Archive of Our Own

There's a last minute meeting that his manager Chester called up for this department.

Danny watched blankly, paused midway about to press a button from the copy machine that some of the team needed copies ASAP. A few of colleagues around him nodded, their eyes curious before following his manager to the conference room, quickly abandoning their work.

Danny was going to return to his task but an impatient cough and there's his manager standing by the doorway with look in his face that said get in and Danny realized this whole floor was empty and everyone was in that room, waiting.

Danny wasn't sure why he was attending when he's just some paper pusher in a department full of people more important than him, but still, he reluctantly followed inside and took the nearest empty seat.

Most of the discussion washed over him. Something about meeting quarterly targets, budgets and contracts they need to follow up with their supplier. Not knowing what to do, Danny mostly focused on taking notes because who knows, he was still a probationary employee, after all. It couldn't hurt to look useful.

Then the conversation drifted toward an issue that Danny wanted to spoke up but was afraid to address for a while.

"Um. We could-" He hesitantly raised his hand to grab their attention, but since he was in the farthest back, almost hidden, nobody reacted. He tried again. "Guys, I think-"

But this time, Heather bursts out, accidentally talking over him, "Do you have any idea how overworked we are in the shipping team?" she glared at some guy whose name Danny had forgotten, but it resulted a whole conversation rolling forward with the other team murmuring at what seemed to be the start of a heated debate between two different teams.

So he let it go. And ten minutes later after his manager mediated to a more important topic, as Danny was just about to open his mouth and offer his own suggestions. Martin, who kind of reminded him of Dash except sensible, leaned back on his seat and spoke up, "Why are we treating every repair request the same? We could collaborate with the CAD specialists, have a meeting about manufacturing for the design goals. We'll even bring test engineers after, wouldn't you agree?

It was basically the same suggestion Danny was going to say.

Everyone nodded, thoughtful with several murmurs of agreement, "that's actually not a bad idea. Good job, Martin" with Chester beaming proudly at Martin who preened at the praise.

Danny stared at his notes for a second and added another bullet point beneath that. Right. Not his idea anymore. Then immediately crossing out some words about FEA and PLM systems.

And before Danny knew it, the meeting ended and the whole room immediately emptied and Danny lingered.

"Get through this shift, Fenton," Danny said under his breath as he reluctantly and tiredly picked up the abandoned printouts and half-finished mugs left behind because that's just a decent human thing to do, and part of his responsibilities even though nobody had asked him to. Perfect for a low level position like me, he thought with self-deprecating humor.

Because it somehow always ended up being him.

"Just a job, Fenton. Just a job." He reminded himself, the familiar mantra in his head these days. He didn't even blink at the sight of a crumpled report of the test data that he knew that needed to be deliver in the other department asap.

Guess he's going to have to do it by himself now.

He was barely paying attention as the television that's mounted at the wall, was playing some news coverage about another successful Wayne Foundation project.

As Danny stack the papers, in his peripheral, he could see Bruce Wayne answering the reporter's question. In the background, one of the Wayne children was pushing each other's shoulders back and forth that resulted Bruce sighing like a tired Dad he was while the reporters laughed. Meanwhile, his sons wore matching innocent smiles that absolutely fooled nobody as Bruce chuckled in amusement. Genuinely fond and full of warmth and having a good time.

At least it wasn't some publicity stunt. What a nice family. The thought crossed Danny's mind for all of two seconds before he returned to his work, continuing on with the job.

By the time he finished with that, he returned back to his cubicle. With everyone around him gossiping and or complaining.

"Wanna go to a bar after this shift?"

"UGH. If only I worked upstairs, then maybe-"

"My boss finally approved my vacation leave. Miami here I come, baby."

"Got any plans this weekend? I got movie tickets to that new movie-"

And they were not doing their own jobs, with only Danny picking up their slack because unlike him, he does care.

He sat down and opened his inbox and stared. His things to do listed right there. So did the flood of message notifications rapidly filling his screen like weeds, from his department group chat.

"Where's those spreadsheets I needed 30 mins ago?"

"Hey can you open up Ansys and see how my design responds to these changes mentioned?"

"-got a retention call here. need help-"

"Martin, I need a little help on the wording here for the proposal before i send it for the higher ups."

"Can someone fix the copy machine? It's jammed again."

Danny stood up and was on it. Funny how four years of engineering school and he ended up being the guy everyone called when the copy machine broke.

