I'll have to go through your writing again, to make sure I didn't forget anything (delightful task to be honest), but I have weird realization, that Danny dies more often in your stories with Wally, than he does in other stories. And like, sure it's Danny, he always dies at some point, but like, on page.
With Danny/Wally(and Dick, sometimes), we have Haunting, that I'll count for one, for ease sake, and Broken Sort of Normal, which makes it 2 out of 3 (and thirds is pwp lol).
On everything else we have Like Beta Fish Do and... I think Not So Imaginary could count? In Shadow of the Bat, the experimentation could definitely be counted as death, but it's also set before the story started.
Clock, with all due respect, why do you love to make Wally witness his boyfriend's death so much?
I--
*thinks*
*ponders*
...okay, you might have a point. Only Like Betta Fish Do is also on screen. Woops?
In my meager defense, I'm going to blame Wally's lightning connection. It just makes it too easy. Maybe I'll be nice some day and make Danny a lightning core and everyone thinks he's a weird Speedster what with Clockwork's influence.
(Also maybe, maybe, Wally is such a sweet golden retriever of a boy that he's easy to kick.)
Jumped around a little. Any words are good words right now. I was doing better then regressed some. But have a little bit of progress:
“Ghost’s aren’t real,” Barry says.
“Boo,” Danny replies. His smile is slightly too wide.
“Not funny, Danny.”
Danny shrugs. “Not trying to be. I’m half ghost.”
“How is someone half ghost?” Hal asks with a furrowed brow.
“I’m like Schrödinger’s Cat,” Danny explains. He can’t help for for his gaze to flick over to where the Titans are sitting and find Wally’s eyes. “I’m still in the box, basically. I’m half alive and half dead. Both and neither. A balance.”
“A myth.” Constantine leans forward. He taps the butt of his unlit cigarette against the table. “Or so we always thought. You telling me that you’re a halfa?”
The question pulls Danny’s focus back to the main table of heroes. “Yep. One of three. Me, my godfather, and my clone.”
Superman clears his throat. “Ah, your clone?”
Danny just gives another shrug. “Shit gets weird when you’re a teenage vigilante.”
“Danny,” Batman says, and Danny can’t help but smile again because the man is clearly one step away from pinching the bridge of his nose like he does as Bruce when one of his children is driving him mad. “Start from the beginning.”
Danny glances up from his fight to fit the cufflink into the sleeve of his rich blue suit and smiles at what he sees in the mirror.
“You know, it’s supposed to be bad luck to see the bride before the wedding.”
Wally grins, easily, from where he leans against the door frame. “I’m the one in white so I think I’m the bride, in this case.”
“Oh, so putting the bad luck all on me?” Danny asks as he turns to appreciate how his fiancée looks. Wally really is stunning in his white on white tux. Danny hadn’t been able to stomach the idea of traditional black and white tuxes, not with Phantom still being such a raw wound. Wally hadn’t minded in the least going with a brighter color palette.
“Never,” Wally promises. “We’ll face whatever comes together.”
It’s a vow that Danny unquestionably trusts. Since the curse broke, Wally has been there for every step of it— and Danny has needed a lot of help with steps. Danny’s weakened core not only handicapped him as a ghost but as a living. Many days Danny is able to pass through it all relatively unaffected, other than the cold ache that has settled into his bones, but other days are harder. Other days Danny walks with canes braced against his arms. Other days Danny needs his wheelchair. Other days he can hardly get out of bed unless he goes ghost. And through it all Wally has done everything that he can to make things easy for Danny.
They have a house now, one story and carefully renovated so that on the days Danny needs the wheelchair he can still move around easily. There are electric blankets and soft pillows and this ridiculous massive bean bag that’s big enough for them to both sink into on the bad days.
And there are good days too. There are days where the aches are just a background note, days it all doesn't hurt so much, days where he can fly. Oh how Danny had missed flying. Of all the things that came with being a halfa, flying is what Danny had missed most– not because he could help or be a hero, he missed flying just for himself.
The first time he had felt stable enough to fly, Wally had whisked them out to that same field their first date was in and let Danny loose. Danny had flown for hours, darting around, doing tricks, and floating among the clouds. When he had come back down to earth, Wally had been there, picnic waiting and the biggest smile on his face.
So like everything in Danny’s life, it’s all a balance: the good, the bad, the effort… Danny loves it all.
He loves it not just because it reminds him of how much living means, but because of how deeply it shows that Wally cares. Wally’s love is one thing he can never question. It’s a certainty that Danny has needed through all of the aftermath.
Once Danny had been released from the Watchtower’s medical, he had started small dealing with it all. Coworkers were easy to reply to and he could trust that informing a few would spread the news to the rest. They didn’t push for more than he was willing to give, though he had known he would come back to questions and rumors.
Everyone else was harder.
He had set a video call with Sam and Tucker at the same time. It was maybe a little unfair to not give them each their own call, but he just didn’t have the energy for that. They weren’t kids anymore and hadn’t been for a long time.
“God, Danny,” Tucker started at the same time as Sam said his name.
