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flamingpudding · 8 months

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Part 11 of Ghost Kid in Gotham

>>Masterpost >>AO3

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One Step Closer

Casandra stared at the child hiding in the antic behind storage boxes. Her siblings were out on patrol and Bruce practically had to drag Damian out on it for once. She could see how their youngest was reluctant to leave his twin.

She couldn't say she understood but from his body language Cass could clearly see what she was able to understand. Damian was protective, worried, scared and loved. It wasn't much different from what he felt towards the rest of them yet it was highly amplified and not as subtitle as he usually made it seem.

It worried her. Should anything happen to Danny it would greatly hurt her youngest brother. That was why she had stayed back to help Alfred and Duke to look after their newest brother while everyone went out. Steph had wanted to stay too but Cass saw it and pushed her girlfriend towards the cave, shaking her head. Maybe next time.

Steph had too much energy and was too excited to stay with Danny. Damian probably knew it too. He had scowled when the louder ones of their siblings tried to volunteer. But Cass? She had seen it. Danny had stiffed once the child realized Damian was going to leave him for a short time.

Confused, protective, scared, defensive, worried.

She had wanted to tell their father to not force Damian on patrol, even if he had skipped it a lot lately in favor of staying with his twin. But when Alfred and Duke approached the boy as chosen watcher, he had calmed. He was still scared and defensive but also curious and nervous now.

Still she had stayed behind. Danny had still been scared and defensive.

Her worry was proven correct when not even after three minutes into the others leaving the little boy disappeared from their side. Danny was silent and knew what openings to use to slip away. But the way she didn't even sense it felt like more than just the league's training. It was like the little guy blinked out of existence. Duke had instantly used his ghost vision only to curse when he ran into a wall, again apparently.

Alfred had seemed rather amused and only gave them a knowing and amused smile. If Alfred wasn't panicked then Casandra wouldn't be either. The butler knew, so Danny wasn't in danger.

Still it had taken her some time and she was ready to call everyone back to help in the search for her newest brother but then she had seen him. It was only from the corner of her eye and once again Danny was very silent and didn't even make a single sound. She could have imagined seeing him but Cassandra trusted her instincts now.

Which led her to the current situation. She blinked as she moved to sit cross legged with a little distance in front of the child. Blue eyes were clearly watching her the moment she had entered his field of vision.

Defensive, scared, worried.

Smiling, she didn't move any closer at first. There was a green blob, a blob ghost according to her brothers, floating close to the child and some snacks laying around the boy, discarded wrapping papers and a stolen plate of Alfred's cookies. So that was why the butler had been amused, he knew Danny had taken them. A giggle wanted to bubble out but she suppressed it, opting to smile fondly.

"Cookies good?"

Her newest brother only tilted his head in confusion. She inched a little closer, stopping when Danny started to hiss slightly.

Defensive, protective, scared, confused.

Once the child stopped hissing she tried again, this time pointing at the cookie in Danny's hand. "Good?"

Defensive, confusion, realization.

Danny with wary eyes kept watching her as he broke the cookie in two and offered one half to the green blob that ate the piece in one go while Danny nibbled on it. His blue glowing eyes never left her. The boy continued eating the cookies like that, always sharing with that green blob while also keeping an eye on her.

Cass could only smile as she just sat there in silence. She had remembered to send Duke a text that she had found Danny but with that text she had also asked him to not come up here. There was no reason to unsettle her newest brother any more than needed.

Besides, she counted it as a win for her when after a while of silently enjoying each other's company and respecting Danny's boundaries, the boy himself slowly crawled closer to her. He wasn't touching her but he slid half a cookie over to Cass.

She wished she had taken a video of this. Just so that she could prove that Cass officially had one over her brothers now, except for Damian of course. Danny was close to her, not hissing and sharing one of the cookies the little biter had stolen. She would hold this over Dick for a long time.

Meanwhile in Amity Park…

"Where is the twerp?"

Suppressing a scream, Jazz whirled around and came face to face with Dan who stood behind her with his arms crossed in front of his chest. Glowing red eyes were glaring unblinkingly at her. It would be off putting if Jazz didn't know that there was an undertone of worry. She was alone and hadn't expected any of the others involved in the search to show up. Tucker and Sam were in school keeping up appearances and Ellie was following a ghost rumor two cities over to the west of Amity park.

