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castrian-amore · 1 month

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Stellata Notte(C’è finalmente libertà)

Death Defying(Danny Fenton x Dick Greyson), DC X DP, Space AU, Unfinished, Chronic Illness, Please see ao3 for full list of tags

Gift fic for @nikki-pondtheauthor

2/? Chapters | Chapter Length: 10,162 words

Chapter 2: When the Welcomes of Star Systems Sing

Dick Grayson was born at approximately 20 Darths and 4 Tiths on the 3rd rotation of the calendar year on the planet of Isman. The planet where his family’s business had taken them for the moment with the intergalactic Haley’s circus. It had been a normal day for them. Land the ship and begin to set up outside of the city capital. Of course his mother had gone into labor and even though she hadn’t been performing that night any hope of the Flying Grayson’s performing at all for the next little bit would have been ruined in general.

The circus was originated by the Humans of the planet of Earth centuries ago but there was little care in the world now where it originated. Now it had shown the detailed and impressive physiological feats of many races from across the galaxy and the various star systems throughout. They were a wonderful mix of new and old and ancient. Forgotten performances of praise to gods no one knew the names of. Dangerous acts of high intensity swinging, and of course that had been how Dick Grayson had grown up.

He was used to the strangeness of the universe and known life having lived and grown up alongside them, many questioning whether or not it was fit to have such a fragile little thing to travel with them. Many watched as the Grasyons taught Dick the very basics of the trapeze. They taught him how to fall. How to catch himself and how to react at a moment's notice. His parents had taught him the ins and outs of the performances and so when it was time for him to perform he would do so flawlessly, and thus two became 3. Of course Dick had loved it growing up around such wonderful and kind people.

He learned various languages and methods of communication from across the galaxy. He learned of the stone people and their precious stones they used to convey emotions because they could only make one face and one tone with their voice. Stone used to clearly display their mood.

He met the kryptonians who looked so similar to himself and yet vastly different in a way that he enjoyed. He met a few Amazons, one of the only species to be able to facilitate one species with all of their residing members having both male and female sex organs they could choose whether they wanted to carry or to impregnate someone themselves. It was interesting and as Dick grew and learned he found himself staring at the miracles that beheld him in space traveling with the circus. He got to watch miracles of life and the misfortunes of death from several of their residing species. What he hadn’t expected was for him own parents to leave him too soon as their show went on and the accident happened upon the planet of Krypton.

No one had expected them to die or for their technology to malfunction around them. No one had expected any of it, and yet here they were. Dick had watched his parents die and thus he was left with no family around him. Humans spread too far and thin across the galaxies with no true planet to call their home, they were known as a wandering race anyways.

Dick thought he might have to find new partners to continue to afford to live and eat aboard the ship not knowing where he would turn too scared and confused about what he had witnessed convinced someone had targeted his parents for something, that had to be it right? It couldn’t have been in an accident? They had done this same routine a hundred times and it seemed no different to them that they couldn’t do anything about the accident.

But it had been just that, an accident.

So Dick sat on a bench inside of the ship staring out the window at the landscape of krypton underneath the red run. What could he do after all? What was he going to do? He had only been brought from his reality now once more at the door opening to his room. Haley stood there rubbing the back of his neck.

“There’s someone who wants to meet you Dick..”He spoke softly and gave the man a small smile. Dick had glanced back to see another human in a business suit. He gave a gentle sad smile and walked over.

“May I sit here?”He motioned at the free spot in the window sill. The two sat in silence for another moment and Dick wasn’t about to be the one to break it before the man spoke again.

“My name is Bruce Wayne and my home resides here on Krypton… I am sorry to hear about your parents' young Grayson,”He spoke genuinely and as Dick stared up at him he saw a matching expression. The man held sorrow in his eyes and a soft smile filled with regret.

“Thanks…”Dick whispers out, pushing down his feelings and staring back out the window.

“How are you holding up?” Dick gave a shrug at that one. How was he holding up? How was he holding up against the crushing weight of the worlds resting upon him now. Everyone asked if he was okay. Everyone apologizing to him for his loss. Everyone repeating the same lines over and over again and some slightly different than others but at the end of the day he saw it all for what it was, a facade of caring.

No one offered to take him on as a foster. No one offered him a job to hold onto in the meantime so he had a way to feed himself. No one offered him anything but their sympathies and false promise of hope and dreams that they would never fulfill. Of course they did. Why would they help the now poor orphaned Flying Grayson who was the only one lucky enough to not fall to their deaths.

Then there was this guy, and Dick was so sure he was going to offer him nothing but sympathies and apologies and wishes of things he didn’t even want. Dick didn’t know who this man was or why he had been there talking with him in the first place but that didn’t mean anything to dick did it? This man meant nothing and would mean nothing to him because why should he? He had to be like everyone else right?

“Holding on,”Dick curtly replied, pulling his knees to his chest and gazing fixed out the window in a quiet daze as the thoughts ran rampant through his mind.

“Your parents gave an amazing performance, You did too,”he offered and in a way it was more blunt and stating fact than him trying to actually calm down Dick. It was a quiet comment that he had done his performance well as if that was all there had been to it. Another performance. Another compliment and job well done. What did this man want?

“And? The systems still failed, they died.”Dick ripped the tears wanting to form in his eyes for a moment trying to hold it together and then he felt a gentle hand rest on his shoulder as he looked up at him.

“But you’re still alive and kicking aren’t you,”he offered that same longing smile. A smile and eyes that hid the fear behind them and the quiet intonations that he knew what Dick was going through.

“I guess..”He curtly replied.

“Do you have anything you want to do when you get older?” Bruce gave him a gentle smile. “I wanted to be a pod racer. You know the ones they do on that desert planet just a few darths away from the Kraison system? Have you heard of it? There’s an entire league and they even stream it. It’s still pretty cool if I do say so myself.”

“I haven’t heard of it?” Dick replied softly as the other pulled away. ‘I don’t think I do.. I just wanted to perform with my parents.” Dick looks out the window then down to his hands. “I can’t do that anymore.”

“I think you can use that though, can’t you? Do you like the stars? You like traveling?”Bruce smiles.

“Yeah?”

“Then let’s live one day at a time until you figure out what you want to do. How you want to move on. Moving on from anything is a big task after all isn’t it? Mourning is an even bigger one that is going to take time. Maybe spending some time out in the stars and planet will help, but maybe with a new group of friends.”

“What are you saying?” Dick slowly looked over at the man. His hair black and slicked back in his formal suit and eyes glistening with a plan as he glanced over at Dick gently giving him a smile.

“If you’ll have me. I think I'd like to see if you’ll allow me to take you in as your foster parent. No need to call me dad. No need to feel pressured into my lifestyle. You just will have the freedom to do what you want alongside me for a while and go to school, and study, and maybe figure out a new life one step at a time.” Bruce gave him a smile and stood up offering his hand out to Dick.

A young Dick Gray son new to the world and scared at the news of his parents death and finally looking at the single person he felt as if wouldn’t betray him in the eyes. The man with an old soul and plenty of money as well as the unshaking urge to continue pushing forwards no matter how hopeless things seemed to get.

Dick had learned many things from him. Now where to begin…

9 YEARS AGO

“We are gathered here today to celebrate our graduates of the Federation Academy. All of these students are hard working, responsible members of the federation. We would like to take this time to announce our top graduates in their fields of study and their new ship assignments,”The President beamed. The Federation Academy. The high school was only for the best of the best and the only school allowed to take students from any walk of life and allow them to immediately enroll within the Federation ships.

The classes allow for those who aim for certain fields to focus on them and join within the ranks of the ships where they can build their careers and press on.

“May I present for the top of the Medical Field Classes Jazz Fenton.” The fiery red head walked on the stage giving a bright smile as she waved and took the certificate allowing the media to take a good look and their cannon shots of her. She was charismatic and good at what she did. Able to not only fix you up in a heartbeat physically but mentally. It also made her a dangerous opponent to fight though. Dick couldn’t count the times she used knowledge she learned from who knows where to take down opponents twice her size with secret techniques and things about their physiology No one would normally know. He knew she had a brother she barely got to see and other than that they briefly had interacted. She stepped off the stage exiting to the right of it to sit down in the designated spots.

“M’gann M’orzz head of our Interspecies Relations!”

She gave a polite nod to the class and gave a big wave to everyone. She was always so friendly so the fact she landed top of her class there was no surprise to him. Dick got along well with her and helped her adjust. He had briefly met her uncle J’onn on one occasion alongside Bruce. He was very straight forward but caring in comparison to M’gann who liked to do her own thing and was very animated. He hasn’t been to Mars in a long while. M’gann always said she would show him around if he ever decided to visit.

“Koriand’r of Tamaran top of her class in Civil and Interplanetary Defense!”

Dick had always had a thing quietly for Kori. He had tried to make moves but turns out she wasn’t interested in him back and in turn they still remained close friends as Dick had been the one to first befriend her and help her learn the way of life on Krypton. It had been a tricky situation for all of them.

“Dar’ith Kal’halium,” the man took a breath with a smile as the Greviaan walked on stage with his 4 tentacle like legs.” Head of the class in Engineering and ship design!” An award that would later find itself in Tim’s hands and it would be Dick in the crowd happily clapping at the man with a smile. Dar’ith was a kind soul and he found himself often in trouble a lot more than one would think. He would get to involved with work he forgot to not only take care of himself but he commonly got so distracted he would almost always accidentally drop something or almost hurt someone because of it. Dick would laugh and help him before they moved on.

“And lastly, the top of this years class not only as a whole but also top of the class in Interplanetary piloting in small grade, multi-warp, and long haul capable vessels, Dick Grayson,”the Kryptonian introduced him as he saw his family in the crowd cheering for him loudly. Still a few years before the accident that would end up Driving Jason away from the federation. Dick walked the stage taking the certificate, giving his charming smile across his face and giving a small nod of thanks to the headmaster as they stepped off to the side.

“Everyone give a round of applause for the tops of the classes!” The crowd cheered loudly and Dick looked over at all his friends standing beside him. He couldn’t ask for better people. “We welcome these young souls into the Interplanetary Defense Federation with open arms if they so choose. We have already reviewed words from 4 of them who would like to enlist so now I will read out their ship assignments.”

The crowd began to quiet down and now this was what Dick was nervous about. Ship assignments. His focus was to be a captain of a ship but there was no way he would be given a ship at just 18. Which meant he would be assigned to a ships defense pilot squadron. He knew which one he wanted. The I.D.F.S Unrelenting. The newest ship in the fleet fitted with a long haul multi-warp engine and it’s own 10 small grade defense patrol if needed. It was built for the soul purpose of exploring deep space. Though he didn’t think he’d mind the I.D.F.S Trinity either. Both were newer and the most technologically advanced ships but the catch 22 but even being 18 most humans weren’t allowed for long haul flights and there were rumors of the I.D.F.S Unrelenting to be released on a long deep space mission. It was the largest ship in the fleet after all and it seemed best to go and explore with all of it’s abilities.

“Jazz Fenton will be stationed on the I.D.F.S Trinity! Koriand’r of Tamaran will be on the I.D.F.S Starfire! Dar’ith Kal’halium on the I.D.F.S Krisme the space station orbiting here around Krypton. Dick Grayson will be stationed on the I.D.F.S Bludhaven.”

Dick’s heart fell… the Bludhaven? He was top of his class! He excelled in everything and yet Jazz Fenton beat him out for the Trinity! The BludHaven was an older single-warp long haul ship with a small 4 ship defense grouping. Still, the crowd cheered and Dick fought the disappointment in his eyes and his heart about where he was stationed. The BludHaven was a patrol ship around the outer galaxies centered on the dying planets and maintaining a close bond with the edge of the universe with the rest of the galaxy. It was far away from most people and commonly required a smaller multi-warp capable ship to get to it despite the fact that it, itself was not a multi-warp ship.

Of course he didn’t get it. Of course he never truly would.

5 YEARS AGO

“Dick.” A broke voice called out to him through heavy breaths of smoke.``Dick get up!” There were flames everywhere and Dick was fighting the smoke inhalation as he choked on his own words trying to form any semblance of a sentence to get his thoughts together. He could feel the blood trickling down his face and almost getting into his eyes as he sat up looking around him painfully aware of his throbbing skull and knowing there must be a concussion there. Dirk was already pulling him to his feet with a panicked look across his smooth features Tentacle tightly wrapped around his wrist.

“What’s happened?”

“Someone’s attacking the ship! We’ve got to go! All the other defense pilots were taken out and the captains called for a full evacuation!” Dirk pulled him along the stubling man being dragged behind in his uniform. Both of them trying to blend in with the crowd his mind was trying to work and he pulled himself from Dirk’s grip.

“No-- I have to get to my ship,”he shook his head. “Someone’s gotta help defend the escaping pods none of them are equipped with weapons.”

“This ship is a patrol ship! It’s stationed amongst mining colonies, it’s not meant for things like this!” Dirk tried again to pull him.

“So what?!” Dick flinched as the ship rocked and both of them were roughly thrown into the wall another call for the evatuation filling his ears as he coughs some more his lungs still burning. “So what? Dirk what happened to the other ships? Their pilots? My squadron?”

When Dick had been stationed out here he struggled with finding a place because they had brought him out to replace the old squadron leader. They apparently didn’t seem worth it to promote from within and it had taken him a year and a half before his squad finally started to respect him. He had been the youngest squadron’s leader in the history of the Federation. It had been why they had sent him out there, to try and keep the place from falling apart even as he learned of his groups and the ships nefarious duties. He kept quiet about. Desperately trying to underhandedly sabotage the illegal shipments they let through. Take proof of the bribes and mysteriously send it to command. The ship knew there was someone causeing issues aboard and ruining their entire legal operations but Dick maintained a facade he knew Bruce helf onto far too well.

Bruce always did far more than he let on, having shown Dick his personal space station he had nick named the “BatCave”. Based on old art he had found in the old Earth Archives of an animal that had existed too long ago. Bruce apparently had been apart of a secret society trying to weed out the bad guys within the Federation and across several planets landed himself the name of “Batman”, Specifically on the planet of Gotham. Dick had done it with him for a short while but balancing that and the Academy had not been easy.

Now though, here on the BludHaven? Dick had ended up doing as his father had. They had given him the nickname of “Night” Because he appeared during the sleeping hours of the ship. Dick didn’t quite understand it but he took the name and ran with it. Keeping his little side hobby of ruining the ships underhanded and nefarious purposes were difficult, and he despised most of the people on the ship.

“Dick,”Dirk was pulling him from his thoughts. He shoved a set of bracelets in his hands looking away before walking off. The identification tags. He stared at them. These were his squadrons tags. He was the only one left. That meant there was only one more person able to protect the people. The bridge, he had to get to the bridge. He pushed past the people running towards teh escape pods. He went agains the currents fighting way to get to the bridge. Melinda. She had helped him and if she was ordering a ship wide evacuation he had to know.

