Dani's To-Do List

- glow in the dark stars

- convince Damian to do Halloween costumes with her

- meet a trigger-happy, ghostly dude

Dick and Tim have come up with a new way to distract Dani from going back into the city, inspired by her and Damian's obsession with the lego manor. Trying to recreate another hyperfixation, they offer up random activities. This time, Dick suggests she and Damian start looking into Halloween costumes. At their unimpressed response, Tim swoops in with a case of glow-in-the-dark stars and challenges them to accurate constellations on their ceilings.

Two hours later, Dani is sorting the different sizes of stars into piles while Damian sets up a ladder. Their star charts – freshly bought from a vintage bookstore in downtown Gotham – are spread out on the floor for reference and scaling info

"What if we did do Halloween costumes?" Dani wonders out loud. Alfred the cat jumps from the bed into her star piles and sends them scattering. "Ugh! CAT!" She picks him up and stands up, walking over to the en-suite bathroom to dump him into the large bathtub and quickly leaving to shut the door behind her. "Anyway, costumes?"

Damian studies her from where he's perched on the ladder like a bird on its roost. "Halloween is an inane holiday corporations use to exploit consumerism's demand for novelty merchandise." He makes another mark on the ceiling in pencil and then adds, "Besides. Any collectibles or treats can be much more easily obtained through Alfred."

"I know," Dani agrees, returning to her piles to reorganize them. "But I've never celebrated before. I kind of want to dress up and collect candy like everyone else does."

"You may do as you wish," Damian says, jumping off the ladder to land gracefully on his feet. Dani is impressed that he managed to jump over three meters off the ground without injury or at least a roll. Damian crosses the room and opens the bathroom door to let the cat out. It immediately beelines for Dani and starts trying to nest in her piles.

Damian lets out a sharp whistle and the cat abandons its reign of terror, jumping onto Damian's bed and looking down at her with hawk eyes, tail flicking. Dani doesn't back down, staring it in the face as she says, "I want to do it with you."

"I will not participate in such a childish waste of my time." He picks up several stars and climbs back to the ceiling, starting his constellation. Dani decides not to point out the irony.

"Four more centimeters to the left," Dani corrects, and Damian tsks before doing as she says, pressing the star into the ceiling. "We could always dress up as something really cool. Hey, what if we dressed up as Gotham's vigilantes and we can see if we fool them!"

Damian pauses in his placement of the next star and looks down to study Dani. It drags on, those sharp green eyes dissecting her every feature. Dani shifts uncomfortably, and he finally breaks his gaze, looking back up at the ceiling. "That would be fairly unwise."

"But I bet you could pass as Robin!" Damian's head snaps to her, eyes like chips of ice. "Or not," Dani says, deflating. "You could be someone else."

"I will not waste my time on such childish antics." He repeats as he puts up another glow-in-the-dark star on his ceiling. "And you shouldn't either."

"I didn't have a childhood," Dani confesses in a quiet voice. "I still want to experience it."

"It is too late to chase after the past," Damian replies, eyes hard as he focuses on his task. "You have missed your chance. If you insist on trying to reclaim a lost ideal of what you believe a childhood should be, you will do so without my companionship."

Dani feels tears burn in her eyes. She can feel the nerve she struck in Damian when she confessed she'd never had a childhood. He's hurting too, but that doesn't make his words sting any less. Dani finally felt like sharing something about herself, and she was instantly shot down.

She needs some air.

"You can finish putting up stars by yourself," Dani mutters to him, standing abruptly and dislodging the cat, which had sneakily climbed back into her lap.

Damian doesn't say anything as Dani walks out. That makes her feel worse.

Time to go into the city. Dani needs to clear her head. As she walks through the outer Wayne property, she lets her mind wander… which is always a terrible idea when she's feeling upset.

What is she even doing? Staying with these people like she belongs. She followed Dick here and he hasn't even been around for days – today was the first time he'd come to breakfast in a week. They haven't hung out at all in the past two weeks. She's been hanging out with Damian, with only sporadic interactions with Tim and Cass.

