Healing of the Body and Mind
Summary ~~ After Danny gets captured by the GIW, and subsequently experimented on (tortured), he is really out of it, and numb to everything going on around him. His core/base instincts are looking for a safe place for him to recover, and after he gets summoned by the Justice League, it finds a safe place to rest.
The Justice League are facing a threat that they cannot win against no matter what they throw at it. They decide to summon a being above the threat to take care of it. Unfortunately, this higher being comes in the form of the Ghost King, known for his ruthlessness. They decide the safest option is to summon him into a mortal body trapped in the summoning circle. The mortal chosen in non other than Nightwing. The Ghost King gets summoned, accepts the deal, does his end of the bargain, but does not leave after the magic users close the circle. The Justice League do not know what to do.
Come to find out the Ghost King is technically a baby ghost! And now said baby ghost has chosen Nightwing as its host until 'birth'. Everyone is freaking out, and Nightwing has to deal with a lot of Mpreg jokes thrown his way.
*TW for vivisection, and depictions of medical violence, as well as Nightwing's past traumas.*
Posted on Ao3
Earth was going to be destroyed. No, not just Earth, the whole galaxy was going to end. It was going to end, and there was only one thing the Justice League could do about it, call for help. Unfortunately, that help came in the form of The High King of the Infinite Realms, Pariah Dark, tyrant king, and all-around ass of an entity who could, and highly likely would, end this universe and more, in Constantine’s opinion.
Bloody Hell, he needed a drink…
“Do you want me to summon him or not, you twat?!” Constantine snarled at Batman, who grunted and looked upset with him. Batman, obviously, didn’t say anything and just kept staring; it was driving Constantine mad. He needed to focus on the summoning circle with Zatanna, if they messed this up, there would be no hope for anyone. Why did he join the JLD again?
Nightwing, ever the mediator, called out, “Okaayyyy, how about we calm down and focus on what’s important right now. Right, Batman?” Batman, for his part, grunted and turned away from Constantine, finally giving him some breathing room to work, and also to remember that they still didn’t know who was going to host the tyrant king when he’s summoned. Dammit, now he has to talk again.
“Alright, who the bloody hell’s going to host our illustrious guest, who, I might add, is still a horrible idea to summon?” Constantine called, “Because it cannot be Zatanna nor I, as we are casting the summoning, and I don’t think it would be a good idea if anyone magical or a heavy hitter were a vessel for a highly murderous being that would smite us given any chance…” he finished, looking at the Bats. There was an awkward pause before arguing between the Bats who were here started up.
“I’ll do it” called Red Robin, who was immediately refuted by Black Bat with a chop to his head and a thumb towards herself. She was then told no by a deep grunt and an “I will do it” by Batman. Constantine didn’t think that was a good idea, as Batman was highly contaminated with ecto, and he didn’t know what would happen if Batman were the host, nothing good, probably. Constantine, voicing this opinion, called, “No, you can’t do it, you're too ecto-contaminated. It would react to the King’s presence and end badly, someone else.”
“Since Batman can’t do it, and I’m the eldest, I will be the host for the High King.” Nightwing said with his hands on his hips and determination on his face.
Batman was glaring at Nightwing; he was glaring right back. Red Robin and Black Bat were standing still and looking at the scene, tense. They kept staring until Batman relented and turned away from the blue-clad vigilante. Nightwing looked towards the window in contemplation, waiting to be called for the summoning.
When Constantine and Zatanna finished the circle, a chair was put in the middle. Zatanna asked Nightwing to remove all weapons from his person and sit in the chair.
“You don’t have to do this, Nightwing. I know it is a lot to have someone else be in control of your body. You can back out now, and no one would hold it against you.” Zatanna stressed. Nightwing, for his part, looked at her with acceptance on his face and joked, “I’ll be fine, been through a few world-ending scenarios before, I can handle a little possession”. Zatanna didn’t look relieved, but she moved on with the summoning.
Constantine and Zatanna tied Nightwing to the chair, prepared the sacrificial blood, and had everyone not participating in the ritual go to the edges of the room, if not fully leave it. The only ones left were the bats, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Captain Marvel.
Standing on either side of the circle, Constantine and Zatanna start chanting in Latin. As the chant progressed, the summoning circle lit up toxic green. A glow started behind Nightwing’s mask, lighting up where his eyes would be in a bright green, just like the circle. Every time Nightwing breathes out, a blue mist leaves him, light tremors rack his body, and his head lolls to the side.
