#JLD was not amused at Danny | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

nanenna · 12 days ago

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Alternate Ending

So there was a comment on AO3 that got me thinking and... yeah. I don't hate the previous ending but I don't really like it either, so have a 6k+ offshoot that takes off shortly before the final scene change above. Enjoy! UwU

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“I would like to state for the record,” Duke was saying as they filed out to the lobby, “that I called it. Bruce as my witness, right down to the bad dye job.”

“I dunno,” Jason replied, “I think the hair is legit. I’m pretty sure Phantom was doing some kind of magic with his voice too. The same kind of magic as Ember, but a different spell? I’m not really sure how to explain it.”

“It makes sense Daniel would learn magic if he took up with magic users,” Damian said stiffly.

“Oh,” Bruce had spotted a stand selling memorabilia once they hit the lobby, “how about we stop and get some of the new merch before meeting them? It would be silly to have Phantom sign something outdated.”

His children all shrugged and went to go join the queue. Bruce pulled Damian off to the side where they were less likely to be overheard. “I know you want to stick to the plan, but Daniel has already proven to be a flight risk.”

Damian scowled mightily, clearly unhappy to hear this. “What do you suggest, then?”

The fact Damian was even asking showed a great deal of restraint as well as a willingness to compromise that Bruce wanted to encourage. “For tonight you and I sit out from the meet’n’greet, then we do some planning. Before you start, I know you want to reach out to him, and I still think you should, but if he runs again we might truly never see him again, he has access to a whole other dimension that we simply cannot get to on our own.”

Damian, who had tensed up to argue, let his shoulders fall slightly, “What do you mean, Father?”

Bruce sighed and glanced at where the others were in the queue. He lowered his voice and bent down to speak into Damian’s ear, wary of being overheard. “Phantom is a known entity to the JL, I’ll brief you later.”

Damian nodded, understanding how vital being properly informed was.

If Danny fled into the Infinite Realms not even the JLD could help them reach out again. It broke Bruce’s heart, knowing that Daniel was Phantom, knowing that he was in fact still fully dead, knowing what he’d been put through when he should be resting in peace. It broke his heart even more knowing he was going to have to expose Damian to all that, Harley had beaten it into his head that just because the children had seen some horrible stuff that it didn’t make them immune to being exposed again.

“Here,” Dick called as he sauntered over, holding a bag out to Damian, “we got you some things too.”

“Thank you, Richard,” Damian said politely, though how eagerly he peered into the bag to see what he’d been given belied how happy he was.

“And for you as well,” Dick said with a smile, offering a smaller bag to Bruce.

“Thank you,” Bruce said genuinely. “Alright, let’s get going before they decide we’re all a bunch of no-shows.” As they walked Bruce leaned in close and said, “Change in parameters, observation only,” softly, and as an extra precaution he said it in French. The others all nodded their agreement.

After flashing their backstage passes, the group was led to the green room, where Bruce decided to take up shop just outside the door, Damian in his shadow. When security gave him a questioning look Bruce just gave one of his patented Brucie smiles, “Oh I’m just the designated driver and wallet for the kids.”

The security snorted in amusement, then went on to ignore him. Bruce sent a few texts off to Babs explaining everything and requesting she set up an abridged version of Phantom’s file for him to present to the others once they get back to the hotel, along with anything else from Amity Park that seemed relevant. Bruce could delude himself it was all a coincidence and the Phantom of Amity Park wasn’t Phantom Dwarfstar.

“Where my Parkers at?”

In their line of work there were no coincidences.

Once that was done he looked in his goodie bag to find the tour’s album, a key chain of Phantom’s face, and an acrylic standee that would be joining the other on his desk at work. He was just browsing Ember’s official site to see if they had a vinyl for Die With a Smile available when he heard newcomers walking down the hallway.

“I told Ember not to do any backstage experiences for this concert,” a feminine voice said in clear frustration.

Bruce looked up and spotted the source, his heart dropped. Walking down the hallway, flanked by two unknown teens, was Jasmine Nightingale, formerly Jasmine Fenton, the daughter of the doctors Fenton who were currently incarcerated for charges of supervillainy. The same Jasmine Nightingale who was mourning a younger brother who she claims her parents murdered, a younger brother who the Fentons had had declared legally dead yet no body had ever turned up. The same Fentons who had captured and tortured the Phantom of Amity Park and recorded it all ‘in the name of science.’ The recordings where Phantom had cried out for his parents before the doctors had muzzled him.

Bruce felt like he was going to be sick.

He quickly looked back down at his phone as the trio approached, partially to avoid their attention and partially to quickly add Miss Nightingale and her younger brother to the requested information for the brief later.

“It shouldn’t take too long, just shake some hands, sign some merch, take a few pictures, then presto done!”

“Unless Ember can get them chanting her name.”

“Danny will smack some sense into her if she does,” Jasmine said confidently.

Bruce nearly fumbled his phone, he had to swallow down the bile rising in this throat.

“Uh, who are you?” The trio had stopped just outside the door, one of them looking up at Bruce warily.

“Hm?” Bruce replied as he looked up from his phone. “Oh, don’t mind me, I’m just waiting on the kids.” He nodded to the green room’s door and smiled brightly. The three teens were looking at him suspiciously, but Bruce feigned ignoring them and went back to texting Babs.

One of the unknown teens, a girl with black hair and purple lipstick, bent over so she could look up at Bruce with a furrowed brow. Bruce hoped she wouldn’t decide he looks suspiciously similar to Daniel, from what little he’d seen Daniel took after him in much the same way Damian did.

“Bruce Wayne?” the girl asked.

Bruce looked up and gave one of his gala smiles, “Oh, it’s rare to be recognized so easily outside of Gotham.”

“Yeah, well, my parents have been desperately trying to get invited to one of your shindigs for years.” The girl rolled her eyes, clearly not sharing her parents’ feelings. “What’re you doing here? I wouldn’t expect a billionaire to come to some small time concert.”

“Oh, you know, one of the kids stumbled on a new artist and became a big fan, so I thought coming to see her in person would be a good family bonding experience.” Bruce surreptitiously handed off his small goody bag to Damian, who was still hidden behind Bruce’s bulk, followed by the faint sound of paper sliding against paper.

The three teens just nodded along, though with the way they were looking up at Bruce they were likely thinking how suspiciously similar he looked to Daniel.

The door to the green room opened and the children started filing out. Dick, as a full fledged member of the Justice League had likely already made the Phantom connection, paled when he spotted Jasmine. He valiantly put on one of his gala worthy smiles.

“Dick,” Bruce greeted quickly, “how did it go?”

“Oh, it was great! I got a few things signed.” Dick held up his own bag, which looked a little overfull compared to the others.

“Well come along, let’s not block the hallway, and we have a reservation to get to.” They didn’t, but it was the sort of thing expected of people at their level of wealth. Bruce ushered Dick along, Damian easily slipping into Dick’s shadow and away from those they couldn’t risk recognizing him, and made a show of counting heads as the rest of the children followed. Bruce smiled and waved to Jasmine and her friends, “It was lovely meeting you, have a good night.”

The brunette girl scoffed, but they made no objections as their group left.

“Danny,” Jasmine called as she headed into the room.

“Jazz!”

Any further conversation was cut by the sound of a door closing.

Truly Bruce was glad they didn’t have a reservation to get to, he was sure he couldn’t stomach any food right now.

🎶💚🖤🎵

Once safely inside their suite at the hotel Dick sighed deeply, “So, Phantom,” he said tiredly, “think it’s just a coincidence?”

“He called the people that already knew him Parkers,” Bruce deadpanned.

Dick sighed again, his shoulders drooping. “Yeah.”

“Should we be worried?” Jason asked with a furrowed brow.

“Remember that big to-do recently about expanding the meta protection acts? The Phantom of Amity Park was why.”

“I’ve already asked Babs to send over all the relevant information,” Bruce cut in. He wanted the degree of separation treating this like a case would give him. From the look Dick was giving him he didn’t agree, but it was this risk Bruce losing his lunch.

Dick sighed, but called Babs and put her on speaker. “Hey, Babs, how we doing this?”

“Everyone grab a screen and settle in, I’ve got a presentation all ready to go, I can just sync your screens with mine.”

Settle everyone did. Jason picked an armchair and Cass settled on one of the arms, leaning half against the back of the chair and half against Jason as she looked down at the tablet he was holding. Bruce chose to sit on the couch, holding up a tablet to share with Damian and Dick, who were squeezed in next to him on one side, and Duke who was squeezed in on the other. Tim sat in his own armchair with his own tablet. Once everyone was settled, Babs took over the screen.

“These are the doctors Jack and Madeline Fenton, residents of Amity Park. They’re currently in jail for reckless public endangerment for punching a hole into a dimension full of hostile beings that, due to the Fentons’ negligence, caused wide spread property damage.”

Duke whistled, “That is some supervillainy.”

“Oh it gets worse,” Babs said darkly, “they should also be in jail for kidnapping and torturing a minor, but due to some legal fuckery because of what the kid is it technically wasn’t illegal at the time.”

There were sounds of outrage and protest from the children, save Dick who already knew what was going on.

“I know. There’s also suspicions they murdered their own son, but without a body or a witness there’s no way to prove it.”

“We should probably show them Phantom first,” Bruce suggested.

“I know, I was getting to that.” Babs sighed deeply, “Alright, so the kid in question went by the name Phantom, and unfortunately the only photos I have available of him were from when he was captured.” A photo of Phantom strapped down to a table and muzzled came on the screen. The main features Bruce tried to focus on were the white hair, the bright green eyes, and the white stylized D emblazoned on his black suit.

Dick had pulled out his phone, “I’m sending you something.”

“Oh? What are you… oh! Well that’s a sweet picture.” A moment later a picture of Dick standing between Phantom and Ember, all three smiling brightly at the camera, appeared. “Mind if I update his file with this? Because I gotta say, I love the costume change, and the fact he’s not in the middle of a panic attack.”

“I would appreciate it,” Bruce said. That earned a few odd looks, but they hadn’t seen the other photos, or videos. All that green, all that screaming.

“From what we can gather Phantom was rescued and fled to the Infinite Realms, that’s what’s on the other side of the Fentons’ portal, by an unknown party. What was going on in Amity Park was brought to the League’s attention, the messed up government organization was cleaned up, the laws were changed, the portal safely closed, and justice was served.”

“And these Infinite Realms,” Damian asked, “are another dimension?”

“Yes, or rather it’s every other dimension from what I understand. Everything but the actual afterlife, some of it’s closer to the physical world and that’s where things like underhill and crossing the veil happen, other parts are so far out of sync with us it really is a different dimension. The Fentons called it the ‘Ghost Zone’ because they believed it’s where ghosts uh… existed. And the part they connected to did happen to have a lot of ghosts, but it had other beings too.”

“And that is where Daniel was? He was existing as a ghost near that part of the Infinite Realms and crossed back to this side when the Fentons opened the portal?”

