Vlad, Dan and Dani move across dimensions to Gotham because of some bad stuff happening in their own dimension. Vlad has a lot of his money with him in cash, and they quickly get themselves fake id's as father and his two children. Vlad's plan is to keep low profile, wait it out and then return. Dan and Dani don't care about Vlad's plan.
Vlad is shady, Dan and Dani are causing shenanigans, and a bunch of coincidences leads to people believing that they're some sort of mafia family.
Some idiots try to rob Dani and she blurts out "Do you know who my dad is?". Dan emerges from the shadows, sends Dani off and makes extremely specific and detailed threats of slow and painful death to the would-be robbers. He finishes the speech by adding that they would be wishing for him to do all of that if his and Dani's father found out about the robbery.
Then Dan accidentally recruits a group of goons by beating up their boss and feeling kinda responsible for the henchmen.
Then Dani steals the talons.
Dan has a fight over territory with one of the smaller rogues.
Dani steals Scarecrow's chemicals.
All the while they keep convincing people that this is all a part of some bigger plan of Masters family. First it's just a misunderstanding, then they keep doing it to annoy Vlad. Some people think that Masters is just a surname, some think that Master is a rogue's name. After a while everyone knows that there's an up-and-coming crime family.
Vlad is entirely oblivious. He doesn't know shit. He ends up making a small organisation (restaurant? car repair shop?) to hire people who keep coming to him. He's not sure why his children tell all these people that he can help but they are in trouble, so he helps. And then helps again, and again. All the places he opens look like crime fronts.
Vlad is still unaware that he's a mob boss.
Maybe at some point Dan and Dani think that Vlad figured this out (because its obvious) but doesn't say anything because the police has bugged their house or because he wants plausible deniability.
Obviously all of this ends with the Bats deciding to confront Masters. It's also the perfect moment for Danny to enter.
Here, have a shitty meme showing the moment.
Danny: I left you here fOR ONE MONTH
Vlad: It's not my fault!
Danny: I figured. Dani, if I give you a candy, will you tell me what the hell you've done?
Dani: What kind of candy?
Danny, handing out a Yellow Lantern ring: A Ring Pop.
Dani, snatching it: We accidentally started a mob family :D
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Congrats, my friend! I saw you're taking prompts. I love the idea of Dan actually still being a half ghost. Him discovering he still is part human or becoming human again would be interesting.
First of all how dare you! this is evil! how dare you call me out unknowingly about my unfinished, currently very much neglected plans I mean as, khm... thank you! ❤️
And this prompt bothered inspired me as much that I wrote this in anger one-sitting... (I hope it fits! 🤗)
(I have a wip - that I ignore for months again by now - which might fit this concept even better, but now, I wanted to write something else that would turn out independent from that, so then, here it is...)
(I might upload it later to ao3 too in a form of a prompt collection or something, but only later...)
- - -
It couldn't be true what he saw, but yet, it was.
He knew it... was - as much his mind tried to deny it. The proof was in front of him after all, even on repeat if he wished like that - if he asked kindly at least the Masters of Time to rewind it and play it again for him. But that request would mean and that would tell that he couldn't perceive it, that it must have caught him by surprise - it didn't, of course, it didn't, that would have been a lie, stating that…
Dan took an unaware step back, shaking his head.
"No, this is not... right. This is not... not the--"
"--truth?" Clockwork worded it for him.
It took him a great effort to keep back a snarl over the sorry tone.
"This is not how it happened!" Dan waved toward the damned screen that just showed him that day. "This is not--I can--"
"--remember to it?" The purple ghost tilted his head to the side, pointing out the glitch in the famously faulty memory.
"Yes," Dan hissed. "I remember it, and this is not how it happened! I killed--"
"--Daniel? Your human half? The one that gave you mass?" The ghost listed.
"What...?"
"Ghosts can't recall their death." Clockwork began the tale, moving his gloved hand in the air slowly and the just-manifested picture on the screen disappeared. The eternal swirling green returned like nothing had happened a moment ago, like nothing world-twisting had been revealed.
"Can you recall your death then, that's what you are saying, every piece of it? Or, should I say, every fragment of ending Daniel's life then?" Clockwork asked.
Dan frowned, but then as the hooded ghost turned towards him with a rose eyebrow, he snapped. "It's irrelevant! I'm not Danny!"
Dan couldn't tell whether it was a curse or a desperate wish for it not to be true, because if it was true, then... No, he had no clue what it meant if it was true. Danny couldn't be still a part of him. He could have known. He should have felt it - him - through the years... He should have--
Then, his fingers unconsciously tightened over his chest - he didn't notice his arm slipped up or since when he was fidgeting over his core strangely, like there would be some uncomfortability underneath…
There was that odd aching lately, spreading caustic warmness through him and... And sometimes there was that sharp pain, like a stab, twisting and twisting as if in a way of conscience over his done actions...
No, he did not care about others, he did not–yet.
The what if made him wonder now...
What if what Clockwork's screen showed to him was true, what if he was for real still Danny in a way...
What it would mean for him?
"You see it now, aren't you?" Clockwork asked him then some minutes later in a low voice - there was a pity, some understanding over his struggling mind...
"Oh, shut up!" Dan slapped his hand down to his side, turning away from the ghost and showing his caped back instead - though he was sure his flickering hair still reflected his disturbed mind even when he tried to be out of plain sight for the other ghost.
Then after a long, silent second, Dan spoke again, his mind getting clearer and clearer.
"Me and Danny... It always felt like an unfinished business because it was always an unfinished business..." He voiced his slowly going ahead train of thoughts. "Because I am him."
"It's more like to he is you." The Master of Time phrased it right.
Repressing an eye-roll, Dan remained quiet. Suddenly he let his mind drift about how he could have looked with a solid, human body...
He marked his gloved fingers, trying to imagine the usual turquoise colour in a human pastel one...
If he closed his eyes, faintly he could recall Danny. But only the fourteen (or fifteen) years old one. And what he was now? Twenty-five? So many years passed…
No, he couldn't even be sure how old he was in fact. The years seemed endless and now he could feel on his shoulders the pulling weight of the elapsed time.
For a thought, Dan dared to imagine another life. A twenty-five-year-old Danny's, with his old hopes and dreams...
Surely, now all of those childish, naive dreams felt ridiculous, especially in retrospect. Funny was all.
So then, dismissing to visualizing another (better?) world, Dan opened up his eyes, blew out a long breath, and first, after ten years attempted to recall the feeling of his transformation: as the light enveloped his body all those years ago and how chilly it felt when he changed to Phantom and how warm when he turned to human… Both were welcoming.
There was a mocking note, back in his mind over the impossible image that he would turn back to Danny now if he tried, but Dan exiled that mental laughing in the most locked corner of his mind - to the place where all his painful memories lay about his family, where all his cries about his loss were pushed through the years...
Then, something flickered. It was some odd, abstract mix of black and white around his hip and over the familiar sight his breathing peaked.
No, it couldn't be happening. It just... couldn't.
But at the moment, he hoped, so hoped it was true.
(And he knew it was.)
Dan didn't dare to open up his eyes until the light travelled through him. Instead, his fingers clenched over his chest, fingertips pressing against his skin... Despite checking whether he managed to change or not, the soft drumming was enough - said enough.
For once, after ten years, Dan again felt being home.
