Ever since he got stranded into this dimension he couldn’t keep his form stable. As soon as he stumbled in his ghost half was promptly ejected from his human half.
It started out okay, he could feel his other half when they shared thoughts or experienced pain, but after awhile of being separated it started to get uncomfortable. He wanted to be whole again but couldn’t figure out how. The most he could do was have his ghost half overshadow his human half for a while, and even that couldn’t last forever.
It was just his luck that some guy in bright blue and red happened to see phantom overshadow Danny on a rooftop.Now he was hiding from this nosy guy who kept yelling about possession or whatever. Honestly Danny was too tired trying to keep both forms healthy to explain to the guy so he promptly turned invisible and left whatever city he was in.
He soon figured out the guy in blue was supposedly a hero in this world, and Danny was exasperated when he learned that big blue had probably told all the other heroes about him.
Which was why he was running from some dude dressed as a bat. Danny’s human half was running on his own while Phantom flew beside him, having long since passed the threshold for overshadowing time. But oh, both his bodies felt a hole, a seeping pain that only got worse the further they were apart from the other. He just wanted it to stop.
The bat dropped down in front of Danny, only for Phantom to grab Danny’s arm and pull him through the wall into a building. They both let out a sigh of relief before making their way through an abandoned firehouse to the roof.
It was just his luck that Danny was grabbed the moment he stepped out onto the rooftop. Phantom stayed back, unsure if the guy in black and blue was going to hurt Danny or not, but wasn’t going to risk it.
“Let go!!” Danny yelled, biting the guys arm, but the dude didn’t flinch. He locked eyes with Phantom, both looking to the other to figure out what to do. And what could they do? They were tired, dirty, malnourished, semi-dead, the list went on.
“Woah, calm down, we’re here to help,”The guy with the blue stripe said, still holding a struggling Danny. Behind them, the Bat appeared, landing on the roof near silently.
“We’re just trying to keep you safe from that,”Batman grumbled, and Phantom pulled a face that screamed offended.
“He’s safer with me than he is with you,”Phantom retorted. “Now let him go,”he said, eyes glowing green.
“Listen, just let me go, we’re not doing anything wrong-“Danny yelped, trying to drag his feet or stomp on blue guys toes as the man tries to take a few steps away from Phantom.
“Did he tell you that? You know we can’t let you keep possessing him, it’s not right,”The blue guy continued, and both Danny and Phantom scoffed.
“It’s overshadowing,”Phantom corrected.
“And we aren’t meant to be apart,”Danny said, renewing his struggles.
“Kid, you don’t need him,”Batman tried to reason, and Danny let out a hysterical noise bordering a sob and a laugh.
“I do! He’s my other half and we’re not- we’re not meant to be two people and it- it hurts and I don’t know why this is happening to us-“Danny exclaimed, the pit inside him growing. The feeling of emptiness numbing his chest hurt more than words.
“That’s just what it wants you to think,”The blue one snarked, and Phantom frowned, taking in Danny’s face with tears forming in his eyes. He couldn’t let this go on any more.
“I won’t ask again, let him go,”Phantom commanded, floating closer to Danny, uncaring about how the two supposed heroes tended up. He wasn’t going to stand for this anymore. If they weren’t going to listen to him- either of him, then he wasn’t going to play nice anymore.
“B-“The blue one warned, trying to get Danny to safety when Phantom phased through all of their attempts to protect the boy. Batman was surprised when the artifact Constantine lent him didn’t repel the ghost, neither did the magic salt he threw at the last second.
Nightwings heart dropped when he saw the ghostly creature sink into the boys body, letting out a sigh of relief that made Dicks stomach twist. The kid phases out of Dick’s hold, facing the heroes with glowing green eyes. “Just leave me alone. I’m just- We’re just trying to get back home.”
And then the kid disappeared, leaving the two vigilantes wallowing in guilt on the rooftop for failing to save a boy from being kidnapped by a ghost.