Chapter Text
Robin
When the word first appeared on his wrist, Danny wasn't sure what to make of it. He couldn't imagine that it was referencing the bird, but he also wasn't sure what else it could mean. He knew that the words were supposed to be his soulmate's deepest thoughts so it seemed like a pretty random word to have so much meaning.
There had been other words over the years, of course, but most of them had been pretty common words. This was the first one that had really stood out to Danny in any way.
It wasn't until years later when the word 'Nightwing' appeared that Danny suddenly understood.
His soulmate was Batman.
Even though Danny was fairly certain that he had reached the right conclusion in regards to his soulmate, he didn't actually do anything about.
Not right away, anyway.
He didn't think it would go over well to approach Batman while he was out on patrol and just blurt that he thought he was his soulmate. But he also had no idea who Batman was when he wasn't being Batman.
So Danny kept living his life, trying to finish his schooling and get a full time job while also still being Phantom on the side. Jazz harped on him about leaving Amity and actually experiencing the world, but Danny felt compelled to stay and keep the town safe. So long as the portal was open, ghosts were going to keep coming through and causing problems for the living.
And Danny was the only one who could really do anything about it.
So he graduated and then suddenly didn't know what to do with himself. It wasn't like there were a whole lot of jobs in Amity that fit his field of study, but the portal was still a problem. So he got himself a menial paper pusher job at a local company. It paid the bills and they didn't really seem to notice if Danny had to take off to take care of something as Phantom.
Danny fell into a mundane routine that was occasionally broken up by Skulker or another one of his rogues causing problems in town. Every once in a while, a new word would appear on his wrist and he'd remind himself that he should reach out to Batman. Though, every time he considered it, he'd panic and decide to just… do it later.
Danny had just finished logging out of his computer for the day and was grabbing his bag to head home when he noticed there was a new word on his wrist.
Jason
In all the years that Danny had been getting these words, none of them had ever been a real name. Robin and Nightwing were frequent at this point, but Danny had no idea what their real names were since Batman never really thought them deep enough to reach Danny.
So who was Jason?
It wasn't long after the name appeared that Batman suddenly… changed. Even Danny, who didn't live in the city or even follow Gotham news all that closely could see it. He was very familiar with grief and what it could do to someone. Could see the pent up anger behind hitting criminals too hard. Much harder than Batman normally would. Could see the lack of self preservation in taking high risks.
Whoever Jason was, he clearly meant a lot to Batman and he wasn't handling losing him very well.
It was time to figure out how to close the portal.
The problem with closing the portal was this.
While the portal had needed electricity originally to be created, it had proven over the years that it was perfectly stable without electricity. So it wasn't like Danny could just unplug the damn thing. For as much as Danny had learned about the portal and the dimension it housed over the years, there was still plenty he didn't know.
Closing the doors wouldn't keep the ghosts out, either. They could simply go through the doors and had done as much plenty of times over the years. It wasn't like there was a precedence for this either, so Clockwork had been very unhelpful when Danny had tried asking him how to close the portal.
Though, whether he was unhelpful because he didn't know or because he liked to watch Danny struggle, Danny honestly wasn't sure.
Jason
Danny rubbed his face, tiredly. He'd talked it over with Jazz, Tucker, Sam, and even Val, and no one had come up with an idea on how to turn off the portal. Not that Danny had told them why he was trying to close the portal, so they said they'd think on it and get back to him.
Danny wasn't sure he had the time.
He didn't like the idea of leaving Amity unprotected, even if only short term, but he was also worried that if he didn't get to Gotham that Batman was going to either do something he regretted or drive himself to an early grave. Even if he wasn't his soulmate, Danny couldn't stand by and let that happen.
Out of desperation, he started searching online in hopes that it would give him another idea of what to do. He fell down a few rabbit holes, but wasn't finding anything promising and it wasn't sparking any new ideas in him either. Danny had been about to close out of the browser and call it a night when something caught his eye.
Occult detective.
Danny straightened in his seat, clicking on the link and skimming over the information. Maybe it would be a good idea to call someone who knew something about the occult? Danny was much more science minded himself, but if there were ghosts then there was the chance that people like this were legit too.
Danny hesitated another moment before deciding it wouldn't hurt to try and grabbed his phone, dialing the number.
Danny wasn't sure what he was expecting when it came to John Constantine, but whatever it was, he wasn't what he was expecting. He was starting to regret thinking that there wouldn't be any harm in trying this.
The man was disheveled and smelled faintly of cigarettes and alcohol. He was squinting at the Fenton Works sign like he wasn't sure what to make of the building, though Danny supposed that was fair. After a moment, John looked over at Danny.
"How long did you say this portal has been here?"
Danny winced a little bit, rubbing the back of his neck, "It's uh… been like 20 years now?"
John took a slow breath before nodding a bit, "Alright, lead the way."
Danny hesitated a moment before heading for the front door, letting himself into his parents' house without pause. They weren't home, he had made sure of it, sending them on a ghost hunt for a ghost that didn't actually exist. It should keep them occupied long enough for John to see the portal and let Danny know if he thought he could do something about it.
John looked around the house, eyes pausing on various weapons that had been left half built throughout. Without Danny and Jazz there, his parents had gotten much more careless about taking work out of the lab. Danny lead the way through the kitchen, pulling the door to the lab open.
John raised an eyebrow before heading down the stairs. Danny followed.
"Well fuck me sideways."
Danny blinked at the colorful choice of words, "Not what you were expecting?"
"You didn't say it was a portal to the bloody Infinite Realms."
