Chapter Text
Shortly after Tim promised that they’d come to get me soon, we got off the video with each other and I put my computer away. Apparently just in time for Felicity to get back too. She had a couple of large bags and was grumbling something about how I knew she’d fall asleep if she touched her own bed. She’s not wrong, it was one of the reasons I sent her home. She hasn’t slept much since she first woke up sensing I was in danger. She told me all about how she’d woken up from a dead sleep to a harsh scream wrenching its way out of her throat.
Ever since the accident she always knows when something is going to happen to me. She actually always knows when something major is going to happen. She screamed days before Pariah Dark, screamed before Dan, she even screamed before Nocturn and the other Ancients that posed problems. But the majority of her screams come from when I am hurt or about to be hurt.
Apparently, the old legend of Banshee’s holds merit and she became my Banshee. It only became more prevalent when I ended up defeating Pariah Dark and becoming the Crown Prince of the Infinite Realms. Something about major figures always having a Banshee for the figure and their line. So far, it’s only been for things that would end up affecting and likely hurting me. But this time I have to say it came in handy.
Felicity has all the same powers as most ghosts do, but like me she also has a few more and they seem to keep growing. She has her scream which heralds danger, some ice powers that are honestly more refined than mine, and her defence is top of the line. Shields and the like seem to be her specialty. Frostbite says it’s likely revolving around her view point of protecting and helping others. Where my protection obsession comes from saving people from danger, hers comes from stopping the danger before it starts, or helping with the aftermath. She’ll be a great healer after she’s done studying under Frostbite, she might even end up the most prolific healer of the Realms.
“Felli, I’m sorry okay. You needed rest. I know you haven’t really slept much since that night,” I tell her, worry shining in my eyes.
She sighs. “You’re right, I haven’t slept much. But much like you I don’t need as much sleep as a normal person and you need me more right now. I’ll have you know I even packed toiletries so there will be no convincing me to go back to my parents for anything until you are healed enough to either defend yourself or effectively run away.”
“Ok, Felli, I get it. No more tricking you into leaving to rest. I promise. I do have some news though,” I tell her. Nervous to how she’ll react to it all.
“As long as it has nothing to do with the Dr’s Fenton and their evil experiments, I’m all ears,” She responds sitting on the edge of my bed.
“I got a hold of the person I was hoping to reach out to for help getting out of here and everything. He answered faster than I was expecting. They’ll be on their way soon,” I tell her only some of it to start. No need to overwhelm the poor girl.
“Oh, wow that’s fast. Are you sure that they’re…safe?” She asks. Felicity is almost always concerned for me.
“Yeah…about that so…I kinda called my…twin,” I tell her. Huge, especially considering so few know that I’m not biologically a Fenton, and even less know about my bio family. The few who know about my bio family include me…and now my bio family.
“Your what?! Danny what do you mean by twin?” Felicity calls out, bewildered.
“I mean what I said Felicity, my twin. I’m not actually biologically a Fenton, despite what my birth certificate says. It’s forged, I was never a Fenton by blood, only by adoption. I was 8 when they took me in. They found me mid move here to Amity Park and the rest became history when I handled the logistics for questions to no longer be a problem. Jack and Maddie thought it would be a good thing for Jazz to have a little brother to focus on while they focused on their life’s work. The story about Christmas and anything taking place before that I said enough times even Jazz thinks she remembers it cause she was only 10 at the time. Yet she still knows I’m adopted. She just gets details jumbled up sometimes,” I answer her honestly.
“How would you even know how to do those things, to stop the questions I mean,” Felicity asks.
“That’s where things get complicated. Jazz never believed me but I was raised by assassin’s. Ever notice that I was weirdly good at the fighting part of things even in the beginning? I just got better with training from my mentor at avoiding injuries and avoiding hurting others. That training as a kid allowed me to know how to forge my own documents to near perfection. I put a defect in them that someone who knows what to look for would notice but they never needed to look closely at my documents. Honestly I knew enough hacking to get into the government sites enough to add me and give myself a social security number. No one questioned a thing. Though Tuck is still the king of tech around here as far as I’m concerned,” I hold my hands up at the end in surrender of my friend’s superior tech skills.
“Danny, so not time. Is Danny even your name?” Felicity asks, a little hurt not to have been told by now when she’s the closest member of my Fraid.
