Liro

*Back to the present*

Batman and Robin advance in tense silence along the halls of the Watchtower.

Nightwing, along with Flash, Wonder Woman, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Green Lantern, John Constantine, Zatanna and Deadman went to the viewing to watch the interrogation between Batman, Robin and the King of the Infinite, a.k.a. Danny, who is back to his human form, is sitting alone inside the interrogation room, hands on the table in front of him. He has changed his clothes and instead of the white suit the cult had put on him he is now wearing a dark gray hoodie and matching pants.

“This is the King of the Infinite?” Aquaman questions in disbelief. “He is but a sea bunny.”

“Don’t let the dainty face trick you, mate. He is a force among forces, Death’s chosen champion and master of Space.”

“Thought, not many know his face.” Deadman adds, Constantine cast a spell for everyone in the room to see him. “Sure, everybody and their shadow know of how he defeated the tyrant king and many more stories, but very few had seen his face directly.”

“There are stories in Themyscira about the King of the Infinite, as well.” Wonder Woman joins. “Of how he aided Pandora in the creation of the isle, but that was centuries ago, about a millennium even, how come he is still so young? Not even a full-grown man.”

“Space doesn’t necessarily follow the same rules of Time as us.” Martian Manhunter interjects.

“Probably he can jump through it without much trouble then.” Flash adds.

It is then that the interrogation room’s door opens, causing everyone in the viewing room to go silent as Batman and Robin walk into the IR.

“Babe, I can explain!” Danny quickly reacts, standing up as soon as his eyes land on Damian.

“We shall talk after you tell the league what exactly happened with that cult and why.” Robin states with a stern tone, making Danny freeze on his spot.

In the viewing room Flash, Wonder Woman, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Green Lantern, John Constantine, Zatanna and Deadman look at Nightwing with incredulity.

“You got to be kidding me.” Constanine mumbles, cigarette falling form his lips as he looks at Nightwing.

Batman’s oldest son only manages to shrug his shoulders and stays silent while in the interrogation room Batman takes seat on the other available chair on the other side of the table, Robin standing right behind him. Danny, with a defeated expression, sits back on his chair.

“Everything you say will be engraved in a special device designed to record the voices of magical and adjacent beings. The information you share with us today will be stored for future reference. Are you alright with this?”

“Yes, sir.” Danny accepts.

Batman and Danny lock eyes, both reading the other and what they find is nothing but clearness and steeled resolve.

“Who are you?” Batman begins after five seconds that for Damian felt like an eternity.

Danny closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, exhales and opens his eyes.

“In this dimension, my legal and real identity is Daniel Nightingale. But before moving here I had another name, Daniel Fenton.”

“Why did you come to this dimension?”

“Back in my home dimension, about two years ago, I… I had an accident…

“Bloody fuck is he gonna tell us about his…” Constantine gasps in the viewing room.

“I died there.” Danny drops the bomb.

Damian can feel his heart stutter at the news. He knows about the accident. Danny had told him about how he electrocuted himself in his parents’ laboratory, but he hadn’t mentioned… that.

“My parents were scientists specialized in ecto-entities; what in this dimension is recognized as ghosts, spirits, magical and magical adjacent beings. They created an artificial portal into the Infinite, but it didn’t work, or at least we thought that until I walked in and touched the ON button they had put inside the device, by accident! I swear! I didn’t even believe in magic back then.” Danny says as he cleans away the tears from his eyes. It takes everything in Damian not to go a clean them away himself. “The portal opened on me and, well, I died and I lived and I died and I lived and after many of that it just spat me out… and ta-dah~! That’s how I got my powers.” Danny swallows, the room starts to turn slightly cold, but no one comments on it. After a couple seconds of silence, he continues. “I had become something like a mix of boy and ghost. For a while it was ok, I just had to ignore the fact that I could turn invisible or my feet could go thru the floor and get stuck in the tiles or that sometimes I could just start floating because, why not…

“I hated when that happened to me back in middle school.” Superman mumbles in the viewing room.

“But the activation of the portal didn’t only give me new abilities, it also became a lighthouse, an invitation to port of sorts, and the curious denizens of the Infinite tried to invade my hometown.” Danny shares and B’s heart aches. “I fought them, I was the only one that could. It was a mess. Between my parents’ poor attempts at ghost hunting and the slowly getting stronger enemies that came for my hide I barely had time for school, my grades started to drop and my relationship with my parents got worse because they hated ghosts and were anti-ghost activists and yeah, for a while they didn’t know.”

“Your sister…” Robin mumbles but quickly shuts his lips.

Danny directs a smile at the other teen. It’s small and sad yet grateful.

