#this fic is just shenanigans with a lil bit of danny sass. some tiny plot but mostly shenanigans and sass

[currentlylurking]

Phic Phight: Have Your Kingdom and Eat it Too

Danny goes to investigate a disturbance at Pariah’s Keep. There he finds a ruined sarcophagus, a broken ring, and a very confused man who apparently doesn’t remember his multiple evil deeds.

(Based on prompts by @ghostlyhabato and a lil bit of one by @imperfection-at-itsfinest)

Word Count: 5614

Have Your Kingdom and Eat it Too

Officially, Danny was not the Ghost King.

That was mostly because the Observants hated him, but the fact that there hadn’t actually been a Ghost King prior to Pariah also played a part. Apparently, he’d just up and declared himself the Ghost King and then tried to murder the Observants when he was told he couldn’t do that. While Danny thought they kinda sucked as an organization (reasons A through X were just how poorly about ten of them treated Clockwork), he was well aware how many lines that crossed.

All that aside, while Danny may not be the Ghost King, most of his allies wanted to deal with the Observants even less than he did. So they made him a ‘representative’ for their lands. A few of his enemies had even jumped on board, like Skulker and Walker, who hated the Observants way more than Danny did. It was kind of impressive, considering they didn’t even know Clockwork and how he was treated, but whatever. Government was weird.

Anyway, the point of this whole ramble was that Danny was not the Ghost King, but he was as close as the ghosts he knew could get him. So when something exploded at Pariah’s Keep and scared the nearby ghosts, who did the Observants arbitrarily decide had the stupid thing in his territory and had to investigate?

It was Danny. It was always Danny.

He floated in front of the stupid ugly building, about an hour and a half after said explosion. Nobody had run out and gone on a murderous rampage, or summoned an army of skeletons, or done any normal ‘world domination time’ things, so he was pretty sure he was safe. It had probably just been some teenaged ghosts, poking at stuff they shouldn’t. It happened a lot. Danny, who was also a teenaged ghost, was a prime example of it.

He flew through front door he’d smashed open last time he’d fought Pariah, briefly shifting to human form to dodge some of the traps that had managed to reset. It took him maybe ten minutes to invisibly reach the throne room.

Problem one was super obvious; the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep was destroyed. The top front had been smashed inwards and crumpled into the sarcophagus itself. The hinge was barely keeping the door attached. Scattered around it was ectoplasm and broken stone.

Someone had tried to punch Pariah through the sarcophagus, and then there’d been a fight. Because of course there had.

Still invisible, Danny floated a bit closer. Pariah wasn’t in the sarcophagus, and there wasn’t enough ectoplasm around to suggest that someone had destroyed him. Not that he knew anyone who could – he was pretty sure the only actually surviving Ancient was Nocturne, and that guy was a dick. Anyway, it had taken seven of them and Clockwork just to seal Pariah up that first time. Even if Pariah was still drained from the sarcophagus’ powers, he was not weak enough to destroy.

Danny lifted a chunk of rubble between two gloved fingers, examining it. Bits of blue ectoplasm dripped off it – so, not ghost blood. Leftovers from a parried attack, maybe? He snapped a picture with his phone anyway. Sam and Tucker were better at the detective stuff, he was better at punching stuff.

He set the rubble down, and continued poking around. The Keep was still far too quiet. He rolled a fallen column to the side and revealed one of Pariah’s gauntlets, with the now-smashed Ring of Rage still under it.

“Dope,” Danny said, and snapped a picture of that as well. The Ring of Rage sucked, and Valerie was still super invested in getting ‘a ring that proclaimed her a real ghost hunter’ despite the fact she knew that thing had belonged to an evil ghost. But whatever, Danny had just gotten shot when he asked her if a ring of bruises was close enough. Some people didn’t appreciate quality witty banter.

He shoved the column aside a bit more, revealing plenty of ectoplasm. The image of Pariah getting his hand crushed by a column was so funny that Danny couldn’t help but snort.

“Who’s there?!” Someone shouted. Danny snatched his invisible hands away from the column and glanced back where, unfortunately, his ‘where is Pariah’ question was answered.

The tyrant seemed… smaller now. It wasn’t a perspective thing; he was just closer to the height of a dude with giantism than a literal giant. His hand was also smashed, just like Danny had imagined, and wrapped in bandages. He was covered in other injuries, too; aside from the multitude of scrapes, when he tried to move up the stairs, he did so with a clear limp.

“Who’s there?” He demanded again. That was another thing – his accent wasn’t as pronounced.

What type of accent did he even have? Scottish? Why did the King of Ghosts who’d been in a deluxe sleepy sack for a thousand years have a Scottish accent? Was this one of those ‘pay more attention when Lancer speaks, Fenton,’ things?