“Yeah it is. Daniel isn’t but no one really paid attention to that. My real name is Danyal. My mother named me that so that my name would honor both my American and my Arabic roots. Too bad she’s the reason I had to forge my identity. My brother however, he’s no longer with the Assassins. He now lives with our father and is safe from the League of Assassins and our mother. Our Father has enough strength and influence that he’s hard to touch. And he has plenty of kids. Adopted 3 sons before he knew about my brother. Now they’re on their way to take me back with them. And there’s one more thing,” I hold back a wince, knowing Felicity won’t like what I say next.
“And what would that be Danny?” She asks slightly exasperated.
“You’re coming too. That’s why I sent you the way I did. I knew you’d grab everything you could so you wouldn’t have to leave me behind for long again. As long as you’re not missing anything sentimental we can leave almost immediately after they get here,” I tell her and she looks at me in shock.
“Danny…wh-wha…why? Why would I be going too? You’re the one in danger right now. And someone needs to stay behind to keep the ghosts under control,” Felicity starts to argue.
“I don’t care Felicity. You’re part of my Fraid, you’re coming. I won’t be able to rest and get better in another city with you left behind. If you’re dealing with the ghost problem then you’ll be in danger too. The ghosts are a big part of the reason I won’t be leaving immediately after they get here. Which knowing them, should be by tonight. We can tell your parents that you changed your mind and are going to college but it’ll be out of state. We can say you got a full ride scholarship. I don’t care what the excuse is for you deciding to leave but I’m not leaving you here with the Fentons and the GIW,” I stand my ground the best I can with a “Y” shaped incision still healing on my chest.
Felicity is quiet for a few minutes while she contemplates what I said. “Fine. Do you know where we’re going? We’re gonna need to find a way to get to ectoplasm since we won’t be by a stable portal.”
“Gotham. We’re going to Gotham. There’s enough ambient ectoplasm to keep us going there and we can pack a few thermos’s till I can get a portal going. It may be the city of crime, but it’s the safest place for us right now.”
~.~
Danyal is alive. He’s alive but he needs our help. I won’t let my brother down. Not again. I swiftly ready myself and the Batplane as father and Drake get their respective items taken care of. When the plane is ready for takeoff but the others have yet to join me I exit the plane to hurry them along.
“Can we please get moving? I refuse to leave Danyal in that place longer than necessary. Hurry up Drake,” I say as I approach the bat computer where he is still on the phone.
Drake holds up a finger and continues his conversation on the phone. “No Dick, I don’t have a ton of details I can give you. There’s another blood son, he’s in danger, B, Demon Spawn, and I are going to get him. Can you please just come and cover Gotham with the others tonight? Hopefully, if things go right, we’ll be home by morning. Now I gotta go, the Demon brat is trying to rush me along. We’ll give you more information as soon as we can.” Drake stands, stretches, and looks at me. “I’m going. I’ll be ready in just a couple minutes. Go wait in the plane and I’ll make sure B comes quickly too. If you’re in the pilots seat when we close the door you can start takeoff.”
“Fine, that plan is acceptable. Just hurry,” I huff and relent before heading back to the plane and getting in the pilots seat.
After no less than 10 minutes, Father and Drake finally board the plane. “About time. Seal the door and take your seats, I’m starting takeoff.”
“Damian, let me,” father says simply.
“No father, I’m starting now. You and Drake took too long to get ready and get on the plane. If you need to take over at cruising altitude I will not argue, but I’ve already begun. Hurry and take your seat,” I respond, a little clipped.
“Alright Damian. Let’s go get your brother,” Father sits down and Drake took up one of the passenger seats.
Once we reached cruising altitude, father wordlessly got up and placed his hand on my shoulder indicating he wants to swap. As I had already agreed to, I got up without a fight and let father take the pilots seat. We spend most of the flight in silence with Drake’s snoring being the only sound other than the engine. Father was concentrating on flying the Bat Plane, I was focused on my brother re-entering my life. He had his reasons to stay away, but it still hurt.
After passing the halfway point, I decided to speak to my Father about what I was thinking. Richard has been trying to get us all to be more open and honest with each other. And since he’s not here, father will do. “We used to be practically inseparable. Me and Danyal.”
Father flinched, not expecting the conversation, before re-settling into his seat. “I see. Understandable that you’d rely on one another while raised in the League.”
