Okay so not exactly a month but hey better than last time.

I'm tired so I'll get right to the point. Review responses down there!

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It's very, very early monday morning when I head into my parents lab. About time I go see Dora.

So much has happened, I hope she can give me some insight as to what's been happening. I haven't faced anything like this before. I mean sure Pariah had his army and stuff, Freak show had his leverage by using my family…

A frown glances across my face before I open the portal and step through.

The unnatural cold washes over me and I switch into Phantom form. The outfit change I put together did not go unnoticed by the media, they covered it as " PHANTOM'S FASHION STYLE" I guess they aren't too far off?

Keeping to my original color scheme, I pretty much just went from a HAZMAT suit to street clothes. Paulina is swooning as usual and came to school in a near replica, black sweatpants, black baggy shirt with white boots, a white belt, and finally white fingerless gloves. It was pretty unsettling. Wes just kinda stared at me for awhile, I have no clue what's up with him.

The frozen feeling subsides as I continue moving through the zone. I may have only been to Dora's once but I hope I remember how to get there. If not, I have my dinky little map here. I did remember to place the Realm Frozen in time on it… That place is gonna need a new name.

Retracing my steps from last time a bit less urgently, I float in the direction of the realm; making notes on my little map as I go.

Searching the area for details in the Zone has always been strange, the bodies of mass give off their own glow while not flowing any of the laws of physics from earth; They don't orbit each other, there is hardly any gravity until you land in the atmosphere for an individual isle, which, shouldn't have their own one sided atmosphere by the way. When you go to the underside of the ghostly earth it doesn't drag you in, unless, of course, you happen to be on an isle that does.

This place is so utterly confusing, but maybe that's what draws me to it. After all space is weird too but I love that with a burning passion. Not only that but the Zone and space both have a sense of freedom. Maybe the ocean has that too, but I need air and the pressure down there is more crushing than freeing.

Coming out of my thoughts, I notice that I have gotten significantly closer to Dora's castle. I effortlessly float pass the energy novas in the sky, not really noticing how my aura brightens as I pass. It's a normal thing that happens when I get close to them.

The out lying forest comes into view and I pick up the pace a bit, turning invisible whenever a ghost gets near. I didn't come here looking for a fight after all.

Flying over the vast forest below I take the final dip off the cliff to the final stretch of more spread out trees, they can't really be apart of the forest on the other side of the cliff, they are too far spread out between themselves.

Looking up, I smile at the bright sky above me, shining the cool feel of the novas across the land. The trees have just barely started to recover from the assault they felt a few weeks before from Aragon's wrath. New leaves and bud adorn the still slightly charred trees, whom are making their slow recovery. Luckily, they seem to be able to pick up on some of the energy in the atmosphere because they are healing way faster than normal trees and flora would.

I land softly on the grass that lies right before the moat. Rubble of a forgotten outer wall lay in ruin yards behind me; most likely to keep the people of this kingdom safe and to protect against invaders.

Walking quickly, I move across the bridge and knock on the large, brown, wooden doors to the purple-gray castle. It only takes a minute for someone to come to the top of the watchpath above the walls. "Who goes there?" I give a small wave and the knights eyes promptly widen recognising me. I mean I was here less than a month ago, I hope they would remember me.

The door creaks open and I calmly walk through, the guard that opened the door is yelling at one of the others to do something. The second guard quickly flies off while the first one comes down to greet me, "Forgive us Lord Phantom, we are still recovering from Prince Aragon's reign and we are not well coordinated yet."

"It's no problem…..?" Noticing the ghost was supposed to answer he stumbled a bit.

"I-I am Sir Faowind." He bows and holds in place.

Feeling a bit awkward as the knight just stays bent I cough a bit and reply, "Um, cool. Nice to meet you.."

The knight finally stands straight, he had waited for a cue or something because that was a really long bow. "The pleasure is all mine. Please, the princess shall be waiting in the foyer." And with that, Faowind leads me down a path to one of the many rooms is the large castle. I notice a lot more than I had the first time I had been here, and it looked even better now that it wasn't half destroyed either.

We pass many ghosts by as we walk, most are still working on repairing the castle and adding decor. Slowly this realm will catch up to time.

Walking for this long is silence is a bit unnerving, "So what's up?"

Faowind turns his head to me and stares and his brow draws in confusion? "Um, the roof I suppose?"

I snicker a bit, "Ok that's understandable. But dude, in current time, when someone asks 'what's up' they're asking what you have been doing recently."

Faowind goes back to looking at the path ahead as we close in on one door but not before mumbling, "The present is strange.." We stop in front of a set of doors and the knight turns back to me. "The princess shall be here shortly, I wish thy well in the travel home. If thou would excuse me I have some duties to attend to, please alert someone should you need anything."

With that the knight bows a final time and leaves me in the foyer.

