Things end, that's a sad fact of life that nobody ever really forgets, that life won't ever let them forget. There is nothing that lasts forever, and anything that did will never have any real meaning. We treasure the things we love because we know we won't have them forever.
'So wait, you're leaving?'
'Yeah.'
'I guess you couldn't stay under my bed forever. When?'
'Soon.'
'Where are you from anyway?'
…
'Red?'
'I gotta go.'
Beep. Beep. Beep.
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Heavy clouds hung in the skies of Amity Park. Weather like that was normally enough to keep Danny in doors, even more so this late at night. Darkness and gloomy weather was Sam's thing, but as he floated through a clouds, bright sparks of electricity crackling all around him, he thought that maybe there was something to her claims that this kind of weather was soothing.
Or, at least watching the light show was.
The young hero sighed and ducked below the clouds, his sleeping home once again in sight. There were very few windows lit up, leaving it to street lights to keep the city illuminated. From up high, it looked like someone had laid out trails of golden Christmas lights.
He touched down on a rooftop littered with abandoned construction equipment and changed to him human form. The little communicator he kept with him all the time now read 02:17, he put it back in his pocket and scanned the area again. After asking him there so late at night the least they could have done was show up on time. With a sigh he made his way to the rusty door, hopefully they hadn't forgotten and gone to…
"You're late."
Danny didn't scream, ha gasped loudly and spun around to assess the threat, heroes didn't scream.
"It's not easy sneaking past my parents this late." He said it maybe a little faster than he'd meant to when he caught sight of the man standing before him. Even without the robotic suit he was about as much sunshine and rainbows as Red was a cuddle monster, of course it would help if he wasn't half hidden in the shadows of that rusty pile of metal.
"You circled the building seven times before landing." The man said, his face was unreadable, but Danny thought he caught trace of some kind of emotion, he just couldn't place it.
"Where're Richard and Red, er Robin?" It was easier to ask than to come up with a response.
"Richard is keeping him busy." He detached himself from the shadows, his expression softening to something that might have been human. "How much did he tell you?"
"Just to come here. Wait." Danny held up his hands. "Does Red even know about this? Why do you need to keep him busy? Where is he?" The huge man blocked Danny's path to the door.
"Stop." Something about the man's voice made Danny believe he just had to obey. "We were going to give him the chance to tell you himself, but the situation has changed. We have to leave much sooner than we thought"
"Does this have something to do with why he won't tell any of us where he's going?" Danny asked.
"Something to do with it, yes." Red's father said. "Do you know how he ended up in the Ghost Zone, why it took us so long to find him?"
"No." Danny said, thinking of the way Red had been when they'd fist met, his twitchiness, and how easy it had been to provoke him into a fight. "But I think it was pretty bad."
"He was caught in an explosion. The bomb was ectoranium based." The man said. "It was fortunate he was pulled into the Ghost Zone before he was hit with the shrapnel, or he wouldn't have survived. Still, the amount of radiation he was exposed to on top of his open wounds…"
"Where are you going with this?" Danny asked, feeling the chill of the night air now more than he had since winter, he really didn't want to hear about the details of what had happened to his friend in that clinical tone. "What does it have to do with him going home?"
"In laymen's terms, his wounds were infected." The man said, a mild edge to his voice was at least an emotion. "And while the virus he contracted is very likely the only reason he's alive, we can't take him home the way he is now."
"What?" Danny's jaw dropped and he gaped at the man. "What do you mean he can't go home?" The unease he felt around the man didn't go away exactly, but it was melted down into almost nothing with the anger that had sparked up in his chest. "It's not his fault that happened to him, and I don't know if he's the same as he was before, but that doesn't make him a bad person, and you can't just not want him anymore because he's got some weird ghost virus, he's still…"
There was the heavy weight of a hand on his shoulder, and the rest of his tangent was cut off.
"He's still my son." The man said. "And I while I'm glad he's managed to find a friends that's so protective of him, I would like the chance to finish explaining the situation." Danny gave a shaky nod and got a firm one in return. "As I was saying. He's contracted a virus, while your concerns of him being rejected due to his abilities and… cosmetic changes are unfounded, a virus is never a good thing and we've received some intell from Miss Grey that leads us to believe that leaving would lead to other symptoms manifesting."
"So he'd get sick?" Danny asked.
