While the following warnings are included, i didn't feel them extreme enough to require a chapter recap. as per usual, if you feel like it should be included do please let me know

* dehumanization
* racism/spieciecism
* referenced bad self preservation practices

november 6

Danny felt a wave of dizziness wash over him as he found himself in an empty space. There was a singular illuminated spot a bit away from him. Stumbling somewhat clumsily, like his legs weren't his own, he meandered towards the spotlight. It was rather funny, seeing as going towards the light wasn't exactly on his schedule, yet here he was.

Stumbling closer, he was greeted with the ever so grumpy man he was trying to help. "How dare you intrude upon the domain of Lord Nabu?! Have you not ruined enough of your own existence that you must infect my own." Mr. Zatara yelled at him, fists shaking in anger as the little ghost gave up on walking and floated instead.

"Hello, Phantom." Danny sighed, "nice to see you, Phantom. Thank you for fighting for my soul." Switching up his voice, Danny waved himself off. "Oh it's no problem, sir. It's the right thing to do so you may continue existing with the sole reason to curse me out it seems. Fun shit." Danny sniffled, the annoying feeling of blood slowly trickling out his nostril still there even if this version of his body was not injured.

How that was even a sentence he could say he didn't want to ponder.

Mr. Zatara was not amused, hands shaking in anger as he spewed out Italian that Danny's brain hurt too much for to even attempt to figure out. Unfortunately for him, his budding migraine was made exponentially worse as a certain glowing bucket spawned to join in on the filth thrown his way. What a joyous day to have a migraine and have two languages he barely understood hurled his way.

Letting the two men, really were they acting mature enough to be called men, squabble to their hearts desire, Danny let them have at it if only just to get a moment to himself to take in just how dull it was around him. What a miserable existence it would be to be stuck until his final moments in here.

Figuring they'd had their fill after the 4th time of the same string of recognizable sentences repeating, Danny tried to speak. Tried being the keyword as he was drowned out by the two much louder voices. "SHUT YOUR TRAP FOR ONE SECOND!" He yelled out, bouncing on his tippy toes as he strained to project his voice over theirs. "Zatanna is the only friend I have, so curse me all you want but I do not want her to have to lose her father twice within the same decade. So will you just shut up and listen to me!"

Surprisingly, it was quiet enough to hear Mr. Zatara's mouth click shut. Even Nabu found his mute button as Danny blinked up at the pair. "Wow, I can't believe that worked."

"Speak, before I lose my patience." Mr. Zatara grumbled, clearly still annoyed.

Olive branching it is, with some well deserved bird poop on it.

"Sir, with all due respect, which really isn't a lot but Imma give you some grace here." Danny awkwardly pressed his hands together, breathing in deeply and sighing hard as he supported his chin on his thumbs. Mentally repeating to himself to stay calm, he used both sets of fingers to point at the Italian as he tried to get his point across. "Anyway, Zatanna is the closest to a sister I have left so unfortunately for the both of us that means you're family too, sir." He choked down making a joke about Zatanna becoming his actual sister if things with his brother went the way he hoped, but the man didn't need to think about that right now.

Nabu scoffed as Mr. Zatara squinted. "Surely you aren't implying the great Lord Nabu is too inept to keep his host alive." Their voices melted together into a disturbing echo. If this is what he sounded like, he'd file a formal apology to anybody that had to hear him speak like that.

Still, he didn't quite like immediately getting questioned. Like he, a literal ghost, didn't know what he was talking about. "You sorcerers are always so cocky about the things you don't even understand." Sighing deeper than he probably should have, he could feel the anger flare again as a painful heat spread over his body.

Maybe he shouldn't have dropped as low as them, but when the bar is being used for limbo in hell, is it really that bad? "And why should we listen to anything a ghost has to say." It wasn't a question, and the vitriol was quite valid for once. He did ask for it with his own statement. But that didn't make it any less true.