“Mel!”He screamed as he pushed his way through the crowd as the doors to the bridge opened. Mel was in rough shape. She had several gashes from expected explosions throughout the ship and she was barely holding on to the captain’s chair as she looked back at him.

“Dick,”she smiled weakly. “I thought I sent Dirk to get you out of here?” Her slightly blue tinted skin gleamed in the light. She had come from a water based planet and had gills normally covers in a thin film to protect them as well as webbed fingers and mere holes for ears with electronic adapters connected through her skull to process sound without overwhelming her.

“You know I don’t listen,”He laughs before he watches her stand and then immediately collapse as he rushes over to catch her. “What’s going on Mel, talk to me?” He urges her.

“It’s a pirate fleet. They caught on that the ship was causing problems and interfering in their trade practices of Sprint. No longer aiding in it.”She coughs weakly and Dick’s eyes widened seeing her cough up the green blood of her species. He looked her over eyes widening finding the

“So they’re taking care of the issue,”He finishes quietly looking out the main bridge window, seeing the several ships. He pauses as he is yanked down to her level.

“Dick,”she starts obviously struggling to breathe. She grabbed his wrist tag and pressed the small button on the side not letting him react. “I name you Captain of the I.D.F.S BludHaven under emergency order code 67901.” She let go of his wrist as the tag flashed red then green.

“Mel, what are you--”

“Shut up and listen to me,”She breathed out collapsing more into his arms. “You are one of the kindest and more caring people I’ve ever met. You care for everyone no matter what and you have a heart a gold and you are one of the best leader’s I’ve seen in the field even when you know that your underlings hate you.”

“Mel, stop. You’re talking like you’re going die!” Dick pulled her close trying to stop her bleeding trying to fight the tears welling in his eyes.

“I am. Stop this.”She uses the last of her energy to push him away. “Go get your fighter ship. Protect your people. They’re your responsibility now. I’m going to drive this ship into these bastards and let this ship go down with glory, in flames.”

Dick paused, wiping his eyes before she weakly slammed her hands on the captain’s chair forcing herself back up as she gave him a final smile. Dick gives a firm nod and a final salute. He hadn’t planned on being captain at only 22 years old. It would not be overlooked as he tried to ignore the pain still edging behind his eyes.

He took a deep breath and turned on his heels and ran towards the ship's bay.

“Kai!”He called out as the AI of the Kryptonian inventor appeared.

“Yes Dick?”It greeted.

“Prepare bay doors for emergency fighter ejection, Is the NightWing ready?”

“She is always ready in case of an attack. Though, the captain put the entire ship on emergency evacuation so I must insist you return to the evacuations Shuttle pods.” Dick held up his wrist.

“No, I’m piloting the NightWing. This ship is set to blow. I’m protecting those transports from the attacks. Give ‘er all the firepower you can.”

The small blue light and scan passed over his wrist as the AI nodded. “Very well then Captain Grayson. I will move her over as you change.”

Dick was already stripping from the standard uniform and into the pilot's gear as quickly as possible. “What percentage of the ship has gotten to the escape pods?”

“Approximately 89%. It will take another 5 minutes to finalize the rest of the ship minus those who have already been recorded as dead.” Kai appeared in front of him, handed over the head piece for the suit and he slipped it on behind his ears.

“Can you connect me to the bridge?”

“Of course Captain,”Kai nodded as he watched it patch him through.

“Mel, I know you can hear me. You have to wait 5 more minutes for the final ships to get out of here. Give them everything we got. I'm about to head out myself okay? Hold on for just a little longer.”

“Oh trust me Dick, I’m holding on with whatever life I have left.” Dick laughed softly trying to ignore how weak she sounded but she was a stubborn one wasn’t she?

Dick climbed into the NightWing as the tops shut and he gave a heavy sigh flipping the controls before he sighs. “Broadcast to the shuttles and this ship.”

“Of course,”A pause from Kai. “Connected, now broadcasting.”

“This is Captain Dick Grasyson of I.D.S.F BludHaven enacted to my position from emergency protocol 67901. Get on those transports as fast as possible and get out of here and jump. Until all ships have warped out of here I will be acting as cover as the last of my Squadron’s Protection Unit. I know this is scary. We will make it through this, and listen to me. I will not let anything happen to the remaining shuttles as best as I can. We will get through this. This is the Nightwing. Comms out.” The communication shut off as he felt the purr of her engine start and watched her come to life in front of him.

He shot out of the bay and it had been a long time since he’d had to do active fighter maneuvers but it proved just how good he was at it, not even the slightest bit rusty.

Still, as the last shuttle still standing left the local space and all enemy fire was on him he stared at the BludHaven, watching her dive headfirst into the main Pirate ship. He watched her explode. Eyes closing as he took a final deep breath.

“Kai, how’s the warp corp?”

“Holding and steady.” His ship rocked as the blast of the Bludhaven finally reached out. “Wait! Losing power! If you need to jump, do it now.”

“On it,” Dick flipped the switch trying to ignore the damage reports now filling his vision as he took another ship and his head moved and hit the glass. Another shock sent down his spine. Fuck, no not yet. “Enable warp.”

Dick barely pushes the button before he blacks out, praying he wouldn’t crash.

ONE DAY AGO

“Dick, this isn’t looking good!”Tim’s voice was frantic from down inside the engine bay. The man had to have been running back and forth with his tools like a madman. “How are they getting so many hits? Why aren’t our shields operating at full capacity.”

“You’re telling me!”Dick hissed out gripping the sides of the pilots chair firmly as he wove them in and out of the way to the best of his abilities trying to avoid what he could from the debris field coming their way. The rings of a planet long since lost to a comet or asteroid having run it through and yet somehow the rings still maintained their shape, probably would end up drifting eventually and cause even more problems but this wasn’t his system and it wasn’t his problem. His problem right now, was the fucking pirates hot on their trail.

They could keep up which was a concern in itself on so many levels. He didn’t know how to take it so that someone could keep up.

“We need to jump,”Jason commented sliding over to push more buttons so Dick could focus on steering the ship in front of him, he just wished they could have left her on autopilot mode and went on with the even with little to no worry but yet here they were being attacked by something, or well someone. A group of people more than likely with their own impressively fast ship.

“You’re telling me! We need to lose them before we can jump!”

“We’re only going to have one jump!”Tim’s voice exclaimed. “I only think we can make it one more jump before we lose warp capabilities!”

“We need to lose them then,”Dick mumbles under his breath. “I need to try out our stealth mode, that's the only way. They only found us because we took them off. We need to turn them back on.”

“You want to jump while in stealth mode! We haven’t even tested that!”Tim’s voice cut off at the end of the radio as Dick heard a squeal and probably the sound of Dick falling.

“Do we have another choice!”Jason pressed. “I’d like to live long enough to go on a date. I promise my girlfriend once she got back from her mission by the way!”

“You’re saying that as if I didn’t cancel a dinner with Bernard for this!”

“Will both of you shut up!”Dick hissed out at his siblings who went quiet at Dick’s stress. He always held his cool. He took a deep breath and gave a sigh. “I’m sorry. Tim, buckle up. You too Jason. We’re initiating stealth mode.”

“On it!” Tims voice echoed and cut off and soon enough the doors to the cockpit opened with a small hiss and in ran Tim who almost practically fell into one of the chairs as he buckled up.

“Initiating spy initiative,”Dick calls out as Jason flips a few switches. “Now.''He and Jason press the designated buttons as they move and feel the ship shutter for a moment and immediately Dick moves to initiate the Warp drive procedure. “Opening coolant vents.”

“Initiating warp corp,”Jason replies.

“Coordinates?”

“The Earth System. We should be able to make it to mars and get a full run down on the ship there,”Tim quotes. “No other system is close enough for us to be able to safely make.”

“Delightful,”Jason grumbles as Dick gives them a smile.

“Come on Jay! You said you wanted an adventure!”

“That was you Dick,”Jason rolls his eyes and Dick smirks.

“Huh, that it was, wasn’t it?” A smile crosses Jason’s face.

“Shut up Dick. Press the goddamn button before we get shot down.”

“Alright alright!”Dick laughs and looks at the joystick in his hand as he presses the button and the three of them are welcomed with the familiar feeling of the FTL drive activating and they soared through the galaxy on their way to their intended location. Mars.

However, they fell out of hyperspace too soon. The entire ship jostled and sparks flew through the cockpit as Tim hopped up without a word and bolted down to the engine bay.

“We have a problem. I don’t care what planet it is but you need to land this ship now!”

“What do you mean Tim?”

“We’re about to lose most of her power capabilities.”

“Nearest planet is that desert planet. I’m still on stealth so asking Barbara isn’t a question,”Dick hisses out as he switches their flying back to 100% manual. Out of all of them DIck was the pilot of the family. Jason the Brawn and Tim was the brains of their little trio, and when they had Damian, well he was a little bit like all of them in his own unique way. Not that Dick let him fly the ship after all.

The two of them buckled and Dick praying Tim would at least be holding on down there he prepped her for landing the ship as they entered the atmosphere picking up the readings of the city below. A small port with seemingly one of two bigger buildings and a shipyard and boy was she shaking and it was taking everything with in Dick to not want to fight her so much as she landed with a small his and no sooner did he put the breaks on her for full final landing initiative did she shut off completely the emergency backup lights overhead picking up and the stars blinking above them.

This was not how this mission was supposed to go. Jason and Dick bolted for the engine bay where Tim was coughing having seemingly just put out a fire.

“So uh.. We may have a few things to repair,”He gave a sheepish smile and Dick groaned quietly, turning on the balls of his feet to head up to the cockpit. Of course they did. Of course he was going to be off planet for a bit.

At least he met a handsome stranger who kept up with his bad jokes.

At least the man had listened to their concerns and took them seriously and more importantly hadn’t ratted them out.

At least he was breathing.

At least he was alive… for now.

At least they had made it to the next star system in one piece.

At least they were Wayne's.

CURRENT

“LOOK AT ME!”Jason shoved Dick into the wall, hands grasped on his shirt. “Leave the kid to me! I know you’re fawning over him. I know that look in your eye where you want to wage war, but who here has fucking first aid training.”

“You.”

“Who here is the only one of us qualified to drive a multi-warp long haul vessel?”

“Me.”

“Exactly,”Jason shoves him towards the bridge as Dick fights the memories of the fires and Mel bleeding out in front of him and watching the shuttle transports explode around him as he tries his best to defend them. Right… Dick took a deep breath. This would be for naught if Danny dies. He had just gotten to the stars; he couldn't die yet. Dick stares at his hands and the blood of the sick friend dying as he watches Jason pick his lip body up to move him.

Warp. Yes, they had one job. He had one job. Jump them to the next system. Dick wiped the blood off his hands with a handkerchief as he walked to the main bridge moving to sit down as he heard the doors open and close behind him not long after. Of course Tim was coming along to the Bridge with him. He takes a deep breath as he stares at the systems in front of him moving to adjust what he needed to as he entered the coordinates for the next major system over, the only one they’d be able to make a warp too and fast. He turned off the spy systems now that they were closer to mars.

“I saw that look,”Tim begins.

“Not now Tim… we’ll talk about it later.”

“You always want to talk about stuff later when it comes to yourself, Dick. Why not now?”

“Because Danny is dying!” Dick spins around to look at him. “You and I both know we don’t have the medical equipment on board to take care of him Tim!”

“Jason is a talented Field medic! He can make someone live with a fucking single roll of gauze and some bullshit medical supplies! If he’s going to survive anything it’s going to be because of Jason!”

“That’s not the point! He’s not a miracle worker! He’s not a fucking medic, a science officer! He was supposed to go to the Federation focusing on Interplanetary Defense, not the medical field!” Dick rubbed his face. “I’m jumping this conversation is finished.”

“No it’s not,”Tim rolled his eyes and turned in his chair clicking the button to allow for security as Dick did the same opening a coms to the room Dick knew Jason would be in.

“Get strapped in this is about to be a bumpy ride to the Greshin Moons.”

“Why there?!?!”Jason called back.

“Closest place with human capable doctors and engineers that can work on this beast,”Tim replied before Dick had time too. “Besides, isn’t that where your girlfriend is stationed?” A smirk could be heard in his voice.

“Jumpin in 5, 4,3--”

“Damn he is in a Pissy mood,”Jason replied. “But yes she’s on one of them, but I’m also supposed to be on Krypton so how about we don’t--”

“1,”Dick finishes as the pull of the warp corp surrounds them as the ship shakes as he hears Tim hissing over the stats on the engine in front of him before they land and the entire energy of the ship flickers and a small explosion is heard from the engine bay.

“FUCK”He heard Tim exclaim before standing up and rushing to assess the damage as Dick ignores it and hails the tower of the port on the first moon of Greshin. Dick was partly thankful the names of the moons were literally just 1, 2,3,and 4. Greshin was a Gas Giant afterall and yet somehow had an entire city built within the highly toxic gasses of the city. The top of the spire just barely visible through the clouds of smoke. He ignored it, heading straight for the main port.

“Central command on Grenshin Moon 1, this is Dick Grayson of Wayne Enterprises on the “Sleeping Bat” entertaining act 4 section 5 of the Federation support code. We would like to request emergency medical aid to meet us upon arrival for a critical human male.”

“Heard that Grayson. Your request is confirmed. Land in sector 7-93.”

“Copy.” Dick didn’t mind the Greshin moons that much. They were filled with a nice group of more beastial races but he didn’t care too much because they had good engineers and were loyal to the Federation most importantly which meant there would be minimal questions as they didn’t like to avoid themselves within the conflict of the federation and the surrounding planets. The only reason why Jason had an issue with the planets was because during his little separation from the family for a little bit he smuggled a lot through the Greshin moons and so most of the authorities on the planets like to give him problems. He wasn’t quite sure what the man did exactly but he would manage he presumed.He had too because Danny seemingly had no other choice did he?

Dick did as he was told though and landed the ship meeting Jason by the doors of the bed bay. As the doors opened they were greeted with the familiarity of the Greshin people. Their dark fur in a wide array of colors overed the body and they had a gurney by them as Jason rushed Danny over to it, setting him down on top and immediately moving to follow. Dick was about to follow until Tim grabbed his arm and shook his head.

“Wait, we need to move. Let’s get our ship fixed. It’s going to take them a second to stabilize Danny anyways let alone think about when he will awake. Jason can stay with him for now and Jason has his tag on so we’ll be fine.” Tim looks at him calmly. “Come on Dick, I don’t think I’ve seen you this mellow in a while.”