"The virus uses it's host as a living battery of sorts, to gather ectoplasmic energy so it can feed of the access. When he's drained of that energy it'll feed off whatever else it can find. Richard tells me he was sick for a few days after the first time his energy was drained."
"Yeah, I remember that, he missed the last week of school." Danny said. "But why does that mean he can't go home?"
"After that he absorbed enough of this worlds atmospheric ectoplasmic energy that it never got serious, out world doesn't have that atmospheric energy. Do you understand?"
"There isn't any…" It took a minute for what the man had said to really click in Danny's mind. "You're from another world, but you're not ghosts, how can you be from… and how did you get here? Who are you people? Why didn't he tell me?"
"He doesn't know about the virus, and it was only recently that he learned the rest of it, as I told you, we were hoping he'd have the chance to tell you himself, but there's no time for that now. There's a situation that needs to be dealt with, and until we've found a solution to this problem Robin cannot leave this world."
"So are you going to leave him here and come back for him later?" Danny asked, already trying to figure out how Red would react to something like that. Being alone again, literally having no family in the world.
"If travel between our worlds were that simple we wouldn't have this problem to begin with, it will be years before we'd be able to bring him back. I called you here because you have the most experience dealing with Vladimir Masters' method of operation."
"How does Vlad tie into this?" Danny asked instead of focusing on how the word 'years' was echoing in his mind. "You heard about this from Valery, you know she doesn't have the best track record, right?"
"So you don't trust her either." The man raised a curled finger to his chin, a calculating look in his eyes, he was quiet for a moment before he snapped back to attention. "Still we can't disregard the information. According to Grey, Masters collected data on Robin when he had the two of you in his labs. With that data we think we can find a way to stabilize his condition."
"You want me to help you?" Danny asked.
"I want your opinion, Nightwing and I can extract the data either way, we'd just prefer to know beforehand whether we're walking into a trap." The man folded his arms.
"Fine, what do you want to know?" Danny asked.
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Two nights later and Danny was crouched invisibly in some bushes near the wall surrounding Vlad's home in Wisconsin while Richard tapped away at a miniature computer on his wrist that had been hooked up to a camera at the edge of the wall. Batman was off by some trees in a lower tech version of the suit he'd busted in his fight with Vlad, the man was blending into the shadows so well he was almost as invisible as Danny.
If he'd wondered before what kind of place Red must have come from, now he was almost sure he didn't want to know. It would suck to find out he was friends with a psycho assassin. Didn't assassins kill people who found out there secrets. A shiver went up his spine and he tried to shift in such a way that he could watch both the man and Richard.
If they were going to do it, where would be a better place than the home of someone they knew hated him. Why else would they ask how much Red had told him. 'I should have said nothing.'
Before his mind could finish forming the thought there was a muted beep and Richard turned to them with a grin and a thumbs up. Batman nodded and waved his hand for them to proceed, leading the way over the still high wall.
"Hey B." Richard whispered when they landed silently on the other side. "When this is done, lets order something really unhealthy to celebrate. I could go for something real greasy, what do say kid?" He looked over his shoulder at almost the exact place Danny was hovering.
Batman gave a noncommittal grunt and they kept moving towards the huge house. "Come on, lets live it up while Agent A is literally a universe away and can never find out."
"Alfred always finds out." Batman said coming to a stop besides another panel.
Richard nodded seriously before his smirk returned. "Wanna do it anyway?" He pried the panel up and hooked up his computer.
It took Batman a second to answer. "What do you have in mind?"
"I'm sure the kid knows some place good, hey Danny?"
"Yeah sure, if I'm still alive after this." Danny whispered while he looked over Richards shoulder. Tucker would have killed for a gadget like that.
"Course you'll be alive." Richard said. "We know what we're doing, right B?"
"Focus Nightwing, now's not the time." Batman growled softly. Richard muttered something under his breath, but said nothing.
Danny had to admit, Nightwing was a pretty cool codename, Batman sounded pretty creepy though, but judging by the way the man acted, that was probably the point. When he was done typing, Nightwing carefully fitted the panel back into place and flipped through some pictures on his screen. He held the device to his father and they communicated some plan with pointing and grunts.
"Phantom come over here." Nightwing said after a few minutes, the boy made himself visible and flew over to look at the screen. "This is the floor plan of the lowest level." His finger traced a line through the hallways. "We're going in this way, and getting the pulling the files from this closed server." He tapped a box near the corner. "Stay close, but invisible, and keep an eye out, okay?" Richard said.
