Archive of Our Own

Danny stared down the door to the Fenton Works lab.

It hadn’t changed since he last had been in the building. Sure, there was a layer of dust, but overall the door still stood as the innocuous wooden door it always had been. One wouldn’t be able to tell that just down the stairs past this door, Danny had spent weeks laid out on a cold metal table.

Danny didn’t think he had flashbacks. There wasn’t a ton that triggered memories of those weeks when the Fentons had gone to town. Sinking their fingers into him, truly living up to wanting to tear him apart molecule by molecule. At least, Danny didn’t think there were a lot of things that triggered him. He coped pretty well, keeping his mind far away as the Fentons seemed to do their best at trying to devour him, taking limbs and organs and skin and ripping sinew from bone because they were grieving they said.

They were grieving, and they wanted to hurt the person who had taken their son from them. Their son was dead, their son had died and Danny had taken him from them, but Danny was their son. How could the Fentons have grieved him if he were still alive? He’d spent days begging them to see him. To understand what they were doing.

It only took him 5 days to realize it was useless.

A hand settled on Danny’s shoulder, jolting him from his thoughts. He looked up at his oldest brother, whose mouth was pulled into a frown as his brow furrowed in concern. Dick squeezed Danny’s shoulder. “You don’t have to do this.”

Oh, he knew. He knew intimately after the fight that had broken out after patrol one night when Bruce had noted that he needed someone to go find where the Fentons had kept all of Danny’s body parts. Of course Danny had volunteered. He knew the lab best, he could probably find the storage room they used easily.

“No.”

“Come on, Baba!”

“I said no, Danny.”

Danny had resisted the urge to pout at his baba, knowing that his youngest child schtick wasn’t going to win him any favors in getting this mission. “But I’m the one that knows the Fenton Works lab the best! I can find the storage room way quicker than anyone else could.”

“Or you could end up retraumatizing yourself.” Damian, for once, had taken their baba’s side in the argument as he crossed his arms. “Danny, going on this mission wouldn’t be healthy for you.”

But they didn’t understand. He needed to see, needed to know what they were doing beyond the torture they had actively put him through. He doubted they’d be trying to clone him like Vlad had, but he wanted to know what they did with the parts they had kept. He hadn’t seen them throw any out, but he knew at least a few of his specimens weren’t salvageable after the experiments they’d run. He just… he needed to know.

“I’ve been doing great though! I haven’t had any nightmares in the past week, and it’s been months!” Danny hated the way his family seemed to glance between each other, as if Danny’s reasonings weren’t enough. “Besides, don’t I get to decide whether a mission like this is healthy for me or not. I mean, it’s my trauma. I should get to decide how I deal with it.”

“Of course you do, Danny,” his baba said, rubbing his face and brows turning up in that concerned way parents often did when their children wanted to make terrible mistakes, “but you also have a habit of overestimating your abilities to cope with things or flat-out ignoring your health. Both mental and physical.”

Okay, fair, his baba had some points, but Danny couldn’t back down. “Then don’t send me alone! Send Dami or Duke or Tim or someone with me so that way if I do get in over my head they can pick up my slack.”

“I don’t want you going back there, Danny.” At least Damian had the balls to come out and say it. Danny tried not to glare over at his twin. “The Fenton Works laboratory would be too triggering for you. I do not want you going back there just because of your incessant desire to martyr yourself. There is no need for you to put yourself in a position to retraumatize yourself when we can do that work for you.”

“I’m not some fucking victim!” Danny could feel the flames of anger lick at his core, but he tried desperately to cool it back down. His ghost form still felt too volatile, too quick to morph and change around his feelings and Danny could not let this keep happening. He’d let himself become far too comfortable.

Bruce crossed his arms. “Danny—”

“I’m sorry, but I am not a civilian.” Taking a deep breath, Danny tried to regain his sense of control over the situation. “I know that you guys care for me. I know that you want me to be safe and healthy and all of that, but I… I can do this. Please, let me take this mission.”

Damian had turned to Bruce, his eyes pleading before their baba sighed and Danny knew he had won. As he stared down the door to the lab, he found himself wondering if Dick thought he was questioning his decision. Cass sidled up next to Danny, carefully taking one of his hands in her own. He took a breath in as she squeezed, letting it out with the relaxation of her hold. Danny glanced over at Dick. “I know.”

With his two eldest siblings at his side, Danny grabbed the doorknob. It twisted easily, swinging open to reveal steep stairs leading down into lab. He reached over, flipping the light switch and watching as only the stairs were illuminated. It felt almost horror movie esque, and Danny knew Damian was probably still seething at not being able to hold Danny’s hand as he descended into the lab.

Cass was doing a pretty good job making up for it though. She trailed behind Danny, allowing him to take the lead as Dick covered their rear. A part of Danny wanted to laugh. How funny that the weeks he’d spent strapped to the operating table he had sworn he would never step foot in the lab again. Those weeks felt so far away, yet as they descended, the memories seemed to bubble up.

At least holding his eldest sister’s hand helped keep him grounded. Their suits both had gloves, so he couldn’t feel if her hands were as sweaty as his, but she seemed determined to continue to do soft little squeezes. A gentle reminder to Danny that even as they were stepping into the place he’d spent the worst weeks of his life, he just had to keep breathing. If anything went wrong then the two eldest Wayne children were there to help.

Stepping onto the concrete floor, Danny hated how his shoes echoed. Muscle memory had him flicking on the lights, nose crinkling at the sudden flood of fluorescent lighting. He knew if he wanted to actually look at the lab, he had to step out of the cubby like corner that the stairs laid in. However, he couldn’t get his feet to move. He just kept staring at the wall ahead, his body fuzzy with an anxiety he had thought he had under control.

Cass shuffled closer, never letting go of Danny’s hand. She leaned against Danny, a comforting weight as she said, “still here?”

Danny swallowed. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good.”

Dick stepped up to Danny’s other side. “I know you said you wanted to do this, but—”

“I’m okay, Dick.” It spoke to how worried his eldest siblings were that neither scolded him for using Dick’s name while in costume. “I can do this.”

He felt a little glad that he didn’t have to see the concern light up in Dick’s eyes as he wrapped an arm around Danny’s shoulders. “We can take a break. There isn’t any sort of time limit on this, and B made sure that the real estate agents wouldn’t touch the building for the entire day. You don’t have to just push through it.”

But it’d be so much worse the longer he took. Even just standing in that little cubby entryway, Danny could feel panic clawing up his belly. He knew the lab wouldn’t look the same—not after his family had raided it and destroyed anything that wasn’t useful as evidence for their case. But still fear threatened to choke him because the longer he waited, the more he could hear the Fentons talking over him, their tone so cruel and cold yet so fucking loving and so them.

He returned Dick’s side hug for a moment before once again marching forward. Cass followed along, sticking to his side as he took in what was left of the lab. It’d never been this… empty before. Where different inventions and blueprints had practically covered every available surface, instead even the tables had been removed. Dust settled unevenly on the floor, showing where most of the furniture used to sit. Danny wondered who had taken the time to clear the lab so thoroughly.

Funny how a few months ago Danny would have rather died again than ever step foot in the lab. The last time he’d been in Amity Park, he remembered the fear that struck his heart when Tim had gotten just a bit too close to the door. He’d truly believed that he would never go back.

That was before he realized that the Bats never found his body.

Still, he found his gaze roving the mostly empty space. A few of the bigger pieces hadn’t been removed yet, but the tunnel where the portal once stood was filled with nothing but insulation and stretches of plaster. Danny found his feet moving, letting go of Cass’s hand as he took a step inside.

How strange, to see the remnants of where the portal had been plugged into the house’s electricity. Danny traced along the wall, frowning as sparks of green raced after him. He turned to see Dick and Cass staring after him, both looking as patient as they were worried.

“It’s weird,” Danny said, unsure why he decided now to speak up, “I mean, I got so used to the portal and everything else being here that seeing it all taken out is just…”

Dick and Cass waited, but the word never came to Danny. He found his focus drawn to one of the larger pieces of lab equipment that hadn’t been taken out yet. Unlike the rest of the scattered pieces of equipment, this one clearly hadn’t been cleaned or touched other than to move it out of the way. Green stained the metal top. The cuffs that had held Danny down were still attached, bits of green and red along the edges. The dissection table looked just as cold and long as it had felt when Danny had been laying on it. He wondered if he got closer if he could see an outline of his body lying there.

His breathing sounded oh so loud in his ears. Dick was saying something, Danny knew he was, but he couldn’t hear it over the sound of his own screams as the Fentons tore into him. If he stepped closer, would Danny find his dried blood intermixed with the ectoplasm still staining the steel? Had no one wanted to touch the one piece of lab equipment that clearly looked ecto contaminated? Danny could feel Maddie peeling back his skin, cutting into muscle as they tried again and again to find his core, and he'd tried so hard to keep it hidden, but he was tired and he was hurt and they were suddenly reaching past his heart, deep into that space that no mortal should be able to access.

