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dragonshoardofworks · 1 month ago

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Reincarnation Everlasting Trio Part 3 (DPxDC)

[I wanted to post this on White Day to pair it up with the first part that came out on Valentine's Day, but I confused the dates thinking it coincided with 🔪Stabby Day🔪 (the Ides of March), sooo... Sorry?] (^～^;)ゞ(シ_ _)シ

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 (you're here) | Part 4

Danny doesn't know why he's so antsy.

…Correction, he does know, but just doesn't want to acknowledge it.

If Jazz were here, she would have said that he was developing a codependency with Tucker-now-Damian, so being apart for a while would do them good. And she would have been annoyingly right, but she's not here, so Danny is allowed to be antsy.

Oh, he saw right through Alfred's attempts at distracting him, but given that it was an honest effort and the butler did need a hand, Danny had accepted to help.

But now his Core is incessantly buzzing at him to go and join his future boyfriend (as they had both agreed to wait for Sam before making anything official). And Danny… doesn't know if this is just his normal anxiety or if it’s some sort of ghost instinct/power he knows nothing about. Last time he had ignored a symptom, it had resulted in him freezing from the inside out as his Ice Core had developed, so it's hard to ignore this.

And this is why, as a particularly high spike of this anxiety shakes his Core while Alfred is putting the cookies in the oven for the post-patrol, Danny yeets himself out of the Manor and starts searching for Robin.

Something is guiding him in midtown, so he follows without question. Putting on the modified Fenton Phone on, he intercepts the Bats’ signal (or better, Babs had left the channel open for him whenever he needed it) and catches the coda of Robin saying «...to be mutually exclusi-» before the announcement of Joker's break out stalls his Core, making him go faster instead of freezing.

Why does it always have to be circus freaks?!

…And why does it always have to be exploding fast food joints!? Phantom asks himself as soon as he sees his People on the roof of the Batburgers at the same time as Hiereus announces the bombs’ placement.

After that, Danny's memory is a blur, images superimposing themselves one over the other, as the cackle of his evil future self echoes in his ears along the boom.

Had he lost them again?

🎆🎆🎆

Antheia thinks she's living an out of body experience, since nothing could have compared to the utter madness of this night. Being dumped by the only person in the whole universe that understands her on a molecular level hurts more than any rejection she had experienced in her whole life and will have beyond combined.

The fifteen-years-old girl should have never allowed someone in her heart and given him so much power over her. And the most pathetic thing about this is that she has lost against an unknown boy. If it wasn’t for that particular detail, Thea would have raged against Robin about what her rival has more than her, when the answer is obvious.

Then the news of the megalomaniac escaping and having access to bombs seems like the shitty cherry on the compost cake, only to be topped by the realization that she’s too far away from any plant that could have taken them away from the danger and…!

Green staring directly into her soul is everything and the only thing that her brain registers as her body feels two collisions (one after the other) and the following whiplash of terminal velocity stopping not even a second later.

The whole world and the Green (as in the flora) itself could be burning to the ground and Thea wouldn’t have noticed since she’s fixated on this kind of toxic green... No, ectoplasm green.

Her gasp at that tiny epiphany seems enough to make the wielder of those irises unfreeze and then thoroughly wrap himself around her (and her mom?? Someone big is definitely leaning on her in the ghostly cocoon). Not even a second later tears wet her shoulder and their bundle is shaken by sobs, as their saviour is taken over by hysterics. But why…?

“Heeey, Danny, it’s okay, you made it in time this time. You saved them.” Wiggling makes the girl be able to look over the shoulder of the sobbing ghost and gasp at the sight: a teenager about Robin’s age is hovering beside them (with Batman under his arm like a bedragged puppy), dressed in an inverted version of the sidekick’s suit, but his features are completely different from what she expects. Gone are the middle-eastern somatic traits, as they are replaced by afro-american ones with white dreadlocks and the very same ectoplasmic green eyes of the unknown savior.

“Tucker?” The name escapes unbidden from her lips, but immediately it feels right and everything rushes back.