He held up his hand and their mouths shut with a clack. His smile was tinged with sadness, but it was a smile. “Don’t. You two didn’t do anything horrible.”
“Dude,” Tucker said and for a moment Danny was back in high school. Tucker looked good, still in bright colors and with his hair expertly shaved on the sides with a little pattern. “We forgot about you.”
“We left you alone to deal with all that,” Sam said. Her hair was a more natural shade of black now and her smoky eye an expertly done wing. It was odd to see her lips red instead of purple.
“Because of a curse. You forgot because of a curse,” Danny said, “and then you just did what anyone does, you went on to have a future. It’s not like we had some big fight or anything, you both just moved on with your lives.”
“That still had to hurt,” Sam said.
“It did,” Danny said honestly. He didn’t see the point of pretending the past hadn’t happened. “But that doesn’t mean it was either of your faults. The last thing I want is anyone doing anything for me out of guilt, especially since in this case it’s misplaced. It’s okay that you both grew up. I did too.”
It hurt and it would always hurt, at least a little, but Danny didn’t want any false care now.
Sam chewed on her lip and Danny smiled a little at the sight of the old habit. “I’m still sorry.”
“Me too,” Tucker said.
“Thanks, that does mean a lot, but it’s okay, really.”
There was a level of peace from that talk. Sam and Tucker both asked if they could reach out sometimes, and Danny said yes but with zero expectations. They were different people than they were as children and Danny knew, because he had lived it, that without Phantom there wasn’t much for them to talk about. And Danny had no plans to talk about Phantom. That part of him had ended with a wish seven years ago. He didn’t want to rehash or relive it now, even with them.
Jazz… Jasmine was harder. Sam and Tucker losing touch was just part of growing up. His own sister ignoring him though, that wasn’t the same at all. If it wasn’t for his nieces, Danny didn’t know if he would even be trying with Jasmine, even as apologetic as she was. There were some things that were too hard to come back from.
“Are they here?” Danny asks and looks back down at his stubborn sleeve.
Wally steps forward and takes the cufflink from Danny. He’s gentle as he fits it into the slot and secures it. “They are. And all our friends are here too. Just remember that you don’t have to talk to them any more than you want to. It’s okay to be taking things slow. It’s okay to decide that you can’t do this with her. You know I’m with you whatever you decide.”
Danny raises Wally’s hands to brush a kiss across each set of knuckles. “I know. I’m so lucky to have you. Is it bad that part of me making an effort with them is so that my nieces have family other than their moms and our parents?”
“Nope. I think that makes you a really good uncle. I mean, where would I be without Aunt Iris? Family like that can mean a lot and if that’s the only reason you have for dealing with your sister, then that’s enough,” Wally assures him.
It helps Danny relax some.
“Okay, good. We’ll just… see how it goes. I’m not going to focus too much on them today, not when today is about me and you.”
“I think that’s all good. You’re just wrong about one thing though,” Wally says, his grin just a little mischievous. Danny loves that grin.
“And what’s that, Mister West?”
“Well, soon to be Mister West,” Wally says, “it’s that I’m the lucky one. I could have lost you so many times and so many ways and despite everything, today I get to marry you. I don’t think there’s anyone luckier than me today.”
“Well, not to have our first fight,” Danny teases, “but agree to disagree.”
“I think I can live with that.”
Danny laughs. There’s nothing funny about that, but the laughter bubbles up in him all the same, not from humor but from joy. “Living, that sounds like a very, very good plan.”
---
AN: Aaaaaah we are done!! Not everything is perfect, but Danny is alive and living and Wally is going to be with him for all of it <3. Thank you all for coming along for the ride on this! It's been unexpectedly delightful to write these two together and I'm glad to finally wrap it up with (hopefully) a nice bow.
And yes, this will be going up on ao3 but I need the brain functions to go back to the start and give it a good polish! I'll likely do it chapter by chapter weekly to give myself and my darling beta @mokulule time.
Until then or the next thing here, stay delightful, darlings!
Is Ellie okay in abson? If phantom faded from memory, Her memories must have been messed with to the extreme.
I usually leave people to HC their own thoughts about Dani/Ellie! For some people she a huge part of the fandom due to fanon influence, but as someone who watched the show when it aired and didn't get into the fandom until I started reading dp x dc she has about as much fandom impact on me as fanon Wes. Basically, I can see why she can/could be very interesting to explore, but she’s not actually a canon main character. I can only think of two potential fics of mine she'll play an actual roll in, one being Cosmas' story where she is an adoring jet setting wine aunt.
Anyways, migraine rambling aside, just like everyone else, the wish would have filled in something for Ellie. Whether that means she ended up in the ghost zone or she's lived her life in some foreign country adopted or was acting as a superhero somewhere, I leave the viewer to pick their favorite!
*edit: ah just to be clear, I leave it to people to choose their own hc to choose one they like with her since they may deeply enjoy her as a character!
Danny sit up straighter in his chair as he states his name, but Wally can see the wince that Danny tries to hide. Absently, Wally runs through Danny’s schedule of care and when the other will be able to have more pain medication.
