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Dan didn’t know how the hell he was going to find his fucking brother’s core but he had to do something. He watched as Jazz, Sam, Tucker, and Valerie shot blasters and weapons at the monster that was once Danny in a desperate attempt to keep him at bay.
No one knew how it had happened, Clockwork hadn’t even seen it happen but something or someone had stolen Danny’s core and his ghost was reacting horribly to it. Danny was no longer Danny, he had become a monster, a raging eldritch horror who was destroying everything in his wake. Gone was the teenage boy with snow-white hair and glowing green eyes.
In its place was a beast unlike any other. He was a long, serpentine creature with hair bright white but skin a dark black with stars and galaxies covering his body, his face had elongated into some kind of snout with large, sharp fangs that dripped with ectoplasm, his arms had extended and ended in long claws that could rip the core out of any ghost. He was a thing of nightmares and it was taking half of the inhabitants of the ghost zone just to keep him from getting to the human world.
Dan should be there with them, he was just as strong as Danny but Clockwork had sent him on a mission. Had ordered him to Gotham to find the core. From what he could find a man named John Constantine had stolen Danny’s core in an attempt at getting rid of the ghost king, thinking that he was Pariah Dark.
But somehow the core had been stolen from the man and now it was up to Dan to trace the steps to find it. He gave his friends and sister a salute as they fought back the monster that was once Danny and opened a portal to Gotham. Now he just hoped to the ancients he would find the core before Danny made it past the ghosts and their friends and sister and got into the human realms where he would cause real trouble.
Jason Todd stared at the glowing blue orb that Bruce had taken from Constantine and frowned. Something about it was calling to him, begging for Jason to take it and give it back to who it belonged to. The orb sat in a small glass case, something called a ghost shield wrapped around it, keeping anyone from removing it from the container. It sat upon the desk of the batcomputer where Bruce had left it to run tests on it later. He shuddered as he pressed a hand against the shield, feeling a slight shock to his palm as he did but ignored it Everything in him was urging him to take the entire box and run far away.
But Bruce had strictly forbidden that anyone touch the orb. Apparently, Constantine had stolen it from the supposed Ghost King in a bid to keep the human world safe from the monster since he had apparently returned to power. Bruce had taken it from him for fear that Constantine would do something stupid like give it to a demon in return for power.
Which honestly? Jason could see that happening.
“Why are you staring at that thing again?” Tim asked him, shuddering slightly just looking at the strange orb. “Doesn’t it give you the heebie jeebies? It just feels wrong.”
“It’s not supposed to be here,” Jason murmured, unable to fully tear his eyes away from the orb. “Constantine should have never taken it from the ghost king. It wasn’t his to take.”
“Yeah but this Pariah Dark guy sounds scary as fuck, I’m glad we don’t have to worry about a ghost like that,” Tim said stepping forward to look at the orb. “Alfie told me to come get you, it’s time for Dinner and then we gotta head out on patrols.”
Jason nodded wordlessly, unwilling to look away from the orb until his brother started to tug on his arm, pulling him away from the containment box that Bruce was keeping it in.
“What is your deal with it?” Tim asked, giving his big brother a worried look. Jason shook his head, the distance between him and the orb large enough to help him think clearly again.
“I don’t know but something about it is calling me, it’s wanting me to take it, to get it and run away,” he admitted, glancing back just as the elevator doors shut. Tim frowned and gave his brother a once over.
“That’s weird, why?” He asked.
Jason just shrugged his shoulders and said nothing else about the orb, something in him still tugging at him to go back to it.
That next week Jason continued to feel a tug to go back to the orb, to take it with him and run as far away as he could. He didn’t know where he would go with it or even what he would do with it but something was telling him that he needed to run away and return it to the Ghost King.
He sped through the streets of Crime Alley, trying to do his best to not think about the orb. At the moment he was mentally reciting the first Twilight book just to keep his mind off of the orb, it wasn’t working super well but it was enough. He slammed on the brakes of his motorcycle, though, when a sharp tug yanked at his being. It felt like the orb but more dangerous, not only that but it was in his territory. He felt the hair on his arms raise slightly as the feeling grew stronger and stronger until a being appeared in front of him.
