Chapter Forty-Five: Returning Home
If anyone had the right to collapse onto the couches, chairs, and even the floor back at headquarters, it was the heroes, mystics, and ghosts. Phantom had collapsed onto one of the more comfy chairs, Dani happily floating near her dad as she read a book. It was a unanimous decision to keep the ghost girl out of the fight. They had no idea what Dan would have done to her if she was there. She had been upset about it, but there is a reason why she gets her stubbornness from her father. She is a brick wall of stubbornness, but her father is a whole mountain of stubbornness.
All of the sirens looked ready to fall over fast asleep, they all looked so tired. The fighting and the use of Perfect Harmony left them basically flying in their sleep. They were exhausted.
But that could be said for everyone. Between the Guys In White agents, the demon zombies, Shendu, and Dan, they were all drained of power and energy. Even Beast Boy and Impulse. And that says something considering that they were usually the ones that had boundless energy. Roland was even curled up on his opal polar bear, using its fur like a giant pillow.
"Anyone else wanting to pull a Sleeping Beauty and sleep for a hundred years," Melinda asked.
Basically, everyone raises their hands. Except for Roland, who seemed to have already gotten started on his hundred years of rest.
"I would ask Maleficent to borrow her little spinning wheel, but I already fought one dragon today," Krinos stated.
"Yes, fairy tales are real," Lena answers the unasked questions that the heroes were about to ask. "We can explain more once we are not just about ready to go right to sleep."
"Roland's already started," Sarah poked the hybrid, but he did not even stir. "That must be one comfortable bear."
"We're all so tired, a bed of nails would probably even seem comfortable to us," Garth commented.
"I'm bulletproof, so it's not like I would have anything to worry about," Conner said.
"Okay, no more trips to India for you guys," Danny says. "Especially you, Conner. I am not going to have my boyfriend sleeping on a bed of nails, bulletproof or not."
Everyone else seemed to freeze. It was like they were all cars and someone had slammed on their brakes. Siren facepalmed, as did Aqualad. Superboy's eyes widen as his brain registered what Phantom just said.
"Kept that secret for over a year and he blows it in one evening," White complained, falling over on the couch with him landing in Aqualad's lap.
"It was bound to happen sooner or later," Kaldur commented.
"I blame his lack of sleep," White sighed. "Whenever my brother doesn't get enough sleep, he loses his filter and whatever he is thinking will come out of his mouth."
"Guess that explains why Skulker and Box Ghost always got his sassiest comments," Valerie laughed. "Those two had nasty habits of attacking late at night."
"Without a doubt the most annoying, yet very persistent, ghosts we have ever met," Jazz says.
"Persistent equals annoying is what she is trying to say," Valerie said.
That was when Jazz seemed to finally catch on to what her brother had said. She felt like slapping herself to see if she was dreaming. This was the first time that he had ever even been interested in a boy. He had the biggest crush on Paulina for the longest time, even though she was one of the meanest girls in all of Amity Park. There was also how he had dated Valerie and Sam.
Her brother was never the best at romance, especially given all of Sam's forced fake-out make-outs and how Technus had basically forced him and Valerie into romantic situations without them knowing. Yet even with the difference in genders, her brother certainly had a type. Dark-haired tough people that also had hard heads as well as being very very stubborn. Personally, she had thought Valerie was a much better girlfriend for him than Sam ever could have been. But now he looked very happy with Superboy.
"A boyfriend, huh," she said, crossing her arms.
"Ah, crud," Danny hid his face in his hands.
"At least I was not to blame for the slip," Conner snickered.
Jazz stood up from her seat.
"Okay, time for the overprotective big sister talk," she stated, not at all ashamed to admit that she could go a little overboard sometimes with her protective nature.
"Oh, boy," White looked to be fighting laughter.
"Oh, you are not escaping this, little bro," Danny was not going into this alone.
"Don't you dare," White glared at his twin.
"Going to tell your sister that White is dating Kaldur," Dick was the one that let it slip.