“Oh be quiet,”Dick sighs softly, giving a small slightly forced smile as he followed the others knowing exactly where they were headed. “You just want me because Hai’ta’l likes me better than you.” Dick elbowed Tim in the side and Tim responded with a push.

“She does not!”

“Does too! We always get a discount from her! Also your translator working properly?” Dick teases softly as he moves to switch his on. Hai’ta’l didn’t speak English; her particular specifies of insectoid origins didn’t have the capabilities to make the noises that could produce the language. Instead Hai’ta’l spoke through a series of clicks and hisses with her mandibles and even if the name they had given her didn’t completely fit it was the closest translation of what it meant or even the sounds equal to in the english language.

‘Yeah I upgraded it a little too so it’s not so like-”He stopped for a moment trying to think about how to phrase his next sentence as they walked across the jungle-like planet watching one of the Greshin swing onto the next platform above them. “Laggy? I guess?”

The planets of Greshin were beautiful and lush humid planets with lots of oxygen but low enough levels that Humans could still thrive just fine. The planet was filled with large trees and shrubbery with most of the cities being built off of cliff sides of amongst the trees themselves. The carnivorous plants and Jas’i’as lives below them so living amongst the trees was the safest way to traverse the planets. All of them sharing in the similar jungle like environment. The beastial Greshin people who lived there came in a variety of colors of fur and similar yet different features. Most of them had teeth to fit that of a human as they were omnivores and skilled specifically in medicine. Their planets held some of the rarest plants and 20 incredibly different trees with healing and separate factors to assist in healings.

This had been the best place for Danny.

A lot of the people of Grenshin used their claws to climb up and down the trees as well as swing to various platforms amongst the trees, however as they had delved into space exploration and began to travel amongst the stars they had made their lands far more accessible to travelers as well as several different species moving to live amongst the trees as the Greshin did. He knew on the 3rd Moon they were having a Federation sponsored event on the medicinality of the herbs of the Greshin moons and how they could be used and incorporated into the Federation Medical campaign and treatment over all, and it would also talk about how to maintain and keep the plants alive on various ships and even them having talks of the Federation taking spores and roots back to Krypton for the International Greenhouse. Dick only knew of that because Jason always shared what Jazz was doing, always in a constant state of bragging and being proud of her and rightfully so. They cared a lot about each other.

Dick had been discharged after the BludHaven incident at his request. He wanted a break from the Federation but as far as he knew his friends were still involved and wanted him to come back but Dick hadn’t been with the federation for almost 4 years and he didn’t know how to feel, He liked working with his family, and the federation had given him an upgraded version of the Nightwing and now it sat in the garage of the Bat Cave collecting dust. In this day and age most ships didn’t need a large protection squadron and that left the ships like the Nightwing obsolete used for war and quick in and out bombings and raids and things and that wasn’t something he wanted to involve himself in given the current chaos of the war he foresaw coming.

He didn’t want to kill people because his commanders deemed a life less than. He didn’t want to hurt people. He took a deep breath. They showed up to the large warehouse built on the sturdy platform near the shipyard that Hai’ta’l used as her place of operations. Her beloved warehouse where she worked on her ships.

“Well, I did not think I would see you two for a while,” Her form appeared in the doorway her mandibles clicking as her head cocked to the side on her double jointed legs.

“You know us, we have a tendency to break things!” Dick smirked.

“You do have an uncanny tendency to break things,”Tim agreed.

“You’re not innocent yourself tiny Microwave.”She smirked looking at Tim who admittedly was about 3 inches shorter than Dick and about

“It was one time!”Tim exclaimed and she laughed softly at him, motioning them inside.

“What happened this time?” She asked moving to her desk as they moved to sit down and Tim pulled out his blueprints and set them down and laid them out in front of her.

“I can show you this, but you’re going to need to see this yourself in person to see what the damage is,”Tim replies shyly as she looks over the blueprints in front of her.

“Were you commissioned by the federation for this?”

“Yeah,”Tim rubbed the back of his neck for the moment looking away as she poured over the blueprints.

“I can tell from how technologically advanced it is, shit Tim. I know you’re one of the head designers for Wayne enterprises and all but what the fuck? This is insane? You want me to work on this?” Dick gives a nod.

“Not super concerned, we have an injured person with us . We need to get home soon but he needs to heal as well so us spending some extra time here isn’t too much of a concern.” Dick explains.

“Tim, you’re going to have to work on this with me.”

“Oh yeah, that’s kind of not the worst part?” He looks away. “We jumped and definitely broke like a lot more stuff? Uh, we had it patched in the Earth system but like it was just barely patched?” Hai looked at them and gave what amounted to a sigh.

“Yeah you’re helping me with this. Are you guys doing your usual payment methods?”

“We can double it if you fast track it too,”Dick commented. “Tim, if you want to stay here I can go get the ship while you go over the specifics of what needs to be fixed. “ Tim gave a nod as Dick stood up exiting the building as he started back towards their ship and moving it over as Hai opened the bay doors so they could get the ship in. Dick stayed around to watch Hai’s reaction to the damage trying to stop himself from Cackling as he heard the horrendous screech coming from Hai as she saw what she was working this.

“How did you even warp?!?!”

“He was a very good mechanic?”

“Very good mechanic?!? I need to meet this fucker! He did this out of scraps. Imagine what he could do if he worked on an actual ship and with actual parts instead of just---”

His communicator pinged.

“What’s up?” Dick asked as he walked out of the hangar into the outside.

“It’s about Danny..”Jason began. “I don’t even know how to explain this, but you need to see this.”

“What?”Dick frowns, a small panic filling his chest as he begins towards the large white buildings built around the tallest tree with windows lining the sides of it. The hospital. Plants grew up the sides of the building. Dick was hurrying towards it. “What happened?”

“Dick.. he’s fine mostly but this is just-- we need to get him to Krypton. This changes everything Dick..”

Panic filled his lungs and he began to bolt for the hospital adrenaline filling his system as he pushed for the building and almost burst through the doors as the nurse seemingly was there expecting him as she held her hands up.

“Take a deep breath, come follow me.” He does as she says, catching his breath for just a moment before he moves to follow her into the scan room.

Jason was staring at his full body scans in front of them. The holograph projecting everything in front of him.

“Dick,”Jason greets before the nurse shuts the door and Jason gives a nod and the door is locked and then the doctor walks in through the other one locking it behind him.

“What’s going on…” Dick was on edge hand going for his phaser on his waist Jason shook his head stopping him.

“Dick, don’t this is too important.” Jason warned.

“Hello, I’m doctor Lalir,”she introduced herself. “That is my main nurse Fismin.” Fismin gave a curt nod. “We’re here to talk to your about your friend. The injured one you call Danny.”

“Yeah?” Dick crosses his arms and looks at the holograph.

“The first things first is that this is what his body normally looks like under a standard scan, we were able to replicate what it should look like based off of scans we already have,” the holographs flickers just slightly as it shows his bones, nervous system, organs and all in 3 separate layers.

“This is what his showed up as,”The form flickered and it almost all became static for a moment before he could pick up little bits and pieces.

“Why is it so distorted?” Dick frowns.

“Well, we weren’t completely sure so we started running some more tests, Taking blood, fixing him up, etc. Then when he tested the blood we saw it was highly radioactive. The radiation dies off quite quickly when exposed to standard oxygen for some reason and it disperses to the air but it still almost permanently leaves the blood with an almost green tint to it. Then we did other tests.”

“And?” Dick was concerned. Radiation permanently fused to his blood? What could do something like that?

“He apparently is so infused with radiation he gives off the same levels within his body that are similar to a warp core. The power inside of him is also like that. He’s undergoing surgery right now, but we have our staff members who we trust enough to work on him wearing radiation suits and being careful while taking care of him. We were able to get a clear picture of his leg to fix it as well but we believe that was likely only due to the fact that we zoomed in incredibly close to the bone and it was far away from his chest where the radioactive energy seems to be centered.”

“What does this mean? Is he still human?” Dick frowns. More scans replaced the ones in front of him.

“It seems he carries the meta gene and as a reaction to high and intense levels of radiation it seems it activated his recessive genes, and when he was in this high stress event of high radiation levels he absorbed it and bonded with it.”

“He’s a walking warp core,”Jason seems to finish. “The guy is a walking, living radioactive warp core inside of a human body. He thrums with energy and electricity and I’m not sure if he knows the extent to which he is but he must know something went wrong? He mentioned an accident right?”

“Yeah, but he didn’t tell us anything just that it fucked up his leg,”Dick bites at his nail hesitantly as he thinks for the second anxiously. “Do you think that accident was this? What could have caused this though, something of this level.”

“Another warp core?”Fismin suggested. “The only thing I can think of with that much exactly and condensed radioactive energy is may there was a crack in the warp core casing? Maybe it shattered when he was near it and consumed him and he only survived because his body bonded with it rather than anything else?”

“Maybe..” Dick hums,” You’re right about getting him to Krypton. This is a medical mystery, but at the same time he doesn’t deserve to become a walking test subject.”

“We agree,”The doctor gave a smile. “That is why we are limiting contact with him and those who want to see his records need my permission to open them, and as soon as he is finished being under our care I will see to it his records destroyed.”

“Is he dying though, how are his cells holding up?”Jason decides to ask next as he looks calm and serious.

“It appears they are withstanding the radiation incredibly well,” Another hologram appeared on the screen of the blood. “These white blood cells you see here? They normally react to intruders and fight of diseases. The white blood cells bonded with the radiation and now it seems the further away from the body they go the less radiation they carry and the faster the cells seem to die.”

“So if he ever loses that radiation with in him?”

“He’ll die, at this point that focal point of radiation centered in his chest around his heart is what’s keeping it moving. If his body loses that radiation then this body will begin to do septic and try and kill him.”

Dick rubs his face anxiously. Of course it would. What the fuck. “But he’s fine for now? He’s going to be okay?”

“Yes, but there is a problem you all need to be aware of. This radiation in his blood? It means unless you can find another cursed soul to have this flowing through them? No one can donate blood and I’m not even sure we can make synthetic blood because of how fast the radiation fades. His lungs are also failing him. It seems on his planet he inhaled so much smoke and dust it seems to have permanently damaged them beyond what I can do here. Because of his radiation I can’t even build any synthetic organs either.”

Dick had felt like he should have expected that from how he coughed and how worn he seemed overall.

“What if you build a small containment device and you put something radioactive in it? We can offer some money in the meantime for you can begin to study it but even if you have to keep the synthetic blood in the chamber it’s important he has a backup because none of us have radiation in our blood.” Dick suggested.

“That could work but it would take time.”

“Something is better than nothing,”Jason agrees. “The reason I think we should get him to Krypton is because what if there’s more to it than just he’s radioactive? What if we’re missing something here? We need the resources to make sure he’s okay. We can have him live a normal life there and he’ll be safe from harm. If we need to get him out, all of us own several conservation planets, we hop from planet to planet.”

“That could work but he just got off Earth. I doubt he’s going to want to remain on another planet for very long,”He laughs softly.

“Okay so how about this..”Jason begins slowly. “We go to Krypton next. We get our scans and we tell Danny what we’ve found. If he wants to stay, he can stay. Otherwise.” Jason pauses with a smirk,”Otherwise you can take a ship and go show him some of the other planets. Dick felt his cheeks get hot.

“Shut up Jay,”He hisses softly.

“What, you can have a crush, all of us have had them,”He smirks and moves to unlock the door before leading.

“Fismin, do you have a waiting area?”He asks quietly.

“Yes of course Sir,”he gives a smile and the Doctor removes the information, locking it up as Dick was shown to the waiting room. It was only another 20 minutes before he was shown to Danny’s private room close to the top of the tall tree, his eyes glancing out the window in awe as he turned to Danny knowing he was asleep.

“See. I told you. You’re out of there aren’t you? You’re free!”He smiles gently. “When you’re awake I’ll help you explore the galaxy.” Dick pulls his chair to the bedside of Danny’s unconscious form. “When you’re awake I’ll show you all of my favorite spots. My favorite planets. The best planets for food. I’ll show you my home on Krypton and at Wayne Manor. I’ll show you my favorite spots to eat and I can introduce you to amazing life forms you’ve never met or encountered before.”

“You’re kind.. Did you know that?” He sighs softly as he moves to take his hand gently tracing over the gentle lightning like scars over it, and now that he was paying attention he realized the other’s scars wound up both his arms. “Shit, you don’t have clothes do you?” Dick rubs his face, Maybe the other could just borrow clothes from Tim until he could get some of his own? Dick could take him clothing shopping, though admittedly shopping on Krypton for clothing was better than anything else. Maybe they could do a full makeover for him once they got back to Dick’s home planet. He gently smiled at the thought. He was sure he could get Kori and M’gann in on it as well and maybe if he was lucky he could get Kon in on it. There were plenty of people he was sure would love a makeover day.

He paused for a second. Did Danny have any experience with ice planets? He smirked and smiled thinking about Danny seeing snow for the first time, or any of the ice planet animals with their layers of fur and fat and that made him smile thinking of Danny in one of those obnoxious Parka’s that always made him laugh. It was silly.

God, Dick was falling hard wasn’t he? He felt like he was on a planet crushed by the gravity that was his heart and keeping him so forcefully continatained all he could think about was how beautiful and resilient Danny was. The man was obviously malnourished and far too skinny right now and yet hadn’t pressured any of them for money offering to help without a care in the world besides the fact they didn’t know if they were bad people.

Danny had the air of nonchalance about him that made him so easy to talk to that even if you had done something so awful he might just say he forgave them and move on with it all. He wore a beautiful smile despite how often he coughed and knew he would eventually fall to his lungs if they couldn’t figure out something. He wondered how Danny’s eyes would look reflected in a pool of water and in a way Danny’s eyes were beautiful hazey green and now with the radiation flowing through him their color made more sense and even how his hair seemed to deny gravity just slightly it also made sense.

There had been such a short amount of time working together, there had been such calm collected conversations between them about topics and where Dick had known quietly about his sister he had kept quiet. He didn’t want the others to know yet and he for sure was not about to tell Jason’s fiery girlfriend he almost got her little brother killed. He knew Jazz would fly over in a heartbeat if she knew Danny was here but he couldn’t risk making a scene. He wanted Danny to be healthy when they met again and in a way where Danny and Jazz could catch up in a way they had never been to before because they could never talk to one another.

Dick wanted to give Danny everything. He thought that he would never meet someone so beautiful and so kind again and his soft mismatched hair was cute and knew he probably needed it cut and how he felt himself with a smile and didn’t let anything stop him was adorable.

Dick wanted to give Danny the universe but he knew he couldn't not really not truly, but he could give him a new life of adventure and smiles and good food. He could give Danny clean air and clean clothes. He could give Danny friends and maybe more family than his own. He could give Danny maybe his love if they evolved that far. Dick didn’t care at this point if Danny would ever develop feelings for him and maybe that was because right now all he wanted was to be with Danny and for Danny to be his Friend. He just desperately wanted to be Danny’s friend and to him? Nothing else mattered.

