Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Walker was having a fairly calm day until the frantic cry of a young woman came from out in front of the prison gates. The first thing he heard was ‘Phantom’. He set his jaw into a firm line as he made his way towards the gates.

By the time he had reached the guards, they, as well as any prisoners that had been in the yard, were all in a stir. Something was not right.

He tensed as his crew didn’t immediately come to attention in his presence. He cleared his throat loudly and watched as the two jumped and immediately looked at him. He just glared at them as the two shared a nervous look.

He listed as one bit their lip and reported “Sir, a grievous crime has supposedly been committed. A neverborn has been created without the consent of one of the parents. Phantom’s rights have been violated.”

Walker silently steamed with rage as he clenched his fist.

He said “Did the spreader of this message happen to say who committed this vile act?”

The two guards shook their heads and said “Yes. The one called Plasmius.”

Walker grimaced. All hell was about to break loose in the Infinite Realms.

~~~~~~

Skulker paused as his hunt was disrupted by Kitty, a female ghost he had briefly gotten the name of in a past interaction.

He growled as he paused to listen to what she had called him for. She was definitely frantic, so it had to be something important.

However, as he listened to her message, his fury rose.

Plasmius just became number one on his most wanted prey list.

~~~~~~

Kitty was quick as she raced across the Infinite Realm spreading the message that the heir to the throne had been violated in a way that was outlawed by the realm's oldest law and that it had been Plasmius who had committed the act.

She was exhausted by the time she had returned to her and Johnny’s place hours later. Johnny had greeted her with a worried look.

He questioned “What’s going on? Is it true?”

She responded “Danny unwillingly created a neverborn! It’s true!

She fell into Johnny’s arms and shook as she teared up.

She continued “He….he doesn’t even know! I was so frantic that I left before I could explain anything to him! She’s not just a clone! He thinks that she is but she’s not! She’s a halfa neverborn! This has never happened before! Plasmius used his and Danny’s ectoplasm as well as mixes of their human DNA to form her, and apparently, she wasn’t the only one! It’s horrible!”

Johnny paled even further, which for a ghost as pale as he, was very startling. Then the anger came, and his eyes began to glow. Shadow gnashed their teeth as they prepared to go after whatever Johnny was angry at.

Kitty noticed and said “Johnny, we have to be careful. Plasmius has more power than either of us and can easily beat us. We’re going to need help, and he has to face justice.”

Johnny growled with anger, but his eyes stopped glowing as he clenched his hands into his hair and let out an annoyed yell.

He frustratedly yelled “Well what do we do now! This can’t be looked over! How do we even go about this?”

Kitty grimaced before rubbing a hand up and down her right arm in an effort to calm herself.

She responded as she said “I don’t know. The only ‘law enforcement’ we really have are the King that's currently standing in for Danny, and Walker since the Observants don't really enforce the laws.”

Both Kitty and Johnny were startled as another voice joined in on the conversation.

“Indeed, but I am the one standing in for the young heir until he comes of age. Therefore, I will be leading the recruitment effort. Plasmius will not come easily, and as the master of time, there is only so much leeway I have with the Observants. After all, they too are ancients.”

Kitty stuttered out “Clockwork?! What?!”

Clockwork solemnly smiled as he said “Yes, child.”

Kitty then glowed brighter as she gnashed her teeth and glared at Clockwork before saying “You had to have known what Plasmius did! Why didn’t you interfere!? You’re standing in for Danny! You should have protected him.”

Clockwork frowned as he responded “Even I have my limits. My power has been restricted since I last disobeyed the Observants. They care not about much other than maintaining the purity of the timestream and I have interfered too much already in their eyes. I am bound to do only as they advise for the next century due to a grievance already committed in my effort to help our future king. However, I have been given a bit of leeway since their oldest rule was broken.”

Johnny laid a hand on Kitty’s shoulder, and she dimmed as her anger cooled.

Johnny then furrowed his brow as he said “But, aren’t you like the god of time or something? Can’t you just go back and get rid of the Observants or something?”

Clockwork huffed with a brief laugh as he said “If only it were that simple. The Observants are far older than me, but altering the past only ever makes things occur in a far more disastrous matter. However, as the rule that was broken was created by the Observants themselves and is our oldest rule, I have been given more freedom on this matter as previously mentioned. The Observants may not enforce the laws often, but this one they must. Plasmius will be brought to justice.”

~~~~~~

Constantine grimaced as he cut off his communication with Zatanna. She had also sensed that magical activity within the infinite realms had increased. Something big was going down in the Infinite Realms. He’d have to get in contact with Desiree or Ghost Writer if the guy had been released from confinement after the whole holiday fiasco.

Chapter Text

Vlad was slightly confused when Skulker requested a meeting with him. He had acquiesced, so he now waited in his lab for the hunter to arrive. However, he was utterly surprised when the hunter flew in and immediately started shooting at him.

He released a noise of pain as one of Skulker’s missiles hit him before he could conjure a shield.

He yelled out “WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?”

Skulker continued trying to shoot at him as he said “You violated the oldest rule of the Infinite Realms. You created a neverborn without the consent of the person whose ectoplasm you stole. Not to mention this act was committed against the future king. Yes, I myself hunt the ghost boy still, but it is simply for leisure now when I get bored or if you need me to capture him for you. No more! You have committed the worst crime that you ever could have. Had I known that’s what you wanted the ghost boy for, I never would have aided you!”

Vlad was angry as he briefly took down his shield and aimed a plasma blast at Skulker.

Soon, the talking was over, and a battle raged between the two. Skulker never had a chance against Plasmius. Plasmius had helped him with his armor in the past and knew exactly where the weakest points were. Skulker’s armor was demolished, and the small ghost had to abandon his suit and flee back into the zone before Plasmius could finish him off completely.

Vlad grimaced as the little whelp of a ghost scurried back into the zone before he could finish it off.

He growled in anger. Daniel must have told one of his ghost friends about the creation of Ellie.

He gritted his teeth before quickly calming himself. It didn't matter. He would have what he wanted soon anyways.

He pressed a button on his lab’s wall and a heavily fortified visor slid open to reveal a dark black and aged book. He caressed the cover as he smiled. Just a couple of days ago he had explored a long-forgotten haunt in the zone and found something far more valuable than he had ever found before. The eldest tome of dark magic.

The pages turned on their own, seemingly knowing exactly what spells he needed and desired.

He soon spoke the words of the first spell that popped up. He'd never been more grateful that his Nana had taught him true magic and the art of incantation when he was young. He would be hidden from everyone's sight after this spell.

Once he felt the effects of the spell wash over him, the pages began to turn again. He smirked. A summoning spell. Perfect.

He would have his way soon. No one was going to be able to stop him.

It would take a few days to finish his preparations for the summoning spell, especially since he was going to have to move quite a bit to his hidden mansion in New York in order to do the summoning. He did not want to risk any other meddlesome ghosts that already knew of his home’s location to find him before he could reach his primary goal.

The worst inconvenience was going to be avoiding his mayoral duties. Oh well, they would be unnecessary once he got what he wanted. For the time being, he'd draft a letter to his secretary stating that he'd be on an extended vacation for a while.

Meanwhile, he'd explore the pages of the tome. Some of these spells would likely be very helpful in quick and untraceable movement of his things.

~~~~~~

Zatanna closed her phone as she cut off the call with Constantine.

She frowned as she summoned a small portal to the ghost zone that she knew connected to Desiree’s haunt and said, “I wish to see and speak with Desiree of the Ghost Zone.”

A beautiful plume of smoke filtered through the portal and Desiree’s voice rang out as her body formed in front of Zatanna “So you have wished it, so it shall be!”

Desiree smiled briefly before greeting Zatanna “Ah, my dear friend, the magician Zatanna. Long has it been since we have spoken.”

Zatanna smiled briefly before responding “Indeed. Do you happen to know what’s causing a stir in the infinite realm? Neither Constantine or I have been able to figure anything out yet, so we figured you or Ghost Writer would be best to ask.”

Desiree sighed as she conjured chairs for the both of them to sit on.

She began “The future king of the realm has been violated. The oldest rule of the infinite realms has been broken. A ghost child, a neverborn, was unwillingly created. The future king has suffered by the hands of one known in the realm as Plasmius.”

Zatanna’s eyes widened as she said with a tremor in her voice “So the King has been violated. How? How could Pariah Dark be so vulnerable as to have his ectoplasm stolen? How is there not a bigger stir going on? Yes, there is much more activity, but none have fled the realm in fear.”

Desiree grimaced before questioning “Do you not know that Pariah Dark was defeated? Did you not sense anything or hear that I said future king?”

Zatanna rubbed the back of her neck before saying “Things have been busy with magical uprisings for a while, so I’ve been busy. I knew that a town called Amity Park had briefly been taken hostage in the infinite realms before it mysteriously reappeared, but I was too busy to investigate.”

Desiree sighed and rolled her eyes as she began “In that time, Pariah Dark was defeated by the one the people call ‘Ghost Boy’ and many know as Phantom.”

Zatanna’s eyes widened before she said “Phantom is the heir?! He was strong enough to beat Pariah Dark?! The JL keeps an eye on him for future recruitment purposes since he seems to keep his town pretty safe and he’s helped with a couple of low-level ectoplasmic entity threats, but we never knew that he was that powerful.”

Desiree nodded before saying “From what I hear, he had help, but he was the one to truly defeat him. No matter though, back to the subject at hand. We are in a stir as we are coming together in our anger against Plasmius. Something like this has not happened for millennia until now. It has been not even a whole day, but everyone is ready for action to defend their future king, as he is very benevolent and will be a just ruler.”

Suddenly, Zatanna shuddered. Desiree stiffened as well as a wave of dread passed through both of them.

Zatanna bent forward as she closed her eyes and gritted her teeth before her phone began to ring. She kept her eyes closed as she got her phone out and answered.

Constantine was on the other end and said “It’s been opened. The tome of dark magic. We’ve got to go to the Justice League with this. This is bad. Very bad.”

Zatanna opened her eyes and responded “I know. I’ll initiate a meeting request soon. It’s likely that Shazam has noticed this as well and already contacted the others. I’ve got to go. I will remain in contact.”

Desiree did not bother to question what had occurred. She knew what the tome was. Every user of magic knew of the tome. It had been thought to be lost for ages, but apparently not. She knew that all magic users had just felt that dread wash over them.

Things were going to get worse before they would get better.

~~~~~~

Clockwork hunched over and gripped his staff as he felt a massive wave of dread wash over himself and a vision of what had occurred and was about to occur passed through his mind.

He watched as Skulker was defeated and Plasmius opened a secret panel on his wall and took out a dark black leather covered book that had pages rippled by their age.

He shouldn’t have tarried when speaking with Kitty and Johnny. He should have known that Skulker would go gung-ho with things and go after his previous ally. They would still need to recruit others for the protection of the future king, but he should have just gone straight after Plasmius. He had spent too much time trying to explain things to Kitty and Johnny. Plasmius had been alerted that he was wanted.

His vision went on to show Plasmius open the tome.

Clockwork gritted his teeth in frustration and anger as the vision ended and he stood back up to face Johnny and Kitty. He felt another wave of dread as a spell from the tome was used. He had a general idea of where Plasmius was before, but now, his visions and his powers couldn’t aid him. Plasmius had hidden himself and he could no longer pinpoint or get a visual on the ghost’s human or infinite realm haunts.

He spoke to the two frightened ghosts that were still with him as he opened a portal into the human realm “Quickly, we must go to Danny. He is in danger.”

~~~~~~

Danny sighed as his ghost sense went off in the middle of lunch. This was the fifth time today, but no matter how many times he told the Box Ghost to stay invisible, he wouldn’t! Not to mention Boxy was the third ghost this week to keep tabs on him! At least the others stayed invisible though!

He was pretty sure no one was reacting to Boxy because of how many times he'd already showed up in the day. Danny just wished that he wouldn't appear so close to him. Everyone was staring at him since they knew that Boxy was following him specifically thanks to how many times he'd popped up.

The only good part was that Dash was too chicken to approach while Boxy was around, so there was less mockery than usual.

He reluctantly put up with it though as Boxy wasn’t trying to throw boxes at anyone. He hated being tailed by multiple ghosts this week, but at least Johnny and Kitty had actually helped him fight a few low-level ghosts that had tried coming through to wreak some havoc. Mainly though, he put up with being tailed because Clockwork had showed up a few days ago with Johnny and Kitty and asked (pretty much demanded) him to cooperate with the idea of having bodyguards for a while and Danny knew better than to question his intent though he really wished that he knew why he needed no so subtle guards to trail his every move. That didn’t mean that it wasn’t annoying as heck though.

Johnny and Kitty tailing him on the first day wasn’t so bad and neither was Poindexter on the second day, but Boxy! Ugh. Would Box Ghost even be able to do anything if a threat showed itself? Danny sighed and didn’t dwell on that thought for very long. He had to trust Clockwork’s judgment.

