Incision

Chapter Nine

Faithful

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.

Leo Tolstoy

Bruce welcomed his guests into his company's lobby with a warm smile. This was the first step, and Vlad Masters had accepted his invite and should be there shortly. Hopefully with a ruined suit if whatever Jason's plan was to humiliate him worked.

Sure enough a few minutes later Masters entered the building with a scowl, but nothing seemed to be stuck on his suit or anything. Bruce narrowed his eyes, clearly he either used his powers freely with his employees, or they knew.

Bruce had a feeling that they knew.

"Welcome, Mr. Masters. I'm glad you could come to this," Bruce greeted him walking up to the man who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there.

"Yes, I had some trouble, but nothing a few minions can't take care of," Vlad answered with a fake smile. Bruce could see right through it and wondered why people believed this guy was good in any sense of the word. Bruce was slightly worried, but Jason was good at what he did. It's why the cops never caught on to what he was up to.

"I'm sorry about that. Gotham is full of surprises," Bruce said with a light smile. Vlad gave him the creeps, and he hunted creeps during the night. Of course Phantom did too, just not to the extreme Vlad was. "So did you take a look at what we were doing?"

"Trying to create clean energy using ectoplasm as a base," Vlad said flatly with a slight glare. "I didn't think anyone else was really all that interested in the Fenton's Technology. It was always so far out there and unstable."

"Well, I was curious after Phantom showed up here in Gotham. On the news they said he was helping Batman with Black Mask?" Bruce brought up Phantom to see what Vlad's reaction would be. Vlad looked surprised for a moment before shutting back down.

Danny was clearly a tender spot. Time to poke at it.

"Personally I don't see why people are so afraid of beings that claim to be ghosts after everything we've seen. I mean alien invasions and all the crazy clowns around Gotham. There's no reason not to add ghosts, and we already have some technology to handle them," Bruce smiled. "I just want to make it better. From want I understand, the Fenton's were brilliant, but their tech wasn't all that reliable."

"That would be Jack's. Maddie was brilliant, and she could have gone so far if she wasn't weighed down by that man's mistakes," Vlad sneered making Bruce take a step down. Clearly Danny wasn't lying about the guy having a thing for his mom.

"It's a shame all that went to waste when they killed those two teens," Bruce added in as they walked into the party. Vlad tensed violently before turning towards Bruce.

"It was all Jack's fault. He's the one that shot the weapon at them, but why they both were convicted is beyond me," Vlad growled glaring at the man. Bruce raised his hands before backing away.

"Alright, enjoy the party," Bruce said as he turned around and left the man to steam. There was something there that told Bruce that it wasn't the whole story about what happened.

It's time for part two.

Phantom and Robin slowly made their way through the warehouse that Vlad had rented.

"Do you think he's really had time to do anything to it?" Robin asked as they walked around stacks of boxes.

"Clearly he was doing something here," Phantom whispered as he put his hand against one of the boxes. "He hasn't had time to set up, which is good for us."

"We can blind side him," Robin smiled before something shot at them.

"Finally, Ghost Child," Skulker grinned as Phantom hit the wall. Phantom opened his eyes to glare at the ghost. "I will have your pelt."

"I thought you worked for Vlad," Phantom growled flying up and getting into position. They figured they would be attacked. "I didn't think he wanted me dead."

"He's wants you broken," a voice said from the ground. Phantom looked down to see a woman with Robin in a headlock and his sword at his throat. "Although I do want you dead."

"Great, people I don't even know what me dead," Phantom deadpanned before Robin dropped himself to the floor and kicked Talia's legs from under her.

"Mother, you should know, you won't win this," Robin warned giving Phantom an idea of who they were up against. Phantom turned back to Skulker needing to finish this quickly.

"I never told Masters who you were. All I want is for you to come and regain your rightful place by my side in the League of Shadow," Talia said slowly walking towards him. Robin raised his hands ready for a fight.

Phantom dove down with Skulker right on his tail. Phantom turned and fired at his weapons only for a shield to appear around him.

"I've had a few upgrades, Whelp," Skulker sneered out before shooting a net. Phantom vanished from sight and reappeared behind Skulker.

"So have I," Phantom said darkly before pulling energy from his core. His powers felt different from what he normally pulled, and when he fired, the energy didn't look any different, but the moment it hit Skulker the green expanded before surrounding Skulker. Phantom looked at his hands as Skulker pulled out a knife.

"What did you do?" Skulker growled looking down at the green glow around him now. He shot forward and stabbed at a distracted Phantom only to be pulled at the last moment before killing Phantom.

Phantom felt the blade pierce his side before feeling a pull in his powers, and Skulker vanished in a green light. Phantom let out a groan as he descended to the ground.

