Dr. Midori was as understanding as he could be, considering the situation, which he understood very little about. Nevertheless, he granted Velma the time she needed to sort this out with her friends, in spite of monitoring the rocket's progress himself. Velma's family also gave her the room she needed, as well.
And so, the gang had, more or less, taken over one of the conference rooms, and Daphne placed the Chest of Demons in the middle of the conference table.
"I know you've got a lot of questions—about what happened to Freddie, and who those two were," Daphne said. "Those two are… kind of the reason why this whole thing started, and it began with this." She indicated the Chest.
"What were those two things, though?" Velma asked.
"I thought they were holograms at first," Fred said. "But then they grabbed me, and they felt so…" He winced. "So cold. Almost like they were…"
"…Real," Shaggy finished for him. "They are real, Freddie. There were 13 other ghosts in this Chest of Demons that they were working for, and… they tricked Scoob and me into opening it and letting them loose—it was just after Daphne and I had gotten signed on to the Chronicle as freelance reporters. We were going to Hawaii to celebrate, and they sabotaged our plane so that we'd land in the Himalayas and open the Chest."
"That's where we met Flim-Flam," Scrappy added.
"And rhe introduced us to Mr. Van Ghoul," Scooby finished.
Velma's expression was completely unreadable, and Fred just stared at Vincent for a moment.
"…Back there, when I was in the rocket," Fred said. "Mr. Van Ghoul showed up out of nowhere and freed me with some kind of weird necklace. And the next thing I knew, we were back in the control center with you guys. What happened!?"
"Mr. Van Ghoul is a warlock—he's two thousand years old," Daphne added. "He's not technically a historian, but he's lived long enough that he just… sort of became one by default. He's been helping us for the past two years recapturing the 13 Ghosts. He's our mentor. And he's been more of a father to me than my actual dad these past two years." A dark look crossed her face as she remembered the reason for her ire at her parents, but she pushed the thought aside for now. "He's actually going to teach me to cast spells after this is all over. But, nevermind that; with his help, we've recaptured 12 of the 13 escaped ghosts. They're in there, right now." She indicated the Chest on the center of the table. "Along with some extra monsters we've captured along the way; back in March, Athena—the real Athena—started assigning him missions to capture other renegade monsters. And we've been through so much together, we just… wanted to stay and help him." She glanced at Vincent and gave him a wan smile. "We wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for him."
"Nor I, if not for all of you," Vincent reminded her, speaking for the first time. "Don't forget that."
"What I said to you earlier was all true, Freddie," Shaggy added. "We wanted you to meet Mr. V, but we wanted to wait until he was comfortable with the idea."
"So… for the past two years, you've been capturing ghosts and monsters—real ones—in that?" Fred asked, looking at the Chest. He then glanced at Vincent. "And you're a warlock—a real warlock?"
Vincent responded with a nod.
Fred looked to Shaggy and Scooby.
"And you weren't afraid of him at all?"
"Well, maybe we were at first," Shaggy admitted. "But it didn't take us long to get over that."
"Rheah, rhe's a big old softy," Scooby said, looking at Vincent with a grin.
Vincent rolled his eyes slightly, but returned the smile.
"I don't suppose you could give us a demonstration of your, um… powers?" Velma asked, her expression still unreadable.
"I think he already did by getting me out of the rocket," Fred reminded her.
"Freddie, are you sure you were inside the—?"
"Yes, Velma, I was," he insisted. "Those… ghosts teleported me in there, and Mr. Van Ghoul teleported me out."
"If you desire a demonstration of my powers with your own eyes, I shall grant it to you," Vincent replied. He indicated a pen on the conference table. "Examine that thoroughly, if you wish, and then toss it into the air."
Velma picked up the pen and, after looking it over, did as he instructed.
"Temporal Chains!"
The pen was suspended in midair with the magic chains.
"Hey, that's kinda like what you did back there!" Fred exclaimed. "Except you stopped everything rather than just one thing!"
"Yes, this spell works on singular objects that aren't overly large," Vincent said. "The rocket would have been much too big for me to have used this spell effectively, so I had to use the Time Scepter to pause the entire space-time continuum."
He released the pen from the chains, and it fell back onto the table.
"…Jinkies…" Velma whispered, gingerly picking it back up.
There was a bit of silence for a moment.
"…Those ghosts wanted to trade me for that, didn't they?" Fred recalled, looking at the Chest.
"Yeah, they want to free the 12 ghosts we recaptured, and prevent the final one from getting captured," Shaggy said. "I dunno how they were going to free the others, though—the Chest can only be opened by mortals. Guess they would've just tricked someone else to do it again."
"Wow…" Fred sighed. He looked to Velma. "What do you think?"
Velma sighed.
"This whole thing is just… too incredible," she admitted. "But… like Sherlock Holmes said, 'Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'"
Daphne managed a wan smile.
"Still a fan of his, huh?"
Velma smiled back, just as faintly.
"Of course." Her smile then faded. "But why didn't you tell us this sooner? Did you think we wouldn't believe you? We saw real zombies when we went to find the Temple of Sirius, and then we got invited to Dracula's party… Did you think we wouldn't believe that you met a warlock?"
"No," Daphne insisted. "I knew that the two of you would believe us—that was the problem." She sighed. "What would you have done if Shaggy or I had told you that we were tracking down 13 demonic ghosts?"
"We'd have wanted to help!" Fred insisted, and Velma nodded in agreement.
"Yes, exactly!" Daphne exclaimed. "All those other times we went up against real monsters, we were way out of our leagues! We never beat those zombies, or Dracula and his crew—we ran!"