He fixed it and nobody noticed, that's fine. They never noticed him. Get through today and before you know it, tomorrow might a better day for you. The familiar mantra that he kept telling himself repeatedly.

Ironically, he was a like a ghost here. Barely anyone here remembered his existence as Danny returned

As Danny was exiting the building, with no "have a great day, Danny" or "stay safe" from his colleagues as his shift finally ended. His phone vibrated, probably a quick reminder he made to himself because he's kind of a disaster like that.

PAY RENT!

Danny closed his eyes. Right. The overdue rent and bills he had to pay. He slowly pulled up his bank app only for a wave of despair crashed over him as the number stared back at him.

Not enough.

It's not something he could do anything about it tonight-he still didn't regret sending half his salary to Jazz now that she's in medical school. So he got in the bus, and the ride home passed in a blur. And by the time he reached his apartment, the sun had already disappeared behind Gotham's skylight.

He paused briefly by the entrance to pet this stray cat, always eager for attention and maybe food. Danny smiled apologetically as the cat purred. "Sorry little guy. Maybe some neighbors below have some spare canned tuna for you."

"Meow." That sounded like a pout.

Danny ruefully shook his head. I'm talking to a cat like I understood what she's saying, he thought as he climbed up the stairs before his keys rattled against the lock.

With only a barely furnished apartment greeting him in silence.

His mechanical engineering degree hung on his apartment wall that had accumulated a thin layer of dust which Danny kept meaning to clean.

He dropped his bag beside the couch and collapsed on it with a groan and for a few moments, he stared at the ceiling before the sound of his stomach grumbling reminded him that he needed to eat.

"But I'm too tired," said Danny before deciding to just find anything in the fridge for now.

Bored, he quickly pulled up his phone and opened the group chat and there it was. Jazz had sent a group picture. A Harvard Medical School building standing behind her with probably her classmates squeezing in together for the photo while Jazz stood right in the center, grinning brightly at the camera.

She looked so happy.

Danny softly smiled, reacting the picture for a bit before he kept scrolling. There's Tucker with his internship program with way too much enthusiasm. And then there's a photo of Sam in overseas, probably attending some environmental conference in hopes to make changes.

Everyone looked happy. And busy with their own lives.

A pang of longing hit his chest as he stared at their happy faces. It's not like they completely forgotten him, Tucker still sent memes, Jazz still texted but it felt more like it's getting further texts in-between, and then there's Sam, whenever she remembered to check in.

All of them living their own lives.

He wished he didn't feel so stuck now. He would have love to see them, and it's been a while since he'd last seen them, right?

"Too long," he realized, the thought sitting heavily in him.

And later, when Danny rolled to his side after eating dinner, he stared at the blank wall.

Tomorrow was another shift, another day, another tasks to do, things to pick up and clean whatever leftovers that his colleague didn't bother to do before leaving.

He closed his eyes, and wished, briefly and maybe selfishly, that something would changed.

When Danny woke up, he knew something wasn't right.

He didn't remember his mattress being this soft. His sheets didn't smell like that cheap detergent he'd used. And it was quiet here.

He was used to waking up the sounds of Gotham traffic blaring outside his windows. All that greeted him was this peaceful silence.

Danny frowned then his eyes snapped open. And immediately bolting up.

"This is definitely not my apartment," he frowned. A quick glance around revealed more décor that looked like it costed more than his measly salary, like several years worth of salary.

"What the hell?" He gaped then he noticed he was wearing unfamiliar pajamas. "What the hell?" Why am I wearing this?

Before the beginnings of panic overtake him, there was a knock at the door. Before Danny frantically searched for a weapon, the door opened and he was left greeted at the sight of an elderly man dressed in a suit while carrying what appeared to be

"Good Morning, Master Danny."

Danny stared. What the-Master? He could only let out an embarrassing, "uh. Me?" rather dumbly.

"Unless there is another Master Danny hiding in your room, then yes," A-butler? said, not blinking while Danny's mind reboot itself.

"I think there is some kind of mistake," Danny sheepishly said, because if this was supposed to be a kidnapping. It was a kind one.

The butler raised an eyebrow at him. "A mistake, sir?"

"Yeah," he glanced around this unfamiliar room. "Where am I? And how did I get here exactly?"

But the man only hummed. "Through a series of increasingly questionable life choices you made, I would imagine, young sir."

What?

