Chapter Text
The apartment fell silent, but it wasn’t a reprieve from the conversation. The words lingered in the air and tumbled around in Jason’s brain like tennis balls in a dryer, making him feel off-balance.
Danny wanted to bring him back to the cemetery? And not only that but his Lazarus pit solution was somehow in the ground below his very own grave!
With a trembling hand, Jason took a hasty sip of his coffee to try to wash away the lingering taste of grave soil on his tongue. He didn’t remember much from his escape, but the feeling of the soil pressing down, an impossibly heavy weight on him, was imprinted into his mind permanently.
Jason wanted to scream.
This had to be a cosmic joke. Even Danny himself said he was sent by a god of time. Maybe that so-called “god” was laughing at them as Jason tried not to break his kitchen table with how hard he clamped down on it. Because wasn’t this all so convenient!
A miracle Jason had wished for the moment he was aware enough to want something for himself again. Years of yearning for some sense of normalcy and it finally appeared out of thin air. A gift wrapped up in an unassuming form, that smiled politely, and said all the right things to entice him, but this was just a devil in disguise, wasn’t it?
He was such a fool!
Jason stood up from the kitchen table so fast the chair clattered to the floor behind him.
“Jay—“ a hand reached out for him. Too close.
“No!” He slapped it away. A switch instantly flipped and that careful, tenuous control he held over the pit rage shattered. The anger was welling up so fast and overpowering that it snuffed out the anxiety bubbling under his skin in an instant.
This was all part of their plan, a dark voice slithered into his mind. They can finally be rid of you—their unpredictable burden.
“This was set up from the start,” Jason snapped. The coffee cup still in his hand had shattered in his grip, but he couldn’t feel the sting of the cuts or burn of the liquid. It wasn’t nearly as hot as the molten fury searing away any sense of reason.
“You want to put me back into the ground!” Jason accused. “Biding your time until you can be rid of me.” Green tinged his vision and anger was a white-hot point in his chest.
“Jay, come on. You know that’s not true.” The voice called out to him. His vision clouded completely green but he could see them coming up from behind him, along with the person across from him.
Jason wouldn’t be cornered. He reached for the chair to his right and immediately swung it at the person beside him. Not just any person; it was Dick. Of course, playing nice until Jason lowered his guard enough, and then he could get rid of him.
He made contact, one of the legs of the chair flying across the room as it smashed into his side, and sent Dick careening back to the floor from the force of it.
“I see the rabid raccoons are trying to escape the dumpster.” The second voice called from across the table— the demon disguised as Danny. Jason glared at him and was met with another pair of vibrant green eyes watching him back. He hesitated for a moment sensing power there— a challenge. Ultimately, it was just another obstacle in his way.
Jason lunged across the table with a feral growl. His hands immediately reached out to grab and squeeze the throat of the threat in front of him.
There was a surprised sound as he toppled Danny to the floor, but he didn’t release his hold. They were trying to kill him again! He had to eliminate the danger.
Suddenly Danny growled, a low animalistic sound that made Jason startle. A sort of energy fizzed around him like reaching your hand out to touch an electric fence; it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. The brief moment of distraction was enough for his opponent to get the upper hand as he got a leg under him and kicked him in the stomach. Powerful enough to knock Jason backwards, he landed on his back roughly knocking the air out of him.
“You need to chill out!” The other person snarled with too sharp, and too many teeth. Their form was nothing but a shadow in his rage-filled eyes and yet the piercing glint of the Lazarus green continued to glare back at him.
An intense cold wrapped itself around his torso, locking Jason’s limbs in place. He was unable to move, but he struggled nonetheless. Hands came up and touched his temples.
“I’ll kill you!” Jason screamed, writhing fruitlessly in his bindings.
“You can try, but it didn’t stick the first time,” The face hovering above him grinned. “Now, let’s try and see if we can just calm down a bit.”
Jason growled, kicking and bucking to try and free himself. No matter what he tried the demon holding him couldn’t be moved.