Her core has accepted the rest of them as family, but they don't know anything about her. She doesn't know anything about them. She's trusted before, trusted Vlad, and she knows it's not the same, she knows it, but does she really? What if "family" is just a lie Dani falls for every time?

Dani's not built for a family. She should just be traveling, like she always has.

It hurts, that Dani tried to open up a fraction to Damian and was immediately shut down. Logically, Dani knows that Damian is just like that. His response likely had nothing to do with her. If she'd told Dick or Tim or Cass or Steph, they'd probably immediately start helping her draft a Halloween costume. Is that what she wanted from Damian? When did she get so selfish, expecting a response like that?

… Well. She's always been selfish. No, wait–

She doesn't like this. Traveling doesn't have this many emotions. She doesn't have to deal with this constant roller coaster. She never felt like crying before (she never felt like she belonged, either), and this is the third time in the past two months and she hates/loves it and she's just confused. Does she hate this new arrangement, or love it? She hates hates hates loves it. Why is caring about people so hard? Why does it hurt to be cared about?

Dani doesn't want the thrill of adventure right now. Instead, she wants peace. She wants the racing of her heart to still and the aching of her core to soothe and her brain to stop thinking.

Above all, she wants distance. She needs to be outside of Gotham right now.

That's how she ends up on the mainland after taking the ferry from the city, wandering the harbor, and half-heartedly joining random ship tours. The submarine one helps, a little. It's ridiculously cool, but Dani will have to revisit it when she's feeling more up to it.

Dani's miserable the rest of the day. That makes her more frustrated. Is she doomed to misery every time she's apart from the Wayne's? Is that her fate now? If so, she's regretting her decision to go back to Dick.

No, she's not. She loves Dick.

She hasn't seen Dick for more than a meal in weeks.

Being away from Gotham isn't helping.

Dani takes the ferry back.

It's nighttime now, which makes Gotham far more dangerous. Dani's feeling dangerous, though. Honestly, she hopes someone tries to mess with her. She could go for a good old-fashioned fistfight right now. It's not like she'll actually get hurt; humans don't hit nearly as hard as ghosts.

Dani calls upon her map knowledge of places Dick specifically didn't want her to go to. Of the most obvious, there's Crime Alley, officially Park Row. Dani decides to go there. If Dick wants to stop her, he's going to have to come get her.

Unfortunately, her aura must be scaring away the petty criminals. Or maybe Lady Gotham is ruining her life by keeping her safe. Either way, Dani doesn't run into anyone for a full hour.

Even her tendency to get herself into trouble is failing her today. So much for punching some thug's lights out.

Dani climbs a nearby apartment building and makes herself comfortable next to a crumbling gargoyle. At least now she looks like she's brooding. And having her feet dangle ten stories off the ground makes her feel tall and unreachable. She focuses on the cars driving around below her and does her best to think of absolutely nothing.

A few minutes into the brood session, Dani feels something in her core. Like a shiver, a bit like her ghost sense. It feels like a tickle in her throat, but almost in… a bad way? Even with bad ghosts, her sense doesn't act like this, like sandpaper against her senses.

The feeling intensifies, and Dani swivels her head around trying to determine what her sense is trying to pinpoint. She hears the whizz of a grappling hook, the sound of boots hitting pavement, moving towards her.

Dani swings her legs around and stands up, just as a figure drops down from the rooftop nearby, which is a half-dozen meters higher. Dani's sense bubbles up in her core, not quite releasing, an unwelcome pressure right behind her heart. There's something wrong here, but Dani isn't sure what.

The figure straightens up, a vigilante in kevlar and a brown motorcycle jacket with a big red helmet obscuring their features, and swears. Loudly. His hands come up to his helmet and there's a hiss of air as he takes it off, muttering another swear.

Underneath, he's a young man, somewhere between twenty and forty (Dani's not great at placing ages), with a domino mask over his eyes and black hair with a stark white streak through it.

White like Danny's, like Dani's. The white of someone who has died and come back.

"What are you?" demands the vigilante-guy, one arm holding his helmet and the other hovering over one of his holstered guns. "What are you doing here?"