So he began to talk about Krypton to his sleeping form, unaware he began to stir.

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castrian-amore · 1 month

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Gunna be reblogging things from my side blog for a little!! Mostly dc and do stuff!

Starfire

Here are some of my fav silly photos of the babe herself!! Wig is based off of her original hair style!

Video tutorial of how I made the wig will be posted soon!

#starfire #koriand'r #princess koriandr #dc #cosplay #teen titans #starfire cosplay #teen titans cosplay #dc universe

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castrian-amore · 1 month

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Pt 2 Electric boogaloo

This was also a cosplay ngl made for @disillusioneddanny Reverse Robins Fic Don’t Get Mad Get Even

Also I have a cosplay side blog now

Tim Drake Red Hood

Finally got to wear my full cosplay! I have the main breakdown over on my main as I’m now trying to change my cosplay stuff over here!!

Inspired by the art of Tim Drake Red Hood by @notholaenas !

#reverse robins #tim drake #tim drake red hood #dc comics #dc universe #dc #tim drake cosplay #red hood #red hood cosplay #cosplay #fanfiction #tim drake fanfiction #red hood tim drake #reverse robins fanfiction #DCU fanfiction #Batman #batfam #batfam fanfic

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castrian-amore · 2 months

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Tim Drake as Red Hood

So I haven’t gotten good pictures yet, but! Here’s the photos I got my Tim Drake Red Hood cosplay!

Inspired by the art by @notholaenas and I’m blaming @disillusioneddanny for sending me the art that caused this spiral.

(I tried to edit this once already and it glitched and removed my edit?)

THE PROCESS

So I started looking at the pictures and breaking down what I needed

• Vest

•shirt

•belt

•holster

•mask

•gloves

1) The Vest

Starting with the Vest I went to Joann’s and found a fabric and some Dye. The fabric I found was too pink? But a little red and brown dye and a pot of boiling water and wa-lah the deep red we needed.

I patterned the vest based off a formal vest I had and modified the pattern to my body specifics and added the hood.

Including the black lining. The hood doesn’t look like it’s line but it is actually completely lined.

2) The Shirt

I got real lucky and the athleisure fabrics were on sale. I only used maybe 1 yard of black athleisure wear.

I drew and cut out a pattern of my Red Hood symbol. Based off the art I saw his symbol was different but I just did not have a clear enough picture of it to figure it out?

I actually made this twice because the first time accidentally ended up as a crop top? So uh new swim top I guess?

I had to get specialty vinyl for the symbol because it had to be able to adhere to the stretchy fabric.

3) The Rest

So there rest of it I don’t have photos for but know I ended up having to sand, prime and repaint my fake pew pew for him as well as make the holster and the belt I use in my cosplay. I ended up dying the white 2in belting I got for him and used leftover belting for the holster.

In the art there’s different hardware but considering how long it took for me to pattern that holster I am going to opt to not do that again if I can avoid it lmao.

I now have a mask for him but my friend who is also another red hood cosplayer has graciously given me their old mask!

#reverse robins #dc #red hood #tim drake robin #tim drake cosplay #tim drake #Tim Drake as red hood #tim drake red robin #Tim Drake red hood #cosplay #cosplay breakdown #red hood tim Drake #I have a sewing addiction #I wipped this bad boy out so fast ngl #speed ran him fr

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castrian-amore · 3 months

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They’re onto us @tourettesdog we gotta run now before it’s too late

source

#dcxdp #dc x dp fanfiction #Danny phantom #dc x dp crossover #I can’t write just one one shot—#look every piece of media I consume I hyperfixate on it’s not really my fault right?

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castrian-amore · 3 months

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HI YES HELLO I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS TYSM IT IS NOW MY LOCKSCREEN. It’s so good 😭😭😭

I've been reading Choke on the Whispers(You Never got to Scream)

And wanted to draw Danny in the bathtub colored in blood, inspired by the robin variant cover of Damian in a bathtub of blood.

#dpxdc #dcxdp #artists on tumblr #digital art #tw blood #tw blo0d #danny phantom au #danny phantom #dc x dp #dc x dp fanfiction

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castrian-amore · 3 months

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Bitter, had the Heart

Dead Tired (Tim Drake x Danny Fenton), Tim Drake-centric, unfinished, the author is plotting, temporary death, please check out ao3 for full tags list.

4/46 Chapters | Word Count: 5751

Chapter 4: You Stole my Fuckin' fruit snacks

Tim and Dick snuck into the warehouse through the upper floor window. The one they normally entered though. Jason was cleaning his nails with one of his knives waiting in the warehouse which had a few small collections of boxes stacked around the area. The lights flickered above making the scene eerie. The walls were creaking in the autumn Gotham wind.

This entire thing had been last minute, but it had been

Decided over a silent breakfast and staring at Dick. They had to go and meet this mysterious vigilante who had stayed so far from them for so long. It was better they do it now than let B be the one to meet. Both rescheduling their plans for the evening.

“Heyo Little wing!” Dick greeted a smile plastered across his face as Jason glanced off. His helmet set off to the side just wearing the red mask over his eyes for the moment.

“Hey,” Jason greeted back giving them a nod as he gave a spin to his knife before sheathing it.

“Where is Mr. Distortion?”Dick asked with a smirk crossing his arms as Jason shrugged.

“Fuck if I know, he comes and goes as he pleases. I’m not the boss of him.” Though Tim wouldn’t pick up on what Dick did. He could only read so much into a person. Dick was really good at it. While Tim could tell if people are lying Dick could tell you what about and could direct the conversation where he wanted it a lot easier than Tim could.

“So what made him change his mind? Getting caught in action by us?”Tim raised an eyebrow at Jason.

“You two are really just working on the same case but trying to tackle it from different sides. He has valuable information and wants this case closed as much as you do.”

“And how long has he been working on this case?” Tim was pressing.

“3 years.”

“The murders didn’t start until 6 months ago.”

“That’s what you think Replacement. It’s his case I’ve just been making sure he doesn’t get himself killed by my men,” a nonchalant shrug came from Jason’s shoulders. The tenseness in them though told him something else was going on. “Don’t know why he’s fucking late though.”

“Guess he got held up,”Dick chuckled until an empty cardboard box hit Jason in the head and bounced off towards the bats.

“YOU TRAITOROUS BITCH.”

They looked towards the voice and dropping from a small spot in the roof was the masked figure they’d seen running from the crime scene 5 days ago.

He wore no respirator this time but his goggles remained on. He was angry, that was for sure. He landed with a roll unsheathing a fucking batarang?!?! Oh yeah wait. That tracked. He had thrown one at the guy. Hit him actually.

Jason merely smirked as if this kind of response had been expected. Dick moving to pick up the cardboard box. Tim watched as the kid(?). He was short, okay?

The man with black hair whom they could Assume was distortion began his onslaught onto Jason. A swipe to the man’s arms as Jason blocked and moved to punch the kid who ducked underneath slipping between his legs and nailing a kick to the back of Jason’s knee dropping him down a bit as he used Jason’s shoulders as a vantage point flipping the man who was easily close to a foot taller than him. Jason hit the ground, hard. That didn’t unmotivate him though.

“Feisty tonight Dis.”

“Fuck you.”

“I didn’t do anything!” Jason feigned innocence as he kicked Distortion off of him sending the man reeling. Dick and Tim watching the man correct his position mid air to land sliding backwards hand on the ground knife behind him.

“Yes you fucking Did!”He hissed out as he charged again blade against blade before Jason managed to knock the batarang towards Red Robin and Nightwing. Tim picking up his batarang.

“Hey, Red I think that’s yours anyways right?”

“Yeah it is. So wait, what did you do?”

“One second.” Jason groaned out as Distortion wasn’t letting up and got a solid kick to his chest knocking the wind out of him. Tim thought he might have even heard a clean snap at some point as Jason landed a hook onto distortion blood beginning to trickle from his nose. Ignoring it though he pressed on.

“You went to my safe house,”Distortion began as he skillfully knocked Jason’s blade away and threw a kick at him. The leg going just above Jason’s head. “And stole my SHIT.”

“I left a sticky note! Also,”Jason caught Dis’s leg before flipping him this time arm against his throat. “Are you not taking it easy?”

Dis landed a hit on Jason’s nose sitting up coughing a tad. “WITH NO APOLOGY.”

Dick tapped Tim’s shoulder to show him the box in question. It was an empty box of fruit gummies. A sticky note haphazardly put on it saying ‘took your last pack’.

“I’d fight him too,”Tim nodded. “Especially if he did that to me.” Tim had a small laugh and couldn’t help but look at the silliness of the situation. Though it became clear Dis was lagging.

The fight finished not even 30 seconds later as Jason slammed his hand into Distortion’s leg and the man crumpled holding it.

He began cursing in… was that fucking Esperanto? Kid still landed a small kick on Jason’s ankle which had him cursing.

“You owe me so many fucking gummies you Dick head.”

“Yeah yeah whatever.” Jason offered a hand down to Dis who stood up moving to sit on a box as Jason went to go grab his first aid kit.

“So You’re distortion.”

“One and only.”

“Reminds me of Robin with less murderous tendencies,”Tim looked over at Dick.

“I have to agree,”Dick chuckled, pulling over boxes so they could sit. “So, are you finally okay with meeting two of the bats?”

“You’re stuck, I’m stuck. Guess it’s finally time to get my head out of my ass and ask for help.”

Jason came back with a kit the two bickering as Jason moved to cut away his loose fitting pants revealing the neatly wrapped wound soaked now in fresh blood. Tim could pick up that the man hadn’t really wanted to ask for help. He obviously was hesitant, untrusting. It seemed his walls were so far up, that it was a miracle Jason was close to him at all.

“Well it’s nice to meet you though I wish we could say we’ve heard of you.”

“I would be concerned if you had heard of me.” Distortion clarified flinching away from the other as he cut away the bandages handing him a tissue for his bleeding nose. “After all there is the whole ‘Batman doesn’t like Metas rule’.”

“You’re a meta?” Dick asked, leaning forward on his knees a bit. Dis nodded and held his hand up letting his hand fade from view. Right as he did it though he gave a sharp gasp of pain.

“Fucking hell,”he hissed out through gritted teeth.

“My hand slipped.”

Jason’s hands didn’t slip. He knew his elder brother far too well. He was hiding something. Dis wasn’t supposed to have outed himself. The cry of pain was the only explanation. The two of them seemingly having a quiet conversation to himself and Tom gently poked his brother’s side to see if he noticed it too and he did give a small nod in response.

“You’re the one who ripped their stitches,”Jason chided as he continued to work otherwise carefully.

Dis mouthed the words mocking him only eliciting another harsh pull from Jason.

“The case?”Dick redirected them back on task.

“Yeah, sorry. The case has been going on for 3 years. It’s the entire reason I ended up Gotham.”

“You’ve been here for 3 years? For a case?” Tim couldn’t hide his surprise at that. You didn’t just come to Gotham for a mere case.

“Not for this case but it did kinda fall into my lap yeah.” That made more sense, but still raised his questions for just how long this kid had been working under their radar. Not just how long, what was he capable of?

“So what do you know?”

“Hood wanna be a doll and grab my file since I’m currently injured,”The kid had a flair for the dramatic as he feigned a hand to his forehead leaning backwards on the crate looking absolutely “injured”.

“Fucking spoiled prick.”

“SAYs YOU!”

“YEAH SAYS I DIS! I’m the one who has to deal with your fucking bullshit all the time!”

All Tim could currently think about was how Jason had claimed he had not much to do with Distortion but from what he could see the two were remarkably close. Tim wouldn’t understand but he was admittedly jealous. He wished he could have had a better relationship with Jason from the beginning.

One that hadn’t ended in him being called Jason’s replacement. Tim wanted the Robin spot, honestly. He had taken it when Batman needed him most and needed back up and all he had gotten was shit for it. Maybe he had still been salty about that. The Robin who was the smartest but at what cost? He was the longest reigning Robin before Damian came along and forced Tim to change his name and realign himself.

When Tim had rebranded as Red Robin he had sort of gone on a quiet rampage. His morals thrown out of the loop in anger and he made some not so great decisions. Jason had found him then beating the shit out of a drug runner who had murdered an innocent little girl. It had been Jason who pulled Tim off the man in his late teens.

Jason who apologized to Tim for how he treated him, and that he was really trying to work on his anger and had confided in Tim about how badly his anger issues affected him to that day. He had called it Pit Rage. An ever consuming anger he couldn’t get rid of. Jason just seemed more relaxed than he had, ever. Maybe this person was doing some good for him.

Jason came back over handing Dis the manilla folders with neat labels and tabs.

“Year one we have out first 2 victims.” He pulls out photos. “Small but noticeable markings. Missing heart. Missing kidney. Blood everywhere, but it was almost more surgical?” He hands over the photos. “Then we have year 2. 5 in total. Same thing as the first two. Missing heart. Missing Kidney. Same symbols but we watch the motives slowly get more and more deteriorated. The kills start to get messy.”

Tim and Dick flipped through the photos noticing the same thing. “Like the person who did it in the first place was loosing the reason that they started doing it in the first place.”

“Yeah.. that’s what I was thinking,”Dis admits. “You’ve seen the most disturbing ones from this year, so I won’t go into detail about that. Here’s what you need to know that I know. I’m meta, and one of those abilities allows me to see things and understand things not known to the human eye, specifically on the field of the supernatural. Thing that one chick who I keep seeing posters of, uhhhh Hood help me out?”

“Zatanna.” Jason was mildly amused at him not knowing who she was.

“Yeah her. She’s dripping with magic, I kinda have access to see it, not access it but it’s an entire thing. Not important. What is important is how those abilities relate to this case.”

“Okay..”Tim nods taking in the information at hand. He was useful.

“Those markings are a language. Nothing that still breaths should be able to read it but those who have sold their soul, or been touched by Death themself can read it. Don’t ask Hood he can’t read it. I kind of can? Think like I understand it but it’s borderline untranslatable.”

“So our culprit either soul their soul or was touched by death and survived?” Dick clarified looking over to Tim who was thinking the same thing. Ra’s and John Constantine might prove useful to this case.

“Exactly. Ghost Speech can’t easily be translated, but I did manage to do it after going through like 5 languages until I could get it into English. Belong, to live, to die, again, trust not the living, friend.” Dis set the folder down. “I’ve been staring at those words for 3 years and I got nothing.”

“Belong, to live, to die ,again, trust not the living, friend. That sounds like a warning?”

