Tim's To-Do List

- try and figure out the mystery

- fail

- go insane

Tim enters his Nest two days after Christmas, mind full of new information and ready to work. He would have come sooner, but Dani kept drawing the whole family into games, and when she wasn't doing that, Tim into teaching her about photography. And really, how is Tim supposed to deny that sweet little gremlin a game of "the floor is lava" or a lesson on camera angles when she looks at him with those excited, big blue eyes?

Connor called him a siscon. Tim would be mad, but he's kinda right. Dani's the cute little sibling Tim always wanted, and Damian never was. Don't get Tim wrong, he loves the demon – when he isn't actively being stabbed by him – but Dani is the kind of little sibling Tim can protect and spoil. He adores her… and the mystery she presents.

Tim pulls out his desk chair and sits down, tugging off his mask to let his sweaty face get some air. He'd finally escaped from the family fun and then his six-hour long patrol, and now it was time to continue puzzling out the mystery.

He rests a moment longer, then gets up and puts the coffee maker on. He grabs his discarded bag and dumps it out on the desk, letting the loose papers and pictures scatter out across the surface. Ready to work in earnest, Tim unlocks his conspiracy board.

It's massive: a wall eight feet tall and twelve feet long (so far) made of corkboard and sporting hundreds of little notes, all connected by different colors of string. Most predominant is the red, which pulls together the threads Tim is sure are connected, but has no proof about yet.

Is it a little cliche to have a board with red string? Yes. Is that why Tim does it? Yes – though it also has proved to be the best way to organize his thoughts.

The mystery of Dani, the Ghost King, the GIW, the Lazarus Pits, and the so-called "Infinite Realms". The tidbits of information Dani lets out, the information Tim has overheard from the others or pried out of them with threats and subterfuge. The information Dani retrieved for them on her trip to her brother.

Speaking of. Tim turns to the section of the board about Dani's brother. So far Tim has listed his age range, slight accent, and probable level of education from listening to his voice; his gamer tags and names; his passions; and finally, his friends. The first thing Tim pins up today is the printed email of the RSVP for the Mansons to the Annual Winter Gala.

Tim's said it before, and he'll say it again. It's impossible for him to keep track of everything that goes on in the world, as much as he wishes he could. And back then, back when his parents pulled him out of school and over three state lines to go to some ridiculous museum opening party, a twelve year-old Tim was simply not as paranoid as he is now.

He had a brief conversation with a little girl, younger than him by a few years and just as grumpy. She was wearing a purple dress, if Tim remembers correctly – and he does, even all these years later – and was ranting about how wasteful the entire party was. Tim hadn't intended on speaking to her, too focused on mentally planning for that night's training session (his twelfth as Robin, brand new and still learning how to be a hero), but she approached him, wondering about his own sour mood.

Tim was raised to be the perfect socialite. Smile, nod, be seen and not heard, hear everything and report to his parents on the ride home. For the most part, Tim was perfect. But back then, still raw from the death of his Robin, still exhausted from the training and constant arguments with Bruce, still frustrated with his parents' obvious disregard for his opinion, he'd been frowning. And the little girl found solace in another grumpy child.

If Tim was the man he is now back then, he would have investigated her. She said just two strange things, things back-then Tim chalked up to childish fantasies that today-Tim would investigate, albeit with a grain of salt.

"My parents don't like our city because it's weird and su-per-sti-sious," she ranted when explaining why she was there, before she'd asked the question of Tim. "They're always trying to leave it, but that's where our grandmother lives, and they like her money."

The second: "My friends are going stargazing this weekend and I wanted to go too," the little girl had complained, when Tim asked her politely what she'd rather be doing. "Although, I think its just an excuse to go ghosthunting."

Two comments. That's all it would take for Tim today to investigate. He's kicking his past self now, despite knowing there was no possible way to know he should have looked more into it.

When he heard that little girl's voice again, and after the several minutes it took talking with her to place the familiar voice, Tim knew he'd struck gold.

