"Misery Vex? Who is that and what do they have to do with my brother?" Danny asked impatiently.
"It has everything to do with your current quest." Clockwork said, conjuring the image of a female ghost in a black body suit and cloak. "Misery Vex is an old ghost. In fact she is one of the Ancient Ghosts who succeeded in first sealing Pariah Dark into the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep."
That made Danny raise an eyebrow upon hearing it but he stayed silent.
"When the Ghost King was sealed away, Misery Vex believed that order would be restored to the Ghost Zone. However the Ghost Zone quickly fell into chaos with many of its inhabitants pursuing their own self interests. Despite standing against Pariah Dark's tyranny Misery Vex believed in creating a form of law and order to unite the Ghost Zone and she was disappointed to say the least when that law and order was ignored by the vast majority. This did not sit well with her at all and thus she started forcing her brand of order on the Ghost Zone in a manner similar to what Pariah Dark had done." Clockwork continued, dispelling the image. "Her bounty became large enough to cover the Ghost King's castle many times over but any ghost that went after never came back. Even the Walker and the Observants gave up trying to bring her in, considering her too dangerous. So they left her alone to carry out her own devices in the far reaches of the ghost zone where many of Pariah Dark's warlords had taken shelter after their kind had been deposed."
"Speaking of, what about Walker and the Observants?" Danny cut in. "I thought they were the law makers in the Ghost Zone."
"Walker is indeed a former member of the Free Order that the Ancient Ghosts put in place after the Ghost King was sealed away but his methods were judged too extreme and he was banished. He took up residents in the most barren and unlawful part of the Ghost Zone where he established his prison. As for the Observants they monitor the time stream for threats to both Earth and the Ghost Zone, keeping ghostly related catastrophes from causing great harm to a delicate balance between our worlds. In the meantime, many of Pariah Dark's former generals who served underneath the Fright Knight began fighting over territories and for the chance to claim the Ghost King's throne for themselves." Clockwork answered and continued. "Misery Vex set about, fighting and defeating these warlords to try and restore order but as powerful as she is she is still just one ghost and a small army of followers with her. This fighting has lasted for centuries and is still happening as we speak. Vex had come close to being destroyed on many occasions and it seemed all hope was lost…Until one day."
Clockwork conjured an image of Misery Vex finding a ghost portal…and a boy staring at her from the other side.
Danny stared at the image with widened eyes. "That's him…That's my brother."
Flynn Fenton.
He was so much younger than Danny was when he turned into a half ghost.
"Portals have appeared leading to Earth from the Ghost Zone and vice versa before but they were always short lived. Only this one was different. It was a seemingly stable portal and it was clear that the humans on the other side were beginning to understand how to perfect the technology for creating ghost portals. However Misery Vex saw another use for it, specifically in the boy." Clockwork explained.
Danny watched as Vex reached and grabbed the boy, pulling him into the portal as he screamed. The hero clenched his fists and glared at Misery Vex as the image faded away.
"What…did she do?" He asked slowly as he looked at the time ghost with blazing eyes.
"As you know, ghosts can travel through solid matter in the human world and humans can do the same in the Ghost Zone. Vex believed this was the advantage she had been looking for. She took the boy and raised him to be a soldier." Clockwork answered. "Trained him to fight against ghosts, using his human nature as her key to victory."
"She drafted him?!" Danny exclaimed in anger. "She took a kid and did what?! Put him through ghost boot camp!?"
"For the lack of a better answer, yes." Clockwork answered calmly. "From that point forward the boy who was your brother was gone. I know you came here looking for him and you shouldn't. Essentially Flynn Fenton is dead."
"Where is he?" Danny asked slowly and forcefully. "I am not letting him stay trapped out here a second longer."
"As I said, Flynn Fenton doesn't exist anymore. It is a waste of time." Clockwork argued.
"Don't question my resolve, Clockwork. You don't have the right to decide what's best for me in this." Danny snapped.