"Though I suspect last night's endeavors did not help the matters. While I admire your commitments of your education and vigilantism, I feel when you already have an assignment mere hours before its deadline was already ill-advised," the butler said with a pointed look at the end in a reprimanding tone while Danny's mind confused on the fact 'Vigilantism? And homework, since when? i haven't done that since college-'

But the man continued, "I'm here to remind you that your breakfast is ready downstairs. Others are waiting for you and I'm afraid Master Damian is growing rather impatient. And Miss Cassandra has informed me that if you attempt to skip breakfast again, she will personally drag you downstairs."

"Who?"

Breakfast? Master Damian? Cassandra? Before he could figure out where to even begin, nevermind that his questions were still left unanswered, the man gave a polite nod.

"I shall leave you to get dressed, young sir." Then the man quickly disappeared, shutting the door behind him with a soft click.

Feeling increasingly unsettled, Danny reached for the phone resting on the nightstand. At least they didn't take my phone.

And then he realized a problem.

"This isn't my phone." The model was different. Newer and expensive looking. He cautiously inspected it before the screen lit up as his thumb hit something, apparently biometric login.

"Okay," he whispered. What the fuck was going on? "So and very much concerning." Before he felt his whole body froze.

A family picture greeted him on this phone's home screen wallpaper.

With Bruce Wayne right in the center, surrounded with his children. Danny could easily list them off by his fingers. Dick. Jason. Tim. Damian. Cass. And several others that Danny vaguely recognized from the news.

But what shocked him to his core was that he himself was also right there. Right in between Cass and Damian.

A picture of Danny smiling with his arms wrapped around them. He looked completely comfortable there, as if he always belonged there.

He felt his stomach dropped. Shit shit shit shit as his thumb started to move frantically, pulling up more pictures. Of them. Another and another. And majority of them, he was in it. From birthdays to family vacations to galas and even Christmas. He was in every single one of them.

He barely noticed the phone slipping from his numb fingers with a loud clatter, his mind shocked at the information.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Is he some kind of twilight shit? Because kidnapping didn't really explain this. He didn't have a concussion last night, did he?And just woke up with amnesia, but that felt ridiculous even unless he's in some kind of elaborate identity theft scheme or hoax. Or a prank, maybe. His mind grasped desperately for a rational explanation for this.

Whatever. Somebody downstairs could explain this, hopefully this was all just a misunderstanding, Danny concluded.

As he was heading towards the door, he caught a sight of himself in the mirror that had him pausing. "Oh."

A younger version of him stared back at him. Less tired lines, and sure he looked sort of bad if that butler said was true, but not worse than the usual.

One thing's for sure, he was not the age he was supposed to be. If he had to guess, during or before college?

"This is-" Danny said weakly as the growing sense of dread tingle in the pit of his stomach. "Okay. This is not fine. Definitely nothing about this is fine."

"You're late, Daniel," Damian spoke up just as Danny entered the room and froze.

"I-I'm sorry?"

The kid tutted at him. "You promised you would help me with Titus after breakfast."

"I did?"

"Yes," He frowned at him like he was the strange one and not the other way around.

Before Danny could say something along the lines "You know me?" something ruffled his hair that had Danny nearly jumping, and when he looked up, he found himself staring at Dick Grayson looking down warmly at him. "Hey little brother. What are you standing around there for?" he teased.

While Danny wide-eyed stared at him, because what do you even say to that? Little brother?

"Richard, stop bothering him," Damian's voice called out to them, eyes impatient.

"As the oldest, it is imperative of me to always worry about my little siblings," he teased with a cheeky grin.

"How terrible," one of them muttered that had Jason snorting.

Then he paused midway and squinted at Danny. "Wow you really look like crap. More worse than usual. Than Timbit."

"What?"

"Because you are all preventing his breakfast," Damian huffed, before the kid scooted over, making it clear to sit next to him. Like he expected Danny to take that seat.

A warm hand settled on his shoulder, pulling Danny's attention before meeting Dick's concerned face. "You okay, bud?"

Danny tensed. "Fine," he said too quickly, and before the man could even open his mouth for questions that Danny wasn't sure to answer, he quickly pulled away, and that just seemed to make the man even worried for him more. More than Danny was comfortable with, actually.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. Molto bene."

Dick squinted at him.

"Chum?"

And for some strange reason, Danny looked up and saw Bruce Wayne watching him.

