A vibration from his pocket grabbed Tim's attention, making him put down the contracts he'd been going over in favor of his cell phone. Pulling out the device, Tim opened his messages, smiling as Danny's screen name flashed with a new message, and pulling up the conversation.
Happily Ever Afterlife: ok so dont be mad
Tim snorted, everytime Danny said that, the problem was small and simple and nothing to actually be mad about, inconvenient at best, and even then that itself was rare. If it was actually bad, and something getting mad over, Tim wouldn't find out until Danny had fixed the problem himself. It was the only real point of conflict in their relationship, how they both tried to shoulder everything themselves. Tim, because he felt pressure to handle everything himslef, and Danny, because he didn't want to be a burden or cause problems.
I won't be. What did you get up to? :You
Happily Ever Afterlife sent an image
[large brown, black, and tan canine with pointed ears that layed flat on its head, and a sharp, pointed muzzle. Its laying on the couch and staring at the camera with narrowed eyes.]
Happily Ever Afterlife: isnt he the cutest little dog? i found him sniffing through the garbage at work! dont worry i already gave him a bath, i think hes a german shepherd! hes kinda grumpy and not very sociable but that can be fixed with kisses! Can we keep him please please please??
Tim stared at the picture with wide eyes. A Coyote. Danny found a Coyote, brought into their apartment, and was asking to keep it.
Not for the first time, Tim silently cursed at the Fenton's for not having a safe enough home, that caused Danny to have never even toy with the idea of getting a pet, so he never familiarized himself with animals. To Danny there were Dogs, Cats, Rodents, Birds, and Repitles, and while, sure those were rather umbrella terms, it made it to where Danny recognized all Canines as puppies, and anything small and fluffy with pointed ears as cats. Tim, and Damian just got him to stop giving the raccoons cat food because, to Danny, Racoons classified as cats!
Happily Ever Afterlife sent a video
[The Coyote eating, what looks to be leftover turkey, from Danny's hand, while Danny can be heard cooing excitedly behind the camera, when the turkey is gone, the coyote continues to lick Danny's hand before laying its head down on his palm and nuzzling against it.]
Happily Ever Afterlife: he likes me!
Taking a deep breath, Tim breathed slowly out of his nose. "Ancients I love this man." He muttered to himself before pushing away from his desk and heading towards the door, firing a quick text to his father and Tam that he was going home early.
The CEO lemanted internally that he would have to be the one to break Danny's heart by telling him that the Coyote was not, in fact, a German Shepherd, and that they'd have to get rid of it. While Tim wasn't against the idea of them getting a dog, he knew they couldn't keep the Coyote, it was illegal, and dangerous to keep a wild animal and while Tim wasn't a really a law abiding citizen, just look at his night time job and the shenanigans surrounding it, he didn't think they could get away with keeping a Coyote, even if it was Gotham-
Actually, Tim paused his thoughts as he waited for the elevator to go down, didn't Harley have two Hyenas that nobody blinked an eye at? He thought to himself, thinking of Bud and Lou, and how nobody batted an eye when Harley took them out to walks. Sure people stared, but that was because it was Harley Quinn and not because she had two Hyenas.
"...We're keeping the Coyote, aren't we?" Tim sighed, already accepting his fate, which was further solidified when Tim's phone dinged once again.
Happily Ever Afterlife sent a photo
[Danny sitting next to the Coyote, the Coyote resting his head on Danny's lap fast asleep]
Happily Ever Afterlife: what do you think of the name Owl? or maybe Vulture works better? ohmyancientshejustyawned!
Tim shook his head fondly, a soft smile on his lips as he got into his car, texting a quick reply that he was on his way home, and they'd discuss the "dog" once he got home. Danny's response was a string of heart emojis.
Okay. The usual Danny is related to a Batfam member. This time it’s Tim.
The twist, they both know of each other and that Danny was practically pawned off by the Drake parents to the Fentons then legally adopted. But for some reason or another the rest of the bats have no idea and Tim ain’t dragging Danny into this either so he ain’t saying shi to anyone.
Not Danny and definitely not the Batfam. Neither know about either.