Looking the man dead in the eye, any playful air around Danny froze over. "Because Mr. Zatara," he tried to find the right words, "I've lived the life you just sold yourself into and it was killing me."

Letting the gravity of his words reach the man's corrupted brain, Danny looked to the ground as he shrugged, unable to hold back the dam he just opened. "Why do you think I even stuck with this team and the constant comments from people who would much rather have me gone." He made the mistake of looking up. He was expecting anger, distain, anything of the sort. But all he saw was a man, frowning as he listened.

It was the first time anybody actually listened to him, and boy was it making him uncomfortable. "I need to be with my brother, to be family and have a functioning bond, for my soul to not deteriorate." He forced out the words, eyes wandering back to the ground as he slowly traced the scars on his arm. "I locked myself up in a prison, to keep everybody safe of what I was and still am capable of, and even with keeping up with the news about him, I was still dying."

He'd forgotten he even took his glove off earlier. The cut he made back in the bathroom wasn't there anymore, but he doubted it actually healed. "I was happy with that possibility because I would still achieve my end goal. To prevent that, that monster to become reality." For once he was happy nobody except two people who hated him were there to listen in.

At least that way, he could call it lies and slander if they tried to say anything. Though he wasn't sure if it would work with his track record. "But you, Mr. Zatara," Danny shrugged, head lifting in the man's direction but eyes going anywhere but there. "Your goals, your source keeping your soul healthy, was to watch your daughter grow up and become a force to be reckoned with." A small smile crept on Danny's face, vanishing all too fast. "Something you can't do if you allow this tin can to take her away from you."

"If it is death you seek, Fate will grant you the kindness of fulfilling that wish." Nabu grumbled out, clearly not appreciating the comparison and disrespect to his precious artifact. Yet, annoyingly so, he could not expel the brat from his domain. "This sorcerer has given me his body to do with as I require. Fate has no need for trivial matters such as those."

Danny openly glared at the golden helmet hovering above them. "You will end up killing him way before his time if you don't just let him have some time with his daughter."

Mr. Zatara sputtered, trying to wrap his head around everything Danny was saying. And how blatantly Nabu was dismissing all the seemingly valid concerns. "How do you know of this?" He demanded, needing more than just the dramatic retellings of a troubled teen as proof. Or maybe just because he desperately wanted to find something to discredit what would be his future.

Danny's glare softened to a frown as he looked at Mr. Zatara. "Yeah well you learn a thing or two when the only person willing to give you the time of day just so happened to be the head of medicine in the entire fucking dimension."

Giovanni looked at the boy before him in surprise. He had no way of knowing for sure, definitely not given his current predicament, but he had an inkling to who he may be referring to. "You know Il Grande Guaritore Rianimatore (the great reviving healer)?"

It was an old myth, a traveling shaman who had traveled nations simply to heal who they could and bring a peaceful rest to those they couldn't. He had tried to look into this myth himself, wishing to cement his legacy by locating this great sorcerer of legend, but all leads fell dead once they circled back to the Atlantis of old. Records King Arthur hadn't given him access to as they were property of the Royal Historical Library, as were nearly all surviving documents of a time long since passed.

The closest he had gotten was when Barry brought him a small tub bearing their mark. The man had refused to elaborate where or how he had acquired the item. All he wished to know if it contained any toxin. It was easy to tell there was nothing bad in it in human science terms but there were elements that were not of this realm. Mystical analysis also cleared it of any ill will. True to the mark it bore, it healed the injury the hellhound brought upon the man.

Did this boy truly know the myth themselves? Well enough to get personal medicine made? To be looked after and bare such familiarity?

Danny half shrugged, half nodded, not sure who Mr. Zatara was referring to but denying it wouldn't do him any good. He needed the man to believe him so sue him for being a little blurry on details. Feeling heat burning him from the inside out, Danny awkwardly shifted until he felt somewhat more comfortable. "Believe me, if I didn't get bullied into being on the team, I would have gladly stayed out of your lives. But I can't heal what I've done to myself without reversing what I did to get into this mess."