He looked over to his left as Tucker patted his back in sympathy while the box ghost popped into visibility briefly to wave hello. Why that guy ever thought he was scary, Danny would never know.

Danny simply sighed again and continued eating. He knew all would be revealed to him eventually. He had a feeling that it had something to do with that odd feeling of dread that he’d gotten shortly before Clockwork had come to him, but he couldn’t be too sure.

Chapter Text

Batman grimaced as Zatanna laid out the situation. He really hated magic sometimes.

He questioned, “So this dark tome is full of curses and a variety of things that will unleash more hell upon this earth?”

Shazam answered, “Worse than any we have faced before. We must track down the tome before the darkness can be unleashed upon the universe.”

Batman pursed his lips, and he scoured his system for magical spikes, but thus far he had yet to find exactly where the strongest point was, as when that tome was opened and the first spell was cast, the magical field surrounding the earth exploded with activity all around the world. It would take days to explore every single place where the field had a spike in activity.

He began, “Ok, so we need at least one of each of you and …” before being cut off by a swirling portal appearing above the table where they were all seated.

They all went on high alert, weapons and magic ready for a fight.

A tall being with a white aura around them wearing a cloak of dark purple and holding a glowing staff emerged from the portal that disappeared behind him.

He pulled his hood down to reveal a blue face with red eyes and a scar across one eye.

Constantine, Zatanna, and Shazam all bowed as the others stood by apprehensively.

The being smiled and said, “No need to bow, young ones. As we all well know, there is no time to waste. The tome of dark magic has been opened.”

Shazam stood and greeted, “King Regent Clockwork, how may we be of assistance?”

Clockwork spoke as he used his staff to conjure an image, or to be precise a memory, of Vlad Masters to show them, “The man you see is the one who now holds the dark tome. His name is Vlad Masters. He has hidden himself from mine and any other magic user’s sight. I know not what his full plans are. I can no longer see him in visions. I need your help to track him down as both a civilian and ghost.

I have a network formed throughout my realm and I need a network among this realm as well. This man has tried many times to gain power over your realm and my own. He must be stopped before he can use the dark tome’s knowledge to take over both of our worlds. Do what you must. Ruin his reputation if you need. Track everything about him if you can. You have the technological knowledge to do this in the human realm. I will connect you with one from my realm called Technus that will be able to boost your efforts. I am sorry, but I cannot stay. I have another matter at hand.”

Batman was stunned as another portal opened as Clockwork moved his staff. A ghost with white hair that was wearing a trench coat stepped out of the portal as Clockwork stepped back in.

The ghost said, “I am Technus, and I will be assisting in technological efforts to track down Plasmius.”

Batman clenched his hands. He did not sign up for working alongside spectral beings, but if it’s what it was going to take to save their universe from the darkest of magics, he would cooperate.

~~~~~~

Clockwork appeared beside Danielle who had just arrived into the Infinite Realms.

Danielle’s eyes widened as she saw him.

She said, “You’re that time guy Danny talks about, aren't ya?”

Clockwork huffed lightly as he said, “Indeed. We have much to discuss, young one. I must encourage you to come with me. Friends such as Johnny 13 will be present.”

Dani raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms as she said, “Yeesh, no need to try to encourage me to come with you so hard. I know I don’t come here too often, but Danny’s got you labeled as a trusted ally in his catalog.”

Clockwork said, “Very well. Take my hand, young one.”

Dani did as requested. They were soon off to Clockwork’s lair that he was using as a base.

~~~~~~

Danny groaned as, not one, but THREE, pork chops landed on his lunch plate.

He suddenly reared back and throws his arms in the air as he said quite loudly at his table, “UGH! I GIVE UP ON BEING PATIENT ABOUT THIS! LUNCH LADY, WHAT IS GOING ON?!”

Meanwhile, the lunch lady made herself visible and students began crying out in fear and running away.

Sam also said, “Danny! Not so loud!”

Danny fists his hands into his hair and said, “It’s not like anyone’s actually close enough to hear, Sam! Everyone has caught onto the fact that ghosts have been trailing me for a week now! I’m considered even more of a freak than I was before and my parents keep trying to get the ghosts trailing me but fail at it horribly! I haven’t been able to patrol much because they’re watching me more thanks to these ‘hauntings’! The ghost shield around the house since I’ve started being trailed are very inconvenient at the moment. This is driving me crazy!”

Tucker just patted his back in sympathy.

Lunch Lady tsked before saying, “This is necessary.”

Danny groaned and strainedly said, “But why?”

Lunch Lady pursed her lips before replying, “I suggest that if you want answers, you go to the one called Frostbite. He does not agree with your mentor’s hiding the details from you.”

Danny groaned before saying, “It’s worth a shot. Sam, Tuck, I’ll need your help for an alibi as to why I’m not home tonight when I go into the zone.”

Tucker smiled as he said, “I got your back, dude!”

Danny nodded and sighed in relief. He really hoped that Frostbite would give him some answers.

~~~~~~

Maddie greeted Danny and his friends as they arrived after school, “Hi kids, how was school?”

Danny answered, “Same as ever aside from we had a spur of the moment research project put on us. Sam and Tucker are in my group. Is it okay if they hang out with me in my room tonight? They’ve already got the ok from their parents to stay until ten.”

Maddie sensed that Danny wasn’t telling the entire truth and said, “Mmm hmm, and what’s this project?”

Tucker held out his PDA as he showed her and answered, “It’s for sociology. We have to interview each other based upon this set of questions that our teacher gave us and write a group essay on what we’ve learned about ourselves.”

Maddie looked over the document and shrugged as she said, “Well, alright, but be sure to keep an eye on time. I really don’t want to be reamed out by Sam’s mother again.”

Maddie walked away muttering to herself as the teens went upstairs. Danny wasn’t watching where he was going too well and he ran into Jazz.

She saw that the three teens were anxious and said, “What’s going on? Have you figured out why you’re being protected and tailed? I just saw Lunch Lady fly back towards the school.”

Danny said, “No, but we’re about to try to. Let me guess, if I don’t invite you along, you’re going to find a way to follow us via the boomerang?”

Jazz smiled and said, “Yep.”

Danny sighed and said, “Fine.”

Soon, they heard their parents rifling around in the kitchen fighting with another set of reanimated food items.

Jazz sighed as she called out “Mom, I’m going to take Danny and his friends out for dinner! We’ll be back in a while!”

She called out “Ok, sweetie! HYAH!” as she fought the reanimated food.

Soon, the teens went down the stairs as Tucker muttered, “Aw man, why’d I even come up with the fake assignment?”

Sam answered, “Because we didn’t know that reanimated food would act as a distraction, and we needed a reason for them not to enter Danny’s room for a while.”

Tucker continued muttering to himself.

Danny soon transformed into his ghost form as the others got in the speeder and they were soon off to the Far Frozen.

~~~~~~

Danny was slightly confused as random little ghostlings like blob ghosts floated near him for the entire trip. He really wanted some answers soon.

~~~~~~

Frostbite had seen them coming and greeted them warmly, “Welcome, Great One!”

Danny smiled before saying “Hey. I was wondering if you could provide me with some answers concerning why I’ve been given a protection detail of sorts in my home realm?”

Frostbite grimaced as he answered, “I feared that was what this was about. I shall tell you everything, Great One. It is time you know of what you are to inherit as well as why you are under protection.”

Danny grimaced as he said “Inherit?”

Frostbite replied, “Yes. Follow me inside. Some of this is in my people’s ancient texts.”

The small group followed Frostbite and listened eagerly as he began, “Not so long ago, you won a fight against the previous ruler of the Infinite Realms, known as Pariah Dark. This means that you are the rightful King of the Infinite Realms by right of conquest. However, since you are not yet full ghost or of age, your mentor Clockwork has been appointed ‘King’s Regent’.”

Danny and company all exclaimed, “What?!”

Frostbite smiled warmly as he said “There is more than one reason why we call you Great One, young Daniel. This is only the beginning of this tale.”

Frostbite continued as the others eagerly awaited his words, “Clockwork has hidden the following details from you in hopes that you will be safer in not knowing, but he is mistaken. You are in the greatest of danger, and you must know by whom and why this is such an issue.

The oldest rule of the Infinite Realms has been broken. You, Great One, were the victim. The one you know as Plasmius committed this crime. He stole your ectoplasm and led to the creation of a neverborn.”

Danny interjected, “Wait, a neverborn? That’s what Kitty called Dani.”

Frostbite nodded and said, “Indeed. What Plasmius did was a violation upon your very being. Ectoplasm is sacred to one’s being. It is different for each of us. Much like human blood, but far more precious. Our ectoplasm is capable of forming a child when combined with another’s ectoplasm. Your ectoplasm was stolen by Plasmius and combined with his own to create Danielle. Thus, she is a neverborn. Normally, this process is consensual between ghosts. In your case, it was not. Your ectoplasm being used in such a heinous way without your consent has broken the eldest law. "

Danny was still confused as Jazz let out a gasp and covered her mouth.

Danny turned towards her and said, “What?”

Sam and Tucker shared a look as they also understood the implications.

Danny was worried as Jazz became tearful and hugged him tighter.

He looked towards Sam, who was completely surprised as she’d not known that Dani had been related to Danny in that way until now, as she began to explain, “Danny, this means that Dani’s not your cousin. She’s your daughter….with Vlad.”

Jazz sobbed harder as Danny went green in the face and stuttered, “No. That can’t be. I know Vlad used some of his ectoplasm with mine, but that was an attempt to keep the clones stable! She...she’s a clone! She wasn’t the only clone either! They were all clones! She’s only stable because of one of Dad’s inventions. If she were one of these so called neverborns, she would have been stable from the start, right?”

Frostbite looked towards the ground before sighing and saying, “No, Great One. Though it is horrific to know there were more created with your ectoplasm, young Danielle’s situation is different. She may have been unstable at first because she was created with the ectoplasm of a donor that did not consent.”

Danny rubbed Jazz on the back in an effort to comfort her as he shook his head and said, “No, that can’t be though! She’s too much like me to be anything but a clone!”

Frostbite laid a hand on Danny’s unoccupied shoulder as he said, “Great One, she is like you because she is your daughter. If she were a clone made with ectoplasm, she would be close to identical to you. It is also impossible to make clones of ghosts and stabilize them in any way for longer periods of time. One X came from your ectoplasm and one X came from Plamius’ ectoplasm. It is impossible that a female clone could be created of yourself when it comes to ghost biology. There is much you have yet to learn in regard to ghost biology.”

Danny was shaking as Jazz held onto him. He had been horrified and traumatized by what Vlad had done before, but this put a whole new spin on things. Danielle was his daughter…with Vlad. He was going to be sick.

He pulled away from Jazz and couldn’t keep himself from getting sick. He collapsed onto his knees against the ground as he shook and teared up. He had never once ever thought that Danielle could be his biological daughter. He loves her like a daughter, but he didn’t think that she actually was his daughter.

He couldn’t stop himself from being sick again.

Soon he began to sob, and his sister and friends surrounded him in a group hug as he sobbed. Their eyes were filled with tears.

Once he was calmed some, Frostbite continued, “This knowledge got out when the one called Kitty returned here and began spreading the word that the future king was a victim of our eldest law being broken. Many of us are on the hunt for Plasmius. Many want to kill Plasmius. Your mentor and I have a goal of finding Plasmius and putting him on trial, however, that has become harder thanks to the opening of a dark tome of magic. Plasmius has hidden himself from any of Clockwork’s sights. As the heir to the throne, you must be constantly guarded while the threat remains. Plasmius will try to retaliate, and we cannot allow him to try and get to you again.”

Danny was stupefied. He didn’t know what to do. He had never expected the situation to be this type of thing.

Before he could say anything else, a swirling portal appeared and out came young Dani and Clockwork.

Dani was smiling nervously as she looked at Danny.

She was first to speak as she rubbed her neck nervously as she said to Danny, “So, is it too early to call you Dad?”

Danny sobbed and knelt to her level and hugged her tightly. She bit her lip and held back tears as she rubbed Danny’s back.

Clockwork interrupted the reunion with, “Now, Daniel, you understand why you are being protected so heavily. You are the future king, and it is likely that you will become a target of Plasmius again.”

Danny nodded as he said, “I understand why you didn’t tell me this before, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it.”

Clockwork nodded as he said, “You should return home, Daniel. Your parents will soon notice that you’ve all been gone for too long if you don’t return soon.”

Dani then spoke, “I’m also going to stay here with good ol’ CW for a while. I want to help him track down Vlad.”

Danny nodded and questioned Clockwork, “Will she be safe here?”

Clockwork smiled before replying, “Indeed. She will be close to me in her aiding of the search for Plasmius. She will be safer than even you. After all, the young princess must be protected as well.”

Danny nodded. He really didn’t want to return home yet, but he had to. Sometimes it was exhausting living two lives.

They were soon back on their way to the mortal realm.

Once they returned Danny turned back to mortal. Jazz hugged him again and appeared to be on the verge of sobbing again.

Tucker questioned Danny, “You gonna be okay, dude?”

Danny swallowed the lump in his throat before saying, “I will be.”

The teens composed themselves before returning upstairs. They’d only been gone for a couple of hours, but it appeared as if the reanimated creatures had spawned again. The Fenton parents were still battling the creatures.

Danny sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.

He was too emotionally exhausted to deal with this right now. He quickly raced past the kitchen, aka battlefield. HIs friends calling after him.

Jazz held them back from going to him.

She said, “It’s getting pretty late, you two should get home. I’ll go to him.”

The two reluctantly agreed and left.

Jazz went upstairs and found her brother curled up on his bed. She sat by him on the bed and rubbed his back. He sniffled loudly and rolled over and curled closer to her. Jazz sniffled as Danny began to sob again.

She kept a strong hold on her brother as he continued to grieve and process everything he’d learned.

Wherever Plasmius was right then, she hoped that he would rot in Hell for eternity.

Chapter Text

Dani frowned as she watched her father…Danny…leave.

She shuddered slightly as she thought back over the conversation that she and Clockwork had before finding Danny. She knew that she had ectoplasm from both Danny and Vlad, but like Danny, she had never thought much further than the idea that she was just another failed clone.

She looked up at Clockwork as he laid a hand on her shoulder.

She questioned, “He’ll be alright, won’t he.”

Clockwork answered, “With time, we shall see, young one. We shall see.”

Dani swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded.

She listened as Frostbite and Clockwork quietly conversed.

Apparently, Clockwork hadn’t foreseen that Danny would go to Frostbite. Something was wrong with Clockwork’s abilities. At least, from what she knew about the guy, something had to be wrong.

She wondered how everything would turn out in the end once they would be able to find Vlad.

For now, she would aid Clockwork within the realms and attempt to monitor any natural portals that she could sense popping up around the realms.