“Were you born with powers?” Bruce continues.
“No.”
Wally wants to go to Danny. He wants to tell him that it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that Danny has powers. It doesn’t mater how he got them. It doesn’t matter that Wally didn’t know. None of it matters to Wally; he’s just glad that Danny is still here.
“Are you comfortable explaining how did you got your powers?”
Danny runs his hand through his hair. He’s nervous. “Some of it. The broad strokes. It was a lab accident, because of course there was. My parents are ecto scientists, they study ghosts. They’re not… let’s just say don’t read their research into ghostly behavior. They are brilliant engineers though. They managed to build a portal to the Infinite Realms—”
“Minging knobheads,” John curses quietly.
“—and I was sorta in the portal when it turned on. Which, um, killed me and revived me at the same time. I was electrocuted while my system was flooded with ectoplasm.”
Killed.
Danny had— Danny had died. Again, before, Danny had died. Wally closed his eyes and swallowed around the catch in his throat. He almost never got the chance to know Danny. A hand fit into his and Wally knows instantly that it’s Dick’s. He grips it back tightly. At least he isn’t listening to this alone.
“It’s not so much that I got powers, as that because I’m half dead, I’m half ghost and I can do the things that ghosts can do. Invisibility, intangibility, flight… things like that. Long story short, someone had to stop the ghosts that the portal let through—”
John is up and pacing now. Zatanna doesn’t even try to stop him.
“—so I sort of became the town hero. I went by Phantom. It was… well, you’ve all been there.”
God, Wally wishes Danny didn’t know how that was.
“Kid… did you even have anyone to help you?” Barry asks.
Danny shrugs. “Two friends and eventually Ja… my older sister.. There are a few ghosts that were sometimes allies but ghosts…”
“Ghosts aren’t good or evil, they’ve got obsessions,” John explains into the silence. “Sometimes those obsessions motivate the ghosts in a way that seems one way or another. It only works out for you as long as your needs aligns with their obsession.”
Wally’s mind spins.
“Danny,” Bruce asks with very careful words, “do you have an obsession?”
He searches back through his memories of Danny.
“Yes.”
It couldn’t be anything anyone would see as bad or dangerous.
“Protection. My obsession is protection. It’s not as compelling to me as it is for a full ghost. For me it’s more like a hunger craving or itch, but it is there. It’s a good part of why I became a paramedic.”
Oh. That made so much sense.
“That’s our Danny,” Danna says, softly, from in their group.
“Why did you not simply join us as a hero?” Diana asks.
“Before, well, things were… complicated? There’s this government agency that considers ghosts non-sentient and—”
Danny jerks back in his chair at all the exclamations that rang out in the room at that. It isn’t just a reaction to the sudden noise, Wally realizes, Danny looks startled at being defended.
It breaks Wally’s heart.
“It’s okay!” Danny says over the din. “They were always pretty incompetent, really, even when working with my parents. I never even ended up vivisected or anything!”
Gar clamps a hand over his mouth and mutters. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Danny,” Dianna says his name gently, “have your parents ever attacked you?”
“They don’t know I’m a halfa. They don’t know I’m Phantom,” Danny says. There’s a pleading note to his voice that makes Wally agree with Gar; he’s going to be sick.
“But they’ve attacked Phantom,” Dianna says. It’s not a question, but Danny nods anyways. “Danny, do we need to set up protection for you from your parents?”
“They don’t know—”
“Kid,” Barry interrupts, “what you did was on the news. Like, every news station across the world. I think they know now.”
Danny sits back in his chair. He picks at the already frayed edge of the hoodie. Suddenly he looks small in a way that Wally’s only seen when Danny’s been in the middle of a panic attack. Any strength Danny’s gathered the last few days seems to leave him as his shoulders slump. “Maybe. I guess… I don’t know how they’ll take the news. It’s… maybe. We’ll, um, more than that someone needs to make sure the portal stays closed down. If the ghosts start coming through again…”
The hand Danny presses against his chest shakes. “I’m not as strong as I used to be. I don’t know if my powers will come back still or if this… is what I am now, but my core is weaker than it used to be. If this the way I’ll be now, I won’t be able to fight them off.”
“Are they dangerous?” Bruce asks. “Beyond the morality of their obsession, are they actively dangerous to you?”
“That’s not an easy question. Mostly the ghosts used Amity Park as a new way to fulfill their obsessions. Lunch Lady wants to feed people, which is good, but if you don’t want to eat things can get nasty. Obsessions are like that, they can twist quickly. The ghosts also just like to brawl, a lot of them at least. Some of them would understand if I can’t and back off, but there are others… take Skulker,” Danny says with a wave of his hand, “his obsession is hunting rare game and, well, I’m rare game. He wants to mount my pelt to his wall.”
With an unpleasant noise, Gar dashes from the room. It makes Danny wince and mumble an apology.
Wally is already mentally calling favors to call in to safeguard their apartment, not that he thinks anyone will say no to protecting Danny.
“We’ll make checking on the portal a priority as soon as this meeting is done,” Bruce assures Danny.
