The only thing worse than stepping into a room where everyone is staring at you is stepping into a room where one hundred and sixty-nine Observants are glaring at you. Even better, they'd brought the Ancients, the thirteen constructs who had forced Pariah into the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep. If that wasn't a threat, I'd eat Dan's thermos.

Why do these things always happen to me? It wasn't like I could help it that my father was a crazy locked-up ghost king who had destroyed half the Ghost Zone in a bloody twelve-year bout of insanity. I couldn't even help it that I had the power to disband the High Observant Council itself. It wasn't like I was going to- though if they kept this up, I'd be pretty tempted.

"Daniel and Danielle Fenton-Phantom-Dark." The Observant's voice was hard and stern, but I hardly noticed. Fenton, Phantom, Dark. Two of those I accepted, but the third? No way.

"Fenton-Phantom," I snapped.

"What?" The Observant pulled up short, not used to defiance, especially not from a half-human teenager.

"Daniel and Danielle Fenton-Phantom. Those are our legal names on the Council's records. If someone added the 'Dark' part, it was without our knowledge and consent, which makes it illegal, so our surname is just Fenton-Phantom." Please don't shoot me….

"Very well," it growled, "Daniel and Danielle Fenton-Phantom, you are called here today on charges most grievous: first, repeated interaction with the Mortal Realm; second, bringing humans and human contraband into the Barrens, Far Frozen, the Burning Lands, Achaea, and Aragon; third, rebelling against the rightful King of All Ghosts."

It was a good thing we were in the Ghost Zone. In the human world, my gaping mouth would have attracted hundreds and hundreds of flies.

"Give your defense," the Observant commanded.

All my plans flew out the metaphorical window. I'd been prepared for wild accusations of following in Pariah's footsteps (fat chance), but this- this was nuts! Come on, they were accusing me of rebellion? Seriously? I was not the one who'd led a years-long revolution that completely overthrew the government of the Golden Age. And 'repeated interaction with the Mortal Realm'? News flash- we lived there!

"You're insane!" Danni blurted. The entire roomful of eyeballs focused the Stare of Doom on her. She shrank back a little, then took a firm step forward. "Only full-ghosts are need passports for Earth- not that you've been enforcing that for anyone else in the entire Underworld. We're half-human; that law doesn't apply to us- and even if it did, it hasn't been enforced for, like, five hundred years!"

"Five hundred and twenty-seven," Clockwork murmured.

Danni gave him a look that clearly indicated she wanted nothing more than to take his Time Staff and shove it up his nose. I took over her tirade. "And for the whole 'human invaders' thing, we have express permission from the king, queens, and princess of the four places you mentioned. They like Sam and Tucker and Jazz- Dora, um, Princess Dorothea of Aragon, even made Sam her advisor."

"That does not excuse your infractions in the Barrens."

Clockwork smirked. "So you admit that it does excuse their human friends' visits to the other realms."

Danni lost her shove-it-up-his-nose glare. The Observants decided to copy it.

The Barrens are the roughly spherical region centered around Pariah's Keep. They have no king, no lord, no form of organization. Only informal codes and the occasional intervention of the High Observant Council keep it from falling into complete chaos.

"The no-humans law doesn't apply to the Barrens," I pointed out. "They're called the Lawless Lands for a reason." I folded my arms. "Why don't you just admit that you're making things up because you don't want Pariah's biological kids running around?"

"You dare-"

"We are not being recorded," Clockwork said quietly. "We can speak frankly." He folded his arms. "What are your terms?"

"The High Observant Council does not negotiate with criminals," the spokesman declared primly.

Clockwork snorted. "What does that have to do with anything?"

I love that guy. Obviously not in the same way I love Sam (that would add a very creepy dimension to the whole Dan-is-a-prisoner-in-his-tower thing), but in a totally platonic, you-rock way. It's one of the reasons the Observants hate me.

"Have they stolen? Have they ever knowingly broken one of our laws? Need I remind you that upon learning that humans couldn't enter the Ghost Zone, Daniel summoned me to his home in the Mortal Realm to apologize for his perceived transgressions? I told him then that he was in violation of no rules, none of the laws of our people, and neither was Danielle. If you want to prosecute a halfa, go bother Vladimir." He was in child form, but he somehow looked scarier than the Council and the Ancients combined. "Otherwise, leave my charges alone."