~~~~~~

Vlad grimaced. It was taking far longer to gather the ingredients for the summoning spell than he would have liked. Not to mention, he had yet to retrieve the final ingredient.

He had plenty of the boy’s blood and ectoplasm available for the summoning, but the herbal ingredients were a hassle to obtain.

A petal from the rarest flower in the infinite realms, only found in the lair of the being known as Undergrowth. It was going to be such a pain to retrieve, but with the help of the spells in the tome, it was going to be done sooner rather than later.

He’d need to find a natural portal since he’d long since destroyed his own portal once that whelp of a ghost had unintentionally aided him by warning him that he was a wanted Ghost. Strangely enough, there were no portal spells for travel into the Infinite Realms within the tome (though there were some for escape from the realms), otherwise, getting the boy would be far easier as the last ingredient could've been obtained earlier.

He exhaled in annoyance as he used his heavily encrypted and hidden server to scan for increased ectoplasmic activity. The higher the ectoplasmic activity, the more likely it would be the location of a natural portal. Plus, with a little dark magic to assist, things would go much faster, after all, that stuff was going to be able to get him back once he retrieved what he needed.

An even more frustrating point was that Bruce Wayne, a man who always had some sort of anti-possession ward on him, was buying up his stocks like crazy. The man is his only true business rival.

Vlad shook his head. It wouldn’t matter. Soon enough, he’d have his son by his side and be ready to rule the world with his heir by his side.

He grew restless, but smiled with glee as a natural portal was finally detected.

He was soon off into the Infinite realm, ready to take what he needed.

~~~~~~

The demon purred as she and her brothers clawed at the one called Plasmius's desires. Prodding them. Whispering dark words to the hybrid's already malicious conscience.

She purred in glee as her new host found what he was obsessing over.

After all, the sooner he got all the power he wanted, the sooner she would be able to gain a physical form through him.

She loved the feeling of her magic flowing through her clueless host's body. Soon, she would be able to come out of the shadows and take over the hybrid's brain and body. She just had to lie in wait until her stolen magic was ready to bring her back.

The witless cur wouldn't even know what hit him. He should have known better than to open her tome and use her magic. After all, there's always a price to abusing and using her dark magic.

Soon she would have a new body and another soul, a new brother, to add to her collection.

Soon......

~~~~~~

Technus angrily growled as he reported to Clockwork “Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Neither man nor ghost has been detected on any of the systems the Batman and I have created. All we can see is that the use of magic has been spiking all over the place. No one possible spot has been isolated. The one called Flash has been helping investigate the areas with the most activity, but nothing has been found. It is infuriating.”

Clockwork sighed as he responded “This is dire. We have no means of tracking him, especially since the natural portals open up wherever and I cannot track all of them.”

Clockwork grimaced as a vision came to him.

He clenched his hands as he saw a vision of Undergrowth frozen within his own ghostly domain. Even worse, he could tell that the vision had already come to pass. Masters was working quicker than ever.

Clockwork could only hope that Daniel was being properly guarded. Zatanna and Constantine had helped set up wards around the Fenton residence without the child’s knowledge, and that would hopefully be powerful enough to resist any kind of tampering that could come from dark magic.

Before he could say anything else, he was struck with another vision that had also already passed.

Danielle! She was unconscious. Lying in some underbrush at the entrance of Undergrowth’s lair.

Clockwork quickly opened his own portal and left before he could explain anything to Technus.

~~~~~~

Dani grimaced as she saw a natural portal appear just next to where Undergrowth’s lair laid. She groaned. There was no way that she could leave it unguarded. They couldn’t have that guy trying to make his way back onto the Earth to wreak havoc while everyone was still busy trying to find Vlad.

However, before she could even make another move, she was blindsided as a very determined and very angry looking Vlad appeared through the portal.

Dani cursed as she readied a plasma blast. She knew that she couldn’t beat him by herself. She had no time to even try and get help as Vlad almost immediately spotted her and went on the offensive.

She threw a plasma blast at him before she had to dodge one of his.

She barely had time to conjure a shield before a stream of black plasma raced at her. She grimaced as the black plasma pushed her back. That magic had changed Vlad. He was stronger than ever before. She knew that she was only lasting because she had been training and strengthening her powers ever since she’d been stabilized.

She gasped in pain and shock as the next barrage of magic infused plasma shattered her shield and hit her full on. She screamed as the magic tore through her chest. She seized up as it felt like lighting mixed with hundreds of tiny knives were hitting her.

She couldn’t keep herself from passing out. The pain was too much. She had failed.

~~~~~~

Danny grimaced and dropped his pencil. He rubbed his temples as a sudden headache came onto him.

Jazz noticed his distress and questioned “What’s wrong?”

Danny shook his head lightly and said “I don’t know. I just feel like something’s wrong.”

Jazz grimaced. Danny had been emotionally spent and had cried himself to sleep last night before he could do his homework, so he was doing it this morning under her dutiful watch. She did have to wonder if the headache was caused by the emotional stress.

She said “I’m going to forge a note for you. You’re not going to school today. Between the emotional exhaustion and the headache, you need some actual rest.”

Danny nodded in agreement.

His headache kept pulsing as he laid his head on his desk. Jazz gently rubbed his back.

She reassured “Everything will turn out okay, little brother. Besides, if that creep Masters shows his face anywhere near you again, I’ll show him what the true rage of a Fenton woman looks like!”

Danny snickered lightly before groaning.

This headache was persistent.

He rubbed his temples again before saying “I think I’m going to lay down again to try to get rid of this headache. It feels so weird. It’s different from any I’ve had before.”

Jazz grimaced. That didn’t sound good. She hoped that it didn’t mean anything dangerous.

~~~~~~

Vlad grinned as he returned to his hidden base. That idiot of a child Danielle had tried to defeat him! So naive! She couldn't fight off a blob ghost, much less him!

He sure showed her though. She wasn’t going to be waking up anytime soon. She had interfered with his plans for the last time.

And now, he finally had the last ingredient he needed for the summoning spell to work.

So very soon, his son would finally be home!

~~~~~~

The demon purred. It had been so easy for her to prod that one little thought in his head to get rid of that little girl ghost. That would make it so much easier for him to get what he wants.

She grinned. She wanted the boy as well, though for different reasons. After all, you can't have the future ghost king around and living anymore if you want all the power in the infinite realms.

And hurting the princess like that was bound to hurt the young to be king. It weakened her host a bit too, but not as much since he had renounced the girl. The boy likely didn't even realize that the girl's core was drawing energy from him in its battle to defeat the dark magic trying to destroy it.

It would be a delight when she could finally take what she'd always wanted before she and her soul had been locked away into her very own tome.

Chapter Text

Clockwork quickly scooped Danielle into his arms and raced for the far frozen. He grimaced as he could feel the influence of the dark magic on her. He could feel his powers weakening with the proximity of the dark magic.

Frostbite sensed them when they entered his realm. He grimaced as he led them to his examination room. He could already sense that dark magic was wreaking havoc on the young princess’s body.

Clockwork tensed as he questioned “How bad is it?”

Frostbite answered, “Nearly fatal. Her ectoplasm is infused with dark magic, worst at her core. Since she is quite young, she has not the strength or skills to purge her system of this magic. I am going to attempt to heal. This is no doubt weakening the Great One, as her core is drawing some strength from him and their bond. I need to try and force the dark out before it can consume her core in its entirety.”

Clockwork nodded as he stood by and tried to search through his visions and see what outcomes were possible, but his powers were weakening. He could only see a few seconds at a time.

He should have known that Minerva’s demonic darkness being channeled through Plasmius would get to him. His daughter’s darkness was his most powerful weakness as well as the most dangerous thing to ever threaten the Infinite Realms. He never should have let her get into magic. Sealing her away in the tome of her own dark spells all those years and years ago had been the hardest thing that he'd ever had to do, and now, she was trying to break free.

He feared to know what would happen if she were to regain enough strength from the power her magic was granting Plasmius.

~~~~~~

Vlad took a calming breath as he set up the summoning spell.

He combined all of the ingredients and let his dark magic flow as he began to chant.

He could feel his power swell as the chant went on. Air swirled around the room as his chants became louder.

He watched as a flickering image of his son began to appear until the final chant ended, and a burst of bright light occupied the room.

Vlad smirked in satisfaction.

His son had finally returned to him.

Daniel was passed out on the ground in the middle of the summoning circle. He was glad he had infused it with a minor sleeping spell. After all, he highly doubted that the boy would immediately be compliant to his wishes.

He had to be reminded of where he belonged.

No one was ever going to be able to take Daniel away from him.

~~~~~~

Minerva grinned.

Things were going splendidly!

Plasmius had summoned that which he wanted most! That which she needed to destroy!

Now she just had to figure out a way to influence the witless cur’s mind into damaging the youngling enough to destroy his core and the remainder of his humanity!

~~~~~~

Clockwork grimaced and held his head in both hands as he felt a sudden burst of pain as all of the remaining fragments of visions of the young to be king’s future faded away.

The only benefit was that he could now clearly see more fragments of Danielle’s future, but still no hint of Daniel’s.

Frostbite glanced at him briefly as he continued to use his light magic to try and clear out the dark from Danielle’s system.

Frostbite clenched his jaw as Clockwork’s wide and worried eyes met his.

Clockwork spoke “Daniel’s been taken. I can no longer see him in any of my fragmented visions. We failed to protect him.”’

Frostbite answered “We have not failed yet. We must not give up hope. The great one will not fall to the darkness that the evil one wields. We will get our young king back! We must.”

Clockwork nodded as he said “Indeed.”

Now they just needed to figure out how they were going to find their young to be king when he was cloaked and hidden in darkness.

Especially since every ghost in the realm was about to go into worse of a fury than Plasmius had already put them in. He was not looking forward to dealing with angry ghosts that would be more likely to impede in the search for Daniel than help.

First, he must contact Technus.

He no longer had the strength to both lead the search for Daniel and keep the Realms running. His power was fading too drastically.

Technus would be able to lead the search in his stead since he’d already been dealing with the human and non-human heroes.

~~~~~~

Technus was enraged and his fiery white hair bowed out around him as his hands clenched into fists and glared at Clockwork.

Batman was on high alert as it appeared that things could get violent in a matter of seconds.

He listened as Technus spoke “YOU LET THE CHILD OUT OF YOUR SIGHT!”

White light surrounded Technus’s hands as Clockwork tightened his grip on his staff as he grimaced and responded “Need I remind you that my abilities are severely compromised right now thanks to my previous interference with Daniel’s fate? I am lucky that I can even help at all. No one truly knows how weakened my powers are and the more this dark magic is used, the weaker my abilities become. I may be known as the master of time, but even I have weaknesses, and this magic unfortunately happens to be one of them!”

Batman’s eyes widened in disbelief. That was a crucial piece of knowledge. They were up against one who was using the darkest of dark magic, and the guy whose weakness just so happens to be that stuff was heading the whole operation as the stand in until the young king came of age. He thought that guy was supposed to be all seeing and smart?

