#The worker without missing a beat because this is Gotham: snowdrops daffodils pink carnations yellow tulips forget me nots

[xysidhequeen]

The King And His Red Knight

Part 11

Parts 1-7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10

Warning: Jason's rampant vulgarity and love of creative cursewords

Danny woke up right when they reached the edge of Gotham, a cold shudder traveling through his body that dragged him from one of the best naps of his afterlife.

He knew what woke him. And knew he'll have to deal with it eventually. City Spirits can be territorial, but they all still fell under his purview. Even if not a one of them liked it, too used to being rulers of their own small kingdoms and viciously protective of the people they watched over.

This one didn't feel half as hostile as he expected, it was almost...welcoming.

If he ever returned to Amity, he thought this might be what it felt like.

Danny thought it might have something to do with the fact that he saved one of her Robins. And that he's bringing him back.

Perhaps it hadn't been only Clockwork who had a hand in their meeting, two and a half years ago.

Gotham loves her Robins, dearly. But Jason had always been Gotham's Robin. Born and raised in her streets, as connected to her people as the spirit itself was.

He still had the impression Gotham was watching him, wary, but willing to accept him. He saved her Robin, and he brought him back. That bought him a lot of goodwill.

He'd need that goodwill, seeing as he was planning on staying in Gotham for as long as Jason wanted to be here. And as much as the other halfa didn't want to admit it, Danny didn't think they'd be leaving for a very long time.

The Infinite Realms was home for Jason now, but it would be a grave injustice to say Gotham had ever stopped being Jason's home.

Danny let out a yawn that cracked his jaw as his eyes blinked open slowly. He was pressed against a warm chest, a thick arm wrapped tightly around him. A low, rumbling purr under his ear encouraged him to shut his eyes again and fall back to sleep.

Danny snuggled closer to Jason for a moment, noting absently that at some point in their sleep both of them had transformed back to human form. It was more a surprise for Danny than Jason. But being human had stopped feeling so unsafe sometime after he found Jason. Danny couldn't say for sure when the other halfa had banished the last of his fears with nothing more than his presence, but he had.

Jason was dressed in his tan leather jacket over a bright red hoodie, a pair of dark jeans and scuffed motorcycle boots. He smelled like cigarette smoke, leather, gunpowder and metal. A smell Danny has long grown accustomed to, and his mind now equated to home. To safety, to a ready smile and a sharp tongue that hid a soft heart.

Slowly Danny tried to pull back, but the arm around him only tightened, flattening him back onto a broad chest. Danny huffed out a breath in amused annoyance.

Jason had shot up and out over the past two and a half years. He almost matched Danny for height, those scant few inches Danny had on him a sore point. But what Jason lacked in height compared to Danny he'd more than made up for in muscle mass.

Danny didn't think anyone could beat Jack Fenton in pure size, but Jason had done his damndest. The man was built like a brick shithouse. And one of his tree trunk arms was holding Danny in place like a lanky teddy bear.

Danny sighed and let intangibility wash over him and lifted himself out of the, very comfortable, embrace. Being that close to Jason while conscious was doing dangerous things to his heart.

If Danny thought the butterflies and skipping heartbeats would fade over time, he'd been wrong. So wrong.

If anything the butterflies had unionized and multiplied, holding riots in his stomach regularly. And if he hadn't already been dead he'd fear weekly heart attacks.

But Jason had never even implied an interest, and Danny was loathe to approach him. Jason might put about as much stock in Danny's title as he did in the existence of Mothman, but Danny never wanted his friend, his best friend, to feel pressured to date him because Danny was his king.

So. Danny's crush stayed locked tight and the butterfly union never got their demands met.

"He's not my boyfriend!" Danny hissed, barely remembering to keep his voice quiet.

"Finally done cuddling your boyfriend?" Sam called out from behind the wheel. Danny flushed, scrambling away from Jason, arms waving wildly in the air.

"Uh huh. Right. And I'm Batman." Sam's voice dripped sarcasm and Danny rolled his eyes as he phased through the back of the passenger seat, buckling himself in as if he had anything to fear from a car crash.

Danny turned his head and located Tucker, head resting on his keyboard as random letters kept typing into a word doc. Danny chuckled quietly as he looked forward, taking in the sights.

