Bruised

Chapter Seventeen

Reunion

The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

Jack felt intimated as he exited the vehicle. Wayne Manor was huge, and he knew that the man was rich, but he let his ghost obsession get in the way of what's most important.

His kids.

Jack watched as Alfred opened the door for him. Danny was sitting on the stairs when he entered. The kid was staring at his phone as Jack walked in.

"Danny-boy," Jack greeted making Danny jump up and run up to give him a hug. "Oh, I know it hasn't been long, but I missed you, son."

"Missed you too, Dad," Danny said. He was happy that he at least knew his parents were, but only because he was Phantom. Danny stepped back and heard Bruce walk up behind him.

"I was under the impression that he'd be staying here for nearly a month. What happened?" Bruce asked seemingly like he had no idea what they had been doing.

"Well, the organization we were working with ended up being disbanded fairly quickly," Jack said as he looked Bruce over. "I'm sure you seen the news about the Ghost Zone and the truce that's being worked on. Well, we were…we were working to see about separating the worlds, but I don't think it's possible."

"They were really planning to take it that far just because of a few ghosts?" Danny asked. He knew they were trying to find a way to destroy the Ghost Zone, but to even go that far into looking into separating the worlds was uncomfortable.

"Yes, we theorized that a hybrid would be the answer, and well…I can't justify using a hybrid to do that. Not when one was the one to bring peace to the table after…everything that humans have done," Jack said. "And knowing what I do now…I can't go though with it."

"That's good," Danny whispered. "Being the kid of people who destroyed the world wouldn't go well with my school. I'm already at the bottom of the social ladder." Jack snorted as he slapped his son's back hard in joy. Danny grunted and held his shoulder.

Bruce watched the man carefully not liking how hard Jack slapped his son. Even if it seemed to be in good faith. Bruce was cautious and he could see the wariness in Danny at the interaction.

"Well, Danny, why don't you take your dad into the other room. Alfred will be back with some snacks and you guys can catch up," Bruce suggested. He had told Danny that if he was going to tell his father about Phantom, that he wanted to be close just in case.

He wanted the teen to have back up in case his father didn't really take it well.

Jack followed Danny into what he would guess was a type of living room or meeting room. Danny seemed to have caved back into himself a little and stared at the floor for a moment.

Maddie growled out looking over her information. There wasn't much here, but she couldn't use it to track the Ghostboy. She just needed to figure out who he was in life. She started looking though Amity death records to see what she could find.

Afterall, he'd have to have died to get his powers anyway.

At least that's what she told herself. She never really liked the fact that there was a team of superheroes. Beings with powers that went unchecked.

She disliked it. She was happy when they made the charter, however it wasn't enough.

There were still ones operating out of it.

She'd do her best to prevent the Ghostboy from being a problem. And if he's a hybrid, then he should be easy to take down.

Normal human weapons should also work on him.

While she didn't have much of a plan yet, she knew that Phantom would pop back up in Amity.

She was just going to have to bind her time.

Danny watched his dad carefully as he sat down.

"So how have things been here?" Jack asked with a smile. Danny looked away.

"It's been crazy... I made some new friends," Danny started with. He could feel Ember in the room with him.

He wanted to introduce his dad to a ghost before telling him.

"That's good! I was worried when the only two people you hang out with were Sam and Tucker!" Jack joked but calmed seeing the nervousness in Danny.

"Yeah, the first here was…definitely something I wish to never repeat," Danny said getting a snort from Ember which made Jack straightened up.

"Who's there?" Jack demanded looking around the room. Danny sighed as a Ember appeared.

"Babypop got kidnapped!" Ember cheerfully replied to get a glare from the teen. Jack just stared at her.

"Dad, this is Ember. I'm sure you remember her trying to mind control the world? Well, she promised not to and followed me here," Danny explained. Jack just continued to stare at her and blink.

"Yo. That's a little creepy," Ember said with a smile. "And I'm the ghost."

"Dad?" Danny asked getting worried. Jack turned to now stare at his son. "Yeah, Ember's right, that's creepy. Uh…I've made a ghost friend?"

Jack continued to stare at his son.

"Wow, I've rendered people speechless before, but not like this," Ember commented a little concerned for Danny's safety and taking a step closer to the boy.

Danny twitched slightly and it took everything in him to not vanish.

He could even feel Gotham react by calming him down.

Danny took a look at the doorway waiting for Bruce or Alfred to appear. It felt like time stopped, but Danny knew that wasn't the case.

Finally, Jack shifted before looking at the ground.

"Phantom mentioned that he had friends who were minors that could become liaisons in a few years. I take it you're one of them," Jack said looking to the side. Danny felt everything at once before he sighed and sat down across from his dad.

"Far more complicated actually," Danny said as he watched his dad. "But technically yes."

Danny thought about trying to do this as Fenton as well. Hiding in plain sight to see if the humans would try to double cross him.

"I'm sorry you felt you couldn't come to us about this," Jack said looking at Ember for a moment. "But, we would've understood." Danny winced.

"Considering Mom's reaction to hybrids existing, I doubt that. This may be best case scenario at the moment," Danny said while looking at the ground. Jack only watched his son for a moment.

"Danny, what are you trying to tell me?" Jack asked as fear swelled in his gut.

What had his son gotten into?

"I'm also a hybrid," Danny said as Jack felt the floor fall out from beneath him.

A hybrid?!

"How?" Jack asked quietly. Danny sighed and stared at his dad as he pulled energy from his core to his hand. It gave the room an eerie green lighting.

"The portal. I was inside," Danny summarized as he let the energy swirl.

"But that would've…." Jack trailed off.

