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castrian-amore · 1 year ago

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Stellata Notte(C’è finalmente la libertà)

Dead Ass(Danny Fenton x Dick Grayson), DC x DP Fanfic, Incomplete, Space AU, ao3 link at the end

Fic for @nikki-pondtheauthor

Chapter 1: A Starry Night knows not the bending of will

Stellata Notte(C’è Finalmente la libertà)

Starry Night(There is finally freedom)

Danny had been staring at the stars for as long as he could remember. It had been in the quiet moments of himself and the stars where his event unfolded before him to get him to where he was today. It was where he also watched the world collapse around him in a fiery ball. He watched from the rooftop of his house as the satellite stations would shoot off rockets off their long since dying planet. He never knew what the greenery of Earth had been like before it. He also knew his parents were far too stubborn to leave and it wasn’t as if they had the money to leave anyway.

Danny had never not had the familiar feeling of a mask over his nose as he breathed in filtered air and coughed up a constant dust in his lungs anyways as there wasn’t enough clean air to go around and even the filters here were failing. It was said Earth would be unlivable soon anyways. The only reason they survived in their small town as long as they did was because it held one of the major space sports on the planet and it was here they welcomed species from all walks of life in their area turned desert. Apparently Amity park had once been surrounded by lush forests and a lake. It was very obviously not that anymore.

Danny and his family were smart. They ran a ship repair business and were smart about it. Jazz had saved up to get off world years ago, and Danny had pushed her to take herself and escape. She hadn’t been here for the accident that made him quit his high paying work at the docks. She hadn’t been here to see how he turned out now. Sitting with black hair and white at his roots as the hair grew in white now and had been for some years. His hair pulled out from his face and yet the fringe of his bangs constantly fell in front of his eyes.

He had a quiver to his hands and yet he could still pick pockets from others like there was no other business and besides he was a cripple wasn't he? Apparently the procedure he needed wasn’t that expensive off planet, but here? Here on Earth where supplies wore thin and the off planet travelers lessened every day?

Here it was impossible and so Danny had felt trapped since he became whatever the fuck he had been. He had watched his parents begin to wither and they would die soon and he knew it. Danny’s lungs were far too fucked up and if he couldn’t escape then he too would die, wouldn’t he? He felt as if there was so escape.

Was there an escape? Here he was sitting on the roof of the building with music playing on his small shitty speaker he made out of mixed matched parts here and there. He hummed along to it as he tapped his foot to the music laying on his back. He wore a dusty black cloak with the clear filters over his nose and mouth and the oxygen filter sitting clipped to his falling apart belt and his black trousers that were bound around his ankles with tight fabric as he had his shoes set off to the side. Feet on the gravel roof of the building as he pointed out the familiar constellations he was far too used to.

Nothing was going to change was it?

The same sky under the same crumbling moon. The main water supplies of the planet were drying up and leaving them with less and less. The planet was just about on its last leg and Danny was trying to decide how he was going to take it all. If he was going to die here, or try to get off the planet.

He wanted to shoot for the stars after all. No one had survived being inside of a warp core while it was turned on after all. Now Danny was met with constellations of far off systems dancing across his cheeks, and his skin permanently pale with even thinner and paler lines of lightning dancing across both his arms. He had been mutated and lord knows what would happen if people found out of not only his condition but how he had gotten like this. The unexplainable powers of who he was. The ability to manipulate gravity at his fingertips and control the energy that ran through him.

Danny was trying to stay positive but everyone had their limits, yeah? Danny felt as if he was reaching his. He sighs and stood up gently at the music and began to dance a smile coming across his face as he moved with precise movements and steps. Of course he did after all, what did he have to do when he wasn’t working on space ships with his parents. There wasn’t exactly access to the intergalactic media on the planet. The far reaches of the Intergalactic Protection Committee long since forgotten about Earth. More focused on their home planet of Krypton. More focused on their supposed Justice League than anything else.

Danny could give it to them for trying across their galaxies of planets and new inventions at every turn but yet here they were on Earth, on their dying planet. He sighs and smiles gently as he knew if anyone saw him he could get in trouble, especially with his hood down. He knew with every step the gravity around him shifted and moved as he took one step and then two as he floated above them and just danced.

Who would believe anyone in this day and age filled with the piracy and fear around every corner and the threats to peace by those all over the system. No one could be ree, really? Danny knew he would be wanted if anyone could find out what he could do. But would he? Would he really be free? Was this freedom? Was this dancing amongst the quiet stars and under the guise of the moon what they could call freedom on what remained of their planet?

Quiet hums and songs filling the silence of the city and the ever moving rockets of ships propelling upwards into the night sky providing a beautiful backdrop for anyone watching but maybe that was all in Danny’s head right?

Who could be watching him? Why would they be watching him? He was a nobody. He was a human all alone on a dying planet lightyears away from anything sustainable, maybe Mars would be close enough he could escape but he didn’t have a way to connect with the Martians and their intimate language of the mind, thankfully too many martians tended not to leave their planet. They apparently had tried to save the remains of Earth thousands of years ago but upon figuring they were not quite welcoming towards their people yet they were forced to ait and by the time everything came around it seemed impossible for them to do anything about it. To fix it.

The inclement weather and storms. The cities completely sank. The deep freezes, then the heat began to hit as the ozone of the Earth began to crumble and the sun's rays only got worse, because of course they did. Danny had seen the brightly lit photos of Earth eons ago. Pictures hung up on his wall in excitement that there were places like that. Places he didn’t have to wear a mask either. Places where he could run barefoot across actual grass and not just the eerie synthetic things they had in the gymnasium. There was such little color here what was there to do? The most color they saw was the night sky and setting and rising of the sun and that was Danny’s favorite part of the die despite his sleeping habits saying otherwise.

Arms raising above his head as he finally opened his eyes, finding himself almost 10 feet into the air and glowing as he breathed heavily. A deep blush found his cheeks as he calmed his breathing so he could lower himself down onto the ground. An accident as he landed and was quickly reminded why he used his powers so often, almost falling as he felt his knees wobble beneath him. Another response of him being inside the core. The radiation should have killed him. The power of a collapsing star in one second filling his body.

It mutated him and left him with too many injuries to count and yet he pushed through. Danny gave a sigh and grabbed for his cane, more like a crutch as he used it to stand on shaking legs, taking a long last look at the stars for the night.

No one expects the cripple to have powers.

No one expects him to be good at anything.

Everybody doubted him, looked down upon him, but he was just like everyone else. He was human and a living person. Not that that was what they saw when they looked at him. They saw a boy. A young man too injured to work. They didn’t see who he could be with the right treatment. They didn’t see the way he was able to move when he was alone. When he pulled on his powers of gravity manipulation to aid him in walking, but it would draw too many eyes if he did that too often wouldn’t it?

