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Chapter 159: Between Family

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"I'm alright, I'm alright," said Aunt Alicia. They hugged, briefly and awkwardly. Aunt Alicia wasn't one to show much in the way of affection.

"Are you?" asked Jazz, sitting down. "You haven't looked very…" Well, Aunt Alicia never looked happy. It was part of her charm. Still. "Yourself… here," finished Jazz, lamely.

"That's what I should be saying to you," said Aunt Alicia sharply. "What I should be asking you. You're with all these ghosts, and ceding from the states, and I won't say a thing about the swords, because that's just how the women in our family are, but, Jasmine, you're here without your parents, without your brother, saying you have other siblings, now. What happened after you all disappeared?"

"Well, like I've said, it's a long story. But, to start at the end, Mom, Dad, and Danny are all fine. They're alive and healthy. Mom and Dad aren't particularly happy about the whole thing, but after what they did…" She shook her head. "They kind of broke some important ghost laws, and they're being made to do community service."

"And… this, what you're doing, is part of that?"

"No, I'm doing this because I want to and it's the right thing to do. Even discounting the threat to the very fabric of reality, what the GIW was trying to do was genocide, and I want to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. And as long as there's this – this divide between the Infinite Realms and Earth, this lack of communication and understanding, that's exactly what's going to happen."

"Ghost law? Community service?"

"Ghosts don't really have a lot of prisons. Like I've said." Multiple times.

"What ghost law and what community service, Jazz," said Aunt Alicia flatly, as if reprimanding Jazz for making her spell it out.

"Environmental restoration," said Jazz, "cleaning up a neighborhood, and building some infrastructure."

Aunt Alicia narrowed her eyes. "Really?"

Jazz tilted her hand back and forth. "I don't want to get into details and esoterics here. It is the ghost versions of those things, though. And there are a few things they need to do that aren't part of their sentence but are more so that they stay on the right side of the law."

There was a knock on the door.

"That must be our lunch," said Jazz, brightly. She went to the door, discovered that it was indeed their lunch and brought it back. "I got you that chicken you like—"

"Jazz," said Aunt Alicia. "I know you're trying to throw me off the trail. Maddie and Jack are off doing ghost community service. For breaking ghost law. What ghost law did they break? From what you've told the president, there's hardly any."

"Any that are universal," corrected Jazz. She sighed. "They attacked people, Aunt Alicia. Specifically, one important person. Someone they'd been after for a long time, but they went too far in front of witnesses who cared and could report it."

"This Phantom kid. The one you say is prince of the ghosts, and somehow related to you."

"He is!" protested Jazz. "According to the ghosts, anyway."

"And you believe them? Outta nowhere?"

"It's not like that," said Jazz, rolling her eyes and deciding to snap open her salad. "Oh, good, they added those craisins, like I asked."

"Jazz…"

"I'm getting to it. I was just hoping this lunch would be more fun and less politics, that's all."

"You thought I would have questions about where the rest of your family is?"

"I thought you'd believe me when I said they were fine."

"I think our definitions of fine aren't all that alike," said Aunt Alicia, who still hadn't opened her lunch.

"I guess so," said Jazz. "Anyway. For ghosts, if two people agree that they're related, then they are. No questions asked, officially, legally, and traditionally binding." She waved one hand and used a fork to stab a piece of lettuce with the other. "I've been working with Phantom for a while now, to help him with the ghosts attacking Amity. Danny and I never really saw eye to eye with Mom and Dad about ghosts. It wasn't that much of jump to go from helping Phantom to liking him, to being friends… So on and so forth. You know?"

"So, you and Phantom agreed to be siblings and… that was that?"

"Pretty much," said Jazz. She took a sip from the drink that had been brought with her meal. She wasn't being very eloquent right now, but she'd exhausted that part of her brain for the time being. If she had to dance around Danny being Phantom for fear of the room being bugged, she at least wanted to relax the rest of her.

"And those other siblings you mentioned?"

"Phantom had other siblings. Once we all got to know each other…" Jazz shrugged.

Aunt Alicia closed her eyes. "And Danny's just… there. With them."

"Yeah. Having the time of his life not being the youngest sibling anymore." Jazz paused. "You know, even if Amity Park is convinced to stay part of the US, a lot of people are going to stay in the Ghost Zone, and not just the ghosts."

