#i see too much of “ectoplasm is lazarus water but better”

[yetanothergreyjedi]

Ghosts of Our Pasts: 6

DP x DC crossover

Damian Wayne and Danny Fenton Siblings AU

Masterpost Next

WARNING: Light gore at the beginning of this chapter!! (I didn't get verydescriptive, but it includes blood and broken glass. If that’s not for you, skip the first 2 paragraphs.)

Trempling fingers tore at the vial, desperately trying to break the seal, but the glass was slick with crimson and he found no purchase. Each attempt was shakier than the last. Even prying the lid with his teeth made little difference when his hands couldn't grip the thing. He doesn't know if he made a decision or if he dropped it, but half the vials contents mix on the ground with broken glass and blood. The vibrant glowing green makes the blood look black in comparison, sharp little stars glitter in the morbid nebula.

Half the vial is still in his hand. It's edges are jagged teeth cutting into his hand, healing then cutting, then healing, and repeating. It should probably hurt more.

Danyal's thoughts are sluggish. It takes another minute to realize the new problem, that the wound is on his back under several protective layers. Even if he could reach it, he wouldn't be able to pour the Lazarus water accurately, he couldn't even see the wound. If he set down the vial to get a better feel for it, would he remember to pick it back up?

It only hurts the living, it is good for the dead and dying. He didn't remember who'd explained that, but it was all he could recall about the waters, and he didn’t exactly have many options.

He tipped the vial to his lips and drank. This he did feel.

---

Danny gasped awake gripping his hands over his chest where his core hid. The shard of ice felt sharper than normal, pointed and aimed at his heart. Danny felt cold.

When he'd first come to the Fenton's, he'd been convinced that Damian's blade had broken under his skin. He'd been sure that the blades tip remained lodged in the back of his chest, just under his heart. He remembered saying it felt cold. His theory had been disproven after an X-ray after falling off the roof. (he'd jumped from it to the Assult Vehicle. He'd been fine, but the other parents had seen him roll and insisted on the hospital.) Jazz had called it trauma, and well, it was. So he'd taken her advice on it.

Danny couldn’t tell whether it had always been there or if this was the usual mind over matter ghost nonsense, but now his core was being pointy, so that was great! Definitely not like the last time his core had felt weird and he'd almost frozed alive!(dead?).

He needed some air. He threw on some clothes and didn't bother with doors.

The thing was he wasn't actually sure if he died the first time. It didn't really matter, it was still trauma, but if his core had come from that, and the portal had just... what? Supercharged him? Both events had fundamentally changed him, but he'd gone so long believing he hadn’t died at Damian's hand. He'd survived everything with the League just to die to his own stupidity.

The sun had already set, but smoggy clouds and light pollution blocked the stars. He wasn’t surprised, but it would've been nice to fill a bit of obsession after the nightmare... actually...

He sat on the ledge and focused on chaneling his excess energy to Gotham. It was something he did often for Amity, the smaller city would take that energy and stitch back together any damage from a fight. But there was a lot of ectoplasm in Amity Park. Danny didn’t know how malleable the physical aspects were for her.

The energy was pulled away as she accepted, pulling a thread of his consciousness with it. She showed him a plant on a windowsill, stubbornly blooming despite the lack of sun. She showed him a tiny crack in a support beam mended, a touch of poison in the water flowed away from the supply of drinking water, and more tiny things that would mean all the difference for a few people. But she kept showing him things, too much all at once and he had to rip his mind back because he was in human form and could not handle that much like this.

She withdrew sheepishly, and he got it. Most older spirits did not know how much a human brain could handle.

Something else drew his attention and he turned sharply.

"Oh... Hi,"

"Are you alright?" Batman asked, still a careful distance away.

"Yeah...?"

"Your eyes are glowing."

"Oh..." Danny closed his eyes for a second, opening them again when he was sure they'd look human. He wasn’t really surprised. "That uh... happens, sometimes..."

"You have good control over it,"

"Uh, I guess? I can't always tell when I'm doing it..."

"It's not pit rage then?"

"Not... usually," Danny wasn’t entirely sure what pit rage was. Not that anyone else in the League knew any better, but he didn’t know if something he had a name for might be called pit rage by someone who didn’t know.

"Hm,"

"It's a weird conglomerate of side effects." Danny half explained, looking out over the other buildings and and a parking garage. The Bat crouched on the ledge a few feet away from him and Danny couldn’t help but laugh. "This is ridiculous,"

"Oh?"

"That my first time meeting you is on a rooftop and you're in a bat costume."

"You could have come to the manor," It wasn’t a reprimand, it was an offer, it was a question.

"Yeah, I think the fact that I'm not back to being dead is pretty good evidence your not with the Assassins."

"No. I haven't been for a long time."

Danny took a deep breath. He wasn't going to dwell on other versions of this story. "Cool."

There was a few moments of silence, a bit awkward, but nothing compared to the awkward silence in the alley a few hours prior.

"How's your trip going?" Batman asked.

"Already looked me up, huh?" Danny joked.

"We needed to be sure—"

"I know, I know, my sudden appearance was super sus."

Batman sighed the sigh of someone who has heard far too many Among Us jokes in his life.

Danny grinned, "Pretty good so far, nobody attacked the museum, and we've almost worn down Lancer about the whole 'we must stay in one group' thing."

