Eyeless Gojo AU Part 1:
Prequel: (read here)
———Warnings: mention of death, blood, killing, morally grey, slight mind control, Gojo just reacting to his cptsd in this universe, slight grooming (adults ideals on Gojo and their children), mindbreak, yandere(?)———————-
((Ending of year 3: (the woman Geto brought in was mamagumi. Toji was a secret weapon to the Zenin clan and was highly respected. The kids are being raised together. Maki and Mai are taught new techniques while sparring against Megumi (they all have their same techniques) so they were actually going to become to super strongest of the clan. Basically Megumi will be next in line of the clan and maki and Mai will be trained as his protectors.
The three of them are 5-6 years old at the time. Megumi who was recently orphaned and had a “cousin” named tsumiki who would look after him and not treat him like a prince. (She would scold him and treat him like a person and he grew to greatly respect her.
He learned to be humble by her, maki and Mai’s, and their friends. Megumi had a lot of friends growing up, Panda, Toge, Kamo, Todo, Momo, Miwa, Muta, all them knew him from his status. More so the head of clans were to meet and the others came by around middle school bc they’d have meetings with each other to have them all meet before they started in JJH.)
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Geto goes to see gojo at his place, you know, the 1000+acre plot of land that was supposed to suffice as Gojo’s own personal quarters. The same one where everyone and their mothers turned him away until they hear he’s Geto Suguru, to where they basically pull him in to ask him to get Gojo out of his room.
Geto is walked in, no knock or introduction. Gojos room, it was thick. The air was strong, you could feel it walking in. Geto goes to open the windows while keeping his demeanor. ”I’ve been picking up your slack everyday Gojo.“ Geto paused to let his friend talk over him, but that didn’t come. He looks back at Gojo in his bed, “C’mon seriously you out of all of us, you can’t be acting like this.”
“I thought you understood that I’m not like other people.”
“Well, before I said you’re not that special to be exempted out of stuff. We’re risking our lives as normal people while you can do months worth of our missions in a week, if you wanted.” Geto sighed, leaning on the wall next to the open vent.
Gojo’s aura, he could barely feel like it in the room, it wasn’t what was taking up the space before anyway. His voice was hard to even find. “….. What makes me so special then?”
Geto didn’t know what to say. This was real one of his worst bits. “You’re special because you’re Gojo Satoru. You are literally the strongest-”
“WHAT IS IT ALL FOR!?” Gojo snaps.
Oof, his jab of Gojo alone being the strongest always annoyed him. Gojo would say that they were the strongest, but Geto kept refusing. Gojo wouldn’t stop until they were equal, til they could bring him down to Geto, or what Geto hated was that they put him as far up as Gojo. It just kept showing him how different they were treated, but in this moment he shouldn’t have said it. “Hey, I’m sorry, I didn’t-“
“I know.” Voice breaking, Gojo continued. “I already knew that you would do this, but somehow it still hurts more than the anticipation. I,” He sighed, using it to catch his breath, “I really wanted you to know me.”
Geto was speechless. His best friend, the one person who Gojo was so intrigued by, he trusted Geto enough to let him know what kind of life he lived. How do his words still go unnoticed? He’s still unheard, seen as a brat for being tended to. How could he live as an adult? That’s right, they’re rendering Gojo powerless still. Even while he’s an adult now.
“I’m sorry. We can go get ice cream-“
“Get out.” Suguru could only blink. He didn’t hear that right-
“GET OUT!”
Gojo had never raised his voice like this before. His tone was so stern Geto thought someone else may have been in the room with him. Speechless, he just turned and left.
———————————————-
“You seriously didn’t say anything?” Nanami wasn’t recovering well from Haibaras death. That was just insane, how time moves so much faster when your brain is panicking. Maybe if nanami could’ve moved his legs a bit faster maybe haibara could’ve just lost up to his knees, but no, his organs ended up missing too. There was no way anyone could help them.
The blond was grouchier than ever. He was angry. There wasn’t a curse in the world that could escape his wrath. He supposed he could sulk and stay upset, risking his life even more as it’d unbalance his fighting style. He had to stay focused but couldn’t do that without motivation.
————-
Haibara was the only person really getting him to help others. Of course he wanted to help people, it wasn’t right that most of the population are victims to themselves, and they don’t even know it. They can’t help it, someone once said to him, and it stuck with him since.
“Why is it our job to help them if they don’t even know the danger they’re in?” Nanami said aloud.
“What a stupid thing to say.” Haibara comes around, folding up his magazine and smacking nanami on the head. “You should help others because you want to, there shouldn’t be any other reason for it. You’d be bargaining forever at that point.”
“Yeah sure, I get that it’d be more mental gymnastics around it all, but seriously what’s the real reason?”
“If you keep asking yourself questions, that time could’ve been used to save another life. Don’t you feel better after knowing they’re safe? That you did something for other people like us?”
“They’re not like us.” Nanami grumbled. His 16 year old mind just didn’t get why it was up to him to save most of the population, it was a lot of responsibility, let alone how Gojo was born into it. That’s how Nanami keeps himself away from Satoru, and Suguru by association, but Haibara makes it apparent to always greet them.
