The above artwork does not belong to me.

Looking at the human boy in front of him, Robin saw a piece of himself.

It wasn't just the black hair and blue eyes. No, it was something deeper. Just as Danny Phantom functioned as this kid's other self, the mask was Richard's hero side. He wasn't really Robin, but he'd be lying if he said he was just Dick Grayson. He was a fusion of two separate identities, two halves of one whole being.

The ghost kid was the same.

So were all the other superheroes, in a sense. But their lives bled into each other, like watercolors in a painting. The young heroes knew their teammates' faces. But not Dick's. He was alone in that respect.

The kid flicked his head, trying to get his bangs out of his eyes without the use of his hands. He succeeded in getting his fluffy hair above his eyebrows for a moment before it flopped back down again. It was clearly driving him crazy.

As if confinement wasn't already doing that.

"Let's start with a name," Artemis said rather gently. Her softness surprised Richard. She obviously felt bad for the kid, too.

He lowered his eyes. "Danny Fenton," he said softly.

Wally let out a snort. "Your hero name is that close to your real one, and nobody has figured it out?"

He gave a little shrug. "The color change usually throws them off."

Zatanna spoke. "Did you say Fenton? As in the ghost hunters?"

Danny sighed. "Hilarious, I know. Danny Phantom, half ghost, son of the world famous ghost hunters."

Robin couldn't believe that Danny was being this honest. It was like he had just . . . given up. Allowed whatever fate had in store for him to pass. Although, Fate wasn't there at the moment.

"They don't know?" Richard asked.

"Nope," he replied. "I don't know about you, but being ripped apart 'molecule by molecule', as my father puts it, doesn't sound like much fun to me." His voice held a bitter tone.

Well, Dick didn't know a whole lot about parents, but he imagined that Danny's situation kind of sucked.

Suddenly, Danny's eyes widened. His head snapped in Megan's direction. "Get out."

His voice was low, dangerous. Afraid, even.

Conner's face darkened. "She doesn't have to go anywhere, you—"

"Not out of the room! Out of my head!"

M'gann's face was one of genuine surprise. "Danny, I'm not using my telepathy. I'm not inside your head."

The halfa narrowed his eyes at Zatanna. "I'm not either," she insisted. "Whatever you're hearing isn't from us."

Danny looked downright panicked then. "If it isn't you, then . . . No. Nope, not dealing with that today. Not with everything else going on."

"What the heck are you talking about?" Artemis demanded. "Are you trying to fake being insane?"

He said nothing.

"Are you insane?"

He stared at the table in front of him, slowly shaking his head. "I don't think so," he whispered.

Robin sighed. "Look kid, I'd really like to let you go. So let's get this over with, okay?"

Conner interrupted him. "Do you guys hear that?"

The rest of the team looked at him quizzically.

Danny's eyes got even wider. "Yeah."

There was a faint, muffled voice from outside the room. Dick couldn't understand it, but both Conner and Danny looked more than a little surprised.

"You have to let me out of here," Danny said. "Please, right now. She needs me."

Robin, as well as most of his teammates, felt completely out of the loop. "Who needs you?"

The half-ghost looked at Conner. "You would understand. Please let me see her. Please."

Conner narrowed his eyes. "Why would I understand?"

"Because, Superboy, she's my clone."

Dick wasn't sure how many more shocking revelations he could take. "Okay, back up. Your clone? And she's here?"

"Just let me see her. She disappeared months ago. I'm powerless right now anyway, I have no energy left. Please," he pleaded.

Conner took the keys from Dick, unlocking Phantom silently. Robin tensed a little, but all Danny did was sigh in relief and rub his sore wrists. In a daze he stumbled over to the door and yanked it open, the team following.

Following his ears, Danny ended up in the living room. A girl with black hair stood near the couch, looking around and calling Danny's name. She wore a tattered hospital gown, and her bangs covered her left eye.

"Dani?" Danny whispered, which Robin found a little trippy. How was ever he supposed to tell who anyone was talking about if they were both named Danny?

Dani whipped around. Scars decorated her arms and legs, her hospital gown and skin dirty and smudged. "Danny!" She unsteadily ran towards him, hugging him tightly. Her face was buried in his chest, tears rolling down her right cheek.

Phantom blinked hard. "Dani, I . . . what happened to you? Who did this? Was it the Guys in White?"

"Worse," she murmured. "CADMUS."

The name sent chills down Dick's spine, and it seemed to have the same effect on the rest of the team. CADMUS and clones, they'd had enough of.

Danny, though, looked confused. "CADMUS? Whoever they are, they'll pay for doing this to you, I swear."

"No, Danny," she whispered. "I barely escaped. You have to stay away from them."

"We can't just let them get away with this!"

She looked up at him, her visible eye shining. Her voice was shaking with tears. "They want you. The only reason they hurt me was to find out who I was cloned from, and they . . . they . . ." She involuntarily let out a sob.

The team was silent, feeling weird for watching the private scene but unable to tear their eyes away. Although, if it had anything to do with CADMUS, they needed as much information as they could get.

"I betrayed you, Danny. Ever since I was created, you've only been kind to me, and I . . . I gave you away." She closed her eyes for a moment. "I wasn't going to. They tortured me for so long. I didn't say a word. But I . . ."

She gripped his shirt. "They know. They know you're half human. They've probably already figured out your identity. And I guarantee that they're looking for you right now."

Danny just hugged her tighter. "It's okay, it's alright. I'm sure they'd have found a way to discover it anyway."

He leaned down a little to brush her bangs out of her eye. "Danny, no . . ." she murmured, trailing off when she realized that it was too late.

Robin had seen plenty of nasty injuries in his day, but this one was pretty high on the list. Her left eye was badly scorched from what he could only guess was some sort of acid, a milky film covering it. The skin around it was red and blistering, some of it even peeling off. Her lashes were gone, her brow had almost disappeared. Underneath her eye, there was a deep laceration, a cut exposing bone. It oozed pus, obviously infected.

Dani pulled her bangs back over her eye. "They threatened to blind me completely. I should've let them instead of spilling my guts."

The original halfa's face was horrified. "You need medical treatment! That infection—"

"It doesn't matter," she interrupted. Her breathing was shaky. "They're coming for you. Just save yourself."

Danny hugged her to his chest. He glanced at Robin, making eye contact. A silent plea for freedom, or maybe even help.

The Boy Wonder nodded, unable to refuse.

///\\\

Me: Whoa, it's been like two and a half weeks since I've updated! I should probably work on that.

Me: *writes entire chapter in like ~2 hours*

Me: Well it's late so I'd better edit tomorrow

Me: *doesn't get around to editing until three days later*

Me: *wakes up this morning at 5* Wait, don't I have an entire chapter in my drafts?

So yeah, that's the story.

How was everyone's Thanksgiving? I think I went into a food coma tbh. I'm super excited for this Christmas though, it'll be my first Christmas with snow! The suspense is killing me.

-Leopard