As Daphne and Velma returned to the others, still arguing with Young Vincent about going back, it became clear that, once again, there was a language barrier—and Flim-Flam was trying to get past it by using Nepali to counter Young Vincent's Sanskrit like before. Scooby was emphatically pointing to the time portal as Scrappy backed up whatever it was Flim-Flam was saying, in spite of not understanding a word of it.
"Oh, no…" Daphne groaned. "The translation talisman vanished along with the rest of present-day Vincent's things. How can we talk him into going back now!?"
"It'll be up to Flim-Flam, I guess…" Velma sighed, as Fred and Shaggy headed over to them now.
"Like, we've got a problem," Shaggy said, indicating Vincent again. "Flim-Flam is the only one who can slightly understand him."
"We've got bigger problems," Velma informed him. "Unless Vincent goes back to his own time, Daphne is going to disappear like Asmodeus did!"
"What!?" the boys exclaimed, in unison.
"There was one tiny detail I forgot," Daphne sighed, handing the photograph over to Shaggy. By now, her grandfather had completely vanished from it—and her father and uncle were now fading. "Vincent saved my ancestor's life in 1692—"
"Oh, no…!" Fred exclaimed, putting the rest of the pieces together himself.
"Once the timeline change catches up with Daphne, that's it," Velma fretted.
"It's already caught up to the Vincent we knew," she said, looking miserable. "Shaggy, he's gone."
"…And you will be, too…" Shaggy realized, the horror growing on his face. "How much time do you have left?"
"I don't know… probably fifteen or twenty minutes by the way that picture is fading," she said. "The only thing that can save me is if this Vincent goes back to his own time and lives out his life like before."
Shaggy glanced over at Young Vincent, still talking with Flim-Flam and the dogs. He was clearly starting to get even more annoyed at their pestering.
"Maybe if we show him the picture…?" Fred asked. "Do you think he'd get the message that way?"
"This version of him wouldn't know what a photograph is, Freddie," Velma lamented, recalling how the present-day Vincent had joked about there being no photo ID in ancient Greece earlier that day. "I still find it hard to believe that this is the same man who was so protective over Daphne before—now he's the reason for her getting erased from existence."
"But he doesn't even know it," Shaggy realized. "…Daphne?"
"What?"
"This may sound like a really bad idea…"
"At this point, I'll try anything!" she said.
"Okay, well… I think the best thing for us to do right this moment is nothing."
"What!?" the other three exclaimed in disbelief.
"Like, hear me out on this!" Shaggy defended. "Look, nothing we say is going to get through to Vincent—Freddie and I practically talked his ear off, and it was like talking to a brick wall! He's young and stubborn and hot-headed, true. But, deep down, he's still the same guy—kind and caring under all that pride and tenacity. Didn't you see the way he reacted when Asmodeus tried to attack you, Daphne?"
"Yes, but—"
"And isn't it significant that even though our Vincent is gone, we still remember him?" Shaggy added. "Our memories of him should've faded along with him—and, right now, I've got a new set of memories where we did go to Hawaii… but I can still remember the other memories of going to Tibet and opening the Chest."
"…So can I," Daphne realized.
"Even though the timeline has changed, it's like that connection between him and us still exists, even if we don't understand it," Shaggy continued. "I saw it when he ran right ahead to save you from Asmodeus—he wasn't focused on anything else. In spite of everything changing, he still loves us, Daphne—even if he doesn't realize it yet. And if he realizes that his staying here is going to cause you to vanish from existence…"
Daphne's mouth fell open as she recalled present-day Vincent's words during their telepathic conversation—
"…Nothing short of something drastic will get me to change my mind that easily."
"…It's going to tear him up," she realized. "But it's going to be the only way to get through to him as to the consequences of his actions."
"Exactly," Shaggy nodded. "Like, I feel terrible, manipulating him like this—and also knowing that you're probably going to go through a world of hurt until he does go back to his own time…"
"This is bigger than me," she assured him. "I was thinking about how someone like Vincent must've helped and saved a lot of people in his lifetime—all of them will have been hit by the Ripple Effect, too." She glanced at Fred, who was still holding the photograph. "How does it look?"
"Your dad and Uncle Matt are almost gone," he said, his voice quivering slightly. "I hope Shaggy's idea works."
"If this won't work, nothing will," Daphne said. She looked to Velma.
"…I guess you and Shaggy do know Vincent best," Velma admitted, after a moment.
Shaggy nodded.
"I'm putting a lot of faith in this," he said. "But, in case it doesn't… Daphne, you need to know—"
"Of course I know," she said, looking around at him and the others. "All of you—you've all meant so much to me, and I know I've meant the same to you. …C'mon, bring it in—one more time."