"Are you sure?" Bruce's worried voice called out. And Ancients, it was hitting him that he's not talking to a billionaire, he was talking to a concerned father worried over him, like Danny was one of his children. The thought sent a fresh wave of panic through him because no, this wasn't right because as far as Danny knew, they don't know each other. They never met in fact even though Danny worked at his company. And as his panic gaze met his worried eyes, different eye color from Dick's, but still the same familial concern.

Danny's gaze darted around the table.

Only to find everyone else watching him too, not just Dick, but also Damian. Duke. Cass. That blonde girl. And Jason, who was squinting at him hard now. All of them sharing the same look.

"What?" and that came out more defensive and panic than Danny was comfortable with.

"You're acting strange, Daniel," the kid stared at him.

"More weirder than normal," the blonde spoke up.

"Thanks, Steph," Duke deadpanned. And she only poked his tongue out at him.

"Children," Bruce sighed.

"Still not your kid, B," Jason retorted.

"Then what are you doing here?" Dick raised an eyebrow.

"Free food."

And that had Steph snorting into her drink while Cass smiled, with Damian rolling his eyes. All of this felt surreal as they all started to banter.

Danny hadn't realized he had sat down until a plate appeared in front of him, just the smell alone made his stomach growl rather embarrassingly loud that had Jason and Steph-was it?-smirking, Dick laughing, Damian rolling his eyes, and Duke and Cass smiling. And the weird part was nobody found this whole thing weird.

"Hungry, eh?" Bruce said ruefully, sounding suspiciously relieved.

Danny looked around the room, as if the answers would lay clear before him. But all he saw was Dick stealing food from Jason's plate who looked unamused at that. Duke, Cass, and Steph in their weird little corner as Steph showed something to them with her phone.

His eyes met Duke's across the table who mouthed him with concern, 'You okay?'

Fabulous actually. Danny looked away.

The only ones actually focused on breakfast were Bruce and Damian, calmly eating like any of this was normal.

His grip tightened around his fork. All the questions he wanted to ask died at the tip of his tongue because it was starting to sink in they think he was one of them. Like he's a Wayne, one of Bruce Wayne's kids.

Did that mean he's not a Fenton here? That he's in a body of another version of him? Ancients. Dimensional travel? Some kind of bodyswap with time travel-

A soft nudge on his foot beneath the table and when Danny looked up, Cass was staring at him. Her head cocked to the side, eyes curious.

Another nudge, her head gesturing at the plates that screamed "eat".

Danny looked down at his untouched eggs before he slowly took a bite.

Cass nodded and offered him a tiny smile that probably meant it was reassuring but it didn't because Danny couldn't really shake this odd feeling. This whole place was bizarre like a fever dream and he half expected some cameras to pop out and yell "it's a prank. gotcha" but there wasn't. Everyone here wasn't remotely concerned that Danny had absolutely no idea what was going on here.

He wondered if maybe this was a dream, so he pinched himself, just to make sure-

Ouch. Okay. Definitely not a dream then.

But that still left him with absolutely no explanation.

Don't panic. I just have to figure out what's going on. Danny had dealt with worse before after all as a retired teen ghostly vigilante. Compared to his days as Phantom, waking up in a stranger's mansion shouldn't be on the top ten weirdest things that happened to him.

He could figure this out.

Ghost Writer? Desiree? Nocturn? or Clockwork? His eyes flickered around the room before landing on the Waynes.

Even if it was ghosts behind this, what could even do here? Tell them "Hi, I'm actually Danny Fenton and not Danny Wayne. I'm a random employee from your company and somehow woke up in your son's bedroom." He could practically hear how insane that sounded, especially to oblivious civilians like the Waynes. It's not their fault they're acting like this. Best case scenario, nobody believed him. Worst case scenario though-

Danny wasn't sure what the worst case scenario was. Locked him in an asylum and call him mentally insane?

So no. He needed information. Figure out who Danny here was. Why he was here. If this was even the same dimension. Danny wouldn't be surprised if Vlad pulled some one over him in his sleep, dragged him to the Ghost Zone and threw him in one of the doors.

Until then, keeping his mouth was the safer option. Charging in blindly had never been one of Danny's strengths anyway.  

Before Danny could even 'go ghost' to try to investigate, he found himself being dragged by a persistent mini version of a demonic child from hell that left Danny spluttering in protest.

"Where are you taking me, kid?"