He kept breaking through Nanami’s boundaries and showed him that it’s easier to do if he wants to do it. And he’s been on that ever since, trying to get his friend to think differently to better himself.
——————
Nanami heard about what happened to the two, and reached out to Utahime for Suguru’s number, which she also got from Shoko. Telling his upperclassman what happened to their mutual friend, it was a big step for him to open up. They sat side by side, nanami leaning all the way back, as much as gravity would allow, listening.
“He yelled at me.” Geto said.
“That’s not like him at all, he’d never do that. Did you really recover fully? Maybe we’re all going crazy.”
“No,” Geto stopped him. “He actually yelled at me. Like I felt like a little kid and he was the upset father for once.” Nanami could tell that upset him, it wasn’t about power and control but that was never their dynamic. Gojo was always the kid, he was always the one with energy and not a care in the world, because he was a brat, but also so elevated that he was neglected of course he was going to be ignorant to things, much less latching onto the first person that treated him with actual sincerity and decency.
“I wonder what he’s seeing right now. If he knows how much he hurt me because he just sees everything. I bet he saw this conversation when he woke up again.”
“Do you think he might’ve saw something while they were putting his head back on?” Fixing his glasses, nanami could remember the details when yaga, Suguru, and Shoko came back holding parts of the two
Maybe. But his vision keeps getting in the way of his life. He knows that, we all know it, but what can we do about it? He’s the strongest. After all the training they’ve done together, Gojo having deja vu and being able to be familiar with Geto’s moves really always pissed him off.
Gojo tried closing his eyes but it seemed better for him, the light was less intense and he just had to trust his senses. Gojo was told so many times, taunted by Geto, always saying that was why Gojo could never deliver him a fair fight.
Bzzzbzbbzz. Looking down on his phone, Geto was surprised to see Shoko’s contact with an image attached, showing Gojo resting in a bed. “Come over.”
“Nanami, I gotta go.” With no time to explain, Geto’s out the door. Nanami sighs and decides to buy some flowers.
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Gojo wakes up to Geto coming over to the infirmary. His head is bandaged heavily and Geto wasn’t told why or what happened, he just thinks that it was a mission that he failed bc of how bad his headspace was.
Gojo is honestly quiet. He listens to Geto tell him how he can just go out and do anything with his head like that, making it vague. Gojo thinks that even after doing what he did, that Geto and everyone would still not feel anything for him, he needed pity. He needed shame to feel human. He needed to feel something.
Gojo just sits and listens to Geto. He missed his friend so much. He sits in his bed, looking out the window at the world outside.
Geto is running his mouth, saying things in a tone that only his best friend would understand, trying to say in the best way possible how he cares. He’s just so worried how Gojo could be so stupid without him. Not even a laugh. He was boiling water for some tea, just preparing whatever he found around the infirmary to make it less tense.
When Geto brings gojo his tea, gojos already asleep. He sets the cups on the nightstand, he sits and looks over at his friend, thinking that it suited him. Being quiet like this was something he could only wish upon to happen, but it was killing them both.
Geto realizes that Gojo was calling for him to come so he could sleep. He looked over his body and his fingers had skin picked off, his body looked like he lost some weight, and the bandages covering his head and face was bothering him. He wanted to see that his friend was really there, that he was okay.
Geto got up to go to the bathroom and when he came back, he found Gojo back up, drinking his cold tea in the dark.
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I’d Give You My Lungs So You Can Breathe (I’ve Got You, Brother) [CH2]
AO3 Link / Ch1 / Next / Masterlist
summary:
Danny Fenton was adopted at age ten, with little to no memories about his former family. At age fourteen, he died yet lived and those memories began to return. He didn’t do anything about those memories – didn’t plan to, at least not yet – but then he got captured by the GIW, saved by his friends and someone who might be his sister who he only somewhat remembered, and taken to Gotham to, apparently, his biological father for safety until further notice.
Team Phantom was there, too, and they did not sign up for this family drama.
a/n:
here’s chapter 2!! ch3 will be up in a few days :)
warnings for entire fic:
canon-typical violence of the DC variety; angst; memory loss/repressed memories; do i need to say major character death(s) or is that just a given for this fandom; questionable parenting tho every parent is trying to do good & care for the kids; implied/referenced past child abuse bc of the child assassin backgrounds; pls tell me if i missed something
CHAPTER SPECIFIC WARNINGS: mentioned/implied vivisection, but i don’t go into detail; athanasia mercilessly kills so many people; violence; blood; i think that’s it?
CHAPTER TWO —
When the first appearances of the Guys in White were seen back in October, Danny had no idea it would lead to this—
Locked to a metal table with scientists surrounding him and two assassins on guard at the door.
That was really all he was aware of. Everything else? Only pain. A dull burning pain that went throughout his entire body, and the cause was the IV attached to his arm. The contents were unknown, but Danny knew some percent of it was made out of blood blossoms – just enough that it didn’t kill him; just enough that it rendered him useless against them.
A metal mask covered his mouth and nose. It kept him from speaking, or biting, or screaming.
