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clockwayswrites · 5 months

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A Broken Sort of Normal, Part 18

WC: 1565, Masterpost

“Here to bring me to a debrief?” Danny asks the shadow lurking in the doorway. He swears that Batman almost looks chastised at that. “It’s fine, Batman, I know how these things work.”

“The core Titans are insisting on being there, for moral support,” Batman rumbles. “If you aren’t comfortable with that, they’ll be sent away.”

Danny chuckles; that really is like them. “No, I might as well only go through it all once. Besides, that’s sweet. Can I at least take the time to put on real clothing?”

Batman narrows his eyes at Danny. “You’re still injured. Loose clothing only.”

“Gods, how does no one see what a dad you are,” Danny teases.

Batman smiles, just for a moment, before he turns to sweep over dramatically out of the room. “I’ll send in Flash with some approved clothing.”

“That better be my Flash you’re sending in!” Danny calls after Batman. When the doorway is free of the luring hero, Danny lets himself fall back against the pile of pillows.

A debrief. How is he supposed to explain any of this? So far he hasn’t been allowed to explain things, really. Part of it is that he’s spent most of the last several days asleep. When he has been awake, it’s to a rotating cast of heroes; all heroes that he was close to and knew behind the mask. With every able bodied hero busy with clean up, no one has been able to stay long. He sees Barry the most, what with the other’s leg, but even Barry is busy helping coordinate the recovery efforts.

(Danny’s also pretty sure that they’re using the chance to visit him as a way to make people take a break.)

While the heroes are with him, it’s been mostly Danny getting updated on everyone and whoever is with him getting information to update everyone else with. They won’t even let him work, but they do pass on information about his crews at least. It’s Wally who’s with him the most. Wally was there the first time Danny woke and as Danny breathed through panic attacks and to patiently reply to the endless stream of messages for Danny.

Speak of the devil… Danny’s phone chimes again.

He can’t look at it.

He hasn’t been able to look at it since the first message from Jasmine came in. Since they all remembered.

Wally hadn’t asked. He had just let Danny shake apart in his arms and has handled Danny’s phone from then on. ‘This is Danny’s boyfriend. He’s alive and will recover. He’ll contact you at a later time.’

“I thought we put that thing on silent,” Wally says with a glare at the phone as he steps into the room.

Danny makes shameless grabby hands at the clothing. “So did I. Who is it?”

Danny’s proud that his voice doesn’t shake at the question.

Maybe it’s fair that they’ve all been avoiding the big big questions. Maybe it really is obvious that he’s still only hanging on by a thread. He certainly feels less like a live wire and more like the one, stubborn fuse still humming in the circuit breaker.

He certainly feels weak.

“Jasmine again.”

Danny sucks in a staggered breath and lets it out slowly. “Just… just tell her that I’m sorry, but I can’t yet.”

Wally presses a kiss to Danny’s temple. “I’ll remind her that you’re healing too. You just worry about getting dressed.”

“What, don’t want to help out with that part?” teases Danny as he undid the tie at the base of his neck. The Watchtower might have pretty nice quality, but any medical garb was going to be a little scratchy, and Danny is glad to have it off. He’s careful with his taped over IV port as he slides on the plain white shirt and then the well worn hoodie. It has a faded Nightwing logo and smells like Wally.

Something in Danny’s chest relaxes a little as he buries his face into the fabric and it nearly makes him sob.

“Danny?”

Danny just shakes his head.

“Oh, babe, it’s okay, I’m here. I have you.” Wally tosses the phone onto the bed and wraps Danny up into a hug. “I’m so sorry I haven’t been around—”

“Don’t, you were saving lives,” Danny says and tucks his face against Wally’s neck. “It’s what you needed to be doing.”

“Yeah, well, I’m here now. I’ve officially been pulled off duty. My job right now is you.”

“I don’t want to take you away from anything important.”

“You aren’t. Babe, you’re why we’re all still here. Let yourself be cared for, okay? I promise if anything comes up that really needs my help I’ll go, but let me make you my priority,” Wally urges.

Danny closes his eyes. “I told myself I’d never ask that of you. I know what you are.”