Gotham looked much the same as it had the last time he'd been here. Only difference this time being that it was day. The heavy cloud of death and fear still coated the city like tainted paint, fueling the ambient ectoplasm that was most definitely a result of one of the several curses Danny could feel woven through the city.

"It's gorgeous here. I'm never leaving." Sam sighed dreamily as she swerved around other cars who seemed to take traffic laws as suggestions.

"We almost there?" Danny asked as he checked the touchscreen navigation on the dash.

"Almost." Sam nodded, taking a turn fast enough to make the tires squeal but no heads even turned.

"Did you and Tucker switch off? You could've woken me up to drive." Danny rested his elbow on the door, chin in hand.

"Dude, you needed the sleep. Your bags had bags." Sam chastised and Danny flushed.

Alright, maybe planning the destruction of the GIW and liberation of their prisoners had taken up his time for the past several days, meaning he got no sleep, but still!

"And here we are." Sam raised a hand and pressed one of many buttons on the dash.

She took another sharp turn and barreled towards a derelict warehouse, a wall opening smoothly seconds before collision. The van slid inside, and the door dropped behind them. In front of them the floor rose, revealing a tunnel that Sam drove down.

Darkness covered the van, lights flashing by as they continued along for several minutes before another wall opened and Sam drove into what looked like a bunker. Several motorcycles and other cars waited for them, an elevator sat across from them that would lead them to the rest of the hideout.

Something like this, smack in the middle of Crime Alley no less, did not come about overnight. No, it had been the work of years, Danny using the basically unlimited funds of the King of the Dead to slowly put it together.

He'd always known Jason would want to come back to Gotham, and Danny had prepared for that day.

Danny phased back through his seat as Sam turned off the van. Settling next to Jason, Danny reached out a hand and gently shook his shoulder. He let a wash of Calm/Safe/Home/Calm cover Jason, knowing far too well how violently Jason could wake up.

Danny didn't judge. He'd frozen Jazz several times back in Amity when she tried to wake him up. It was a side effect of being a hero.

"Mmmph. Wazzit?" Jason slurred, blinking sleep heavy eyes at Danny.

"We're here. Time to see our new home away from home." Danny grinned at Jason, slipping his hand from the other halfa's shoulder to his hand so he could tug Jason up.

"Wait we're already here? The fuck? How long was my undead ass out?" Jason regained his sense quickly, green tinted blue eyes clearing as he looked around.

"Apparently as long as me. Tucker and Sam put us in nap time time-out." Danny chuckled, letting intangibility wash over himself and Jason as he tugged the other man out of the van.

Why use a door when you were a ghost?

"Wait. Are those my bikes?!" Jason demanded, rushing forward, Danny tugged along behind him like a balloon as he let go of gravity and floated along.

"Yup, even Nightmare." Danny nodded at Jason's pride and joy, his baby.

The bike Johnny had given him had changed a lot since he got it. It almost resembled a horse made mechanical, and Danny knew it would spit flames out of its exhaust when it was started. It was painted a dark red that shone almost blood red under the right lights.

"When did you guys do this?" Jason asked, free hand running lovingly down the side of his bike.

Danny was a weak enough man to admit, this wasn't the first time he'd been jealous of a fucking motorcycle. At least Jason hadn't realized he still had Danny's hand gripped in his.

"Right before we left for the mission. Johnny and I moved all the bikes over." Danny said with a shrug.

"So do you want to stay in the basement or do you want to see the rest of your surprises?" Sam called out from where she was dragging a half asleep Tucker out of the van.

"Wait. Where the fuck are we?" Jason asked, finally registering they were in a building.

"So we paid attention to all your safe house and base spiels." Danny started as Sam and Tucker walked over.

"And I know a thing or two about how to buy things without a trail." Sam added in proudly.

"And I'm not bad at finding condemned and abandoned buildings no one wants." Tucker raised his head with a yawn.

"And I have the money and manpower, do you have any idea how many construction worker ghosts there are? A lot. So many of them die angry, its a problem. To make just about anything happen." Danny finished nodding around them.

"So you three....made a what? Next gen fucking Batcave?" Jason asked, leaning against his bike with one hip.

"Pshaw. Batcave? Please. Bruce Wayne wishes his creepy little man cave was half as cool as this." Sam snorted with a shake of her head.

