Damn, that was two months since the last update. I'm really sorry! I've been really busy.

Hope you enjoy!

(Content warning for non-descriptive blood and gore)

It takes them a bit of silent deliberation – he almost thinks Ellie is somehow telepathic too, on top of having all her many other powers – but they eventually agree to introduce him to Danny. He offers to take them all there via shadow travel, figuring that the Phantom is hiding out somewhere remote.

They take him up on that offer, because as it turns out, he lives in New York City – and has been, for the past four years.

Doctor Strange is probably gonna blow a gasket.

Danny and his fiancée, Samantha, live on a loft in Brooklyn. Nico doesn't really know the first thing about real estate, but it looks kinda fancy to him; the place reminds him of Rachel Elizabeth Dare's old home, like an old warehouse converted into a living space. Coincidentally enough, it's only ten blocks away from the Twenty-First Nome – he can feel the divine blood in his veins simmer as it resonates with the Egyptians' magic, even at this distance. He'd consider dropping in to say hello to Carter and Sadie, but they're Percy and Annabeth's friends more than anyone else's.

Plus, there's always the chance that Anubis is around, and they don't exactly get along. Too…similar.

"This is...something." –Nico tilts his head, examining the loft.

"Yeah, Danny and Sam were kinda...loaded, for a little while. When Vlad died, they discovered he'd left him his company, DALV Co." –Ellie supplies. There's some scorn in her voice – perhaps she's a little bitter that her creator left all that he had to his literal arch nemesis. "I guess it was his own twisted way of apologizing for putting him through so much crap. He didn't want anything to do with it, though, so he got rid of his shares and moved here as soon as he turned eighteen."

Nico crosses his arms. "But he's not loaded anymore?"

"Not really. They gave most of their fortune away to various charities – just kept enough to live here comfortably, getting their college degrees at ESU." –Valerie says. "They keep trying to get us to move in with them, but...well, I for one don't need the charity."

Ellie shrugs. "Plus, Amity Park needs its defenders." –she says. "The ghosts aren't gonna stop coming anytime soon."

"Which I could handle all on my own, especially now that Technus is, er…gone." –Valerie argues, glancing at Nico. It sounds like an argument they've had many times over. "Amity Park doesn't need a Phantom anymore, no matter what Danny would have you believe. You shouldn't have to stay on a town that doesn't appreciate you."

Ellie sighs. "You know I can't do that to you. You have a job, a family, friends…you're a hell of a ghost hunter, Valerie, but at the end of the day, you're only human. If you die…that's it for you." –she says, a little haunted.

"But not for you?" –Nico asks, raising an eyebrow.

Ellie shakes her head. "We're kinda…unique that way, I guess. Vlad, Danny, and me. When our human halves die, we become full ghosts." –she explains. "…or at least, we assume so. That's what happened to Vlad."

The son of Hades crosses his arms. "I see." –he mutters. "I could send him to the Underworld too, if you'd like."

"No, no. It's alright. Please don't do that again, actually – it's terrifying." –Ellie quickly says. "Besides, Vlad isn't really a threat to anyone anymore. Hasn't even tried to leave the Ghost Zone since he exiled himself in there after he died."

Nico narrows his eyes in disbelief, but doesn't press the issue for now. "Hmm. Well, anything I should know?"

"Yeah, I guess you should know you're probably gonna fail to recruit him." –Valerie says. "As much as I agree that Danny shouldn't entirely let his powers go to waste, I respect his decision to retire. I doubt you're gonna change his mind."

"That bad, huh?" –Nico crosses his arms.

Ellie winces. "It was terrible, Nico. Danny and Vlad's final battle was a horrible mess. I shouldn't say much, but…he's afraid of the kind of power he was forced to use that day. It left him with scars, and not just physical ones."

Nico can't help but think of Tartarus for a split-second – of his, Percy, and Annabeth's brief-yet-eternal stay in the most hostile place for demigods imaginable. "I see…" –he mutters. He considers leaving outright, but he figures that he should at least get the definitive 'no' on paper, lest others try and recruit him afterwards. "I'll try not to open any old wounds."

Valerie snorts, stepping past him and ringing the doorbell. "Don't see how you're gonna manage that, Hades Jr."

