looked up at Jason as he spoke. She knew he worried when she vanished for her trips, but that didn't mean she was going to stop them. “Now?” He let go of her arm as he spoke, the fact she'd turned to look at him probably told him that she was at least willing to talk before she left. “Don't you think Danny's gonna worry if you just run off after Talia turned up? Not to mention you're on her radar now, she's gonna have people watching for you.”

“I don't care.” She didn't mean to snap at him, but she couldn't help it. “I'm not gonna stick around just because someone feels responsible for me, it's not Danny's fault I was made. He had nothing to do with it, I'm not his problem. I can take care of myself.” she moved to the kitchen as she spoke to dig some snacks out of a cupboard and shove them into her bag, entirely aware of Jason following after her and leaning against the entryway.

“He doesn't worry because he feels responsible for you. He worries because he cares about you, Little Ghost. Been less than a week, and even I can see that. He worries almost as much as Dick did when Damian and him were playing Batman and Robin together.” She just ground her teeth together as she did her best to ignore the trembling of her core and held back the flare of warning she wanted to let out to get him to leave her alone.

He was trying to help and she knew that, even if she didn't want to listen. Danny and Jazz and everyone would have a lot less to worry about if Vlad hadn't cloned her, if she had just melted for good and the ecto-dejecto hadn't fixed her. “Well, he shouldn't, if he didn't then he'd have a lot less of a headache. I don't need him to worry about me.”

“Oh boohoo, you have a shitty parent.” Dani turned to look at him and just blinked and stared. “Half of us had shitty parents, Talia raised Danny to be an assassin. His life was fucked up before died and before he got cloned. My Mom helped the joker kill me, at least Danny gives a shit. You should see the looks Supes gives Conner sometimes. He doesn't go out of his way to treat him like shit after the last time Tim laid into him, but he avoids him as much as possible. You have people here who care about you, you even seem to have gotten under Damian's skin. It's not like you have the excuse of the Fenton's finding out Danny's secret, we all already know and don't care. Do you really wanna be running off all the time? Cause you always seem to do it when you're annoyed and you always seem more excited about coming back than whatever it is you did well you were gone.”

Dani didn't answer, staring for another few seconds and then dropping her bag and shooting up and out of the building, ignoring it when she heard him yell her name followed by “Shit.”

Dani landed on the ledge of the roof of Wayne Enterprises and transformed back, she chose the spot for no other reason than it having the best view of the city. Or that's what she told herself, maybe it was only part of it. She didn't bother wiping the tears in her eyes eye as she felt someone appear behind her, she figured that it was just one of the bats. She turned intangible just in case as she continued to look out at the dingy mist-covered lights of the city.

“I didn't have a chance to meet you earlier, my name is Talia.” Dani tensed at the voice, she'd only met them once but she knew it. She glanced out of the corner of her eye at the woman she had met maybe 2 hours beforehand, contemplating just flying off.

She was curious though, who wouldn't be? What she'd heard was probably a good thing that she wasn't her mother, but she was Danny's mother and she was Danny's clone. In a weird way that kind of made her her mother right? “Dani, one n and an i.” She considered turning tangible again, but everything that she'd heard told her this woman was dangerous. But Jason had said she had a soft spot for the bats, didn't he? Did she fall into that category?

“Dani, why do you look so much like my son?” She worded it like a question, but Dani had spent enough time around people trying to manipulate her that she knew when a question was a demand for a response. The defiant part of her wanted to scoff and refuse to answer, but she couldn't blame the woman for wanting answers.

“Because a crazy man obsessed with making Danny his son is really bad a cloning.” Dani still wasn't looking directly at her, but she could see her standing next to her out of the corner of her eye as she wiped the tears from her face and she didn't seem like she wanted to attack her. It sounded like she just wanted answers.

“And how are you and Danny Meta's? Neither Bruce nor I carry the gene.” At that Dani did let out a snort of laughter, it wasn't the first time she'd been accused of being a meta. Usually, she used it to her advantage, there were Meta safe camps all over the world and if anyone tried anything? devices to dampen Meta powers didn't fully work on Halfa's, it just made their powers take more energy which wasn't a big deal if she was in a place with a lot of residual ecto energy.

“We aren't, we're half dead. Or I think I'm only half dead? I got made after Danny's accident so I'm not sure...” Before Talia could ask any other questions though Dani felt a slight drop in the temperature from the left and looked to see Danny flying towards them with Damian clinging to his back like this wasn't the first time he'd caught a ride with a flying friend.