That is until Tim gets onto Ra’s radar. Ya know the whole obsessed old man who keeps his spleen in a jar. Only when the demon head realizes he’s not getting to Tim through the usual means he goes for a different approach.
Stealing his little detectives younger brother. Either for creepy this is the next best thing to Tim or to try and force Tim’s hand for something or other.
Cue Danny being super confused as to why yet another crazy old dude is going on about detectives and heirs while having him tied up precariously and dangerously close to a massive puddle of the most putrid ecto ever. It’s so bad it’s making his eyes water and skin itch.
Then he gets even more confused when his brother comes in dressed to the nines in vigilante garb followed by the Funeral Furries of Gotham.
Tim really didn't mean to, he swears. It's not his fault Danny snuck up on him on patrol! One moment, he's aiming a birdarang at a crate his target is carrying, the next someone is touching his shoulder. There wasn't supposed to be anyone on the roof except Tim- who was already on edge, mind you- and then there were fingers! Fingers that could've very much been trying to kill him, thank you. So sue him for acting fast in self defense!
Tim swears if he could do it again he wouldn't be watching his best friend bleed out through the neck. It's a wound deep enough that it doesn't matter how much pressure is put on it, there is just not enough time to save Danny.
So he watches, heart heavy as Danny stumbles, and a thick wave of blood spurts from his neck. He watches as Danny's hand subconsciously comes up to his crying throat. He watches as Danny drops down to his knees and chokes on his own blood, another wave of it erupting from his mouth.
"Oh God, Danny-"
"No this is my fault- hrrgk- oh this is so embarrassing! Hughhk- h-holy shit."
He watches as Danny... Doesn't die...? What the hell??
Honestly I think the fics where Danny’s a Kryptonian have a lot of potential, so here’s me throwing my hat into the ring
Danny was born a human. He was born to two loving (though slightly neglectful) human parents in the painfully mundane state of Illinois.
Then, he died, but he didn’t do it right. He became a Halfa; too alive to be a ghost, but too dead to be human.
Then, through strange, uncontrollable circumstances, that changed as well.
He had been heavily injured, missing a large percentage of body mass, and was at the cusp of either dying fully or just fading from existence.
(Perhaps it was an ordinary fight. Perhaps it was the GiW, or his parents. Perhaps it was a simple accident. That didn’t matter now.)
He fled, phasing through the ground, trying to bury himself as deep as possible.
(Perhaps he didn’t want to be unmasked in death. Perhaps that was already too late, and he just wanted his body be able to rest in peace.)
Unfortunately for him, he was in Metropolis, and ended up in a secret genetics lab below the earth.
Danny detransformed, completely exhausted, falling onto a table covered in different labeled specimen containers. He closed his eyes, and prepared himself for what would happen next.
And… nothing.
Slowly, cautiously, he opened his eyes.
Danny sat up, brushing off the foul-smelling liquid from the specimen jars, petri dishes, and assorted vials.
He felt…fine.
No, better than fine. He felt normal. Healthy.
He felt like he wasn’t missing most of his internal organs anymore.
Danny looked down at his stomach, and saw that the wounds that were killing him had completely disappeared.
(The blood blossoms, if there had been any, were still there, but they no longer hurt. At most, they itched a little, or maybe just tickled a bit.)
He wanted to question what in the hell had just happened, but he didn’t want to jinx it. He just quietly changed back to Phantom, going invisible and phasing out of wherever he had found himself in, ignoring the loud alarm system that had begun to blare when he broke the samples on that table.
Life mostly went back to normal after that.
If, like Danny, you ignored all the physical changes in a valiant effort to remain in denial that something was horribly wrong.
His skin was tougher, now; he didn’t get scrapes or cuts, even when he accidentally fumbled a knife while trying to cook. His ghost form was stronger, too; he was barely knocked down by his old rogues anymore.
He could fly, even in his human form. Though, admittedly, the flight was much different. It was like using a muscle he hadn’t known existed beforehand. He didn’t just ignore gravity or wind resistance, though he felt more graceful in the air now than he ever did as Phantom.