It takes a few moments, but the door eventually opens. It's not Danny who answers, but his fiancée, Samantha Manson. She looks equal parts happy to see Ellie and Valerie, and utterly confused about the stranger at her door. When she notices the scabbard on his hip, she frowns. "I take it this isn't a social call, huh?" –she says, sarcastically.

Samantha – Sam, or she'll kill him, apparently – is an interesting character; Nico only briefly glanced at her part in Danny's file, but it looks like she's one of the rare few who went through a goth phase as a teenager and actually stuck to the aesthetic, all purples and blacks, her clothes intentionally ripped up all over and her makeup unapologetically dense. She's deathly pale, and her straight, jet-black hair reaches her hips, but her most distinctive characteristic is her eyes, thickly framed in black eyeliner – they're true violet, almost unnaturally so. He wonders if she's a descendant of Aphrodite or Iris, whose children are much more likely than the average human to have the more exotic eye colors.

She's not too enthused about meeting Nico, either – doesn't even let him begin to explain he's the son of Hades, which is honestly fine by him. He kinda loathes that part of being a demigod, whether he's having to break things down for a new camper, or of late, a bunch of superpowered mortals.

"Are you people just gluttons for rejection? He already said no." –she questions, scowling as she crosses her arms.

Nico frowns. "What do you mean? I've never met Danny before."

"Not you specifically. The guy in the trench coat, with the eyepatch – your boss, I'm assuming." –she shakes her head. "He broke into our home after the Chitauri invasion, and then he had the gall to try and recruit Danny into his superhero boy band. We're not having any of it."

The demigod groans internally. Of course Nick Fury's already tried some shit. "Listen, I'm not an Avenger, and Nick Fury definitely isn't my boss. The only people I answer to are literal gods." –he says, which does earn him a raised eyebrow from Sam. "And I promise, if Danny refuses to join our team, you'll never see me again. But I do need to ask the question before I leave."

The man in question pops into existence behind Sam, floating a couple feet off the ground. Danny Phantom looks equal parts amused and skeptical about him, which probably doesn't bode well. "Gods, huh?" –he asks, crossing his arms. "It's fine, Sam. I'll hear him out. It kinda sounds just ridiculous enough to be true."

The half-ghost hybrid leads him to the rooftop, leaving Sam, Valerie, and Ellie indoors, letting Nico catch him up on what he's doing there on the way. He doesn't look like he's changed much in the past six years, judging by his ever-present merchandise back in Amity; he's taller, for sure, but he's still fairly lanky and thin, almost worryingly so. Nico wonders what he'd look like, if he'd continued his vigilante activities – perhaps he'd have taken a little more after his father, Jack Fenton, a notoriously large and burly man. He suspects that might've been the case, given that even though Ellie's at least a head shorter than Danny, she still looks like she put on a bit more muscle than him.

Speaking of Danny's clone, the resemblance is, of course, obvious; their facial structure is practically identical, though his relatively short, hand-combed hair and thinner features do make a world of difference – he figures people would easily buy that they're siblings, or perhaps even remarkably similar looking cousins, instead. Ellie's decidedly more filled out, her body shape distinctly feminine, as opposed to Danny's more androgynous frame. If Nico wasn't already aware that he's a trans man, he'd peg Danny as a guy who never really grew out of his awkward teenage years, kinda like Leo.

Honestly, kinda like himself, but he still has a couple years left of growing. Queen Persephone insists there's hope for him yet.

It's interesting to see Danny floating around, clearly much more at ease and in touch with his ghost half than Ellie is with hers; he'd have thought it'd be the other way around, considering she was never fully human, but Danny moves around three-dimensional space like he spends as much time detached from gravity as he does on his own two feet, if not more, whereas Ellie's flight is a lot more straight-forward, more like the clips of Supergirl flying around – mostly straight lines and wide arcs.

"So, which of the gods are you answering to, Hot Topic?" –he asks, hovering as he offers Nico a seat upon an AC unit with a cheeky grin. "Not Thor, I imagine. You look too dark and brooding for that."

Nico narrows his eyes. "It's Nico di Angelo. And I serve Hades, first and foremost. The Olympians too, unless their designs would invoke the wrath of my Lord Father. You never wanna anger the God of the Dead." –he says, sarcastically.

"A son of Hades, huh?"

"Demigod, yes." –he nods. "My mother was mortal – a regular human."