Too many days he spent wondering if maybe he’d be worth more to his parents if he did that. He gave a sigh and went for his room. Turning the speaker off as the hatch shut behind him and he slowly reached to turn off the filter on his hip and removed the mask over his nose. A harsh coughing came from his lips and he tried to ignore the blood on his lips as he wiped it away.

Was this all that Danny was left with?

Blood on his lips and breaking bones.

There had to be more to this life. There would be more to this life than just hiding behind a mask and a filter. He would see the stars. Even if it meant on his deathbed. He gave a sigh as he headed to bed knowing full well the pain he would have to endure tomorrow in the beating sun. Apparently there would be a new shipment of filters coming in and well, his parents would be working so that led him to go out to try and secure some, and they would almost definitely be over priced as all hell and he just prayed they would be able to afford them. But apparently they had stopped making the filters a while ago which cut their normal intake in half after a few years.

It left the lines long and the desperation longer. The air filled with an intensity as the people crowded around the merchant who sold them for their small almost forgotten town. He pulled his hood father over his head ignoring the stares he got from everyone as he leaned heavily on his crutch. He knew in actuality he needed to give up on his back ever coming back and taking up on the white all over but it didn’t seem like a feasible option and right now it looked kind of cool.

Danny joined the line with a frown taught on his face. He tried to be kind to everyone but there was something he noticed out of the corner of his eye. A new ship. A small group of 3 men gathered off to the side with respirators that were far too fancy for this world or the remnants of it. Danny almost pulled his cloak made out of tattered fabric tighter around his shoulders.

He adjusted his satchel set around his chest to make sure he wouldn’t drop it or any of the credit he had. It only took a few hours before he made it to the front of the line. Still more people behind him as he stood and looked up at the man. If he could he’d need 6, that would get him and his family through to the next two weeks until the next shipment arrived and maybe now they would let him run tests on better filters and better respirators than what they were using.

“How many?” The clerk chimed hand on her hip and free hand adjusting her shiny new reusable filter respirator. A respirator the people were desperate for. Desperate to climb the ranks enough to get off the fucking planet of big one of those, and one one lucky enough and with cash could do both.

Danny tried not to think about the fact that he was stuck here, more than likely.

“6,”he whispers out, couching off to the side.

“Alrighty, that’ll be 80creds.” Danny almost choked on his words then and there.

“Last time they were only 50!” Danny exclaims. Danny was putting every spare penny into a jar to get out of there and he was desperate.

“Now they’re 80. Do you want them or not?”She offered bluntly as Danny forked over the money, shoving his new filters in his bag and closing the top. He had enough to get a drink at the bar. Never been more glad to have a couple creds left over in a heartbeat.

He huffed pulling off his hood as he walked into the bar, the air hissing behind him as the next door opened. Danny reached up to pop the small respirator off his lips as he flicked the button on his processor to turn it off, hooking the mask to the side of it. He looked for his usual spot in the back corner of the bar,finding it occupied.

The 3 fuckers from earlier sitting there. One of them unsuccessfully tried to flirt. The one in blue with beautiful eyes and spikey hair looked up at him. A charismatic smile but Danny ignored them, picking a free spot at the bar until he felt the painfully familiar weight of his ex. The man reeked of alcohol.

“Fuck off,”He breathed brushing off the others arm in a heartbeat.

“Awww come on Danny babe,”the man’s words were slurring together.

“We could be like we were. Die together at least!”

“I’m not dying anywhere near you Dash,”Danny rolls his eyes.

“Come on! I’m the only one who’ll take you after your little whoopsie!” The man leans on the counter extremely intoxicated; he moves to brush a strand of hair out of Danny’s face and the man smacks his hand away.

“Oh? Is that so? Well I haven’t stooped so low that will sleep with a piece of shit like you ever again,”Danny hisses out. “Go away.” The man presses further trying to get closer to Danny and he shoves him away a second time but the drunken idiot keeps coming back.

“Woah, hey there you seem to very much so not be getting the hints bud,”the man who had taken his normal spot had stood up and placed himself in between Dash and him. The man crossed his arms and eyes narrowed at him.

“You don’t need to worry about yourself, we’re old friends. Right Danno,”Dash smirks and Danny wanted to puke in his mouth.

“As if Dash, fuck off.,”Danny rolls his eyes. “I just want a fucking drink.”

“And I just want off this planet but that ain’t happening sweets,”Dash smirks.

Danny shoves him away again. “Sheriff or not you’re still a piece of shit.”

Dash stumbles to regain himself and his composure, eyeing the group of them up for the moment. Danny turned to the figure.

“You didn’t have to do that, you know,”he sighs softly, looking up at the man. Danny’s soft green eyes finding the stranger’s gentle blue.

“Didn’t I? You seem to be the only one interested in us,”the man sits next to him, his smile unwavering. “New in town.”

“Exactly why I’m the only one interested,”he laughs softly. “Dalv Corp controls who goes in and out of the planet's atmosphere and we’re one of the few temporary ports still open.”

“Why is that anyways? Do you guys even ship anything off world anymore?”The man laughs as the bartender puts a drink down in front of him.

“Not really, it brings the question then of why are you here then?” Danny smirks as he orders his drink watching the man. The stranger.

“We had someone shoot out something on our ship and my dear old little brother can’t seem to fix it so we can’t leave.”

“Stuck here like the rest of us,”he chuckles softly.

“For now, we’re trying to take it to the Fentons? Apparently they're desperate enough to take any ship that comes to them, and their pretty good mechanics over all, ever heard of them?” The stranger gives a smile seemingly trying to gauge the opinion of the Fentons off of him.

“They’re also backlogged as hell. They’re the only ship mechanics until you reach the New England ports. Are you willing to wait that long?”he hummed.

“Fuck…”the man breathed out and Danny laughs softly. “Luckily for you, I’m their son. Where’s your ship? I can take a look at it to see if it’s anything I can do.”

“They have a son?” The man smirks a little bit. “Well either way it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Dick.” The man holds out his hand for them to shake.

“Danny,”He smiles and takes it, giving him a firm handshake. “How’d you get shot?” He smirks as Dick leads his friends to move over close to them.

“Pirates,”Dick clarified. “Guess they were trying to board us and thought we’d be an easy target.”

“Mhm,”Danny didn’t believe that for a second. “Next question is why the fuck were all the way out here? Closest habitat planet is Mars and that’s a tad away but people go there for their ports and most of the Martians have moved off planet. They have mining colonies so why’d you crash here and not there?”

“Didn’t think our systems could handle it,”One of his friends Spoke up as he ran a hand through his hair a white streak placed in the front as he looked the Man up and down. Damn that man was built as fuck. What the fuck did he do?