"Staying in one group is wise."

"We're Amity Parkers," Danny countered.

"You're from a town with a communication blackout."

"A 'magical' communication blackout." Danny finger quoted the word 'magical'. "I don't actually know what you can access. Only someone who's been to Amity can find it."

"Hm,"

"Unless, you go through Elmerton." Danny advised. He was taking a chance on this, he decided. Even if he was wrong about trusting this part of his family, Amity's judgement wouldn't be biased and she wouldn't let them see anything they shouldn't. And of course, in Amity, Phantom could get involved if need be.

"Elmerton."

"Yep, the town a few miles to the east. Our only tether back to this plain of existence." Danny said dramaticly, it wasn’t that bad. He could almost hear him thinking, so he didn't expect the next question.

"Do you like it there?"

"I- yeah, I do." It was his haunt, most of its weirdness was subconsciously his fault. "Ever been to a liminal space?"

"I've been to a few other dimensions,"

Danny snorted, "Mood,"

That got him a weird look, it was his own fault really.

"I'm not talking about anything related to my death." Danny warned. "Sorry."

"That's a reasonable boundary," Bio-dad in a bat suit nodded, but also sounded like he was physically restraining himself from asking. It also sounded like something a therapist was attempting to drill into him, Danny could relate, if it were true.

"Liminal spaces are kinda hard to explain if you haven't been in one. Amity has a lot of ghosts... I mean that literally. Our neighbor died of old age, but she still reads the newspaper on her porch every morning."

"That's..." Danny could actually taste the suprise. It was kinda tangy? Danny really hoped the emotions having a taste thing was just because of low ambient ectoplasm; he really did not want this as a new power.

"The most normal thing about Amity," Danny finished the sentence for him. "Don't go into it trying to makes sense of it or you might melt your brain or something."

"Please tell me that's a joke."

Danny shrugged, then decided it was his turn for questions. He pulled Damian's list out of his pocket. "So, can I get you to explain who all of these people are?"

-

Bruce returned to the cave feeling significantly better than when he'd left it. Danny had been open, for the most part, but clear on things he wasn't willing to discuss. Despite his children's earlier interaction, he'd seemed willing, even eager to interact with the rest of the family.

Damian was pacing in the same way he'd been when Bruce had left. He'd said something along the lines of 'I do not wish him to feel pressured by my presence' when Bruce had asked if he'd come with him. He immediately noticed when Bruce stepped into the room and made a beeline for him.

"We're going to show him around the rooftops tomorrow night. I asked, you're invited." Bruce told him.

-

-

-

Next up! A brief break from the heavy stuff, let’s drop in for some Amity Parker’s vacationing in Gotham! (If you have prompts, I beg you!!!)

-

Notes:

If you're wondering: why did he come has Batman? That's because it would be very weird for Bruce Wayne to talk alone with a single seemingly random kid on their senior trip.

Batman talking with a kid sitting on the edge of a multi-story drop? Good! We were feeling worried about that kid!

Also B was just dropping by to check, and lo and behold! His son is chillin on the roof like any self-respecting bird does.

Any future Bruce POV's are gonna be just as short as this one, because I tried writing the interaction from his pov and it caused me pain! Shout out to everyone who does that regularly.

Tag list: Only 50 mentions will link on one tumblr post. I will add the others in under a reply

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[ghostly-penumbra]

I see all of your "Danny runs away after a reveal gone wrong, ends up in Gotham and is eventually adopted into the BatFam (or BatPham, if you will)" and raise you:

a newly (half) resurrected Jason Todd ends up wandering the Ghost Zone until Danny finds him and takes him home with his loving and understanding parents after a reveal gone right, to help him deal with being a halfa and his new powers in a place where ghosts are such a common sight he won't really stand out and gain unwanted attention, with people that already have experience in this kind of situation and only want the best for him, where he has access to the Zone and enough ambient ectoplasm anyway to help him purge the rotten lazarus water out of his core and purify the ectoplasm in his body

and maybe the Fentons aren't perfect, but they do try, because they couldn't be there for Danny when his powers had just started showing and he had to learn on his own, hurt, stressed and about to collapse every day, and they won't be making the same mistake twice, when there is a boy that needs help and a stable home; they'll do better

and Jason still finds out about Joker being alive, about the new Robin that joined Batman, and he still is angry and heartbroken, but there is no Pit Madness to make him take The Worst Possible Choices, he doesn't beat Tim, doesn't become a crimelord, he doesn't kill. he faces his mentor, his father, and still tells him "I thought I'd be the last person you'd ever let him hurt", and there is so much baggage, so many "should have", "could have", "would have"s for them to be on good terms right now, to be a family again

but Jason is not alone (he never was, in either reality, not really anyway. he could have gone home in both worlds, his family missed him, but only in this one he knows he has a home, even if he doesn't really believe he could have two), and when he goes back to where he feels safe and welcome, where he knows for a fact a new addition is not a replacement (Danielle is there, after all), in that building with a giant sign and a space ship on top (no matter what Danny says, that's what he still calls the OPS center), he is welcome back with open arms and his favourite chilli dogs waiting for him

he has a family in Amity too

and he knows, deep down, that if someone tried to really hurt him again, this set of parents will not hesitate to go for the kill