Lunar🌘Eclipse

Bruce chuckled. “Says the man who we followed a werewolf through a glowing portal for.”

“You have a point,” Danny agreed. “But believe me that he’s one of the better options.”

“Wulf was very polite,” Bruce said. “Damian was sad that he missed out on a chance to meet a real werewolf.”

“I’m sure Wulf would happily meet Damian.”

Bruce hummed and then gave a pause before he felt the need to add, “Damian is not allowed to insist he be turned.”

“No?” Danny asked through barely contained laughter. “I’m sure I can make that clear to Wulf. Though logistically I don’t know if he could turn a living as a ghost? Or if it even works like that. Oddly it’s never come up.”

“Oddly?”

“You don’t know my friend Tucker.”

“Ah.” Bruce wanted to say that he was sure that there would be the chance to get to know this Tucker, but considering he was about to reveal who they were… he cleared his throat. “Well, I’m sure that Damian will ask many interesting questions if he gets the chance.”

“Doubtless,” Danny said absently, distracted as he watched Bruce open the door to a disarming linen closet. Bruce stepped in and moved a stack of towels so that he could press a piece of wood to reveal the hidden keypad. A moment later, the back wall slid open as part of the elevator door. “I think it’s even more ominous now.”

“Really? I think all mansions should have secret passages,” Bruce argued as he pulled Danny into the elevator.

“Oh, no, absolutely,” Danny agreed, “but it’s never worked out to well for me. My godfather was fond of secret passageways… and experimenting on me.”

Bruce gripped the handles of the wheelchair tightly. “Pardon?”

Danny hummed. “My youngest sister is actually my clone. I just call her sister because it’s easier.”

“Yes, I imagine so,” Bruce said tightly. “Please know that if I ever meet your godfather, I’m going to punch him.”

“Vlad would deserve it,” Danny said. “He was always a… oh.”

Bruce pushed Danny out of the elevator in silence.

The kids were gathered around the meeting table, each one nervous though they showed it all differently. Even Jason, for all his feet were up on the table, was tapping at the arm of the chair. Bruce needed this to go well for them. He needed this to go well for Damian and Tim especially. The older ones wouldn’t have any large issues moving on, but Damian was already so attached. And it would be good for Tim and even Duke to have another adult to talk with. Bruce wasn’t concerned about Danny leaving Tim stranded without help or training, but it would make things tense. Of course Bruce would do everything he could to make things easy despite the awkwardness—

“This explains so much,” Danny said, interrupting Bruce’s thoughts.

“I—what?” Bruce asked.

“I just—Ancients!” Danny gestured. “You’re—that means—you all! I met you before I met you! The first time I met you I basically…”

“Brooded us,” Tim supplied shamelessly.

Danny dropped his face into his hands. “Brooded you. The first time I met you I basically brooded you all!”

“Well, not Bruce. You preened Bruce’s little bat ears,” Dick said. He stuck his pointer fingers on either side of his head and wiggled them around. “I think we can say totally now that it was bird flirting.”

Bruce cleared his throat softly, not knowing what to say back to that. It had been, hadn’t it?

“Ancients, no wounder I wanted to protect you all!” Danny said into his hands. “And it’s probably why I felt safe to you! I’d been at, I guess, Ancient status in the middle of your—is lair offensive? Is that only a rogue word?”

“Depends on how much Bruce is brooding down here,” Jason said.

“How how long it has been since Timothy had slept,” Damian agreed.

“Boys,” Bruce sighed and started to push Danny over to the table. Room had already been made for the wheelchair at the table. Bruce took the seat next to Danny, who finally peaked up from out of his hands.

“And Jason,” Danny said, voice softer. “You were wary of me from the start, because you could feel what I was already.”

Jason shrugged, though the motion was a little hunched. “Maybe, I guess.”

“He kept trying to escape your feathery embrace,” Tim said. “Dick just embraced it.”

“Says the one who went to sleep,” Dick said.

Tim stuck his tongue out at Dick. “Yeah, well, Damian threatened to stab Danny.”

“A threat I sincerely regret, not that I would have harmed an animal… who turned out not to be an animal,” Damian said with a little frown.

“It’s alright, Damian, it had to be a really weird circumstance,” Danny said.

Cass smiled. “Was fun.”

Danny squinted back. “Is that why you found me right away?”

“Yes.”

“She cheated,” Tim grumbled.

“I… so…,” Danny looked down at the table, “how much research did you do on me? How much did you know before you ‘knew’?”

“None,” Bruce said instantly. “Well… none after I made the children stop in the limo after the ballet.”

Danny started. “Wait, none?”

Jason gestured to Danny. “See, even the guy in question thinks it’s weird!”

Bruce sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Lucius looked into Danny before he was promoted to where he is now. And he looked into Danny even further when he was considering bringing Danny in to help with tech for us. He told us not to. I trust Lucius to only say that if he was certain that Danny was no threat.”

“He wanted me to work on tech for the Bats? So cool—wait, how much does Lucius even know? Bastard, I bet he somehow knows, like, everything,” Danny grumbled an pulled out his phone.

‘How much do you know?’

‘Hello, Phantom.’