“I’m sure that’s what he wants the world to think of Phantom, but as Bruce brought to my attention we now have a trail. It’s time to look at the Fenton children. There are two, the first is Jasmine Fenton, now Jasmine Nightingale.” A photo of the young woman along with her profile, including age and date of birth, popped up on their screens. “The other is her younger brother, the one supposedly murdered by their parents, Daniel Fention.” A profile for the boy popped up, though no photo was available.

Damian leaned in close to read the profile. “The birthdate is wrong.”

“Wrong how?” Babs asked.

“It’s the right year, but the month and day are reversed.”

Babs hummed, “It’s possible when asked his birthdate he wrote it down European style and then simply went with it.”

“I don’t see how this can be our Daniel,” Damian muttered. Bruce was so proud of him for being inclusive. “We know who his parents…” Damian trailed off, likely having just gotten to the part of the profile that listed Daniel’s adoption date.

“I already checked, the date he was found matches up with the date he went missing.”

“I don’t understand,” Dick said sadly, “if he was revived, why is he a ghost now?”

“We don’t know,” Babs said tiredly. “The earliest recorded appearance of Phantom was a little over a month after the portal opened, but Daniel’s timeline continues on uninterrupted. He keeps going to school, he still used socmed, there’s not even a hospital visit. The only clue we get is a sudden and drastic drop in his grades while teacher complaints about tardiness, skipping classes, and sleeping in class skyrocket.”

“All signs of an unsupported teen vigilante,” Tim pointed out.

“Man, even the kids you don’t raise end up going into cape work,” Jason griped.

“I would like to point out that both Stephanie and Duke were already vigilantes before meeting me, and also that Cass and Damian were already exceptional martial artists,” Bruce defended. Cass and Damian preened at the praise, while Duke looked completely unashamed.

“Maybe Daniel didn’t die?” Dick suggested. “Maybe he learned magic?”

“Maybe he transformed into a fae and was lucky enough to learn glamours fast,” Tim suggested.

“Maybe we should stop speculating and actually ask him?” Duke said sarcastically.

“We are not even sure Daniel Fenton is our Daniel,” Damian insisted.

“Unfortunately for you, we now have a Fenton family photo.” The screen changed yet again, this time to show the Fentons all gathered together. Jasmine and Daniel were much younger than they were now, Jasmine looking to be a young teen while Daniel looked to be not quite in his teens yet. Bruce zoomed in so they could see Daniel’s face more clearly.

“What a sweet baby,” Cass cooed.

“Damn, he and the demon brat could be twins,” Jason said with a laugh.

Damian didn’t respond, he simply looked sad.

“All this to say,” Bruce said to fill the silence, “that Daniel has abilities and a refuge that are currently beyond our understanding, and has already proven himself a flight risk. But he chose to come back to Earth despite the danger he believes himself to be in, so the best thing we can do is find a way to reach out to him that’s more passive, let him feel safe and in control.”

“Cornering him at a show twice would probably have him give up on Ember altogether,” Duke said sagely.

“We have time to plan,” Dick added. “We can keep track of him while the tour goes at least. Likely they’ll all go home to the Infinite Realms when it’s over, but so long as Ember keeps touring and he stays in her band we can keep an eye on him.”

“Fanmail,” Tim suggested.

Damian nodded, “Would a letter be sufficiently passive?” Damian turned to look up at Bruce.

“Hm… perhaps not a direct letter.” Bruce took a moment to consider the matter. “A letter within a letter. Address a letter to Ember asking her to pass on a sealed letter to Daniel if he happens to contact her again.”

“Make sure not to mention Phantom or her band at all,” Dick reminded Damian.

“Skittish feral cat,” Cass agreed solemnly.

“And wait at least until the next concert, too soon and Daniel will think he's been made.”

“Of course, Drake, I am not so foolish as to make such a blunder when being delicate.”

🎶💚🖤🎵

“Fanmail,” Ember said in an annoyed voice.

Danny looked up in confusion, “Morty already doled out the fanmail?” He had a sizable pile, seemed his identity was an open secret at Casper High now and a lot of them were trying to set up being penpals, talking about the good old times of hanging out with Danny. He was currently pointedly ignoring those.

“Well your creepy brother sent me a letter to pass onto you.” She dropped a couple papers on Danny and stormed off.

Oh no, she's jealous of Danny getting more attention than her. He keeps trying to redirect all the attention, it's not Danny's fault he's so charismatic and marketable (Motry's words). Danny sighed and picked the letter up.

Dear Miss Ember McLain,

Danny snorted, how polite and formal.

I hope you and your band are doing well. Please forgive me for inadvertently causing Daniel to flee, it was not my intention. In that vein, I am imposing on your good nature once more to ask that should Daniel ever contact you again to please pass along the enclosed sealed envelope. It is my hope to alleviate some of the very justified fears he has, and hopefully he will be willing to return to his previous musical career as well. Yours sincerely, Damian Wayne

Danny squinted and read the letter again. He doubted Damian wasn’t keeping track of Ember (and thus knows “Frosty” has already been replaced), so he must be pretending not to know. Was it to give Ember a false sense of security? Because surely he knew it wouldn’t comfort Danny at all. Danny frowned (it wasn’t a pout) and read over the letter again, picking it apart for any more hints. He knew it was useless, Damian viewed Ember as a civilian, someone oblivious who it would be easy to manipulate with a few careful words. And well… he wasn’t entirely wrong.

With a deep sigh, Danny tore open the still sealed envelope and began reading.

أخي You were mourned

Danny dropped the letter as if it had bit him, the first phrase burning in his mind. He was mourned? He was mourned?! Giggles bubbled up from Danny’s throat, who would have mourned him? Their severe, distant mother? Their uncaring tutors? Grandfather?! Or perhaps the too serious little boy who only ever saw Danny as competition.

Ancients, he knew the rest of his day was wrecked. He picked up his phone and sent a quick group message telling everyone his brother had sent “Frosty” a letter through Ember and he probably wouldn’t be hanging out tonight. Then he picked the letter back up and started reading.

The letter was about how when he was 10 Damian was introduced to their father, Bruce Wayne, and had lived with him since, even after Mother tried to bring him back into the League. Damian went on to assure Danny that their father is the great man Mother used to tell them stories of when they were children, that they have many rambunctious siblings and a new grandfather who all love Damian very much and already love Danny even though they haven’t met him yet. He ended the letter with a list of ways to contact Damian or their father: phone numbers, e-mails, even a couple snail mail addresses. Damian even included a drawing after signing his name: a dismembered demon.

The head was fully separated from the body by a large margin, most of the empty space filled with blood drops. The head also sported a dagger half buried in the top and large, dark Xs for the eyes. It was very clear Damian was trying to convey their Grandfather had died, likely been killed. Danny didn’t believe it, there was no way he wouldn’t come back in some form or another, his death hardly mattered.

The demon’s body was not bleeding, but it was divided into several pieces. The cuts were clean and mostly straight, only a few zigzags here and there. Danny took that to mean in Grandfather’s absence the Demon had splintered. The League was in pieces, each run by a different person. The only acceptable heirs either in America and refusing to take up the mantle or dead. (Technically Danny was both, but they didn’t know that.)

Danny looked back up at the list of ways to contact his birth family. It felt like a trap. A tempting trap, with the promise of not being found by the League as bait. But the anonymity felt safer, they couldn’t hunt him down if they didn’t even know he was alive (sorta) to even hunt, let alone where to look even if they did suspect.

Was Damian still in contact with Mother? Had he told her about Danny’s revival like he’d told his father’s side of the family? Hah! Family! Danny wasn’t even sure he wanted to give it another chance. They say third time’s the charm, but he couldn’t take that kind of betrayal again.

Danny folded up the letter and tucked it away.

🎶💚🖤🎵

Danny was staring at the letter with blank eyes. Again.

“Dipstick! It’s been three days!”

“I don’t know what to do, Ember,” Danny whined.

“Then call up your brain trust and ask them,” Ember said with a huff.

“I guess,” Danny conceded. He stayed in his spot, hunched over with his chin resting on a table, the letter propped up in front of him. He probably had all the contact information completely memorized by this point.

Ember sat down next to him and patted him on the shoulder. “I think you’re overthinking things.”

“If I do get in contact with him he’ll know I’m still in contact with you, and all that effort to convince him to leave you alone will have been for nothing.”

“Yeah,” Ember agreed, “but wouldn’t it be worth it? To have someplace in the physical realm to go to between tours? A home? A family?”

“That’s Jazz,” Danny said firmly. It was almost his 18th birthday, after that they were going to revive his legal identity and change his name to match Jazz and live with her between tours. Danny was already funneling some of his earnings to her to help get things set up. He felt bad she’d dropped out of college and lost her scholarships just so she could brow beat the JL into finally helping. She was going back to school again, new scholarships and everything, even if they weren’t as good as the old ones.

“You can’t pin your entire attachment to the mortal plane on one person,” Ember said with some exasperation.

“Sam, Tucker, Val, and even Dani since she likes exploring on this side of the portal.”

“Fine whatever. Just make a decision and stick with it, stop sitting here with your wheels spinning and getting nowhere. Call your brain trust already. But do all that later, we’ve got practice right now.” Ember ruffled his hair as she stood back up. Danny sighed, but also got up. He collected his letter before following Ember to go join the others.

That evening Danny did call up his friends and sisters. He’d already explained to them as much as he’d explained to Ember about the whole assassin cult thing, still careful to not give any specifics. For Jazz and Tucker it gave a lot of context to how he’d acted when he first met them. He had somewhat been reined in by the time he met Sam and Val, and obviously he was fully who he is now by the time Dani was born.

“Are you finally ready to tell us about this letter, little brother?” Jazz asked gently.

“I… yeah. Sorry for procrastinating.”

“It’s a lot,” Jazz said firmly. “This is a big deal and could be a huge change for you, I understand you needed time to process all of that first.”

“So, what’d he write?” Dani asked eagerly.

“He said he’s been out of the cult since he was ten-”

“Just a year after you,” Tucker cut in excitedly.

“I… yeah, it is. I don’t think he integrated the same way I did though, he seems very formal.”

“And has access to trackers,” Val added.

“And has access to trackers,” Danny agreed. “But it turns out he’s been living with our father ever since, he gave me a bunch of contact information and says that side of the family wants to meet me.”

“And do you want to?” Jazz asked, voice oh so gentle.

“I… I don’t know,” Danny finally admitted. “He was six the last time I saw him, he’s fifteen now, I don’t know him anymore. He probably barely remembers me, and I was a completely different person back then and… I don’t know. He says he’s out of the cult and has nothing to do with them, but there has to be a connection there somehow or how else would our parents have met? And if I do contact him do I tell them about being Phantom? I’d have to, right?”

“Breathe, baby brother,” Jazz said firmly.

Danny sucked in a deep breath.

“That is a lot, it’s understandable you’d be overwhelmed,” Jazz reassured. “So let’s just take a minute to breathe, alright? Damian gave you the power to decide, you can take all the time in the world to think about it.”

“Until Damian gets impatient and breaks into the bus again,” Danny said snidely.

“Does he even know you got the letter yet?” Val asked.