Dani tilts her head at him. She's trying to pinpoint why the feel of this guy vaguely disturbs her. There's something… icky? Poisoned? Gross. Definitely gross.

"I asked what you are," he growls, taking another step forward. Dani blinks, considering. What answer is he looking for?

With a mental shrug, Dani decides to answer with something close to the truth without outright saying it. "I'm like you." The vigilante jerks back, clenching his teeth.

He would've felt it, the kinship of energies in their bodies. Dani's is just… cleaner. It feels almost like the man before her is a pitcher filled with mud whereas Dani's is full of fresh spring water, but the base is the same. He's of the dead, same as Dani. Or at least, he was.

"You have no idea what you're talking about," he snarls. He's not angry, though. He's afraid.

It's hard to pick up this guy's emotions, since there's so much pollution from other souls muddying it. But it's also louder than a normal human's, so she can find what belongs to him, she just has to look a little harder. And this guy is scared. Of her, for her.

"We're the same," Dani insists. "I know you can feel it, just like I can." She places a hand over where her core would be, and the guy bodily flinches.

"We are not the same," the guy growls. His hand is shaking where it hovers over his gun. Dani wonders if he's scared enough to shoot her. Well, to try to shoot her. Dani's fairly confident her reaction time if he actually makes a move to draw his weapon. "You're something different. Something stronger."

"Okay, we're similar," Dani amends. "From what I can tell, mine's purer? Uncontaminated? I'm not sure how to describe it."

This doesn't seem to comfort him. In fact, it's like she didn't even speak at all. "Did Ra's send you? Who do you work for?" His fingers twitch closer to his gun.

"I don't work for anyone," Dani says slowly. "And I don't know who Ra's is."

He doesn't move. His breathing is still a little shaky, but he must hear the truth in her words (or her core) at least a little bit. "Why are you affecting me?"

"Affecting you?" Dani echoes. "What do you mean?"

"It's… the Pit, it's quieter. Calmer. What are you doing to me?"

"I'm sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about," Dani says, genuinely regretful. "What's the Pit?"

"If we're the same, you'd know what the Pit is," he accuses.

Okay, Dani can connect a few dots here. "If the Pit is what made you like–" Dani nods her head slightly at him, afraid of moving her hands and setting him off. "this, then I can kind of guess what it is. A big hole in the ground, I'm guessing? With, like, glowing green goo?"

He bodily flinches. "You've seen it somewhere else? The Lazarus water?"

"I've seen it everywhere," Dani confirms, "but not in a Pit, and I've never heard it called Lazarus water before."

"Then what do you call it?"

"Ectoplasm."

This is clearly not the answer he expected. He's surprised enough that his hand drifts further away from his gun. "Ectoplasm? Like ghosts?"

"Exactly like ghosts," Dani confirms. "Don't tell me you don't believe in them? That'd be pretty rich, coming from a guy who's been one."

"No, I know they've… What do you mean, I've been one? I think I'd remember being a ghost."

Well, he's right about that. Did he know he'd died? Is he a ghost right now? "Uh, I don't know how to tell you this, but…"

The vigilante seems to see where she's going and lets out an exasperated sigh, probably rolling his eyes under that mask of his. "I've never been a ghost, and I'm not one now."

Dani appraises him. "But you've certainly died. Only those who have passed beyond the veil get hair like yours."

The guy studies her too. "You say we're similar, meaning you've died too. Where's your white streak?"

"I have died," Dani confirms, ignoring the flare in her core at acknowledging her death. In truth, her death is what truly stabilized her – she was cloned to live, and ectoplasm was forced into a similar form, and they were tied together, but until Dani crossed the line between life and death, they would never be one. "My hair is completely white… sometimes." He just won't get to see it. "You may have dipped your toes in the afterlife, but I jumped all in. However you died, and however you came back, is different than what happened to me."

"You dye your hair?" he asks. Dani doesn't answer this, just giving him a little grin and a shrug. "Fine, we'll say you don't. This ectoplasm, from ghosts. Is that what those Acts are about? The Anti-Ecto Acts?"