He didn’t realize when he had crumpled, but Cass and Dick crowded him and Danny was sitting where the portal used to stand and the portal had killed him. The portal had killed him, and his parents had tried to kill him on that very fucking table that still had his ectoplasm staining it and if he got close maybe he could see the dust from his core, like shaved ice or a gentle morning frost glittering where his chest had once laid but that was him, that was him, he was still on that table and in the lab and he had never left and—

“Breathe, Danny.” Cass’s voice sounded so very soft, even when her words were clumsy from lack of use. Dick’s hands hovered over Danny, and Danny didn’t know if he wanted Dick to gather him up or for him to stay far away. He took in a shuddering breath, loud and almost obnoxious in the sudden deafening quiet of the lab.

Out of the corner of his eye, Danny saw Dick slump a bit in relief. He wanted to turn to his siblings, reassure them that he was okay, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of the dissection table. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that parts of him were still stuck in this lab, and he was supposed to be better. He’d been better, hadn’t clung to Damian in the night and had moved on. He’d moved on, but he hadn’t because he was still here in this damn fucking lab. Even when he had escape, a part of him would always be here, and it wasn’t fair.

“Danny? Hey little ghost, can you do me a favor?” Danny’s breath hitched, and he couldn’t look at Dick, but he nodded nonetheless. “I know you’re really scared right now, and that’s totally understandable! But Cass and I can’t help you if we can’t tell where you are. You don’t have to turn visible, but could you let us know that you’re still here?”

Oh. Danny hadn’t realized that he had gone invisible. He’d tried a few times in the early days, hoping that maybe it would trick the Fentons, but he’d learned that they just saw it as another testing opportunity. Though, he found himself hesitating to let his invisibility drop. Swallowing, Danny reached a hand out towards one of Dick’s hovering hands. He tapped it, waiting for Dick to notice before trying to pull it closer.

Dick, thank the Ancients, took the hint well. He wrapped Danny up, not even minding that Danny continued to stay invisible as he stared. Cass didn’t move until Danny tapped the ground in front of her, an invitation that she didn’t hesitate to accept.

Danny would have thought that having his two eldest siblings practically crushing him between them would have triggered some sense of panic or a need to escape, but he found himself sinking into their warmth. Even for him, the dissection table had always felt so very cold. Maybe it was because of the steel interacting with his ice core. The Fentons had complained once or twice about how cold Danny made the lab, but like most of his ghost powers, they’d figured out a way to twist it for their experiments.

Squeezed between warm arms like this, Danny soaked in the affection his siblings were granting him. Even if part of him had never left, he still escaped. His twin saved him, and the rest of his siblings promised to protect him until their dying breaths. Danny’s breathing slowed as he leaned against Cass’s shoulder, finally tearing his gaze away from the table that had brought him so much pain.

He felt visibility trickle down from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, soft and gentle as Cass carded her fingers through his hair. Dick had his arms wrapped around both Cass and Danny, pulling them into his lap as he settled his chin on Danny’s head. “There’s our favorite ghost,” Dick said, a hint of a tease but mostly just pure molten affection.

“Sorry.” Danny winced at how his voice cracked, small and wobbly and so very close to crying.

Cass shook her head, her cheek nuzzling against Danny’s with every shake. “No apologies. You’re fine. We expected this to happen.”

Dick nodded as he pulled them both closer. “Everybody knew this would be hard for you, Danny. It’s also okay if this is too hard. You’re allowed to tap out whenever you need to.”

The suggestion tempted Danny more than he wanted to admit. It’d be so simple to just let Dick and Cass take over the rest of the investigation, have them handle the body parts and their disposal while he snuggled back up with Titus back in Gotham. He could never put his siblings through that though. Not when they’d already had to go through the Fenton Works lab once and destroy all of its blueprints before anyone else could grab them.

(Not when they’d already been forced to watch that first night under the Fentons’ knife.)

He took a deep breath, but despite his preparation he found he couldn’t bring himself to move. Instead, he just snuggled deeper into the hold. “… can we just stay like this? Just for a little bit?”

“Of course.” A little pang of guilt rung through Danny’s core at making his eldest sister talk so much, but Cass just held Danny tighter. “You are not a burden, Danny.”

Maybe Cass was just a mind reader. Danny felt tears, hot and steady, drip down his cheeks and onto Cass’s shoulder. Dick rocked both Danny and Cass, letting them sit in the hole where the portal used to be. The memories of stiff cuffs, the inability to access his intangibility, wishing his parents would just stop please, he was still alive, he promised, he promised shivered down his spine, chilling him all the way to the tips of his fingers.

Dick began humming. He hummed a bit off-key, but his voice was a nice tenor. Smooth even if Danny couldn’t identify what exactly Dick was humming. He couldn’t remember if either of his parents had ever hummed while they tortured him. He thought they might have. At least a little bit. Maddie had always hummed when she would do work around the house, smiling as she dusted or handled the few chores that he or Jazz hadn’t picked up.

Funny, how some details about those weeks were falling through the cracks. Slipping into the same monotony of memories that the rest of his life had become. When had it gone from him remembering each detail to forgetting something like whether Maddie hummed or not? This was growth, right? To be able to let those little details of his trauma go so he could move on and focus on happy memories. This had to mean that he’d gotten better. That he could do this.

They still had to find the storage room.

Danny pulled himself slowly from his eldest siblings’ grips. Deliberately looking anywhere but where the dissection table had laid, Danny began his search. “I know they had a hidden door somewhere…”

Thankfully, neither Cass nor Dick pushed Danny. With most of the lab pieces taken it, Danny found himself marveling at just how small the lab was. Sure, the lab had always felt cluttered and there were tripping hazards every which way, but when he had been strapped to the table the lab had felt endless. A never-ending sea of torturous experiments that left Danny wondering if it would be easier if the Fentons had just killed him already.

It almost felt too easy to find the door. Without all of the tables and inventions and splatters of ectoplasm, there was nothing for the large, steel door to hide behind. It looked almost eerily similar to the walk-in freezer door at the Nasty Burger. He grabbed the handle. Terror wound up his throat, and Danny knew he couldn’t afford to have another breakdown. No matter what Cass or Dick said, Danny knew it would be better for everyone involved if he just got this over with as soon as possible.

He swung the door open before he could second-guess himself, frowning as a blast of cold air hit him. In his ghost form as he was, the cold barely made his hairs stand on end, but if Cass and Dick stayed in the walk-in freezer (because there was no way it was anything else) too long then they’d surely get affected by the cold. Shaking the slight chill off, Danny stepped fully into the cold storage.

Two gasps rose up behind him, but they were quickly drowned out by the static crackling in his ears. Rows of shelves lined the space, filled with limbs, bones, skin, and jars of his organs. Dick said something, but Danny didn’t pay much attention as he walked over to the first arm he saw.

Its hand (his hand?) was still clenched in a pained fist, nails digging into its palm as if to stave off the pain that had inevitably resulted in it being ripped from his body. He picked it up, a morbid sort of satisfaction welling up in his chest as he moved the arm. If he remembered right, this had been the first time the Fentons had cut his arm off. How strange that the arm hadn’t decayed in the least bit since it had been cut off, the meat that was supposed to connect to his shoulder glistening with icy ectoplasm. He ran a finger down the cut edge of the arm, bending it to see if it still could or if the arm had stiffened in a rigor mortis. The elbow squeaked, but bent under his hands as he marveled at how smooth the initial severing incision had been.

Looking down the rest of the arms, he could see how the Fentons had grown careless in severing his arm.

He set that first arm back down, letting his eyes move past the row of arms to the other trophies the Fentons had kept. He had to hand it to them, at the very least they were organized. Though, it truly was funny that the Fentons would take time to meticulously categorize all of the ways they practically cannibalized his body. Finding a collection of his ribs, Danny wondered if there was a single part of him that the Fentons hadn’t touched. Just as a part of him had never left the lab, maybe there was a part of the Fentons that would never leave him.

A fuzziness settled over Danny, so similar to the days where he found himself drifting away from the table. The days where he tried to retreat into his mind—perhaps trying to retreat into his core before realizing just how unsafe that would be and forcing himself into a dreadful in between state, liminal in the worst way. Though it helped dull the aches enough that they became tolerable, even if he felt like he were watching himself be cut open, an observer as his brain so desperately tried to convince him that nothing about the situation was real.

Picking up a jar, Danny asked, “Is Tim still on the list for a spleen transplant?”

He couldn’t see the look Dick and Cass gave each other, but he knew it was probably that concerned look that he’d seen Tucker and Sam do so many times. “He is, yeah,” Dick said, taking a few steps closer to Danny, “why do you ask?”

Turning on his heel, Danny presented one of the jars with his whole spleen still intact. “Well, I mean, it’d take some ex-spleen-ation, but if I’m a match then I’d be more than willing to donate mine. I’ve got quite a few extra.”

Dick’s face paled a few shades, and Cass covered her mouth in horror. Panic threatened to break through Danny’s staticky calm, so he grabbed the closest hand he could find. “Oh come on, isn’t it my duty as his brother to give him a hand?” He waved the hand around for emphasis, smiling as he clutched onto the wrist bone.

Dick looked like he was going to puke. Cass still hadn’t moved. Danny felt his mouth twitch down, but he forced the smile (when had he started smiling?) to stay in place. His laughter rang hollow as he put the hand back. “Tough crowd huh?” His fingers danced along one of the shelves filled with his bones, grabbing a scapula. “You guys are really giving me the cold shoulder here.”