Dani's brother is friends with a girl Tim's met. She's a Manson. Sure, small fry as far as the top 1% are concerned, and certainly not any family to be invited to something like the Winter Ball, but the Waynes were hosting, as always, and Tim never hesitates to pull strings. The Mansons were ecstatic at the invitation, all too eager to agree to bring their teenage daughter and a similarly aged plus one to 'balance out the adult to adolescent ratio' as Tim described it. Once he mentioned it to Dani, he's certain she'll beg her brother to be Samantha's plus one, and by the end of January, the mystery of the brother's identity will be solved.

And if Sam's past comment is to be believed, this brother knows something about ghosts. Something more than Dani, despite her status of kind of being one. Although, ghosthunting does concern Tim a little bit.

Tim's two most plausible theories about her brother are that he's a ghost hunter (or related to ghost hunters) and that he's like Dani.

For the ghost hunter theory, Tim has some solid evidence. The first being Samantha's comment way back when – he's certain she was talking about the brother because of her mention of stargazing, and even though she mentioned 'friends' plural, he's willing to make an educated guess that Dani's brother is the one with the vested interest in ghosts. Dani's mentioned before that he 'has a portal', which is curious wording. She says Gotham 'makes a portal' for her, but her brother 'has a portal'. One that she enters the city through, suggesting it's more permanent. If her brother is a ghost hunter, it could explain why she has access to the 'ghost concealment' watches and the 'ghost containment' device she let Ace out of.

But the hunting part is a little concerning. Maybe Samantha's friends were only playing at ghost hunting when they were younger. Maybe they only hunt malicious spirits. Maybe their hunting stopped after meeting Dani. Whatever the case, Tim doesn't think the brother is a threat to Dani. In fact, Tim doesn't think he's much benefit to Dani either. She's a thirteen year old kid running around the world, and her older brother didn't stop her?

Tim would be more angry about it, but if he's Samantha's age like Tim assumes, he's only about sixteen. Really, Tim has more words for the parents. Even if Dani is a cousin rather than a direct relative like she's mentioned before, the parents should have stepped in to take care of her.

Unless they were awful people, or they didn't know about her (given that Tim knows for sure Dani had only existed in society for less than two years, though the reason why is still unclear). Or Dani was her regular self and refused to be taken care of and ran off to China the second they turned their backs. All were equally likely, and Tim didn't have the necessary information needed to lean towards any of them.

So, tech, knowledge, Samantha's comment seven years ago. Dani's brother being some kind of ghost hunter or ghost researcher of some kind is a good theory. Tim does have to admit, however, that the unknown boy's age of sixteen(ish) does present some doubt. What teenager hunts ghosts? But then again, what teenager dons a supersuit and fights crime in Gotham? Tim's hardly one to talk.

Then there's the theory that Dani's brother is also like her. Jason confessed to Tim while they were discussing the logistics of Ace's existence in the mortal realm that Dani had told him there were three 'of her'. There's less evidence to support this theory, but there's something in Tim's gut that tells him he's on to something.

Tim writes these theories down and puts them up, wrapping a red string around the pin and drawing it to Dani's board. If the brother is the second part-ghost, then who's the third?

Tim puts another placard up to represent this mysterious third part-ghost and draws a big question mark. There's no information about this one, other than whoever it is, they're older than Dani. Tim considers the board, tapping the back of the marker on his chin. After a moment's hesitation, Tim decides to add, "possible threat". The looming third part-ghost feels sinister, even though Tim has no evidence to support it.

He moves on. He adds the stuff about Ace, looping string to connect it to his general info on ghosts, and then to the Ghost King.

Information on the King is supremely limited. Constantine, Zatanna, and Raven couldn't tell him much beyond the King being very new, and that the Realms had rejoiced at the change in leadership. Beyond that, they really couldn't give him more information, whether that be from a lack thereof or some kind of spiritual/magical NDA. Tim suspects a mix of both.

