And so, the moment had arrived. The Ghost Prince was occupying the seat within a large metal RV, unsure of what to say to the two adults in front of him. The RV was so large it was almost a full-sized room, even given all the equipment and displays within it. Phantom could feel the tense atmosphere, as it pressed on him with all its might. Last time Jazz was nearby to calm each party down, but them not shooting him on sight even after the brutal show was probably a good sign. Then again, to them he never hurt any HUMAN, so it was okay in their eyes, still.

"Been a while," Danny mumbled.

"Where have you been all this time?" Asked Maddie.

"Jazz didn't tell you? Been to another world, learned a couple of things..."

"So why come back at all?"

"Conscience. I mean, if I waited for longer this whole town would have died off."

"Thanks to your kind, spook," Jack pointed a finger at him.

"So I'm still nothing more to you, huh?" Danny mumbled. "I thought all this time was more than enough..."

"It's not exactly easy to think otherwise...but it's not something we can just ignore."

Phantom nodded. "Of course. It is not easy to accept you killed your own son. Still, I didn't stop being one even after. At least half of me, if you want to be such nitpicks."

"You can't be both dead and alive, we've been over this."

"Then I really am just a walking reminder of your design decisions. Still, you never once suspected anything. I must have perfectly nailed the act," Danny spoke sarcastically. "Look, I never was mad at you for the incident. I am just as much at fault for being so clumsy. In fact, that day opened a new leaf for me."

"Stop talking as if you are him. You may have his memories, his attitude down to the last aspect, but how can we know that it really is you when you can't say for certain?"

"I am certain. If I was just a ghost possessing a body it would have by now melted from the long use. You know I am right...how much of it is your grief and how much it is the refusal you sought to finally end your own son because all ghosts are supposed to be evil?"

"They are evil, Phantom, this town's condition is the testament to it."

"The ones here? Sure. But even that is debatable as they are driven by an instinctive need. Do you call a wolf evil for hunting you down? They are nasty prisoners of their own ectoplasmic bodies. Most of them are out there, in the Zone, sitting quietly. And I will make sure they continue doing so. Since I am now in charge."

"Since when are you their Prince? If you really claim to be Danny, you have no relation to him."

"You don't have to be related. You only need to get rid of the previous one. This is the best way of ensuring only the strongest ghost leads and protects both us and the balance between various worlds. Since I took Pariah down, I am the Prince. Because nobody coronated me yet. Ironic, isn't it? Our family hunted their kind for generations and now I am supposed to order them around. But rest assured, I will still do everything to make sure situations like in Amity Park never happen again."

"How can we trust a word of a ghost?"

"You have to start somewhere. Many ghosts would ask me if I really should trust you, the ones who dissect those you manage to capture. But I am still willing to extend my hand and let bygones be bygones...whether you believe it or not, you are still my parents. I may hate your guts, and even if you agree it will never return things to the way they used to be, but I don't want us to be enemies."

"Are you afraid we will actually be a problem for your plans, spook?" Asked Jack.

"I am, as a matter of fact. And if you die in the process, Jazz will never forgive me."

As a matter of fact, Danny felt like no matter the past hatred, it would still crush him as well. Not that he would further show that weakness to those who would not appreciate it. He leaned forward.

"And you WILL die. You couldn't even handle the weaker ones here. You are not prepared for what actually lurks in the Zone. And what I can do."

"Bring it, then! At least we will die standing against the fiends from another dimension!"

Phantom glared at him. "Right. Gonna write it on your gravestone, Dad. And then add 'which I invited here in the first place'."

"It wasn't us. We only opened a portal so that our research may go forward," Maddie argued. "The potential of ectoplasm even for civilian use is immense. Our entire house and this RV are powered by so little, imagine what it can do to the world! It is the ghosts who chose to come and wreak havoc."

"And it was up to you to close it at any moment," Danny retorted. "All your research achieved is turning this place into a ghost town in all senses of the word. The only reason you weren't lynched yet is the fact you drive around in a tank and Dad carries the bazooka even in his sleep."

Maddie shook her head. "We are talking about abolishing the need for energy all around the globe. People can move out from here, but the end result will solve so many problems for mankind as a whole."