"You really think I'll join you after everything you're already done. You tried to kill me," Robin growled as he pulled out a few batarangs. Talia dropped his sword before pulling out her gun and shooting at him. Robin flipped back away from them and hid behind one of storage crates. Phantom appeared next to him looking shaky.

"Are you alright? What happened to the ghost?" Robin asked looking around for their other enemy.

"I'm not entirely sure," Phantom whispered wincing a little from his wound and the firing of shots. "I shot him, and then he disappeared."

"What?" Robin asked looking at Phantom confused before turning around in a instant sensing his mother run out of bullets and reload. He threw a batarang knocking the gun out of her hand. "Nevermind, we can talk about it later."

Robin ran out from behind and threw a punch at Talia who blocked it and ducked down into a kick. Robin jumped over it before trying to slam his elbow into her face. She pulled up and stepped back away from it, but felt cold arms wrapped around her before suddenly feeling the floor disappear under her. She twisted around and hit Phantom, only for him to drop her. She landed on the ground only to get hit back by Robin who took the opening Phantom gave him.

"You little brat," Talia growled before flipping backwards. "Ya know, Damian, trusting him is a mistake."

"The only mistake I've made is trusting you," Robin sneered before running towards her.

"Ghosts do nothing but lie to get what they want," Talia warned. "At least I told you what I wanted."

"I know what he wants," Robin said quietly glaring at her. Talia narrowed her eyes before disappearing into the dark shadows. Phantom appeared at his side watching the shadows carefully.

"Now what?"

"We figure out why my mother wants you dead and decided to team up with Vlad," Robin said glaring at the shadows. Robin turned to Phantom to see him holding his side. "Are you injured?"

"Yeah, Skulker got a hit in before he vanished," Phantom said feeling the green slime in his hand.

Hood glared at the three vulture ghosts that were surrounding him.

"Vis is the punk that Masters vants us to get?" one asked the other two. The other two only shrugged. Hood pulled back one of his guns before firing and smiling when the green bullet hit home.

"Phantom gave me some toys that deal with ghosts specifically," Hood grinned before firing at the other two and knocking them down. "Do they ever pack a punch."

"We'll get vou," a bird growled before spreading his wings and flying at Hood only for him to pull out a thermos.

"I think I'm the one who got you," Hood grinned before sucking them in. "Easy, just like Phantom said they would be." Hood started his way over to Master's hotel. There was a lot of work needed to be done before the night was over.

Red Robin was going though Vlad's security on his private plane. It had been hard, but Danny's parents were surprisingly good at making inventions that track ghosts. There had been several around, but he was easily able to dodge them all.

"Alright, this guy is a creep," Red grumbled looking at the creepy pictures the guy held of Maddie Fenton. "So we're looking for…oh no." Red looked over the information on cloning and the possibilities of creating a mix between Phantom and Plasmius and the possibilities of not destroying the Ghost zone, but taking it over.

"Phantom's supposed to be their king?" Red whispered as he shifted the information on the defeat of Pariah Dark and exactly what that meant. Red quickly downloaded all the information and wondered if Danny even knew about it.

He was almost done when he came across another file. He opened it to see that Vlad had been in contact with the League of Shadows.

"I really hope Danny and Damian know about this," Red said as he took off with the information he got and wondered what other information was still in the files that he didn't get a chance to look though.

Bruce watched Vlad closely during the party. He got one call and disappeared, and Bruce couldn't find him anywhere. Bruce even opened up the small ghost tracked he had and still nothing. Vlad reappeared a few minutes later looking a bit annoyed, but not seemingly to want to kill everyone just yet.

Dick walked up next to him and watched as Vlad horribly flirted with a younger girl.

"He's super creepy," Dick whispered carefully. They knew that Danny had super-hearing, but Danny wasn't sure if Vlad did or not. "But an update like you asked, Talia is working with Vlad to apparently kill Phantom, and Tim says that there's something we need to see before Danny and Damian get back. Which could be a little while since Phantom got hurt."

"How bad is he?" Bruce asked narrowing his eyes at Vlad in anger.

"Not too bad, but Damian's patching him up," Dick answered. "Tim seemed a bit off, and said that there are some things that no longer add up with Danny. He doesn't trust him."

"He might have a point; we don't know Danny. But we do know Damian," Bruce said turning back to Dick. "Damian barely trusts us."

"He's blindly trusted the wrong people before," Dick reminded. "But even when I first met Danny, I felt like I could trust him. There was some sort feeling around him. It made me feel at ease in the beginning."

"Then what?" Bruce asked. This was the first time Dick really explained the first meeting with Danny without keeping things out of it to protect the hybrid.