Seeing he was getting nowhere Clockwork merely sighed and answered. "Vex is one of the older ghosts who lives in the far south of these parts, away from the lawless wastelands where the ghosts you fight live. The warlord regions are out there, hiding from her, Walker and the Observants. It's a constant battle field there which is why no one goes near it." Clockwork conjured a map for Danny and highlighted the region he spoke of. "Vex will be there, having set up camp among one of these battle scarred lands. She will not be happy to see you."
"The feeling will be mutual." Danny took the map.
"She holds you and Vlad Masters in utter contempt. Masters released Pariah Dark and then nearly doomed the world with that asteroid. You on the other hand, stopped both and are hailed as the hero she believes she should be in the eyes of the Ghost Zone for helping seal the Ghost King away the first time." Clockwork informed him. "She is of the opinion that half-ghosts like you should not be allowed to exist in this world."
Danny turned away and flew out of the time ghost's lair, heading off in the direction of the southern regions.
"And she will not be swayed by the words of a family looking for its lost son and brother." Clockwork said, watching as the ghost boy flew away.
Xxx
Jazz had just finished putting on a jumpsuit similar to her mother's and strapped on several weapons. Her mother and father had already readied the Fenton Specter Speeder and loaded with any and all weapons they could get their hands on. She got in the back as Jack sat in the pilot seat and activated the engines.
"Hang on, Flynn. We're coming." Maddie whispered as the Specter Speeder floated off the ground and then shot into the portal.
Xxx
Danny had never flown this far deep into the Ghost Zone before.
There was almost nothing out here…
Except for floating lands filled with battle scars.
It was a literal war zone out here.
"All this was going on out here I'm just find out about it now." Danny muttered.
To be fair, it wasn't like everything happening in the Ghost Zone was his business anyways. He only came here during a ghost crisis and even then it was limited to simple exploration to know where all the bad ghosts were hiding out.
"Okay, so according to Clockwork Misery Vex is camped out here somewhere." Danny mumbled to himself.
Sure enough he could see smoke on one of the battle scarred lands and upon taking a closer look he saw a campsite with numerous ghosts wearing armor and carrying various weapons. Narrowing his eyes, Danny landed in the center of the camp and watched as the ghost surrounded him immediately.
"I'm looking for Misery Vex." He called out stoically.
A few the ghosts chuckled.
"Yeah, and what do you want with her?" One of them asked.
"Vex doesn't like uninvited guests."
"This time she'll make an exception." Danny replied, his eyes flaring.
"Sure. We'll bring you to Vex…" One ghost raised a giant spiked club. "In one piece or several."
"Silence!"
Everyone halted, turning their heads to the large red tent and quickly moved out of the way as a woman in a dark cloak stepped out.
Danny glared, believing this one was Misery Vex.
She was definitely different from the other ghosts.
She wore black armor that hugged her figure with a cloak and hood. Her hair was shoulder length and wavy while her eyes were completely green like Walker's. The way she carried herself was similar to that of the Fright Knight who himself was a ghost from around the time of the Ghost King so it actually made sense.
"I take it you are Misery Vex." Danny greeted sourly, remaining on guard.
"I am. So," Vex stepped forward as her guards quickly got out of her way, allowing her to face Danny. "The famous Danny Phantom. Hero of both the human world and the Ghost Zone, Ghost Boy, the Great One, Savior and oh so much more. I suppose I should be flattered you have decided to grace us with this visit. We don't get a lot of visits from ghosts of such…renowned status."
"You can feel whatever you want about me. I don't care about that. What I do care about is someone you took from my family." Danny retorted.
"Really? And who is that?" Vex asked, coldly.
"Flynn Fenton, my brother." Danny answered, his glare intensifying. "You took him from us and he was just a kid."
"I know of no 'Flynn Fenton'. The Ghost Zone is no place for humans, let alone human children." Vex replied, her eyes narrowing. "Or half breeds like you who have no business existing to contradict the natural order. The other one foolishly released Pariah Dark, the very King I spent centuries fighting and helped seal away and yet the Ghost Zone fell into chaos that I have fought against all this time. And yet, when you sealed him away you became recognized as a hero by many ghosts despite not truly being one of us. Such insolence has frustrated me greatly."
