Damian, introduces self as "son of the bat" and "the blood son", expresses remorse but offers no apologies, speaks in convoluted manner, verbally acknowledges any debts he feels he owes and tries to pay them back asap, etc

My autism brain: aha, fey rules

I'm sorry in advance if you happen to not like the dpxdc fandom, but I really could not hold myself, so here we go.

So we take the 'Danny is a fae lord', add it to the 'Damian abides by the fae rules', mix with the 'Al Ghul twins!AU' and a pinch of fae lore and what do we get? That's right, a

DPxDC Changeling AU

Now, you will have to pardon my uneducated insolence since all my DC knowledge comes from the fanon, so all this may be inaccurate.

There was some kind of promise struck between either Ra's and fae or between Talia and fae. If it was for Ra's, he would have probably bargained for immortality or some other shit in exchange for a newborn, and this would have to happen when Talia was already an adult, otherwise the fae would have taken her instead (although that's also a possibility, I'll touch on that later). It's unclear if Talia knew about it, but in any case, she had a baby, and then the fae took him and exchanged him for a changeling.

So the little fae child was left in Damian's place while Damian got to stay with the fae. Now, Talia is a skilled assassin for a reason, so of course she knew this was not her baby. No matter how good are the fae changelings and their abilities to act as humans, she's seen the difference. So she tried to get Damian back.

And the fae presented her with a choice.

Here lies two children, one of them of your blood and bones, the other of the roots of the ancient forests and unseen worlds. Choose carefully, for you will not be given a second chance.

Talia knows which one is which. Talia has seen Damian's pout and the changeling's puffy cheeks. She knows them both by touch, by smell, by a mere look.

She knows who to choose.

But she doesn't.

She takes both children because the rules of the fae did not specify her to only choose one. She takes them both because while Damian was gone, she fed and took care of the other one like he was her own and maybe she planned to do this all along.

She takes both Damian and the changeling, and she names the other one Danyal.

The other possibility is that the fae did, actually, take Talia back when she was a baby, so Talia as we know her now is actually a changeling and she had given birth to twins who are both equally half-fae half-human now. Which is also a good way to go since Talia would definitely teach them both fae customs, and also maybe Danny becomes full-on fae after he dies? Kind of like a butterfly, you know, the human form was a caterpillar, and then his death basically let him be reborn due to his fae blood.

For the last part, it could also be not Ra's, but Talia who had struck the deal with the fae in the first place. Although I didn't think this one through, so maybe she bargained for her baby to be healthy and safe and the fae were like okay sure let's just give you a completely different yet very healthy and definitely safe baby instead of the one you actually bore. Cue Talia being not satisfied with the outcome and managing to get Damian back but also keeping Danny because who in their right mind is going to refuse a free baby? Especially when said baby is quite literally a potentially almighty being.

There's a thousand ways this could go, and I have yet to figure out how Danny ended up with Fentons and where the ghosts fit in here. Maybe they were not ghosts but just fae all along. I bet it was Clockwork who orchestrated the whole deal, actually. Is Clockwork going to be soleil or unsoleil kind of fae? Did I even write this correctly, I need some fae lore, where do I get it send help.

First off ajsudhshjaja I'm so FLATTERED

Also I love how you show Talia as an actual human person rather than a robot !!!! (They're so cool pls check @corkinavoid out!!!)

Also Damian learns when he's older that this isn't usually how you casually talk, but he's insanely good at galas. Constantine, first time meeting Damian requests his presence at all fey/creature meetings because he can talk his way out of debts unknowingly. He just frames everything as "of course I allowed you to do this for me" and the being is like "???? D-do I really owe him???"

*vibrates excitedly* y e s

Also, Bruce is always slightly concerned about this, like what do you want with my child, why do you need him at a meeting with possibly (undoubtedly) dangerous creatures? But Damian doesn't mind, he actually kind of enjoys talking with fae since he understands them better than he usually understands humans with all their social cues.

Meanwhile, Constantine just takes notes on every phrase and word Damian says in those encounters. He needs to learn how this kid does it.

One time, he asks Damian where he learned to speak like that, and Damian just offhandedly says something along the lines of "it was included in my upbringing". Now Constantine has questions for LoA.