“How about I just see what the damage is and if I can fix it. The issue is that you guys picked the most deserted fucking planet. Earth is nearly abandoned and transportation off the planet and getting around the planet are almost Impossible. Let alone getting supplies. The planets have been drained of anything of use and all supplies are rationed and limited. Getting parts is tricky as fuck,”Danny ran a hand through his hair with a heavy sigh.

“So can you even do anything if you figure out the problem,”the last of the 3 of them commented, his slightly longer hair pulled out of his face and Dick shot him a glare. He put his hands up in defense.”I’m asking the truth!”

“Ignore him, we appreciate anything you can do.” Dick gives a smile.

“Anyways before I walk off with two more stranger’s how about names?”Danny moves to stand up grabbing his crutch as he pulls his mask off of his belt undoing the temporarily wrapped cording.

“Big guy is Jason. The Smallest is Tim. They’re my siblings.”

“Nice to meet you,”Jason replied, giving a huff.

“Same to you two. I’m Danny Fenton, one of the only mechanics at this port. You guys got lucky, I know my shit.”

“Of the Fentons we heard about?”Tim clarified.

“One and only,”he vouched. “They’re backlogged for a bit but I tend to be free. They don’t like me working on ships anymore.”

“Can I ask what happened?”Dick asks as they enter the chamber hearing the hiss of the air lock before the next door to the outside opens. Of course they’re met with sand whipping up into their eyes and Danny reaches into his bag and pulls out a pair of goggles.

“Accident happened. Fucked up my legs,”he laughs softly. He motions towards the crutch he was heavily leaning on as they started forwards. The 3 of them pushed buttons by their ears on apparent ear pieces and he watched goggles form for them. Rich ass fuckers. If they were used to that they were not going to like how Danny was more than likely going to have to fix their ship.

One learned how to figure shit out with what you have and sometimes all you have is a couple old filters, and broken phasers you steal the batteries and plasma containers out of in order to cause the spark that starts your parents' hover car. What works right? It definitely shouldn’t be working. Not by any means, but fixing shit with reusable materials was a must on their planet.

“I just get in the way of most jobs even with my parents. I'm unable to work super fast,”he chuckles softly.

“Accident?”Jason asks with a frown.

“Mhm, accident,”he repeats, wanting to keep it as vague as he could. Strangers did not need to know the detailed aspects of his accident or the electricity running down his spine or the feelings of immense pain and heartbreak and death coming through him all at once as his molecules were rewritten at any point in time during the process. His cells changed at their very foundation during the event.

They did not need to know how much radiation he was unable to bear through those moments, almost expecting himself to unravel like a string of fine thread off a spool you let a cat play with. The less they know the better it would be and the safer they had to be over all because what was Danny supposed to do with a whole bunch of rich people just trying to get off planet.

“My next question is don’t most rich folk have ways they can get someone out to repair the ship if needed? Something like that at least?”

“Normally yeah but well.” Dick chuckled nervously

“We took it out for a joyride and are trying to not get caught,”Jason finished.

“Yeah okay that makes sense for how you look,”Danny chuckles as he lets them take the lead and lead him to the familiar landscapes of the shipyard where their ship was sitting docked. Fuck it was so beautiful with the wings on the edges and her shine in the dim lit sun as the dust storm continued to move over them. Danny pulled his hood further over his head. No matter what he was about to be stuck inside that ship for these people for a little while so maybe he could do something about that.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”Tim frowned a bit as Danny chuckled.

“You guys are rich. It’s not that hard to tell. You have retractable glasses, fancy oxygen masks and filters? You don’t have the same tubes that connect down to our filters like you do. We don’t have access to that kind of technology here and no one of anyone worth anything would come back to the cesspool of this planet. We’re here to hide smugglers and criminals and that’s it. This planet isn’t even deemed habitable enough to be a prison planet for the Federation.”

Dick looks around them. “I guess you’re right,”he chuckles and hits something as the hanger doors to the shit open and the stairs unfurl out and they walk aboard.

It was beautiful and sleek really and Danny felt as if he was too dirty to be here in the chaos of this ship. First off, this was a lot more spacious than he thought. It was for sure a running ship in how she was built and how her body type was. That was what he had noticed from the outside. He had noticed it was big enough to house multiple small separate cabins and this ship being as big as it was meant that they would have to get her fixed soon or they would take up and find pieces of her hull missing and tubes taken off and probably to be fond selling at the market by morning.

“I’ll tell you one thing for certain during this,”he sighs as they step inside. ‘Ya’ll need to fucking get off this planet and soon.”

“Why?” Tim frowned softly as he crossed his arms.

“Your ship is too much eye candy. It’ll attract the fucking scavengers who won’t hesitate to steal shit off your ship and I don’t mean break in or anything. I mean you will wake up with pieces of your hull missing and it could put the structural integrity of the ship at a major disadvantage for leaving the Earth’s atmosphere.”

“People do that?” Dick frowns and eyebrows furrowed.

'That's literally how I met our dad,’Jason smirks as he leaned against the wall. “I was trying to remove and take his left engine turbine.”

“The fucking turbine?!?” Danny exclaimed

“I was ambitious, what could I say,”Jason smirked as Danny let his head fall into his hands for the moment.

“Show me the damaged area here but I’ll probably have to work from the outside once the storm settles a bit too,”Danny pushes them as Dick motions for him to follow him. It was in the storage bay that they were able to enter the engine room and Danny was welcomed with the familiar tug and pull of his heart. The thing that always called to him from inside of any ship. Anything that held that much power and radiation called him like a beautiful song that he needed to listen to not matter what. As if he had no choice but to listen to her quiet thrumming and peaceful sounds as they entered the room. Danny fought the beautiful lights dancing around each other like it was trying to enthrall him.

The warp corp. She was beautiful and hollow and yet so filling as he stared momentarily into her depths like she was the most beautiful girl in the world. A quiet calling filled his soul, before he forced his eyes to look away and follow Dick once more.

Dick led him into the ship further past all of the chaos of the pipes and Danny’s eyes followed along, connecting the dots of what each one of them did and where they went. Danny was impressed a ship of this size was capable of just how much power seemed to be involved in it all. He took a deep breath and redirected his focus to what was in front of him. He then saw the issue. They entered another air locked door and Danny could see the very obvious issue. He could fix it but it would not be easy and it would more than likely take all night to manage as they worked without sleep because he would definitely need help gathering things and repairing this.