“No,” Danny said, then took another breath. “He shouldn’t, anyway.”

“So let’s take a minute do a little mindful breathing.” Jazz started loudly exaggerating her breathing, Danny followed along.

“What if I want to meet them?” Dani asked before things could get back on track.

“They don’t even know about you!” Danny said, horrified.

“Yeah, but I’m their family too, right? So who’s our real dad?”

Danny took a deep breath, he’d looked up his father’s name and knew what everyone’s reactions would be. “Bruce Wayne.”

There were a couple sharp breaths sucked in, but rather than the explosion of surprise he expected there was only silence.

“Uh… guys?”

“I don’t know who that is,” Dani said, bored.

“You might already be made,” Sam said carefully.

“What?” Danny asked.

“The first concert, the debut, the VIPs that evening,” Sam seemed to be scrambling verbally a little to give Danny all the context.

“Mr. Wayne was outside the green room, he said one of his kids was a fan and they went to the concert as a family thing,” Jazz filled in.

“The group of implausibly muscular people?” Danny asked faintly. He remembered it because they seemed more interested in him than Ember despite it being his literal debut and them not being from Amity Park. They’d had him sign so much stuff! Ember too, of course, but if that was just a cover…

Danny groaned, “That means they know I got the letter and all that work to convince them I’m not in contact with Ember was for nothing.”

“Sorry dude,” Tucker said with a chuckle.

“Wait,” Dani suddenly yelled, “the guy’s super rich?!”

“His money could run circles around Vlad’s money,” Sam said with an audible eye roll.

Danny just can’t escape the wealth, no matter how hard he tries.

“I think this is a good sign,” Jazz said cheerfully. “Look how respectful they’re being, giving you the choice of contact or not! He’s not barging in after shows or breaking into your hotel rooms, and he’s given you so much information.”

“You know,” Dani said in that special way that meant she was about to be an absolute menace, “Gotham’s not that far. I can go do some spying if you like. Invisibly do some eavesdropping for you.”

Danny wasn’t sure if he should let her, something about Gotham itched at the back of his brain.

“Oh!” Sam said eagerly, “See if you can get Poison Ivy’s signature for me while you’re there.”

“And maybe Batman’s too,” Tucker said with a laugh.

What?!

“He was very polite the few times I met him,” Jazz added.

“No wait, hold up!” Danny said, suddenly connecting a bunch of dots. “Holy shit! That’s what was bugging me, Batman’s from Gotham! Oh ancients!”

“Yeah,” Val said slowly. “Superman is from Metropolis, Wonder Woman is from Themyscira, and Batman is from Gotham.”

“Son of the bat!” Danny yelled in much the same way one might say ‘son of a bitch.’

“Huh?” A few of them asked.

“Me! I’m son of the bat, it’s one of the things we were called as kids!” That and son of the demon and a few other things.

“WHAT?!” Everyone cried.

“Bruce Wayne is Batman?!” Val asked in shock.

“The himbo?!” Sam sounded offended.

“I thought he just funded Batman,” Tucker murmured.

“So he’s one of the good guys, right?” Dani was asking with a cackle.

“Oh my god, I’ve been made! I’ve been made three times over at least!” Danny hopped up and started pacing his hotel room. “There’s no way the man Grandfather called the Detective hasn’t already figured out my entire life story and made all the connections!”

“In that case,” Val said far too reasonably, “they know you’re not just still in contact with Ember but touring with her too. No point in avoiding them as some kind of way to protect her.”

“Batman did a lot of work to help expand meta rights to include you,” Jazz added. “He was very polite and professional the few times I met him.”

“He didn’t know yet,” Danny moaned. “About me being your brother. Or rather about having another son at all yet, Damian said so in his letter. He didn’t know about Damian until Mother dropped him off, apparently.”

“Well!” Jazz said, she certainly seemed to have opinions about that she’d keep to herself. For now.

“So,” Tucker said, drawing the sound out, “now what?”

“I still don’t know,” Danny said in frustration. “It doesn’t change the fact I still haven’t seen Damian since he was six, not really.”

“So that means take getting to know him again slowly,” Jazz said in her gentle voice. “You can start with just texting, don’t even worry about an in person meeting until after this tour’s over.”

“And don’t say you’re still scared of your mom’s cult,” Val said sternly. “Your dad’s Batman! If anyone can protect you from them it’s him.”

“You did say your little brother’s been out for years,” Sam backed her up.

“He even said Mother tried to bring him back and he refused,” Danny confirmed tiredly.

“There you go,” Val said smugly.

“Uh guys? We might have a problem,” Tucker said nervously. “Little Dani hung up.”

“What?” Several of them asked.

“Looks like it was a couple minutes ago, dropped right out of the call.”

“Oh no,” Danny said in horror, “she probably went to Gotham. I’ve gotta go.” He hung up and transformed, diving through the hotel’s roof without another thought.

🎶💚🖤🎵

Batman was in the middle of his patrol when a figured popped out of thin air in front of him. A girl, around Robin’s age if he had to guess, glowing white hair held back in a ponytail, black and white suit, and when she had stopped being bent over while breathing heavily: glowing green eyes and an all too familiar stylized D on her chest.

“You are hard to find!” The girl crowed.

Batman relaxed his defensive stance, though he was staying alert. “And you are?”

“Dani with an I. Is it true? Danny thinks you’re his dad. The other Danny, with a Y.”

Batman tapped the comm in his ear, “Robin.” He waited for the comm to be channeled to the correct line, “Do you have a sister you never told us about?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” Robin replied warily.

“Sister?” Orphan asked hopefully. As expected, the question had caught Oracle’s attention, and now all the Gotham vigilantes were on the one channel.

“I mean, kinda?” Dani said, unable to hear the chaos erupting over comms. She drifted in the air slightly, “He calls me that now, and we’re working on getting me a legal ID and all that. But technically I’m his clone.”

“His clone,” Batman repeated, causing the chaos to abruptly cut off. Robin scoffed, but otherwise didn’t reply. Batman had known Phantom had been involved in cape work before his capture and escape, so a clone shouldn’t be as much of a surprise as it was.

“Yeah, so anyway… is it true?”

Batman simply nodded.

Dani with an I grinned and did a fist bump, “Awesome! He’s being such a nervous Nelly about the whole thing, has himself all twisted up in knots. But like, you’re one of the good guys! So now I can rub it in his face that I got to meet you first.”

Far too trusting, but also younger than she looks, and that’s very young to begin with. Batman fully relaxed, or as much as he ever let himself relax while in the cowl, and held a hand up to Dani. “It’s nice to meet you.”

She floated a little lower to be even with him and eagerly took his hand to shake. “Nice to meet you too, pops!”

Bruce couldn’t help smiling at that, it was quite refreshing having a child who’s so friendly and open.

Dani was hit by a blur of glowing black and white. She and her attacker hit the roof Batman was standing on, bounced up into the air, and stayed there. Batman stood tensed, having just stopped himself from throwing the batarang in his hand when he recognized the attacker.

“Dani! I can’t believe you!” Phantom was wrestling with Dani, maneuvering her into a headlock.

“You were dragging your feet, we all know this is how things were going to end up!”

“Noogies for ten thousand years!”

“Nooooo!” Dani shrieked as Phantom administered the threatened noogie.

Batman smiled to himself as he tucked the batarang away. Not once has he ever encountered a clone made for ethical, upstanding reasons, and yet here Phantom was antagonizing his clone as if she were a beloved little sister. They’ll get along well with the others. He stepped forward and cleared his throat to get the children’s attention. “Hello, Phantom.”

Phantom looked up and visibly paled, eyes huge. He winked out of the visible spectrum, then winked back in. Phantom looked down at Dani with a glare, then they winked out and back in again.

“Will you quit that,” Phantom hissed.

“No, just say hello!”

“It doesn’t have to be more than hello,” Batman said gently. “I’m just glad I finally get to meet you.” He held a hand up to Phantom.

Phantom hesitated for a moment, then finally let Dani go so he could give Batman a brief handshake. “Hello, sir.”

“You got the letter?” It was a useless question, they both knew he did, but it was the easiest opening.

“Yeah, I got the letter.”

Batman nodded, “It would be nice to hear from you then.” When Phantom looked confused Batman decided to elaborate, “There are a lot of us, we can be quite overwhelming. I don’t expect you to just come home with us tonight, especially when you have a prior commitment.”

“He means Ember,” Dani loudly whispered.

“I know that,” Phantom groused.

Batman heard the sound of tires squealing, followed by a grapple being used. Likely they wouldn’t be alone for much longer. “The plan was always to get to know you slowly, we’re all strangers right now, it’ll take time for that to change.”

“Jazz said the same thing,” Phantom grumbled.

“And Jazz was right,” Dani said with a grin.

“I have a feeling your older sister has an annoying habit of always being right,” Batman said with a smirk.

“Akhi!”

Phantom’s head snapped over to where Robin’s voice had come from, darting up into air and dragging Dani with him, shoving her behind him. He relaxed a little when he realized it was Robin running up to them.

“Akhi, please don’t run again!” Robin slowed as he approached, likely soothed by the fact that Phantom lowered a little, though still out of reach. “I did not expect you to come to Gotham so soon.”

“That’s my fault,” Dani chirped as she leaned out from behind Phantom. “He only made the Gotham-Bat connection just now, it was so funny!”

Phantom’s face started glowing green.

“I had to come meet you for myself, it just had the bonus of making Mr. Anxiety finally stop talking himself in circles.”

Phantom groaned in embarrassment, “Dani!”

“What? It’s true!”

“His anxiety is understandable after what he’s been through,” Batman said firmly. Then he looked Phantom in the eyes, “And none of it was your fault.”

Phantom’s face flushed green once more as he averted his gaze.

“So, now what?” Dani asked.

“If you have your phones on you we can exchange information,” Batman offered.

Phantom scoffed, “I already have it all.”

“In your phone?” Robin asked.

Phantom’s face glowed even brighter. “Fine, here.” He pulled out his phone, unlocked it, and tossed it to Robin.

Dani darted around her brother and zoomed right up to Batman, her phone already held out for him. He quickly put in Bruce’s private contact information and sent himself a text so he would have hers. When that was done, he handed Dani her phone back.

There was an awkward silence after that, no one quite sure what to say.

“Well this has been nice and all,” Phantom started, “but I’m sure you’ve got important crime fighting stuff to get back to.”

Dani snorted a laugh.

“It was good meeting you both,” Batman said with a nod.

Phantom nodded back. Then he grabbed his little sister and they both vanished into thin air.

“He’ll be in contact,” Batman told Robin, trying to be comforting.

“Of course he will. And as he said, I have patrol to get back to.” Robin turned and stalked to the edge of the roof, where he leapt off.

“Two for one,” Orphan said with a giggle over comms.

“It certainly seems that way,” Batman growled. Inside he was smiling, Dani had certainly given them a better chance to get to know Danny, and he was looking forward to getting to know his new daughter as well.

“Are you going to inform Mother she now has a daughter?” Robin asked.

