cjsmalley

[cjsmalley]

The Double Attack:

Inspired by: https://www.tumblr.com/pixie-stick-it-to-the-man/785992749131382784/i-like-the-idea-of-damian-using-real-swords-from?source=share

The first thing InuYasha did after he gained ownership of Tessaiga was to contact his older brothers Damian and Harry.

“Damian might not be an assassin—” InuYasha explained to Kagome who startled.

“What? Assassin?”

“But one of his hobbies is swordsmanship,” InuYasha ignored her interruption as they walked to Harry’s shop, “and Harry’s almost a Master enchanter.”

“Harry…the brother who enchanted our tent?” Kagome tried not to look around; they were in some sort of alley bursting with magical shops and bustling with magical people.

She certainly felt out of place in her school uniform.

InuYasha led her to a shop as he nodded, “Yeah. Here we are.”

He held open the door and let her in first.

The first thing she noticed was that the shop was much bigger than the storefront had led her to believe.

“’Yasha,” said one of men, Kagome recognized him as a Phantom but couldn’t place his name.

“Harry,” InuYasha greeted, going in for a manly hug, then addressing the second man, “Dami.”

He stepped back and introduced, “This’s Higurashi Kagome—remember the Japanese do last names first. Kagome, my brothers Damian and Harry.”

Kagome gave a show bow.

Harry smiled and led them through the shop and into a workroom, “Where’s this new sword of yours, ‘Yasha?”

InuYasha pulled the sheath from his pants and handed it over, Harry received it with some reverence as Damian leaned in and began asking questions.

InuYasha couldn’t tell them much, as Myoga hadn’t told him much, but he told them all he knew.

Harry unsheathed the sword and the men looked at it in its’ dormant state; Damian shook his head, “If I did not know better, I would say this is a very poorly maintained sword. Can you activate it for us, InuYasha?”

InuYasha nodded and took the sword; it turned massive in his grasp, the curve of a fang from the Great Inuyoukai Lord himself.

Upon the sight of it, Harry began rummaging around in a drawer to pull out a strange pf goggles with many different lenses over one eye. He donned them and fiddled with the lenses as he clearly cast spell after spell with his free hand.

“Amazing,” the wizard breathed out, “it’s channeling your youkai essence almost like a wizard’s wand! There’re some enchantments on it that I’ve never even heard of!”

“Your vassal claimed this was made of your biological father’s fang?” Damian questioned, “as in his incisor? From his jaw?”

“Yes.”

“Marvelous, simply marvelous,” Harry was still studying the blade, “I can actually see the tooth, Dami. It’s the root of the blade! We simply must see this in action.”

He hurriedly packed a small bag of instruments and then they portaled to a forest.

“No muggles around for miles, or magicals for that matter,” Harry chuckled, pulling something from his bag and enlarging it before setting it behind everyone.

It was a bunker, like the ones one would see at a heavy artillery range.

He shuffled Kagome into it, Damian following, and sealed it.

“Now, InuYasha, he said through a loudspeaker on the front of the bunker, “use your most powerful attack possible.”

InuYasha shrugged, faced away from them, and let loose, “Wind Scar!”

The devastation was immediate and undeniable; a twisted and torn scar, like a meteor had hit, had been created, destroying, ripping up a line of tree..

“Interesting.” Harry hummed, waving his wand to take notes with floating parchment and a self-propelled quill scribbling away.

“You saw something?” Kagome questioned.

“It’s magic, of a type. I cannot do it, but I can see it as clear as day,” Harry nodded, “I also don’t think that’s the strongest possible attack. Just the strongest he has access to right now. I also have an idea for making this…Wind Scar more powerful.”

He bid Kagome to grab her bow and arrows, which she did using a portal ball, and join InuYasha.

“Now,” said Harry through the loudspeaker, “I want Kagome to fire her arrow at the height of the attack!”

It took some time, and different positions tried, that they found out a way to make it work.

Kagome was firing over InuYasha’s shoulder, her legs locked around his waist from the back; he was holding her bum with one hand, in any other situation one might assume that he was copping a feel and let loose the Wind Scar despite only holding the sword with one hand.

At the pinnacle of the build-up, right before the attack launched, Kagome saw what InuYasha must have been seeing, a jagged fissure of youkai energy.

A sense of serenity and knowing came over her and she charged up the arrow she had notched to the bow.

She fired just as the Wind Scar launched.

The two attacks combined, merciless, and tore a worse path of destruction than the Wind Scar alone.

It left the two of them panting and InuYasha’s head slightly singed on the side where the purifying arrow had flown past him; InuYasha dropped to his knees, hands holding up his weight. Tessaiga transformed back to its’ dormant disguise.

Kagome had to force her legs to unclench from him, as her joints had locked in trying to support her weight, and fell back onto her bum, she then ended up laying down, looking to the sky with her knees still folded and in the air.

The attack was powerful, yes, but clearly just a last resort attack. It left them too weakened otherwise.

“Bravo! Bravo!” Harry and Damian were coming from the bunker and clapping, impressed looks on their faces, “Bravo! That at least tripled both attacks’ power! I think if you practice, you shan’t be so winded.”

“Father will no doubt began able to secure locations for your practice,” Damian agreed, eying the blown back trees and gouged earth.

They helped the other two up and the four staggered back through a portal to Harry’s shop where they had some fortifying tea.

Wished Away Master Post:

Part 1 with original prompt:

Part Two:

Part 3:

Part Four:

Part 5:

Part Six:

Part 7:

Part 8,

Part 9, check the reblogs:

Part 10:

[cjsmalley]

Sam Dreams of Dan:

“Hello, Mother.”

Sam knew she was dreaming, remembered going to sleep in her bed, but to be face to face with Dan still rather scared her.

She was sure she could love, and already did love, the baby she carried but the hulking man somehow visiting her dream….

“Hello, Dan,” she still said softly even as he turned to look at her fully, sympathy and pity in every syllable. It was true; she pitied the monster. Pitied the Phantom that had been so twisted by grief and fear and anger that he became monstrous. Vlad’s side couldn’t have helped either.

“You still fear me,” he observed almost gently.

“Yes,” and she did.

“How do you expect to birth and raise me if you fear me?”

“How did I raise Anakin knowing what he turned out to be,” she dismissed his question, “Dan, you became you because of events that no longer happened. Just like Anakin could have become Vader but he didn’t. We have an opportunity to change your Fate.”

Dan remained silent so she continued, “We already love baby you, Dan. Yes, we worry about what you could grow up to be—”

“You’ve already seen what I am.”

“I don’t buy it,” Sam shook her head, “that’s what you were without support, without family. I, for one, don’t believe you would have gone that bad if just one person had survived or Vlad had gotten Danny therapy.”

“Clockwork could have—” Dan raged, hair blossoming into a bonfire and teeth turning to fangs.

“Clockwork gave your father a chance because he bent the rules,” Sam interrupted calmly, “nearly bent them to breaking. The Observants are still angry over that trick. Your entire timeline was an aberration, Dan. Something that should not have come to pass and yet did. I’m sorry you lost everything, Dan. You don’t know how sorry I am. From the bottom of my heart, I’m truly sorry.”

“You mean that.”

It wasn’t a question.

But she replied, “Yes.”

Dan looked at her searchingly, almost pleadingly before nodding curtly, “You will love baby me.”

“Already do.”

“You will not punish him for what I did.”

“Never.

“You will not let others punish him for my actions.”

“Of course not! Nobody will anyways! Baby you is innocent! And everyone knows that!”

Dan searched her again but then nodded, “Thank you…Mother.”

The room dissolved and Sam woke up, hand going to the slight bump she now carried as she breathed harshly.

“Sam?” Danny woke up, sitting up as well, “Is everything okay? Do I need to—”

“I think I talked to Dan,” she interrupted breathlessly.

“What?”

“In my dream. We were in the nursery, and he was asking me questions. He was making sure we’d love the baby him—”

“Of course we do,” his hand joined hers, “it doesn’t matter what a future him did—”

“And I told Dan that,” she nodded, “he seemed…pleased. Then the dream ended. I think it was some weird Bleed Through like Clockwork mentioned could happen. Remember the Chat Blanc dreams?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I do. So you really think it was him?”

“Yeah. Too real not to have been.”

She yawned deeply; Danny smiled warmly, “We love him, Sam. Anything else we’ll handle when it comes to it.”

Yawning, Sam nodded and laid down; Danny spooned her from the back, hand on her bump.

He was right; they loved Dan. Anything else was for the future them to handle.

Wished Away 10

A Mother-Daughter Talk:

“When I first started a relationship with the Doctor,” Rose began, watching the man in question play with her little brother, their pseudo-daughter, and their actual daughter, “a real one, more than whatever the hell we were doin’ before, he warned me. No kids.”

Jackie gasped, “You mean he didn’t want a—?”

Rose gave a bitter laugh, “No, like, literally. We couldn’t have kids. Too different, genetic wise. He’d need another Time Lord or Lady, that’s what the women were called, Time Ladies, ta…Loom a kid with. He may have the parts, Mum, an’ be able ta use ‘em, but they didn’t make or carry babies like humans do. The babies were…best translation is ‘woven together’ by machines out of two separate DNA sources. Then they were given over ta professionals—like foster-parents almost. Nobody raised their own kids… He isn’t even sure how exactly his granddaughter was related ta him, just that she wasn’t a daughter but was a direct descendant.”

Jackie was gaping at her daughter.

“Not even Bad Wolf makes us compatible, even if we had a Loom. “Cause he’s shootin’ blanks…an’…’m sterile too now…”

“Rose!”

“I don’t…my eggs might still be good, but I don’t ovulate or get monthlies anymore,” Rose explained, “’m frozen, exactly how I was when Bad Wolf took me. Nothing ‘bout me can change permanently. I don’t even scar. Haven’t had to cut or dye my hair since then either. My nails don’t grow. I wasn’t ovulatin’ or bleedin’ so I don’t anymore. I never will again.”

“Oh, Rose…”

“I’d do it again,” Rose assured her mother firmly, “even if ya went back an’ warned me ‘bout all this. I’d’ve taken any help I could to save him…We’re lucky Bad Wolf’s so benevolent. She could stuff me inside my own head permanently an’ there’d be nothin’ we could do ‘bout it. Not even the Doctor.”

“Rose…what did you do?” Jackie whispered shakily, “When you first met Bad Wolf?”

“I don’t remember,” Rose admitted, “Bad Wolf says I traded my life for the Doctor’s—Jack’s only alive cause she was feeling nice—the mortal life an’ death ahead of me. All my possible futures as a mortal human woman, gone. I had one thought, Mum; the Doctor. I had ta get back ta him. Didn’t care ‘bout anythin’ else. Apparently, Clockwork says we’re literal soulmates. I’d’ve survived his death but I would—either grieve for the rest of my life or gone absolutely crazy,” Rose smiled sadly, “an’ I woulda…I didn’t have a kid ta hold on for.”

“Me an’ Pete…?”

“Soulmates, or Bad Wolf says; both of them. Just like Pete here lost his Jackie, you lost your Pete. An’ it was some major meddling for you two ta meet,” Rose’s smile turned brighter, “between you an’ me? Think Bad Wolf had a hand in that somewhere.”

Jackie nodded faintly, before questioning, “What ‘bout Jenny? If you an’ he aren’t compatible then how…?”

“We’re not sure,” Rose shrugged, “after her physical, after we got her home, the Doctor took samples; she belongs ta both of us but we’re both still incompatible an’ sterile. Then he took more samples from her; she’s genetically sound, everythin’ matches up where it should. Time Lord DNA’s doin’ the heavy-liftin’, but she registers as partly human too. Bad Wolf’s not talkin’. Neither is Clockwork.”

Jackie gave a slightly hysterical laugh, “Rose, if you told me years ago that aliens were real I’d’ve thought you drunk! Now here we are, talkin’ about gods an’ immortality! While your alien husband—”

“He’s not my husband,” Rose murmured, an old argument she didn’t really believe anymore.

“Uh-huh—as I was saying, your alien husband plays with your little brother, the girl cloned off you both, an’ the girl you accidentally kidnapped.”

Rose smiled again, lovingly as she looked to her family out on the front lawn of Tyler Mansion.

They had come a long way from Hendriks’ basement.

[cjsmalley]

Pandorica goes differently:

Using the sonic as a microphone, the Doctor spoke; a telly presenter, a match announcer, a gameshow host.

“Hello, Stonehenge!” he cried to his audience of enemies.

He spoke at length, clearly readying for something and buying time, boasting his own victories.

“But, enough about me,” he finally said, holding a hand out, “Let’s talk about my lovely Rose.”

Rose stepped gracefully from the shadows and waved as if walking on stage.

The atmosphere changed; gone was the anticipatory air, the ‘he can’t take us all on’ feeling.

“My lovely Rose,” the Doctor said after kissing her hand, “is very lovely. Very kind. Her alter-ego however…”

The atmosphere changed again, fear in the air as Rose seemed to change without changing; she held herself differently, there was something about her that screamed apex predator beyond what humans usually could.

Bad Wolf was in control.

Bad Wolf didn’t need a microphone or sonic as her voice boomed, “I shall be kind. You have ten Earth minutes, that is 600 Earth seconds, to vanish from my senses. Any who remain shall be destroyed, erased from time itself. My Doctor holds the Pandorica and so it shall remain in his possession. Your time starts…now.”

The Daleks were the first to break and run; no doubt their memory banks told them of the last time they faced the Bad Wolf.

Seeing the Daleks flee, others followed at speed.

It was the first time Rory had seen the full presence of his mother-in-law; that Daleks fled from her?

He had once been told there were two beings in the entire universe that the Daleks feared and he had believed it of the Doctor, the way the man carried himself at the mere speaking of that word. But of Rose?

Never.

Rose was a kind and caring reality-warper, partnered with the so-called Bad Wolf who didn’t seem so bad at all.

Yes, Bad Wolf could be intense about protecting what was hers, something Rory himself counted as, but no more intense than a particularly overprotective and overbearing mother.

But now?

Now Rory believed all the stories.

Bad Wolf visibly let go of her vessel and Rose came back out without even a stumble.

She smiled sunnily up at the Doctor who smiled back.

“You did it,” Amy broke from the cover of the stone they had been surrounding and raced to hug her mother who picked her up and swung her around, “Rassilon! Dad, how were you—?

“Sure?” the Doctor finished, getting his own hug, “Daleks fear one being above all else and when Daleks run you should run too.”

“Good life advice,” Amy laughed, “I’ll have to remember that. Should we add it to the TARDIS rules?”