"We can call it the Ghostcave! Or the Ghost Nest? Haunted House?" Danny tilted his head with an excited grin. None of them had wanted to name their new secret base without Jason.

"We'll work on what to call it, King of Dumbass Names." Jason tugged playfully on Danny's hand as Danny's cheeks puffed out in anger.

"Anyway, we have everything you could need to be a hero, or crime boss, or supervillain. The outside looks like an abandoned apartment building but we gutted the insides." Danny explained, bouncing in the air excitedly.

"There's so many levels! Below us is one of the workshops, then a lab. Above us is another workshop then Tucker's command center slash Ops room. It definitely looks like a Best Buy threw up in there. Then a med bay- Jazz made us add one," Danny rolled his eyes but kept talking, not even taking a breath in.

Jason was watching with an impressed expression. Though if that was because of what they'd built, or because Danny could talk so fast and so much without air was anyone's guess.

"And then we have the training room! It's huge! Big enough for us to go all out. And! And! The entire base is surrounded by cement and titanium walls, ten feet thick around the lab 'cause I wanna make a Ghost portal down there. And between those and the walls we see is five feet of my ghost ice!" Happy trills and chirps were making their way between Danny's words, and the almost unconscious chirps Jason responded with had a distinctly amused flavor to them.

Defenses had been his first thought when it came to Gotham. The frequency of rogue attacks meant anything not kitted out to the nines would inevitably be destroyed.

Someone could drop a missile on their roof and surround the building with bombs in the middle of an earthquake and their drinks wouldn't even slosh. Danny hadn't expected his Obsession to translate into building the most secure building this side of the veil but death was full of surprises. He had precious people staying in this building, and he didn't want to see a single one of them hurt.

"You expecting us to get nuked or some shit?" Jason asked with an amused twist to his lips.

"Dude. It's Gotham." Tucker chimed in.

"Nuff said." Jason shrugged, but he looked impressed and Danny's core purred.

The only thing stopping Danny from floating straight through the ceiling was Jason's hold on his hand, but Danny was vibrating so hard in excitement even Jason's arm was shaking.

"Then we have the ground floor. It has a huge kitchen Jay, everything you wanted in one! And three ovens! Three!" Danny could feel a grin splitting his face as Jason, Sam and Tucker watched him word vomit, barely contained laughter puffing out their cheeks.

"It's got the living room, and the dining room and Sam wanted a theater so we have that too!" Danny bounced up and down in the air while Jason turned to look at Sam, an eyebrow raised.

"A theater? Really? What kind of rich people shit is this?" Jason asked, Sam huffed, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes.

"Look me in the eyes, Jason, and tell me Nightmare on Elm Street isn't better on a wall sized screen. I dare you, bird boy." Sam challenged. Jason held up his free hand in surrender, wisely choosing not to argue with Sam.

"And then we h-" Danny started when Sam waved a hand at him.

"Let's show him, D." Sam stopped him from giving away the best part.

Danny brightened, tugging at Jason again, directing them towards the elevator.

"What am I? A fucking dog?" Jason grumbled as Danny dragged him away from the love of his life, his Ancient's damned motorcycle, and to the elevator.

"You look like a bitch, so yeah." Danny taunted over his shoulder as they reached the doors.

"Bark bark, motherfucker." Jason snapped his teeth, inhuman fangs on display as Danny laughed. Sam rolled her eyes, slamming a hand on the scanner by the elevator.

"Welcome home, Sam." A robotic feminine voice called out, Jason jumped in surprise as the elevator doors opened.

"Ahhh, Ophelia, my love." Tucker gazed at the touch screen panel inside the elevator like a lovesick puppy.

"Ophelia?" Jason leaned towards Danny, whispering.

"Tucker and Technus made her. She's a program but she's more than slightly ghostly." Danny shrugged.

Ophelia was Tucker's magnum opus, and Danny was fairly certain he was trying to figure out how to actually marry her.

"Ah. Make sense. Totally not having Terminator flashbacks or anything. Skynet, anyone?" Jason nodded, shooting a suspicious look at the panel as Tucker pressed something, and they started to descend.

"Ophelia would never betray me!" Tucker shouted, stroking a hand against the side of the panel.

"See that? Thats what you look like with your bikes and guns." Danny pointed out and Jason gave him a disbelieving stare.

"Boys, boys. You're all pretty. Let's get on with the tour." Sam broke in, quieting the bickering.