Jazz looked over the other, taking in how unaffected the near mirror image of her brother looked. Dan had been mostly spared from the fallout in Amity, considering that he lived 90 percent of the time with Vlad with the other 10% spent in the ghost zone making friends with Fright Knight again and so far Dan had also avoided meeting their parents. Vlad, him and Ellie had been the last to hear of Danny's disappearance let alone his death announcement of their parents or rather from the GIW. It had been a month since that announcement and Jazz was honestly surprised that Dan hadn't shown up earlier. But Vlad had pulled back from Amity and who knew when their parents had informed him about Danny's 'death' if at all and the other man had only found out because he decided to visit now of all times.

Eitherway, the future version of her brother / time clone / cousin / second brother was now standing before her. "I know the twerp is not dead yet. And the old man is trying to get as much information out of Maddie and Jack as he can right now. So I decided to get information from you shits."

"Language Dan." Jazz corrected out of habit. She was amazed that Dan even found them but again Danny probably knew about this hidden room of Sam's Mansion, which they were now using as their debriefing room. Maps were laying everywhere as well as pinned to the walls. Some were marked red, places Ellie had already looked into and hadn't found any sign of Danny.

"We have been looking into a lot of towns with reported ghost sightings to try and find him but a lot of them came up with nothing. All fake with no real ghost appearances. Danny isn't dead, we know this because Ellie told us that the Ghost Zone would riot if he were, so-"

"Oh they wouldn't just be rioting. If humans killed or incapacitated the king this entire dimension would be done and over." Wasn't that reassuring to know, Jazz thought, her parents weren't just neglecting and too obsessed in their research. No, they and the GIW could be the cause of their entire Dimension dying if they ever got their hands on Danny again.

"The Fenton portal is closed, right? And I have asked Fright Knight to not let anyone slip through the old man's portal until I am back at the castle." Dan wasn't looking at her anymore but to the side a scowl clearly visible on his face. That was another mystery to Jazz, the Fenton portal one day shortly after Danny's disappearance and right before the death announcement stopped working. It just suddenly closed and no matter what her parents did, did not open again. "Don't know how long we can keep ghost idiots, that also want to go look for the twerp, in check. So you better hurry up and find him."

"Thank you, Dan." Jazz smiled fondly at her time double brother who only scowled and refused to make eye contact with her. "I am sure we will find Danny."

"Tried the Booo-merang, yet?" The other only muttered, but he did glance at Jazz from the corner of his eyes.

Jazz let out a sigh, remembering how throwing that thing was one of the first things she did upon returning from college and hearing about Danny's disappearance. "We did but it only flew a couple of meters before falling to the ground. Tucker is tinkering with it, thinking that Danny might just be out of range for it."

She heard an inaudible grumble from the other and smiled sadly. The Booo-merang had always been a sure fire way to find Danny but now even that wasn't working for them. Sam was convinced that they must have brought Danny to another GIW-facility far away from Amity before or after they announced his disappearance, but Tucker refuted this with what he found when he hacked into them. But what he found made Tucker think that Danny might have initiated one of their backup plans, the fact that the Fenton portal was no longer working spoke for it but that the emergency kit they had prepared for this was still untouched spoke against it. Ellie hadn't said anything on that matter but Jazz knew the little girl was very worried, going so far to travel to every city ghost rumors appear in hopes that it's Danny they were talking about.

And now even Dan and Vlad seemed like they were starting to get involved.

A sigh escaped her once more as she turned around and looked sadly down at the map on the table. "Danny will… is… has to be on the run. Tucker doesn't think the GIW have him anymore. He had hacked into their database and nothing indicated that they still have him. But from what he found Danny must be heavily injured to the point , Tucker… he… he has seen pictures he refused to share. According to what he found from them, Danny just disappeared with injuries that would make escaping without help difficult, yet no one knows where he is."

"The twerp will be okay. Little shit is tougher than he looks. I should know that the best." Dan muttered and Jazz smiled saddly at the way the other attempted to comfort her. Then she noticed how Dan was eyeing a world map that was pinned to the wall, his red eyes strangely focused differently than they were before. Like he was remembering a long forgotten memory.

"Dan?"