“She found out on her own. Didn’t even tell me she knew until I found out by myself that she knew. Anyways, I became king when…”

And Danny tells them everything. Everything about how he defeated Pariah Dark, about the GIW, about Maddie and Jack, about how they woke up Pariah again, about how they turned on him, how the portal over heated… everything. At some point Damian had to bite the insides of his mouth to not interrupt Danny and just carry him and take him away to someplace safe, the taste of blood filling his mouth as Danny kept talking.

“And that’s how me and Clocky arrived at Gotham and why that cult kidnaped me.”

“Hmmm.” Frostbite hums as he watches the way Danny’s core seems to lightly shift in color on one side.

“Frosty?” Danny calls.

“All is good, young Danny.” Frostbite answers as he takes one step back to give Danny some space. “You can pull back your core now. We are finished with your examination.”

With a practiced deep breath Danny puts his core back somewhere inside the deepest parts of his being, it’s not a physical place in his body – either the human or the ghost – but a special spiritual lane within himself. According to Frostbite, every living being or denizen of the realms has this pocket within themselves, for living beings is where their soul resides, for denizens of the realms is where their core resides, for Danny and the other halfas is a special place where their soul and their core converge, like binary stars dancing around each other.

Danny sits up on the bed and looks expectantly at his doctor. “So, how do I look?” he asks.

“Perfect, I dare say.” Frostbite answers him with his trademark gentle smile. “Your core is developing steadily and is as strong as a deep sea-bull.” Danny doesn’t know what a deep sea-bull is but if Frostbite says it is strong then that thing has to be a freaking bitch to fight. “There is one thing though, that I would like to talk with you.”

“Oh?” The halfa smartly reacts, some anxiety seeping into his tone.

“It is nothing bad, young Danny.” Frostbite reassures with patient tone. “But it is important that you know.” He says as he takes seat next to Danny.

“Is this…” Danny’s anxiety sky rockets. “Is this The Talk? Are you gonna give me The Talk on Ghost Sex, Frosty?!”

“Ho-ho, no young Danny.” An amused Frostbite maturely laughs. “This is not that kind of talk, but it is a talk about the changes your body is going through. Though, we do must have The Talk when the time comes, it is still a bit too early for you.”

“Oh… but didn’t we already have this talk?” Danny questions as he remembers the first interactions they had as doctor and patient back when he was fourteen and his core manifested as an ice core.

“I gave you a quick explanation on what a core is and how it affects you as a half-a-ghost.” Frostbite says. “What we are going to talk today is about how your half-alive status affects your core and ghost powers.”

“Oh.” Danny smartly reacts again. “Is it something bad?” Danny asks, worry flooding his voice.

“No.” Frostbite, forever kind with his young ward, says as he pats Danny’s head. “As I already said, you are as healthy and strong as a deep sea-bull, and that’s exactly what I want to talk about. As a half-living ecto entity, your core, unlike the core of other ghosts and denizens of the realms, continuously grows in both strength and capacity. Usually, when a denizen of the realms reaches their prime their core stops developing and their powers and abilities do not go beyond the strength they have already reached, it is very hard for a denizen to grow and strengthen their core after that. To do so one must go through a lot of trials and it takes a lot of time. Many, as a short cut, absorb other denizens’ cores to quickly gain strength and develop their abilities further, such was the case of Pariah Dark.” Frostbite explains. “That is why half-a-ghosts are so special and strong, your half-alive status allows you to grow steadily in both strength and ability without resorting to, well, your ghost side more primal, to not say cannibalistic, tendencies.”

“That’s why Pariah Dark did it. Also, why Ember and the others like to eat the chubbier blobs?”

“Yes. That is actually the most civilized way to gain strength without turning into a core crusher, or worst.” The doctor answers.

Danny makes a face at the thought. Blob ghost are so cute, he feels a little bit bad for them, but then again cows are also cute and he still likes to eat hamburgers and meatballs. “Alright, so, because I’m still half-alive my core is still, like, developing?”

“Exactly but it also means that it will never really stop developing, it will never truly settle despite having already manifested as an ice core, which is also why you get a new power every month or so. As a ghost, you will keep growing and getting stronger.”

“But so is the case for Plasmius and Dani, isn’t it?” Danny asks.

“Their cases are very different. Plasmius is closer to be a revenant than a pure hybrid like yourself, young Danny. He has turned into a vengeful spirit obsessed with your mother and yourself. He has allowed darkness to settle into his core and that is slowly turning him into a very different beast.” Frostbite informs. “In little Dani’s case, she was created from the bio-fabric of your living self and then Plasmius injected into her ectoplasm extracted from himself instead of taking it from a clean source, which is why she was so prompt to destabilize. Until you injected clean ectoplasm into her system, her own core was rejecting the already corrupted ectoplasm that Plasmius was forcing into her.” Danny’s whole attention is in Frostbite words. “You on the other hand are the purest half-a-ghost I have had the honor to meet, as contradictory as it sounds. The balance of your body, core and soul is the closest to perfection and your growth is steady and constant.”