‘Fuck.’

“Fuck.”

“He knows everything, doesn’t he?” Bruce asked. When Danny sighed, Bruce added, “This is why I trusted his word.”

“That, and he threatened us if we scared away his best people in R&D,” Tim added.

“…that too,” Bruce agreed. “Jason, not unwisely, didn’t like that as you grew closer to the family, but… to be blunt, I did not want everything I knew about you to be from a report. I wanted to actually get to know you.”

“The old man has gone soft,” Jason stage whispered to Damian who nodded gravely.

Bruce gave them a fond glare. “I don’t know about that. If it hadn’t been Lucius who had looked into Danny, things would have been different. And, may I point out, that Danny has been extremely honest with us—and very trusting.”

“Counterpoint,” Tim said and steepled his fingers. “Stalking is my love language.”

“Love languages are made up by a controlling misogynistic tradwifer, Timbird,” Jason said.

“Timbird,” Tim mouthed more than said.

Danny just frowned. “So, when I called you after Tim was… when I pressed the panic button and when you said that the Bats had been in contact…”

Bruce glanced away towards the emptiness of the of the Cave where the structure ended. He didn’t know how to explain everything that was wrapped up in this secret. Being Batman was… almost unexplainable at this point. But he had to at least try and explain some of the why. “I didn’t want to have the conversation like that, over the phone. And it wasn’t as important at making sure that Tim was safe, or that you were safe. Of course, then as soon as we could have it you collapsed…”

“Oh sure, blame the guy in a wheelchair,” Danny teased. He reached out and squeezed Bruce’s hand. “Hey, look at me. I get it. I was a hero too. There were times when I had to have this same sort of conversation. I mean, I didn’t have a cool lair to have it in or anything, but I get it. I don’t blame you for not telling me sooner or for trying to find the right moment now. Thank you, for telling me. Thank you all of you, I know how much trust this is.”

“Yeah, well, we’re already trusting you with Hummingbird here,” Jason said, arms crossed, “so this is just like the other side of it.”

“Thank you, Jason,” Danny said again, because he understood.

Bruce didn’t know how much of it was their first meeting or being liminal or just Danny being who he was, but Danny understood them. It something that Bruce had given up the hope of finding in someone, but there Danny was, caring for Bruce’s family, laughing with them, smiling. He was still there after blood and pain and suffering. He was accepting their other sides like it was nothing.

Danny glanced at Bruce, mid laugh over something that Damian was saying to Tim. He tilted his head, smile still on his lips. “What?”

Bruce twisted their fingers together. “Just thinking about how sometimes, when one gives up hope, it has a way of finding them.”

“Yeah? Thinking about keeping hope around then?”

“No, but I like the horde,” Danny said.

“Thanks ghost Dad,” Tim yawned.

“Yeah, thanks ghost Dad.”

“Stephanie?” Bruce asked. “When did you get here?”

She hummed from somewhere near the foot of the bed. “Early morning I guess, after, you know.”

“Right, well, maybe you can take another child with you and go see about breakfast,” Bruce suggested over his shoulder as he carried Danny towards the bathroom.

Danny rested his head against Bruce’s shoulder. “Thank you,” he said softly.

“For what?” Bruce asked.

“For letting me into your home. Letting me close to your family. I know how important they are to you and… it’s just… it means a lot to me, especially as a ghost,” Danny said.

“Is this another thing to talk about when we go into details about being a ghost?” Bruce asked. “And you’re very welcome.”

“It will be, yeah,” Danny agreed. He knew that Bruce or the children wouldn’t be upset at him for his ghostly needs, but he didn’t want to cause them any unease over it either. It was bound to at least be awkward.

“Alright,” Bruce said and pressed a kiss to Danny’s temple before setting him down on the counter. “But first cleaning up and then there are some… Wayne things that you should know about. It’s past time. Do you think you’re up for a shower? You don’t have to stand, there’s a bench seat.”

Danny tilted his head, curious, but did his best to stay focused. “A shower sounds down right hedonistic right now.”

Bruce chuckled and moved to turn on the water for it to warm up. “A shower it is then.”

And wow did a shower feel amazing. It was a little weird at first to need Bruce’s help getting clean, but Bruce’s touch was gentle and intimate in a way that settled Danny’s nerves. After drying off one very long shower later, Bruce slipped out of the bathroom in a robe only to come back with a stack of clothing sitting on a wheelchair.

“A wheelchair?” Danny asked, head tilted. “No, I mean, that makes sense, but you just have a wheelchair?”

“Dick was a very active child,” Bruce said with all the tired resignation of a parent who had seen it all. “The easiest way to keep him off an injury was to put him in a wheelchair. It just became a thing to keep in the manor’s medical supplies.”

Danny chuckled as he put on the clothing that Bruce passed him. “It worked for Jason and Stephanie too, didn’t it?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Bruce said with a small smirk. “It still works on Dick.”

“Of course it does. I don’t know if it will work on me, but I can’t go far anyways,” Danny said. He accepted Bruce’s help into the chair and sank gratefully into the surprisingly comfortable surface. He hated that he was exhausted by a simple shower, but he was exhausted.

