Midnight, My Beloved

"They were a good person and people still died because they didn't put trust in anyone else" ← is so fucking good but people don't fucking appreciate it

"They were a good person and they failed. Over and over again. They failed." ← DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND HOW DELICIOUS THAT IS!?!?

"They seemed like like a good person but were really just charming." - often reduced to either deliberately manipulative or just actually good

"They seemed like a good person, and think they are a good person, but they were just nice. Nice is different from good." - this is so good when it's the main character

"They were told that what they are doing is right. The leader who told them this is someone they trust and believe in. They never had reason to question whether or not the leader might be wrong, or worse, lying..." - Nice one, I like this.

"They believed they were doing the right thing, and proximally their actions had seemingly good results. But there were so many unintended consequences." - OOF. This is a good one. And has plenty of historical examples.

Damian: Father, I am retiring Robin, I am halting vigilante activities completely

Bruce: oh thank god, I approve So Much you have NO idea-

Damian: instead I'm becoming a doctor

82 YEARS AGO - BATMAN DEBUTED FOR THE FIRST TIME Eighty-two years ago on March 30, 1939, Detective Comics #27 hit newsstands, introducing the Caped Crusader for the very first time in a featured story called “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate.”

He's stuck on some equations in regard to the amount of torsion a joint would go through if it's half in his dimension and half in another, and it's driving him up a wall.

He's been up for like forty-eight hours, he's tired, he's thirsty, he just wants a coffee, and also how to solve this dilemma.

He doesn't expect the barista in the drive-thru he's ranting about the engineering issues to actually provide decent feedback, and give him a few alternatives.

So he rushes to the pick-up window, not even caring to order, to look at this godsend of a barista.

It's a scrawny kid with black hair and blue eyes, looking startled. Boy can't be more than eighteen.

He asks what college the kid is going to, or plans to go to.

To his absolute horror, the kid-Danny, according to the nametag-says he can't afford college. That he'd had a stint in highschool where he just hadn't been able to focus, and his parents had spent every penny they had on their own inventions.

So that was why he was a barista; because if he worked there for four years, they would offer tuition assistance.

Which.

No. No no no no no.

Lucius pulls around to march into the store, Bruce Motherfucking Wayne already blearily on his phone.

He is getting this kid, and any friend of his, into college.

When the time comes to get medically screened to do some internship with the Justice League or whatever Danny gets fast tracked for he just figures whatever they find they find. So his resting heart rate is in the low 30's, his body temp is like 50°, and they can't quite figure out where his heart is with the stethoscope but they can hear a faint humming.

Lucius thinks 'oh this kid is a meta' and moves on, but Tim is convinced he's some super complex android his parents built and never told him he was a robot.

He knows that Tim is on day 3 of no sleep because he has been muttering under his breath about coffee thieves, and 'not even hallucinating yet, I'm fine'. He pretends to notice Tim and startle, then leans forward and whispers 'nobody will ever believe you', before going back to his work mere seconds before his boss Lucius walks through the door.

Lucius, at the end of a meeting regarding Danny's ability to troubleshoot the other side of multidimensional mechanical issues "on site" as it were, begins to apologise for Tim's behaviour and explain why.

Danny interrupts him

Like, just think about it for a second. Danny is in Gotham for college, or maybe he just moved out to find a city where having mad scientist parents isn’t actually that unusual.

He can see ghosts.

The ghosts know this.

Now he’s getting harassed left and right by spirits trying to get closure. Fine, whatever, most of them are a one-and-done type deal, and the amount of ghosts trying to get his help steadily decreases.

Except for this one very stubborn dog.

It just keeps showing up and leading him to crime scenes! He doesn’t know how many “anonymous tips” he can call in to the cops before they trace his phone! And this dog, this incredibly good boy, will not stop trying to help the city. He’s never met anyone with such a strong sense of justice, let alone a dog. Can dogs even have a moral compass?

And so Danny just accepts the fact that Ace isn’t going anywhere and becomes his reluctant sidekick/dedicated medium. He leans into the whole thing, dressing up in a mix of traditional magic-user attire and accessories that pay homage to the ghost dog.