Not important. Pariah came closer. He looked more scared than angry up close, though it was almost hidden by the fact whoever had broken him out had chopped up his face pretty badly. He looked like he’d been caught in a lawnmower, and also incredibly terrifying.

He hadn’t noticed the invisible Danny, though. That was nice. Danny used it to float back, over the column, in case he needed to use the good ol’ hand smasher for cover.

After a bit of poking around, Pariah huffed. “If there is anyone here, I just want to talk.” He said, and despite how funny it was that he thought anyone would fall for that, Danny did not snort. Pariah faced the opposite way from him, and looked over the pockmarked walls. “My – my name is Alric.” What. “I just want to know what’s going on.”

Okay, that was past the weird threshold. Danny sat cross-legged on the column and popped back into visibility. A shield was already half-formed in his hand. “Last I heard,” Pariah whipped around, “your name was Pariah Dark, King of Ghosts.”

Pariah stared at him for a second. He didn’t attack. “Are you the one who let me out?”

Danny scoffed. “No. I just had to investigate a disturbance in my territory.”

Pariah frowned. “I… see. I am Alric, and yes, I am the Ghost King. Who are you?”

“Danny Phantom. Your replacement.” He waved, “Sup?”

“Oh.” Pariah’s frown grew. “You’re a child.”

“And you’re a child murderer,” Danny shrugged. Pariah’s face turned ashen. “So, are you going to try and kill me now?”

“I – I’m not a murderer,” Pariah said, and gripped the side of his head with his uninjured hand. Danny hummed in disagreement. “I’d never hurt a child, much less kill one!”

“Yeah, no, I still have a scar from last time we fought.” Pariah gaped at him, then gripped his head harder. Danny watched impassively, shield still at the ready.

“Why did I assault a child?” He asked, and his unnecessary breathing started to get ragged. Danny floated up, watching Pariah for a second. “I – Spirits, why would I do that? Why can’t I remember? I –” he paused. “Clockwork.”

“Huh?” Danny said.

“Clockwork.” Pariah repeated, which was not comforting. “My friend. He – you said you were the next king,” he stopped for a second. Danny raised an eyebrow. “Do you know a man named Clockwork? Blue skin, scar over his eye, likes the colour purple?”

Danny had seen Clockwork last week for help with a history report. Clockwork was entirely unhelpful and had gotten personally offended at how ‘inaccurate and biased’ his history textbook was. He hadn’t mentioned anything about Pariah breaking out.

“No?” Danny said. He wasn’t a snitch, and after three years of ghost fighting, he’d gotten pretty good at not messing up simple lies. “Why?”

Pariah’s face, once again, turned ashen. “Do you… know the Observants? Did they make you Ghost King?”

“I – I’m not –” nevermind, Danny was still a garbage liar. “They didn’t make me anything, it was my allies, they sort of voluntold me to go be, y’know,” he gestured vaguely, “and the Observants had to go with it. There were a lot of them.” Nevermind the fact that he was not the Ghost King.

“But… you’re a child.” Pariah said. He shook his head. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to keep bringing it up. Clockwork is – was my friend.” He had a bit of a weird inflection on the word ‘friend,’ which made Danny trust him even less than he did before. “There’s this item called the skeleton key, it’s very important to him. Do you know where it is?”

Danny raised an eyebrow once again. “Uh, dude, are you okay? I kind of expected you to try and kill me at least once by now.”

“I already said I – Spirits, what sort of things did I do to make you believe that?” He lowered his hands. “Danny Phantom, I give you my word that I will not harm you.”

Yeesh, could this day get any weirder? “Appreciate that, but Pariah, I really don’t believe you.”

“Alric,” he said. “My name is not Pariah. I don’t know why I would have changed it. I can barely remember anything between a dinner gone wrong and waking up not too long ago, my hand stuck under that column.”

“Uh-huh, I saw. Smashed your ring and everything.” Danny said, and pointed down at it. Pariah – Alric? Nah, he didn’t deserve a new name – frowned at the artifact. He took a step towards it. Danny threw up the shield he’d been holding. “What went wrong at the dinner?” He asked. He watched Pariah pull back a bit.

“I – I believe,” he said very reluctantly, “that it was a chef’s fault. My friend I mentioned, Clockwork, he was curious and went to watch her prepare the meal. I came in to check on the preparations as she began to call him horrible things. I was furious. I lost my temper.” He looked down at his hands. “I destroyed her, right in front of Clockwork. He was terrified. How did I not notice it then? Spirits, he must hate me…”

Danny, despite his best efforts, could almost sympathize – he’d nearly punched a few Observants after seeing how they treated Clockwork. The idea of other ghosts doing that was hard to handle. “Am I supposed to feel bad for you? You just admitted you killed a lady.” He said. He stood, dropping the shield. “Who let you out?” He pointed a thumb at the ruined sarcophagus.