Okay, Jazz was not as surprised that her youngest brother was gay. Unlike his twin, he had never had a girlfriend and was certainly one of the most vocal people in Amity about his dislike of Paulina. There had actually been times where he would say that her being targeted by ghosts was karma coming at her for being a horrible person. Jazz always felt inclined to agree with him more than the twin that had a crush on the brat.
In terms of his own romantic experience, Jazz did not think he had any. He had never looked at any girl or boy in all of Amity as anything other than a friend, family member, random person, or an annoyance. Glad fit into the fifth category of "person that he wants to turn into a personal punching bag" that had been made just for him. If anything, Jazz had always thought that he had a crush on Krinos or Lena. But it seemed that his type was more the strong, serious, and calm type than emotional and wild.
"Okay, this is the moment that I have been waiting for," Jazz acts like she is preparing for a fight as if she was Rocky. "This is going to take all of my big sister protection powers."
"Oh, Jazz," White shook his head.
"As bulletproof as you are, Conner, nothing will save you from her," Danny chuckled.
"Considering that she is your sister, I believe that," Conner said.
"I suddenly want to go back to Atlantis," Kaldur says. "She can't follow me there, right?"
"She'll find a way," White snickered. "Never underestimate Jazz. It is a lesson that you will live to regret because of how she teaches it."
"By teach, he means that she scares the ever-living crap out of whoever underestimates her," Danny states.
"And with these magic bracelets, I will be a lot scarier than before," Jazz smirked, having turned her Phantom Amazon armor back into her bracelets.
"Since all the fighting is over, does this mean we can finally go home," Gar asked.
The team all sat up when they heard Beast Boy's question. They looked at the twins since they were the only ones that could answer it. But before they could, a portal opened up. It formed into a clock and vanished when the minute hand moved around the clock. Clockwork had appeared, making a lot of them nearly jump out of their skin. And even during all this, Roland was still fast asleep.
"Guess he was waiting for that question to be asked to make his dramatic entrance," Danny chuckled.
"Since it is his job to watch the timeline, he has to have his fun whenever he can," White snickered.
"I get my dramatics from being around you two," Clockwork stated.
"We don't have to stay, do we," Danny was silently praying that they could leave as soon as humanly and magically possible.
"No, you do not, Daniel," Clockwork says, everyone sighing in relief.
"Thank the gods," White said.
"I am very proud of you both," Clockwork tells them. "You came back to the place where you were hurt by those you loved. You faced your most feared enemies and overcame your fears to defeat them. You also put aside your differences with the demons in order to free them from the Guys In White. I could never be prouder of you two."
Phantom and Siren were almost in tears. Parental figures and them have never gotten along. The Fentons never acted like parents to them. Only ever even paying attention if they were scolding them or using them as maids to clean up their lab that they blew up every other hour. Add in that their main teacher was Mr. Lancer, who easily showed that he would favor the A-listers simply because they had money or they scored wins for the Casper High football team.
Clockwork and Pandora were probably the closest people that they knew that they could claim to be their parents. Clockwork was certainly the only father figure they had that had told them that he was proud of them. And Pandora certainly had a fierce mother bear personality to her. It was why Dani always loved to visit her. When she unleashed her mother bear rage, it was fun to watch as long as you were not on the receiving end of it.
To finally hear someone they looked up to tell them that they were proud of them was something they never thought that they would ever experience.
The twins could not help but get up and go over to Clockwork. They gave their father figure a big hug, which he returned. The team smiled as they looked at their friends. Jazz had her hand over her heart as she smiled at the scene.
But like all other good things, this moment came to an end. Alerts on the computer screens sounded. Looking at them, they saw the Fentons, Tucker, and Sam were upstairs. Most of the team and mystics rolled their eyes. They did not want to deal with them again, but at least they knew that this was going to be the last time since they would be leaving soon.
They all forced themselves to get up, not wanting Phantom and Siren to face them alone. They would never do that to them, Especially against the people that hurt them more than anyone else.
"Let's get this over with," White sighed.