He becomes somewhat well known. The psychopomp detective following around the shadowy figure of a German Shepard? That’s unusual! That’s weird! I mean, it’s not the weirdest thing in Gotham, sure, but he’s a new vigilante and he’s got a ghost dog that people can only see when it’s around him. Someone’s gonna notice.

Damian, as Robin, is the first to reach out to him.

Ace doesn’t know Damian but he does know a Robin, and while this isn’t his Robin, he’s still friendlier than usual. Danny’s panicking because oh god the bats are here and also is this kid gonna steal my ghost dog, Damian is absolutely delighted by Ace, and Ace is just happy to see a Robin again.

Damian decides that the psychopomp isn’t a danger to anyone, and there’s no reason to put this encounter into his reports, really, and perhaps Danny can help with some of his cases in the future.

Danny is sweating bullets because Damian basically tells him that he’ll keep him secret as long as he gets to play with Ace. Ace is happy that he’s finally getting some bat affiliated crime-fighting assistance.

And so, Danny is now both Ace AND Damian’s reluctant assistant. At least whenever he’s in trouble, he can always call a middle schooler to help him.

(Is Robin even in school? He’s out patrolling damn near every night, and he stays out late as hell. Does he have a bedtime? He should.)

Eventually it gets to the point where Damian is going over to Danny’s house. When he first sees it, he has a damn bitch you live like this moment, to which Danny responds that not everyone has the money to afford a nice place. Damian counters that he could at least take the time to clean up, and Danny replies that he’s working, going to school, and being a vigilante assistant to a ghost dog, something’s got to give.

Danny nearly has a heart attack when he checks his bank account the next day and sees that someone transferred him 10,000 dollars.

And so they get into a routine. Danny and Damian fight crime with Ace at night, and occasionally Damian stops by during the day to play with Ace and have Danny help with his homework.

(Damian is smart enough to do it on his own, but some of the instructions are written incredibly confusingly, and he would never admit to needing help to his family. Danny is just glad that the kid is in school and cares about his education, blissfully unaware that he’s basically emotionally adopted him.)

Damian is used to being in Danny’s company.

Eventually, when going over a case with the family, Damian absentmindedly remarks that he’ll have to ask Danny about some of the clues that they might be missing. Nightwing asks who he means and Damian makes a face like he just swallowed a lemon.

Cue shitstorm.

Who is “Danny?” Why is Damian willing to ask for help from anyone, much less someone outside of the family? Does he know who Damian is? Has Damian been compromised? What the hell is going on?

Damian now has to explain that Danny is the psychopomp with the ghost dog who he might have met hunted down while on patrol and conveniently not mentioned, but he’s not a bad person, really, and he lets him play with Ace, and he’s been quite helpful on certain cases due to his ability to talk to ghosts.

Bruce insists that the family meet Danny. Damian, hoping that he won’t just skip town the second he hears the news, relents.

Danny is surprisingly eager to meet the bats, considering his earlier fears.

Damian, blissfully unaware of what’s coming, sets a time and place to meet.

Once everyone is there, he gives Bruce the earful of a lifetime.

Robin is in middle school! Danny knows that there’s no way to stop the boy from going on patrol, but you could at least shift his schedule so he gets enough sleep on school nights! Does the Bat even know where he is half the time?! (No) And why isn’t he comfortable asking his family for help with both cases and homework? Did they ever even notice how much time he was spending at Danny’s house? If Danny was a bad person, he could have seriously hurt the poor boy! Shame on you!

Nightwing is mortified that Damian didn’t trust him enough to tell him about any of this. Red Hood is laughing his ass off, because yeah Danny is making good points but he’s also chewing out the literal Batman. Tim is recording the whole thing. Steph is delighted by the absolute gall of this Danger Twink™️, and already planning to add him to several groupchats. Damian is more embarrassed than he’s ever been in his entire life.

You, he points to Nightwing, did your academic life feel supported when you were a Robin? Nightwing is too stunned to speak. Red Hood, eternal shit-stirrer, says that oh, we all prioritized patrol over our education, that’s just how it is. Red Robin actually dropped out of high school to avoid distractions, did you know that?

