"Oh man, you sure missed a lot of things," Dash said.
"Yeah, I know, over fifteen years to be precise." The gem in disguise admitted, a heavy sigh escaping his mouth.
"How long did you spend away from us Danny?"
"A year by my calculation, lots of weird things happened so imagine my surprise when clockwork told how long was I gone. Enough about me, I'm about what happened while I was gone."
"Oh boy Danny, that is a very long story that I am more than happy to tell you. The first week you went away the GIW tried to forcefully get the information about you from your family and trust me when I tell it did not end well for them does not truly do justice to the events that transpired." The adult Dash said, making the gem raise his eyebrows in surprise.
"When that video you made from Clockwork's fortress got online, a dozen of very enthusiastic agents decided that it was a good idea to storm your house and try to gang-press a family that is still grieving the loss of their child. It ended in a very violent confrontation, one that cost your father his left arm and crippled two agents for life while it also killed another five. Your family was not accused of anything and the remaining group of GIW agents was put on trial for acting on their own and escalating the confrontation, well your dad has this kick-ass robot arm. I heard he modified it so he would be able to attach a Phantom Thermos to it."
"Why is he calling it that?" Danny asked, making the older blond give him a funny look.
"Well duh, he named like that in honor of your memory," Dash explained forced the super gem to smack his forehead.
"That was kind of stupid of me, now if you please can tell what happened to the rest of them."
"Sure I can do that, well the GIW director disbanded the team and formed another one from the best of what the world can offer. Your mom and dad were offered a position but they refused, they said that they wanted to continue your work. The buzz about the whole situation died down shortly and everyone went on with their lives, nothing happened for about a year until your mom got pregnant again."
"You have got to be fucking kidding me, how did she get pregnant?" Danny nearly shouted.
"The old-fashioned way bro, and if you think that she was no longer able to carry you have to look deeper into it. When I talked to your sister a few years back, she told me that it would have been impossible for her to carry a baby if she waited another year or two." The older blond explained, an amused look spreading over his face at the shock of the young gem disguise.
"Gross stuff aside, what did they name the baby?" the former halfa inquired.
"They named her Danielle, again so they can remember you in some way." The man said, smiling at the memory.
"Please tell me she is not like Jazz." The former hybrid pleaded to make Dash laugh.
"No man, not in the slightest. She is more like you in many ways one could mistake her for a female version of you." The blond sighed, remembering the numerous troubles the girl got into.
"Tell me about you, what happened to you when you were gone?" the man asked.
"Lots of things happened; I live in a place called Beach City now. It really is a nice town you know, small population but the people are nice. I fought a bunch of giant monsters, traveled through time and discovered the internet." Danny said, in a tone that made it extremely funny.
"Discovered the internet, really Danny so what are you going to tell me next? How you melted when you heard kittens purr?" the adult asked, and seeing the embarrassed look on the young gem's face made him laugh out loud turning every head in the food establishment to his direction.
"Sorry about the disturbance folks, this one is on me."
He turned to Danny, barely able to hold his laugh at the annoyed expression that made it even funnier.
"Yeah, laugh it up, Baxter. Just so you know, I had my memory removed and I was wondering around the place like a lost puppy questioning everything. I was lucky to have them by my side." He shot back, making the former jock hold his hands in surrender.
"What happened to you out there Danny? Who are you referring to when you talked earlier?" Dash asked.
"No, I am not going into details yet. When everyone is gathered I will spill the beans or whatever they say these days."
"I suppose I can wait for a bit," Dash said, still curious about what Danny was going to say.
"I will tell you what happened to the rest of your friends, Tucker of all people married Paulina. You heard me right Fenton, She lost that bitch queen attitude after you left because she realized how futile it is to be that arrogant and cocky. The same thing happened to me you know after you were gone our group did some soul searching and we realized how much a big asshole we were. So let me get back to Paulina, she left all that queen bee crap behind her and focused on school. I was shocked to see her so focused on her studies that I and the rest of our friends did the same as well instead of our social status. She met Tucker in DC, he was attending some convention about programming and she was there to visit some relative. She of all people is a doctor now, both of them connected after their brief encounter and they hit it off pretty quickly and they have been together for about four years and their relationship is pretty strong too."
Dash looks at Danny, the young gem's mouth still wide open from the bit of news dumped on him. The adult blond chuckled and used his free hand to close the gem's mouth.