“It’s… it’s going to be okay.” Danny said, voice rough and strained.
Jason didn’t believe him.
He didn’t have long to dwell on it though as an overwhelming sense of serenity washed over him like a wave crashing into breakers on the shore. The mindless rage left him and his vision cleared from the violent green haze he had been seeing.
Danny hovered over him, hands pressed to Jason’s temples, staring down at him with an intense gaze. Danny’s eyes were luminescent, completely swallowed in an ethereal emerald glow, as he watched Jason come back to his senses.
Briefly, Jason was confused as to what had happened. He had never been snapped out of a “pit fit” so quickly. He could see now that Danny had helped him once again at the risk of hurting himself. The toxicity eating away at Jason was pulled into Danny’s own body.
More of those inky black tendrils crept down the left side of Danny’s face, snaking through the veins down his arms to the hand that was in contact with Jason. It was just like the night before but had expanded further into his body to the point that even Danny’s features had morphed. He didn’t just imagine the sharper, animalistic traits on Danny in his madness. Danny looked downright every bit demonic as Jason had imagined him mere moments ago. Pointed ears, nails extending like claws, and teeth sharp enough to do some serious damage.
“Danny,” Jason whispered, his voice barely audible. Words failed him as he took in Danny’s strange appearance.
“Ugh,” Danny full body shuddered and pulled his hands away sitting back on his heels. He slid off to the side from where he had been straddling Jason onto the ground.
Dick wandered over, kneeling gingerly next to Jason on the floor. His hand pressed to the left side of his ribs. “Are you both alright?”
Jason could see Dick’s eyes widen the moment he caught a glimpse of Danny’s transformation.
“This is gross and painful,” Danny murmured, his voice carrying a bitter tone. Then he looked down at his hand seeing the changes that had manifested, along with the lingering black veins. “Oh god,” he groaned. “Wasn’t expecting that.”
Then suddenly Danny pressed his fist to his lips as if he might gag. He swallowed thickly.
“Oh shit,” Danny lurched from his position next to Jason and bolted further into the kitchen.
“Bucket under sink!” Dick shouted in warning clearly anticipating what was about to happen.
Danny fumbled with the cabinet doors, slamming down to his knees hastily as he pulled out a two-gallon bucket, and promptly retched into the container.
Dick looked like he wanted to go help Danny, but was torn. Jason was still very much pinned to the floor under magical ice, and Danny was emptying his guts, spewing oily black and green sludge into a bucket in the middle of the kitchen.
A moment passed and Danny spit into the container, panting heavily. He lifted his head to look up at them, a miserable expression on his face. Thankfully the black lines that had enveloped his skin, along with his otherworldly features, also seem to have been purged.
“Ugh, that royally sucked.” Danny pushed the bucket away from him in disgust. Then flopped over onto his side so that he was lying down on the tile facing Dick and Jason.
“You good now?” Danny asked.
“I’m peachy,” Jason answered. While the response was half sarcastic, it was also the truth. He felt guilty about what just happened, of course, but he also didn’t have the post-rage “hangover” that usually accompanied him for days afterwards. It would seem that part had inadvertently been handed over to Danny.
Danny just nodded and lazily waved his hand through the air. The ice around Jason’s torso finally disappeared allowing him to sit up. He crossed his legs and looked at Danny but didn’t want to risk getting closer.
“What about you, kiddo?” Jason asked. “You just full-on poltergeist-ed in the kitchen.”
Danny huffed, slightly amused despite the situation. “Well, you gave me a ghost version of botulism, thank you very much. Also, I don’t know if that’s radioactive or not— I will clean that up as soon as I can move again.”
“Yeah,” Dick cut in. “Can we run over what just happened because that was… a lot?”
He glanced between Danny and Jason, searching their faces for any sign that things were about to get even weirder. The kitchen still smelled faintly of ozone, and Danny was sprawled on the cold tiles, looking pale and exhausted.