"You remember, I… we… he…" Glowing red eyes closed in frustration before they looked back at Jazz. She knew that the other sometimes still had a hard time putting a line between Danny and himself, especially when it came to certain things like memories and everything before the split of their timelines. "Danny is adopted."

"What does that have to…?"

"You said he just disappeared according to the GIW Database? There might be something more to it. I am going to have to look into some old shit I… we, fuck, Danny probably hasn't thought about for years now."

Stunned Jazz watched how Dan changed into his ghost form that looked so different from Danny's, the form that used to scare her and hadn't changed much since he gained a human body. The ghost looked ready to fly away.

"Wait, Dan where are you going?!" She tried to stop him but just like her Danny when he got an impulsive idea, Dan wasn't going to listen. Instead the other only turned to her with a grim face.

"If you come across the old man, tell him I am going to look into an old asshole. There are a handful of people involved with me… fuck I mean him that could make the twerp disappear without a trace. These fuckers are worse then the GIW and we certainly don't need them getting involved now. As if killing us once wasn't enough…"

Jazz watched helplessly how Dan disappeared through the wall like he had appeared. With a worried look she glanced at the world map Dan had been looking at, unsure of what the other had seen or remembered because of it. Worry heavily stirred inside of her and she wanted to scream loudly infrustration. Once more her brother was keeping her out of the loop about something important and by the quiet mutter at the end she most likely wasn't supposed to hear, she knew it didn't mean anything good.

Once more Jazz sighed, swallowing her frustration and worry to pull out her phone, decided to tell the others with a quick message that Dan was now helping too and apparently following a different lead. A lead that if she interpreted everything Dan had said correctly, had something to do with Danny's life before he had been adopted and was connected to something highly dangerous.

The secure chat exploded with follow up questions, she couldn't answer and only left her to stare at the world map once more in worry and unsure on how to proceed from here.

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kuzann · 5 months

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First Meeting

So excited to finally be able to post this! It's my first time taking part in a big DP fandom event! 💜 I had an absolute blast working with @braisedhoney for @ecto-implosion 2023, and it even spawned an entire AU as well!

Go look at the art that inspired this fic! It's so good!!

You can also read this on Ao3 if you'd prefer.

Summary

The first meeting between Jazz and Dan following the timestream’s restoration doesn’t go as planned. Dan reflects on old memories and new vulnerabilities as he digs through the rubble.

Warnings

Brief gore, blood, explosion aftermath, grief, body horror, trauma flashback

The Fic

It was cold. Water dripped from the cavity’s ceiling, ran down the back of his neck and left chilling trails in its wake. He still wasn’t used to being able to feel such sensations to this degree. To being... Attached to a human body again.

The low rumble of debris continuing to settle shuddered through the cavity they’d found themselves in. A distinctly fungal smell hung in the air, of long-undisturbed earth recently awoken by the struggle of briefer creatures. It coated the inside of his mouth, now partially open to bear fangs as he stared down at the ghost who had given him so much trouble. An enemy who had at last realized the price of picking a fight with him.

Phantom, Dark Danny, the last remaining echo of a miserable future now unmade... He still wasn’t sure what to call himself. The old man had taken to calling him Dan. The name was brief, immediate, and wasted no unnecessary time. It was good enough, though he’d never let Vlad know that.

There was a choice to be made. He and his enemy weren’t the only ones down here. He could finish this wretch off for good, make sure he never dared to bother him again, or track down the other who had fallen in the collapse. With the clone body already deteriorating, already straining under his full form he could only choose one.

Humiliation had its claws in him. He’d nearly lost the fight, he was supposed to be stronger than this. The thought of putting the feeling to rest permanently was a tempting one...

“Get lost,” Dan snarled, his red eyes wide and focused and threatening even greater violence should his enemy turn down this opportunity. His breath streamed out before him like dragon smoke, its heat stolen by the chill of the hungry earth. That, too, was something he still wasn’t used to.

Vortex briefly considered his options. He was on his last leg and in the process of collapsing into an amorphous state, but the battlelust of their previous conflicts still rang through his being with an intensity that was hard to ignore. For a moment he appeared to be gathering for another strike, his body crackling with anticipation, only to suddenly surge up through the ceiling and out of the collapse.