"Out of all weird things that happened today, this is the only thing that I did not see come. Wow and I stress on every letter, those two are a polar opposite of each other." The former hybrid said, chewing on his fries and taking a bite from his burger.
"Yeah me too, the first thing I was shocked but then I saw how changed both of them were. They are more mature and really good people, hell they even have twins now. I kid you not Danny, they had them the second year of their marriage and you truly happen to be their godfather."
"You don't have to act so surprised Danny when I said a lot of things happened while you were gone I really meant it. I wish you were here to see it because you would have loved it; they really took your last request to the heart and went on with their lives."
"You should be happy you know, sure they grieved you for a while but they made the effort to do that last request of yours and look at where they are now. Sometimes, my wife wishes that her little brother did not have ghost powers at all." Dash said, sighing as her look at the ceiling.
"I'm not surprised Dash, you did have a huge crush on her." The young super quartz deadpanned.
"You still remember that do you?" the man said softly.
Danny nodded and then proceeded to eat the rest of his food leaving nothing of it on the plate, the former halfa smiled and was about to speak when suddenly a very familiar shape burst through the door of the food establishment. She was a fourteen years old girl with an uncanny resemblance to Danny that one could mistake her for a female clone of him, she looked at Dash and smiled widely while walking to the table he shared with Danny.
"There he is my one and only brother in law." She said, giving the adult blond a high five.
"Sup kid, how are you doing?" the man said, ruffling her hair a bit.
"Fine, I'm doing great actually. Mom is teaching me how to shoot an ecto gun and dad will help me build my very own power armor after that, I'm going to be the best ghost hunter ever."
Dani turned to the teenager who was sitting at Dash's table, gave him a questioning look and then directed her gaze toward the adult in the vicinity.
"Who is this scrawny kid Dash? He looks like me but I'm cooler of course." She said, a smug smile spreading across her face.
"This is the second time I've been called scrawny, what is it with you people?" Danny said in a mock anger, eliciting a laugh from the adult.
"Calm down Danny, allow me to introduce you to your sister Dani," Dash said, wiping a stray tear from his eye.
"You can't be serious, my brother is gone. Mom told that he was gone before I was even born." She said, not believing a single word
"Well gone but not dead actually, yours truly is still alive and kicking," Danny said, much to her ire.
"Dash remembers the lunch lady that was my first real catch. After Sam managed to convince the school board to change the menu of the cafeteria she appeared and went crazy and she kept raving about how the menu hasn't changed in fifty years or so. Turns out the teachers were so eager to accept Sam's suggestion to keep all the meat for their lounge." Danny recalled, smiling at his debut as a superhero.
"Yeah, the mud sandwich was awful. I still can't believe they served actual mud and grass for teens." Dash added making Danny laugh hard without drawing attention.
Danielle stood their shock at how casual the two in front her were. If this kid in front of her was really her lost brother, her mom would be extremely happy but what does this mean for her?
"Let's see where this goes, for what is worth I'm kind of happy he is here." She thought to herself.
"Hey remember the Halloween challenge, where the loser would eat the other's underwear."
"Nope, not going there bro. it's just too gross for me to remember, you literally put it on my plate and said eat. The entire cafeteria would smell the stench of your unwashed underwear rotting on my table." Danny said, eliciting a laugh from the blond man.
Dani gave him a weird look, which he noticed and laughed at hard enough to make her blush.
"Sorry sis, I don't swing for the other team. The thing that I'm talking about with is a stupid bet we made back at high school, we challenged each other to bring the nastiest underwear we could find in our rooms and whoever makes the best-hunted room makes the other eats it."
"That is not helping your case Bro, in fact, that is super gross if you ask me."
"Yeah I know, sit down so I can't get to know you better," Danny said patting the chair near him.
"I'm kinda busy, need to meet some friends of mine in a couple of minutes to see you at night perhaps?" She said, hopeful not to upset him.
"Yeah sure, go one do your thing."
The girl left, leaving the duo alone to recall the memories of their high school. They sat there for two hours, doing nothing but talking and conversing about what happened. Dash decided to call it in the day, he invited Danny to go with him and the former ghost boy accepted almost immediately.
"Ready to meet your sister Danny?" the blond man asked.
"I don't know man, I'm kind of nervous and I'm not sure about doing this." The gem in disguise said, fidgeting in his seat as dash drove the car.