Danny wanted Jason to see everything so the elevator took them down first, to the lab and the second workshop. Jason had to be pulled back from leaving the elevator to 'look around' which really meant, get distracted by a project and lose a week of time.

It wasn't until they hit the second workshop that Jason spoke up again, eyes lighting up in recognition.

"Did you transport everything from the castle?" Jason asked, pouting slightly at being held back once more from entering a workshop. Danny understood, he wanted to go in too. But they had a base to explore!

"Everything but the delicate and volatile projects." Danny nodded, kicking a foot in the air nervously.

"I- We wanted it to feel like home." Danny said softly, glancing at Jason, whose face had taken on a soft, warm expression that was gone in a blink.

The next time the door opened, it was into a room practically overflowing with technology. Walls were covered in screens, and there were keyboards across multiple surfaces. Server towers and computer towers stood like little soldier awaiting battle.

"This is the command center. AKA Tucker's cave." Danny nodded at the room, Sam was holding Tucker back with both arms as he sobbed, trying to get to his 'babies'.

The elevator closed and they rose to the next level, opening out into a large room full of sparkling, brand new medical equipment. Much of it transported right from the Far Frozen.

"Med-bay, Jazz insisted we have one. Said first aid kits from Walmart 'weren't enough'. Frostbite helped design it." Danny explained the next room.

"Maybe if you didn't have the dodging abilities of a dead fucking squirrel we wouldn't need it." Jason poked at Danny's chest with a shit-eating grin.

"Well maybe if someone stopped running head first into every fight and tanking hits Jazz wouldn't worry!" Danny retorted, swatting at Jason's hand.

"Next is the giant training room, so if you two want to fight take it in there." Sam took over, talking loudly over the bickering halfas.

"See, Jay, you're missing the tour, you little shit!" Danny hissed, floating as far away as he could, still connected to Jason by their hands.

You'd need to cut Danny's arm off before he'd willingly let go.

"Little? What about me is little you blind undead bastard?" Jason asked, tugging at Danny's hand to get him back in range for more rough housing.

"Boys. Stop flirting." Sam ordered and that froze the two halfas. Their hands separated, Danny and Jason flinging themselves to seperate parts of the elevator.

"We're not flirting!"

"I wasn't flirting!"

Jason and Danny spoke at the same time, voices loud to cover the twin blushes on their cheeks. Sam snorted, rolling her eyes and shaking her head as the doors opened on the next level.

Jason craned his head, trying to see the kitchen from the elevator but it was currently out of view. For the best, Danny didn't know if he'd be able to stop Jason from convincing them to take a snack break if he saw the state of the art kitchen.

Danny was fully vibrating, floating so high his head banged against the roof of the elevator as it rose again. Jason was watching with amused curiosity, Sam and Tucker were watching Jason excitedly. Danny saw Tucker pull out a smartphone to get a picture of Jason's face at their next stop.

The doors opened to a level filled floor to ceiling with books as far as the eye could see. Cozy chairs and couches were thrown around the room and there were a few hard to see, hidden reading nooks too.

"Ghost Writer helped me fill it with all your favorites, and every book we thought you might like. There's first editions, and unpublished books too." Danny said quietly, hands twisting nervously in his shirt.

Jason was looking at the room as if he'd seen heaven. Then again, he had that look anytime he saw a library. But every time Danny saw it, his heart skipped a beat as the butterflies revolted in his stomach.

"Do you...do you like it?" Danny asked hesitantly, Jason ripped his gaze from the books to look at Danny.

And. Oh. Jason was looking at him like he'd hung the moon.

"It's amazing, Danny, it's perfect." Jason's voice was soft, reverent as if they were in a holy place.

Danny felt his core send a pulse of cold through his body as it purred strong enough he feared he'd start vibrating again. Small trills and chirps filled the air between them. And a soft, barely there emotion floated off of Jason.

Loved/Special/Important

It was gone before Danny could fully understand them, or who they were directed at.

"Before you two start doing something disgusting like confess your undying love we have two more levels and surprises waiting." Sam burst in, literally stepping between them and waving her arms as if she could dispell the sappy feelings in the air.

"Next up is the gaming level and then the bedrooms." Sam closed the doors, Jason letting out a pitiful, hurt whine when his books were hidden from him.