“Perhaps… in about ten years or so.”

That's Not How You Keep a Low Profile

Available on AO3

DPxDC

Danny joins Ember's backup band and goes with them on tour, he didn't take into account that he was in hiding from several groups and organizations chasing after him for various reasons. Who knew Ember would get popular enough to be noticed by one of them?

🎵🎸🎶

Damian entered the classroom to find Skylar and a couple of her friends standing off to the side, clustered around one girl holding a phone that was playing loud rock-and-roll music. Damian set his bag down at his desk, then went to go join them. “Good morning, Skylar.”

“Damian, hi!” Skylar greeted cheerfully, then moved so Damian could join their group. He obligingly moved in so he could also peer down at the video playing on the girl’s phone. “It’s this new artist who’s been getting popular recently, Ember McLain. She’s doing a tour right now and is going to be pretty close to us, just over in Pennsylvania.”

Damian studied the vocal artist, a young woman dressed in mostly black with a few silver accents, bright blue hair, and what he believed Brown had called “corpse paint” make up. Though from the way her hair seemed to almost defy gravity and the blue skin tone of her back up musicians perhaps she was a meta or alien like them. The exception was a baseline human young man dressed in a similar style to McLain with dark hair and a regular skin tone, playing back up guitar and doing back up vocals.

Damian frowned, something about the back up vocalist was familiar.

The song wound down, the back up vocalist abandoned his stand mic to move to front stage next to McLain while swinging his guitar behind himself. The keyboardist picked up a virulently pink guitar and took the vocalist's place. Damian pointed at the phone, “Who is he?”

“That’s Frosty McGee, usually he’s the back up vocalist but they have a duet.”

Damian scrunched up his nose, but chose not to comment on the poorly chosen stage name. The camera zoomed in, finally giving him a clear view of the older teen’s face as he opened his mouth and started singing.

Damian’s whole body went cold.

It couldn’t be, it just couldn’t. He’d watched his older brother die with his own eyes, lowered into the Lazarus Pit never to rise. And surely if he did somehow survive he wouldn’t be singing for some rock-and-roll band in America, he would’ve found some way to return home. Surely.

“This…” Damian tried not to let his face twist as he spoke the name, “Frosty McGee is a stage name, correct? What’s his real name?”

Skylar looked thoughtful as she pulled out her own phone and began typing away. “I don’t think their real names are public,” She said slowly as she navigated to the artist’s website. While she went to the “about” page, Damian pulled out his own phone to follow Skylar to the website. “Yeah, all they have listed are everyone’s stage names.”

Damian just nodded, already looking up their tour information.

🎵🎸🎶

Danny collapsed into a chair in the green room, exhausted after spending half the night tapping into his ghostly wail while in human form. Ember and the zombies looked fresh as ever, the consequence of Danny being the only one with a heart beat in the band.

“Your stamina’s getting better,” Ember offered with a smirk.

Danny resisted flipping her off, he knew she really meant it, even if she seemed to like getting under his skin a little too much.

“Look alive,” Mortimer, their manager, said as he walked into the room. “Someone actually bought a VIP ticket with the backstage experience, so you’re going to meet a fan.”

Ember perked up, already excited. “Just one? Or a whole group?”

“Just the one, so be ready to give him the full experience.” Morty left then, likely to go walk their fan back.

“Try to look a little tired at least, you are supposed to be a normal human,” Danny groused as he sat up and went about mopping up what sweat he could without smearing his makeup.

Ember scoffed, “No, we’re metas, Danny. You’re the one who’s supposed to be normal.”

“Or aliens,” Gunther said with his craggly voice. “We never did decide which one we like better.”

“You can be aliens, I’m a meta,” Ember declared proudly.

There was a knock on the door. Everyone straighted and turned to face the door, a bright smile spread on Ember’s face.

Danny’s own soft smile fell as he watched their fan enter and look around the room. A boy, the same age Danny was when he stepped into the portal, with an all too familiar face. His sharp green eyes zeroed in on Danny. There was a long tense moment where everyone simply stood, Damian just inside the door and Danny just in front of his chair (when had he stood?), staring at each other.

“Akhi?”

In a panic Danny turned partly invisible, “It’s been eight years Damian, let me go.” He finished slipping from human sight, then intangibly slipped right out of the room. He raced invisibly through hallways and walls until he got to their tour bus. Technically as ghosts they didn’t need it, but 1) the living expected that sort of thing and 2) Ember insisted on doing the whole experience. (He knew it was really because as someone who wasn’t entirely ghost Danny did actually need someplace to sleep and eat and shower and all that, that Ember actually got the tour bus for him.)

Once inside Danny let his powers fade as he curled up on a seat in the back, arms wrapped around his legs and face buried in his knees. Stupid! Why did he say that? Why did he run?!

He knew why.

“Baby-pop?” Ember called faintly, phasing into the van.

“Here,” Danny called miserably.

“Okay, good. We're all here just open a portal and we'll skedaddle.”

Danny sniffled but nodded. He looked up to find everyone was already gathered in the bus, all staring at him with worried faces. “Right, yeah, okay, I can do this.”

Rock got behind the wheel while everyone else settled in. Danny had to leave the bus, having been taught by Wulf on making portals. Not every ghost could learn, but Danny was predisposed to it because… well, it was pretty obvious why.

Danny clawed open a portal to Ember's lair, grabbing an edge and pulling it wide enough to fit the whole bus. The bus trundled through and Danny quickly followed, closing the portal behind him.

Almost on reflex he transformed once fully in the Realms, taking a deep (but completely unnecessary) breath of that crisp, fresh ectoplasm. The others filed off the bus, Ember put a gentle hand on Danny’s arm. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“Good.” Ember crossed her arms and gave Danny a Look™, “Care to explain what just happened?”

Danny groaned, he knew this was coming. “I’d rather not.”

Everyone frowned at him.

Danny scrubbed at his eyes briefly. “I haven’t told anyone, not even Sam and Tucker, not even Jazz!”

“So… do you want to conference call them in and explain it to everyone at once? Or is this a dead men tell no tales kind of situation?”

Danny gave Ember his own Look™. “I know what gossips ghosts are.”

“Hey,” Gunther cut in, “if you want us to not tell anyone we won’t tell anyone. Promise.”

Danny groaned as he thought it over, but he kinda did owe them an explanation. “Alright, but can we go somewhere a little more comfortable first? I’m still exhausted.” He wasn’t, not physically. But ghosts aren’t physical so being emotionally exhausted was basically the same thing.

“Yeah, let’s go hit my lounge.” Ember slung an arm over Danny’s shoulder and led him away from the bus.

Danny smiled, feeling loved and cared for. It was still a little weird sometimes, realizing how much his former rogues actually liked him despite how at odds they’d been at the start. They’d basically been coddling him ever since…

Once in the lounge everyone picked a plush, overstuffed piece of furniture to literally lounge on. Ember had no shoes off rule, it felt weird to just put his boots up on a couch, so Danny chose to slouch comfortably into the back while his legs stretched out to the floor. Once everyone was settled, they all looked over at Danny expectantly.

How to even start? “So uh… I’m adopted.”

“Wait, how does Jazz not know you’re adopted?” Ember exclaimed.

“Oh no, that’s the part everyone actually knows, or at least everyone I knew back then. It’s everything before that that no one knows.”

“That kid is from your bio fam,” Steve wheezed. Everyone looked at him, then back to Danny.

He shrugged and looked down at his gloves, “Yeah. That’s Damian, my little brother.”

“And you just ran from him because?” Ember prompted.

Gunther snorted, “Didn’t just run, he literally ghosted the kid.”

Danny couldn’t help blushing, “I panicked, okay?”

Everyone relaxed at that, smiling brightly at Danny’s embarrassment. Morty pulled out his phone and started tapping away, “Should I get in contact with him about a redo then?”

“No!” Danny yelped, his voice cracking like it hadn’t in almost two months. He flushed harder, Ember was going to tease him about that later. “No, no absolutely not. Honestly if he’s found me then that means Mother and Grandfather know I’m still alive after all. I think… I think I’m going to have to stay in the Realms.”

“What?!”

“Baby-pop, no!”

“You can’t!”

Danny looked down at his gloves, picking at the seems. “Look, no adoption starts for happy reasons, every adoption comes from a tragic backstory. My birth family is dangerous, even to us. No, listen,” Danny said harshly when the others scoffed. “They’re dangerous, they’ll hurt you trying to get me back.”

Ember’s lips thinned, “Are they ghost hunters like the-” she cut herself off, her face getting all the grimmer.

Danny shook his head, “No, magic users. They won’t have to know what you are to use magic artifacts against you. After all, blood blossoms were believed to be harmful to witches, it was just coincidence they were harmful to ghosts.”

“Okay,” Ember said, looking over to the rest of the band. “So Frosty McGee is quitting, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still hang around us. You can be a roadie,” Ember cut in when Danny tried to protest. “Wear one of those medical masks when you’re working, never be on stage or in front of a camera, that’s fine. But we still need you, Danny. You’re the one who’s been dead the shortest, you know how things work now. You’re the one that suggested I get a manager and start doing things legit instead of just overshadowing my way into gigs.”

“We didn’t even know metas were a thing until you told us,” Gunther added.

“I wasn’t aware of how much technology had advanced,” Morty added. “If it weren’t for you we would have a completely outdated website and no youtube channel. We’d probably only have half the merch we currently have available.”

“Don't forget the portals,” Steve wheezed.

“Yeah! Without portals we couldn’t make regular pit stops back to the Realms to recharge. So we need you, Danny. Frosty can quit, but don’t let Danny abandon us.”

Danny sighed, but he couldn’t help smiling at his friends, even if his bottom lip was wobbling dangerously. “Alright, I get it. I’ll stay, a roadie you say?”

“It’ll make us loading and unloading the bus more believable if we have hired muscle pretending to do it.” Morty smirked down at his phone.

“Ugh, gonna make me earn my keep.”

🎵🎸🎶

Damian stood in the green room in shock, unsure what had just happened. His mouth felt dry, his skin felt cold, every hair on his body was standing on end, his hands felt clammy. Daniel had just vanished right before his eyes. He turned to ask someone, anyone, what had just happened.

The room was empty.

Damian looked around, the door behind him was still closed, there were no other exits, he was the only living being in the room.

Metas, Damian reminded himself. He was fairly certain McLain and her band members were metas, likely the phrase Daniel had spoken was actually a code phrase for immediate evac. Damian turned and left the room, quickly making his way further into the building and out to the back. There was an employee parking garage just behind the venue that surely the band’s equipment vehicles were kept in during the show.

The garage was not completely empty, but it was completely bereft of trailers, tour buses, or other equipment hauling vehicles. Damian had been too late, they had fled completely. Damian kicked a support pillar in frustration, it didn’t help.

All he knew was his brother lived, and for some reason he chose not to return home, had fled at the mere sight of Damian.

Well, he would have some research to do. But before that, he had to return home before his absence became suspicious, there was only so long his careful web of misdirection would hold.