"Okay." Danny faded out of sight and followed after them as they started moving again. It was pretty cool having someone that wasn't his enemy calling him Phantom as well. Batman said it was protocol, never use names in the field, even when you're surrounded allies, you never know who could be listening. The man hadn't even told Danny his actual name to begin with.
Batman held out a hand and twisted his fingers in the sign for 'P' before pointing around the corner. Danny nodded, even though he knew they couldn't see him, and flew ahead to check. His ghost sense didn't go off, and he didn't see anything out of place, so he flew back and rested a hand on Richards arm to show he was back. The younger man signed an okay and they moved on again.
Aside from the very first time he'd been there for the college reunion, this was the longest he's ever been at Vlad's mansion without running into trouble. Every so often Batman stopped them and Richard deactivated some security system. It didn't take very long for them to reach the lab. Batman attached something to the wall a the lights flickered before sputtering out.
Danny waited by the door while Richard went on ahead, both men had some kind of night vision in their masks, and while he stood in the complete darkness, Danny wished that there was a ghost power that did the same. Danny's ghost sense went off and he tapped Batman's shoulder three times. There was a click and Batman was gone from his side.
The Fenton thermos wasn't a very loud piece of equipment, but in the near silence in was easily the loudest thing in the room. Seconds later Batman was back by the door.
Minutes later they were leaving the empty mansion as quietly as they'd come in, there mission a complete success. Danny got one last look at the building before it faded out of sight. That was the last way he'd expected sneaking into Plasmius' home to go. Okay sure, the man probably hadn't been home, and even if he was he's still be pretty laid up after that fight in the Ghost Zone, but still he'd been expecting at least a little action, and mentioned as much to Richard once they were back in his apartment.
"A few more year of experience and you'll be wishing all of your missions ended that way." Richard laughed.
"We still have to decode the data." Batman made a beeline for the couch where Red was sleeping soundly, swaddled in blankets.
"It's six-thirty now." Richard said. "How many of your friends are up, kid?" Richard asked.
"I told them we were breaking into Vlad's house, I don't think they slept." Danny said. "Sam and Tucker are probably waiting for me to call them for backup."
"Great, well you call them and I'll call Valery, she'd been bugging Red for hours about leaving the house." Richard looked pointedly at Batman while he spoke.
"She wanted to meet with him alone." The man said.
"And you're not letting your precious little baby out on his own." Richard rolled his eyes as he dialed a number.
"Never again." Batman said softly, brushing a hand through Red's messy curls and tucking him in more tightly.
Richards sad smile was gone almost before Danny had a chance to see it, replaced by a confident smile. He dialed another number and walked off.
Again, Danny felt that awkwardness than came with being around a family you didn't really know. He yawned and got his communicator to call up Sam, and Tucker.
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The Nasty Burger wasn't open that early, so they went to a twenty-four hour diner nearer Danny's house that his folks took them to when no one wanted to cook. It was small, but the food was okay. It took some effort to wake Red up, something that made Batman glare at Richard and the younger man shrug guiltily while looking at an empty mug that had once contained cocoa.
Mentioning food was the only thing that really got the boy to drag himself up of the couch and get dressed, as soon as the car was moving hid head thunked against the window and he was sleeping again.
"What did you do to him?" Danny asked, poking his friend, as long as he's known him, Danny had never seen Red sleep that deeply before.
Batman glared at Richard again.
"Stop that!" The younger man groaned. "He wouldn't go to sleep, Agent A does it to us all the time."
"What'd he do?" Red slurred, apparently awake enough to follow the conversation.
"You looked so tired Little Wing, what kind of brother would I be if I didn't try to help." Richard smiled nervously at the boy.
Red cracked his crimson eyes open just enough to glare at his brother before his tiredness won out and he shut them again. "Where'd ya go?"
"Just had to pick up some stuff and erase some stuff from a certain vampire's hard drive." Richard said.
"Vampire?" Red frowned and turned his eyes on Danny. "You lied to me."
"About what?" Danny shifted away from the other boy.
"Said there weren't any vampires." Red said into the upholstery.
"I said that?" Danny smirked at his friend. He felt kind of bad for him now that it was obvious his brother had drugged him with a little too much of something, but he could admit that Red needed the sleep, and it was kind of funny watching Red being so out of it. "Well you said you were a vengeful ghost."