“I’m not sure,” Pariah said slowly, and tore his eyes away from the ring. Danny kicked it down the stairs and quickly stepped away. “It was this ghost in a white cloak. I’m not sure what happened, I barely saw him. I think we fought, but after he pinned my arm he left. He didn’t say much. I never saw his face, but he threw these bandages at me when I asked him who he was. Once my mind had cleared I left to patch up my wounds and returned when I heard you.”

“Neat. No idea who that’s supposed to be, but I’ll tell the Observants to keep an eye out.” He caught the flicker of a scowl on Pariah’s face. “Now. If you’re not going to kill me or try and take over the world, what do we do now?”

“That’s your decision, my king,” Pariah said. Danny couldn’t help the face he pulled – Pariah didn’t notice it, though. “If I have any choice, though, I’d like to stay as far away from the Observants as possible.”

“Most people would, hence why they make me deal with them instead.” Danny shrugged. He looked over Pariah’s injuries again – whoever that cloaked ghost was, he had done a number on one of the most powerful ghosts ever. Danny didn’t know if he should be impressed or terrified. “How hurt are you?”

“Quite injured, I think,” Pariah admitted. He examined his bandaged hand. “I have a rather high pain tolerance, but the damage I suffered was significant.”

“Right. So, I’m going to take you to a guy who knows how to ask the right questions to figure out what we do with you, and also fix you up. We should probably make a sling before we do that, though…” Danny trailed off, examining the walls. “We should also disguise you so that other people don’t see you and panic.” He hummed, then snapped his fingers. “Oh, I know!”

.-.

“Great One, what is that?”

“Hello,” Pariah said, from under the tapestry Danny had thrown over him. He looked like a bedsheet ghost, although he wore an evil looking moth-eaten tapestry instead of a white sheet. His broken horn half poked out of a hole, tangled in red thread.

“Good question,” Danny said, and pulled the tapestry off. Frostbite took a step back, closer to the exit of the ice cave they’d been waiting in. “Sorry to drag him here but, uh,” he gestured vaguely to all of Pariah, “help.”

Frostbite continued to stare at Pariah for a moment longer. Pariah, for his part, stayed silent. “Come with me, Great One.” He frowned, “And… you.” He led the way. Danny flung the tapestry back over Pariah as they passed by the other yetis. A few bowed, but more simply waved. Danny waved back and gave wider smiles to the ones who didn’t bow.

Pariah watched the exchanges with a frankly disturbing look in his eye, which Danny decidedly ignored.

Eventually, Frostbite led them to a hospital-like room. “Sit,” he said, and Pariah did. Danny helped pull off the tapestry once again as Frostbite produced some ectoplasmic gloves. “Now. I would like an explanation, please.”

Danny shrugged. “Observants told me the keep was in ‘my territory’ and that something blew up there. So I went to investigate, I found him and a smashed ring of rage, he says he’s not evil anymore and that he won’t hurt me, also that some white-cloaked weirdo broke him out.” Danny frowned, and ran everything over in his mind. “And… yeah, no, that’s about it. Any advice?”

Frostbite frowned and turned to Pariah.

“Your king sums it up quite well,” Pariah said, and Frostbite grinned.

“Oh, so you’ve abdicated and passed the throne on to Danny Phantom?”

Pariah frowned. “I…” he glanced at Danny, and very reluctantly sighed. “I suppose?”

Frostbite whoop’d, and Pariah leaned away from him. “Excellent! I will spread the word, and we will have the biggest party in centuries! This is a wonderful day that will be remembered for ages!”

“Great!” Danny said, despite the fact this was not great at all. “Real neat! Can we focus on this first?”

“Of course, my king,” Frostbite said, and Danny did not sigh. “When you say Pariah is no longer –”

“Alric,” Pariah corrected once again. “Please, I don’t know why I would ever change my name to something as absolutely stupid as that. I –” he stopped, frowned, and squinted past Frostbite. Danny followed his gaze, and watched Pariah look himself over in a wall of shiny ice. “What the hell am I wearing?”

“Armor,” Frostbite offered, and began to unwrap Pariah’s bandaged hand.

“I noticed that part, I just – this is actually revolting. I look ridiculous.” Pariah huffed, ran his unbroken hand through his hair. “Why is my hair so long? And am I –” another pause, and more squinting. Pariah sounded particularly horrified. “Am I wearing eyeliner?”

“Huh,” Danny said, and watched as Pariah rubbed his eye. The raccoon effect around them confirmed that yes, the king of ghosts, a super evil mass murderer, had been wearing cheap eyeliner. He watched Pariah stare at his hand in abject horror. “I mean, it helps you look threatening.” He offered. “My friend Sam likes her eyeliner wings sharp enough to kill a man. And Vlad wears eyeliner whenever he’s out doing evil stuff, says it makes his eyes pop.”

