AN: Yes it was Jason Todd, as much as I love him Bruce wasn't a good fit for him as a mentor or father like figure, he didn't really know how to help Jason even though he tried Jason just needed too much attention also Jason is one of my favourite characters and I want build the core family Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian, Bruce, Cass and Steph. Jason's dad is gone and his mom is using drugs currently. He spent about two years on the streets before Bruce found him, I think he was 14 but I'm not very sure. He is currently 9 years old.

As for Damian I'm playing with the idea of Bruce getting Dinah pregnant and she gives birth to him or do you guys want him to be the son of Talia and be an evil ninja baby? I will admit the whole Talia thing is kind of complicated and I don't think it would fit in well in the story.

Going Ghost: Danny's timeline all happened except for the last two episodes, the slap dash ending of Phantom Planet so yes he did face Dan, imprisoned him and then Vlad released him instead of doing that whole asteroid thing, he released Dan and then the universe ended.

Poll is still open and Zatanna is still winning so please keep voting, by the time I put up the next chapter for this I'm gonna close the poll so about three to four more days.

Chapter 7

While Dick decided to have a day at the beach with his team, Danny decided to go back to Crime Alley. There was something about that kid and Danny needed to know more, to know if he needed more help than he first assumed, if he had someone to care for him and Danny couldn't help but feel protective of him.

He found the boy in the library and he was shocked at the sheer amount of books that he was reading and it was all literature, like Shakespeare he had Romeo and Juliet, Othello and some others in a smaller pile but he was currently reading Macbeth or maybe he was re-reading it, Danny wasn't sure but he sat down in front of the boy and waited to be noticed.

Jason eventually threw the book down in frustration and was shocked to see Danny sitting there and he smiled, "I see you took my advice though I did not expect Shakespeare to be your first reading choice."

The boy scrowled at him, "Its more interestin' but I don't get this one."

Danny looked at the Romeo and Juliet book, "You got that one?"

"Tragic romance, doomed love and stuff."

Danny struggled not to laugh, there was more to it than that but it was obvious the kid didn't really care for that one but he wanted to understand something about Macbeth.

"What don't you get?" asked Danny.

"Why'd she commit suicide, the Lady Macbeth?"

Danny thought that was something kind of clear, "She couldn't live with the guilt."

"But it was her idea. She had to know what wudda done to her so why choose ta off herself later?"

Danny shook his head, "Lady Macbeth became greedy when she heard of the prophecy she believed that because it was a prophecy then it was meant to be, like destiny and because it had been foretold she believed that she would be able to live with what she had done but afterwards she couldn't live with the guilt. Many people think they're ready for something that they are capable of doing something only to regret it later in their life, she was one of them. She saw her hands as bloody, she couldn't escape what she had done and so she ended her life."

"She was weak. She couldn't live up to what she had done." He insisted and Danny was shocked, there was conviction in his statement.

"Why do you say she was weak?"

"She didn't let herself be punished. If she were alive at the end of the book then the new King would have beheaded her and that would have been a punishment, she took the easy way out."

Danny was shocked, he hadn't expected this type of thinking coming from someone so young.

Danny almost wanted to hug him but he also knew the child would never allow it, "She punished herself. She believed that because her hands were stained by the blood of the innocent then she didn't deserve to live, sometimes the punishment that we give to ourselves is worse than anything that someone else could do to us."

Danny met up with Jason every Tuesday and Thursday after that day. Dick had come home telling him of a new team mate and Danny simply rolled his eyes and nodded his head. Danny hardly ever went to the cave anymore, it really wasn't his place and the team was doing just fine. He spent more time with Jason until Dick came to tell him something about some Ghost Girl that Artemis and Zatanna had found which led them to some villain calling himself Harm.

Danny listened, he had been interested however when he went to her supposed grave her spirit was no longer connected to this world. This universe's ghosts just didn't exist in the same way they did in his world. Danny wasn't sure what he was supposed to feel at that but he was both relieved and sad. This world would never work in the same way but there were people here that were his family and for now that was more than enough.

Danny didn't patrol with Batman often, that was usually Dick's place and Danny preferred to be with Canary, she was his mentor after all and they worked well together but this was one of those times when Dick was busy with the team and Canary was in Star City so Danny decided to help Bruce out, besides it was a busy night and one can never be too careful.

Something had nagged on his consciousness the whole patrol, there was someone there and Danny knew it, the presence wasn't harmful, that he could feel a mile away but it definitely didn't belong out in the open the whole night. It followed Batman, hardly noticing Phantom but he spent most of his time invisible. He really didn't want attention not yet, he got enough of it in his human form these days. Danny sensed curiosity, awe and something else, not like with Jason, he was all emotion and while intelligent he was more emphatic, Jason could understand people, he could read them better a book, both their good qualities and the bad. Jason was the type of person that could read people and with training he would probably understand their thinking and understand their decisions. This was different, Danny wasn't reading just emotions from this person there was something else, it was raw potential.

