TW: Graphic Depictions/Violence/Blood/Mentions of Death
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"It's alright my boy…"
Phantom opened his eyes and looked around to see fire licking decorative walls and engulfing intricate furniture.
It was Sam's mansion.
He raced towards through the hallway, rushed towards one of the farthest rooms and kicked open the door. Within the suite room, a once beautifully furnished bed was now blackened and charred as the flames spread throughout the room. The curtains were ripped and aflame. The walker in the corner of the room was glowing red from the heat.
"Grandma Ida!?" He exclaimed.
Phantom searched and searched until he heard a grunt from a pile of debris and rubble. He rushed towards the pile and intangibly reached into it and pulled an older woman from it, gently placing her on the untouched section of the flooring within her room.
The teen looked her over and paled when he noticed the blood seeping out from her chest. The crimson was spreading across her pink knit sweater, and her grayed hair was barely being held up by her pink ponytail holder anymore.
"Oh no… No, no, no, no, NO, NO!"
She opened her blue eyes and smiled sadly at him. "It's alright my boy… you tried your best," her voice hoarse from the smoke.
He tried to pick her up, but the blood spread faster as soon as he lifted her.
"Ida… I-I'm going to save you. I promise!"
She looked at him and, still with a kind smile, shook her head. "No Daniel…"
He looked at the woman in shock, "You-you knew?"
She chuckled, "Of course I did my boy. You're the only one that ever looks at my Sammykins a certain way."
"Grandma Ida-"
"Shh. Let me rest, my boy…"
"No, no! I can't- Sam can't lose you!"
Ida smiled and struggled to hold the boy's hand. "Yes, you can… Please tell Sammykins and her parents that I love them dearly and that I'm so proud of them."
He felt tears trail down his face as he shut his eyes. "Ida, I-"
"Hey…"
The teen looked up at the woman's shimmering eyes, "Don't blame yourself, Danny. No matter what Sammykins or anyone says. What happened to me, was not your fault."
"But I could've flown faster, I could've been stronger, I-"
"You are a hero, Danny, and no one can say anything different, because I said so. And mercy onto those who would challenge me otherwise."
They both chuckled at her comment. The woman smiled as she closed her eyes and said one last 'thank you'.
"Ida? Ida! Grandma Ida, wake up! Grandma Ida, please!"
He watched as an intangible silvery-white figure stood up from where the body laid and turned its attention to him. Ida offered him a bright smile and disappeared in a flash of white light.
"Ida? Ida! Ida, come back! Ida!"
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Mount Justice
June 18 11:26 EDT
Danny yawned as he walked into the Lounge.
Megan and Zatanna were in the kitchen chatting cheerfully whilst baking something. Dick was typing on his laptop, as per usual. Aqualad was sitting on a nearby stool behind the kitchen counter. Lastly, Wally, Artemis, Gar, and Conner were watching a movie while the latter pet Wolf.
Artemis happened to look over and see the half ghost lingering in the hallway.
"Well, well, well, Sleeping Beauty has finally decided to join the living. How was the walk?"
Danny rolled his eyes at the archer but chuckled all the same. "Besides the rain, it was good... Think I needed it more than a realized."
"That's good to hear, did you sleep well?" Kaldur chimed in from his corner.
The teen had to catch himself as the faint smell of burning wood flooded his nose.
"As well as I could… What about you guys?"
"After you left, Doctor Fate led us out and we came back here after saying our goodbyes. We offered to say goodbye for you but he said that wasn't necessary and vanished. You two really don't get along, do you?" Artemis answered.
"That's putting it lightly..." The half ghost grunted in response.
The smell of cookie dough wafted into the air.
Danny rose an eyebrow and walked over to the kitchen to see M'gann stirring batter, Z looking for something in the fridge.
"What kind this time?" he asked, resting his arms on the counter.
The telepath looked up and offered a small smile. "Chocolate chip. We thought a classic would be nice this time."