He was trying to keep the conversation going. Good, cause I decided I wanted to talk. “We were the Demon Twins. Exalted as the Demon Head’s heirs. But I always knew the truth, up until that mission where he didn’t return…I was the spare. Danyal was better at fighting and was honestly a bit of a genius. Grandfather always preferred him to me, and I never minded. I trained hard to be a competent second to my brother. I never questioned that he’d be the best leader, the perfect heir to the Demon’s Head. But I always knew he managed to hold a moral compass that was different from grandfather. He somehow understood that there were innocents and that they should be protected and not killed as collateral or as the target because their positive work might harm the League in some round about way. Danyal would’ve brought about change to the League if he reigned over it. But then he showed that moral compass on a mission that I’m sure was a test to see if he’d follow orders and kill the target no matter what. And for that he didn’t return.” I swallowed the lump in my throat and continued. “Grandfather had all traces of him removed from the compound, from my environment and told me to never be as weak as my brother. That the heir to the Demon’s Head can never show such weakness. Then told me this was the last me or anyone else would speak of Danyal. Because of that I never got to grieve, I couldn’t grieve my other half all because of my grandfather being disappointed in him for not killing someone who was likely innocent. That’s why I didn’t say anything about him. I’d been holding it in so long that I couldn’t bring myself to say something and get only sympathy from everyone in our family. I know it was wrong, but I rationalised that I was sparing you pain. But if…if I had known he was alive…maybe he’d still be fully alive. Maybe he’d have been with us for the last several years. Or maybe if I’d even said something about him previously existing we would have found him by now even if we were just looking for a body to bury, we would have found him…” I trail off, tears burning my eyes.
“Damian, it’s not your fault. You were just a kid. Ra’s is the only one at fault in this situation. Ra’s and Thalia. They stopped you from grieving. They forced you to bottle up your emotions. They did the damage and you are doing really well at trying to piece yourself back together from the years you spent with them. Thank you for telling me all that. But it’s not your fault and you need to know that,” father reaches over and places a hand on my shoulder as some level of comfort.
“Thank you father, but I still should have told you,” I look away knowing I hurt him by keeping this from him.
“Perhaps, but after what you just said, I get why you didn’t. Damian, I know it’s hard to let out your emotions and talk about things like this. Being emotionally stable is something that comes from your environment, and the league definitely wasn’t an environment that could help you confront your own emotions. I wasn’t always either, but we’re working on it together. I forgive you Damian, you should forgive yourself too,” father says gently.
“Mm,” I hum, a habit we all developed after years with father.
“Would you like to tell me more about him? While we’re on our way to get him I mean. Or would you rather we return to silence?” Father gave me choices but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.
“Can we sit in silence for now? I might want to talk about him more later but…” I trail off.
“But you’re not sure if you can yet. I understand Damian. Silence it is. For now,” father states and we slip back into companionable silence once more as we fly to Amity Park.
An hour later and we are approaching our destination. I turn and kick Drake so he’ll wake up before pulling out my phone. I was able to get Danyal’s number for exact location for extraction before we ended the video call.
“I’m calling him,” I state simply and dial the number.
“Hello?” Danyal’s voice says from the other end.
“Danyal, we are arriving at Amity Park via the Bat Plane. Where can we find you for extraction?” I ask, keeping Danyal on speaker so father can hear.
“Oh, um well it might be hard to park considering it’s a plane and all. But I’m at the Fenton’s. It can be identified by the giant neon sign saying Fenton Works on it and what looks like a space station attached to the roof. Once you see find it, I’m on the second floor in a room off the back of the building. I’ll leave the window open for you guys,” Danyal responds and I hear some rustling from his side of the call.
“What are you doing? Don’t move around too much you’re still hurt! I’ll get the window, you stay put,” we hear faintly from the other side. Father stiffens a bit at that.
“Thanks Felli,” I hear Danyal tell the other voice. “Ok, so window is open. Once you guys find the building I’ll have to leave parking to you cause you know where your plane can land better than I do. Option 2 is come through the front door. I honestly don’t know if Jack and Maddie are home right now but even if they are I’ll likely have to get the door. It’s rare for them to answer the door lately. But if you do that you’ll need to come not as the Bat and his brood.”
