Warning: This chapter contains explicit scenes that some might find a little hard to read. If anyone feels that it warrants the story's rating to be changed to an M, say so and I'll oblige.

"Just ask him yourself," Batman had said.

Of course he won't tell me. Robin grumbled and resisted the urge to pout as a show of his perplexion. He doubted that Danny would actually tell him anything, the boy was more secretive than... well, himself. But at least he made up for it with witty jokes and non-sequiturs. Phantom was just an anomaly to him who swung from jumpy to derisive to mischievous all in one sitting.

He acts as if he doesn't know how he's supposed to. Almost like he doesn't know himself.

This wasn't the first time Robin had considered this. He concluded to this possibility the first night they had met when Phantom had let something slipped. At the time, it didn't seem important and none of the others seemed to have caught it.

But Robin did. He remembered the entire exchange between the two of them on that first bitter night.

"We don't even know anything about him."

"We're all on the same page then, cuz I don't either."

What could he have possibly meant by that? Before Robin had the chance to dwell on this any longer, the devil had been spoken of.

"Phantom, ##, recognized."

Everyone's attention was immediately turned to the Zeta-Beam Portal of the Cave as said boy walked through it. He was currently in his human form, clad in a green sleeve shirt and a pair or regular denims. He was also unaccompanied by that Plasmius guy, of which Robin was secretly grateful for. That guy gave him the creeps.

"Danny, you're here!" M'gann greeted enthusiastically, truly happy to see him. The boy, in turn, managed a wry smile.

"Hey, how've you been?" he replied in a tone that was hard to read. Robin answered instead.

"We've been fine. I'm assuming you're here 'cuz you've made a decision?" he questioned, preferring to the point of the matter. Danny hesitated, but nodded all the same.

"Yeah, and uhh, I thought that this is something that I'd like to do."

"I was hoping that you would say that; however, I believe that we have some questions that we hoped you wouldn't mind answering," Kaldur replied. He was, of course, referring to his time in Arkham.

"Wait, I have something to say first. I know what you guys are gonna ask, and you have every right to. But, I'm gonna have to ask you guys to just please let it drop. I have nothing to say on that matter, but I can promise you that I'm not going to flip out on you guys. They wouldn't have released me unless they were sure I wouldn't be a danger to anyone," Danny said sincerely, meeting all of their gazes one by one.

They all stood silently, subconsciously waiting for Kaldur to make the decision. He was the leader after all.

The Atlantean considered Danny's words carefully.

He had at one time been an Arkham patient, that much was true. Batman trusted him enough though, and it seemed as if Robin was beginning to as well, albeit reluctantly.

There was also the fact that Phantom proved to be a valuable member on the battlefield. He was courageous and put the rest of his team members before him despite the fact that he had barely known them and he was being treated less than fairly.

Phantom could help them a great deal, but maybe they could help him as well.

Having made his decision, Kaldur nodded.

"Very well, that seems fair enough. Welcome to the team, Danny," the dark-skinned boy finally replied and held out his hand. Danny let his lips curve into a rare smile as he took his newly-appointed leader's and hand and shook it.

"Awesome! We should go out and celebrate. Who's up for burgers?" Wally immediately suggested enthusiastically.

"You'll use anything as an excuse to celebrate just to get food," Artemis snorted, trying not to seem too obviously amused by the speedster's antics. He merely shrugged in reply, there was no point for him to deny the truth.

Robin knew this, too, and thought it was a pretty good idea anyway.

"I'm actually kind of starving. I think a new Nasty Burger just opened up, we should go check it out."

"Oh, they have really good food there," Danny mused absentmindedly, prompting Artemis to asked if he had been there before. He blinked a couple times before answering.

"I don't know."

Perfect. Everything was perfect.

Simon Goodall stepped back and admired his work. Nearly a year's worth of labor put into this one night. The night that he would exact his revenge upon the scum of Gotham. Every villain that had ever gotten off with a mere slap on the wrist or even scott-free because the Batman paid too much heed to his own moral conduct.