Bruce kissed his cheek. “Remember, you’re a sickly Victorian maiden, let yourself be taken care of.”

“Well, in that case, onward to breakfast, my good man!”

“Your wish is my command.”

And onward they went, down a tucked away elevator that Danny assumed had been put in for Barbara, who had shown up for the meal. The table was full of chatter, stolen food, and so much life. Danny didn’t have the energy to participate much, but it didn’t matter when he was surrounded by all of that. Best of all, Tim didn’t seem hindered in the least from what he had been through. He was still Tim, just with a little extra. It was the better than Danny could have hoped for when he found Tim on the edge of death due to those damned false owls—

Tim stopped what he was doing and jerked his head towards Danny so suddenly that all the rest of the table froze. It was like everything had suddenly died away and Danny hated it.

“I’m okay, Hummingbird,” Danny tried to soothe. “I was just thinking that I have some clean up to do once I’m well enough.”

Tim frowned. “You’re going after the Court of Owls?”

“Is that what they’re called? I like false owls better,” Danny admitted.

“False owls?” Dick asked. “Why are they false?”

Danny blinked at Dick. “Because they aren’t real, not like you are. I—sorry, that’s…” Danny rubbed at his eyes. “Ever since this transformation of mine started, I’ve been thinking of certain people in terms of birds. I hadn’t really put it all together until after… everything.”

“Put what together?” Dick asked. “I… am I an owl?”

Danny hummed in confirmation as he tried to put everything into words that they could understand. “Ghosts… and halfa’s aren’t immune from it, we just get away with more, have haunts. Just like you would think in a traditional sense, a place or sometimes a thing, that we are attached to. With our haunts might come ‘fraids, a group of people or souls that are… ours. Ours not in so much a possessive way as a protective way.”

Some of the table nodded as Danny paused. He had to say this, he knew, but he still wasn’t ready. “I haven’t had a haunt since I left my home town which I used to protect. My sisters and two friends are still in my ‘fraid, as are my sister’s family, but it’s a different sort of thing with them so far away and out of my haunt. Frostbite seems to think… and well I don’t think he’s wrong… that I’ve started counting many of you as part of my ‘fraid. It’s why when Tim was taken I noticed so quickly and went so… feral about it.”

“We are that important to you?” Damian asked in a small little voice.

It made Danny look up. “Of course, chickadee. I—it may have started with the attack at WE or perhaps… you all are rather liminal. It likely made it easier for me to form that connection… and though it still feels sudden I know…”

“Danny,” Bruce interrupted. “I think that there is something we need to show you, before things go any further. It might clear up a few things.”

“I—okay?”

“Please don’t be so surprised,” Dick said. His hands twitched like he wanted to reach out, pull Tim close, and never let go. It was probably only the fact that Damian was resting against him that stopped Dick.

“I just—I mean… it’s not like it’s the first time anyone of us have…”

“And you of all people know how poorly we handled that,” Bruce said. He brushed his fingers through Tim’s hair. “We were scared, all of us. When Duke found out that it was the owls…”

“Bruce made me wait for backup,” Duke said. He was on the edge of the bed, fiddling with his phone.

“Because we would have been just as scared to lose you,” Bruce said firmly.

Duke blinked back. “Oh.”

“Oh my God, you all need hugs!” Dick gave up on staying still and lunged for Duke, taking him down with a flail and a squawk. “You’re my little brother too! Of course we’d be fucked up if something happened to you!”

“We were beyond fortunate to have Jason come back to us,” Bruce said, sure to meet Jason’s gaze as he said that. “Usually miracles only happen once. To have you still with us, Tim, after that… I was afraid, when the signals disappeared. When all we found was blood. I thought I would have to bury another son.”

“But you seem really calm,” Tim pointed out.

“I’m compartmentalizing,” Bruce said honestly and with a wry smile. “Right now I have a job to do in making sure that everyone is alright.”

“Maybe… don’t break down alone this time,” Dick suggested. He was still wrapped tightly around Duke and had somehow gotten Damian into the hug too, so his words were a little muffled.

Bruce raised a pointed brow. “If you agree not to, then I will too.”

“Fuck. Fine,” Dick agreed with a sigh.

“I’ll look after the idiot,” Jason promised and nudged Dick and his cuddle pile with his foot.

“I can so escape you.”

“You can fucking try.”

“Can too.”

“Can fucking not.”

“No,” Danny mumbled stubbornly.

The voice gave a little snort of amusement. “You just want to avoid the conversation.”

“Mm… what conversation?” Danny asked the voice before a jaw cracking yawn.

“The passing out on the floor because you’re an idiot conversation,” a new voice groused. Oh, it was the fruitcrow. Poor bird… Danny hoped that Frostbite could help him.

“Jason,” a true owl reprimanded from close by, “though he’s not wrong.”

Owl owl owl… the false owls! Tim! Danny shot up from the soft nest and instantly regretted everything as pain lanced through him. A cuss was caught in his teeth, hissed out as a breathless gasp of air as his back spasmed.

“Father?” the chickadee sleepily asked.