"It did, but it also brought me back…over and over again," Danny whispered as the energy died and slowly green marks started at his hand traveling up lighting up under his shirt.

It lit up under his shirt and Jack recognized the pattern.

Lichtenburg scars.

Danny's right eye turned black with a green center as the scars traveled across his face.

"Oh my god," Jack said before darkness overtook his vision.

"Showing him your death scar probably wasn't the best idea," Ember said as she finally stopped laughing. Danny glared at her. Jack was passed out on the couch while Alfred looked over him. Bruce was next to Danny looking at the kid concerned.

"Are you okay?" Bruce asked. He'd rewatched the video feed from the camera several times. He even slowed it down so he could see how the scars started.

"Yeah, I was hoping to ease him into it rather than just come right out and say it," Danny said as he leaned against the couch that his dad was laying on.

"Which isn't a bad idea, but I think it may have still been too much," Bruce said looking at Jack. He was happy that the kid hadn't lost his parents, but he still didn't want to send Danny home.

He'd done some research and that house wasn't safe for the teenager. Between Danny accidently getting himself half killed and the weaponry that the Fentons were making made a dangerous home life for Danny and his sister.

Jazz was now out of the house and in college in California. So, all that was left was Danny, and it didn't take Bruce much to realize that he tended to avoid staying at his own house for too long.

Apparently, the house had some anti-ecto security measure, and had attacked Danny before.

Bruce wasn't happy, but there wasn't anything he could do about it until Jack actually knew. Then Bruce planned on giving the man a piece of his mind about how he was treating his kid.

He knew he wasn't much better, but at least he'd acknowledge that fact. Plus, he had Jason to call him out on his shit.

Bruce sighed knowing he had a problem with collecting children and taking them under his wing. He was glad he could at least help train Danny.

And Danny took it up well, all without using his powers which honestly amazed him.

At least until Danny told him how Masters had a device that canceled out his powers.

Bruce knew Danny learned the hard way not to rely on his power alone.

He wished he hadn't had to, and instead had someone to help guide him.

Bruce planned to be that person from now on.

Jack felt like the world was still spinning as he woke up. Danny was laying on the couch across from him and looked to have fallen asleep.

The scars were gone now. Like they were never there to begin with. Jack wondered where they went.

He wasn't sure what to think about that, but he knew about death scars from studying ghosts. He just never really got the chance to see them up close, and he'd only ever see them once in his life.

All the other ghosts he'd manage to catch were more blobs of ectoplasm that had eyes.

He knew that those scars meant that at some point Danny had died.

That his son was a ghost.

But he still was breathing, eating, sleeping, and doing everyday human things.

Which reminded him of the hybrids.

Was his son a hybrid? How many were there?

How'd hybrids come to exist if they weren't born? Or could they both be made and born?

He knew that his son would have most of his answers. He really wished Maddie had come with him, but she was so focused on trying to figure out how to find them that she missed what was really important.

And that they were both so driven for their work that they missed one of their kids hiding such a big secret from them.

He didn't think it was a good idea to try to figure them out right away, and he's fairly certain that she is only acting this way because it was Phantom who was the first known hybrid.

She'd always hated him ever since he apparently took Danny's face.

Jack blinked.

What on earth was really going on here? Did Danny pretend to be attacked by Phantom to keep them away from the house?

He knew that all his answers rested on his son who was sleeping across from him.

"You know, us ghosts aren't all bad. Some of us just like to mess with people, and sometimes we forget how being human actually is," a voice said from behind him. He turned and seen the ghost from earlier.

Danny's friend.

The rockstar who once tried to mind control everyone into liking her.

She smiled as him as she walked around and sat down next to him.

"Babypop has had a rough few days and was really worried for you guys," she said watching him carefully.

"Yeah, it's been something alright," Jack whispered. He wanted to be his usual jolly self, but there were too many unknowns. Too many things that didn't add up.

He felt like he had all the pieces to the puzzle but wasn't allowed to turn it over to see the picture that they would create.

He knew something was up, but he just couldn't put it together. He felt like such a failure at that moment.

"You know, as much as I don't really care about families, mine wasn't the best, Dipstick here does tend to think the world of you guys," Ember said as she stretched. "And I should warn you, since I decided to befriend the idiot, should you hurt him, I will come after you." Jack huffed out a laugh at a ghost threatening him should he hurt his son.

And with a dawning of realization, he knew that he had in the past.

That perhaps he had done more than he thought when it come to their career choice. That maybe he had hurt his son unintentionally with their weapons.

They always did seem to like him.

And now that made sense.

"He's a hybrid, right?" Jack asked wondering how much the ghosts knew about them.

"Yeah, there's only like three of them though," Ember said making Jack turn to her.

"So, my son is one. Phantom another…" Jack trailed off when Ember shook her head.

"No," she whispered. "He really wanted to be the one to tell you, but maybe you should really think about that one. He made it a fucking pun. How he got away with it for so long is honestly the most baffling part of all this."

Jack blinked.

He still felt completely lost. Ember looked at him and shook her head.

"Ya know, I thought you were at least somewhat smart here," she sneered before standing up and heading towards the door. "My threat still stands, and I know for a fact that I'm not the only who will be out for blood should anything happen to Dipstick." She left.

Jack felt more confused than ever before.

So...I've got three ideas, but two of them are twin aus...One I only have an idea of what I want to do, so it'll be a while.
But I think I have an ending for Criminal. And I'm working on the last few chapters of this. So once this one done, I'll post the first chapter of whatever one I decide to work on most next.
And the one idea isn't even started...but I have yet to find that crossover where the story is fully flushed out...XD
It's a universe I really want to write in too... It's by far my favorite storyline.