Disclaimer: Don't own any form of DC or Danny Phantom

Chapter 1

Danny bit his lip, staring at the ceiling, as Jazz carefully pulled the needle through his skin. He was doing his best to ignore the noise coming from downstairs, his parents raging over losing Phantom again.

"Danny…"

"I'm fine," he said before she could say anything else.

"No, you're not," she snapped, and he blinked. "Danny this can't go on."

"Well, what do you suggest?" he snapped back. "Not like there's anything we can do about it, not with the GIW backing them. There's only one person who might be able to get me out of here and he's no safer!"

There was no way he would ever agree to live with Vlad, he'd move permanently to the Realms first. But then he took in his sisters' expression.

"Jazz?"

She shifted but then nodded. "Let me finish," she murmured. She finished the stitches and covered them, checking his other wounds before giving him a shot of Ecto-Dejecto to ensure he'd heal fast. "Come on." She took his wrist and led him into the hall. She grabbed the pole and used it to pull down the stairs to the attic.

Danny watched but then followed her up, confused. He wrinkled his nose, trying not to sneeze, when was the last time the place was cleaned? "What are we doing up here?"

"I found this years ago but I didn't understand what it was back then," she explained. She pulled out old notebooks and files.

Danny took the first and began flipping through them. He was better at engineering and physics but he had spent years working in the lab with their parents, except…not his parents? He stared at the photo; it was him…except the date was three years before he was born.

"Jazz?" this…it couldn't be real, it couldn't.

She took his hand, squeezing gently even as he kept reading. There was a notebook full of notes on the boy in the picture, how smart he was, how well behaved… Danny felt even sicker. They had been in Gotham for a convention and seen the boy with his parents… they'd…he gagged, pressing his hand to his mouth. No…they couldn't have! They couldn't have gone so far.

He…he wasn't a Fenton…he wasn't even a random baby…

"How could they do that?"

"I don't know," Jazz whispered. "You're my baby brother, Danny. No matter what or who your blood family is."

"Artificial aging…" he whispered.

"I don't remember Mum ever being pregnant," Jazz admitted. "There's no photos of you until you're four."

"Why? Why make me the same age? It doesn't make sense!"

"I don't know," Jazz answered, wrapping her arms around him.

He clung to her, unable to understand how they could do this. Why? He knew mu…Maddie's pregnancy with Jazz had been hard and he could remember being called their miracle baby when he was younger. But why had they wanted another child when they barely did anything with them since he was pretty young and they became totally obsessed with making the portal? They seem to have chosen him because he was smart, had they wanted to train him as a helper or something? He had started helping when he was little after all.

Why had they never told him? Then again, that would mean admitting to something illegal, but was it illegal back then? He was pretty sure those laws hadn't come in until he was a teen. Had they been ashamed of their actions? By Danny's reckoning, it was assault, he doubted the kid had handed over whatever samples they'd needed. Sure, they'd probably found things like hair and skin cells, but they had still taken his DNA without his consent.

They were nutty scientists, obsessed when it came to eradicating ghosts…but what use was aging him to the same age as the…donor? They'd done a lot to hurt him since his accident, though they didn't know it was him, but they'd never do something as evil as using him to replace the original kid or something.

"Gotham huh?"

"There's no names but…"

"But they obviously have money." And that was trackable.

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He could go to Sam, her family had money, but he didn't want to risk dragging her into it. She'd never mentioned seeing someone who looked like him at the galas she'd been to either so did they move in different circles? That meant one of the families had a lot more money than the other and he was betting it wasn't the Manson's.

Getting computer access outside of town wasn't easy thanks to the GIW, but that was okay, since he was looking for older records. So, he began looking at old copies of the Gotham Gazette, searching for any sign of the right family. And then he found a series of articles, starting from around the time of his accident. Seemed both their lives had gone to hell at the same time, what were the odds? But it was him, it was like looking at a photo of himself that, just with a different hair style and dress sense.

He'd found him, now what? Why would he want anything to do with Danny? Not like he knew he existed or anything. And there was no way he could reach out from Amity Park, sending the information online or through the mail would be insane, too much chance of it falling into the wrong hands. The GIW monitored everything after all. They weren't under something like martial law yet but it was heading that way. Which meant to leave he'd have to get creative.

But could he leave? Amity was his haunt…wasn't it? But he was also still half human. Ugh, he was going to have to ask someone which meant a trip to the Realms. Was it really worth it? Why would he even want to meet Danny? Or do anything to help him?

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He watched his children as they argued and chatted, Sunday lunch was always chaotic. It was a relief to have them all there, even Cass was back for a visit. He understood her desire to spread her wings but he missed his daughter when she was in Hong Kong and he knew the others missed her too, especially Tim. Those two had always been so close, from the moment they met. But with her back, Tim had come to lunch without any excuses. He seemed mostly relaxed too, knowing she had his back, and that hurt.