There were more powers popping up, lasers and cold breath, x-ray vision and super strength. His lungs and heart were larger, and he could handle temperatures much easier. He didn’t have to transform to handle the pressure and cold of space anymore.
His reaction time had improved, becoming much faster than ever before. His senses were much stronger, and he had even seemed to gain a sense of electric fields, like a shark.
The only thing that separated him from a Kryptonian was that he had developed electrokenesis, which he had never seen any of them use on TV.
So, surely, he was fine.
Everything was normal, he hadn’t been transformed by alien DNA in a sketchy lab, he had just had a really weird and specific metagene activation.
—
Clark Kent, Kal-El, was panicking.
It had been around a month and a half since a particularly brutal fight between Intergang and an unknown assailant, and it seemed that Intergang was determined to draw out whoever had scorned them.
Their method of doing this, of course, was trying to level the city.
He and Jon were doing their best to stop them, but with both Kon and Zor-El away on their own business, it was difficult.
And by difficult, he meant almost impossible.
Slowly but surely he was driving them back, but not without massive amounts of damage to the city, especially with only Jon on dedicated rescuing duty.
He was distracted, trying to draw a group away from a heavily occupied building, when a projectile hit him in the back of the head.
The world spun for a moment, and then it went black.
(It was, probably, then, some sort of Kryptonite-metal alloy. Intergang at its finest.)
He woke slowly, forcing his eyes open. He felt like he had been hit by an eighteen wheeler.
Clark jolted up, preparing for the worst.
To his shock, though, the city hadn’t been reduced to rubble while he was out.
Jon seemed to still be working on evacuation, either unaware that he had went down or forcing himself to focus on the task at hand.
Then, a lightning-quick figure flew into view, and Clark’s mind went blank.
He thought, for a moment, that Kara was back. But, no, that wasn’t right, she was supposed to be off-planet for another week or so.
Besides, this new figure didn’t move like her. They were lankier and more slender, and they flew quicker than any member of his family.
Their powerset was different, too; they focused mainly on using blasts of ice and electricity to drive enemies back, only occasionally using their strength or lasers—ones which came from their hands instead of their eyes.
He had woken up at the tail end of the fight, it seemed. The remaining Intergang members were fleeing from the mysterious metahuman.
They stayed in the sky, motionless, watching them leave.
As if they could sense him staring, they turned.
They were small, still clearly young. Probably around Kon’s age, or maybe even younger.
Instead of the colorful clothing he had inherited from his family, the stranger wore black and white clothes which looked similar to a hazmat suit, their face covered by some sort of gas mask.
Interestingly enough, instead of the S-shape crest that he was so used to seeing, the stranger wore the letter D on his chest.
Kal’s heart sped up.
From up in the sky, he heard the stranger’s heart, on the left instead of the right, speed up in return.
But before he could say a word to them, they sped off, disappearing into the deep blue sky.
Danny notices that no matter what he does no one figures out he is Danny Phantom unless he says that he is. To check this theory he goes out as Danny Phantom and people just comment that his cosplay is wrong.
He wonders if it is just Phantom so he dresses up as another hero to check this theory. To bad now people are questioning why Robin is in Amity Park.
Danny Fenton Was 32 When His Parents Built a Strange Machine
✨The Master Post✨| Teapot's Stories
This Prompt by nightblackowlbat, featuring contributions from Dreadmothrosemary71 , Thatrandomsarahchick , pyroprotectoroftrees ((Ummm.... with some deviations and creative liberties though... sorry not sorry))
nightblackowlbat: "Watchtower technician Danny had his portal accident when he went to visit his parents for the holidays. [...] Now if he could only keep his new powers under control so the heroes he works with don’t investigate and arrest his parents, that would be great."
32 year old Doctor Daniel Fenton is a mechanic repair man for the Justice League. It may not be the astronaut job he dreamed of in his childhood, but he gets to work amongst the stars and do his part in helping save the world (even if it's just by supporting the heroes who do all the heavy lifting). After his parents kill him in their boarderline supervillain evil scientist lab, Danny has to keep various ghostly changes under wraps and maybe even kind of sorta save the world? But he's just a mechanic and his only job is to help the heroes who do all the world saving and he is not one of those heroes.
