Disclaimer: not mine

Chapter 14

He stared at the mortal sleeping deeply in his hold, interesting, he had sensed his presence. It seemed he'd been exposed to more ectoplasm than the majority of the city, was that the reason for interest in him? No matter, they had a deal. He sank down through the apartment, seeking an underground area and he found it. And there was the…outfit, he had been instructed to bring. Why, he did not know, but he did not waste time pondering over Plasmius' thought process. With the mortal hanging limp under one arm and the clothing in the other hand, he left.

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Danny saw Tim's shoes; glad he was home, or at least had come home. He kicked his own off and tossed his keys into the bowl on the counter. "Hey Tim, you up here?" he called, but there was no answer so he assumed Tim was either in the Nest or patrolling.

He headed for the stairs and froze, closing his eyes. His ghost sense didn't react…because the ghost was gone. He swore and ran to their bedroom to find no sign of Tim, the suit he'd worn still gone. He went intangible, sinking down quickly to the Nest, finding the Red Robin suit gone. He logged onto the computer, bringing up the internal security. They'd been planning to integrate anti-ghost tech to the Nest and apartment but they hadn't had the chance since coming back from Venice…and Tim was paying the price. The cameras were ghost level at least and Danny watched a familiar ghost appear in the Nest, Tim's sleeping form limp under one arm. Someone…someone knew Tim was Red Robin because Nocturn had no reason to take the suit.

Danny went to the changing area and stripped down, slipping into the Banshee suit for the first time, checking everything as he dressed, pulling on the domino mask last. He adjusted his fingerless gloves, preferring being able to touch things, not like he'd do damage that wouldn't heal within a day or two at most. He didn't want to, but he couldn't search the whole of Gotham alone. He grabbed the comm and slipped it in his ear, taking a deep breath.

"Banshee to Red Hood."

"Hood here, thought tomorrow's your big night?" Jason asked, sounding cheery enough.

"Red Robin's been taken," he stated as calmly as possible, feeling the icy nature of his core settling in, even as he heard Jason swear.

"What happened?"

"Sending you footage." He was wary to do so, but there was no other choice, so he forwarded the Nest footage to Jason and Oracle.

"Is that?"

"A ghost, his name's Nocturn, the ghost of sleep and dreaming," Danny explained as he jumped on the bike and sped from the Nest.

"Banshee," Batman joined them on comms. "Meet us at the top of WE," he ordered.

Danny didn't want to waste the time, but they didn't know anything about Nocturn. He figured since Ms Lane's articles, he'd likely learnt about ghosts, but they wouldn't know how to fight them. "Understood," he agreed.

He parked his bike and fired off his grapple, heading for the roof of WE to find the Bats gathering.

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Dick got the emergency alert and immediately headed for WE, the usual meet up when that was given. What worried him was Babs and Jason had triggered it. Bruce was already there with Damian, who did not look at all impressed. Cass landed a second later, eyes scanning over them for injuries. Jason would take the longest to arrive, coming from the Alley. But…Tim should have been there first; his apartment was only a few blocks away.

And then a figure in black and green landed, the slightest hesitation in his landing. It took Dick a split second to realise who it was, the guy from Tim's apartment, the rumoured partner that Red Robin had, who had taken Tim from the fundraiser…Banshee. And no Tim, that really wasn't good, Dick's stomach sinking.

"Banshee," B growled.

"Batman," Danny returned, voice eerily icy.

Dick felt a shiver run up his spine, accentuated by the fact he couldn't see the younger man's eyes, it had been a while since he'd felt so off balance around a younger vigilante, especially one so new to the work.

"Where's Red Robin?" Dick asked, heart in his throat.

"Taken," Banshee answered.

Dick looked down as footage was downloaded onto his computer by Babs, watching the figure in what had to be Tim's Nest, holding his limp body like he weighed nothing. "Why steal his suit?" he asked in confusion.

"Nocturn wouldn't," Banshee answered, "which means he's working for someone else."

"You know the attacker?" Spoiler asked as she landed.

"We've met before, about six years ago."

Banshee would have just been a kid six years ago. Then again, Tim was Robin at the same time, but he had training.

"How secure is it here?" Banshee asked, staring at Bruce.

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Bruce studied Danny, fighting the urge to demand he just talk. Someone Danny knew had taken his son! But…Danny loved Tim, it was obvious in their every interaction, the way he cared for Tim as he struggled to recover from Joker's attack, the fear gas, and then that therapist…who Danny had also had interactions with as a child. Which meant anything he knew would likely lead anyone who heard enough to his civilian identity.