"Am vengeful, Ima shave his head." Red said.
"Come on, B was the one who told me to make it happen, why don't you shave his head?" Richard pouted.
"Shave Batman's head?" Red looked at Richard like he'd suggested eating water.
"You attacked Batman with a tire iron."
"Why'd you attack your old man with a tire iron?" Danny asked, the only thing keeping him from being concerned was the smirk on said father's face.
"Because he wasn't my old man back then." Red frowned, then his face scrunched up and he hiccupped. "He's my old man."
"Aw, I thought you said you were done crying." Richard cooed. "You want a hug?"
Red said, "Shut up." The same time Batman said, "Nightwing." And the older man reached over to ruffle his son's hair.
" 'm fine." Red mumbled and sat himself up. "Never taking food from you again." He glared at his brother, this time keeping it up as they pulled up Tucker's driveway.
"You're both adopted." Danny said, surprising himself with the realization, then shrinking into his seat when he had all their eyes on him.
"Yup." Red said, snapping the tension with one word. "B here is a regular Daddy Warbucks." He leaned against the back of batman's chair.
"Who's watching Annie?" Tucker asked climbing into the car, he caught sight of Red and frowned. "Whoa man, what hit you?"
"That ass." Red pointed at his brother. "Dosed me with sleep meds."
"Little Wing!" Richard whined, his smile betraying just how sorry he was. "You're friends are going to think I'm evil."
"You are!" Red shot back. "And stop calling me that, You've officially lost Little Wing privileges."
"No!" Richard clutched his chest dramatically. "Anything but Little Wing privileges, I traveled universes for Little Wing privileges." He flung an arm over his eyes and peered at the backseat. "Aw come on. No one's backing me up here?"
"Nope." All three of them said.
"You've totally lost Little Wing privileges, shame on you." Tucker folded him arms.
"Red's friends." Danny gestured between him and Tucker. "Red's side."
Danny didn't miss the way Red brightened up at that, but it was quickly covered up when Richard unbuckled and threw himself over his seat to grab his brother and start pulling him to the front seat.
"Wing! what the & #$!", Red yelled and held onto the back of his seat.
"I still think you need a hug." Richard laughed. "Come to big brother baby bird!" He kept hold of Red with one and used the other to tickle the boy when he wouldn't let go.
"Go to hell!" Red tried to kick his brother, but the man was able to twist away from any attempts at retaliation. "Help me!" Red looked at his friends, laughter forcing itself out of his throat.
A few minutes later they'd managed to pull Richard to the back seat, but the man only held on tighter to Red, clutching the cursing boy to his chest and tickling him while Danny and Tucker tried in vain to free their friend.
Sam was directed to sit in the front seat Richard had vacated by a straight faced Batman.
"Buckle in." The man said, his voice somehow audible over the battle field in the back seat.
"Really guys?" Sam rolled her eyes and turned on the radio to drown them out.
Valery stayed close by the diner, so she was waiting for them when they pulled up to the building. The ghost hunter took one look at their disheveled appearance when they climbed out of the car and frowned bemusedly at Red, still being held tightly by Richard.
"Val," Red said, elbowing his brother sharply and leaping out of the car.
"Don't." Sam said, walking past Justas Valery opened her mouth to do just that.
"Whatever." Valery said, sticking close to Red while they all went inside.
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After they ate, Richard and Batman left them, pulling Danny aside and telling him to keep Red busy for a few hours.
"Bye bye Little Wing, play nice and don't get into any fights till we get back." Richard ruffled Red's hair, having to jump away from the boy's retaliatory punch while Batman gave Danny a pointed look and gestured at Valery.
"Nightwing." The man ordered and Richard gave ducked another swing to give Red a quick hug before dancing out of reach to stand by the older man.
Richard sighed and straightened his shirt. "I think I'm going to love being a big brother." He said as they walked off.
"So he's Nightwing, and Daddy Warbucks is Batman." Tucker smirked at the irate Red. "Why're you stuck with a dumb code name like Little Wing?"
"That's just a dumb nickname he only used once before all of this." Red groused, pulling up his newer green hoody for the first time in weeks. "I can't believe I used to think he was cool."
"He is pretty cool though." Sam said, her eyes glued to the retreating men.