Danny tilted his head, eyes narrowing a little. Sure, he had learned years ago that the ghost zone had a proper name, but it wasn't something that really mattered since no one else was really aware of it. But if this guy could not only tell where the portal lead, but also knew its proper name, there was a chance that he was more legit than Danny expected.
"…what do you know about the Infinite Realms?" Danny asked instead of answering and John turned to narrow his own eyes at Danny.
"What do you know?"
There was a tense silence before Danny spoke again, "Can you close it?"
John paused for a moment before letting out a loud breath, "Yeah, but it will take some time."
"I don't have a whole lot of that," Danny admitted, "The ghosts come through and harass the town pretty regularly…"
"How have they been handling it for the last 20 years?" John asked as he moved closer to the portal.
Danny hesitated, "There's… another ghost that fights them and takes them back to the portal…"
John's brow furrowed at that, "Protective spirit, huh? So why the sudden time crunch?"
"He uh, hasn't been around as frequently recently. I'm worried that one day he won't show up at all."
"It would go against his nature," John responded, "Though it is strange that he's not showing up as much. Might be moving his haunt or maybe he's losing strength for some reason…"
Danny frowned. It seemed that John was pretty well versed in Realms customs for a human. It made Danny want to reveal himself just to see what else John knew, but it wasn't the time or the place for that.
"So you can close it," Danny repeated and John nodded.
"Give me a week."
It was the longest week of Danny's life, but he had a lot to do in that time.
He quit his job, packed up his apartment, and got his parents out of the house again so that John could actually close the portal. It was strange, the amount of emotions seeing the portal shut down caused in Danny. It had been twenty years since the last time he'd seen the inside of the damned machine. He hadn't expected it to affect him so much.
But John had done his job so Danny left Amity.
It left Danny, sitting alone in his Gotham hotel room in the middle of the night, debating what he should do. He still wasn't entirely sure about approaching Batman while he was patrolling, but he wasn't sure that he had much of a choice.
But should he approach as Danny… or as Phantom?
Jason
Danny let out a huff, getting to his feet and transforming into Phantom. Maybe Batman would be more willing to listen to another hero than a random civilian.
Danny had been planning to stay back and wait for Batman to finish capturing what appeared to be one of his rogues before he tried to talk to him. Seeing Batman trying to bash the guy's face in made Danny change his mind and he decided to stop him.
Danny grabbed Batman's arm as he pulled it back to hit the criminal again and Batman's head jerked around to look at him. Danny tilted his head a bit, looking at the guy on the ground before looking at Batman again.
"That's enough."
Batman frowned at Danny, getting to his feet and shrugging Danny's hand off his arm. Danny let him. He didn't know anything about the other hero, let alone anything about who he was behind the mask, but he somehow got the feeling that Batman was disapproving of him. Whether of him stopping him or his general existence in Gotham, Danny wasn't sure.
"Who are you?" Batman asked, voice low and gravely.
"Phantom," Danny replied, looking back over at the guy on the ground, "I think he got the point."
Batman also glanced over at the guy before grunting, pulling handcuffs out of his belt, and went over to put them on the criminal. Danny frowned as he watched him, but it seemed that Batman was back in control of himself.
There was an awkward silence while the two waited for the police to come and pick up the guy. Danny didn't want to say anything to him while they had an audience and it seemed that Batman wasn't terribly eager to ask questions just yet either. Danny leaned against the wall of the building they were waiting in front of and crossed his arms, watching as the police drove away with the rogue in the back of their cruiser.
Danny waited another moment before looking at Batman and raising an eyebrow, "We need to talk."
Batman frowned at him, "I've never heard of Phantom."
Danny gave a careless shrug before pushing off the ground to float just above it, "I'm not explaining here."
There was a pause before Batman tilted his head in what seemed to be agreement and pulled out his grappling hook. Danny flew to the top of the building, hovering above the roof to see if Batman was going to stop there or take him somewhere else. Batman climbed onto the roof of the building and walked toward Danny so he landed.
"Who are you?" Batman asked again and Danny gave a sigh.
"Phantom," he repeated and Batman opened his mouth but Phantom held up a hand, "Your soulmate."
Batman froze for a moment before shaking his head a bit, "Not possible."
"Jason."
"… what?"
Danny winced a bit; seemed like he managed to hit a nerve, "Jason. It's the word I've been getting over and over recently."
Batman went perfectly still, "…what else have you gotten?"
Danny gave a shrug, "Started getting Robin years ago and then Nightwing after that. It wasn't too hard to figure out who would have them on their subconscious mind."
"If you knew, why didn't you come before?"
Danny blew out a breath, "Long story, but basically I had things I needed to take care of before I could come to Gotham. And seeing you in a spiral made me do them."
"I'm not in a spiral."
Danny snorted in response, "Yeah, alright."
Batman pursed his lips at him, "…what does jazz mean?"
Danny tilted his head a bit, "Jazz? Was that the word you were getting?"
"…yes."
Danny smiled a bit, "My sister."
Batman gave a hum, eyeing Danny, "Let's assume I believe you - "
"No reason not to."
" - do you know who I am?"
Danny shook his head, "Jason was the first actual name you ever sent. Before that it was always Robin and Nightwing. Or a non-name word."
"…I need to look into this."
Danny snorted again, "Of course you do."
"Is there a way for me to contact you?"
"I have a phone if that's what you mean," Danny couldn't help but snark.
Batman paused a moment before pulling out his own phone. Danny rattled off his number for him to enter.
"I'll contact you soon," Batman said before pulling out his grappling hook again.
"I'll be waiting," Danny replied before going invisible, just to mess with Batman. It seemed to work as he started a bit before letting out a huff and using the grappling hook to get off the roof.