"I could care less what you think. Just return my brother and I'll leave and you'll never have to see me again." Danny suggested, crossing his arms.
"Your proposal…is acceptable." Vex turned away, grinning as she did.
She snapped her fingers and a shadow fell over Danny. He looked up and his eyes widened to see the cloaked attacker from before, seeing his staff down on him. The halfa jumped out of the way, the blade cutting through the ground as its owner landed.
"Danny Phantom, meet my Exodus." Vex introduced. "My right hand who has served me for a long time now."
"I thought you said you were giving my brother back!" Danny shouted angrily, recognizing the cloaked attacker. "Wait, you sent him to kill me?!"
"Did I?" Vex chuckled as she turned around and faced Danny. "I was thinking more along the lines of never seeing you again. My loyal hand, see to Danny Phantom's…exodus."
Exodus raised his weapon. "Yes, my lady."
"So it's going to be that way huh?" Danny asked as he suddenly created three duplicates of himself. "Don't say I didn't try to be nice."
And with that all four duplicates let loose with a Ghostly Wail, decimating the entire camp. The rest of the ghosts were blown away while Exodus plunged his staff into the ground and created a shield while Vex simply conjured a ghostly barrier of her own.
"Tch." She lowered her barrier when the attack was finished. "A child wielding such great power. You're more of a danger to your human people than us ghosts."
As soon as the attack was over Exodus charged at Danny, swinging his staff at the ghost boy who jumped back. Danny summoned a small bit of ecto-plasm and fashioned it into a sword which was followed by his copies. They fell on Exodus, slashing at him but while they were shown to know how to use a sword Exodus was a superior fighter as he easily blocked, dodged and parried each strike. One by one each duplicate went down until only the real Danny was left.
"This is the ghost that defeated Pariah Dark?" Vex wondered, looking disappointed. "I expected much more from a ghost, halfa or not, with such a formidable claim."
Danny hastily fired an ecto-beam but Exodus swatted it away. He whipped out a chain that wrapped around Danny's hand. With a mighty tug Danny was pulled off his feet, sent flying right at Exodus who swung his staff.
WHACK!
"GAAAAAH!" Danny cried out as he crashed into a rock from being hit in the face by the staff. "Ooh…."
"Hmph." Vex scoffed, unimpressed by the ghost boy's lack of abilities. "Pariah Dark was obviously rusty from years in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep if he fell against a weakling like you and thus deserved to be overthrown. Exodus, finish him off."
"Yes, My Lady." Exodus raised his staff, pointed the hooked end at Danny. "Shall I care open his chest and give his core to you as a trophy."
"No. He doesn't deserve the honor." Vex turned around.
"As you wish."
Exodus raised his staff, ready to end Danny's life…
ZAP!
ZAP!
ZAP!
ZAP!
ZAP!
Exodus spun and jumped out of the way as a series of energy blasts fired at him from behind. He, along with Vex and Danny watched as the Fenton Spector Speeder landed several feet away and out of it jumped Jazz, Maddie and Jack.
"Get away from our boy!" Maddie shouted, holding up a Fenton Bazooka.
"More humans." Misery Vex scoffed. "The Ghost Zone is being too crowded with your kind for my taste."
"Are you Misery Vex?" Jazz asked, wearing a Fenton Ghost Peeler.
"And if I am?" Vex coldly asked back.
"Then I'd say you have someone you shouldn't." Jazz said, raising her arm blasters. "Give us back our brother!"
"Give us back our son!" Jack and Maddie shouted.
"Humans, such insolent creatures." Vex grumbled. "Coming here and daring to make demands of me, thinking your meager toys can threaten me."
She made a single swipe of her hand the weapons flew out of Jack and Maddie's hand. She then raised her hand and Jazz was lifted in the air, the Fenton Peeler crushing around her body.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Jazz's scream caused Exodus to pause and look at her. "….Jazz?"
Vex raised an eyebrow as she dropped Jazz back onto the ground. "What did you say?"
Exodus quickly shook his head. "Nothing, my Lady."
"Carry out your order." Vex glanced at Danny. "Finish him off."
