Curate, connect, and discover
This is horrible, but here you go. Part 4 with Bruce's POV and more misunderstandings. I'll be updating on AO3 exclusively after this part, so catch it there!
Batman’s fingers were steepled, his face a mask of grim tenacity.
He looked through the files again, wanting them to miraculously change their contents. The force of his glare bought nothing about except a wide berth of where he was sitting in the cafeteria of the Watchtower.
There was barely any information on the two that had come through a green portal, toxic and swirling like Lazarus Waters.
One had looked like a stereotypical genie, and she was the one that he had been called to handle at first. She’d caused havoc, appearing anywhere and everywhere in multiple cities in America, granting wishes that bred disorder. The second was a boy, a young man of indiscriminate age. He looked to be between 14 and 17, and Bruce’s attempts to pinpoint his age only hit him with blinding headaches.
Magic. How he hated it. But there was nothing to be done for now, except to grab a member of Justice Dark who was able to figure out what was going on. There was no-one on call at the moment, and so after sending a message to anyone who’d be able to come up, he decided to at least talk to the boy, considering that he’d chased the genie back to wherever they’d come from, to figure out who they were.
He wasn’t satisfied. The answers that the boy gave them were brief and curt; only giving the bare essentials and refusing to give anymore.
Who was she? A rogue of his.
What was she? A ghost.
Will she be back? Perhaps.
Where did you both come from? The Zone.
What species are you? Ghosts.
How did you get here? Through a portal.
Are you dangerous? He gave a smile here, mischievous but with an edge of danger underneath.
“Wasn’t everyone?” he replied.
Bruce was determined to get more answers out of the unknown, but at the moment Constantine had come in, drunk and looking like he had been dragged through a bush backwards. One look at the unknown and he paled, grabbing Bruce and speed walking – practically running – to another room.
What? It was starting to unnerve him now, the fact that a single boy was able to unsettle John Constantine, someone who was able to get into Hell without flinching.
“What are you doing?” Constantine hissed at him, fear and anger widening his eyes. He paced back and forth in the room that they found themselves in, his hands grabbing his hair. “That’s the High King of the INFINITE REALMS!”
“What does that mean?” he asked, adding this information to the profile he was building up of the ghost.
“He’s King of all of the dead! Anyone who’s ever died, who will die goes into the Realms, and he’s in charge of all of them.” He sighs then, nervous energy leaving him and slumps down into a chair. “Fuck. Fuck. Alright. You need a crash course in Realms Beings.”
Despite the fact that magic – and how he hated it – was involved, Bruce was able to assimilate the information that had been given to him. He’s given a brief history of the Infinite Realms – and wasn’t that a shock, a dimension that was literally infinite and connected to every one – and the major players of the place.
And then he got into recent history. There wasn’t a hierarchy; instead Monarchy seemed to be passed through combat. And this boy had been able to fight one of the biggest tyrants of Realms history, and had beaten him.
How powerful was he?
“About two decades ago, something happened to him. He was – harsher? He wasn’t as kind as he was, and he decided to take his rule seriously. He was fair – but his reputation tanked because his soulmate died, and he couldn’t feel emotions as strongly.” He takes out a cigarette, and before Bruce can do anything except give him a disapproving look, he lights it, taking a deep drag. “That’s bad for Realms Beings – they’re literally built on emotions, so he was named as something like a persecutor because he was stricter.”
He pauses then, eyes unfocused as he looked at something. “But when I saw him, he looked settled? Like he found something that he was missing.” He shrugs then, dismissing it, and looks at Bruce.
“I’m telling you Bats, you don’t want to piss him off.” He gets up stretching, and puts out his cigarette. “Now I’m going to have to be the one to apologise.”
He walks out the room, hands shoved in the pockets of his trench coat, and leaves Bruce to his thoughts.