Chapter Text

Talia;

Talia had just returned to Nanda Parbat when someone came up to her, she recognized them as one of the 2 that she currently had stationed just outside of Gotham. She knew that Bruce was aware of them, but that was the entire point, a way for her son to contact her in an emergency. She took the still-sealed envelope and dismissed them before heading to her room, when she got there she lit a candle and opened it to read the note inside. It only had one word on it, however. Aidan.

Talia held the note over the candle and let it and the envelope burn before going to give orders for well she was gone and leaving again, it seemed that she had 2 children to check in with.

When Talia arrived in Amity Park she kept herself hidden, watching the Fenton house and then his friends. There was a commotion 2 days in, but it was clear to her after checking in the house during that. Aidan hadn't been in what seemed to clearly be his room in at least 48 hours, likely more, and he wasn't with his friends either. When she noticed Cassandra Cain was there she made her way to Gotham.

She had planned to speak with Jason first to see if she could get any information before Damian left school. Then she had seen Aidan leaving Jason's building with a young girl who looked remarkably like her son, more specifically Aidan. She watched them until they managed to lose her, how they had she wasn't sure. She had a vantage point of the exits, and when she went into the building herself they weren't there. She got her answer later that night.

She watched as Damian fought off a group of criminals, freezing when a specter of some sort flew in and started helping him. She wondered for a moment when Bruce had recruited another Meta, and then the specter had landed next to Damian as the two bickered over whether or not he had actually needed the help. Knowing that Aidan was in Gotham it was an easy puzzle to fit together, somehow one of her sons had gained powers. Exactly what powers she didn't know.

She watched him for the next few days, not during patrol anymore; she didn't want Bruce or Damian to know that she was there yet. But she watched him during the day when he was alone or when he was just with the strange girl who looked so much like him. He seemed to notice from what she could tell, but he didn't try to get to her and he didn't tell anyone else. She wondered how long it would be.

Jason;

Jason found Taila fairly easily, which meant that she wasn't trying to hide. She probably had questions that she hadn't had a chance to ask Bruce about, which he wasn't surprised by how they could both get. “Who was that girl?”

“‘Hello Jason, long time. How's life been?’ Oh pretty good, found a cure for the pit madness. That girl you met, the one that looks like Danny? She asked a yeti ghost doctor for something that could help me. She's Aidan’s clone; a crazy billionaire decided he wanted him as his son and he told him to kick rocks, so he cloned him. She's the only one that survived, her name is Danielle. She'll use you as target practice with whatever she can get her hands on if you call her that, though.”

Talia leveled Jason with a look, and if he had been one of her underlings? It might have terrified him, but he wasn't. He was also almost positive that she wouldn't attack him unless he attacked first. “Well, you've answered one of my questions. Now perhaps the others, why is Aidan here?”

“That's a little more complicated, and you really should have stuck around and asked him that. It's not my story. So instead of doing what I think you're going to try to and look for answers on your own, why don't you stick around and talk to your kids? Don't be as emotionally constipated as Bruce.” Jason personally didn't care if she went and offed the Fentons, everything he'd heard about them? They deserved it. But that was Danny's call, not theirs.

“Perhaps I will, but tonight is done. Tell Beloved I'll be back tomorrow.” Jason just let out a sigh when Talia turned around and walked away after that, headed back towards the Wayne Estate at a slower pace than he'd left, he could already feel the headache forming. Why did he have to be the Assassin Mom Whisperer? At least he didn't have to talk sense into Bruce like Dick did, a wins a win.

Danny:

Danny had managed to for the most part calm down and was lying in a pile of beanbags with Damian, looking up at the projection of a Star map when he heard his brother's phone ring. He silenced it twice before finally answering. “What do you want, Todd? You did what? She was what? If Danny doesn't kill you, I'm going to.” That perked Danny's attention and he sat up to look over at Damian who had a scowl on his face as he hung up, shoving his phone into his pocket as he turned to look at him. “Jason confronted Dani about leaving, he tried to convince her not to run off for at least a few days and she flew off without her things. He said that he was pretty sure she was crying when she did.”

Danny felt a flash of anger at that, but he quickly quelled it and stood up as he transformed. He was going to fly off on his own, but Damian's stopped him and he looked over at his brother and told him. “I'm going to find her, her obsession making her travel is fine. I'm not happy about it but she needs that, but I'm not letting her run off upset.”

