DPXDC Prompt: Good Grade in Family
The Wayne's are being haunted by a ghost. They weren't sure at first but over time they became certain someone was following them both in costume and out. When nothing they do seems to work, they consult a magic user of the Justice League to assist them (dealer's choice). However, once the magic user investigates, they are able to tell that it is the ghost of a blood relative (how? magic~). Casting a spell forces the ghost to appear to a human's vision. It's a teenaged boy with white hair and green eyes, and he looks positively terrified to be caught.
AKA after a mishap with a reveal gone wrong, Danny discovers that his blood family is very much alive and has a big adopted family. Traumatized from the bad reveal and not wanting a repeat, he decides to essentially stalk his new family to get to know them first in hopes to become a brother they won't reject. He swears he's going to get a good grade in family this time. A thing both normal to want and possible to achieve.
Hmm, I feel like this would do well in a Twin Tim AU.
Just for the feels of both Drake boys trying desperately to be "worth keeping around".
Double down on neglect feels yasss
How did it start? Because Janet is a busy Lady and has no time to be pregnant. They want a kid tho because societal or family pressures, so getting a surrogate seems likely.
Was Maddie the surrogate? Might have needed the money to help get the ball rolling for the weapon patents/ tech patents. She can't work in the lab yet anyway because Jazz is too small to be left alone, and the extra income helps.
You know they inject multiple fertilized eggs for the chance of one taking right? What if two took instead but Jack and Janet only wanted the one. New deal for the surrogate! She keeps the second twin. Maddie is like sure! New baby! A little brother for her little girl.
Are Tim and Danny identical or fraternal? Is Tim weirded out seeing a sort of photo negative of himself floating there? DID TIM KNOW ABOUT DANNY??? Like as a fact that he had a twin? Was the fact that he was a twin used a joke/disparaging remark by Janet or Jack? Like "Maybe the other one would have been better behaved" Maybe Janet and Jack just acted that Danny was a lost twin?? Like a still born to cover the adoption up???
IS Tim thinking "Thats my dead twin floating there.... Fuck"
Well, Danny obviously knows about Tim somehow, having sought him out as his last blood relative. Could be Fentons had always been open about Danny's origins. Or they had at least told them at some point. Possibly even talked about it while they had him strapped to an autopsy table (not told him in this version because they wouldn't have been talking to him, just about him).
Or maybe he had to learn from a ghost. A ghost that passed through Gotham (or even Ellie) and noticed Danny's doppelganger, or Clockwork giving Danny a tip on where to go when he got away from the Fentons. There are just a lot of little ways Danny might know about Tim. But the fact stands, he obviously does know, because he sought Tim out. So Danny already had his time to react to having a twin (I'm thinking identical for reasons that will become clear in the next bit); the exact nature of that reaction dependent on how exactly he was told. What Danny is reacting to at this moment is the getting caught before he was ready.
As for Tim. If he grew up tangentially aware that he had a "lost" twin - with Jack and Janet using said lost twin to disparage Tim any time he didn't meet expectations - and the loss was implied to have been the twin was stillborn or did not survive long after birth; Tim probably wouldn't jump to "that's my dead twin". Because he would expect his dead twin to be frozen in infancy. Even having been told this was a 'blood relative' it would be far more logical to look at the identical, color swapped, dead version of himself and think; "Fuck, is that a dead clone?" Especially with the obvious Lazarus Waters connection.
Given their prior experience with LoA Damian clones, it's only natural for the Batfam to immediately be on the defensive in this situation. It is to be expected that a clone made by Ra's, even one that clearly failed and died, would be programmed to be aggressive and probably kill his progenitor.
Danny does not have that context.
Danny can only perceive their sudden battle stances as rejection.
Danny can only mumble out an apology and flee.
Not that he goes very far. Just far enough to hide for a while. Maybe have himself a good silent panic attack and emotional breakdown. But he'll be back later. After the spell wears off. His core has latched on to his Tim's family. He needs to protect them. He needs to protect Tim. Even though they don't want him, he can't just leave. He needs to make sure they're safe.
Is Damian trying to send the ghost of Tim's clone to the island where he is seeing his own clones? taking advantage of most of the rest of his family being distracted by preventing another clone attack from his grandfather?
danny: a whole secret island of clone children younger than me? without any adults? I have to check that they are okay!
Danny finds himself surrounded by dozens of little brothers far from Gotham at the moment when Tim (and the rest of the Batfam) realizes that he is wrong. There is no sign of cloning (and no mass cloning) on the part of Ra's (although there are plans to do so. Batfam discovers and recovers the missing spleen)
Tim finds himself lost and then horrified, his dead twin brother had come to him, his last living family and ... he rejected him!
He tries to call the ghost
without success.
It ends with Alfred who again gives a coffee enriched with sleeping pills because Tim remains glued to the bat computer to discover as much as possible about his twins