I can barely stand these idiots. They won't shut up. I mean, I love them; they're my team and they're great.
But:
Zatanna's in a simmering rage. Make that three, if you count Artemis and Conner. Wally's having an existential crisis, Kaldur's reserved and silent, and M'gann is in a pouty "I can't believe this" mood. The whole lot just need a good punch. That knocks them out.
M'gann shut down the mind link after Connor snapped at her to. She just kept repeating, "Oh my gosh" in some kind of shock. Seriously, what's up with this team? What happened to being calm and collected in the face of surprise? I guess this just never occurred to them though.
I get it. They're all feeling betrayed. But their emotions are running from them.
I take another glance at the stretcher that once again holds Danny, quickly checking his vitals-vitals that didn't exist until about half an hour ago, before returning to my reserved seat of ignoring these people.
"Don't yell at her! She'll cry!" Connor snaps at Wally.
"I'm not yelling!" he yells back.
"They're getting an earful when we get back." Artemis leans back in her chair, not bothering with Wally in her state of mood.
Zatanna glares, sniping a reply, "They better get a dismissal from Batman."
"Whoaa, too far," I decide, entering the conversation. "Don't say that! They were protecting him!"
"Why are you protecting them?" Connor demands in reply.
"Mount Justice," M'gann announces quietly.
For a moment, the team silences, trying to decide what's going to happen when they get inside. I seize Danny's stretcher and the second the bioship lands, I push him at a fast walk towards the medbay. He doesn't need to be brought into this. He needs medical attention.
As I leave the probably screaming team, I take the time to marvel at Danny's transformation. His heart is beating. His white hair is black, almost like mine, but he has more. There's no glow surrounding his skin anymore, and it's pretty pale.
His scars are still there, and he has heavy bags under his eyes. I'm also concerned about his weight; his ghost side ate, but not as often as a human would. That meant he wasn't eating enough for his human form.
After performing a couple scans to make sure he isn't internally bleeding or something, I prepare him for an IV, swabbing his elbow.
"Robin."
I don't look at Batman, just insert the IV and put the piece of tape over it for security.
"Don't you ignore me too. I got enough of that from the rest of your team."
I resist the urge to smile, but fail. It still shows strain, though. Batman looks at the human Danny with a deep frown.
"Quite the secret."
He sounds like Alfred. I glance back at Danny, nodding.
"You aren't yelling, though."
Oh... I see. He expects me to be mad too. I usually yell when I'm mad. Or push it down and train. Punch concrete. You know. "That's because I'm not mad." I move away from Danny's bed and face Batman. "I already knew."
No reaction. He simply looks at the sleeping Danny and the heart monitor again. "I can't say I'm surprised. You and Phantom are close. He saw you first when he was rescued, you were the one who rescued him. It happens often with abduction victims." He moves over to Danny and performs a couple simple tests I'd already conducted. "If he were to reveal this to anyone, it would be you."
"Actually. Remember when he had that panic attack in Amity?" A nod. "And we were supposed to go in and find out what was going on, but Danny only really trusted me to do that? Yeah. We said it revealed nothing, but it revealed this. It's how he lost his memories; it's why. If they knew he was a ghost... He made sure no one could tell what he was, even himself."
Batman regards me. Then accepts the information.
"Why aren't you freaking out? I thought you of all people would be the most offended. You found out they were lying all along, and you were just like 'okay'."
For an instant, Batman has a smile. As quick as it's there, it's gone. "Maybe I already knew," he mimics me.
"No." A second of silence. Then my eyes widen. "Seriously?"
"I researched this. There were four people frequently seen around Phantom. Danny Fenton was one of them. When we ran into Jazz and Tucker, I reopened the investigation. Phantom and Manson were erased by the government. Danny Fenton was erased by a different entity."
"Tucker?" I'm shocked, but it makes a weird kind of sense. "Tucker erased Danny, because if the GIW knew that Danny and Phantom went missing at the same time..."
We don't say it. We know.
"And if they brought him up... His secret would be in danger. He wouldn't just be abducted and tortured..." I spit out the word. "He'd be at risk of dying... all the way. You didn't say anything?"
"Neither did you," he reproves. "Nothing was certain. I only knew they looked the exact same; it could mean possession, coincidence. I needed more data before I approached anyone about it."
He looks at me expectantly, waiting for my explanation, probably. I offer it. "He swore me to secrecy. He didn't want to give anyone false hope or plant seeds of doubt if it turned out he could never turn back or if he was..." I pause, searching for different words. "Full ghost."
Batman accepts that. "Go to your team. This is your own team, and if they follow through on expelling Jazz and Tucker, I can't stop them. And frankly, they belong here."