Technus made a squeaking sound of disbelief as he shook his head.

He responded with words that seemed to come straight from Batman’s thoughts “YOU IMBECILE! You’re the master of time and you have been trying to track down and have been around the darkest of magic when you KNOW it’s a weakness of yours!”

Clockwork gnashed his teeth before angrily responding “I had to get around that dark magic in order to save young Danielle’s life. Vlad Masters infected her core with dark magic, and I was the only one who knew that she had been injured in such a way. Yes, I am significantly weakened, but it was that or just let the darkness take her core outright and in response Daniel’s core would weaken and put him close to death!”

Techus lost his angry aura as shock showed clear on his face.

He said, “Plasmius targeted the princess!”

Clockwork nodded as Technus grimaced and responded, “You realize that once this news travels through the realms, ghosts will be in even more of a frenzy than before. One does not harm a ghost child with the intent to kill, especially of the royal line.”

Clockwork nodded as he replied “Yes, and now I must deal with that. I cannot attempt to track the dark magic any longer. If I do, I will lose all of my abilities and the ability to remain as King’s regent. You are one of my most trusted allies. I trust you to keep handling things on this side while I watch over Danielle’s recovery and attempt to keep our brethren from tearing each other apart in their fury at Plasmius.”

Technus nodded. He would not fail.

Batman watched as Clockwork disappeared into a small portal of his own creation.

Technus then looked back at him and the remainder of the Justice League.

Diana said, “So the god of time has been vastly weakened and can no longer see the fate of the infinite realms’ future king who is apparently no doubt now in the hands of his worst enemy who currently wields the darkest of magics.”

Technus simply nodded.

Batman spoke, “I will contact Shazam, Zatanna and Constantine. They will investigate around the Fenton residence. They have the fake IDs needed to pose as detectives for the Fenton case. They already reported their son missing when their daughter insisted that he was kidnapped by a ghost. They were believed as the town had apparently seen that he was being followed by ghosts repeatedly throughout the past week. Red Hood, Nightwing, Batwoman, and Signal will be contacted shortly and dispatched to other locations that require stealth.”

~~~~~~

Jazz wept as her mother held her in her arms while her father paced in front of the couch they were seated on. Danny had disappeared right in front of her eyes! She just knew that Masters was behind this, but she had no proof! The police didn't even believe her, and a missing person report was only filed because of her parent's insistence! They didn't even investigate!

She was enraged as she felt powerless to do anything that could help find her little brother. She had broken down completely in a fit of angry tears when her father had drilled her with questions about the ghost's appearance and all she could say was 'the Wisconsin Ghost'.

She tensed slightly as she sniffled and wrenched out of her mother's arms and ran back up the stairs and straight towards her room. She slammed her door and listened to her parents converse briefly.

She then called out in a shaky voice, hopeful that Desiree would hear "I wish that Danny would return here unharmed right now."

She waited for a second then and collapsed onto her bed when nothing happened.

She was slightly startled as a colored smoke appeared before her and Desiree manifested herself.

Jazz looked to her with pleading eyes.

Desiree's eyes showed nothing but sadness as she said "Child, I am sorry, but my magic is not powerful enough to override the darkest of magic. You are not the first to wish for his safety, and my magic did what it could, but the darkness prevailed. I cannot summon him. He is shadowed by the darkness. I am truly sorry."

Jazz hugged herself as she responded, "I had to try though."

Desiree nodded in understanding as she said, "Your brother and I have never really gotten along, but even I too would wish him back if I could. He has been nothing but helpful in restoring law and order to the Infinite Realms."

Jazz nodded as she said, "Thank you."

Desiree soon left and Jazz was by herself again.

She sighed as she wiped tears off her face and left her room as she called out with her tearful voice "I'm going over to the Mansons place. I need to talk to Sam, and Tucker might be there too. I'd rather tell them in person."

Maddie smiled softly as she said "Alright but let me drive you. I want to keep you in my sight for as long as I can."

Jazz nodded. She understood the worry.

She was not looking forward to breaking this news.

Chapter Text

Sam practically roared with anger as she threw a dart so hard at her dart board that it went straight through and into the wall.

Both Tucker and Jazz had winced. Jazz had arrived not long ago and has found the two in one of the game rooms that Mrs. Manson had directed her towards. They hadn’t taken the news well, as expected, and Sam was taking it much harder.

Both Jazz and Tucker grimaced as Sam then screamed out, “Why won’t the world let him catch a break for once in his life or half-life or whatever the heck he’s got going on?!”

Tucker bit his lip before responding, “I don’t know, but he’s got lots of ghosts and humans alike looking for him. He’ll be found. Hey Jazz, do you think we could go back to yours and somehow sneak off with the Spectre Speeder to find Frostbite?”

Jazz nodded as she said “Yeah, but just you two should go. Mom and Dad would figure it out quicker if I were gone too because I know mom’s going to be hovering near me for a while. She's also waiting for me out in the RV. She gave me a time limit.”

Tucker nodded.

Sam huffed in annoyance and agreed as she called out, “MOM, I’M GOING OVER TO THE FENTONS!”

She didn’t bother to wait for her mother’s response before she left the room and headed for the exit.

Tucker and Jazz followed behind her.

Jazz quickly asked her mom, “Is it ok if Sam and Tucker come over for the night? They want to be there in case anything comes up.”

Her mom glanced at Sam and Tucker as she questioned, “Tucker, did you ask your parents?” while knowing full well that she’d get nowhere if she asked Sam the same question.

Tucker responded, “No, but they know I was going to hang out with Sam tonight, so would it be alright so long as I call them once we get to your house?”

Maddie grumbled as she said “Well, alright. Get in.”

Soon, they were back off to the Fenton residence.

~~~~~~

Danny groaned as he slowly regained consciousness.

He furrowed his brow as he tried to move one of his arms but found himself unable to. He quickly realized that each of his limbs were restrained, and his eyes popped open as he started to panic. The last thing he remembered was going to bed in his own home, which this very much was not.

He shuddered as he felt waves of something ominous fall over him. He glanced at the restraints on his arms and pursed his lips as he realized they were glowing a darkish red and black color. He took a calming breath and focused as he tried to use his intangibility.

He squeaked with alarm as when he tried that, the restraints glowed brighter, and the glow began to radiate down his arm. He shuddered as he watched the glow recede back towards the restraints when he stopped trying to use his powers. That was so much worse than the Spectre Deflector. Yeah, the electricity from that thing hurt, but at least it didn’t give him an unnatural feeling in his veins or actually weakened his core like these things seemed to be doing. He wasn’t going to be able to use his powers to get out of whatever this was.

Not to mention, his headache was now much worse than before. The glow that had crawled over his skin had amplified the headache.

He glanced around the room, but didn’t recognize anything. He was quite certain though, that Plasmius definitely had something to do with it.

This was not going to be a fun experience. All he could do was hope that he would escape whatever the Froot Loop had in store for him this time.

~~~~~~

Frostbite greeted them with a concerned look on his face as he welcomed them inside.

Sam and Tucker walked behind him and shared a curious glance as they realized that they were being led towards the healing ward. It was even more worrisome that Frostbite’s tail was swishing, and he was quiet, not explaining anything to them further than telling them to follow him.

Tucker was the first to catch sight of Danielle lying on one of the treatment beds.

He said “Woah! What happened?! She’s a lot paler than usual!”

Frostbite waved a hand over her chest where her core laid and made a humming sound before answering “She was attacked by the one you call Plasmius before the Great One was taken. Clockwork brought her to me in an effort to seek my healing knowledge.”

Sam questioned, “Healing knowledge on what exactly?” as she saw a projection of Danielle’s core appear. It looked like it was covered in small dark reddish brown cracks that were ever so slowly getting smaller.

He answered, “Healing damage that was done by the darkest of magics. It is no simple task. Dark magic weakens all ghosts, but the level in which she was attacked with was a blow intended to kill.”

Tucker stammered out, “H-how long will it take to heal?”

Frostbite grimaced as he responded, “Normally, the damage would have receded almost completely by now as her core draws energy from the Great One’s.”

Frostbite smiled lightly as he saw that the two teenagers now wore stupefied looks.

He continued, “This is normal for the child of a ghost. However, since the Great One has been taken and put into what cannot be good circumstances, his core is also weakened by a vast amount and their connection is frail. A child’s core can also help strengthen the parent’s core. Now, with both cores being under duress, her core is still healing as it has the larger damage, but with less power being drawn to heal from the Great One’s core as it is also in danger.”

Sam blinked rapidly a few times before raising her hands slightly and saying, “Okay, that’s a lot to process, but thanks for telling us. We actually came here to ask if there was any way that we could be more involved in the search.”

Frostbite frowned before responding, “I’m sorry, child, but there is not. The Great One would not like the risking of your lives in this instance. This dark magic also has the power to harm humans. I will not hesitate to have a friend send you updates, but from this instance on, you two and the Great One’s sister cannot be involved. It is too dangerous.”

Sam looked like she was about ready to explode with anger. Tuckers eyes became very wide before he gripped her arm tightly and said loudly, “Okay then, I guess we’ll be going. Thanks for informing us, and definitely keep us updated on her condition as well. Is it ok if Jazz comes to visit her too? Yes, ok, bye!”

Frostbite grimaced as he watched the one called Tucker practically drag the one called Sam out. He watched as the two left in that awful vehicle.

Those two were definitely not going to stop looking.

~~~~~~

Batman grimaced as Red Hood reported from Seattle, Washington, “Nothing suspicious here, B-Man. Just a crapton of Cheeshead merch. Never in my life did I ever think I’d see so much Wisconsin Packers memorabilia.”

Batman responded, “Understood. Stand by for further coordinates.”

He clenched his hands into fists. This was getting increasingly frustrating. He hoped that his more magic inclined colleagues would have better luck when investigating at the Fenton residence.

~~~~~~

Vlad grinned as he conjured up a duplicate of himself and called for a press conference. Just because he was so close to obtaining his greatest desire, didn’t mean that he could abandon everything else just yet. He still had to keep up appearances as the ‘mayor’ of Amity Park. It’s not like they’d be able to trace his duplicate back to his true location anyway.

He had a conference to attend. After all, he couldn’t just stand by and appear as an uncaring mayor when his dear godson had gone missing, could he?

Chapter Text

Master’s face held a slight, but definitely fake, grimace as he said, “Now, I’m sure we’re all worried about the disappearance of young Daniel, but it’s currently not in the budget to form a search party for my dear missing godson, but feel free to help look for him in your own time. It would be appreciated."

Maddie stood behind her daughter and her friends with a stunned look on her face. That had been the first thing that she’d heard come out of his mouth after Tucker announced to them that his PDA gave him a notification that the mayor was holding an emergency press conference.

Sam barely heard Jack’s voice say “What’d I miss?” before her vision filled with a haze of anger.

‘Alright! That’s enough of his bullshit!’ Sam thought as she pushed her way past Jazz and Tucker and towards the front of the crowd. Jazz and Tucker right behind her, mostly trying to get a good grip on her arm to keep her from trying to attack in broad daylight, but that wasn’t gonna work. She was tired of this phony mayor’s crap.

She growled before yelling out “It’s your fault that he’s missing!” just as she made it to the front of the crowd.

Vlad raised an eyebrow as he held his hands up placatingly while saying “Alas, you’re right, young one. I have not been diligent enough in my efforts to rid this town of those wretched ghosts that took Daniel.”

Sam got pulled back before she could try and retort. She grimaced and growled as she glared at Jazz who seethed “We don’t have proof, Sam.”
Sam’s hands clenched into fists as she reluctantly held back her comments while the faker continued on.

Soon though, he was heading off the stage and the crowd was dispersing.

She ripped her arm out of Jazz’s grip and ran towards where Vlad was leaving from.

She called out “Mayor Masters, I demand a meeting!”

She was quickly blocked from her attempts to approach him by one of his bodyguards.

Then Vlad called out, “Let her and her friends through, Reese. They are the friends and family of my dear godson. We will meet in my office.”

~~~~~~

Maddie was shocked. She knew that slimeball was pretty awful, but she thought that he still cared about his own godson. Though once she was shaken out of her shock by Jack, she had noticed that the kids had made their way towards the front of the crowd.

She held tight to Jack’s arm as the two listened to the remainder of the conference, including Sam’s little outburst. Why would Sam think that VLad has anything to do with Danny’s disappearance?

Once the conference ended, she has expected the kids to make their way back towards them, but that hadn’t happened. Sam has called for a meeting with the mayor.

By the time she and Jack had gotten to the office of the mayor, they were denied entrance as the mayor was already in a meeting with the kids for some unknown reason.

Something weird was going on.