Danny honest-to-god shrieks at this.

He finishes his angry rant and leaves, everyone too stunned to stop him.

And as it turns out, Tim wasn’t the only person recording the whole thing.

The entire internet is blowing up with Psychopomp The Danger Twink™️’s rant. People are taking sides. Things are getting messy. Red Hood literally admitting on-camera to previously being a Robin is somehow not the main focus here.

Eventually someone connects some dots from the video, as well as stories circling the internet about the psychopomp. A ghost dog named Ace, who is the literal only reason that the psychopomp is fighting crime at all, which seems incredibly fond of Nightwing and Robin.

A crime-fighting dog who wants constant attention from both the current and original Robin.

Oh my god, Ace the Bat-hound died and became a crime-fighting ghost.

Joker gets fed up with this little shit and his ghost dog stopping him from having fun. He hasn't managed a major crime in almost an entire year! He decides that This Is Has To Go. Now.

The next time he breaks out, he immediately goes into hiding in a safe house and doesn't leave at all. The goons that bring him supplies are not allowed to wear any clown paraphernalia or attack anyone within a 1 block radius - he is not taking any chances. He manages to find a website that sells anti-ghost weaponry and gets several guns and a bat express delivered to him.

Once he's fully equipped, he alerts his minions that it's go time. Brucie is having a party tonight, and he's going to be the main entertainment. Luckily for him, Danger Twink is even invited since the Gala has something to do about animals.

Joker gets exactly 1 hit in at the dog before he realises he Fucked Up. Danny was going easy on him this whole time. Mainly, it was out of respect to Bat's rules, as Ace got upset when he got too violent against the rogues, but also because it just wasn't necessary for him to put in much effort.

Mistake number one was bringing VladCo weapons to the party. Mistake number two was targeting the dog.

Phasing his spine from the c3 vertebrae down is non lethal so Danny is in the clear.

Damian: Why now?

Danny: Piece of shit got ghost hunting tech and nearly shot Ace. Which would have ended him. I might not kill. But doesn't mean I have to be nice.

Damian:..... Joker is very lucky you have already dealt with him them.

Jason: Holy shit! Is that his spine?!?!? I could kiss you right now!

Damian, who already likes Danny and sees him as family......

Damian: Only if you court him properly! I will not have you mistreating Psychopomp!!!

Dick: Baby Bat, shouldn't that be the other way around?

Damian: No! Psychopomp far kinder than any of you save Black Bat. Therefore he has my defence.

Danny: Nope! You aren't a good enough Dad to Robin for me to trust you with that information! Bye!

Batman:..... He really doesn't like me. Hm.

Robin:... I believe it is more that he has imprinted on me emotionally and feels protective of me.

Red Hood: Well! Good to know someone is willing to do shit like this to send a message! I approve!

Nightwing: Of course you approve. It was very right heads in a duffel bag of him really.

Red Hood: Nah. This might be worse honestly. I just killed em ya know? Joker is vulnerable now. And that ain't something that can be healed. The other rogues are gonna take advantage. Clown bitch is fucked.

Danny: When I was 14 I ended up having to be a vigilante for my city. With just my close friends for support. My sleep schedule was destroyed. My education suffered. I was fighting off Justice League level threats by myself. I managed to get shot sorted by my last year of high school. And managed to get my education back on track. But Robin? Has adult heroes. No child should be a hero. I accept that you can't stop them. But Robin should not be able to run as free as he does! Batman hardly ever knows where he even is! His education and future shouldn't be put at risk like this! His safety shouldn't be at risk like this! And if I have to take up the hero mantle again to ensure Ace and Robin are that bit safer? I guess I will. But Batman should be the one doing this. And he isn't!

Reporter:.... Justice league level threats?

Danny: Justice League Dark more specifically. Mad scientists mixing tech with occult. It went badly wrong. Doesn't help that they managed to take over the phone lines so no one could call for outside help.

Reporter: Huh. Any plans to take up your old moniker?

Jason: Do you think ghost lilies would be too on the nose?

Steph: No I think that's really sweet, You're both death adjacent Vigilante. I think a little Spookiness is more than Acceptable, Nay, I encourage it.