Danny mentioned those. They were the reason he didn't want Dani in America… Those and the people that enforced them, the "GIW". So Dani nods, and explains, "It's the stuff ghosts are made of. Green, gooey. I'm not really sure why, since it seems like a really stupid thing to do, declaring war on the dead and all that, like… if they die in the war, they'll just join their enemy's ranks, right? So what's the point? Do they hope to destroy death or something?"

"I don't know," the guy replies. "So you are a ghost then?"

"I'm as ghost as you are," Dani quips back, abandoning her line of thought about the idiocy that is the Guys in White. "Well, maybe a bit more, but not all the way."

"And you don't know why you're calming the Pits?"

"I still don't know what the Pits are," Dani grouses. "Are they green and gooey?"

"Toxic green water that brings back the dead," he answers.

Okay, wait, what? "That sounds bad," Dani says dumbly. She should find out more about them. He said Pits, does that mean there's more than one? If that's true, there are multiple vats of ectoplasm just sitting around bringing people back to life… That's not good. That's not good at all. Does Danny know about it? "Where are they? I should probably do something about them." Maybe she can suck it up in her thermos. At the very least, she could get a sample for Danny to look at?

"You are going to do something about them?" the guy demands.

"I should," Dani agrees. "A bunch of rotting ectoplasm sitting around it bad. Really bad. In fact, if it's just sitting around, that's probably why yours is so dirty. It's got all these other people's emotions in it." Then something occurs to her, "Hey! Maybe that's why I'm calming it or whatever! Mine is much purer, so it's probably soaking up some of the excess emotion. That would make sense. I'm sure a doctor would know better, though."

"A doctor?" he repeats. "I doubt a doctor would know anything about this."

Dani rolls her eyes. "A human doctor wouldn't. But a ghost doctor would."

His lips quirk up a little bit. "What does a ghost doctor do? It's not like you can die twice, right?"

"You and I are living examples of why that isn't true," Dani deadpans, then grins a little. "Well, non-living, I guess."

That seems to amuse him as much as it does her. "The name's Red Hood, kid."

"It's Dani, actually. With an i."

"Whatever. Can I ask you a few more questions? I've already stayed in one place too long, but we can go to a safe house."

"Sure," Dani agrees easily.

"Absolutely not," answers another voice, this time from beside her. Dani jumps, completely blindsided, whirling around to see Robin standing on the ledge a meter to her left. How did he sneak up on her?! Well, she was distracted, but still! "Back down, Red Hood."

The two are locked in a bitter staring contest, and Dani alternates her curious gaze between them. "Do I get a say?" she asks after a tense moment.

"You do not," Robin says.

"So are you going to battle it out?" Dani wonders. "Do I go with the victor?"

"No, kid. I'll let the hero take you home," Red Hood says, his voice half a sneer. "I'll see you around, find you another time."

"You absolutely will not," Robin says the same time Dani corrects, "It's Dani. With an i."

"With-an-i, got it," Red Hood says. "Get her home safe, Demon Brat."

Red Hood dodges the blade Robin hurls at him, cramming his helmet back on and swinging away on a grappling hook in the same movement. Robin glares after him, then at Dani, then takes a few steps away to grab his fallen blade.

Robin should really be trained better. As soon as Dani's in his blind spot, she's gone.

Feeling better with the distraction and her short interaction with two different Gotham heroes, Dani starts wandering back towards the Manor, humming to herself.

Constantine put up a decent fight, but eventually JLD wore him down and he agreed to participate in the summoning.

"Don't want you bloody idiots to make it worse with a crappy summon," as he so eloquently put it. Regardless of his reasoning and attitude, his help is appreciated.

The summoning goes smoothly enough. Raven is the one to call the King. The rest of the League — or at least, as many as could reasonably be here — are standing at attention.

Dick can feel the moment the King accepts their call. It's like the drop in his gut that follows every freefall, the jerk of gravity that he chases for as long as he can before he reaches the line of his grapple. It's exhilarating and terrifying, the feel of the line between life and death that Dick loves to walk like a tightrope. It's awe-inspiring. It's petrifying. A lesser man would cower. As it is, Dick has to force his knees not to buckle.

