Several days had passed since the incident with Helsa and Danny had fully regenerated from his injuries. He had stayed home for a full week until he had fully recovered. Now it was the weekend again and he was able to go out and meet with his friends. He was planning on hanging out with Octavia for half the day then spending the rest of the day hanging out with Angel Dust and Cheri Bomb.

He flew over to Stolas' mansion where Octavia was waiting for him outside. Landing in front of her he forced a smile and waved. "Hey…"

"Hi Danny. Glad to see you've recovered." Octavia told him.

"Y-yeah…" Danny stuttered as he recalled the entire ordeal. He then stared down at the ground in silence.

"You're acting somewhat off. Is something wrong?" Octavia inquired.

"No… Nothing. Sorry. Let's just go hang out." Danny said.

Octavia shrugged. "If you say so. My dad says there was a new planetarium just opened up here in Imp City. I remember you mentioning something about wanting to be an astronaut when you were younger, and I have to study astrology since I'm Dad's precautionary heir, and admittedly I do find the subject pretty interesting. So since space is a common interest, I thought it might be fun for both of us if we go visit. What do you think?"

"Sure, sounds good to me. I haven't been to a planetarium in years. It should be fun." Danny said, his smile becoming slightly less forced. Slightly, but not by much.

The two of them headed to the planetarium. The show was about an hour long and it was surprisingly high budget. It even used high definition hologram technology that would make the best tech companies and even scientists on earth green with envy. Hell had many geniuses in it and since they were already dead or were immortal they had who knew how long to advance their tech compared to humans whose lives were measured in mere decades. So Hell was much more technologically advanced than earth.

Tucker would have loved it, Danny thought to himself. However this realization just made Danny feel terrible as for Tucker to enjoy the tech he would have to suffer down in Hell which Danny would never wish for him. His only solace in that regard was that Heaven surely had geniuses of its own which had surely advanced Heaven's technology significantly as well. Who knows, maybe the technology in Heaven was more advanced than that of Hell.

After the show was over Danny and Octavia headed back out. "Well, that was pretty fun. It wasn't nearly as good as some of the illusions my dad can make, but it was still pretty cool all things considered."

"Yeah. It was fun visiting a planetarium again…" Danny muttered listlessly.

Octavia looked at him. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately and I've got a lot on my mind." Danny told her.

"You want to talk about it?" She asked.

Danny shook his head. "No. There isn't much to talk about."

She shrugged. "If you say so."

The two of them headed to Stylish Occult. Danny looked around but didn't buy anything while Octavia bought a few clothes. They spent maybe another hour or two there before heading to go get lunch.

"So, how are your magic studies going?" Octavia asked.

"Okay, I guess… Still suck at it, but I'm learning…" Danny responded.

"I still find it weird how far behind you are. Seriously, last you told me you were on stuff I mastered when I was eight." She told him.

"Y-yeah… It's a bit embarrassing…" He lied, scratching the back of his head.

She shrugged. "Well, anyway, how's it going with Helsa? I know you two got in a big fight that destroyed a big chunk of the city around your castle, so not well I assume?"

Danny looked down at the table, his mood plummeting. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh… Oooh, is that why you've been acting weird all day?" She asked.

Danny sighed and continued staring at the table.

"Come on, I'm not blind. I can tell something's been bothering you and apparently this is it."

"Is it really that obvious?" Danny asked.

"Danny, while I haven't known you for very long just yet, I can tell you aren't acting like you usually do ever since that fight with Leviathan's daughter. Even your texts have been weirdly short and docile lately. So yes, it's that obvious. Look, you let me vent to you about my issues with my parents. I can at least return the favor." Octavia told him.

"I…" He started. Pausing for a moment he sighed and looked down at the ground. "It's… Has your dad ever tortured someone you cared about in front of you to punish you?"

Octavia shook her head. "No, and I seriously doubt he ever would… Why? Is that what happened to you?"

"Partially… Let's find somewhere more private and we can talk." Danny told her. The two of them then went and flew up onto a roof to talk.

Danny told her what happened, starting from being forced to spend time with Helsa and ending with Lucifer torturing four of the orphans he was taking care of in front of him and how Danny himself had ended up hurting a bunch of people in the crossfire.

"Shit, that's fucked… And here I thought my parents were horrible." Octavia stated.

"Yeah…"

"How did Princess Charlie end up the way she did if Lord Lucifer is like that?"

"Pretty obvious. She never had anything remotely as extreme as that happen to her…" Danny stated.

"Oh… Then I suppose it's pretty obvious who the favorite is between you."

"Yeah, no kidding… Not like I want to be part of their family anyway. I'd much rather be an orphan like the ones I protect in my orphanage…" Danny told her.