They quickly ascended and showed Jason the last two levels. He was obviously curious, but they all knew he was going to head for the library the second they took their eyes off of him. Sam stopped that by grabbing Jason with one hand and Tucker, who was trying to hide so he could get to his personal heaven, with the other and marched them out into the hallway between rooms.

Jason stopped fighting when he took in the name plates on the doors.

"Sam? Tucker? Jazz?" Jason read out, confusion clear as he looked around.

"Surprise! Me and Sam transferred to Gotham U! We managed to convince-" Tucker started while Sam snorted.

"Bribe." She interjected.

"Our professors to let us take our exams early. So we got out early! Starting in the fall we'll be at Gotham U!" Tucker continued as if Sam hadn't spoken. Danny did jazz hands behind them, shooting off tiny ecto-blasts like fireworks.

"And Jazz just got a job at Arkham. She starts in two weeks and will be here next week to move in." Danny explained. Jason stared at them all, eyes wide, disbelieving.

"We're all going to be staying here." Danny assured him.

Home?/Family?/Together?/Home?/Real? Flooded from Jason in waves. Danny let his smile go gentle as he stepped towards Jason.

"We couldn't let you face Gotham alone. You two idiots would blow the city up." Sam teased.

"I wanted to be close to Wayne Industries! They have the best tech! And they commonly hire Gotham U students as interns!" Tucker had stars in his eyes as he talked. He coughed when Sam elbowed him roughly.

"But mostly because you two need a man in the chair if you're going to be hitting the streets as heroes again." Tucker added, his words too coated in sincerity to be anything less than the truth.

"You're all moving here? For... for me?" Jason asked, voice rough with emotions and eyes shining with unshed tears.

"Of course. You're our family Jay, we'd follow you to hell and back." Sam snorted as if it was obvious.

"We did in fact do that when Johnny dared Jason to fist fight a demon." Danny chimed in with a grin.

Jason snorted out a wet chuckle and Danny couldn't help himself. He collided with the other halfa, arms wrapping around him in a tight hug. Seconds later Sam and Tucker joined in until Jason was in the center of the group hug. Jason finally gave up fighting the tears and they rolled down his face.

"Thank you." Jason choked out.

"Anything for you Jaybird." Danny gripped him tighter.

Someone's balance went out and the four of them collapsed on the ground in a pile of limbs and surprised laughter.

"So who's up for a bit of harmless haunting?" Danny asked when the four of them had settled down, and Tucker removed his elbow from Danny's solar plexus.

"Can't believe I'm saying this, but that sounds tempting enough that I'll skip the library." Jason replied, shifting slightly. He was big enough that Danny, Sam and Tucker could all, mostly, fit on top of him. He was surprisingly comfortable too.

Hell. He knew Jason seeing Batman, Bruce Wayne, again wouldn't be easy. The one month vanishing act Jason did after he found out about his replacement Robin almost two years ago was enough of a warning. The path of destruction Jason had carved through, thankfully a rebelling Realm, had shown Danny how deep the knife of betrayal had cut.

Unsure/Scared/Upset/Angry/Hurt/TheyForgotMe/HeReplacedMe/NotEnough leaked from Jason in a harsh wave that crashed into Danny. Danny sucked in a sharp breath, he'd known returning to Gotham wouldn't be easy.

Time didn't heal every wound. And wounds to the heart were the slowest of all to heal. No matter how much love Jason had in his life, how many people he had who adored him. Nothing would ever take away the hurt of his dad, his hero, his idol, replacing him barely seven months after he died.

Danny was just thankful Jason's anger was solely directed at Batman, and not the little Robin who had taken up the mantle. Then again, Jason always had a soft spot for kids. And this Robin was tiny, small enough that Danny had thought he couldn't have been older than ten when he first became a vigilante.

Danny rather liked the little Robin, and would've hated for Jason to hold a grudge against him. However Jason had done the opposite, becoming strangely protective of the kid he'd never even met. Danny had barely talked him out of kidnapping the kid years ago, reminding him it might lead Batman right to them.

Actually. It'd been Jazz who talked them both out of it because Danny was as ready as Jason to snatch the newest Robin. To protect him from the rancid streets of Gotham that would gladly chew him up and spit him back out.

Dick was always a safe bet with Jason. And Danny knew he'd want to see his older brother again.