“It will be alright, Damian. Danny, I know it must hurt, but you have to try and relax,” the voice said. Those same, soft hands, worn by years of handling the world, rubbed at Danny’s back, just under his wings and right where the muscles were cramping. Fingers pressed in expertly, and Danny just about collapsed back onto the bed with a wheeze. “Jason—”

“Already getting them, old man,” the fruitcrow—Jason said.

“Danny, which of your medications do you need right now?”

“Muscle relaxant first, two,” Danny managed to say.

“Those ones,” hummingbird said, sleep still clinging to his voice.

There were the sound of bottles and pills moving around before Danny was moved upright again. He poorly bit back a scream, the pain still radiating even as he was leaned back against what must be Bruce’s chest. He wasn’t even fully upright, but it was still enough that tears squeezed through his tightly clenched eyes.

Bruce wiped them away. “I know.”

A hand pressed against Danny’s mouth, and he wanted to recoil out of instinct.

“Sorry,” Dick said. “Open up, okay? It’s just two muscle relaxants and then water.”

Even swallowing felt like effort, but Danny managed to get the pills down even if it left him panting in pain. His left arm twitched with it, phantom (still not funny) jolts of electricity.

“We found your daily pill case. Can we give you everything from the evening slot for today?” Dick continued.

“Yeah, need to… get back…,” Danny managed before he had to swallow through another full body jolt of pain. “Sorry. Back on them.”

“Okay, that’s next then. Just them and then more water,” Dick said. Danny was ready for the hand this time and it was easier to swallow the pills back. “That’s a great idea, Cass. Some of those rice ones, okay? That will be easiest right now.”

“I will go with,” Damian said. His talons were—feet. His feet were light as the two of them left the nest.

And it hurt to have them gone. No, it shouldn’t. They weren’t his fledglings. They weren’t fledglings. They weren’t fledglings and weren’t his and it wasn’t a nest. It was okay that they were gone. They would be back and it would be fine.

Bruce’s fingers were on Danny’s back again, working the jolts of pain back with expert fingers. Danny made himself focus on the touch instead of the feelings of need and hurt and want and loss and—

Damian and Cass came back with blissfully warm hot packs that were tucked around Danny as he was settled back into the nest—bed—soft. It was okay. His muscle relaxants would kick in and the pain would fade and it would be okay.

“Is it weird that it feels weird going home?” Tim asked. He wasn’t fidgeting, he wasn’t, but his wings were maybe fluttering slightly.

Danny’s wing moved to curl around him. “No, Hummingbird, it make perfect sense to me. You’ve changed. Home will be different for you now. That’s not bad or good, it just is.”

“How do I deal with it?”

“By relying on those that you’re closest to,” Danny said. “I had my two best friend and my sister. They helped me deal with it. They also made things harder sometime, but that’s just life. You have so many people you can count on, with your family, and you also have me.”

“Thanks,” Tim said. He took a deep breath (well ‘breath’, he didn’t exactly breathe right then) and nodded. “Okay, let’s go home.”

Danny reached out and sliced a tear through reality as if it was nothing. It was fascinating to watch. Maybe if Tim asked nicely, Danny would let Tim take some readings of the effect sometime. They might be able to revolutionize the zeta tubes with it.

Tim shook the thoughts away as Danny gently nudged him forward with his wing. Going through the portal felt, for a moment, like being covered in the fuzz of static electricity. There was also a pulling in the center of Tim’s chest, like something didn’t want him to leave the Infinite realms. It felt like something popped, like one of those toys you press onto the table and then it springs up when the spring constant overcomes the friction. Tim wondered if Danny felt it too.

Tim’s family was waiting on the other side. All of them, even those that weren’t family officially. Steph’s smile looked a little watery. Tim made sure to smile back.

Alfred was the first to speak. “Welcome home, Master Tim.”

Bruce, never good with words when it mattered, just opened up his arms. Tim barreled into the hug without a thought.

“I want… can I go human?” Tim asked.

“Of course,” Danny answered, hearing the question even as muffled by Bruce’s warm turtleneck as it was. “Just remember your lessons and don’t rush it.”

Tim nodded, closed his eyes, and took one of those breaths that he didn’t need. He had to focus inside himself, to his core. He still wasn’t sure what that was, exactly, but he thought of it like centering himself during meditation. And then he sort of… flipped his personal reality. There were gasps and little noises from the group as a sensation of cold washed over Tim, and then it faded.

He opened his eyes and breathed.

“Do we need to do anything about the wounds you received in this form?” Bruce asked and pulled back enough to look Tim in the eyes.

“Nope. Seem’s Danny’s whole… thing saving me did most of it, though I’ve got a pretty fresh scar still, but it’s hardly anything,” Tim said.

Bruce closed his eyes and did one of his patiently breathing things.

“Hardly anything,” Jason parroted. “Kid goes and dies and says it’s hardly anything!”

“Well, not all of us are theater kids like you,” Tim said back with a saccharine smile.

Cass stepped forward and clapped her hands once. “Cake.”

Tim immediately let himself be distracted. “There’s cake?”

“Glad You are Only Mostly Dead’ cake,” Cass confirmed with a nod.

