AN: So, realistically, I don't know when, if ever, I'll finish this story - life has only gotten more complicated. So, to fulfill a promise I once made to one of my commenters, here is what I'm going to do. I have one more not quite finished/edited chapter which is here. Then, the next chapter I post will be the rest of what I have written for the story, which is a series of scenes forming the outline through the end. It's incomplete and choppy, and there's at least one major contradiction in the scenes which I never figured out how I was going to resolve. You don't have to read it, but if you wanted to know where the story was going, then there it is. Maybe someday I'll come back and finish this properly, but I have no idea. So, on with the show:

By the time the door had slid shut behind Batman and Maddie, Black Canary had already exited the observation room and was waiting for them in the hall. Her lips were pressed together in a thin line as her eyes narrowed at the Dark Night. He glanced aside at her before stopping to address Maddie, "Dr. Fenton, I would like to talk to you more about Phantom. Will you meet me in the briefing room in an hour?"

Maddie nodded and walked off toward the room she was using while at the cave. Once Maddie had turned the corner, Batman looked to Canary. "Well?"

"That's a very traumatized teenager in there," she said with a disapproving frown.

"Or appears to be one at least," Batman disagreed. "Dr. Fenton says that ghosts, especially this one, are known to mimic human behaviors to gain sympathy."

"If that's only mimicry, it's very convincing."

Batman sighed. "I agree." Dinah was startled by his sudden softening. "I believe he was going to tell me everything before he spotted Dr. Fenton. What little he did say indicates a larger purpose behind Dick's kidnapping than the pure malevolence Dr. Fenton believes."

"He's clearly afraid of her. So why did you double down on that by threatening him?" she asked.

"You may have been right. I'm not as detached from this as I need to be."

Dinah's eyebrows rose in surprise at the admission. "This really has gotten to you badly. So, who do you want to take over the Phantom situation?"

"No one."

"Bruce… you just said…" she started, ready to argue, but he cut her off quickly.

"I know, but I have a plan."

Canary brushed her hair away from her shoulder discontentedly. "All right, but I don't want you alone with Phantom at any point. He could potentially manipulate your anger too easily."

"I thought you said his reaction earlier was genuine?" Batman challenged.

"I believe it was, but that doesn't mean things can't change."

"Very well," Batman conceded, again surprising her. "But from here on out, only those who know Dick's secret identity are to be present when questioning him."

She tilted her head in curiosity, concern in her eyes. "You think he knows?"

"It is unlikely, since if he knows I expect he would have already tried to use it against me, but I can't rule it out."

M'Gann wandered toward the kitchen, figuring some baking might help clear her head. She stopped just before entering when she saw that Wally was already there, although oddly he wasn't eating. He sat slumped at the counter in his civvies, a full but gone-cold mug of coffee in front of him. She paused awkwardly for a moment in the doorway, trying to decide if this was a conversation she should really have.

Her decision was made for her when she saw that he had noticed her out of the corner of his eye, even though his posture didn't change. M'Gann came up behind him and put a light hand on his shoulder. Wally looked up and forced a fake smile, but she could tell from his red eyes that he had been crying. "Hey, M'Gann. What's up?"

She smiled sympathetically at him. "No, 'beautiful' or 'sweet cheeks' or even 'babe' today?"

He let his smile drop. "Sorry, just not feeling the aster, as Robin would say."

M'Gann nodded and sat down next to him at the counter. "Me too." After a moment of silence, she continued hesitantly, "You know, don't you?" Wally looked up at her questioningly. "That's why you're still so upset and preoccupied, even though we got him out." She didn't have to say who.

"I don't know what you mean," Wally turned away from her to stare down at his drink.

"You know… who Robin is."

He looked up sharply, green eyes wide. "How do you?"

"The mind scan during the battle. I recognized Robin's mind, but when I made contact he told me not to tell the Team."

"Oh." Wally bit his lower lip as he considered, "So he told you…"

"That I hadn't found Robin, I had found Dick Grayson. Yeah." M'Gann shrugged helplessly. "And you've known this whole time?"

"Yep." Wally couldn't hide his slight tremble as he tried to contain his emotions.

"Oh, Wally." She reached out and pulled him into a hug that they both badly needed.

As she comforted Kid Flash, M'Gann realized she needed to know what had happened to Robin, one way or the other.

Aqualad stopped before the door to the room where they had constructed the ghost containment unit to do a quick evaluation of the area before he entered to do the hourly physical check of the prisoner. While Phantom was constantly under surveillance from the many cameras in the room, this was an added safety precaution that Batman had insisted on. He was about to enter when he heard a faint sound from the one-way observation room next door.

