Chapter Text
People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead.
But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can’t rest.
Then sometimes, t he crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right.
- James O’Barr
Danny James Fenton, better known by his family and peers simply as Danny, is your average twenty years old; that, of course, if you don’t count the fact the he is a half-ghost entity that might as well being a sort of eldritch God after absorbing the core of an old A-F tyrannic ghost king – it was a bad day, alright? In all honesty it was Pariah Dark’s fault for deciding that Christmas was a good day to escape his prison. Everybody and their shadow know not to mess with Danny on freaking Christmas! –. Which, by the way, is also the reason as to why he couldn’t graduate high school and had to take online classes to get his GED. Because it turns out that absorbing the core of Pariah Dark took about the equivalent in the human realm of a year and some months of timeout time in the Far Frozen under Frostbite’s watchful eye and care, just in case he became a crazy tyrant himself, thank the ancients that wasn’t the end of that story… but that day was also the day his parents discovered that he is Phantom… now, that story didn’t end well.
With the help of his sisters and friends, Danny managed to finish high school via online classes while taking refuge in the Ghost Zone. Taking advantage of this situation and since he defeated Pariah Dark again and absorbed his core – something extremely rare to happen but not unheard of – the Observants decided to officially start his kingly education, this way Danny ended up haunting in Pariah’s Keep, the place transforming under the influence of its new master’s power. All in all, life – death – is good, but Danny feels a little stuck; I mean, it’s been about three years – in the human realm – since he basically ran away into the Ghost Zone to both heal and hide. He misses good old Earth, he misses smoothies and double cheese burgers, he misses his sister and friends…
And what about what he wants?!
Granted, his childhood dream to become an astronaut died the same day he did, his now clinically defective human heart doesn’t pass the medical exams the training requires to be one, but it’s ok, Danny can visit the stars whenever he wants now, air is not an issue for a ghost, but he did want to study aerospace-engineering! NASA never stopped being his goal! Sure, Danny can be High King and many titles more but he has eternity for that! No one knows how long NASA is gonna exists! Well, Clockwork may know but they won’t tell Danny because of some weird cryptic reason. The point is, today he has made a decision, and after gathering the Council of Observants alongside Clockwork, Frostbite, Pandora and his many ghost friends, Danny standing right in the middle of the meeting finally says:
“I really wanna study aerospace-engineering guys, you think we can leave the King training on the side for a bit?”
The whole council of Observants start to murmur among each other while Clockwork exasperatedly smiles in Danny’s direction, Pandora and Frostbite giggle, some of his ghost friends facepalm, some others – Ember – scream at him if he’s for real, Dorathea and Tecnus look pleased thought, not a surprise since both of them are fervent supporters of any types of education as long as it is respectful, equanimous and progressive.
“My king.” Speaks the head Observant, the murmur of the council dying. “Of course, we will support your wishes.”
“Really?!” Danny asks excitedly.
“The only reason why we thought of starting the king training was to give you something to occupy your mind.” The head Observant says. “When you arrived to us you were weak, both your core and mind needed time to rest and acclimatize.”
“We are happy to see you following your dreams, your majesty!” A young Observant scream from their seat somewhere in the crowd of floating eyes.
Danny holds back his tears as he smiles at the crowd of support his people – his people – is giving him.
He is falling. He is always falling.
Everything around him is dark, dark, dark, dark, DaRk…
No matter how hard he tries to fly again. His wings are clipped – chopped, ripped, mutilated –, bleeding and hurting.
Always hurting.
Something in his chest aches so fucking bad… it is that aching that feeds the pit within himself, that horrid madness that consumes, consumes, CoNsUmEs HiM…
He was – is – just a little bird.
Brutally murdered…
Forgotten…
Replaced…
Forever falling in this pitch-black darkness without bats nor any other birds in it…
AlOnE…
Then he hears it.
Flap… flap… flap…
Slow and rhythmical, steadily approaching.
Flap… flap… flap…
The aching in his chest is lessening as whatever is coming comes closer and a purring of sorts starts to eagerly – happily – vibrate in his chest, chasing away the fury and the madness.
Flap… flap… flap…
Then he sees it. And his breath is taken away. A massive, beautiful white crow, glowing like the full moon is looking at him.
The falling has stopped. He is just there, suspended before the white crow who is looking at him as it flaps its massive wings to also stay put.
The white crow then folds its wings around his small, oh so small, small body.
And for the very first time since coming back he truly feels welcomed.
GASP!
Jason Peter Todd-Wayne, a.k.a. as Red Hood, starts his brand-new day with an abrupt awakening, jolting his back straight onto a sitting position on the blood-couch inside what is his official apartment in Crime Alley. He fell asleep there not even five hours ago after finishing a successful night of crushing kneecaps and shooting at however fucker thought he could fuck shit up in his territory.
He’s covered in cold sweat and his breathing is elaborated, he feels agitated… no, wait, the pit madness is agitated. He can feel it recoil like a scared rabid dog.
What the fuck was that dream about? Jason asks himself as he brushes his sweaty hair back with his right hand, his left holding for dear life the old couch’s backrest.