The next morning he returned to the manor, no one the wiser. Thomas was on his way out and greeted Damian as he entered. “Hey, how was the sleepover?”

“It was an experience,” Damian commented absently.

Thomas laughed at Damian’s response. “I’m glad you had fun.”

He was about to leave when Damian realized this was the perfect opportunity for some information gathering. “One of my peers said something I didn’t understand, I believe it was a meme.”

“Oh yeah? Which one?”

Most memes followed a format where the exact details could be adjusted to the situation at hand. Considering Daniel had said Damian’s name and the specific number of years he’d been -dead- missing likely he could swap those out for less suspicious details. “It’s been two years Thomas, let me go.”

“Ah, okay so you just claimed to be a ghost or a grief fueled hallucination and that I need to get my shi- uh… stuff. Together. My stuff together. Anyway, usually whoever says that also disappears right after they say it.”

“And is this meme recent?”

Thomas shrugged. “Eh, not really? The concept’s been around for decades at least, even in that format, but I don’t think I’ve seen it used as a reaction until a little bit ago.”

Damian nodded, “Thank you for the clarification.”

“No problem.” Thomas waved and was on his way. Damian went to his room to take care of his overnight bag. A quick check of McLain’s website showed no change, but that was to be expected so soon after they fled. He wondered if the whole tour would be cancelled.

Damian spent the next few days practically haunting McLain’s website (when he wasn’t systematically searching for Daniel’s likeness on public cameras), as well as the website of the tour’s next venue. He even went so far so to create a throw away email, signed it up for McLain’s fan club, and set it to alert him of incoming emails. Thus he was one of the first to find out when the next concert was suddenly cancelled, all tickets refunded. The newsletter that followed informed the fans that, “Sadly Frosty McGee has had to part ways with us due to some matters Frosty wishes to remain private. We wish him and his family well.” It went on to promise that though the next concert was cancelled the rest of the tour would continue as scheduled.

So Daniel had fled.

Damian wasn’t surprised, judging from his reaction Daniel felt his new identity had been compromised. Damian just didn’t understand why. Why Daniel was afraid of him. Why he hadn’t attempted to contact Damian. Why he hadn’t come home.

He had been away from the League and Grandfather’s influence long enough to understand why Daniel would choose not to go back to them, but Damian had been out of the League for five years, did Daniel not know? Had he not heard the news about famous billionaire Bruce Wayne’s youngest and only (known) blood related son?

It didn’t matter, Damian wouldn’t have the answers to any of his questions unless he found Daniel again. Even if he has fled again, Damian really only has the one lead and he would follow it.

In the meantime he had his regular duties to attend to.

🎵🎸🎶

“C'mon, what are you doing just sitting around? It's time for lessons.”

“What?” Danny looked up from where he was slouched in a chair with phone in hand, blinking at Ember.

“Lessons, we still haven't gotten you to sing and play at the same time yet.”

“I… quit… the band?”

“Frosty quit the band, I figure we can use this time to really work on your skills so they're finally up to snuff when we debut Phantom.”

“What?”

“What do you mean what?” Ember huffed and rolled her eyes. “Do you know how many people asked for refunds when we said you quit? I'm not letting any more fans get away.”

Danny just kept blinking, “You know Phantom is in hiding just as much as Danny, right?”

“So you get a costume change and pick a different stage name. Your old duds are outdated anyway.”

“It's what I died in???”

“And you think I died dressed like this?”

Danny wasn't sure how to respond to that.

“So we get you some new duds, pick out a better stage name, and wear makeup while performing. Do you know what contouring can do?”

“It would be suspicious-”

“If we brought you in right now,” Ember cut him off. “Which is why we're aiming for the next tour, which will give us time to get everything set up, including improving your abysmal guitar skills.”

Danny couldn't help smiling, “Yeah. Yeah, okay, let's get to it then.”

🎵🎸🎶

When the time came, Damian knew better than to buy another VIP ticket, they would be on guard for that. This time he decided to find and sneak into their vehicle while the concert was held. There was the risk the band would take a taxi or uber to their hotel instead, but considering the size of the venue and number of tickets sold they would likely attempt to reduce spending, especially since they missed the previous concert. It was a simple matter to pick the lock and sneak onto the bus. He sat waiting in the driver’s seat, making it impossible for them to drive off without him.

McLain stood just outside the bus and opened the door with a scowl on her face, crossing her arms once the door was open. “I could have you arrested for this.”

“I merely have a few questions for you.”

“I should sue you for lost revenue, do you know how much we lost in deposits alone? All those tickets we had to give a full refund on. Not to mention we lost 10% of sales for the rest of the tour, which might not sound like much but when you’re counting pennies that’s a lot!”

“How does Frosty McGee feel about having such loyal fans?”

McLain threw her arms in the air, “I don’t know! We haven’t heard from him since he left. Just took one look at you, packed what he could fit in one bag, and hopped the next bus.”

“And he told you nothing?”

“He told us he was oh for two on families, but you were from the first set of fuck ups and he wasn’t going back.”

That was disheartening to hear. It sounded as if Daniel had found a family to take him in the way Father took in children, but it also sounded as if they were not good to him the way Father is with his children. “Who was his second family?” Damian would make them pay.

“Fuck off, I’m not telling you that. It doesn’t change anything anyway, they know where Frosty is even less than us.”

Damian would like to find out what Daniel had been up to since his disappearance, there was also the chance it would give him a better idea of Daniel’s direction, and certainly he would like to find out what this so-called family did and find a way to get justice for Daniel, but McLain was not wrong that little of that would be useful in tracking Daniel down. He pulled a business card from a pocket and held it out to her. “If he does contact you again.”

“No.” Despite her words she took the card. She took it and set it on fire before dropping it to the asphalt beneath her feet. “In the extremely unlikely event he does get back in contact, I’m not telling you. He clearly wants nothing to do with you, got spooked real bad.” She crossed her arms again and looked away. “I’m worried.”

“Very well.” Damian descended the bus’s stairs, the band moving aside to glare at him as he passed. “You’re not the only one worried for him, it may have been years but he’s still my brother.”

“That’s none of our business.” McLain waved him off as she entered the bus, the manager and the rest of the band following behind her. Damian stood to the side and watched as the bus trundled out of the parking lot, leaving him behind.

🎵🎸🎶

Danny watched Damian until he was out of sight, going so far as to lean invisibly out of the bus. Once the building they were passing came between him and his little brother, he finally moved back inside and quietly scoured the bus.

“Baby-pop?” Ember asked as she watched him methodically search high and low.

Danny put a finger up to his lips, then went back to scouring. One thing Danny had learned over the years is that ghosts have a 6th sense for when they’re being observed, they always know when being watched or listened to. Danny felt that subtle itch now, a scratch at the back of his brain that felt a lot like how on edge he used to be all the time, like the paranoia Grandfather had carefully beaten into him.

The first bug he found was just a tracker, a weirdly spiky oval with a tiny red light to let him know it worked. Well, that he would leave on the bus, their whereabouts would be public anyway, and if only one of the bugs goes out Damian might not come back to plant more. He handed it to Morty with another finger over his lips again, he’d answer questions after he found the other bug.

Eventually he found the listening bug, this one a plain little button shape. It almost looked like an oversized button, the holes for the mic a good disguise. This one he showed to the others before phasing his arm out the car and dropping it in the road. He did one more sweep to make sure there weren’t any others, double checked the weirdly spiky tracker didn’t have any tiny cameras or mics attached, by the time he finally sat down to explain the bus was parked in the hotel's lot.

“The one I dropped outside was a listening device, that one I gave you is a tracker. Since where we’re going on tour is already publicly available I don’t see a point to getting rid of that one too, though we should probably leave it behind when we go to the Realms.”

“Ancients,” Morty murmured, staring down at the tracker nervously.

“Not painting a very reassuring picture,” Gunther agreed.

“Danny,” Ember said softly, “your little brother broke into our bus and hid bugs inside.”

Danny sighed as he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “Right, this is the part even Jazz doesn’t know about. You need to keep this to yourselves, you can’t even hint you know what I’m about to tell you.”

Everyone nodded.

“Jazz and… the Fentons believe I was raised in a cult before I met them. Honestly, looking back at it now, they’re right. An incredibly violent assassin cult that worships pools of nasty smelling, bubbling, glowing, green water.”

Everyone was staring at him with wide eyes, forgetting to even pretend to breathe.

“The person who both started and runs this cult is my Grandfather, who is over five hundred years old and still alive. Well… mostly, so far as I can tell. I didn’t know about ectoplasm or the Realms back then, so it’s kinda shifted my view of a few things but I can’t really confirm anything without going back there, yanno?”

“That is… a lot,” Morty said quietly.

“Have you ever assassinated anyone?” Gunther asked.

“I was nine when I got out,” Danny deflected.

“Has your brother assassinated anyone?” Rock asked.

Danny shrugged, “I dunno, probably?”

“Ancients,” Morty murmured again.

“So we’re just… keeping this?” Ember plucked the tracker from Morty’s open palm.

“I’m hoping if the tracker keeps working and is accurate he won’t break in and put more devices in here.”

“Lovely.”

“I can see why you were hiding,” Morty said tiredly.

“And also why I didn’t want to tell anyone,” Danny added. “Ghost hunters may have all the specialized tools to hurt us, but most of the ones we’ve met so far are pretty incompetent.” It had taken Danny letting his guard down for him to be caught in the first place, and by the time he had realized the betrayal it had been too late.

“That explains the hat though,” Steeve wheezed with a laugh.

Danny hadn’t just been wearing one of those paper medical masks, he’d added a brimmed hat to hide his hair and face from cameras. The mask got hot and sweaty sometimes!

“Well this just makes our decision all the better, you'll blend in better if we have other roadies,” Ember said confidently.

Danny perked up. “Oh? Who'd you get? Johnny actually looks human, I could blend in with him. And Kitty would kill it as security.”

“They're waiting in the hotel, you'll see.” Ember winked as she got up and exited the bus. Danny followed, eager to see more familiar faces.

The faces waiting for him in the hotel were familiar, but not the ones he expected.

“Sam! Tucker!” He ran to them, arms open wide. His best friends eagerly opened their own arms in welcome. It was like coming home and breathing for the first time, being in his best friends’ arms. Only one thing could make it better, but no annoying older sisters were in sight. Danny wasn't going to let that ruin this reunion, though.

Danny leaned back just enough to look Sam and Tucker in the eyes. “What are you doing here? How?!”

“We took our finals early,” Sam supplied. “And since the last week is just classroom parties we took it off.”

“We're gonna spend the whole summer with you!” Tucker grinned so brightly Danny thought he might go blind. Or it might just be the tears brimming.

“You guys!” Danny snuffled and swiped at his eyes.

“Check it out.” Tucker turned around to show the back of his shirt, which had “STAFF” in big white letters across the top, stark against the black shirt, and the tour's info below.

Sam pulled out a black fabric face mask from her pocket and offered it to Danny. He held it up to find it also had “STAFF” in bold white letters across what felt like very breathable fabric. It probably wouldn't stop a sneeze, but it worked great as a disguise.