He carefully keyed the door to silently open. He stopped in the doorway, unsure what he was expecting to find, but it definitely was not Miss Martian sitting on the floor in front of the one-way viewing panel staring at the ghost with a smattering of tears running down her face.

"M'Gann?" he softly broke the silence. She breathed in a quick gasp and turned to look up at him, her face a mask of fear. He glanced up at the ghost, but Phantom still lay curled up in midair at the other end of the room. By the time he looked back to M'Gann, she had closed her eyes and he saw her relax.

She opened her eyes again and gave him a weak smile, "Kaldur," she acknowledged. "I'm sorry, you startled me."

He tilted his head in acceptance and then asked, "What are you doing in here?"

"Oh," her breathing picked up again as she flustered, "I'm not supposed to be in here, I'm sorry, I just had to know..."

He stopped her rambling by stepping forward and place a hand lightly on her shoulder. "It is all right, M'Gann. Observing was not strictly off limits, and we are all somewhat curious." He lifted his hand and brought it to her face to gently wipe a tear away. "But, what has happened?"

Miss Martian pulled away in a bit of embarrassment, obviously reluctant to confide in him. "Is this about what he did to Richard Grayson?" He sat down next to her and stared out at the quiescent ghost as she had been doing.

She shook her head no, then halfway through changed it to yes, then back again, her shoulders slumping. "It… it was at first. I wanted to see what kind of monster hurt… him." Her voice broke a bit and tears started to well in her eyes again. "I had to know why. So, I tried to read his mind," she admitted quietly as Aqualad turned his attention back to her. "But, like with those ghosts in the forest, I couldn't get any real thoughts – although I could sense they're there, more so than with the others, but I still couldn't get to them. But his emotions… they were overwhelming, blotting everything else out!" she ended, almost hysterically, then clamped a hand over her mouth as the tears finally fell again.

Kaldur's brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what was causing her this reaction, and he put an arm around her shoulders to comfort her. "So," he began tentatively, "his anger and malevolence are so overpowering…"

"No!" Miss Martian interrupted. She shook her head again and pulled herself a little closer to Kaldur's brotherly embrace. "He's afraid. Terrified," she whispered, still distressed. "I may not be able to read his mind, but his emotions are so clear... He's completely terrified."

"Kid Flash, come with me," Batman growled.

As he followed the Dark Knight down the hall, Wally got up the courage to ask, "What's going on?" His voice trembled a bit as he feared the worst.

"I have some more questions for the prisoner."

Wally gave an internal sigh of relief that it wasn't bad news about Dick. Which mostly left him confused. "You need me for that?"

"I promised Black Canary that I would always have a second person present when I interrogated the prisoner, just in case." There was a growl in Batman's throat as he paused, and Wally realized that the stipulation might not be for Batman's protection, but Phantom's. "But she isn't here at the moment," he continued. Batman looked intently at Kid Flash. "And it has to be someone who knows Dick's secret, in case something comes up that would give it away while I am interrogating the ghost."

"Dick would never do anything that would give away his identity," Wally immediately said with confidence, defending his friend, pushing down the slight doubt at the back of his mind after his conversation with M'Gann.

"He would if he thought his life was in danger or had reason to believe he was in serious jeopardy."

"No, he wouldn't," Wally insisted hotly. "No matter what they did to him, he'd never give away your identities, not to the enemy," he appended.

"Yes, he would. Because I've told him to."

Wally stopped, stunned, staring at Batman.

Batman gave a tired sigh as he too stopped and turned back to Kid Flash. "Our identities aren't worth more than his life, Wally. Not to me. And hopefully I've made that clear to him, too."

"Oh," he responded dumbly. Then again, "Oh," but this time with more energy. "Then, maybe it's a good time to tell you that M'Gann knows too?"

M'Gann slipped quietly into the interrogation room, with one last surreptitious look down the hallway and a nod at Kaldur at he went back into the observation room. The ghost boy was huddling in the far corner of his cell as she approached. It was only when she got within a couple feet of the glowing wall and had stood there silently for a few minutes that he bothered to glance up at her. She saw surprise flash across his face as he did a double take, then he floated to his feet, watching her warily. While M'Gann had observed him from the other room through the one-way window, it was only now that she could feel a bit of that same chill she had felt around the other ghosts that they had fought. It made an involuntary shiver go up her spine and she suddenly wondered if this was a good idea after all.

"Hi," M'Gann finally greeted, a little breathless with nerves. He looked at her anxiously, his breathing shallow and fast. "Your name is Phantom, right?" she finally prompted. He gave a short nod in response, but otherwise didn't move. "I'm M'Gann."

He continued to stare at her, so she dared a little more, "I'm not really supposed to be in here, but I could feel your fear and I just thought…" she trailed off.

The ghost bit his lip uncertainly a moment before he blurted, "You're a Martian, aren't you?"