"The living are not meant to know the secrets of the dead," Tim muses, repeating a sentiment that has been drilled into him over and over again. But hey, Tim's a vigilante. He may have been one of the only members of his family to not die and be resurrected, but he's spent enough time around death that Tim thinks he should get a pass on the technicality of not actually having died. Feels like discrimination against living people, honestly.

The living are actively trying to claw their way into the realm of the dead, and more than that, they're trying to destroy it. Tim has to find out more about this whole situation if he's going to prevent the GIW from doing something the whole world will regret.

For that, Tim needs to meet Dani's brother. He's the key to this whole mess; if Tim can just earn his trust, Dani's vow of silence can be unlocked and Tim can actually make headway with the investigation. As a bonus, Dani's brother probably knows a lot more about it, too, if the somewhat thorough documents on the GIW are to be believed.

Which brings him to the next big mystery: the enigma that is Amity Park.

The GIW files mention it several times, but no matter how hard Tim searches, he can't find more on it. The government had been shockingly thorough in cleaning out any mention of the city on the internet. Tim actually suspects ghostly magic of some kind, because things don't just disappear from the internet. Someone somewhere would have mentioned the city after its media blackout, or there would be documents or pictures of the place that wouldn't get caught by regular software.

If Tim didn't know the city had to exist because he'd met Samantha, and that he knew the communications Dani was having with her brother were coming from it, he would have to write off the city as non-existent. He and Barbara both had been trying to trace Dani's calls back to their source, but Barbara suspects that the signal is getting scrambled by magic from how impossible it is to pin down.

Tim had one of his assistants email the Mansons, but when tracing the email itself, it seemed to vanish. Then when he got a response, it's as if it appeared from thin air.

There's a data black hole in America somewhere – probably somewhere in the Midwest – that Tim just can't find. It's driving him insane.

He'll probably send a drone to follow the Mansons back so he can finally figure out where this city is. But that won't be for weeks, and Tim's mind-demons demand answers now.

Finished with hanging up his new evidence, Tim drags his office chair over to the front of the board, grabs a mug to fill with coffee, and makes himself semi-comfortable to look at his research. This mystery is Tim's white whale.

It may also be what finally drives him insane, but Tim is never able to resist a good mystery.

- Why amity park and the anti-ecto acts have gone unnoticed for so long is actually a plot point… or at the very least, there's an answer I've decided on but have not yet revealed. So, don't get too weirded out by Tim's inability to figure it out; there's a reason for it (I didn't want to make it too easy for him, lol)

THIS IS THE FINAL CHAPTER OF THIS BOOK.

Final Notes:

- Now, why I'm ending this fic here: I am going to put up a new fic. There are a few reasons for this. 1) This fic is freakin' long. 160k words is ridiculous. I sincerely doubt my own ability to make the next part that I have planned to be less enough that it doesn't push the word count over 300k by the time I'm done. So I'm starting a new 'book' of sorts, just to keep it manageable. 2) I want to switch from primarily family fluff to a bit more angst as Dani's secrets become unraveled. It's just a little bit of a tone change, so it doesn't mesh weirdly. Also, I can update the tags. 3) I need a break. No worries, won't be longer than a few weeks, but I have a lot of grad stuff coming up and I want to focus on that. Also, I want the chance to re-read and minorly edit out typos of what I have so far. I want to make sure I remember all the plot points I hid in there, make sure there aren't any big inconsistencies, stuff like that. I also kind of want to refresh the story in my mind. I reread some parts of it in your comments, and I want to enjoy it tbh. I write what I want to read, ig

- also, I decided this like three nights ago, so I know the chapter before this doesn't really give book ending vibes, but oh well

- I have a big chunk of the first chapter for the next part done already, so I promise this hiatus won't be long. I'll even post an additional chapter on this fic so everyone knows when the next one comes out, promise!