The temperature drops in the room about 20 degrees, and everyone's breath fogs the air, the lights are flickering or going out completely, and an uneasy feeling fills the room, making everyone on edge, as if expecting an explosion that never comes.
Finally, the summoning reaches its end, Nightwing is left breathing in and out, blue wisps of smoke leaving as he exhales, completely lax in his chair, eyes glowing that toxic green behind his mask as he looks towards the ceiling. At last, the King looks down, and after a moment of looking around, he speaks.
“Wh–” Cough, “What?”
~~
Danny was in pain.
Danny was in a lot of pain on the table.
Danny was so cold, everything was so cold.
There was so much red everywhere. It used to be green, but now it’s all red. He thinks it’s from him.
How long had it been since he was trapped here?
He’s been strapped to the table for a while now, ever since he got here. They wouldn’t let him out; he was just stuck to the table, wheeled from his containment room to the surgical room whenever they thought of a new experiment, or when they wanted to find out something else.
They figured out that he can survive without his human body closed up, they now leave him flayed open with a sheet over him. It’s easier that way, they don’t have to cut him open anymore.
It’s so cold
Danny doesn’t know what’s still in him, they’ve taken skin, bones, hair, organs, an entire arm. They took his tongue a few times to try and stop him from screaming, it didn’t work. He can’t open his mouth anymore. He’s pretty sure they’ve taken at least two hearts out of him; he thinks he’s regenerating them slowly, but he doesn’t know. He stopped paying attention to what they do.
He focuses on protecting his core. It’s the only thing he can’t have them take. He would no longer be able to heal without it. He would no longer exist without it.
He can’t let them see it.
He used to listen to his heartbeat on the monitor. The background beep of his heart still going, used to help drown out everything else. He used to jerk around and move away from the pain, but then they would electrocute him with ectoplasmic rays to get him to stop moving. Ten seconds of electrocution would stun him for longer than most experiments lasted.
They don’t have to do it anymore.
Danny is too numb to the pain to react. He’s too focused on protecting his core to react. If he reacts, they might find his core, and there is no telling what they will do to him then.
Danny hears a whisper.
It’s not loud, he can’t understand what they're saying. There are two voices. They get louder as they keep talking.
He still can’t understand them.
He focuses on hiding his core. He can’t let them have him.
The voices are asking him to answer their call, to come to them.
Danny’s body can’t move. He can’t go anywhere if his body can’t move.
There is a tug at his core. He feels it being drawn somewhere. It’s not dangerous. His instincts are telling him he will be in a better place if he answers.
They might be able to heal his body fully. That would be nice. He’ll answer their call, he’ll go where they ask him to.
Danny doesn’t realize what he leaves behind when he answers them.
~~
The first thing Danny feels when he gets to where he’s called to is warmth. It’s so warm. Did they already put his body back together? They're quick, he likes them.
The second thing he notices is that he’s still strapped down to something. He no longer likes them.
Danny reaches out to his body and realizes there is no pain, something he didn’t know was coiled tight relaxes in him. He forgot what not being in pain felt like. It’s so nice and calm, he likes this feeling.
Danny looks through his eyes and sees a ceiling, looks down, and now sees a lot of tense people staring at him. After a moment, he tries to speak.
“Wh–” vocal cords are hard to use, “What?”... He sounds… different…. echo-y. Less human than he is. He doesn’t like that.
“Your Majesty, High King of the Infinite Realms, we have called upon you to ask for your aid in taking care of an Infinite Realms being.” A man in a trench coat says. “They are wreaking havoc on earth, and we are asking for your assistance in dealing with them.”
Danny is not the King. Pariah Dark is the King. Danny thinks they might have made a mistake when summoning him, but he’s not going to tell them in case they send him back. It’s so warm here.
“What do they… call themselves?”
“They are calling themselves Skulker, Your Majesty” Sad Trench Coat man states with the seriousness of a man during war.
Skulker…? Skulker is who they cannot defeat, and had to call Pariah dark to help with? Well, now Danny is even more relieved that they accidentally called him instead of the Ghost King, Pariah Dark would not have liked being called for such a small fry.
“Skulker is who you called me here for?” Danny stressed, rolling his eyes while he spoke. Something caught his sight. Something blue that was not supposed to be on his hand. He looked down.
“Yes, Your Majesty, we cannot seem to land any hits on them. We–”
“Whose body am I in?!” Danny’s voice echoed through the room with a slight high-pitched static to it, many people in the room flinched to the sound. He didn’t mean to cut off the sad man, but he just didn’t want to be in someone else's body. He didn’t want to take someone else’s will away from them. He needs to give it back, NOW!