The silence just kept stretching on, and desperation welled up as Danny’s eldest siblings continued to just stare at him in horror. This wasn’t, they were supposed to laugh. He tossed the shoulder bone aside, hastily grabbing a chunk of his ribs. The ectoplasm staining them was still sticky. Must’ve been from that last day then. He gave it a shake, before saying, “I’m not ribbing you guys too hard, am I?” He poked his ribs into Dick’s chest.

His oldest brother visibly swallowed, and suddenly Danny was aware that he could go too far. He finally let his smile drop as he tried not to throw his ribs as he put them back on the shelf with the majority of his other bones. “Sorry, sorry, that was probably super uncomfortable for you guys.” Ancients, this whole room was probably terrible for Dick and Cass to sift through. That fuzzy calm slipped through Danny’s fingers like sand as anxiety once more reared its ugly head. “If it’s too much then you guys can wait outside. I mean, it's gotta be super weird and uncomfortable seeing just like a ton of stray body parts like this. Like I mean—” Danny grabbed a pair of his upper jaw. “—these are fully my teeth and that’s gotta be super traumatizing to see, and I’m so sorry—”

“Danny.” His mouth clicked shut. Cass walked over to him. Gently, she took the jaw bones from him and set them aside. With the bones taken care of, she took his face in her hands. “You’re hurt.”

His brow furrowed. “What? No, I’m fine. I didn’t—you guys are the ones that look like you’re gonna throw up.” He could feel himself crashing back into his body and becoming so suddenly aware of how he trembled. How his core almost wailed in his chest, a blizzard that threatened to bury him in his own panic. It wasn’t fair. He’d just had a freak out over a stupid table, and he’d already seen these body parts. Danny was used to this.

Dick stepped up beside Cass. “She doesn’t mean physically, Danny.” He set his hand on Danny’s arm, rubbing up and down. “This… this is something that nobody should have to experience, and this absolutely is hurting you. It might be a good idea to just take a step back—”

“No!” Danny ripped himself from his siblings’ holds, hating that he yelled but feeling far too much as he stumbled further into the cold storage. “No, no I have to do this! You guys don’t understand I have to—”

“Danny,” Cass signed, her eyes so soft and so sad and Danny didn’t deserve this. Didn’t deserve them when anger fueled that panic because they were pitying him, and Danny didn’t need to be pitied. Didn’t need them to look at him and this room with disgust and horror and anguish because a part of him had never left the lab, and the Fentons had taken him apart and hoarded each part of himself, treating each piece with a sort of delicacy that they had never reserved for him.

Another step forward, another stumbling back. If Danny weren’t careful, he might hit the back of the large cold storage, where a table with what looked like an abandoned experiment lay. Cass lifted her hands, signing slowly and deliberately, “Danny, we love you. You are hurt, and we want to help.”

Tears bubbled up, and Danny couldn’t stop them from blazing down his cheeks. The energy in his chest just kept growing, the blizzard howling in his ears as he threw his arms out in a grand gesture to the menagerie of his trauma. “You guys don’t get it! I already watched them take every fucking part of me! There is nothing here that I haven’t already experienced so I should be fine! I am fine! You shouldn’t—this isn’t healthy for you guys because like how fucked up is this? How fucked up that you’re looking at my dissected body parts?”

Dick and Cass shared a look, and Danny bit back a scream. Everywhere he looked, phantom images of his leg being sawed off, of Jack and Maddie tearing through his abdomen, ripping out his intestines and measuring them on the floor. He almost expected them to play jump rope, like the seniors at Casper High reminisced doing in biology before the school replaced the pig fetuses with robotic frogs. If his core spun any faster in his chest, then Danny would have thought he were having a heart attack.

Palms up, Dick stepped forward. “How about we go back to the main lab? Take a break from all of this since it’s clearly freaking you out. Heck, if I’m honest then yeah, it does freak me out too.”

Oh. Oh, of course. Danny let go of a shaky breath as he reached over and grabbed Dick’s hand. “Okay. Let’s take a break then.” He still felt too aware of himself, his tears practically torrential as they just kept coming, but he could leave to comfort his older brother. Cass slipped her own hand into Danny’s, giving it a firm squeeze. Danny squeezed back.

He led his eldest siblings out of the cold storage, wincing at the temperature shift before settling all of them down in the middle of the lab floor. He knew, logically, that Dick and Cass probably didn’t need to sit, but Danny’s legs felt like jelly and there was a certain fragility that threatened to consume him. Dick and Cass quickly leaned into him, and Danny pretended that he was comforting them rather than crumbling himself.

“Holy shit they kept everything,” Danny breathed, the blizzard still going strong despite the warm arms surrounding him.

Dick nodded, but Cass was the one who spoke up. “That’s fucked up of them.”

Danny barked out a laugh which quickly devolved into a sob. “I, this was so fucking stupid! I wanted to know what they kept, but they kept everything.”

Both Dick and Cass remained quiet, and Danny supposed they realized that Danny was going to just keep talking. His words bleeding out of him as he finally succumbed to the panic attack (holy shit, this was a panic attack, huh) that had been building.

“They—they kept everything. Fuck, I mean, I should have known because they kept bits to try and make a fake corpse but they, they kept all of me in a fucking freezer like I’m fucking meat and fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, I never should’ve come back!” His breath came quick, too fast and too sharp even though he didn’t need to breathe and he could see his lungs fluttering as Maddie so carefully pulled back layers of muscle and skin and— “I’m just—I’m just dragging this out and being a fucking mess over this shit, but I couldn’t just let you guys go and see it because it’s fucking traumatizing and fuck!

“I should’ve just come here alone. I shouldn’t have dragged you guys into this because now you have to see my fucking spleen and shit and I made jokes! Like a fucking asshole because I didn’t know how to deal with the fact that they kept everything they took from me and like, I was kind of curious because who else gets a chance to hold their own bones like that, but fucking Ancients I can’t—they put my organs in jars like a fucking science experiment! Was that all I was to them? A fucking science experiment?”

His words devolved into wails as Dick and Cass held him tight. They grounded him as the temperature in the lab steadily dropped. How many times had he broken down like this? How had his family not gotten tired of him after his constant cycling of pretending to be fine only to shatter at the slightest glance? It wasn’t fair, and he should have insisted on going to the lab alone, but he couldn’t help but curl further into Cass and Dick’s arms. Selfish, he thought. He truly was selfish.

It felt like hours before Danny finally felt his core begin to slow. There was a buzzing beneath his skin, but it quickly got relegated to the background noise. Frost had begun to creep up the corners of the lab, but Danny’s siblings hadn’t let go of him. Even as he knew they’d probably be able to see their breaths with how Danny must’ve begun to freeze over the lab. Cass maneuvered Danny so he was more in her arms, allowing Dick to look him better in the eye.

“Danny, I want you to know that you are absolutely right to be upset. This is extremely fucked up, and you are more than allowed to be hurt by it.” He reached out and brushed his thumbs against Danny’s cheeks, wiping away his cascading tears. “I will keep saying this until you believe it, but you are not a burden. You have been hurt deeply, and everyone knew that this would be tough for you. Bruce wanted to protect you from this, but I know that you would’ve just hated that kind of babying.”

Snorting, Danny rolled his eyes a little. Okay, so Bruce was right in initially telling him he couldn’t go on this mission. If Damian knew just how many breakdowns he had in the damn place, then he’d be crowing about how he told him so before refusing to leave his side for the next week. Danny needed to see, to pick up the remnants of the weeks under the Fenton’s knife and hold that reality close to his chest. The scars weren’t enough, Danny needed to hold his own heart in his hands.

If he stopped crying then maybe he could go do just that.

Dick smiled a little in victory at Danny’s snort, but he didn’t lose any of his serious tone, continuing to cup Danny’s face like Cass had earlier. “Cass and I are here to support you. Whatever you want to do, however you want to do this, we’ll help you. It hurts to see just how badly the Fentons hurt you, but Cass and I can take it.”

“You and Damian weren’t the only children in the league,” Cass mumbled, “I understand.”

Right. Right, Dick and Cass had seen their own share of horrors in their careers, but Danny could still feel guilt festering in the wake of his waning panic. This could have been avoidable. If he hadn’t insisted or if he had insisted he go by himself or a number of different ways of dealing with the Fenton Works Lab. “I don’t…” Danny couldn’t find the words, lost in the ocean that was his feelings. This wasn’t fair, Danny thought he would have been better than this.

Of course, Cass and Dick seemed endlessly patient, and Danny swallowed down all of his curses and thoughts and woes. “Do we need any of them?”

Dick frowned. “Any of what, Danny?”

Swallowing, Danny looked up at his eldest brother. “The body parts. Do we need any of them? I know I joked about giving Tim my spleen, but do we actually need any of them?”

A thoughtful look passed across Dick’s face before he shook his head. “Not physically, no. We’ve already got more than enough evidence of the Fentons’ crimes. Sure, having a little extra wouldn’t hurt, but it’s not the end of the world if we don’t get anything from here.”