“For who? Us? The serial killer is the one who’s torturing and murdering people!”Dis exclaimed. “Look, Red, Nightwing. I get it. You probably don’t want me involved but I am useful. You need me on this case!”

“Look, we’re not going to turn you away or down. This is more information than we’ve been able to get in the entirety of the case.”Dick began slowly. “But Hood mentioned you were weary of Batman. Red and I can respect that but if we officially bring you into this case you know he will get involved. He already is in terms of this case.”

“Bring me in.”

Tim and Dick shared a moment of surprise between each other. Jason would do that? For Dis?

“I’ll act as messenger when needed. It’s only a matter of time before the next body is dumped in my alleyways right? You let the kid help and report information to me and I’ll act as messenger.”

“You know this will mean you’ll have to be at the BatCave more, right?”

“Trust me, I’m painfully aware.”

“I have a question though,”Tim spoke up. “You removed a viscous green substance from the bodies. What was that? It was glowing.”

“Ectoplasm.”

“Pit water, but more pure,”Jason translated as he finished sewing up Dis’ leg.

“I still don’t know what that means,”Distortion whispers under his breath as Jason ignores him.

“So definitely something supernatural related,”Dick merely took it as a clarification.

“Exactly.”

“So our murderer is what, undead?” Tim rubbed his forehead a little in frustration.

“Probably.” Dis moved to examine the wrapping on his leg a moment before looking at the group as a whole. A small quirk to his lips as if he wanted to say something else but held back. “I’m not completely against working with Batman, but it’s just--”

“Just?”Dick pressed gently. “We won’t tell, you know. I hope Hood has spoken that much of us.”

“Yes, I know you two won’t tell. That is why it’s you two here. Closest people to the case right? I’ll help from the sidelines. Give you my information. Share, what I can but what I need is if you discover a body let me see it before you do anything.”

“What do you mean?” Tim crossed his arms a little, in a more relaxed way than before.

“I’m going to be honest, I think we’re up against a ghost. Which means a whole lot of issues for more than just you and I. If I can get my hands on the ectoplasm left on the scene I can start working on tracking him.”

“You mentioned Zatanna earlier. Do you think bringing in people who know that sort of magic will be any help?” Dick asks genuinely.

“No. No. No Magic users.” Distortion’s words were quick. Dick and Tim shared a look recognizing the panic in his voice. Jason said nothing off to the side either. The words hard to understand and distorted in their own right. Was that how he got his name? Jason walked over and rested a hand to his shoulder, the young man taking a deep breath, or really, several. The room dropping a few degrees.

How powerful of a meta was he? Tim noticed Jason’s hand grabbing the youngers wrist face dropped in serious thought as he counted heartbeats. Distortion pulled his arm away from him.

“I’m fine Hood,”he hissed out before looking back in the direction of the two. “No. Can you imagine how widespread the chaos would be if any of the mainstream powerful magicians found out about a Ghost being strong enough to commit murder? It would turn Gotham into even more of a bloodbath. They exist but they’re not supposed to be powerful enough to be so--so.”

“Consistent?” Jason offered before stealing Distortion’s arm again to check his pulse.

“Hood.” Another threatening glare between the two of them. Silent, but a conversation nonetheless. One Distortion obviously lost. “But yes. Consistent. There’s a reason Ghost’s aren’t commonplace here.”

“Wait, here,”Dick frowned this time. The two would be having serious conversations about not only Jason but his apparent ward.

A deep breath from Distortion. “Whoops, yeah, I’ve said far too much.”

“If you’re from the future, we've dealt with that kind of stuff before,”Tim offers an olive branch to the man. A hesitance in doing so.

“As long as you understand one thing, I don’t care how you identify me,”he chuckles standing up as Hood frowned and released his hand. He moved and made his way witha limp to the front of the warehouse.

“Dis!”Jason called out after him. “We need to ask about you--”

“Shut it Hood!” A frustrated groan and hands running down the side of his face. “Just know that I don’t exist. You never saw me. You don’t know who I am. It’s safer for everyone that way.”

And though, they saw him leave it was like he was gone and never was there in the first place. A cold chill coming in through the now open door and causing Jason sigh sitting down where he was.

“He’s a character,”Dick started. “His mood dropped there at the end.”

“Yeah.. he mentioned Justice League Dark to me once in passing too. I think he has beef with them. “

“It would explain why he’s so testy about magic users, especially if he can see the things they can too, without a spell.” Tim spoke up rummaging through the file some more looking over the hand scrawled tedious notes. Even the original workings through several translations with picture through history of Ghost speech written on the walls. It was more than Tim had ever thought he would have on the guy.

Dammit. Tim hadn’t gotten the chance to apologize to him. Fuck. Maybe he could chase him? He couldn’t be super fast with that injury, but then again he did have that whole weird disappearing act up his sleeve.

Tim was missing something. They both were missing something and it seemed very important they figure it out to unlock this case. He wished the man had the clean photos of the writing but it seemed he had similar bad luck with them. There were photos but they sure were blurry as fuck.

“Red.”

“Huh?” He looked up between the two to see which one called him. It was Dick.

“Any other questions to Hood? We gotta go finish our patrols before B starts asking questions.”

“Fuck, yeah. I have questions, too many, though. Distortion was honest all the way through. He hesitated on saying he was a meta though, and the fact he doesn’t want people to think he exist is concerning.”

“He lets me know he exists.” Hood snorts motioning to the discarded box of gummies from earlie.

“He trusts you, that much is obvious,”Dick gave a small chuckle. “Guy has more walls up than the fucking pentagon, but at least we could hack past those.”

“He wears his heart on his sleeve honestly,”Hood pulled off his helmet to reveal the domino mask underneath. “Trust me. He’s guarded about his past. About what and who he is but his real personality shines through a lot. I take him to the soup kitchen for me and he watches me back during particularly rough land grabs from other mob bosses.”

“He knows about the pit, which is more than any other civilian has ever found out,”Dick pointed out.

“You could say that again, this answered a lot if he’s right but fuck. It also gave us a lot more fucking questions.” Normally Dick would be on his ass all day for that swear jar money, it seemed he had decided not today.

“Let me be clear. What he said is right. He’s a fuckin’ ghost for all things considered. He knows far too much shit to be just a civilian. Trained too much to be a civilian. If he doesn’t have training he has experience. His knowledge of things far beyond our reach, our control? It’s uncanny.” Hood motioned for the file back and Tim gave a whine.

“Calm down Babybird I’m just gunna go make you a copy really quick of what’s in here,”there was an obvious eye roll to his voice that caused Dick to snort.

“Leave him along Little wing,”Dick teased lightly. “The mans was distracted on a date Wednesday and he’s been out of it ever since.”

“NIGHTWING, once again NOT a date!” Tim insisted looking at his traitorous brother.

“Uh huh, tell that to your little black haired friend who was laughing at practically everything you said.” A smirk as Dick playfully leaned on his knees.

“You are not doing this to me right now, I swear to god.”

“A date?”Jason’s turn to smirk leading the duo into his office. Medical supplies sitting on his desk as he moved to the copier.

“We can’t leave without that file,” Dick began moving to flop onto Jason’s couch. “So I’m going to temporarily enjoy this~”

“It wasn’t a date,”Tim insisted. “We literally just fucking met!”

“So you took him to a coffee shop and paid for his food and drink?” Dick offered.

“He’s my partner for the semester for my 101 Linguistics class!! We have a lot in common!”

“Dateeee~~~”

“No.”

“I don’t know Babybird, that does sound like a date.”

“You two are fucking impossible oh my god. He’s smart and speaks a million and a half languages guys! We started talking about those. He knows fucking Tagalog!”

“Oooo the baby bird got himself another genius to fool around with,”Dick wiggled his eye brows.

“Are those copies printed yet?”

“Almost,”Jason smirked.

“I might as well just finish this shift alone tonight. Face the wrath of B of doing it by myself than deal with you two.” Tim goes for the door.

“Okay okay,”Dick lightened up. “We’re glad you finally found a friend, not a date, a friend.” Jason and him shared a look which caused Jason to snort. Motherfuckers.

“I have friends!”

“A non-superhero friend,”Jason emphasized as he began gathering papers and clipping them together. “You‘ve needed one of those. One you’re not constantly worried about on the field. Or even better, one who won’t die as easily.”

“Hey!”

“He’s right though RR,”Dick spoke back up this time. “Proud of you. We do have to go so we’re gunna take those files and scedaddle. Anything else we need to talk about?”

“One more thing about Dis… he’s a good kid. I promise, but he can be brutal and obsessive at times. If you see shit involving him going down I need you all to promise to not intervene unless his life is in danger. He can handle himself but he is also,”Jason contemplated his words there for a moment. “He’s got the skills down and the experience under his belt but he has plenty other things going on that can leave him vulnerable during battle. There’s a fine line between him fucking with people and him struggling. If he uses his meta powers, join in because he’s doing to fucking drop afterwards.”

“Drop?”Dick sounded concerned and they both shared worried glances. “Is that why you were checking his pulse earlier?”

“… yeah.”

“Can we ask what specifically you were looking for?”

“I promised i wouldn’t rat him out. I am not going to break his trust like that.”

“Fair,”Tim took the paper’s from Jason’s hand folding them neatly and shoving them into his belt. “Ready to go Big Bird?”

“You bet. Catch you on the flip side Hood.”

“You too Nightwing. RR, get some fucking sleep please. I will call Kon.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” Tim would have made eye contact if it weren’t for the masks. “I slept a day or two ago!”

“A day or two ago,”Dick mimics. “Yeah exactly the problem, now come on Red.” Dick almost dragged him away before Tim could respond to Jason’s threats any further.

“THIS IS NOT DONE HOOD.”

“YES IT IS RED.”

“FUCK YOU.” Cue Tim flipping off the Red Hood as they left. The quiet sounds of grappling hooks going off and then silence settling over the warehouse and Tim left with far too many questions and concerns. What kind of Meta can’t handle using his own abilities? He thought that wasn’t how that worked.

At least Tim had gotten something out of tonight. He had liked Dis. The man was a firecracker and funny when he wasn’t being serious. A bigger Damian if you would, but at least Hood had a better control over this one. At least he trusted this one not to outright stab him. Ha, Big Damian. Their little brother would definitely clash with Dis if/when they met. Tim was almost excited to see it happen.

“So what are we telling B again?” Tim voiced silently as they were a few houses down.

“We found a lead but had to turn off coms so we couldn’t be found. The lead wanted total security.” Dick replied with ease. “Hey Oracle.”

“Nightwing—“Tim didn’t get to finish his statement before Oracle’s voice came online.

“Ready? I’ve been spewing lies for hours now Nightwing. You owe me.”

“Yeah yeah. I know. I’ll come by and make dinner one night, we can watch a movie.”

“Movie night?”Tim asked.”Can I join?”

“Yes you can Red, thank you for asking.”

“We should stop the small talk before B spasses.”

“Probably. Reconnecting.”

B’s voice was immediate. “Nightwing, Red Robin, report. Why were your coms offline?”

Tim was letting Dick trip over himself with this one quite enjoying the show.

————————

Damian Wayne liked to think, no he knew himself to be the best of the children when it came to several things. Grades(mostly only being topped by Drake), Fighting, and most importantly Stealth. The only other one coming close to him being Greyson with his light feet and acrobatic training.

So when his father had come to him telling him tonight he would be checking up on Hood instead of their normal routines, honestly, Damian had been excited. Excited at the prospect of a fight. Excited at the idea of proving himself worthy to his father.

What he had been told and what he knew though were two different questions.

He knew Red Robin and Nightwing were supposed to be patrolling the docks.

He knew Jason Todd Aka Red Hood was acting quiet and suspicious and had been for months.

He knew that Father would be annoyed that the trio of them were meeting.

What he had been told though was another thing.

He’d been told to keep his head down.

He’d been told that Red Hood was violent, Damian had already thought otherwise in the guy who made him vegan cookies and sneakily brought them to the manor and set them on Damian’s bed every time. He got along with Todd even if it was in their silent sparing sessions during his rare visits.

He was totally not jealous to see the very obvious affection he was showing for somebody— some nobody. His father had asked him to watch Jason and then leave and report back, that was all. He was to not engage and while originally the plan had in fact been to just hang out with Jason for the night, things had obviously changed.

Something felt off about the stranger clad in black. Whispers through the air like a mistake. Something was wrong with that guy, and not just in the fact that he was obviously injured. Something was just off. That also meant he didn’t trust that man around Todd.

He moved closer keeping an eye on what was going on the slow curling and whisp of ideas floating inside of him.

The pit calls

It whispered. A familiar feeling when Todd was near, yes. A longing feeling drawing him closer to the man with Lazarus water running through his veins, but it had never called this loud before. He hadn’t even told the others he could tell when he was near the pits of Gotham. The festering bubbling green waters.

When the stranger left, his feeling of the pit began to die down to the quiet hum of the familiarity of Jason.

And then it was behind him.

“You did a pretty good job hiding you know.”

How was he able to see him… Damian looked back unsheathing his katana pointing it at the stranger who was leaning against the door to the building bright green goggles glowing with that unearthly Lazarus green.

The man put his hands up stepping out of the shadows. Gently moving to push the katana out of the way as he began to circle Damian, and for the first time in his life.

Damian felt like prey.

Like the predator before was watching with a smirk. He gave a gentle smile but Damian noticed the sharp fangs protruding from his mouth as he gave a sinister smile.

“If you weren’t radiating ectoplasm I wouldn’t have been able to detect you,”he gave a low chuckle that reverberated through Damian’s veins.

“Who are you?” Katana remaining up as they seemed to circle each other. Damian in a defensive position.

“Come on, I think the question you’re more curious about is what I am.”

“Then answer whatever question you wish.”

“So cold for the young Robin. Red and Nightwing have so much more spunk than you.”

“I can show you spunk.” He bolted forward at the man who dodged hands behind his back. Dangr. Danger. Danger. It filled his senses no, it consumed them. What the fuck was he. His Lazarus sense was on fire. Blinding. Nauseating.

So when he felt the stranger pulse with the energy of the pits calling upon it from just somewhere he felt overwhelmed dropping to the ground unable to stop himself from puking. He expected the figure to attack him. Kill him in his moment of weakness.

But no.

Instead he felt a gentle gloved hand rubbing his back and the figure was crouched next to him rubbing small circles.

“Shit, sorry kid. I just wanted to fuck with ya’ didn’t think you were that sensitive to me,”he apologized with genuine concern in his voice. “Fuck.”

He smacked his hand away wiping his mouth breathing heavily. The figure stepping away getting the cue.

“Leave Gotham… you thing.”

“Thing? Now that’s hurtful.” The man chuckled. “Look. I am sorry for what it means from a stranger. I got to go and I’m sure you do too. I don’t think you want your fellow birdies to find out you were here right?”