There were one or two other things that did something… Danny didn’t remember. It’s all been so fuzzy lately. It made something in the back of his mind panic.
More pain washed through him. It was worse this time, like it always was. Each day hurt a little more. Each day he got a little weaker.
What were they doing to him?
Danny squeezed his eyes shut. He breathed through it the best he could.
His chest ached, as if there was an open wound.
He peeled opened his eyes.
Oh. Right. That’s what they were doing to him.
Vivisection…again.
Lovely.
He distantly heard the door open. The scientists began to speak; a conversation started above him that wasn’t about his guts, for once. He did his best to focus on listening to them.
“…ill haven’t found the ghost’s core…” one said. “There is a high chance he won’t survive another operation after this one.”
“As long as he survives this one,” a different voice said.
And it was…familiar? Why–
A hand touched his hair. He flinched involuntarily, eyes rapidly blinking. When his vision focused and he trailed his eyes upward, fear gripped him instantly.
“I want the pleasure of killing you for good, Phantom,” the face from his nightmares spoke. “Or should I say,” the grip on his hair tightened and the man sneered, “Dányál.”
+++
Voices filtered through the vent grate from the room they were over. Three people were at the console; in front of them, multiple screens showing the security camera’s feeds played before the operatives’ eyes. A few of them were loops, curtesy of Tucker Foley and his way with technology.
Two more people were in the security room, as well, but they didn’t speak. Athanasia could just make out the edges of their shadows from where they stood at the door. They stood stock still; posed and ready to begin fighting at a moment’s notice.
Three GIW Operatives. Two members of the League of Assassins. Five in total.
She’s had worse odds.
Mentally, she quickly devised a plan that wouldn’t get them caught, and then acted.
Ever so slowly and quietly, she lifted the grate. One of the GIW operatives stood up and stretched. The man moved to stand directly under the grate, unaware of Athanasia and unknowingly making this a bit easier – something she was definitely not going to complain about.
She dropped out of the vent, directly on top of the operative and consequently knocking him out. Drawing one gun from the holster on her back, she shot the two League of Assassins members before they could even react. Thanks to the silencer on it, the gunshots were barely audible, and two bodies fell to the floor with twin thuds.
She then threw two manji shurikens at the operative who reached to call in reinforcements. One went into the back of his hand, and the other his forearm. At the same, the third operative rushed at her. Just in time, she dodged to the side and pulled out a dagger, finding a home for it in the man’s gut, slicing upwards. She trained the gun on the one she threw the shurikens at, and a bullet landed right between the eyes, slumping in the chair he never got a chance to get out of.
The man she landed on began to move. She stomped on his temple with the heel of her boot, hard enough to kill. The man went limp immediately.
“It’s safe,” she called, and moved two of the bodies from underneath the vent. Blood was already pooling and made sure not to step in it. “Do not land in the blood, unless you want to be the one to get us caught by tracking red footprints everywhere.”
Red Huntress, AKA Valerie Gray, came down first. She whistled lowly as she took in the room. “Damn,” she muttered. “You weren’t kidding when you said you were an assassin.”
Next came Samantha Manson as Athanasia went to move the two LoA members from the door. She glanced over her shoulder as Manson said, “You didn’t believe her with all the weapons she carries?”
Red Huntress slipped off her helmet. “Excuse me for not immediately believing someone when they tell me they’re the long lost twin assassin of our friend. Which, by the way, I’m still iffy on the twin thing. You’re too different.”
Athanasia raised an eyebrow. “Wow, it is almost as if we are fraternal twins with different personalities, and have been separated for eight years.”
Red Huntress rolled her eyes. “Geez, okay. Chill with the smartass-ness.”
“Look, I understand your distrust, Valerie,” Manson said, “and I didn’t believe it at first, either, but who else could she be?”
“You can still be a genetically altered clone,” Tucker Foley said from where he was wiggling out backwards of the vent. “Like Ellie.”
“I can promise you that I am not.”
“Not helping, Tucker.”
Foley finally fell down. Athanasia was quick to move, and placed a hand on his shoulder as he became unbalanced.
“Don’t put your left foot down,” she ordered.
He froze. “Um.”
She turned him until he wasn’t about to step in a puddle of blood, and then let go. “Okay.”
He hesitated, but did put his foot down. Then, he took a large side step away from both the blood and Athanasia. “Thanks,” he said, a little awkwardly.
She nodded once. Then, turning on her comm while wiping off her dagger on her pant leg and sheathing it, she said, “Weston, do you copy?”
Foley moved to the many consoles of the computers. He sat down in a chair, the furthest from the one with the dead body, and pulled out equipment from his backpack. Manson followed and watched the screens with a keen eye, and Red Huntress stayed near the door, though watched the camera feeds as well.
“Loud and clear, Phantom’s twin,” Wesley Weston replied. “Your get away car and it’s driver are in position.”
“Good. Stay connected to this line. Depending on how fast everything goes down, we will need extraction at a moment’s notice.”
“You got it, dude.”
“Have I mentioned how nice these comms are?” Foley questioned. “Because I’m in love with them.”
“Only about a hundred times,” said Manson.