Shifting nervously again, he fidgeted with the pawpad on his gloved hand. "Constant magic use will already deteriorate your body faster than it usually would, but I'm sure you're already aware of that." He didn't look up, not wanting to see the pained expression on the man's face. "Your body's health is dependent on the health of your soul as well. If the soul deteriorates, your body will fade even faster than the constant strain already will do. If you let him do this to you, you'll be lucky to make it past year 5."

Mr. Zatara remained quiet, eyes blown wide as he desperately tried to think. To make sense of it all. His entire career he had been taught to not trust a word beings like Phantom uttered. Yet here the boy was, putting up a fight against a god for the sake of a person who did not like him, just because his beloved daughter chose to befriend him.

Had it not been for that, had Zatanna not gone against his explicit wishes, what would have become of him? 5 years was barely a blink in the eyes of time. A blip in what would have been his daughter growing up in what remained of their loving family. It pained him to say, but it seemed more and more that Phantom was in fact telling the truth.

"What his soul needs is to see his body not go to waste performing for mindless masses and actually protect those he claimed to care for." Nabu argued dismissively, still refusing to see what Mr. Zatara was slowly coming to terms with.

Floating up to where the helmet was hovering, Danny aggressively tapped onto it. "Like it or not you stinky ego maniac," his tapping continued with every word, quite enjoying the sound of his nail hitting the metal. "You need a living host to be present in this realm and you have a prime candidate right here. Do you really want to take the risk of losing something that precious in less than 5 years, just to preserve your overly inflated self-worth?"

The helmet glowed brightly, on its own or by reflecting light Danny didn't know, but it did nothing to make the tin can more intimidating. "I am a lord of order! I am of more use to the world than a mere mortal wasting his mystical talents would ever be! The decision cannot be undone, nor is it yours to interfere with, abomination." The constant slurs were truly starting to lose their effect with how casually it kept being thrown around by a soul bound within a piss colored bucket.

"If Mr. Zatara dies from your own stubbornness, you have no host. Nobody who holds an oath to be the next host either." Danny's tone dipped low, gritting through his teeth as a wave of pain shot through his body. "And I will personally make sure that stupid bucket of yours won't be found in the living world for the next few centuries if you dare allow Mr. Zatara's soul to decay."

"And why, pray tell, should I listen to the desecration of the laws of nature incarnate."

Danny sighed, feeling like he was just talking to a glossed up wall. "You claim to be a lord of order yet all your actions are causing is chaos. Is that what you want? To give more power to the likes of Klarion for the sake of preserving a self-proclaimed title?" He felt a sharp stabbing pain run through his arms, crackling down to his feet until he couldn't feel his toes anymore. But even then he refused to give in. "You may have been a true lord of order once, Nabu, but you have long since fallen far from the man you once were."

"Shut your insolent mouth, child! You have no right to speak nor do you understand how forgiving I have been by letting you parade around in here!"

Tongue snaking its way between canines, Danny smiled through the pain that was slowly lighting his insides on fire. "Oh, I have every right, Bubu. Magi souls may not be my department, but I know a strong willed stubborn old fool when I see one. Somebody had to help him come home."

Home.

Oh how he wished he could be home. Worn but beloved couch, blanket covering him and his beloved girls. Fire crackling under the tv as they watched whatever silly movie Zatanna insisted on. Hot chocolate mixed with butter slowly cooling on the coffee table as they snuggled together.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Nabu cried out indignantly. Opening his eyes again, the Italian noted the barren nothingness had formed the faintest of outlines of his very own living room. Cups of hot chocolate still steaming as the blanket laid folded over, inviting him to have a seat.

"You're underestimating the power a soul has, Bubu. Careful now, disconnect between mind and body can be quite dangerous." Danny smirked, feeling like he finally managed to find the leg up he was looking for. "He may have sworn an oath to put the helmet on, but no such deal was made to let you have full control."