Dan straightened and watched the point on the ceiling where Vortex had disappeared. When seconds stretched by and no ambush came he let out a long sigh and took a step back, broad shoulders drooping. He was still getting used to the power adjustments. To the new bodies. The new... Everything. And it cost him in this fight.

He scowled and turned to the span of collapse behind him.

Now to find her.

Dan knew where she’d been when they fell; Vortex had knocked her away before Dan broke through the power restraints and stepped between them. All he had to do was keep digging until he found her. Slower than using intangibility, but any ghost power would only accelerate his host’s deterioration at this point.

He pulled the first slab of concrete aside.

It had been an embarrassing fight. Frustration burned white-hot as Dan reviewed his performance and found it sorely lacking, and it wasn’t just this time. He’d utterly destroyed Vortex back in the other timeline, yet in this one he’d been clashing with the ghost for weeks as the two sought to prove who was stronger. Ridiculous. He should’ve been able to blast Vortex into nothingness long before this.

Dan grit his teeth and shifted more debris, freezing when the mass above him groaned ominously. The jumble held, dust shafting down around him as it quieted. He kept going.

This was Vlad’s fault. Always going on about how Dan had to be more careful with the new ‘power restrictions’, how the way he treated his host bodies was ‘wasteful’. If he could just get the power adjustments right this wouldn’t be a problem. Vlad just wasn’t trying hard enough.

A carelessly-shifted chunk of concrete fell back on his forearm. He growled and hurled it into the cavity behind him, ectoplasm dripping onto the dirt and debris at his feet. Dan paused to look down at the wound. The concrete must’ve had exposed rebar poking out of it to make a gash this deep and jagged.

Not good. If his body was this vulnerable already—

Dan cut the thought short and continued on.

Memories rose with the shifting dust, of the time before the explosion. Of the aftermath of the worst fights when he had to limp his way home...

—when he had only a vast empty house to return to, the silence broken by nothing save for the sound of his own movements and the creaking of a structure settling after dark.

Dan shook his head. Not the dual memories again...

It never used to be this much of an issue, back in the other timeline. But then he’d stamped out all true adversity years ago back there. Less struggle, less opportunity for such memories to slip in. A simpler way of being that wasn’t constantly flinging existential questions at his face and expecting answers he couldn’t provide.

The next span was too unstable to shift. Dan searched for a place he might be able to crawl through—difficult with his large frame—and found only a small hole. He would have to briefly use intangibility to get through this.

Did she even make it—

It’s fine, he told himself. It would be her own fault for getting involved where she shouldn’t have. She wasn’t even his Jazz...

A chill settled over him as he shifted to a different phase to the physical matter around him. Dan dove through the wall and found that it was as thin as he’d hoped it would be. He released his power and staggered a few steps as he touched down.

The clone body held. For now.

Why did she have to step in? He didn’t need her help.

But then, that was what she’d always done, wasn’t it? When his parents weren’t there for him, Jazz was.

His Jazz. The one who’d been gone for over a decade now...

—collapsed in front of their graves. A loss so complete it was a wonder he hadn’t died on the spot.

Dan clutched at his head and willed the memory back down into the abyss of subconscious. He didn’t need this right now. It didn’t make sense anyway. She wasn’t the same Jazz.

The twisting in his gut exposed the lie for what it was. Emotions he’d stifled and strangled long ago were even now resurrecting themselves as he searched beneath the cold earth.

Like a grave, the thought crept in, with coarse concrete slabs for tombstones. A grave he’d sent countless other humans to without a second thought…

It’s fine. He’d been willing to throw her away again for the sake of power. He didn’t care.

A lie, and an ill-constructed one at that. Willing to throw her away yet still so grief-stricken over losing her to begin with. Was he capable of making sense? Was it his nature to be contradictory?

He forced down another grieving memory before it could properly materialize. This had to be because of the stupid clone body dragging him back down into those pesky human emotions. Its glitchy biological programming was throwing his trauma at him again after he’d already dealt with it years ago.

If he could just keep it together—!

It was silent beneath the earth, save for his own efforts. He hadn’t once heard a cry for help from the person he was looking for.

Dread crept in and sank its teeth into the back of his neck.

She had that armor on. It could withstand a collapse like this, right? Fenton gadgets were ridiculously robust, and the Peeler’s armor was meant for high defense. She was fine.