“Understood Danyal. We’ll make our plan once we find the Fenton Works. You stay put and stay safe. I don’t want you exacerbating any injuries that you have yet to tell us about,” father states.
“Heh, you heard that huh? It’s not that big a deal. I already saw someone and got it treated. And Felli is the best apprentice that guy has so I’m in good hands. Plus I heal fast so we’re all good. But, I guess I’ll see you guys soon,” Danyal responds.
“Danyal that will not worry us any less. Treatment or no, we’ll be making sure you don’t exacerbate any injuries during the extraction. Is window or front door better?” I ask my brother.
“Honestly they both have their down sides. Window equals contortion possibility and getting down from the second story and the front door equals walking down the stairs. Pick your poison, I’ll have to exacerbate these injuries either way. Once you guys are here I’ll need one of you to help me to the basem*nt lab so I can deal with some stuff before leaving. I’m not letting Felli support my weight like that again. The biggest struggle will be making sure the Fentons aren’t in the lab or will be incapacitated,” Danyal answers honestly.
“Front door would be better for you. You can’t exactly use your powers easily right now and that makes contortion more than a possibility. So your brother is going to have to take you out through the front door. And if you need sh*t from the lab I can get it. You need rest and for someone to carry you out of here,” the voice of this Felli girl comes back.
“Felicity I can’t exactly bio lock the portal to my biometrics and boot my parents from the system without being there. We kinda need my biometrics for that. I’ll let you gather the ectoplasm if that makes you feel better but there’s a good amount of hack to be done and a biometric lock to be secured. I have to protect Amity Park and The Infinite Realms the best way I can and this is the only way I know how right now,” Danyal responds to her. “Disregard her overly cautious nature. I may need help still but I can manage to get to the basem*nt and deal with the portal without bleeding everywhere.”
“Danyal, I can hack pretty well and Damian has your biometrics. I’m sure we can handle this portal,” Drake speaks up.
“No offense but I had to let you into the Amity Park firewall. You may be a tech genius but you’re no Oracle or Pharaoh. I can hack it cause I know the source code well. We don’t have time to have you try and figure it out and Pharaoh is in school right now,” Danyal responds a little annoyed.
“It’s ending any minute Danny. And you can’t say that you expected to get out of here without saying goodbye to Sam and Tucker. They’re coming here after school already,” the Felicity girl says with what I’ve learned to be sass.
“Felicity, if you weren’t such a major part of my fraid I’d kill you right now,” Danyal says with frustration.
“Cause I’m not letting you disappear into the night without saying goodbye? Yeah, no. You have more than just me in your fraid Danny. Just because Jazz isn’t here, doesn’t mean I’m letting you get away with not saying goodbye out of some weird sense of guilt or something. They’ll be here within the next half hour, and we’re calling Jazz later too,” this Felicity says with finality. I’m not sure if I like her or hate her at this moment. I will wait to judge.
“Your friend is right Danyal. It’s important to have closure. Let your friends have that. I won’t make you have closure with the Fenton’s, but I will with your friends. We just spotted your location. We’ll find a place to land and go through the front. And we’ll wait for your friends,” father says with his no argument voice.
“I’ll see you soon Danyal. Please wait for us just a little bit longer,” I tell my brother and he sighs.
“Yeah Dami, I’ll wait for you. I’ll see you soon,” Danyal responds and we hang up.
“What’s the plan father?” I ask.
“We go in as the Wayne’s in case the Fenton’s are home. After we get there I’ll carry him down to the lab if need be, but we’ll stall for a bit. Ask him what he’s taking with and let you two reunite for a bit. Once his friends show up we’ll let him explain the situation. After that me or Tim will get him downstairs to the lab to deal with whatever he needs to there. If either of his friends are this Pharaoh then they’ll be able to help better than we will. After that we take Danyal and Felicity with us to the plane and we set out for Gotham so he can get checked out by Agent A asap. If we run into the Fenton’s I’ll use the cover story of some DNA site that we found your brother through. Say it was a school project and that you found out your twin was still alive because of it. As I’ve never relinquished my parental rights even if they had formally adopted him I could use that to usurp the Fenton’s adoption. But I’ll likely point out that there is no trace of adoption and that would indicate kidnapping to me and that I’ll be taking my son back. Everyone on the same page?” Father lays out the plan in his Batman mindset.