Of course, Simon had nothing against the Dark Knight. They both had the same goal, to be rid of the vile of hell that roamed free, they simply had different methods of attaining that goal.

Whereas the Batman spared them of their lives, Simon would destroy them all.

Every. Single. One.

To atone for the murders of his wife and child. And to make the bastard that had gotten away suffer. They had never identified his family's murderer and the police did nothing more to even attempt to find him. Not when they had more pressing matters to attend to.

After all, why even bother wasting time trying to track down a petty criminal when the likes of Mister Zsasz was on another killing spree?

Since then, Simon had worked tirelessly to extract his own revenge himself. But finding this one man was not enough for him. Not when there were thousands, if not millions, of others like him in his own city. No, he had to make sure that they were all brought to justice.

But he could not get them by any natural means, especially not when they didn't even deserve an ounce of mercy.

They had to live and die within their nightmares, just as he had.

Simon Goodall was a broken man with nothing left to lose. He had only one thing left, a drive to see evil people suffer.

And he finally had the means of doing so. Tonight, he would set free an ancient and powerful ghost in order to aid him in his quest for assuagement.

He thought it funny since he had never believed in ghosts or tomfoolery such as that. And while he was never an exceptionally smart man, he had something better than brains. An unwilting motivation.

So after several months of researching a suitable way to attain his goal, he had stumbled upon something interesting in a little town called Amity Park. At first he did not believe the stories from that place. Near daily ghost attacks. All of which were either initiated or prevented by (there was much disagreement about this topic) a local ghost boy which the media had dubbed "Inviso-Bill".

Simon wasn't interested at all in the ghost boy though. No, there was something else he had set his eyes on.

And after several more months, Simon discovered how to release this behemoth of a warrior. That was the easy part. The hard part came when he required a certain ghostly artifact to complete the ritual.

After black mailing, bribing, and threatening the local ghost fanatics of Amity Park; he finally had a name. Frederich Isak Showenhower. A collector of ghost artifacts, it only made sense to Simon that this was the man to help him.

Tracking down the German and his circus in southern California, Simon took the first flight out of Gotham and paid for a ticket to the expensive show. Simon swore that the trip had better been worth it.

Luckily, Showenhower proved to live up to his hype, having both a vast collection and knowledge on the likes.

While Simon suspected that the ringmaster agreed to help him for his own selfish purposes, at the same time he could care less. As long as Showenhower would help him get what he wanted.

Told to come back the next day, Simon didn't bother asking how the ringmaster had attained the artifact over the course of a mere 24 hours.

While Showenhower seemed pleased, even gleeful, to be handing him the sword over; the tattoo'd lady that was nearly always at the man's side, he couldn't help noticing, was at an obvious discomfort.

No matter.

Taking the Soul Shredder back to Gotham, Simon had prepared for this night carefully. Attaining the necessary materials and knowledge had cost him time and money that he hoped would prove to be well spent.

Tonight, he would release the Fright Knight.

Simon looked up at the picture of Mary and Ana again. He took it and held it close to him, forever unable to hold the two of them against him ever again.

One year ago, he had come home from work to find the door to his home slacked open. Already he had known that something was wrong. Mary had always been rather adamant about safety and keeping the doors and windows locked and closed at all times.

Stepping in, the first thing that had caught his attention was how his home was in disarray. Furniture turned over, vases shattered on the floor, pictures thrown off the walls. Then he noticed how awfully dark it was in his house.

He must have called their names a dozen times before he finally found them. Too late.

Mary was lying in the middle of their bed in a pool of her own blood. He immediately ran to his wife's side and nearly threw up his lunch when he saw how her skirt had been hiked up and her underwear dragged down to her ankles.

That image of his wife was forever imprinted into his mind: naked, bruised, and dead.

Simon would have broken down right there and then had it not been for the fact that his daughter was still missing. His little nine year old girl.