He was unlike anything Jason had ever seen in his life. The being was a fucking tank as he walked slowly towards Jason, his white hair like flames dancing at the top of his head, his skin a light blue color. He wore a strange black and white jumpsuit with a black cape flowing from his back. His red eyes were glaring holes into Jason’s very being and when he opened his mouth to speak, sharp fangs revealed himself.
“You,” he snarled out, a blue, clawed hand grabbing Jason’s shirt roughly and tugging him close. “Where is it?”
Jason shoved at the being but his grip was tight and he barely moved an inch at the shove. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“The core,” he growled out. “You reek of it, where the hell is it?”
Jason pulled a gun from his holster and pressed it to the being’s chest. “If you don’t let me the fuck go right now, I’ll put a bullet in your chest.”
The man, monster, being? Jason didn’t know - laughed and pulled him closer. “Do it,” he whispered, his eyes narrowed and without another word, Jason pulled the trigger. The thing snorted and spat the bullet out onto the ground, the metal hitting the asphalt with a soft clink. “Where is it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jason growled out.
“It’s an orb, light blue and cold as ice. I bet when you looked at it, it was begging you to take it and run away, wasn’t it?” He asked, pushing Jason away from him and crossing his giant arms over his chest. “Take me to it.”
“Are you talking about the orb that Constantine stole from Pariah Dark? That shit’s dangerous I can’t take it,” Jason said with a scoff. “And I’m not giving it to you just for you to return it to that tyrannical bastard. Constantine told us what he was like and it’s a good thing he doesn’t have that power.”
The being sneered at him. “Pariah Dark isn’t the king of the Infinite Realms anymore. The throne belongs to King Phantom now, or it will when he takes the throne. He’s a fucking kid and your dumbass friend? He basically just stole his heart,”
At that Jason stilled. It was a kid? The king was a fucking child? “How old is he?”
The being raised an eyebrow at that. “He’s sixteen, right now he’s just the crown prince. He doesn’t get to take the throne until his eighteenth birthday, until then I’m ruling in his steed. Now take me to his core before I force you to.”
Jason stared at the being, weighing his options as best as he could. If this guy was right, that kid was missing his heart and Constantine had told them that the ghost king wouldn’t survive longer than a month without the orb being inside of him. That it would be a slow and painful death, fitting for a monster like Pariah Dark. But if it really was just a sixteen-year-old kid, not only that a sixteen-year-old ghost who was missing what was basically his heart. Well, that changed things. That changed a lot of things and between that and the fact that everything in Jason’s being had been screaming at him for the last week to take that orb and run, well it only made sense to go along with what this guy was saying.
He wasn’t about to be the reason a fucking sixteen-year-old ghost faded from existence.
“If he’s a ghost how does he age?” Jason suddenly asked.
“Confidential. Now, can we go?” He asked, waving his hand in a hurry-up motion.
Jason sighed and looked at the being. “Who are you?”
The being gave him a tired, exasperated look and pinched at the bridge of his nose before he looked at Jason once again. “Dan, Dan Phantom, Lord of the Infinite Realms. Brother of the Crown Prince. Now take me to my brother’s core before I rip yours out of your chest and show you how it feels.”
Jason automatically pressed a hand to his chest before he slowly nodded and started up his bike. “Follow me but keep your mouth shut. The name’s Jason,” he muttered before he sped off down the street and to Wayne Manor.
He sped down the streets as fast as he could, Dan keeping pace with him as he flew through the air at breakneck speeds. Jason watched as the being kept shooting him distrustful glances now and again as they made their way to the manor. Jason pressed the button on his bike that opened the entrance to the Batcave and the two made their way inside.
The crime lord watched as Dan looked around the cave for a moment and flew straight to the containment box and grabbed at it, only for a loud crack to sound through the air and he was thrown into a wall.
Dan let out a loud curse as Jason parked his bike and walked over. “Who put a goddamn ghost shield around it?”
“Batman,” a new voice said, turning around in the chair and Jason couldn’t help but groan as he met his younger brother’s glare. “What are you doing Red Hood? And who did you bring into the Batcave?”
Dan snorted at that. “You call it the Batcave?” he asked, glancing at Jason, amusement clear on his face.