"I get it… Sometimes I sort of wish the same thing, but at the end of the day I do love my parents even if they aren't the greatest…"

"Yeah, well I don't. I hate mine…" He then sighed. "But I can't do anything about it… If I tried to run away I would just be dragged back and that's even if I tried running to Earth, if I could run to Earth… If I try to act out or rebell in any way I'll just get punished or the orphans will get punished instead of me."

"That's rough… How do you stay sane despite all this? If I were in your situation I think I would have snapped by now." Octavia asked.

"You, Charlie, my other friends, and beating up gang members and overlords… Otherwise, I just can't afford to snap because the one time I did snap and lash out, that fight with Helsa, I hurt a bunch of people and some of my orphans were tortured… If I snap, things just get worse for me and those around me."

Suddenly his phone rang. Taking it out of his pocket he answered the call. "Hello."

"Hey, Phantom. Where are you at? I thought you, me, and Angel were hanging out today." Cherri Bomb asked.

"Sorry, I'm on my way now." He responded before hanging up. "Sorry, I have to cut this a bit short. I had fun hanging out today."

"Hold on. That was one of your other friends right?" Octavia asked.

"Uh… Yes?" Danny answered uncertainly.

"Thought so. Well, I'm coming with you to hang out with them this time." She stated.

"What? But—" He started to object only to immediately be cut off.

"Danny, stop. You aren't my dad and if you're okay despite hanging out with them, I will be too. Besides, after what you just told me I think you might need a shoulder to cry on at some point and I doubt you're going to want to talk to them about this either. And I sort of want to meet them anyway. So I'm coming with you." Octavia told him.

Danny hesitated for a moment but not wanting to alienate one of his only friends in Hell, he sighed. "Fine… We weren't going to do anything too serious today anyway…"

Octavia smiled at him and stood up before wings sprouted from her back. "Lead the way."

Letting himself start floating he drifted away from the building a bit before flying back towards pentagram city. Arriving in a matter of seconds the two of them landed in front of one of Angel Dust's nightclubs.

Danny lead Octavia inside and to a private VIP section where he usually met Angel Dust and Cheri Bomb when they were just hanging out. The two of them were already sitting there with drinks, talking while waiting for him. Noticing them as he and Octavia walked in the two sinners greeted them.

"Hey, kid. How ya' doin' after gettin' fucked up by Levithan's brat? Oh, and who's the chick?" Angel Dust asked, casually motioning to Octavia with his cigarette.

"Yeah, what did you get a girlfriend while we weren't looking and that's why the bitch decided to tear you a new one?" Cherri Bomb said jokingly.

"N-no… This is my friend Octavia. Prince Stolas' daughter. I met her when I was dragged to that party a while back. I thought I already mentioned her to you guys?"

"Hey. Nice to finally meet you two. Danny talks about you sometimes." Octavia said, looking at the two sinner demons.

"Shit, only sometimes? You wound me, kid!" Angel Dust said being sarcastically over dramatic. "Anyway, yeah I think I remember you mentioning her at some point. You ain't gonna have a problem hangin' around with a couple sinners like us for a while will yah, Princess?"

"Nope." Octavia responded.

Angel Dust shrugged. "Fine. Hope you aint as much of a stick in the mud as he is most of the time… Want somethin' to drink? Maybe some drugs? Or just water like the kid usually has?"

"Do you have any wine?" Octavia asked.

Danny glanced at her in surprise.

"Eh… I think we might have some champagne. Will that work?" Angel asked.

Octavia nodded as she and Danny sat down at the table with them. "Yes. Thank you."

"What about you, Phantom? Finally willing to try some booze or you still got that massive stick up your ass?" Cheri teased.

Danny hesitated for a moment. "I… Actually… Sure."

Upon hearing this Angel Dust, who had been taking a puff of his cigarette at the time, suddenly sucked the cigarette into the back of his throat and went into a coughing fit as he spat it back out into an ashtray.

Cheri Bomb was equally suprised and asked, "Wait wait wait… Did I just hear that right? Hold the fuck on. You just said yes to booze?"

"Yeah…" Danny said, looking down at the table in embarrassment.

Both Angel Dust and Cheri Bomb looked at eachother for a moment before looking back at him. Angel Dust glanced at Octavia before leaning towards Danny, holding a hand to the side of his mouth so Octavia couldn't read his lips and whispered, "You just doin' this to impress the chick, or…?"

"No, no… It's just…" Danny sighed. "A lot happened… I don't plan to make a habit of this, but… Fuck… I don't want to talk about it… I don't even want to think about it…"

Angel Dust sat back down and shrugged. "Well shit. Must be somethin' real fucked then… Don't want to talk about it, I won't ask. I just got one question for yah, how smashed do yah want to get?"