In the meantime said boy does a double-take, as his eyes google-out and he splutters. “Whastg- Sam??”

“And Jazz!” A cheerfully (with a note of unhinged hysterics) cuts through, making both (aware) teens jump and turn as much as they can towards Harley Quinn. “Guess that being the mom-friend actually made me a mom, at last!”

“What the actual fuck, Jazz! You can’t be my mom! It’s so unfair!” Thea!Sam protests, trying to wiggle in the ghost’s octopus grasp to see her better.

“I second that! Besides, Harleen Quinzel was born before the accident!” Robin!Tucker exclaims, bewildered, as the ghost squeezes the duo a bit more. “It would be a paradox!”

“I’m just good like that, then.” Harley!Jazz sniffs, in mock-self-importance. “No paradox happened when I read the letter of my past self and it even changed my life! So take that!”

A sigh so deep that it can be felt into the bones stop any further bickering and the trio turns to look at Batman, who is holding the bridge of his nose as if it’s the last dreg of his sanity left. “While this proves to be the most beneficial development, we still need to go and catch the Joker.”

Robin!Tucker winces, looking at the ghost clinging to the reincarnations. “Good luck with that, Dad, because Danny’s not gonna let them go anytime soon. And you can bet that when he’s coherent enough again, we’re gonna be engulfed in that hug for a while, too. The thing that just happened triggered his most major trauma, soo…” He trails, gesturing to the ghost… that only now T!Sam registers as who really is and so she startles.

“Oh Ancients, Danny!” T!Sam forces the halfa to raise his face from the crook of her neck and he pliantly obliges, but he’s still crying a river and ugly sobbing. He looks like he hasn’t aged a day from his 15th birthday and that he actually matches the description of the meta-vigilante that’s attached to Robin’s hip. Guilt immediately surges inside of her for the things she has said about him during the argument on the roof and so she hugs him, tight, copied by H!Jazz.

“...Okay. Robin,” said halfa floats straighter, “we’ll leave the search and subjugation of the Joker to Nightwing and Black Bat. Can you bring us to the safehouse Tango-Uniform-Echo? That would give us at least a semblance of privacy.”

“There should be no issue.” Experimentally he pushes Phantom’s back and the group moves in the right direction, so after a nod, Robin ferries everyone in the agreed safehouse (by also turning them invisible and intangible to sneak in).

As soon as they are enclosed by the walls, Phantom uncoils a bit, just enough to let R!Tucker slip into the hug (Batman, luckily for him, manages to stay out of reach and so he’s free, but poised as a sentry), as they relocate on a king-sized bed for comfort. Danny seems to have calmed down enough to have stopped crying, but he’s dissociating now, so that leaves R!Tucker to be questioned by the girls.

“Why is he still so young? He should be at least a decade older.” H!Jazz murmurs, drying the old tears from her former-little-brother.

“...Do you remember the villain that offed us?” A flash of red eyes and fangs makes the duo shudder and Danny unconsciously hugs them tighter. “Since Danny wanted to avoid creating him, the moron decided it was better if he went Sleeping Beauty.” R!Tuck fondly pets the other’s white hair, getting a faint purr in response. “My current-life siblings and I found his capsule a few weeks ago and by waking him up, it also awakened my memories.”

“Did that make you a halfa?” T!Sam whispers, eyeing his ghost form. “And why do you look like past-you like this?”

He snickers in response. “Nah, I’m a halfa because of my grandfather and then a recent dip in an ectoplasmic pool jump-started my Core.” He looks down at himself. “Remember how Danny once said that ghosts’ appearance is derived by their self-image?” Two nods. “Since I still see myself at least half as Tucker, my ghost form reflects that. So that I can be both myselves.”

There’s a pause of silence, in which T!Sam gathers the courage to speak up. “I’m sorry about early. You did have a good reason to avoid going on full missions, I guess. Danny’s first weeks of adjustment weren’t funny.”

R!Tuck shakes his head. “I still should have said something, that’s the least you deserved. We’ve been partners in crime-fighting in both the past and current life.” He lifts her red bangs with a hand to kiss her on the forehead. “Danny and I were also searching for you, yanno? We were certain that you were stubborn enough to get yourself a new life to kick our asses again.”