"You're talking about you and Danny. And Jack and Maddie?"

"Me and Danny, probably," said Jazz. "I'm part of the Ghost Zone delegation, after all. I'm not representing Amity Park. Mom and Dad… Actually, I have no idea. The community service stuff is intended to take years, but they could do their planning on Earth, and there's technically nothing stopping them from ignoring it altogether."

Aunt Alicia frowned. "If nothing's stopping them, why even bother sentencing them."

"Because there are still penalties for not doing it. Not prison or anything but stuff the ghosts won't let them do until they finish it."

"Stuff?"

"Stuff in the Ghost Zone," clarified Jazz. "But, anyway, my turn, now. How did you get involved in this? Why aren't you in Spittoon? Did the government really have to reach that far to find someone who knows real stuff about ghosts?"

Aunt Alicia made a face. "Not so much that, I think, but that I kinda dropped myself into their laps."

"Well, don't leave me in suspense."

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Dmitri had been grounded.

Well, grounded might not have been the best way to describe it, since he hadn't really been leaving the embassy to go places or talk to people anyway, but Sojourn had been very clear that he wanted Dmitri to be within arms' reach for the foreseeable future.

Dmitri could see why. More to the point, he agreed. Being attacked like that was scary. He wasn't entirely sure he couldn't have won, but that wasn't the point. Or it shouldn't have been.

He needed to learn how to fight, obviously. Just as obviously, in the middle of a peace mission wasn't really the venue for it.

He sighed and snuggled against Sojourn's collar.

Sojourn hummed at him, lightly, somewhat absentmindedly as he continued to write his report. Then, Jazz opened the door, walked across the room, groaning, and threw herself on the sofa.

"So, apparently," said Jazz, "Aunt Alicia is here because she and the rest of Spittoon decided to get themselves arrested by attacking the GIW headquarters."

"Interesting," said Sojourn. "I suppose it must have been before their perfidy was revealed."

"It wasn't. It was the same day Skulker's army went after them."

"I fail to understand why they would be arrested, in that case," said Sojourn.

"Because private citizens aren't supposed to do stuff like that?"

"They aren't supposed to act in support of their nation? To defend it against proven enemies?"

"They don't see it that way," said Jazz. "The government, I mean. And it makes sense when both sides are your own citizens. You don't want civil wars or lynchings to happen based on misunderstandings. It isn't like the Realms, where you don't have to worry about anyone dying and if there are two groups who disagree about how to do things, they can go off to a new island." She sighed. "Consequences here tend to be more permanent than there."

"That is true," said Sojourn. "There are some Realms where the ruler prefers to have the power of judgement firmly in their own hands as well, but it still seems odd to me, to punish those who would take arms against such an obvious enemy, who launched an equally obvious attack. Unless it is a punishment in name only? She is acting as an advisor to the head of state. Many would consider such a position a reward."

"Ha. Yeah. Not Aunt Alicia. Trust me when I say she's only doing this because she feels she doesn't have much other choice. This or jail time, I think she said."

"Fascinating," said Sojourn. "That seems incredibly counterproductive of your government, to force two people they would judge as criminals to work for them in such a delicate setting. Why, it would be like us recruiting your parents for this delegation."

"Yikes, that sure would have been something." Jazz rubbed her eyes. "How are you doing, by the way, Dmitri?"

Dmitri gave her a very small thumbs up.

"Good to hear. Still grounded?"

Dmitri cheeped sadly, not currently feeling like words.

"Well, maybe next time you'll leave a note."

"I sincerely hope there will not be a next time," said Sojourn.

"Right," said Jazz, "me too." She did not, however, sound like she was particularly convinced that would be the case. "So, we wound up with an extra meeting scheduled with that one subcommittee this evening, how do we want to play that?"

Before Sojourn could answer, a portal opened in the room, and both Jazz and Sojourn paused to watch as Wulf emerged.

Dmitri watched, too, curious. He didn't know Wulf especially well (yet), and he didn't know if that glint of teeth indicated something bad or something good.

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"Can you say that again?" asked the president.

"Her Highness Jasmine and Ambassador Sojourn had to cancel their appointments for this evening and tomorrow because someone challenged their prince to a duel to the death for the crown."

"Great," said the president. "So, does this mean we might not even be negotiating with the same people tomorrow?"

"I have no idea. You'd have to ask the ghosts."