Mount Justice
June 23 09:12 EDT
Connor and the Team were resting in the living room, as though it were any other day.
"Megan? The cookies are burning."
He turned to see Megan snap out of deep thought and rush past Zatanna toward the oven.
"You haven't done that in a long time. Something on your mind?" the sorceress asked as the martian pulled the half-burnt cookies out.
M'gann looked conflicted at first, then began to fidget nervously. "I just… did anybody else find it weird that Danny let the guard drink from the goblet first?"
Everyone stopped what they were doing, the room becoming silent.
"What do you mean?" Artemis asked turning around from her spot on the couch to look at the nervous martian.
"Well, it's just… Danny had always been protective over others, and he doesn't take threats lightly. So if someone were to try to poison him-"
Kaldur hummed and held his chin in thought. "I see…"
Connor crossed his arms. "Okay, what is everybody seeing that I'm not?"
Dick crossed his arms as well. "Danny would've taken the first drink to make sure the drink wasn't poisoned because he would've been afraid of the other person getting hurt. Duty or not. So the fact he didn't drink from it first would prove he already knew it wasn't poisoned."
"What? So if he already knew then why not say anything?!" Wally growled out with a mouth full of half-burnt cookies.
"It could mean that Danny did know a lot more about what was going on," Zatanna commented.
"So why not tell us? Would he have gotten in trouble? Was there simply not enough time to explain?" M'gann asked with sad eyes.
"Canary said that Danny does stuff for a reason, which from being around the guy for a year, sounds about right. Maybe he did know something we didn't, and was actually protecting us from something that we weren't aware of," Artemis offered.
"And the best way to protect us was kicking us out?" the speedster retorted.
"I know it doesn't look the best, but that's what I've got," Artemis said with finality.
Kaldur nodded. "Perhaps, but until he returns we won't know for sure."
"When is he supposed to get back anyways?"
"The Festival of Peace is roughly ten days. He'll probably be back after," Artemis said turning back around to watch the television.
The clone felt M'gann nudge him mentally.
'Oh right…'
"Actually, he might not be back for a couple of weeks, if not longer," M'gann corrected with a frown.
"Wait what?" Artemis asked flipping back around.
"How do you know for sure?" Zatanna inquired with a soft tone.
"Connor and I had spoken to Lady Helenia and Frostbite before the feast and found out a few things about Danny."
"And you only thought to share this now?" Wally raised an eyebrow.
"We tried to tell you before, but then Klarion showed up," the clone grunted.
The room was silent for a bit before Kaldur encouraged the martian to continue.
"Frostbite and Lady Helenia said that Danny might be sick because of the ring he was wearing."
"The ring?"
M'gann continued to recount the conversation they had with the two ghosts, while the Team listened with intrigue.
"So… he's sick?"
"Kind of," Connor spoke up. "They said they were trying to convince Clockwork to get him to stay in the Ghost Zone with them until after his Death Day."
Dick rose an eyebrow. "Why specifically his Death Day?"
The teen shrugged. "Something about how it was going to be pretty hard on him because of having to adjust to everything."
"That's right I completely forgot about that," M'gann added with wide eyes. "They said he'll be the most vulnerable that day."
"Well, whatever. The longer I don't have to see that guy, the better," Kid huffed in annoyance.
"Wally-"
"It wasn't just Wally guys. It was all of us. We didn't have evidence and we were basically throwing out ideas. We were more of a hindrance than a help," Dick scolded.
The Team went quiet.
"Well, at least nothing exploded this time," Artemis commented.
"Oh don't start jinxing us now," Z chuckled.
"Come on Team, training is in thirty. Best we were not late to our first session back," Kaldur encouraged as he stood up and began walking towards the training room.
"You act like we were on vacation," Wally mumbled as he rolled his eyes.
Mount Justice
June 23 11:52 EDT
The feeling of cold water washed over Danny as he exited the green portal he had built in the Hangar.
As soon as his feet touched the ground he quickly steadied himself against a nearby workbench, the gravity of the Living Realm almost making him topple over.
He was exhausted. He had spent the last 11 days in the Ghost Zone and hadn't slept for seven of those days. From the guards and patrols being doubled, to the countless meetings with foreign rulers, ambassadors, and the Observants, all he wanted was to sleep for a week.
"Danny?"
The Halfa looked up to see a surprised M'gann standing in the doorway.
Danny tiredly sighed and let go of the workbench, almost to immediately topple over again.
M'gann rushed over to him but before she could try to help him, he gently waved her off.
"I'm okay… just need a minute to adjust to Earth's gravity again," he reassured with a wince as he noticed the natural echo in his voice was absent.
'I guess I am really tired…'
She nodded and backed away to give him room.
An uncomfortable silence filled the Hangar.
'So… what do I do now?'
He cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "So, how much time has passed?"
The heroine offered a gentle smile. "Since we left for the Festival? It was two days when we got back, but roughly four days for you."
He didn't call her out on the obvious avoidance of the elephant in the room.
Danny frowned as he processed what she had said. 'Only four?'
"What about you? How long has it been altogether?"
The Halfa offered a tired smile. "Eleven days."
If he wasn't so exhausted, he would've laughed at how comically big M'gann's eyes had widened.
The events from a week ago (or two days ago for the Team) popped into his mind again as he heard muffled laughter come from somewhere in the cave.
"Danny, about-"
'There's the elephant,' He thought sarcastically to himself.
He held up a hand, M'gann immediately stopping her sentence as she waited patiently.
'Might as well get this over with…'
The teen straightened his posture and let go of the workbench, finally having adjusted to gravity again.
He took a few steps towards the martian before putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. He offered an appreciative tired smile. "Better to have everyone present so I don't have to repeat myself, right?"
M'gann stared at him for a moment, her expression seeming to change from slight shock to worry, which took the Halfa off guard for a second.
'What was that about?'
After a beat or two she offered a small smile and nodded, leading the way to where the rest of the Team was. Turns out they were all in the training room, probably just wrapping up training with Canary, as she was nowhere to be seen.
"Well, well, well. Look who actually decided to show up."
The room went still as Danny and M'gann walked up to them.
"Welcome back," Kaldur greeted, though without his usual smile. "How do you feel?"
Danny rose an eyebrow as he noticed that he and a few others had the same look that M'gann had earlier. "Like I could sleep for a week," he reluctantly replied. "What about you guys?"
"Like you care," Wally grumbled as he aggressively ate a granola bar.
Ignoring the speedster's comment, the leader continued. "We're doing alright. You just missed training, though I didn't expect you to attend on your first day back."
Danny nodded appreciatively, and a tense silence filled the room.
'Okay… now how do we go about doing this?' he thought to himself, noticing the unsure or unreadable expressions around the room.
He sighed quietly and opened his mouth to speak but was stopped by Dick holding up his hand.
"No, us first. We didn't get a single chance to speak while at the festival, so let us speak now."
Danny hesitated before nodding for him to continue. 'Fair enough…'
"During the festival, we had noticed several instances of suspicious before from Hades-"
Dick then proceeded to explain everything that the Team had investigated and witnessed during their time at the festival. From the cloaked figure all the way to the Feast at the Pavilion.
The half-ghost blinked in disbelief at the Team. "Wow…"
"I know this may come as a surprise but we-"
Danny pinched the bridge of his nose. "You still believe Hades was behind that assassination attempt."
"Danny…"
A mental image of two particularly persistent floating eyeballs dressed in robes crossed his mind.
He has spent almost the rest of the Festival listening to the Observants complain about how there was 'too much security', and 'this wasn't how it was before'. Even when he was going over patrol reports with the guards, the floating idiots couldn't help but comment about his 'informal and untraditional behavior' at every opportunity they could find.
'I hate that tone of voice…' he thought irritably, his exhaustion beginning to get to him again.
He unpinched his nose as he looked back up at the Team with an annoyed glare. "Now it's time for you to listen. Hades may be a creep, okay? He may be an arrogant, egotistical, stuck up, no-good fruitloop, but he is not a traitor."
"But we-"
He held up a hand and continued. "That time when you saw him before and during the games? He was intrigued by your presence and was curious as to why humans as young as you would be allowed at the festival. He also had never seen me use my powers before nor did he ever see the previous King's."
The half-ghost then turned towards M'gann.
"And during the meeting? Whenever he 'insisted' that he get involved in the investigation, was because Pariah Dark had almost taken over his realm before and he wanted to make sure that that would never happen again."
He looked over to Zatanna.
"That time you saw him in the market talking to the hooded figure? After I had gotten proof that Pariah wasn't behind it, he offered his services to search for any suspicious activity that might have helped our search. He was investigating that person because he caught wind of a black market purchase that was made the previous day involving ectoranium and blood blossoms; both items known to be harmful to ghosts. He was furious that the seller wouldn't offer information about the buyer nor did he willingly give up the rest of the prohibited stock."
Turning back to Dick, he crossed his arms.
"And when you saw Hades talking to Klarion, it was because they're old acquaintances, as the Lord of the Underworld has held prisoners for the Lords of Chaos before. Klarion nor Hades would have risked an all-out war with the Infinite Realms by harming me in front of members of the Observants High Council Tribunal or the Master of Time. It would've been suicide."
Silence. The entire room fell into stunned silence. Multiple different expressions on various members of the Team.
"Why not just have explained that to us to begin with? Why keep it a secret?" Zatanna asked.
