The room had a sort of calm tranquility about it that was hard to find these days. The only noise came from the steady, rhythmic clacking of the keys as Batman was filling out the final report for the team's last mission. His mind; however, was anything but calm as a raging storm tore through it.

Three days ago he had sent the young, and largely inexperienced team along with a recovering half dead patient to face a lunatic.

If he had known that it was Scarecrow behind the activity at the old municipal department, Bruce would have thought twice before sending them off. Sure, they had won in the end and stopped him. But it was too close.

"Hey Batman, can I talk to you about something?"

He didn't have to turn around to see who it was. He had heard his quiet footsteps coming a while ago now.

"What is it Robin?" Even in the comfort of their own headquarters, they didn't speak to each other using their real names. They never did when in costume.

"It's about Phantom. I found out something about him that you neglected to mention," his tone was only slightly accusing. Having learned from the best, Robin was just as capable of hacking into files in order to do some research. An ability that he took advantage of to do just that.

The sound of typing had abruptly stopped and Batman turned around to face his protege. Robin stood there, with a well practiced expression on his face that was supposed to be unreadable.

"I take it you know he was a patient at Arkham then," he said in more of a statement then a question. Of course Batman didn't have questions, he already knew everything.

Robin allowed for a bit of urgency to creep into his voice when he replied, this was a dire matter after all.

"Yeah, I did. When exactly were you planning on telling us this? You know as well as I do that Arkham patients are sick and dangerous!"

"Was Phantom of any use to the team during the mission?"

Robin wasn't surprised when his mentor had not answered him directly and instead steered the conversation in a different direction. He had been working with him long enough now to know that there was always a point to these tangents.

The Boy Wonder sighed, still a bit annoyed at the divergence that was Batman. He still answered him with a reluctant nod though.

"From what I read on the reports he's saved both your's and Kid Flash's life. Not to mention distracted Scarecrow long enough for Superboy to save the rest of you from the fear gas."

"Ok, yes! He's a capable fighter and a good teammate," he admittedly snapped, "But that doesn't change the fact that he's currently on a prescription of Olanzipine! Do you really think he's stable enough for all of this?" The last part came out more exasperated then he had meant for it to. It was way too late in the day to get this worked up.

And Batman, of course, was not being very helpful. He was now fully facing the young hero and had his back turned against the computer screen.

"We're getting better at this, Robin. At what we do when it comes to fighting criminals and keeping the streets safe," he began lecturing stoically before revealing what really has been troubling him about the entire situation. "But so are they. The people we fight are getting smarter. Take Scarecrow for instance. He's started packing a gun, hiring goons to do all the dirty work, and he even has the people of Arkham working for him. How do you think he escaped? It was an inside job, nurses and security guards helped him out. Not only that, but we couldn't find out who the traitors were. Everyone was fired. Even Cash," he said contemptuously, with an anger that wholly justifiable.

A lot of good people lost their jobs, not only the one-handed security guard. But men and women who had devoted much of their time to making the asylum a better place. Not only for the rest of the staff, but for the patients as well. A few handful of workers who actually wanted to help the mentally ill towards a road to recovery, and were not simply there to punish them.

Robin, for once, had nothing to say. At least, initially he didn't.

Standing there slack-jawed and stunned, he blinked a couple times before his mind remembered how to coherently form words into sentences.

Slack-jawed because he couldn't imagine why anybody would want to help a mass murderer regain his freedom. And stunned because one of the few men that he could wholeheartedly say wasn't a rotten cop had been unfairly relieved of his duty.

"But... Aaron would never do something like that. Arkham is his life."

"I know," Batman replied solemnly, "And I'm not sure if I entirely trust the new people filling up the empty jobs, nearly all of them were recommended by Strange. So in case you hadn't noticed Robin, we're currently a bit under staffed. We need all the help we can get and it seems to me that Phantom is damn good at this. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand. I do."

Bruce's gaze softened at the near-broken reply that Robin had manged to illicit.

"... If you are still concerned about Phantom, I can assure that he's been healing remarkably since his release. I don't believe that he will pose a danger to you or your friends."

"Yeah, I know. I have one more question though."

"And what's that?"

"Why was he admitted in the first place?"

Danny watched as Vlad paced the room and muttered to himself.

Needless to say, the man was less than thrilled when Danny had finally come to him with his decision. He had, since then, been trying to convince him otherwise.

"It's dangerous, Daniel. You could get hurt," he said, once again. This was the main focal point of his argument.

And Danny agreed. It was dangerous. But he didn't see how he could get hurt. Nothing could hurt either him nor Vlad due to they're being half ghosts. It was difficult to hurt something that you couldn't touch. And even if they did, earth-bound objects had no effect on them. It was what made them so powerful, so formidable.

It was what convinced Batman that he would much rather have the ghosts on their side rather than against.

Besides:

"So could you. You do the same thing for the League."

"Yes, but only because I have to. That Bat," he spit out the word vehemently, "has me obliged to do so."

"How? How can he make you do anything?"

Vlad halted in his steps and almost cursed at himself for revealing so much. He couldn't tell Daniel that he had been a villain, just like the ones he now fought. Couldn't tell him of the shameful crimes he had committed against the Little Badger and his family in the past.