Once again: I love that guy.

"We're willing to negotiate," I blurted. "I'll give up my ability to disband you if you quit trying to eliminate us."

For once in their loudmouthed afterlives, the Observants were silent. "Ditto," Danni growled. "But if you don't let us go, we will retain that power. And we'll use it, too."

I am the carrot. She is the stick. Together, we can do anything.

"I propose that we call a recess," said an Observant in the back row.

"I second the motion," agreed his/her/its neighbor.

Danni, Clockwork, and I filed out of the Council Chamber. I released a shuddering breath, wiped sweat from my forehead. "Think they're gonna kill us?"

"You're halfas. You can't be killed."

"That's not what I meant, smart aleck."

I think he rolled his eyes, but since they're red all over, I couldn't really tell. "They will not harm you, youngling. Once again, you have my word."

Danni relaxed for the first time since she'd learned our father's identity. A smile quirked her lips. "Is that a prediction or a prophecy?"

"Both, of course. I am experienced enough to predict things without actually looking into the future."

"Think you could fast-forward us so we don't have to wait?" I asked hopefully.

This time, I know he rolled his eyes at me, red all around or not. "Children nowadays have no patience," he murmured, but he said it fondly. "Why don't you find some kind of distraction?"

We both knew that tone. "…Like?" Danni smirked.

"You should go explore your sire's Keep."

I don't know what we were expecting, but it sure wasn't that. I blinked at him stupidly, not knowing what to say except a moronic-sounding "Wha?" Beside me, Danni's jaw worked like a fish out of water. "Why?" she demanded.

You might not have noticed this, but she's a lot calmer than I am. I think it's because I was so paranoid back when my powers first came back, and the scars have remained on my psyche or something. I should really ask Jazz about that. Anyways, the point of this little tangent is that while I stood there gawking, Danni actually asked an intelligent question.

Clockwork's answer was ambiguous as always: "Are you not curious?"

Neither of us bought that, but we knew better than to ask. He wouldn't give a clearer answer if his afterlife depended on it. Still, it was probably a good idea to check out the Keep. Clockwork never made suggestions, no matter how innocuous, without a reason. Take yesterday, for example, when he 'suggested' that I read a book and I ended up learning who my father was. So, without another word, Danni held out the Infi-map, and we flew to Pariah's Keep.

The castle was just as creepy as I remembered: red, dank, empty, and filled with booby-traps. Fortunately, all we had to do was revert to human form to avoid being crushed. The Keep was designed to keep out invading spirits, not human teens.

Normally, I would have gone through the rooms, the passages, the basements and attics and hidden places, but that day we gravitated straight to the throne room… and the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep.

We stared at it for a long, long time, perfectly silent, not knowing what to think or even if we should think. Maybe we shouldn't. Sometimes, it was easier, better, just to feel.

And so we felt.

Finally, after half an eternity had passed, I floated closer to the Sarcophagus and began inspecting it. Clockwork had to have some reason to have sent us here, and I had the nasty feeling it had something to do with Pariah's prison. Maybe it had been damaged in our battle three years ago; maybe he'd put a hole in it just in case someone sealed him again.

There wasn't- at least not that I could see. If any hole existed, it was so tiny that a halfa's inhuman vision couldn't pick it out, or it was a deep gouge on the inside of the Sarcophagus.

If there had been a hole…. I looked down at my glove-covered hands. If the Sarcophagus had been made of Pariah's blood, Danni and I could seal it with our own. It probably wouldn't be as pure or as strong, but it would be a whole lot easier than letting Pariah escape again and extracting a whole bunch of his blood (speaking of which, how the heck did they managed that the first time? Blood is powerful, especially the blood of powerful people; I can't see the Ghost King just leaving a bunch of it lying around. If the Observants don't kill me, I'll have to ask).

"No holes," I announced.

And that was when the soul-eating crocodile monster attacked us.


*cowers* I am so, so sorry that this update took so long! *begs shamelessly* I swear that the next one won't take almost two months to get up. Please forgive me. -Corona