Read the Final Draft on Ao3:
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Rough drafts:
Chapter 1: This is Why We Have Lab Safety:
Part 1 | Part 2
Chapter 2: Oh No is This Ghost Puberty?:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Ao3 Chapter Exclusive
Chapter 3: The Unintentional Space Walk:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Chapter 4: Super Cool Training Montage:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
Chapter 5: Almost the End of the World Again:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Sam & Danny Art by nightblackowlbat
Danny Sketches by dreadmothrosemary71
Poltergeist the Technician art by this teapot
Tip: You can follow this post to receive updates from me in the comments! Please do not post your own comments here on the master post.
This draft is now complete! I am going to take a break and then work on editing! I have plans for extended scenes, including some scenes that I'd cut for interest in time. Follow this post to be notified in the comments when I post this on Ao3!
===
For reference, here are the ages of people in the story. I used This Post by teentitanimals as a reference. And then aged the other JL core members based on vibes and some cannon.
Danny & Sam (& Tucker): 32
Green Lantern: 40
Flash: 45
Superman: 49
Batman: 50
Wonder Woman: Several Centuries
Martian Manhunter: A Few Centuries
Esposito is 58; Jim is 44; Tony is 39
Jack, Maddie, and Vlad: In their 60s
To add some perspective, the bat kids: Babs is 39; Nightwing is 37; Jason is 32; Cass is 32; Steph is 30; Tim is 29; Duke is 24: Damian is 21
The child who went into them, however, is gone forever.
Danyal al Ghul is the soul who should reside in this body. Danyal has a life still to live and Danny died ages ago, old and surrounded by loved ones, ready to spend the rest of his forever in the Infinite Realms.
Something's gone terrible wrong, he thinks rather wryly, squinting through the cold green water that surrounds him. An ache echoes through his body and he brings a hand—small, a child's hand that shouldn't belong to him— to his stomach, where he can feel a large wound slowly pull itself together.
Did I get stabbed?
He means to continue the thought, but a sharp pain hits his head, making him curl up. He gasps and air bursts from his lungs, water rushing to fill in the empty space. Danny chokes, panicking, as memories slide into place, the lives of Danyal al Ghul and Danny Fenton fighting for dominance in his head. His lungs burn, throat working futilely to push water out, but there's nothing to be done.
Danny is a child again, and just like last time, he dies young.
1.
So.
Assassins.
Danny honestly can't tell if this is a step up or a step down from mad scientist parents. On the one hand: he knows they loved him, as clumsy as it was, even though they loved their work more. On the other hand: assassin cult sounds like something out of a fairy tale, and while cool, is definitely not safe for kids.
And Danny, somehow, is a child again.
This really wasn't what he expected when he woke up on the sandy bottom of the pit. He's in ghost form, which is an unpleasant shock, but at least its familiar.
He is also, if his memory as Danyal serves him correctly, nine years old.
Kinda sucks that he died so young this time round. Didn't even make it to the double digits before he was taken out of the running.
He can't remember what it was like being so small in his last life. He can't imagine how anyone would look at a child and run them through with a sword. It's a cruel world he's woken up in. It's made worse by the fact that he's alone.
At least being down here without needing to breathe is giving him valuable time to think.
Danny has lived a full life already. He didn't really need or want another one, content to be a full ghost in the Infinite Realms. But going back isn't really an option, now that he's in a new body. The kid he could have been deserves to live fully, and the least Danny can do is live that life for them.
It'll be hard, but Danny's sure he can manage a decent life for himself.
Being presumed dead will make his escape from the assassins easier, though he'll miss getting the chance to meet his new mother; assassin as she is, Danyal knows her not by her blades but by her soft lullabies and jasmine-scented hair. The loss of her child must be hurting her deeply, but it's necessary. If Danny wants any semblance of a normal life, he has to leave her behind.
Besides, he's seen enough death. He doesn't want to ever be the cause of it.
So, he needs a plan for this new life.
Step one: get out of dodge.
The rest he'll figure out on the way.
2.