"I am," she replied, slightly surprised that a ghost knew of Martians.

They fell into an uneasy silence again for a few minutes. Even though M'Gann knew she was staring, she couldn't seem to look away. His form glowed with a faint light, and his eyes were so unnaturally green that her own skin looked dull in comparison. She could still feel the emotions raging out from him, even though she wasn't trying to read him at the moment – the fear still there, but also guilt, and desperation. Despite all that, she didn't feel any of the malevolence she had felt from the animal ghosts they had first encountered in the forest.

The ghost grew uncomfortable with her scrutiny and finally asked, "What do you want?"

Startled out of her contemplation, she reluctantly admitted, "Originally I came to try to figure out what kind of monster could hurt an innocent boy so badly." He flinched at that, looking away in guilt. "But then, as I said, I felt your emotions – your fear, or terror really – and I… I've felt afraid before, afraid for my life even, but never anything like what you were feeling. What are you so terrified of?"

Phantom's gaze remained on the floor and she noticed his shoulders shudder once before he asked, "Are they safe?"

M'Gann was thrown by the non sequitur, "Who?"

"The Fentons. And Sam and Tucker. Are they safe?" he repeated.

She suddenly recalled the conversation at the Fenton's about Maddie's son and his friends who were helping defend the town from ghosts. She looked at Phantom cautiously. "Why do you care?"

"I just… need to know. Please."

It was the please that convinced her. "I'm not sure. Are they in danger?"

"Didn't he tell you?" he asked desperately, looking at her once more. Her eyebrows pulled down in confusion. "Dick. Grayson. Didn't he tell you?"

"Dick Grayson hasn't regained consciousness since we rescued him. He's in a coma," she found herself explaining, even though she was unsure if she should.

Phantom let out a defeated huff, slumping to the floor, and a noise that was almost a whine came from his throat. "Plasmius will go after them. They're all in danger. He might even kill them," he said breathlessly.

"You've hurt them before," she countered, unsure why he was concerned about people he had previously attacked.

"I was being controlled by Plasmius – the vampire looking ghost," he clarified at her confused look. He ran a hand through his hair, tugging on it in frustration. "I would never hurt them, or hurt any human, but he had total control of me."

While this made sense based on other things she had learned about Phantom while at the Fenton's, such as how his behavior had radically changed, the excuse sounded too convenient. Mrs. Fenton's warnings against being manipulated by the ghost came to her mind suddenly, hardening her response. "So, you weren't responsible for hurting any of them, and we should just let you go, is that it?"

"No!" the ghost denied fervidly. "You don't get it! I don't want to get out of here! I don't want to escape. If I get out, Plasmius will find me and be able to control me again. I don't want him to be able to force me to do horrible things again!" He slammed a hand into the ground he was sitting on, causing the ghost shield's energy to ripple across the floor of his cell.

M'Gann flinched back at his outburst, but then noticed the tears on his face even as he turned away from her to try to hide them. She had been trying to block out the emotions emanating from the ghost during their conversation so that she could keep a clear head, but the strength of that reaction had broken right through. And, while anger had been part of it, his primary emotion had been that overwhelming despair again.

She took a deep breath to steady herself and reformed the shielding in her mind. M'Gann took two steps forward, until she was right up next to the containment cell, then knelt down so she wasn't towering over the sitting Phantom. Gently, she said, "So, help us. Tell us what we need to know so we can stop him."

"I can't," he protested weakly.

"Why not?" She felt his despair rise again, followed by fear, the two competing for dominance.

"I just can't." The ghost wrapped his arms around himself, suppressing a shudder as he hunched into himself more. "And now Batman is going to let the Fentons do their experiments and 'tear me apart molecule by molecule' until I do."

"No!" M'Gann protested in shock, "Batman wouldn't do that." But even as she said it, she had a moment of doubt, knowing what she did now about who Richard Grayson was to the Dark Knight.

Pained eyes turned her way, obviously disbelieving. She flinched at the new assault of emotions, the utter despair engulfing him once more, as she suddenly realized that the fear hadn't been of the experiments.

At her reaction though, the ghost's gaze narrowed calculatingly, the sudden shift in his mood catching her off guard. "You're a Martian," she heard him mumble quietly.

Phantom lifted one had and set it against the ghost shield, flinching as he made contact, but holding it there before her and waited. He looked at her expectantly biting his lower lip. Curious, she also brought a hand up and laid it against his, with the shield between them. His green eyes blazed and suddenly she felt the full force of his emotions pressing against her mind, threatening to break through her shield and overwhelm her. With the emotions though, this time she could sense something else too. Realizing what he was trying to do, she forced herself to lower her mind's defenses enough to let the images in and promptly passed out as she was overcome by the force of the ghost's emotions.