The foyer itself is a large room seeming like it would comfortably fit 25 people in its space but the amount of furniture says more small gathering of five to seven. Then again when you have royalty that can turn into a dragon then maybe this room is a normal size. The tall ceilings allow an open feeling within the stone walls. Soft lighting casting yellow tinted pigment again the lilac walls; evening each other out the walls look yellowish in some places while the others look gray or the soft purple of the stone.

I check my phone as I wait, I can't spend very long here at this rate, it took me an hour to get here so it'll take as long to get back; maybe a bit shorter now that I know how to get back but school starts at 7:30 and I need to be home before my family wakes up. I need to get back at 6 tops and it's already 4 am.

After a few minutes of waiting, the door creaks open and Princess Dorethea walks in. I quickly stand to greet her," Thou hast returned." She looks at me patiently.

"Yeah, uh, a few things have happened since we last saw each other, Princess. I was hoping you could give me some answers."

She leads me back to the seats and motions for me to sit, "How may I help?"

I fidget with my hands for a moment, keeping my eyes to the ground. "Aragon attacked me three days ago." Dora quietly gasps yet waits for me to continue," He kidnapped me during the night, or well, his two guards did; An archer and a big buff axe dude, he looked like an executioner. I.. well I guess you could say I won but.. It didn't feel like it." I finish quietly.

She takes a deep, shaky breath, "Sir Phantom, tis most troubling news. Those guards you mentioned were some of our most skilled. I suppose I should have questioned them, they were always close to my brother. I had just assumed they were more loyal to the kingdom than Aragon… Last I heard my brother was still in his cell. Tell me, where should my brother remain at the moment?"

I shake my head," Once I capture someone in the thermos, I just release them back into the Zone. I don't know where they go from there," I look up at Dorethea, "I have no idea where he is."

"This is most troubling indeed. When you battled him, did he manage to take back his amulet?" She asks with a small frown.

"That's a bit complicated… The short answer, yes, he did; But I got it back." I reach into my shirt and pull out the amulet that still resembles a dog tag. The aquamarine eye gleaming in the soft yellow light.

Dora reaches out and touches the necklace, closing her eyes for a moment," We should go check the dungeon. Perhaps there is something there."

She gets ready to walk out of the foyer but I stop her," Princess, there's something else.."

"I implore thee ask so that we may depart for the dungeon."

I take a deep breath, steadying myself; I have needed an answer to this one for too long. "After I put the amulet on, I felt a burning sensation. Not a small 'Oh man I ate Mac and cheese too fast' discomfort burning, I'm talking like someone put lava in my blood." I cringe at the memory, placing my hand to my chest subconsciously."The next day, I found this."

I phase off the black shirt I wear as Phantom to reveal the large black dragon marking that coils around my entire torso.

Dora takes a small step back before walking over to me with her hands raised covering her mouth. "I, I had expected thy to come asking of something similar, I had never imagined this." Tentatively, she traces the large marking walking around inspecting it carefully. " My brother and I, we were marked -with the amulets acceptance of course- but nothing of this scale."

Taking her hand away from her mouth, she shows me her left hand. It has something akin to the mark on my torso, a black mark of a horned dragon begins in her open palm and travels to the right with the wings folded almost against its body, open enough to make their presence known, and the body continues with a spiral that loops twice around her wrist and forearm until the tail straightens out on the inside of her arm stopping with a spaded end about halfway down the forearm.

"My brother has the exact same mark mirrored on his right hand. I suppose we just assumed it was normal, but then again, we were the first to wear them like this." She turns away with a sorrowful look, clutching her own amulet. "We never thought anyone else would need to wear these." Taking one last look at the mark, see walks back towards the door. I quickly throw my shirt back on and follow, "Come good Sir, we must check the dungeon before thy takes leave."

I glance at my watch and oH SHIT.

"I, Dora, I gotta go! I can't be late getting home or it could be serious trouble for me."

"Did you just call me-?" She starts to ask before I sonic speed fly out of the foyer before she can even finish her sentence. I zoom through the castle trying to find where I had came from, the surprised yelps of the castle workers barely registering on my radar. It was already 5:27 am!

When I finally burst through the castle doors and into the courtyard I bolt straight up into the atmosphere and make a beeline for the portal. Urgency pushing me faster than I had gone before.

No one knows I went there and it must remain that way, it's just better for everyone that way.

About 35 minutes later, the small form of the portal appears in the distance. I jet straight through and loop up and back down to give some more time to cushion my landing and with wobbly legs shut the portal. With a sigh of relief I float straight up into my room and flop on my bed.

It's about 6:04 am, I made it. I actually made it back in time. Though I barely have time to think over what Dora told me when a loud knock on my door grabs my attention, "Time to wake up Danny! You have school!"

And with that, I shove my face back into my pillow.

(Line break)

Ye

Invader Johnny- A little risky, but a good idea non the less!

Rogue Deity Master- Thank you!

Kimera20- He finally found time but rip sleep (brain yells at me to go to bed *shushes brain*)

Until next time!