A lady in a skin-tight leotard and fishnets answers him, “Your Majesty, the body you are currently occupying is that of a colleague; he has consented to the use of himself in this ritual, so that we may call upon you.”
That did not reassure Danny. That did not reassure him at all. He looks for his core and recedes into it, not wanting to take away someone's free will, consensual or not.
It’s warmer where his core is anyway, safer too.
<><><><><>
Nightwing’s eyes slowly stop glowing green, and he starts to relax from where he was tensed up a second ago. He no longer looks possessed, but the runes on the floors and the circle are still lit up, indicating that the High King is still in there.
“Wha–”
“What happened?”
There was a pregnant pause before Batman spoke, “Nightwing, is that you?”
“Uh… Yeah? Why am I in control of my body again while the High King is still in me?”
“Can you feel him in you still?” Constantine asks
“Yes, I can, and if he’s in the same situation that I was in a second ago, he can definitely hear us talking, can probably see through my eyes still, too.” Nightwing states, feeling a sense of slight agreement bubble up within him. As if the King were agreeing with him on a few points, but not wanting to talk through his mouth to verbalize it. “I believe he is agreeing with some of my statements right now. I can feel him agreeing with me, but not fully? Although I can’t hear him at all.”
“Ask him why he retreated within you” said Constantine
“I just said he can still hear and see us, ask him yourself.”
“Right… Uh.. Your Majesty, High King of the Infinite realms, why did you retreat into Nightwing instead of continuing to negotiate with us about our deal?”
Nightwing felt guilt, Guilt, GUILT build up within himself, remorse was another emotion, and a little bit of fear mixed with everything. “I believe he feels guilty about controlling my body” Nightwing tells them, then focusing on the extra inhabitant in his body, “It’s alright, I can handle it. I said I’m willing to have someone speak from myself for this ritual.” He felt disagreement answer him with sadness and guilt on top.
“I don’t think he’s going to come back out for anything. We’ll most likely have to continue the discussion of the deal with me as a middleman.” Nightwing informs them all.
“You have got to be bloody joking right now.”
“Nope, I’m pretty serious about this.” Nightwing cheerfully called to Constantine, “Now then, we were wondering if you would be willing to help us get rid of Skulker as we’re unequipped to deal with, what was it? A Zone Being?” Nightwing asked his inhabitant. Feeling agreement within himself, he calls, “He has agreed to help us, what are we going to trade for his help?”
“I will trade my soul for this deal” Constantine asserts.
Nightwing feels immediate denial and revulsion, “He says no. Do we have anything else?”
Batman chimes in with an offer of gold, that too gets rejected. Then Red Robin with knowledge of human affairs, that doesn’t even get considered. Wonder Woman offers a magical Greek item of significance, this peeks a slight interest, but ultimately gets refused. Zatanna finally asks what would be appealing to the High King. Nightwing speaks, “I believe he’s asking us to get rid of something? Something painful, and bad from our world?”
“We need more than just a feeling if you wish for us to get rid of this thing, your Highness. We need you to tell us what it is.” Constantine states, slightly miffed about how this conversation has gone. Nightwing with a coaxing voice says to the King inside of him, “Just use my voice for a minute, it won’t even be fully taking control of me at all, just my voice.”
There is a short pause where silence reins the room, waiting for the entity to answer. Then, Nightwing’s eyes start to glow a muted green, indicative of the king not taking quite as full control as he had before, and finally, the echo-like voice returns from Nightwing’s throat, less loud, less reverb like, less all encompassing than it was before.
“The GIW; The Ghost Investigation Ward. They have kidnapped and experimented on ghosts for years, taking and taking until they have drained a ghost dry of all they were and then taken more ghosts to do the same too. Over and over again, they have plucked ghosts from the Ghost Zone when they wanted another, and conducted cruel experiments on them, the likes of which you would be horrified by. I want them gone. As my payment for one of the denizens of the Infinite Realms going back to where they belong, the one that goes by Skulker. You are to completely eradicate the GIW in its entirety. There is not to be anything left of them once this contract is over. Do we have a deal?” The King’s voice goes a static-y during the last sentence, adding an edge of dread and finality to his words. Nightwing’s eyes lose the faint green glow they had as the King recedes back into him.
It is quiet for a while as everyone looks at one another, taking in the words and what they will entail them having to do. Constantine and Zatanna are looking at each other grimly, slightly fearful at what the King implied would happen, were they to ignore the information of his people being kidnapped and experimented on by those from their universe lightly. With a slight nod from both of them, Zatanna speaks up.