They drew together into a group hug. Scooby and Scrappy noticed this and quickly abandoned trying to convince Young Vincent to join the group hug. Flim-Flam took note, as well, and told Young Vincent to wait there while he, too, joined the others.
Young Vincent looked on in quite a bit of confusion; the older kids seemed solemn and almost mournful—perhaps they were mourning his future self, those sentimental mortals… He did regret the distress he was causing them, but he was confident that, in time, they would begin their friendship anew.
He watched as Flim-Flam asked something, and Daphne replied—and he and the dogs reacted in stunned horror. They all glanced in his direction briefly before talking amongst themselves again, and Young Vincent began to feel annoyed again.
"This has really gone far enough!" he chided in Sanskrit as he walked over to them, hoping that Flim-Flam would translate for him. "Things have changed, and you're going to have to accept that!"
Flim-Flam did quickly translate for him, and Daphne responded with something.
"We have accepted it—you're just going to have to accept saying goodbye to Daphne," Flim-Flam translated to Nepali.
Young Vincent scowled, glaring at Daphne, who glanced back at him serenely. She knew he would interpret that as her trying to be stubborn and difficult in return, and she was fine with that—the truth would, therefore, hit him all the harder.
"I am willing to renew our association, and you spurn me? Out of pride? Or is this some pathetic way of trying to teach me a lesson?"
"Oh, there's a lesson, alright—but it's not what you think it is," she said, after Flim-Flam translated for her. "If there's one thing your older self taught us, it was that actions have consequences—and you're about to learn that lesson yourself."
Young Vincent briefly glanced at Flim-Flam for the translation, and then looked back at Daphne. He was hurt, still thinking that this was just her stubbornness.
"I understand you are upset, but I am trying to reach out to you. If it is true that I had chosen you to learn my magic, then it means that we must have shared something special. Am I truly that repulsive at this age that you don't wish to renew it?"
Daphne's expression softened as Flim-Flam relayed it to her.
"No, not at all," she promised. "I would have loved to know you again, but I can't. Maybe the others will—and I'd appreciate it if you'd help them through it."
Young Vincent blinked in confusion, and he looked to Flim-Flam, not even noticing Fred's look of panic as he held out the photograph to the others.
"Did you translate that properly? What am I supposed to help you through?" he asked the boy.
"Her goodbye," Flim-Flam finished, blinking back a few tears as he saw the 7-year-old Daphne in the photograph beginning to fade from it.
Daphne let out a pained cry, doubling over and falling to her knees in the sand. Oh, it was painful as it had looked when it had happened to Asmodeus and those two ghosts—a white-hot, searing sensation starting in her gut, threatening to spread. And while that was going on, there was a frightening, tingling sensation in her right hand—and as she raised it to look at it, she saw her hand beginning to fade.
The others were holding on to her shoulders—except for Young Vincent, who had switched back to frantic Greek; he knelt in front of her now, a terrified look in his blue eyes. As Shaggy had predicted, this new development had distressed him now, immensely.
Young Vincent now held a hand in front of Daphne.
"Esuna!" he called, and Daphne recognized it as his go-to healing spell. And the horrified look on his face grew as the spell did nothing, and the fading spread up Daphne's right arm. "Esuna! ESUNA!"
Another wave of unbearable pain coursed through her, forcing her to shut her eyes as stars filled her vision.
"Flim-Flam…" she managed to gasp. "Tell him…"
"That healing spell isn't going to work," Flim-Flam informed Vincent, in Nepali. "In your original timeline, you saved her ancestor's life when he was a child. But with you gone, there was no one to save him. He never grew up—so Daphne was never born. The space-time continuum is erasing her to adjust to the new timeline."
"…Why didn't any of you tell me!?" Young Vincent cried.
Flim-Flam blinked.
"Uh… why didn't we tell him?" he asked.
"There's no way you would've believed us!" Shaggy frowned, looking at Vincent as he gripped Daphne's left shoulder. "The way you've been acting, this was the only way to get through to you! You gave Scoob and me such a chewing out for opening the Chest; guess it was my turn to return the favor!" His expression softened. "I know, deep down, you're the same person we knew—you wouldn't be this upset if you weren't. And if you really are the same Vincent Van Ghoul, then I know that there's nothing you wouldn't do to save her."
"Is there a way to save her!?" he asked, once Flim-Flam gave him the translation.
"Rheah—go rhome!" Scooby said, pointing to the time portal.
"Please!" Scrappy pleaded, blinking back a few tears.
Young Vincent glanced back at the portal as Scooby pointed to it. He didn't need a translation for that. He glanced back at Daphne, and the sweat pouring down her face; he conjured a handkerchief and gently cleaned her face.
"…But how will I know that I've succeeded?" he asked, sounding unbelievably lost as he realized just how much Daphne was suffering because of him. "Will I truly have to wait centuries upon centuries to find out whether or not I was the cause of your demise?"