"Yes, my Lady."
Jazz froze at the sound of the voice. "…Flynn?"
The cloaked man stopped for a second, glancing at her.
"Flynn, is that you?" Jazz took one step forward.
"Jazz, don't!" Danny cried out, fearful of what Exodus might do to his sister.
"Flynn Fenton…Fly Fen." Jazz continued her approach. "Do you remember me?"
The man glanced at her again. Jack and Maddie were both stunned to hear what Jazz had called her brother as a baby.
"You held me in your arms when I was little. Picked me up and would dash around the room, holding me up so I could fly." Jazz held out a single hand to Exodus.
Exodus froze at her words, memories of that happening popping in his head.
"Fly! Fly!" A baby Jazz laughed happily as her brother picked her up.
"Okay, we're going flying." Flynn said, dashing around the living room with a squealing Jazz in his arms. "Just the Flying Fenton and his little co-pilot, Jazzy."
"Yay!" Jazz clapped her hands in excitement.
"You wanted to be a pilot someday. To have your own plane to fly through the skies." Jazz took a step closer. "You had a book with pictures of planes that you showed me all the time."
The man lowered his weapon as he looked at her.
"What are you doing?" Vex narrowed her eyes.
"Flynn, it's me. It's Jazzy." Jazz held out her arms.
"I gave you an order!" Vex barked.
Jazz reached out and pulled the man's off, revealing the same orange hair as hers and deep purple eyes that belonged to their mother's.
Danny gasped quietly while Maddie and Jack looked in stunned realization.
Exodus was Flynn Fenton.
His face was rugged with a chiseled chin, long orange hair falling down to his shoulders with a single scar over one eye. His face resembled a young Jack Fenton's but as his features softened like that of Maddie Fenton.
"Jazzy…" The man whispered, lowering his weapon as he gazed at his little sister who was now openly crying.
"Fly Fen!" Jazz cried out, hugging her brother tightly and sobbing into his shoulder.
Misery Vex watched in agitation as her knight was hugging this worthless human. "Exodus, what are you doing?!"
He glanced at her. "She is my sister."
"I don't care. She is an enemy." Vex growled, holding up a glowing hand. "She does not belong in this world."
"Neither did our son!" Maddie shouted, aiming the Fenton Bazooka at Vex. "You stole him from us! Made him into a weapon!"
"And you made the portal which he came through." Vex retorted. "That same portal allowed for ghosts to come through to your side just as easily as it brought your boy to me."
"Don't try and redirect blame, ghost!" Jack said as he and Maddie fired their weapons. "You kidnapped and brainwashed our son!"
Narrowing her eyes, Misery Vex dissolved into a shadow that fell to the ground. The blasts from the Fenton weapons flew over her as she shot at the two parents. She reformed behind them and elbowed Jack in the stomach and then swatted Maddie's bazooka away.
"You think you can harm me?" Vex asked, blocking a punch from Maddie. "I've been in constant battle for millennia."
She kicked Maddie and dodged a strike from Jack. She noticed Jack was wearing metallic gauntlets over his hands that allowed him to harm ghosts.
"For centuries, I fought to bring order to this wretched dimension." She ducked under a punch and let loose a punch of her own that knocked Jack back. "First it was Pariah Dark, then the warlords and then every criminal out there. No matter how hard I fought the Ghost Zone would remain a place of constant chaos."
Maddie lashed out with a Jack-O-Nine Tails that wrapped around Vex but before they could electrocute her, shadowy tendrils sprouted form her body, cutting the whips from her body.
"Then I found my secret weapon and I acted without hesitation." Vex spun around and fired an ecto-blast at Maddie but Danny shot forward and pushed her out of the way. "The Ghost Zone is a place of constant misery, overrun by selfish ghosts thinking only of themselves and the chaos they cause instead of properly reflecting on why they exist. I will bring back order even if it takes another millennia and sacrifice everything I have to do so."
"You haven't sacrificed anything." Danny retorted, putting his mother on the ground. "You just sacrificed everyone else around you and you sacrificed my brother's life with us!"
