Every possible scenario was racing through Tim's mind. Right now, this ghost who was now possessing his body -or overshadowing as he likes to call it- was going up to the manor in the elevator. In his Red Robin suit! Tim couldn't think of anything fast enough to convince the ghost not to go up there. There were no other options to dissuade him with.

Technically he could have told Phantom to leave out the back exit, the one that B uses for the batmobile. But in that case, he would have to give the ghost the code to get out of the said door, compromising their security and passwords, including all of their secure files. Including the Justice league, and Tim can't risk that right now. Hopefully, the ghost would keep to his word and just walk out into the manor and leave. And hope they don't run into anyone and compromise any more identities.

In the elevator, the ghost must have felt Tim's rising panic from the situation because he started biting his -Tim's- lip nervously and shifting his weight from either foot while staring at the elevator doors. Once it arrived at the manor floor it didn't ping like you would expect a normal elevator to do. Something like that would be too noticeable. Instead, the doors opened silently to reveal the back of a wooden bookcase. After a second, said bookcase split down the middle and opened from either side to reveal one of the Manor's libraries and studies.

Phantom paused and stayed still for a moment, obviously listening for anyone before he walked out. He reached his hand out and gripped the edge of the bookshelf to peak around the corner.

)-(

It seemed he was in a library or study of some kind. It was huge compared to other rooms Danny had seen in his life. How people had gigantic rooms like this, Danny would never know. He felt rising panic coming from Red Robin. Danny didn't want to do this at all, but they were also the ones who kidnaped him, so…

He could also tell that Red was overthinking something, but he couldn't hear what it was. Then again that was good because he didn't want his mind to be clouded when he himself needed to think of a way out. He listened for a second to hear if there was anyone in the room before he grabbed onto the bookshelf that worked as a hidden entrance and leaned around to scan over the room.

Definitely no one in the room, as far as he knew. The coast was clear. He stepped out and was surprised by the warmth of the room, or maybe he had just gotten used to feeling heat through a human body again. But it was definitely warmer than the cave they were in earlier.

Danny walked across the room slowly, eyes darting around the whole time. There was even a second floor of bookshelves above them. Man, Sam and Jazz would love to see a library like this. This room had more books in it than the entire Amity Park Library back home. But it still had nothing on Ghostwriters Haunt.

But he was getting sidetracked. He cautiously started towards the large oak double door that was at the head of the room. There was a warm light radiating from underneath it, giving the dark room some light surrounding the door. It made the other side look homely and lively. Danny's eyes were pretty good at seeing in the dark, so he was fine in the room he was currently in. Night vision and all that. And good news, it seemed that it transferred over even when he was in another body.

He tentatively reached his hand towards the curved metallic door handle and pushed it down. It opened without complaint. No lock, good. He quickly opened it and slid out, opening the door no more than he needed to, to squeeze the vigilante's body through. He closed the door silently behind him and he heard it click shut. He turned his head back around to see he was standing in a large hallway of some kind.

Along the floor of the hallway was a red rug that stretched across the length all the way down until the next set of doors and a turn. What were these guys, rich or something? Then again, it would make sense for Batman and his little birds to be rich with all of the tech they have. Sam had been theorizing that Batman was just a rich white guy with too much time on his hands and not enough therapy. And now he thinks he owes the goth forty bucks.

"What is the way out?" Danny mentally asked his body partner. His eyes flicked down between both sides of the hall and their respective turns.

He felt Red huff in annoyance within his mind. "I'm not telling you that."

Danny rolled his eyes and put his hand on his hip, he responded out loud but in a hushed tone. "It's either you tell me how to get out of this maze or I start going around and opening random doors, and maybe I'll end up finding out more of your secrets." He glanced down towards a random door that was maybe five or so feet away. "I don't have time for that, the sooner we get out of this mansion the sooner you get your body back." He said pointedly.

)-(

"-The sooner you get your body back." The ghost finished, Tim was still finding it weird hearing his voice, yet it was so different, like a mix of him and the ethereal voice of a teen in his head. But he shook that off. He did have a point. He couldn't just let him go around the manor and search all of the rooms, maybe there was a chance that he wouldn't recognize where they were if he just left. And there was also the possibility of him coming across Dick or Damian in their civilian clothes. Right now he didn't know any of the bat's identities and Tim wanted to keep it that way.

Tim could lead him out of the house without being seen and maybe even keep their civilian lives a secret. "Left." Tim responded, Surprisingly the ghost turned without hesitation to go down the left side of the hallway. Tim wasn't expecting him to trust his word that easily. Or maybe he could tell if Tim was telling the truth or not. The former Robin wasn't sure.

"left, right, right." He continued. The ghost was surprisingly very sneaky and light on his feet, barely making a sound. Sure, Tim was good at being silent, but this was Batman or Damian's level of sneaking. Phantom must have done something like this before, or maybe it was a ghost thing?

Tim was trying to lead him towards a back door, he definitely wasn't going to the front door, especially wearing his Red Robin costume. It was very common for reporters to just wait outside their front door to catch a photo of people entering or leaving the manor for some sort of new 'Wayne Family Scandal'. Tim inwardly rolled his eyes.

He felt the ghost's curiosity spike a little, he must have felt Tim -roll- his -eyes-. "It's nothing, don't worry, just thinking about something."

"You do think a lot." The ghost chuckled. "I can feel your thoughts racing." He stopped next to a corner wall and looked around down the next hall.

Tim paused. "You know, I can feel you calculating too, you keep looking around like you're paranoid."

"Why wouldn't I be?" He raised his -Tim's- eyebrow, under their domino mask. "Honestly this whole thing is freaking me out and I just want to get out of here."

Tim felt nerves pick up in the ghost. "Well if you answered Batman's questions we would have let you go."

Phantom scoffed. "I highly doubt that." Tim felt the need to speak up and defend Batman's intentions but he realized that arguing more would just lose time. He waited but the ghost still hadn't moved from his position, Tim was puzzled for a second before he realized.

"Oh, left." The ghost immediately continued off again. He continued down the hall for a few more minutes. They just needed to go past the kitchen and they will be home fr-

"Oh, Master Tim. I didn't realize you would be up here so soon."


Authors notes

Beta read by gamma_radio (ao3)

Ooooooh, busted! You can't escape Alfred, lmao.

I know that entrance to the cave from the manor is different from the comics. In some it is a grandfather clock in the hallway, in others, it is a fireplace, and sometimes it's just a random bookcase or painting. But I'm just going to go with a bookcase for now because I'm not sure what one I want to do. I just hope that I'm not messing anything up too much when it comes to the comics.

Also, there was an explanation for why Tim didn't tell Danny to use the Batcave exit. All the times they would need a passcode to get out either put in on the keypad or through one of the vehicles, either way, Tim would need to tell Danny the passcode, and that would probably be the same passcode for all of the security in the cave. Sorry if I get anything wrong compared to the comics. I haven't read all of them. :D

Please tell me what you thought of this chapter! I love comments so much and they always make my day when I see them! Love you all and have a good day! XD