A boy who’d died too young, and had been a hero based on his comment of ‘his rogue’. He’d perhaps had been forced to fight the tyrant of an entire realm – perhaps not, and had volunteered to do so. Was powerful, and knew it too, seen when he dodged the question of whether he was dangerous or not. Someone who was able to traverse through portals – and were they made through the entire species or were they naturally occurring? A boy who had lost his soulmate – was that a literal soulmate? – and so couldn’t feel emotions besides being ‘fair’. Had perhaps reunited with him, based on Constantine’s observation of being ‘settled’.
He still didn’t have as many answers as he wanted, but he had the bare minimum. He still had so many questions he wanted answered.
He walks back into the room, and sees the rest of his team in the room with the boy king. He counts them – Nightwing, Spoiler, Black Bat. He doesn’t see Red Robin or Robin, so he looks across the room to see them talking to the boy. He tenses for a second, before he relaxes at seeing them unthreatened. The boy is floating, looking relaxed, but with an expression of sadness. Damian has his wrist in his grip, talking softly to him.
He pauses. Damian – talking softly?
He looks at Tim and his heart rate ticks up at seeing him looking shocked. Shocked. What had happened for Tim to drop his mask?
He looks at the other two, and his pulse quickens as he sees them looking besotted with each other. What?
But his mind is making connections too quickly for him to acknowledge, despite the stiff appearance he’s exhibiting.
Soulmate. Damian’s shift in nature. Tim’s shocked face. He looks at the others, and sees that they look tense as they watch the three.
He came to a conclusion, but refuses to acknowledge it. No, not his youngest.
He could not be the soulmate of someone he’d just met. He could not be the soulmate of a King of an entire dimension.
He’d seen what had happened to people who had fallen in love too soon in this business. He refused to let it happen to his youngest. Not to his 16 year old.
He catches Tim’s eye from across the room and his heart drops at what he sees written in his face.
Shit.
Danny's human half dying as collateral during a fight. That human half goes into reincarnation and is reborn as Damian Wayne. He isn't born with all of his memories but he definitely feels that something is wrong. they would get their Memories Back at about 8 and have a horrible time dealing with being an assassin. Danny would try to stick to the personality they already had before but there's definitely slip-ups of them being like yeah this is wrong and Talia thinks they take after their father because of it.
The first thing Danny does when they're not being monitored by their mom or the bat family is to look for Phantom. Phantom to have run away to the ghost Zone and has built a reputation as a merciless ruler. He's a good ruler and he's not a tyrant but he doesn't have the reputation of kindness. Damien as the moral compass of the duo is really funny to me.
There's a situation later that involves ghosts which is where Danny/Damian and Phantom meet again. I want there to be a very big misunderstanding that heroes think Phantom is obsessed with Damien but in reality they are literally other halves of a soul. Phantom keeps doing and saying things that no one else would get away with around Damien. Phantom would be saying things like making fun of his height or giving him nicknames but as far as anyone else sees Davian doesn't even flinch.
Danny/Damian and Phantom have lived Separate Lives for a while so they don't automatically fuse into one person. I think they would fuse for a few hours just to feel themselves be one Soul again but they have Separate Lives so they can't stay that way. The bat family is very concerned with Damien continuing to talk to the obsessive ghost that keeps possessing his body.
Part 3 with Phantom's POV and more misunderstandings:
Updating on AO3 as well;
He struggles sometimes, even now. He’d lost himself for a long while – he couldn’t be sure for how long, decades or centuries. Time was weird in the Realms; a minute in one region could be 3 days in another.
But he knew that without his star, without the literal other half of his soul that he’d go into a spiral. A spiral of hate, of despair. He’d be just, but he couldn’t muster the emotions needed to be kind.
And then he’d come back. Phantom had known it was going to happen – had gone straight to Clockwork when his human side had died, and had been reassured that he’d be reborn. That had been the only thing keeping him from going on a spree, taking the Realms with him.
He’d known the instant that Danny had gotten his memories back. He wanted to tear through the realms, tear through countless dimensions to find him, but Clockwork had stayed him.
