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nerdpoe · 6 months

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Like Facing off Against C'Thulu, but it's Really Just your Fears. Part 4

Part one, Part two, Part three, Ao3

Damn here we are, the final chapter. Let's gooooo

Danny stretched, arms over his head, and marveled at the lack of pain. Leslie had been right about those exercises.

Then again, she’d been right about most other things. Okay, all other things medically concerned.

The white noise machines in his room helpfully blocked out the sounds of Gotham and the household. He was growing to love the Liminal city, including it’s disturbing amount of Dead, but it was a bit too much to be comforting and the white noise machines were a lifesaver. Ghostsaver.

They were a Danny-saver.

He stepped towards the door to his room, reached out to open it-and froze.

He. He couldn’t open the door.

Logically, he knew his new home was perfectly safe. But.

He couldn’t open the door. He couldn’t make his hand connect to the doorknob and turn it. What if it was locked? What if the GIW was waiting outside? What if-?

Danny’s hand started to shake as he pulled it away from the door and cradled it against his chest.

He had no idea what had triggered his paranoia (“PTSD, Danny; it manifests in strange ways,” Bruce’s voice whispered in his head) but the thought of opening the door was filling him with a mix of fear and anxiety so profound he couldn’t even bend his knees.

He refused to become a recluse, locked in a room by his own fears.

Danny started doing the breathing exercise Dick had taught him, and when he was capable of moving his legs again, took a few steps away from the door.

In, hold, out. In, hold, out. Observe, assess, commit.

Danny experimentally stepped towards the window instead of the door.

No overwhelming anxiety. No fear.

Danny walked until he was actually at the window.

Still no negative emotions about it.

He could clearly see outside of it. There was no one waiting for him, nothing bad just out of sight.

It was just the garden, the bench facing said garden, and the weird spiral under his window that looked a lot like…steps…

Oh!

He reached out and unlocked the window, pausing as he waited for the flood of all-consuming fear, and let out a tentative smile when that didn’t happen.

Instead, he carefully hopped from the windowsill to the pillar. From there, he went to the next weird thing the Waynes had set up for him. A few more hops and he was sitting in the grass, staring at the sky.

It was a pleasant day, for Gotham. The sky was overcast, there was a slightly cold breeze, bugs had already started to make themselves scarce in preparation for the oncoming winter, and he could hear the wildlife in the woods that lines the property as they made their own preparations for the season.

The bench was right next to him, but Danny couldn’t bring himself to sit on the hard surface. He just. He needed connection to something that wasn’t manmade, at the moment.

After…some amount of time, he couldn’t say how long, there was a crunch of gravel, very deliberate, that had Danny’s head snapping towards the garden.

It was Cass.

She stopped walking towards him and observed him. Frowned. Nodded. Smiled at him and motioned for him to stay where he was. Turned and went into the Manor.

She returned fifteen minutes later with a basket full of baked goods and bottled water.

Danny felt his chin begin to tremble as he tried not to cry, but Cass just sat next to him and held out an arm. The Halfa gladly sank into the hug she was offering.