He leaves with that. I spend a couple minutes trying to figure out what to do, pacing a little, checking Danny's vitals every few steps. Then, I walk out into the chaos.
I don't even want to follow the conversation. There's just yelling. Jazz and Tucker want to see Danny, probably, but are fighting for their position on this team. Just walking in, I can tell they've already been asked to leave, but they are trying to argue their point.
"Shut up!" I cry. I just keep shouting it until they quiet. "They had reasons! Leave them the frick alone."
"Stop defending them!" Wally shouts. "Why aren't you betrayed? This kind of information, that your dead friend is actually alive, that seems like something that would offset even you, oh great protege of the Batman!"
I toy with the idea of shouting that I already knew. That a protege of Batman would investigate and figure it all out. Instead, I retort with, "They kept secrets, I kept secrets, you-"
"Oh shut up with that! There are personal secrets and there are secrets you just don't keep!"
"Unless you are keeping them to protect someone else!"
"Yeah," snarks Artemis. "Themselves."
"Golden rule of superheroism! No revealing identities," I try.
"It's not just about that. They used us to find their friend, then didn't bother to tell us anything about him." Conner looks deeply offended. He has that hard look in his eyes.
"We didn't use you-" Jazz tries to protest.
Tucker tries something else. "We came for help-"
The team starts to dissolve. I've lost them. I can't have them turn on me, because they won't listen for anything. I can't choose a side! How do I defend without losing Jazz and Tucker or the rest of my team?
Sigh. There's only one thing to do.
"DICK GRAYSON!" I scream in frustration. The fight hadn't really picked up pace again yet, so my voice is terrifyingly loud. Everyone heard. No turning back. "Dick Grayson!" I yell again, but much less loud. The team looks confused, except for Wally, Kaldur and Zatanna, who have wide open eyes.
"W-"
I cut off Tucker. "That's my name. I'm Richard Grayson of Gotham. Yes, that means Bruce Wayne, my adoptive guardian, is Batman. I didn't tell you. I wasn't protecting anyone. Maybe myself, if any of you turned out to be sleeper agents. Batman's paranoia, you know."
"This isn't going to fix-" Conner begins.
"Nope. But how can they leave now, knowing my identity? I revealed it to all of you. I trust all of you. Jazz and Tucker included. I trust them and you enough to disobey freaking Batman."
Silence.
Then.
"Wow."
As one, we look to the voice. To Danny's voice. He's in a pair of jeans and a NASA t-shirt, leaning against the wall of the hallway. His hair is a mess, falling all over his face, and he has a lopsided smile and tired eyes. He pushes from the wall. "Does that trust include me?"
I cock an eyebrow, even if he can't see it behind my mask. "I guess."
Conner looks annoyed, probably because he didn't know Danny was there because of his anger. "Danny?" Jazz asks.
"Yeah?"
"Are you okay?"
He looks down at himself. "As okay as I'll ever be, being half dead and all."
"I'm so sorry we didn't tell you-"
"You're sorry you didn't tell him?!" Zatanna demands.
"Do you want an apology?!"
"No, I want you off the team!"
"Whoa," Danny comments helpfully, furrowing his eyebrows, watching the team reduce to anger again.
I sigh. "I know."
"I kinda hoped that me walking in would stop it."
"Cuz you have that kind of power."
"No, I have that kind of presence." I smirk at him, and he returns it.
"How'd you even know they were fighting?"
"Heard it. It didn't wake me up, but I could definitely hear it from the med bay. Honestly, I feel like every other time I wake up it's in there."
I bark a laugh, still focused on the fight. "So. Was our theory correct?"
I glance at him when I don't receive an immediate answer. My response is the biggest grin I've ever seen him wear.
"You want to tell them?"
"I'm waiting to jump into the conversation with my supreme knowledge," he informs me. "They're not giving any openings."
"Oh please!" M'gann, who is floating on the edge of the group, turns to us. "Are you two keeping secrets now too?"
Zatanna groans. "You are? What is it now? Evil twin brother? You two are secretly related? Or dating? Maybe-"
Danny and I look at each other, then shudder. "Ew, no, Zatanna!" Danny laughs, still in good humor. "I could never win that fight against you!"
I suck in a breath and in a low voice, mutter, "Danny, I'm going to kill you."
That's a taboo topic. Everyone knows about Zatanna and I, but you're not supposed to say it out loud. Zatanna's cheeks heat up, and we look anywhere but at each other.
"Again?" He laughs. "Way to kick a guy while he's down, Dick."
I can't tell if he's calling me a name or by my name. There aren't really any names I can call him, so I think back to the weird comment about cereal before our last mission. "Fruitloop."