"Nonsense Danny, maybe it wasn't long for you but it was fifteen years since the last time they saw you. Even if you are nervous, you have to do for their sake and yours as well." The man said, hoping to boost the confidence of the gem.
The car came to a stop, signaling their arrival to Dash's house. The man looked at the super gem, who looks absolutely terrified as if Jazz won't be happy to meet him. The man sighed and decided that the alien in the human form needed a push to do this.
"Come on Danny, it's time to settle this once and for all," Dash said, making the gem sigh.
"Let's get this over with."
The duo was in front of the door, Danny looks at the blond man who gave a nod and smiled at him. The gem proceeded to knock on the door, earning himself a shout back from what he thought was his sister's voice. It sounded different now, all mature while he sounded like a squeaky toy.
"Dash you're home early, I thought you still had hours until you." Jazz said
The woman never got to finish what she was about to say when she saw her young brother waving at her. Her eyes went wide; she kept pointing her finger at him and then passed out.
"Oh boy, I will get her to the couch to go get changed Dash." The former half ghost said as he picks the clearly heavier woman from the ground with such ease that the man kept staring at him as if he grew another head.
"What the hell did they feed you while you were gone?" Dash said in awe at the display of strength displayed by the Fenton teen.
"Now is not the time damn it. I'm going to get her to the couch and you go get some smelling salt." The gem in disguise snapped in a tone that clearly showed irritation.
Dash scrambled to the toilet on the top floor, where he went straight to the medicine cabinet where he took the smelling salt and. He went down the stairs at a rather slow pace; he spotted the young gem sitting beside his sister while waiting patiently for his brother in law to come down.
"Took you long enough, now hand it over." The alien said, holding his open palm toward the blond man.
The woman began waking up, eyes still heavy and blinking rapidly as they tried adjusting to the light.
"Ah, the sleeping beauty is waking up. Good of you to join us." Danny said, smiling widely and barely able to hold up his laughter.
"Danny, is that you little brother?" She asked, rubbing her eyes as if her long-lost brother was just a trick her mind is playing on her.
"No Jazz, I'm Santa Claus in disguise, of course, it's me." The former
Half ghost said.
Danny, as soon as he finished those word he was knocked over by his sister who rushed at him with the full force her body could muster and enveloped him in what could be described as the hug of all hugs. The woman sobbed loudly, her body trembling as the gem rubbed her back trying to comfort her.
"Come on Jazz, you can stop crying now."
She said few incoherent words, between the heavy sobs and the stream of tears that came out of her eyes the gem did not understand.
"Take deep breath Jasmine, in and out." The former Fenton advised making the sobbing mess of a woman look at him.
"Still can't believe it's you, little brother." She said, wiping tears from her cheeks.
"It's me alright, in the flesh or something," Danny said, a weak chuckle escaping his mouth.
"Or something, what is that supposed to mean?" Dash intervened, making the duo turn their heads to him.
"Like I said dash I will explain later, right now I want to catch up with my sister." The former hybrid said and then he turned to her.
"So tell what have you been doing while I was gone?" He added.
"Well little brother, you are looking at doctor Jasmine Baxter proud psychiatrist in Amity Park memorial psychiatric ward." The woman exclaimed proudly of her title she earned.
"Color me impressed Jazz, all that hard work finally paid off huh?"
"We need to tell mom, she has to know this. She took your disappearance the hardest out of all of us." Jazz said grabbing both of Danny's hands giving him a pleading look.
"Take it easy Jazz, Dani knows but probably think of this whole thing as a hoax so she might have not told them. What I want to do now is make a plan for this to be a surprise to them."
OK, let's end it here guys, the next chapter will be the last in this small arc. Like I said before in my previous author notes that the Closure arc will be extremely short, I'm not planning on making the reunion that long because I want to introduce the next arc as soon as I can. Trust me guys when I say that the next arc will be the longest and the most exciting part of the story. I will also add at least two new arcs and that depends on the series and the upcoming movie. This fanfic is far from over and if my calculations are correct it will exceed a hundred thousand words which I really hope it would. I decided that the next power to be fully unlocked will be voted on; if the votes exceed ten votes the most voted on powers will be picking if no I will pick the power myself. I still have a secret to tell, even if her remaining two powers are fully unlocked she still won't reach her full potential and that will be unlocked in a very horrible way. Trust me when I say that you won't see the twist of events that I prepared for you guys.
Nova Quartz out