“Sometimes, the house is. Too much.” Cass hummed, her arm tightening around his shoulders as she handed him a pastry. “I understand. We will eat here.”

~~~~~~

It had been a long, grueling battle with a government agency that, apparently, was not a government agency at all, but after literal months Jason was finally back in Gotham.

Sure, the batplane had been utterly decimated in one of the nastier battles, but it had been a small price to pay for finishing the evacuation.

But Jason was back, and he could see things he really, really wished he couldn’t.

There was a group of 1920 Mafiosos chattering and laughing outside of a restaurant, all of them riddled with gunshot wounds, oblivious to the people that literally walked through them to get in and out.

There was a little girl in the middle of the road, holding her decapitated head in her hands as she wailed for her mother.

A hoard of Joker victims that stood outside the bridge to Arkham, silent and waiting and bloody.

A college student with his throat missing, bragging to an old lady who was half-melted about how he can attend classes for free now.

Jason resolutely did not look at any of them.

Well, he made a note to go to the little girl later, when he had a moment. His title as “Prince” probably meant he could do something to help her out.

Instead, he entirely focused on driving to the Cave.

There was a…flash. Of something. Just on the hidden road outside of the Cave.

Jason slowed his motorcycle down to look for the disturbance.

It.

Holy shit.

It was Ace.

He hadn’t seen that dog since. Well.

Ace walked over to Jason, glowing and blue and white, his appearance just as watery as the other Dead he’d seen coming in. No one could see him, then. No one but Jason, and probably Danny. The ethereal canine circled his Bike, sniffed at it, sniffed at him, sneezed, and then went back to the side of the road to let Jason pass.

Ace stared at him expectantly.

Jason took off his helmet and stared back.

Ace’s tail slowly started wagging.

Jason…Jason could probably do something about that. He’d just come from the most ectoplasmic contaminated town in America, surely he could just. Help make it so that Ace could be visible to the family again?

Ace stood up and slowly started walking towards Jason.

Jason got off the bike, knocked the kickstand down, and held open his arms.

The old dog leaped into them, and Jason focused on pouring any excess ectoplasm he had into the good boy.

There was a flash, a bark, and Ace was far more solid and a lot heavier.

He was still blue, and still glowed, but Jason was completely aware that he could be seen by the others as well.

Good.

Ace was the best guard dog and family dog Jason had ever known, Titus included, and to have him unkillable? Perfect for their weirdass family.

He set down the overexcited dog and popped up the kickstand to his Bike, bracing himself for a long walk down the Cave’s entryway with a bouncing, lively ghost of a German Shepherd trotting along next to him.

~~~~~~

Bruce scrolled through his tablet, Ace draped across his feet for the first time in years, going over the evidence against the GIW. He cleared his throat and rubbed at the dried tear tracks on his cheek again, probably making them worse.

Ace had been a welcome surprise, so much of a surprise that he hadn’t been able to adequately prepare himself.

His only consolation was that Dick had cried longer and harder than he had.

Really, the only reason Ace wasn’t on the bed with Dick was concerns about the acrobat’s surgery site and possible ectoplasmic contamination near something so extensive.

Bruce cleared his throat again, and forced himself to focus.

“Tell me again how you found this?” He prompted, laying down the tablet and reaching down to pet the dog again.

“Broke into the GIW base, it was already broken into, three teenagers and a grownass adult man that was terrified of them handed me literally all the evidence.”

Bruce hummed again, leaning back to go through the information again.

The GIW was a City Governmental branch, but the funds for them came from a number of offshore bank accounts that could be traced to the League of Assassins.

Bruce wanted to be surprised, really, he did; but he’d already suspected as much.

Of course Ra’s al Ghul would want to know everything about anything even remotely related to the Lazarus Pits. Of course the Demon Head would want to know how to make a better weapon out of a person.

In the end, there really wasn’t much any government could do about it. Ra’s was already wanted by those who knew he existed, and as horrible as it was to admit it, this wasn’t even the worst thing he’d done.

“I could have Deathstroke go after him,” Dick offered quietly from his bed, staring at the tablet even though he couldn’t read what was on it, “He owes me a favor, and he’d think it would be a fun challenge.”

Bruce reached out and laid a hand over Dick’s eyes, sighing.

“We’re not doing that, Chum, go back to sleep and get better.”

Dick huffed and mumbled his complaints until he drifted off.

Bruce kept his hand over his eldest son’s eyes.

He and Jason stayed quiet for a moment.

“Anything else to report?” Bruce finally asked, letting how Done he was with the situation leak into his voice.

“Aside from seeing the ghosts of the dead now, nope. Anything interesting happen here?”

“Cass is requesting one way windows on Danny’s door, so he can see the hallway before he leaves his room.”

Jason made an approving sound, leaning back in his own chair.

“Should get Danny to sit down with Timmers, then. They’ll make all sorts of weird security measures you’ll probably plagiarize.”