“I… can fix this, but i will need to make a list and we will need to collect a few things and one of those things I am not so sure we can find,”He rubs the back of his neck staring at the mass of disconnected wires and tubing and the anxiety filling his soul that there was always the chance he couldn’t fix it. One small thing and this ship could lose it’s warp capabilities entirely. The materials required to fix these kinds of ships that had multi-warp capabilities were insane. He had never actually had to work on one himself after all. They only ever got single-warp engines.

“You can?”Tim piped up from behind them curiously. “How?!”

“Carefully,”Danny sighs, looking at it as he walks closer to inspect it dodging the loose wiring as he pushes himself in between a few things to look at the further issues in detail. “You said you got it here but it was rough right? She handled into the port but then immediately seemed to lose all main power function and immediately resorted to battery backups?”

“Yeah, but, how did you know,”Dick frowns a little watching him.

“I know ships, what can I say,”Danny hums as he wriggles his way out of it and back in front of them his hood long since having fallen off and Danny rana hair through his messy hair. The white at his roots almost glowing in the dim blue lights of their section of the engine bay. “The main power cord is destroyed. And the impact of her landing severed the sliver of a connection you guys seemed to have. It’s a good design and I’m more familiar with single warp engines because well, I never got to go to school for this shit but--”

“You never went to school for this?” Tim verified looking at Dick seemingly giving him a wide eyed stare and the two having a quiet conversion between them as Danny continued.

“But I grew up around ships of all kinds. Never left the planet but I’ve seen and pulled some risky shit on many a ship to get them out of town. You guys are going to have to stop somewhere after you get out of here,’he laughs nervously.

“Yeah I’m sure we’ll be fine,”Jason laughs softly.

“I can get you guys off the planet and your ship will maybe be able to withstand one major warp jump to the nearest quadrant with a decent mechanic but I just don't think we have the materials available on the planet to withstand a multi-warp engine like this.” Danny motions around them. “I can redirect power and fix cords and connect dots here and there, but at the end of the day. This planet doesn’t have shit. So any and all things that I’ll be using will be bullshitted.”

“How did you know this engine was a multi-warp one?”Dick asks with a small smile finding his lips.

“I-uh,”Danny blushes. “Look, I can’t get off this planet but my sister sends me pictures and videos of all the ships she’s worked on with the Federation and all. I get blueprints, and she takes pictures of manuels because even if I can’t leave I love to learn and our intergalactic connectivity is super sketchy at best with our systems at my house. I only ever get to talk to her maybe once every 6 months you know?”

“But wait, okay, how did you recognize this engine as Multi-warp? You didn’t see her name or seemingly recognize the type of ship this is… so how did you know after only seeing about ¼ of her engine bay?” The man was pushing him to answer and so Danny took a deep breath.

“The material alone gave me my biggest clue,”he begins slowly placing a hand on a couple groupings of tubes carrying cooling gel within them. “Most modern and even old single-warp engines have the same material but this? This is military grade advantium. The same material the warp corp container has to be made out of to withstand the pressures and radiation within it. However, it’s not every tube.” He points to a small section of more cords.``Those are your standard krisvan lined cordings. Which means one of those things, this is just a military grade vessel that needs to be able to withstand a lot or it’s meant for something more.”

Danny walks over to the main door they entered this section too. “These doors though? Reinforced. You only need to do that as much as they are if there’s a lot at stake and multi-warp engines? Those are high risk, high stake engines where if you have one section explode and it’s not sectioned off properly it could destroy the entire engine in one go. It’s one of the highest death factors in multi-warp engines. Improper reinforcements.”

“And every cording and tube that goes in and out of the warp bay was also advatium. Your coolant housing was also showing signs of stress though, so I’m guessing this ship is used often enough you keep having to check the housing systems to make sure she never overheats. How many jumps can she normally do within 24 hours?”

Danny hums a little looking back at the boys. They all looked at him with wide eyes and Tim looked at Dick with almost Puppy Dog eyes.

‘No” Dick exclaimed looking at Tim who’s puppy dog eyes worsened. “No, Tim.”

“But--”

“No,”he hisses out and then turns to look at Danny giving a gentle smile. “Sorry, if we get you the things you need, how long will this take?”

“If I don’t stop? I could probably get it done in 12 hours,”Danny shrugs. “Take it you actually get everything I need.” Danny hisses as he realized. “If you can’t get everything I need then you’re fucked and better call that fucking speed dialed mechanic you probably have.”

“I’m normally the speed dialed mechanic,”Tim raised his hand. “I also designed this ship.”

Danny stopped and paused looking over at them all. “Look, I know i’m just some rando you just met on dying planet but ya’ll are fucking Waynes?!?!?1”

“I see you’ve heard of our father?” Dick mumbles almost nervously.

“Yeah, and no shit you fuckers need to get out of here. If the people of this place found out y'all are wayne you’ll actually be dead and this ship will be dissected.”

“It’s a prototype too,”Tim chuckles nervously.

“What’s she supposed to be capable of?”Danny asks, his eyebrows furrowing for the moment staring at them.

“Multi- warp capabilities and extreme stealth missions?”

“Stealth? What’s that entailed?” Danny moves to take off his satchel. He pulls off his cloak and begins to roll up his sleeves.

“Mirror capabilities of the surrounding surfaces so it blends in with surroundings signifying invisibility almost, then it also has under the radar capabilities. Being able to fly without being detected by radar.” Tim chuckles nervously as Danny looks over at the wires and then back at him.

“You can’t call for help can you?’He asks almost somberly.

Dick shook his head with a heavy sigh. “No we can’t. We were running a test mission on the under-the-radar mechanism when we reappeared; we were in fact attacked by pirates. Or something we aren’t sure but we managed to get the systems back online long enough for us to land, but now they won’t turn off.”

“And with the systems unable to turn off we’re unable to send out communications that far into space for someone to find us. Part of the reason the system works so well is because it blocks any and all radio signals normally used by the radars. That unfortunately includes transmission signals.”

“True silence in stealth,”Danny breathes out.

“Exactly, but here we are and I know vaguely how to fix this since I designed it but--”

“You know we don't have the time or resources to be able to do that,”Danny finishes Tim’s statement off as he begins to write a list handing it off to Jason. “Get these things. We’re really running against the clock then. What was the last known location you had pinged?”

“Just outside the JuLi solar system. We jumped here in a panic.”

“So on the outer rims of the galaxy at least but that’ll take days even if they make it to this solar system,”Danny hums a bit. “Tim, can I see your tools, or what you have at least?”

“Yeah let me go grab them,”Tim smiles as he walks off leaving the room with just Dick and Danny.

“Thanks,”Dick begins slowly. “We’re gonna pay you, you know. We’ll even double it if you need to be quiet about this whole situation.”

“Bold of you to assume I’m gonna try and rat you guys out,’he laughs. “This is the most exciting thing to happen to me since my accident.”