“Amazing, I’m starving. I haven’t eating in, like, a week,” Tim said. He pulled back from Bruce, very ready to head to wherever the cake was. When they did start off, though, he stopped. Something was… “Danny? Aren’t you going to change and come have cake?”

Danny smiled crookedly, sadly. “I better… head out or something.”

“…you said you’d come with me to the Manor.” Tim hated how much like he sounded like a kid right then, but Danny had said he’d be there. He’d be there for Tim coming back and telling Bruce and for the ghost part. He couldn’t go now.

“It’s just… I’ve been in this form too long. Changing back isn’t going to be pretty and I want you to get to enjoy being back,” Danny explained.

“If I may, Master Danny, I am certain that ‘pretty’ or not, everyone would rather you stay close,” Alfred said in his ‘this is not a suggestion’ tone.

“Please stay?” Tim added. He couldn’t do this alone.

Danny ducked his head. “Right, okay. Close your eyes?”

“Why?” Dick asked, a beat later, right before there was a flash of light, a noise of breathless pain, and the sound of a body hitting the floor.

“It is rather fascinating. Your death shows clearly in your life line,” Frostbite said. He pulled up an image of something that looked like complex, multi colored twine on the screen. “This is a typical life line. Usually when death occurs, the thread unravels. As ghosts, these threads of… fate, so to say, persist, but are more of knot or ball of the loose strands.” The image changed to what looked like a knitting project gone really wrong. “Now, halfas are a unique case. Take Phantom’s line, for example.”

Steph raised her hand like she was in class or something. “Should, ah, you be showing us that? Isn’t it personal? Or do ghosts not have HERPA?”

“He has given permission for it to be used to help you all however is needed,” Frostbite explained as he switched the picture. It was like a twine with bits pulled out in little arches or loops, but the line continued strongly anyways. “These ares of disturbance are moments when he has ‘gone ghost’. The biggest descriptions are his deaths.”

“Deaths… as in plural?” Jason asked, voice low and even soft.

Frostbite hummed in confirmation. “Time lines were involved, but yest. When once what he is was taken from him, he died again to continue to protect living and ghosts alike. Fitting that he should become the Ancient of Hope, is it not?”

“…right.” Hope.

Jason… Jason didn’t trust hope. Hope always fucked him over, just when he was starting to have it. Hope his father would turn things around. Hope his mother would stop using. Hope that Bruce would love him. Hope that Sheila would want him. It never worked out. Why would it? There was a reason that hope was in the same box with all the ills of the world that Pandora unleashed. Hope wasn’t good.

“For halfas,” Frostbite continued blithely, “this is typically what we see. Hummingbird already has a mess where he died and was revived by Phantom.”

“Hummingbird? Wait, you mean Tim? Tim is called Hummingbird here?” Steph asked with a grin.

Frostbite nodded. “It is what Phantom named him. Should he not like it, he can change it, of course, but as his progenitor, Phantom’s word holds weight.”

“Progenitor,” Steph repeated in a whisper, still grinning.

Frostbite gave her an amused, if confused look, and continued. “But for you, Jason, we see something very different. There is still a disturbance, a fraying, with your death, but rather than a tangle, the threads become rewoven, so to say, and the resulting line is practically seamless.”

And it really was. The next image was a twine that looked almost unbroken if not for the fact that the colors of it clearly shifted from a high saturation set to a darker one. It was like the line had been mended onto a new one.

Jason swallowed back his unease. “What sort of thing does this?”

“Something very, very powerful,” Frostbite said. And for that moment the full weight of what Frostbite was sat heavy in the room. “Or, perhaps, several powerful things, which is more likely had you not made any pacts with gods or demi-gods before or during your death.”

“Yeah, definitely not.” Jason said, once he could manage. “I don’t even remember being dead.”

“Several powerful things, then,” Frostbite agreed with a not. “Your own magic plays into it heavily, of course.”

“Wait,” Steph threw her arms out as if to hold the conversation back. “Magic? Jason has magic? Since when?!”

“Yeah, that fact is staying in this room, blondie,” Jason said with a glare. “My magic is between me and my flaming swords.”

Steph stared at him with wide eyes. “Flaming swords?!”

Jason just shrugged.

“Right…” Steph said slowly. Jason expected to have to deal with this topic again at the most annoying time possible.

Jason tried to ignore that thought. “What else? I don’t think I’m magic enough to bring myself back.”

“I suspect much of the same thing that has made all of you at least somewhat liminal,” Frostbite said, which was concerning. “This Gotham that you live in must be a rather powerful nexus.”

“Fuck,” Jason sighed and rubbed at his face. “Always sorta figured that Gotham would refuse to let us die.”

“Perhaps,” Frostbite said. “I am afraid that I cannot speak on Gotham’s will without having visited the place myself. Which, I am willing to do if having answers would settle your soul. As long as Phantom is who allows me entrance to the city, it should not cause any, ah, ruffled feathers with Gotham.”

“…yeah, maybe. I’ll think on it,” Jason said. “Just… do you know if it’s going to happen to all of us?”

“I cannot imagine Gotham alone to be powerful enough for such a thing,” Frostbite said, “but I cannot give you absolute certainty of that.”