Daphne opened her eyes now to look at him as Flim-Flam translated it. She couldn't put Young Vincent through that—through all that uncertainty for so long. He deserved to know that he had done the right thing.
Using her left hand, she removed her green chiffon scarf—the one that she had worn all through high school, and even after, until just before meeting Vincent and Flim-Flam. During their adventure in Arizona, she'd worn it again out of nostalgia, and had worn it again today for the same reason, having been back with Fred and Velma after so long. It was, more or less, a part of her.
Trembling in pain, she held the scarf out to Young Vincent; understanding what she was doing, he managed a nod, accepting it.
"Forgive me," he said in Greek, sounding incredibly humbled.
And Daphne didn't need a translation for that, either; she managed a nod, unable to speak as another spasm of pain coursed through her, causing her to shudder.
She was fading even more quickly now, much to Young Vincent's alarm—even the scarf in his hand was beginning to fade; he quickly got up and backed away, heading for the time portal, but still unable to look away.
"Miranda…" Daphne managed to say.
"Huh? Oh, yeah…!" Shaggy exclaimed. "Look… what you and Miranda have is special, okay? Daphne and I wanna make sure that… you don't forget that."
Flim-Flam's eyes widened as he realized what they were trying to do—even if Young Vincent would still end up calling off the wedding, there was no need for him and Miranda to go on without speaking to each other for as long as they had.
The boy quickly relayed the translation to Young Vincent, who, puzzled by it, promised that he wouldn't forget.
And then, there was the briefest exchange of goodbyes before Young Vincent returned through the portal. A few tense minutes passed until the restoring Ripple Effect of the original timeline kicked in; the pain suddenly left Daphne as she became solid again, catching her breath in a gasp of relief as the emerald pendant reappeared around her neck, with present-day Vincent's cape was back in her hands—and the Chest of Demons also reappeared back in Shaggy's.
"Look!" Fred exclaimed, holding out the photograph again. Not only was 7-year-old Daphne back in the photo, but so were her father, uncle, and grandfather.
"…He did it," she realized aloud, looking at the still-open portal. "He really did it—he changed all of his plans just for me."
"Yes—Shaggy was right," Velma sighed, still gripping Daphne's arm. "There wasn't anything he wouldn't have done for you."
"And now, we've gotta return the favor," Shaggy agreed.
"Rheah, rhe gotta bring him back rhome!" Scooby agreed.
"But how?" Flim-Flam asked. "We don't have the Time Scepter—Young Vince had it last before it vanished."
"Uh-oh; he must've taken it back with him," Scrappy realized.
"True, but present-day Vincent is a lot wiser than his younger self; I'll bet he…" Daphne trailed off, reaching into the bigger-on-the-inside pockets of the cape until she drew the Time Scepter out of it, just waiting for her to use it—to bring him home, for now, he had absolute faith in her once again. She covered her mouth briefly, shutting her eyes to hold back the tears threatening to leave her, and the others gripped at her arms again.
"C'mon, Daphne…" Shaggy encouraged, after letting her take a moment. "You can do this."
She nodded and once again brought the Time Scepter to Vincent's crystal ball, trying to find his location in the year 41. She went past the first location she had opened the portal last time, instead focusing on trying to find Vincent's mana elsewhere. Vincent had said she'd been close…
You have to be alright—your things wouldn't have come back if you hadn't… So I know you're still out there…
Her thoughts trailed off as the crystal resonated again with Vincent's mana, and her nervousness grew.
"Vincent!?" she called again. "I… I'm opening another portal…!" Her voice was shaking as she opened a second time portal. "There… there it is! Please… come back to us, Vincent!" Her voice cracked. "Come home."
She and the others waited for a few more tense minutes. And then, once again, a hand appeared through the portal. This time, however, Daphne reached out and took the hand, gently pulling him through the portal.
He was just as she remembered him: clad in his tuxedo, with his dark hair now having two grayed temples—and the blue eyes, so full of concern, also exactly the same as he glanced down at her.
She wasn't sure what to say—none of them were. They had, after all, sent him back to live out his original timeline—in spite of knowing all of the misfortunes he'd had to endure throughout his life. And her existence meant that he had saved her ancestor, meaning that he had been captured by the witch hunters—and nearly burned at the stake. He'd endured it all for her.
"Vincent…" she began. "I'm so sorry—"
She didn't get the chance to finish before he'd pulled her into a hug, once again apologizing—this time, in English; though she tried to hold back her tears, she couldn't—a sob escaped her as she returned the hug, crying into his shoulder.
And, slowly, one by one, the others turned it into a group hug—Shaggy and Scooby next, then Flim-Flam and Scrappy, and lastly, Fred and Velma.
And they stayed like that for a very long time.