He takes deep breaths and after fifteen minutes that felt like fifteen years Jason is finally calm enough to move his feet down onto the floor and put his hands over his chest, more specifically over the area where he feels the weird warmness in his dream.
It’s been some time since Danny expressed his desire to persecute higher education to the Observants, and of course that right after they gave him the green light, he teleported away into his keep to tell Jazz, Tucker, Sam and Valerie about his new project via video-call in the custom-made computer he, Tucker and Tecnus build up when Danny decided to take online classes – of course that it has gone through many actualizations and modifications until reaching its current slick, modern form –.
Good thing that way before the whole Absorbing Pariah Dark’s core fiasco, back when he was still fourteen and fresh out of the grave, his friends helped him to create a new persona to keep existing in their realm of the living in case something massively wrong happened. So now and according to the official government paperwork any human being has to have, Daniel Fenton died when he was seventeen years old, but Daniel Smith was still alive and kicking.
It was Sam’s idea. It started with a small saving account for a kid with parents worried for his future where they could add some cash once in a while. Basic? Yeah. It worked? Also, yeah. And now it’s even easier because they have Tecnus and ghost-magic on their side. Either way, it’s not like Danny is the first one to ever fake their identity in the history of anything, so, meh.
Coming back to present, Danny is in video conference with Jazz, Tucker, Sam and Valerie, Dani is with him in the throne room, that he turned into a massive haunting room of sorts where he has a lot of couches, pillows and a gigantic TV. He also has an old wood table where he usually works when he doesn’t want to be trapped in his room or his office – ugh, paperwork is the worst thing to ever happen to life, after-life and death equally –. They all are looking at Daniel Smith’s e-mail, specifically at the most recent file with the title:
FROM: GOTHAM UNIVERSITY’S OFFICE OF ADMISSIONS.
“Oh, ancients.” Dani mumbles as she looks at the screen.
“Come on dude! Open it up!” Tucker exclaims from his window; he is shaking with excitement.
“It is now or never.” Sam adds as she also intently looks at the file from her window in the screen.
“Just take a deep breath, Danny. We stand with you.” Jazz says and Danny will be forever grateful for her presence in his life.
“Just do it Inviso-Bill!” Valerie encourages from her window. Of their little group she is only one left in Amity Park, as she has chosen to stay as the Red Huntress that protects the small Midwest city from the very few but still very real rogue ghosts that try to claim the place as their personal haunt in one of the many human realms that there are scattered around the everything. Joke is on them though; Valerie is a little bit more than just liminal thanks to the ecto-suit that Tecnus and Tucker designed, and now that Danny is no longer in Amity Park, she has claimed the city as her haunt.
“Here goes nothing then!” Danny exclaims as he closes his for now toxic green eyes and clicks open the file at the same time. “Dani, quick, what does it say?” A terrified Danny pleads to his little sister, his face and closed eyes twisted away from the laptop’s screen.
“It says: Esteemed Mr. Daniel Smith, we, of the Gotham University’s office of admissions are honored to inform you that you have met all of the requirements to enter our Aerospace Engineering program and have been admitted into the freshmen classes that begin ON SEPTEMBER THIS YEAR!!!” The younger half-ghost starts all elegantly with a quite decent british accent, but in the end, she couldn’t contain her excitement and ended up screaming to the top of her core.
“NO WAY!” Danny exclaims in pure happiness as he jumps onto his little sister and hugs the death out of her, both white haired beings spinning around as they float in the room.
Sam, Val and Tucker pulled out party poppers and exploded them on celebration, they never doubted Danny.
Jazz on her side is cleaning the tears of pure pride and joy she feels for her brother as she watches him dance in utter glee alongside little Dani. Money is not an issue, Danny has more gold and diamonds in his little castle than he will be ever able to spend in his half-life, and what he has saved in Daniel Smith’s bank account should suffice for a while as well. If he is smart, and Jazz knows he is, Danny will most likely get a part-time job somewhere, maybe even an internship, and in no time, Danny will finally live the life he so much deserves before surrendering himself to the title the Infinite Realms have bestowed upon himself.
Jason has been having the White Crow dream more often. At the beginning it was a random thing but now it was at least twice a month, so, he decided to tell Harley, she is his therapist anyways.
“And how do you feel when the white crow comes closer? ‘Cause in all honestly Hood if I dreamed something like that, I would piss myself awake.”
“I feel… safe. All of the anger simply cowers at the sight of that thing and this other thing in my chest… it purrs?”
“Purrs? Like, purr-purr?” Harley questions as she imitates a cat.
“As stupid as it sounds, yeah, purr-purr.” Jason admits as he does the cat act too.
“Alright, then we can say that whatever this crow is, is not something bad… Hummm, well, in some cultures the White Crow means transformation and/or spiritual awakenings… to me it sounds like something big is coming your way, Hood.”
“I don’t have time for something big, Harley. I already have my hands full with the part-time crime lord, part-time vigilante life.”
“Well, it seems the universe begs to differ, Jay-Jay.”
After that, his dreams were quiet for a bit.
It is the day.
Danny is finally moving into his not so brand-new apartment in Gotham!