“Copy that,” both me and Drake reply. Father hums and we find a landing point not too far from Fenton Works. We swiftly change into our civilian attire and begin making our way to Fenton Works to get Danyal.
When we arrived I looked up at the sign above the door reading Fenton Works with disgust. Those people are the threats to my brother. They’re lucky I’m no longer with the League of Assassins. We climb the steps of the front stoop and father rings the door bell. It was loud and obnoxious just like their sign. About a minute later and girl a little older than me with brown hair answered the door.
“You must be Danny’s bio family. He’s upstairs. He tried to convince me he could answer the door but getting out of bed is a challenge for him. Second door on the right,” she steps aside and lets us in after giving us directions.
“Thank you,” I say simply and she nods.
We head upstairs and follow her directions to Danyal. Once there father knocks on his door. We hear a muffled call telling us to come in and father opens the door. There, on the bed in front of me, is my brother who I haven’t seen since I was 8 years old.
“Danny,” I called. It was quiet and a little choked up. I haven’t even referred to him like that in my head in 8 years. But the moment I saw him in person, every warm feeling I’ve ever had came to the surface.
“It’s me Dami, it’s me,” he offered me a watery smile from his position, propped up by pillows, on the bed.
I hurry to his side but remembered I didn’t know where he was hurt so I merely stood by his side unsure where to touch him. He seemed to understand me, in a way no one has since he left my life, and pulled me onto the bed with him. He held me like he used to when we were young and we stayed like that for quite some time. Hushed voices could be heard behind me. But I didn’t care. I finally had my brother in my arms once again.
~.~
After arriving at my newly found son’s home and being let in by his friend, I found myself knocking on his bedroom door. With the ringing in my ears from nerves I almost didn’t hear his muffled call to enter. Shortly after opening the door I saw the spitting image of me when I was younger. Damian’s twin brother, almost identical, was sitting propped up by pillows on his bed. When Damian saw him. He did something I never expected.
“Danny,” Damian called out in a voice that sounded almost broken.
For the first time, calling someone by a nickname.
“It’s me Dami, it’s me,” Danyal responded, his voice wavering as well but holding himself together better than Damian.
Damian hurried to Danyal’s side and then hesitated. As if Danyal knew what Damian was hesitant about, he grabbed Damian and pulled him into an embrace. Finally reuniting after 8 years apart.
“I never thought I’d see the Demon Brat so docile,” Tim quietly muttered.
“Tim, I think you can stop with the affectionate but insulting nicknames for now. He hasn’t seen his brother in a long time,” I admonished him.
“From what Danny told me, his brother thought he was dead. I’m sure they both need this. We should give them a minute. I’m sure your son can get us if needed,” the young lady who let us in states gently.
“You’re right. Come on Tim, let’s give your brothers some space,” I herded the two out of the room and closed the door behind us. We get downstairs and the young woman sits in one of the chairs in the living room.
“My name’s Felicity by the way. Felicity Noble. I’m Jazz’s best friend and part of Danny’s…family by choice I suppose,” she introduces herself.
“My name is Bruce and this is my third son Tim. We’re Danny’s biological family I suppose,” I introduce us.
“Yeah, he told me a little about you. To be honest my head is still reeling cause I’ve only had a couple hours to process that Danny was never actually a Fenton,” Felicity explains.
“That’s understandable. We’re going through something similar. It’s been 6 years and Damian never told us he had a twin brother,” I respond. Tim was typing away on his phone. “Can you tell us how injured he is? If he’s anything like the rest of this family, he won’t say easily.”
“It’s bad. I don’t really wanna relive it. Let’s just say the doctors Fenton had him in custody till they took a break and I got him out. It took a lot of treatment to get him stable and about 24 hours before he could stay conscious. I’m sure every part of him is sore. But if he knew his brother thought he was dead, then I’m sure the last 8 years have been really hard on him. So I couldn’t stop him from grabbing his brother,” she looks down cast.
“What do you mean?” Tim asks.
“Well, Danny has always had a big heart. He’s often the responsible one, which is terrifying when you think about how he accepted a dare that lead to our condition. But he’s always kinda had a big brother mentality. We all just thought he was mature for his age. Even his friends can attest that he’s the peace keeper. Then the accident happened and he was dealing with protecting the town from ghosts, and after some time protecting the ghosts from hunters. Knowing Danny, he’s been beating himself up this whole time for making his brother grieve him,” Felicity explains.