The shift was instant. The one single light in the vast emptiness flickering on and off as Mr. Zatara's memories with his daughter and late wife flooded the space. Shock adorned the man's face as he looked back on everything he would be losing if he didn't stand up for himself. Didn't back up the boy fighting for him.

"Cease this childish objection!"

Danny's chest contracted in growing pain, but he couldn't help but laugh. "What's wrong, Bubu? Not used to somebody figuring out they shouldn't just be a mindless slave to your whims?" He could feel that annoying trickle in his nose get worse, like a warm itch he had no way of scratching.

The scene became more and more visible, more tangible as he listened to Phantom's words. He was not wrong in that he had given his word to don the helmet, no deal over control over his life was given. Did he really have as much say as the boy claimed he had?

"What's-" Danny breathed hard, finding his throat hurting so much more than after he used his wail. "What's it gonna be, Lord Nabu?" He questioned with a grin on his face.

Worry struck Mr. Zatara at how rapidly Phantom seemed to be declining. Though he had little say over what was happening on the outside, he knew the boy was running out of time. Fast. "Lord Nabu." He spoke, determination carrying his voice up to the floating helmet. "Please allow for three simple dates, as well as the one you grant all your hosts to be of my choosing." Unspoken vow creeping under his words as he spoke.

Danny lowered himself, arm snaking around his middle as nausea rose. "Wha- but sir, that's so-"

"And what may those three dates be?"

Mr. Zatara held out a hand, easing the ailing boy down. "My daughter's and my own birthdays, as well as the celebration of the new year, my lord." Danny looked confused, frown creasing his mask more in pain than the latter.

"But four days out of 365 is nothing. It'll only do enough to slow the decay, not prevent it." Danny worriedly looked up at the man. Green eyes softening with age as wrinkles surrounded them.

"Fine."

Danny's head whipped around, immediately causing him to lose his balance as he tried to catch himself. "No, not fine! Once a month at the very least!" He tried to argue, but strong, comfortably warm hands kept him from falling.

"It is alright, Phantom." Mr. Zatara said, kindest Danny had ever heard the man speak to him. "Lord Nabu is not one to be haggled with. Four days is already a lot more than previous hosts have received."

"But it is still only four." Danny pouted, body feeling so so painfully heavy.

Mr. Zatara held him steady, not speaking on the lack of weight the boy seemed to have for a heart as big as his. "It is not the amount of days that matters, son. It is how one spends them." He reassured, squeezing the boy's shoulder as he could feel the boy's consciousness slowly start to drift off. "We do not have the time to argue this. You do not have much time left."

Danny blinked, confused as to why he wouldn't have time. A wave of pain crashed into him, death grips on both his forearms squeezing the un-life out of him.

Right

It wasn't just him, there was a second him. That must be...uncomfortable.

Danny was snapped out of his haze as he felt comforting warmth wrap around him. "Thank you, for everything you have done for my daughter and I." Mr. Zatara whispered into his hair. "I could not have wished for a better, more loyal friend for Zatanna." Releasing the boy from his hold, he ushered the dazed ghost to what had formed as his front door.

With a hand softly pushing Danny forward, he could hear the faint words echo behind him. "I am sorry, Phantom. May we meet again on better terms."

editing this in bc ao3 is pushing shit too far again and i don't want it to happen here too. so lets just skip the shit and let me just add in the notes i put on there. be warned, from this point on i will not be accepting any wally hate. lightharted critisism is okay, but hate is not. Im so fr, dont even try me with name calling or cope with getting cursed out and risking getting blocked bc when it comes to that 15 year old boy, i am fucking done with how he's getting treated. learn to read subtext or dni

(ao3 notes, chapter 73)

(ao3 notes, chapter 75)

(ao3 notes, chapter 76)

(ao3 notes, chapter 81)