“Your Majesty, High King of the Infinite Realms, Ruler of all Ghosts, Bringer of Destruction, we agree to your terms and accept this deal with you. The Ghost Investigation Ward will be disbanded once the entity known as Skulker is put back into the Infinite Realms.”
A bright glow emanates from the circle as the room’s atmosphere begins to get heavier and heavier until not only the magic users feel the amount of magic surrounding Nightwing and the entity inside of him, but everyone in proximity to the room can feel the power they have summoned into this plain of existence. The sheer amount of raw strength this entity has, that which they were playing with right in front of them this entire time, is overwhelming. Heros fall to their knees, unable to stand the power pressing down on them, some fully fall to the ground and pass out.
Once the magic clears, and the contract is solidified, the circle dims to just a faint glow, and everyone who is still awake knows that what they asked for is done, and what they promised gone needs to be gotten rid of RIGHT NOW! Or the consequences of this deal will be catastrophic to their existence, and all who are in this universe will be no more.
Zatanna and Constantine begin to close the circle and end the communication with the King, to send him back to where he was before. They finish the chant and the circle disappears, evaporating into particles wisping in the air until they blink out of existence entirely. Once this happens, they believe the High King has been unsummoned and returned from thence he came.
Batman unties Nightwing, who is quiet at the moment. For good reason too, he just had a being of unfathomable power reside inside of him. No one is faulting him for being a little shaken by this knowledge, they are too.
“Nightwing, report.”
“I don’t feel any different from having the King in me during the ritual to right now. Either I’m feeling trace amounts of magic from having him inside of me, or he’s still here.” Nightwing states lightly, not sounding as grim or worried as he should be with that statement. Although it does get the attention of the magic users in the room, primarily Captain Marvel, who is not drained like Zatanna and Constantine are.
“What do you mean by you still feel him there?”
“Well…” Nightwing paused thinking about how to describe the sensation. “It feels like he’s still there, inside of me. Somewhere deep, as though he were sleeping, or resting. It doesn’t feel intrusive, if that makes sense?” Nightwing moves his hands as he speaks, trying to explain in a way that is not alarming, but still gets the point across.
Everyone who is awake and listening is looking at him in alarm, as if he told them that everything was going to end in 20 seconds, and there is nothing that they can do about it.
Nightwing continues speaking, “It no longer feels like he’s watching, or listening to things going on around me. It just feels like the King is sleeping somewhere deep inside, barely conscious of the things going on right now.”
Marvel is silent for a moment, before he asks, “May I take a look inside of you?” To which Nightwing agrees, with the prompting of Batman, and Red Robin.
Captain Marvel raises his hands to Nightwing, placing one on his forehead, and the other on his chest over his heart. A slight golden shimmer overtakes Nightwing, encompassing him wholly as the Captain’s magic spreads through him, searching.
The Captain’s face turns from concern to a look of surprise and slight confusion as he stares at Nightwing’s chest. Turning to Constantine, Marvel asks, “Hey, how old did say the King was again?”
“Millennia, thousands and thousands of years old, why?” Constantine stares at the Captain, silently asking why this information is even relevant at this moment.
“Well, uh… the ghost we summoned does register as the King, so we did summon the correct ghost, but, um… the ghost we summoned does not register as millennia years old, but two.” the Captain awkwardly laughs at this point, still looking at Constantine.
“Two?”
“Two.”
“Two thousand?”
“Just two.”
“.............”
“..... :|”
“Has he been conscious for two years, or was he a alive two years ago?”
“Alive, human if I’m not wrong. I can’t tell for how long he was a human, which is strange, but he has been in this plain of existnace for longer than he’s been a ghost.”
“Well, at least that’s something. Steamin’ Jesus”
The other heroes have been watching this spectacle in silence. Not really understanding what’s going on right now, but they do believe that a toddler has become the king at least, which is something. It’s definitely something. Batman is the one to break the silence after the revelation, “Are you saying that a toddler is the King?”
“No, I’m saying someone who has been a ghost for a maximum of two years is the King.” Marvel states, still looking at Constantine with a slightly lost look. Constantine for his part quietly whispers a “Bloody hell” and walks over to the Captain touching his arm.
“Um, can I ask what you two are doing right now while you’re connected to me?” Nightwing asks, still standing with the Captain’s hands on him. Constantine replies, “We’re looking at the Ghost King, trying see why he’s still in you.”
“Alright”