“Can you blame me? Even scrambling their signature with ectoplasm, the sound is so clear. No type of ghostly feedback whatsoever. I need them for myself once we’re done here.” As he talked, he worked on connecting with the GIW’s system, hacking away undetected. “Where did you get them?”
“I stole one from Batman and then replicated it.”
Silence fell. Foley froze for a second time, and Manson’s expression turned into shocked disbelief. Red Huntress mouth parted in surprise.
Then, all at once, they began speaking.
“No way you did that–.”
“You’ve met Batman?! Do you know his identity because I have a theory–”
“Everything you say makes me more confused–.”
“You replicated tech from Batman?!”
“Guys. Guys!” Athanasia raised her voice. “Focus,” she snapped. “We are on a time limit, here.”
“But–”
“Shut up, Weston,” she ground out.
Wesley let out a disappointed sigh.
“The shift changes in forty-five minutes,” she reminded them. “Unless we want GIW operatives and more assassins to find us earlier than planned, I suggest we get to work on saving Danny.”
That settled things down quickly.
Part of her regretted not doing this by herself, which had been the original plan, even way back when she first heard her twin was within GIW custody. She had been so tempted to go in there with no plan at all, to find Danny and get him out. But she wasn’t familiar with the GIW. Luckily, she knew who was, and she went to them.
(Neither Manson or Tucker trusted her, or even believed her, those first couple of weeks.)
Even still, she sent a message to Damian asking him to look up the Ghost Investigation Ward. She didn’t get an immediate response from him – not like it mattered. The moment Danny’s best friends allowed her to work with them on saving him, Foley had created a device that scrambled any and all tech to keep them from the GIW’s eyes, and consequently everyone else outside of their area.
And then she learned the League of Assassins were working with the GIW, for some reason.
She tried to back out, to convince them to let her do this part by herself. The League was dangerous, simply put, and she didn’t want anyone, especially the people Danny cared most about, to get hurt or worse by them. But Danny had a good group of friends who were particularly stubborn and headstrong. As annoying as it was, she did like that about them. It meant they weren’t going to give up the search anytime soon.
Valerie Gray and Wesley Weston joined in on the mission a few weeks ago, when she and Manson and Foley were finalizing the plan. They realized it would be best to bring in another person or two, just in case.
And so, she was stuck with what they deemed as ‘Team Phantom’. A group of not so regular teens from a haunted town, who were definitely a little odd but trustworthy.
Team Phantom was good – each of them in their own ways.
So, as much as she regretted this, she also was glad she decided not to go in alone. It was easier. Nicer.
They also may be growing on her. Like mold, or moss, or fungi, or something.
She didn’t really know how to feel about that.
“Okay,” Foley mumbled. “Let’s see… Ah, 3D floor plans. Sweet.” He pulled up the floor plans on his laptop. “So we’re here,” a green dot appeared on the 3D floor plan where the security room was, “on the first floor. These are the exits,” he highlighted them in a light orange, “and the far left ventilation shaft on the roof is where we came in,” it was highlighted a darker purple while the rest of the vent system became more of a lilac color, “There’s three floors, not including what seems to be a secret basement. It’s not on the original floor plans I found, but it is on here and there are cameras.”
“That’s probably where they’re keeping Danny,” Red Huntress said as she walked up.
Foley pulled up the basement cameras. Empty holding cells filled up three of the screens. All of them were closed, except for one. The door was left open, with only part of a thin mattress on a metal frame in sight because of the angle.
“Are there any cameras for the room at the end of the hall?” Manson asked, cutting into the disappointed silence. She pointed at one screen, where a inconspicuous door could be seen.
Athanasia kept her eyes on the screens as Foley worked. Worry are her up alive on the inside, but she refused to show it.
“…No,” he said, and the disappointed silence returned.
“That’s not suspicious at all,” Red Huntress muttered sarcastically.
“Yes, there has to be a reason there are no cameras,” agreed Athanasia.
The other girl suggested, “I can check down there after I comb through the first floor like we originally planned.”
She frowned a little. “It may be heavily guarded.”
“I regularly fight ghosts. This is nothing.”
“From what the cameras can see, the basement doesn’t have many guards,” said Foley. “Operatives are walking around, and maybe one or two of those assassins, but other than that there’s no one.”
“Then Danny’s not there,” Manson said.
“If you really are up to it,” started Athanasia, “you should still check it out, Red Huntress. Perhaps there might be something the Doctors Fentons left behind before Danny was able to send them to the Infinite Realms.”
If that was where they were. Manson and Foley explained to her that had been the original plan when Danny went to save them.
Red Huntress nodded with determination. “I’m up for it, definitely.”
“Which floor is most heavily guarded?”
Foley’s eyes went from the security feeds to his computer, back and forth again and again. “From what I can tell from the cameras, they’re all equally distributed on each floor. Definitely one of the top floors, though.”
“There are some labs on the second floor,” Manson commented. She pointed at another screen, where one operative entered a room as he held some sort of vial and clipboard. She then pointed to a different feed from the same floor, where it showed a couple of operatives leaving a room with mechanics of some sort. “I’ll take this floor. Destroy what they have by planting the bombs, take what may help us figure out how to fight against them better, and what they might have gotten out of Jack and Maddie.”