Taking a deep breath, Danny once more pulled himself from the comfort of Dick and Cass’s hold. They let him go easily, even if he could still feel their concerned gazes etching themselves on his back. He didn’t let his gaze stray to the damn table or the hole in the wall or anything but the cold storage. Stepping back in, he was once again greeted with the sights of every part of himself, laid bare and ready for use. Looking at the table in the back, he could see his ectoplasmic blood in a centrifuge, the red flecks never truly separating from the bright green of his ectoplasm.

They must’ve been serious about separating him from his own corpse then. Funny, Danny had thought after a week that they’d given up on that. He never should have underestimated the Fenton’s stubbornness.

He ignored the shelves of his body parts, determination and a bubble of rage threatening to burst in his chest. Oh, his guilt still threatened to drown him, but fury and guilt could coexist. He grabbed the centrifuge and chucked it, watching with a distant glee as his blood splattered against the wall. He let his momentum carry him as he grabbed jars, smashing them against walls and watching as his organs spilled out. He grabbed his femur, smashing it on the ground and watching it splinter, shards of bone trailing across the floor. He could feel Dick and Cass watching from the door, but he found he couldn’t care. He grabbed a jar of his teeth, chucking it at the spot where his blood had splattered.

Could this count as self-harm? Danny grabbed one of his severed arms to tear the meat from its bone, flinging viscera and muscle and ectoplasm around the room. Maybe it did, since everything in the room was him. He ripped open his stomach, letting the acid spill down his arms before tossing it aside. Grabbing a jar of his eyes, Danny figured maybe this was just him taking advantage of a shitty situation. Didn’t everyone occasionally want to find out what their own eyes felt like? How they would squish if they pressed too hard?

It almost felt like a stiffer grape, as Danny watched his eye burst. His own liquids splattered all over him, but he didn’t care. He squished a few more before winding up and smashing the jar of eyeballs onto the ground. He slid his arm across one of the rows of jars, watching as they shattered and shards of glass tumbled around the organs the Fentons so cruelly harvested from him. Blood, guts, and viscera surrounded him, and Danny almost wanted to laugh. It felt like a bad horror movie, one that he was forcing his siblings to be subject to as he destroyed every bit of the Fenton’s hard work.

He chucked, tore, ripped, smashed, anything he could do to tear the shreds of himself apart. Danny wondered what Dick and Cass thought of him now. Were they worried as they saw him squeeze his heart until it exploded in a burst of ectoplasm? Did they regret bringing him along when he stepped onto his pancreas until it exploded underfoot? Maybe they were contemplating how fucked up Danny was. How he could so viciously tear into these bits of himself and leave his body covered in the remnants of his weeks under the knife.

Danny didn’t pant despite feeling energy pulsing through his veins. With the shelves empty, he threw them to the ground, enjoying the cacophony of shattering glass, slamming metal, fleshy bursting, and crunching bones. He should turn intangible, but Danny couldn’t let himself lose the gore that covered him just yet. He stepped over his mess, forcing himself to look Cass and Dick in the eye as he left the cold storage.

“I’m gonna burn the lab down,” Danny croaked, his throat sore and raw.

Cass didn’t hesitate. “Okay. What do you need?”

Danny took a deep breath. “Stay behind me.” He held his hand out, letting ectoplasm build so slowly. Dan had always been the one associated with fire, but Danny knew he had his own flames licking the galaxies of his core. He hid them well, sheltered in between layers upon layers of ice, but they still threatened to consume him—leave him desperate and bitter and determined to destroy everything around him so they could suffer too.

Green fire licked around the ectoplasm building in his hands, similar to the flames of the crown he’d been forced to wear yet burning brighter than Danny ever wanted. He Let the flames grow until they were licking up towards his nose, bright and tall and ready to devour. Winding his hand back, he tossed the ball of ectoplasmic fire into the cold storage.

There wasn’t any dramatic whooshing of fire or great blaze. The ball landed and burned, bright and hot and oh so very angry. It seemed to crawl over to whatever would feed it, growing exponentially. Danny watched on, letting the flames cast green tinted shadows as they devoured everything in the cold storage. Once the flames began to spill out into the bulk of the lab, Danny took both of his siblings’ hands and flew them out of Fenton Works.

He set them down on the roof straight across from the Fenton Works building. He held them steady as the green flames began to flicker in the darkened windows of Danny’s former home. Now that he and his family were out, it seemed like his fire had taken the chance to finally implode. It raged, crackling and spitting as green enveloped his home. He kept a careful hold on that fire, never letting it scorch more than the yard that surrounded Fenton Works.

Still, the flames rose high, almost a mirror of Ember’s ponytail. People, neighbors gathered in the street trying to figure out what had happened. They should call the fire department, but Danny made sure his ghostly fire remained contained. His tears burned as they dripped down his chin, but he couldn’t care less. He just stood on that roof, watching as Fenton Works began collapsing, caving in on itself as it buckled underneath the intensity of the flames.

Dick and Cass held his hands. Danny didn’t move for more comfort nor did he try to pull away. He just stood, watching as people left the Fenton Works to its demise.

He wasn’t sure how long Fenton Works burned for. It might have been hours, it might have been minutes. No matter how long it took, Danny stood with his eldest siblings at his side until Fenton Works was nothing but ash and the bones of his former home.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

“And they need to summon you in because…?”

“Honestly, I’m not actually sure?” Danny pulled his legs up so he was sitting cross-legged. “Maybe it’s like a ceremonial type thing? Or for like propriety or whatever.”

Sam hummed as she leaned back in her chair. She and Tucker kept Danny company as he waited in what looked like some sort of office room. He hadn’t seen much of the Supreme Court building before being shepherded into what looked to be an intern’s office by his baba. They’d call for Danny once the proceedings started, but Danny wished he could have just started out in the courtroom with his baba and the lawyer team the Justice League had set up.

Stretching out on the floor, Tucker frowned up at Danny. “Is that why you have to wear the ren faire outfit too?”

Blushing, Danny picked at his tunic, careful of the embroidery. “I mean, I gotta show up as the ghost king!”

“Okay but the cape and fur trim are a bit much, Danny,” Tucker said as he pulled himself up, “I mean, you can change your appearance! Can’t you make your kingly attire… I don’t know, cooler?”

“What, you mean my fur trimmed gloves and boots aren’t cool?” Danny shot back, though he knew for a fact that they were not cool outside of Far Frozen.

Sam rolled her eyes. “It’s reading Monarchy in a very bad way. Plus, I know you didn’t actually skin an animal for that fur, but it still feels morally wrong to wear some poor animal’s skin as decoration like that.”

Danny ran his fingers through the fur almost protectively. His fur lined stuff wasn’t that bad! Though, the courtroom would surely be warm since he knew there’d be a fair amount of people actually watching the case. The temperature shouldn’t affect him, but Danny felt a prickle of discomfort at the idea of sitting in a stuffy room in his full kingly regalia, unable to hide from their gazes as they stared at the fur lined outfit and the crown damning him as king.

Groaning, Danny uncrossed his legs to float in more of a standing position. “Fine! Fine, I’ll try to make a cooler outfit. But you guys aren’t allowed to laugh if it turns out bad again!”

“We make no such promises, dude,” Tucker, ever the helpful and loyal friend, said as he scooted towards Sam. Probably to get a better look at Danny’s newest Magical Girl transformation. Asshole.

He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to imagine an outfit that would pass Sam and Tucker’s arbitrary cool test while also fit within the confines of remaining generally reminiscent of the hazmat suit that he died in. He frowned as no images popped up, so instead he decided to just wing it. Surely as long as it was different from what he was currently wearing, they would be happy.

That slight burn of changing his form rippled over him. The fur lining his boots disappeared as they shifted to something more similar to horse riding boots, the leather detailed with snowflakes while staying that pristine white. The embroidered trousers were replaced with simple black trousers, though they still fit looser than the tight hazmat rubber suit. His original kingly tunic shifted into a vest, the threads of the constellations glinting ectoplasmic green in the right light. Underneath, a high collared black shirt flowed to life, ending in a bishop sleeve. His white gloves seemed to melt into his hand, turning them white. His hands lost opacity as the white stretched onto his fingers. The digits took on a more translucent, almost sea-glass effect.

The last touches settled around him gently. His cape shifted to something smaller, a little half-caplet that lost its fur and instead continued the embroidery of his vest on the outer layer. Hints of the galactic inner layer could be seen every time Danny moved his arms. The Crown of Fire still floated above his head, though the ice had solidified to appear closer to a crown made of icy comets rather than just pure ice. The blue fire turned back to green, enveloping the comet crown but never melting it.

Opening his eyes, he twirled once for his two best friends. “So? How’s this?”

Sam and Tucker shared a look. Giggles burst from their lips and Danny pouted as hard as he could at them. “Guys!”

“You still look like a Ren Faire dork,” Tucker said, poking Danny’s ankle, “but it’s not as bad as before.”

“It’s a subtler in some ways and worse in others,” Sam agreed, looking Danny up and down.

Huffing, Danny pulled his legs back in a cross-legged position. “I’m not changing my king outfit again.”

Sam rolled her eyes. “We never asked you to in the first place. Though I will say that this feels a little more… court appropriate.”