He smiled and shrugged, "As long as they don't come alive and start a revolution in the kitchen, that's fine by me."
Zatanna must've gave up on her search as she walked over and found a stool opposite of Danny.
"How did your mom manage to reanimate most food anyways?" Z asked with a tinge of skepticism.
A nostalgic smile formed. "Honestly? I still don't know till this day… It's just one of those things that Jazz and I just stopped questioning after a while. Cookies were just one of the few foods that never came to life."
"What were the other ones?" Z asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Fudge? Uh- maybe brownies?"
"Maybe it was chocolate?"
Danny shrugged as he gave up trying to rack his brain. "I just know when it was meatloaf night, it was sleepover at Tucker's night."
Z and M'Gann chuckled while they continued to work on the cookie dough.
"Hey Danny?!" Gar asked excitedly.
"What's up?" he asked turning around to see Gar leaning on the back of the couch.
"The ceiling," the speedster responded without hesitation.
Danny smirked and mumbled 'lame' before flicking a spare chocolate chip at him from the counter.
Ignoring the interaction, the young shapeshifter continued.
"Wanna pick the next movie?"
The half ghost smiled as he walked over and sat next to Conner.
"Nah, you can if you want. I'm honestly kinda beat after yesterday."
The speedster snorted. "Yeah no kidding. I've never seen Doctor Fate show that much hostility towards anyone, well maybe besides Klarion, but other than him."
Z sat down on one of the stools. "Which reminds me, does magic have a stronger effect on ghosts?" she asked.
Danny hummed in thought. "Hmm… honestly I don't really know. I know that Desiree's powers are kind of based off of or use a little magic, but I wouldn't know if 'ghost magic' is a thing."
"It might be, or at least a different variation of it," the magician commented.
"There you go."
Artemis frowned. "Yeah but Fate's magic really seemed to react badly to you. Like the cage and whenever he made you transform into your ghost form- Which was super freaky by the way, I had no idea magic could do stuff like that."
"Magic can be pretty powerful. But I will admit I was wondering the same thing. What does magic feel like to you anyways?"
The Halfa raised an eyebrow at the sorcerer. "Feel like?"
She rolled her eyes and continued. "Yeah, you know how ghosts feel a certain way? Does magic have that too?"
Danny let his head rest on his hand on the arm of the couch as he thought.
"I don't really know… I don't really have a magic sense like I have with ghosts- Trust me that would be awesome to have, especially so Klarion wouldn't be able to sneak up on me again… As for it reacting badly to me? I'm not too sure how its supposed to feel normally so I wouldn't be able to tell you."
Z raised an eyebrow. "Would you be up for testing it?"
Danny frowned. "I'd rather not get the wind knocked out of me again..."
She rolled her eyes again. "I mean testing other spells later, little brother."
He shrugged. "Sure, just be sure to give me a heads up."
There was a brief silence as the next movie started playing.
"So question, do we have to attend all the days that the festival will be going on for?"
Danny shifted and let out a silent sigh of defeat.
'Guess it's better to get this over with now than later…'
"Are you guys absolutely sure you want to go?"
Several Team members sent inquisitive looks.
"Why wouldn't we?" Artemis asked.
Danny racked his brain for an answer, but decided to just drop it instead. He stood up, making the entire room focus on him.
He crossed his arms and did his best to look stern. "If you guys are serious about going, there's a few things we need to go over."
So members shared looks, while others stopped what they were doing.
"Okay?" Gar commented as he paused the movie.
The Halfa cleared his throat. "First and foremost, this is not earth-"
Wally rolled his eyes. "Uh duh."
He ignored the speedster as he continued. "-This is the ghost zone. A large part of the guests will be ghosts, some from other regions of the infinite realms, others from other dimensions or pocket dimensions. Most, will not exactly be too happy that humans are attending."
"But wonder woman is-"
"-Amazonian and technically a demigod," Zatanna interrupted Wally.