His eyes softened, and he didn't try to hide the exhaustion he felt. "Z, I didn't have the time to. There was too much going on and I had to find a way to help resolve various situations before anything could get worse."
"And throwing us under the rug helped?" Wally scoffed.
The guilt and pain in his chest flared up again. "I did what I had to do. You didn't give me much of a choice-"
"There's always another choice, Phantom! But you didn't want to look bad in front of all your little ghost friends to do anything about it!" Wally raged.
He glared threateningly at the speedster. "Leave them out of this, Wally. This is your only warning."
"Or what? You gonna sick a giant snake on me?" the other challenged.
"Do you even hear yourself?"
"Yeah, I do. And you know what else I can do? See. Like how clear it is that you care more about living a double life than trusting your friends that have let you live with them for a year!"
"Oh for the love of- I was under strict orders not to tell any of you about my status!"
"By who?!"
"Clockwork! Who else?! And with how you're reacting, I can't wait to see how the rest of the League is going to take it!"
Kaldur jumped between them and held up a calming hand toward both heroes. "Danny," he addressed calmly. "What would Clockwork have against the League for him not to trust them with your status?"
"If I were to have revealed my status earlier, the Justice League would've wanted to make an alliance through me. How well do you think telling a bunch of humans that there is a Ghost Zone would go? How do you think they would react? There'd be a massive panic. People would be questioning their beliefs because they wouldn't know how to comprehend our very existence. And when they discover some of us have multiple powers?"
There was a brief pause as memories, Fear, anger, and betrayal, all started flooding into the forefront of his mind.
"They'd see ghosts and be terrified; not knowing what to expect or how to react. They'll demand action; military and government action. They'd demand to know how and why we exist, and they'd try to figure it out themselves without a second thought. Cells, containment cells- and they wouldn't stop there. They'd perform hundreds upon thousands of experiments until they got the answers they wanted. All with no remorse as to what happens to the subject or what they're doing to them."
Wally let out an astonished scoff. "Dude, you have like no faith in humans at all! How do you know that will happen, huh?! You're a ghost! You don't know how we are, none of you do!"
That stuck a cord in the Halfa.
"Oh don't we?" Danny glared and there was a newfound hostility in his voice as it seemed to echo all around them.
The temperature dropped drastically and the lights began flickering. The walls turned purple and the lights dimmed and turned turquoise blue, his aura covering every inch of the training room. The doors to the hallway slammed shut and the hologram screens started to glitch uncontrollably.
He floated a few inches off the ground, making the speedster have to look up.
"We don't know how humans are quick to judge when they discover someone doesn't believe in the same thing they do? We don't know how people fear what they don't understand? We don't know how quickly the government is to shoot first and ask questions never?"
"I didn't- that's not what I-"
"Then what did you mean Wally? Calling me inhuman? Or insulting my people to my face?"
"Danny-" Nightwing began.
"QUIET!"
The team was taken aback by the venom and sternness in his voice.
"Do NOT cut me off when I'm trying to make a point, because you don't want to admit that you were in the wrong." He looked back over at Kid Flash. "You crossed a line, West. You want to talk to a ghost? Fine, talk to a ghost; but just remember which ghost it is that you're talking to."
The room was deadly silent as the purple aura began to dissipate.
Danny closed his eyes as he focused on pushing the memories from Amity Park back into the deepest parts of his mind.
He looked up at the speedster with an unreadable expression. "You want to know why I 'think' that's what's going to happen? Because the GIW came from somewhere… and they sure as hell weren't paying for their guns themselves."
The Halfa brushed past Wally as he walked away. Nobody making a move to stop him.
Danny closed the bedroom door behind him with an exasperated sigh.
"Well that could've gone better…" he mumbled tiredly walking over to his bed.
The halfa collapsed onto the bed and just laid there for a minute or two, just enjoying the feeling of being back in his room.
He flipped onto his back and stared at the glow-in-the-dark stars above him.
"Man… I am beat..."
The amount of energy he used should not have been used. He was already running on fumes without the crown and ring's powers, but that little display he just did took way more energy than it was supposed to.
He frowned as he was reminded of the crown and ring. He sat up and concentrated on the space in front of him. Within seconds, the Crown of Fire appeared floating above his comforter.
It was a small trick that Frostbite had taught him so that he could always call upon the crown or ring, should he need them. According to the Far Frozen leader, the High Council has decided to tie both artifacts to his ecto-signature, so that no other ghost could use the items, even if they somehow managed to steal them.
He sighed as he summoned the ring, got up, and placed both items on top of his desk. He'd worry about finding a better place for them after he got some rest.
Returning to the bed, he lay on his side and slowly felt himself drifting off to sleep.
'Finally…'
"This is Batman. Report to Mission Room for debriefing."
Danny turned and growled into his pillow before standing back up and walking to the door.
"One day? Is one day so hard to ask?!"