"And what do you know of sacrifice, ghost boy?" Vex retorted, facing the ghost hero. "You, born of human and ghost. An unnatural and unholy blending of life and death that only served to invite all the ghosts onto your doorstep. Your powers invited them to challenge you, their challenge brought chaos to the human world and that chaos almost doomed both worlds."
"Yeah and everything so hunky dory before that." Danny argued. "You can play the self-righteous card all you want but in the end, to me you're just another crazy ghost in the long line of all the other ones who have shown up to try and make the lives of me and my family miserable. Only you took a step further when you kidnapped one of us."
"And what do you plan to do about it?" Vex asked mockingly.
"Do what I did to all the other ones." With that answer, Danny shot right at Vex with a battle cry.
Vex scoffed, dodging the punch and grabbed Danny, slamming him into the ground. She then grabbed his head and kneed him in the face several times before throwing him away.
"Danny!" Jazz shouted, pulling away from Flynn who looked on.
"Danny?" The man asked, staring at the younger half ghost. "…My little brother?"
Vex shot at Danny, attacking as he stood back. Danny conjured a shield but Vex produced a purple blade that cut through the shield.
"You think you can defeat me?" Vex said, cutting Danny across the chest.
Danny screamed in pain and looked to see the cut he had been given glowing.
"Like it? My power allows me to attack a ghost at its very core, forcing it to feel nothing but absolutely…misery. A total of three strikes and your core will lose its ability to hold you together." Vex said, summoning a second blade in her other hand. "Though I heard that other halfas like you exist, I am sure ending your existence will send a clear message to them. That your kind does not deserve to exist in this world or any world for that matter. Now, die!"
Just as Misery Vex raised her weapons to finish Danny off, a green glowing sickle slashed her in the back. Vex gasped in shock, dropping her weapons to the ground and slowly turned around to see who had done it.
"M-My…Exodus?" She gasped in pure shock.
"…Forgive me, my Lady. You have been judged to be a threat." Flynn Fenton said, pulling the sickle out.
Vex said nothing else as her form was engulfed in shadow and she vanished from sight.
Danny held one hand over his chest as he stared at where Vex had been. "Is…Is she dead?"
"No." Exodus, no, Flynn Fenton answered. "She has been sent to Unworld."
"Unworld?" Danny asked as Jazz, Maddie and Jack slowly approached.
"Unworld is what you would call limbo in the human world. A nightmare like realm where people have no human or ghost abilities and are trapped there forever." Flynn answered. "She gave me this weapon to sentence ghosts found guilty of crimes against the Ghost Zone. All ghosts who are banished there can never return."
They were all silent at the implications of this.
Misery Vex had stolen Flynn Fenton from them, turned him into a weapon to use as part of her mad goal to unite the Ghost Zone under her rule.
And yet, did she truly deserve to be trapped forever in a nightmare realm.
"Flynn." Jazz grasped her brother's hand. "Let's go home."
Flynn stared at the hand and then at her, before looking at his parents who were smiling and then to his brother. "Home…I'm sorry."
He wretched Jazz's hand from him as he stepped back. "I cannot go back."
"What? Why?" Danny asked.
"This is my life now. It may not have been what I had chosen but it is what it is now." Flynn answered calmly.
"But Flynn, you belong with us!" Jazz cried.
"I belong here." Flynn replied, looking his family in the eye. "It's hard to explain but I know I have to continue. Misery Vex may have been an abductor and an extremist but she was right in one thing. The Ghost Zone is chaotic and its chaos will spread to the human world. Someone has to try and keep the worst of them at bay."
Maddie looked ready to cry along with Jazz, but they nodded.
Jack placed his arms around his daughter and wife with saddened face. "We understand, son."
Flynn then looked at Danny. "I remember you…You were so little when they brought you home."
"Yeah," Danny rubbed the back of his head. "I went through my own ghost adventures."
Flynn nodded with a soft smile. "Look after them."
With that Flynn Fenton stepped back and jumped over the edge, the zero gravity of the Ghost Zone allowing him to fly off deep into the black and green vortex like dimension with his family watching as he left.