Damian frowned at him like he'd said something wrong, not even slowing down despite that he's half Danny's size. "You promised."

"Promised what? I don't know what I promised you!" He wanted to throw his hands up.

"Daniel," he finally stopped to stare at him that felt really long enough that Danny felt strangely scrutinized.

"What is wrong with you? You're being strange."

Danny laughed, feeling hysterical. "Yeah, you could say that."

But the kid continued to stare at him as if he expected a better explanation. Danny wished he could offer him an explanation, but he's not a monster, not when the kid was looking up to him like that.

And Danny kind of felt bad now.

"Cain was correct," Damian finally said.

"About what?"

The kid turned around and sighed, disappointed. "That you should have slept more."

Before Danny could retort that, the kid turned around and resumed walking, one hand still tugging at his sleeve. "Come along."

Danny couldn't help but groan. For someone so small, he was a persistent little bugger.

Everything felt like a maze here. It was only because of his ghost powers that Danny managed to locate the dining room earlier, but now as Damian led through what seemed like hundreds of hallways before finally stopping outside a door.

Danny had barely time to register just as the door opened, some giant black fur of an animal slammed directly into him, nearly knocking him off his feet as he let an 'oof' sound before immediately greeted by a wet tongue attacking his face.

"Ack!" He tried to push that away but he could only hear the dog barking happily before, finally, shoving his head beneath his hand.

"Titus!" Damian called out. The dog whined at his owner that sounded like a pout.

Danny's heart softened. Actually now looking at him, the dog was kind of cute the way he immediately nudged his hand again. Automatically, he scratched behind his ears.

"So this is Titus," he murmured almost to himself as Titus' tail wagged happily.

"He missed you."

Danny blinked, eyes meeting Damian's. "What?"

"He missed you," he repeated, avoiding his gaze, seemingly determined to study that vase.

And for some reason, that bothered Danny, the way the kid was trying hard not to look upset.

"I'm sorry that Titus missed me?" he blankly said.

That seemed to make the kid even more upset. "I understood fulfilling your academic pursuits is important to you, to this family." He crossed his arms, disgruntled. "And you had final exams, but you spent the last four days away from Titus, who was deprived of his usual amount of attention from you."

Danny stared. Mind rebooting because he felt like the dots were there but it wasn't connecting.

"…okay?"

Titus continued to shove his nose into his hand, almost in agreement, which was weird because clearly the dog knew him.

"It shouldn't negate your responsibilities as Titus is used to seeing you assist me with his morning routine."

"I do?"

Damian frowned deeper. "As you are now a Wayne, this is beneath your usual competence, Daniel, to stupidly and very carelessly neglect your basic needs." Then his eyes narrowed, "Do you require a refresher on how to function without mimicking Drake’s worst habits?"

What does that even mean?

Also that wasn't cool to bring his brother up like that.

"I'm fine, and-" Danny then grimaced. "Also, why are you calling me 'Daniel'? Why not call me Danny?"

The kid looked at him he was an idiot. "It is your name, is it not?" like it was obvious.

"Well, yes, I-" Danny gave it up. You know what, he did not have the energy to argue with a ten-year-old kid about names. Kids were weird like that. "Never-mind."

The conversation devolved into Danny helping brush Titus-surprise Great Danes do shed-after the kid shoved the brush at him. Danny's mind was still scrambling trying to make sense what was going on here till the words registered on his head.

"-With Drake occupied with Wayne Tech for early testing-"

Something about that snagged his mind, familiar in a way that was tugging it insistently.

Then Danny felt every cell in his body froze as it clicked.

Distantly, his mind flashed back years ago, during his college. Fire trucks blaring wildly past the building when his professor was mid-lecture. He remembered half the class curiously pulling out their phones, ignoring their teacher's yelling for everyone to stay seated, and Danny, unable to help himself, took a sneak peek.

He remembered the headline. The news.

WAYNE ENTERPRISE'S CEO, TIM DRAKE, INJURED FROM AN ENERGY MALFUNCTION TESTING

WAYNE ENTERPRISE'S ENERGY DIVISION SHUTDOWN FOR THE DEADLY EXPLOSION

BRUCE WAYNE RUSHING TO GOTHAM GENERAL AFTER TIM DRAKE SUFFERS SEVERE INJURIES. NEUROLOGICAL DAMAGE CONFIRMED

OSHA AND FEDERAL INVESTIGATORS LAUNCH INQUIRY INTO WAYNE ENTERPRISES LAB INCIDENT

HALF OF W.E. EMPLOYEES RESIGNING AFTER QUESTIONING SAFETY PROTOCOLS FOLLOWING THE INCIDENT

WILL TIM DRAKE-WAYNE RECOVER AFTER A TRAUMATIC ACCIDENT?