Bruce refused to let out the sigh that was building up.

“Just because Tim got pants permanently added to the Robin suit doesn’t mean I stole the idea from you-“

“-You absolutely fucking did and you know it.”

~~~~~~

Danny stood on the training mats in the Cave, bracing himself.

Leslie watched him from a safe distance, as did Dick from his wheelchair.

Danny started to reach for his Core, started to allow the Transformation to wash over him-and his parents laughed above him, slicing into his skin with scalpels specifically designed to hurt him-but he wasn’t there. He wasn’t there.

He wasn’t there.

The Transformation fell out of reach again.

Danny let out a wordless shout of rage and kicked at a nearby training dummy.

“Very well done,” Leslie praised, making Danny freeze.

“Well done? I couldn’t even-!” He drew himself short, forced himself to take deep breaths. “I’m worthless like this.” He whispered after he’d calmed down, hands curling into shaking fists at his sides.

“You’re not worthless, first off,” Dick started as he wheeled his way over to Danny, pausing just in front of him, “And second off that was some big progress. That ring of light you always talk about started to show up! That hasn’t happened before, so you really almost had it that time!”

Danny felt the self-hatred start to ease back, but it was still there.

It always seemed to be, as of late.

Dick seemed to understand and gave him a sad smile.

“All I can do right now is stand for ten to fifteen seconds at a time. Am I worthless?”

“No! You’re recovering, that’s normal-“

“-So are you, Little Ghost. You’re recovering too, and you know it.”

Danny shut up and refused to meet Dick’s eyes. He knew he’d walked into that one, but he also knew that Dick had to be wrong, because Danny was supposed to be further along than he was, and he still couldn’t do something as simple as Transform.

“Danny; I’m serious-you’re doing phenomenally well,” Leslie said, stepping forward and placing a gentle hand on his shoulder, “To the extent that the only way this is possible is if you have a healing factor. Don’t disregard your mental wellbeing, please. It’ll only set you back.”

The halfa glared at the ground. Swallowed. Looked up at Leslie and Dick.

“Okay.”

He stepped back.

Leslie started after him, but Dick grabbed onto her arm before she caught him.

“Alright. Let me just.”

Danny shut his eyes, and forced himself to remember the good times he’d had in his Ghost form.

Playing with Youngblood. Music lessons from Ember. Racing Johnny and Kitty. Flying in the sky. Sitting at the edge of the Stratosphere and stargazing.

The overwhelmingly immense feeling of freedom.

He wanted that back.

He wanted that piece of himself that Jack and Maddie had stolen.

He imagined Ellie. How she’d chosen absolute freedom instead of any type of confinement.

He reached for his Core.

He found his own and two others, so familiar it ached.

There was a flash of light.

And Danny, for the first time in almost a year, could finally breathe.

~~~~~~

On a planet four galaxies away, in an alien Bazaar, Ellie looked up from her meal and breathed deeply as well.

Dan, to her right, stiffened.

“Guess we can go back now,” he drawled, setting down his plate, “Waited just as long as Clockwork wanted. Should be safe, if Little Me is reaching out through his Bonds like that.”

Ellie grinned.

It was time to go home!

She’d really only stayed away because Old Man Clockwork had told her too, but the time-limit was up! She could go back without dooming the Timeline!

“C’mon, let’s do a Dine and Dash! We gotta go!”

“We already paid for the food, squirt, it’s not a-“

Ellie interrupted him by latching onto his stupid big hand and yanking him into the sky.

“Stop being an adult and dumb and let’s go!”

Dan sighed and followed after her, clearly intent on keeping her out of trouble.

Ellie let him keep that fantasy-she was trouble! She was chaos! She had so many frickin souvenirs to give Danny and not all of them were Green Lantern Corps approved!

But most importantly, she was going to see her Big Brother!

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#dpxdc #dcxdp #dp x dc #dc x dp #phanfic #internalcthulufic #gore tw #decapitation tw #torture recovery

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