"Is this a genuine desire to aid the needy or just your pride?" Danny asked. "Yes, it will help your need. But we both know the dangers of ectoplasm. What happens when there is too much ectoplasm in the air? The very fabric of reality twists and turns, laws of physics are broken and you may as well die. When Pariah came here wearing the crown and the ring he exuded so much ectoplasm our entire town was ripped into the Ghost Zone. It's not even some carbon waste, there is no container which can fully prevent that. If you put electric grids powered by ectoplasm all around the Earth, it is screwed. Not to mention that such an extent of ectoplasm procurement will get you the attention not only of the select few ghosts, but the entire realm. It will be a slaughter none of us wants."

"Is this a threat?"

"It will be if you refuse to listen to reason. Please, I know what it means to you. You are abandoning your biggest project, but there is no other way to keep things stable and without danger for both worlds. That thing needs to go."

"This IS our biggest project. One that may equal the space travel, even. You cannot deny humans this feat."

"Maddie..." Jack spoke slowly. "Maybe...he is right."

Both other members of his family turned to the large man in surprise.

"Are you taking his side?"

"Mads...this portal thing, I am proud to have created it, just like you are, but...the cost has been too great, don't you think? First it took our friend out for decades, and then our own son..." Jack looked at the painful reminder sitting in front of them and grimaced. "He died for it to work. It keeps taking people close to us...I don't want it to take Jazzy-pants, too."

Danny looked at him with sadness and appreciation. Jack Fenton was a menace as a driver, disaster for everyone around as a hunter, but none could deny that he was a very soft man. However, it pained Danny that he would still ignore the fact that their son was right in front of them. Maddie looked at her husband, too, but hers was a look of bigger confidence.

"It won't, Jack. We will make sure of it."

"Just so you know, she was nearly possessed on more than one occasion," Danny put in. "So no, you won't. Or, not the way you think. I offered you the solution. Jazz believes that your research always was more important to you than your children, don't go confirming this idea."

Maddie wanted to object, but she never was able to deny how distant they had grown.

"Whatever you think about me, you never noticed any abnormality, did you? When all you had to do was pay closer attention. Shut that portal down, and you will never have to worry about ghosts coming after her again. And I will do everything necessary on my end."

The auburn-haired woman looked away, deep in thought. She felt a hand on her shoulder, meeting her husband's gaze. Giving a heavy sigh, she spoke.

"Fine. We are shutting it down. But let me make this clear," she poked his chest. "It does not change anything between us, Phantom. I don't want to ever see your face after this. If we catch wind that you are still anywhere near our daughter, if you show up in this world again, our deal will be off."

Danny silently watched as his own mother was casting him away one more time. And it pained him just as much as the first one. Fentons would never change, people never did past a certain point. He would never convince them. Neither was there any point in trying. But to forbid him even from seeing Jazz, that was a blow maybe too low. That's the price they were putting forward, the cost of ensuring that no threat came to the Realm from perhaps its greatest, if not clueless, foes. Perhaps that was the greatest challenge so far, not the ghosts, not the Fentons' weaponry — to decide between his responsibility and his sister. What's the alternative? To destroy the entire household and the lab? Fentons would just scrape together a new one. Their danger lied in their vast knowledge they never bothered to write down, conceited to an extent they never even published their discoveries, hence accusations of lunacy. The research had already gone too far. It could have been stopped in their college years, but not now. The only other solution...they were right in front of him, defenseless. He was one of the most dangerous beings in three worlds. A single move of his hand — and the danger and obstacle would be gone in an instant...That, too, was a sign of great determination, no matter how macabre it was.

"If that is the price we all have to pay for people to be safe...so be it...Maddie."

Phantom got up from the seat and opened the door of the van, leaving his past family behind. He no longer had the right to even call them his parents...something he still used to hold on to. It hurt, but at the same time, there was some finality in that conversation. With ghosts chased out and the portal closed, his duty before the town was fulfilled once and for all. Danny was now left to do what he wanted. He was the Ghost Prince, his loyalties, his attention were meant to be elsewhere. The halfa saw Tucker approach him, and Danny's look was more than enough for his friend to know everything.

"It didn't go well, did it?"

"Try to guess," Danny sighed. "I suppose...this is a goodbye."