With some help from his friends Danny managed to buy a little apartment, granted it was on the fourth floor of a not so new building, with only stairs, and some people may have died in there but it’s not like that bothers Danny. If there are any ecto-remains Danny can easily clean them and purify the place with his own ectoplasm, or if any blobs managed to form then Danny can just take care of them, those little fellows make really good pets.
The place has a kitchenette, one bathroom, a small living/dining area, a room big enough for a single size bed, and an emergency fire staircase right outside the only window the living/dining area has. It also has a working heater and hot water and Danny honestly cannot remember when was the last time he took a hot shower – don’t judge him, it’s not like ghost need water unless they have a water core –.
“You’re sure you got everything you need?” Jazz asks from her window on the video call.
“Yes, Jazz.” Danny answer without looking at her. He is moving boxes with some of his stuff into a portal that takes to a parked moving truck that Daniel Smith rented to move his things from somewhere in Wisconsin to Gotham.
He is not gonna take too many things, well, its not like he has many human things to use in the Ghost Zone to begin with. Three pair of jeans that Sam got him, some cool t-shirts Tucker gave him, Val got him a pair of cool combat boots from the Police School, a pair of red sneakers that Dani genuinely bought him with her own saved money – Danny is gonna treasure them for fucking ever – and Jazz got him a cool NASA themed backpack where his custom laptop perfectly fits. The furniture he got it from second hand stores in the human realm, once again his friends and sisters helping him with the process; a cool old couch, a toaster, a blender, some winter clothes and warm, cozy covers. The only thing he did buy from a proper store was his bed mattress, he is not risking ecto-cooties nor any other kind of parasite or bug.
“Did you study the report on the local vigilantes and rogues?” Jazz continues.
“Yes, Jazz.” Danny responds, neither of the siblings realizing that Box Ghost and Lunch Box are putting even more boxes into the pile of boxes.
And Danny did study the report on the Gotham bats and birds:
Batman, furry Senior. Robin, the rabid-bird. Nightwing with his wonderful ass. Red Robin and his coffee addiction that everybody in Gotham seems to feed. Signal, the only one with a day job. Spoiler, the cheerful, purple one. Black Bat, who Danny is pretty sure is actually a shadow posing as a human. And, Red Hood, the edgy one. And, yeah, there are many more members in the bat-clan but not all of them patrol the city at the same time, it seems like furry senior splits their patrol time so they can somewhat have day-time lives and jobs. Hey, at least Danny memorized the main ones?
And of course, their vast repertoire of rogues, that Danny is not gonna think about because there are simply too much of them fruit-loops loose in that city!
“Please, Danny, take this seriously! We cannot take risks here. The G.I.W. is laying low but still active and the Anti-ecto bill is still in vigor as well. Remember, we choose Gotham because-
“Because it’s the only place where creepy, weird, little me won’t draw attention.” Danny cuts his older sister, finally turning to look at her. In the background, Boxy and Munch still adding more boxes to the pile.
And it is true, in the beginning of this project Danny specifically chose Gotham for the strong, natural ambient ectoplasm – not as dense nor pure as Amity Park, but still pretty high – and the strangeness of the city itself would completely cover his own strangeness, which win-win.
“Please, don’t say it like that, Danny. Gotham it’s safe for you. Who would have thought though? The city with the highest crime rate in the whole of the U.S.A. is the safest place for a king.”
“To be fair, I’m kind of like the king of interdimensional-cosmic horrors now, so.” Danny sighs as he rubs the back of his neck, an embarrassed smile on his pale lips.
“That’s not the point, Danny!” Jazz says as she gets exasperated and waves her hand in the air in frustration.
“I’ll be fine, Jazz.” Danny laughs at his sister’s nervousness. “Pandora has been training me good these past years, I wanna see any Gotham fruit-loop try their luck with me.” Danny says with a confident smirk. “And I already got the mini-fridge with a lock for the ectoplasm to hide in my room, and before you ask, yes, Tecnus, Skulker and I already modify it, it only opens with my ecto-signature.”
Jazz sighs her side of the call. “Sorry, I’m just a little anxious. I should be there with you; this is a very big step you’re giving.”
“I know you’re always with me, Jazz.” Danny says, a soft smile on his face as he looks at his sister in the eyes. “You’ve always being.”
“And I’ll always be, Danny.”
“THE BOX GHOST AND DAUGHTER CLAIM THESE BOXES AS HIS BOX KEEP!!!”
“YEAH! WE CLAIM THEM!!!”
And just like that the sweet moment is broken.
“Oh, ancients no! How the frick-frack did you two get in here?!” Danny screams in both surprise and annoyance as he starts to chase the father-child duo around the haunting room. “When did you summon all these boxes?! Dang it, Boxy! Munch! Where is my stuff?! Not cool guys!” Danny becomes completely unable to use curse words whenever any of his sisters is around.
Jazz cannot help but giggle at the sight.
Unknown to all of the four mentioned in the scene above, Clockwork is watching them from the commodity of their tower, a nice cup of tea is in their hands and a plate of butter cookies floats next to them. “May the odds work to your favor, my king.”