“Tell that to my grades.” Danny jokingly interrupts, which is rewarded with a chuckle from his friend and doctor. Though, if Danny’s honest, his grades do have improved in the last two years. “Then what is the issue? Because you made it sound pretty serious.” He questions.

“Ah, yes, the subject at hand.” Frostbite seems to be pulled back to reality. “Ahem, besides your nature there is another reason as to why your powers will keep increasing and your core will continue to grow and that is because you are the High King, young Danny. Your new status has allowed the very essence of the realms to merge with yours...”

“What?”

“This will eventually allow you to shape the realms to your will...”

“What?”

“Or for the realms to shape itself to your liking, like a sort of reflection of your personality…

“Frosty! Stop! That the zone and me what?!” Danny exclaims as he grabs the yeti’s fluffy yet massive face between his hands.

“Well…” Frostbite starts as he softly holds Danny’s hands and puts the back onto his lap, moving his fluffy face away from Danny’s. “Since you defeated Pariah Dark and became king, the essence of the Realms has slowly but steadily merged with yourself. Today I noticed a slight change in your core, which signals the beginning of your development as a higher being.”

“And when were you gonna tell me this?!” Danny asks with alarm.

“Honestly speaking, neither me, lady Pandora or sir Clockwork thought it would be so fast. We were expecting the changes to manifest in about ten years at least, but once again you have shown us your superiority, oh great one.”

“Frosty, not the time to be marveled by my weird biology and even weirder adaptability.” Danny deadpans.

“Right, sorry.”

“Ugh, I forgot Clockwork cannot see my future with clarity since the thing with Dan.” Danny grunts to himself. “Then, what do you propose?”

“Oh, right, as a way to control your growing powers and keep your core’s balance I think that it will greatly benefit you to start studying magic.”

“Magic? Like, witches and potions and spells?” Danny questions.

“Yes. I know that for someone with a scientific oriented mind like yourself it might sound ridiculous but let me remind you, my young friend, that before any science there was the study of magic. The root of every religion or scientific study comes from the magical studies and many great sages were first believed to be witches.”

“Yeah, but those people were brilliant, Frostbite. Exceptional among their peers, I’m just… me.”

“My young friend, you are the most exceptional among any of us, be it in the realms or in your homeworld.” The yeti gently states as he tilts Danny’s chin up so his ecto-green eyes lock with Frostbite’s purple ones.

Danny manages a small smile. “You really think I can pull it off?” He asks with reluctance in his voice.

“Not only me, sir Clockwork and lady Pandora believe so too, and we three are willing to aid you in whatever way you may need.” Frostbite assures.

“Thanks.” Danny softly says. “But where do I start? It’s not like I can grab one of the grimoires in the Alexandria Library, I’m pretty sure those are too advanced for me.”

“You could start by lending the notes of your previous paramour.” The yeti suggest.

“Oh, yeah, Sam’s a witchling.” Danny remembers.

“But make sure it is only her starting notes. Since she is linked to Undergrowth, they might not like you meddling with those they have claimed as their children. Patrons are sometimes possessive like that.”

“Starting notes only, got it.” Danny nods his head. “Oh wow, who would have thought that to study magic was gonna become a medical treatment.”

“For centuries the study of magic brought closer the living to our kind, a way for them to comprehend us and in exchange, for us to teach and learn from them as well. A shame that our connection decreased during the reign of Pariah Dark, but I am glad to know that there were those that kept trying despite the risks, even today.”

“Yeah, Sam was ecstatic when Undergrowth accepted her as their contracted.” Danny says as he jumps down the medical ice bed.

“And I assure you that Undergrowth was as pleased as well. It’s been a while since they accepted a new child under their branches.”

“They better not try n’ do anything funny though.” Danny mumbles to himself, the young halfa still not trusting the ancient’s intentions with one of his best friends. “Would that be all, Frosty?” He adds aloud to the yeti. “Not to be rude but there is some homework I still gotta finish.”

“Of course, young Danny. We have finished for now.”

“Thanks doc. I’ll tell you about the magic thing after Sam lend me her notes.”

“I shall be waiting.”

And with a swing of his arm, Danny rips the very fabric of space with his claws, opening a portal back to Amity Park. The boy salutes at Frostbite with two fingers over his forehead and then jumps into the portal, the rip closing by itself the instant Danny vanishes into it.