“Maybe.”

Wished Away 10

A Mother-Daughter Talk:

“When I first started a relationship with the Doctor,” Rose began, watching the man in question play with her little brother, their pseudo-daughter, and their actual daughter, “a real one, more than whatever the hell we were doin’ before, he warned me. No kids.”

Jackie gasped, “You mean he didn’t want a—?”

Rose gave a bitter laugh, “No, like, literally. We couldn’t have kids. Too different, genetic wise. He’d need another Time Lord or Lady, that’s what the women were called, Time Ladies, ta…Loom a kid with. He may have the parts, Mum, an’ be able ta use ‘em, but they didn’t make or carry babies like humans do. The babies were…best translation is ‘woven together’ by machines out of two separate DNA sources. Then they were given over ta professionals—like foster-parents almost. Nobody raised their own kids… He isn’t even sure how exactly his granddaughter was related ta him, just that she wasn’t a daughter but was a direct descendant.”

Jackie was gaping at her daughter.

“Not even Bad Wolf makes us compatible, even if we had a Loom. “Cause he’s shootin’ blanks…an’…’m sterile too now…”

“Rose!”

“I don’t…my eggs might still be good, but I don’t ovulate or get monthlies anymore,” Rose explained, “’m frozen, exactly how I was when Bad Wolf took me. Nothing ‘bout me can change permanently. I don’t even scar. Haven’t had to cut or dye my hair since then either. My nails don’t grow. I wasn’t ovulatin’ or bleedin’ so I don’t anymore. I never will again.”

“Oh, Rose…”

“I’d do it again,” Rose assured her mother firmly, “even if ya went back an’ warned me ‘bout all this. I’d’ve taken any help I could to save him…We’re lucky Bad Wolf’s so benevolent. She could stuff me inside my own head permanently an’ there’d be nothin’ we could do ‘bout it. Not even the Doctor.”

“Rose…what did you do?” Jackie whispered shakily, “When you first met Bad Wolf?”

“I don’t remember,” Rose admitted, “Bad Wolf says I traded my life for the Doctor’s—Jack’s only alive cause she was feeling nice—the mortal life an’ death ahead of me. All my possible futures as a mortal human woman, gone. I had one thought, Mum; the Doctor. I had ta get back ta him. Didn’t care ‘bout anythin’ else. Apparently, Clockwork says we’re literal soulmates. I’d’ve survived his death but I would—either grieve for the rest of my life or gone absolutely crazy,” Rose smiled sadly, “an’ I woulda…I didn’t have a kid ta hold on for.”

“Me an’ Pete…?”

“Soulmates, or Bad Wolf says; both of them. Just like Pete here lost his Jackie, you lost your Pete. An’ it was some major meddling for you two ta meet,” Rose’s smile turned brighter, “between you an’ me? Think Bad Wolf had a hand in that somewhere.”

Jackie nodded faintly, before questioning, “What ‘bout Jenny? If you an’ he aren’t compatible then how…?”

“We’re not sure,” Rose shrugged, “after her physical, after we got her home, the Doctor took samples; she belongs ta both of us but we’re both still incompatible an’ sterile. Then he took more samples from her; she’s genetically sound, everythin’ matches up where it should. Time Lord DNA’s doin’ the heavy-liftin’, but she registers as partly human too. Bad Wolf’s not talkin’. Neither is Clockwork.”

Jackie gave a slightly hysterical laugh, “Rose, if you told me years ago that aliens were real I’d’ve thought you drunk! Now here we are, talkin’ about gods an’ immortality! While your alien husband—”

“He’s not my husband,” Rose murmured, an old argument she didn’t really believe anymore.

“Uh-huh—as I was saying, your alien husband plays with your little brother, the girl cloned off you both, an’ the girl you accidentally kidnapped.”

Rose smiled again, lovingly as she looked to her family out on the front lawn of Tyler Mansion.

They had come a long way from Hendriks’ basement.

[cjsmalley]

Happy Death Day, Danny

Jack headed to the lab like any other morning only to stop dead in his tracks when he found the three teens staring into the portal as if contemplating something. They were slouched together, perhaps too close but comfortable.

A soft, strummed melody broke his stunned gaze as he turned his head to find Ember perched haphazardly on a stool. Her eyes were closed and the melody mournful but also empowering.

He walked closer to the blue ghost and whispered, because he felt like he was intruding on something he didn’t understand, “Ember—”

“The day a ghost dies,” Ember spoke, cutting him off, still with her eyes close and playing that melody, “is…freedom. Despair. No matter how you die, it’s…indescribable, Fenton. Humans can’t get it. Closest you get is actual birth…”

Jack’s heart dropped as he remembered what day it was; the day his son had died, watched by his two friends, in the Portal of his own making. He and Maddie had killed their son. With their portal, with their absentminded neglect.

“Ghosts are drawn back to the site of their deaths,” Ember continued, “year after year. The more painful or unjust, the stronger the pull to return. Even if the house burns down around their bodies. Even if there’s nothing left but an empty lot and an ignored memorial…I’ve never seen Witnesses so drawn though.”

“What—What are they doing?” Jack asked, sneaking a peek at the memorized teens, his voice cracking.

“Who knows? It’s personal to each ghost. Most contemplate their lives, their deaths, their afterlives. The little King might be thinking on the fact that he’s only three years dead and now rules the roost.”

“Is that…young? To be King?”

“He wasn’t supposed to be able to body Dark, Fenton. Not at any age, but as a baby? Yeah, it’s young. He’s a good one so far though, King I mean. There’s a bit of upset about his Chosen Queen. His Council ain’t happy, see? She’s mortal still. But they’re suited. My love spell wouldn’t’ve worked if it wasn’t True and already there…. that level of Obsession…it nearly replaced the Obsession to Protect for a hot minute.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yeah; if I had caught both and had used a lust spell, not a love spell, you woulda been a grandfather that year. No, the love spell didn’t create Love, only acted on what Love was already there. And it had to be Romantic Love…Lust will work on anyone, especially hormonal teenagers.”

Jack nodded jerkily, sneaking another peek, “Why’re you here, Ember?”

She strummed a little more before answering, “I’m here because I’m the only one to give the kiddos straight answers. Ol’ Clocky means well, for everyone, but he’s a cryptic old bastard at the best of time; besides, every time he leaves the Zone the Observants go into snits.”

“Where’s the—”

“With Nanny Clara, of course; at least Damian is. I think Dani’s at her friend’s house for the day.”

“What should we—me and Maddie—do?”

“Honestly, stay out until the kids wake up. I got it covered, and we have guards posted around the town. Everyone respects Death Days so there should be no trouble.”

Jack nodded again and, with one last look at the kids, exited the lab to tell Maddie.

Together they cried.

Wished Away 10

A Mother-Daughter Talk:

“When I first started a relationship with the Doctor,” Rose began, watching the man in question play with her little brother, their pseudo-daughter, and their actual daughter, “a real one, more than whatever the hell we were doin’ before, he warned me. No kids.”

Jackie gasped, “You mean he didn’t want a—?”

Rose gave a bitter laugh, “No, like, literally. We couldn’t have kids. Too different, genetic wise. He’d need another Time Lord or Lady, that’s what the women were called, Time Ladies, ta…Loom a kid with. He may have the parts, Mum, an’ be able ta use ‘em, but they didn’t make or carry babies like humans do. The babies were…best translation is ‘woven together’ by machines out of two separate DNA sources. Then they were given over ta professionals—like foster-parents almost. Nobody raised their own kids… He isn’t even sure how exactly his granddaughter was related ta him, just that she wasn’t a daughter but was a direct descendant.”

Jackie was gaping at her daughter.

“Not even Bad Wolf makes us compatible, even if we had a Loom. “Cause he’s shootin’ blanks…an’…’m sterile too now…”

“Rose!”

“I don’t…my eggs might still be good, but I don’t ovulate or get monthlies anymore,” Rose explained, “’m frozen, exactly how I was when Bad Wolf took me. Nothing ‘bout me can change permanently. I don’t even scar. Haven’t had to cut or dye my hair since then either. My nails don’t grow. I wasn’t ovulatin’ or bleedin’ so I don’t anymore. I never will again.”

“Oh, Rose…”

“I’d do it again,” Rose assured her mother firmly, “even if ya went back an’ warned me ‘bout all this. I’d’ve taken any help I could to save him…We’re lucky Bad Wolf’s so benevolent. She could stuff me inside my own head permanently an’ there’d be nothin’ we could do ‘bout it. Not even the Doctor.”

“Rose…what did you do?” Jackie whispered shakily, “When you first met Bad Wolf?”

“I don’t remember,” Rose admitted, “Bad Wolf says I traded my life for the Doctor’s—Jack’s only alive cause she was feeling nice—the mortal life an’ death ahead of me. All my possible futures as a mortal human woman, gone. I had one thought, Mum; the Doctor. I had ta get back ta him. Didn’t care ‘bout anythin’ else. Apparently, Clockwork says we’re literal soulmates. I’d’ve survived his death but I would—either grieve for the rest of my life or gone absolutely crazy,” Rose smiled sadly, “an’ I woulda…I didn’t have a kid ta hold on for.”

“Me an’ Pete…?”

“Soulmates, or Bad Wolf says; both of them. Just like Pete here lost his Jackie, you lost your Pete. An’ it was some major meddling for you two ta meet,” Rose’s smile turned brighter, “between you an’ me? Think Bad Wolf had a hand in that somewhere.”

Jackie nodded faintly, before questioning, “What ‘bout Jenny? If you an’ he aren’t compatible then how…?”

“We’re not sure,” Rose shrugged, “after her physical, after we got her home, the Doctor took samples; she belongs ta both of us but we’re both still incompatible an’ sterile. Then he took more samples from her; she’s genetically sound, everythin’ matches up where it should. Time Lord DNA’s doin’ the heavy-liftin’, but she registers as partly human too. Bad Wolf’s not talkin’. Neither is Clockwork.”

Jackie gave a slightly hysterical laugh, “Rose, if you told me years ago that aliens were real I’d’ve thought you drunk! Now here we are, talkin’ about gods an’ immortality! While your alien husband—”

“He’s not my husband,” Rose murmured, an old argument she didn’t really believe anymore.

“Uh-huh—as I was saying, your alien husband plays with your little brother, the girl cloned off you both, an’ the girl you accidentally kidnapped.”

Rose smiled again, lovingly as she looked to her family out on the front lawn of Tyler Mansion.

They had come a long way from Hendriks’ basement.

[cjsmalley]

The Dan Situation, Eight Month In:

It was official; Sam hated being pregnant, or at least heavily so.

At eight months she might as well have strapped a beachball to her waist.

“Penelope,” she sighed, calling for the attention of one of her Ladies, specifically the one in charge of her wardrobe.

Sam was on a strict regimen, as this was the first monitored pregnancy with a halfa, with strict instructions not to do anything the least bit strenuous so close to her due date.

‘Strenuous’ including trying to dress herself.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Penelope went to work, holding out the tailored made maternity dresses. Everything in the stores had been too overly cheery or cutesy and so she had requested that the Royal Seamstress and Tailor make her some things more to her taste.

She had grown up from being in-your-face goth, allowing more colors into her wardrobe than purple and black, but they were still the darker shades. Not that pastel or ‘Mother Goddess’ nonsense offered by clothing companies.

She was having a baby, not creating life from the Void.

And while she would have preferred maternity sweats and other types of pants, Sam had to admit the dresses felt better some days.

Today would probably be one of those days, so she selected a navy-blue sundress, something made of light fabric to keep her cool.

Thankfully, the Tailor was smart and there was a row of buttons down the back, all the way down the back so she could just walk into it and Penelope and another Lady, Mary, expertly snapped it shut over her maternity bra.

Once the dress was on her, Penelope and Mary carefully helped her with her non-slip slippers and checked for any abnormal swelling as they did so. All Sam’s Ladies had been given a crash course on signs to watch out for.

Danny usually helped Sam dress in the morning, but he had had an early meeting with the Observants, who were not happy with the Dan Situation as it was.

The family personally thought those old eyeballs could poke themselves out.

Not to say there wasn’t some discord in the family at the news, they had known enough of the Dan Situation as it had been to be wary of reincarnating him, especially as an heir. But everyone agreed that this was probably the best course of action short of Ending him as he had been.

Almost as soon as Sam was dressed for the day, another Lady, this one named Louise, arrived with her daily ectoplasm smoothie.

Frostbite insisted that she consumed, thankfully diluted, ectoplasm; it was good for the baby’s core, he said, pointing out that newborn neverborn often fed off ectoplasm from their parents’ cores.

It was a miracle that David came through healthy without prenatal care. Those his core had been a tad weak and had needed to nurse from his father’s just as he nursed from his mother’s breast.

Speaking of Davy, he came flying through after Louise; his flight was wobbly but at six years old he was pretty stable. It helped he did not have to learn to fly on the fly like his father and sister had. Although he was supposed to walk inside. For Davy though, it was an easy choice. He wanted morning hugs from his mom, and his mom couldn’t pick him up anymore or crouch down because of his baby brother.

Sam, after drinking down the smoothie, smiled at her son and opened her arms to let him float closer, “Hi, baby. Good dreams last night?”

“Uh-huh,” he nodded, anchoring himself to her neck but still floating.

“I’m glad, baby; wanna go to the gardens while we wait for Daddy?”

“Yeah! Um, yes please.”

And so Sam, Davy, and Sam’s Ladies and Davy’s various attendants, for he too had a few, just in case, trooped out to the gardens.

Someone grabbed Sam a chair and she sat beneath something like looked like a large oak but probably wasn’t, watching her son play with his guards who had all been handpicked for their skill in childcare and self-defense. Many of them had been big siblings and military in life.

Someone else brought out a picnic for lunch and that was where Danny found Sam and Davy, cuddled under the not-oak and napping, guarded by their people.

All his cares melted away as he gaze on his wife and son and his worries about the Dan Situations went away for the moment.

They could do this.

Wished Away 10

A Mother-Daughter Talk:

“When I first started a relationship with the Doctor,” Rose began, watching the man in question play with her little brother, their pseudo-daughter, and their actual daughter, “a real one, more than whatever the hell we were doin’ before, he warned me. No kids.”

Jackie gasped, “You mean he didn’t want a—?”