He blinks, shocked, before throwing back his head and laughing. The team is now stupefied at our good humor, and Jazz and Tucker look at each other. Is "fruitloop" like a thing? What's up with that? Why didn't anyone use cheerios?
"I'm not-" Danny laughs a couple times again. "I'm not a fruitloop! That's..." He sucks in a quick breath. "That's Vlad! I'm the 'Little Badger'." He air quotes it.
I tilt my head. Vlad's the evil dude. Weird nickname. "Well, I guess it's better than Boy Blunder. Seriously. I'm an acrobat."
"Wait, Little Badger?" Jazz cuts in. "We never told you that nickname."
"Oh, right," Danny beams. "Did I not tell you? Robin and I already knew I had a human side, and that when I turned back, all my memories would be there waiting for me. So, yeah. They're all back." He gives the most innocent smile I think I've ever seen. No wonder the team never blamed him for any kept secrets. He looks about as innocent as a puppy.
"Wait, you do?! Who am I? What's my name?" Tucker demands. He and Jazz are instantly in front of Danny, both shooting questions about his life. He laughs a little to himself again, trying to get them to back off.
"Let me see if I can get all these questions right: Jasmine Madeline Fenton, Tucker Foley, I'm Danny James Fenton, your beloved brother. I died when I was fourteen, disappeared what, sixteen? Like a week after I got my license. I've only driven twice. That sucks. Anyway, I want to be an astronaut and yes, I am single, Tucker, not dating Sam... OH SAM!"
His rant ends, which didn't really answer their specific questions. The team looks stunned.
Danny closes his eyes briefly, then opens them. They're glowing green, scary determined. He looks to the team. "Okay, I'm going to be brief as I can. Here's the thing: Jazz and Tucker were scared, and they didn't know what to do. On Team Phantom, they were definitely the followers. Jazz is a psych genius, Tucker's a tech genius. But when Sam and I disappeared, they didn't know what to do. They thought they had to protect everything I was, and they. Were. Right. If the the Guys in White knew I was half human..." He shakes his head, trying to dispel a memory. His eyes are back to blue, which is good. The green was freaking me out.
"It's not important. Robin and I kept from you that we suspected I would get my memories back because we weren't sure if they were still there. My ghost half forgot everything to protect my human side, and I forgot everything, even how to change back. So I didn't change back. Didn't even know if I could. Everything done was to protect someone. Jazz and Tucker protected me from you-slash-the-Guys-in-White, and protected me from my memories so my hero complex wouldn't revolt on me when I learned I had another life where I protected an entire city that I hadn't protected in almost a year.
"So we're going to make this simple. I have memories back. I can get Sam back. If you want, we can leave right now and give you guys a clean break from all the secrets, though there aren't much left at this point... Or you can wipe the slate. Which is it gonna be?"
"I'm all for it!" I exclaim.
"No!" Danny glares, pointing a finger at me. "Not you."
I pout. "I'm still all in."
"Sweeten the deal, we'd take Robin with us."
"Hey!"
Aqualad gives a small smile. "While that certainly sounds appealing-"
"HEY!"
"I'm willing to let this go."
"Nah, I'd miss Robin too much," Zatanna relents, relaxing her hostile pose. "But I swear, you have got to go out with me."
"Say it backwards," I tease.
"Og tuo htiw em."
"Well now I have to, don't I?" I say with a grin.
Conner clears his throat. "I'm in too." I'm surprised. I figured he'd be the last to let it go. He holds grudges forever.
Artemis is next. "And me." She and Jazz hold a look and share a small smile.
M'gann agrees and her melancholy mood melts away. Everyone looks at Wally, who's folding his arms and glaring.
He huffs at our hopeful looks. "Well of course I don't want you guys to leave! It's just... ghosts! Half ghosts! Where's the science?!"
Danny looks around. "Literally everywhere. Ectoplasm is the flip side of matter that makes up Earth. While every atom of this world has a specific purpose, ectoplasm is good for every purpose. It has every form, holds energy, is malleable... It has every function. Including fusing to DNA. My DNA was infused with it by electricity, which spreads the information through the body. By summoning the ectoplasm-another one of its functions, by the way- my DNA inverts, which also changed the colors." He smiles.
"Whoa..." Tucker breathes. "When did you learn that?"
Danny shrugs with a smile. "Gotta learn something from dad's rambling, right?"
"If this is all cleared up, might I ask, where is Sam?" Kaldur asks.
Danny's brows furrow. "I'm not 100% sure. But I've got a good guess. Settle in, kids, it's time for another story.
"When Sam and I were taken, there was a lot of noise and confusion. They pinned me with ghost-proof stuff, but Sam fought them all with weapons I don't remember giving her. Anyway, they outmanned her. They probably would've let her go, but they saw us work as a team... I guess they assumed she was under my control or something.