Anxiety trickled back down Danny’s spine. “… do you think they’re going to summon me soon?”

“Probably.” Tucker pulled out his phone. “The case is supposed to start at 11 am and it’s 10:58.”

Right. Right, so at the earliest he’d be summoned in the next two minutes. Danny chewed on his lip. It should be fine. Jazz and Damian had promised to sit in the audience closest to the prosecution. His baba would be sitting right next to him. Everything would be fine.

Tucker grabbed his hand. Danny looked down to see his childhood best friend smiling up at him. “Hey, as soon as you go we’ll be running to our seats. By the time you’ve been summoned we’ll be right there with you.”

Sam grabbed his other hand. “That’s right. We’re not going to let you go through this alone.”

Even as his cheeks started to glow green, Danny couldn’t help but smile back at his best friends. “Thanks guys. I wouldn’t be able to do any of this without you.”

“I mean, you probably could,” Tucker said, “you’d just be a lot worse at it.”

Nudging Danny’s hip and Tucker’s side, Sam smirked. “You both would be lost without me.”

That got Danny laughing as he floated to sit with his friends, holding onto their hands tightly. He knew he’d be more than lost without both of them in his life. At this point, it was hard to imagine a life without them. Wherever he went, Tucker and Sam were quick to follow. If he tried to imagine what his life would have looked like without Tucker or Sam, he found he couldn’t do it. They were carved into his core, a part of him that he didn’t think he could ever let go.

(This was definitely friendship, right? Danny absolutely was feeling only friendship feelings toward Sam and Tucker and definitely wasn’t wondering what it would be like to lay his head in Tucker’s lap or on Sam’s chest or what it would be like if he could just kiss them both—)

Something tugged at his core. It felt unfamiliar if not insistent. Danny had to wonder what kind of summoning ritual they had picked up for it to pull at him this strongly. He gave his friends one last smile as he said, “I’ll see you in the court room.”

He let go, allowing himself to be pulled away. It felt like being condensed into a tube, squeezed tight until he was shot out. Smoke billowed around him, a vibrant green in color and smelling of petrichor and ash. Danny pulled himself to his full height, floating a good six inches off the floor. He let his hair and cape flutter, as if floating underwater. Maybe if he let out a sliver of his more ghostly traits, they’d be more inclined to believe he was who he said he was?

The smoke dissipated, and gasps rose around the room. Danny found himself staring straight at his baba. Bruce kept his face neutral, but it helped to keep Danny from looking around at the crowd that filled the court room. He could hear Sam and Tucker grunting as they each flopped into their respective seats, their conversation with Jazz and Damian getting lost to the whisperings of the crowds.

Bruce bowed in front of Danny. “Your highness.”

Right. Right, Danny was a king. He nodded back, but kept quiet. If he spoke, the judges on the stand would surely see through him. His teenage voice would tell them that he had no legitimacy, that really for all the power he wielded and the crown on his head, all Danny was was a scared little kid. Desperate to find a place to hide.

Bruce gestured over to the prosecution’s table, and Danny floated over. He sat himself next to the lawyer—he couldn’t remember the woman’s name for the life of him, but he knew what she would ask him and what he was supposed to answer. It allowed him to settle into the chair, his legs disappearing so he could curl his wispy tail up and out of sight.

The judge in the middle of the row of Supreme Court Justices slammed a gavel twice.

“Court is now in session.”

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

This wasn’t the first court case Tim had ever attended, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

He had been seated behind the Amity Park Trio, Damian, and Dick though apparently the rest of his siblings had decided that he needed to be the buffer between the general public and the rest of the batfamily. Granted, he and his siblings were in their civvies, but he would have appreciated it if Dick had taken the center seat instead of him.

“But the rows have to be even!” Dick had said. “And I need to make sure that baby bat doesn’t decide to murder one of the judges if the case ends up going side ways.”

The thought made Tim roll his eyes. Damian had been house trained for at least a year, and even if he did decide to kill one of the judges, Tim was more than sure that Danny would have frozen Damian to his seat before he could even pull out his hidden knife.

Still, even with the horror of having an unknown person sitting thigh to thigh with him, Tim found himself focusing on his youngest brother. He had yet to see Danny in his full “kingly garb” so to speak, so he took the chance to absorb as many details as possible. It didn’t make sense to him for Danny to be embarrassed about the look. Sure, the vest and pantaloons and capelet combo would fit a Rennaisance Faire better than it would the modern world, but it also looked a lot classier than some of the outfits modern monarchs chose to dress themselves in.

Tim had to hand it to his little brother, Danny gave off a regal air as he sat next to Bruce. His crown floated above his head (and oh, Tim would love to get a closer look at what exactly that crown was made of, but that would have to come later). Despite how the defense attorney tried to attack him, Danny hadn’t stuttered. He’d kept his head high, his eyes never leaving the attorney as he tried to get Danny to admit that ghosts weren’t actually sentient beings.

“I understand that death scares many people,” Danny said, his voice clear despite the tinge of static from the microphone, “and oftentimes we change after we die. Many ghosts can appear frightening to humans because we aren't contained to just skin and bone and flesh. Yes, ectoplasm and emotion make up a majority of what we are, but there is still a consciousness that controls our actions. All ghosts, no matter how inhuman they seem, were human once.”

Tim wondered how long Danny had rehearsed that line, or if he’d managed to come up with the mini speech on the spot. Either way, Danny’s eloquence clearly impacted those around him, as he saw more than one of the Justices dabbing at their eyes. Honestly, Tim wasn’t sure what his family was worried about. Sure, court cases were always a gamble, but Tim knew they’d won over the majority of the Supreme Court Justices with just that statement alone.

The majority of the case dragged on that way. Witnesses getting called and evidence being presented. Throughout it all, Danny never once let his fear show. He remained steady, almost cold in an expression that Tim could tell was learned from the League. Strange how deeply the League’s teachings were ingrained in Danny. Though, Damian was now five years out from his League days and there were many habits still carved into his very bones. Two years wouldn’t make that much difference in terms of losing those habits.

Even if Danny was clearly the better adjusted of the twins.

The click of a video player tore Tim’s attention away from analyzing Danny. He watched as a projector was lowered, revealing what clearly looked to be grainy security camera tape. The background showed an interrogation room, clearly for a smaller city jail considering how tiny the room itself was. Two men in bright white suits stood on either side of what Tim would have to assume was some kind of lawyer. Across from the lawyer, Jack and Maddie Fenton sat.

Even with the grain of the CCTV footage, Tim could see the clear frowns on both Doctors Fenton. Jack had his arm around Maddie’s chair, an almost protective gesture while the other balled into a fist on the table. Some kind of intimidation tactic, maybe? Tim couldn’t be sure. He could see Maddie had her arms crossed, and she was leaning back in her chair.

The image held for a moment before somebody must’ve pressed play. Crackling noise filled the room as subtitles popped up to try and help translate the muffled voices.

“—n’t do anything wrong!” Jack exclaimed as he slammed his fist on the table. “We were well within our rights under the Anti-Ecto Acts as Ectobiologists and registered ghost hunters—”

“I know, Dr. Fenton, but that isn’t the only charge you’re facing.” The lawyer, an older man, with graying hair and an off the rack suit, shuffled some papers in front of him. “You’re also facing Fraud, Child Neglect, Child Endangerment, Unlawful Discharge of a Weapon, amongst other things.”

Maddie huffed, almost hugging herself with how tightly she crossed her arms. “That’s nonsense, we love our kids! Everything we do is to keep Danny and Jazzy safe.”

“Which, those of us employed at the GIW understand,” the lawyer continued, his voice reedy as he set the papers down, “and I will say that the courts don’t have enough evidence of child endangerment to create a case against you. The neglect and fraud charges however… those are gonna be harder to avoid.”

Maddie’s frown grew. “But that’s your job, isn’t it? To prove our innocence.”

“My job is to make sure you end up with the outcome that harms you the least.” The lawyer, Milima according to the subtitles, set his papers aside. “I am going to be frank with you, Doctors Fenton. While I would love the court to drop all of these charges against you, the evidence the prosecution has on you is just too much. If we fight it then there’s a risk that you get sentenced to prison for life. No chance for parole.”

“That’s outrageous!” Jack yelled, once more slamming the table though this time with his palm down. “Everything we have done for this town, we did to protect it from those ecto-freaks!”

Milima sighed. “I know, I know, but the general courts won’t see it that way. What they see currently are two people who shot at their adoptive son after faking his death. Now, we know that the boy is actually a ghost in disguise, but the judge doesn’t think that. We can’t reveal the fact that it’s a fake without potentially causing an even bigger scene in the courtroom with even greater consequences.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?” Maddie seemed to scrunch her face as she glared at Milima. “Exposing the ghost boy as just that would prove that we knew what we were doing when we started our experimentation with him.”

Milima sighed. “See, this is where I come in. Now, this isn’t the ideal solution, but what I want you to do is plead guilty.”

Both Jack and Maddie gasped. “What?!” Jack yelled. Man, did the man seem to lack volume control. Tim found himself glad he never had to deal with him outside of the two short instances. “You’re joking! We’re innocent, why would we plead guilty?”

