Chapter Text
The conversation with Clockwork rattled around Danny’s head unpleasantly. He had started to look up to the ghost as a mentor and perhaps a friend. Never did he expect Clockwork to turn so cold and accusatory.
All Danny wanted was help, but no one wanted to give it.
(Was that right? Something in the back of his mind itched. Was it that no one wanted to help or did Danny not want to accept it?)
Shaking his head clear of that pointless prattle, he knew now what he had to do. It was a slow building realization that had been growing in the background of his life over the last few months—what it meant to have toppled a King. The Ghost Zone needed a ruler, Danny thought, and that without Pariah Dark then surely it would fall to someone who had been able to defeat Pariah Dark. Danny ignored the logic screaming at him that he had help from allies and his father’s invention to beat Pariah Dark.
There was a vague memory of that fight, of Vlad with the Crown of Fire in hand. Danny knew the Ring of Rage was still in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep with Pariah Dark in his Keep. If he was able to sneak into Vlad’s lab through the man’s own ghost portal, then surely his Green Bay mansion would have the Crown of Fire somewhere.
It was a long flight across the Zone to get to Vlad’s corner of it, the portal hidden by a garishly bright and massive floating football. Kicking the dumb thing out of the way, Danny floated towards the portal entrance. It was locked, but the technology was based on his own parents’ portal schematics. It took only a few minutes of adjustments and fiddling around to bypass the security, relying on the memory of weeks of pouring over the blueprints to recreate it himself. With a rush of energy, the doors to the portal opened, and Danny could see the lab beyond.
Stepping in, Danny transformed back to his human form and took an inhale of the sterile, dry air.
“Now if I was a megalomaniac who thought he was the smartest in a room, where would I put the ancient ghost artifact?” Danny mused to himself aloud. His voice echoed softly against the steel walls of the basement lab.
He circled the room, looking for any indication of a hidden panel or compartment. There were several of those, but none contained the Crown of Fire he was seeking. Frustration built as time ticked by. Each glance at the analog clock on the wall told him that he was making no progress and spending far too much time in his rival’s lab.
Danny popped open the fourth hidden compartment he had found and growled at finding nothing but a packet of Blood Blossom seeds.
Useless.
He slammed it shut, relishing in the noise of metal against metal.
“Having trouble, little badger?” Vlad's voice came from behind him.
Danny jumped and whirled around, dropping into a low defensive stance.
Vlad tutted. “Relax, I’m not going to hurt you.”
He didn’t relax.
Vlad continued, “Looking for something? Perhaps I can be of assistance.”
“Not unless you’re willing to cough up the Crown of Fire,” Danny replied dryly.
Vlad reacted with a rise of one of his brows, not allowing himself to seem outwardly surprised or disturbed by the request. “I must admit that is one such possession I’m loath to part with,” he said.
Danny swiped a tongue over his teeth, surprised to find his canines unusually pointed. Voice rough, he said, “I must admit that I’m really not in the mood for this dumb back-and-forth, Plasmius.”
Vlad ignored his irate response. “Whatever will you do with the Crown, I wonder?”
“Take what’s mine,” Danny snapped.
Vlad looked at Danny a long moment, silence stretching between the two halfas. Carefully, as if talking down a rabid animal, Vlad said, “I can’t let you have the Crown, Daniel.”
“You will give it to me.”
The voice that spilled from Danny’s lips was not his own—feminine and raspy with an authority behind it that made his own eyes water. Danny wasn’t alone in that response, it seemed, as he watched Vlad’s knees shake with the effort of remaining standing under the weight of the command.
“What—Daniel, what have you gotten yourself into?” Vlad's voice raised in pitch, taking on a note of concern now.
Danny bit his lip, a canine puncturing it and drawing forth blood and ectoplasm that dribbled down his chin. He tried to keep his mouth shut and keep the voice at bay, but it curled in his throat and forced air through his vocal cords. “Give the Crown up now, halfling.”
Vlad’s movements were jerky and near-robotic as he turned from Danny to walk to the opposite wall. Standing beneath an analog clock, Vlad reached up and removed it to reveal a safe. His hands shook where they rested on the dial.
“You know the consequences of disobedience.”
Vlad spun the dial to input the combination. The safe door swung open to reveal the crown, its pitch black metal illuminated ominously by the neon green radiance of the fire surrounding it. He picked up the Crown of Fire and stepped towards Danny. Then, a flash of defiance crossed his face. Vlad opened his hands and let the Crown slip from his fingers, clattering to the ground.
As the crown spun and settled, clinking against the stark white tiles, Danny and Vlad stared at one another.
“Daniel, if you need help—”
The next words Vlad spoke blurred together in his hearing. Danny could only focus his gaze on the Crown resting on the tiled floor. With shaking, stuttering steps like a baby deer, he approached it. Scooping it off the ground, the fire was warm but not unpleasant in his hands. Holding it felt…
Right.