Rose gave a bitter laugh, “No, like, literally. We couldn’t have kids. Too different, genetic wise. He’d need another Time Lord or Lady, that’s what the women were called, Time Ladies, ta…Loom a kid with. He may have the parts, Mum, an’ be able ta use ‘em, but they didn’t make or carry babies like humans do. The babies were…best translation is ‘woven together’ by machines out of two separate DNA sources. Then they were given over ta professionals—like foster-parents almost. Nobody raised their own kids… He isn’t even sure how exactly his granddaughter was related ta him, just that she wasn’t a daughter but was a direct descendant.”

Jackie was gaping at her daughter.

“Not even Bad Wolf makes us compatible, even if we had a Loom. “Cause he’s shootin’ blanks…an’…’m sterile too now…”

“Rose!”

“I don’t…my eggs might still be good, but I don’t ovulate or get monthlies anymore,” Rose explained, “’m frozen, exactly how I was when Bad Wolf took me. Nothing ‘bout me can change permanently. I don’t even scar. Haven’t had to cut or dye my hair since then either. My nails don’t grow. I wasn’t ovulatin’ or bleedin’ so I don’t anymore. I never will again.”

“Oh, Rose…”

“I’d do it again,” Rose assured her mother firmly, “even if ya went back an’ warned me ‘bout all this. I’d’ve taken any help I could to save him…We’re lucky Bad Wolf’s so benevolent. She could stuff me inside my own head permanently an’ there’d be nothin’ we could do ‘bout it. Not even the Doctor.”

“Rose…what did you do?” Jackie whispered shakily, “When you first met Bad Wolf?”

“I don’t remember,” Rose admitted, “Bad Wolf says I traded my life for the Doctor’s—Jack’s only alive cause she was feeling nice—the mortal life an’ death ahead of me. All my possible futures as a mortal human woman, gone. I had one thought, Mum; the Doctor. I had ta get back ta him. Didn’t care ‘bout anythin’ else. Apparently, Clockwork says we’re literal soulmates. I’d’ve survived his death but I would—either grieve for the rest of my life or gone absolutely crazy,” Rose smiled sadly, “an’ I woulda…I didn’t have a kid ta hold on for.”

“Me an’ Pete…?”

“Soulmates, or Bad Wolf says; both of them. Just like Pete here lost his Jackie, you lost your Pete. An’ it was some major meddling for you two ta meet,” Rose’s smile turned brighter, “between you an’ me? Think Bad Wolf had a hand in that somewhere.”

Jackie nodded faintly, before questioning, “What ‘bout Jenny? If you an’ he aren’t compatible then how…?”

“We’re not sure,” Rose shrugged, “after her physical, after we got her home, the Doctor took samples; she belongs ta both of us but we’re both still incompatible an’ sterile. Then he took more samples from her; she’s genetically sound, everythin’ matches up where it should. Time Lord DNA’s doin’ the heavy-liftin’, but she registers as partly human too. Bad Wolf’s not talkin’. Neither is Clockwork.”

Jackie gave a slightly hysterical laugh, “Rose, if you told me years ago that aliens were real I’d’ve thought you drunk! Now here we are, talkin’ about gods an’ immortality! While your alien husband—”

“He’s not my husband,” Rose murmured, an old argument she didn’t really believe anymore.

“Uh-huh—as I was saying, your alien husband plays with your little brother, the girl cloned off you both, an’ the girl you accidentally kidnapped.”

Rose smiled again, lovingly as she looked to her family out on the front lawn of Tyler Mansion.

They had come a long way from Hendriks’ basement.

[cjsmalley]

Kaede's Choice, Kagome's Future:

Kaede swirled the liquid she had been given and looked at the King in her hut.

His son’s pack, children and all, were away from the village and she suspected he had chosen this moment for that reason.

Water from the Fountain of Youth; Kaede had never heard of such a thing but she could guess what would happen if she drank of it.

She had a choice.

“I shall die before Kagome’s training is complete then?” she asked without much inflection. She wasn’t stupid; she was old, elderly even, she knew her time was short. But to hear it, that she would soon pass…

The King shrugged, “I don’t know, honestly. I’m here on advice of my closest advisor. He instructed I bring you some Water from the Fountain, carefully measured, and give you the choice.”

He became more serious, “But I do know the kids still need you, Kaede; Kagome’s the obvious one, what with her training. But your confidence in them has allowed others to see past their prejudice against hanyou and youkai. I know the Headman comes to you for your counsel before making any big decisions.”

“I must die eventually,” the old miko pointed out calmly.

“Yes, eventually. But we’re giving you a chance to put it off for a few more years, Kaede. It won’t deage you. But it will lengthen your lifespan slightly, maybe a couple decades, strengthen your body and organs, clear out any senility you may be gaining. Just long enough for Kagome to be trained and trusted in the village. Long enough for her to gain her footing in being the village priestess.”

Kaede mulled it over, “If Kikyo was still—”

“If Kikyo was still around, or at least her knowledge, we wouldn’t offer. If we could find any other priestess with comparable wealth of knowledge, what Kagome needs to know, that would train the mate of a hanyou and a mother besides, we wouldn’t offer. But, Kaede,” he was earnest now, “you’re the only one that checks all those boxes; everyone else would see Kagome as sullied, tainted by the youkai and hanyou she calls family.”

And Kaede knew he spoke the truth of the matter; Kagome was strong but too strange for many to mentor her. Since the day she arrived, Kagome had pushed back against those traditions she did not accept as necessary or rational. Case in point, her acceptance of InuYasha without much thought beyond the murder attempt.

(And Kaede even doubted the hanyou had been truly trying to kill who he saw as Kikyo, even after her own betrayal of him. She had seen him fight, both as a little girl and an old woman. There would have been no way an untrained human could have dodged and outrun him legitimately. He was trying to scare her into fighting back as Kikyo would have.)

And yet Kagome even forgave him their rocky first meetings and his often-uncouth words, seeing the hurting man under the rough exterior where others only saw the barely controlled beast pretending at being a man.

Then she had gone a step further and adopted a kitsune child; Kagome had confided in her once, while Shippo was sleeping in her arms, that she did indeed know the legends of the kitsune, tricksters who loved illusions and jokes on others but she hadn’t even thought about leaving the boy to fend for himself though it was InuYasha who offered a place with them.

That she married a hanyou—it wasn’t often that priestesses married, and they never married outside humanity. But Kagome did and was proud of the fact. Proud that she belonged to InuYasha and he to her.

Yes. Not many would take her as an apprentice.

Kaede made her choice.

She thumbed the vial open and drank the water; it was cool and refreshing, a drink on a hot summer’s day but then it burned though her body like fire eating at her from the inside.

Then it was over.

She felt the same.

But the King was beaming, “Thank you, Kaede.”

Before she could say anything, the hanyou and his pack had arrived in the village, triumph.

Wished Away 10

A Mother-Daughter Talk:

“When I first started a relationship with the Doctor,” Rose began, watching the man in question play with her little brother, their pseudo-daughter, and their actual daughter, “a real one, more than whatever the hell we were doin’ before, he warned me. No kids.”

Jackie gasped, “You mean he didn’t want a—?”

Rose gave a bitter laugh, “No, like, literally. We couldn’t have kids. Too different, genetic wise. He’d need another Time Lord or Lady, that’s what the women were called, Time Ladies, ta…Loom a kid with. He may have the parts, Mum, an’ be able ta use ‘em, but they didn’t make or carry babies like humans do. The babies were…best translation is ‘woven together’ by machines out of two separate DNA sources. Then they were given over ta professionals—like foster-parents almost. Nobody raised their own kids… He isn’t even sure how exactly his granddaughter was related ta him, just that she wasn’t a daughter but was a direct descendant.”

Jackie was gaping at her daughter.

“Not even Bad Wolf makes us compatible, even if we had a Loom. “Cause he’s shootin’ blanks…an’…’m sterile too now…”

“Rose!”

“I don’t…my eggs might still be good, but I don’t ovulate or get monthlies anymore,” Rose explained, “’m frozen, exactly how I was when Bad Wolf took me. Nothing ‘bout me can change permanently. I don’t even scar. Haven’t had to cut or dye my hair since then either. My nails don’t grow. I wasn’t ovulatin’ or bleedin’ so I don’t anymore. I never will again.”

“Oh, Rose…”

“I’d do it again,” Rose assured her mother firmly, “even if ya went back an’ warned me ‘bout all this. I’d’ve taken any help I could to save him…We’re lucky Bad Wolf’s so benevolent. She could stuff me inside my own head permanently an’ there’d be nothin’ we could do ‘bout it. Not even the Doctor.”

“Rose…what did you do?” Jackie whispered shakily, “When you first met Bad Wolf?”

“I don’t remember,” Rose admitted, “Bad Wolf says I traded my life for the Doctor’s—Jack’s only alive cause she was feeling nice—the mortal life an’ death ahead of me. All my possible futures as a mortal human woman, gone. I had one thought, Mum; the Doctor. I had ta get back ta him. Didn’t care ‘bout anythin’ else. Apparently, Clockwork says we’re literal soulmates. I’d’ve survived his death but I would—either grieve for the rest of my life or gone absolutely crazy,” Rose smiled sadly, “an’ I woulda…I didn’t have a kid ta hold on for.”

“Me an’ Pete…?”

“Soulmates, or Bad Wolf says; both of them. Just like Pete here lost his Jackie, you lost your Pete. An’ it was some major meddling for you two ta meet,” Rose’s smile turned brighter, “between you an’ me? Think Bad Wolf had a hand in that somewhere.”

Jackie nodded faintly, before questioning, “What ‘bout Jenny? If you an’ he aren’t compatible then how…?”

“We’re not sure,” Rose shrugged, “after her physical, after we got her home, the Doctor took samples; she belongs ta both of us but we’re both still incompatible an’ sterile. Then he took more samples from her; she’s genetically sound, everythin’ matches up where it should. Time Lord DNA’s doin’ the heavy-liftin’, but she registers as partly human too. Bad Wolf’s not talkin’. Neither is Clockwork.”

Jackie gave a slightly hysterical laugh, “Rose, if you told me years ago that aliens were real I’d’ve thought you drunk! Now here we are, talkin’ about gods an’ immortality! While your alien husband—”

“He’s not my husband,” Rose murmured, an old argument she didn’t really believe anymore.

“Uh-huh—as I was saying, your alien husband plays with your little brother, the girl cloned off you both, an’ the girl you accidentally kidnapped.”

Rose smiled again, lovingly as she looked to her family out on the front lawn of Tyler Mansion.

They had come a long way from Hendriks’ basement.

[cjsmalley]

Saving Dan:

She cupped the core; it was such a little thing, a pretty little thing for having come from such a monstrous man.

“This’s Dan’s core?” she asked for confirmation again, almost denying that such a pretty core could have come from that monster.

There was a reason they had celebrated Danny’s twenty-fifth birthday the way they had; the monster was gone. Could never come back. At least not how he had been.

Sealed in a can and hidden away as his timeline was wiped out.

Except now.

Now Clockwork was asking them to consider saving him; letting him be reborn as their son and heir.

Something about how they couldn’t just End him, though it would be so easy to do right then, even she could crush the core. How he was an anomaly and causing temporal issues.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Clockwork answered patiently, “he would not be Dan as you knew him, Your Majesties; he would only share a core and possibly regain some memories as he grows but not all. You know as well as I do, nurture is almost always stronger than nature. I do not believe he was purely evil, though he acted it.”

Danny dragged a hand down his face before saying, “It’s Sam’s choice. Sam?”

Sam thought for a moment.

Two.

Three.

“How would this work?” she asked.

“I will bring Your Majesty to ovulation,” Clockwork spoke, “you will press the core to your womb and it should phase into it. Once inside, the core will seek out your egg and fuse. The core will act like sperm. I will then manipulate time to where implantation occurs within moments of this fusion, even as the zygote begins to form. Once implantation occurs, we shall let it progress as a normal pregnancy.”

“Miscarriage? Ghost DNA doesn’t play well with human, even Liminal, DNA.”

“No chance of such, Your Majesty. As with all your possible pregnancies, it will be quite a feat to lose what is already half-dead. You would have to be on the brink of death yourself, Your Majesty.”

Sam thought some more as the core glittered in her hands, glittered in the low light of Clockwork’s lair.

“Do it.” She nodded.

“Are you sure, Sam?” Danny pressed.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure…he…Dan didn’t have much of a chance, did he? We can…we can give him that chance and wipe out an enemy, Danny. I know you worried about him breaking out, going for the crown. But if we raise him. Give him a family again…Do it, Clockwork.”

“As My Queen commands,” Clockwork waved a hand, “now, My Queen. Do it now.”

Sam lifted her shirt slightly and pressed the core to where her uterus was and felt it begin to phase into her body.

Her hand was empty.

Clockwork concentrated and then she felt a sharp prick in her side.

“Implantation has been a success,” Clockwork intoned.

Sam smiled shakily at Danny who smiled just as shakily back.

Here went nothing.

Wished Away 10

A Mother-Daughter Talk:

“When I first started a relationship with the Doctor,” Rose began, watching the man in question play with her little brother, their pseudo-daughter, and their actual daughter, “a real one, more than whatever the hell we were doin’ before, he warned me. No kids.”

Jackie gasped, “You mean he didn’t want a—?”

Rose gave a bitter laugh, “No, like, literally. We couldn’t have kids. Too different, genetic wise. He’d need another Time Lord or Lady, that’s what the women were called, Time Ladies, ta…Loom a kid with. He may have the parts, Mum, an’ be able ta use ‘em, but they didn’t make or carry babies like humans do. The babies were…best translation is ‘woven together’ by machines out of two separate DNA sources. Then they were given over ta professionals—like foster-parents almost. Nobody raised their own kids… He isn’t even sure how exactly his granddaughter was related ta him, just that she wasn’t a daughter but was a direct descendant.”

Jackie was gaping at her daughter.

“Not even Bad Wolf makes us compatible, even if we had a Loom. “Cause he’s shootin’ blanks…an’…’m sterile too now…”

“Rose!”

“I don’t…my eggs might still be good, but I don’t ovulate or get monthlies anymore,” Rose explained, “’m frozen, exactly how I was when Bad Wolf took me. Nothing ‘bout me can change permanently. I don’t even scar. Haven’t had to cut or dye my hair since then either. My nails don’t grow. I wasn’t ovulatin’ or bleedin’ so I don’t anymore. I never will again.”

“Oh, Rose…”

“I’d do it again,” Rose assured her mother firmly, “even if ya went back an’ warned me ‘bout all this. I’d’ve taken any help I could to save him…We’re lucky Bad Wolf’s so benevolent. She could stuff me inside my own head permanently an’ there’d be nothin’ we could do ‘bout it. Not even the Doctor.”