“Thank you. I don’t want anyone to be hurt if it gets turned back on.”
“Why has it been off? If it’s off, why would they turn it back on now?” John asks, still pacing.
Danny looks away from the table again. “Because they remember now.”
“The curse?” John asks at the same time Bary asks, “What do you mean remember?”
“I mean they forgot, because, yeah, the curse,” Danny says. He’s back to picking at his sleeve. Everyone gives him time to try and find his words, which he does with a wet laugh. “I was stupid. I mean, I was young, but I still should have known better. I was just… I was having a hard time. My parents were working on a new GIW contract and my friends… team were going off to college… I was going to be alone to deal with the ghosts. I still should have known better. I just wished I could be normal.”
“That’s not wrong, Danny,” Barry says. “We’ve all felt that sometime…”
Danny’s shaking his head. “You don’t understand. You don’t wish in Amity Park.”
“Because of this Desiree?” Zatanna asks.
“Because of Desiree,” Danny confirms. “Some ghosts have very specific powers and those are usually strong powers. For Desiree, it’s… it was reality altering based on wishes. I forgot to never say ‘I wish’.”
After a moment of comprehending silence, Diana asks, “She had the power to make you fully human?”
“No, even borrowing power like I think she did, Desiree couldn’t do that. But that’s not what she needed to do. Normal isn’t a real thing, it’s just societal, you know? She just had to make sure no one remembered I was half dead and, tada, I had a normal life.”
John finally stops pacing and leans against the back of his chair. His cigarette is a mangled mess dangling from his lips. “What was the catch?”
“I wanted to be normal, so I had to stay normal. I couldn’t be noticed using any of my powers or being too ghostly or tell anyone I had died or what things used to be like. If I did— well you all saw what happened,” Danny looks up, finally, right at Wally. “It’s why I couldn’t tell any of you, even if I wanted too. It’s why I couldn’t use my powers to help. As soon as I did, I was good as dead.”
More than ever Wally wants to rush over to Danny’s side. He wants to let Danny know it’s alright that he kept this secret. It doesn’t matter. He settles for what he hopes is a reassuring smile.
“I still don’t know how I survived. As soon as Desiree appeared and took my powers, that should have been it for me. My ghost half can’t survive without them and my human half isn’t alive enough to last by itself. It would be like cutting off a normal person’s oxygen. I should have been ended.”
“We overloaded her,” Zatanna explains.
“Forced all your power— which there was a fucking lot of it— into her at once,” John finished. “She popped like a balloon with too much air.”
“Did you have to describe it that way?” Hal grumbles.
“Oh.” Danny blinks a few times as he took that in. “I guess, okay. I mean, yeah, I was more powerful than a lot of ghosts; something about being a halfa and my state being mutable still. I didn’t think though… right, okay. But how am I still here?”
“When she popped,” John says with a smirk towards Hal, “the air was full of ambient ectoplasm. Flash zapped you, re-started your heart, and the cloud went up like a match in a fart.”
Danny’s face wrinkled up at that. “Ew. But, alright. I mean it was my power first. I guess that…” Danny’s hand comes up to press over his sternum. “I guess that means this is my power level now.”
“And the rest of the curse?” Zatanna asks, leaning forward in her seat.
“Gone. People remember now.”
Wally thought to all the phone messages Danny had been getting in a new light.
“That’s why we need to make sure the portal is closed.”
“As well as that the GIW are shut down and that your parents do not try to harm you,” Diana says with that firm certainty of hers.
“Right,” Danny says after a beat. It’s hard to see how clearly Danny doesn’t consider himself a priority. “And… for the rest of it all?”
Diana tilts her head in question. “The rest of it?”
“I didn’t tell anyone my status. I lied to some of you. Is that…”
“You did what you needed to stay alive and hurt no one.” She holds up a hand to stop any protests from Danny. “While I have no doubt with your heart as it is you do not wish you could have done more, it would have never been asked of you at the cost of your life. You are a hero, Danny, and have been since you joined the Response Team in Central City. You have only continued to prove it by your willingness to act and the honor with which you did so. The Justice League is proud to still have you as your post, as soon as you are recovered.”
Finally the last of the tension drains Danny’s shoulders. “I’ll be happy to get back to it.”
Wally tunes Diana out as she wraps up the meeting.
“I’m going to ask him,” Wally says to Dick, who still has his hand.
“What? Now?” Dick hisses.
Wally watches as Danny shakes Clark’s hand. “Why not? Everyone’s here, like you said had to be.”
“Because it’s a debrief! That’s not exactly the most romantic moment.”
The other Titans are standing around them, waiting for their chance to see Danny. Even Gar is back.
“I almost missed my chance, N. I almost never got to ask,” Wally pleads. “I don’t want to miss it again.”
Dick just sighs and pulls a small case out of his belt. He presses it into their clasped hands before releasing his grip
Wally can feel the smile stretching across his face. “You know me so well.”
Dick just shoves Wally off his chair. “Go get your man. Ghost? Man ghost.”
Laughing, Wally fumbles to his feet and towards Danny.