"We didn't want you guys to get hurt or captured," Shaggy insisted. "These weren't guys in costumes trying to scare people off—like, these creeps were playing for keeps! …And after what just happened with those two ghosts, I think we made the right call. Those two guys were just minions, too!"
"We felt rhawful rhnot telling you," Scooby sighed.
"Yeah, we really wanted to—really!" Scrappy added. "We actually came close to telling you!"
"You did?" Velma asked,
"Yeah, like, we wanted to let you in on it so you could keep an eye out for anything weird," Shaggy said. "But then we faced Maldor…" He trailed off.
"I was put under a sleeping curse," Daphne said, quietly. "And we nearly lost Scooby, too."
"It was after that moment that I vowed that I would protect them at all costs," Vincent admitted. "And it was then that they also decided not to tell the two of you in order to protect you." He paused. "My vow to protect them still stands—and now, this protection also extends to the two of you, for the final ghost, Asmodeus, clearly has seen your newfound importance in this."
Velma, still a bit overwhelmed, nodded in understanding.
"You and those two ghosts mentioned Asmodeus last night," Fred recalled. "Is this the same Asmodeus from the legends of King Solomon? If I remember right from my reading, after a long battle with King Solomon, Asmodeus was trapped in a box…" He trailed off, staring at the Chest. "…Ah."
"That is correct," Vincent said. "Asmodeus was once a warlock—my ancestor. Lady Pallas cursed him to remain in the form of a demon after he attained that form to hold his growing power. His twelve followers are the rest of the 13 Ghosts, who now remain trapped in the Chest once more."
"Can we see them?" Velma asked.
"Not directly," Vincent insisted. "Opening the Chest would release them and the other monsters we've captured—but you can look with this."
He held out a magic magnifying lens, which he held over the Chest. The lens briefly showed Zomba sulking in a corner somewhere. Vincent moved the lens, now revealing Nekara, silently fuming; she suddenly sensed that she was being watched, and she turned towards the lens, attaining her Gorgon form and hissing at her unseen viewers.
Fred and Velma jumped back, and Vincent now withdrew the lens.
"So… Asmodeus is the last one?" Velma asked, after a moment.
"…And you're related to Asmodeus?" Fred asked, stunned.
"I take no pleasure in it," Vincent informed him.
"Vincent is nothing like Asmodeus," Daphne insisted. "Vincent is kind and generous and caring, and I trust him with my life."
"We all do," Shaggy added.
"Old Vince here might be the most powerful warlock in the world, but don't let that have you jumping to conclusions," Flim-Flam chirruped.
"And how did you meet him?" Velma asked.
"I met him a year and a half before the others did," the boy replied. "I'm an orphan, and after I ran away, I didn't want to go back to the social workers, so when the monks kept talking about a powerful sorcerer on one of the mountaintops, I thought that, maybe, he could get the social workers off my tail. He did one better—he took me in."
"I know it's hard to believe that you can just trust a warlock, but, really, you can," Daphne promised. "Like I said, he's going to be training me as his apprentice soon. Vincent uses magic to help people and protect them from all the bad things out there, and I want to learn how to do that, too."
"I'll buy that," Fred said, with a nod. "He did save me from going on a one-way trip to Mars."
"I'm not denying that we can trust him," Velma assured her. "Your word was enough for that. I'm just curious about something, that's all." She turned to Vincent. "You're really two thousand years old?"
"That is correct, yes," Vincent agreed. "However, I'm not sure how I could prove it to you—the pass I showed you last night was one I conjured to avert your suspicions as to my presence here on the base." He smirked. "We didn't exactly have photo ID back in Old Athens, so I have nothing authentic to show you."
Velma grinned in spite of herself.
"No, I can believe it, too," she admitted. "I'm just wondering why you're going through all this trouble—helping my friends recapture these ghosts. You didn't have to help them or make that vow of protection—and you didn't have to teach Daphne to cast spells."
"You're right—I didn't," Vincent agreed.
"You're basically immortal—we must be insignificant little things to you," Velma continued. "So why did you choose to help my friends?"
"Because I found something that I didn't realize I needed," Vincent replied. "A family."
Velma blinked in surprise, but nodded.
"And I would also like to add that you mortals are far from 'insignificant little things,'" Vincent added. "Your friends have been through quite a few significant events. You should be quite proud of what they have accomplished these past two years—I know I am."
"Yeah?" Fred asked, looking to them. "What all have you guys done?"
"This isn't the time to get into that—not yet," Daphne said. "There's still one big thing we need to take care of, and then we can tell you all about it."
"…The Time Worm?" Velma asked.
Daphne nodded.
"It's real, too," she said. "Asmodeus sent it to go after us—to get to Vincent. Vincent hadn't planned to show up last night, even though we'd asked him to…"
"But he did when he realized you were in trouble," Fred finished.
"Right," Shaggy agreed. "So, you two just sit tight, and Mr. V will help us figure this out."
"I don't think so, Shaggy," Velma said, folding her arms.
"Huh?"
"She's right," Fred added. "You had your reasons for keeping us out of the loop—we don't like it, but we understand why you did what you did."
"If it had been us… we'd have probably done the same," Velma admitted. "But we're all in it now. And now we're in it together."
Daphne felt her heart warm at the very words, and she nodded.
"Together," she confirmed with a nod.
It was exactly what she'd been wanting.
Notes: Take note, WB: that is how you introduce Fred and Velma to the truth about the 13 Ghosts, and how they would react.