Told him to wait, to make sure that the timeline could reach the most favourable outcome. He’d wanted to snarl, wanted to say ‘Fuck the timeline’, but one pointed look at the shrunken core of Dan was enough to stymie him.
So he waited. And waited. And waited. It felt like centuries. It felt like days. Time was weird in the Realms.
But they’d reunited, had laughed and cried and talked about what each of them had missed.
It was weird.
Dann – Damian, had been apparently bought up as an assassin? His retelling wasn’t the most coherent, and there were clearly some things he skirted around, but imagining his human side, who’d been bullied and shoved into lockers by Dash Baxter, as a sword wielding assassin was surreal.
He looked mostly the same – lithe, and the impression of wiry muscles under a ridiculous costume. He laughed when he heard that that was a vigilante costume, and that Damian was meant to be working during the night.
He tracked the other changes too - darker skin tone, but piercing green eyes – the exact same shade of his own. Facial structure was different but not too dissimilar to what he'd looked like before. They looked like siblings now, rather than the exact same. He found that he liked it, despite the changes.
He could feel emotions coming back to him; emotions that he had thought had been gone forever. Laughter, sadness, anger. He’d been numb to all emotions except protectiveness, and justice. He could feel a part of him that had been missing filled in, a perpetual ache gone.
Damian had had to leave then, their reunion too short. But he looked more settled, younger even – as though his trek had aged him, and seeing his other half had soothed him.
Desiree had escaped then, trailing into the natural portal that Damian had found. She found herself in that dimension, wreaking havoc and granting wishes everywhere.
Phantom had gone after her, intent on dragging her back. He’d done it too – but not before they’d been noticed, a hoard of heroes after them.
He’d acquiesced to their questioning, even when they had become pointed and rude.
Who was she? What was she? Will she be back? Where did you both come from? What species are you? How did you get here? Are you dangerous?
He answered the bare bones, before a drunken man had come in, blonde hair swept back and a 5 o’clock shadow. One look at him, and he paled, dragging Batman – and really what sort of name was that? – away, before he came back apologising profusely after a whispered conversation.
He heard the zeta tubes announcing people coming up, and then were far more people in the space station than had been before.
He’d seen Dan-Damian, and he smiled, a soft thing that he wiped after seeing other members of this Justice League staring at him.
Time passed, and he was getting bored. Damian must have seen it because he walked towards him, and they started talking softly about the past few days. They must have deemed him as not too much of a threat, because aside from a few glances their way, everyone went back to their own conversations.
That was – until Damian had laughed at something he said. He laughed loudly, head tilted back, and he saw from the corner of his eyes the shocked looks of his family. It wasn’t obvious, but with what Damian had told him of the family, he could pinpoint it – the widened eyes, the sudden drops of shoulders, the pause in conversations.
He’d seen one of them square his shoulders as though he was volunteering to be shot. He walked over; false smile plastered on and had grilled him, trying to make it look as though he wasn’t.
Red Robin, he called himself. There was a beat where he had contemplated what to say to him, and his eyes had flickered over to Dan-Damian, where they had a conversation in a glance.
Red Robin was smart – the smartest of Damian’s siblings. If there was anyone who had worked out that they were two halves of a soul, it had to be him. He’d come forward, volunteering, so he likely already knew, and was just trying to confirm.
He saw the mask fall, and was delighted by it; it was a subtle sign, but to Phantom, and to Damian, it meant that Red Robin knew and trusted them!
He continued the conversation, and he heard even more hints – RR definitely knew, but was trying to keep it under wraps for now.
He was so happy that he started floating, relaxing slightly as his hair billows out.
Damian gave out another titbit – and Red Robin makes a small noise, to which Damian widens his eyes. Their little game of hiding true answers beneath normal ones reminded him of politics in the Realms.
And then he messed up, almost calling Damian by a name he no longer had. He’d stopped himself in time, but the speed that Red Robin had looked at Damian said it all – he knew.