She needed answers.

~~~~~~

Most of the Justice League members present were startled when Technus released a loud curse as he began to type rapidly. They watched as an image appeared on the monitor in the room.

Technus spoke quickly, “He is appearing in Amity Park right now. I cannot yet tell if this is his true form or if this is one of his duplicates. I have already sent out a distress signal to nearby ghosts with the ability to investigate.”

Batman spoke, “Signal is currently in the area. I will have him monitor the situation.”

Technus growled as he said, “It’s not him. It’s a damn duplicate. Neither his human nor his ghostly genetics are being detected. We cannot track him through this manifestation of himself.”

Signal’s voice rang out through the communications system as he confirmed, “I can’t see this guy through the walls or anything. He’s non-corporeal. He’s about to go into an audience with three kids. I’m going to use my photokinesis to go invisible and try and get in there. Communications will stay up.”

Technus enhanced the connection between Signal’s recording equipment and the Justice League base. He had a hope that whatever was about to be said could help in their search.

~~~~~~

Duke was able to slip through the door before the man’s secretary closed it. He could feel that the tension in the room was thick as the man sat in an expensive leather chair behind his desk while motioning for the others to sit.

The black haired one that he’d heard the other girl call ‘Sam’ spoke first, “We know that you took Danny, asshole! Where is he?”

Masters simply smirked as he coolly said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, my dear child.”

She clenched her hands as she said, “Cut the damn act. We know you’ve got this place locked down enough that no one but us will know what we’re talking about here!”

Masters laughed before saying, “Indeed young Miss Manson. You must know that trying to question me will yield you nothing. You’re foolish if you think you have any advantage over me.”

Tucker held his PDA clenched into his hand as he boldly said, “I won’t hesitate to go public and out you as the Wisconsin Ghost. We all know you threaten Danny with his own secret if that ever happens, but he’s in danger right now because of you.”

Duke tensed as Masters hissed menacingly before rising from his chair and waving a hand towards the boy. Duke was surprised as a wave of red magic was shot towards the boy’s hand and absolutely fried the PDA as well as burned the boy’s hand.

Tucker cried out in pain as his two friends called out his name in concern.

Tucker clenched his teeth at the pain and held his hand curled up on his chest as Jazz squeezed closer to his side and tried to get a closer look at the wound while Sam stood protectively in front of them.

Masters growled out, “You may know the truth of the matter, but no one else ever will. I will not hesitate to cause you harm. I am capable of far worse than what you have just witnessed. You are foolish to think that you could ever intimidate me. Now get out of my office and don’t bother trying anything. You have no chance of ever finding Daniel again. No one does. He is my son. You and your lot will forget him eventually and leave the two of us in peace.”

Masters then opened the door and called out to the secretary, “Retrieve the burn cream from the first aid kit, one of the young ones burned their hand on the hot plate of my coffee machine just now. They will be leaving shortly.”

The three teens were then ushered out of the office. Duke followed behind him.

Those had been some alarming events.

He watched for a brief moment as the secretary held out the burn cream to the kids. Sam took it and the kids headed out of the office. Signal not far behind.

~~~~~~

Vlad grimaced as his sensors told him that something else had been in the room with his duplicate and the kids during that discussion.

He checked his thermal cameras, but he couldn't see much with that. He grimaced. How perplexing that was.

~~~~~~

Jazz was extremely worried as she tried to pry Tucker’s hand away from his chest as they got outside.

She gasped as she saw the extent of the damage. Sam growled as she saw the burned skin.

Tucker’s hand was shaking with the pain of the wound.

The three were surprised as both of the Fenton parents then called out to them.

Before they could even attempt to try and hide Tucker’s injury, Maddie caught sight of it.

She gasped and said, “Oh! Tucker! What happened! We need to get you to the clinic or a hospital.”

Jazz said, “He accidentally laid his hand on the coffee hotplate in Mayor Master’s office. We thought that burn cream would be enough to help.”

Meanwhile Tucker looked green at the gills as he said, “N.n.no hospitals!”

Jack frowned as he looked at the wound briefly and said with suspicion, “That’s no hotplate wound. What actually happened?”

The three teens shared a look.

Maddie noticed and said, “We’re going back to FentonWorks and you three are going to give some explanations. We have a heavy duty med kit so we can take care of the wounds there.”

The kids nodded. Things were getting too stressful to hide. Danny’s parents had to know.

~~~~~

Danny tensed as Masters entered the room. He bit his lip as he noticed that there was a strange aura about the man. Whatever dark powers he was utilizing were clinging to him in such an abnormal way, almost as if there was another spirit within him.

He clenched his jaw slightly as Vlad murmured some sort of spell that flowed over the room. Danny shuddered as he felt the wave of dark magic flow over him.

Vlad smirked slightly as he noticed Danny’s discomfort.

Danny then shook his head as Vlad laid a hand on his hair.

Vlad spoke, “Worry not, my boy. That was simply a renewal of my protection spell for this place. No one will ever find us here.”

Danny growled before saying, “Let me go, froot loop. This never worked before, and it’s not going to work now. I won’t be a willing captive for your experiments or anything!”

Vlad chuckled lightly before saying, “No experiments right now, Daniel. I simply have you restrained until you realize that you are meant to be my son. You are the only other in this world like me. It’s only right that you be my heir when I take over the Ghost Zone with the power that I’ve amassed. Once I’ve gotten you on my side, I can easily take over. I must have my heir before I take over!”

Danny blinked rapidly while thinking ‘oh, he’s gone loopier than ever before’

Danny responded, “Never gonna happen, creep.”

Vlad grimaced. Danny noticed the aura around him flare before he heard some sort of whisper before Vlad transformed into his ghostly self and laid a hand on his arm.

Danny felt his pulse quicken in anticipation of what was to come. He knew it wasn’t going to be fun, that was for sure.
~~~~~~

Vlad grimaced. That insolent boy is so stubborn. Why won’t he just accept his future!

A whispered thought soon entered his head ‘In order to get him to listen, you must cause pain so that he may see truth.”

He then transformed into his ghostly self. He’d need the higher energy reserves of his ghost half for this particular spell. He briefly glanced at Daniel’s apprehensive face before he laid a hand on the boy’s arm.

He then began to chant.

After a minute, he watched as sweat appeared on Daniel’s brow. The boy soon began to writhe in his bonds and scream out in pain. The spell that he’d used appeared to be working quite well. It would wear off in approximately five minutes.

He waited quietly until Daniel’s screams died down. The boy was breathing hard as he approached again. Tears were running down Daniel’s face.

He cupped his hand gently around the right side of Daniel’s face. The boy was shaking as he wiped tears off of his face.

Vlad practically purred as he said, “Agree to willingly be my son right now Daniel, and we can rule the world. Both worlds could be ours. Agree, and this pain will stop.”

Danny just shook his head.

Vlad grimaced. They boy had to learn. The pain would only end once he accepted his true position and reality.

He uttered the spell again and braced himself to hear his son’s pained cries once again.

Chapter Text

Frostbite was startled as a loud scream echoed through his infirmary. He immediately raced to the source, young Danielle.

She was awake and breathing hard as she screamed in periodic intervals. He quickly took note of her vital signs. He growled as he saw that her core was flickering! Her bond with Danny’s core was being stretched thin and she was no doubt feeling some sort of damage that was currently being done to the Great One.

It was a concerning amount of time before the screaming stopped. Young Danielle was barely conscious by the end of the screaming. Tears ran out from her eyes. Her vital signs were close to normalizing as he worked to help her in the only way he could until they would be able to rescue the Great One.

Then, the screaming began again. Frostbite was helpless to help either her or the Great One. He could only hope that the bond between she and the Great One would not be weakened to a point of death for one or both of them.

~~~~~~

The three teens sat uncomfortably in the Fenton’s living room. Tucker’s recently bandaged hand tucked into his lap. He was still shaky after the brief clinic trip as approved by his parents who had unfortunately both been at work and had only stayed away due to Maddie’s insistence that she would stay with him until they were off of work.

Maddie and Jack Fenton now sitting across from them. Frozen in disbelief at what they’d just been told.

Maddie was pale as she tried to deny, “No, that-that’s not possible!”

Jazz said, “But it is. Remember Danny was sick and acting different for a while after the portal was created? Not to mention his grades have been suffering since he started fighting all of the ghosts that come through the portal. He’s come home with injuries countless times that you thought may have come from the bullying, which some did, but that’s not the point! Compare him and Phantom’s features! It’s honestly kind of obvious if you do any sort of observation and comparison of the both of them. This is also why all of your inventions register him as a ghost!”

Maddie gasped and put a hand over her mouth as Jack shakily said, “We-we’ve tried to capture or injure Phantom many a time.”

Jazz was tearful as she said, “Yeah.”

Sam then spoke solemnly, “And he doesn’t blame you. We’ve used some of your inventions to our benefit. The thermos especially comes in handy.”

Maddie shakily said, “How does he not blame us? How can he come home and not fear us? The things we’ve said. Oh, god!”

She began to cry as she leaned into Jack’s side.

Tucker then said, “He loves you. You’re his parents. I’m not gonna lie, he does get scared of you sometimes, but he knows that you didn’t know it was him. He knows that you love him and wouldn’t intentionally harm him.”

Jack then said, “Then, you know what's happening now. Was it really just a ghost that kidnapped Danny?”

The three teens shared a look before coming to a consensus that they needed to share everything they knew.

Jazz began, "The Wisconsin Ghost kidnapped Danny,”

Sam continued, “And he just so happens to be the second side of Vlad Masters.”

Maddie gasped as Jack tensed.

Jack said, “You mean to tell me, that my best bud, has kidnapped my son, and had the gall to do a press conference that supposedly urged people to keep looking for his ‘godson’ even when he knows everything.”

The three nodded.

Jack was shaking in rage. He got up and grabbed the nearest ecto-gun he had.

Maddie grimaced as she pulled at his arm and said, “Jack, you can’t. Not right now.”

Jack grimaced.

Jazz replied, “Mom’s right. If you try going after him now, nothing will happen. He’s been trying to get rid of you for years anyway, and you’d just give him an excuse to get rid of you publicly. Going after him in either his human or ghost form right now will only end in you being removed from the picture. Plus, that’s just a duplicate. We have no clue where the actual Vlad is, otherwise, we’d be tracking him right back to find Danny.”

Jack sulked. Then he frowned.

He questioned, “Wait, Vlad’s been trying to kill me?”

The three teens appeared sheepish before Tucker explained, “You have no clue how many times Danny has stopped Vlad’s attempts on your life.”

Jack slumped back onto the couch as Maddie growled, “Let me guess, it’s all an attempt to get rid of Jack so he can try to get me?”

Jazz nodded as Maddie shuddered and said, “That creep. I knew he was still pretty keen on getting on my good side even though I’d denied him many times, but I didn’t think he’d stoop to this level. Wait, why is he just going after Danny right now then?”

Sam replied, “Um, not sure, but we know that he’s been more focused on Danny since you denied him when you and Danny got trapped with him for a while after that trip where he rigged the ghosts to abandon the plane, so you’d have no choice but to be with him for a bit.”

Maddie was seething. She knew something about that had been suspicious. God, she so wanted to kill Vlad right about now. Now that very same creep had HER son!

She then questioned, “And there’s absolutely no way that we can try and help find him. Can we not try and track his ecto-signature?”

Sam shook her head and said, “Nope. That’s already being tried. Apparently whatever dark magic he’s using right now is hiding him and Danny from us. We’re sitting ducks.”

Maddie and Jack shared a distressed look.

Jack questioned, “Who do we need to talk to in order to be involved in the search?”

Sam said, “Well, there’s Frostbite, an ally we have in the Ghost Zone, or I’ve heard that the case has been taken to the Justice League due to its seriousness according to some information I overheard Frostbite talking about because of the involvement of the two realms and how high of a position Danny’s gonna hold in the future.”

Maddie and Jack both furrowed their brows.

Jazz then answered, “Danny’s in line to be the King of the Ghost Zone, the Infinite Realms, when he reaches the proper age to take the throne. If we cannot find him and Vlad takes over, both of our realms are at stake.”

Jack was so shocked at the new influx of information that he passed out.

~~~~~~

The boy hadn’t given in even after twelve hours of exposure to that spell.

Vlad grimaced. He supposed it was time for a break. He’d let Daniel get some sleep for now before another exposure to persuasion techniques. Perhaps he could catch a little sleep himself.

He left the room and went to his study. He booted up his heavily encrypted computer and found many notifications. He grimaced. Most of them seemed to be tabloids, but one was not.

“VladCo losing stocks as Wayne Enterprises gains ground”

Vlad growled. Wayne. That stupid billionaire he could never overshadow or convince to join forces with his company. The idiot had some sort of watch similar to a specter deflector that he always wore. He’d questioned its origin once but only received the simplistic answer that it had come from a family friend.
He then checked some of the more concerning tabloid headings such as ‘Vlad Masters True Colors Revealed’ and ‘Masters: A Real Villain”

He growled in anger. The tabloids were reporting that he’d threatened a minor. It even included an audio clip. When he’d listened, it was a brief clip of the threats he’d made. No mention of his ghostly status or involvement in Daniel’s disappearance, lucky for him.