Damian didn't let go of his arm, instead telling him. “I didn't say you shouldn't go after her, but I'm coming with you. I need change first though, not all of us can just transform into our vigilante forms.”

Talia:

Talia had been at the top of Wayne Enterprise's building trying to decide on her next move when she spotted Danielle fly onto a lower ledge of the building, she seemed upset by the way she sat hugging her knees and hunched over watching the city was any indication. She let out a soft sigh from her perch and then silently made her way down the building to the ledge Danielle sat on, making just enough noise to be noticed when she was finally behind the girl. Despite that she didn't seem to move at all, there was a chance that she hadn't noticed her but the way her shoulders hunched in just a bit more said otherwise.

“I didn't have a chance to meet you earlier, my name is Talia.” At the tensing of her shoulders and the way she clearly was trying to look at her out of the corner of her eye without seeming obvious, she figured she had noticed her approach but hadn't realized that it was her. She stepped up next to her to look out over the city, making it easier for her to get a look at her well waiting to see if she would speak or ignore her.

“Dani, one n and an i.” Dani piped up just as Talia was about to start speaking. Relieved that the girl had introduced herself she didn't reveal that she knew a bit about her already, figuring it would be better to let her give information on her own.

“Dani, why do you look so much like my son?” Talia was trying to keep the pointed questions a bit softer than usual, reminding herself that this girl hadn't been raised in the same type of environment as her son's or even Bruce's lot. The girl wasn't looking directly at her but she could see the way she straightened her posture a bit, and barely caught the roll of her eyes with how she was slightly turned to be able to see her.

“Because a crazy man obsessed with making Danny his son is really bad a cloning.” The girl had a small sneer on her face as she spoke, her hand reaching up to wipe the tears on her face.

Briefly, she wondered why she was upset, but she pushed that aside to ask the questions she wanted answers to. Jason had given her a bit of information, but based on that information it was only a fraction of what she was missing. “And how are you and Danny Meta's? Neither Bruce nor I carry the gene.”

“We aren't, we're half dead. Or I think I'm only half dead? I got made after Danny's accident so I'm not really totally sure...” That response doubled the list of questions that she had, but she noticed the drop in temperature and as Dani turned her head to look she did as well. She resisted the urge to smile at the sight of her sons flying towards her, even if Danny looked a bit different with the white hair and the paler sheen than usual to his skin she would recognize her children anywhere.

He seemed to completely ignore her though in favor of landing in front of Dani he stood up and took a step back for him to land and let Damian off, he looked at her out of the corner of his eyes before turning his full attention to her. Once he was looking at her a mix of worry and exasperation flashed across his face, though she spoke before he could. "What are you doing here Danny?"

He rolled his eyes and told her "Jason called." before Talia's attention was drawn to Damian, once she looked over at him he turned away, jerking his head towards the other side of the roof. It seemed that he was ready to get his answers.

Content with the assurance that Danny wasn't going to leave without him she followed after him to the other side of the roof, speaking before he could when he stopped and turned towards her. "I assume that you would like answers about why I did what I did, and why I kept it from you."

Damian scoffed slightly and looked down over the city before turning his gaze back to her, arms crossing and eyes narrowing. "I am a competent mother, I was able to figure out that your reasoning was the danger that comes with a failed mission on top of Grandfather's already obvious favoritism. What does not make sense to me is that you never disclosed the truth." His arms lowered and he took a few steps closer, though it was clear to her he didn't plan on attacking.

"When you sent me to Father you could have told me so that he could help me find him, when we finally locked grandfather away 2 years ago you could have told me. The danger was gone, you are The Demon's Head now. I should have been told." Talia didn't back away as Damian stepped closer, if he planned to attack her he would have done so already and she could feel eyes on them now. He wasn't the only one who wanted answers it seemed, Danny did as well.

Danny;

Danny felt a wave of relief and also a small wave of panic when he spotted Dani, his mother standing next to her on one of the upper ledges of Wayne Enterprises. He mostly ignored her as he landed in front of Dani, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye before turning his attention to Dani. "What are you doing here Danny?"

He just rolled his eyes at her before telling her. "Jason called," He vaguely took note of both Damian and Talia walking to the other side of the roof, but he figured that he could handle it on his own. "he said something happened and you ran off upset." He didn't mention that he'd told Damian he thought she was crying, the puffiness around her eyes told him he was right. Knowing Dani? Bringing it up would just make things worse.