T!Sam blushes up to the tip of her ears and tries to push him away with no result, since Danny is still holding tight. “Tucker Robin Foley! Who are you and what did you do to both my boys? None of them were this smooth and direct!”

R!Tuck just laughs. “Blame Danny! The moron just straight kissed me out of nowhere to shut me up! I don’t even know how he managed to convince me that the three of us won’t dance around each other this time around. Probably it was something about being too late last time and regretting it.”

“Not the Clueless One anymore, then?” H!Jazz joins in petting Danny’s hair fondly.

“Not for this, at least. I bet he’ll find other ways to make us exasperated.” R!Tuck drawls.

“That’s a sucker bet, no one will take you up to that.” T!Sam deadpans.

“TT, there are so many of them in my family they would have flocked at the chance, I tell you.”

“...Did you just make a bird pun?” A rough voice just above of a whisper breaks the brief quiet deadpan spell and the three of them turn to Danny, who’s blinking lethargically at R!Tuck.

“Figures that that’s what makes you come back to the land of the living, you dork.” The vigilante ruffles the other halfa’s hair fondly. “How do you feel?”

“Drained.” Danny goes to rub his eyes with a hand, but finds both of them still gripping T!Sam and H!Jazz’s clothes. He frowns in confusion and looks up at the woman and girl, then stares at them uncomprehending. After a second of rebooting, he turns to R!Tuck, still confused. “Why am I clinging to your crush and her mom?”

While the “stabby” Robin chokes at the statement, H!Jazz snickers then outright cackles in unhinged glee, while T!Sam processes the whole thing. What is her life?

“OMG, your nonexisting mouth-filter while exhausted is still the same!” H!Jazz replaces the other’s boy hand on the (confused) white head, whose owner looks at her owlishly. Her mirth gives way to fondness and bittersweetness. “I’m glad that some things never change, after all, little brother.”

Tentatively, with hope in his eyes, a more alert Danny whispers “Jazz?” and that spurs T!Sam to be included.

“Yeah, can you believe that, Danny? Being saved by your Sleeping Beauty ass just to discover that your sister is now my mom? What’s next, Mr. Lancer reincarnated as Superman?”

“Please, don’t even joke about that! It’s bad enough that he flirts with Father, I can’t add this to the folder as well!” (In the background Batman silently chokes like his son has done a few seconds before. Clark does what??)

(Ignoring the banter, Danny silently takes in T!Sam's appearance –the blood red hair, the sky blue eyes, the greenish sheen on her pale skin, the dormant humm inside her chest–, but, above everything else, the familiar signature of her soul, which, like Harley’s, brings a pang of nostalgia for the Before.)

Before T!Sam can continue to tease her friend, she’s engulfed into another hug along with her mom, this time more coherent, but with the same urgency and desperation that had been before.

With a fond sigh H!Jazz hugs back, while T!Sam strokes his back as Danny nuzzles into her shoulder. They stay silent for a while before he starts to chuckle.

At the general “uhm?”, Danny leans back with wet eyes, but still no new tears spilled. “I should have guessed that Tucker’s new life’s crush couldn’t have been anyone else other than you, he is predictable like that!”

“Danny! Stop exposing me like this! I still have a reputation to maintain among my brothers!” R!Tuck protests indignantly.

“What reputation?” Danny chortles. “Why do you think I know about ‘Blossom’ and how far gone you were for her in the first place before I came?”

“Greyson…” R!Tuck growls with the same venom of the “Dinkleberg”-meme.

“Not even the worst offender! Hiereus and Spoiler are such gossiping old ladies that they took me up to speed with probably everything after they kidnapped me for their shovel talk.” As the reincarnated trio gapes, Danny hums in thought. “That and making me part of the betting pool definitely took away points from their intimidation factor, tho. Pity, because at that point it had been a solid 8.”

“Who gave the best one?” H!Jazz, still bewildered, asks in genuine curiosity.