Right?

Dan continued on and pulled another piece of concrete aside, then he sensed it.

There was something warm up ahead. The realization gave him a burst of speed.

It’s fine. She wasn’t in danger anyway. The Peeler’s armor kept her safe. He didn’t need to worry like this!

At last he broke into the cavity she’d landed in. A few dozen feet and he’d be able to put these wretched emotions to rest.

Dan forged ahead, and trod on a loose slab of concrete that shifted the ceiling above.

Debris thundered down on him and threatened to bury the cavity entirely. He brought his arms up to catch the worst of it, and the slabs fell between himself and Jazz

No, no! He was strong, the ultimate foe! It would be fine! He would make it so!

Dan gave a wordless roar as he shoved the topmost slabs off of him.

He was running out of time. Again. If he could just go faster!

Memories washed over him. He’d realized something was wrong just before the explosion, turned to fly toward the Nasty Burger, to do something, anything, to protect them. The memory played back at an agonizing pace, as if he were moving through tar as he struggled to get there in time. It was already too late.

He lost his grip on a slab. It fell back on him and cut his right thigh open.

It’s fine. He would make it this time, push to the absolute limits of this wretched artificial body if he had to. He was stronger now. She wouldn’t be stolen from him again!

Dan remembered just in time that mindless thrashing was the last thing he wanted to do in this situation. He forced those stupid worthless emotions back down and steadied his hands as he pushed debris off of himself.

It’s fine.

At last it came down to the final concrete slab. Dan hefted it with both arms and tossed it aside.

It’s—

He froze. She lay with her back against a slab of concrete, eyes closed behind the cracked visor despite the tumult that had just taken place before her. There was blood on the armor.

Hers—?!

A swarm of unbidden memories rose around him, of running toward the smoldering remains of the explosion—

—the bodies—

—charred but still—

—blood—

—pieces—

—unrecognizable—

A sudden, agonizing shudder shook the memories loose. The clone body was starting to give. Blood-tinged ectoplasm dripped from his hands.

Dan struggled to catch his breath and made himself look at her again.

The same. Ectoplasm shifting into blood. She’d been standing behind him when Vortex landed a severe blow earlier.

The release in tension was almost enough to drive him to his knees.

It wasn’t hers.

Dan walked to her, forcing himself to take slow deliberate steps. He stopped at her feet and leaned down.

There was a light mist clouding the inside of the armor’s visor.

She was breathing.

Jazz stirred. “Who’s there?” she asked, her voice quiet and strained. She was in pain.

“It’s me,” Dan said. Before, it would’ve been enough. His voice alone was the only introduction he’d needed in the other timeline. Now he struggled for something more to pin on to the end of the phrase. Nothing felt right.

Jazz opened her eyes and squinted up at him. She smiled. “I knew you’d come back.”

“Know-it-all,” Dan grumbled before he could stop himself. Now to muster the strength to phase them out of here—

His body gave. His form started to run, to lose its shape. Every cell screamed in agony as flesh lost its grip on bone. Dan fell to his knees. The halo appeared at his waist, returning him to the clone’s form.

He’d been forced to wear Danny’s face to survive, but he refused to wear the same clothes. The battle had been hard enough that the black leather jacket, jeans, and t-shirt would have to be replaced, even without the blood and ectoplasm leaking onto them. His boots might be salvageable if he didn’t get too much ectoplasm on them. If he was able to make it out of this, anyway. The chances of that were growing increasingly slim. He looked up to find Jazz watching him with a mix of shock and horror on her face.

“You’re—”

“The clone bodies don’t do so well when I go full form,” Dan said, looking away. He dragged himself over to her, his body screaming with pain every inch of the way, and let himself rest on the slab.

“I can’t get to my phone,” Jazz said, sounding guilty. “The armor won’t come off, it’s dented in the back.”

What does she have to be sorry for? It was his fault Vortex showed up… Some first meeting this turned out to be...

“I’ll call the old man,” Dan said, silently chiding himself for not thinking of that earlier. And for not letting Jazz call Danny in when Vortex first showed up. He hadn’t wanted his other self to get involved…

Dan took the cell phone from an inner pocket of his jacket, his hand shaky enough to risk dropping it at any moment. He willed what steadiness he could into the limb and hit the only number he had on speed dial, then switched it to the speaker setting. In his defense he wasn’t used to having a phone again just yet. He simply hadn’t remembered during all the commotion.