“I don’t follow directions from monsters.”

“I’m not a monster.”

“You radiate danger. It’s in your entire being.”

“I didn’t realize I still radiated that. I didn’t even know those infected could still pick up on me, different breed and all.”

“Different breed?.”

A small gentle smile. “Different breed of those infected with that you guys call the pits. I’ll keep away now that I know though, but if I have to fight near you kid. You’ll have to get that sense of yours under control.”

“I can’t control it.”

“Yes you can.”

The man handed him his katana back before backing up again.

“I’ll stay right here,”The man gave a smile moving to sit down himself. “Close your eyes. Feel where all the energy is.”

Damian hesitated. Would this be weakness? Was he the enemy? He slowly adjusted to sit like him closing his eyes focusing on the feeling.

“Imagine it as a bubble. A giant bubble as far as your reach will lead you.” Damian could feel the waters through the man and feel Jason and his movements next door.

A slow growing toxic green bubble seeming to encompass all he could sense.

“Good. Now take a deep breath and deep in your chest pull that bubble in with every breath. Slowly. It’ll overwhelm you if you try to reign it in al at once.”

Damian obliged, what the fuck was he doing. “No. It’s not working you are lying to me.”

“I’m not lying.”

“I am not going to listen to someone maddened by the pits far more than Hood.” The man put his hands up again.

“Then be my guest to faint next time I do more than flare my abilities.”

“Who are you…”

“A friendly,mostly. if you need some help, though Feel free to ask Hood all about who I am.”

And with a blink of an eye he was gone, and Damian knew he was right. He had to fucking move. He rose with shaky knees.

His father did not need to know about the powerful entity able to bring him to his knees. Maybe he did? Would the being be able to bring him to his knees too?

No. He would not his weakness. He would not let anyone know what a walking pit of toxic waste that person was. Not until he could determine what exactly could bring him down. For now, all his Father would know was that Jason was going over some of his own investigations details. That is all. He moved positions to readjust himself to look into one of the windows. Only leaving when the sun began to peak over the horizon.

He was surprised his body handled making it back at all. Ignoring the brief look of concern and comment from Alfred about how pale he looked as the child changed and headed to bed for the few hours of sleep he would obtain.

He wasn’t going to tell anyone about that.

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#danny phantom #danny phantom au #dcxdp #danny fenton #dc x dp #dc x dp crossover #batfam #danny phantom is a little shit #tim drake #dc x dp fic #red robin #dead tired #nightwing #tim drake x danny fenton #red hood #jason todd #batfamily

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castrian-amore · 3 months

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gripping your shoulders

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castrian-amore · 3 months

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Bitter had the Heart

Dead Tired(Tim Drake x Danny Fenton), Tim Drake-centric, unfinished, the author is plotting, temporary character death, please check out ao3 for full tags list

3/46 Chapters | Chapter Length: 3584 words

Chapter 3: We are Not Translating Fanfiction

Tim didn’t understand why he had even picked this class for this particular credit. He technically didn’t need it. Then again it seemed more interesting than the other classes and Tim had been hoping for a challenge for once. The teacher was big on working as team and while, yeah Tim could do it. He preferred to work alone on his topics and thankfully there was an odd amount of people in his class so when he requested to do the group assignments he allowed it.

Until today.

One Daniel “Danny” Nightingale, was a late transfer into the class for unknown reason. It was also the mysterious kid in the alley. He looked a little better in person but the vote was that he was definitely sick, whether just right now or long term had yet to be determined. He leaned heavily on a cane at the moment walking with a heavy limp.

Tim could point out his handsome features though. The higher cheekbones. The stunning raven hair, his piercing blue eyes. The kid definitely wasn’t immune to the streets. The way he held himself on the verge of running. The sunken wary eyes. This kid was far too comfortable with living in fight or flight mode. If he even knew anything else it would be surprising.

The teacher pointed to Tim giving him the spot right next to him advising sitting next to the person he would be partnered with. It wasn’t required by any means but it certainly was an option, and he did.

“So, now that that’s out of the way, where was I? Oh yes the IPA. The International Phonetic Alphabet.” Professor Kaivan began his speech as Danny pulled out a piece of notebook paper and pencil sitting next to Tim.

“Uh, hi, I’m Danny,”The kid held out his hand and Tim shook it. A cold chill going up his spine from how cold he was, damn.

“Tim Drake-Wayne,”he introduced with ease, expecting the man to back away or at least move seats because of his name. The Wayne name caught most people off guard but Danny seemed unfazed by it all. In fact he didn’t even flinch or stutter or reel at who he was talking to even.

“Nice to meet you Tim,”Danny gave him a bright smile. “Apologies for having you stuck with partnering for me after I’m already a late transfer.”

“No issue. Can I ask why you had to transfer?”Tim raised an eyebrow at the man. Their words quiet as the professor droned on.

“I was in Latin, and I can fluently speak and read latin. The professor kept getting things wrong and I kept correcting them. They kept insisting because they’re the ‘professor’ but I kept insisting I was right, which I was. She didn’t like that so she kicked me out. She got so annoyed she refused to teach me. Thus leaving me with about to loose my credit I really needed this semester so I asked if I could late transfer into another language based class.”

“And here you are?”

“Here I am. Only teacher that was willing to give me a chance.”

Tim snorts a little. Tim had only almost been kicked out of a class one, and that was one of his law classes. Tim kept correcting the professor over and over and over again, and it kept pissing off the professor so bad. Tim had a sneaking suspicion he was going to like this guy. He just hoped the guy was as intelligent as he seemed.

Being fluent in a dead language was no easy task. None of the bats were fluent in a lot of dead languages but they all knew several spoken languages and a little of a few dead ones. Tim more than others. Books were always his specialty. He preferred to spend the house researching alone in his room or the bat cave. It was part of the reason the other claimed he had a coffee addiction. He did not by the way. He didn’t know what Dick was even talking about.

“Professor Kaivan is pretty relaxed about that kind of stuff. He assigns minimal homework and prefers to do the group projects over everything else.”

“Yeah his rate-my-professor score is pretty high.”

“Sounds about right,”Tim agrees, turning back to the topic at hand for the moment.

“Now, learning the International Phonetic Alphabet is not for the faint of heart. Having someone to listen and assist when learning this is vital. One of the many reasons everyone in this room has a partner. Learning it is vital for the rest of your success in this class. Breaking down specific sounds a language makes and making it easy for everyone to read any language in this format.”

Professor Kaivan was an interesting man. Until four and a half years ago he had some of the worst rate your professor scores, but it was rumored that after the death of his partner he sobered up and wanted to help people. Since then, he has been a great teacher. Using his partner method to teach people, becoming a caring professor, giving students days in class to study and work on whatever work needed to be done. He wasn’t a super hard professor to have.

His hair was graying as the man was into his late 40s going on 50s. Sideburns and his beard graying though. He dressed pretty chill too, half the time coming into class wearing a casual cardigan and a beanie. He was an accomplished guy with a full on doctorate in linguistics. Masters in Psychology and bachelors in the study of Italian. Most of his focus seemed to be on the intricacies of the Italian language but Tim was fluent in Italian and didn’t care to take any of his italian classes. Not that the man had many.

“I know the 107 letters can be difficult and if you don’t know what to listen for they can sound similar to each other, but that’s why this whole unit is just on breaking down the IPA, and making sure all of us can read, and understand it. Okay?”

Mummers of okays and yesses echoed through the lecture hall. Tim opened his phone, scrolling to Dick’s phone number and clicking on it.

Timmy Boi: Guess who just walked into my Linguistics class as a late transfer?

Dickie Bird: Who?

Timmie Boi: Alley kid

Dickie Bird: No fucking way. Is he that rude in person?

Timmie Boi: No not yet at least. We’re partnered up for the semester though, so plenty of time for me to find out heh. Dude’s got a cane.

Dickie Bird: So not our so-called mystery vigilante Jason wants us to meet?

Timmie Boi: Unlikely, He also looks sick as a mother fucker Dick. Like it’s bad.

Dickie Bird: Damn, so still no leads until Friday?

Timmie Boi: Unfortunately not. Cams still distorted as fuck with those symbols?

Dickie Bird: Just like all the others. Only copies we have are hand drawn references. No one can get a clear pic.

Timmie Boi: Anyluck on the Distortion dude? Anything on him?

Dickie Bird: Uhh, he showed up 3 years ago? Works for Jason mostly. Started as a runner, then became body guard and personal protection for a lot of the shipments going in and out of Jason’s domain. That was only after bribing over 15 inmates too.

Timmie Boi: How the fuck did Jason keep someone, a meta namely, from us for so long?

Dickie Bird: Who knows. One guy said something about protecting a child. The child is Jason’s guard dog. Brutal when he needs to be. Maybe he’s scarier than he looks? People kept quiet over fear?

Timmie Boi: You’re the people person, but even then if people are scared we would have heard something else. I just think we have something else in the picture here that we’re missing it all.

Dickie Bird: Well, any cameras he passed by that night went to static. I had Barb check it out for us.

Timmie Boi: So his gift can mess with cameras? Only mildly concerning.

Dickie Boi: Wait, why are we having this conversation right now Tim? You’re in class?!?!?! I’m leaving you alone. Pay attention, and don’t fall asleep, and DRINK WATER FOR ONE IN YOUR CAFFEINE ADDICTED LIFE.

Timmie Boi: YOU CAN’T STOP ME DICK. I’M GETTING COFFEE RIGHT AFTER THIS.

Speaking of coffee, he could probably get mystery-dude’s phone number for their homework and stuff. Maybe he could even get coffee with him and help him with his classes. And maybe find out more about that night in the alley.

“What are you doing after class?”Tim spoke up to look over at the man. Danny wasn’t even paying attention to the lecture. He was… drawing? Way better than anything Tim could draw that was for sure. Maybe he would get along with Damian? Tim liked the easier stuff, taking pictures. He could draw but he didn’t like it nearly as much as being able to get behind a camera and take some beautiful photos. Man, he should get back into that again. Dick was always pressing him to get back into a hobby outside of crime solving. He liked to stick with what he was good at though.

“Oh? Uh nothing really, just contemplating existence. Why what’s up?”Danny gave a soft shy smile. Oh no. His smile was cute. Also wait, contemplating existence?

“Well, I figured if we’re gonna be stuck together all semester we could get coffee and talk about the project and get to know each other a little better.” Tim could watch a wave of anxiety slip over the man.

“Well, I don’t know maybe,”a small shrug then a quiet moment of contemplation. “Actually, sure that’d be nice!”

“Great!”

“Wait, we already have a project?”Danny’s eyes widened looking from his doodle of something? Tim couldn’t make it out but it was pretty? Looked like a pool of swirling water sketched in a gray scale. Who knows. This guy must have been so distracted he didn’t hear the teacher’s words about their project. Rewriting a speech in a non-english language into the phonetic alphabet.

Tim couldn't help but laugh a little at him.

This caught a small look from the teacher and Tim stifled his laughter a little even as Danny began to fight his own laughter as the two looked at each other. That was so dumb. Why was he even laughing at that?

“I’ll explain after class.”

“Sounds good to me, I’m just sitting here… doodlin’.”

“I see that..” Tim gave him a smile as Danny chuckled himself turning back to his drawing. The man stretching his arms upwards turned to actually pay attention to the teacher. A small frown coming across his face noticing the thin spindly scars edging up the side of his neck across the back of his neck. What the fuck was that? He shook his head.

Tim stayed mostly alert the rest of the hour long class. Kaivan had started going through the various letters of the IPA and their origins and why they were chosen. It was interesting to say the least. He had learned a lot and the class was definitely different than what he was used too. Danny on the other hand.

Fuck Tim hoped the dopey smiles and spaced out stared was how he payed attention or their partnership was going to be a lot more strenuous than he originally thought. He swore he saw him falling asleep a couple times there before jerking himself awake. Not that Tim could blame him. He averaged only about 3 hours a night if he was lucky. Then again, Tim didn’t exactly play the whole “catch up on sleep” game.

It did take a gentle nudge from Tim to get the man away and on their way to the coffee shop. He was slow as he walked with the cane but Tim didn’t say anything about it. Everyone had their little quirks and issues. Lord knows Tim had his.

The cold autumn air in Gotham was settling around them.

“What’s your major?” It was Danny who spoke up with a quiet smile.

“Oh, business. I plan to take over my father’s company,”Tim replied.

“Wow, impressive.” Danny looked up at the sky with a small chuckle as Tim raised an eyebrow at him.

“Thanks, what’s yours?”

“Engineering, I was going to do Astronomy but we’ll the Gotham Skies aren’t exactly the clearest.” Danny chuckled softly as Tim gave a nod.

“The smog helps no one. Glad you found a major you like though.” There was a silence settling between them but it didn’t lessen the mood in fact it almost felt welcomed in a quiet way.

“Same to you!” Danny looked up at the crows stopping the duo in their tracks. There were almost 10 crows just watching them. Tim, had never seen that. All them staring at Danny. “Boo.” The man whispered and with a small chuckled, all 10 flew off the branches and into the air leaving Tim to watch and then follow. Missing how the birds simply landed up ahead.

Tim was sort of lost in thought about the revelations they could possibly have about the whole Distortion situation.

“Heyo, Timmy,”Danny’s voice dragged him from his thoughts and his slow pace holding the door open. “Don’t hurry up and you’ll be soaked.” He hadn’t even noticed a slow drizzle starting to fall from the sky. He held his hand out before running to meet the man.

Tim joined the man into the warm coffee shop. The scent of pumpkin spice filling their noses as they moved to get in line.

“Didn’t get too wet did you?”Danny asked concern surprising Tim.

“Ah, no, don’t worry about me though. I might be more concerned for when we leave here though.”

“I’m not too worried.” The man gave a nonchalant shrug. “Can’t kill me worse than I already have been.” Was that a death joke?

“Oh?”Tim gave a smirk. He wasn’t normally one for puns, those were Dick’s thing but also… Dick wasn’t here. “Did it have you rolling in your grave?” Dick could never find out about this but then Danny’s shit eating grin only widened across his face.

“Oh, for sure it was to die for after all.”

“I can’t I’m sorry,”Tim laughed with a smile. “What’re you getting? I’ll pay since I invited you out.”

“Oh, I might scare you with my order.”

“I promise you won’t. Mine is insane myself.”

“One of those extra large pumpkin spice lattes with 10 shots of espresso.”

“Extra large americano with 8 shots of espresso,”Tim quipped. “I see you’re a man just as insane as I am.”

“Oh, for sure. I’ve never met someone with an order just as bad as mine,”he admitted as he stared up at the menu. “How are the sandwiches here? Are they pretty dead-licious?”

“Oh god..”

“Or I don’t know, pretty frightful?”

“Please Danny.”