Turns out assassins weren't the most shocking thing in this new life.
No, that honor goes to superheroes.
Genuine, honest to God superheroes! With powers and everything!
To think that Danny once called himself a superhero. Ha! As if! He's nothing compared to the likes of Superman or the Flash or even Green Lantern. They're in another league. Literally. They're part of the Justice League, which has a whole slew of other heroes, and Danny is possibly their biggest fan.
Not like that's weird; most people in this world are huge fans of superheroes. Makes sense, since they're the ones who rely on their protection the most.
It does suck to know that his background belongs to that of a villain. Assassins aren't known for saving people, after all.
Part of him contemplates becoming a hero again, taking up the role of Phantom and joining the ranks of Superman. But he's had many years to come to terms with the loss of his teenage years and the bitterness that came with it. That experience, that life once lived, helps him decide each time that being a civilian is the gift this life owes him.
At thirteen, Danny lives in a foster home with six other kids. He's the oldest and has his hands full taking care of everyone else while their foster parents work three jobs between them to keep them all afloat.
When his younger siblings play superheroes, he gladly takes the role of the villain, swooping in with a blanket to kidnap away an innocent bystander that has to be rescued. He falls over dramatically at the end of each fight and praises his siblings' strength and teamwork, making them puff up with pride.
It's all fun and games so long as it only stays fun and games.
Superpowers are cool and all, but his came at the cost of his life, his health, his future. He knows, better than anyone, the price of being a hero. He knows that even Superman carries heavy losses on his shoulders, struggles under burdens no one can see.
He's lucky that the small town he ended up in—Luray, Virginia—has no heroes or villains. Too small a place to be on anyone's radar, apparently.
His classmates often complain about how they wish they could live in a big city where there's more to do, more to see, superheroes flying through the streets to protect them.
Danny is happy where he is. It's quiet, and small, and nothing like what he's used to, but it's safe.
That's all he really wants.
3.
Here's something that stays the same no matter what world he's in: Danny is a magnet for trouble.
If the trouble stopped at bullies, everything would have been fine. Danny could handle Dash, and he could handle Justin just as easily.
But the universe loves to escalate with Danny, specifically, which is why Danny had to reveal his powers when some villain-wannabe school shooter attacked his high school.
And to think he felt bad for Jackson when he didn't make it onto the track team.
Luray does not have a meta population. They're too small to have much of a population at all, and much of it is white which made him, half-Iranian, stand out even before he threw out a barrier of ice to protect his classmates a second before the gunfire began.
"Danny?!" his seatmate, Clarrissa, cries out in alarm.
"Everyone get out the window and run for it!" he orders, "I hold him back as much as I can!"
"You can't stay here!"
"Don't worry," Danny says, offering her a tight smile. "He couldn't kill me even if he tried. Now go!"
His classmates hadn't wasted any more time, sending him shocked looks as they escaped the classroom. A glimpse of his reflection in the window revealed glowing green eyes and blue mist wafting out of his mouth.
Looks like his time in Luray is up. He hopes his foster siblings won't be too mad at him for running away.
The gunfire stops, and Danny takes his chance to leap through his ice, intangible, and tackle Jackson, easily knocking the gun away from him.
"Monster!" Jackson spits at him, and Danny laughs.
"Bold of you to say that. I'm not to one trying to kill people."
He doesn't want to hear anything else that comes out of Jackson's mouth, so he knocks the guy out with a solid hit to a pressure point on his neck. Hopefully that'll keep him down long enough for the cops to get him.
Danny stands and means to leave, but something hits the back of his head hard and he's out before he realizes what's happened.
When he wakes up, he's strapped down to a table in what is undeniably a lab, and sighs.
At least he made it to sixteen before he went into another lab. Maybe in his next life he might even get all the way up to twenty before he's pulled back down here.
4.
Though he has all his powers and a ghost form, that doesn't mean he is a ghost in this life.
No, he's fully a meta, which means meta-suppressing cuffs work on him.
It's not exactly a discovery he was hoping to have while locked up in a lab, but it's what he's got, so he has to roll with it. The cuffs are heavy on his wrists and around his throat, keeping him from escaping as a group of people in masks and lab coats bustle around, ignoring him.