“Old man?” Jazz asked as they waited.

Vlad picked up on the second ring. “So you finally decided to check in,” he said, tone clipped and impatient. “And where have you been? You disappeared hours ago—”

“Amity Park,” Dan said, cutting off the rest of Vlad’s rant. They didn’t have time for this.

“What are you doing in Amity Park!?”

“Melting under a collapsed building. Jazz is here too.”

The audio became muffled by a hand to the receiver, but Dan was very sure he could make out Vlad shouting an actual swear word into the empty lab in Wisconsin. It cleared again, and Vlad was all business when he spoke next: “I need you to turn on your phone’s tracker. Is Jasmine hurt? How badly?”

Dan looked at her.

“I don’t think anything’s broken,” Jazz said. She winced when she took a deeper breath. “But the Fenton Peeler’s damaged and pressing on my back. It hurts too much to move.”

“Alright. I’ll have to go through the Ghost Zone to get there in time,” Vlad said. There was the distant sound of equipment being moved in the background as he made ready. “If I have to blow my cover because of you—”

“Just get your ass in gear, old man,” Dan growled. Vlad would figure it out. Somehow he always did. “Lecture me after this is over.”

“Stop calling me that! I’m not even fifty yet!” Vlad snapped, then he hung up without saying goodbye.

“Are you sure he’ll be here—” Jazz began before the silence could properly close in.

“He will, I just had to make him get off the phone and focus. He hasn’t let me melt yet.” Dan brought up his other hand, squinting in the near darkness as he turned the phone’s tracker on.

“And the melting happens… Often?”

“Yeah, because he still can’t get the bodies right,” Dan grumbled. If Vlad could at least make an adult clone then maybe they’d get somewhere. He hated being stuck in a frail teen body again. “If I don’t hold back they break.”

Jazz inhaled as if to say something about that, then let the breath go instead.

Silence descended on them, filled only by the hiss of falling dust and the grumble of settling earth.

It was cold. Dan could feel it even through his jacket. Even through the pain of his body’s deterioration. In all his years of fighting he’d never run afoul of a pain like this, of having his body slowly picked apart molecule by molecule, torn by gravity as much as by the bindings within his cells coming undone. Even the Fenton Peeler’s effects couldn’t match it. Perhaps the cold was somehow sharpened by his dying nervous system, or by the breakdown in circulation. It wasn’t a subject he was familiar with. All he knew was that he was in pain, and that the cold sapped even more comfort from his predicament.

He didn’t want to think about what would happen if Vlad didn’t make it here in time. The pain would stop, but so would he.

Forever.

Jazz shifted, armor scraping against the slab at their backs, and put her near hand on his arm. She tugged at his sleeve, inviting him closer.

Dan hesitated. He still didn’t understand her attachment to him. Why she kept giving him chances he didn’t deserve. He wasn’t her Danny anymore...

Still, it was cold. Perhaps being closer would offer a little warmth. A little comfort while he waited to find out if this would be the day he met his end.

He pulled himself to her and laid himself across the arm she’d beckoned him over with. Jazz draped her forearm over him, holding him in a half-hug as they lay there. There was no warmth. The armor kept them separate and pressed into his upper back in uncomfortable ways, but he didn’t care. This was enough.

His eyes started to drift shut, his vision blurring slightly. He was running out of power. Jazz was in too much pain to move, even talking was difficult for her. They were in a sorry state.

He shouldn’t have come here on a whim without even warning her beforehand. Not when Vortex had it out for him, anyway. But he couldn’t stop thinking about what she said during that climactic battle, how she insisted that he was still part of her family even as he threatened to tear it apart in front of her eyes. Even after he’d leveled half the city.

It was something he still didn’t understand, even though he wanted to.

A pained shudder jolted through his body, bringing him back to the present.

There would be no asking why she still treated him like family for now. He had to conserve energy and hope that help would arrive in time.

Dan closed his eyes and waited.

Jazz wasn’t sure how much time had passed. In a place without sunlight or moonlight and without access to her phone she could only guess. Pain stretched everything longer than it should have been, but at least being able to hold one of her brothers brought some comfort.