Danny couldn't help barking out a bright laugh, “You guys going to help me load and unload the band's gear?”

Tucker scoffed, “You wish, I'm Ember's new tech guy.”

“Makeup and costumes,” Sam said in a deadpan before raising her voice slightly. “Which seems pretty sexist.”

“Do you want to help Danny cart gear or not?” Ember asked from where she and the others were watching their reunion.

Sam made a face and sighed, “Makeup and costumes it is.”

“So glad we got that figured out. Hey dipstick, open a portal to my lair. The boys and I are gonna party.”

Danny rolled his eyes but obliged. Honestly it was sweet of them to let him have the room to himself while he and his best friends caught up. Danny was so lucky to have so many good friends.

🎵🎸🎶

After Damian’s lackluster conversation with McLain, dashing any hopes for progress or leads, it was time he told Father and the others the situation. Truly he knew he should have before now, springing Daniel on Father would not be kind, he had simply hoped to have Daniel's whereabouts known so Father could meet him as soon as he was ready. Instead Damian was going to need to request assistance in tracking Daniel down.

It felt like a personal failure.

Still, to tell Father about his living, if missing, son was far preferable than him finding out about Daniel some other way and believing him dead. Damian had just finished setting up his presentation on the large screen TV in the media room when Father and Alfred entered.

“All ready to go, chum?”

“Yes, Father, we’re just waiting on the others now.”

Alfred began setting out drinks and snacks while Father took a seat in one of the armchairs. “While we wait, any chance of a hint on what all this is about?”

Damian was unsure how to answer, the news was not all bad but it seemed Father was under the impression this was some left over school project or something of the like. “It is a very serious matter,” was all Damian ended up saying.

Father smiled, “I’m sure it is, you wouldn’t have gone to all this effort otherwise.”

Damian nodded, glad Father understood.

Soon the others began trickling in. Thomas and Cain, as other residents of the manor, had been invited, Richard of course was also invited as he would be devastated to learn of a new brother any other way, Gordon and (reluctantly) Drake had been invited as Damian would be requesting their help in searching for Daniel, and Todd had been invited purely as curtesy and had, expectedly, turned the invitation down. Damian had considered some of the other Gotham vigilantes, but had ultimately decided against it. There were already enough people crowding into the room.

Once everyone had arrived and found their seats, Damian started his rehearsed presentation. “Thank you all for coming, I appreciate the support. I’m afraid this will not be as light hearted as you may be expecting. In fact, I have some rather distressing news. Father, at Mother’s behest I have been keeping a secret from you.”

Father sat up straighter, his pleased smile falling into a frown.

Damian took a deep breath, “I am not your firstborn, I had an older brother.”

As expected, this announcement caused quite the stir. There were a few shocked gasps, Richard looked devastated, Father had hunched forward to rest his elbows on his knees while staring down at the floor, Alfred moved to stand beside father with a hand on his shoulder.

Damian gave them a moment to digest what he had just told them before moving on. “His name was Daniel, when he was nine and I was six he went on a mission and came back successful but critically injured. Grandfather granted him permission to use one of the smaller Lazarus Pits, but he died en route. Mother put him in the Pit anyway, but the device used to lower him broke and his body never surfaced.”

“Oh Dami,” Richard said softly, a hand held out as if he would pull Damian into a hug.

“I’m telling you all this now because five weeks ago I saw him in a video for a performing artist.” Damian started the visual portion of his presentation, beginning with with a promotional photo of McLain and Daniel, then zoomed in on Daniel’s face.

Everyone’s heads snapped back up, entire focus laser guided to Daniel’s picture.

“He is using the stage name Frosty McGee,” Damian paused to allow the snickers and guffaws he had been expecting, he switched to a different promotional photo, this one including Daniel’s bandmates, “and was performing as a back up guitarist and singer for the artist known as Ember McLain. As they were, and still are, touring I attended a concert under a VIP ticket that included meeting the artists after the show.”

Father frowned, “I didn’t know you went to a concert.”

“It was an information gathering mission for personal reasons, of course you were not informed. I simply wanted to be sure I was not mistaken and McGee was actually Daniel before I burdened you with this distressing secret.”

“Daniel isn’t a burden, none of you are a burden,” Father said tiredly.

“And you confirmed that Frosty is Daniel?” Tim asked rather loudly.

“Yes, Drake. Unfortunately he recognized me as well. He said, and I quote, ‘It’s been eight years Damian, let me go.’ Then he and the other artists all vanished into thin air.”

There were more titters and guffaws. Thomas smiled brightly, “Ah, so that’s why you asked about that meme.”

There were a few frowns, clearly the others already putting puzzle pieces together. “Vanished?” Drake asked.

“I believe the other backup band members may be metas, possibly McLain herself as well. Invisibility is not a common met ability, but it is not unheard of either.”

“Or magic,” Cain offered.

Damian nodded to her, “Magic is also a possibility. Unfortunately,” Damian clicked to the announcement about Frosty McGee leaving the band, “McLain claims Daniel packed his belongings and left without any further explanation, neither she nor her companions have heard from him since.”

“Oh no!” Richard and Gordon both said together.

“I have monitored all publicly available modes of transport out of Midville, Pennsylvania, but I have not been able to track Daniel’s movements.”

“Send me what you got, I’ll see what I can do,” Gordon ordered.

Damian nodded, glad to have her help. “There is one last matter. McLain said Daniel had been adopted, but he was hiding from them as well, I suspect that was why he was using such a ridiculous stage name.”

“Well we’ll just have to look into finding them as well,” Gordon said with a wicked grin.

“They don’t have any shirts in my size,” Richard whined, staring down at his phone.

The others all pulled out their phones and began tapping away.

“Oh,” Thomas said brightly, “he has a credit on one of the songs!”

“Yes, he performed a duet with McLain.”

“Anything for You?” Tim scrunched his nose as his phone.

“Unfortunately,” Damian agreed. “A standard pop love song.” For the duet no less.

“Everything from the tour is listed as limited supplies,” Richard said morosely, swiping further.

“Of course,” Gordon said with a smile, “Frosty left without saying he’d ever come back, they aren’t going to make more merch with a member who’s left.”

“I don’t think they have shirts wide enough to fit any of us,” Thomas said.

Father tapped his phone decisively, then tucked it away while looking quite proud of whatever he’d just done.

Damian sighed deeply, from his very soul. “McLain also has a youtube account, there are a few private videos with behind the scenes footage if you wish to see Daniel in a more casual situation.” Damian regretted going straight to the next concert rather than doing his due diligence on digital information gathering, at the time he had felt rushed by the concert being only a couple days after his discovery.

Drake was already pulling a laptop from some hidden place while Gordon rolled over to his side of the couch, her own phone in hand.

Father stood and came to stand next to Damian, an arm reaching across his back to rest on his far shoulder. “Would you like to talk? About Daniel?”

“I believe I have given you quite a shock, do you not need time to digest the information?”

Father shrugged, “Likely, but we all know if I’m left to my own devices I’m going to just start digging and not come up for air for three days.”

“Yes, anything to prevent you from spiraling, Master Bruce.” Alfred smirked at Father before turning his attention to Damian. “I understand why you did not inform us of Master Daniel sooner, thank you for letting us know now.”

Damian nodded, glad he did not have to explain himself on that part.

“Too easy,” Drake crowed as the TV sputtered to life with one of the private videos.

Daniel and his bandmates were sitting on folding chairs in an otherwise empty space, likely an on stage rehearsal. On screen the recording of Daniel hopped up onto a folding chair, “May I have your attention, please! All rise for the national anthem.” There were titters from behind the camera, but the other three members of the band all obligingly lumbered to their feet. Daniel took a deep breath, then started singing, his voice low and haunting even as he pulled his hand into a sloppy American style salute.

Seasons don't fear the reaper Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain We can be like they are

The other band members were laughing and hooting when Daniel started singing, but quickly fell in to join him on the chorus.

Come on, baby (don't fear the reaper) Baby, take my hand (don't fear the reaper) We'll be able to fly (don't fear the reaper) Baby, I'm your man La, la, la…

Daniel started laughing too hard to keep going. The other band members were laughing right along with him.

“C’mon, dipstick!” McLain’s voice came from behind the camera. “Have you no respect? Finish the national anthem!”

Daniel was laughing so hard he tumbled from the chair, though the short fall didn’t seem to do him any harm. He attempted to sing the second round of “la la la” from the floor, but was incapable through his laughter.

Damian looked up to see Father looking on fondly, smiling gently as the video came to an end. The others were smiling at the video as well, likely glad to see Daniel being happy and enjoying himself. Despite everything he’d been through he still found his own happiness.

And then Damian’s impulsivity had driven him away from the friends and happy life he had made for himself. Damian needed to find Daniel.

🎵🎸🎶

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were just hanging out in the latest hotel room after a long day on the road, just a pit stop between one concert venue and the next. They could just use portals, but for some reason Ember was insisting on the full concert tour experience, including greasy diners and sketchy hotels.

Danny collapsed onto his back on one of the beds, “Ugh, Ember has me practicing singing and playing at the same time by singing Anything for You,” Danny complained.

“Well, it’s your duet,” Tucker pointed out.

“It’s Frosty’s duet, I won’t be singing it when I re-debut. Besides, it’s such tripe, just the required slow song to cool things down before the grand finale.”

“So… re-debut with a new duet?”

“Avoid love songs this time,” Sam ordered from where she was hunched over a notebook at the hotel room’s desk.

“I think Ember has it stuck in her head a slow duet has to be a love song,” Danny scrunched up his nose at the thought.

“There are plenty of duets that aren’t love songs.” Tucker defended.

“Name one,” Danny said with a huff. “No really, I need examples.”

“Easy, there’s… uh…” Tucker blinked and trailed off, suddenly looking kinda scared. “What about… Mungoje- no… um… there’s always You’re the Top uh…” he started visibly sweating. “Anything You Can Do… oh! Somebody I Used to Know.”

“Ooooh! A break up song!” Danny liked that, it would definitely be something more along Ember’s whole image too.

“I’m Not Writing You a Love Song,” Sam offered.

“Not a duet, but a good example of something that feels like a love song without being one.”

“You could also go all in on the devotion, sing about how you’d die for her or something,” Sam continued. “Or sing about loving each other even after dying, real obsessive stuff.”

“Have Ember sing about wrapping my calcified heart in my own poetry?” Danny asked with a cheeky grin.

“Not my fault Mary Shelley invented romance,” Sam said with a sniff.

“I hate to say it, but Sam’s right,” Tucker added. “That would really fit the whole undead thing more.”

“They’re all great ideas, I’ll bring it up to Ember tomorrow when we do lessons.”

“Your re-debut as Phantom is going to be great,” Tucker said with a laugh.

“Yeah… Phantom,” Danny replied morosely.

Sam sighed, “I don’t understand why you won’t even brainstorm on possible name ideas.”

“It’s just!” Danny sighed and rolled over on the bed to look at Sam, “If I pick a new name I can’t use the logo you designed for me any more.”

“And I can design you a new one.”