"How about we see what Nightwing is up to tonight? We have a few hours before the vigilantes come out to play, you can spend that time in the library." Danny spoke up, pushing a wave of Comfort/You'reSafe/Protected/Loved/Wanted/Cherished/Important/Irreplaceable at Jason that had the other halfa melting under him.

"There's one other thing I want-have to do before we give Big Bird a heart attack." Jason's voice was suspiciously rough as he spoke, but he was speaking, and that meant he wasn't drowning under a sea of pain.

"And what's that?" Danny lifted his head, meeting Jason's eyes. They crinkled around the edges, a weak smirk on his lips at some unknown joke.

👻🖤🩶💚🖤🩶💚🖤🩶💚👻

"I think it's time for a field trip to a florist."

Tag list

@fisticuffsatapplebees @alinmenttreasure @angelheartgamer @chrysanthemum9484 @catmaraudersfan @insert-penname-here @barbnacle @kitty-page @quirky-gardener @onyxlightdragon @phoenixdemonqueen @wisteriavines @itsparadoxlacuna @mousetrappa @toodaloo-kangaroo @akikoyuii @ghostdragonace @auroraphantasma @quietlyscared @bun-fish @scaehime @shadowkyne @i-like-to-share-things @cheesymarmite @tei-pirate @warriorofbooks @dragongoblet @tired-yet-awaken @shower-man @starlight-sparks @mustachebatschaos @lady-jeleania @09shell-sea09 @larks-and-katydids @firegirl108 @fire-glass @dragongoblet @imchildish8775 @chaoticchange @errorchildsc @24-7shipping @theonewiththegays @imforeveranoob @ghospectr @ori-has-joined @samgirl98 @zalladane @moonfirearc @trickerdi @rosecinnamonbun

The King and his Red Knight

DPxDC crossover fic

Part 1

Really sorry to everyone who suffered through the fact that I didn't know about the existence of readmore. I can't fix the thread now but the individual posts are better? Sorry I have like a very rough idea of how this site works 😭

Check the: The King and his Red Knight tag to find all the parts

"Go here, Danny. Go then, Danny. Go to a random cemetery in the middle of the night for no reason, Danny." A voice grumbled, accompanied by the sound of sneakers rhythmically tapping stone.

Danny Fenton, currently Phantom, sat on a gravestone, his white hair a beacon in the dark night. There were no stars in the sky for him to gaze upon, their light hidden behind swaths of smog and neon lights playing off the gray clouds.

Clockwork had dumped him here, with no explanation for why. Not that he ever really explained much when he sent Danny off on his tasks. He supposed he should be grateful, at least he was in the same when rather than being transported a thousand years into the past.

"Wait here King Phantom. You will understand in time." Danny mimicked his mentor's voice as he let himself float off the grave he'd been dumped on after Clockwork shoved him out of a portal. His body floated higher until he could flip around, his legs crossing. He sat upside down, his chin in his palm as he glared petulantly at the assembled gravestones surrounding him, his toxic green eyes glowing.

"So far all I've seen is a concerning amount of ecotplasm for a city without a ghost portal and some blob ghosts! How long am I supposed to wait here?" Danny asked the air, and the aforementioned blob ghosts who were hanging off his body, soaking in the ambient ecotoplasm he radiated at all times now.

Neither provided him with an answer to his question and Danny let out a frustrated groan as he lowered his still flipped body to look once more on the gravestone he'd been tasked with waiting on.

Jason Todd, the name read. The dates, too close together, made something in Danny squeeze painfully. He'd been young, barely older than Danny when he stepped into the portal. Only for this teenager there had been no ectoplasm to bind to his dying body and repair the damage of death and force him back into a semblance of life.

"Who were you and why did Clockwork send me to you?" Danny asked the gravestone, one clawed finger tracing the words before he pulled back with a sigh when the gravestone gave him no explanation. The dead didn't always speak, not even to their king.

Turning his body Danny looked over the rest of the cemetery. It was empty, as most usually were this time of night, of the living. There were a few shades wandering around, circling closer to him, drawn by his presence. No full ghosts though, but oddly enough there rarely were in cemeteries. This was where the dead came to rest. To remember, if they wanted to. Cemeteries were sacred spaces to the dead, much as a temple or a church would be for the living who were religious. Ghosts who still clung to life, to their obsessions, did not frequent cemeteries, did not dare trespass and disturb those who had already found their peace.