His head is still foggy, though likely more from the drugs than the hit he took to his head.
He doesn't bothering talking to any of them; they don't see him as human, and Danny's dealt with enough of that in his past life.
Mad scientists love to talk though, so he still hears the gist of their plans: recreating the meta gene for normal people, making a profit from selling powers, getting rich and famous from their accomplishments. They had been using Jackson to get corpses for human testing, but they got Danny instead — someone they can harvest bio material for, a much better find than a couple dead kids.
If he had the energy to rage, Danny would have killed everyone in the room already. They planned to kill his classmates just for test subjects.
He doesn't want to be an assassin, but he'd gladly lean into those old lessons to make sure they never hurt anyone again.
But the cuffs and drugs do a good job of keeping him docile, barely able to think, as they transport him around to different locations and cut him open.
He's not sure how long it's been when they ease up on the drugs a bit. It still takes time for his body to work through everything, and he comes too with a throat that's dry and a stomach that hasn't had anything in it for quite some time.
The first thing Danny does when they start asking him questions is throw up on them.
If they wanted cooperation, they should have treated him better. This is fully on them.
It makes for a convincing argument for food and water and a bathroom break, at least, so he gets what he demands and takes care of his human body under the cold gazes of three scientists.
"You guys suck," he says conversationally. "Keeping test subjects alive is like basic knowledge. No wonder y'all suck at your jobs."
"Your comments aren't needed," one of the scientists says primly. "Get up. We need to study how using your powers affects your body."
They hook a bunch of different things onto him, then lock him in a glass cage and use the cuff around his throat to send jolts of electricity through him when he doesn't do anything. He throws a chunk of ice at them, watching as it breaks apart into small pieces when it hits the glass. The scientists scribble in their notepads, and when they look at him again, he flips them off.
He gets shocked again, but it's worth it.
The process repeats for another few hours, then he's pulled out of the cage, gets an IV stuck in his arm, and drops off into drugged oblivion before he has time to start throwing hands.
5.
It must have been months. Danny's not sure; it's hard to keep track of time when locked in isolation.
He knows he's fed at least once a day. He's been getting a tray of bland food at random times, but he's counted over 50 trays sliding through the little slot on the bottom of his cell door.
Turns out insulting scientists and their procedures is a bad idea, especially when he has the language to really bruise their egos.
So.
Isolation sucks.
But at least they don't drug him anymore!
The cuffs do their job of keeping him in place, and if he didn't have memories of another life to keep him company, he definitely would have lost his mind long ago.
There's other people in here, other metas. He's heard them screaming and begging for mercy. He's heard them go chillingly quiet. He wonders why there are so many superheroes in this world when not a single one has come to save them.
Surely at least one would notice metas disappearing and would investigate?
But no.
No one ever comes to save them.
So Danny needs to figure out a way past the cuffs, and then he can be Phantom again long enough to free the other metas and make every scientist involve pay for their crimes.
He just needs to wait.
He just needs—
6.
When Danny wakes up, the alarms are ringing. It makes his head pound, throbbing with each piercing sound.
He stumbles up, using the wall to keep his balance, and freezes when he sees that the door to his cell is open.
…Huh.
The hallway is bathed in red light when he steps out. No one's around. He wanders around the facility, searching for answers and only finds more questions.
There are other cells, also empty. Certain rooms have blood splattered across the walls and the floor, but no bodies. Labs are destroyed, broken glass on the floor. But every room is empty.
He wanders until he finds what must be a security room. There's a strange device dangling off a keychain on a rack, and Danny eyes it curiously. He runs his fingers around the cuff on his throat, feels the little depression where the collar comes together, and takes the rounded device. If it doesn't work, then it doesn't work.
But if it does work…
The cuff pops open easily, as if it hasn't been his greatest foe these past few months.
All at once, his strength returns to him. He has forgotten what it was like to breathe easily, to feel his powers come to his call so easily, to be reassured that he can take care of himself.
It's almost like coming back to life.