Someone else must have been in the room at the same time as him and the three teens. The boy’s device had been destroyed before any information could be backed up. It was possible that Jasmine or the other girl had recorded something, but they would have revealed more than what was in the tabloids.

This was a strategic release of information.

He then watched as his stocks continued to plummet. He was losing so much money.

He growled. This was not acceptable! One of those cursed vigilantes must have been able to get the drop on him and released some information to Batman.

How unfortunate and infuriating.

~~~~~~

Zatanna was exasperated as she met up with Constantine and Shazam. It had taken them far longer to meet up for their mission than it should have.

It was dark by the time they’d been able to meet.

It was finally time for them to investigate the Fenton’s place.

She rolled her eyes as she noticed that Shazam seemed restless. No doubt because of the suit he was wearing.

They barely spoke before they went through a portal that led them into Amity Park.

She triple checked that they each had their fake identifications in order.

She hung back as Shazam and Constantine went to the door and knocked. She grimaced. She could already feel the presence of dark magic surrounding one particular part of the building. She figured that it must be the room that the boy had disappeared from.

However, she tensed as Maddie Fenton shot a suspicious look at Constantine. As if she had recognized him.

Zatanna could hear when Constantine cursed and asked how she knew who he was. She explained that her father had a whole file on him before he died.

She then heard him question if one of his other friends could come inside.

Maddie then questioned, “I am assuming that they are also here to help find my son. I promise you though if you end up being on Vlad’s side and are simply here to spy, you will not meet a kind end.”

Zatanna chose then to come over.

She said, “We mean your son, no harm. Shazam, remove your glasses and revert to your normal appearance. It seems that the Fentons know more of the situation than we believed.”

Maddie was slightly relieved and shocked as she noticed the change.

She said, “Huh. The Justice League really is involved in looking for my son.”

Zatanna nodded in confirmation as the three were then welcomed into the house.

She noticed Shazam shudder.

She couldn’t blame him. The essence of lingering dark magic was stronger when they’d entered. Some lingering within the living room, but most of it still emanating from upstairs in undoubtedly what was the boy’s room.

Maddie then said, “My husband will return soon. He took my daughter and her friends to her friend’s place for the night.”

The three nodded.

Shazam politely said, “I suppose you won’t mind us taking a look upstairs, will you? We are trying to track the magic involved since it seems all other options are leading to dead ends.”

Maddie nodded and allowed them to investigate. She was hopeful that they would find something.

Shazam tensed as he entered the boy’s room. Maddie standing at the doorway watching them.

He spoke, “It feels as if there was a demonic entity involved with the dark magic in this room. It was a strong dark magic that summoned the kid from this room.”

Zatanna then said, “I will need both of your help to trace the origins of this magic. I can sense a small trail, but it must be amplified if we truly wish to find the origin of the magic as well as the boy.”

She then gave Shazam and Constantine directions on what she needed them to do.

Zatanna took a deep breath before beginning an incantation, then her incantation was echoed by Constantine, then Shazam as she needed the extra power to her spell.

The dark magic fought to remain hidden as she shook from the intensity of her spell fighting to bind with the dark magic. Their incantations became louder as the connection strengthened.

Her eyes glowed brightly as the connection burst into clarity for the three of them.

The incantations stopped as they could see clearly now where this particular magic had come from.

Shazam spoke first, “It seems to be coming from some sort of portal in a cave in New York.”

Constantine verified, “Yes. A natural portal. We need to go there and investigate to see where that natural portal leads.”

They were each surprised as they then heard Maddie speak as they’d forgotten that she was there.

She said, “So you’ve got a lead?! Is there any chance that I may join you? What kind of portal is it? Is it of ectoplasmic origin? I can help with that!”

Shazam spoke, “I’m sorry, but we cannot allow you to follow us. If you were to do so, you would be putting yourself in danger.”

Maddie growled as she snarked, “I’m not afraid of danger. It’s my son’s life on the line here!”

Zatanna placatingly said, “We are well aware of that, Mrs. Fenton. However, we cannot risk civilian lives on this. We will do our best to find your son. This is only a lead after all.”

Maddie deflated slightly.

She then nodded as she said, “I understand, but do not keep me or my husband out of the loop. We are not fragile, and we only just learned the truth of things regarding our son. We want him home.”

Zatanna nodded in understanding.

They soon left the residence. Maddie watched them leave through some sort of magical portal back to where they had come from.

She really hoped that they would find her son soon.

~~~~~~

The three went on with their report back to the Justice League.

Clockwork just so happened to be at the headquarters when they were giving their report.

When he heard them speaking about a possible demonic presence also being involved, he couldn’t help but cut in and explain.

He began with, “You are correct in assuming that the magic is connected to a demonic presence. The magic of the dark tome belongs to a demon named Minerva. She was sealed away in that tome long ago by me when I realized that she was becoming too powerful and was going to destroy the world for her own personal gain.”

Batman’s suspicious voice questioned, “And just how did you seal her in this tome in such a way that she could ever escape?”

Clockwork sighed before answering, “I had help in sealing her in the tome, as I could not do it alone for the fact that Minerva is my daughter. That is a factor into why her magic weakens me so much. Her core is connected to mine, but her magic prevents me from knowing where she is. I know that right now she does not have enough power to have a physical host, as she is trying to gain energy from me, but I have prevented her from that for the most part.

I cannot completely cut off our connection, but I have done what I could. She was too powerful to leave to her own devices, so we sealed her in a tome of her own creation. Due to her relation to me, we could not seal her off entirely or else I would be weakened far more than a Master of time should be. That in part is also why my powers are not as all encompassing as they should be. My connection with my daughter is a dangerous one, so the Observants wanted to keep me under their lock and key. I am sorry that I have not been forthcoming with you about this.”

Batman was quite angry at this point as he replied, “Is there any other crucial information you are hiding from us? How are we to know that she doesn’t know our every discussion since she is technically connected to you.”

Clockwork grimaced, “I cannot divulge everything, but know that she has no knowledge of our actions or conversations aside from whatever she can glean from our investigations that Plasmius catches wind of. Our core connection does not work in such a way and as I have previously stated, she is mostly cut off from our connection.”

Batman grumbled in displeasure as Clockwork stood and summoned a portal while saying, “I must go now as I have other duties to attend to. Technus will keep me updated on the situation as he maps out the information that has been gained through the sorcerer’s investigations.”

He soon disappeared through a portal of his own making.

Technus sighed in displeasure as he mumbled, “That old coot’s never straightforward!”

~~~~~~

Minerva purred as her claws brushed lightly through Master’s hair. Those tabloid stories had enraged her pet quite a bit. She continued brushing her claws through his hair as the man slept. She was getting ever so slightly more powerful as he used her magic.

She carefully implanted more suggestions for the man to go back to the boy and use more magic to try and ‘persuade’ him. After all, with the use of her magic to torture the boy, it wouldn’t take long at all before his core would shudder out of existence and she could take over the weak-willed man’s body.

It didn’t take much prodding before the man reawakened.

She could sense that he was going to use more of her magic. She grinned devilishly.

It shouldn't be too long now before her plans would come to fruition.

Chapter Text

Bruce sighed as he read some of the tabloids that were a result of the information Signal had given his alter ego Batman. The tabloids were doing well in regard to putting a damper on Masters’s reputation, but more still needed to be done, and not just in buying stocks and outdoing VladCo.

He needed to outfox Masters as Bruce Wayne.

He quickly began digging into Masters’s past and was able to find a goldmine of lawsuits that had been resolved. It was quite suspicious that all of the cases had ended up being in Masters’s favor. Even when a civilian got injured by one of VLadCo’s products, the suit seemed to go Masters’s way.

Very odd.

No bribery to be found either. Hmmmmm. Perhaps the man was adept at the technique known as overshadowing. The man had tried to meet with him before and nothing had happened though the guy had tried to get a merger.

Perhaps that fancy anti-ghost device he always wore in his watch was good for a multitude of reasons.

He even found some suits where products led to the death of some people, but the cases ended up being dropped and somehow had been hidden in the media. Unacceptable!

He soon came up with a plan. This needed to go public again. Perhaps some false accusations of bribery to keep families quiet. Yes, that’d do for now. VladCo had to go down. He was going to ruin this monster.

Masters was responsible for ruining far more than just this young to be ghost king’s life.

~~~~~~

The media went absolutely crazy over the next week.

VladCo was losing money extremely fast. Bruce smiled as his tactics worked to his favor. VladCo was going down.

However, he did not account for the fact that angering Masters would come back to hurt Daniel.

~~~~~~

Frostbite was terrified as young Danielle suddenly stopped screaming. He should have been relieved since it’d been a whole week filled with those horrible sounds, but something about this was far more concerning.

Her eyes started glowing a bright blue instead of green and her body transformed to human form. She hadn’t been in human form for a long time now, and it was quite concerning.

She appeared to be malnourished in her human form. She had stayed in ghost form for too long.

That was the least of Frostbite’s worries though as Danielle shuddered, looked him in the eyes, and said, “I can’t feel him anymore.”

She then passed out again.

Her core was trembling. It was almost nonexistent compared to how a core should be.

Frostbite was shaking with worry.

It was possible that they may have just lost the Great One or were close to it.

This was an unprecedented event.

~~~~~~

Danny screamed as his core shuddered while dark magic raced across his body.

It was the worst pain that he had ever felt.

Vlad had returned to him with an extremely angered expression and without explanation had started chanting a spell that caused him excruciating agony worse than even the other spell had.

He’d heard Vlad mumbling about stupid billionaires and a ruined reputation, but he was in too much pain to focus on much that Vlad was saying.

However, after a while of being subjected to that pain, his screams amplified as he felt the core in his chest tremble.

It flickered and his heart stopped.

He stopped screaming.

Was he completely dead now?

He couldn’t feel any pain.

But he couldn’t feel his core either.

That had never happened before.

What was going on?

He was scared.

~~~~~~

Minerva purred.

The boy was broken. His core was just a small thing close to winking out of existence. He'd be gone from existence very soon and it'd finally be her time to make a resurgence!

His heart had already stopped, and it would be a matter of minutes before his core followed and flickered out since he couldn’t transform into his ghostly persona.

She was so excited. She could feel her dark magic pulsing through the room. It wouldn’t be long before she would take over her pet’s body!

~~~~~~

Vlad’s eyes widened in surprise.

He stopped chanting as he noticed Daniel’s body go completely slack.

Daniel wasn’t breathing.

No.
NO!
NOOOOOOOOOO!

THIS WAS NOT ACCEPTABLE!

~~~~~~

Zatanna, Constantine, and Shazam were exhausted as they finally tracked down the last place that the dark magic and natural portals had led them to.

They were in France.

They were so close.

It would only be a matter of hours before they could gather everyone and rescue the young one and take down the one called Vlad Plasmius.

Chapter Text

Vlad grimaced. His son’s heart had already stopped, but his core seemed to still be flickering.

There was still a way to save him.

He knew it.

He’d found the spell early on in his perusal of the dark tome.

He hadn’t wanted to use it, but it was the only way that he could think of that could possibly save his son’s life.

He had to bind their souls together.

It was the only way.

He released the dark bonds that were keeping Daniel restrained, and he placed his hands on each side of the boy’s head.

This had to work.

~~~~~~

Minerva grimaced in confusion.

Her pet was going crazy.

She had not anticipated this.

She watched as he went through her dark tome and she gasped as she realized what spell he was going for.

She screamed as she tried to influence his mind, “NO NOT THAT SPELL! NOW THAT HE’S GONE, YOU’LL HAVE WHAT YOU DESIRE!”

Only, it was as if the near death of the boy had cut him off form her prodding.

She growled as she tried everything she could think of to stop her pet from using that spell.

Using that spell would make it impossible for her to return! There was absolutely no way that she could inhabit two bodies! Her magic was not strong enough for her to return when it was split between two users!

She growled in agony as she heard the spell being cast.

She collapsed in anger as the spell was completed. She wouldn’t be able to return to the physical plane.

Her plan had failed.

Masters had bound his soul together with the to be ghost king’s soul.

How infuriating.

She had miscalculated.

How easily she had been thwarted!

~~~~~~

Vlad was shaking after the exertion of binding his and Daniel’s souls together.

However, he couldn’t help but smile as Daniel began to breathe again.

He watched as Daniel changed into ghost form but remained unconscious.

He watched as Daniel’s tone took on a slight blue shade.

No doubt a side effect of bonding their souls.

He reached out with his senses and grinned as he took note that the boy’s core had been repaired.

He would wake up soon, there was no doubt about it.

He had saved his son.

~~~~~~

Frostbite kept careful watch over Danielle as he tried to help her recover from the shock.

However, not long after that incident, she gasped, and he checked her vital signs.

He quickly checked her core and found that it was strengthening.