Holding his hands up, Milima leaned back in his chair. “Like I said! It’s not the ideal option.” He glanced between the two white suited men—GIW agents, Tim figured—before returning his gaze back to the Fentons. “But believe me when I tell you that you will not have to serve your full sentences.”

Maddie and Jack took their turn to look at each other. Maddie leaned forward, un folding her arms in order to fold her hands together on the table. “Go on.”

“Well,” Milima said, “we would have you plead guilty in order to aim for a lighter sentence. If you plead guilty to… oh we’ll say Child Neglect and Fraud, then your projected sentence will be anywhere from one to ten years. Since you’d be pleading guilty, the likelihood of you receiving the full 10 year sentence would be low. On top of that, I am sure you’ll be able to get out even earlier on good behavior so you won’t even have to serve out that full sentence before getting to be put on parole.”

“But that still includes us going to prison.” Jack leaned further into Maddie as she spoke. “I thought the whole point was to keep us out of prison.”

“Again, my job is to get you the least harmful outcome.” Milima grabbed his papers again, picking one out to slide over to Jack and Maddie. “I can guarantee that no matter what happens, you will not be in that prison for more than a year.”

A long pause of mostly the static of the CCTV trying to interpret the AC filled the room. Maddie read the paper carefully, pointing to it as Jack read along with her. Once they were done, she looked up. “You really have a way to prove he’s the ghost boy?”

The angle of the CCTV hadn’t been able to capture Milima’s face, but Tim knew the man was probably smirking. “Of course we do. Once we have him captured, we’ll be able to have your case reassessed.”

Jack perked up, looking at his wife excitedly, but Maddie remained stoic. “What’s the catch?”

“Oh, there is no catch, Doctor Fenton,” Milima said, “this would just change the nature of our employment contract with you. Instead of working as independent contractors, we would hire you on as our lead scientists for the Phantom case. Granted, of course, your continued interest in the specimen?”

Turning to each other, Maddie and Jack nodded. “Fine. We accept.”

As soon as the video ended, Tim looked back at Danny. His shoulders tensed, the same way that Jazz’s shoulders had tensed out of the corner of Tim’s eye. The Fenton parents were clearly still a sore spot for both Danny and Jazz. Though, understandably so. Tim knew his own parents were still nestled in his chest like an old bruise, mostly healed but still aching if he pushed a bit too hard.

Still, despite the tension neither sibling let their discomfort show. Danny kept his head tall, looking forward even as his lawyer called Milima to the stand as her next witness. Seeing the man in real life, Tim found him uninteresting as he weaseled his way towards the stand.

The questions the lawyer asked were expected—questions about the video and if his intentions were really to help the Fentons avoid such serious crimes. Tim couldn’t really care about the weasel of a man as he focused more on Danny’s reaction to him. His youngest brother refused to actually look at the witness stand, instead looking past it as he seemed to reach over to Bruce. Tim couldn’t see what exactly he was doing, but if he had to guess then he was probably looking to hold Bruce’s hand for comfort.

Overall, Tim felt pride well up for the youngest Wayne. Even with the seeming carousel of triggering topics, Danny handled everything with a sense of dignity that Tim knew he himself would have had a hard time maintaining. It was honestly just a bit shocking to see just how well Danny was handling the case. It made Tim wonder when exactly Danny would crack.

The moment he thought it, the second video came out. Tim recognized the Fenton Works Lab immediately. Before he could properly analyze the video thumbnail, Danny vanished from sight.

Tim shouldn’t have been the first one to get out of his seat. They had sat Damian on the edge for a reason, and the Amity Park trio could follow suit quickly after him. With Tim sitting in the middle of the row, it didn’t make logical sense for him to get out of the seat and start jogging down the hall first.

Yet, they were sat near the public who would all slip into the court on rotations of five minutes each. The public got snippets of a juicy trial before being shepherded back out of the building. Just as the last of this round of 5 minute spectators had left, Danny vanished, and Tim found himself moving before he could second-guess it.

The main hallway into the courtroom was lined with spectators, and Tim resisted the urge to scrunch his nose at them. He knew, he knew that the crowds didn’t necessarily mean harm, but the fact that there were so many random people lined up to watch his little brother’s trial in person just left him sick to his stomach. He turned into one of the side halls, trying to figure out where Danny would have flown off to in a panic.

He slid around a corner and nearly tripped over something hitting his shin. He managed to keep on his feet and turned, frowning when he saw nothing that should have been able to hit him. He paused for a moment. Quiet breaths, normally unnoticeable but oh so loud in the quiet of one of the Supreme Court’s inner hallways, echoed from the spot Tim had tripped over.

His heart ached as he crouched to the floor, feeling around until his fingers brushed against Danny’s boot. Holding onto Danny’s foot, he situated himself next to Danny before letting go. “Hey bud.” God, Tim sounded so awkward. How the hell did Dick do this? “How are you doing?”

“Leave me alone, Tim.” Damn, Tim would never get used to hearing Danny’s voice come from nothing. Still, if it made Danny feel safer to be invisible then invisible he would stay.

Even though he wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing, Tim found himself shaking his head. “No can do, Danny. We promised that at least one of us would be with you at all times during the trial. You’re stuck with me until one of the others comes to help you out.”

Danny whined at that, and Tim wished he didn’t feel his heart droop in disappointment. Was he not doing things right? Maybe he should text one of the others. Danny’s voice picked up again. “I’m being stupid though.”

Okay, now that, Tim could work with. “Are you calling my little brother stupid?” He leaned over, nudging Danny as best as he could even though he ended up hitting more of his elbow than his shoulder. “I’m pretty sure we’ve had this talk before, and we agreed that you were smart.”

He wished he could have seen Danny’s nonverbals, but he was left staring at where he thought Danny’s face was while he waited for Danny to reply. “But I’m not! You’re biased.”

Tim fake gasped. “Me? Biased? How dare you. I’m the most objective Wayne around.” Wait, jokes probably weren’t the thing to do when helping a person through a panic attack. Back track, back track. “Besides, I said you didn’t have to believe me. I’d just keep reminding you until you do.”

Another broken whine filled the hallway, but Tim felt Danny scoot over to curl into Tim’s side. He considered that a success. “I’m freaking out over nothing. That’s stupid.”

Tim did his best to curl his arm around Danny, wincing as he accidentally wrapped his arm around Danny’s head before finding his shoulders. He pulled Danny in close. “You aren’t freaking out over nothing. A video of what was quite literally the most traumatizing few weeks of your life is being shone as evidence in a court case that decides if you’re considered sentient or not. That is quite literally the dictionary definition of the opposite of nothing.”

“But I knew it was going to happen.” Danny curled further, and Tim felt what seemed to be a tail wrap around his waist. He couldn’t focus on the fact for long, as Danny was talking about. “I knew they were going to show the video, and I knew which one they were going to show, and I still freaked out. I’m not—I’m so stupid!”

His breaths grew louder, quicker, and Tim found himself moving to grab Danny’s hand. “Hey, hey, hey, slow breaths, bud, slow breaths.” He laid Danny’s hand on his chest. How strange, a small part in the back of his mind thought, to feel his younger brother’s claw tipped hands lay splayed across his chest. Danny’s hands were cold, almost freezing, but Tim remembered days long gone where Dick had laid Tim’s hand on his chest and breathed deep, deep, deep in and out. Tim tried his best to keep his breathing slow and even, counting his breaths in 2, 3, 4, hold 2, 3, 4, out 2, 3, 4.

He sat like that, focused on the sound of Danny’s breathing as that cold, clawed hand remained splayed on his chest. As the seconds passed, the sound of breathing slowed. Danny’s breathing grew quiet until he and Tim were breathing in sync. They sat there, alone in a Supreme Court Hallway.

Once Tim was sure Danny could keep breathing well on his own, he moved Danny’s hand away from his chest. “There we go… feeling better?”

“… I still feel stupid.”

“Well you aren’t.” Tim hugged Danny tighter. “You’re smart—smarter than the rest of us in a lot of ways. You’re just dealing with a super traumatic thing right now. Any one would’ve panicked at that.”

There wasn’t a flash or anything like that when Danny returned to visibility. One second Tim was hugging what looked to others like empty air, the next he could see Danny’s white hair tickling his chin as the young king practically wound himself around his older brother. It was a little bit of an honor, to be trusted so much that Danny would drop his invisibility like that. Still, Tim knew not to make too big of a deal over it lest he scare Danny away.

“… did the others notice me disappear?” Danny asked, his voice so very small.

Tim hummed. “They did, yeah.”

Groaning, Danny hid his face in Tim’s shoulder. “I’m such an idiot.”

“Hey, no, we literally established that you are not, in fact, an idiot.” Tim poked Danny’s forehead before going back to squeezing his brother tight. “Of course the others would notice you disappearing, we’re here to support you. Besides, you’re our brother so it’s in the Sibling Code to worry about our brother when he suddenly disappears as the court decides to show a really traumatizing video.”

“I made a big deal and now everyone’s gonna come in and—”

“I can text them if you want?” Tim pulled a hand away to grab his phone. “If you don’t want everyone crowding you then I can let them know I got you.”