Danny whistles. "I haven't met a demigod before. Then again, the world's changed a lot since my ghost-fighting days. People fly around in billion dollar robo-suits and bright red capes to thunderous acclaim, now."

"We are a little more…underground." –Nico agrees. "I'm sure you've noticed, but most regular people have a hard time seeing the supernatural for what it actually is."

"Yeah, the Mist, right?" –Danny nods along. "Pandora told me about it. Didn't mention anything about modern day demigods, though."

Nico blinks. "…Pandora? As in, 'first Greek woman, wife of Epimetheus, unleasher of all human evils' Pandora?"

"Nah, I doubt it." –he shakes his head. "Pandora's a ghost, but she was never human – she's one of the native life forms of the Ghost Zone. Her box doesn't contain all of humanity's evils, either – it's more like a…primitive Fenton Thermos, a containment unit meant for dangerous, feral ghosts."

The demigod shakes his head. "Styx, everything you guys say is a headache." –he curses. "I guess I know how mortals feel when they discover the Greek myths are real."

"What, all of them?" –Danny raises an eyebrow.

"Most of them, though many have been warped since the glory days of Mycenaean Greece." –he shrugs. "It's like a game of telephone, two thousand plus years in the making. But we've been here all along, protecting mortals from monsters and hostile gods and Titans. Something I'm sure you can identify with."

Danny hums. "Is that why you're here? Want me to join in on some mythical Greek action?"

"Not necessarily. There's a lot more to the magical side of the world than just us Greeks and our monsters. There's Roman demigods, Egyptian magicians, wizards and witches all over the world, descended from the various gods of magic, ancient stones playing host to tiny gods, giving their Holders power beyond that of any mortal..." –Nico explains. "Even regular mortals can manipulate magic, with enough discipline and practice."

"And you want me to be part of that shit show?" –Danny asks, baffled. "I'm assuming you haven't talked to the Guys in White yet, then."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. advised against it. They're a shady, fringe paramilitary organization known for trying to hunt you down, so I didn't see a reason to disagree."

"That they are." –Danny agrees. "But I can't begrudge them wanting me out of the picture. To be honest, I mostly made things worse as Danny Phantom."

"That's not how I hear it. And it's definitely not how Amity Park tells it. They see you as their hero – they even sell little plushies of you. It's cute."

Danny scowls. "They don't remember me right. I protected people, yeah. Fought more ghosts than I can count in the two years I tried to be a hero." –he says, forlorn. "But the amount of chaos and destruction that followed me all the time…people died because of me. There's a reason I quit after my final showdown with Vlad."

Nico purses his lips. "You guys keep mentioning it, but I don't actually know what happened. Aside from the fact that his human half died, I mean."

"It's…more complicated than that." –Danny admits. "But I shouldn't say more. Not with Danielle around."

The demigod waves his right hand, and the moon-borne shadows on the rooftop form a faint sphere around them. "Listen, Danny you don't have to tell me. But I've given us some privacy, if you'd like to."

"What, just like that? Open up to a total stranger about my biggest regret?" –Danny asks, sarcastically.

Nico shrugs. "We may not be friends, but I know my fair share about suffering and regret." –he says. "Demigods are practically cursed from birth; we draw monsters to challenge us just by existing, and we're expected to serve our divine parents' wills, even though they put us in mortal danger more often than not. I don't mean to compare our life experiences, but I'm willing to hear you out."

Danny sighs. "What's she told you about our showdown, exactly?"

"Like I said, not much. You were Amity's hero, Vlad was your nemesis, and Ellie was created when he cloned you out of some twisted sense of kinship. You had a final fight that ended with his human half's death, and he's been an aimless resident of the Ghost Zone ever since."

He hums. "Couple issues with that summary. I wasn't very popular with most of Amity Park until the last few months of my run as Danny Phantom. And Plasmius is far from aimless – he's been trying to figure out a way to create a new human body for himself to get back to normal, not that he's had any success yet."

"And you haven't tried to stop him?" –Nico wonders.

Danny shakes his head. "I have a lot of beef with Vlad, dude, but I never wanted him dead. Never wanted anyone dead."

Nico seems a little skeptical – from what he's heard about Vlad, he sounds like the kind of enemy you put down – but he refrains from pushing Danny on that. "So, what really happened?"