Danny looked at Vlad one last time, knowing that his eyes burned bright with a sickening glow, and left.
“Daniel—”
The voice cut back into clarity for the brief moment before the portal doors slammed shut behind him, and Danny was left in the cold of the Ghost Zone.
It was… easy to get the Ring of Rage. It had been within the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep, but Pariah Dark did not rouse without the Crown of Fire. That Danny had left in a long forgotten powder room before approaching the sarcophagus. Just in case.
Now, standing within the powder room and staring deep into the mirror, Danny could see himself. His eyes were wide—haunted and burdened even if you could ignore the deep bags. There was a sallowness to his face that Danny didn’t usually associate with even his ghost form, and he couldn’t help but feel his mouth was twisted into a permanent downward grimace.
He looked awful, to be frank.
His fingers twitched towards the Ring of Rage resting on the marble countertop. With shaky hands, he placed it on his right ring finger and felt a wave of rightness overcome him. The broken, cracked pieces in his chest seemed to settle better. No longer did the shattered edges scrape uncomfortably against each other as emotion grated against emotion.
No.
Danny felt good as anger bubbled to the surface and evened out into a steady pressure. It smothered the unpleasantness he had been feeling lately in the best way possible.
He glanced to the Crown of Fire. When he gripped it, he could feel his core thrum with an anticipation he was eager to fulfill. Settling the crown on his head, his gaze flicked back to the mirror. Danny felt and watched at the same time as power surged through him, his faint ghostly glow brightening like a star shimmering overhead.
The ghastly glow of the crown’s fire made him look powerful and righteous rather than the sick and tired of moments ago. Then, a flicker of movement. Within the shifting of the flames, Danny’s attention was drawn to a figure standing behind him in the mirror. He didn’t bother turning to look, knowing that she wouldn’t be there if he did.
Instead, Danny stared at the woman in the mirror. Her expression was pleased and her face familiar in its arrogance. He recognized her with a slow certainty. Enchantress. The ghost who had destroyed part of Amity Park and killed his loved ones months ago. Enchantress who had disappeared in the wake of it all, defeated—supposedly—by Jazz and the Fenton Peeler.
Enchantress glowered behind him now, moving forward to drape over his shoulders in the reflection of the mirror.
“You should thank me for showing you the way, child.”
Danny frowned and his voice was icy, “You’re a fool for thinking I’d ever thank you—you killed my friends, my family. You’re a monster.”
“Show gratitude—you speak to the rightful ruler of the Infinite Realms.”
He barked out a laugh. “Rightful ruler? What gave you that idea.”
“Pariah was weak. Foolish. He never deserved my crown and neither do—”
“Last I checked,” Danny cut in, “I’m the one with the Crown and Ring, and you’re just a vengeful shadow living under my skin. You’re worse than a monster… you’re a parasite.”
Enchantress’ energy surged within him and he knew, with full confidence, that this had been where the ghost was hiding for months. Infecting him with her venom and hatred, sinking into his being.
It made him sick.
Danny had the Crown of Fire and Ring of Rage, yes, but he still had Enchantress living in his core. Her earlier words rattled through his head with the promise that he could make things perfect. He could take the power needed to swath himself in a layer of protection so that nothing and no one could ever hurt him again. No more death. No more false smiles painted over lying faces.
A part of him twinged at the thought. That wasn’t right, his heart screamed. The Bats weren’t liars and they didn’t betray him. It could just be a misunderstanding.
But, Danny swallowed hard, and turned from the mirror.
He didn’t want to listen to his heart anymore. All that wretched thing had ever caused him was pain.
“Wait!”
Danny ignored Enchantress and fled back out of the room, away from the mirror and her taunting arrogance. As he ran, he could feel the Crown of Fire wrapping itself around his being and his core. The power of the artifact was strange and overwhelming. He could hear whispers and feel shadows of thought creeping in the back of his head. Danny remembered, briefly, something Clockwork once said about the Crown. It held the whispers of wisdom of Kings long gone. And the Crown, it whispered to him now.
Before Pariah Dark there had been others, and they all crowded his mind with their so-called wisdom. The dark thoughts of dark demiurges rattled around, and Enchantress’ presence was so loud. How she screamed at him about the dangers of betrayal. How they all screamed of betrayal. Kings of ages past, all having lost the Crown of Fire and Ring of Rage through circles of revenge and retribution. What Enchantress took from one king until Pariah Dark took from her until Danny took from Pariah.
It hurt.
Danny found himself in the throne room. At the end of the hall, the throne loomed in front of him. One step towards it, and then a second.
The Crown of Fire screamed a warning of Pain-Hurt-Betrayal.
And Danny glanced back, his acid green eyes widening when he saw who else had found themselves in the Keep. It was the Bats. And Danny knew, instinctively, they didn’t want him to sit on that throne.