“I bet they’re boo-mbastic.”

“Who ever uses that word anymore.”

Okay Halloween was coming up admittedly. Yes there were halloween and fall decorations coming but, but god dammit Danny. It was like having another Dick around.

“You decided to fuel this.”

“I did not decide to fuel anything!”Tim complained just as they got to the counter ordering their coffees. It was a barista Tim was familiar with. A kind girl named Sarah who seemed to be all too familiar with the two of them.

“Oh! Can I also get the mac and cheese please!”Danny offered another charming smile putting some money in the tip jar. “I can pay you back Tim.”

“No worries.” Tim gave a shrug.

“Alrighty and here you are Tim.” Sarah handed him his card back with the receipt as he himself put some money in the jar.

“Damn, she knows your name?”

“I know you too Danny, Mr. 10 shots of espresso at midnight last week. You also fucking work here.”

“Love you guysssss, and I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Danny practically purred out with an innocent smile.

“You two together, scare me,”the barista motioned between the two of them. “But honestly, we were waiting for you two to meet.”

“I’m innocent,”Tim vouched.”Also wait, what?”

“I watched you order an extra large cup with only espresso shots in it for Finals last semester.” Sarrah refused to answer the apparent group that had been waiting for Tim and Danny to meet each other.

“I was busy!”

“You weren’t sleeping!”

“Anyways I’m going to go over there,”Danny pointed to an empty table by the window.

“Yeah, Tim. How about you go over there. With your little Date,”She emphasized the word as Danny was already over sitting down unpacking his backpack onto the table.

“He’s not my date! We literally just met!”

“Yet. Next in line please!”

“Sarah-- no-- I swear to--”Tim could have sworn he saw an exchanging of cash behind the counters. Were they betting on something. What the fuck were they betting on?!? He hissed and moved to join Danny in the opposite seat.

“So did you even catch what the group project is? How much have you studied of the Linguistics 101 class anyways?” Tim pulled out his laptop setting it in front of him. He logged in giving a small smile of the silly chaotic and group picture they had gotten last year at Christmas. Bruce stood on the far right and Jason on the far left Dick’s arm wrapped around his shoulder. Damian was trying to stab Tim again who was moving to dodge it. Steph chaotically cheering the gremlin on. Cass quietly wondering if she should intervene in the middle. Duke full on panicked at what was going on as it was his first Christmas with the family. Barb covering her mouth in laughter in front of Bruce. He wanted to make sure she was included. It was his favorite photo of him and his siblings.

Fuck. Danny had been talking to him.

“Earth to Timmy.” A wave of a hand in front of his face.

“Please just Tim,”he laughs. “Sorry, yes?”

“I was asking about the IPA. Are you familiar with it? I have no idea on anything about it.”

“I know like half of it? I’ll have to learn the other half,”he admits. “But yes, the project.”

“Fuck, yeah okay what’s this project?”

“It involves reading.”

“No! WHY!”

“In another language.. That neither of us speak.”

“Oh god.”

“Yeah, so we’re supposed to write down a 1,000 minimum word speech, or chapter from a book or whatever and put it into the International Phonetic Alphabet.”

“I don’t know about you but I speak a lot, like A lot of languages.”

“Yeah.. I feel the same way.”

“What do you speak?” Danny playfully pushed Tim’s computer screen down from booting up the program the professor had given them to use to type out the phonetic alphabet. It was still apparently a nightmare program, but he had decided to type it so he wouldn't be deciphering shitty handwriting.

“Mandarin, Chinese, Italian, German, French, russian, Japanese, tagalog, spanish, I think that’s all of them?”

“You speak Tagalog too!” Danny’s words switched with ease to the language.

“No fuckin’ way,” Tim had to laugh at that one. “What else do you speak?”

“Same things are you but, Esperanto, Swahili, Cantonese, javanese, Sardo(technically a dialect but you know same difference), Ukrainian, I think that’s all?”

“I thought I was the Polyglot. Oh! I also speak ASL and BSL.”

“I know bits and pieces of ASL, definitely no BSL though,”he laughs softly. “But wait what other languages does that leave?”

“Well, a lot but I mean. We could always pick an easy one we both know.”

“Italian?”

“Yeah, please. I do not want translate someone in a non-latin based alphabet. It registers funny in my brain.”

“I gotta ask though Danny… Esperanto?”

“Okay, leave me alone! I had a friend who spoke it and taught me it so we could shit about others.”

“That’s fuckin’ hilarious though,”he smirked. “But what should we translate?”

Danny looked like he was about to burst out laughing. “What if we just fucking translated the Divine Comedy.”

“Danny Nightingale, are you telling me we should rewrite one of the most famous works of Italian writing, ever. That is also notoriously translated, a lot? And is--- you know.”

“Ma Divine Commedia,”Danny laughed. Tim could not with him right now. “E la fanfiction Tim.”

“YEAH I KNOW, that’s why I can’t believe you’re suggesting it.”

“COMMEDIA.” Danny proclaimed with a snort. Fuck that was cute. Thank god his name was called to grab their stuff. He could ignore the small twinge in his chest as he brought them their coffee and the food for Danny.

“Let’s get this over with I guess.”

“YES!” Danny threw his first into the air in excitement. “This is the start a beautiful friendship Tim, I promise.”

“Are we about to be nightmares to our poor professor?”

“What? Nooooo.”

“Oh yes we fucking are,”Tim rolled his eyes and smiled as he sipped his drink pulling up the original document. They were so fucked, but at least it would be funny. If Danny was his new partner for his class maybe Friday would come sooner than he thought.

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

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castrian-amore · 3 months

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This is so important

Hate in the dpxdc tag.

I have seen a major influx recently of people complaining about popular dpxdc tropes in the DPxDC tag as well as people just sharing hate in the tag again.

And yes, your feelings are valid, you are allowed to not like things in a fandom and you should be able to talk about it.

BUT there is something called fandom etiquette

With this lovely term, fandom etiquette, there are important things to remember.

don't yuck someone else's yum

just because you don't like something, does not mean that others can't like it. I've seen people go in the tag with things like "why is everyone writing ghost king danny? that's such an overused trope and it's not even good" and while you may feel like that, there are definitely people who truly enjoy ghost king danny and by making that post visible where people can see, you're just making people feel bad for enjoying something.

Again, you're allowed to dislike something, but if your dislike is making someone else feel bad about enjoying it, you're just being mean.

2. Don't put hate in the main tag.

if you really, really just need to complain/vent about a trope or something you don't like about a fandom, then do it!! that's totally fine. But don't tag it with the main tags. If you're tagging your hate post with #dpxdc or any of the variations of the tag, you're doing that so that people can see that hate and this goes back to number 1. don't yuck someone's yum.

if you really want to complain about it, don't tag the post, or tag it #antidpxdc so that people can filter out the post so that people do not have to see your hate when they are scrolling through a fandom tag to just enjoy their blorbos.

"but I don't like this thing and i'm allowed to voice my opinion "

I totally get not liking something in fandom, I really do. There are plenty of tropes or ships that squick me out. And those feelings are valid, but i also know that there are people in fandom who genuinely enjoy those things and it's easy for me to avoid reading those tropes.

filtering content is super easy! Ao3 is a very user friendly archive with really simply ways to filter out content. Don't want to see ghost king danny? exclude that tag in your searches. Will that mean that all of them are taken off? probably not. Unfortunately not everyone tags their works with every single aspect of their story. And sometimes authors just miss things! And that's totally okay. But guess what? the back button is right there. you can exit out of the fic so easily without having to leave a comment to complain or without posting about how much you vehemently hate ghost king danny on tumblr in the dpxdc or the DP tag. Just don't tag your complaints :) it's that easy. Or if you really want to.

I know that the DP fandom has a very fraught history with the word anti from back in the day and that's totally understandable, that was a rough time that caused a lot of trauma for a lot of people. So if you don't feel comfortable tagging a post with #anti or #antidpxdc that's totally fine, just don't tag it at all. Or at the very least put in your tags that you're complaining or hating on something so that it's easier for people to filter out your posts where they don't have to see them in the main tag.

You're totally allowed to not like things. But remember that someone else does and you might be making them feel bad for not liking it and that means you're screwing up someone else's fandom experience and that's a pretty shitty thing to do imo.

#dpxdc #fandom etiquette #dcxdp

148 notes · View notes

castrian-amore · 3 months

Text

Bitter, had the Heart

Dead Tired(Danny Fenton x Tim Drake), Tim Drake Centric, unfinished, the author is plotting, temporary Character death, please check out ao3 for full Tags list

2/46 chapters | Chapter Length: 4676 words

TWS FOR THIS CHAPTER: Cannon-Typical violence, mild gore, graphic depictions of injury and fixing said injury, trauma

Chapter 2: The time Jason Todd Accidentally Adopted a puppy

Jason had met Distortion in an interesting way. Anyone who had met or interacted with the guy could say that. He himself was an interesting person. Mysterious mostly.

Another person infected by the pits.

Distortion was young. Younger and more skilled than even most who worked for him on the streets. He held himself like a king with smirks and sarcasm hiding his true emotions. He was silly and he was fun and it gave Jason’s heart a ping through the years they had known each other.

Distortion first showed up in Jason’s life 3 years ago sitting the stupidest way on his chair. Head hanging. Goggles covering his eyes on a cracked and broken iPhone. Feet draped over the top. He was also bleeding… a lot.

Blood mixed with the murky pit water green that haunted his vision. He was delirious having given himself apparently the remains of a morphine shot to deal with the pain so he could even get there.

He looked so young and helpless even as he sat up walking over to talk to the gang leader, and promptly dropped in front of Jason unable to hold himself up any longer.

“I need your help…” he whispered. He didn’t have a mask on then… his teeth stained with blood as he weakly smiled in Jason’s arms. “You’re the only one who could ever help me… another Revenant.”

The aching pool of anger in his soul had been quiet that day. It was quiet a lot of the days Distortion was around . Whatever pit waters flowing through Distortion’s veins existed thick enough to Calm Jason’s torrential waves. Jason didn’t mind when he was around because of this.

“Kid you’re…”

“Dying? Tell me about it, if we can,”a wet cough escapes his lips as the blood hits Jason’s shirt. “If we can cauterize the wound I can explain it better but—“

“You need to live first.”

Cue a shaky nod.

And Distortion did explain. He explained a lot.

“What you and I are? Different but similar made from two different types of the same substance. You were made from stuff that’s been far too corrupted. An unfiltered and dirty substance and I was made from the stuff straight from the tap, pure, filtered.”

He had promptly passed out though and Jason left him on his couch. His employees wouldn’t ask about the ungodly screams they heard in his office as they cauterize the wound. Or the amount of water and snacks he would bring up in the following days and weeks of Jason slowly forming an attachment to the kid. He healed faster than most would have, only proving his point of them being two sides of the same coin. Opposites but the same really. Both pit children. Distortion never said the word pit. He didn’t like to talk about it too much except when it became necessary too.

At first their relationship was simple. Distortion owed Jason for saving him, and hiding him. Jason, for once, insisted it was fine, but the masked man stuck around. It was a slow thing at first. Dis insisted on supervising deliveries when Jason was busy. Then keeping an eye out for members he saw on Jason’s desk reporting to him when he saw them. He soon became a consistent part of his daily life and operations.

It came at a cost for Dis though, and Jason knew it. When the bats came around he disappeared only coming back two days later exactly. He kept under the radar. His smiley bright personality was a beacon of good in Jason’s life for the first 6 months of their partnership. He turned a blind eye to Jason’s murdering and questionable actions at times. Not that he did it too much any more. It was partly a deal for keeping Bruce off of his back.

“Don’t you have school?”Jason finally had asked after month six of the teen always hanging around. The kid was laying at the very top of a huge stack of crates and boxes in Jason’s main warehouse and office. Most of it was mundane supplies. Dis was reading a novel. One namely Jason had given him to read to get the kid to leave him alone for a few hours knowing the kid would eventually get bored.

“Nope,”Dis popped his P on his words and rolled over to look down at him setting the book off to the side. “I don’t exist. I died.”

“Right..”Jason had sighed and rubbed his forehead. Mask on his face. He opted for the mask rather than the helmet when doing mundane tasks around his office. If he needed to go out with the bats he could more than likely end up having to put it on.

“Do you want too? You know? Finish school. Go to college?” Jason asked, looking up at the kid who climbed down with far more speed than a normal human jumping and doing a flip to get off the last bit. He was fast, even comparatively to Damian or Dick.

“I like doing this. Keeping an eye out on things that I need too.”

“You never told me what you’re keeping an eye out for Dis. If you tell me, I can help you.”

A solid frown settling into his face.

“I can’t bother you with it.”

“Kid, yes you can. You and I have to stick together, you know that.”

“I don’t have too. I could leave at any time I wanted too.” A frown settling across his face slowly.

“You can and you do. You know I never ask questions. I never press you for anything you never wanna tell me, but you’re a fucking teenage. You should be going to school and studying. I have a program you can join. I can get you a fake identity. No one will be any the wiser.” Except the bats, but he would do anything to make sure Dis stayed far far under their radar. He’d been managing it for months, and he could continue doing it as long as necessary.

“But I should be here to help you. Keep an eye out for you. To-to look out for the entire reason I can’t leave!”

“You can leave Dis. You can leave anytime you want to.”

“I don’t- I can’t!”The kid exclaimed. Now Jason was confused. The kid couldn’t leave despite just saying he could. Maybe he knew he could leave Jason, but when where couldn’t he leave from?

“I would much prefer you stay close Dis.. if I’m being honest.” A quiet moment of realness. It wasn’t that much of a surprise that Jason had gotten attached. It seemed to trigger something in Distortion that night though.

“I don’t have a choice in that matter, Hood!” He had exclaimed back and looking back on that night two and a half years ago maybe Dis had been revealing so much to him but he couldn’t see it. He was trying to help Dis and all Dis was giving him was attitude.

“I can’t just leave Gotham like you! I can’t just go off and do research in this city. All my answers lie in this cursed city, her streets winding and painful and blood soaked and never giving me anything useful!”

“She gave you me..” Jason had admitted whole heartedly maybe more sentimental than he had meant for it too. ‘She gave you this friendship we share. Our connection. Only we can relate to each other. If we separate, where does that leave us, alone? Again?”

“I’ve been operating alone, Hood, for longer than you know.”

“And so have I?! I enjoy your company. Is that too much to ask that I want to make sure you’re cared for and have all the options for success? I’ve always treated you as a fucking equal, yet now I see you’re nothing more than a child.”

“And you’re nothing more than a fool who can’t see the obvious in front of him.”