Danny sighed and rested his head on his arms on the table. "I don't know… I've never done this before…"

"Okay, here's another question. How bad was it?" Cheri Bomb asked.

"Second worst day of my life… Very close second… Maybe on par with the worst." Danny told them.

Octavia, Cheri Bomb, and Angel Dust all gave him a concerned look.

"Shit, that bad huh? Damn… Alright, the hard stuff it is." Angel said as he got up and grabbed a couple bottles from a private bar in the back of the VIP lounge, and a couple different glasses. A champagne glass and a shot glass.

Setting the champagne glass down in front of Octavia and the shot glass down in front of Danny he poured their drinks. "Careful, kid. That's like ninety nine percent alcohol. It'll burn like a motherfucker."

Danny looked at it warily. "Sooo… Uh… How do I do this? Do I drink it all at once or…?"

"If you want to get drunk fast, yeah." Cheri said.

Danny braced himself before quickly downing the shot. He winced as he forced himself to swallow the burning liquid. Once it was down he coughed a bit. "Ugh… Ow… How do people drink this stuff?"

"Same reason you are, they wanna get hammered fast. So, Princess, since he ain't gonna talk about whatever's wrong with him… You two a thing or you really just friends like he says?" Angel Dust asked.

Octavia took a small sip of her champagne. "Just friends. We basically only just met. Besides, he's already engaged to the daughter of one of the Seven Deadly Kings. It would be a political nightmare… What about you two?"

Both Angel Dust and Cheri Bomb laughed at that. "Us?! Hahaha! No way! I love Angel, but it ain't like that. He's into guys and I'm not interested in that mushy romance shit."

"Yeah, she's my gal pal. I'd die again for her any day, hell I'd take a bullet from the exterminators for her, but I sure as shit aint gonna sleep with her or nothin' like that." Angel Dust stated.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't know." Octavia apologized.

"Nah, we just met so it's fine." Angel said, waving a hand dismissively before taking a sip of his own drink.

"I feel a bit weird… Tingly… Is that normal?" Danny asked.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. The alcohol's probably kicking in a bit. Just sit back and relax. You're a lightweight but with your healing ability you'll be fine. You probably won't even be hung over tomorrow morning, you lucky little shit." Cheri Bomb told him.

"So how did you two meet? Were you alive when you met, or did you meet here in Hell?" Octavia asked before taking another small sip of her champagne.

Octavia, Angel Dust, and Cheri Bomb continued to make casual conversation while Danny stayed silent and just sat there in silence as the alcohol kicked in more and more. Angel Dust and Cheri Bomb cracked jokes and laughed with eachother while Octavia was more reserved but still chuckled a bit at some of their jokes. Regardless they got along pretty well.

Eventually Danny's healing factor started filtering the alcohol out of his system so he poured himself another shot and downed it.

"Another shot of that stuff already? You might wanna slow down a bit there, kid. Unless you wanna puke your guts out later." Angel Dust said, looking at Danny.

"'M fine… It wash ssstartin' to wear off anywaysh…" Danny slurred

"Your funeral, kid…" Angel Dust shrugged.

"My funral… I wish… Fuck… I wish it wash…" Danny said, laying his head back down on his arms.

"Uh… You don't actually mean that do you?" Cheri Bomb asked, looking at him.

"I do… I'd deshtroy my own damn shoul if I could… I… God damn it… I jusht want to die… But he won let me… I know he won… He'd shtop me before I could… Then… Then everythin' would jus' get worsh fer me… It alwaysh jusht getsh worsh." Danny said with tears welling up in his eyes.

"Oookay… Yup. I think you've had enough for one night, kid." Angel Dust said, grabbing the bottle of alcohol and putting it back behind the bar.

"Alright, Phantom, now you gotta tell us what happened. You can't just drop a bombshell like this and not expect us to ask why you suddenly want to off yourself." Cheri Bomb asked.

"I, um… I don't think he's in much of a state to talk right now… He did tell me what happened earlier, but I'm not sure if I should tell you without his permission, which he's not in a state to give…" Octavia said, looking at Danny in a mix of concern and uncertainty.

"'Jush… Jush go ahead… Don' matter either way… Can' do nothin' 'bout it…" Danny muttered hopelessly.

"Come on, Princess. He's one of the few people in hell with the ability to actually kill himself without using a damn exterminator weapon. This shit is serious. What the fuck happened?" Angel Dust said, walking back over to the table and sitting back down.