“You aren’t, I’m offering. Please, babe, let me make you my priority.”

He wants to. Gods does he want to. He wants to go back home to their apartment and have Wally with him and just let the other take care of everything, just for a little bit, just until it stopped feeling like his insides were hollow. Just until he could be okay enough to lie and say that he was fine.

Just until then.

“Okay. I— yeah, okay. I think I need that right now,” Danny manages to admit.

“Thank you,” Wally whispers like it was Danny doing him the great service. “First act, let’s get you out of those pants.”

“You cad,” Danny gasps dramatically.

Wally rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling now so Danny counts it as a win. “And get you into the sweatpants.”

“I can’t believe I’m going to debrief in sweats,” Danny says as he lets Wally help him finish changing. He’s a little less balanced in his feet than he’d like to be.

Okay, a lot less balanced.

Wally doesn’t even let him walk to the debrief, instead he insists on pushing Danny there in a wheelchair. Danny knows there’s no shame in needing a wheelchair, but it doesn’t help him be less frustrated at the way he feels weak down to his bones. Hell, he feels weak down to is core. At least he gets to move himself to a regular chair once they’re inside the conference room.

"Thank you for being willing to do this, Danny,” Wonder Woman says. She’s leaning forward, arms resting on the table, and offering a smile. At the table is a selection of other top tier members: Batman, Superman, a Green Lantern (Hal Jordan in this case), John Constantine, Zatanna, and, right next to Danny, Barry.

The Titans are off to the side, slightly behind the Dark members, in chairs that were obviously dragged into the room. Garfield gives Danny an enthusiastic thumbs up that almost makes him laugh.

“Of course. I get why there are questions,” Danny says instead.

“There are,” Superman agreed. “Now, as you aren’t a Justice League member and are in no way under any sort of investigation, this is going to be a bit informal. We’re just trying to make sure our report on recent events are as clear as possible.”

Danny huffs out a breath of air. His gaze darts over to Wally before dropping. “It’s a big more than that, isn’t it?”

“Kid?” Barry asks gently.

“You all want to know what I am, which is fair. If I could have, I would have told you.” Danny looks back at Wally again and gives a half hearted smile. “Sorry I couldn’t.”

“Why couldn’t you?” Batman asks, though the rumble of words isn’t unkind.

A sour smile twists Danny’s lips. “Curses are like that. Aren't they, Laughing Magician?” Danny hears Constantine and sucks in a breath and steels himself to look up at him. “How much do you know about her? About Desiree?”

Constantine shakes his head. “Not much. It’s not wise to go digging into the affairs of a member of the Infinite Realms, even an ended one.”

“Speak normal for the rest of us,” Hal says. “A who of what?”

“Infinite realms. That means a sodding ghost,” Constantine snaps.

Barry scoffs. “Ghost’s aren’t real.”

“Boo,” Danny replies. His smile is slightly too wide.

“Not funny, Danny.”

Danny shrugs. “Not trying to be. I’m half ghost.”

“How is someone half ghost?” Hal asks.

“I’m like Schrödinger’s Cat,” Danny explains. He can’t help for for his gaze to flick over to where the Titans are sitting and find Wally’s eyes. “I’m still in the box, basically. I’m half alive and half dead. Both and neither. A balance.”

“A myth.” Constantine leans forward. He taps the butt of his unlit cigarette against the table. “Or so we always thought. You telling me that you’re a halfa?”

The question pulls Danny’s focus back to the main table of heroes. “Yep. One of three. Me, my godfather, and my clone.”

Superman clears his throat. “Ah, your clone?”

Danny just gives another shrug. “Shit gets weird when you’re a teenage vigilante.”

“Danny,” Batman says, and Danny can’t help but smile again because the man is clearly one step away from pinching the bridge of his nose like he does as Bruce when one of his children is driving him mad. “Start from the beginning. State your name for the record.”

“Danny Jasper Fenton.”

---

AN: Vote was in favor of splitting it up. I've got a chunk of the next part written, so hopefully I can get it finished up next week! Sorry if there are lots of issues, words and me are struggling atm.