"Oracle," he called over the comm.

"You're clear," she assured him.

He looked at Danny who took a deep breath.

"Nocturn is the ghost of sleep and dreaming, so Red wasn't hurt, just asleep. He can keep him asleep and locked in dreams so he has no reason to hurt him."

"A ghost?" Damian sneered, and Bruce gripped his shoulder in warning.

"It's probably not a coincidence this is happening after the Anti-ecto acts were repealed," Danny shrugged. "Okay…T, Red knows this, has known since he stayed with me to recover after the Freeze thing." He ran a hand through his hair, looking like he was fighting the urge to pace.

"My name isn't Danny Nightingale," he stated, and Bruce stiffened. He had checked the boy's background himself and come up with no signs of a fake identity. Then again, he knew someone good enough to hack the Batcomputer.

"Then who are you?" Jason asked, a bit of hurt well hidden in his voice.

"Daniel Fenton. If you look me up, it'll say I'm dead, blown-up age sixteen when my parents basement lab took out the house and my entire family, along with my friend Sam Manson…who you guys might have met at a gala."

Bruce frowned, Manson… "Jeremy and Pam Manson?"

Danny nodded. "Yeah. They didn't like us being friends and she hated being forced to be the perfect little princess for them. She was goth and a very outspoken ultra-recyclo-vegetarian."

"They didn't live in Chicago back then."

"No, they lived in Amity Park, America's most haunted town, not that anyone believed back then. My parents were ecto-biologists and inventors. They started Fenton Works together after college."

"I've heard of the company; it went bust almost four years ago…because of their deaths. Why fake your death rather than inherit it?"

"Because of the Acts. Better to fake my death then end up dead via dissection," bitterness was obvious in his voice.

"I've read those Acts; they can't touch a human."

"The GIW weren't really fussed over the exact wording of the Acts and they made sure the whole of Amity knew they had the authority to take anyone they wanted, even if apparently that wasn't true. Amity Park is located in a natural weak spot between the Realms, that was why my parents moved there, for their work. Their life's work was a portal, to what they called the Ghost Zone."

"The Infinite Realms?" he asked, and Danny nodded.

"They succeeded when I was fourteen and that's when the ghosts came. Nocturn was one of them, as was Spectra. Nocturn put the whole city to sleep to harvest the energy of their dreams. So, taking Red and his suit, doesn't fit his obsession. If he was doing this, there'd be reports of people falling asleep through Gotham, unable to be woken. Red won't even want to wake up, the dreams Nocturn gives…it's a perfect life, every happiness you've ever wanted. It doesn't last forever though; he had these helmets that kept everyone under. If he doesn't have them, then he'd have to remain close to Red to keep him under or use on of his Sleepwalkers."

"Sleepwalkers?" Dick asked.

"Minions I guess, they can put people to sleep too."

"Who would this Nocturn be working with, Phantom?" It was a guess, but a rather good one. Tim had passed the information on to Diana, had contacted Phantom for the interview. Phantom had vanished from said interview and Banshee had arrived to help Tim. But Phantom was a ghost, so how did that work?

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Tim smiled as they all sat down at the table for dinner, holding Danny's hand as Steph teased them. He was so happy, tomorrow, they were getting married. The whole family had welcomed Danny with open arms, even Damian. He'd never been so happy before.

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Wait, what? Okay, B had come up with some crazy theories over the years, Timmy some even crazier ones, but Jason had seen the pictures in the Planet. Phantom was a ghost. Danny, Banshee, was not a ghost. Yeah, he was a bit cooler than a normal person but he was definitely alive.

And yet, Danny's reaction… wow was he learning a lot about his brother-in-law, cause it was very easy to see that Danny was it for Tim. At least Tim knew all this, actually it explained a bit.

"How can you be a ghost?" he found himself asking.

"I'm not…not fully. I'm what's called a halfa, half ghost and half human."

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By the time they got to work, Danny was more than a little frustrated, even though he could understand their questions. But the longer they kept him to talk, the more of a head start Nocturn and Vlad got.

"Just got a police report, fifty people at a party found asleep, unable to be woken," Oracle called over the comm.

Now that was Nocturn's pattern. Which meant he was still in Gotham…or had returned? Surely Vlad wouldn't be crazy enough to be hiding in Gotham, right under Danny's nose.