“Well I guess that answers the who’s older question,” Tim tacks on jokingly.
“I wish he’d have reached out to me sooner. I’d have taken him in right away. I’m sad to have missed so much of his life,” I confess. Feeling it best to express this when Damian isn’t around.
“To be honest, I don’t know much about his past or the reasons he stayed away. My best guess is he felt it important for others safety. As long as he was safe enough, I think he was willing to sacrifice almost anything for those he considered important to him. But when the Fentons caught him…well that was the line for him that was finally crossed. I don’t think he can defend them anymore. He even stopped calling them mom and dad,” Felicity tells us.
Shortly after that, the front door opens. Me and Tim stiffen, unsure if it was these Fentons. But two teenagers walked in. A girl wearing all black with black hair, and a boy wearing glasses and a red hat. When they saw Felicity in the living room with us, they walked over.
“What’s going on? Where’s Danny?” The girl asks.
“Hey Sam, Tuck, Danny’s upstairs. We’re giving him a minute. This is Bruce and Tim, two members of his, apparently, biological family,” Felicity introduces us.
“Technically I’m adopted but Bruce is the bio dad,” Tim jokes as he extends his hand. “I’m Tim.”
“Wait bio family?” Asks the boy.
“Yeah Tuck, believe me, we’re all shocked. But turns out Danny was never a Fenton,” Felicity answers.
“If they’re his family, then apparently he’s a Wayne. Which means I could’ve had one decent person to take to galas with me that my parents wouldn’t refuse!” The girl throws her hands up exasperated. “I’m Sam Manson. I’ve met you both a couple times at random galas that my parents force me to go to.”
“Ah, of course. Ms. Manson how are you,” I smile a little at the young girl.
“Please, it’s Sam. The one positive thing about getting married one day, despite it working for the establishment and patriarchy, is that I get to change my name away from Manson,” Sam replies.
“Sam it is then,” I smile at her.
This is when Damian can be seen from the top of the stairs.
“He, ahem, he fell asleep. It might be a bit. He seems pretty tired,” Damian tells us as he walks down the stairs.
“Danny! What’s this we hear about you being a Wayne?!” Sam calls out to Damian. She clearly got them mixed up.
“I’m not Danyal, Manson, I’m his twin Damian. Though when we met neither of us knew of the connection the other had to Danyal,” Damian replies stiffly.
Sam flinches under the cold stare and clipped tone. “Sorry, I never noticed how much you look like Danny.”
“Well you were always hiding in a corner to avoid interaction so I can’t say I’m surprised,” Damian sniffs.
“Well, if he’s asleep this might take a bit. But at the same time he’d want me to put a time limit on his sleep. I do want to get him out of here as soon as we can,” Felicity sighs before turning to my newest son’s friends. “Sam, Tuck, worst case scenario has occurred. I pulled Danny out of the lab and to Frostbite early morning on his birthday. He finally fully regained consciousness today. That’s when he got in touch with the Wayne’s and asked them to come get him. Apparently the adoption wasn’t legal and Danny can therefore be taken by his bio dad with ease. It’s time to enact the escape plan.”
“You had a plan to remove my brother from here? Did he know?” Damian asks.
“No, he was stubborn. We honestly weren’t sure he’d even leave if it got to this point. So we made one without him,” Felicity responds.
“That is fair. My little brother always was a stubborn one,” Damian responds.
“Wait I thought Danny was the older twin,” Tim said in confusion.
“No, I breathed first by 10 whole minutes. I’m the older twin,” Damian responds.
“Older twin my butt, I came out first,” Danny says from the top on the stairs, breathing a little heavy. His movements strained.
“Danny!” His friends and Damian all called out. Damian ran up the stairs to immediately support Danyal.
“Son, you shouldn’t be out of bed on your own,” I state in a tone that my sons have referred to as my ‘dad voice.’
“You can’t lecture him, you just entered his life. That’s our job,” Sam retorts.
“Daniel James Fenton what were you thinking?!” Felicity shouts as she floats up the stairs, quite literally. “You’re hurt! You’re still recovering from what those crazy bastards did to you! You should be in bed and if you needed to go anywhere should’ve called out for someone to come carry you!”