“Rose…what did you do?” Jackie whispered shakily, “When you first met Bad Wolf?”

“I don’t remember,” Rose admitted, “Bad Wolf says I traded my life for the Doctor’s—Jack’s only alive cause she was feeling nice—the mortal life an’ death ahead of me. All my possible futures as a mortal human woman, gone. I had one thought, Mum; the Doctor. I had ta get back ta him. Didn’t care ‘bout anythin’ else. Apparently, Clockwork says we’re literal soulmates. I’d’ve survived his death but I would—either grieve for the rest of my life or gone absolutely crazy,” Rose smiled sadly, “an’ I woulda…I didn’t have a kid ta hold on for.”

“Me an’ Pete…?”

“Soulmates, or Bad Wolf says; both of them. Just like Pete here lost his Jackie, you lost your Pete. An’ it was some major meddling for you two ta meet,” Rose’s smile turned brighter, “between you an’ me? Think Bad Wolf had a hand in that somewhere.”

Jackie nodded faintly, before questioning, “What ‘bout Jenny? If you an’ he aren’t compatible then how…?”

“We’re not sure,” Rose shrugged, “after her physical, after we got her home, the Doctor took samples; she belongs ta both of us but we’re both still incompatible an’ sterile. Then he took more samples from her; she’s genetically sound, everythin’ matches up where it should. Time Lord DNA’s doin’ the heavy-liftin’, but she registers as partly human too. Bad Wolf’s not talkin’. Neither is Clockwork.”

Jackie gave a slightly hysterical laugh, “Rose, if you told me years ago that aliens were real I’d’ve thought you drunk! Now here we are, talkin’ about gods an’ immortality! While your alien husband—”

“He’s not my husband,” Rose murmured, an old argument she didn’t really believe anymore.

“Uh-huh—as I was saying, your alien husband plays with your little brother, the girl cloned off you both, an’ the girl you accidentally kidnapped.”

Rose smiled again, lovingly as she looked to her family out on the front lawn of Tyler Mansion.

They had come a long way from Hendriks’ basement.

[cjsmalley]

Jamie Harold Potter

Harry, or Jamie as his new name was, was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

There had to be something.

Things this good didn’t happen to him without a price.

He had met alternates of his parents who had accepted him immediately and had become furious at his prior treatment. He had met the grown-up Neville, Luna, Hermione, Ron, and even Draco Malfoy who all welcomed him into their families.

He had cried at the sight of Sirius, apologizing for getting him killed in his world and saying how much he missed him and it was all his fault. Sirius had taken him into a hug, rocking sideways and forgave him.

Remus was different here; livelier and warmer, not stripped of every hope and dream. He smiled warmly and shook Harry’s hand.

Molly Weasley gave the same hugs as always and fussed over him while Arthur talked muggle things. Ginny wasn’t crushing on him, that would have been weird and gross because she too was an adult, and she fussed more quietly than her mother.

He met his uncle Tim, who had not existed in his world, and his cousin Sam; in fact, he had met his entire new family, the Phantoms and all branches of it and he was welcomed and cherished.

There was a price though; he had to submit to medical care and a specialized diet and regimen of potions. He had to go to therapy, though he was able to pick his therapist.

He had tutors, catching him up in subjects his Hogwarts failed to teach or taught improperly for whatever reason. Like his counterpart and Neville’s, he was shoved at every mage his uncle Danny could trust.

He found, that without the pressure of Snape hating him and the boiling hatred he himself held for the man, he quite like brewing potions and learning first aid and medical spells.

For the first time he saw a life beyond survival, and he was terrified.

Terrified that this was all some terrific, wonderful dream.

But with each passing day, each hug and kiss, each well-meaning and sincere attempt to interact with him, he relaxed.

Perhaps his soul had been enough of a price.

Perhaps this was real.

Perhaps he could finally just…be.

No fame.

No enemies.

Just Jamie Harold Potter.

Yeah, he could live with that.

Wished Away 10

A Mother-Daughter Talk:

“When I first started a relationship with the Doctor,” Rose began, watching the man in question play with her little brother, their pseudo-daughter, and their actual daughter, “a real one, more than whatever the hell we were doin’ before, he warned me. No kids.”

Jackie gasped, “You mean he didn’t want a—?”

Rose gave a bitter laugh, “No, like, literally. We couldn’t have kids. Too different, genetic wise. He’d need another Time Lord or Lady, that’s what the women were called, Time Ladies, ta…Loom a kid with. He may have the parts, Mum, an’ be able ta use ‘em, but they didn’t make or carry babies like humans do. The babies were…best translation is ‘woven together’ by machines out of two separate DNA sources. Then they were given over ta professionals—like foster-parents almost. Nobody raised their own kids… He isn’t even sure how exactly his granddaughter was related ta him, just that she wasn’t a daughter but was a direct descendant.”

Jackie was gaping at her daughter.

“Not even Bad Wolf makes us compatible, even if we had a Loom. “Cause he’s shootin’ blanks…an’…’m sterile too now…”

“Rose!”

“I don’t…my eggs might still be good, but I don’t ovulate or get monthlies anymore,” Rose explained, “’m frozen, exactly how I was when Bad Wolf took me. Nothing ‘bout me can change permanently. I don’t even scar. Haven’t had to cut or dye my hair since then either. My nails don’t grow. I wasn’t ovulatin’ or bleedin’ so I don’t anymore. I never will again.”

“Oh, Rose…”

“I’d do it again,” Rose assured her mother firmly, “even if ya went back an’ warned me ‘bout all this. I’d’ve taken any help I could to save him…We’re lucky Bad Wolf’s so benevolent. She could stuff me inside my own head permanently an’ there’d be nothin’ we could do ‘bout it. Not even the Doctor.”

“Rose…what did you do?” Jackie whispered shakily, “When you first met Bad Wolf?”

“I don’t remember,” Rose admitted, “Bad Wolf says I traded my life for the Doctor’s—Jack’s only alive cause she was feeling nice—the mortal life an’ death ahead of me. All my possible futures as a mortal human woman, gone. I had one thought, Mum; the Doctor. I had ta get back ta him. Didn’t care ‘bout anythin’ else. Apparently, Clockwork says we’re literal soulmates. I’d’ve survived his death but I would—either grieve for the rest of my life or gone absolutely crazy,” Rose smiled sadly, “an’ I woulda…I didn’t have a kid ta hold on for.”

“Me an’ Pete…?”

“Soulmates, or Bad Wolf says; both of them. Just like Pete here lost his Jackie, you lost your Pete. An’ it was some major meddling for you two ta meet,” Rose’s smile turned brighter, “between you an’ me? Think Bad Wolf had a hand in that somewhere.”

Jackie nodded faintly, before questioning, “What ‘bout Jenny? If you an’ he aren’t compatible then how…?”

“We’re not sure,” Rose shrugged, “after her physical, after we got her home, the Doctor took samples; she belongs ta both of us but we’re both still incompatible an’ sterile. Then he took more samples from her; she’s genetically sound, everythin’ matches up where it should. Time Lord DNA’s doin’ the heavy-liftin’, but she registers as partly human too. Bad Wolf’s not talkin’. Neither is Clockwork.”

Jackie gave a slightly hysterical laugh, “Rose, if you told me years ago that aliens were real I’d’ve thought you drunk! Now here we are, talkin’ about gods an’ immortality! While your alien husband—”

“He’s not my husband,” Rose murmured, an old argument she didn’t really believe anymore.

“Uh-huh—as I was saying, your alien husband plays with your little brother, the girl cloned off you both, an’ the girl you accidentally kidnapped.”

Rose smiled again, lovingly as she looked to her family out on the front lawn of Tyler Mansion.

They had come a long way from Hendriks’ basement.

[cjsmalley]

Harry to the Rescue:

Inspired by Milandaanza’s comment on chapter 320:

The figure unfolded in the circle.

“James?” Remus breathed out, shocked and horrified but the man shook his head.

“Common mistake,” said the man with a half-smile, “I’m Harry…who has summoned—Harry? Harry Potter? Is that really you?”

The man focused on what had to be an alternate younger version of himself and stepped forward from the circle towards the boy.

Skinny. Too skinny.

Without thought, the older one hit the younger one with dozens of medical spells, diagnostic spells he had learnt in childhood.

The results made him furious, and he spun towards who had to be Dumbledore, “What’re you playing at, Old Man? The boy’s half starved and shows signs of it being a long-term problem! Where are the Potters?”

“Lily and James are dead.” Remus Lupin spoke up, still horrified for different reasons now.

The older Harry froze.

“Sirius?”

“Dead. Been a year now. Before that, imprisoned and then on the run.”

“The Longbottoms? Aunt Alice and Uncle Frank?”

“Incapacitated. Attacked by Death Eaters years ago.”

“Don’t tell me the boy’s been with the Dursleys!”

“It is for the—” Dumbledore started but the older Harry silenced him with a wave of his hand.

“So why have you summoned me?”

“We need a hero who can defeat Voldemort,” spoke the younger Harry with resignation.

The older Harry paused again, before admitting, “I technically didn’t defeat him—”

An uproar.

“We summoned the prophesied hero,” someone shouted in a panic.

“Yeah, that’s me, unfortunately,” the older Harry admitted with a sigh, “but I had major help. Lemme call Uncle Danny.”

He went back to the Summoning circle and bled on a sigil; Danny appeared and the older Harry brought him up to speed in Old English so he wouldn’t give too much away to their audience.

Danny nodded and stepped towards the younger Harry, “Who’re your guardians, Harry?”

“Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon,” replied the younger Harry.

“Do they treat you properly?” Danny asked softly, ignoring Dumbledore.

“No, Sir,” Harry admitted quietly.

“Would you like to get away from them? Somewhere safe?” Danny was exceedingly gentle.

“Dumbledore says—”

“Harry, I know about everything. I know about the cupboard and the frying pans and the Harry Hunting,” and Danny became gentler as the boy’s green eyes widened in fear, “I can take you somewhere safe, somewhere where you can be a kid. My nephew, the older Harry, wants to take you in as his own. He wants to take you away from here.”

“But Voldemort—”

“Is not your duty, Harry. You’re a kid and almost every adult has failed you. Give me permission and I’ll act as your hand and weapon. You won’t ever have to face him again.”

Painful hope, tempered by previous disappointment, came to the boy’s eyes, “What do I have to do?”

“Your guardians have to sell your soul to me.”

“WHAT?!” someone bellowed, the older Harry silenced them.

“That’s easy,” said the younger Harry, “they’d sell me for a used tissue.”

He looked to his older self, “You…you really want me?”

“Of course, kiddo. My world’s much safer anyways. The Potters are still alive and the Longbottoms sane,” the older Harry nodded, “you’ll have a huge family…technically Uncle Danny will own you but he’ll treat you as a nephew. He owns my soul and I’m perfectly free and fine…Mum and Dad messed up a protection ritual,” he explained, “accidentally sold me but agreed for my safety from Voldemort. Neville too. Uncle Danny, Aunt Sam, and Uncle Tucker used all their resources to End Voldemort for good and I had to help very little.”

“What will I have to do for you?”  the younger Harry said warily.

“Be a kid. Go to therapy for your trauma, get good grades, the best you can.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s it.

“Yes.”

The older Harry smiled and took the younger by the shoulder, telling Danny, “I’m taking him to Privet Drive. Follow us.”

And the two Harry’s left; Danny gave one more disappointed look at Dumbledore and returned to the Realms to grab the paperwork needed for muggles to sell a soul.

Then he appeared beside the boys at the end of Privet Drive; he turned back to human and let the older Harry transfigure his clothes into something more suitable for the time and location.

They walked to Number 4, knocked on the door and waited.

Petunia answered the door and sneered, “You! They told me you were dead, Potter! Finally come to claim the little freak, have you?”

Danny spoke and they were quickly ushered in and shown to the dining room table.

“So, I sign these papers, and I never have to see the little freak again?” Petunia demanded.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Danny nodded, trying to keep his temper, “as the blood guardian, only you can sell his soul.”

Petunia grabbed a pen and signed Harry away as quickly as possible.

“This is the consent form that you know you’ll never see him again,” Danny led her through, “initial and sign where highlighted please…your relation to the sold soul, initial where…proof of guardianship or parentage to the sold soul, yes, that’s right…Release form so that we may take all his earthly possessions with us, yes, no only his things, I promise…”

With each page signed, the younger Harry seemed to become more hopeful.

Was it true, could he be free?

Then it was done.

The younger Harry led them to his room where they packed his things before they returned to their starting point of the ritual room in Grimmauld Place.

Molly Weasley swept Harry up into a hug and cried a goodbye, apologizing for not realizing how bad things were. Dumbledore tried to intervene, but the older Harry merely temporarily transfigured him into a goat.

“Quite impressive, Mister Potter,” McGonagall praised the man as she inspected the goat, “quite impressive indeed…you will take care of the boy, won’t you?”

“With everything I have.

The younger Harry met with his friends one last time, everyone crying and hugging and arguing that he didn’t have to leave, they’d find another way to deal with Voldemort.

As the younger Harry said goodbye and gathered his things, the older Harry found Madam Pomfrey and went with her to Hogwarts to gather his younger self’s medical record.

Then it was time.

Harry, tears of grief and joy in his eyes, and Hedwig on his shoulder, stepped through the portal.

He was ushered off to be seen by doctors.

But he was free.

(And if Danny stayed behind to give every adult in Harry’s life a dressing down, well, the boy didn’t have to know.)

Wished Away 10

A Mother-Daughter Talk:

“When I first started a relationship with the Doctor,” Rose began, watching the man in question play with her little brother, their pseudo-daughter, and their actual daughter, “a real one, more than whatever the hell we were doin’ before, he warned me. No kids.”

Jackie gasped, “You mean he didn’t want a—?”

Rose gave a bitter laugh, “No, like, literally. We couldn’t have kids. Too different, genetic wise. He’d need another Time Lord or Lady, that’s what the women were called, Time Ladies, ta…Loom a kid with. He may have the parts, Mum, an’ be able ta use ‘em, but they didn’t make or carry babies like humans do. The babies were…best translation is ‘woven together’ by machines out of two separate DNA sources. Then they were given over ta professionals—like foster-parents almost. Nobody raised their own kids… He isn’t even sure how exactly his granddaughter was related ta him, just that she wasn’t a daughter but was a direct descendant.”

Jackie was gaping at her daughter.

“Not even Bad Wolf makes us compatible, even if we had a Loom. “Cause he’s shootin’ blanks…an’…’m sterile too now…”

“Rose!”