Great. Sometimes Jason hated Gotham. “Right. Okay. I guess for everyone else we’ll have you come sometime, once things have calmed down.”

Frostbite nodded. “Of course. For the moment, though, your life line looks well settled and secure. You should be just fine to continue as a normal living. Well, one with magic.”

“So, back to that magic,” Steph said.

“Phantom!” Frostbite interrupted again. He grabbed Danny’s shoulders to stop him from pacing. “Like may call to like, but it does not force true attachment.”

“But…”

“You all became close quickly, you said. It was not only them,” Frostbite said. “You did not somehow trick them into this. Did it play a part in you finding each other? Certainly, but that does make it a bad thing.”

Danny glanced away from the other. “It feels like it does.”

“Why? Because you have found a ‘fraid with them? Because you are starting to form a haunt again? There are things you need, Phantom. And those who care for you, like this family, would want to see you taken care of. It does not make you selfish for wanting that nor for gaining it.”

“…it feels like it does.”

“It does not,” Frostbite insists. “Phantom, Danny, let yourself be happy. Let yourself be cared for. You spent too long with the weight of two worlds on your shoulders. You keep saying how you want to live, then let yourself live.”

“I hate it when you make sense,” Danny said with a weak chuckle.

“Unfortunately, I am very good at it,” Frostbite said smugly. “Now, let us go see this revenant that you have brought me.”

“Go easy with him,” Danny urged. “He’s easily spooked. I don’t think any of them have ever really come to terms with his death.”

Frostbite snorted. “It will be fine. You know I have an excellent, what is it you call it, bedside manner.”

Danny just sighed and didn’t argue. At least if Jason tried to attack Frostbite out of panic it wouldn’t do any harm. Danny’s strained relationship with Jason would be a whole other story.

“Frostbite, this is Jason and Damian, two other son’s of Bruce. And this is Stephanie, a family friend,” Danny introduced once they neared. “Everyone, this is Frostbite the leader of the yeti and my doctor. He’s also been overseeing Tim’s healing process.”

Damian stepped up with a jut of his chin. “If you bring harm to any of my brothers, I will find a way to end you, ghost or not.”

Danny hid his smile behind a hand as Frostbite just chuckled at the threat. “I am sure that you would, little bird. But there will be no need for that. My only goal is to help and heal.”

“Um, so how does that work exactly?” Stephanie asked. “Like, ghosts are already dead, so what needs healing? Sorry if that’s rude?”

“Only a little,”Frostbite said with a chuckle. “One must remember that while we are not ‘living’, ghosts still are. We are still beings that exist, and most anything that exists can be destroyed.”

“Oh…,” Steph bit her lip, obviously taking a moment in thought before she asked, “Can I watch you work? I want to go into medical when I get into college.”

“If Tim and Jason are alright with it,” Frostbite said with a fond little smile. “I am always happy to share my knowledge.”

“He keeps talking about making me sit through lessons,” Tim said in a loud whisper.

“You and me both, Hummingbird,” Danny replied with a chuckle. “I kept telling him I’d do it when I’m fully dead, but I think he’s going to manage to get both of us to sit through them now.”

“Ah, my evil plot comes to fruition,” Frostbite said dryly. “But for the moment, Jason, are you willing to let me look you over?”

Jason crossed his arms as he looked Frostbite over. “Only if I can say no at any time.”

“Of course. Right this way.” Frostbite motioned towards a door.

“Yeah. Come on, Steph,” Jason said with a jut of his head and followed Frostbite out.

“He’s afraid of you,” Tim said once they were gone. He sounded confused.

Danny hummed. “I’m sure to him I feel like Death, like the Reaper come to get him back.”

Tim tilted his head. “But you don’t to me.”

“Because you’re already dead. Being half living doesn’t change that. But Jason isn’t. He came back fully—or fully enough that he’s still living enough to fear death.”

“Oh.” Tim looked back towards the door that Jason had gone through. “Will… will he be afraid of me too now?”

“I don’t think so, Hummingbird,” Danny said. He gave into the urge to brush his wings against Tim’s. “Jason already knows you. He doesn’t exactly trust me yet. That makes what I am scary. Besides, I’m a much more powerful ghost than you.”

“For now,” Tim said.

No, Tim had died as Tim. It was a weird place to draw the line, but drawing it helped. It wasn’t that a Robin had died, but that another of Bruce’s… sons had. And again not all the way.

Jason scratched at an old scar. They still didn’t know how he had come back. Jason had always said that Gotham had refused to let him stay in her dirt. Maybe there was more to that than he’d known. Maybe they weren’t meant to die. Bruce was Gotham’s—her son, her prince, her protector. It was a legacy that he could never leave behind. Maybe he couldn’t. Maybe she wouldn’t let him, let any of them. Jason didn’t really like that idea.

“You good?” Steph asked quietly.

Jason just shrugged. He didn’t really have an answer to that. He hoped that seeing Tim in the not so living flesh would help, but he wasn’t sure if it would. As selfish as it was, a large part of his issues weren’t about Tim but himself. He’d been dead for six months, but he didn’t remember ever being a ghost. Did he not become one?

If he hadn’t, where had his soul been?

“Damian,” Bruce sighed, “please leave your sword here at home.”