“Damn,”Dick smirks and laughs at himself. He moves down to lean against a pillar of metal. “Must be boring here.”

“I make do,”Danny shrugs. “I have a bit of music and I have the bar.”

“That doesn’t sound like a lot,”Dick admits. “You’ve really never left the planet?”

“Never,”Danny admits back to him looking down at his hands which he admittedly wrung around nervously. “Always wanted to though.”

“Why haven’t you?”Dick asks genuinely and Danny looks up at him and gives a sigh.

“My parents are engineers right? They spend their entire life barely able to feed us yet working their asses off constantly and never tell us anything. My sister gets a full ride into the federation academy and they send a ship here just to pick her up,”he laughs softly. “They shut my school down a year after that happened, and now there is no school. None public at least. It’s either you have the money to afford to get them off the planet or you’re probably not here in the first place.” Danny motions around him for the moment. “Playing with things like this is how I learned it all, and I had saved up so much ready to buy a ticket to Mars. Ready to work in their ports just so I could try to get amongst the crew somewhere on some ship so I could travel.”

“Then your accident?”Dick asks with a solemn smile and Danny laughs.

“Then my accident, and even after they took all my money for the care and continued to drain my parents dry they couldn’t fix my legs,”Danny gave a shrug for a moment.

“I forget places like this.. exist,”Dick leans his head back against the column.”Places so out of touch with the rest of the known universe.”

“Places dying because of Man’s need to take,”Danny clarified. “This planet has been mostly abandoned for years. Those of us still here are surviving.”

“But that’s not living,”Dick seemed almost frustrated. “How old are you?”

Danny gave a small smile to him. “25.”

“27,”Dick breathes out. “So close in age and yet I was given everything.”

“And what? Are you able to go back in time and make my life better?”Danny uses his crutch to poke him. “We just met my guy. Lighten up. It is what it is.” Danny gives a shrug as Tim comes back with a bag and Danny takes it being careful as he maneuvers it down to the ground and as he lowers himself. He couldn’t ignore the quiet longing looks Dick seemed to give him, like he wanted to help Danny but just couldn’t figure out how.

Dick pulls Tim aside as Danny watches them talk for the moment and Danny sighs softly scooching over to where the damaged areas were.

“Tim, can you clear the coolant lines and anything that could I don’t know, kill me,”Danny chuckled as he mumbled under his breath a quiet “again”.

“Yeah of course,”Tim moves to the wall, opening a small panel and seemingly disconnecting a few wires with a slow hum before walking back over. Danny sighs but looks at the damage and takes a deep breath as he dives into it. Working on removing the damaged wires and cording so he could cleanly replace anything. Jason brings him bits and pieces and Dick keeps reminding him about drinking water and Tim seemed quite entranced as he repaired the ship with nothing but determination and scraps.

Danny was convinced the three of them were something he had never seen before in how they held themselves. He knew Humanity was spread far and wide and there were several humanoid races like the kryptonians but with all they talked about and maintained in how they held themselves he had to wonder if they were human or just trying to remain looking humanoid as to not freak out Danny and his very human-body, mhm totally human body. Not fucked up at all. Maybe they were kryptonians or something? He didn’t know but did try to distract himself with the work in front of him as he stared at the blueprints he’d been given just to make sure it was all correct.

“So Tim, you designed this thing but you can’t fix it?”Danny asks as he stops for a moment as he turns around to look at him.

“I can create the concepts and I am an engineer and I can make small ships but I’m used to being handed everything I need if that makes sense? Normally I’m provided with the tools to make things successful so here when I’m put into a position to think outside the box…”

“You’re struggling to keep up?” Danny gives a small smile.

“Yeah, I am admittedly. Even the normal thing I could sub out for in case of a shortage or I’m working with limited resources I can’t find here so that leaves me to struggle to get what I actually need done. I needed help or I needed someone to help me secure safe alternatives and since we’re trying not to draw attention to ourselves bringing Barb along didn’t seem like the best option..”

“Barb?”Danny asks, snickering under his breath.

“Barbara is our AI that works and lives aboard this ship and well most of our ships. It’s an AI worked on by our friend Gordon and we’ve kinda gotten so used to her we bring her along with us everywhere. Now we can’t use her. It’s one of the biggest issues of this ship because we use a lot of AI’s in several different forms while aboard a smaller long haul vessel.”

“Wait wait wait, are you telling me this ship is not only secret spy ship with a multi-warp core AND has long haul capabilities? I’m sorry Tim? Do you need a husband? I have a hand! It could use a ring!”Danny exclaimed laughing as Tim goes bright red in the face.

“No no no no no!”Tim begins quickly. “I mean yes! She is a beast of a ship, hence my concern of getting her fixed here and not getting reported because not just any mechanic can work on a ship of her caliber!” Tim begins quietly.” But I -ah- I have a boyfriend.”

Jason walks into a room with a smirk and a cup in his hand. “Dick’s free,”He grins like a mad man and Dick turns bright red as well.

“Jason,”Dick threatened. “Don’t make me rat you out to your girlfriend!”

“I mean I’m open to open relationships too if that’s your speed Jason! I’m sure your girlfriend wouldn't mind me dating you and Dick right!”Danny teases as it was Jason’s turn to go red and Dick bounced off of Danny’s chaotic beginnings.

“I mean I’m okay if you’re fine with sharing Little Wing,”He smirks.

“You two are already insufferable,”Tim groans, getting up and walking past them. “How’s the dust storm?”

“Better I can see and move around just about fine now,”Jason and Tim were changing the topic.

“Can you believe these two? Just dusting us off like that,”Danny sighs softly.

“I know right? They’re just changing the topic so coarsely.”

“Oh god he also does puns,”Jason whispers out.

“See! I’m not that bad! Not like I’m going to drive you to in-sand-ity.” Danny smirks laughing as Tim grabs Jason's hand leading them out of the room.

“We’ll be back with more of the stuff you need,”Tim exclaims back at the two of them as Dick and Danny share quiet moments staring at each other before laughing softly.

“How much are tickets out of this place?”Dick asks as he stares at Danny from his spot, also sitting down. He had been keeping Danny company working on something on his tablet it seemed, filling out paperwork or something at the very least.

“Hmmm, passenger ships are hard to come by here, maybe once every 6 months?”Danny started. “So either you land very hard to get a spot on one of those or you charter a personal vessel. Kind of depends which way you want to take?”Danny shrugs.

“Say, chartering a personal vessel?”

“For a super shitty one it’s probably going to run you about maybe 856 credits. Tickets for the spots on the larger passenger ships run about 543.”

“And how much do you get paid?”