Tucker didn't look surprised. "I expected as much..."

"The town is still dead, Tuck. Even with ghosts gone, people will move out sooner or later. You better do that, too. You have even fewer reasons to stay."

"Where are you going now?"

Danny shrugged. "Gonna need to renovate Pariah's castle. I am the Prince, so I have all the right."

Tucker huffed. "Never would have thought it would end this way."

"None of us thought what that portal would do to me. Whatever the case, I must leave this world and probably for good. Such are the terms of my deal with Fentons."

"Horribly one-sided, is it not?"

"I'd like to hear the alternative! Now that I am the Prince, there will be ghosts who would stop at nothing to end me, much tougher than our usual crowd. I shouldn't stay around, anyway."

"I see...you can at least call."

"Yes. Not like they can track these," Danny mumbled. "Tuck...make sure to find Sam, would you?"

"Already on it, dude...what about Jazz?"

The halfa looked defeated. "No doubt they have trackers near her at all times. I know how paranoid Fentons are..."

"Danny, dude...how can you be sure they are gonna stay true to their word?"

"I can't. But I assure you, I will know it before they even think of doing it."

"You don't have to..."

"Tuck. I made my mind! Please..." he gave him a pleading look. "Don't make it harder than it already is...I tried turning a new leaf, but only was met with failure. I can't go back, I can't start anew, so there is only one thing left for me to do, to be what I am. Yes, the only way I am leaving this post is in a box, but...running from it won't be living, or whatever it is I am doing. And as a Prince...I must put my responsibility first."

Tucker didn't respond first. "Jazz is gonna hate you for this."

"I know. Guess we will need to wait until Fentons eventually fail to uphold their end."

"And if they do?"

Danny opened a portal behind himself. "I gave them a second chance. There won't be another."

-Linebreak-

But the halfa had some unfinished business in the form of the only other member of their dying race. As it happened, the man was bound to be at his mansion, which was also a tall, almost satirically huge castle. And per chance it was brimming with people, affluent and wealthy ones, who were all invited there by the world's richest man who pursued one of the greatest ambitions a man may hold and thus was ready to make all the necessary deals with all the necessary people, all gathered under one roof. Of course, he wasn't pestering everyone who came — that was beyond his stature. He had dignity and respected the dignity of others. Vlad Masters was, as pun would have it, a ghost in that crowd, appearing and vanishing to make sure his guests remembered who was the owner and what he wanted of them, occasionally entertaining a conversation.

As such, the middle aged man with head full of gray hair was busying himself with securing a deal, standing by a fireplace of a spacious living room.

"So it is settled, then, Preston?"

"You really need to ask, Masters?" his newest friend asked and chuckled. "You will get your coverage, but don't forget your end of the bargain."

"You wound me by assuming otherwise," Vlad smiled.

"Yeah, he may be a frootloop, but he honors his deals."

The billionaire froze upon hearing the voice behind them. His head spinning around so fast his ponytail flipped over his shoulder, Vlad saw Danny's human form standing in front of him, dressed in a formal suit just like everyone around. However, someone so young was still out of place in a gala this important. Vlad did not possess the ability to sense foreign ghostly presence, so Danny sneaking up like this was not anticipated. But not entirely unwelcome.

"And who might you be, young man?" Asked Preston.

"Name's Danny. My family and him go way back," Danny responded and pointed at Vlad.

"I didn't expect you would actually accept my invitation," the man said in surprise.

"I didn't expect you to actually invite me to come," the halfa shrugged. "I've been away for months. Creep."

Preston stared at the exchange. For someone who was just the child of a family friend he seemed awfully familiar with Masters.

"Still, I am so glad you are here. Preston, you don't mind if we do some catching up?" Vlad asked and put a hand on smiling Danny's shoulder.

"Of course. Talk later," the magnate waved and left.

As he did, Danny's smile slipped off and the halfa shook Vlad's arm off.

"Who was that guy?"

"Preston Williams. One of the biggest media moguls there are."

"Why do you need to be chummy with a guy like that? Your cheese sales going down?"

"I prefer being known for Dalv-co, little badger," Vlad smirked as he used the nickname and saw Danny's displeased look.