So when Damian had gripped his wrist in a gentle grasp, with a furtive glance too quick for Red Robin to notice, he nods slightly; Damian then gives out the biggest clue, enough to have Red Robin confirm his suspicions.
“نصفي الآخر” “My other half”
Phantom sees by the way his mouth falls open slightly that the clue had reached its mark. He congratulates himself, and knows by Damian’s expression that he’s doing the same.
One day in this dimension and his first couple of steps in helping to reveal their bond was already done.
What a job well done!
Danny's human half dying as collateral during a fight. That human half goes into reincarnation and is reborn as Damian Wayne. He isn't born with all of his memories but he definitely feels that something is wrong. they would get their Memories Back at about 8 and have a horrible time dealing with being an assassin. Danny would try to stick to the personality they already had before but there's definitely slip-ups of them being like yeah this is wrong and Talia thinks they take after their father because of it.
The first thing Danny does when they're not being monitored by their mom or the bat family is to look for Phantom. Phantom to have run away to the ghost Zone and has built a reputation as a merciless ruler. He's a good ruler and he's not a tyrant but he doesn't have the reputation of kindness. Damien as the moral compass of the duo is really funny to me.
There's a situation later that involves ghosts which is where Danny/Damian and Phantom meet again. I want there to be a very big misunderstanding that heroes think Phantom is obsessed with Damien but in reality they are literally other halves of a soul. Phantom keeps doing and saying things that no one else would get away with around Damien. Phantom would be saying things like making fun of his height or giving him nicknames but as far as anyone else sees Davian doesn't even flinch.
Danny/Damian and Phantom have lived Separate Lives for a while so they don't automatically fuse into one person. I think they would fuse for a few hours just to feel themselves be one Soul again but they have Separate Lives so they can't stay that way. The bat family is very concerned with Damien continuing to talk to the obsessive ghost that keeps possessing his body.
Part 2 with the misunderstandings:
Tim was suspicious. He was inherently suspicious – how else did he get to live so long in the superhero community? But he was suspicious for a good reason here. He swears.
Damian was smiling. At a joke. There was something so deeply disturbing about that image – his stoic, 13 year old brother smiling at something someone else said – that he had to pinch himself, to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. The sharp flare of pain proved he wasn’t.
He looked around at his family, in their superhero personas, and sees his disbelief mirrored in their faces. Nothing as large as a dropped jaw or anything resembling a physical reaction. But it can be seen in their widened eyes, the drop of their shoulders. Good. So he wasn’t the only one seeing this; not a hallucination made from a sleep-deprived mind.
He turns back, catching Damian throwing his head back as he laughs. That’s when his curiosity snaps.
There had to be a spell here, a chemical gassed somewhere. Yes, this was the Watchtower, but the chance of something happening was low, but never zero. Seeing that no-one was going to do anything, he braced himself, preparing himself to save the demon brat from something he wouldn’t thank him for.
Marching himself towards Damian and the unknown, he slips into his Wayne persona.
“Robin! What’s happening over here? We could hear the laughing from the other side of the room!” Jerking his head towards the other Bats, he looks him over, looking for any sign of mental manipulation, any sign that he was feeling unsafe.
His face drops into a scowl, and the unknown laughs at him. “Aw, little –” and here he speaks something in a language he doesn’t understand, “doesn’t like people checking up on him?” he asks, green eyes still laughing at Damian.
The scowl is aimed at the unknown now, and Tim breathes a little easier, knowing that he wasn’t so far gone as to be unable to give anyone a murder glare.
Damian looks back towards him, scowl still in place. “It’s none of your business Red Robin,” he says, chin tilted up stubbornly. Tim internally sighs, knowing that talking to Damian when he was this obstinate was a no-go. He looks to the unknown, deciding to pursue another avenue.
“So, I’m Red Robin, as you heard the brat say,” he says, fake smile fixed in place. There’s a beat, where the unknown doesn’t say anything and they’re staring at each other. Measuring the other up. The moment stretches on for too long, and Tim thinks that the unknown won’t give the courtesy of giving him a name.