“Danny!”
Danny who’s still here and alive.
Who smiles like the sun as he turns towards Wally.
“Yes?”
---
AN: I don't know, is it too cruel to end right there? 😇 Don't worry, we'll get an epilogue to hopefully tie the loose ends up in a bow! But this is the last half of the last full chapter! They know! And they still respect and love Danny. He can stop worrying~
“Here to bring me to a debrief?” Danny asks the shadow lurking in the doorway. He swears that Batman almost looks chastised at that. “It’s fine, Batman, I know how these things work.”
“The core Titans are insisting on being there, for moral support,” Batman rumbles. “If you aren’t comfortable with that, they’ll be sent away.”
Danny chuckles; that really is like them. “No, I might as well only go through it all once. Besides, that’s sweet. Can I at least take the time to put on real clothing?”
Batman narrows his eyes at Danny. “You’re still injured. Loose clothing only.”
“Gods, how does no one see what a dad you are,” Danny teases.
Batman smiles, just for a moment, before he turns to sweep over dramatically out of the room. “I’ll send in Flash with some approved clothing.”
“That better be my Flash you’re sending in!” Danny calls after Batman. When the doorway is free of the luring hero, Danny lets himself fall back against the pile of pillows.
A debrief. How is he supposed to explain any of this? So far he hasn’t been allowed to explain things, really. Part of it is that he’s spent most of the last several days asleep. When he has been awake, it’s to a rotating cast of heroes; all heroes that he was close to and knew behind the mask. With every able bodied hero busy with clean up, no one has been able to stay long. He sees Barry the most, what with the other’s leg, but even Barry is busy helping coordinate the recovery efforts.
(Danny’s also pretty sure that they’re using the chance to visit him as a way to make people take a break.)
While the heroes are with him, it’s been mostly Danny getting updated on everyone and whoever is with him getting information to update everyone else with. They won’t even let him work, but they do pass on information about his crews at least. It’s Wally who’s with him the most. Wally was there the first time Danny woke and as Danny breathed through panic attacks and to patiently reply to the endless stream of messages for Danny.
Speak of the devil… Danny’s phone chimes again.
He can’t look at it.
He hasn’t been able to look at it since the first message from Jasmine came in. Since they all remembered.
Wally hadn’t asked. He had just let Danny shake apart in his arms and has handled Danny’s phone from then on. ‘This is Danny’s boyfriend. He’s alive and will recover. He’ll contact you at a later time.’
“I thought we put that thing on silent,” Wally says with a glare at the phone as he steps into the room.
Danny makes shameless grabby hands at the clothing. “So did I. Who is it?”
Danny’s proud that his voice doesn’t shake at the question.
Maybe it’s fair that they’ve all been avoiding the big big questions. Maybe it really is obvious that he’s still only hanging on by a thread. He certainly feels less like a live wire and more like the one, stubborn fuse still humming in the circuit breaker.
He certainly feels weak.
“Jasmine again.”
Danny sucks in a staggered breath and lets it out slowly. “Just… just tell her that I’m sorry, but I can’t yet.”
Wally presses a kiss to Danny’s temple. “I’ll remind her that you’re healing too. You just worry about getting dressed.”
“What, don’t want to help out with that part?” teases Danny as he undid the tie at the base of his neck. The Watchtower might have pretty nice quality, but any medical garb was going to be a little scratchy, and Danny is glad to have it off. He’s careful with his taped over IV port as he slides on the plain white shirt and then the well worn hoodie. It has a faded Nightwing logo and smells like Wally.
Something in Danny’s chest relaxes a little as he buries his face into the fabric and it nearly makes him sob.
“Danny?”
Danny just shakes his head.
“Oh, babe, it’s okay, I’m here. I have you.” Wally tosses the phone onto the bed and wraps Danny up into a hug. “I’m so sorry I haven’t been around—”
“Don’t, you were saving lives,” Danny says and tucks his face against Wally’s neck. “It’s what you needed to be doing.”
“Yeah, well, I’m here now. I’ve officially been pulled off duty. My job right now is you.”
“I don’t want to take you away from anything important.”
“You aren’t. Babe, you’re why we’re all still here. Let yourself be cared for, okay? I promise if anything comes up that really needs my help I’ll go, but let me make you my priority,” Wally urges.
Danny closes his eyes. “I told myself I’d never ask that of you. I know what you are.”
“You aren’t, I’m offering. Please, babe, let me make you my priority.”
He wants to. Gods does he want to. He wants to go back home to their apartment and have Wally with him and just let the other take care of everything, just for a little bit, just until it stopped feeling like his insides were hollow. Just until he could be okay enough to lie and say that he was fine.
Just until then.
“Okay. I— yeah, okay. I think I need that right now,” Danny manages to admit.
“Thank you,” Wally whispers like it was Danny doing him the great service. “First act, let’s get you out of those pants.”
“You cad,” Danny gasps dramatically.
Wally rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling now so Danny counts it as a win. “And get you into the sweatpants.”