“Fine. You don’t want to take up my offer of school, you don’t want to talk to me? Like an adult? I want to help you Dis. You know I do. I want to see you succeed and find whatever it is you’re looking for. Whatever it is you’re patiently waiting for it to happen, but if you’re not going to treat me as an equal back then we have nothing more to say to each other Dis.” Hood had gone too far and even he had realized that. He had been a mentor to this kid. He had let the kid look up to him and now that kid was seeing his mentor betray him. A feeling far too reminiscent of his own past for his liking.

It re-awoke the pit lingering in his soul again. That anger was back.

“Good bye, Hood.”

“Dis… I’m sorry.”

“No. You’re right. I’m a child.” Dis looked up at Hood. For a second the man thought he could see piercing angry and broken blue eyes behind his goggles. A familiar look. And he left the building the door slamming behind him. He cared far more for that kid than he cared to admit.

Even the bats had noticed his anger return. They had questioned him about it but he had explained he had it handled and not to worry. Dick had confronted him about away from everyone too asking if he had been in a relationship but even he couldn’t hide everything from his eldest brother. Dick could see through him. Even if he saw it the wrong way. Jason moved on. He had no choice.

But the thing with Dis was that he had shitty timing. Shitty and meaningly timing lined up with stupid puns that made you snort and sarcasm that left you unable to breath from laughter. So as Jason stepped into one of his safehouses mask off completely having just gotten out from a fight that for sure broke one of his ribs and even had the bats called. He called them and then bolted. Let the batman and the demon handle that one. Not under his supervision. They didn’t have to know he had even been there at all.

He had realized he was not alone. Met with the heart wrenching scene of a much more worn Dis. The man was pale. Paler than last time which he hadn’t even known was possible. The man leaned against the wall with a tray in front of him a few bullets sitting neatly in it. Hands shaking pretty badly blood pooling around him.

“Shit,”he whispers out with a smile across his face. “Hiya Hood.”

And Jason’s heart shatters. He goes on autopilot running to his bathroom and grabbing the rest of his emergency first aid kneeling next to Dis. The man pulls his goggles off of his head and throws them to the side and Jason could feel his heart drop. He was so tired. Deep circles sat under Dis’ eyes. An all too familiar blue staring back at Jason.

“What, you had your mask off it’s only fair.” If Dis hadn’t had that stupid ability to calm the Pit inside of him he would already be wanting to go off and kill whatever or whoever it was that decided to fuck with one of his own. His Dis. His bro--

“Have I ever told you about my past at all?”A nervous chuckle escapes from his lips.

“Dis, I swear to fucking god you’re not dying today.”He hisses getting the others familair branded jacket off of him and lifting the black shirt up a bit to see the extent of the damage. This was not good. 4 bullet holes. He leaned him forwards. Only one exit wound. Dis had managed to get one out by himself but that left two more inside of him.

“I know… maybe. I don’t even know if I can die, right?” A slow deep breath from the kid as he seemed to debate on taking another. On if he wanted to take another or if he wanted to just give up then and there.

“Trust me your pulse says otherwise kid,”Jason hisses and moved to lay Dis on the floor grabbing a pillow from his couch to put under his couch. “Talk to me. What about your past did you want to tell me?”

“I died by electrocution, you know? I have the lichtenberg scars and everything. It was a lab accident.”

“Sounds not much more pleasant than mine. I was beaten to death with a crowbar,”Jason admits just trying to keep him talking. His shirt rolled up, he poured the disinfectant alcohol over a pair of tweezers. “Keep talking Distortion.”

“I was 13 about to turn 14 when my parents-- their experiment failed and fuck I was so dumb and my friends convinced me to go inside of it, and it turned on with me inside,”A sob escaped his lips as Jason forced the tweezers in his abdomen and Danny grit his teeth letting out a cry. “And now I can’t even go home to tell them how much I was sorry I was gone for so long.”

“You never left Gotham.”

“I can’t.”

“Dis…”

“If I’m going to die someone needs to know my name. The ancients will come for me eventually right? I’ll be a ghost… i'm in their hands at that point.”

“You’re not going to die Dis--”

“My name is Danny.”

Jason found the bullet pulling it out and setting it in the tray. The kid was crying. Jason moved to get the other one out. Talking. Wait yes. Talking. Keep the kid talking.

“Nice to meet you Danny… I’m Jason.”

He went to the other bullet causing the other to cry out in pain again ice spreading around them catching him off guard. He barely had time to get the bullet out before things wanted to ice over. The temperature in the room plummeted. Even for a meta Danny’s pain tolerance was high. It showed just how much he had grown accustomed to the streets.

“You’re a meta?” Jason asks softly making sure there was no malice in his voice. A weak laugh escaped Danny’s lips panting in pain. A tear slipping down his cheek.

“Yeah, sorry. Forgot to mention that, I got cold feet you know?”

Jason snorted. There he was. There was his kid. He was bad at puns ,but… Danny needed something to cling too. He continued to talk, and the more he did, the more his heart broke. Danny apparently had had two friends named Sam and Tucker. They were his ride or die. He told Jason of his sister who protected him and practically raised him amongst their household of neglectful and abusive parents who barely fed or paid them any mind. Jason was glad he had gotten away. When Jason had asked about that Danny had gone quiet. He stitched Danny up and had him drink water and have a snack. He treated Danny’s smaller wounds. A broken rid or two and his arm had been fractured from what Jason could tell.

Their relationship had gotten much better…

Jason had nursed his own broken ribs as he spent the next few weeks taking care of the kid. The man being in and out of consciousness for the next week and a half. A few times Jason wasn’t sure he was going to make it.

Even as he healed though Jason realized just how sickly he looked. Those dark circles never went away. His skin remained pale. He remained looking sickly. Jason had asked him about that too but he brushed it off like it was nothing.

The two lived separately as the next year passed. Jason privately funding Danny’s college at Gotham U. The man acting on his own and doing what he wanted.

“You’re getting too close Danny.”

“You’re being overbearing again Jason,”Danny stuck his tongue out at the older man reading a text book while laying on the couch. The TV on going on about something from space. Jason threw his phone on top of the book.

“Okay so I got seen I got caught! They didn’t track me. They’re not going to find me. I won’t let them.”

Jason tried not to notice how sickly he had grown. Lessened appetite. Sunken in cheeks. Dark circles, always tired. Always just exhausted. The young adult was pushing himself and he was getting sicker. Prone to getting fevers that were especially dangerous for the ice meta. One time Jason had to throw Danny in the river to get him to cool down enough in the middle of winter because he couldn’t get ice to the apartment much faster. It was what worked, he guessed.

“You’re my underling to them Danny! I’ve kept you under their radar for 3 fucking years!” Jason poked fun at him as he moved to make food for them both. They had a habit of forgetting but Jason and Danny had dinner once a month at the very least. More common than Jason would go see his actual family. They tended to stop by unannounced which was why Jason and Danny always had their dinners at Danny’s place which was right past Crime Alley. Leaving was the main thing he normally had to keep an eye out for.

Jason’s eyes scanned across Danny’s apartment. College textbooks scattered around the area. The TV didn’t work so he had gotten rid of it ages ago replacing it with a desk with his laptop on top. Maps of the stars were painted on the walls haphazardly. A topic Danny seemed to enjoy and he enjoyed listening to him talk about in the first place. It was like watching the kid light up.

“Taking your medicine?”Jason asked despite knowing the answer as he opened the medicine cabinet where the mostly filled container sat.

“Uhhh… yeah. I did.”

“Liar.”

“Nosey bitch.”

“Says you.”

Danny flipped him off as he caught the container that was thrown at him giving him a final sticking out of his tongue. Danny opened the container pulling out the pill making eye contact with Jason before popping it into his mouth and swallowing.

“You’re like trying to get a child to take their vitamins I swear to god,”Jason rolled his eyes as Danny threw the container back at him. Jason had convinced the man to take some sort of medicine for his shitty body. Danny refused a doctor and all of those tests so they had to make due. Danny took a lot of medicine overall. Some anti-anxiety medication, depression meds(that jason may or may not have been supposed to be taking), as well as some medicine to help with his heart. His heart acted up a lot and it gave Danny a lot of issues in school. Jason swore it wasn’t just his meta powers affecting the man. His heart also didn’t help his already naturally cold body.

“Nah this is easier than you trying to get me to read a classic novel.”

“They’re good Danny.”

“They’re old Jason,”Danny replied snapping his own textbook shut. Jason catching glimpse of the cover.

“Reading up on the transdimensional portal theory?”he chuckles.

“It’s interesting, okay! Didn’t that one dude, what’s his name apart of the super hero girl scout club thingy? He runs really fast?” God did Jason love this kid.

“You mean Flash.”

“YEAH HIM! Didn’t he manage to do it once?” Maybe one day Jason could introduce Danny to his family. One day when Danny wasn’t investigating a very serious murder. One day when he wasn’t so sickly. He also just wanted Danny to look the justice league in the face and mis-name them all. The kid recognized no one. Even now he’d never been out of the city and rather didn’t care for anything outside of it anyways. Jason tried to take him to Bludhaven once and still, to no avail.

“I think so,”Jason grabbed a pan and began to cook the impossible meat for their tacos. He moved to cut some tacos and other vegetables. Was that a fucking batarang?

“Did you get attacked by one of the Bats?!?”Jason exclaimed looking over at Danny.

“Uhhhhh… no?”

“Danny!”

“I’m fine just hit me in the leg!”

“Let me see it you dumb fuck.”

“Bitch.”

“I’m the one taking care of you!”

“Ancients your worse than Jazz,”he groaned moving to set his hand on the table rolling up his pants to show a neatly wrapped wound that was bleeding through. Cue a groan from Jason as he walked over sitting on the coffee table and moving Danny’s leg into his lap as he unwrapped it to double check the wound. He knew Danny could take care of himself. That was an unspoken rule with how injured he constantly got. Like he was used to fighting a different way than he currently did.

The wound was clean, all of the bats kept their batarangs sharp so he was thankfully for that. “This needs stitches Danny…”

“It’s not that bad,”Danny tried to move to rewrap the wound but Jason stopped him giving him a dangerous look and Danny’s hands went up.

“Okay fine.” He leaned back arms crossed. Jason could tell he was a little upset. He got up being gentle with his leg setting it off to the side going for Danny’s first aid kit and moving to get to work on sewing the wound shut. Danny flinched and occasionally made a small noise of discomfort but he handled it well.

“Wanna talk about that case of yours since I’m going to be covering your ass until forever if you don’t lay the fuck, low.” A mild threat.

“15 bodies! 15! The oldest dating back to when we first met in Gotham. They were slow at first you know? Only 2 murders the first year, each one more gruesome than the last. 5 the second year and now on year 3 and we have 8 within the first 6 months. These numbers? They’re only going to grow.”

“Each one with the same traits. Missing heart. Tortured victims. Ghost Speak on the walls.” A defining indifference between when. Danny constantly joked he was far closer to being dead than alive with Jason. He just a ‘hop skip and a jump’ away or really Danny’s favorite line he just had to jump 2 times ‘till he was among the dead and maybe do a little cha cha real smooth on his way over. Danny knew ghost speak. Was fluent in reading, writing, and speaking it but he wasn’t far enough over to the dead side to automatically know it. Danny’d been teaching him though.

“And an occasional missing kidney that someone wanted for a snack,” Jason clarified having heard the details of this case 20 times over.

“The ghost speak is the same every time,”he groaned as Jason hit a particularly harsh part of the stitching. “Belong, to live, to die, again, trust not the living friend.”

“That’s so cryptic.”

“You’re telling me I’ve been staring at it in my notes for 3 years.”

“You can’t leave the city until you solve the case?”

“I refuse to leave the city until I solve this case,”Danny clarified.

“Then you’ll continue to work on college, besides I like our monthly dinners.”

“You’re acting like I wouldn’t come back?”

“Wouldn’t you? You’ve known this place and only this place for a while. I wouldn’t shame you for not wanting to spend a second more here.”

“I don’t think I could stay away from Gotham even if I tired,”Danny shrugged. “She has a way of drawing people who need to be here back.”

“So any hints on who’s doing these murders?”

“Someone who knows Ghost Speech?”

“Wow, what a lead.”

“They’re leaving trace amounts of ectoplasm around so they’re either a revenant like you and I,”a lie. He had known the kid had been lying saying he was a revenant. He was something more really. Even Jason could pick that up, but if the kid didn’t wanna tell him he sure as hell wasn’t going to pry. “Or they’re a full ghost but Gotham only has so much ectoplasm to go around you know? And I mean I—“he cut himself off.

“And you?”

“And I know that getting the pure shit is hard as fuck. This shit is pure,”he reaches across to grab a vile on the table. Uncorking it and giving it a swirl. “Hard to find in this area especially. So he must have either a portal or something to keep himself together, he’ll need something to sustain himself with especially with how powerful he is if he’s showing up and doing this much damage.”

“And your final theory?”

“It’s a ghost. A powerful one that’s making Gotham it’s haunt.”

“Can you take care of it alone?”

“In this state? No.”

“Do you want to take a risk?”

“… what is it.” Jason finished wrapping his leg going to to check on the food.

“What if we finally make you known to the bats. It’ll drive Red Robin insane he hadn’t noticed you sneaking around for such a long time and on top of that you knowing more about his case than he does.”

“You just want to see my entire existence fuck with the bats don’t you?”

“Maybe, besides.. they have resources maybe we can talk to them about your condition Danny.”

“No. I’ll work with them. They do not get to know about my heart. It isn’t a problem in the field.”

“Admit it, your heart is dying you fucking need surgery Danny!”

“I’m fine,” a low growl escaped Danny’s throat.

“No you’re not! We are just praying this medicine is working and the more you use your abilities the more strain it puts on you as a whole let alone on your heart! You keep using them and you’ll be dead.”The cold green eyes glare caught his attention and Jason knew to back off as he finished their food. Push Danny too far and it would trigger his abilities even more and while Jason wouldn’t be affected who knows how thick the ice would be across the apartment. He set tacos in front of him to distract them as they put on some cheesy book movie, Pride and prejudice. Well Jason didn’t have think it was cheesy, Danny on the other hand? Thought it was dumb as all hell. He put up with it because Jason asked him too. A sign He wasn’t that mad at the elder.

The night was quiet after that. Maybe Jason had pushed a little too far. He opened his phone after Danny had passed out on his shoulder shooting a text to the group chat between him, Dick and Tim.

Little Wing is Online🟢

Little Wing: I have a friend who says he’s willing to finally meet you guys

Tim’s reply was almost instantaneous.

Baby Bird is Online 🟢

Baby Bird: Is it distortion?

Little Wing: The one and only.

Big Bird: Who is that?

Baby Bird: Do you ever go offline Greyson?

Big Bird: Bold of you to assume I sleep

Baby Bird: And you think I do?

Big Bird: Touchè; anyways who are we meeting?

Baby Bird: A new vigilante