“I don’t…my eggs might still be good, but I don’t ovulate or get monthlies anymore,” Rose explained, “’m frozen, exactly how I was when Bad Wolf took me. Nothing ‘bout me can change permanently. I don’t even scar. Haven’t had to cut or dye my hair since then either. My nails don’t grow. I wasn’t ovulatin’ or bleedin’ so I don’t anymore. I never will again.”

“Oh, Rose…”

“I’d do it again,” Rose assured her mother firmly, “even if ya went back an’ warned me ‘bout all this. I’d’ve taken any help I could to save him…We’re lucky Bad Wolf’s so benevolent. She could stuff me inside my own head permanently an’ there’d be nothin’ we could do ‘bout it. Not even the Doctor.”

“Rose…what did you do?” Jackie whispered shakily, “When you first met Bad Wolf?”

“I don’t remember,” Rose admitted, “Bad Wolf says I traded my life for the Doctor’s—Jack’s only alive cause she was feeling nice—the mortal life an’ death ahead of me. All my possible futures as a mortal human woman, gone. I had one thought, Mum; the Doctor. I had ta get back ta him. Didn’t care ‘bout anythin’ else. Apparently, Clockwork says we’re literal soulmates. I’d’ve survived his death but I would—either grieve for the rest of my life or gone absolutely crazy,” Rose smiled sadly, “an’ I woulda…I didn’t have a kid ta hold on for.”

“Me an’ Pete…?”

“Soulmates, or Bad Wolf says; both of them. Just like Pete here lost his Jackie, you lost your Pete. An’ it was some major meddling for you two ta meet,” Rose’s smile turned brighter, “between you an’ me? Think Bad Wolf had a hand in that somewhere.”

Jackie nodded faintly, before questioning, “What ‘bout Jenny? If you an’ he aren’t compatible then how…?”

“We’re not sure,” Rose shrugged, “after her physical, after we got her home, the Doctor took samples; she belongs ta both of us but we’re both still incompatible an’ sterile. Then he took more samples from her; she’s genetically sound, everythin’ matches up where it should. Time Lord DNA’s doin’ the heavy-liftin’, but she registers as partly human too. Bad Wolf’s not talkin’. Neither is Clockwork.”

Jackie gave a slightly hysterical laugh, “Rose, if you told me years ago that aliens were real I’d’ve thought you drunk! Now here we are, talkin’ about gods an’ immortality! While your alien husband—”

“He’s not my husband,” Rose murmured, an old argument she didn’t really believe anymore.

“Uh-huh—as I was saying, your alien husband plays with your little brother, the girl cloned off you both, an’ the girl you accidentally kidnapped.”

Rose smiled again, lovingly as she looked to her family out on the front lawn of Tyler Mansion.

They had come a long way from Hendriks’ basement.

[cjsmalley]

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall:

Inspired by Shleyis22 comment on Chapter 319over on Ao3.

“What was the divergence point?” Red Robin tapped away at the Batcomputer.

It was silent in the cave; so like home and yet not. This cave was clearly utilitarian; there were no signs of life beyond The Mission and all that entailed. No ugly couch for people to pout on, no loose clothes from people stripping casually as they prepared for a meal then bed.

There was not even a fridge for post and pre-patrol snacks or late-night casework snacks.

The walls were bare too, no motivational posters, no art by—

“Damian!” Dick gasped, his counterpart and Damian’s turning to stone.

“Explain.” Batman demanded.

But Dick turned to his father earnestly, “I remember, Dad. Talia claimed a miscarriage and you…you went to all your friends for support. Ma and Pa Kent were over practically every day, remember? Even Uncle Harv! He cried with you about the baby…”

“Oooh,” Tim said, catching on and looking around, “what if this Batman didn’t? What if he withdrew or just didn’t get help? What if that was what the Doctor and Miss Tyler call a ‘Fixed Point’, a point in time where you could have done so many things, but it would become a foundation. You already knew what it was like to lose a child so when Jason died you reached out again. Other-Me said he became Robin because his you were becoming too violent. I became Robin because you needed help out there, but you weren’t violent!”

“And I knew I wasn’t replaced! Talia never told me those lies!” Jason realized, “She kept me because she already lost Damian but let me go for my own safety!”

“Do you not have a Damian?” Nightwing demanded, so like his father.

“Eh, we have visitation,” Stephanie shrugged placidly.

Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose, “Damian…our Damian was Sold by Ra’s to a supernatural entity of great power days after birth. This entity adopted him as his son. We met Damian when he was ten years old and paternity was confirmed by another supernatural entity serving the first. Since then, his parents have allowed visitation so long as Damian wants it and I prove I am capable and responsible enough to care for him. I may be his biological father, but I am merely an Uncle now. Talia has broken away from her father and his League and is acting as our Damian’s aunt. But Dick’s right, after our loss and Talia returning to her father’s side, I reached out. I sought help for my grief, relied on friends’ support.”

“This entity who has custody of my counterpart,” spoke Robin, “he is…good?”

Bruce smiled, “Very good, Damian. Our Damian has been raised like a prince but treated like a kid. He is more serious than I would like for his age, but I see now that may just be the default. The entity---the King of Ghosts—has a wife and they have a friend. All three were teenagers when they received Damian, but they did right by him. He has many so-called ‘Wished Away’ siblings, children who were sold to the King in return for boons or safety. The King doesn’t like human sacrifices but will take them for their safety as he doesn’t know what his would-be summoners would try next in pursuit of what they want.” But as soon as he was informed of what dimension Damian came from and his paternity, he came to me and offered visitation.”

“Dami calls us all brothers and sisters,” Tim spoke up, noting his counterpart’s shocked disbelief, “and when we went to his dimension, the dimension he was raised in I should say, they figured out the Pit Rage and healed Jase and Cass. They’ll become ghosts when they die now, so will Dami, but they’re healthy than they were.”

“There’s a cure for the Pit Rage,” Red Hood said in disbelief.

“Ooh, yeah, okay, we’ll call Danny here. You’ve got the chalk, B?” Jason asked but his father was already moving aside the training mats and drawing the summoning circle.

Jason walked over and pricked his finger with one of his many knives, bleeding onto a sigil.

A portal opened and the King stepped through.

Jason quickly explained.

“Oh, dear,” said Danny, looking at the Bats he was summoned to help, “you’re all quite contaminated. Where’s Cass?”

“Hong Kong, apparently.” Jason replied with a shrug and Danny gave Batman a strange look; the Bruce he knew would never have let one of his kids run off permanently. Teams and missions outside Gotham were one thing but eventually they all came back to the metaphorical roost.

“Alright,” Danny declared, letting his Presence fill the air, “All costumed Bats through the portal now. We’ll get you decontaminated and healthy. Red Hood first, Jason can you and Cass lead them?”

Jason and Cass nodded.

“Excuse me?” Red Robin spoke up, “But what do you mean by ‘contaminated’?

“You’ve all been exposed to corrupted ectoplasm—I’m betting you call it Lazarus water or something similar—Jason, Damian, and Cassandra are the worst. They’ve probably been dipped into it—”

“Several times for myself,” Robin interrupted, “what do you mean by ‘corrupted’?”

“Tainted. It’s…runoff from my Realms. Sewage. Old ectoplasm. It still does miraculous things for humans but still…Bad Idea to use it.”

“How can we trust you?” Batman demanded.

Bruce exploded, “You sanctimonious, paranoid asshole! You can’t even conceive of someone offering help out of the goodness of their heart? Why the hell are you even Batman? Are you so damned jaded by life that you’d deny your kids help—”

“Magic.” Batman said distastefully, “There’s always a cost. You should know this...After what Zatanna did—”

“I don’t give a damn about what your Zatanna did!” Bruce shouted, “Danny is not her! He’s offering to help, because he’s good and kind and a Protection spirit and you can’t understand that can you? You could—”

“Enough,” Red Hood broke through, glaring at Batman, “this isn’t about you, old man. Did you forget what I’m like while the Pit rages? If there’s a cure—”

“No, I forbid it. You’re my son—”

“I’m an adult! You wanna talk to me like I’m your kid? Go kill the fucking Joker then we’ll talk. ‘til then, I’m taking this cure.”

Nightwing piped up, “As Damian’s legal guardian, I say he undergoes treatment.”

“Very well,” Robin nodded stoically.

“Red Robin?” Danny spoke, “You’re contaminated almost as bad as them.”

“Yes, I’ll go,” Red Robin stood from the computer, before saying aloud, “Kon, I’ll be outta reach for a while, dimensional travel. Don’t worry.”

“And when he claims your souls as payment?” Batman shouted.

“For the Ancients’ sakes, Bruce!” Danny finally lost his temper, “I’m a Ancients’ damned Protection Spirit! It’s my Obsession to help, to Protect! Why in Dante’s Nine Circles would I hurt anyone when it hurts me?”

“Wait, it hurts you?” Jason demanded.

“Yes! If I’m not acting in the best interests of someone, hurting them hurts me! Or it has to be defense. Pariah Dark threatened my town, my Haunt! My people! People who relied on my Protection! So I was allowed to hurt him! It’s part of the reason we don’t use physical discipline for the kids; the other reason is because hitting your kids is shitty! So tell me, Batman, if I can’t hurt my own kids, who I literally own, why in the numerous Hells would I hurt yours?”

“There’s always a cost to magic,” Batman insisted stubbornly.

Danny threw up his hands, “I give up; okay, everyone going for treatment, c’mon, through the Portal. We’ll send you back when you’re cleared. Nightwing, you hold legal guardianship of Robin?”

“When B was lost in the timestream, I was acting guardian as per his Will. We’ve never reverted it.”

“Okay, good, you call the shots for the kid. Jase, Cass, lead this conga trauma line through, okay? I think Bruce needs to talk to Batman. Everyone else, I’m sending you home, or at least to the Palace and then home.”

Everyone left through the portal, leaving Bruce with Batman.

“Maybe you think I’m soft,” spoke Bruce into the silence, “maybe you’re right, but I know my kids actually love me and don’t follow me out of some duty or trauma. At least I’ve never hit my kids outside of training—yeah, I saw how you flinched when Danny spoke about that being shitty. I can guess. I don’t know what happened, Bruce. I really don’t. But you scare me. No, not the Batman getup; I’ve gotten over my fear of bats, thanks. You scare me because I could have been you. Clark hears me screaming and he comes and makes sure I’m okay. Where’s your Clark? Where’s the Life beyond the Mission? My Manor, we always have guests and kids running around. Anyone in the Community knows they can call me and I’ll help. Can you say the same? Would they help out of friendship or duty as heroes?”

“You don’t understand.”

“No, I guess not. Because I would never lay a hand on my kids in anger. And you have.”

A portal opened again and, with hands in his pocket, Bruce slumped through to find his children.

He had a mighty need to hug them.

As for the others. He would give them his dimensional coordinates and make it clear that they were always welcome.

He could only hope that was enough.

Wished Away 10

A Mother-Daughter Talk:

“When I first started a relationship with the Doctor,” Rose began, watching the man in question play with her little brother, their pseudo-daughter, and their actual daughter, “a real one, more than whatever the hell we were doin’ before, he warned me. No kids.”

Jackie gasped, “You mean he didn’t want a—?”

Rose gave a bitter laugh, “No, like, literally. We couldn’t have kids. Too different, genetic wise. He’d need another Time Lord or Lady, that’s what the women were called, Time Ladies, ta…Loom a kid with. He may have the parts, Mum, an’ be able ta use ‘em, but they didn’t make or carry babies like humans do. The babies were…best translation is ‘woven together’ by machines out of two separate DNA sources. Then they were given over ta professionals—like foster-parents almost. Nobody raised their own kids… He isn’t even sure how exactly his granddaughter was related ta him, just that she wasn’t a daughter but was a direct descendant.”

Jackie was gaping at her daughter.

“Not even Bad Wolf makes us compatible, even if we had a Loom. “Cause he’s shootin’ blanks…an’…’m sterile too now…”

“Rose!”

“I don’t…my eggs might still be good, but I don’t ovulate or get monthlies anymore,” Rose explained, “’m frozen, exactly how I was when Bad Wolf took me. Nothing ‘bout me can change permanently. I don’t even scar. Haven’t had to cut or dye my hair since then either. My nails don’t grow. I wasn’t ovulatin’ or bleedin’ so I don’t anymore. I never will again.”

“Oh, Rose…”

“I’d do it again,” Rose assured her mother firmly, “even if ya went back an’ warned me ‘bout all this. I’d’ve taken any help I could to save him…We’re lucky Bad Wolf’s so benevolent. She could stuff me inside my own head permanently an’ there’d be nothin’ we could do ‘bout it. Not even the Doctor.”

“Rose…what did you do?” Jackie whispered shakily, “When you first met Bad Wolf?”

“I don’t remember,” Rose admitted, “Bad Wolf says I traded my life for the Doctor’s—Jack’s only alive cause she was feeling nice—the mortal life an’ death ahead of me. All my possible futures as a mortal human woman, gone. I had one thought, Mum; the Doctor. I had ta get back ta him. Didn’t care ‘bout anythin’ else. Apparently, Clockwork says we’re literal soulmates. I’d’ve survived his death but I would—either grieve for the rest of my life or gone absolutely crazy,” Rose smiled sadly, “an’ I woulda…I didn’t have a kid ta hold on for.”

“Me an’ Pete…?”

“Soulmates, or Bad Wolf says; both of them. Just like Pete here lost his Jackie, you lost your Pete. An’ it was some major meddling for you two ta meet,” Rose’s smile turned brighter, “between you an’ me? Think Bad Wolf had a hand in that somewhere.”

Jackie nodded faintly, before questioning, “What ‘bout Jenny? If you an’ he aren’t compatible then how…?”

“We’re not sure,” Rose shrugged, “after her physical, after we got her home, the Doctor took samples; she belongs ta both of us but we’re both still incompatible an’ sterile. Then he took more samples from her; she’s genetically sound, everythin’ matches up where it should. Time Lord DNA’s doin’ the heavy-liftin’, but she registers as partly human too. Bad Wolf’s not talkin’. Neither is Clockwork.”

Jackie gave a slightly hysterical laugh, “Rose, if you told me years ago that aliens were real I’d’ve thought you drunk! Now here we are, talkin’ about gods an’ immortality! While your alien husband—”

“He’s not my husband,” Rose murmured, an old argument she didn’t really believe anymore.

“Uh-huh—as I was saying, your alien husband plays with your little brother, the girl cloned off you both, an’ the girl you accidentally kidnapped.”

