As long as there is life, there is hope. As long as there is hope, there is life.

The strangers – which Jazz recognized as Black Canary and Green Arrow – shot her a smile before leaving. They didn't say a word, didn't acknowledge her outburst; they just walked out. The door shuts behind Jazz and her gaze trails towards were Danny lay and she wonders if they had done something to him.

They hadn't, but she needed to check.

The teen stood, confused. Two world-renowned superheroes sitting in her brothers' hospital room and- and not even with her permission? Who did they think they were? What made them able to just-just storm in and do whatever the hell they wanted?

She knew subconsciously that most of this was just the stages of grieving – shock, denial, isolation, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance – but that's the thing with grieving people. It was like a brick wall had been built around their mind that filtered out the love and hope that life went on and closed all of the negatives inside, echoing of the walls.

The monitors still beep steadily, the room still smells like a hospital (as it should) and the world fades away after many hours whilst Jazz holds her brother's cold, cold hands. Jazz spends them thinking of her parents, wondering what could have changed (what if I had stayed? What if I had died? What if I had come sooner? What if there were better doctors?) And, most of all, praying to whatever God was out there that Danny wouldn't die.

The nurses struggle to get Jazz out of the room until the next morning.


"Mr Masters?"

Vlad was rather annoyed by the phone call, did nobody understand 'don't call me'? He had sent messages to every company who he had business with explaining that due to unforeseen circumstances, any and all meetings were cancelled at least until the next week. He groaned with annoyance.

"Present."

There is a short pause as the person on the other line yells to someone else. Honestly, they were wasting his mourning time and they weren't even wasting it for a good reason!

"Mr Masters? Yes…we-we have a problem here…"

'For goodness sake, get on with it'. They hadn't even told him who the hell they were.

"And that would be?"

"It's to do with Danny Fenton, Ward 23. It says here you're his legal guardian –"

"Shut up. I am coming right over there and don't you do a thing."


Danny hugs his mom as he leaves for his first day in high school. The embarrassing pictures lie on the dining table and his dad smiles as he watches. Then he joins in and the previous warm hug is suddenly bone crushing.

Both his mom and Danny himself groan but smile because it was just how his father was.

"Okay. That's enough sweetie. You're going to be late if you don't leave now. You said Sam and Tucker are waiting?"

The hug is over and her son smiles. "Yup, we're gonna walk today, Mom. Get a feel for the route."

This scene feels so normal. Natural. It was just like any other family, any other child. But when Danny's dad twists him to meet their eyes, something changes.

"They're so loyal to you, Danny." His dad says. Danny looks at him oddly. "Remember that, okay?"

"Um…sure? Dad, what's wrong?" His dad stares into his eyes and then suddenly it's his Mom's eyes staring back at him.

"Your friends, Danny. Sam and Tucker. They'd do anything for you. Anything. I want you to be the same okay? If they need you, you need to help them. They've always helped you, and they always will help you okay?"

Danny isn't sure why but his feet are dragging themselves towards the door, but his parents act like they expected it. He yells at them, screaming, 'what's wrong? Why are you guys so worried?' But the words fade away from his mouth and just like the words his parents are too – they smile but they're crying as well and they yell things he can just barely hear, things about how he has to take care of Jazz when it's over and he needs to always, always protect people like he always had. How they love him.

The dream fades, along with everything else.


Jazz wakes up in her old room, which was dull and empty. She already packed everything up. Living there was not something she would be able to stand, not with the ghosts of her family dancing around in the corner of her eyes. Danny's room was as empty as her own. Jazz had packed everything in there as well – they weren't going to stay. Not after this.

She had already found a new apartment – one in Gotham, a mile or so away from her college. It was perfect. Two rooms, two bathrooms, a small living room and an extra room – she was going to make it their study. It was the biggest apartment she could find within the limits of her budget, but she was sure it was big enough. She hadn't checked it out with her own eyes, but from the pictures it looked pretty great.

Not to mention, the asylum was nearby too. Jazz figured she could get a job as a secretary there, and maybe even get the chance to study psychology on the job. She was a black belt in several forms of martial arts, thanks to her mother's pushing. She would be pretty much safe.

Things are looking up, Jazz thinks and finally a smile appears on her face. Even though her parents were dead, she would continue living. With Danny.

The quote she had scratched on to the wall when she was young and had lost Bearbert was illuminated by a thin strip of sunlight that shone through her curtains.

As long as there is life, there is hope. As long as there is hope, there is life.

While the reason she had wrote it seemed silly now, she sees the words as a hope. They were true. Mom and Dad would be upset if she and Danny didn't move on. 'They had hope for us,' Jazz thought, 'so I'll have hope in us.'

She wonders a few moments about how odd it was, the way things all lined up. How her parents had been unlucky enough to have no weapons, right in the middle of the worst ghost attack.

The thought is banished from her mind. 'Hope,' the girl repeats in her head, 'I need to have hope.'

Hope drives her out of her bed and into the shower. Hope drives her to comb her hair. Hope drives her to finally look at the family album. Hope drives her outside of the house. Hope drives her the hospital. Hope drives her to see her brother.

Hope drove her until she crashed.

'It can't…it just can't…"

NO.


'Ah, it's nice here,' Danny thought, 'warm and soft and oh look a spaceship. These stars are pretty.' Some of the stars were purple and some were green and some were blue and some were teal and they all seemed pretty and warm and familiar to him.

He was having these odd dreams at first – ones of people he can't remember. At all. He doesn't really care anyway, those meteoroids were much more interesting.

Danny Fenton is floating in nothing.


A/N: yeah I am a liar I told you all I was updating in a week pfft right of course. You should never trust my word guys! If I say a week, assume a month. Or half a year. The tense is completely jumbled in this I know and I still don't have a beta. Btw, I actually had to re-right an entire plot line for this story. If that means anything XD

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Ciao, Shadow.