Danny ponders his answer for a moment. "I guess it started about a week before the actual fight." –he begins. "Valerie had just figured out that Danielle and Vlad were hybrids, so I guess it wasn't too much of a leap for her to figure out that I was one, too. That was a fun three hours of arguing with my ex." –he says, sarcastically. "When we stopped fighting, we realized we had a very real chance of taking Vlad down for good – he believed that Valerie was still on his side, so we thought we could lay a trap on him, expose him for all of Amity Park to see." –he says. "Unfortunately, Technus still had a link to Valerie's suit, and he told Vlad what we were planning, like a total narc."

Nico suddenly feels whatever lingering guilt he might've felt from sending Technus to the Underworld melt away. He considers telling Danny of Technus' ultimate fate, but wisely refrains from doing so. "That's unfortunate."

"You don't know the half of it." –Danny laments. "Vlad manipulated the Guys in White – overshadowed their boss into ordering his goons to capture Danielle in order to draw us out. But they didn't just capture her – they...experimented on her, like she was a regular ghost. That's bad, Nico." –he explains, disturbed. "Ghosts don't have organs, bones, or a nervous system. They don't even feel pain the same way you and I do – for the most part, they're basically sentient globs of ectoplasm modelling themselves after the human soul they melded with. You can hurt them, sure, but unless you completely destabilize them, the damage is never permanent. They will always bounce back."

Danny shakes his head. "That's not something we can do, as hybrids. We're very resistant to damage, but we can bleed just fine. And what they did to Danielle...to their credit, the Guys in White stopped when they figured out she was half human, but the damage was done. By the time Valerie and I found her, she was...very hurt. Horrifically, even. Even Vlad was disturbed by it. When we rescued her and confronted him about it – when Danielle figured out that she'd been traumatized because of her own father..."

The half-ghost hybrid pauses. There's a haunted look to him, which Nico certainly can't begrudge him. "Dani's powers are stunted – they're stuck at the level she was when I stabilized her, another guilt I have to carry. But in that moment, mutilated as she was...I guess she figured she would die anyway. She unleashed all her power – used her own body as fuel – and destroyed him, and the Guys in White. Shrieked their whole base to rubble. Nearly killed us, too, but...she died before that happened."

Nico blinks, confused. Ellie's alive, obviously – he can feel her life aura downstairs right now, probably annoyed that they're keeping this conversation from her.

"Obviously, Dani's very much alive right now." –Danny says, tired but amused. "When the rubble settled, my mentor visited. His name is Clockwork – like Pandora, he's one of the Ghost Zone's most powerful residents. He can manipulate time, to a degree."

The demigod's eyes widen. "You went back?"

"Yeah, but...there was a price." –Danny nods. "Clockwork can change the timeline, but he only does it when something egregious messes with it. The first time we met, he helped me avoid losing my family, which would've led to me becoming the world's most powerful supervillain."

"That's...not something I'd admit, in your shoes." –Nico manages, narrowing his eyes.

"Like you said, there's more to it. It wouldn't have been entirely within my control to become a monster like that." –Danny says. "The point is, Clockwork only got away with intervening then because that timeline would've been an aberration – the kind that gets rebooted or erased completely by the powers that be. Danielle dying was...horrible, but the timeline wouldn't deviate too much. She wasn't supposed to exist in the first place." –he says, sounding guilty even though it's nowhere near his fault. "And Vlad, well...he had it coming."

Nico ponders the ongoing explanation. He wonders what would've happened if Kronos or Gaea had won – would this 'Clockwork' character have intervened then? Is he held to the same kind of ancient laws that the Olympians must respect, to allow something like the Holocaust, the slave trade, or the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to happen? Or perhaps he has intervened, and this is the best timeline humanity has managed so far?

That's a dark thought.

"Danielle is alive, but Vlad is still dead." –Nico thinks aloud.

"Yeah." –Danny says, hollow. "No need to wonder, Nico. I went back in time, I saved Dani early...and I killed him."

Not super happy with this chapter, but I felt the need to get this bit of storytelling out of the way. Next chapter should clarify stuff a bit better!

As always, thank you for your attention! Make sure to comment or message me if you have any questions about this story. Look me up on Twitter as Darthkvzn or Tumblr as darthkvznblogs if you'd like - and on Ko-fi, as Darthkvzn, if you like what I do and have a buck to spare.

Until next time!