“So, that leaves Athanasia with the third floor, and me here corrupting any files in their system they about Danny and ghosts in general, while also leading you guys around to avoid getting caught,” Foley concluded. “Right?”
“Right,” the girls chorused.
“Send Weston a file of the 3D floor plan,” Athanasia ordered. “It will aid him in knowing the possible exits he might have to meet us at.”
“Oh, I hadn’t even thought of that,” Wesley said.
“I figured.”
“Hey, rude.”
She ignored him. She went over to the body in the chair, and took back her manji shurikens. Like she did with the dagger, she wiped off the blood on her pant leg, and put them back in their respective sheaths along her thigh, nestled with the others.
Mentally, she quickly made note of her other weapons. The gun holstered on her right thigh, and the dagger sheathed on the calf of the same leg; the twin swords sheathed in an X on her back; two more guns holstered at her lower back, which were made with knives that came out of the grip when needed. She had hidden types of shurikens, a small knife hidden in the sole of both boots, and not to mention her fists and feet and teeth. (Biting was very effective, okay?)
Red Huntress had her usual weapons, plus the bombs, as did Manson and Foley. Athanasia made sure they knew how to handle them correctly one more time.
And then the search and rescue began.
Red Huntress parted with Athanasia and Manson at the security room’s door. Foley led the former one down the hall, while the latter two were led to the staircase. One floor up, and Manson parted from her to scope out the second floor.
Foley spoke the most, informing them of incoming GIW or LoA people. Red Huntress gave a few updates on the bomb placements, and Manson, after having slipped into the first empty room on the second floor, told them she found pieces of a prototype of the Fenton’s portal machine.
“Take the important pieces if you know what they are. Place a bomb on the rest to destroy them,” Athanasia told her.
“I’m taking the blueprints, too. We can check to see if they’re at all accurate with Danny later,” replied Sam.
“Where the hell did he come from,” Foley’s voice came through, confusing the girls.
“What? Who?” Manson asked.
“Some regal, evil looking dude is in the basement. I think he came out of the room that doesn’t have cameras, but I’m not one hundred percent sure… Is it just a thing that bad middle aged men have pointy-ish hair?”
Athanasia faltered three steps away from reaching the third floor. “What.”
“Plasmius’ hair curls up, so it sort of looks like devil horns or something. This guy’s hair is similar but not as dramatic, and the points are more on the sides than the top of his head, but I think it’s because it’s just slicked back. Guy’s got a thing for dark green, too.”
Dread began to fill her gut.
“Maybe I can meet him half way and beat some answers out of him,” Red Huntress bit out.
“Do not,” Athanasia hissed. “Stay the hell away from that man, and do not go into the basement until he is out.”
“Why not?” asked Manson. “It’s just an old dude, apparently. We have experience fighting them.”
“Unfortunately,” Red Huntress grouched. “Is he another Vlad? Because I do not want to deal with that.”
“He’s getting in the elevator, so Val should be safe if–.”
“If you go against him, you will die. What floor is he going to?”
“Let me get into the right elevator’s cams… It looks like he pressed for the third floor.”
Her breath hitched, and Athanasia cursed in Arabic under her breath. A sneer formed on her face. She took a step back, only to nearly slip off of the step. Quickly, she rebalanced and turned, and hurried back down the stairs.
…Maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe she jumped to conclusions too fast.
“Is he gray at the temples? Tall? Goatee minus the chin hair and mustache?”
“Um… yeah.”
Okay. She didn’t jump to conclusions.
“Okay,” she muttered. “Okay,” she repeated in Arabic.
“Atha–.”
“Do not use my name,” she spoke so fast she wondered if they even understood her. “Call me…” Her mind went to the few times she aided Red Hood in Gotham from the shadows. She knew that he knew she was there, but neither one of them spoke to each other or made it known to the civilians, which freaked them out a bit when a bad guy would be impaled out of nowhere. A few had started to use a name for her. “Use Shrike.”
“Is everything okay?” Wesley asked.
The others answered ‘I don’t know’ in varying ways at the same time.
Fear gripped at her, causing her mind turn into a whirlwind. She did her best to calm down so she could think rationally about this, but the only thing her brain could truly focus on was that Ra’s al Ghul was here. Her grandfather. The man who ran a sword through her twin’s chest with no remorse.
And if he’s here… He knew Danny was alive. There was absolutely no way that he didn’t.
She didn’t plan for this. Stupid. How did she not think of the possibility of Ra’s being here?
“You all continue with your parts of the plan, except for Red Huntress. I will be going to the basement in your place; stick to the first and second floors. No one is touching the third floor.”
“Now, wait just a minute–.”
“I will not wait–.”
“Um, it’s a figure of speech–,” Foley tried, but Athanasia continued over him.
“I know that, and my statement still stands. Follow my orders unless you want to die by the sword of the Demon’s Head. Are there stairs to the basement?”
A beat of silence.
“…No. Only the elevator.” Just as she reached the stairwell’s door, Foley added, “Two assassins are about to enter your location, Ath– um. Shrike?”