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Vlad carefully adjusted the levels, the boy was more contaminated than he'd thought, but not enough for what was to come. So, he had to slowly raise his contamination levels, try too fast and it would kill him permanently. Young Drake-Wayne had grown since the last time Vlad had seem him at a Gotham gala, he could see why Daniel liked him.

Timothy was fast asleep, slumped in the bottom of the tank, dressed in his uniform. A Sleepwalker remained nearby, ensuring he would remain asleep. Vlad finished his calculations and pressed the button to fill the tank, watching as the boy began to float, twitching in his sleep briefly before settling again. The twitching was likely due to the mild burn the ectoplasm would cause since he was unused to direct exposure, at least he hoped he was. Just because they were devoted to each other did not mean they should take risks in not using protection. The mask on Timothy's face was delivering a mix of oxygen and ectoplasm in gas form, since liquid form would not be good for him to attempt to breath yet.

He knew that Daniel would be aware of Timothy being missing now, but by the time he found them it would be over. Daniel would be grateful to him for what he was doing in the end, he would never lose Timothy the way Vlad had lost Maddie.

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By morning, almost a quarter of the city was asleep, forcing their attention from looking for Tim and Jason figured that was the point. They had to find Nocturn though, before the whole city ended up trapped in dreams and giving the ghost more power. When he got his hands on this Vlad, he was going to regret ever even hearing of Tim, and B was going to stop him. The police could do nothing to slow what was happening and the doctors were stumped.

Danny had outfitted them with anti-ghost tech, but he didn't have a lot just lying around. He'd called a friend who was sending more, but he was out in California, so B had arranged to have it flown out on a company jet.

Jason was still trying to get his head around the idea of a half ghost. He'd known Danny had briefly 'died' and been hospitalised but to find out it had been because of a portal opening and not a lightning strike… was that why he also felt something strange around him?

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Damian could not believe they were hunting a ghost of all things. Trust Drake to get involved with some kind of freak of nature that shouldn't exist. You were either alive or dead, to be both was beyond unnatural. It was rare for them to be out during the day, but this ghost was not limited to working only at night as more and more people fell victim to its power.

He leapt, firing his grapple to fly between buildings. He blinked as there was a flash of blue light before his eyes and then his grip on the gun went slack as his eyes drifted shut, limp body plummeting to the fire escape below.

"Robin? Robin report."

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Bruce brushed his son's hair back from his eyes but he didn't stir, even as Alfred continued stitching up the nasty gash down his arm. That Damian had been hit while in the air…they were lucky he was alive. His leg was broken, thankfully not shattered from the landing, though it had been close.

He looked up as Jason led Danny in, the young man removing his own domino as he approached. Danny frowned and reached out, placing a hand on Damian's forehead, concentrating.

After a few moments he removed his hand. "This isn't like last time," he admitted. "Looks like Spectra's not the only one who's learned new trick," he grimaced. "Theoretically, I can go in and wake him up…but there's no guarantee if Nocturn's stronger.

"No," Bruce hated to say it, "we focus on stopping Nocturn, once we do that, they'll wake up. Correct?"

"Yeah," Danny nodded. "When he attacked Amity Park, he had a base in a local mattress warehouse near the harbor, with a giant antenna on top to absorb the dream energy. Anything sleep themed abandoned?"

"Steph, run a search," Bruce ordered.

"On it!" She called, moving to the computer.

"What about Timmy?" Jason asked.

"There's no way Vlad's hiding in Gotham, Tucker and Technus are working on tracking down where he's hiding," Danny answered. It was obvious he was on edge, torn between helping take down the dream ghost and going after Tim.

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Tim kissed Danny, leaning over him, hand gently wandering over his chest. He still didn't understand why Danny chose to stay with him, he knew he was a complete mess in the head. But Danny had stayed through everything. And now they were married, not just in the mortal realm but in the Infinite Realm as well, nothing could ever part them. Danny smiled up at him, a hand lifting to run through his hair, and something felt… something was wrong…missing?

"Tim? Hey, what's the matter?" Danny asked, and Tim blinked.

He shook his head and smiled, kissing him again. "Nothing." How could there be anything wrong when they were together?

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Danny wasn't bothering with the grapple, flying beside Jason as they searched a bunch of warehouses near an old mall that had had three bed and mattress stores. There was no guarantee he'd go for the same kind of thing, but ghosts rarely changed unless forced to.

"The GIW…would I have been on their list if they came to Gotham?" he asked after a while.