Jason glanced over to see Damian giving Bruce the driest look possible. “Tim is being kept by unknown entities, Father. I aim to be prepared.”

“Tim is at a medical facility,” Bruce said. “I am not asking you to leave all of your blades, just the obvious one. These are healers, Damian.”

Damian jutted his chin up, regarding Bruce for a long moment before he handed over his katana.

“Thank you, Damian.”

Damian walked over to Jason without responding to Bruce. “You have your guns?”

“Of course,” Jason said. He also had his All-Blades, but he still wasn’t ready to have that conversation with the others.

Bruce sighed behind them.

Jason ignored him. “Sure you don’t want to come, Barbie?”

“I’m not very fond of being places my technology doesn’t work,” Babs replied. “I’ll stay here and keep doing research into the Ghost Zone and Infinite Realms. So far, I can tell you that we’re going to get a lot of conflicting information.”

“I’ll contact Zatanna,” Bruce said and reluctantly added, “and Constantine.”

Jason snorted. “Have fun with that. Suddenly I’m glad that we’re running off to another realm.”

“Do try to contain yourself,” Damian said.

Jason reached out and ruffled the kid’s hair. He had to dodge some pointy elbows, but worth it. Damian was still trying to fix his little spikes when reality ripped open.

And wasn’t that something.

The tear started, then talons split through the rupture, and then, like a hole in an old t-shirt, the world split into a purple void. And there Danny was, standing in the middle of it. Or… a version of Danny at least.

While before Danny concerned Jason some, this version of Danny set Jason on high alert. This was something other. Something unknown. This was more than a predator, this was a being beyond caring about such things. And Danny’s entire focus was on Jason.

“Oh.” Danny stepped forward through the tear.

Jason stepped back.

Danny froze. Not even a strand of hair or feather moved. Then, slowly and carefully, he held his hands out to the sides as if showing that he wasn’t a threat, which was a damn lie.

“I’m not threat to you, Jason.”

A damn lie.

“Really, I’m not,” Danny insisted. “You’re just feeling my power in a way the others can’t. It’s overwhelming, I’m sure, and I understand why it might be frightening if you haven’t felt it since.”

Bruce stepped up between them, and suddenly instead of running, Jason felt like hiding behind his dad. He shook the feeling away.

“Jason died,” Danny said simply. Jason flinched. “It wasn’t a coma like you said, he died.”

“…yes,” Bruce confirms. “The coma is a cover story for how he came back. Saying he actually died doesn’t really work for most people.”

Danny smiled a little. “Luckily I’m not most people.”

“What are you?” Jason asked. His hands itched to form his blades.

“A fledgling Ancient. And apparently saving Tim made that all the more noticeable to other ghosts. You aren’t one, of course, you’re fully alive, but you’re also far more than liminal.” Danny paused and looked at the family gathered around like he’s seeing them for the first time. “And you are all rather liminal. Which I suppose explains somethings…”

“I think we’ll have a lot to talk about once Tim is well enough to come home,” Bruce said.

Holy shit, Bruce was going to tell Danny about being Bats.

Jason frowned. “Bruce…”

Bruce turns to him, but ignores the unsaid question. “If you aren’t comfortable going with Danny, that’s perfectly alright. Tim will understand, once it’s explained.”

“If you do want to go still,” Danny added, “then you can speak to Tim’s doctor also, both about Tim and about yourself.”

Answers, he might be able to have some answers finally… “I’m going. I need to see that Tim hasn’t gotten himself into any more trouble since dying.”

“If you change your mind at any point, You can come right back,” Danny said.

“Sure.”

“Right,” Danny finally starts moving like something affected by the world around them and claps his hands together. “Round two into the portal then! We’ll go directly to Tim.

Right, just into the portal… easy.

Just… it was a lot. Tim was still trying to deal with the fact that Bruce was biologically his father, and now he had a ghost father? Because his ghost form was made from Danny’s life force? Because Tim was a ghost now?!

“It’s okay to be freaking out right now,” Danny said, gently, as he sat next to Tim.

“Is it that obvious?” Tim hoped it wasn’t, he didn’t want to worry people.

Danny gave a little shrug. “Ghosts are basically emotions held together by thought and a lot of ectoplasm. It makes it easy for us to read them in others, especially other ghosts.”

“Oh.” Tim picked at his nail beds. Emotions, he’d never been great at those. But sure enough there was this this other… sense, almost. “What… what is it I’m feeling from you then?”

“Guilt. Guilt and worry,” Danny answered.

“Guilt?”

“About changing you. It was the only way to save you, but I still changed you immensely without your permission,” he explains. “…did I do the right thing, Tim? Is this what you would have chosen if I could have asked first?”

“What? Yeah, of course. Danny, you saved me!”

“Part of you.”

Tim rolled his eyes and leaned over to bump into Danny’s side. “Yeah, you know, I think that being part alive is better than not alive at all.”

Finally, Danny smiled a little. “Okay. I just wanted to check. I know how hard it is to change so suddenly. And you’re even having to deal with wings right away.”