It was impossible not to know considering they kept replaying that news for months. The lawsuits. The investigations. The public crying out and demanding justice and the company put into question of workplace safety.

Something about how it was trial run that went wrong. An experimental energy test but the containment field and instability caused an overload, resulting a structural failure in the testing chamber that caused half the room with people burns and severe injuries from the knockback.

But not more severe than Tim Drake, who had been front and center observing it.

Danny remembered that Tim had been hurt so badly in the aftermath of that: pinned, crushed on his lower body according to the news articles. There had been talks of partial paralysis and nerve damage in the hands so severe that he had never fully regained the same precision even months in rehabilitation.

A Wayne who stopped appearing in public for a long time after that.

He remembered the whispers and gossips of how tragic that was when he had been working in Wayne Enterprise. Though he'd heard Tim was still working at the company, but only select few employees had seen him.

Today. It was today?

"Why don't I visit Tim at work?" Danny blurted out and he only realized it when Damian stopped to stare at him.

"You want to see Drake?"

"Sure," he nodded quickly, mind scrambling for an excuse- "He's my brother, right?"

"He's not your only brother." Is Damian pouting?

"I'll be back. Promise kid," Danny was already standing up, quickly exiting the room before Damian could question him further.

As Danny rushed outside, it occurred to him he had no idea where here was exactly and direction of Wayne Enterprise.

Then a car stopped right in front of him, driver's window rolling down.

Duke's smile was bright in greeting. "Need a ride, Dandy?"

Dandy? Is that a nickname? Still, Danny felt relieved in pleasant sort of way. It was weird because Danny had interacted with him before, sharing a few classes with him during college.

And judging by the way Duke's looking at him and with that strange nickname, Danny had deduced in this weird whatever it was, they were a bit close...which made sense since that made them what? Brothers?

"How do you know?" Danny said as he slid in.

Duke shrugged, already pulling away from the curb. "You seem to be in a hurry."

Danny faltered because ummm. How does one explain that I need to go save Tim ASAP or else, without sounding crazy?

"Mind dropping me off at Wayne Enterprise?" was all he could bring himself to say.

Duke glanced at him briefly. "Sure, DD." Then he curved around the driveway.

"Any chance you can go faster?"

In the corner of his eyes, he saw Duke rolling his eyes. "Well you could drive, but I'm pretty sure we would be stop over by cops. In less than five minutes."

Danny groaned. "I'm not that bad." How would Duke know?

"D, the last time we let you drive, you ran over the Joker."

He did WHAT?

And Duke continued like it was the most mundane thing. "I don't think I've ever seen Jason laughed that hard in his life."

Danny can't believe this. He ran over the Joker? With a car? He felt like groaning. Am I murderer here now?

From the corner of his eye, he could see Duke smiling to himself. "Best birthday present I ever got," he muttered so quietly, Danny almost didn't hear it.

Huh?

Duke blinked for a second before he grinned with a soft nudge by his shoulder, "Nothing."

Before Danny could open his mouth, Duke accelerated.

"Relax, D. We'll get there." The knot that had began to form dissipated gradually at that. No questions asked, but then again, Duke had always been considerate and patient with him before.

Thankfully, the security of Wayne Enterprise didn't blink before letting him in through checkpoints, apparently recognizing him as one of the Waynes as he quickly marched down the hallways. Sure he could use his ghost powers, but Danny was very well aware of the security in WE according to office gossips (which was why Danny never dared using his powers during his shifts) and he didn't want to bring attention to Phantom.

Danny knew where it was, even if he had never seen it, because it was that forbidden floor that his coworkers spoke in passing, almost treated like a ghost story with whispers of the place still burnt down the below.

As he turned around the corner, he couldn't help feel queasy, the way his stomach twisted as he went deeper.

It hadn't felt real before. It felt like everything here was a dream.

But right now, this felt real.

The Incident felt like a cold bucket of water had splashed over him, because even if this wasn't real, Danny couldn't take a risk when lives were on the line.