She wanted to talk to him. Ask what his life was like now, if he was happy. How he arrived at where he was in the other timeline. But present circumstances made that impossible; just breathing hurt thanks to the way the armor crumpled into her upper back, and Dan was clearly so low on energy that any conversation was out of the question. It was horrifying, watching him slowly melt into ectoplasm. She could only hope that Vlad got here before it was too late.

Her eyes were closed when she suddenly became aware of another person’s presence in the cavity.

“Well, you’re in a sorry state now, aren’t you?”

Jazz looked up to find Vlad Plasmius, arms folded over his chest and one foot tapping in the dust as he glared down at Dan like a disapproving parent. The cut on his right eyebrow had become a scar, but he was looking much better than he had when she’d last seen him. There was a large metal coffin at his side, for what purpose she could only guess.

“About time you got here, old man,” Dan growled, though there was little venom left in his words.

“You’d think that a ghost with your level of experience would be capable of managing a vessel better,” Vlad grumbled as he pressed a button on the coffin’s lid. It opened with a hiss and the whir of multiple servos on its hinges, revealing a dimly-lit chamber within.

“If you’d just make the vessels better—!”

“I am not bothering Daniel because of your carelessness!” Vlad snapped. He met no resistance as he scooped Dan up and carried him over to the coffin. “Now I suggest you sit tight and think about what you’ve done, young man.”

“I’m twenty-four!” Dan howled as he glared up at Vlad.

“Then act like it!” Vlad snapped back. Despite his ire he placed Dan in the coffin with care and pressed the button to close it rather than slamming it shut himself. The two glared at each other until the lid closed, then Vlad sighed and let his head fall back. “I don’t know why he can’t just adapt to the restrictions. It’s not like they exist for no reason.” He leaned over the coffin and tapped away at a combination of buttons. A soft hum came from within, and the color of the lights on its exterior changed from red to green.

“Sorry for the wait, Jasmine,” Vlad said as he turned to her, his tone more sincere than she’d ever heard from him before. “He needed to be put into stabilization immediately.” He knelt before her and tried to get a better look. “Are you able to sit up? You mentioned the damage was on your back.”

Jazz turned herself onto her side, then pushed herself up and clutched at his arm for balance with her free hand. The crumpled armor dug a bit deeper into her ribs and shoulder blade, but she wanted out and if Vlad could get the job done then she’d take a little more pain. “Back here,” Jazz said, gesturing over her left shoulder.

Vlad shifted position, allowing Jazz to use one of his knees as a prop so she wouldn’t have to expend energy sitting upright. He leaned around and took a few moments to examine the damage. “I’ll have to cut the piece away, I don’t want to risk prying you out.”

“Okay.” Jazz tried to be patient, keep her breathing slow, but the pain was becoming unbearable.

There was a gentle heat at her back, not directly over the crumpled armor but in a rough oval around it. Knowing the solution was in the works eased the pain a little.

Jazz looked at the coffin again while Vlad meticulously worked his way through the armor. A stabilization chamber... Vlad certainly had a flare for drama to build it in the shape he did.

But he’d made it in time. Dan would live to see another day. That was what she figured at least, given that things weren’t so serious as to keep the two from arguing the way they did.

“Got it.” At last Vlad lifted the damaged section of armor away.

The relief was immediate. Jazz took her first deep breath since falling into the collapse. “Thank you,” she said, a tad breathless from sheer relief.

“You’ll need to get that looked at just to be sure,” Vlad said as she deactivated the Fenton Peeler’s armor. “Should I drop you off at the hospital?” He offered her a hand and carefully pulled her to her feet.

“It might look suspicious if I just showed up at the hospital all of a sudden,” Jazz replied after taking a moment to consider the option. “I’ll get mom and dad to take me.”

“Very well, I’ll drop you off on my way out.” Vlad took the coffin by one of its handles and hefted it with ease. He slung it over one shoulder and turned to her, offering a hand again.

Jazz let him scoop her up with one arm, and soon they were out in the open air again. Vortex was nowhere to be seen once they were above the roofline of Amity Park, he was probably either skulking somewhere or had been captured by Danny already. Hopefully the latter. He was a frustrating ghost to deal with even on a good day.

