Chapter Text
It is a quiet, rainy night in Gotham.
That should have been the first sign to Jason that something was going on. Rain might deter most people from leaving the house, but not those in Crime Alley. Red Hood has been on patrol for over an hour when he feels what he can only describe as a tug in his chest. Gut feeling? The Pit’s curiosity? He’s not sure what instinct takes him to a dead-end alley.
A moment of surveying before he spots a young teen tucked into the corner, huddled on himself. Jason can’t make out much, but the teen is wearing a black hoodie that seems way too big with some ripped jeans.
“Hey, kid. Are you ok?” Jason doesn’t move forward, very aware how intimidating he can be.
The teen looks up, blue eyes partially covered by black bangs. Fear flashes briefly, followed by what almost looks like relief as the teen picks himself up (Small, too small Jason thinks as the hoodie hangs off his frame), holding something with both hands. It glimmers slightly, but not like metal so Jason is comforted knowing the kid has neither a knife nor a gun.
“Are you one of the vigilantes?” There’s hope in the kid’s voice and even Jason finds himself softening at how fragile this teen in front of him is.
“Yeah kid. Red Hood, at your service. Are you hurt?” Jason repeats his concern, taking a step forward.
The kid’s eyes are following his movements in a way that Jason realizes are not unlike a trained Robin’s. May Bruce never find this kid , he thinks as he closes the distance and crouches to meet the teen face to helmet.
The kid glances away and back conspiratorially. “You aren’t afraid to break the law with good reason.”
It’s not a question. Jason can’t help the chuckle that escapes and sounds like broken static with his voice modulator. “Well, I’m not the one that is afraid to break the law.” He admits and can’t help but ruffle the teen’s hair while effectively pushing the kid’s hoodie back. There’s a slight grumble from the kid but he doesn’t push Jason away.
Black hair has breaks of unearthly white streaks. Streaks Jason sees every time he looks in the mirror and now, he feels uncomfortable at the idea of the teen looking very similar to him.
“Interesting choice for teenage rebellion. Why white? I think most kids rebel with brighter colors.”
“I-it’s not... I uh...” The teen has both his hands on the object he has been gripping this whole time. Now that Jason looks down, he realizes it is a round pearl-like object. Blue, bright like the sky reflecting the first snowfall of the year.
“We were told to trust...” He’s mumbling to himself or maybe the rock in his hands before he looks back up at Jason with a look of conviction.
“We died.”
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Faith isn’t what Jason normally places in people but the teen has already wormed his way under Jason’s skin both figuratively and literally. The Pit has been calm through their interaction, even as Jason feels his own anger as the teen tells him the cliff notes story of why he’s here in Gotham. He’s carrying the teen on his back (So much lighter than what he expects) while grappling back to his nearest safehouse.
The kid has a name, it’s Danny. Danny died when he was fourteen while taking a look at his parents’ invention.
As Jason feels a sense of dread mixed with déjà vu, Danny continues his tale.
“We came back and became a vigilante,” He stresses, and Red Hood swears once again to never let Bruce find this teen.
“Who is ‘We’ though?” Jason questions.
“I’m getting there. Our story is a little long,” Danny huffs. “Ghosts are manifestations of emotion and energy. Ectoplasm. When I died, I became a ghost. But the energy also restarted and healed my body. I was both dead and alive... My ghost half and human half balanced. But nobody knew I had died except my friends who were there with me when it happened and eventually my sister... I didn’t tell my parents since I had just become what they had spent their whole life wanting to experiment on.”
There’s a moment of clarity as Jason realizes the kid basically told him his parents would have dissected him in an instant if he hadn’t kept his secret. He lands on the fire escape of his safe house, taking a moment to disarm the window before opening it and climbing inside.
Danny slides off his back, and in the better lighting Jason realizes the hoodie says NASA on it.
“So anyways. We spent two years protecting my town from the ghosts coming through the portal. My friends and eventually my sister even helped. My parents weren’t very good ghost hunters, but we protected the town for both humans and ghosts alike... Until we were caught.”
A pause. “They ripped us apart, Red Hood. My ghost... Phantom... They separated us and they hurt him and I-”
Most of his emotions had been tied to his ghost half. Ghosts were made of emotions after all. He knew he should be crying, mourning, upset with his parents for what they had done but the emotions felt dulled. Like a haze of disconnect, like he hadn’t experienced his dad reaching into him with the upgraded Fenton Ghost Gloves, yanking Phantom out painfully while his mom dragged him upstairs for ‘safe keeping’. Still, one feeling wasn’t so muddled and that was his need to protect and self-preservation. He needed to protect Phantom because they were one and the same.
“I only have scratches from when they ripped him out.” Danny admits as he takes off the hoodie, revealing bandages on his chest. “I was locked in my room, and it took me too long to escape and save Phantom. He managed to fly us out and our ghostly guardian showed up to tell us to flee to Gotham. Find someone who wears a Bat...”
Jason suddenly became very aware of the red bat on his costume as a promise to be better. Did Danny’s guardian mean Batman or any of his family in general?
“Phantom was too hurt and used so much energy to get us here he couldn’t maintain his form. This is our- His core. He’s... Resting, trying to regain himself.” Danny looks a little torn as he gently raises his hands to show off his smooth sky-blue pearl to Jason.
“I guess you could say without my ghost.... I’m a Zombie? A soulless corpse just shambling around... Without the urge for brains. Maybe that comes later.” There’s a thoughtful look on Danny’s face and Jason can’t tell if he’s serious or not.
“Hmmm.... I guess that makes two of us?” Jason can’t help but joke, his mind still trying to go over the big amount of information that Danny has given him. “Guess we’re the ground zero for the Zombie apocalypse.”
“You’re a Zombie?” Danny gives him an incredulous look.
“Well.... It explains why we match.” Jason once again finds himself too trusting of this teen in front of him, the parallels giving him too much security as he takes his helmet off. There’s a domino mask underneath of course to protect his identity as he runs his hands through his hair, shifting very striking white among black hair.
“You’ve died.” The teen squints in recognition.
“Yes.”
“And you came back?” As if the follow up question was necessary. Maybe the kid thought he was a ghost?
“Crawled out of my own grave all by myself.”
A shudder runs through the teen. “We didn’t even get a grave. I’m so sorry you had to dig your way out of yours.”
Jason sighs. “It’s in the past. For now.... Are you hungry?”
Danny’s stomach growls in reply as the teen looks away. “Yes.”
Jason is going to make sure this kid is properly fed and then they’ll figure out together how to fix his rock ghost soul? They are going to fix this kid’s soul together and then he’s going to make sure his family never finds out he may or may not have been infected with Bruce’s adoption tendencies. Dick would never let it go.
“How does Waffles for dinner sound, kid?”