"Cheese and technology. What are you? Wallace?"

"Amusing as ever. What does any person with more money than he can ever spend want? To turn it into actual power. I decided to run for presidency."

Danny stared at him. "You couldn't even run a city!"

"Ghosts are something beyond what a simple mayor like me can solve," Vlad spoke dramatically and put a hand over his heart. "Are you going to try and stop me?" Vlad asked in a suddenly serious voice. "I don't assume you came because you decided to join me."

"At least you realized you have no chance. I came back because I realized that there is some unfinished business. Fentons will hopefully shut down the portal as promised, but there is also one other. Owned by a man who also is a pretender to the throne."

Vlad's eyes widened as his smile grew. "Daniel, don't tell me you finally stopped running from it."

"Exactly. That's also why I am here. You know how to use ectoplasm better than others, so it's not the destruction of your research I am looking for. But your stance on the ghost problems and me is something that really matters."

Vlad chuckled. "Come with me," he lightly pushed Danny forward as he himself went out of the room.

Danny followed him to an empty corridor, of which there were plenty in a vast castle. Danny already had an idea where they were going — to the underground lab.

"I must say, I am surprised you don't dismiss my candidacy," Vlad commented. "Other ghosts ignore my contribution to locking Pariah up."

"Nobody likes you, frootloop. But knowing you, I can't just write you off. So I need to know what you think."

"Oh, really?" Vlad glanced at him as his eyes glowed red. "What's stopping me from lying, then?"

"Nothing. But let's hear you out."

Vlad huffed. "Can't say you don't butt into the picture, Daniel. I've been demanding the throne for a good while, arguing that you don't want anything to do with it. But now you return more bent on it than ever. What changed?"

Danny sighed. "My journey taught me a couple of things. I realized that trying to fit in is just ignoring what I am. When I was forced to conform...we had a bit of a falling out with the locals. So, I am done conforming. I am going to make my own rules."

Vlad smiled. "Exactly what I dreamed to hear from you, Daniel..."

"Be careful of what you dream about or you won't like the end result. So, you ARE coming after the throne?"

"Look around, Daniel. I wouldn't have started to run for presidency if I had an entire world's worth to take over. I have already given up on that. But perhaps it is for the better."

"Oh?"

"You see, little badger," he spoke as they went through the bookshelf and down the staircase towards the lab, "We will make a wonderful tandem. As a half human you will have the common sense ghosts lack. You will be able to understand the plights of humans. When I become one of the most powerful people in this world, as a half ghost, I will be able to tame the Investigation Ward and the research in this field. Isn't this what you desire most?"

Danny looked at him with caution and suspicion. Yes, Vlad had nothing to gain if the research continued. Surely he didn't hope to topple the king by using human pawns. That would raze his own future realm to the ground. Vlad was a frootloop, a bastard, but he was not of the insensible kind...then again, he did release Pariah, but hopefully it taught him something. And even if so, what was Danny to do to stop his arch rival from succeeding in his campaign for the office?

"You shut the GIW, and I will consider it," Phantom responded. "I ain't staying in this world, so I don't really care as long as nobody dies in a nuclear fire.

"I am glad that we have come to an understanding, Daniel. But there is something I wish to show you. It is...quite important."

They went through the lab that wasn't too dissimilar from Fentons'. Metal walls, a plethora of various tables with a multitude of contraptions made from the same zinc alloy as all proper ectoplasmic devices. They passed a portal Vlad had the decency to shut down when not in use. Turning it on and off was worth a bill of several months' worth of an entire district's electricity. Vlad could actually afford to pay it. Then, the gray-haired man led Danny to a secluded room, full of pipes, splatters of ectoplasm of unknown origin, with a curtained object in the very end of the room.

"Way to be dramatic, Vlad, what is it?"

The man huffed and pulled down the piece of cloth, and what he saw made Danny freeze in shock. There was a glass tube, filled with ectoplasm, and in there was...a girl. Couldn't be older than six. But what immediately caught his attention was her white hair and more feminine version of his own past hazmat.

"You sick psycho..." Danny muttered and rubbed his face slowly. "EXPLAIN."

"This...is Danielle. My failed attempt at making your clone. Atop of being a girl..."