He transforms, settling back into his ghost form with relief, and flies through the facility in search of any other metas that may need help. He finds no one, but he does catch a glimpse of the outside.
The sky is so blue it almost hurts to look at. Part of the facility has been blown apart; rubble surrounds the place and the surrounding forest has been flattened. It looks as though a fight has moved through the area.
Maybe a superhero did come to save them? Rude of them to leave only Danny, though.
He continues his search, poking his head into different rooms and hallways. He finds a staircase going down and follows it into the basement. More labs greet him, and the glow of computers and strange vials of liquid leave him unsettled.
There's a green glow coming around the corner than reminds him of the Lazarus Pit he flew out of, once upon a time many years ago, and that's what draws him forward.
Tucked away in that familiar glow is a small body, floating in a tube of liquid. There's an oxygen mask attached to her face, but that doesn't stop Danny from recognizing her.
"Ellie?"
7.
Just like in one life, Danny is cloned. The difference is that this time, there's no reason for it, no insane godfather trying to recreate a version of him that will choose him.
No, this time it's from a group of scientists who should have known better, who decided to mess around with his genes, and brought his once little sister now daughter into such a cruel, dangerous world.
Danny barely remembers breaking the glass to get her out of there. He doesn't know where he found the coat to bundle her up in, flying out of the facility as fast as he could. He feels sick, knowing it's his fault that she's here now, forced into a painful, terrifying existence because he wasn't strong enough to save himself.
He's a runaway meta victim of mad science. He can't take care of her.
"I'm sorry, Ellie," he whispers to her, pressing a kiss against her head. "I'm so sorry."
She small in his arms. She barely weighs anything.
Danny blinks back tears and tries to find some place he can stop and rest, somewhere safe he can gather his thoughts and figure out his next steps.
This isn't like when he first woke up in this world, with both sets of memories.
This is Ellie.
She deserves more than just a wish and a half-baked plan for a better life.
She deserves a family that wants her, that can care for her, that can protect her. She deserves to grow up normally and not worry about destabalizing or being a replacement for him or being hunted down.
She deserves one life to be a kid and grow up safe and be whoever she wants to be.
Danny will never be able to give her that.
But maybe he can give her to someone who can.
8.
Danyal grew up with an assassin mother and a cruel grandfather who expected far too much from a child. He was taught to kill and be more weapon than child. He was taught the world was something for him to take, to protect, to water with blood.
Danyal was meant to be the next Demon Head, and the next Bat.
Danny knows he can't go to his mother. If they're both lucky, he will never have to see her again. Knowing his luck, he's already planning explanations for why he never went back to her.
Danny's father, on the other hand…
It didn't take much to put the pieces together. The notorious Bat is Batman, Gotham's vigilante and one of the founders of the Justice League. While a child would have been left confused by the many comments his mother made about his father, it was simple enough for Danny to line them up with what he learned about the heroes of this world and realize, oh, that's my dad.
It takes a few weeks of research, using public libraries with Ellie tucked securely in a wrap to his chest, but he's able to learn more about Batman.
The most important thing being that he has kids.
Of course, none of this is officially acknowledged, but everyone knows that the Robins are his kids. Current Robin, especially, likes to remind people that he's 'the son of Batman'.
Okay. Cool.
Danny has siblings.
Awesome.
He's… not looking forward to those conversations.
At least it means more people to look after Ellie. Assuming they take her in, which Danny's really hoping for.
But it's the best he can do, so Danny sets course for Gotham and hopes that just this once, everything will work out.
9.
Meeting the Bats of Gotham is a lot harder than he expected.
A week in the city and he's barely caught more than a glimpse of them. He can't dedicate a lot of time to tracking them down either, needing to break into grocery stores to get food for him and Ellie.
She's so quiet as a baby, and it terrifies him. She's only cried twice the entire time he's had her, and Danny spends every day begging her to hold on.
Time during the day is spent catching naps and researching common vigilante spotting areas in Gotham. He's got a map of Gotham taken from a library and has been steadily marking it up, putting stars in the best places to find a Bat. There are places all over the city, and Danny has no idea how to know which ones are the best.