“Felli chill, you’re going to start dropping the temp in here. I could handle that but everyone else is human. I’m not that bad off. Let’s just get to the basem*nt. And Sam, don’t talk to my father like that. Please. He wasn’t in my life cause no one let him know I existed. He found out I existed 3 hours ago and decided to come get me the moment I said I wasn’t safe. He’s better than most adults in this damn town and he’s not like the Fruitloop,” Danyal urges us all to get along and head down to the lab.
“It’s ok Danyal, I’m not offended that she would say that. But if you’re going to insist on going to the lab, I’m going to insist you’re carried there. I don’t care if you think I’m overbearing, I’m not letting you injure yourself more,” I respond and start up the stairs.
“Fine, if you’re gonna insist like that I’ll let someone carry me. But only because that’s literally the second worst pain I’ve ever experienced,” Danyal sasses back as he accepts me lifting him in my arms. His small frame weighs almost nothing and it worries me.
“Well, if your like B that says a lot about what happened to you. But Damian, you feel pain just fine,” Tim comments and looks to Damian for clarification.
“Yes well, like father, Danyal doesn’t feel as well as normal people. It was one of the reasons grandfather preferred him. He could push Danyal farther without him crying or complaining of pain than he could with me,” Damian replies and looks away.
“That’s cause grandfather is a psychopath who doesn’t understand that children cry when in pain and that it’s actually a good thing to feel pain. Do you know how many times I broke bones cause he pushed me too far?” Danyal replies and I hold myself back from tightening my hold on him.
“Not feeling pain as well as most people means you should be more careful in training. I had to learn that the hard way as well,” I tell him in way of understanding and comfort.
“Yeah well, you were his example with how far he could push me. I think he forgot that adult and child limits are different,” Danyal snorts at some joke he got.
“Let’s get to the lab. I have a feeling I’m not going to like this conversation. Tuck, Danny wants to completely lock out the Doctor’s Fenton from the portal and Bio lock it to his biometrics only. Think you could help him with that?” Felicity interjects to change the topic.
“Of course! They don’t call me Pharaoh for nothing!” Tucker exclaims and starts leading the way to a basem*nt door that lead to a lab.
“Do they keep hazardous materials down here?” I ask in concern.
“Oh, yeah. Ectoplasm is honestly a little radioactive too, especially when it’s in its pure form. Other than that there is plenty of other hazardous materials that they keep down here for experiments. It is a lab after all,” Danyal shrugs in my arms.
“And they just have this in the basem*nt below where children live and leave the door unlocked?” I question, anger bubbling up.
“Yeah, and they’d keep samples in the fridge upstairs. The whole town is honestly a little ecto-contaminated cause of them and the portal but luckily the levels are mostly within normal limits so it hasn’t affected too many residents of the town. Sam and Tuck however are totally Liminal, just like Jazz and the Fenton’s. The more you’re around the stuff, the more it changes you. Liminal’s just barely fall outside the scope of the Anti-Ecto Acts though so there’s that. Though the worst part is when the ectoplasm in the fridge brings our food to life…I don’t think I’ve had a home cooked meal in like 6 years,” Danny just drops all that information as if it’s nothing.
“You have a very skewed sense of normal, don’t you?” Tim asks.
“I guess. I mean the whole town is kind of used to stuff like this at this point. Comes with the territory of living next to mad scientists,” Danyal answers simply.
“Yeah, to be honest weird stuff has been happening here ever since the Fenton’s arrived. And we started including the Doctor’s Fenton in our traffic reports daily. It’s watched more than the weather cause everyone tries to avoid their driving. Particularly if Jack gets behind the wheel,” Tucker jumps in from a computer console.
“Could you put me down over there?” Danyal asks.
“Nn” I hum and bring him to the seat he pointed to.
“At least with Tucker here I don’t have to roll all over this place. Let’s get started Tuck. I still need to grab my stuff and I have to save up energy for that,” Danyal states with focus.
“Maybe you should’ve thought of that before you got out of bed earlier,” Sam snarks.
“Yeah, well maybe you should remember that starting tonight your parents will start kissing my ass,” Danyal snarks back.
“Ugh! I hate that you’re right,” Sam responds.
The two teens work together to get into the system while me and my sons look around. Felicity seems to be standing upstairs by the door and Sam just appears to be relaxing nearby her friends. This seems to be a common dynamic for those 3 but I somehow feel Felicity would normally be down here.