"YOU SAY IT LIKE THIS IS NORMAL!" Danny raised his voice. "You made my CLONE. You are insane. So that's what that pillow stuff was about? You needed my hair or something?"

"Pretty much...Miss Gray should really remember the term 'corporate secret'. Oh, please, don't look at me like this, Daniel. This decision would have satisfied me and I would have been off your back. As I was saying, she is also lacking in terms of age and is unstable. Using her powers too much will cause her to melt like her siblings right there," he pointed at the puddles of ectoplasm. "But aren't I a genius for making even a defective half ghost? I would honestly have considered releasing her if you never showed up, but the last thing I need as a potential and actual president is a child appearing from nowhere. So for now I just make sure she is stable enough, but sleeping."

"How kind of you."

"I am not above killing children, but this would just be wasteful," Vlad shrugged. "In the end...maybe this will still do good for you. You are leaving your home for the world or worlds where you will be alone in the very end. Your so-called allies will betray you the second you step out of line like Pariah did. The Observants would like nothing more than to see you gone so that they can run the world again as they please. But there will be someone ever loyal, always ready to help and who, if we manage to create a stabilizing technology, may even be on par with you, her very own...cousin, brother, father?" Vlad smirked at Danny's expression of utter bewilderment. "I merely made her. But she is your own flesh and blood. And ectoplasm. Do make a choice, Daniel. Because who knows when I decide to finally pull the last plug on this project?"

"You can't do that!"

"Why? Technically she isn't even born yet," Vlad shrugged. "In any case...I believe you got what you wanted. I am heading upstairs. Do decide and get out before I come back."

With that the other halfa turned around and left the room, leaving Danny to stare at the massive tube, and a small girl sleeping within. She looked so much like his childhood photos even despite being a girl...then again the true differences start with puberty. Danielle, seemed so peaceful in that container of ectoplasm. Danny sighed and leaned against the nearby wall. That was something he was completely unprepared for. What was he supposed to do? Release her, of course, there was no debating it, or Vlad would go through with his threat. But what then? Danny couldn't just let her on her own, she was six, and that's only physical age. She was technically a family, and he would do his best, of course, but at what role? Who was he really to her?

But Vlad's other words made sense to a decree. He just renounced his own family, and they renounced him, most of his friends and Jazz were scattered around as he wasn't going to live in that world any longer. If there was any chance, a sliver of hope that suddenly danced right up to him, why was he supposed to dismiss it?

After several minutes of pacing around, Phantom finally made up his mind. He had decided not to run from responsibility. Before him lied perhaps the greatest responsibility a living or dead being can potentially take upon oneself - to take care of a child. It did feel strange, he was only fifteen himself, but it would be foolish to deny he was forced to become older than he actually was. This was only adding to the impression. Danny looked at the nearest touchskreen console and snapped his fingers, with Technus's power doing the job of accessing the right buttons.

The ectoplasm was drained from the tube, with the girl being slowly lowered to the bottom. Danny approached the tube as it opened and, albeit not without hesistation, picked her up. The ghost girl started to stir slowly, shifting in the half-ghost's hold, before lazily rubbing her eyes and opening them, revealing two green shining orbs that immediately darted to Danny's face. A moment of uncomfortable silence passed, before Danielle finally spoke.

"Daddy?" she asked groggily.

Someone certainly made up her mind quickly. But at this point Danny was perhaps too tired to argue. He smiled lightly and nodded.

"I guess so," he said and flicked her long hair from her eyes. "How are you feeling?"

"I dunno. Head feels funny," she shook said head.

"Figures. You were in that thing for some time...hey, ehm, Danielle?"

The girl looked at him expectedly.

"How...much do you know about how you came around?"

"Vlad made me...I think."

The frootloop obviously had a way to force the required knowledge into the girl's head. Otherwise she wouldn't even be talking in coherent sentences. And the frootloop decided to make Danny's life harder by preinstalling the belief of who the older Phantom was to her. Yet he opted to spare the halfa from having to explain how she came to be.

"Well, pretty much..."

"Daddy, can we go home? I don't like it here..." The girl looked around. The sight of splattered ectoplasm in a dark basement must have been quite unnerving.