“Well I don’t get paid much at all,”he laughs. “But my parents and I try our best to split everything, but even when you cover the cost of bringing in shipments of things to fix ships, filters, food, that kind of stuff I don’t get much at the end of the day, and well my personal little amount is long gone.”

“Sorry for all my questions, I'm just trying to figure out how much is the average pay around here,”He laughs softly and moves to rub the back of his neck. “Hey have you eaten today? We have some snacks on board or I could make you something?”

“Nah don’t worry about me?”He laughs softly, moving to start again but finds Dick reaching out to stop him.

“Nuh uh, if you’re anything like Tim he forgets to eat especially when he’s working on something,”Dick gave Danny a gentle smile. “Come on?” He stands up and moves to help Danny up, handing him his crutch as he stands and they make their way to the kitchen which was bigger than anything he was used to. He was used to the living area and kitchen all squished into the same place at his parents house. Most of the house had been converted to bays long ago to work on the ships that came in and out of their home. The living space became a second thought for their work. Eyes always focused on the problem at hand. He wondered if he could get a call to Jazz soon.

He missed her.

Danny’s attention was brought back to reality as Dick offered the man a seat at their little table stepping off to go look at the food options.

“What are you craving? I have a bunch of sweet things, all of us tend to have a sweet tooth, but I also have veggies and some fresh produce to snack on from a variety of planets but admittedly mostly Krypton.” Danny took a second to try and realize he was saying coherent English.

“I have no idea what any of that is…”he whispers out sheepishly. Danny felt a small blush to his cheek.

“Right… dying planet,”dick begins slowly. “Have you ever had anything fresh? Any sweet treats or anything?”

Danny shook his head. “Ah, no? I think I may have had a few sweet things growing up but most of what we have here is freeze dried or pre portioned rations and especially now, it’s mostly the rations, and that’s only if you can afford them. Their prices go up every day.” Danny gives a small laugh. He doubted these Rich fuckers would know of the struggles of not having enough to eat.

“You’ve never… had anything sweet? Or fresh?”

“Uhhh, i Don’t think so. To be honest, fresh is kind of a bad omen word around here because we haven’t had anything fresh in so long it usually means things won’t last and doom is to follow. Everything here is regulated, Mr. Wayne.”

It may have been a small jab at the fact that they came from money and wouldn’t know the troubles of the outlying planets of the galaxy and the fact that he has read once that dying planets are often abandoned at some point and the remaining inhabitants are left to die. Danny read up on the fact and had accepted that he was likely within the final one or two generations of the planet left before the transports finally stopped coming and there would be no saviors for them.

Earth would be forgotten and the history along with it. Most of it at least. It would be taught how the Humans destroyed it and once they got into space the world fell beneath them even more and left the remaining inhabitants there to die and wither away with the very little water left and no food capable of growing. The rations are only being provided to them through a relief program by DALV corp to assist dying planets, yet DALV corp never made a move to actually get the remaining members off of the planets did they? Creatures of any nature could make their homes everywhere in space but yet trying to fix what the humans had done, and trying to help those living there?

Danny had been foolish when he was younger to hope that anything like that would happen, there was no saving earth, and there was no getting off the rock for people as injured as he was. Dick seemed to look down sheepishly in embarrassment rubbing his neck anxiously.

“I--I honestly have nothing to say to that you know?”Dick laughed nervously for the moment as he grabbed the two dishes and set one in front of himself and one in front of the other with a small smile as he grabbed two spoons and handed one to danny.

“What’s this?” Danny asks, looking at the weird white scooped substance in front of him. He poked it with a utensil a few times thinking for a moment as he frowned. He poked it with his finger and pulled his hand away in shock and surprise.

“This is called Ice cream,”Dick smirked. “I picked a plain flavor so it shouldn’t throw you off too much.”

“This is cold,”Danny whispers in surprise looking at Dick a mesmerizing look going across his face as he puts his finger into the ice cream eyes even wider when he pulls it out. “It’s cold!”

“Do you guys really not… have that many well regulated temperature spots? Fridges?” Dick was asking honestly. Another thing probably standard on most ships but to him? To him this was everything. Danny had never had this before. Dick handed him a napkin as Danny put some of it on his spoon and hesitated.

‘I mean we have lots and lots of fans and my folks and I are lucky we can go stand in the coolant storage rooms because those have to be kept cool and since we have one of the only working ones around we hold most of the emergency coolant not kept on ships,”Danny explains before taking a bite of the food and eyes going wide as he felt it melt in his mouth staring at Dick. It was creamy and soft and sweet and delicious and Danny had never tasted anything like this before. It was so good and in a way Danny didn’t have any other way to explain it than being on cloud nine.

“How is it?”Dick smirks softly at Danny as the man begins to shovel it into his mouth. “Good right, though you might want to slow down or--.” Dick suggested to the man before a sharp pain filled his mind and his eyes squeezed shut and hands immediately going up to his head and yet all he heard from Dick was a bright laugh and for a moment Danny thought Dick was poisoning him with some neurotoxin or something like that so that’s why his brain was hurting so bad.

“Or that’ll happen,”He chuckles. “Take your thumb and push it up against the roof of your mouth it’ll help it go away.” Danny sends him a glare knowing the man would know this would happen and not warn him! He knew they just met but damn! Though he obliged the man and did as he was told it in fact seemed to ruin whatever was causing that.

“What was that!”Danny exclaimed looking at him.

“That was called a brain freeze my new friend,”Dick smirks. “I don’t know the science of why it happens but it does happen when you eat or drink really cold things too fast, and don’t give me that look! I tried to warn you!”

“Not soon enough!” he teased back at the man.

“When does the sun set here?”Dick asked next, seemingly changing the tone of the conversation.

“Damn I’ve already been here most of the day… It’s technically winter but all of our seasons are pretty much the same now anyways. Apparently the seasons used to change dramatically but now the only thing that changes is when the sun goes down…”

Dick laughs softly. “So most of the day?”

“It means the suns going to set here in about a few hours or so,”Danny replies with a smile.

“Is the view of the stars here any good?”

“I mean I’ve never seen any bad view of our stars here if that’s what you’re asking,”Danny laughs.

“You have some constellations sewn onto your bag,”Dick pointed out softly and Danny blushed, realizing he was right. Danny had done that so long ago he had totally forgotten about that. He had done it bored one night on the roof because he wanted to make sure the bag was his own and he could have fun with it while he could. Not like he had great mobility otherwise, right?

“Ready to head back down?”Danny smiles as he finishes his ice cream and Dick nods deciding to just take it with before he heads back down the stairs to engine bay working on it and keeping up nice quiet conversations with Dick who tried to keep up with all his talks of engines and spaceships and the different apparently older models that came through here a lot.