Rose smiled again, lovingly as she looked to her family out on the front lawn of Tyler Mansion.

They had come a long way from Hendriks’ basement.

[cjsmalley]

An Extra Scene because I fucked up:

"You're poly?" Dick asked, "because Danny said he was coming home from a blind date when he found B."

"We were," Sam replied, nibbling a piece of toast and then sipping a smoothie of diluted ectoplasm, "in both lives. Turns out this life we were looking for Alf without knowing t. When we were Martha and Thomas, he was our boyfriend."

"Oh...and now?"

"Much too improper, even for us. We'll eventually reincarnate together again."

"So Danny was going out on dates while you're..."

"I encouraged him, especially as a halfa he has...needs. Usually I can take them but with the baby he's become overly protective, cautious. Frostbite says everything's fine until I get near my due date but Danny won't hear it."

She shrugged down the shoulder of her shirt to reveal...a bitemark scar. With fangs.

I got this the first time we were...intimate," Sam said casually at Dick's horror, "turns out, ghosts bite their lovers. They don't scar but--"

"Humans do," Dick nodded in understanding. There had been a few incidents while he was intimate with Kori so he could understand a mishap or two based on unknown instincts.

Danny shuffled his way in; he didn't need sleep often but when he did he slept like the dead, "Mornin'," he grumbled as he took a seat.

Alfred automatically shoved a plate under his nose, "Thanks, Alf. Where's--"

"In the back garden with Master Bruce and Master Jason," Alfred answered, "Master Bruce is quite determined to know his siblings even if a lifetime is between them."

"They have the special leashes," Sam added.

"You get your--"

"Smoothie? Yeah, right here. Alf's taking good care of us, exactly as Frostbite told him too. His idea of diluting the 'plasm was genius."

"Thanks, Alf."

"Of course, Mister Danny."

Do I look like your Father?

Danny was walking down the street late at night, suit jacket draped over one of his arms, feeling down. The blind date that he had been set up on had been a bust. The only thing he wants to do now is to go back to his apartment and spend the entire weekend relaxing.

When passing by a quiet alley something very suddenly slams into his leg. It causes Danny to momentarily stumble in his steps. It isn't until he regains his footing does he finally look to see what is clinging to his leg.

It's- it's a baby or more like a toddler really. If Danny had to guess he'd say the little boy was 2 or 3 at most. That thought is quickly thrown to the back of his mind when he notices that the kid is wrapped up in what is obviously a large, black cape. How on earth did he get that?

"Daddy!" Two tiny, watery blue eyes shine as they stare up at him, "You found me! I don't know how I got here, but you found me so we can go home now, right? Is mommy waiting for us there?"

What in the world is he supposed to do in this situation? "Ah, yeah buddy we can do that. Just as a fun game real quick though what's mine and mommy's name?"

"You're silly daddy! It's Thomas and Martha Wayne!"

"…Bruce?" He can't help but say the name. Is this really THE Bruce Wayne? It can't be, something else has to be going on right now.

"That's my name, great job daddy!" Bruce raises his arms for Danny to pick him up. "We go home now?"

"Sure uh let's go…home." Danny, not knowing what else to do, picks up the kid and starts making his way towards Wayne Manor.

He’s also going to continue to ignore the fact that it’s probably Batman’s cape wrapped around Bruce, and what that probably means.

[cjsmalley]

Not Quite No Man's Land:

Inspired by: https://www.tumblr.com/absolutely-esme/749757298414682112?source=share

It happened in the middle of the night, that was the worst initial part. It happened while the Bats were patrolling and so they witnessed the carnage.

It made San Francisco 1906 look like a wiggle.

It took seconds yet seemed like an eternity; buildings shook and quaked and fell and tumbled into rubble and ruin, uncaring of who was in or on them.

Streets, already in disrepair, cracked and broke lengthwise and width-wise, the sidewalks following. Already the stench of gas and raw sewage filled the moving air as the fire hydrants broke and gushed.

Then, it went quiet.

Too quiet.

As if the city herself was stunned stupid.

Then came the screams and cries of devastation, of loved ones trying to find one another, for help.

“Agent A,” Batman barked over the comm-lines after finding a safe perch, “are you alright?”

“Quite shaken but Base held, Sir.” came the reply.

One by one the Bats signaled they were alright and where they were at. Reporting the devastation they could see with their own eyes.

The scent of smoke, of fires joined the gas and sewage.

Batman knew this was too big for his family alone and reached for his second comm.

“Batman to all members of the Justice League,” he rumbled and the lights for the inner Council lit up immediately.

Batman never called for help.

“This’s Superman,” Superman called back, “What’s happened? I heard the quake, Batman. How bad is it?”

Sirens started wailing in the background, emergency services trying their best in the ruins of the city. But the vehicles wouldn’t get through the torn-up streets.

Already Batman, so near Robinson Park, can see Ivy and Harley working to clear space, vines lifting rubble and pulling out people, gathering them into the safety of the Park and nature.

Then it started snowing; Doctor Fries must be working to smother the fires.

“It is bad. Ivy and Freeze are already helping. My team reports no injuries sustained to themselves but the civilians….requesting full League backup.”

“You have it, my friend,” and Superman, his older boys, and Supergirl were beside Batman, floating and taking in the rubble of Gotham City.

One by one by one, the Justice League agreed and slowly came together, the speedsters collecting people and running them in or them using the zeta-tube in the Batcave and taking Batmobiles and Bat-copters out if they couldn’t fly.

Unbeknownst to Batman, Nightwing was also calling in the Titans as Robin called in Young Just Us.

By dawn, the city was full of heroes and heroines working with emergency services to help clear rubble, rescue the living, and find the dead.

By noon the efforts were still ongoing, only a little dent had been made; then a portal blocked out the sun.

Swirling greens regurgitated first an army then the Ghost King.

“Enough people died so suddenly,” said the King through the comm-lines, “that we were alerted to the situation. We’re here to help. Batman, where are your…Batlings?

“My team is in the city…our families are secured at Base.”

“Warn Agent A, I’m opening a portal to retrieve them. My nanny can commandeer help to oversee them for now. If another quake happens…”

Danny joined Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman, who were coordinating the heroes’ response and asked Superman, “Where is—”

“At the Farm, His secondary and tertiary caregivers are with him.”

“I had my daughter delivered to my mother,” Wonder Woman added, “she is safe as well. All the children of heroes and heroines are safe and accounted for with trusted civilians in our homes.”

“Okay, so what happened? Hang on—all members of the army, attention! Your job is to aid the living. Find the trapped living and recover the dead bodies; provide medical aid. Okay, go on, the earthquake?”

“We believe this was a natural occurrence,” Batman rumbled after alerting Agent A to the removal of the Batlings, “Gotham does sit squarely on an ancient fault-line.”

“Okay, so this was just the Big One,” Danny nodded, looking over the city. Only Robinson Park, being used now as a staging area and under the control and protection of Ivy and Harley, remained virtually untouched, “how are we on food and water?”

“Ivy is raising crops as fast as she can,” Batman admitted, “while Doctor Fries is providing clean water.”

“Pa and Ma are sending over the crops the stores won’t take,” Superman added, “the ones that just don’t look perfect, completely edible just not pretty.”

“Themyscira has offered to take in the orphaned, single, and widowed girls and women,” Wonder Woman added, “we are currently using a portal ball portal to move those willing to the island temporarily. We are not forcibly separating families nor are we looking to keep the orphans if they have surviving family. They are being fingerprinted and DNA tested to look for relatives. This will hopefully lessen the burden on Gotham herself.

“Arkham and Blackgate have been secured,” the older Superboy arrived, “a ghost sheriff showed up and ran herd on Arkham before doing the same to Blackgate.”

“That’s Walker,” Danny spoke up, “he’s in charge of my best-worst prison. If you end up in his prison, you’re just a step away from being Shattered. I gave him a book of rules and regulations and let him loose. He must have rounded up almost every guard he has.”

“Crime Alley secured,” Red Hood reported through the comms, “search and rescue efforts are now ongoing.”

“Docks secured,” came the voice of Tempest, Aquaman’s once protégé and longstanding Titan, “couple people overboard from the boats but they’re fine.”

Aquaman himself was helping fire crews in the city, using broken waterlines as sources for his mastery over water.

“Send every boat occupied to Metropolis Harbor,” Superman ordered.

“Wilco.”

“Hospitals stabilized and emergency generators running,” said one of the Flashes, “ICU and NICU patients evacuated to Metropolis and Central as planned. All emergency patients being redirected to the Park. Fatalities being calculated now.”

“Orphanages evacuated to the Park,” popped in Impulse’s voice, “Grampa’s running in emergency shelters and building them as fast as he can.”

“All unattended animals moved to Themyscira and the Farm,” Troia reported in next, “all animals with known and alive owners have been sequestered in the Park.”

“Shelters up and ready for move in,” the oldest Flash reported, having come out of retirement at the call, “Black Canary, League and Ghost doctors on-site to provide counseling. Will run to get more supplies.”

“More medical personnel arriving now with supplies,” another Flash reported, “from every city with a responding hero. Red Cross incoming with more supplies.”

“Phone-lines and wi-fi back up,” Oracle chimed in, breathlessly, “looking at damage through what cameras survived. It’s Bad, B.”

“Bruce,” Clark said so lowly that the human had to strain to hear him, “whatever it is, you’ve got help. You’ve made us run drills for situations like this.”

“So did Robin,” Impulse bobbed his head.

“Nightwing did too,” Kid Flash appeared, “we’ve got this covered, Uncle B.”

“My people are here as long as needed,” Danny added with a nod.

“Thank you.”

Tallying the dead and helping the living would take months as Gotham rebuilt but the Justice League and the Ghostly Army were there every step of the way.

And the Bats were so damn thankful Batman had called for help.

Wished Away 10

A Mother-Daughter Talk:

“When I first started a relationship with the Doctor,” Rose began, watching the man in question play with her little brother, their pseudo-daughter, and their actual daughter, “a real one, more than whatever the hell we were doin’ before, he warned me. No kids.”

Jackie gasped, “You mean he didn’t want a—?”

Rose gave a bitter laugh, “No, like, literally. We couldn’t have kids. Too different, genetic wise. He’d need another Time Lord or Lady, that’s what the women were called, Time Ladies, ta…Loom a kid with. He may have the parts, Mum, an’ be able ta use ‘em, but they didn’t make or carry babies like humans do. The babies were…best translation is ‘woven together’ by machines out of two separate DNA sources. Then they were given over ta professionals—like foster-parents almost. Nobody raised their own kids… He isn’t even sure how exactly his granddaughter was related ta him, just that she wasn’t a daughter but was a direct descendant.”

Jackie was gaping at her daughter.

“Not even Bad Wolf makes us compatible, even if we had a Loom. “Cause he’s shootin’ blanks…an’…’m sterile too now…”

“Rose!”

“I don’t…my eggs might still be good, but I don’t ovulate or get monthlies anymore,” Rose explained, “’m frozen, exactly how I was when Bad Wolf took me. Nothing ‘bout me can change permanently. I don’t even scar. Haven’t had to cut or dye my hair since then either. My nails don’t grow. I wasn’t ovulatin’ or bleedin’ so I don’t anymore. I never will again.”

“Oh, Rose…”

“I’d do it again,” Rose assured her mother firmly, “even if ya went back an’ warned me ‘bout all this. I’d’ve taken any help I could to save him…We’re lucky Bad Wolf’s so benevolent. She could stuff me inside my own head permanently an’ there’d be nothin’ we could do ‘bout it. Not even the Doctor.”

“Rose…what did you do?” Jackie whispered shakily, “When you first met Bad Wolf?”

“I don’t remember,” Rose admitted, “Bad Wolf says I traded my life for the Doctor’s—Jack’s only alive cause she was feeling nice—the mortal life an’ death ahead of me. All my possible futures as a mortal human woman, gone. I had one thought, Mum; the Doctor. I had ta get back ta him. Didn’t care ‘bout anythin’ else. Apparently, Clockwork says we’re literal soulmates. I’d’ve survived his death but I would—either grieve for the rest of my life or gone absolutely crazy,” Rose smiled sadly, “an’ I woulda…I didn’t have a kid ta hold on for.”

“Me an’ Pete…?”

“Soulmates, or Bad Wolf says; both of them. Just like Pete here lost his Jackie, you lost your Pete. An’ it was some major meddling for you two ta meet,” Rose’s smile turned brighter, “between you an’ me? Think Bad Wolf had a hand in that somewhere.”

Jackie nodded faintly, before questioning, “What ‘bout Jenny? If you an’ he aren’t compatible then how…?”

“We’re not sure,” Rose shrugged, “after her physical, after we got her home, the Doctor took samples; she belongs ta both of us but we’re both still incompatible an’ sterile. Then he took more samples from her; she’s genetically sound, everythin’ matches up where it should. Time Lord DNA’s doin’ the heavy-liftin’, but she registers as partly human too. Bad Wolf’s not talkin’. Neither is Clockwork.”

Jackie gave a slightly hysterical laugh, “Rose, if you told me years ago that aliens were real I’d’ve thought you drunk! Now here we are, talkin’ about gods an’ immortality! While your alien husband—”

“He’s not my husband,” Rose murmured, an old argument she didn’t really believe anymore.

“Uh-huh—as I was saying, your alien husband plays with your little brother, the girl cloned off you both, an’ the girl you accidentally kidnapped.”

Rose smiled again, lovingly as she looked to her family out on the front lawn of Tyler Mansion.

They had come a long way from Hendriks’ basement.

[cjsmalley]

Paperwork, Palace Positions, and Too Much Historical Research:

A/N Inspired By: https://www.tumblr.com/sociallyawkwardcashier/774921421230063616?source=share

“I can’t do this anymore!” the King roared, setting his paperwork alight; it merely reformed.

Danny almost Wailed in despair and rage; Pariah Dark had not been the best at paperwork and a thousand years had let it backlog so badly…and he had no one to delegate to, Pariah had either Ended them all or driven them to flee. The entire metaphorical infrastructure, at least the stuff not connected to conquering and invading, was in tatters.

Sam heard his frustration and decided to enact a plan that had been brewing for a while.

The call went out.

The King was hiring.

Secretaries.

Every ghost with a matching Obsession flocked to the palace where the massive numbers were thinned out by the King, Queen, Sir Foley, and their advisor, Lord Clockwork.

After legions upon legions of office workers were hired and were being retrained for their jobs in the modern age, Department Heads were sought. Experts handpicked by Clockwork himself for their knowledge in the various fields needed to run the Realms smoothly.