Phantom sighed. "Yeah, that would be best. Come on."

He let Danielle jump on the ground.

He wasn't going to take them straight to the castle, now that the last matter in the human world was settled. There were some basic things to take care of first, especially with the new addition to his drastically shrunken family. Like groceries. Pariah's castle was in a shortage of available food stores, for sure. But they needed to be discreet and stay cautious with every appearance. He would not jeopardise everything because of one shopping trip. Danielle was a halfa as well, so...

"Look, kiddo, you do know that you can turn into a human form, right?"

She nodded.

"Then could you please do that? People will get nervous if you show up as a ghost."

The girl scrunched her eyebrows in thought. "But I am not gonna do anything, I promise!"

"And I believe you. But sometimes just seeing something so unusual can get people worried. Let's save them the trouble, hm?"

Danielle didn't really seem convinced, but still nodded. "Okay."

Same way as Danny did it, the girl switched her forms, showing a remarkable level of control. To her it was preinstalled, it appeared. Danny had had to learn the hard way, constantly reverting back and forth. And now they looked even more alike, with her raven hair and ice blue eyes. Her outfit was an interesting pick, Vlad must have bought the first things he saw. Danny prayed that Vlad had actually BOUGHT those, logistics of putting them on her aside. The outfit consisted of red sneakers, blue jeans and hoodie. She looked adorable, Danny couldn't deny that. Those were also obviously boy clothes, with how baggy they looked in certain places. Of course. Vlad had expected a boy.

Danny smiled and patted her head.

"Now let's do some shopping," he said, before making a portal.

"Woah! Awesome!" The girl breathed out and ran towards it with a speed of bullet.

She was certainly going to be a handful. It was a hyperactive child with the whole arsenal of powers. Still, he was not letting anyone, be it Vlad, Fentons or supernatural forces, harm that little girl.

-Linebreak-

"Explain it, Phantom!"

The Observants, floating green one-eyed ghosts in collared capes and robes, sent a delegation to where they knew for certain the halfa was waiting for the whole three delegates. And he knew they would be arriving, as he was sitting on a black elevated throne in his ghost form. Somewhere away from their sight were many still packed shopping bags and a little girl busy picking a room for herself. She didn't need to be there for this.

"What exactly should I explain? Not everyone is as omniscient as you guys. Why are you even asking?"

"We are not telepaths. We see what you do, not why. Now state your intentions, child!"

"Isn't it obvious? I want you to finally admit what everyone already knows. This world once again is going to have a king. And this one doesn't sleep on his job," Danny pointed towards the sarcophagus.

"Absolutely not! We are not entrusting the future of this world and so many more into the hands of a child!"

"I am not asking to crown me here and now, though. I need you," he rose from the throne, "To acknowledge me and my future role. We all know the real reason you are refusing to give what is rightfully mine. The crown will make me too powerful to handle. I can wait for it until I prove I can wield it responsibly. But I am amending our agreement. I am taking up my duties as a prince, this place and everything within it as my domain."

The Observants looked at each other. "You have no right!"

"I have the right to demand everything at once. The crown, the throne and your allegiance. Yet I am willing to compromise."

"Compromise?! So far you are only demanding!"

"Merely what I am owed. Even less. Please be aware that no matter what you say here, the outcome will be the same. If you don't accept my offer, you will be no different to me than the ghosts I've beaten before. And we all know how this will end, you don't need to be a fortuneteller for that. You would not be asking Clockwork to do your dirty work if you were capable of ending me even the way I was half a year ago. I will have the throne, even if it means forcing you to bend your nonexistent knees. So do consider this generous offer, I am handing you the keys to absolute power out of respect for the duty you've carried out for millennia. In exchange for something that should be rather trivial to you."

"It is far from trivial, Phantom. You seek to overturn the order which has existed for hundreds of years!"

"The Observants are caretakers, not actual leaders, you know that. Since the start it was your responsibility to watch over the Realm until the next king came to be."

"Clockwork told you this?"

"I guess the fact you never saw me learning of it is answer enough. He is the only one invisible to your sight. You heard me, however. Cling to power longer than you should and you will end up losing all of it, don't you doubt it. But I still wish to avoid shedding ectoplasm. Your sight and ability to act upon it is invaluable to my own responsibility of dealing punishments. Let us do what Pariah refused to and cooperate. We need to act as one before the subjects or there will be no end to conflicts that will concern all of us."