"Yeah, you're not like me but you're more than liminal. But Gotham itself is very high in ectoplasm, it's why I came here to hide. They'd have found me long before they picked up on you. Unless they walked right past you with a scanner anyway."

"Nice to know they were incompetent, then again we knew that the moment they attacked Lois Lane," Jason shook his head as he ran across the rooftop. "Look, Banshee. As soon as you get a hint of where Red is, you go after him. Leave Nocturn to us."

Danny wanted so badly to do that. He knew the kind of things Vlad had been capable of four years ago, with his Mom dead…who knew how far his mental state had deteriorated. She'd been part of his Obsession after all.

"B won't like it, but this is what the Justice League Dark is for, we'll call them in for back up, okay? I get the feeling he didn't kidnap Red for a tea party."

"Honestly, I'm not sure why he took him, other than him being important to me. He's left me alone since the explosion, I thought he'd given up on getting me as his son," he muttered as he landed on a wire.

"What's that?"

He turned to where Jason was looking and a feral grin crossed his face. "Gotcha."

"I'll call the others in."

"This is a ghost fight, stay back." Danny told him and took off.

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Jason groaned, of course he went off to face the ghost empowered by who knew how many peoples dreams by now. "O, we found Nocturn's base. Banshee's gone on ahead. Said it's a ghost fight and to stay back."

"I've got your coordinates. Spoiler is dealing with a pile up caused by some drivers falling asleep at the wheel but the others are on the way."

He saw something explode and grimaced. "Might be over before they get here."

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Nocturn spun as someone entered his base, looking around. "I know you're there."

"Where did you take him?" a familiar voice called and then the ghost boy was there, in human form and dressed differently, but it was him.

"Ah, so you're the reason for Plasmius' interest in that mortal. No matter, this city is mine now. And perhaps with all that power, I'll take the Crown," he smirked.

He hadn't planned on Phantom's presence, would have preferred to be able to draw from the entire city at least before facing the young king, but he should have enough power now. Phantom had needed his team to beat him in his own Haunt after all, here the boy appeared to be alone and he had not claimed the city. Then again, there was a presence to Gotham that said trying to claim the city might not be smart. Did he want to rule the Infinite Realms? He had never intended to, but if it came with beating the boy then so be it.

"If you wanted the Crown then you should have challenged Pariah when you had the chance," was the answer.

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Danny glared at Nocturn, feeling the familiar transformation wash over him before triggering the secondary one, feeling the Crown become visible over his head, the Ring on his finger. A cape made of galaxies unfurled from his shoulders, cloaking him, as light armour covered portions of his hazmat suit. "Then let's do this," he growled, fangs flashing, eyes burning green as he launched an ectoblast at Nocturn's face.

He dodged a return blast, grimacing as an army of Sleepwalkers and lesser ghosts appeared. Great. His eyes went ice blue, glowing, as the temperature plummeted, ice forming along the walls. Waves of ice crashied into waves of Sleepwalkers and then Danny launched himself at Nocturn, not willing to let him hide behind an army. It was obvious he wanted them to wear Danny down.

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Dick barely kept the bike upright as he took the turn far too sharply. Danny was facing that ghost alone, it had taken out Tim in a second, had nearly killed Damian with that fall while asleep…last update had almost half the city now asleep…he had no clue how powerful Danny was or what powers being a halfa gave him, but surely, they didn't match a full ghost. He didn't know him, but he was important to Tim, he couldn't let him get hurt. Tim would never forgive him if anything happened to Danny, though he was starting to doubt if Tim would ever let him back into his life.

At least Jason was playing it safe by gathering intel for the rest of them, even over his comms they could hear explosions from Nocturn and Danny's fight. He had to get there in time! Danny had made a comment about electricity so he was hoping his eskrima would be useful. They all had the ghost repelling belts too, but that was it other than the wrist ray Damian had originally taken and now B was wearing.

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Bruce got the Batmobile as close as he could and then took to the rooftops, swinging as fast as he could towards the fight. There was no sign of the police, they were too busy dealing with the chaos of people dropping asleep where they stood, a large portion of the force among them. If it wasn't stopped soon, the death toll was going to explode as those in hospital for other reasons began to die without awake staff to treat them.

He landed beside Jason right in time for a wall to explode, a glowing figure slamming into the ground. It rolled to its feet and then took to the air and he realised it was Phantom, though attired differently to the pictures he had seen. Was that…a crown?

TBC…