Danyal looks up and around after a bit and notices Felicity staying up by the door. “Sam could you fill a bunch of thermoses with ectoplasm? Me and Felicity are going to need them until I can get a portal stable where we’re going.”
“I assume that means you’re leaving with the Wayne’s then,” Sam responds.
“Yeah, I am. I can’t let everything stay the way it’s been. Not after what happened. There’s a lot you guys don’t know about me yet. That my brother does know and his family has already been dealing with it. My family has already been dealing with it. And since they are more familiar with Meta’s and the like, I’ll be safer with them,” Danyal answers with finality.
“And you can’t be safe here?” Sam asks, some hurt in her voice. “I get not in this house, but not in Amity Park?”
“Sam come on, give him a break. The worst case scenario just happened to him. Getting away from everything for a while would be good for him. And it’s not like we won’t know where to find him. But getting away from the Fenton’s is the best thing for him right now,” Tucker adds to the conversation. “Besides, we still have Felli.”
“Actually, I’m having her come with. It’s not safe for any ghosts. It’s why I’m closing the portal. I’d shut it down if it didn’t threaten to destabilize from it. It was opened by our deaths so it’s only stable cause of the machinery,” Danyal adds from his station.
“Wait what?! You’re gonna make Felli go live with you in another state?” Sam exclaims.
“If I really didn’t want to go at all Sam, then I wouldn’t. But he made a valid point. The only ghost you guys should have in town after we seal the portal should be Vlad and anyone Vlad specifically let’s through his. Well, them and Wolf who can make his own. But it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Besides, Valerie is still in town and she’s the most competent and least destructive of all the hunters. Let the hunters focus on Vlad and his cronies a while. Phantom, Banshee, and their rogues are gonna be MIA for the foreseeable future,” Felicity voices her opinion from the top of the stairs.
“Fine,” Sam huffs and begins collecting the ectoplasm. “What are you telling the Fenton’s? You can’t expect to just disappear and have no consequences from that.”
“I’ll tell them I found my bio family. If they make a stink about how I was abandoned or whatever I’ll point out two things. 1: that was my mother and 2: they never actually legally adopted me or made the state aware of my presence so all it takes is one good whistle blow and they never get to practice their precious science again. Same thing for Jazz but with a little more detail,” Danny answers her question.
“Wait they never actually legally adopted you?” Tucker asks.
“No, and if it weren’t for the danger he was in, believe me I’d be pursuing it legally. As it stands I’d rather have another bio son appear out of nowhere than risk him having to stay in this house a moment longer than necessary so they get out of a legal battle as long as they don’t try anything and don’t further distress Danyal,” I answer for my son.
“Why do you keep saying his name like that?” Tucker asks.
“Because that’s my brother’s actual name. Danyal Al Ghul Wayne. I’m sure father will figure out a middle name to give you and you can drop the Al Ghul. I only use it in certain situations,” Damian keeps to facts but smiles at his brother as he assures him that I’ll come up with a middle name for him.
“Wait, this whole time we didn’t know your name?” Sam asks incredulously.
“To be fair, no one did. I told Jazz and the Fenton’s but they thought it was just my accent and always called me Daniel instead. It’s why I started going by Danny. But yeah, my name is really Danyal. But please just keep calling me Danny, I’m used to it now,” Danyal tells his friends.
“Don’t have to tell me twice. I’m your best friend dude! Danny, Daniel, or Danyal that won’t change,” Tucker responds with a smile. “Alright, get ready for biometric scan. How deep are we going?”
“Full thing. Down to DNA, fingerprints, and retina, I need as many layers as possible to keep out the Fenton’s,” Danyal responds.
“Got it. Fingerprint scan ready,” Tucker responds and Danyal scans his hand. “Retina scan ready.” Danyal scans his eye. “Finally, DNA. You can spit or bleed or use your hair.” This machine is clearly far more advanced than it seems.
“Let’s do hair. More accurate than spit and I don’t feel like bleeding anymore than I already have right now,” Danyal responds and plucks a single hair from his head.
“Sounds good. Bio lock initiated. Now you’re the only one opening that portal anytime soon. I guess it’s time to get you out of here,” Tucker gives his friend a sad smile.
“Not quite. But soon,” Danyal responds.