Poor Danny is really struggling with things as his world has once again changed. And what will everyone think of him now...?

I no longer tag, instead you can subscribe to the masterpost.

#dp x dc #abson #quick death ship #quick death #danny/wally

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clockwayswrites · 6 months

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A Broken Sort of Normal, Part 17

WC:1471 Masterpost CW: must distress continues

“Danny!”

Danny had just—

Somehow he had—

Danny is falling.

Wally makes it in time to catch him. He goes from blocks away to having Danny in his arms in an instant. Gently, so gently, he holds Danny and lowers them to the ground, next to the heart that Danny had ripped out of the leader’s chest.

“Wally,” Danny rasps. His voice is weaker than Wally has ever heard it. It’s like some twisted imitation of how Danny sounds when he wakes up in the morning, voice rough with the remnants of sleep. Danny is even smiling the same, soft smile.

“Medic!” Wally screams. Hands shaking, he clutches at Danny’s chest. He can feel Danny’s breath stuttering under his trembling fingers. “I need a medic!”

Danny’s fingers wrap weakly around Wally’s. They feel so cold.

Wally stuffs the sob back into his throat. “Thought I told you to stay safe.”

He did, too. Before they split up at the Watchtower to Zeta down to their respective locations, Wally had pulled Danny to the side and rested their foreheads together. He had told Danny this was a big one and that he needed Danny to stay safe before kissing him goodbye.

“Sorry,” Danny murmurs. His eyes are glassy now.

Wally doesn’t think Danny even sees him anymore.

This isn’t how it’s supposed to go. They’re supposed to get married. Buy one of those row houses Danny is always looking at. Have mornings and nights and years together. They’re supposed to have tomorrow.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay, babe,” Wally says, sniffling, trying desperately to smile for Danny. “I love you no matter what.”

“Love you too. Had to…”

Wally hushes him, softly, gently. He doesn’t want Danny to spend his last breaths on excuses. Wally leans down and presses their lips together.

Danny’s lips are so cold.

“I love you so much.”

Foreheads resting together, Wally twists his grip so that he can feel Danny’s pulse. The heartbeats are unsteady under his fingers. Unconsciously, Wally starts counting them as his mouth runs without his permission or thought, just affirmation after affirmation about how much he loves Danny. He doesn’t want Danny to die without feeling loved.

He doesn’t—

There’s a feeling, suddenly, like when a plane pressurizes or an elevator drops and both of their breaths stutter. Then it pops.

The world is lit in a green glow.

Danny arches with a gasp.

Wally clutches Danny protectively to his chest and looks up.

A glowing, slowly twisting orb of green floats above them. A wisp trails from Danny’s chest up to the mass. Above it, hands splayed on either side of the ball, is floating a woman with green skin, black hair, and red eyes that look at Danny with a hungry sort of malice that makes Wally want to lunge at her.

And then she starts laughing. The sound blends with the melodic noise as the coins on her outfit shake with her laughter. “Oh, Phantom. I was starting to think that you would actually manage.”

She reaches her hand over the orb, fingers sinking into it to pull herself forward. Danny jerks in Wally’s arms.

“Seven years. You made me wait seven years. I didn’t think you had it in you, Phantom. I was sure when you made that wish, that foolish, stupid, wonderful wish that you’d trip up within a week. But you didn’t! You made me wait seven years!” The ground shakes with her scream. She clears her throat and smooths down her outfit, making sure that the skirt lay right over her genie-like tail. “But it doesn’t matter. You did it now and all the others can stop hounding me for their slice of your power for helping with this plan. And of all things you did it for love. You always were weak, Phantom.”

“Who are you?” Wally snarls, trying to tuck Danny closer to him, as if it is possible to do so.

The woman looks down at Wally, arching a brow before her purple lips form into a razor sharp smirk. “I am Desiree and I should thank you. How does it feel, to know that you killed your lover?”

Wally’s heart skips a beat.

“That he’s dying in your arms because he couldn’t stand to lose you? That he's going to make you live with that pain instead? Don’t you wish that it could be different?”

Wally does. He doesn’t want to lose Danny. He doesn’t want the world to lose Danny. He wishes—

The air compresses again. Another pop. A flash of yellow light.