Athanasia ducked behind the door as it opened. Keeping her footsteps light, she stayed next to the door as it moved to close, out of their immediate line of sight. When the door shut all the way, she lunged with her dagger in hand, grabbing one assassin from behind. One hand covered their mouth while the other lifted her to slit their throat.
Assassin #2 immediately noticed what was happening, and drew a sword to attack. Athanasia used the first one as a shield before shoving the body away as she drew one of her own swords. It didn’t take long for her to overtake Assassin #2, though they did get a couple hits in. She now had a cut on her cheek, and a bruise forming on her side from a harsh kick.
Before speaking, she muted her comm.
“Pathetic,” she sneered, holding Assassin #2 against the stairwell’s railing by her forearm on their chest and sword against their neck. “Is this really what the League has become? I was expecting a harder fight.”
“You,” they hissed, a little bit shock on their features and disbelief in their voice. “You are supposed to be dead.”
“Are you really surprised?” she questioned. “Look at who my grandfather is. But that is not what I am here for.” The blade pressed harder against skin. “I am here for Phantom. Where is he? What does the League want with him?”
“Why should I tell you? You will just kill me after.”
“And you think I will let you live if you refuse?”
The assassin raised their chin in defiance. “There is a reason you left the League, no? It is the same one why Ra’s killed your brother. The Terror Twins – both too soft and weak to follow simple orders. You and him are the pathetic ones. Not us.”
Athanasia raised an eyebrow. She didn’t verbally rise to the bait. She merely pulled back enough to where she kept the assassin in place with the sword, and removed her other arm. In a flash, Assassin #2 moved to knock the sword away, but she was faster. She drew out a gun and shot them in both knees and one shoulder.
Assassin #2 crumpled with a shout of pain.
Sword now sheathed but the gun still on hand, she bent down and lifted him back up by gripping his hair.
“That,” she began, “That was me being nice. You seem to have forgotten who I am: Athanasia al Ghul, daughter of Talia al Ghul and the greatest detective in the world, and granddaughter of Ra’s al Ghul. I was trained as a potential heir, and lead the Demon’s Fist. I am the Demon Princess of the League of Assassins, dead or alive, and let me be clear that I have not lost my touch over the years I have been gone. I know multiple ways to kill you before you can take your next breath, before you even know what is happening.
“You think I will not kill you if you refuse to give me answers? Perhaps not immediately, but I will leave you writhing in pain until it is the one thing you beg for, and who’s to say I will do it even then.
“So. Let’s try this again.” Her finger flicked the button on her gun that released the knife in the grip. The blade pressed against Assassin #2’s neck hard enough to draw blood. “Where is Phantom?”
For a moment, she thought they weren’t going to answer. Then, resigned and obviously mad about it, they told her, “There is a floor below the basement. Phantom is there.”
“See? Now was that so hard?”
The assassin stared with a heated glare. Before she could act properly, they raised their good arm and slashed at her. The knife cut into the forearm that held her gun, and instinctively she dropped it as she moved away. They lunged for a killing stab at her chest, but by then she was ready to block the attack. One hand still gripping their hair and the other now holding back the hand wielding the knife, she twisted the wrist until it broke and bashed their head into the edge of the steps.
Assassin #2 went limp.
Were they breathing? She didn’t know, nor did she care.
Careful of her now wounded arm, she picked back up her gun. The knife went back in its hiding place, and she put the gun securely in the holster. Then, she turned back on her comm.
“I know where he is.”
+++
Getting to the basement was easy. With Foley’s help, she avoided operatives and assassins on the way to the elevator, and that was that. He also unlocked the door at the far end of the basement’s hall. It had been locked via a hidden mechanical lock that she would have needed false identification for if Foley wasn’t with them. It took only just under two minutes, and then the door opened with ease.
Athanasia took a step into the doorway, and then froze.
“Shrike?” Foley asked. “Why did you stop?”
“Is she in the room?” Manson asked.
“She just, um, froze in the doorway. Are you okay? What is it?”
“…I am,” she said. “But I think it’s better if I do not tell you.”
A League issued torture room. Nothing about it said it was for the Ghost Investigation Ward.
The only thing that eased her mind a little was that it obviously hadn’t been used in a while.
She shook her head to clear her thoughts, and then continued on. Soon enough, she found a hidden staircase, and went down without hesitation.
“I’ve got no eyes on you, Shrike,” Foley reminded her. “Stay safe.”
“Give ‘em hell,” Manson said.
“With pleasure,” she replied back.
The hall she entered from the stairs was reminiscent of a League base. Her fingers twitched, an uncomfortable feeling settling in her stomach at the sight. Pushing that aside, she walked down the hall at a steady pace towards two LoA members guarding double doors.
They noticed her immediately. It quickly became a fight of two against one, but it ended just as fast. She picked up their respective swords and twirled them in her hands as she walked to the double doors, kicking them open.
Everything and everyone in the room stopped.
Athanasia didn’t give them a chance to act first. The two assassins that guarded the inside began to fight back almost instantly, but it took the GIW operatives and scientists a few seconds to do the same.