Tim and Jason stopping by to offer more parts and Tim sliding next to Danny to help him work for a bit as well for another few hours. It was nice and they all made quiet banter and eventually they got on the topic of partners and Danny laughed at their family.

Once again making him miss Jazz. It was nice to see them treat each other as family.

“What about you danny?”Jason smiles gently at the man. “Born and raised here, do you have any siblings?”

“I do actually,”Danny gives a sheepish smile. “I have my parents and my sister.”

“Oooo, A sister,”Jason nudged Dick playfully and the man rolled his eyes.

“She’s off planet though,”he laughs softly. “Got a scholarship through the federation and hasn’t looked back. Can’t blame her for getting out of this shit hole.”

“Do you still speak to her?”Dick asks with a small hum.

“Getting long distance messages like that are hard. Especially face times,”He admitted. “Most of our satellites are shot so it’s uncommon we get to talk or send anything else out. “

“When’s the last time you two spoke?”Tim spoke softer this time as Danny looked down at his hands which he was wringing in mild anxiety of it all.

“About 5 months ago I think?”He admits quietly. “I’m glad she got out of here though, but I do miss her. I didn’t even tell her about my accident so she has no idea why I haven’t left. I’ve been avoiding it for years.”

“Why haven’t you told her?”Tim pressed a little.

“Because she’d offer to pay my way off world to get treatment but where would that leave her? The fare is expensive and let alone getting me all the way to a medical treatment center? I don’t know the galaxies that well. I don’t know the stars except when I’m here staring at them.”

“She cares about you then if you know she’d be willing to do that,”Dick smiles. “I know because It’s something I’d do in a heartbeat for my siblings too.”

“And you parents?”Jason spoke up again.

“Engineers, that's for sure. The amount of times I’ll open our rations cabinet and find a can of oil or something in a radioactive container is not for the faint of heart. Don’t even get me started on the whole ‘our house is the garage’ thing they’ve got going on.”Danny laughs with a bright smile. “They let me work for them sometimes, and I try to help out when I can.”

“What’s your dream then?”Jason moves to lean against the wall.

“Right now? To leave here one day and see the stars and planets even if only for a few hours. If I get to be up there for a bit and explore for a day I think I can die happy,”Danny lets a wistful smile rest upon his face as he turns back to his work, missing a shared look from across the brother’s faces. Each of them fell into their own conversations and sibling rivalries for another bit before Dick tapped his shoulder another few hours later for them to take a break. The man handed him water, letting him finish it before Dick brought him to the top of the ship outside. Dick helped him for a moment as they sat atop the ship, the sun having set. Both of them having turned on their filters glad the sandstorm had left and while everything was covered in dust the stars were incredibly visible tonight and Danny could appreciate that as Dick smiles.

“So… stars? What are some of your local earth tales about them?”He grinned.

“Are you sure this is a conversation you wanna bring up?”Danny teases threateningly with a smile. “I could literally talk about this for hours and I’m pretty sure you want your ship fixed at some point. “

“Hmmm, okay fair then tell me about your favorite one?”He smiles gently.

“This one is really old, okay? You can’t blame me for any of the historical mistranslations that may have happened during the centuries or whatever.”Danny mildly threatened and the other put his hands up in defense.

“I cross my heart. I promise. I won’t judge,”he smiles.

“So a long time ago there were two brothers, only half siblings but brother’s nonetheless. One was named Civilization the other was named Pollution.”Danny began as he leaned back. “It’s that grouping of stars there.”

“Okay,”Dick smiles and looks over towards Danny.

“Civilization and Pollution were both created by man. Alas there were other Siblings created by the Earth, Drought and Famine. It said that when Man made Civilization and Pollution the two would always coincide with one another. A promise to each other to stay by each other's sides. They embarked on many journeys of exploration across space together and especially amongst men on earth they explored and went deep into the Earth itself to draw out all she had within her. Earth did not like that and told them to stop. She kept telling them to cease on their journey or she would seek retribution, and they did not listen so she sent her children after them. So Drought killed Civilization and in anger Pollution killed the remaining two siblings. Pollution begged and begged for Earth to bring back his sibling, even turning to man who was falling apart at the seams without Civilization there to keep them together. Earth shook her head and gave a sigh and sent off the rest of man into the stars claiming that was how Civilization would be reborn and if he wanted to follow she could allow him to follow him into the stars. So he did, and thus the constellations were born into the sky, the brothers there once again dancing while the broken rotting bodies of Drought and Famine brought bloodshed back to the land.”

“Wow that’s..”

“A lot right,”Danny laughs. “And that’s just one of many tales we have here.” Danny looked over at Dick who slowly sat up and Danny hadn’t realized how close Dick had gotten to him. Dick looked down on him with a gentle smile.

“Yeah no it’s a lot, that’s for sure. I think you deserve to see the stars Danny.”Dick comments almost as if it was an afterthought.

“Well, maybe one day right?”He smirks.

“I think it might be sooner than you think,”Dick smirks mischievously. Danny chuckling and rolling his eyes at the other.

“I wish, man, I wish.” Then something seemed to dawn on the other and Dick’s eyes widened for a moment before he stopped.

”Do they keep you informed enough out here about what’s going on outside of the planet?” Dick began slowly. “I know what Tim said earlier and I’m not going to contradict anything he said because what we told you earlier was the truth. This is a spy ship. This was a test mission, but it wasn’t pirates who attacked us.”

“Who attacked you then?”Danny’s eyebrows furrowed. He moved to sit up to look Dick seriously in the eyes.

“There’s a race that's pushed a war with the galactic federation for years. They’ve been getting under our skin and trying to break down the Federation from the inside and mostly the Kryptonians have been dealing with it fine but when the Federation hired Wayne enterprises to assist in weapons and ship designs? They seemingly took offense to that. It’s contract work. Nothing against either side, we think the entire situation is dumb.” Dick sounded frustrated almost.

“Okay, so what’s your point? There’s a new war brewing? You guys get caught in the crossfire?”Danny was almost hesitant to ask. Dick shifts his sitting position almost nervously as he looks over at Danny.

“Yes… and no.”Dick stopped for a moment thinking of how he wanted to phrase his next comment. Something he was afraid of saying out loud in fear it would be true and Danny had been forced to read a lot of interesting texts over the years about the stories of old and how they used to run their missions. Dots connecting in Danny’s mind.

“You think you were targeted…”Danny whispers out. “It’s-it’s just like I was reading about in this archived novel I read when I was younger! Somebody tries to take out the main family’s heirs, cause devastation and get the big family to pull out on the contract work!”

‘Yeah , that's pretty much the entire situation we’ve theorized right now," he laughs. “What we think at least. We’re sure things will calm down once the finality of the paperwork is complete but we just have to be more careful.”