“Shut the fuck up,” Jason muttered before he looked at Tim. “We’re taking that orb, Replacement. Constantine was wrong when he took it, he never should have stolen it from the guy he took it from.”
Tim frowned and watched as Dan pulled something from inside his chest and aimed it at the containment box. “What are you talking about? Pariah Dark is dangerous, Constantine told us he could destroy existence as we know it.”
“Pariah Dark doesn’t exist anymore,” Dan said, aiming a small futuristic gun at the containment box and shot it, only for the ghost shield to react and throw him back into the wall once again. “Danny ate his core two years ago. If that sad trenchcoat fuck actually paid attention to the news of the Infinite Realms and kept up, he would have known that sooner. But he’s a dumbass who doesn’t get his information from the source. Now someone take down the ancient’s damned ghost shield.”
“Are you a ghost?” Tim asked, looking over Dan’s form.
Dan tore his eyes from the core and glared at Tim. “What the fuck does it matter to you?”
“Well, if you weren’t, you’d be able to just open the box,” Tim said with a shrug as he produced a small remote. “But if you are a ghost, how do we not know you’re not just working for Pariah Dark?”
The ghost let out an inhuman snarl as he marched toward Tim. He grabbed him by the collar of his suit and yanked him in the air as he wrenched the remote from him. “I don’t give a fuck if you trust me, you are an insignificant welp who doesn’t understand that larger things are at stake right now. You want to know what we need to get this back to Phantom?”
Tim gulped and glanced past Dan to look at Jason who was frozen in place.
“If I don’t get my brother’s core back to him, he fades from existence but before he does, he will destroy everything in his wake trying to get to his core before that happens. Half of the Infinite Realms is fighting to keep him at bay as we speak. And before long he will overpower all of them. And if you think that Pariah Dark is terrifying? Imagine a starving ghost who is desperate to get his core back. He’s going to destroy everything in his path just trying to get his core back. Lives will be lost, homes will be destroyed, and civilization will never be the same. I know this dimension, I destroyed this dimension once upon a time. And if the Justice League died trying to fight me, they’ll be destroyed before they can even try to fight my brother. Now get the fuck out of my way.”
With that, Dan unceremoniously dropped Tim to the floor and pressed the button on the remote to turn off the ghost shield. Jason dashed over and grabbed the core before the ghost could and shoved it into his pocket.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Dan demanded, storming towards Jason who just glared at him.
“I’m going with you to return the core. If you’re telling the truth, I’ll give your brother back his core. But if you’re lying and it’s being taken back to Pariah Dark, I’ll destroy it. Now, let’s go give your brother his core back. Yeah?”
Dan gave him a simmering glare and ripped a portal open in the middle of the cave. “You’re a fucking pain in the ass.”
“Thanks, if you want you can be a pain in my ass later. Now let’s go,” Jason said motioning towards the portal. Dan simply glared at him and grabbed the collar of Jason’s jacket and dragged him through the portal.
And Jason definitely didn’t swoon, not at all.
Jason followed Dan through the realms and stopped short at the sight in front of him. “I know this place,” he said, his brow furrowed as the portal closed behind him. All around him were green skies and purple-looking islands that floated in the air. He looked around at the island they stood on and frowned. “Why do I know this place?”
“You stink of death,” Dan said with a grunt as he started walking. “Likely you died at some point and became a ghost but when you came back to life you forgot all of your time in the Infinite Realms.”
Jason frowned. “Is that why the core was calling to me?” He asked, looking around at the looming trees around them, the destroyed land that surrounded the two of them. “What happened here?”
Dan sighed. “Well, this was the spot that I left everyone to go find the core,” he said, looking around. “It looks like everyone is gone now which isn’t a good sign. The reason the core was calling to you was because of what you are.”
The crime lord gave him a puzzled look, his brow furrowing slightly.
At that Dan let out an even more dramatic sigh that bordered on a yell. “Don’t tell me you don’t know what the fuck you are,” he said, throwing his head back to glare at the green sky above him. Jason said nothing, crossing his arms over his chest as he glared at the ghost. Dan looked back at him and blew a strand of his fiery hair out of his face. “You are a revenant, someone who died a horrible death and came back to life for revenge. There’s ectoplasm running through your body, you know green gooey shit? And because you’re a revenant you’re still considered a citizen of the Infinite Realms. You have an automatic desire to please your king. How long were you dead before you came back to the world of the living?”