He hated that Tim no longer saw the Manor as home, that he'd been driven away while he was…indisposed. Things had improved, Tim would come to the Cave, so would Jason, but there was a distance between his two sons and the rest of them. There had been distance of some sort of Jason the whole time but Bruce missed Tim, the bright child who had refused to leave no matter how Bruce had tried to push him away. Once he'd accepted Tim, his presence and position as Robin, it had become so easy, at least until Jack Drake interfered. He would never have wished Tim to lose both parents but he had hated the man. He'd hated him for the childhood neglect of such a bright child and then he'd hated him for trying to smother Tim till he fit the mould the man wanted him to.

Things with Tim and even Jason had been good or getting better till Damian had arrived. He knew he'd messed up there, knew now that Tim's accident in the cave hadn't been an accident at all, but he hadn't gotten the chance to do much before the fight that had led to his supposed 'death'. And then everything in the family had imploded and he'd started fixing it when he first returned only to screw it up when it came to Tim and his father's killer. He saw so much of himself in Tim, had been terrified when he realised what Tim was doing with the man, the complexity of it all, and so he had chastised him even though Tim had saved the man in the end. After that, things had gotten frosty between them for a while. They still could be at times.

Jason came around more often now, though mostly to see Alfred. But he would linger longer in the Cave and was more open to working with them. He was also very protective of Tim and Cass these days. It hurt a little but was also good. He knew Tim and Jason were working cases together and it seemed to be good for them, they got hurt less often if they had a partner and while Tim's presence didn't seem to curb the violence much, there were less full out fights with Tim working the intel and getting onto issues before they got to that point. Tim was even welcome in Crime Alley now unlike the rest of them. Considering how they'd started…he'd never seen such closeness coming.

Damian had grown over the years but it was obvious he still didn't like Tim or the majority of people. He still filed to have Tim removed as CEO and Bruce had stopped several of those before they reached the board. Honestly, he couldn't let Damian inherit the company with the way he was, not if he wanted it to survive. Tim had been born and raised to run a company; he had made sense as the heir to WE from the start. All of his children were provided for in his new will, he hadn't had the chance to fully update it last time which was why Dick had ended up the guardian of both Damian and Tim.

That hadn't been the plan since he'd seen how badly they interacted. He had been in talk with Barbara for her to take custody of Tim until he was eighteen, they got along very well after all and had similar interests. It wasn't needed now since Tim had been emancipated but he had sat down and talked to him about it and Tim had seemed relieved to know Bruce hadn't meant for him to be stuck the way he'd ended up. Bruce had expected Tim to have Babs as support and act for him until he turned eighteen when it came to the company.

The Manor would go to Damian as would money and other resources. Dick would get his remaining shares in the company, not enough to control it but enough to have a say. When he tried, he had a fairly good head for business and he could get along with anyone. All of his assets would be split among the family, ensuring they could live their lives without worrying about money. Not that he was planning to die any time soon, but their lives were dangerous.

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Danny sat on the bus, head against the window as he kept his breathing steady. He'd done it, he had left Amity Park. Thanks to Jazz, he had two bags of belongings with him. One of the bags was pretty much Fenton tech and medical equipment, the other was clothing, money, anything they could get together to help him. His backpack was full of everything they could find concerning the Fenton's work back then to show to the other…original? Ugh, was this how Ellie felt? Though it could explain why Vlad had failed so many times, cloning a clone?

Getting out hadn't been easy, no way would the GIW have just let him leave with his high contamination readings. So, he'd had to portal out of town, after begging a few ghosts for help contacting Wulf. They'd come very close to being caught. But he'd made it to the bus and was safely on his way to Gotham. He wasn't entirely sure what to do once he was there. More research he guessed and then figure out how to approach him, fun.

Sam and Tucker didn't know what he was doing, it was too dangerous to let anyone else know. They did know he was hoping for help. Gotham was Batman's city after all, he would be looking to contact the Vigilante. After the fifth ignored call to the League, most in town had given up on the heroes, but he had his own theories on that. Like Vlad and the GIW interfering. There was no way the Justice League could support what they were doing since for starters, there were innocent humans involved but also because of members like Martian Manhunter and Superman. The Anti-ecto acts could be twisted around to put them, anyone really, in danger.

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She was so relieved that Danny was safely away and on his way to Gotham. Their parents hadn't even noticed he wasn't at home or that she'd emptied every bit of cash from the house for him. Not that they paid attention to that kind of thing, too lost in their bigoted 'research'.

She didn't know why they had Danny but she had always been happy they had. She loved her baby brother and didn't care how he'd come to be. She knew she'd been more of a mother to him then Maddie had, especially once they got truly focused on the portal. She'd learnt to cook to ensure he had food, had done all the parenting research, taken him to space exhibits… She prayed that his 'brother' would accept him.

She also knew he was planning to approach Batman and that could go so wrong…but it might be the last chance they had before the GIW finally cut them off and moved in to take full control. Every month they got bolder and soon there'd be no one to stop them.

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Danny stared up at the towering building before him. Wayne Enterprises. This was it. He didn't know how else to reach out. He had no address listed and while Danny could just go to Wayne Manor, he didn't know if his original lived there or how they'd react. Best to meet him first and let him read everything, work out how he wanted to react to Danny's existence without pressure from other family.