Octavia glanced at Danny again before sighing and saying, "You both know about his fight with Leviathan's daughter. It started because she was apparently antagonizing some of his friends dying or something. He was oddly vague on that part but whatever. So he got angry and grabbed her soul, threatening to destroy it. The two of them got into a fight and a lot of demons got hurt in the crossfire so he feels guilty about that. But that's not the worst part. Apparently Lord Lucifer showed up and stopped the fight. Then he summoned some of the kids from Danny's orphanage and made him watch as he tortured them… That's the shortened version of the story anyway. There were other details, like how Lord Lucifer healed the orphans and erased their memories afterwards but they're less important."

Danny had his face laying on his arms on the table and was crying audibly even over the loud music of the night club.

"What the fuck?! Seriously?!" Cheri Bomb demanded angerly.

"That's what he told me. And I find it hard to imagine anything worse that could have happened. Though I don't get it. Why would Lord Lucifer do something like this? He obviously never did anything that extreme to Princess Charlie, so why do it to Danny?" Octavia asked.

Angel Dust lit another cigarette and looked at her. "How much has the kid told you about his past?"

"What do you mean?" Octavia asked.

"I mean before he killed Vox and Valentino. How much do you know?" Angel Dust asked.

"Um… He never really mentioned anything before that so I don't know anything about that. Why?" Octavia asked.

"You're his friend right? So can you keep a secret?" Angel Dust asked. "Trust me when I say, keepin' this secret is not just for the kid but it's in your best interest too. We won't do anything if yah tell anyone, but Lucifer might. At that point it would be all three of our asses on the line, but yours especially."

"I can… If it's that important, I won't tell anyone, not even my parents." Octavia stated.

"Alright then. I'm only tellin' yah this cause you're the kid's friend and if he told you that little horror story, it means he trusts yah. Just remember the big man aint someone you fuck with and he wants this to stay under wraps…" Angel Dust said before taking a puff from his cigarette.

Angel Dust and Cheri Bomb then explained to Octavia what they knew about Danny's origins. Who he was originally, what happened to his original family, how he ended up in hell, and how he will supposedly become as powerful as Lucifer or Michael at some point and how Lucifer wants to use him to go to war with Heaven.

By the time they were finished, Danny had fallen asleep and was snoring.

"This… explains a lot actually. Huh…" Octavia muttered.

"Yeah. So torturing those kids? He was most likely trying to break him, make him too scared to put up any sort of resistance, fucked up as it is. And you know what? It apparently worked if the kid is actually suicidal like he said he is… That bastard… Guess he isn't the devil for nothing… Oh well. It's not like there's anything any of us can do about it." Cheri Bomb said, clearly frustrated.

"Damn it… This shit reminds me way too much of when I was stuck workin' for that bastard Valentino… Fuckin' hopeless then, even more hopeless now…" Angel Dust sighed in resignation.

"I guess it is… Well, this has been thoroughly depressing. I sort of wish we could have met at a bit of a better time. It would have been a lot more fun hanging out with you two under different circumstances." Octavia stated.

"Yeah. Maybe next time, Princess… You heading out?" Angel Dust asked.

"Yeah. Someone should probably get Danny back to the castle and I don't think he's going to be heading back on his own right now." Octavia said, standing up.

"Ah, leave him. He's got his phone on him. We'll just call his big sis to come pick him up." Cheri Bomb told her.

"Alright then. See you later, I guess." Octavia said before turning and walking out of the night club.

Taking Danny's phone out of his pocket, Angel Dust called Charlie, who arrived only a few minutes later to come pick him up.

Walking into the nightclub with her bodyguards Razzle and Dazzle following along, she headed straight up to the VIP lounge where she found Danny still asleep.

"Thank you for calling me, I'll bring him back home now… Though I'm still not happy you two actually gave him hard alcohol." Charlie said to Angel Dust and Cherri Bomb as she walked over to Danny.

"Hey, he's the one that asked. He usually just has water or he brings his own soda or something, boring as that is. The kid usually has a massive stick up his ass about that sort of thing." Cheri Bomb told her.

"Oh… I think I know what this is about then… Still, please don't give him anymore alcohol. He really shouldn't be getting into those sorts of habits. Especially not as a coping mechanism. It's really not healthy." Charlie requested as she lifted Danny up and wrapped one of his arms over her shoulder.

Danny groaned as he was moved. "Huh… 'S goin' on… Charlie?"

"Yup. I came to pick you up. Come on, we're going home." She told him.

"M'kay…" Danny said groggily, only just managing to stay awake and keep himself standing as he followed her out of the nightclub and into the limo waiting for them outside.


Last chapter before the big time skip. Just thought I should cover the fallout of the last chapter before moving on.