“So Dan’s gonna be okay, right?” Jazz asked, just to be sure. The Ops Center came into view over the rooftops; soon she would be home.

“Despite doing his best to make sure he wouldn’t be, yes,” Vlad replied.

“I heard that, old man!” said Dan’s muffled voice from within the stabilization chamber. It rattled briefly, as if he were banging on it from the inside.

Vlad’s frown deepened but he didn’t reply.

“Thanks for the save, Vlad,” Jazz said, still a little surprised that Vlad had done anything worth thanking him for. “Are things going...” she paused to glance at the coffin, “Okay back home...?”

“Mmm...” Vlad’s mouth drew into a thin line as he thought about it. “We’re making progress... I think. It’s still better than being alone, at least.”

Not the most encouraging reply, but not the worst either.

“I think Dan’s been picking so many fights lately because he’s trying to avoid thinking about things,” Vlad added, having given a bit more thought to the question. He went invisible as they neared Fenton Works and dove toward the alley next to it.

“Well he’s free to talk to me any time,” Jazz said as they landed and Vlad carefully let her down. “Just as long as we make sure there aren’t any hostile ghosts after him.”

“That part is up to him,” Vlad said, with a glance at the coffin as they returned to full visibility. It was strangely silent. “I certainly won’t stop him from coming to see you, just as long as there isn’t a repeat of what happened today.”

They both paused with the expectation that Dan might have something to add.

“Sorry our first meeting turned out this way,” Dan said quietly. “It won’t be the same next time.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Jazz said with a knowing smile. “And to make sure I know when you’re coming to visit...” She took a small notebook and pen from her pocket and wrote down her phone number, then tore the page off and passed it to Vlad. “Just give me a call and we can set things up properly.”

Vlad knocked on the coffin with one knuckle. “You have her number now. And what do you say?”

“Stop acting like you’re my dad!” Dan snarled, and the coffin rattled again. There was a pause, and a sigh echoed within its confines. “Thanks, Jazz. We’ll talk again soon.”

“Looking forward to it.”

“We’d best be on our way, we have a long flight ahead of us,” Vlad said.

“Wait, why aren’t we going through the Ghost Zone?”

“Because the Fentons were just going down into their lab when I arrived and I’m not risking a fight with them or Daniel for a shortcut,” Vlad replied. “Besides, you have your little visits to plan. A few hours in the dark and quiet is the perfect opportunity to do so.”

“Ugh, you’re the worst! Coward!”

Vlad turned invisible and took off, the dust of the alley dancing in the wind he stirred up.

Jazz chuckled, and immediately regretted it as her bruised ribs shifted. She hurried to the sidewalk and up the front steps of Fenton Works. The relationship between Dan and Vlad wasn’t exactly friendly from what she’d seen, but it was progress for both of them. Vlad showed up despite Dan needling him, and Dan trusted him enough to know that Vlad would be there to help despite the insults.

They would probably be arguing the whole way home, now that she thought about it.

The confines of the stabilization chamber were comfortable enough. Dimly lit, perfect temperature, far more spacious than the Fenton thermos ever was. Vlad had even worked out a sort of localized gravity that kept Dan from being jostled as the chamber was moved. Something about using certain properties of ectoplasm in a similar way to the Ghost Zone; Dan had tuned out just after the first thirty seconds of Vlad’s explanation, so that was as much as he knew. It offered a good place to slow down and think, not that he was doing so because Vlad had suggested it.

Jazz still saw him as family. Part of him had wondered if, now that things had calmed, she might have changed her mind. Or if her words hadn’t been genuine to begin with. But what she said to him during the battle hadn’t been some desperate bid to get him to back down. She meant it.

Dan smiled. He was looking forward to seeing her again, once he was back on his feet.

In the meantime, though...

“Hey, old man,” Dan began, his smile becoming a smirk. “Are we there yet?”

“We have been flying for five. Minutes!” Vlad snapped back. “And I know you’re only asking that to annoy me!”

Dan chuckled. If Vlad didn’t regret taking the long way yet, Dan would make sure he did before they got home.

#Danny Phantom #ectoimplosion2023 #DP Events #Dan Phantom #Dark Danny #Jazz Fenton #Vlad Plasmius #Vlad Masters #Post-AGIT #Kuzannfic #Danny Phantom Going Through It AU

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