Her complexion, even in human form, changed slightly as her vital signs became stronger.

Something was happening.

He listened as she shakily said, “Danny’s alive. I can feel him again, but it’s not right. Something’s wrong.”

~~~~~~

Vlad grimaced as alarms around his property were tripped.

He uttered a small spell that would keep Daniel unconscious as he took care of the threat.

He then opened a pocket dimension, accessible to him because of the magic, and stored Daniel away in there just to be doubly safe.

However, he was unprepared for the fact that a whole team of Justice League, light and dark, members as well as other magic users and vigilantes would all be there to take him down.

No matter! They couldn’t stop him! He had the strongest of dark magics on his side!

~~~~~~

Nightwing easily took down the defensive weapons Masters had placed around the property.

Before long, there was a whole league of people storming the place. Their position had already been compromised when a wire had been tripped that had no doubt alerted Masters that they were there, so there was no reason to be subtle.

Infiltration had been surprisingly easy, but then Masters in his ghost persona floated through the floor and immediately went on the defensive.

Batman sent Nightwing and Zatanna in one direction to search for Danny, Constantine and Red Robin another direction, while the others fought to subdue Plasmius.

~~~~~~

Nightwing could hear the sounds of a fight through his comms as he searched.

Zatanna spoke, “I sense a greater amount of dark magic leading down the hall and underground. There is a hidden room. I will be able to get us in there.”

Nightwing nodded.

Before long, they were in that very room.

Zatanna grimaced at the amount of dark magic that was saturating the air in the room.

Nightwing curled his hands into fists as he observed his surroundings.

He was in what appeared to be some sort of combination laboratory and torture chamber.

There was a flat table in the middle of the room with what appeared to be undone restraints.

Zatanna spoke, “The boy was on that table not long ago. There was an extreme amount of dark magic used recently. A pocket dimension was opened. Raven came with us today, yes?”

Nightwing nodded and commed Raven.

She was quick to respond and get to their coordinates.

Zatanna explained the situation.

Raven was able to sense a nearby pocket dimension that had been opened. She explained that she’d need Zatanna’s help in opening it.

Before long, the pocket dimension was opened, and Danny was dragged out of it and gently nestled into Nightwing’s arms.

Nightwing took a brief glance over the boy’s condition.

The boy was unconscious. His hair was white and his skin a pale blue. Slightly different from what he’d been told the boy’s ghost form looked like, but there was no doubt that this was whom they were looking to rescue.

He soon commed the others, “We have the boy. We’re getting out of here and will meet everyone back at base.”

~~~~~~

Plasmius screamed with rage as he was subdued.

He screamed, “You can’t stop me! I will rule this world! My son and I will destroy you all!”

Batman retorted, “He’s not your son, and you’ll never be seeing him again.”

Plasmius’s eyes widened as he said, “No! You couldn’t have found him! He’s my son! NO! Release me! GIVE ME MY SON!”

Batman simply grimaced as he took out a device Technus had given him, apparently called a Fenton thermos, and activated it.

The ghost known as Plasmius was sucked into it.

Constantine was the first to speak, “Well, now that this part’s been taken care of, Zatanna and I need to get that dark tome and secure it. This is far from over. There is still dark magic permeating the air. We need to clear it up before our realm will be safe, especially since that creep had a crapton of shades attached to him along with one massive demonic one. He’s got to have been hearing voices for a while now no doubt because of that tome’s influence.”

Batman nodded.

It was time to head back to base.

~~~~~~

Minerva grimaced as her host was sucked into that devil contraption.

However, when they were released from that contraption, the situation was no better. They were in some sort of highly enforced cell that no ghost, demon, or human could escape.

Her host was unconscious, and she was cut off from her magic.

That hadn’t happened since her father and a few others bound her to her tome long ago.

She may not be able to take a physical form, but being completely cut off from her magic was hell.

That idiot had screwed both of them over.

Chapter Text

Batman stood to the side and watched as the mansion exploded a few days after the confrontation. He’d already taken care of faking Vlad Master’s death by faking documentation that the man had been on a private plane that had crashed into the middle of the ocean. There was no way that could be questioned. The news and tabloids had already run the story that Vlad Masters was dead.

Now they had to take care of the mess he left behind. Zatanna and Constantine had taken initiative and already cleared up most of the dark magic and things were already appearing to level out in regard to the safety of the Earth and the Infinite Realms.

However, there were still things to take care of, such as the sealing away of the dark tome that had started this whole thing.

That was not a matter for him to handle, but he would keep a close eye on it as it did concern the safety of the Earth.

Now that the mansion had also been disposed of, the magic users were disposing of the fragments of broken brick and everything. All in an effort to ensure that no dark magic lingered.

However, there were still many things to go over, as the magic that Masters had been using was also now thoroughly dousing the boy who had been taken into the Infinite Realms to his doctor known as Frostbite.

~~~~~~

Jazz was angry.

It had taken Clockwork THREE DAYS to come and alert them that Danny had been rescued and taken to Frostbite.

This was only after she’d panicked when the news reports that Vlad Masters was dead had started coming through. Her whole family and Danny’s friends had been worried for far too long for different reasons than the initial ones now!

Her parents were then confused as they woke again since Clockwork had frozen time to tell her the situation. Clockwork left almost immediately after delivering the news.

She simply said, “I’m calling Tucker and Sam and we’re going on a trip into the Ghost Zone. You two better keep your cool and behave because we are going to go see Danny. All I know is that he was rescued and is being treated by his ghost doctor. Sam and Tucker know the best way to get there. You CANNOT bring your big weapons with you. You can have wrist rays, but you guys have a reputation in the zone too. We need to be as non-threatening as possible.”

Her parents were shocked as she filled them in with what she knew so far.

She hoped that Danny was okay.

~~~~~~

Shazam grimaced as he took in the boy laying on a medical bed in the Infinite Realm’s Far Frozen infirmary. He also glanced briefly at the young girl who was curled into the boy’s side, apparently a forbidden child that had been created by Plasmius.

He was here because he would be the one handling any sort of magic usage or anything since Zatanna and Constantine were still taking care of the mansion.

The boy was in an artificial state of sleep, as when he’d broken the spell of dark magic that had him unconscious, he’d woken up, started panicking and screaming as well as firing bolts of green plasma at anyone that came too close.

The poor boy’s aura was still saturated with dark magic.

He wished that he could help more than he already had.

Thai type of magic was mostly outside of his realm of knowledge. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for the kid though. He wasn’t much older than his own civilian identity.

No kid should have to go through what Danny Fenton had gone through and was still going through.

However, he was surprised when a flying vehicle arrived at the Far Frozen and five people spilled out of it.

He heard them talking with Frostbite and frowned when he saw the two adults pale as the orange haired girl started to weep.

He felt like he was invading their privacy.

He looked away briefly, but soon the girl with dark hair approached him.

She spoke before he could say anything, “Thanks for helping my friend. You're still here to help, aren’t you?”

Shazam took a deep breath before nodding and saying, “Yes. He’s still being influenced by the dark magic that Plasmius subjected him to.”

She nodded and went back to the others.

He really hoped that the kid would be okay.

~~~~~~

Frostbite led them to Danny’s room as he explained the situation.

He explained, “His core is still strengthening, but that may not be a good thing. His soul was bound to the soul of the one called Plasmius by dark magic. His core is surrounded by that magic, and it cannot currently be fixed. His other vital signs are normal for him. Young Danielle is staying by his side. She can feel the darkness seeping into the Great One’s being though she is much healthier now than she had been after the attack on her being.”

Maddie furrowed a brow in confusion as she questioned, “Who’s Danielle?”

Jazz stopped in her tracks as she grimaced. She’d totally forgotten to tell her parents about that.

Tucker took the initiative to describe that slightly awkward detail, “Uh, she’s kind of your grand daughter. She’s Danny’s daughter……with Vlad.”

Maddie’s eyes blew wide as her lips began to twitch before her whole body began to vibrate with fury.

Jack was shocked as well and blinked multiple times.

Maddie roared in anger as she screamed, “HOW? WHAT? WHEN? NEVERMIND! WHERE THE HELL IS MASTERS! I’M GONNA KILL HIM TWICE OVER IF HE’S NOT ALREADY DEADER THAN DEAD! JACK, GET THE ECTO GUN I HID IN THE BACK!”

Jack had to restrain her physically as he said, “Maddie, I’m angry too, but right now we need to check on and stay with Danny.”

Maddie only calmed down a bit as she followed behind Frostbite.

They soon arrived at Danny’s bedside.

Danielle woke up to look at them as they entered.

She bit her lip as she noticed that Maddie appeared to be extremely angry.

She hesitantly held up a hand to wave hello.

Maddie softened a bit as she observed the girl who was apparently her granddaughter.

She spoke softly, “Hi sweetie.”

Jack was slightly stunned at the girl’s appearance.

He simply said, “You look a lot like your father.” which was a very strange thing to think about. Damn, he really wanted to clobber Vlad now too, didn’t he?

Dani blushed and nodded.

She hesitantly questioned, “Um, I’m fairly new to that knowledge too. Did you guys have a preference on what I should call you? I’ve been going as Danny’s cousin for a while until all of this happened.”

Maddie smiled lightly as she said, “Call us whatever you want to. Just know that we are your family. You are half ghost too, aren’t you?”

Dani hesitantly nodded.

Maddie smiled as she said, “Well, welcome to the family honey.”

Dani was surprised at that. Then again, she was surprised that they were in the realm at all. Wait…did this mean what she thinks it did?

She questioned, “You know about Danny?”

Jack answered, “Yes. His friends filled us in on the situation. It was definitely a surprise to us, but we could never stop loving our son. This just gives us a new worldview. We’re going to have to work on adjusting some of our views and opinions, that’s for sure, but know that we will never hurt Danny again, and you’ll always be safe with us. You’re our family.”

Dani smiled as she said, “Danny’s going to love to hear that when he wakes up. He was so scared of telling you guys the truth. I knew you guys would understand.”

Maddie flinched slightly at the fact that Danny had been scared to tell them. She would have to make sure that her son would never feel that way about her again. A child should never have to fear a parent.

~~~~~~

Vlad had awakened inside of a cell that proved to be fortified against magic and his own powers.

He was furious. They took him away from his son! HIS SON!

He growled as a while after waking, another ghost phased into the room with him. It was one of those eye-ball looking freaks.

He growled as the thing came closer to him and put some sort of collar on him.

The thing then blinked, and they were outside of the cell. He quickly attempted to use his magic or some of his ghostly abilities, but none would come. He then tried to turn back to human, and he could not.

Whatever the collar was, it was blocking all of his abilities.

He was soon brought into a room that has what were apparently the higher ups of the Infinite Realms, responsible for the upholding of the laws.

He grimaced. They were taking him to court? How imbecilic.

His only care was the fact that he could feel that his son was getting stronger by the minute.

Perhaps his son would be able to break this collar off of him.

Once the drugs keeping his son asleep would wear off, he could send a message through their bond. His son had been too distressed to get any sort of message when he had woken up the first time after being brought back to the Infinite Realms.

Surely bond communication wasn’t blocked like all of his other powers, right? Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to feel Danny wake up or fall asleep, right? He really wished that he’d researched what bonding of souls did before he was forced to do it. This was a whole new territory for him.

Chapter Text

Zatanna and Constantine arrived in the Infinite Realms not long after they made sure that all traces of Plamsius’s dark magic on Earth were cleansed.

They were greeted by Shazam when they made it into the Far Frozen.

Shazam led them to the boy’s room. They listened for a little bit as the boy’s family conversed.

Zatanna and Constantine both grimaced.

Constantine said, “He’s surrounded by dark magic. We have our work cut out for us.”

Zatanna nodded. This was going to take a while to fix.

~~~~~~

Sam briefly glanced at Danny’s unconscious form again.

She didn’t like what she was seeing.

She quickly made an excuse to the Fentons and dragged Tucker a far enough distance away where they wouldn’t be heard. She didn’t spare a glance at the three magic users outside of the room.

She began the conversation, “Tucker, are you seeing the same physical changes in Danny that I am?”

Tucker bit his lip and nodded.

He said, “I’m worried, Sam. His hair’s getting longer too. His skin’s already the same shade of blue. I’m worried that the next time he wakes up, his eyes will be red.”

Sam grimaced.

They both jumped in surprise as Clockwork appeared behind them. He sure knew how to scare a person.

They both looked at him with grimaces on their faces.

He said, “I always knew that this was a possible future, but I had hoped that it wouldn’t occur. This very reason is the one why Dan Phantom still exists. Had he truly stopped being a future possibility, he would have disappeared from the timestream forever, however, he still exists in that thermos in my haunt. I did not see this part of the future as the dark magic hid it from me. I was blind to this timestream soaked in dark magic. I still cannot see Daniel’s future. It was always a possibility that Dan Phantom would make a return. It seems that this may be it”

Sam and Tucker shared a worried and fearful glance.