He'd left his bags in a bus locker and only had the backpack with him. He'd also dressed in the nicest clothing he'd packed, jeans and a shirt. Not like he could pack the one suit he owned and who knew what the Froot Loop had put in it to track him or contain his powers. He took a deep breath and joined the throng heading into the building, moving towards the front desk to ask about contacting him.

To his shock someone moved towards him, talking even faster than Tucker on a meat rant against Sam, ending with them in an elevator. He tried to speak up, to tell him he wasn't who he thought but the man just talked more. Well…he supposed he was getting where he needed to be but this was not the way to go about it!

Danny blinked and he was alone in a massive office. Okay, so wow, but also really not good. He stayed right where he was in the middle of the room, not daring to touch anything, even to sit, hoping the owner of the office would appear soon and would listen.

The door opened and a woman walked in. "Tim, your…" she trailed off as she stared at him, body stiffening in alarm. "Who are you?"

"Not Tim," he offered, running a hand through his hair. "Some guy in a suit just starting talking at me and wouldn't let me get a word in, I tried to tell him I wasn't who he thought I was. I didn't know what to do so I just kind of…stayed right here. Figured it was safest to just not move."

She stared at him and slowly pulled out a phone, obviously nervous. So, Danny let his backpack slip to the floor and made sure to keep his hands out and visible, body relaxed.

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"Hey Tam, sorry I'm late," he started but she cut him off.

"Tim…"

"Tam?" he asked in alarm, sitting up straighter.

"There's someone in your office," she murmured.

"Are you safe?" he asked immediately. Who was it that would make her nervous? Was Ra's trying something?

"He's put his bag down and his keeping his hands out," she answered. "He…Tim if I didn't know how you dress…I'd assume he's you. He looks exactly like you except his hair cut is different."

Tim froze, feeling sick. He couldn't have…could he? No, he was jumping to conclusions. They said everyone had at least one doppelgänger out there. That was likely all this was. "Get out of the office but make sure someone can see him. I'll be there soon," he told her.

"Okay."

"Tam, do what you have to, to protect yourself."

"I will," she agreed. She had a taser in her desk as well as a few other bits and pieces to use for self-defence.

Tim sat back in his seat, wishing it was Alfred driving him or that he was on his bike. It could be a shapeshifter, a clone, an illusion… or it could literally be someone ending up with mistaken identity. He knew some of the staff and getting them to shut up and listen could be impossible. So, he supposed it was possible, but with his life?

He thanked the driver and rushed into the building, heading straight for his office. He was relieved to see Tam at her desk, taser right beside her hand, and through the glass he could make out a form standing not far inside, just standing there. "Tam?"

"He hasn't moved," she answered. "Do you want me to call security?"

"No, be ready to hit the panic button though," he warned.

Tam nodded, that would summon the bats, or it should. He figured Jason would answer, Cass was out of the country again, and the others? He really hoped B would come, it was his family building after all and…Tim kind of thought things were getting between them lately. He took a deep breath and opened the door.

Seeing him in person was a shock. It was one thing to be told but another to see… it was like looking in a strange mirror. He was dressed in clean, well-kept clothing, though nothing like what Tim favoured when not wearing a suit. He could see some kind of scar peeking out from one sleeve, another near his temple though very faded. Nothing like Tim's scars that he made sure were covered by clothing or makeup.

"Who are you?" He asked warily.

"Danny Fenton," was the answer, and Tim was surprised. That was interesting, if Ra's was behind this, then he wouldn't have a full name separate from Tim's. "I, uh, came to see you. Someone kind of grabbed me, thought I was you. Figured I should just stay here and wait," Danny explained, shrugging awkwardly. "I only just found this out and you deserve to know. Everything I could find is in here," he indicated the backpack at his feet.

Tim had a sinking feeling. He knew his parents were all about appearance and control, but they wouldn't have gone that far, would they? "Empty it slowly," he offered, and Danny nodded.

He knelt and opened the bag, pulling out notebooks and files before showing the bag was empty. He pushed them towards Tim, stepped back further and then sat with his legs crossed. He was obviously making himself as little a threat as possible.

Tim cautiously knelt and scooped up the documents, moving to his desk where he had some weapons, kicking himself for currently being unarmed. He didn't sit but he fanned the files and notepads out on the desk. He was surprised to find an old photo of his parents, with him with them. He had to be around three or so, dressed in a tiny suit, and it looked like some kind of function. He flipped it over to find his name and the date so yeah, he'd barely turned three. It was eight months before the Circus and things before them weren't as clear in his memory as after but…there were some vague memories of parties and stuff.

He opened what looked like the oldest document, the first notebook. The more he read, the sicker he felt. This…this was… he forced himself to keep reading until he'd gone over it all.

Tim found himself collapsing into his chair, just staring blindly at the papers. Slowly, he lifted his head to stare at…his clone.

TBC…

So very different since they won't be paired. Pairing suggestions? Danny with someone from DC.