"He got angry, and I felt fear," Dick said looking at Bruce. "Danny said ectoplasm can act off emotions, and I don't think the fear I felt was my own. I think it was Danny's. I don't think he could lie even if he wanted to."

"That we know of. A lot of his parents' research was done on the assumption that ghosts do nothing but lie to get what they wanted," Bruce said. "There's a lot I don't know, but I do trust Damian to make the right decision when it comes to Danny."

"Even if Danny is working another angle," Dick asked making Bruce sigh.

"Honestly? I think Danny just wants to be free from his past," Bruce said. "I don't think that angle is really too much to ask."

"What if there's more?"

"Then we deal with it if it comes."

"Will you hold still," Robin grumbled as he wrapped the bandage around Phantom's chest to help keep him from bleeding.

"I'll heal soon," Phantom said shifting again making Robin tighten his hold on the wraps and Phantom's arm.

"Yes, but it'll be even faster and safer if you let me wrap this," Robin said as he finished. Phantom wasn't sitting very still, but it was at least done. "What's going on? You usually stay pretty calm when I'm wrapping your injuries."

"I don't know. I feel like something is wrong," Phantom sighed as he slipped the top part of his suit back on. Robin gently reached forward and started zipping it and making sure that the bandage didn't get caught.

"The last time you said something like that, I almost got thrown from a building," Robin reminded looking at Phantom. "You thought it was nothing."

"You need to stop, those types of feeling aren't reliable," Damian said crossing his arms and glaring at Danny who was pacing across the small apartment.

"No, you don't understand. Something bad is going to happen, and I don't know what it is," Danny said waving his hands over his head. "I'm not crazy."

"Fine, listen, I'm going on patrol with Batman, I'll be back tomorrow," Damian said turning away from Danny. Danny watched as he walked out the door with wide eyes.

A couple hours later Robin was being held over a crowd of people while Batman was tied not too far from him. All Danny could see on the news report was Robin's anger.

Danny knew something was wrong.

"You mean we know who the leader of the Ghost Zone is?" Nightwing asked looking over that information with confusion. "Danny would have said something."

"If he knew, he wouldn't have said anything to us, but he may have brought it up to Damian," Bruce said but continued going though a few other files. "However, I think we should be more worried about this rather than Danny."

"Oh my god," Nightwing whispered. "He killed them just to tortured Danny. He…he didn't plan on Maddie going down for it all either."

"No, that's what makes this even more dangerous. Danny pushed for his mother to also be convicted. Vlad doesn't know, but I looked into the records, and Danny pushed for it. It's almost like he blamed both of them," Bruce said looking over the information. "Which means both Vlad and Danny know things that the other doesn't."

"Do you think that's why they always came to a stalemate? The reason why Danny could never beat him. They always had different information and used it against each other," Nightwing asked realizing that this was much more complicated than just good versus evil.

"Yeah, and if I'm right, I bet Vlad has something planned to either break or kill Danny," Bruce added looking at Nightwing. "We have a choice to make."

"If we want involved or not?" Nightwing asked knowing his answer.

"No, if we take Vlad down, or if we should take both of them down," Bruce growled looking over the information on how the Ghost Zone government worked. "Danny is even more dangerous if he really can hold the power of the king."

"I would take Danny's side," Nightwing whispered straightening up. "He's not a criminal nor a bad person."

"Even good people do bad things for the right reason," Bruce said as he stood up and walked out.

"Danny, are you okay?" Damian asked as the hybrid rocked back and forth. Damian looked around the condo and it was clean, but something was off. Almost like something was missing. "Danny?"

"Someone was here," Danny whispered twitching lightly when Damian gently put his hand on Danny's back. "They were here. Someone found me…"

"Danny, it's okay. I told you. This was compromised a few weeks ago, but it was the only thing I had that was better than the first place," Damian said gently pushing the hybrid towards the couch that had clearly seen better days.

"Someone bad was here," Danny whispered feeling the evil surround him. It disappeared when Damian gently wrapped his arms around Danny.

"I'll find a better place," Damian whispered remembering the last person who had been here.

His Grandfather.

I'm bored and y'all kinda suck with the reviews and all. Totally lame, but I'm updating. Could use some cheering up.

I'm also still writing Laceration. The sequel to this which takes place a year after this ends. My cat is taking up half my bed. I'm very upset. I wanna sleep...also want food, but effort and money are required for that. Ninja has been making odd noises. Not bad noises, just weird. and sometimes annoying when she wants something. Like attention. She's a bit of an attention whore.

So leave a review and let me know what you think about the story so far.

Whips are dangerous.