The fight was brutal. Against the most people so far today, though it wasn’t necessarily hard, it was the longest one yet. They used their numbers to their advantage and attempted to overwhelm her, but Athanasia was quick to improvise and seek out the weaker of the fighters first.
By the end, Athanasia was out of breath and bloodied (some hers, some splatters from the assassins and operatives) and bruised. There was even a burn or two from the ectoplasmic guns the GIW wielded. The two swords of the League members from the hallway were impaled through two of the scientists that had been standing over her twin.
Dányál – Danny. Currently in his Phantom form. He was strapped, locked in, on a sleek medical table and a mechanical mask over the bottom half of his face. A y-shaped wound on his torso was only partly stitched, and there was an IV of unknown substance stuck into one arm. His expression was scrunched up in pain, white hair matted with sweat and eyes squeezed shut and jaw visibly clenched even through the mask.
Athanasia pushed aside the part of her of that wanted to be sick, and rushed to his side. She carefully pulled out the IV first, locking the tube so no more liquid would get out. Then, she went to the mask.
Danny flinched back.
She halted her movements.
“Dányál,” Athanasia spoke shakily, and corrected to, “Danny,” when his expression twisted even more. “Akhi, it’s me. I have come to help you get out of here,” she said with forced steadiness in her tone.
His eyes cracked open, the usual icy blue currently a Lazarus green. There was no recognition in them. Only confusion.
She knew that would be the case, but it still hurt.
She held up her hands to show that she meant no harm. Hopefully the blood splattered on them wouldn’t cause him to freak. And to her relief, he didn’t. He slumped a little, as much as he could with already laying on the table, and she began to work on removing the mask. After flipping a few latches, it came undone with a hiss and she tossed it to the floor.
Danny gasped, jaw dropping open. He went to speak, only for his voice to get caught in his throat and cause a coughing fit.
“I think it will be best if you don’t speak,” Athanasia murmured, and moved to unlock him from the table.
The coughing subsided, then turned into groans and hisses of pain.
“My name is Athanasia,” she introduced herself. “I am here with your friends – ‘Team Phantom’ as they call themselves.” The cuffs released him, but he still had GIW issued bracelets of sorts on his wrists. It affected his abilities, if the fact that he wasn’t healing fast was any indication. The others explained he had a super fast healing ability, and right now it seemed to be nonexistent. “We are here to get you out. No matter what.”
Danny groaned. “Still… Still hurts.” His voice was rough and hoarse.
Athanasia didn’t know what to say to that. So, she smoothed back sweaty bangs from his forehead, something she knew Mother did the few times she was allowed to comfort them when no one was around, and looked around the room. A table of medical supplies were nearby. Ignoring the scalpel, she grabbed a roll of gauze and bandages. (As well as an empty vial, which she filled up with the stuff that was in the IV.)
Carefully, she helped Danny sit up.
He hissed in pain again. It shifted into a whine.
“Sorry,” she said sincerely. “This will may hurt some more. Prepare yourself.”
“Hurts,” he mumbled. “The blood…”
“There is a lot of it,” she muttered. “On both of us.”
Athanasia wrapped the gauze around his torso as quick as she could, hoping it was tight enough to stall most of the bleeding but also loose enough that it wouldn’t unravel. When she finished, she allowed him to lean against her.
She soon noticed the lack of speaking in her ear. With a slight frown, she touched the comm, and was instantly met with Team Phantom talking over each other. She must have turned hers off without realizing while fighting.
“He’s here, and alive,” Athanasia spoke. “What the hell are you guys yelling about?”
All at once, they quieted. Then—
“Oh, thank the Ancients!” Foley exclaimed. “Don’t go offline like that again!”
“…I’ll think about it,” Athanasia said, vaguely confused. Why were they so worried? She handled everything just fine. “But it’s time to get out of here.” She paused as she helped Danny off of the table, only for him to nearly collapse. She cursed, ducking to place his arm over her shoulders to hold him up that way. “…And maybe someone should come down and help me. Danny will not be walking on his own anytime today.”
+++
Leaving the hidden headquarters of the Ghost Investigation Ward was not as easy as infiltrating it. (Although, it was easier than those months of searching for it – it was hell, never knowing if they would ever track the new location down). One of the assassins who guarded the outside of the medical room Danny had been in, was able to find just enough life in themself to send an alert out about intruders.
The two basement floors quickly became a point of interest for GIW operatives and LoA members alike.
Athanasia fought like hell, though her moves were limited. Keeping them away from her twin brother and fighting at the same time was tough. He was practically limp against her side, and from his feet movements, she knew he was trying to move on his own, but – body weakened and powers snuffed out because of the GIW cuffs – he was unable to do much of anything.
She made it to the first floor of the basement eventually, injured more than she’d like to admit. Her hair was falling out of the high pony she had put it in, the ecto guns gave her burns, there were new cuts and what may be more accurately described as gashes, and a few new bruises as well. Danny unfortunately got hit once or twice in the crosshairs.
That led her now.
Athanasia al Ghul didn’t let herself be cornered often. But to keep her twin safe? She’d do it a thousand times more. Danny, on his feet, was slumped against the wall behind her. She stood directly in front him, guns with the knives drawn and aimed at the group of enemies. She was not letting them touch Danny again.