"Oh…"
Danny sighed, "As I was saying, they wont be happy. No, you won't be the only humans there, but there is a significantly lower percentage of humans in attendance. So absolutely, under no circumstances, are you to make any comments or gestures towards anyone."
A few eyebrows were raised.
"What if-"
Danny glared at Wally. "Under no circumstances."
Wally rolled his eyes and pouted next to Artemis.
Ignoring the interaction, M'Gann spoke up from the kitchen. "Why the strictness?"
He looked between all of the Team members before continuing. "…Because you guys will be representing your earth from this dimension."
The room went silent and still.
"Noted…" Gar gulped.
"We understand, please continue," Kaldur nodded.
Danny nodded back and cleared his throat again. "Second thing is that you need to remember is that there may or may not be people that you know-"
"From the Ghost Zone?" Conner interjected.
"From a different time zone," Danny warned.
The Team shared looks between one another.
"Yeah, so be careful who sees you, or who you introduce yourself to. The last thing we need is another time rift or butterfly effect," Danny winced.
"We'll be sure to be on the lookout. Anything else?" Dick asked.
The Halfa nodded. "Yeah, this year's festival is going to be a little more uptight with security since there will be a lot more politicians in attendance."
"How come?" Kaldur inquired with a frown.
"Oh yeah! Didn't Clockwork say this year the Ghost King was supposed to be attending?" Gar added.
Danny ignored the ringing in his ears and put on his best poker face as he nodded. "Technically, they have yet to be announced. So they're still a prince-"
Dick looked over to Wally. "So that's why the extra security-"
"Yeah, its probably to make sure no one tries to overthrow him or kill him before he's even crowned," Wally finished with a snort.
Danny looked over the Team once more. "Just… stay out of trouble, okay?"
Gar sent him a reassuring grin. "Don't worry about a thing, Danny, we got this! Now lets get back to our movie, we barely even started it!"
"Hold up, Gar. I have one last question…" M'Gann said, putting down her stirring spoon again.
Danny nodded and waited for her to continue.
"Do we have to attend the entirety of the Festival? We probably shouldn't leave the Cave or missions unattended for too long."
He hummed in thought. "Not unless you wanted to. It lasts roughly ten days, but most people that attend only actually go for a few. So if there are some days you guys don't want to go, you don't have to. Just let Dora, Frostbite, or I know so we can get Wulf to bring you back to the Cave."
Dick stopped typing again and looked over with a concerned look. "Would Clockwork be alright with that though?"
"He does make a point, Clockwork was the one who generously offered for us to attend as his guests. It would only be fair," Kaldur added.
Danny rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Then that would be a conversation between you guys and Clockwork, I can't answer that for him. You'll most likely see him the first day of the festival anyways, you could ask him then."
"What about you?"
The Halfa hesitated as he thought about his words carefully.
"…Unfortunately my situation is a little different… I have to attend a certain amount of days, if not the whole thing."
Gar raised an eyebrow. "Because of Frostbite and Dora?"
Danny frowned. "Something like that…"
The Team, luckily, didn't push it any further. Too many prying questions could get him into a lot more trouble than he was probably already in.
"Well that sucks," Z commented as she got up to help M'Gann put the cookies in the oven.
Danny shrugged it off. "I don't really mind it, the festival can be a lot of fun sometimes and there's always new events and activities every day."
Kaldur smiled and nodded. "Alright then, it's settled we're going to the Festival of Peace. We'll pack and designate some members to watch over the Cave while we're gone."
"Interesting… well then, for such a momentous occasion we should dress appropriately then shouldn't we?"
"Pfft, you can dress up if you want to. But id rather be in my comfy clothes."
"Meoooow?"
"Of course I'm sure I want to wear this! Its what I always wear!"
"Meowwww."
"Well, I think its classy!"
"Did you manage to get into contact with your friend?"
"Sure did, now all we have to do is give him the word."
"Excellent…"