“I can’t believe I’m going to debrief in sweats,” Danny says as he lets Wally help him finish changing. He’s a little less balanced in his feet than he’d like to be.
Okay, a lot less balanced.
Wally doesn’t even let him walk to the debrief, instead he insists on pushing Danny there in a wheelchair. Danny knows there’s no shame in needing a wheelchair, but it doesn’t help him be less frustrated at the way he feels weak down to his bones. Hell, he feels weak down to is core. At least he gets to move himself to a regular chair once they’re inside the conference room.
"Thank you for being willing to do this, Danny,” Wonder Woman says. She’s leaning forward, arms resting on the table, and offering a smile. At the table is a selection of other top tier members: Batman, Superman, a Green Lantern (Hal Jordan in this case), John Constantine, Zatanna, and, right next to Danny, Barry.
The Titans are off to the side, slightly behind the Dark members, in chairs that were obviously dragged into the room. Garfield gives Danny an enthusiastic thumbs up that almost makes him laugh.
“Of course. I get why there are questions,” Danny says instead.
“There are,” Superman agreed. “Now, as you aren’t a Justice League member and are in no way under any sort of investigation, this is going to be a bit informal. We’re just trying to make sure our report on recent events are as clear as possible.”
Danny huffs out a breath of air. His gaze darts over to Wally before dropping. “It’s a big more than that, isn’t it?”
“Kid?” Barry asks gently.
“You all want to know what I am, which is fair. If I could have, I would have told you.” Danny looks back at Wally again and gives a half hearted smile. “Sorry I couldn’t.”
“Why couldn’t you?” Batman asks, though the rumble of words isn’t unkind.
A sour smile twists Danny’s lips. “Curses are like that. Aren't they, Laughing Magician?” Danny hears Constantine and sucks in a breath and steels himself to look up at him. “How much do you know about her? About Desiree?”
Constantine shakes his head. “Not much. It’s not wise to go digging into the affairs of a member of the Infinite Realms, even an ended one.”
“Speak normal for the rest of us,” Hal says. “A who of what?”
“Infinite realms. That means a sodding ghost,” Constantine snaps.
Barry scoffs. “Ghost’s aren’t real.”
“Boo,” Danny replies. His smile is slightly too wide.
“Not funny, Danny.”
Danny shrugs. “Not trying to be. I’m half ghost.”
“How is someone half ghost?” Hal asks.
“I’m like Schrödinger’s Cat,” Danny explains. He can’t help for for his gaze to flick over to where the Titans are sitting and find Wally’s eyes. “I’m still in the box, basically. I’m half alive and half dead. Both and neither. A balance.”
“A myth.” Constantine leans forward. He taps the butt of his unlit cigarette against the table. “Or so we always thought. You telling me that you’re a halfa?”
The question pulls Danny’s focus back to the main table of heroes. “Yep. One of three. Me, my godfather, and my clone.”
Superman clears his throat. “Ah, your clone?”
Danny just gives another shrug. “Shit gets weird when you’re a teenage vigilante.”
“Danny,” Batman says, and Danny can’t help but smile again because the man is clearly one step away from pinching the bridge of his nose like he does as Bruce when one of his children is driving him mad. “Start from the beginning. State your name for the record.”
“Danny Jasper Fenton.”
---
AN: Vote was in favor of splitting it up. I've got a chunk of the next part written, so hopefully I can get it finished up next week! Sorry if there are lots of issues, words and me are struggling atm.
Poor Danny is really struggling with things as his world has once again changed. And what will everyone think of him now...?
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Wally makes it in time to catch him. He goes from blocks away to having Danny in his arms in an instant. Gently, so gently, he holds Danny and lowers them to the ground, next to the heart that Danny had ripped out of the leader’s chest.
“Wally,” Danny rasps. His voice is weaker than Wally has ever heard it. It’s like some twisted imitation of how Danny sounds when he wakes up in the morning, voice rough with the remnants of sleep. Danny is even smiling the same, soft smile.
“Medic!” Wally screams. Hands shaking, he clutches at Danny’s chest. He can feel Danny’s breath stuttering under his trembling fingers. “I need a medic!”
Danny’s fingers wrap weakly around Wally’s. They feel so cold.
Wally stuffs the sob back into his throat. “Thought I told you to stay safe.”
He did, too. Before they split up at the Watchtower to Zeta down to their respective locations, Wally had pulled Danny to the side and rested their foreheads together. He had told Danny this was a big one and that he needed Danny to stay safe before kissing him goodbye.
“Sorry,” Danny murmurs. His eyes are glassy now.
Wally doesn’t think Danny even sees him anymore.
This isn’t how it’s supposed to go. They’re supposed to get married. Buy one of those row houses Danny is always looking at. Have mornings and nights and years together. They’re supposed to have tomorrow.
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay, babe,” Wally says, sniffling, trying desperately to smile for Danny. “I love you no matter what.”
“Love you too. Had to…”
Wally hushes him, softly, gently. He doesn’t want Danny to spend his last breaths on excuses. Wally leans down and presses their lips together.
Danny’s lips are so cold.
“I love you so much.”