In some ways it was so similar to the feeling that he had gotten from Jason when he was drawn to him but Danny knew that he had been drawn to Jason's emotions, how deeply he felt, his protective instincts so deeply in tuned to himself that in sometimes he thought that if Jason died protecting something or someone would probably have been his obsession, if he had ever come back as a ghost. It reminded him a bit about himself and how he had taken up the responsibility of being his towns hero at only 14, they were both two boys who had shouldered more responsibility than they should have before they should have done so but they still managed to do the best they could.

What Danny was currently sensing was something completely different, this was like a labyrinth of pure untapped potential, this was a mind that never stopped working, that saw things in ways that no one else saw and it was young and so untrained probably a child with ADHD because if the kids mind never stopped he doubted that his body ever stopped. Whoever was currently following Batman, this type of mind was highly aware, highly functional and probably with genius level intellect and he was in awe of the caped crusader.

Danny left Batman and decided to find the source of what he had been sensing all night and boy was he surprised. It was a really tiny kid, maybe 7 years old and he looked kind of like Dick with the black hair and blue eyes thing and he had a camera in his hand and he was taking pictures of Batman. Danny didn't know if he should be alarmed or amused so instead he decided to wait until the kid went home so he could follow him and colour him surprised when he found out that the kid lived right next door to B.

Danny took a quick look around the house and realized that his parents weren't home, not really understanding much he decided to bring it up to Dick. He really didn't want Bruce to terrify the kid and then he left the kid in his makeshift darkroom probably developing his pictures and again he wasn't sure if he should be worried that a seven year old could stalk the dynamic duo and they didn't know or if he should be impressed. Danny hummed slightly as he gathered up some of his files to take to the cave, he needed to talk to Robin after all, Dick did say something about looking for a new partner to train with Batman when he decided to give up the mantle and the training would take a while, a couple of years really so maybe they could let the kid do it.

A different part of his mind flashed back to Jason and Danny immediately shoved that thought aside, Jason was his to mentor not Bruce and he was the one that won his trust, it was only fair that he train this kid if he ever wanted to become a vigilante or you know if he could convince the kid to come to the manor so he could live with them and he was pretty sure that he could convince Bruce to let him keep Jason. It wasn't like he asked for much since he had come here. This kid had a lot of potential and Bruce could train him to be his little Robin, he definitely was a big fan boy of Batman so he fit better. Jason was his, Bruce wouldn't know how to approach him and would probably make him mad, the two of them were very similar and they were both stubborn, Bruce could maybe teach him but he wasn't a good fit for Robin, Jason could create his own mantle after all he was just too independent.

Then Danny nearly slapped himself, it seemed like he had been building up this idea of a perfect family in his head forgetting that both the kid and Jason had parents and even though from the looks of things they were shitty parents, they still weren't orphans and he doubted that he could get Bruce to adopt them both. Danny however knew how stubborn he could be and he really wanted to keep them both, he may not be a full telepath like the Martian Manhunter but he knew how to sense minds and emotions and they both had so much potential in very different ways.

Then Danny shook his head and tried not to imagine scenarios where he convinces Bruce to adopt the both and let them become mini vigilantes, it really wasn't his place to make those types of decisions after all they might not even want to run across rooftops and kick shitty bad guys who might snap and kill them at any given point so there was that to get his imagination under control.

Dick merely raised an eyebrow when Danny tells him about the kid stalking Batman almost as if he doesn't completely believe him but he still does the whole detective thing. This kids name is Tim Drake and his parents leave him all alone in that huge ass house 11 and half months out of the year, seriously they did the math, they were only in Gotham for less than 14 days a year since the kid turned five. Dick isn't sure to be horrified at the parents, what the kid does as a hobby or the fact that he was right next door and no one even knew there was a kid in there.

"Does he know our secret?" asked Dick and Danny just shrugged.

"Honestly I don't know, I just sensed his presence when he was following B."

"But you like him?" asked Dick sounding a little confused. He really had no idea what Danny was thinking but when he spoke of Tim it was similar to how he spoke of Jason and Danny had basically adopted the boy as his own and was trying to convince him to meet Dick or come to the manor but the kid wasn't someone who was willing to trust the 'elite' of the society or maybe he thought he just wouldn't fit in, either way, Dick wasn't sure what Danny was thinking here.