A minute passed in silence as Danny seemed to figure out an answer in his head.
“I absorbed too much of Jason’s contaminated ectoplasm when trying to calm him down, and gave away too much of my own in the transfer,” Danny offered. “I wasn’t kidding when I said that stuff was garbage. It was like eating rotten food baked in the sun for a one-hundred years, and then deep fried in motor oil. I think my body and core rejected it even being in me.”
“Core?” Jason asked. Something about that resonated with him.
Danny rolled listlessly onto his side to better face them. “It’s like the heart of a ghost. It’s our entire being, and the form you see with ghosts is a projection of how they see themselves.”
“Does that work the same for you?” Jason questioned. “You’re not a ghost right now.”
Danny shrugged. “Kind of. Uh, my appearance changed just now, right?”
Both Dick and Jason nodded. Dick’s brows furrowed, concern flickering in his eyes as he glanced at Jason, searching for any sign that he shouldn’t butt in.
“Yeah, you definitely weren’t yourself,” Dick said cautiously. “Not gonna lie, I’ve seen some weird things in my life but nothing quite like that before.” He absently rubbed the spot on his side where the chair had hit him. “But, uh, you’re back to normal now it seems.”
Danny offered a faint smile. “As normal as I can be I suppose.”
“Do you know what caused the change?” Jason asked. “For a second there my brain thought you were a demon. Is that normal when you … do whatever it is you did? You said you were half ghost too.”
“No,” Danny shook his head slightly. “I do have a ghost form but that wasn’t it. Ectoplasm holds emotion. And your Lazarus stuff is anger, rage, and every other volatile emotion bottled up. When it touched me while you were in that state… I could feel all of that too.” He held up his hand, turning it over inspecting it. Then dragged his hand down his face with a weary sigh. “So those emotions started to affect my physical appearance apparently. Nothing like this has really happened before. Sorry if I… uh freaked you out.”
Unintentionally, Jason burst out laughing. “You’re sorry? Kid, I just tackled you to the floor and tried to strangle you.” Then he pointed his thumb over at Dick. “Pretty sure I gave him some bruises when I hit him with that chair.”
“I’ll live,” Dick waved it off.
“You don’t owe us an apology,” Jason continued. “But the explanation is appreciated. I don’t know what came over me. I didn’t expect the rage to boil over like that, and I couldn’t stop it.”
“I think that may have been my fault, sort of.” Danny offered. “We were talking about how I got here, and I brought up the graveyard.”
“I’ve talked about it before. Hell, I joke about being a zombie fairly frequently.” Jason said, trying to keep his tone light to mask the uneasiness welling up. He glanced between Danny and Dick, then sighed leaning back onto his hands. “But I guess there’s a difference between making jokes and actually having to face it head-on, huh?”
“Well, amongst ghosts discussing the topic of one’s death is incredibly taboo. I think with everything going on it… set you off. I didn’t know there was a connection, but could sense it when we were talking earlier.” Danny said, his voice quieter. “I should have been more careful.”
Jason didn’t think this would bother him so much. He wanted a cure for the pit rage. He didn’t want to have blackouts or walk on eggshells around his family anymore. He wanted to enjoy their company, faults and all, without scaring them. Or having to wonder what was going to set him off next.
“We can find another way to fix your issue. This doesn’t have to be the way we do things.” Danny reassured and propped himself up on one elbow. “We can take our time with how we handle this. I don’t want to overwhelm you.”
“No,” Jason started. “If you’re willing to still get this done, then I want to go as soon as possible.”
“Okay,” Danny agreed.
Despite the emotional turbulence, and lingering uncertainty, Jason’s resolve remained firm. Confronting the pit rage wasn’t going to be easy, they’ve already proved that this morning. But delaying any longer also just felt like surrendering to his own fears. He refused to let the Lazarus Pit control him further, even if it meant facing his grave and the memories it unearthed.