Foreheads resting together, Wally twists his grip so that he can feel Danny’s pulse. The heartbeats are unsteady under his fingers. Unconsciously, Wally starts counting them as his mouth runs without his permission or thought, just affirmation after affirmation about how much he loves Danny. He doesn’t want Danny to die without feeling loved.
He doesn’t—
There’s a feeling, suddenly, like when a plane pressurizes or an elevator drops and both of their breaths stutter. Then it pops.
The world is lit in a green glow.
Danny arches with a gasp.
Wally clutches Danny protectively to his chest and looks up.
A glowing, slowly twisting orb of green floats above them. A wisp trails from Danny’s chest up to the mass. Above it, hands splayed on either side of the ball, is floating a woman with green skin, black hair, and red eyes that look at Danny with a hungry sort of malice that makes Wally want to lunge at her.
And then she starts laughing. The sound blends with the melodic noise as the coins on her outfit shake with her laughter. “Oh, Phantom. I was starting to think that you would actually manage.”
She reaches her hand over the orb, fingers sinking into it to pull herself forward. Danny jerks in Wally’s arms.
“Seven years. You made me wait seven years. I didn’t think you had it in you, Phantom. I was sure when you made that wish, that foolish, stupid, wonderful wish that you’d trip up within a week. But you didn’t! You made me wait seven years!” The ground shakes with her scream. She clears her throat and smooths down her outfit, making sure that the skirt lay right over her genie-like tail. “But it doesn’t matter. You did it now and all the others can stop hounding me for their slice of your power for helping with this plan. And of all things you did it for love. You always were weak, Phantom.”
“Who are you?” Wally snarls, trying to tuck Danny closer to him, as if it is possible to do so.
The woman looks down at Wally, arching a brow before her purple lips form into a razor sharp smirk. “I am Desiree and I should thank you. How does it feel, to know that you killed your lover?”
Wally’s heart skips a beat.
“That he’s dying in your arms because he couldn’t stand to lose you? That he's going to make you live with that pain instead? Don’t you wish that it could be different?”
Wally does. He doesn’t want to lose Danny. He doesn’t want the world to lose Danny. He wishes—
The air compresses again. Another pop. A flash of yellow light.
“Thought we were fighting aliens, not ghosts and djinn?” a tired British voice asks.
Wally twists around to see a battered, bloodied, and bruised Constantine and Zatanna standing on the edge of the crater.
“Help him!” screams Wally. His voice cracks around the plea.
The Dark team takes in the scene, eyes darting from Danny to the orb to the— to Desiree. John’s face darkens quickly. “Well that has to be fucking dealt with.”
“Oh, you’ll deal with me?” scoffs Desiree. “Do you know who I am? Do you know what I have?”
Desiree pulls herself across the orb again, sinking her clawed fingers into it. Danny twitches in Wally’s arms with each stab. The green seeps up from it like punctured air and wraps itself around Desiree’s neck.
“No matter, I can absorb some of his power now to deal with you rats!” Desiree screams. She plunges her arms into the orb. The green flashes blindingly bright. The wisps grow. The tendrils tighten.
Danny lets out a weak breath of air, like it was the last in his lungs.
“Constantine!” Wally begs.
The green light ripples and pulses. Wally looks up, trying to shield Danny from it. It’s like Desiree is drinking it in.
Constantine and Zatanna are talking. Wally can’t hear what they’re saying. He can’t hear Desiree laughing even though he knows she is. He can’t hear the chant Zatanna calls out. All Wally can hear is the fragile, rattling breaths from Danny.
When the breaths stop, it’s like Wally’s world goes silent.
And then it explodes in green.
Wally covers Danny’s body with his own, holding tight as the light and wind rips past them. When it settles, Wally pulls back. The djinn is gone.
Danny is silent.
“John, he’s not breathing!” Wally shouts.
“Zap him!” John shouts back. He’s scrambling down the edge of the crater, rushing into the cloud of green that’s settled in it. Wally loses sight of him. “Zap him!”
Wally’s never done that.
He’s never tried to call on the electricity outside of a battle. He’s only just gotten a handle on moderating its power. He can’t—
But Danny is dead in his arms. Breaths silent. Heart silent. Dead.
Wally’s hands tremble as he rests them over Danny’s chest and pushes the power that thrums under his skin, through his fingertips, and into Danny.
The word explodes in green again— like a lit match in a room full of gas.
Wally’s flung backwards, away from Danny, hitting something, someone, and they tumble together. Then John is helping Wally up. They rush through the scattered remnants of the green fog. Wally falls to his knees next to Danny.
Please please please—
And Danny breathes.
Sound comes back to Wally’s world.
-
There’s an echo in Danny’s ears. The ringing of it feels like it’s burrowing into his brain, like it’s vibrating through his very bones, like his heart is stuttering and jumping to try and match the awful sound. It makes Danny groan in pain.
Someone is talking to him. He can hear the words past the hum of the ringing but can’t understand them. He whines, arching up. His fingertips scramble at some soft material. Suddenly, there’s a weight pressing down on his shoulder.