“I know, and it’ll be awesome. But you worked hard on that first one, and it’s so… perfect. I’d hate to never use it again.”

“No one says you can’t keep the old logo too,” Tucker cut in before this old not-quite-argument could play out again. “One of the costume ideas was a jacket with patches on it, so put the DP on there somewhere.”

“Right at the top of the sleeve,” Sam suggested, pointing to her arm just below the shoulder joint.

“You can have patches for everyone, even. A skull and crossbones for Youngblood, a paw print for Wulf, a thirteen for Johnny.”

“A heart dripping poison for Kitty,” Sam said thoughtfully. She turned and started furiously scratching at her notebook. “Pandora’s helmet with four crossed swords behind it…”

“Pandora uses one single magic staff,” Danny said in a deadpan.

“Do Frostbite’s ice and bone arm, that’s rad as hell.” Tucker laughed to himself.

“Just don’t design anything for Spectra, I refuse to have her on my cool jacket.”

“So you’ll do the jacket?” Sam didn’t even look up.

“Yeah, I really like the idea. It’s a good way to keep my logo and little reminders of all my friends. You’ll do patches for yourselves too, right?”

“And Jazz,” Sam promised. “Val too, even. Red Huntress deserves her own logo.”

“Yeah, she does.” Danny rolled back onto his back and picked his phone back up, going to the notes app. “So I guess I can’t really use Phantom at all since I’m still hiding from the GIW and any connection to Amity Park.”

Tucker sighed, “Yeah, probably not.”

“And Ember has already vetoed any more ice or cold names.”

“Which is too bad, there are some killer ice puns out there.”

“Could always go with Great One,” Sam said airily, “that’s your yeti name.”

“Absolutely not,” Danny said with an upside down glare sent Sam’s way.

“Tyrant’s Bane,” Tucker suggested.

“Guillotine,” Sam gave her own suggestion.

“Imperial Coup.”

“Monarchy Ender.”

“Twenty-three stab wounds.”

“I didn’t even kill the guy, just put him back down for nappies.” Danny couldn’t help laughing. Any further banter stopped dead as Danny’s phone started buzzing and dinging. Danny sat up, “It’s Jazz.”

Sam and Tucker both turned to look at Danny, staying quiet as he answered.

“Hey Jazz, you okay?”

“Danny! Have you heard the news?” Jazz sounded excited, so hopefully it was good news.

“Not yet, hold on a sec and I’ll put you on speaker for Sam and Tuck.” While he put his phone on speaker, his best friends both moved to sit on the bed, surrounding the phone. “Okay, so what’s this news?”

“The Justice League is finally getting somewhere! Mom and Dad are on trial for supervillainy, the GIW is suspended while under investigation, and the anti-ecto acts are being repealed!”

“Oh shit!” “Really?!” “Finally!”

“Well,” Jazz hedged, some of her excitement dimming a little, “the GIW is probably going to be disbanded, so that’s good at least. But it turns out the anti-ecto acts are scattered over several bills working together. Apparently several pieces were hidden in environmental acts, probably betting on ecto being misread as eco. The big thing they’re trying to focus on first is all the legal definitions that are scientifically incorrect, like ecto-beings being non-sentient.”

“Yeah, I’d kind of like the government to acknowledge I can feel things,” Danny said with a hollow laugh.

“The other big news is the meta protection acts are getting expanded to include anyone from the Realms!”

“Danny!” Tucker was bouncing in place in excitement, “Danny you’re going to be legally protected!”

“Yeah,” Jazz agreed. “The meta protection act should supersede the anti-ecto acts. The main thing is that everyone from the Realms are going to be considered people now.”

Danny didn’t know what to say to that, it was… it was great! It was wonderful!

“So you keep saying everyone from the Realms, is that more than just ghosts?” Sam asked.

“Any kind of spirit, actually. Nature spirit, city spirit, spirits of the dead. Since the Infinite Realms are infinite it actually includes a lot, mostly it’s ‘the otherside of the veil’ and is also where fairies and elves and goblins live? And maybe demons and angels and some gods?” Jazz sounded less sure the more she said.

“Oh, nature spirits,” Sam said thoughtfully. “I guess that explains Undergrowth.”

“Something like that. Basically anything supernatural is getting lumped in all together. And also a few undead too, guess they’re using this as a chance to really expand things. From the way Wonder Woman was talking a lot of the magic users are upset this wasn’t done sooner.”

“Well considering that a few heroes have died and come back they were really leaving themselves open to be blindsided,” Tucker joked.

“It’s about time they stopped and considered actually doing what they promise to,” Sam grumbled.

“Danny,” Jazz asked in worry, “you okay?”

“I’m… legally a person.” Danny felt a little numb and kinda floaty, but he was pretty sure he was still on the bed.

“You’re legally a person,” Jazz said warmly.

“Hey,” Tucker said, “does this mean Phantom doesn’t have to be in hiding and you can use it as your stage name?”

“Just because I’m legally protected doesn’t mean all the people out for my head are going to suddenly stop. People do illegal stuff all the time,” Danny said.

“Yes,” Jazz agreed sadly before plowing on with steel in her voice, “but you shouldn’t have to hide anyway! If you want to be a ghost on stage then you should get to use your name.”

“It’s not like they wouldn’t recognize you anyway,” Tucker added.

“Plus, any former GIW agents that come looking for you won’t have government backing anymore. They might not even have access to any useful anti-ghost weapons.”

“I’ll think about it,” Danny said. “Later, for now I just want to enjoy this good news.”

“We should tell the others,” Tucker exclaimed.

“We should throw a party!” Sam scrambled off the bed and went digging through her luggage.

“Yeah,” Danny thought that was a great idea, “let’s throw a party!”

🎵🎸🎶

Time passed and life moved on, much to Damian’s annoyance. Daniel never resurfaced, not surprising when all Damian had was a single chance encounter after 8 years of hiding from The Demon. They couldn’t find any hints of how he managed to leave Midville, and no hints he was still there either. McLain was no better a lead, Gordon found she had had a few shows a couple years earlier, but all traces of it had been scrubbed from the internet. Likely her previous debut had been a humiliating flop and McLain wanted to bury it. Unfortunately for the bats whoever she got to do it was good, they didn’t even know where shows had been, let alone if it was where she had met Daniel. Gordon had set up a facial recognition program that was constantly scanning for Daniel, but all it ever turned up were false matches. It was frustrating, but it was beginning to look as though they would have to wait for Daniel to realize Damian wasn’t a threat and reach out to him.

Damian hoped Daniel would realize.

Father’s order came in, copies of every piece of McLain merch that had Daniel on it, including the duet as a single. On vinyl. Most of it was put on display in Father’s office in the manor, an acrylic “standee” ended up on his desk at Wayne tower, nestled in among the various photos of the family. When Damian saw it he wondered if Father’s employees had noticed it and if he’d explained who Daniel is to them yet. That would certainly be an interesting conversation.

Damian had also ordered a round of merchandise, even if most of it wasn’t displayed. The private videos had been downloaded and saved in various storage states to preserve them. Damian watched one from time to time, it gave him strange feelings watching Daniel be happy knowing he wasn’t living like that right now.

Damian hoped Daniel found new friends and another new life to be happy in. He hoped Daniel hadn’t gone and become a hermit somewhere to be so hard to find.

But all of that fell into the background as life continued. Summer was in full swing in Gotham, which meant miserably wet and hot days with barely any reprieve at night, and a population whose collective patience was at its shortest. Then school started, the weather finally cooled in the fall, Damian turned 15, and then another busy holiday season rolled around.

Damian wasn’t sure, but it seemed his family was specifically avoiding mentioning Daniel. It was understandable, they still had no idea where he had run off to, he couldn’t join them for the various holiday traditions they all partook in. When he asked Richard about it, he had told Damian that in these kinds of situations it’s better to focus on the people you are with than the people who can’t be there. As if to prove Richard’s point, Todd even showed up for a few of the holiday traditions.

And yet all Damian could think about was how every Christmas he’d ever celebrated had been without Daniel.

Then on Epiphany something happened. McLain announced a new tour in the spring, this one featuring a special surprise guest. It was all Damian could talk about at dinner that night. “Surely if she were just replacing Daniel’s role she would not make such an announcement.”

“Maybe, you said she lost a lot of fans when Daniel left?” Father asked. “It’s possible she feels highlighting the rest of her band may be a good PR move.”

“What are the chances it’s Danny with dyed hair and facial recognition obscuring stage makeup?” Duke asked jokingly.

“That would be utterly foolish,” Damian said with a sniff. “Daniel is smart enough to know better than to keep company with anyone he’s already been discovered with.”

“I don’t know about that,” Father said with a furrowed brow.

“Father, you’re not insulting Daniel’s intelligence!”

“No, no… not at all. But after you told us about him I don’t think any of us looked into Ember’s current doings too much. Bands usually have a lot of staff traveling with them on tours, and they usually don’t have photos taken of them. We couldn't find out much about her staff, it seemed she was paying them all under the table.”

Damian frowned, “Aside from their manager, I didn’t see any staff with McLain.”

“Well, it certainly won’t hurt to look into the staff working this new tour, just in case.”

“We should go to the new show either way, see who this special surprise guest is,” Duke said with a cheerful grin.

Damian did allow himself to make a sour face at that, sitting through the first show had been enough punishment.

“I will say, after paying so much attention to her I have grown a soft spot for Ember’s music,” Father said with a mischievous smile.

Damian did not want to go, but she was still their one and only connection to Daniel. “Very well, I will allow you to make the arrangements.”

Now time was passing with a goal, Damian found himself anticipating the coming spring break. It was foolish, he knew this likely wouldn’t lead to Daniel’s whereabouts, and yet the anticipation persisted.

When the night of the concert arrived Damian had found some of his family had chosen the most ridiculous clothes. Father was sensible, wearing his usual casual clothing. Damian, Cain, and Drake were all wearing the shirts from McLain’s previous tour, since they were available in their actual sizes. Richard and Thomas were also wearing the same shirt, but since it wasn’t available in a size that would fit them they had both altered the clothing by taking off the sleeves and seam ripping down the sides until the shirts gaped, like the ones worn while lifting weights at a gym. Todd chose to wear a shirt that actually fit him, though his was for a completely different band called The Grateful Dead, apparently it is a faux pas to wear a band shirt for the band one is seeing. Judging from how many other attendees were wearing either the previous tour shirt or the one with just McLain’s face on it, it’s not much of a faux pas.

The night went much the same as Damian’s previous McLain concert experience, neither improved nor worsened by his family’s presence. Although Todd kept making odd faces. Between songs he motioned them all to lean in close.

“There’s something going on with their voices, magic I think. Not sure what though.”

Ah, so it was magic that was used to spirit Daniel away when he was discovered. There was even a chance he had been learning it as well, it might even explain why they couldn’t track him down after.

“Alright, Easton!” McLain said loudly, earning a round of cheers from the audience. “You guys ready for the debut of a brand new song?” Judging from the way the audience cheered, they were. “Anything for you, my lovely fans.”