The only thing he can do is wait at a different rooftop each night, clinging to Ellie, wondering if this is the last night he has with her.
On the ninth night, someone finally arrives.
"Step away from the edge," a voice demands.
Danny turns to see Robin approaching, hands held out as if to catch him. He's bigger than Danny was expecting. Which makes sense; most of the stories Danny got online are from when Robin was a kid, and it's been a few years since then. He must be a teenager now. Older, but still young.
"Robin," he manages to say, his throat tightening. It feels almost like there's a noose around it. It feels like that meta-suppressing cuff has clicked back into place, leaving him helpless.
"Step away from the edge," Robin repeats. "There is no need for this to be your last resort."
"But it is," Danny whispers.
Robin darts forward and wraps a hand around Danny's wrist, yanking him towards the center of the roof. "Why on Earth would you come up here? Surely you must have known that someone would stop you."
"Batman," he gets out. "I need to speak to Batman."
"What for?"
"I'm… I was told, once, that I'm his son."
10.
Robin stares at him for a long moment.
Then he takes off his mask.
Danny knows those eyes: he sees them every time he looks in a mirror.
"Danyal," Robin breathes. "You died before I was born."
"I did. Are you…?"
"Mother told me about you."
So he has a little brother. If only he hadn't left first chance he got, he could have known his little brother, gotten away from that place before it hurt him too. Danny has made many mistakes since he arrived in this world. Missing a little brother is perhaps the worst of them.
"Mother…" Danny repeats. "She put me in the Lazarus Pit. I remember that. She didn't want me to die."
"I was born to replace you."
Just like Ellie.
So many mistakes repeating. He's never felt like more of a failure.
"Batman. Our father. He treats you well? You are safe with him?"
Robins brows furrow, but he nods, which is enough for Danny. "Yes. Of course. Isn't that why you're here now?"
"I'm not asking for me." Danny carefully, gently, unwraps Ellie. "I'm asking for her. Please, take care of her. She deserves more than I can give her. Ellie… she'd be your niece."
Robin's eyes are wide. He's frozen until Danny pushes Ellie against his chest, forcing him to lift his arms to hold her.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
DC x DP
Dead on Main (Jason Todd/Danny Fenton)
Teen
Soulmates AU
Surprise! Danny POV 😈
Teaser:
He can't think of a single fucking thing worth saying to Jason.
"So what happened?" Jason breaks the silence. He looks out the window - late afternoon sun streams in, turning the room a warm golden hue. Jason's beautiful where it shines on his hair, lights up his eyes. It hurts he won't look at Danny. "That day in September four years ago."
That day. That day Danny was remade. Walking into a machine, crawled half a creature, half of something other. As much as Phantom is Danny, and Danny is Phantom, there's always a separation.
Danny is alive.
Phantom is dead.
It hurt. It hurt so much, Danny still dreams about it. It never left his mind, he sees the spark — a bright flash of electricity as the machine abruptly sprung into life around him — in his eyes every time he changes, every time he shrugs on Phantom like a well loved coat. His signature look.
And Jason felt that. The realization hits all over again, the pain and memory of the portal accident suddenly fresh and raw. As if it had just happened instead of years ago. A phantom pain - hah.
Phantom pains.
Jason felt him die and die and die like a record skipping its track. Jason felt him in those first fights, a lesson in how to get his ass kicked. Jason felt him nearly drain himself to a second death in that fucked up ecto-suit as he fought Pariah Dark —.
And some sick little part of him is glad. Because he's never been alone. Not really. There was always someone there, sharing in the hurt. Even if he didn't know about them. Even if Jason didn't know it was Danny on the other side.
Danny can't believe himself. Disgusted he'd be glad for that.
"I," he starts, clears his throat. It's never easier to say, how does he say it? What's the word for 'I'm not sure I'm human anymore' or 'I'm scared of myself sometimes'?
"I had an accident. I died."
Finally, there's an expression on Jason's face that isn't outright resentment or derision. A tilt of surprise. But it smooths out into a blankness that's more remote than the moon.
It's a cold expression. Danny couldn't tell what he was thinking if he tried.