“Thought we were fighting aliens, not ghosts and djinn?” a tired British voice asks.

Wally twists around to see a battered, bloodied, and bruised Constantine and Zatanna standing on the edge of the crater.

“Help him!” screams Wally. His voice cracks around the plea.

The Dark team takes in the scene, eyes darting from Danny to the orb to the— to Desiree. John’s face darkens quickly. “Well that has to be fucking dealt with.”

“Oh, you’ll deal with me?” scoffs Desiree. “Do you know who I am? Do you know what I have?”

Desiree pulls herself across the orb again, sinking her clawed fingers into it. Danny twitches in Wally’s arms with each stab. The green seeps up from it like punctured air and wraps itself around Desiree’s neck.

“No matter, I can absorb some of his power now to deal with you rats!” Desiree screams. She plunges her arms into the orb. The green flashes blindingly bright. The wisps grow. The tendrils tighten.

Danny lets out a weak breath of air, like it was the last in his lungs.

“Constantine!” Wally begs.

The green light ripples and pulses. Wally looks up, trying to shield Danny from it. It’s like Desiree is drinking it in.

Constantine and Zatanna are talking. Wally can’t hear what they’re saying. He can’t hear Desiree laughing even though he knows she is. He can’t hear the chant Zatanna calls out. All Wally can hear is the fragile, rattling breaths from Danny.

When the breaths stop, it’s like Wally’s world goes silent.

And then it explodes in green.

Wally covers Danny’s body with his own, holding tight as the light and wind rips past them. When it settles, Wally pulls back. The djinn is gone.

Danny is silent.

“John, he’s not breathing!” Wally shouts.

“Zap him!” John shouts back. He’s scrambling down the edge of the crater, rushing into the cloud of green that’s settled in it. Wally loses sight of him. “Zap him!”

Wally’s never done that.

He’s never tried to call on the electricity outside of a battle. He’s only just gotten a handle on moderating its power. He can’t—

But Danny is dead in his arms. Breaths silent. Heart silent. Dead.

Wally’s hands tremble as he rests them over Danny’s chest and pushes the power that thrums under his skin, through his fingertips, and into Danny.

The word explodes in green again— like a lit match in a room full of gas.

Wally’s flung backwards, away from Danny, hitting something, someone, and they tumble together. Then John is helping Wally up. They rush through the scattered remnants of the green fog. Wally falls to his knees next to Danny.

Please please please—

And Danny breathes.

Sound comes back to Wally’s world.

There’s an echo in Danny’s ears. The ringing of it feels like it’s burrowing into his brain, like it’s vibrating through his very bones, like his heart is stuttering and jumping to try and match the awful sound. It makes Danny groan in pain.

Someone is talking to him. He can hear the words past the hum of the ringing but can’t understand them. He whines, arching up. His fingertips scramble at some soft material. Suddenly, there’s a weight pressing down on his shoulder.

“—still. You’re safe, but you’re hurt.”

“Wally,” Danny gasps. He tries to speak but he’s not sure most of the words make it past his lips. “Did Wally make a wish with Desiree? Please, no!”

The press of soft lips against his temple Danny would recognize anywhere. That’s Wally. Wally was still alive.

“It’s okay Danny. Desiree is gone. Constantine and Zatanna showed up. Apparently all the…” Wally sounds so wrecked that it makes Danny whine again. There’s another brush of those lips. “All the death magic being used alerted them. When she started to absorb the, um, your? Absorb the power, Constantine and Zatanna basically forced it into her all at once. It overwhelmed her and she, well, exploded.”

That sounds good. It is good she’s gone. Danny thinks he should be concerned about more, more that he needs to know, but Wally is alive. Somehow he is alive. The rest he can deal with later.

Danny makes a soft noise and slips back into the black.

---

AN: What, you didn't think I was actually going to kill Danny, did you? ^_~

One chapter (or two parts) left! Danny's got some explaining to do! And Wally has some important things to say too.

I no longer tag, but you can subscribe to the master post here.

#dp x dc #quick death #quick death ship #Danny/Wally #abson

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