That earned a round of surprised gasps along with the cheers. The lights suddenly turned off and the audience hushed in anticipation. A spotlight came on, shining on McLain as she started strumming a slower song.

I, I just woke up from a dream Where you and I had to say goodbye And I don't know what it all means But since I survived, I realized

What followed was a bittersweet song about spending the end of the world next to her lover. It seemed morbid, but the sentiment all the sweeter for it. The song built in intensity as McLain wailed the chorus, then the song pulled back. A second spotlight came on, a new artist was strolling onto the stage.

Oh, lost, lost in the…

The rest of the line was drowned out by excited screaming from the audience, which was quickly hushed by the rest of the audience. The teenager that came walking up as he sang was playing a glittering, white, translucent guitar that looked to be imitating ice. He was wearing a black jacket covered in colorful patches over a black shirt, silver belt, and loose black pants tucked into silver combat boots. Most notably his hair was pure white and seemed to defy gravity while his eyes were such a bright green they could be seen even in the audience.

The pair sang together, trading off lines in the chorus or harmonizing when they sang together. The effect was certainly haunting, but most haunting of all was just how familiar the new singer’s voice was. Damian glanced at his family to see them all staring at the stage with similar focus, clearly thinking the same thing as Damian.

It seemed whatever magic or cosmetics Daniel used to change his appearance couldn’t be done to his voice.

Thomas was going to be insufferable.

A large screen at the back of the stage lit up and words appeared. Phantom and McLain held their hands out to the audience, who started singing along.

If the world was ending, I'd wanna be next to you If the party was over and our time on Earth was through I'd wanna hold you just for a while and die with a smile If the world was ending, I'd wanna be next to you

As the song wound down Father leaned down to whisper into Damian’s ear, “I’m glad I sprung for the backstage experience after the show.”

“We’re not deviating from the plan,” Damian responded.

“Yes, of course.” Father straightened back up and clapped along with the audience once the last note played.

The audience screamed, “Phantom!” loudly from behind them. Damian turned to find a portion of the audience jumping in place, holding up signs with what seemed to be a stylized D on them or the name Phantom scrawled across.

Daniel, presumably Phantom, looked shocked. He put a hand up to shield his eyes against the now brightly lit stage lights. “Is that…?”

“Surprise!” McLain called cheerfully as she patted Daniel on the shoulder.

“Oh ancients, you guys!” Daniel was clearly struggling to keep hold of his emotions. He rallied with a bright smile despite his glittering eyes, “Where my Parkers at?”

The audience screamed, yelling phrases such as, “We love you Phantom!”

“I missed you guys too.” Daniel sniffled, but was smiling so wide it was becoming unsettling.

“For those of you who don’t know, this is our surprise secret guest: Phantom Dwarfstar!” McLain paused to allow the audience to express their excitement. “Now nothing and no one can replace Frosty McGee as a person, but Phantom here is taking his place in the band.”

“I was actually supposed to debut with Ember, but couldn’t until now.”

“And it’s great to finally have Phantom up on stage with us, right where he’s supposed to be. Let’s hear it one more time for our newest member!”

The audience cheered once more, most of it coming from the section that already knew him, it seemed the rest of the audience had mixed feelings about Phantom. A glance at Father showed him him frowning for some reason, clearly looking concerned.

Daniel smiled and waved, “Alright, enough about me. Let’s hear it for the real star of the show. Ember! Ember!”

As if on cue the portion of the audience that had been chanting for Daniel started chanting for McLain, the rest of the audience quickly picking the chant up as Daniel jogged over to join the rest of the band.

“Alright, you guys ready for Remember?!”

The rest of the show went on as before, save for Damian and his family keeping their eyes solely on Daniel. Once the show ended Father herded them towards the backstage, where their VIP experience would pay off.

“I would like to state for the record,” Thomas was saying, “that I called it. Bruce as my witness, right down to the bad dye job.”

“I dunno,” Todd replied, “I think the hair is legit. I’m pretty sure Phantom was doing some kind of magic with his voice too. The same kind of magic as Ember, but a different spell? I’m not really sure how to explain it.”

“It makes sense Daniel would learn magic if he took up with magic users,” Damian said stiffly.

“If we’re going to stick with the plan you need to use his stage name,” Father said softly.

Damian nodded. He knew what he had to do.

🎵🎸🎶

Danny and his friends were celebrating in the green room after the show. Danny felt… strange. Emotionally tired, physically pumped. Guess doing the show as a ghost really changed his stamina.

“I can’t believe you guys!” Danny said with a laugh.

“I give the best surprises!” Ember cackled, spinning in the air in delight. “The look on your face!”

“It’s amazing! Any clue on when they have to go back? It’s Saturday night…”

“It’s spring break, dipstick,” Ember mocked him. “They’re here until next weekend!”

Danny felt gravity’s hold on him slip away, the room growing brighter. “The whole week?”

“It took a lot of doing to arrange things like this, you better appreciate!”

Danny darted over and pulled Ember into a hug, “You’re the best, Ember!”

“And don’t you forget it!”

There was a knock on the door, Morty poked his head in. “The VIPs are here for their backstage experience.”

“Awesome!” Ember settled down on the floor, always excited when these happened. Danny was rather proud, he thinks it was one of his better suggestions. He moved to go perch on a nearby armchair while the zombies all leaned back on a couch.

Morty opened the door wide and in filed a group of people. Four absolute tanks of men, one guy who was just regular buff, and a woman. One of the tanks, an older man with gray in his hair, stepped off to the side while everyone else approached Ember for the meet’n’greet. Something about the older man looked strangely familiar. It wasn’t helped by the way everyone kept glancing over at Danny. At Phantom.

“And you are?” Ember asked the older man after meeting everyone else.

“Bruce Wayne, but I’m just here as the chaperone.” Which was an odd thing to say, everyone else was at least old enough to drive but half of them looked like full blown adults.

Ember seemed to agree, “You guys need a chaperone?”

“Not them, no. My youngest.” Mr. Wayne looked back, “Do you want to come out and say hello?”

Damian stepped out from behind Mr. Wayne.

Danny couldn’t help stiffening up in shock, looking between Damian and Mr. Wayne. He was paler than Damian, but the similarities were there. ‘So that’s where I get my eyes from,’ Danny found himself thinking.

Ember also recognized Damian, crossing her arms and scowling. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Hello, again,” Damian said blandly. “I simply wish to send a message to Daniel.”

Danny caught the way Damian’s eyes darted to him for a moment. Time to commit to the bit, “Ember, who’s this?”

“This is the guy who scared Frosty off,” Ember motioned to Damian. “And I already told you, we haven’t heard from him since he left.”

“Nevertheless, if he does contact you please inform him that Grandfather is dead and I left the League years ago.”

“WHAT?!” Danny couldn’t help shrieking, rocketing into the air in shock.

Everyone in the room turned their attention fully on him, including Damian. “Grandfather is dead, and I left the League years ago. I’ve been living with our Father.” He motioned to Mr. Wayne, who waved awkwardly.

Danny didn’t know how to react to that, didn’t know how to feel about that. His legs wisped into a tail before popping back to legs, a layer of frost coated the room then vanished. Danny looked over to Ember.

“Baby-pop I swear if you abandon the tour again!”

“No, no, of course not,” Danny defended.

“I’ve already bought so much merch, how can I brag about you to my board members if you drop out again?” Mr. Wayne asked.

Danny felt something in his brain break and couldn’t help giggling at that.

“How much longer is this going to take?” Dash’s voice came loudly yet muffled from the hallway. “We have an afterparty to get to!”

“Give them a moment, Phantom’s in the middle of a reunion with his birth family,” Morty snapped back.

“WHAT?!” Jazz shrieked. Oh, Jazz was here too! This was great! The door to the green room burst open, Jazz standing in the doorway. She leveled the Not-Fenton-Anymore Anti-Creep Stick at Damian and said, “You!”

“Jazz!” Danny zipped down and wrapped himself around her for a full body hug.

“Danny!” Jazz hugged him back, everything was right in the world.

“Ms. Nightingale,” Mr. Wayne said with a strained smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Bruce Wayne, Danny’s father.” He held a hand out, which Jazz ignored.

“It’s okay, they said Grandfather is dead and Damian’s not in the League anymore.”

“I’m assuming the League is the cult you were born in,” Jazz said with a fond sigh. She turned her attention back to Mr. Wayne. “How do you know my name?”

“I’m one of the Justice League’s backers, I like to keep abreast of their bigger projects. Finding out the US government nearly started a war with an entire dimension was quite the shock.”

Great, now Damian was going to look up everything to do with Jazz and find out all about everything.

Sam and Tucker slipped into the room and joined the hug. Okay, now for real everything was right in the world.

“So, how about that afterparty?” One of the tanks asked, Danny thinks he introduced himself as Jason.

“Can we come?” One of the other ones asked. “It’s okay if not, we can just exchange phone numbers, it’s a lot to take in.”

“No, afterparty’s fine.” It really was, Danny was actually pretty happy about getting his little brother back in his life, and he was super curious about his birth father. “You guys got a hotel for the night?”

“Wait, hold up,” Sam demanded. “Is that Bruce mother fucking Wayne?!”

“He did fuck my mother, thank you for reminding me,” Danny deadpanned.

“Danny!” Jazz snapped, accompanied by a relatively gentle smack to the back of his head.

“Hey, watch the piercings, those hurt!” Danny protectively put his hands up to shield his ears from any errant hands. The piercings may be fake, but only because he just straight up phased them into his ears.

“No, back up, you’re telling me Bruce Wayne is your bio dad?!”

“I literally just found out myself.” Danny sighed deeply, then squinted at Sam, “Wait, how do you know him.”

“He’s richer than Vlad and kinda famous for it.”

“Oh… gross.” It seemed Danny just couldn’t escape from money. Danny idly wondered what his too-rich-for-his-own-good secret underground lair was, couldn’t be worse than Vlad’s cloning lab or Grandfather’s afterlife sewage jacuzzi.

“To answer your question,” Mr. Wayne said with an amused smile, “yes, we do have hotel rooms booked for the evening. Though we can extend it a little longer if you’d like.” Mr. Wayne sounded so hopeful.

“I dunno, my friends are only here for spring break…” Danny looked towards the door, where the rest of his friends were waiting to start the afterparty. He could hear the rest of his classmates starting to get more and more impatient.

“We can arrange something later,” the second tank said brightly. “We’ll extend the hotel a day or two, exchange numbers, make some plans, and you’ll have the rest of the week to hang out.”

Sam scoffed, “It’s not like Gotham’s even all that far, c’mon let’s get going!”

“Gotham?” Danny asked, that seemed important for some reason, but he didn’t have time to dwell on it as Sam dragged him out the door. He had an afterparty to get to. He had a new life to get to.

#long post #super long just warning you #dpxdc #danny phantom #dc comics #batman #batfam #demon sibs #nenna writes #fanfiction #fanfic #dc x dp #the implied torture is more blatant #reveal gone wrong #poor danny is anxious #everyone is working on that in their own ways

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