When he finally arrived on what must be The room, he felt himself freezing at the sight. Researchers moving around the room in lab coats, carrying tablets and reports. With some engineers and technicians arguing over some readings.

And in a few minutes, they would die, Danny thought.

Then his eyes landed on Tim Drake who was standing there before on what must be the prototype. And Danny was taken aback at seeing him standing there with no bandages. No braces or anything.

And then Tim's eyes lifted and met his, surprised.

"Danny, what are you doing here?" Tim asked, body turning to him.

Danny was about to scream to get out of here, that it's not safe, but then the machine started to hum, silencing everyone.

"We're beginning the diagnostics."

He felt his blood turned cold at those words as multiple screens were pulled up.

No, no, no, no. I can't be too late. I can't!

"Countdown commence," someone called out as some researchers murmured to each other over the readings while others took notes.

Danny panicked as he saw the warning lights flashing, "Wait, no. Stop-" he cried out, already moving. He didn't know how to stop this. He thought he had more time.

Tim's expression shifted to confusion. "Wha-"

Then the prototype let out an ugly sharp crack that had the whole room still.

"EVERYONE FIND COVER NOW!" Danny barked as everyone scrambled at the tone of command.

Danny grabbed him, snatching his upper arm, and covering his body as intangible washed over them.

Then everything exploded.

It was almost worst than the Nasty Burger explosion that never happened. Even intangible, he watched in horror as the heat blasted across the room, the sound of a crack splitting through the chamber as everyone screamed in panic as metal beams fell from the ceiling.

"Shit!" He lets his instincts take over as he throws one hand out, a shield flaring into existence around them as fallen debris crashed against it, which had Danny clenching his jaw at the weight, so he was forced to put more power into that while shielding Tim underneath him as everything swallowed around them.

Am I too late? Danny thought in despair as alarms and screams blared around them. And then the room went deafeningly silent.

He hadn't realized his eyes were clenching until something was shaking him by the shoulders.

"-Danny--!" A voice calling out to him like he's underwater.

And it didn't help that his ears were ringing as everything was shaking.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, scared of what he might see.

"-hey, Danny, wake up. It's okay." It was a blur, and it didn't help there was still dust in the air and shapes moving through the haze.

"-Danny, please." And then everything sharpened, the ringing fading to a background, and he was met with concerned blue eyes staring at him.

Tim.

Crouched in front of him, alive and covered in dusts and debris. Disheveled, shaken but still alive.

Danny let out a shaky breath. He felt like he had been drowning, but finally catching air, a glimpse of a sunlight after a storm.

"You saved my life." Tim's voice sounded shaky, bordering disbelief. Thank you." He let out a laugh, relief mixed with exhaustion.

And Danny stared. In his memories, he recalls the flashes of headlines of Tim's face and body wrapped in bandages in a wheelchair.

And now that future was gone. Only Danny would know what happened.

Danny swallowed. "Yeah," his voice rough.

Then his gaze drifted across the wreckage that he's in. It was a disaster, with the remains of machine smoking in the corner, but there were people alive and stumbling out from the chunks of debris, most of them shaken while others were pulling their colleagues to their feet.

But they were alive and breathing and talking and most importantly, alive.

Danny felt his chest unclenched, it was more than just relief, it was more than just disbelief, it was the fact that he did something, he saved everyone.

I actually did it. I changed it. Danny almost felt like sobbing in tears.

"No probs," his voice came out weaker, almost breathless.

But even after all that, it still felt like a hollow victory. Confusion and this overwhelming feeling of despair wrapped around him, the knot in his stomach still there.

He still didn't know why he'd woken up in Wayne Manor, as a Wayne even. Nothing about this made sense.

And despite everything, he had never felt more lost till now.

What happens now?

"Designation J-Echo has successfully integrated."

"No significant resistance from our subject?"

"Minor anomalies but nothing outside the projected parameters, sir. Subject remains stable with no deviation. Phase one complete."

A brief silence before a hesitant voice spoke up. "I'm awaiting authorization." Several seconds passed before-

"Authorization granted. Initiate Phase Two," a cold voice said

On the monitor, it flickered. A text appeared.

PROJECT: B. DAWN || STATUS: ACTIVE.

PROCEEDING PHASE TWO

"Sequence beginning, sir. Maintaining the PL-VNIVSZ protocol now."

The display changed to.

THS-20 || PAL-SIGMA-0

"Make sure he doesn't know."

"Copy sir."

Then the transmission ended.