These would take over any paperwork that did not require the King’s, or Queen’s, personal attention and would explain and summarize what paperwork did.

The Royal Scribes were also retrained to use technology like typewriters, computers, and PDAs; the fancy calligraphy was kept for fancy events but for day-to-day stuff tech would make things more bearable.

While a Perk of holding the throne made Danny able to understand any language, dead or alive, spoken by anyone, dead or alive, he was the only one to have this ability. Everyone else had to learn the old-fashion way or rely on spells that had to be redone repeatedly.

Therefore Modern American English became the Linga Franca of the palace though the Queen, the Princess, and, in the future, the wards would learn such languages as Latin and Old English, which seemed to be the pervasive languages of the old official documents.

Clockwork even went so far as to find a Royal Nanny, though the Princess was too old for such and the King and Queen were both adamant about two things: that they weren’t having children soon and that, when they did, they would rear them themselves.

Still, Nanny Clara was hired and given control of the royal nursery and all those duties and needs attached to the Royal Children’s Households until they turned thirteen years of age. At which point they would, technically, not be her charges and would be outfitted with Households of their own.

A wing of the palace was updated to be on par with the most advanced hospitals in the Mortal Realm and Medical Personnel were hired in various specialties and brought up to date on medical techniques and medicine. Here, living doctors, buried under HIPAA and NDAs, and Yeti featured prominently.

The Kitchens were updated and living cooks and chefs were hired and all their attendant underlings.

And so on so forth, each seen to and handpicked by either the King, Queen, Sir Foley, or Lord Clockwork.

Once the civil side was reorganized into some semblance of order, or what passed as such for ghosts, the King turned his eye to the military.

He wasn’t stupid enough to completely disarm, and he wasn’t stupid enough to give his untrained daughter free reign over the army. Which was the Heir’s traditional duty.

So he pulled Fright Knight from his personal security detail, against the older ghost’s fervent protests, and put him in charge. That settled, Danny gave a generous honorable discharge option to any soldier, sailor, or any other form of servicemen and women.

Few took the out, most were in his military due to Obsession or merely Need to serve a strong King, or Queen, in some way, shape, or form.

As payback for his sudden job side-hop, Fright Knight personally set up the security details for each member of the Royal family with handpicked guards who had each sworn a magically binding oath to the King and the King alone. As few ghosts actually needed sleep, sadly the half-ghosts being among them, rotation was only done on a need to basis.

This meant the Queen and Princess both got Ladies that also doubled as both Companion and Guard. The Queen and Princess both gave their all to fight the assignment of such but eventually Fright Knight won. That the King backed up his now highest ranked general went along way, though they turned that back on him regarding his security.

After everything was set up, it was the end of the school year for all the teens and the tween involved.

Knowing his King still had nightmares about the piles of paperwork he had once had to deal with, Lord Clockwork forced them all to have fun and be kids again for a few weeks.

The Mansons, with permission from the Fentons, paid for a cruise.

And so the Royal Family, ever invisibly shadowed by security, found themselves on a Disney cruise ship.

When they returned to daily life they were rested, healthy, and sane once again.

Wished Away 10

A Mother-Daughter Talk:

“When I first started a relationship with the Doctor,” Rose began, watching the man in question play with her little brother, their pseudo-daughter, and their actual daughter, “a real one, more than whatever the hell we were doin’ before, he warned me. No kids.”

Jackie gasped, “You mean he didn’t want a—?”

Rose gave a bitter laugh, “No, like, literally. We couldn’t have kids. Too different, genetic wise. He’d need another Time Lord or Lady, that’s what the women were called, Time Ladies, ta…Loom a kid with. He may have the parts, Mum, an’ be able ta use ‘em, but they didn’t make or carry babies like humans do. The babies were…best translation is ‘woven together’ by machines out of two separate DNA sources. Then they were given over ta professionals—like foster-parents almost. Nobody raised their own kids… He isn’t even sure how exactly his granddaughter was related ta him, just that she wasn’t a daughter but was a direct descendant.”

Jackie was gaping at her daughter.

“Not even Bad Wolf makes us compatible, even if we had a Loom. “Cause he’s shootin’ blanks…an’…’m sterile too now…”

“Rose!”

“I don’t…my eggs might still be good, but I don’t ovulate or get monthlies anymore,” Rose explained, “’m frozen, exactly how I was when Bad Wolf took me. Nothing ‘bout me can change permanently. I don’t even scar. Haven’t had to cut or dye my hair since then either. My nails don’t grow. I wasn’t ovulatin’ or bleedin’ so I don’t anymore. I never will again.”

“Oh, Rose…”

“I’d do it again,” Rose assured her mother firmly, “even if ya went back an’ warned me ‘bout all this. I’d’ve taken any help I could to save him…We’re lucky Bad Wolf’s so benevolent. She could stuff me inside my own head permanently an’ there’d be nothin’ we could do ‘bout it. Not even the Doctor.”

“Rose…what did you do?” Jackie whispered shakily, “When you first met Bad Wolf?”

“I don’t remember,” Rose admitted, “Bad Wolf says I traded my life for the Doctor’s—Jack’s only alive cause she was feeling nice—the mortal life an’ death ahead of me. All my possible futures as a mortal human woman, gone. I had one thought, Mum; the Doctor. I had ta get back ta him. Didn’t care ‘bout anythin’ else. Apparently, Clockwork says we’re literal soulmates. I’d’ve survived his death but I would—either grieve for the rest of my life or gone absolutely crazy,” Rose smiled sadly, “an’ I woulda…I didn’t have a kid ta hold on for.”

“Me an’ Pete…?”

“Soulmates, or Bad Wolf says; both of them. Just like Pete here lost his Jackie, you lost your Pete. An’ it was some major meddling for you two ta meet,” Rose’s smile turned brighter, “between you an’ me? Think Bad Wolf had a hand in that somewhere.”

Jackie nodded faintly, before questioning, “What ‘bout Jenny? If you an’ he aren’t compatible then how…?”

“We’re not sure,” Rose shrugged, “after her physical, after we got her home, the Doctor took samples; she belongs ta both of us but we’re both still incompatible an’ sterile. Then he took more samples from her; she’s genetically sound, everythin’ matches up where it should. Time Lord DNA’s doin’ the heavy-liftin’, but she registers as partly human too. Bad Wolf’s not talkin’. Neither is Clockwork.”

Jackie gave a slightly hysterical laugh, “Rose, if you told me years ago that aliens were real I’d’ve thought you drunk! Now here we are, talkin’ about gods an’ immortality! While your alien husband—”

“He’s not my husband,” Rose murmured, an old argument she didn’t really believe anymore.

“Uh-huh—as I was saying, your alien husband plays with your little brother, the girl cloned off you both, an’ the girl you accidentally kidnapped.”

Rose smiled again, lovingly as she looked to her family out on the front lawn of Tyler Mansion.

They had come a long way from Hendriks’ basement.

[cjsmalley]

In case anyone finds it helpful because mobility aids are horrifically expensive and inaccessible…

And for those people who have access to mobility devices but might benefit from a second chair they can abuse without risking expensive damage…

Erik Kondo has made a website, Open Source Innovations, that details plans for DIY wheelchairs. These wheelchairs can be made from common materials like wood, plastic, and pvc. They are lightweight and can be custom fit to the user allowing from the same degree of movement you would get from a custom chair. And they are durable and easily repairable. (he has been stress testing his latest design by dropping it down stairs, dropping it out of a car, launching it across a driveway, and throwing it off a deck). Its 12lbs and I think he said its was in the $200 ish range for parts.

He also is working on cheap, open source, accessible designs for beach chairs, off road chairs, motorized attachments (think smart drive), and so on. Plus he skateboards in his wheelchair. Cool dude, helpful info, pass it on.

[cjsmalley]

Mister Freeze, reformed:

A/N: Inspired by : https://www.tumblr.com/the-archer-goddess/768551226841481216?source=share

“Can you cure her?” Doctor Victor Fries demanded of the yeti surrounding his wife’s frozen body.

Frostbite had brought his best team, the Royal Team, and more besides, the best medical minds had been gathered for this mission regardless of prior species.

Everyone was crowded into the room that held Nora Fries’ pod; Doctor Fries was under armed guard and Bat guard.

Even Bruce Wayne was there, having personally invited everyone, including the supervillain, into his building.

Frostbite frowned, “This is a very old disease, Doctor; I’m not surprised you have been able to cure her. This disease shouldn’t be on Earth or the Living Realms…thankfully, once we identify the strain, we should be able to cure her. Though it will not be without side-effects, this whole process, from the cryogenics you used to the disease itself has been quite harsh on her body. But she will live and be mentally competent. Physically? I cannot say.”

“We’ll outfit her with whatever assistive devices she needs, Doctor Fries,” Bruce spoke up.

Fries looked at Bruce searchingly but found nothing but genuine sympathy and eagerness to help and nodded slowly, Then do whatever you must, Doctor and I will uphold my part of the bargain.”

The bargain, brokered by Bruce Wayne between Mister Freeze and Commissioner Gordon would see the so named villain locked up for his crimes for possibly the rest of his life. No breakouts unless in dire emergency with visitation from Nora Fries if she so wished in require for Nora being healed, housed, fed, and cared for the rest of her life.

Bruce was happy to take up the upkeep of Nora if it meant someone reformed and Victor wasn’t so deluded that he assumed Nora would want to stay with him during his sentence. As long as she was alive, healthy, and happy, he would be glad beyond belief.

Frostbite nodded, “As her husband you do have the right to authorize or deny treatment. We will do all we can.”

It took three months to narrow down the strain of the disease and a further four for treatment to take hold.

Victor was again under guard but there as they awakened Nora from her long, cold slumber.

“Victor,” was her first word, a cry of longing, hope and happiness, “you did it?”

“Oh, my darling Nora,” Victor was allowed to shuffle forward and one of his hands was uncuffed so he could cup her cheek, “I worked and worked and worked, my love, but I did not cure you myself. I required help beyond this world. The Ghost King heard of our situation and sent experts.”

“What—?”

“Missus Fries,” Bruce stepped in, “if I may, many things have happened during your…sleep. We will catch you up, I promise, but the important thing is that you are safe. The Ghost King did not want you as a subject just yet and so sent his personal medical team. Doctor Frostbite?”

The yeti lumbered up, and Nora’s eyes grew wide in shock as he bowed and spoke, “Missus Fries, I am Frostbite of the Far Frozen; I am my King’s personal medical advisor. When he heard of your state he bade me to help and so I have. Please, you still require some tests to be run and rest and nourishment. Allow my team to assist again.”

Nora looked to Victor, noting his containment suit and the guards, but he nodded and so she agreed.

It would be a long journey back to full health but Nora Fries was saved.

Wished Away 10

A Mother-Daughter Talk:

“When I first started a relationship with the Doctor,” Rose began, watching the man in question play with her little brother, their pseudo-daughter, and their actual daughter, “a real one, more than whatever the hell we were doin’ before, he warned me. No kids.”

Jackie gasped, “You mean he didn’t want a—?”

Rose gave a bitter laugh, “No, like, literally. We couldn’t have kids. Too different, genetic wise. He’d need another Time Lord or Lady, that’s what the women were called, Time Ladies, ta…Loom a kid with. He may have the parts, Mum, an’ be able ta use ‘em, but they didn’t make or carry babies like humans do. The babies were…best translation is ‘woven together’ by machines out of two separate DNA sources. Then they were given over ta professionals—like foster-parents almost. Nobody raised their own kids… He isn’t even sure how exactly his granddaughter was related ta him, just that she wasn’t a daughter but was a direct descendant.”

Jackie was gaping at her daughter.

“Not even Bad Wolf makes us compatible, even if we had a Loom. “Cause he’s shootin’ blanks…an’…’m sterile too now…”

“Rose!”

“I don’t…my eggs might still be good, but I don’t ovulate or get monthlies anymore,” Rose explained, “’m frozen, exactly how I was when Bad Wolf took me. Nothing ‘bout me can change permanently. I don’t even scar. Haven’t had to cut or dye my hair since then either. My nails don’t grow. I wasn’t ovulatin’ or bleedin’ so I don’t anymore. I never will again.”

“Oh, Rose…”

“I’d do it again,” Rose assured her mother firmly, “even if ya went back an’ warned me ‘bout all this. I’d’ve taken any help I could to save him…We’re lucky Bad Wolf’s so benevolent. She could stuff me inside my own head permanently an’ there’d be nothin’ we could do ‘bout it. Not even the Doctor.”

“Rose…what did you do?” Jackie whispered shakily, “When you first met Bad Wolf?”

“I don’t remember,” Rose admitted, “Bad Wolf says I traded my life for the Doctor’s—Jack’s only alive cause she was feeling nice—the mortal life an’ death ahead of me. All my possible futures as a mortal human woman, gone. I had one thought, Mum; the Doctor. I had ta get back ta him. Didn’t care ‘bout anythin’ else. Apparently, Clockwork says we’re literal soulmates. I’d’ve survived his death but I would—either grieve for the rest of my life or gone absolutely crazy,” Rose smiled sadly, “an’ I woulda…I didn’t have a kid ta hold on for.”

“Me an’ Pete…?”

“Soulmates, or Bad Wolf says; both of them. Just like Pete here lost his Jackie, you lost your Pete. An’ it was some major meddling for you two ta meet,” Rose’s smile turned brighter, “between you an’ me? Think Bad Wolf had a hand in that somewhere.”

Jackie nodded faintly, before questioning, “What ‘bout Jenny? If you an’ he aren’t compatible then how…?”

“We’re not sure,” Rose shrugged, “after her physical, after we got her home, the Doctor took samples; she belongs ta both of us but we’re both still incompatible an’ sterile. Then he took more samples from her; she’s genetically sound, everythin’ matches up where it should. Time Lord DNA’s doin’ the heavy-liftin’, but she registers as partly human too. Bad Wolf’s not talkin’. Neither is Clockwork.”

Jackie gave a slightly hysterical laugh, “Rose, if you told me years ago that aliens were real I’d’ve thought you drunk! Now here we are, talkin’ about gods an’ immortality! While your alien husband—”

“He’s not my husband,” Rose murmured, an old argument she didn’t really believe anymore.

“Uh-huh—as I was saying, your alien husband plays with your little brother, the girl cloned off you both, an’ the girl you accidentally kidnapped.”

Rose smiled again, lovingly as she looked to her family out on the front lawn of Tyler Mansion.