"No, he's a tool." Red said. "Completely, hundred percent tool."
"You're not allowed to call your older siblings cool." Danny said. "Not even if they're literally the coolest people in the world. Right Red?"
"Nope, not even if they're the coolest people in the world." Red nodded seriously.
Since the arcade was one of the things Red had ducked out on back when he'd stopped hanging out with the rest of them, they went there as soon as it opened. Even on a Wednesday it was packed. They'd only gotten through a few games before Tucker found himself in front of the electric shock game again.
"Don't do it man." Danny said, peering over his friend's shoulder.
"You're just going to make a fool of yourself." Sam added.
"But it should be so easy, just hold on, and so many tickets." Tucker looked at the machine forlornly.
"I bet Red could do it." Valery said.
"Huh?" Red was playing wack-a-mole off to the side while sipping on a soda.
"This." Valery pulled him up to the machine and waved an arm at it.
Red studied the machine for a minute before looking back at them. "Really?"
"So you're too scared?" Tucker folded his arms. "I did it."
"Not scared." Red took another sip of his soda. "Just that I'm not crook, and playing this thing is kinda cheating, I mean it's nothing compared to…"
"Just do it." Sam cut him off.
"Okay, jeez. Hold this, and don't let Tucker drink it." He said, handing Sam his soda. He braced himself in front of the machine, his hands over the bars before he clamped down on them. His posture straightened, and his muscles tightened, but he didn't let go of the machine. They all watched the dial turn, upping the voltage while it spat out tickets. It made a loud PING and the dial went back to zero. Red let go and chuckled. "That felt friggin weird." He shook his arms and scooped up the tickets.
"I'm gonna try again." Tucker said, stepping past the other boy, it went about as well as it did the last time, leaving Tucker with one quarter less and no tickets to show for it.
They played a few first person shooters and racing games, the latter of which scored Tucker an easy win over Red. Danny almost though the he'd let Tucker win, but Red was as shocked by the outcome as the rest of them and even demanded a rematch, which he lost as well.
After a few hours they headed over to the food court for lunch.
"Great." Sam frowned as they sat down with their food. Danny followed her gaze across the court and caught sight of Paulina and Star.
Valery noticed too and groaned, tensing up when the other girls caught site of them and started moving closer. Red turned from where he and Tucker were debating sauces. A look passed between him and Valery before he moved to intercept them.
"Todd." Star smiled tilting her head. "I haven't seen you in a while, where have you been?"
Paulina frowned, but didn't interrupt her friend.
"Oh you know, around, would have stayed in today but my friends though I needed sun." He shrugged, putting an emphasis on the word 'friends'. "You know Valery right?"
"Oh, her?" Paulina scoffed. "We knew her before she started hanging out with those losers."
"Paulina!" Star hissed, then turned back to Red. "So, have you saved any pretty girls from ghosts lately?" She asked, twirling a strand of hair round her finger.
"Not yet, but it's still early."Red said that confident smirk on his face. "Hoping I can squeeze something in before I leave tonight."
Valery slammed down her soda, shocking everyone at the table before she marched, actually marched over to them.
"Red." She got a grip on one of his arms then she stilled, apparently having only thought her actions out so far.
"Valery." Star said pointedly. "It's rude to interrupt other people's conversations."
"You're not people." Valery shot back. "Don't act like you're not only nice to him so you can get at me. Just like Paulina used Danny to get at Sam."
"Please honey, you're not that special." Paulina said. "And neither is he. No offense Todd, but Star can do better."
"Paulina, you said you'd be nice." Star protested, her face flushed red with anger.
"Don't sweat it, not offended." Red said, his posture still relaxed. "I'm not much of ladies man, but." He snapped his fingers and his eyes got that dark sheen that came over them when he was angry. "I'd appreciate it if ya didn't say crap like that 'bout my friends, seeing as you only have one, that might actually help you in the long run y'know, when you're out of high school and no one cares how pretty you are." He held his arms up in a peacemaking gesture. "Just some advice, take it or leave it.." He turned away from them" You're not a horrible person Paulina, maybe act like it. Good ta seeya Star."
The girls left and Red sunk into his chair, the darkness leaving his features only a little when he took a sip of his soda. He must have felt the weight of their stares, because he looked up after a minute and shot them all a look somewhere between confusion and his lingering irritation. "What?"