“Phantom,” he says finally – but only after his eyes flick over to Damian. Interesting.
And then he’s back to smiling, but not before his demeanour slips for a second. Not enough for a normal person to catch, but someone obviously affiliated with Robin, and a Meta to boot?
He sees Phantom give a ghost of a smile, fangs peeking through, and internally curses himself.
“So what brings you here, Phantom? It’s not anyone who’s able to be invited into the Justice League’s headquarters,” he asks, doggedly keeping up with the persona.
“Oh, a rogue of mine was able to leave my – kingdom? I guess you’d say, so I had to return her,” he replies, utterly relaxed. In fact, so relaxed that he floats up, white hair billowing around him. It pisses him off, the fact that an unknown was able to be so relaxed in space, amongst the highest calibre of heroes – including Batman. He tunes back into the conversation, compiling the information for a profile.
“Did you have to take her to Walker?” Damian asks, a small frown in place.
Phantom sighs, crossing his arms behind his head. “Yeah, but it’ll only be for a couple weeks at most.”
Damian rolls his eyes, frown disappearing “You know Walker’s a stickler for the rules,” he says, and Tim watches the conversation with bated breath, hoping that they don’t notice him. “She’s going to stay there for at least a couple of months.”
“That was before,” Phantom says, face losing some of the good humour. “It’s my kingdom now; I can say that she doesn’t have to stay for even a day. I’m just giving Walker some goodwill here.”
“Our kingdom,” Damian mutters under his breath snidely. Tim’s stomach drops. Their – kingdom?!
He must have made a noise, because Damian catches his eyes, and his eyes widen.
Phantom looks at him too, and smiles a toothy grin that does nothing to belay the panic he’s feeling.
“Not your kingdom until you’re dead Da-,” he cuts himself off then suddenly, and Tim whips his head to stare at Damian. He’d given out his civilian identity?
But Damian isn’t even looking at him, instead looking at Phantom. His face softens suddenly, and Tim feels his heart drop. He knows he’s not going to like what comes out of his mouth.
“It’s alright نصفي الآخر,” he says, hand going up to catch Phantom’s wrist. “I know you’re still adjusting.”
Tim feels suddenly like he’s intruding on a private conversation, but the panic he’s feeling roots him to the spot. He tunes out the rest of the conversation, translating the Arabic that Damian had spoken.
“نصفي الآخر,” he hears on a loop in his head. “My other half,”
What the fuck?
Danny's human half dying as collateral during a fight. That human half goes into reincarnation and is reborn as Damian Wayne. He isn't born with all of his memories but he definitely feels that something is wrong. they would get their Memories Back at about 8 and have a horrible time dealing with being an assassin. Danny would try to stick to the personality they already had before but there's definitely slip-ups of them being like yeah this is wrong and Talia thinks they take after their father because of it.
The first thing Danny does when they're not being monitored by their mom or the bat family is to look for Phantom. Phantom to have run away to the ghost Zone and has built a reputation as a merciless ruler. He's a good ruler and he's not a tyrant but he doesn't have the reputation of kindness. Damien as the moral compass of the duo is really funny to me.
There's a situation later that involves ghosts which is where Danny/Damian and Phantom meet again. I want there to be a very big misunderstanding that heroes think Phantom is obsessed with Damien but in reality they are literally other halves of a soul. Phantom keeps doing and saying things that no one else would get away with around Damien. Phantom would be saying things like making fun of his height or giving him nicknames but as far as anyone else sees Davian doesn't even flinch.
Danny/Damian and Phantom have lived Separate Lives for a while so they don't automatically fuse into one person. I think they would fuse for a few hours just to feel themselves be one Soul again but they have Separate Lives so they can't stay that way. The bat family is very concerned with Damien continuing to talk to the obsessive ghost that keeps possessing his body.