"There was a van, she and I both ended up in there. Still, I wasn't too worried at this point. I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve. I almost went human, but Sam insisted that's the worst possible move I could make. She and I were in there for a really long time. We constantly tried to get out, and they eventually knocked us both out. I woke up in one of those cots that two people carry, but I didn't pretend I was awake until I was set down. They took off my cuffs, assuming I was still asleep, and I attacked.
"I flew through several hallways, trying to find Sam. She was in a room with a couple agents and a dude with a wicked scar..." He fingers it down his face, and I immediately think of Vandal Savage.
"Long hair, infinite knowledge and wisdom?" Wally asks sarcastically.
"Yeah."
Oh, great. It is Savage.
"Vandal Savage," Kaldur finishes.
"So Savage. He was interrogating Sam, who was in this chair. Anyway, I freed her, but security caught up. The room was ghost shielded off, and Sam and I made our final stand against at least fifty agents in basic ghost ability battle suits. I used all my biggest attacks, but was overwhelmed. I lost sight of Sam, but I heard a cry and a flash of green light and the Savage dude said 'Interesting'. Then I lost consciousness."
Tucker speaks first. "So basically you have no idea what happened to her."
His eyes twinkle as he grins at Tucker. I wonder if this is the real Danny, or if he's just trying to use his newfound memories to force back all the horrible ones. We really should get him in to see Black Canary. "One would think. But I think what Savage was questioning Sam on was the Ring of Rage and the Crown of Fire, which were strangely there."
"Why would he want those?"
"They're ultimate power, dude," he laughs. "Wait. Do you seriously not remember?" I resist the urge to point out the ironic moment of Danny berating Tucker for not remembering.
"What?"
"The whole ghost meeting where we all reminisced about the Ghost King before we fought him? Dude, you were there!"
"I don't..." He looks confused. "Oh, right. Yeah, I wasn't paying attention."
Danny rolls his eyes. "Well, they have to be used together, and only a certain kind of ghost can safely bear the stress of its power. Only two known right now, and that's the original Ghost King and yours truly. Sam wasn't one of them."
I realize what he's saying. "She tried to use them, but the power overwhelmed her."
"So it destroyed her?" Tucker asks softly, horrified.
"No! At least, I don't believe so. I think it might have..." He looks conflicted, like he's trying to put the words together like a puzzle. "Absorbed her. Into its power."
"Why do you think?" Wally asks. Somewhere during this conversation, he'd ended up with his arm around Artemis.
"It happened to me once. I was stuck in a pocket dimension of another ghost. There was no way out. How I got out, though... I reached out to my friends beyond the mirror with my mind. I wrote messages, opened lockers. Stuff like that. Sam could be doing something similar."
"Amo?" Superboy asks. "I thought that was a product of your leftover memories."
"Maybe. But maybe not. It makes sense. Sure, I'm crazy, and all, but it would explain a lot!"
"Or..." Jazz trails off.
He closes his eyes in conflict before smiling again, though this time it's a little more forced. "Either way, we have to get those items back. She could be gone. She could be in them. We won't know until we have the Ring of Rage and Crown of Fire."
Megan laughs suddenly, then explains herself when we give her weird looks, "Minutes ago we were threatening to take you off the team, but you give us most of our missions at this point." She laughs again, then shakes her head.
"Remember when we didn't have any?" I reminisce, though I can't say I miss those days.
The team agrees and Danny disagrees. I elbow him in the side. "You weren't there."
"Which is why I don't remember," he argues. "And now I feel left out. Hey guys, remember when there weren't attacks literally every other hour?"
Tucker and Jazz look at each other, then shake their heads. "But to be fair," Tucker continues, "You were the one who woke up and took care of them."
"Yeah, because you're lazy!"
"Don't pretend you weren't either."
"Who saved the town every other week?!"
"Since you both failed nearly every one of your classes, ghost fighting or not, I think it's safe to call it a tie."
Maybe, M'gann speaks in all of our heads, We should let them catch up. We can plan this mission later.
The team choruses agreements, and we leave as a whole. When Danny attempts to call us out on it, we all insist we have other obligations. He doesn't argue too badly. I'm sure he wants to talk with his sister and best friend with his memories intact.
I slide up next to Zatanna. "Hey, want to take me up on that date?"
She cocks an eyebrow, but switches her path from her room to the Zeta Beam. "Right now?"
"You're the one who said it backwards," I retort.
"Recognized Robin, B-01, Zatanna, B-07."
Heeeey
So here's the thing.
I thought that this chapter wasn't done, but I was rereading it a couple days ago and realized it was completely done and it was the next chapter I hadn't finished yet. And that I left it on the worst cliffhanger.
So there you are! MMMy bad