Tucker was the one to break the silence. "You're leaving tonight?"
His anger visibly melted away. "Crap." One hand fisted tugged at his hair. "I didn't tell you."
"No, you didn't." Valery folded her arms and glared down at him. "We're you even going to?"
"I was just waiting…" He began.
"Until you were gone, what, so you could do it over the phone?" The girl pressed.
"No." He looked around the table.
Richard had wanted Red to tell them himself. With everything happening in such a short period of time, Danny had forgotten that he was the only one who knew. Still, the halfa didn't say anything, seeing as how Red had told him over the phone.
"Then when?" Sam asked, her voice much calmer than Valery's, but still carrying a little sting of hurt.
"Last night, but Wing wouldn't let me leave and he gave me those sleep meds." I swear I was gonna tell you." He stirred the ice round his soda with his straw, staring into the bubbly liquid. "There's just stuff B's gotta deal with back home."
"So soon though?" Sam asked. "Richard just got out of the hospital, he shouldn't be traveling so soon, right? Can't you just call ahead and…"
"My homes not a place you can call." Red said slowly."It's way outta range of, well everything."
"So you can't call?" Valery's fists were balled at her sides. "How far away is this place?"
Red curled in on himself under her glare, keeping his eyes trained on the slowly melting ice in his hands.
"Cut it out every one." Danny said, trying to inject the same tome Batman used into his own voice. "It's not like he can do anything about it."
"Daddy Warbucks says you gotta go, you gotta go." Tucker said. "Not like we can kidnap him and hide him in Sam's huge basemant."
"Or we could." Sam said, waving one hand.
"You kidding? Even we'd never find him." Danny said. "My parents' basement though…"
"We'll keep you in a thermos." Tucker said in a stage whisper, leaning close to Red and throwing an arm around his shoulders, pulling the other boy in close. "When the Fenton's get suspicions, we move you to my basement, and if all else fails…"
"Sam's huge basement." Danny finished.
"If they find out, I can pass you off as the world's biggest hamster." Sam said. "I'll take you for walks to the 'Skulk and Lurk' every weekend."
"So that creepy girl who wouldn't stop staring at me last time can eat me?" Red wrapped his arms around himself and gave off a very convincing shudder. "I'd rather be the Fenton's test subject."
"I think that position's open." Danny snapped his fingers, "I'll give my parents a call, see if I can schedule an interview."
"How can you all joke about this?!" Valery snapped.
"Who's joking?" The other four responded simultaneously before breaking into chuckles.
"It's not funny." She glared at them and stormed off.
"If looks could kill…" Tucker shook his head.
"Val." Red got up and hurried after her.
"Batman said to keep an eye on her." Danny leaped to his feet after them, followed by Sam and Tucker.
"Wait." Sam grabbed both boys' by their shirt and pulled them back. "Don't let them see us."
Valery was out of the mall before Red caught up to her.
"Val, what do you want me to do?" He grabbed her arm and she spun to face him.
"Don't go with them." She replied, raising her fists.
"I can't just never go back, it's my freaking home." He said.
"Never go back? You can never come back after you leave here?" Her arms dropped, shoulders slumping. "And you're still going?"
"From there I can figure something out, B tells me there's this new kid, super smart…"
"You can't do that from here?" She asked.
"You don't get it." He ran a hand through his hair, knocking off his hood. "I just wanna go home. I have a whole life that I can't just give up."
"What about your life here?" Her face scrunched up, water filling her eyes. "A few months ago you didn't even know the other one existed. Where were they when you thought you were all alone?"
"Building a transdimentional portal to come find me." Red shoved his hands in his pockets, keeping a steady gaze on Valery. "They spent almost a year looking for me, do you have any idea what that means for someone like me?"
"I they cared about you they give you more time to say goodbye." Valery stepped closer.
"There are bigger things going on than me and them." Red said. "I'm not selfish enough to ask them to risk it."
"You're scared they won't give it to you?" She asked.
"Nah." Red said, a small, sad smile on his face. "I'm scared they do." He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug."I'm sorry I have ta leave ya here alone Val, I really, really wish I didn't." He said so soft Danny almost didn't hear it. "The closest I have to a friend back home is a pen pal." He chuckled ad looked over her shoulder at the exact place Danny was floating invisibly, then to the neat bushes Sam and Tucker were hiding behind. "Just don't make me say I love you guys, right."