Literally whipped this up in like 10 minutes, so it's terrible. Anyway;
At age 8, it was like all of the barriers that had been erected had come down in one fell swoop.
He was Damian Al-Ghul Wayne, son of the Bat, Ibn Al Xu'ffasch. He was Danny Fenton, the hero Phantom of Amity Park, King of the Infinite Realms.
He was both. He was neither.
He was an assassin. He was half a ghost.
He was both. He was neither.
Wait. Where was Phantom? Where was his other half? Where was his counterpoint, his soul mate?
He didn’t have time to worry about him though – his personality change had been noticed, despite utilising the rigorous training that had been taught to him in this life. His Mother – Talia? Maddie? Which was his? – chalked this up to his father citing his soft heart.
Ha. What would she think if he told her that he remembered another set of memories? What would Grandfather think if he told them he was half a King?
No, best to hide the information, until he could reunite with Phantom.
He was sent to his Father, the Bat, to receive training. Who was his father? Bruce, with his mission of cleaning up Gotham? Jack, with his mission of hunting down ghosts?
Both. Neither.
Gotham, with its shadows, with its violence was as different to Amity Park as it could be. One man, and his sidekicks cleaning up the grime and the despair that seemed to fill it up to the brim. The rogues here were so different to what he was used to, to what he remembered. Joker, instead of Freakshow. Poison Ivy instead of Undergrowth. Mad Hatter instead of Nocturne.
They were so similar yet so unlike.
He grows up, looking for a moment where he can finally look for Phantom; where he can hunt down a natural portal and embark on a quest to find his wayward partner. He waits, biding his time. Phantom had waited thus far; he can wait a couple more years.
He walks through the Zone, hearing from other ghosts of a ruler who reigns over the Realms with an iron fist; a ruler who although isn’t violent isn’t kind. It makes him smile to think that he – Damian Wayne, titled ‘Demon Brat’ – is the one who was essentially the moral compass of the two.
As he gets closer to Phantom’s Keep, there is so much nostalgia, so many mementos of his old life. A telescope that he loved, a constellation that he was particularly fond of. The love that Phantom had for Danny Fenton was quite literally palpable here.
And then they meet. There is still a bond between them, despite the many years apart, despite the burden of kingship on Phantom.
They were different, sure – unable to fuse as they once could before, but they still knew each other, inside and out. They embrace, talking, crying, laughing. Something that Damian didn’t know was missing was filled in, a perpetual ache gone.
He was Damian Al-Ghul Wayne. He was Danny Fenton.
He was both. He was neither. He knew who he was.
He was one half of Danny Phantom.
Danny's human half dying as collateral during a fight. That human half goes into reincarnation and is reborn as Damian Wayne. He isn't born with all of his memories but he definitely feels that something is wrong. they would get their Memories Back at about 8 and have a horrible time dealing with being an assassin. Danny would try to stick to the personality they already had before but there's definitely slip-ups of them being like yeah this is wrong and Talia thinks they take after their father because of it.
The first thing Danny does when they're not being monitored by their mom or the bat family is to look for Phantom. Phantom to have run away to the ghost Zone and has built a reputation as a merciless ruler. He's a good ruler and he's not a tyrant but he doesn't have the reputation of kindness. Damien as the moral compass of the duo is really funny to me.
There's a situation later that involves ghosts which is where Danny/Damian and Phantom meet again. I want there to be a very big misunderstanding that heroes think Phantom is obsessed with Damien but in reality they are literally other halves of a soul. Phantom keeps doing and saying things that no one else would get away with around Damien. Phantom would be saying things like making fun of his height or giving him nicknames but as far as anyone else sees Davian doesn't even flinch.
Danny/Damian and Phantom have lived Separate Lives for a while so they don't automatically fuse into one person. I think they would fuse for a few hours just to feel themselves be one Soul again but they have Separate Lives so they can't stay that way. The bat family is very concerned with Damien continuing to talk to the obsessive ghost that keeps possessing his body.