"I'm fine, you guys need to stop worrying about me." She sounded annoyed as he said that, like the fact that they cared and worried was something she hated. Danny chose to stubbornly ignore that though, if she wanted to act like a brat he could too.

"Nope, not happening. Worrying is part of the big brother package." He told her before reaching out and putting a hand on top of her head, she still hadn't quite reached her teenage growth spurt so he was still about a foot taller than her. "Look, if your obsession's pushing you to leave fine. Can you at least wait it out a couple of days? Until we figure all of this out, or at least till we can convince Bruce to give you a map of Zeta Tubes so you can get back here in a hurry if something happens?"

"Ugh, fine. Now stop it." He laughed as she ducked away from his hand, but that was quickly cut off by how loud Damian was getting in his conversation with Talia. He looked over to see he was only standing about a foot away from their mother.

Dani floated up into the air a few inches as she transformed and started flying towards them, Danny moved after her and grabbed a hold of her arm. He shook his head as he moved so he was right next to her, pointing to his ear to signal her to listen. He wanted to hear what his Mother had to say to Damian.

"As I explained in the cave, I went to check in on your brother after leaving you with your father. I went again after your Grandfather was taken care of." Danny's brow furrowed at that as he tried to remember if he remembered sensing anything wrong around that time, but he had been a little distracted after Tucker showed him that first article about Damian around when she would have been there the first time. And the second...well I got sloppy after a while, there was no getting around that truth. "He was settled into a normal life, he was safe. Had you found that he was alive you would have gone to him without considering that, Moonlight."

Danny felt a flash of rage at that, his ghostly aura flashing out and causing Dani to move so she was more behind him than next to him. "Wha̫t giv̳é͟͝s̩͡ y̞o̪ͤ͜u t̀ͧh̪ȇ r̓i̽̽͋ght̙͒? Tͯͬ̈h͔ͩ̕a͓͗͑t̶ͯ w̺a͛͒sn̢̤'t̻ yǫ̣u͖r̬̱̀ ch́͢ó̌ͦḯc̛̯ͦe͖̿ to mȃ̾͢k͉̄e!" He knew it was safer with The Fenton's as far as she knew and he probably seemed happy enough when it came to being a normal teen, life didn't reach him the way it did Damian living with Bruce as far as she knew. But the fact that Talia had come and checked in on him? That she had been there, probably right before his accident because he doubts she wouldn't have noticed the signs of his powers and could have changed the entire course of everything by just telling him that Grandfather was gone.

He felt a hand reach out and grab a hold of his wrist from behind, head snapping back in a very inhumanly sharp movement. At the worried look Dani was giving him he forced himself to relax, realizing that the whites of his eyes had gone dark and he could sense the crown slowly apperating into existence above his head. He closed his eyes, ground his teeth and took a breath, feeling the crown slowly fade from above his head despite his mother's eyes still on him.

When he looked back at his mother she spoke, apparently content that he was under control again. "It seems that despite the small amount of information Jason has given me, there is a lot I still don't know. Would you care to fill me in, Starshine?" Danny tensed at the nickname, unlike Shadow it was a name that no one but his mother called him.

To most in the league, he was the heir's shadow, it was a nickname that Grandfather allowed. Starshine though was something she had only ever used when it was just the three of them. Finally, after a minute he let out a sigh. "Fine, I guess Bruce got the explanation. You should too, but if you act on any of it I'll cut the entire League off from the pits without hesitating."

"You have my word that I will not do anything based on what you tell me without letting you know first." Danny didn't miss that she didn't say she would ask him first, just that she could tell him about it first. He figured that would have to be good enough because whether he told her what had happened or she found out on her own she was going to find out. At least this way he would know ahead of time and be able to intervene if he wanted to.

And so the next couple of hours were spent on the rooftop of Wayne Enterprise filling Talia Al Ghul in on how her son had become The King of the Infinite Realms, and then how he had ended up in Gotham with Bruce. Dani butted in at some point to tell her how she had met Jason, to which Talia got a small smile that he had only ever seen when telling the two of them stories as children and said that she was glad the two had met and become too close.

By the time they were done talking, it was starting to become light out and Talia told them that she would be staying in town for the next week. Danny and Damian went and dropped Dani off in her room at Jason's after she insisted she didn't want to go to the manor, and then the two of them headed home and to their own beds.