Danny himself was an oddity. He had never shied from cemeteries, enjoying the peace he found in them, the guarantee of safety offered. And perhaps, he mourned that he himself would never have a gravestone for the living to place their flowers and their tears at. Who would make a grave for someone who was both alive and dead? There would never be a body to bury for him. His human half would continue to live on so long as his ghost core remained and could fuel it.

Maybe that was why he found peace in cemeteries, for all his whining that Clockwork had dumped him here. Cemeteries were for the living and the dead, one of the only places both existed in harmony naturally. For someone who was as much dead as he was alive such a place held a certain degree of belonging for him.

Danny straightened out in the air, letting his body lie above the grave as he folded his arms behind his head and looked up at the covered sky. He complained and whined about this task, but he was secretly glad that Clockwork had given him something to do. Even if it was just 'hang out in a random cemetary'.

Ever since he'd graduated high-school, revealed himself to his parents and discovered how deep prejudice and hate could run, and he'd run away to the Infinite Realms for sanctuary while his friends moved forward with their lives, he'd felt unmoored. A ghost with no haunt. Bored was too light a word for the gaping emptiness he felt in his chest, for the loneliness clawing at him. Clockwork, Wulf, Pandora they could help chip at the ache inside of him but not banish it. Not now that his family, his friends, were spread so far apart and so distant from him.

Not that he resented their choices, their distance, in fact he'd fought for them to do just that, to get out of Amity Park, to go to college, to become more than overworked teen superheroes. Still he missed them, even if he could visit them whenever he wanted. It was becoming clear as time moved forward that the world they belonged to and the one he did were two different things.

Danny Fenton couldn't go to college when his parents had declared him dead. Danny Fenton didn't exist as far as the government was concerned. Danny Phantom couldn't return to Amity when those same parents were waiting to capture him and tear him apart 'molecule by molecule'. Danny Phantom couldn't go back when the GIW were crawling over the town like ants.

So neither Danny Fenton or Danny Phantom returned to Amity after that day. And he made sure they couldnt follow him when he ensured the portal that took his life to function never opened again. He didn't need the portal any longer to get in and out of the Infinite Realms, and it was safer for the ghosts, his subjects, if the temptation of the Fenton portal was gone.

The world of the living was not yet ready to accept that the dead didn't always stay dead. And Danny would keep his people safe until they were.

Danny jolted from his lazing state of reverie when a pulse of emotion rocked through him, the strength of it stealing his breath if he had any to take.

Fear/Trapped/Dark/Fear/Help/HELP pounded into him and Danny frantically flipped around, head swiveling, poisonous green eyes wide as he triedf to locate the source. The emotions, the plea for help, burned his core, his Obsession screamed at him.

Help/SomeonePlease/Dark/Trapped/CANTBREATHE/HELP another wave of messages, of emotions pushed themselves at Danny and this time underneath the onslaught he could hear a rhythmic thudding. Danny looked down, horror filling him when he realized the thudding was coming from under the ground. From the grave he'd been hovering over for an hour now.

Danny flew down, sending back a wave of I'mHere/HelpIsComing/I'mComing to the boy trapped in his own coffin, feeling the intense wave of relief and hope sent back before he dived into the earth as if it wasn't there. Danny paused for a moment when he passed the thick wooden coffin, seeing a boy in the dark with wide, panicked blue eyes and fingers tipped with shredded nails and fresh blood.

"Hey, I'm going to get you out of here, okay?" Danny told the boy, keeping his voice gentle, soft. The boy jolted, fixating on the only source of light, Danny's growing green eyes. Danny hoped his smile came off as calming instead of 'freaky AF' as Tucker liked to call it. He grabbed the boy, Jason, as carefully as he could and then let his intangibility wash over the terrified teen as he lifted them both out of the coffin.

When they emerged from the coffin and the ground Danny set the teen down, leaning him against the gravestone, his own gravestone, and pulled back a bit. The boy was gasping in air as if the fetid, polluted air was the sweetest thing he'd ever tasted.

Danny tilted his head as he watched the boy ground himself. Now that the emotions were leveling out and his Obsession was purring in contentment rather than growling in a frenzy, Danny could feel something off about the boy.