Ice crawls from the summoning circle, inching along the Watchtower floor until it hits one of the secondary wards that Constantine and Zatanna set up. The magic circle ripples a bit, but holds; JLD would never summon a being as powerful as the Ghost King without the proper precautions.

Freezing air escapes the circle, dropping the temperature of the meeting room by several degrees. Not for the first time, Dick is grateful that the Batsuit is temperature resistant: cool in the heat and warm in the cold. Zatanna can't suppress a shiver, and if she had any extra magic to spare at the moment, Dick is sure she would warm herself with a spell.

A figure becomes visible in the waves of frozen air, a dark shadow with indiscernible lines that grows brighter but no less clear. Dick's vision fuzzes out, and he's forced to turn off the electronics in his cowl to clear the static. Seems like electronics don't like ghosts all that much… He'd have to remember that for later, especially since the GIW doesn't seem to have any problem with using electronic equipment while ghost hunting.

The silhouette sharpens a bit, finally showing a humanoid-looking figure with a billowing cloak that shimmers with shards of ice. The frozen air finally settles as the humanoid figure solidifies, and Dick can see much more clearly the King's chosen form.

When Raven said the King was a young soul, Dick was expecting his age. At least in form – age is obviously a more ambiguous concept to the realm of the dead. But the kid looks the same age as Tim, maybe younger by a year or two. Fresh out of puberty, baby fat still lingering in his cheeks.

There's no mistaking that the being before them is the King, despite his adolescent appearance. A crown of ice engulfed by flames hovers a few inches above the ghost's head, aching with power that Dick can feel without any magical affinity. The cloak on the King's shoulders ripples in a non-existent breeze, the underside glittering with nebulae and galaxies with the folds that kind of hurt Dick's head to look at too long. Dick wonders about the contradictions in the King's attire; the burning ice, the expanses of space beneath a white cloak, the youthful appearance of an apathetic teen dressed in fancy royal-looking clothes.

The King's hair is white as fresh snow, floating around his face as if he were submerged in water. His eyes are Lazarus green, so bright it's hard to see the pupil and sclera. Dick does a cursory glance at the boy's face before lowering his gaze a little, letting his eyes take a break. Looking at the King is a bit like looking at the Sun, and Dick can still see his afterimage every time he blinks.

"Who dares summon me?" the being speaks, voice overlapping with several intonations that make it feel as though multiple people are talking at once. Dick's heart steels itself as he prepares to talk down the probably-all-powerful being. "Do you have any idea how annoying it is?" … That was unexpected. If Dick could just parse out the King's actual voice, he's sure it would sound like a whiny teenager.

"All-King," Raven begins as the chosen spokesperson. "We, the Justice League, humbly greet you. We apologize for the abrupt summoning, and ask your leniency while we plead our case."

"The Justice League?" the King echoes, and the power dims a bit to a more tolerable level. "I believe there was a letter from you."

"Yes," Raven agrees. "We sent you a letter detailing what we would like to discuss with you now, about the Ghost Investigation Ward."

"You sent it three weeks ago," the King comments, tilting his head. Dick can see his face a little better now, though the supernatural glow still obscures some of the finer details. "I didn't realize I had a deadline to respond."

Raven visibly winces at that. "The matter was time-sensitive, Your Majesty."

"I know," the King says, and it feels distinctly mocking. "I was currently in a meeting about this very topic. It's a good thing you interrupted that. I'm sure whatever you have to say will accomplish nothing but keep me from potentially solving the issue. A wonderful use of my time."

Dick suppresses a wince. He expected the Ghost King to be furious, but he didn't really expect him to be so… salty? It's a bizarre twist: the adolescent-looking King acting like the teenager he's embodying.

"Our sincerest apologies," Raven begins, but the King waves his hand dismissively.

"Just tell me what you called me here to tell me."

Raven nods, looking at Dick, who steps forward slightly to draw the being's attention.