Jason: Did you just say nay? Who are you? Shakespeare?

Damian: No, no, no, that's hardly romantic at all. If you want properly, Woo him, you must pick flowers with an appropriate meaning. Personally, I suggest carnations. light red carnations convey admiration and adoration, the dark red carnations articulate the profound feelings of love and affection.

Steph: I think it's a bit too early for something like Adoration, or Profound Feelings Of Love. They haven't even started dating yet.

Dick: How about something that means friendship or hope for a good relationship?

Steph: Google suggests sunflowers, Alstroemeria, chrysanthemums, Zinnia, and Daf...

Damian: Don't just list flower names without Going over the full meaning.

I mean, Damian probably bounced it around a bit first. Or labelled it as a donation. To be a little shit to Danny.

Danny hadn't heard of his alternative future version since he and Clockwork worked together to de-age him and send him to some distant relatives 40 years ago, after Dan begged them to do it since he wanted a second chance to live again.

So imagine his surprise when he receives a desperate call from Dan, now Bruce Wayne, raving about clowns and something about Lazarus blood pools.

I’m just thinking about how Tim would react right now.

Because when he said “Batman needed robin.” I don’t think he thought it would be, “Batman needed robin to not commit a global genocide.

And if we’re going with Batman tried to kill joker but superman stoped him cannon then there’s another dilemma. Does Clark know? Cause if he did then not only did he stop Bruce to prevent an international scandal he stoped him out of fear.

And if Clark knows, who else knows? The justice league? Or hell maybe JL dark? Cause then that adds so much to this. Cause in the case they know not only are they working with him, they are also monitoring him.

And if the hole ‘someone stole batman’s plans on how to kill the justice league and used it’ thing happen, did they take that as a sign of him snapping? That they had to deal with him before he destroyed the world.

I mean.... combine both Danny's and Vlad's obsessions and what do you get?

A guy with a need to protect everyone (good or bad) within where he sees as home with a desire to be a parent and mentor figure, who also has a bit of a temper and flair for the dramatic

JL Dark is explaining the story of him killing everything, trying to impress how dangerous he is, how ruthless and soulless and how they need to find his mortal body before the cult does. How they have this super complicated spell that will locate him, and then:

BatDan: That won’t be necessary.

Constantine: …were you not listening to my presentation? It’s very necessary that we find the mortal reincarnation, Bats. Even if we take out the cult, he’s way to dangerous to be left alone. This guy gets his power back, our universe is done for.

BatDan: The spell is unnecessary. I’m right here.

The entire Justice League: 😅 what

BatDan: The story is wrong, by the way. I wasn’t stripped of my power, I willingly entered the reincarnation cycle to live a new life, in an attempt to make up for my past.

Justice League: 😥 what

BatDan: I don’t want it back either. I know what happens if I go too far and lose my humanity. Superman already had to stop me once.

Superman, honestly thought Batman was being a dramatic emo with his “I’m actually a reincarnated prince of death murder darkness” thing and is recontextualizing the Joker incident now: 😨 Oh Lordy

BatDan: Yeah thats why I don’t kill. Anyways can we deal with this cult? Jazz and the Dan-e’s would be so disappointed in me if I regressed now. I’ve been doing so good.

Entire Justice League, Justice League Dark, all of Bruce’s kids: 😰😰😰

BatDan: …you want clarification.

Jason, apprehension swelling up but curiosity winning out: so what happened to make you snapped and killed (even when you didn't do that for me)?

BatDan: my love ones died in explosion and I just lost it. Why should I protect the world that take them away, right?

Batfam and JL, remembering how violent Batman was after Jason died: *internally screams as each one re-conceptualizes Batman and his actions*

Jason, paling and shaking: oh

BatDan, awkwardly patting Jason's back: Don't worry. There's a group of entities from afterlife monitoring me 24/7 alongside the god of time. We're in the clear.

Of course he's happy, why wouldn't he be happy? Father is a Prince of the Underworld, Damian is the heir to the Demon, this is entirely befitting of his stature.