“So wait… if your so-called ship isn’t pinging things right? That’s going to show up as a red flag within this port too, you know that right? I know Pings are an old school concept but they still use them here. The second they send out that report back to the nearest station of federation ships it can be hacked. I used to hack them all the time. Listening to those radios is like a piece of cake.”

Then it seemed to dawn on both of them.

Eyes finding each other for a moment as they stare in panic. There was a high chance that the ship was just waiting on the signal to the nearest station. That cut their real time in half, no wait... Danny thought he might be able to do it in 12 hours but that would mean the end of the day and the signal would have already been sent out a few hours before he had finished it. He looked at the clock on the wall. He had been working for 9 hours… That meant final pings for the evening on all the ships would be going out soon if not now and reported to the nearest federation station, and their ship wouldn’t ping.

“You guys still use the Ping system?!?!”Dick started.

“Shut up you guys have a bigger issue to deal with! And again DYING PLANET DICK.”Danny exclaimed before he paused and looked around them. “Fuck Tim and I have to get this ship moving now.” He whispers before they hurry back into the ship. Dick grabbing Danny by the waist and lifting him down with ease, not that Danny noticed it that much, not at all. Danny uses his powers just slightly to help him get into the engine bay faster as Dick was trying to explain the current situation.

“You use the PING SYSTEM?!?!?!”

“Shut up and help me finish this!”Danny yelled at Tim sternly and that seemed to shut him up as the nervousness rose. Jason going back up to keep an eye on the surrounding area and Dick going who knew where. It was on the ship for sure, probably prepping system vitals and checking everything else for take off.

“Tim, you guys need to get to a mechanic as soon as you get out of here okay?”Danny whispers to him as they finish the shoddy patch job. “I’m serious.”

“You don’t have to explain it to me..”Tim bites at the dried skin of his lips for the moment.

“I’m going to get off so you can leave. Get out of here, Jump. Get to safety all of you,”Danny whispers as they head up to the main deck and Danny moves to open the airlock to the outside.

“I think Dick might want to say goodbye, he gets attached,”Tim teases him softly.Danny rolls his eyes slipping on his mask hearing the very quiet hiss of it connecting and breathing in the only slightly ruined filter. Danny had his bag slung over his shoulder standing by the airlock.

Dick came down the hallway Tim had just gone into.

“You guys will only be able to make one jump, so make it count,”Danny started firmly.

“We will, we will! We’ll also be back, you know that right? We don’t have any coins on us and I know you said technology is iffy here and we have services to pay for,”he smiles gently.

“I would appreciate it,”he laughs. “Honestly, just get out of here. I’m not worried about it. I’ll get out of here eventually.” Danny gave a shrug and Dick gently grabbed his hand giving him a small squeeze.

“I promise I’ll be back.”

“Uh huh, that’s what they all say,”Danny gives a sad smile and starts his walk out the door giving a wave to them as he leaves leaning on his crutch starting to feel the pain coursing through his body now at the long working hours he pulled today and part of him didn’t even care he wasn’t getting paid immediately, or that he quietly wanted to make a jab at his sister for not coming back to see him. Part of him was just trying desperately to not be heartbroken or sad at the coming events he knew was going to happen. He stared at the ground intently as he walked away.

Maybe he had wanted to be their friend. Wanted to see them more and hang out with them. Maybe he wanted to actually stare at the stars and tell Dick more stories of Earth and what it was like living in its hellish expanse.

Maybe he wanted someone to explore space with. Someone to watch his back and maybe a group of friends he could finally come clean with about what he was made up of and what he could do in actuality. Maybe he could tell them the idea of why their ship was only going to last one more jump. He didn’t need to tell them he infused extra radiation energy into the pipes that would be picked up along the way. The excess radioactive energy that he could control and assign and tell how to function and when to function.

The radiation he put there so that their warp core wouldn’t explode from being overexerted.The radiation he put there in fear of their ship being unable to jump without the extra fuel to the engine. But who was he anyway? Who was he at the end of the day? He felt like a no one. He would be abandoned yet again, he always was.

He stopped in his tracks as he felt hot bright lights on him and heard yelling.

“HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM!” He looked up to see the local authority. The sheriff standing front and center. Dash. A dark smirk across his face and Danny knew in that moment he was fucked. If he wasn’t arrested Dash would make his life a living hell. Then he heard yelling from behind him. The Wayne ship had started up, but yelling with his hand out, was Dick.

“RUN!” He yelled. Danny stared at Dash and then back at Dick.

“Don’t do it Fenton!” He yelled. Danny could feel his leg already screaming at him but he didn’t care. He turned around and booked it. What he hadn’t expected was for them to actually shoot. A phaser blast coming to his right and causing him to scream as he hurried as quickly as he could with his crutch. Then he dropped his bag moving to go back but finding it was too dangerous as they were still shooting at him. Eyes wide with fear looking back at Dash, quietly pleading as he ran. Dick motioned him to go faster and he did.

He ran.

Faster. Faster. Forgetting his crutch and running with all he had. Deep labored breaths became worse as he felt a stinging at his side ignoring the pain and the tears welling in his eyes.

Why were they doing this? What did he do? Why was he being targeted? He--

Why? It was then he realized the ship was moving and going higher off the ground and Dick’s hand reached for him desperately and he heard a bang as his fingers grazed Dick’s hand, the man latching on. He saw another pair of hand grab Dick dragging them both into the ship, the airlock closing behind him desperately before they all fell back breathing heavily. Danny felt a searing pain at his side and he could feel the dust in his lungs as they all tried to breath and just calm down and slowly.

Danny stopped. He stared. Eyes focusing on Dick for a moment, then Jason’s. Then his hand.

He saw blood pouring from his side from nasty burns, his clothing torn and singed and he stared in a daze at his hand. Ears ringing. People were mouthing things to him that he couldn’t even register. Words. What words? He needed to concentrate right? Was that how this worked? Why did this all feel familiar? Why did this feel like dying all over again?

Wasn’t dying just once enough?

“Danny!”He hadn’t even realized he had collapsed Dick panicked, staring at him. “Hey, look at me. It’s going to be okay! It’s going to be fine!”

“What happened,”He breathed out tears streaking down his cheeks.

“Don’t worry about it, We’ll get you fixed up. Danny, hey look at me talk to me,”Dick wipes his tears away with his thumbs his hands a grounding pressure since he had pulled off danny’s mask throwing it somewhere out of the way. He gives Danny a wide reassuring smile.

“Danny, look at me? You have to stay with me, you want to know why? We’re in space,”He whispers and when he points to one of the windows the last thing Danny saw before he passed out was the stars.

The stars were welcoming him home.

And at least Danny got his finally wish right?

Fanfic located here on Archive of our Own

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