There was a moment of quiet before Danny looked up at Tim with bright, weepy eyes. “Please?”

Tim flipped his phone out and got to texting.

Found Danny, he’s okay. :me

I’m gonna stay with him, but you guys should go back to your seats :me

Dick: Are you sure?

Positive :me

Damian: Where are you?

Still in the courthouse :me

Danny doesn’t want people crowding him :me

Damian: … understood.

Damian: Take care of him, Drake.

Of course :me

Turning his phone back off, Tim slid it back in his pocket. “There we go. Family has been informed, and they should be heading back to their seats now.”

Danny shifted. “Did Damian take it okay?”

Of course that was the first thing he asked. “He did. Damian can survive not being the first one to get to you for once.”

“I know, but I worry.” Danny adjusted himself so his head was leaning more on Tim’s shoulder rather than hiding under Tim’s chin. “I think he blames himself for not getting me out of the Fenton Works lab sooner.”

Oh, ouch, okay, so that was a whole can of worms that Tim wasn’t sure he had time to unpack when Danny still needed to get back to the courtroom eventually. However, Danny didn’t seem any closer to letting Tim go, so he supposed that he needed to at least pop this can’s lid open. “Knowing Damian, I’m sure he does to an extent, but that’s not your problem to worry about.”

Danny scrunched his nose. “But he’s my twin.”

“And he’s also his own person and can figure out his own issues.” Tim poked Danny’s nose. “If you still want to worry about him, fine, but right now we’re focused on you.”

“I don’t want to focus on me.”

“Well too bad, you’re the focus of a lot of things right now.”

“I hate that.”

“I know, Danny.”

They sat like that, just soaking in the silence. Tim wouldn’t have minded spending the rest of the trial just sitting like this, but his legs were starting to cramp and people would wonder where Danny had went. He nudged Danny’s shoulder. “You ready to go back?”

“… do I have to?”

Tim chuckled. “I mean, technically no, but it’d probably look kind of bad for the Ghost King not to be present when we get to the verdict.”

Danny groaned. “Being the ghost king sucks.”

“I’m sure it does, Danny.”

“I don’t want to go back.”

“I know, Danny.”

“… can we stay like this for five more minutes?”

“… yeah. Yeah, we can stay for five more minutes.”

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

Danny wondered if the cameras recording the case were actually able to record anything.

He supposed they might be, or they could be just so used to being able to record that they wouldn’t have considered the fact that ghosts notoriously fuck with non-ectoplasm infused technology. Though that begged the question of if anyone was livestreaming the court case. Danny didn’t think there was. Though, the fact that any of this was being recorded sat heavy in his stomach.

He knew, he knew, that anything involving the Justice League was a big deal, but even so he wanted everyone staring to just look away. All of the random people who walked in, took a moment to listen to him speak (Danny still hated sitting up in the witness’s chair, feeling so foreign in his own body as he answered questions and recited statements he’d practiced with the Justice League Lawyer over and over and over), to hear the evidence bounced back and forth as his humanity or lack there of was discussed. Honestly, Danny probably should be freaking out more than he was, but all he could really feel at the moment was numb.

Numb and a sense of curiosity about what he would look like on the cameras recording him. Even in his human form, it took him effort to try and appear just regularly fuzzy in selfies and photos. Would the recordings focus mainly on the justices? On the rotation of superheroes who sat in the audience as his baba kept vigilant at his side (looking back now, Danny could see Superman sitting a bit awkwardly behind him. He waved. Superman waved back.) Or maybe they would focus on the justices? The elderly men and women and folk who studied the constitution and the laws of the United States and determined what was constitutional or not.

It probably wouldn’t be Danny. Or at least, Danny hoped it wouldn’t be him. That their cameras would just pick up a mess of pixels and colors and nothing usable. Though, they’d be able to get a clear shot of the video. It’d be a bit weird if it’s a recording of a recording, but they’d be able to see Danny’s face and hear his screams as the Fentons played Russian Roulette with his body. It would be fine. The world wouldn’t see Danny in his kingly garb, but they would see Danny being torn apart by the people who claimed to love him and that was fine.

It was fine.

Danny had to tell himself it was fine.

The court justices had left to go deliberate. Danny thought that was what jurors were supposed to do, but Danny didn’t think there were actual jurors in this case. Who needed jurors when there were nine supreme court justices to decide if Danny’s trauma was a valid enough reason to repeal this law that had gotten passed by hiding in the language of a different bill. The sneaky way most bills and acts and other bullshittery were passed. Who cares about this one act about Ghosts of all things when there are more important things to think about?

Though, Danny had to wonder how long the justices needed to deliberate. Would they be sent home? Danny really didn’t want to do another day of court. He could feel his core spinning in his chest, a mimicry of his heart pounding when his heart could not pound. He knew it would be fine eventually. Baba said they were fine, and Danny usually believed his baba, but he couldn’t think past the fact that people were going to see him. He knew this, he understood this, but people were going to see him, and he wanted so desperately to hide but for his people. For his people, he had to make sure these acts were gone. For his people. For his people.

There were GIW agents sitting at the table across from them. Danny didn’t recognize these ones, but he did recognize the white suits. The sunglasses they wore even indoors because apparently they had decided to base their uniform on every secret agent stereotype they could find. Though their whole white suits schtick didn’t really make sense. Their suits could get dirty so easily. How much did they pay just for bleach? If they were dealing with ectoplasm then how the hell had they kept their suits pristine in the wake of trying to capture and destroy ghosts?

The Fentons had the one pair of hazmat suits that they washed daily. They’d start the day spotless and slowly ruin themselves with Danny’s ectoplasmic blood, faces neutral or excited. Most often they were excited to dig into Danny’s viscera, to test how long until fire burned through him. Very rarely did he see anger, but it came out eventually. Danny could see them trying to resist just killing him. Cursing him for killing their baby boy as they slowly tore his teeth from his mouth.

His teeth were like hydra, he’d learned. For every one they pulled another two grew in its place until his mouth was overfull and the Fentons were playing a game of how many teeth could Danny grow before he couldn’t open his mouth anymore. They grew bored before they ever found out.

It’d been strange to sit so close to the GIW without having them go after him. Danny couldn’t remember a time he’d been able to just sit in his ghost form like this with so many people around. He could feel a lot of the public’s stares resting on him. They were curious, of course they were, but the GIW agents never looked his way. They’d kept their gazes forward or to their own lawyer, and Danny didn’t know if that was better or worse.

A wave of whispers rose over him, breaking like a tide against shore as the justices sidled back into their seats. This was it. The big reveal. Danny knew, he knew, he knew that he should be feeling something, but his brain was that delightful sort of fuzzy that left him feeling like everything including himself wasn’t real. A tv show he watched with that sort of mild fascination that one had when they stumbled through channels and settled on one solely for background noise rather than as something that one genuinely wanted to watch.

The Chief Justice banged their gavel on the sound block, silencing the murmurs of the increasingly agitated court room. Clearing their throat, they leaned over to the microphone. “We have come to a decision. We ask that everyone please remain silent as we speak.”

Sure, as if people would actually remain silent when they could whisper and guess and wonder at the reveal that ghosts were real, if a rare species, and that maybe they would in fact stay on this Earth after death. Danny reached over to his baba, holding his hand and letting his tail stretch to wrap around Bruce’s waist. That was what he was supposed to be doing, right? Reaching for affection? He felt Bruce squeeze his hand back, and Danny figured that yes. Yes, this was what he was supposed to do.

With another clear of their throat, the Chief Justice began speaking again. “We have ruled that the Anti-Ecto Acts are indeed in violation of the Meta Protection Acts and as such, unconstitutional.”

A roar of cheers overwhelmed Danny, loudest to his right where his friends and family had been sitting. Distantly, he could feel a weight lift off of his shoulders, a relief that he was safe. That everything was safe and holy shit, he at least had some protections to grab onto even if it was in name only. Even if it was just to appear progressive, he and his people were protected.

Three more strikes of the gavel and the crowds quieted down. Danny risked a glance at the GIW agents. One of them gritted their teeth, staring at the table as if it were a ghost itself. The other had slammed his fist against the table, shaking in what Danny could tell was barely concealed rage. The Chief Justice looked back down at their notes.

“For the Case of the Justice League versus the GIW, we declare the Ghost Investigation Ward guilty of all charges against them. The organization will be required to dismantle itself immediately. There shall be individual trials for those involved in the Ghost Investigation Ward’s creation and maintenance. The Ghost Investigation Ward will also be required to…”

Static filled Danny’s ears. They’d won. They’d won. The courts continued through the last of their proceedings, but Danny couldn’t hear it over the knowledge that they had won. A tug pulled on his core, and he let himself be de-summoned, disappearing back into that room he’d first started in, Sam and Tucker already there to greet him.

Their arms burned as they wrapped around him, holding him tight. They were yelling, excited about the results clearly, but Danny couldn’t move. He felt untethered except for the hands holding onto him. If they let go, clearly he’d float up and up and up until he was looking back down on the world, reveling in a world where the last major threat to his person had been dismantled. Sure, of course a part of his brain reminded him that just because they couldn’t officially work didn’t mean that they wouldn’t still try to operate. Ghost hunters existed far and wide, it was doubtful that the GIW would truly be gone, but at least they couldn’t do it legally. He was protected, and fuck, did that realization send him crashing back into his body.