Disregarding the fact that he'd just come back from the dead, of course. But that wasn't the oddest thing Danny had seen in his afterlife. No the boy felt... not like a normal, living human. Not even like an Amity Park resident, who all felt more than slightly liminal. No this boy, this Jason Todd, felt closer to liminal than even Jazz, Tucker or Sam, who were three of the most liminal humans Danny had ever been around.

Jason felt almost...like a ghost. But not. Danny could feel the tickle in his throat that proceeded his ghost sense but the tell-tale mist never emerged. It was as if Jason was...like him. But Danny couldn't sense a core either. Even halfas had cores.

"Who are you?" Jason spoke, breaking Danny from his thoughts and examination. Jason was looking at him with a mix of gratitude and suspicion. Which, fair. Danny had just pulled him from his own coffin and there were so many questions that could stem from all of this, disregarding all the weirdness that was just Danny himself.

"I'm Danny, Danny Phantom. Or just Phantom. I go by either. And you're Jason, right?" Danny asked, smiling at the teen and oops, yeah that was definitely his scary smile based on the slight flinch there. It wasn't his fault his teeth were too sharp now and his lips split a bit too wide.

"How did you know that?" Jason asked, blue eyes narrowing. Danny nodded at the gravestone the boy was leaning against with a raised brow. Jason turned and almost toppled over from the movement. Danny frowned as the boy caught himself on his gravestone. His skin was still pale, too pale, and as Danny watched Jason swayed again.

"Shit. You're fading. You didn't form a core and your body isn't stabilizing." Danny cursed, moving towards the boy who scrambled back, only to be stopped by his grave.

"What the hell are you doing?" Jason asked, hands fisting as he tried to rise only to fall back to the ground when his legs refused to hold his weight.

"Saving your life. The dead aren't supposed to come back. There's always a price to pay, a balance that is struck. Currently, as you are, if I don't get enough ectoplasm in you to form your core, you'll fade and turn into a brain-dead husk." Danny told Jason, tone stern and no nonsense as he grabbed him. Jason made an effort to break free, but it was weak, and even at full strength, he wouldn’t have been able to break Danny's hold. Few in this realm could.

If they had the time, Danny would've approached this situation in a far different manner, but this close he could hear Jason's heartbeat, a weak flutter in his chest, skipping beats as it tried to fuel a body that was past saving. Jason didn't have the time for Danny to approach this gently and kindly, to coax trust out of the teen like he would a feral cat.

Jason had minutes left before his ectoplasm starved body consumed itself trying to make a core and failed because while wherever they were had more ambient ectoplasm than most places, it was far from enough to sustain the birth of a halfa. Maybe if Jason had stayed dead for another year, he'd have naturally formed a core and risen as a proper ghost. But that wasn't what happened, somehow he'd gathered enough to fix his body of whatever wounds or illness had put him in that coffin to begin with and come back to 'life' but without a core to sustain his body he'd be dead, again, in minutes. And Danny was not about to watch while a teenager, another teenager, died.

"How do I know I can trust you?" Jason hissed as Danny pushed his arms down and laid his clawed hands on Jason's chest.

"You don't. But you don't have another choice." Danny said with a shrug. "Now are you going to let me save your life or not?" Danny asked, not moving his hands. He'd save Jason either way but this would be easier if Jason worked with him.

"Fine." Jason spat and Danny smirked as his hands began to glow a toxic green that matched his eyes.

Ectoplasm pooled out of his hands and rushed into Jason, filling him until the boy glowed bright enough to rival the neon lights of the city around them. The green light flared around him like an aura, slowly shrinking but getting impossibly brighter as the glow centralized around his chest until a small glowing ball of green, like a trapped star, blazed from his chest.

Jason gasped, back arching as Danny pulled his hands away and the light vanished under Jason's skin. For a moment Jason's blue eyes burned green and his hair flashed snow white before returning to black, with one single lock of unearthly white left above his forehead. Jason collapsed back against his grave, chest heaving. Danny watched, eyes full of a sad understanding.

"What the fuck was that?" Jason panted out.

"Welcome to the world of the half alive, half dead." Danny said with a smile. "Want to get a burger and talk about it?" He asked, standing up and dusting off his hands.

"Make it a chili dog and you've got a deal."

~~~~~

Fixed some typos added some lines

Maybe I'll continue this AU. Maybe not. This scene was in my head for days and I wanted to share