"So legitimacy it is..."

"Your legitimacy is just as much under question, don't pretend it is not. But this is a rare case when by cooperating we can erase these problems altogether."

The Observants once again looked at each other, perhaps communicating telepathically. They all were interconnected.

"We will consider this offer. But under one condition, child. We have seen you learn the abilities of other ghosts. We don't need to explain how abhorrent that action was."

"Please, they did keep their powers. Even their cores will heal."

"That's not what concerns us. Our condition is as follows — swear off taking them from your fellow ghosts from now on."

Danny stared at them. "You are still afraid...very well. Until you crown me so be it. But I expect you recognising my royal status now, as well as my...daughter's."

It still felt odd saying this. Not exactly wrong, just...weird.

"Fine then," a response followed. "You shall be the crown prince and your clone a princess. But keep that child under control. She can be just as destructive as you."

With that the spectres flew away, leaving the halfa to sit on his throne again and sigh.

"You can come out now," Danny said and turned towards one of the columns.

The girl dropped invisibility and chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of her neck. "Sorry, Daddy."

Even her habits were the same as his...

"Don't be. You did not interrupt anything...was it so interesting you decided to spy?" Danny smiled and came down the stairs.

"I picked a room so I decided to come tell you this!" The girl rambled. "And then I saw these weirdos...you looked like it was important."

Phantom chuckled. "That is one way of calling them. But I suppose I got what I wanted. Even if becoming a king may be more distant than I would like, accepting not to take something is not the same as giving something away. So I am happy."

"So...I am a princess now?"

"Since the moment you were born, kiddo," Danny tapped on her nose and made the girl giggle. "They are just stupid. Now let's see which room you've picked."

He was soon led through the twisted corridors to a room with a rotunda structure. One that had a large glass ceiling and a concerning amount of torture devices. Ancients knew what had been happening in there.

"I'll have to clean those ones," Danny mumbled.

"There's a lot of stuff!" Danielle said with maybe too much excitement as she picked up and shoved at him a Spanish boot, holding it above her head. "What's it for?"

"Let's...not get carried away..." Danny took the torture device and put it on the ground. "Why this room, though?"

"I dunno...but I like looking at the sky. It's pretty."

The older half-ghost looked up at the swirling mass that was called the sky. It was, perhaps, a grim reminder that it was the world of the dead that would be his home from that point onward. The girl seemed awfully optimistic about the prospect of seeing it every single day, but it could just be that there was little to nothing she could compare it to. And maybe something within her yearned to see the skies, just like inside her father. That brought a gloomy thought.

"Look...Elle," he decided to shorten her name, "There is something we need to talk about..."

He sat on the disused rack, and the girl floated to sit next to him.

"Is something wrong, Daddy?"

"Yeah...you have to know that I myself am not in a very good position. This is my new home, away from what most kids your age are used to. What even I am used to. I may be a prince, the future king, but providing you with what a proper parent should give may not be within my power. I am not even an adult myself. The last thing I want is to sentence you to the life you don't want. I may have spoiled mine, but yours is a clean list of paper. So if you don't want the life I am offering, I will totally understa..."

The little girl interrupted him by hugging her genetic parent around his shoulders, standing on her feet. She was really small, even for someone her age.

"It's okay! I like it here, Daddy, promise!"

Danny looked into her sincere green eyes, feeling his lower lip quiver.

"Are you sure? You haven't even seen what's out there."

"I wanna see it...but I also don't wanna you to be sad, Daddy."

Vlad had no idea what he had tossed away, had he?

"I...can get over it, kiddo..." he tried to assure her. "but I guess I just wanted to know. It's not like I could have sent you alone out there, so it really was about my conscience..." he shook his head. "Very well, then...if you once again stand firm, then being a father it is...sheesh, what a wild couple of days. Let's get your room cleaned of this stuff, hm?"

"Okay!" The girl beamed.

A.N. So that's how it is. Our Danny boy is gonna rule his own world. With that being said, the next chapter will see him come to the world of MHA once again. Isn't that great?