Sam questioned, “Is there any way to prevent that! It’s his biggest fear!”

Clockwork answered, “I cannot see anything regarding his future, so I cannot say precisely if your Daniel will ever return to normal. All I can say is that some hope remains if the spell on his core can be broken. Only time that I cannot see will tell.”

How frustrating of an answer that was.

~~~~~~

Danny grimaced. He was stuck in some sort of artificial sleep.

He couldn’t open his eyes.

He could hear some of his family talking around him though.

Where was he?

He thought he was dead for good.

Was he not?

Or was he a full ghost now just listening in?

But he couldn’t see so probably not.

He could at least feel his core again, but it felt wrong.

It felt dark.

He didn't like it at all.

He was still scared.

Why did his core feel like that?

HELP!

~~~~~~

Vlad was thoroughly angry as he listened to the ridiculous claims that had been laid against him.

Not to mention, he wasn’t allowed to speak and defend himself.

They didn’t understand at all!

Everything he did was in an effort to get closer to his son!

These simpletons were condemning him!

He was to be sentenced to an afterlife of solitude in a cell in the infinite realms where he couldn’t contact anyone or use his powers!

No matter! That wouldn’t stop him!

They couldn’t keep him from his son!

They would rue the day that they sentenced him to this.

~~~~~~

Zatanna grimaced as she stated, “His soul was bound with Plasmius’s soul. This will be extremely hard to break. We will need all of the help we can get. He will have to wake up before we reverse this spell. Since it was presumably done without his consent, it should be easier to complete once he consents to the breaking of the bond. However, if we do not reverse this magic before the next moon rises, it will be permanent. We must wake him soon.”

Jazz was angry as she realized what Vlad had done. Dani even more so.

Maddie and Jack were angry too, but the worry won out.

Maddie questioned, “Is this safe?”

Zatanna answered, “I will not lie. It is quite dangerous. Breaking the bond could weaken him worse than he was before the bonding took place, but we will do everything within our power to help your son.”

Maddie curled into Jack’s side as she nodded with understanding.

It was going to be a very trying time for the magic users.

They would need all of their combined light magic to purge the darkness that was surrounding the boy.

They had to have hope that the boy would agree to have the darkness purged.

Consent to have the darkness removed would make things so much easier.

Chapter Text

Zatanna gathered as many light magic users as she could within such a small period of time. In total, there were only five of them. Their combined magic would be enough.

Though admittedly, Shazam’s light magic would be the strongest help.

Now they had to wake the boy.

The boy’s family reluctantly stayed outside as Frostbite woke him up.

~~~~~~

Danny groaned.

Wait…

His eyes, he could open them!

He blinked a couple of times.

He first saw Frostbite’s face.

He started to try and get up, and Frostbite helped him.

His core still felt wrong.

He caught a brief glance of his skin.

Wait, what?

It’s…blue?

Why is it light blue?

Oh no…

NO NO NO NO NOOOOOO!

I’M NOT DAN!

~~~~~~

Frostbite grimaced as the Great One began to panic.

He gently patted Danny’s arm as he tried to get the boy to calm down.

The boy remained frightened, but he shakily questioned, “Frostbite, what’s going on?”

The boy jumped as Zatanna spoke, “Your soul was non-consensually bound to that of the one called Plasmius. We had to wake you up to ask if you would cooperate with our efforts to remove that binding.”

Danny was shaking as he exclaimed, “Yes! Get rid of it! I don’t want to be bound to that fruit loop!”

Zatanna nodded as she instructed the others on what to do, “Each of you will need to place a hand on his arms or head. I will begin the incantation once ready. Shazam, you will need to echo my chant and have your magic flow through the boy’s system, as it is the purest out of all of our magics.”

Shazam nodded.

The process soon began.

~~~~~~

Vlad grimaced as he paced within his cell.

His son had woken up, but something else was tugging at his core.

Something was wrong.

He grunted as he felt a stabbing pain at his core.

He went down on one knee as pain began to race through him.

He barely noticed when the door to his cell opened. However, he was in too much pain to do anything to even attempt an escape.

He could feel the bond between him and Daniel’s souls being stretched thin.

NO! Someone was trying to break their bond! AND THERE WAS NOTHING HE COULD DO TO STOP IT!

HIS SOUL WAS SPLITTING!

He could feel it leaving his body! Why was it leaving his body! NO!

Soon, his soul was outside of his body, writhing in pain. He gasped as he saw many other dark beings and one dark red female being in front of him. She was grinning.

He tried to back away from her, but she sunk her claws into his arm.

She purred, “You screwed us both over, but now you’re in my plane of existence. You’re mine!”

The pain amplified, and only seconds later, his soul was being dragged outside of the cell door by the dark entities, and he gasped in fear and rage as he screamed “NO!” while he was dragged inside of the dark tome that he had used to try and gain power.

He was Minerva’s now.

He would never see the light of day again.

~~~~~~

Clockwork was surprised when the dark tome that belonged to his daughter slammed open. It had been enclosed inside of a tightly sealed glass prison.

Or so they had thought.

The glass broke suddenly, and Clockwork saw shades pour out of it.

He had never seen anything like this occur. He would have gone on the defensive, had he not seen all of the shades head towards the cell which he knew to be Vlad’s.

He waited. He didn’t want to raise an alert unless something was extremely wrong.

He raised a brow as only minutes later he saw his daughter’s demonic form dragging Vlad’s soul back towards the tome with her and her other shades.

He could even hear Vlad’s screams.

To think, he was only able to see all of this because of his connection to his daughter.

As soon as Vlad’s soul was dragged into the tome, the tome slammed shut.

As soon as it slammed shut, he summoned up a lock and a new glass case for it.

He would have to tell the Observants of this new development.

Though that would have to wait, as many timelines snapped back into place in his line of sight.

He could see Daniel’s possible futures again.

He saw no futures that contained Dan Phantom either.

The dark magic was gone from Daniel’s being.

The book could now be sealed away.

Young Daniel Fenton was going to be alright.

~~~~~~

Danny was exhausted as the magic users finished working.

His core was weak, but it no longer felt wrong.

He felt like himself again, though extremely tired.

He briefly glanced at his skin and sighed as he noted that it was no longer blue.

Right after that, he sighed and passed out as he reverted to his human form.

~~~~~~

Shazam let out a deep breath as he whistled. That had been a process, but at least no more dark magic was infecting the boy or his core. The boy would be alright!

Zatanna smiled at a job well done.

Shazam listened as she talked to Frostbite a bit and gave him some warning signs to look for just in case not all of the dark magic had been eradicated.

He used his magic to prod the boy’s system again just to be safe. Nope. No dark magic there.

He hoped that the boy would have a speedy recovery.

~~~~~~

Most of the magic users left, but Zatanna had been asked to stay for a little bit as Clockwork had a favor to ask of her.

The Fentons didn’t really care about that though as they were once again allowed to see Danny.

Frostbite assured them that Danny just needed quite a bit of time to recover.

Young Danielle sitting on the bedside by Danny and falling asleep against him. Her head over his core. She knew everything felt right again. She had felt her core shake when Danny’s soul had been separated from Vlad’s soul.

Her complexion had also gone back to normal.

Jazz sat on one side with her parents as Sam and Tucker stood on Danny’s other side.

Maddie questioned, “How long will it be until he wakes up?”

Frostbite answered, “I am not sure, but his vital signs are slowly improving to normal range. His close proximity to young Danielle here is helping. We were lucky that the process didn’t weaken him back to the state he must have been in before the bonding. By my estimation, he will recover within the next day.”

Maddie smiled.

Her son was going to be alright!

~~~~~~

Clockwork informed the observants of what he had witnessed, which they confirmed to be true as the form that used to contain Vlad’s soul was crumpled on the ground of what had once been his cell.

Vlad Masters was no more.

Now they had to seal that dark tome away for good.

Banish it to where it would never be found again.

Clockwork watched as the Observants worked and sealed the tome. He felt a tug on his core and knew that his daughter was sealed away.

He watched as one of the observants lit a fire in their hand.

He was surprised as the Observant then lit the tome on fire. HE gasped and crumpled as the tome caught fire. He could swear that he heard shrieking as the tome burned until nothing remained.

Clockwork was stunned.

His soul felt as if it was missing a piece as he watched the ashes fall through the air.

The bond that used to belong to him and his daughter was gone.

Minerva was dead. Never to return.

He stared up at the Observants in shock.

The head observant spoke, “That tome which should never have been created is now gone. Magic should now be balanced. WIth that tome’s presence, there was an uneven distribution of light and dark magic. Not enough to destroy the realms, but after this incident, we have learned our lesson. Your daughter is no more, and you will be returned to full power as the Master of Time. Remember this though, We will always be watching you.”

The observant then disappeared in a dramatic puff of smoke.

Clockwork left alone in the room.

He couldn’t stop himself from weeping.

He had just lost his daughter, after all.

He was then surprised as Zatanna then spoke, as he'd forgotten that he'd asked her to meet him for the sealing away of the tome.

She said, "So the darkest of magics has been destroyed by none other than ghostly fire? How? Dark magic is extremely hard to defeat, much less destroy!"

Clockwork grimaced as he answered, "That's the Observants for you. If you think I'm bad at being straightforward, I have nothing on them. It is entirely possible that they could have prevented any of this form occurring in the first place. Not even I can predict their actions."

Zatanna grimaced.

Clockwork stood as he cleared the tears off of his face, "Best not to think about it for long. They always have their own goals in mind. Just rest assured that the next Ghost King will be of a sound mind and not infused with dark magic."

Zatanna simply nodded before she opened her own portal to leave.

Clockwork watched her go.

He had an heir to the Infinite Realms throne to check on.

Chapter Text

Danny yawned as he reawakened.

He felt pressure against his side and looked down to see that Danielle was asleep against him.

He looked around him and noticed that his friends and family were there, all asleep. That is, until he looked over at one corner and saw Clockwork looking at him.

Clockwork smiled before saying, “You never have to worry about becoming Dan Phantom again. I have my full powers back now and have scanned all timelines. I am technically not supposed to tell you that, but after your scare, I believed that you needed to know.”

Danny smiled lightly before saying, “Thanks. That’s reassuring.”

Clockwork then said, “I will leave you with your family. However, I do expect you to meet with me in a week’s time. After all, you still have training to attend to.”

Danny frowned at that. He really hated all of the training he had to go through in order to be prepared to be a proper ruler for the Infinite Realms when he would come of age.

Right now, though, he was grateful that Clockwork knew he needed some time to recover. Man, he was going to need therapy after this whole mess. That had been a terrible experience.

For now, though, he yawned as he closed his eyes. He needed to get a bit more sleep before he could tackle the first conversation that he’d have with his parents since they now knew his secret.

~~~~~~

Meanwhile, in Amity Park, in light of Vlad Master’s death, an interim mayor was declared.

Valerie’s father was the temporary mayor until their next election.

His first announcement was alongside none other than Batman at a press conference.

It was announced that the Justice League had found a group of ghosts that had been kidnapping people, and they had liberated young Daniel Fenton from their clutches.

Of course, Batman explained to him and everyone that none of the Fentons nor their friends would be attending the conference or making any statements as Danny Fenton was recovering from some injuries that he’d endured while in captivity.

Luckily, even Lance Thunder had enough sense not to question Batman’s judgement.

~~~~~~

It took less than a week before Danny returned home.

The first conversation with his parents post-identity reveal went extremely well.

His parents had hugged him and apologized for their previous actions. They’d even promised to help him with his vigilantism!

Sam and Tucker both got in trouble with their parents for being gone so long, but in light of the discovery that they’d been with Danny (and lied that they’d been victims of the supposed ghost kidnapping group), they were more so relieved that the two were okay.

Life soon returned to normal, though he did receive questions from some classmates about how it was to be rescued by the Justice League. He always went with the default response that he wasn’t allowed to talk about anything.

Danielle had ended up moving in with them. His parents had tried to keep her there, but the girl was used to a nomadic lifestyle, and Danny assured them that she’d be alright. After all, he now knew how to detect if she was in danger thanks to Frostbite’s explanation on their connection of cores.

He wasn’t too enthused to return to his training, but he did.

His family was extremely supportive of him.

He was glad that things went back to fairly normal after that, though there were more ghosts that questioned if he was alright.

Kitty checked on him more often than she previously had. She'd been quite aggravated that she'd been left out of most of the search and rescue that had occurred.

Technus checked in often as well. He'd apparently been a big part in trying to track Masters via the technological route.

Even the box ghost showed concern for his well-being more often.

He supposed that the oldish habit of guarding him had died hard.

Even Walker had approached him once!

He guessed that came with being the heir to the throne.

No matter, he was just glad things were getting back to normal.

Case in point…

“Hey, Ghost kid! You gonna fight or what?” Ember called as she smirked.

Danny grinned in turn as he said, “Oh, yeah!”