The twins walked up the stairs and opened the secret door to the warehouse part of their headquarters. The team and mystics quickly followed them. When they got up, Tucker was rubbing his ears, telling that he had triggered Siren's enchantment on the security system by trying to hack into it. Again. He was going to have ringing in his ears for a few hours.
Aqualad and Superboy stood next to their boyfriends as they all stared down the traitors.
"Did you want something or are you here just to be annoying," Danny got right to the point.
You can't say that he ever pulls his punches.
"Danny sweetie," Maddie tried to fake being sugary sweet.
"You don't get to call me sweetie after all you've done," Danny crossed his arms.
"I do remind you that you slapping him was the main reason why we finally decided to leave," White glared at them.
The reminder was like a slap in the face to their former mother as she remembered that she did that.
"She's your mother, so give her another chance," Sam basically ordered the twins.
"We gave her, and the rest of you, plenty of chances," Danny glared. "We spent over a year basically as punching bags for all of you. We saved your lives countless time, we saved this town even more, we even freaking saved this whole planet and all any of you gave us in return was betrayal, abuse, and isolation."
His anger did visibly affect them, but they also still had looks in their eyes like they thought that they did nothing wrong.
"We are not your doormats anymore," White snapped. "We have people that care about us. Real people that have actually been the only real friends and family that we have ever had besides Jazz and Valerie. They don't want anything from us. They don't demand that we save them. They don't blame us for things that we have no control over. They do not hate us simply because we are magic."
"I think they have been holding this in for a long time," Dick says over the link.
"At least they will finally have some closure before they leave and never return to this horrible realm," Garth responds.
The rest of the team agrees with them.
"Well, things will be better now that you are back, my boys," Jack tries to be cheery as if they would ever even think they were going to stay.
The twins raise their eyebrows. Did they really think that after all they put them through that they would just forgive and forget? Yeah, that was not going to happen.
"You don't seriously think that we're staying, do you," White put a hand on his hip.
"As if," Danny scoffed. "I would rather slam my tongue in a car door."
"But you have to stay," Tucker says. "We need you guys. The town is a disaster."
"Of course it is a disaster," White says. "You have psychotic government agents that are nothing but deranged conspiracy theorists, mystics running for the hills instead of helping from the shadows like they usually do, and four traitors that have no idea how to fight ghosts, demons, and mystics running around. But that does not mean that we care. We're are perfectly happy staying in our real home."
"We are not going to stay where we know that we are not going to be appreciated no matter what we do," Danny said. "There is nothing left for us here. This realm is a lost cause. No more mystics, no more ghosts, no nothing. It will now, and forever, be known as a magical dead zone. Time to learn to stop being so selfish and learn to do things on your own instead of demanding help from those you never thank."
"Nothing left for you," Maddie yelled. "We are your parents!"
"No, you are not," Danny stated, glaring at them even more. "Clockwork and Pandora have been more of a father and mother to us than you two ever were. No 'if' 'and' or 'but' about it. We are done, finished, no longer caring about anyone or anything in this realm."
"I may be the siren of pure heart, but nothing about any of you ever said that you have hearts," White says, angering the traitors. "If we stay, everything will go back to the way it was when we left. Hatred of magic will not go away, hatred of ghosts will not disappear, and we will still get blamed for everything that goes wrong. We're done. Good riddance to you all."
Not wanting to deal with them anymore, the twins turned to Clockwork. Getting the clear message, Clockwork raised his staff and opened a portal.
"Never have I ever wanted to leave one place so much," Danny said. "I will make sure to send some ghost servants to collect anything we leave behind."
"And no use trying to get passed our security system with my enchantments in place," White smirked.
They all left through the portal, leaving behind four furious traitors. They all appeared back in Mount Justice,
"So glad to be home," Danny said.
"Only one thing will make this better," White smiled.
He pulled Aqualad to him and into a kiss. Phantom smiled and then did the same to Superboy. Shocking everyone, Nightwing and Red Arrow also then kissed.
"Liking this team more every day," Valerie smirked, kissing Blue Beetle's cheek and making him blush.
They truly were home.