In a mad blur of desperation, he searched the house high and low and screamed her name over and over again until his throat bled. His own pain didn't matter though.

He finally found Ana, facedown and at the bottom of their pool completely still. Even though he knew that at this point it would have made no difference, Simon still jumped in after her and pulled her out and tried to resuscitate her.

Brushing stray strands of wet hair out of her face, he finally lost it and cried.

He stayed there, with his baby in his lap, until night fell and finally the police had arrived. Called by a neighbor who had walked by and noticed the door still open; she thought she was calling in a mere robbery.

The police had automatically ruled him out as a suspect as none of the fingerprints on the knife that was embedded into his wife's chest matched him. But they came up with no more suspects after that either. In a few short weeks, with no leads or clues, it was deemed a cold case.

With the police out of the picture, Simon had taken matters into his own hands. And now he would do what they, nor Batman, nor the Justice League could ever do. He would rid the world of this evil once and for all.

Simon Goodall held more firmly onto the handle of the ethereal sword. Taking in a deep breath, he began the incantation.

"To free once again, the knight of terror," he began quietly, his words sounding weak but slowly and surely gaining more strength.

"Blood of living men," he continued, and pressed his palm against one side of the blade which he held diagonally with the other hand, "Must be spilt of its bearer!"

And with that he ran the flesh of palm along the entire length, temporarily drenching the green sword red. He resisted the initial instinct to snatch his stinging hand back and instead left it against the very tip of the sword.

At first, nothing much happened as he anxiously waited for results.

The, violently, purple smoke began to encircle and plume into a tornado in the middle of the room. It gained momentum and density, and then just as suddenly as it appeared, it vanished. Leaving in its awake a knight that seemed to have stepped directly out of the dark ages. Standing at over seven feet tall, protected by black armor, and donning a cape of flame; he was a formidable figure.

He was the stuff nightmares were made of.

Simon gawked at the Fright Knight, his heart pounding both in excitement and fear.

He then spoke, his voice sounding as ancient and powerful as himself.

"At last, I am free. You," he said, turning his attention to Simon, "return to me my sword so that my reign of terror may begin," he more or less demanded, holding his hand out expectantly.

The man quickly regained his composure and clutched onto the sword more tightly. Revenge was so close, he could almost already taste it.

"Yes, yes of course. But first, there are some requirements. I set you free, therefore I am your master. You will obey my every command," he said, getting ahead of himself without realizing it. He was already drunk with power, power he was not in possession of.

The Fright Knight's flames grew in intensity as a surge of indignation boiled over him. How dare a mere mortal order him like that?

"No!" he bellowed, loud enough to cause the room to shake making Simon halt and hesitate.

"I am no longer anyone's minion, and you are not my master. Prepare to die, fool!"

The Fright Knight swatted Simon away as if he was nothing, sending him flying into the wall. He smacked against it and slid down, dropping the sword and leaving it for the ghost to pick up.

He did so, and as Simon Goodall looked up for one last time, only the sight of the Fright Knight towering over him, sword in hand, took up his vision.

The spirit plunged the Soul Shredder through the man's neck and deep into his body. He pulled it out with such ferocity that hot blood sprayed over him and coated the Fright Knight with it. Simon never even had a chance for any final thoughts before death came and took his miserable self.

Dismissing the body as if it were a bag of trash, the Fright Knight turned around and held his palm outwards before him.

"Nightmare," he spoke resolutely, "appear."

A black, fanged Pegasus with red eyes and green fire had emerged at its rider's command. With a mighty whinny it reared back on its hind legs before falling back on all fours.

"We are free, my friend. To rule as we please."

The Pegasus seemed to approve of his rider's words as it unfurled its great, leathery wings and flapped them twice.

Rest was for the weary. And sleep was for the dead. But evil and destruction could never repose.

AN: I hate how this chapter came out. I'm probably gonna come back and fix it someday.

A lot going on in this chapter. I've changed some things regarding Fright Knight in order to help this story make more sense.

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you all enjoy a safe New Year's!