Danny made that choking sound that heroes weren't supposed to make again and flew away to transform behind Sam and Tucker's hiding place.
"How do you all do that?" Danny huffed, stomping into view.
"Guessed you'd follow, just found the most likely location," He shrugged.
"What about us?" Sam asked.
"You guys are just bad at hiding." Red smirked and ducked Tuckers playful swing.
"Well sor-ry we can't all be ninjas like Batman, Nightwing and Red." Tucker rolled his eyes.
"Robin." Red said, and pulled his hood up again.
"Dude, we know that's your name." Tucker said.
"No, I kinda dodged the question earlier, you asked about my code name." For the first time, his smile was almost shy. "My code name's Robin. I'm Jason, Jason Todd." He held a hand to Danny. "Nice ta meetcha."
Danny started to shake his hand, but changed him mind and pulled his friend into a hug instead.
"Yeah, Valery got a hug." Tucker said dragging Sam along with him into the group hug. They stayed that way for a few minutes before Valery spoke up.
"So how long before we can make serial killer jokes?"
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The wide open spaces of the Ghost Zone were just as creepy now as they were when Jason had first seen them. Back then, he hadn't been impressed, it had taken him a while to feel impressed by anything for, longer for him to feel anything that could be called positive.
Still, in all that time, maybe his whole life, he hadn't once felt the kind of soft sadness he felt standing there with his family, in maybe the last minutes he'd ever see the place again.
Maybe the last minutes he'd see any of his friends again.
The weight of the little pill bottle was heavy in his pocket. Those faintly shimmering pills were the only things allowing him to leave, artificial ectoplasm, Dick had said. Bruce was making the final adjustments on the machine that would take them back to Gotham while Jason stood with the only people he'd really know over the past year.
He was supposed to be saying his last goodbyes, but there wasn't anything he could think of that hadn't already been said. As they watched the men work, Jason realized that there was someone he hadn't said goodbye to yet, and he felt a pang of regret that he hadn't gotten the chance to see the Box Ghost one last time.
"Wonder what it'll be like traveling through that thing." Sam said.
"Nightwing says it hurts like a bi…"
"Language Robin." Bruce cut in.
"Got it Boss man." Jason said with a sloppy salute, the cheeky grin on his face saying otherwise.
"I cant wait to have one of Agent A's cookies again." Dick flipped on a screen.
"Or a plate." Jason said.
"Not before you've finished your supper Master Jason." Dick said in a British accent.
"Who's Agent A?" Danny groaned, rolling his eyes and poking Jason's shoulder. "Half the time you talk about him like he's some kind if evil over lord and the other half like he's your best friend in the world."
"He's both." Bruce said, powering on the machine.
"He's like my strict, but super cool grandfather." As sad as he was about leaving, Jason couldn't wait to see the old man again. Him and Babs, and the commissioner. He was pretty excited to meet the kid that had started hanging round the cave too. It was thoughts like that that softened his sadness, kept him from staying behind. As much as loved his new friends, he loved his old one's just as much, Everything has to end sometime, right…
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((FOUR YEARS LATER))
Electricity buzzed around the lab, bouncing from device to device for a reason only Tucker knew. The techno-whiz typed frantically at his key pad while the rest of team Phantom stood ready to face whatever threat emerged from the steadily growing vortex of red energy.
Valery had an ecto-cannon trained on the anomaly while Sam waited patiently, a small army of ghost poffs hovering near her. At Danny's side, Danielle practically bounced on the balls of her feet, itching for a fight as always.
Out of all of them, Danny was the most relaxed. He wasn't worried about what would come at them this time. Whatever it was, he knew his team would be able to handle it, the only thing that really bothered him about this new situation was the amount of damage that could be done to their shiny new headquarters.
The anomaly doubled in size and spat out something big and metal with a pop before collapsing in on itself and disappearing.
"It's a ship?" Danielle flew over and tapped the metal helm experimentally. There was a loud creak and she sped away, positioning herself just behind Danny.
The roof slid open with a hiss and the pilot pulled off his helmet, greeting them all with a smirk, familiar crimson eyes crinkling up as he waved.
"Long time no see Boss." He reached into the ship and pulled out a smaller person, wrapping his arm around the boy's shoulders. "This is my little brother, Red Robin."
Just because nothing lasts forever, doesn't mean you can never have something like it again."