And then he hears exactly what his father has done and now he is angry. As angry as he has ever been, because his father—his father!—has lied and murdered and rampaged far more than he ever has and yet he is the one punished for it? How is that fair?

Why is he the one being benched for going too far, why is he the one walking on eggshells because one wrong move, one misstep, has his father shut down and ignore him, why is he the one forced to apologise for being too rough with a goon or rogue when they deserved it? When his father has done the exact same thing? When his father has done far, far worse?

So Damian is left quietly simmering in his rage, as sullen and as ill-tempered as ever, until tragedy strikes and that's it.

He's gone.

He slips, he parries too late, his dodge doesn't come quickly enough, and he's gone. Damian dies a fleeting death, the sounds of his family's shouts fading in his ears and his father's face darkening in grief until he sees and hears no more.

There's family on the other side, too.

People he's never met but he's heard about all the same. His grandmother and grandfather on his father's side kiss him on the forehead and tell him how proud they are of him, how sorry they are they couldn't see him in life.

And then there's the man that calls himself his uncle, who looks suspiciously like his father but completely and utterly different, who holds himself like a king and yet grins and twirls and laughs like an idiot.

In the hours, days, weeks that Damian spends in death, he tells him stories of his past, of his father's past, of the future that was and never came to be. Of love and pain and grief all-consuming.

Damian's not a fool. He knows the meaning he's meant to take from this, the lessons he should learn. Swallowing back his pride and admitting how he's wrong is never easy, so instead he crosses his arms and glares across the sea of green and ignores the sick feeling in his stomach.

When Damian comes back, floating in the familiar glow of the Lazarus pit, he's... fine. A little confused, a little disoriented, but that's what what the shock of coming back to life does to you. Bright laughter echoes in his ears, along with a promise (a threat?) of a family visit later.

His father clings to him, weeps as he's pulled from the waters, thanking all the gods, the Ancients, Danny, that his boy, his son, is safe and alive again.

As soon as he finds the strength in his arms again he returns the hug, fingers scrabbling in the back of Father's cape. He buries his head in the crook of his father's neck and if a few tears slip out, who is going to know?

After his death, he's not changed much. Maybe a little quieter than normal, maybe a little less violent. Ask anyone else and he's not changed at all, but he knows it's there. It'll fade in time, he's sure, but... there's an understanding there, deep down.

“Yeah, Bruce?”

“We have a lead on Luthor.” Clark sat up straight in his chair, laptop forgotten as he focused his attention on Batman.

“It’s been months since Lex went to ground. What changed?” After his most recent stunt to try and kill Clark had been foiled, Lex had fled from the authorities leaving his company in the hands of his sister, Lena.

“Nightwing managed to find a shipment manifest connected to one of Lexcorp’s shell companies.” Bruce slid into the seat across from him, placing a flash drive on the table. “It was passed through a few different fronts and there’s a second source of cash that we’re still looking into, but apparently he’s been investing in energy weapons. The drive has some pictures and schematics of the equipment. The energy source is… unclear.” Clark raised an eye at that.

“Alien or magic?” Clark asked. If Bruce said it was this uncomfortable, then those were the most likely options. The Universe was too big of a place for even the Batman to know all the possible energy sources of every world and Bruce was deeply averse to magic.

“Both.”

“What?” Clark stared at Bruce. “What do you mean both?”

“The equipment is made from common materials on earth. However,” Clark could read the microexpressions in the other man’s face to see how pained Bruce looked at admitting this. “Between Oracle, Red Robin, and myself, we’ve never seen anything like this. Our best guess is that the designers found, or were given, alien technology and took inspiration from it to access something magical.” He sighed, taking his cowl down to rub his hands against his brow. “The designers are a pair of scientists operating out of Amity Park, Illinois. Their research has Luthor’s fingerprints all over. Luthor gave them their initial grants in college and most of their patents were signed over to a well-hidden subsidiary of Lexcorp.”

“What were they researching?”

Bruce looked up at him. His face was a litany of emotions from disbelief to a weary resignation. It was an expression he wore often when he was forced to deal with Justice League Dark and their more supernatural mission reports. Experience told Clark that whatever he was about to hear was both ludicrously absurd and completely true.