For the most part, he regretted it.

He regretted ever harming Daniel and upsetting his mother, the one woman he had ever really loved. Yes, he had lost her to his one time best friend Jack Fenton, the insufferable oaf who couldn't even protect his own family. But... at least she was happy with him.

Vlad only wished he realized sooner that he loved Maddie enough to let her go and live her happy life without him trying to interrupt it. What a fool he had been.

But, now he could make it up to her. He could redeem himself by taking care of the son that she had left behind and give him a chance at happiness.

"That is... unimportant," the elder halfa replied, exhausted. Breathing out, he finally took a seat from across of Daniel. They were in Vlad's home in Wisconsin, more specifically Vlad's office. The same one that Batman had first made contact with him that fateful day so many weeks ago.

Although he had walked the same hallways and been through the same doors before, it was Daniel's first time visiting the mansion as far as he was concerned. Vlad already had a room set up for him just down the hallway from his own.

"Are you certain that this is what you want, Daniel?" he began once again in a quieter voice, chin resting on his knuckles with his elbow held up by his other arm.

"Yes, I am. I'm good at this and I have nothing else, Vlad. Besides, it's not like I could just ignore a cry for help."

Vlad smiled wryly at this, as he knew first hand that no truer words could be spoken.

"No, you never could... Very well, Daniel. If this is what you want then I won't stop you. Just, be safe Little Badger."

Danny replied with a smile of his own and nodded his confirmation.

"I will be. Thanks, Vlad."

For a moment, the older man allowed himself to believe that things were, for once, going their way. That the world was done dealing them a bad hand or if the higher powers had simply forgotten about them and no longer wanted to bring them down any further then they had already fallen.

It was a dangerous way of thinking, he knew that. So he stopped.

"Do the others know that you've made a decision?"

"No, I'm supposed to give them my answer today. They're all waiting at the base."

"I see, I suppose you can just get there by this ugly thing," Vlad muttered, annoyed, and pointed to the contraption behind him making Danny chuckle.

The League had oh so graciously installed a Zeta-Beam Portal in Vlad's office so that he didn't have to take flights everyday between the other portal in Washington DC and his work in Wisconsin.

Vlad would've been perfectly fine with this, and even grateful, if they had at least told him of their plans.

He nearly broke his client's leg pushing him out through the door when he had invited him into the office to go over business stuff.

Now he would have to cover the thing up, as it not only prevented him from bringing in any more business partners or clients, but it also clashed horrible with the rest of his office.

"Umm, there's one more thing that I need to tell you," Danny's chuckle trailed off as he realized that now would be the best time to tell Vlad about what happened with the Scarecrow and how he had revealed his secret.

"And what's that?"

"The others may have kinda found out about how I was in Arkham," he said quickly, hoping that maybe the sooner it had gotten out the less harsher its effects would be. Masters, though, did not seem to think so.

"What!" he snapped, eyes wide with alarm, "How do they even know?"

"Does it even matter? They do, and... I don't know what to do."

Vlad was pinching the bridge of his nose, and shaking his head to ward off the oncoming headache.

Daniel was put into Arkham unfairly, the government not knowing what else to do with him after he had escaped the GIW. An incident that Vlad was still trying to figure out for himself how he had pulled off since Danny couldn't even remember being captured by the ghost hunters.

But Arkham had a reputation. And Arkham patients had an even worse reputation. He wasn't sure how well this would pan out with the others.

"I'm sorry, Daniel, but I'm putting my foot down when I say that I'm forbidding you from speaking further about this with them."

"Trust me, I don't want to. But what if they want answers?"

What if I want answers? He refrained from asking. Truth be told, he was hoping Vlad would start telling him a little bit about his past soon. He still didn't know anything, and even though it didn't matter anymore, there were still a few things that Danny was curious about.

His family, if he had one. Previous relations with Vlad, and how he had come to know him. And how he had ended up in Arkham in the first place. But even Vlad couldn't answer the last part. He couldn't pinpoint his exact first memory, but the furthest back he could go was his first few days in Arkham Asylum. Before that, nothing much. And no one else knew anything either.

"I don't know, I suppose we'll just have to wait and see. Perhaps they will respect your privacy and let it drop?"

Danny didn't know what to say to that because he couldn't answer for the six heroes. But he certainly hoped so.

AN: First thing's first, thank you for everyone that's reviewed so far. It means a lot to me.

Also, I apologize for the lack of updates. Finals week had me cramming, but in the end it was worth it. I'm pretty satisfied with my grades.

Now, I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. It's a bit of a wind-down from the previous one. And hopefully, I've tied up some lose ends. SpartanCommander brought up a good point of just exactly how Scarecrow knew about Danny being in Arkham because he was mostly kept in his cell with no visitors or anything. Basically my explanation was that a nurse working for him had been feeding him information about interesting developments, and he managed to figure out what was going on.

Lame explanation, I know. But it was the best I could come up with.

Anyway, I've got winter break for two weeks. So I'm gonna try my best to overload you guys with some more updates these next couple weeks.

As always, you know what to do.