The sudden sensations felt like too much, far too much for him as he trembled in Sam and Tucker’s arms. “Holy shit,” he muttered, voice croaking as he felt boiling tears stream down his cheeks, “holy shit, they’re gone. We won.”

“We did, dude! Holy shit, that was tense!” Tucker said, a smile in his voice as he grabbed onto whatever part of Danny he could. He felt hands on his face as Sam pulled him to rest his forehead against hers. Every bit of contact burned, but Danny let them. He needed this, he thought, to feel the shake in his limbs and the ache in his jaw and the beating of his core to mimic a heartbeat that he’d never had in ghost form.

Sam whispered to him reassurances, “you did so good, Danny! You were so brave and awesome and the others will be here in a few minutes but until then you did so good! You were so good, Danny, you kicked ass!”

Danny laughed, and it felt hollow in his chest as he stared down, away from Sam’s face that was so, so close or Tucker’s hands that were wrapped around his waist and holy shit holy shit holy shit everything was too much. Too much, and Danny couldn’t breathe even though he was so fucking happy holy shit holy shit holy shit.

Overcome, he moved. He never imagined his first kiss would be just a smash of his lips against Sam’s, but he found himself unable to do much else. Sam’s hands dropped, and Danny got a glimpse of shock on her face before he turned to Tucker and proceeded to press his lips against Tucker’s, a desperate motion more than one of affection or gentleness. When he pulled back, Tucker still held onto his waist, and a pretty blush dusted itself across his cheeks.

“Sorry,” Danny breathed, glancing between his best friends (were they still best friends when he had kissed them? He hoped so because he wasn’t sure how he’d live without them by his side).

Tucker and Sam shared a glance, and for once Danny knew exactly what they were trying to communicate. Sam grabbed Danny’s face again. “You better be apologizing for the shitty first kiss instead of apologizing for kissing us.”

A spark of joy and Danny felt his lungs inflate before he was once again pressing his lips against Sam’s, naïve and soft and gentle and fuck. Fuck, he was kissing his best friends and Tucker squeezed in to kiss Danny too and they just sat like that. Trading kisses between each other as delirious giggles filled the room. How insane. To have their first kisses as a couple in a random office room in the fucking Supreme Court.

Sitting back, Danny watched Sam and Tucker exchange a kiss, smiling like Freshman at homecoming and Danny finally felt himself settle back into his body, grounded and real and sneaking a kiss to each of the two best people in the world.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

“Hey can you grab my astronaut plush for me?”

“Why can you not grab it yourself?”

“I’m holding all the blankets! The majority of which are your blankets, Dami.”

“Yes, and who insisted on taking the majority of my blankets?”

“I can’t help that your blankets are better than mine!”

“Danny, we have literally the same blankets.”

“But yours are softer.”

“Danny they are the same blankets.”

Danny stuck his tongue out at Damian. Rolling his eyes, Damian grabbed the plush anyways and adjusted his hold on the pillows and plushies Danny had demanded they grab. Turning to his twin, he raised an eyebrow. “Any others?”

Humming, Danny took one last look at the collection of plush toys he’d been gifted by their siblings. “… I might come back up for some later, but for our first trip down, I think this is good enough.” Danny hefted the blankets further up in his arms. “Come on, let’s go!”

Damian had to admit, as much as the idea of cuddling with anyone besides Danny made his skin crawl with embarrassment, he couldn’t deny the joy on Danny’s face as Richard suggested a Sibling Slumber Party. He supposed after the trial it would do them all good to engage in a group activity like Richard’s supposed Slumber Party.

Plus, Damian would be willing to do anything that could keep a smile on Danny’s face.

Carrying so many blankets and pillows and stuffed toys down the manor’s stairs was a hassle, but evidently it was worth it once they entered the designated “Slumber Party Room”. Richard had already begun organizing everyone, encouraging Todd and Thomas to move any furniture out of the way so they had “maximum nest building room”. Richard seemed to find it funny that the Robins were building a nest and had yet to let the joke go.

Drake had positioned himself in front of the tv, picking out appropriate movies and games for the night. Nothing too excitable, but something calm and soothing. Damian supposed they’d probably end up cycling through the Wayne Family Collection of Disney Movies before the night was over. Cain had settled next to Drake, putting in her two cents with emphatic signing. At one movie, she declared it too sad, dragging her hands harshly down in front her face, palms towards her with a large frown.

Organizing their building materials into piles, Brown had clearly taken Jasmine under her wing. Jasmine held herself stiffly, obviously still awkward about being included in a “sibling” slumber party when the only person she was siblings with was Danny, but Brown occupied a similar strange space of being included yet not a sibling. So, Damian supposed it was only natural that Brown would take Jasmine aside to get her acclimated.

Danny marched over to he two girls and dropped his load of blankets onto the blanket pile. “This is just the first trip—we’re still gonna grab more stuff,” Danny admitted without a lick of shame as he leaned down to hug Jasmine.

With a fondness in her eyes, Jasmine hugged Danny back. “Are you planning on stripping every bed in the manor?”

“Maybe.”

“Danny, that’s way too many blankets.” Jasmine sounded exasperated, but the way that Richard sounded exasperated when he thought that something Damian was doing was particularly cute.

Brown gasped and held a hand to her chest. “Jazz, I can’t believe you just said that! You can never have too many blankets!” She pulled Jazz closer to her side and gestured to their unsorted piles of soft things. “Here, let me tell you the ways of the Pillow Fort while we keep sorting the piles these heathens have left us.”

Danny laughed as he hopped away, and Damian would never admit how he smiled at the sound. As they prepared their trip back up to grab more supplies, Damian checked the family group chat.

Cass: dannymeme1.jpeg

Danny: Cass

Danny: Cass blease have mercy

Cass: no <3

Cass: dannymeme2.jpeg

Duke: Damn, Cass, that was cold

Cain was also raised in the League :me

Expecting any kind of mercy from her was a fool’s errand :me

Danny: Dami how could you

Danny: I’m being betrayed left and right

New Messages

Tim: First article about the case is out

Tim: https://www.gothamgazette.com/2022/11/22/celebrity/scotus-overturns-anti-ecto-acts.html

Steph: Damn!

Steph: The devil works fast but Vicki Vale works faster

Dick: Tim

Dick: I thought we promised no Court Case Talk tonight

Tim: We don’t have to read it!

Tim: Just thought I’d put it in the chat for later

Danny: It’s fine Tim

Damian looked up to see Danny typing away on his phone, probably to defend Drake from any wrath their other siblings may have. Hopping up the two steps in between them, Damian nudged Danny’s shoulder. “Is it actually fine, or are you just saying that to assuage Drake of his guilt.”

Danny nudged back without looking up. “It’s actually fine. I mean, it’s not like we’re gonna stay up all night gossiping about it.”

Humming, Damian let it go. He supposed Danny was right in that case. Thankfully they didn’t go to the guest rooms to strip them of their bedding, instead grabbing the rest of Danny’s small hoard of stuffed animals and the “inferior” blankets and pillows off of his bed. Once they trailed back into the room, Danny set himself and Damian to helping Brown and Jasmine in sorting through the various piles of bedding and soft things.

The actual building of the supposed nest was… fun. Damian found himself grabbing sheets and blankets with Richard, spreading them over a few king mattresses that Todd had stolen (from where, Damian could only guess. At least they were clean). Drake and Thomas had deemed themselves in charge of creating a pillow barrier around the mattresses, setting the “fluffiest” pillows aside for various family members to use later on in the night. Cain, Brown, and Jasmine helped in laying blankets out, setting aside the largest ones for when the actual cuddling would begin. Danny became the sole one in charge of throwing plushies into the mix, making sure there were more than enough to cuddle with if they weren’t cuddling with each other.

Once they had their finished product, they all stood for a few moments to admire the amalgamation of bedding materials thrown onto the king sized mattresses. Richard clearly decided that they’d spent too much time admiring as he grabbed Danny and Damian and jumped into the nest. Damian grunted as he was held close to his eldest brother’s chest, feeling him laugh as the rest of their siblings either jumped into the nest beside them or crawled in like normal people.

Damian found himself feeling warm as he instinctively wiggled next to Danny, Richard at his back and Cain curled near his feet. Jasmine ended up near their hips, practically laying across Danny’s legs while Brown had decided spooning her girlfriend was in order. Thomas spooned Danny while Drake laid across Thomas’s stomach. Todd laid with a limb across as many siblings as he could touch, mimicking Richard in his attempts to hold the entire Wayne family in their arms.

Danny smiled so softly as they fell asleep intertwined with their siblings. Damian wondered if this was what it was supposed to feel like when his classmates described cuddling with their family. Everywhere someone was laying on someone else and they were all so intertwined as a movie began playing quietly. The lights dimmed, and Damian took one last look at his twin.

Looking back at Damian, Danny’s face settled into something gentle. Content. The twins held each other loosely as they were protected by their older siblings. The nightmares would return, they knew this, but for now. For now they had won. For now, they had peace.

For now, they were safe.