“Agent A, who else?” Danny turns to Batman who already suspected that. “Batdad, your dad is the scariest mortal that I’ve ever met, I still can’t get how he didn’t beat into submission my evil future self in the other timeline.” He rambles, probably to hide his nerves like he always did in the Before. (B almost snorts at the familiarity that Danny uses with him, already used to it after weeks of knowing him but refrains because he's worried about the deflection.) “If the Long Now is in mood for letting us visit, we could ask CW about it when we’ll go to the InfiRe for your check up. I mean, if we promise we won’t change anything it’s like watching a show, right?”

“Danny.” T!Sam cradles his face and he immediately shuts up, suddenly meek. “What are you afraid of?”

It takes him a minute of looking anywhere but them, before he caves, wilting like a flower. “...This feels too good to be true. I don’t want it to be a coma dream.”

“It just looks like that because Karma is giving back what you earned, Danny.” R!Tuck gives him a kiss on the temple and he leans in the gesture, slightly blushing green.

“Yeah, just for the whole Christmas Trauma, we should be rewarded, I swear.” H!Jazz huffs, getting a small smile from Danny. (Progress!)

“When you put it like that…”

“Hush, ya know that I'm right-a, I've got the whole doctorate now to prove it!” The Harley in Jazz shows up with her smugness.

“Oh Green, you're right!” T!Sam is properly distressed, as the boys catch up.

“And she's also your mother now, so you can't escape from being psychoanalyzed anymore, Bloss!” R!Tuck shakes her in horror.

“Wait wait wait, how is this even possible? Isn’t your mom Poison Ivy?” Danny interrupts the escalated (dramaqueen-esque) freak out and gestures to all of her.

T!Sam squints at him in suspicion. “Didn’t his siblings tell you all the gossip?”

“Well, yeah, but most of what Hiereus knew were deductions and conspiracy theories. And this disaster of a halfa was worse than a tomb about being silent on you, when I tried to breach the subject! He just added more credibility to the crush-theory since he was trying to hoard you!” Danny points at R!Tuck, who groans and blushes green.

“TT, maybe I just wanted to be in perfect control of my powers before introducing her to you.” R!Tuck mumbles, crossing his arms.

“You wanted to show off!” T!Sam accuses, pointing into his face. He leans back, huffing, bright green in embarrassment but not refusing the statement. She then sighs deeply, facepalming with both hands. “You’re such an idiot, why do I love you is beyond me, may Green save me.” She says, muffled, unknowingly making the boys jolt in interest and hope.

They look at one another, confirming having heard her, so then they lean over.

“But we’re your idiots, so that checks out?” R!Tuck rests his forehead on hers, making her peek at him over her fingers.

She huffs and glances to the side where Danny is waiting silently and hopeful (never demanding, always waiting on the sidelines, too selfless for his own good). “Okay, fine, my idiots.” She lowers her hands and slightly headbutts R!Tuck. “But you owe me so many explanations and secrets to make us even!”

“Of course!” R!Tuck agrees readily, but to her it’s still not enough, feels almost too easy.

“And at least three steaks! That’s non-negotiable!” She growls, making the other grimace, but nod.

The loudest gasp ever heard from Danny shakes the duo apart to look at him questioningly. Being a halfa gives several advantages, among which the body manipulation, so his jaw is actually touching the bed with how much it has dropped. “SAM!” Danny shrieks when he finally gets a hold on himself (and her shoulders). “Are you actually a carnivore??”

The world tilts on its axis as Antheia and Samantha realign themselves and the girl chokes on nothing as realization strikes. “Oh Ancients, I am! It’s mama’s fault and she’s even right, I can’t go back as a vegan! It destroys the ecosystems!”

That seems to be the last straw as Danny and her mom (Jazz! She’s Jazz, oh no, oh no) start to cackle, unhinged, while R!Tucker whines that they actually switched places with reincarnation, how was that even possible…!

(Yet, neither Antheia nor Samantha regret getting this second chance to start again with her boys, despite the clear differences. No one will be able to tear them apart from one another again now.)

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