"We are aware of the Anti-Ecto Laws and that they are actively harming your people. The Justice League does not support it. We are doing everything in our power to get them repealed. Is there anything you demand to keep the peace between our realms?"

The King considers him thoughtfully. "There's something about you…" And somehow, that sends a chill down Dick's spine like nothing else has before. The King seems to shrug it off and says, "I don't want a war, if that's what you're asking. If you can get the Acts repealed, that would be great, but I'd rather you stay out of it otherwise."

"Stay out of it?" Green Arrow blurts. "Our world is at stake!"

The King's piercing stare leaves Dick – a huge relief – and zones in on Green Arrow. "I know."

Aquaman takes the King's shift in attention as a threat and steps forward to protect Green Arrow. "We only want to prevent a war."

Honestly, those two can be such idiots. Aquaman may have been trying to smooth things over, but the King flares in offense instead. Ugh, Dick was going to have to dress them down later. They were here for one reason only: to show that the entirety of the League was on board with repealing the Acts.

"You think I don't? You think you have any idea what I'm doing trying to prevent one?"

"We know you do," Raven jumps in, trying to appease the ghost.

Unfortunately, she missed her chance. Snowflakes begin to fall around the King, who snarls through them. "I'm doing everything I can, and you summoning me here to tell me that you have still done nothing and have absolutely no contribution to make, but oh, your Majesty, if you could do it better that'd be great– Yeah, that's just what I need! Some heroes trying to jump in the mess after ignoring it until it grew to this size trying to tell me how to do my job!"

"Your Majesty–" Raven tries, only to get cut off.

"Enough! Don't bother me or any of my Court again until you actually have the Acts repealed. Show me that you actually want this war prevented, and actually do something to prevent it!"

With that, ice erupts around the being, completely obscuring him from view. Arctic winds buffet the Leaguers from every side, chilling Dick to the bone, but it's immediately followed by a blissful stillness. The power that set Dick's teeth on edge had finally subsided, and he lets out a long exhale of relief.

Then he turns to the two Leaguers that ruined the meeting. "Green Arrow, Aquaman. Conference room, now."

As the two grown men follow dejectedly behind him, Dick can't help but turn over the king's face in his mind. There was something about it… He just can't pin down what.

I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, but I can't look at it anymore. Listen, it's been... a week. Ever have those weeks where it feels like you fail at everything? Even when you know logically you're just learning, that this is just life, that you're actually probably doing just fine, but it feels like you're drowning in your own incompetence anyway? But enough about that lol, y'all are here for fanfiction, and I shall deliver. I have Dani meeting Jason and Dick meeting Danny, so... I hope you guys enjoy.

- Damian finally offended Dani... it was bound to happen, boy is so socially stunted he borders on stupid. But he's going to try to make up with her... in his own way. Coming next chapter

- Is the Jason scene a little weird? Yep. He would probably never spill things or name drop like he did here, but I'm going with: he was really freaked out and acted rashly (he has been known to do that). Also, he and Dani are each other's secrets. So before you think it's a reveal, it's not (I still haven't decided on how I want that to play out yet, ideas are appreciated, cuz they get me thinkin)

- Danny meeting the League: he's just an exhausted teen, man. He doesn't need some rando adults trying to tell him to do a better job, he's already doing his best as stretched thin as he is. He wants people to cut him some slack. Also, no windows in this meeting room, hence the lack of "I'm in space" fangirling (that'll prolly come later). Also, he's like, three weeks? Fam, I'm the King of an entire REALM. It takes three weeks for the government to get back to you, and they have like a million employees. They're essentially sending a letter to the President as a rando citizen and expecting an answer immediately. Talk about entitlement lol.

- also, in most "summoning King Danny" scenes in other fics, he can just.. step out of the circle. Listen, Danny's powerful and all, and if he changed into a human he could literally just walk out, but I like to give JLD SOME credit. They wouldn't summon the All-King without a solid magic defense on their side.

See you all next week for more fluff (we're nearing Halloween in the 'verse, and there'll def be another Jason scene, I just haven't decided as Red Hood or Jason yet)

~Starr