Before anyone had a chance to act, the elevator door dinged open. Everything paused. Tucker Foley stepped forward just enough to stop the doors from closing.
Everyone stared.
He waved. “Hi.”
Red Huntress and Sam Manson jumped from a lone vent grate from the ceiling, using the confusion Foley caused to their advantage. From there, it was back to fighting.
When she suggested someone to come help her, this was not what she had in mind, necessarily. She wasn’t complaining, though.
Red Huntress judo flipped an assassin into an operative. They went down like bricks into a third person.
“Go!” Manson shouted. “We’ve got this, A– Shrike! Get him out of here!”
Athanasia hesitated, but listened. As much as she was wary of them handling themselves against the League and wanted to help, she wanted to get Danny out of there more.
Lifting him up bridal style after putting her guns away, she muttered an apology when the movement tugged on his injuries, and then ran for the elevator Foley held open. As she got closer, he ducked in and spammed the close button. She slid in right as it began to close, kicking Foley to one side of the elevator as she pressed herself to another.
Three ninja stars struck the wall they were just in front of.
The doors shut.
They stared at them in silence as Foley pressed the ‘1’ button.
“How did you…?”
“They can be predictable sometimes,” she admitted.
Foley ‘huh’ed. “Well… Thanks.”
Once the elevator stopped and opened, they were back to running. Foley used his Fenton Works weapons he had to take out whoever tried to attack them.
“Main entrance, Wesley!” Athanasia shouted into the comms.
“But that’s the most obvious one?” he questioned, though she heard the vehicle start in the background.
“It’s the closest one– hey! Watch the face, man!” Foley shot at an assassin who tried to hit him with shurikens. They went down immediately with a pained groan.
Just then, a large green blast burst through the hallway’s floor. Athanasia stopped, boots squeaking against the floor, and Foley’s halt was more of a stumble than anything. Before they could question what was happening, Red Huntress flew up on her board with Manson balanced behind her, the girls back to back. Red Huntress shot her large ecto-gun back down the hole.
“How you like that, assholes?!”
Manson fiddled with what looked like tiny rockets on her wrist. “Let’s go, let’s go!” She shot one down the hall behind Athanasia and Foley, right at another group of operatives.
Foley backed up, then ran and leaped over the hole, bolting to the main doors of the headquarters. Athanasia did the same, stumbling a little on the landing, but she recovered quickly, and mumbled another apology when the jostling caused Danny more pain. Red Huntress and Manson followed on the former’s hover board.
As they got closer to the doors, a line of League members convened in front of them. None of them stopped running as Red Huntress shot at them, and then again at the door.
“Setting the timer on the bombs,” Manson told them just as they got outside. “Twenty seconds.”
“Wes, where–”
Tires skidding on pavement interrupted Foley. A black van came to an abrupt stop ten feet away, and the back door opened. “Right here!” he yelled from the driver’s seat.
Foley helped her get Danny in the van first, carefully placing him on the second row. They then piled in with the door shutting behind them, and Wesley peeled off, the other two girls zooming in the air to follow.
The bombs went off.
The previously hidden GIW headquarters went up in flames.
“Any followers?” asked Athanasia. She opened the sun roof, and moved to the front seat as Foley maneuvered the backs of the second row to fold backwards.
Manson dropped onto the roof of the van, and then into the vehicle itself. “Not that I saw,” she said.
“Hm.”
“I’m going to make the van invisible just in case, though.”
“For how long?” Wesley asked.
“As long as I can.”
Foley spoke up from where he now sat, with Danny’s head cushioned in his lap, “Don’t overdo it, Sam. You’re still new to magic.”
“No promises.” Manson got situated in the third row of seats. “I’m not letting those fruitloops find us, Tucker.”
Red Huntress then came into the van, board disappearing as she did so. “I think the explosion will be keeping them busy for a while.” She slipped off her helmet, eyes falling to Danny while she sat at his feet. “How is he?”
Foley shook his head. “In bad shape.”
Athanasia frowned, and from a pocket pulled out the vial of the stuff from the IV. “This was in an IV they were giving him. I have no clue what it is, but I believe it was harming him.”
He took the vial with a frown.
“We need to get him someplace safe,” Valerie Gray said. “Or… You guys do. That is, if the plan is still for Wes and I to go back to Amity Park and Ellie.”
Foley nodded. “Yeah, it is. Get to Amity Park, and tell Ellie to find Jazz – she’s been out of the loop for too long.”
Gray winced. “Oh, she’s gonna pissed.”
“I know where we can take him,” Athanasia told them. She reached to the built in GPS to start inputting the address. “He will be safe there, and they will help us keep him safe.”
“Are you sure?” Foley asked.
“Absolutely.”
If not, then Jason Todd lied about Bruce Wayne being a good man.
Once the address was put in, she pulled out her communicator – the one that was part of a matching set. She debated on whether a written message or a voice call would be better…
Gray leaned between the two front seats. “That address is in Gotham, New Jersey.” She looked at Athanasia incredulously. “How the hell is that safer?”
“Because I’m taking him to our father.”
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