“Yeah, but now I can run my own tests on the wings,” Tim pointed out. “And you already know how to put them away. Wait, will I even get them in my, um, human form? You’re, like, a special ghost, right? So the rules might be different.”

Danny hummed. “Well, we’re both halfas which make us ‘special ghosts’, but you’re right that I’m more than that too. Since your ghost form is, ah, made from mine, I think that we’ll just have to take it one step at a time with you. Luckily, Frostbite loves to figure things out and test them too.”

That made Tim perk up. “We can have a science day!”

“We can,” Danny agreed with a chuckle. “Several, I think.”

“Good,” Tim said. He leaned over to rest against Danny’s side. Their wings brushed together. “It’s funny, isn’t it? I came to you because I was freaking out about Bruce being my dad and now I’ve got you as my dad too.”

Danny ran talon tipped fingers through Tim’s white hair. “Yeah, hummingbird, it’s very funny.”

Tim didn’t want to ask, but he had to. “Do you mind…? Being my dad?”

“Honey, no, of course not.” Danny said before he pressed a kiss to the top of Tim’s head. “I told you that I can’t imagine not caring for you and that hasn’t changed one bit. I will need to teach you how to kick Skulker’s ass, though, before he tries to mount your pelt to his wall.”

Tim reared back to look up at Danny. “I’m sorry, who and what?!”

Danny just laughed. “Another ghost. He’s a big game hunter and halfas are pretty rare. But don’t worry, he’s not that hard to beat.”

“Right, sure, a ghost hunter,” Tim grumbles. “Not a ghost hunter, but like, a ghost hunter. Ugh, this is all so weird.”

“And you haven’t even met the dragons yet.”

“…now you’re just fucking with me.”

“Nope. Dora is great though, nothing like her relatives. She will try to teach you etiquette though so always have an out planned when you visit her.”

Tim sighed and slumped against Danny again. “I have so much to learn.”

“So, I’m half ghost now,” Tim said after Danny had finished his explanation. “I—I mean, okay. I’m half ghost, I have wings, I look different… but what does that mean?”

Danny cringed. “The wings aren’t exactly normal. That would me my fault, since I’m the one who made you into a halfa instead of letting you die.”

“…right.”

“As for the rest,” Danny said before taking a deep breath. “You have this ghost form now. Once you learn how, you’ll be able to change between it and your human form at will. In your human form, almost everything will be the same… at least I’m hoping so. You might end up with some chronic pain from your death. I did, but my resurrection was much more… volatile. There are a lot of other compounding issues to me health too like contaminated food and being injured with weapons meant specifically for ghosts.”

That had all of the Bats sitting up a little straighter.

Danny blinked at the sudden intense focus on him. “It’s fine. It’s just… so, right, my parents are ectobiologists, right? They went the capture and experiment direction rather than catch and release. And I—this for form I mean, Phantom, was around a lot because I had to fight or contain the other ghosts once the portal was open. Like I said earlier. So, my parents pretty much saw me as a menace even if what I did was helping them and the town. There was a lot of hunting me.

“Jesus Christ,” Dick murmured.

“Still hunted?” Cass asked from where she was pressed against Dick’s side.

“No, anahinga, I’m alright now. The portals are closed and I’m done playing hero,” Danny said. “It’s not sustainable for me, even if I needed to be. Being in this form for long makes all my chronic conditions worse.”

“And… your parents?” Tm asked, worried about Danny being hunted.

Danny shrugged. “We just don’t really talk much. They never learned about this form of mine so I’m pretty much off their radar. My sister knows, though, as do my two best friends.”

“If that ever changes…” Bruce started.

“I’m sure it won’t, but I’ll let you know,” Danny said and squeezed Bruce’s hand. “And don’t worry either, Tim, you’ll never meet them.”

“Sure.” Tim doubted that, looking at Bruce and Danny’s joined hands. Surely Danny’s parents would come once the news got out?

Danny just waved the matter aside with his free hand. “Besides, right now the important thing is teaching you how to change forms. After that, we’ll need to work on your powers.”

“…what sort of powers?”

“Well, you should have intangibility, invisibility, and flight—all ghosts do,” Danny explained. “But you’ll likely develop powers that are specific to you, if you keep learning. And if you do keep learning, I know a number of very good ghosts to learn from.”

Tim frowned. “But… not you?”

“I’ll be there every step of the way if you want me to,” Danny promised, “but my powers grew in a really odd way. I don’t know if I would be a good teacher, not like Pandora or Frostbite.”

“Yes, Danny?” one of the yeti called from across the room. Because ghost yeti’s were a thing.

Danny chuckled. “Just saying how you’re a good teacher. Frostbite will also be your doctor. He’s been looking after me for decades now and is easily the leading expert on halfas.”

“I do my best,” Frostbite said and sauntered closer to the group, “but every halfa is unique to each other. Phantom is hardly the same as Plasmius or Specter. I expect that while you will be a unique case too, that you will align more with Phantom than the others.”

Tim tilted his head. “Why is that?”

“You both came back from a sudden instance of death,” Frostbite explained, “and considering the wings… well, while Plasmius is his godfather and Specter his clone—”

Dick jolted. “His what?”

“—you are much more like his child, from a ghost perspective.”