"Liking someone means that I know them even if its barely but I don't really know the kid, I just got the impression of his mind and while Jason was a hurricane, this kid, I don't even know how to label him. Jason his strength was his will, my first thought when I sensed his mind was 'He will make the world bend before he does', he was a very emotional person, one that felt things very deeply and I could relate to that but this kid is different but his potential is vast. His mind probably works at least three times faster than anyone else and I don't know what it is about him, I don't even know how to describe the feeling, maybe something like the ocean and its being restrained but if all that potential is released then he will be a tsunami. Its hard to describe but that kid, letting him rot away in that house with no one around him is probably the stupidest thing we could ever do."

Dick kind of understood where Danny was coming but he still wasn't sure what he really wanted here or what he was trying to accomplish.

"So exactly what do you want to do?" asked Dick and Danny smiled sheepishly.

"The kid would probably be a pretty good Robin. He is only seven years old if we trained him, it would probably take at least two years before he would be ready for the field and in those two years you might be ready to create your own mantle or at the very least share the mantle with him until we're sure he can fly on his own."

Dick was kind of shocked, he knew that he and B had discussed maybe looking for someone else to become Robin but they hadn't talked about it again but he also assumed that it was because Bruce didn't want him to feel pressured into giving up his name too soon. It was something that they discussed for the future, a someday, kind of thing but finding someone so soon to start training to take his place, he couldn't help but feel a little bit angry and Danny noticed and he put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"I didn't mean it like that. I got so excited about the amount of potential that I saw within him I wasn't being fair to you. I didn't mean to make to you feel like you had to give up the mantle or rush you its just you already had training. The skills you learned in the circus gave you a crutch until you learned how to fight well but finding someone else to be Robin now or in the future isn't going to be easy. You need someone who will be field ready as soon as possible and that will take extensive training. We don't want people to be able to connect the dots that the first Robin became someone else and then months later another Robin is seen on the streets, if we are able to make the transition smooth then no one will know that someone else is wearing the Robin costume. It helps to keep your identities a secret."

Dick could see where Danny was coming from, it would eventually be suspicious, Bruce adopted a circus kid and Robin appeared next to Batman, Dinah moved in with Bruce and Black Canary moved to Gotham. Phantom came with Canary and Danny came with Dinah. If Bruce adopts another person it will eventually be suspicious that as the Wayne family grows as does the Batfamily but if they already had someone trained from now maybe even alternating days when they both wore the costumes it would be harder to tell when Robin moved on and when someone else wore the cape, confusion would hide their secrets, Danny had learned from Bruce, he learned to plan long term and he was doing really well.

"I see where you're coming from but are we sure we can trust him?" asked Dick and Danny rolled his eyes, "No idea. Look get to know the kid, see what he knows and what you guys think and then if you decide that he would make a good Robin approach B and talk about it. No one says we have to start training him tomorrow. It is your name, your mantle its only fair that you get a say in who takes it up, I'm just making a suggestion."

Dick smiled kind of relieved that Danny wasn't going to push for more, the kid was chasing them on the rooftops so he knew that logically he would have to talk to the kid, get his own feel from him and maybe just maybe he would agree with Danny and train him but he wasn't ready yet to give up his name, he still had a lot to learn from both Danny and Bruce.

"What about Jason?"

Danny grimaced, "His mom is in a pretty bad shape. I don't think its just the drugs, I'm also pretty sure her health is failing and I don't know how to help her and I can't tell Jason to abandon his mother and come live with me even though I really want to get him out of there."

Dick sighed, he knew how rough Jason had it and Danny was really trying to help the kid but he couldn't do much from where he was currently and as long as his mom was alive he was better off with her, Gotham's orphanages were not in the best shape as little as he had it was more than those places got especially the places near Crime Alley.

"I really hate to mention this, but why don't you get her to sign over custody to you if something happens to her?"

"I'm 16, why would she name me his next of kin?"

Dick rolled his eyes and tossed Danny the newspaper, the front page was a picture of Danny shaking hands with a CEO while the headlines screamed about the eldest Wayne child and his brilliance which had made him a self-made millionaire and that his adoptive father must be so proud and how his inventions had raised the Wayne company profits by nearly 50%.

"You can give him a better life. Ask her what she wants for him and if she is anything like you say then she will want a better life for her son and she will let him come with you. We could send her to a treatment facility, he can go visit while he stays here, make her comfortable."

Dick and Danny shared a look, it was a sad look because while Dick had found it funny that Danny could sense when a woman had given birth he also knew that he had the ability to sense death, and if he thought that the womans health was failing then it probably was and she was dying.

Danny called a lawyer that night and asked for papers to be drawn up. He wasn't sure what Jasons mom would choose to do but he wanted to at least give her a choice.