“Six months give or take,” Jason grumbled, following as Dan continued down a destroyed path. “Where are we going if they aren’t here?”
“We’re going to follow the pull of the core,” Dan said with a shrug. “If you hold it, it’ll try to direct you back to my brother. It wants to go back to him just as badly as Danny wants to have it back.”
Jason gave the ghost a distrustful look. “How do I know you’re not going to try to take the core from me as soon as I take it out of my pocket?” He asked, his eyes narrowed into slits, not that Dan could see beneath the safety of his helmet.
“I won’t, scouts honor,” Dan grumbled. Jason just stared at him for a moment before he pulled the core out and held the orb in his hand. It suddenly grew brighter and Jason felt it start to tug at him to continue straight. “Now let’s go,” he ordered and the two started walking.
Jason stayed silent, rolling all of the information he had just learned around in his head as he looked around the piece of land they were standing on. To the right side he could see the tips of a large castle looming over the trees, parts of it were broken and destroyed. “So, if you’re his older brother, why aren’t you the king instead?”
Dan glanced over at him. “It’s complicated.”
Jason looked up at the man. “I died, stayed dead for six months, and then woke up in a giant pit of shit that you call ectoplasm. I doubt it’s that complicated.”
The ghost let out a huff of amusement. “I’m not his brother,” he admitted before he looked straight ahead. “I’m him.”
“How can that be true?”
“There was a future with a bad incident, that incident resulted in me happening instead. It made me angry, I wanted to destroy everything and everyone. And I did, in my timeline I destroyed everything in my path, the Justice League tried to stop me at some point but they were nothing, they were a pebble in my way. Shit happened, I decided the best course of action would be to go back to make sure that I became Danny’s future but all it did was give him a chance to stop me and divert that timeline from happening–”
“I don’t want to hear anymore,” Jason groaned. “Timeline shit makes me sick to my stomach. So you’re an alternate version of him. Let me guess, since you’re a war criminal you don’t have a right to the throne?”
Dan pointed a pair of finger guns at him. “Bingo,” he said with a sharp grin. Jason just made a face and nodded before he looked out at the area in front of him and frowned.
“It wants us to keep going straight but this is the end of the island,” he said with a frown.
“Then we keep going straight,” Dan said with a sigh and scooped Jason up in his arms unceremoniously, holding the man bridal style.
Jason spluttered in response, pushing at Dan’s chest. “What the fuck? Let me go!”
“Sorry but you can’t fly,” Dan said with a smirk before he took off in the air. Jason gritted his teeth as the ghost started to fly. He said nothing except for when to tell Dan to make a left or a right or continue straight as he flew them through the air. That and he tried to not think about the way he could feel the bulging muscles in Dan’s arms pressed against his body. Nor the fact that for a ghost, Dan smelled amazing. The scent wafted through his helmet and flooded his nose, old leather, tobacco, and a pine scent that reminded Jason of nights out in the woods camping with his brothers.
It was nice.
“So,” Jason said after a while, trying to tear his concentration from focusing on Dan and his stupid fucking body. How the hell did a ghost smell that fucking good in the first place? Wasn’t he supposed to be dead? “If Phantom is a ghost and he’s only sixteen, how is he going to age to become old enough to take the throne?”
“Phantom isn’t fully dead,” Dan told him, glancing down, a small frown on his face. “He’s what we call a halfa. Half ghost, half living. He can still age, he–we really had our accident when we were fourteen. The reason I’m not still a halfa is that I had my human half ripped out of me and became a full ghost. Danny never had that timeline so it’s different for him.”
“I was fifteen when I died,” Jason said and Dan let out a groan. “What?”
“I don’t want to hear your tragic backstory, Jason,” he said and looked down at the core. “Has it made any tugs or indicated where we need to go?”
Jason frowned and shook his head. “Keep going straight,” he muttered and looked up at the ghost. “You’re an asshole, you know that? And that’s saying something because I’m a fucking asshole, but I think you’re even worse than I am.”
“Oh shut the fuck up,” Dan muttered. “And quit sniffing me, I can hear you under that fucking helmet you freak.”