“—still. You’re safe, but you’re hurt.”
“Wally,” Danny gasps. He tries to speak but he’s not sure most of the words make it past his lips. “Did Wally make a wish with Desiree? Please, no!”
The press of soft lips against his temple Danny would recognize anywhere. That’s Wally. Wally was still alive.
“It’s okay Danny. Desiree is gone. Constantine and Zatanna showed up. Apparently all the…” Wally sounds so wrecked that it makes Danny whine again. There’s another brush of those lips. “All the death magic being used alerted them. When she started to absorb the, um, your? Absorb the power, Constantine and Zatanna basically forced it into her all at once. It overwhelmed her and she, well, exploded.”
That sounds good. It is good she’s gone. Danny thinks he should be concerned about more, more that he needs to know, but Wally is alive. Somehow he is alive. The rest he can deal with later.
Danny makes a soft noise and slips back into the black.
---
AN: What, you didn't think I was actually going to kill Danny, did you? ^_~
One chapter (or two parts) left! Danny's got some explaining to do! And Wally has some important things to say too.
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WC: 756 , Masterpost
CW: We loop to the start and that entails
The attacks start in northern Africa. It jumps from Algeria to Egypt, across the sea to Saudi Arabia to Turkey and into Europe. By the time it hits Metropolis, resources are already stretched thin. Danny is calling in every contact, every possible help, while he follows the worst of it himself, constantly organizing the next area of triage.
As he’s attempting to wrap the tourniquet around Barry’s leg, blood slicked hands failing him, it hits Danny like one of Superman’s punches.
They are going to lose.
Barry reaches out and grips a weak hand around Danny’s wrist. “Kid?”
It’s still a stupid nickname, but through all these years Barry still used it. Through the years of dinners and disasters and Danny being welcomed into Barry’s family at Wally’s side.
And now all these wonderful, heroic, brave people that Danny had come to be friends with are going to die. The monologue happening in the middle of the street made that much clear. No hero would be spared; any chance of a future uprising would be snuffed out this very day.
Because they are going to lose.
Danny smiles softly at Barry and pries his hand away.
“Kid, whatever you’re thinking—” Barry could have no idea what Danny is thinking. No one can.
No one can, because no one knows what Danny can do.
He leaves his bag by Barry. Most of the supplies have been used up, but maybe there is still something in it that will help people.
He just wants to help people.
The monologue cuts off as Danny approaches, feet sliding on the loose concrete around the edge of the crater that the imposing figure stands in. He manages not to fall, though, and strides past Superman with his head held high. He will not cower in front of death. He faced death once before and even though this time means becoming nothing, he will not cower as he faces it again.
He has to look up to meet the being’s eyes. There’s only cruelty there. The mouth twists in a cold smirk. “Has it come to this? That they send their healer to face me?”
“No.” Danny could hear Barry shouting his name. “They didn’t send me, I came by myself.”
The laugh raises the hair on the back of Danny’s neck, but he doesn't move away.
“Pathetic! You presume yourself to be the last line of defense? You, a mere medic? You are no hero and yet you dare to stand before me? Do you not think that I could break you with a single fist?”
Danny smiles softly, and raises his hand. The man doesn’t even move, so utterly sure that Danny poses him no threat. Danny rests his hand on the man’s chest. He has to reach up to do so.
The smirk turns into a sneer. “Or do you intend to appeal to some ideal of compassion? To try and change my heart? To ask me to spare your heroes?”
Superman is screaming at him now as he struggles to stand. Danny hears him fall again.
He doesn’t take his eyes off the man who would try to rule them all with nothing but death in his wake.
“No,” Danny says, tilting his head just slightly. His eyes scan over the hardened face again. “No, I don’t think I can do that. You’ve made a mockery of death for so long that your heart is hardened. It’s a good thing I don’t need it soft.”
Intangibility is as comfortingly familiar as it is horrifying to feel again. Danny shudders as it washes over him. His hand sinks, sickeningly, through armor and skin and bone to wrap around that hardened, beating heart.
It thuds once in his grip.
Danny yanks his hand back.
Danny pulls that heart from its chest.
The man gasps— the sound a pale imitation of a breath— and then he falls.
Like he was nothing.
Less than nothing.
A man that will only be remembered with hatred.
The massive heart slips from Danny’s limp fingers. It hits the ground with a wet squelch.
Danny wavers, eyes turning up to the sky where hundreds of clones are falling like horrifying intimidations of shooting stars. A soft smile spreads over his face.
He had done it.
Will people remember him?
It isn’t why he did it.
He just wants to help people.
Wanted to.
Was someone calling his name?
There had only been one chance. It was all he needed.
They would be safe now.
Everyone would be safe.
Humanity, Barry, Iris, the Titans…
Wally…
“Danny!”
---
AN: And here we are, back in present tense (thank you @mokulule for correcting all my slips back to past tense my migrained brain didn't catch.
I would say Danny used his one moment well, wouldn't you?
But this isn't quite the end. Now that we're back in the present... I think it's about time we saw somethings from Wally's POV, don't you?
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