They had come a long way from Hendriks’ basement.

[cjsmalley]

Planning and Kidnapping with Uncle Harv:

“You sure about this, Bruce?” Danny asked again as they made the drive out to Arkham.

“Harvey is one of my best friends since childhood, Danny, and he’s getting better,” Bruce defended, “he’s even allowed visitors during visiting hours. He knows all my children and has never harmed them as civilians. They know they can go to their Uncle Harv and he and Two-Face will help them. The question is always how, that’s what the coins decide in those situations. Of course, I would let him meet Damian. He’ll be cuffed and under armed guards. He also knows.”

“He…knows…?”

“Oh, yes. He figured it out when he shot Dick; said he’d recognize the cries of his nephew anywhere. Felt so bad he helped provide First Aid and let the cops take him away…but not before a very whispered dressing down to me. About letting my kids commit suicide slowly and how he thought I was better than using child soldiers. Next time he broke out he kidnapped Jason and taught him to shoot and fight the way Harvey knew. Had him for a few days, holed up in Metropolis of all places. Took care of him then released him into the custody of Superman. Did the same with Tim, took him to Star, gave him back to Green Arrow. At this point, he takes the kids, he leaves a message, so I don’t worry too much. Even Two-Face doesn’t care to hurt ‘em. Something about Two-Face being a symptom of long-term childhood abuse. I think, of everyone I fight, he and Doctor Fries, Mister Freeze, are the most likely to reform. Them and Isley, Harley’s still crazy but she’s…saner than she was before.”

“What is Doctor Fries deal anyways?” Sam asked.

“He has his wife in cytogenesis; she’s very sick and was dying—”

“Why didn’t you tell us that before?” Danny exclaimed, “if he’s just doing crime to save his wife, we could have Frostbite’s team here in seconds!”

Bruce paused, “You think they could help Nora?”

“They can take a look. You think Fries will take his lumps if she’s cured?” Sam questioned.

“I think so,” Bruce said.

“Where is she now? Who has her now?”

“Wayne Enterprises, Medical Division has custody of her pod.”

“Ancients. Okay,” Danny said, raking a hand through his hair, “okay, can you get us a meeting with Fries?”

“I can,” Bruce nodded as they pulled into the parking lot for the Asylum.

They exited the car, meeting with Commissioner Gordon at the steps where they were ushered through countless security measures.

The fivesome were led into an interview room where the infamous scarred man sat waiting, cuffed to the table.

Harvey smiled, “Bruce, how are you my old friend?”

Bruce and his entourage sat down as he smiled back, “I’m fine, Harv.”

Harvey’s eye roamed the group, “This your youngest then? Damian? Who’re the other two, surely they can’t be his parents?”

Sam smiled thinly, “We were teens when we adopted Dami.”

Harvey startled in shock but then frowned with the unscarred portion of the face, “That must’ve been tricky, legally. It’s all airtight now?”

“Yes, Mister Dent,” Danny nodded.

“Good. I’m disbarred but I—well, well, well, Bruce,” and Two-Face was speaking, “is this one as…energetic as the rest?”

“No, Harv,” Bruce replied calmly, “he lives a more…sedate life, though he can defend himself if need be.”

“Do we need to…ah, bond with him?” Two-Face asked, almost scoldingly.

“No, Mister Two-Face,” Sam spoke just as calmly as Bruce had, “he knows all he needs to at this point. We have many self-defense tutors for him. Thank you for the offer.”

“Kerns.” Two-Face addressed a guard, “a coin please?”

The guard sighed but pulled out the infamous coin, “Here, Mister Dent.”

“Flip it, boy,” Two-Face ordered.

Kerns flipped it and caught it, “Tails, Mister Dent.”

Two-Face nodded, “I’ll start planning then. As soon as I can, I’ll take him. Any food restrictions?”

“He’s vegan,” Bruce replied with a sigh.

“I will eat vegetarian, Mister Dent,” Damian spoke up, gaining the man’s attention.

“You up to date on your shots, kid?”

“I am.”

“Immuno-compromised?”

“No, Sir.”

“Religious?”

“I do follow some Jewish tenets.”

Two-Face nodded, “Good. ‘cause you will get dirty. Who should I make the note out to?”

“Mother and Father, of course,” Damian spoke, “Danny Fenton and Sam Fenton-Manson.”

“And Bruce will pay the ransom?”

“Of course I will, Harvey.”

“You do know you’re planning a kidnapping for ransom in front of the Commissioner?” Gordon asked tiredly.

“No, I’m planning a spontaneous week with my newest nephew at an unknown time and date in the future,” Two-Face sounded so charming even with his acid-rough voice, “one I will be getting paid for. Right, Brucie?”

“Bruce is not the custodial parent of the child in question,” Gordon reminded.

“Okay, so it will be kidnapping?” Two-Face shrugged, “unless his parents consent?”

Danny and Sam looked at each other then Bruce, “You trust him?”

“He’s kidnapped each of my kids, multiple times. They’ve always been returned in good shape,” Bruce shrugged.

“Up to you, Dami,” Sam said.

Damian thought before nodding, “Yes, I will go with…Uncle Harvey when he takes me.”

“See? Commissioner, all above board.”

Gordon gave up.

It was Gotham.

Wished Away 10

A Mother-Daughter Talk:

“When I first started a relationship with the Doctor,” Rose began, watching the man in question play with her little brother, their pseudo-daughter, and their actual daughter, “a real one, more than whatever the hell we were doin’ before, he warned me. No kids.”

Jackie gasped, “You mean he didn’t want a—?”

Rose gave a bitter laugh, “No, like, literally. We couldn’t have kids. Too different, genetic wise. He’d need another Time Lord or Lady, that’s what the women were called, Time Ladies, ta…Loom a kid with. He may have the parts, Mum, an’ be able ta use ‘em, but they didn’t make or carry babies like humans do. The babies were…best translation is ‘woven together’ by machines out of two separate DNA sources. Then they were given over ta professionals—like foster-parents almost. Nobody raised their own kids… He isn’t even sure how exactly his granddaughter was related ta him, just that she wasn’t a daughter but was a direct descendant.”

Jackie was gaping at her daughter.

“Not even Bad Wolf makes us compatible, even if we had a Loom. “Cause he’s shootin’ blanks…an’…’m sterile too now…”

“Rose!”

“I don’t…my eggs might still be good, but I don’t ovulate or get monthlies anymore,” Rose explained, “’m frozen, exactly how I was when Bad Wolf took me. Nothing ‘bout me can change permanently. I don’t even scar. Haven’t had to cut or dye my hair since then either. My nails don’t grow. I wasn’t ovulatin’ or bleedin’ so I don’t anymore. I never will again.”

“Oh, Rose…”

“I’d do it again,” Rose assured her mother firmly, “even if ya went back an’ warned me ‘bout all this. I’d’ve taken any help I could to save him…We’re lucky Bad Wolf’s so benevolent. She could stuff me inside my own head permanently an’ there’d be nothin’ we could do ‘bout it. Not even the Doctor.”

“Rose…what did you do?” Jackie whispered shakily, “When you first met Bad Wolf?”

“I don’t remember,” Rose admitted, “Bad Wolf says I traded my life for the Doctor’s—Jack’s only alive cause she was feeling nice—the mortal life an’ death ahead of me. All my possible futures as a mortal human woman, gone. I had one thought, Mum; the Doctor. I had ta get back ta him. Didn’t care ‘bout anythin’ else. Apparently, Clockwork says we’re literal soulmates. I’d’ve survived his death but I would—either grieve for the rest of my life or gone absolutely crazy,” Rose smiled sadly, “an’ I woulda…I didn’t have a kid ta hold on for.”

“Me an’ Pete…?”

“Soulmates, or Bad Wolf says; both of them. Just like Pete here lost his Jackie, you lost your Pete. An’ it was some major meddling for you two ta meet,” Rose’s smile turned brighter, “between you an’ me? Think Bad Wolf had a hand in that somewhere.”

Jackie nodded faintly, before questioning, “What ‘bout Jenny? If you an’ he aren’t compatible then how…?”

“We’re not sure,” Rose shrugged, “after her physical, after we got her home, the Doctor took samples; she belongs ta both of us but we’re both still incompatible an’ sterile. Then he took more samples from her; she’s genetically sound, everythin’ matches up where it should. Time Lord DNA’s doin’ the heavy-liftin’, but she registers as partly human too. Bad Wolf’s not talkin’. Neither is Clockwork.”

Jackie gave a slightly hysterical laugh, “Rose, if you told me years ago that aliens were real I’d’ve thought you drunk! Now here we are, talkin’ about gods an’ immortality! While your alien husband—”

“He’s not my husband,” Rose murmured, an old argument she didn’t really believe anymore.

“Uh-huh—as I was saying, your alien husband plays with your little brother, the girl cloned off you both, an’ the girl you accidentally kidnapped.”

Rose smiled again, lovingly as she looked to her family out on the front lawn of Tyler Mansion.

They had come a long way from Hendriks’ basement.

[cjsmalley]

Nord Mead:

“Oh my god,” Maddie grabbed her son’s other arm as Sam heaved him from the portal, “what happened?”

“He had to visit Valhalla and he’s drunk,” Sam hissed.

“Valhalla? It’s in the Ghost Zone?” Maddie questioned before processing the rest of the younger woman’s sentence, “He’s drunk?!”

They dragged him up the stairs to the living room as Sam explained, “Pariah Dark disposed of Odin and then Danny took out Pariah so Danny’s the new Viking king—or whoever the hell’s in charge. Fuck if I know.”

“Sam.”

“Sorry, it’s just that—he went over to check on things and somehow got into a drinking contest and the mead or whatever actually affects him. He’s so drunk I think I saw the ghost of his liver fleeing into the wild green yonder. Three Vikings dragged him back home,” she paused, then grinned, “he apparently won the contest.”

“Of course he did,” Maddie said with some pride; Fentons didn’t drink often but they could hold their own when they did. That plus whatever immunities being a ghost gave one meant Danny should have been a drinking juggernaut.

“Well,” Maddie got back on track, as they laid him out on the couch, “if this was some duty then we can’t be too horrible when he wakes up.”

“If he wakes up,” Sam said darkly as Danny began snoring deeply and loudly.

Maddie chuckled and patted Sam’s shoulder, asking, “Where’s Damian and Dani?”

“With Clara the nanny,” Sam responded, “Clockwork’s watching the throne. Everything’s handled.”

It took Danny a day to sleep off the alcohol and wake up with the worst hangover ever.

“I won though?” he mumbled, holding an icepack to his head as his mother seared up something delicious and greasy.

“So the Viking said,” Sam replied dryly.

“Awesome…urgh, next time I wanna try out-drinking Viking ghosts, hit me. The headache will hurt less.”

“Will do.”

Wished Away 10

A Mother-Daughter Talk:

“When I first started a relationship with the Doctor,” Rose began, watching the man in question play with her little brother, their pseudo-daughter, and their actual daughter, “a real one, more than whatever the hell we were doin’ before, he warned me. No kids.”

Jackie gasped, “You mean he didn’t want a—?”

Rose gave a bitter laugh, “No, like, literally. We couldn’t have kids. Too different, genetic wise. He’d need another Time Lord or Lady, that’s what the women were called, Time Ladies, ta…Loom a kid with. He may have the parts, Mum, an’ be able ta use ‘em, but they didn’t make or carry babies like humans do. The babies were…best translation is ‘woven together’ by machines out of two separate DNA sources. Then they were given over ta professionals—like foster-parents almost. Nobody raised their own kids… He isn’t even sure how exactly his granddaughter was related ta him, just that she wasn’t a daughter but was a direct descendant.”

Jackie was gaping at her daughter.

“Not even Bad Wolf makes us compatible, even if we had a Loom. “Cause he’s shootin’ blanks…an’…’m sterile too now…”

“Rose!”

“I don’t…my eggs might still be good, but I don’t ovulate or get monthlies anymore,” Rose explained, “’m frozen, exactly how I was when Bad Wolf took me. Nothing ‘bout me can change permanently. I don’t even scar. Haven’t had to cut or dye my hair since then either. My nails don’t grow. I wasn’t ovulatin’ or bleedin’ so I don’t anymore. I never will again.”

“Oh, Rose…”

“I’d do it again,” Rose assured her mother firmly, “even if ya went back an’ warned me ‘bout all this. I’d’ve taken any help I could to save him…We’re lucky Bad Wolf’s so benevolent. She could stuff me inside my own head permanently an’ there’d be nothin’ we could do ‘bout it. Not even the Doctor.”

“Rose…what did you do?” Jackie whispered shakily, “When you first met Bad Wolf?”

“I don’t remember,” Rose admitted, “Bad Wolf says I traded my life for the Doctor’s—Jack’s only alive cause she was feeling nice—the mortal life an’ death ahead of me. All my possible futures as a mortal human woman, gone. I had one thought, Mum; the Doctor. I had ta get back ta him. Didn’t care ‘bout anythin’ else. Apparently, Clockwork says we’re literal soulmates. I’d’ve survived his death but I would—either grieve for the rest of my life or gone absolutely crazy,” Rose smiled sadly, “an’ I woulda…I didn’t have a kid ta hold on for.”

“Me an’ Pete…?”

“Soulmates, or Bad Wolf says; both of them. Just like Pete here lost his Jackie, you lost your Pete. An’ it was some major meddling for you two ta meet,” Rose’s smile turned brighter, “between you an’ me? Think Bad Wolf had a hand in that somewhere.”

Jackie nodded faintly, before questioning, “What ‘bout Jenny? If you an’ he aren’t compatible then how…?”

“We’re not sure,” Rose shrugged, “after her physical, after we got her home, the Doctor took samples; she belongs ta both of us but we’re both still incompatible an’ sterile. Then he took more samples from her; she’s genetically sound, everythin’ matches up where it should. Time Lord DNA’s doin’ the heavy-liftin’, but she registers as partly human too. Bad Wolf’s not talkin’. Neither is Clockwork.”

Jackie gave a slightly hysterical laugh, “Rose, if you told me years ago that aliens were real I’d’ve thought you drunk! Now here we are, talkin’ about gods an’ immortality! While your alien husband—”

“He’s not my husband,” Rose murmured, an old argument she didn’t really believe anymore.

“Uh-huh—as I was saying, your alien husband plays with your little brother, the girl cloned off you both, an’ the girl you accidentally kidnapped.”

Rose smiled again, lovingly as she looked to her family out on the front lawn of Tyler Mansion.

They had come a long way from Hendriks’ basement.