Jason balked at that. “I’m not sniffing you . I just simply noticed that you smell good,” he muttered, turning to look away from Dan and his stupid pecs that were pressed against his arm.
“Whatever you say,” he said with a smug smile on his face.
“Stop it, quit smiling at me like that,” Jason said, crossing his arms over his chest, the core now tucked between him and Dan who shivered at the cold that exuded from the core.
“I can’t help it,” Dan said, still smiling at Jason with that stupid, smug look. “You’re adorable, you think you’re all mean and scary and you’re just this little human. It’s cute. You’re like a teddy bear.”
Jason let out a shout and shoved at Dan’s chest. “Shut up! I am not a fucking teddy bear! Do you know who the fuck I am in my world? I’m the Red Hood, I’m a fucking Crime Lord. I’ve murdered people and taken down giant crime operations! I’m not cute .”
“You’re cute, it’s not a bad thing Jason. Some people just have that cuteness factor, it’s okay,” Dan said with that stupid smug smile that Jason wanted to punch off his ugly little face. He hated him. He couldn’t wait for this asshole to stop flying so he would never have to be in his arms again. What a smug little prick. Soon the core started to vibrate wildly in his hands and he tapped at Dan’s chest.
“It’s doing something, we’re close,” he said just as a loud roar sounded through the area. Jason shuddered at the sound, everything in him aching now to go to the being that made that noise, to do whatever he could to calm it, to make it happier.
“Yeah, we are,” Dan said with a sigh and took off flying even faster than before, clutching onto Jason tight as he sped through the Infinite Realms, and the scene before them chilled Jason to his bones.
“That’s your brother,” he whispered, staring up at the giant monster that ripped an entire island in half.
“Yup. Now give me the core, he needs it,” Dan said, setting Jason down on the island where other ghosts stood at the ready, weapons aimed at the monster destroying everything in its path as it fought against the nets and shields and beams shot at it.
“Dan!” A woman shouted and the two men looked over to find a redhead running towards them. She barreled into Dan’s chest and let out a sob. “Please tell me you found it. It’s getting worse, he’s getting angrier. I don’t know how long we can contain him.”
Dan smiled and brushed a strand of hair out of the redhead’s face. “I found it Jazz, we’re going to him now,” he said softly and glanced at Jason who wordlessly handed him the core. Dan gave him a single nod and flew up to return the core to his baby brother.
Jazz, on the other hand, turned and gave Jason a curious look. “And who are you?”
Jason sighed. “The idiot who found his core,” he said, watching as Dan flew close to the being and pressed the core into its chest. Jason watched as he slowly turned from a monster to that of a small, teenage boy. Dan caught the boy just as he started to plummet to the ground and held him close.
Dan flew back down to Jason and Jazz and smiled. “He’s going to be okay. He’s out cold but he’ll be fine when he wakes up,” he said softly, looking down at the sleeping teenager. He then raised his head and looked up at Jason and smiled. “Thank you.”
Jason nodded once, staring down at the sleeping teenager and then back up at Jason. “It’s fine, I didn’t do shit.”
Dan just smiled. “Give me a few minutes and I’ll take you home,” he said and looked around before spotting a giant yeti coming their way. “Perfect, he’ll be able to get Danny comfortable until he wakes up.”
Jazz just looked between the two and then looked Jason up and down. “Aren’t you that crime lord from Gotham?” she asked, screwing up her nose slightly.
“Yeah,” Jason said, rubbing at the back of his neck nervously. “That’s me.”
“I can’t believe Dan and I have the same type,” she grumbled before stomping away just as Dan returned.
“Alright, let me get you home,” he said, ripping open a portal. Jason looked at it before he looked back at Dan and carefully took off his helmet.
“Can I see you again?” Jason asked, furrowing his brow and pulling his bottom lip behind his lip as he waited nervously for a response.
Dan let out a soft curse and cupped Jason’s face. “I fuckin’ knew you were cute,” he said with a small smile. “But yeah, you can see me again. I’ll stop by soon,” he murmured before pressing a soft kiss to Jason’s cheek. “Now go before I have all of the Justice League trying to hunt me down to find you.”
Jason blushed hot for just a moment before he nodded and slipped through the portal. Hopefully, he’d see Dan again, and hopefully, it would be sometime soon.