“I don’t want to do anything evil!” Pariah protested. “Is it off?”

“Sit still,” Frostbite scolded. “You can wash your face after I’m done, if that is such a big issue.”

For a moment, Pariah sat there like a pouting child. Danny couldn’t help but snicker – his weird tolerance had been smashed to pieces, now it was just funny. Pariah had nearly killed him and Valerie, severely messed up the Ghost Zone, and now he was sitting on a bed complaining because he’d put make-up on at some point. How did this happen to people?

Frostbite paused his examination of Pariah’s hand. “Huh,” he said thoughtfully. He set the hand down and began to try and comb through Pariah’s hair. “Pardon me for a moment.”

“Like, officially?” Danny asked, grinning. From the look Frostbite shot him, now was not the time for royalty jokes. Not good. He floated over. “What’s up?”

“Do I have lice?” Pariah asked. “Feel free to shave my head if you must. I have no attachment to whatever atrocity happened to my hair.”

“Forget your hair,” Danny said, “what about your hand?” With the bandage gone, Danny could see that Pariah’s ring finger looked black and necrotic, with spiderweb-like black veins curling across the skin. It was also just messed up in general, but those were normal ghost-limb-got-crushed injuries. The weird veins were not.

“I genuinely have no idea,” Pariah offered, “it was like that when I came to my senses.”

“It’s not alone,” Frostbite said, and parted a section of his hair – there were more of those veins across his scalp, centralized at the top of his head.

“Huh,” Danny said. “That’s… huh. I think I have to up my weird tolerance. Do you know what that is?”

“Generally,” Frostbite said slowly as he pulled back, “marks such as that are leftover after a malicious curse has ended.”

“Why would they be on his head and hand, then?” Danny said. It clicked as soon as the words were out of his mouth. “The ring and crown!”

Frostbite frowned. “Great One, are you implying what it sounds like you are?”

“I mean, I would hope so.” He shrugged and pulled back. Pariah watched him, vaguely confused. “Where’d you get the ring of rage and crown of fire, dude?” Danny pulled a face. “Seriously, the names sound super evil. Why would you put those on?”

“I just thought they’d make me more powerful?” Pariah said, and rubbed the side of his head with his good hand. “I don’t understand. I didn’t have them on all the time. I would take them off when I wanted to rest. My memories cut off well after I got them.”

“Curses take time,” Frostbite said thoughtfully. “I could take an ectoplasm sample, and have one of our labs examine it, but it does seem likely Danny Phantom’s theory is correct. The crown was destroyed by the Observants two years ago.”

“And the ring was destroyed two hours ago,” Danny said, and pulled up the picture on his phone to show Frostbite. “So… the curse is broken because of some weirdo in a cloak who wanted to try out property damage, and you’re no longer evil?”

“The Observants cursed me,” Pariah said, quietly.  

“I would not pin the blame on them,” Frostbite said warily, “or on anyone at all. You should do your best to move past this.”

“No.” Pariah said, a bit of a growl burning through his throat. Danny and Frostbite both took a step back. “They did this on purpose.”

“Oookay,” Danny said slowly, keeping himself between Pariah and Frostbite. “How about you take some deep breaths and calm down. I know you’re a ghost, but those help.” He shrugged. Pariah started to scowl. “It’s probably best if you don’t spend your first day as an uncursed dude repeating a murder rampage on the government.”

That gave him a moment of pause. “When did I murder Observants? By the time I had reason to, they were all in hiding.”

“Uh, when you attacked their house?” Danny said. He glanced at Frostbite, who nodded. “Yeah. Early on in your kingship, they said you weren’t a real king, so you tried to kill them. It’s Ghost Zone History 101.”

“No. I never tried to kill any of them.” Pariah’s scowl was more pronounced, but less directed at them. “They did denounce me publicly, I remember that. But I went there to talk, like a normal person, to see if we could find some middle ground.” He scoffed, “That lasted for all of five minutes before they decided it’d be easier to destroy me. I defended myself, but I made no effort to kill anyone. When I returned the next day they were gone, so I raided their artifacts. That is where I got the ring and crown. It was a backup plan, in case their murder attempt failed.”

“Or,” Frostbite said, “it was an unlucky coincidence. As far as I know, the Observants’ view of the timestream is limited. They would not be able to predict that.”

Pariah huffed. He was silent for a second, but Danny stayed on edge. “How long has it been since I was locked away?” He asked.

“A bit over a millennium, I believe,” Frostbite said. “One of my ancestors was part of the ancient seven who sealed you away. I should have the exact date recorded in our history wing.”

“It’s super cool,” Danny said as Pariah leaned forwards, head in his hand. “They have some really neat cave paintings and stuff there.”

“I… I’ll have to take a look at that.” Pariah said. His voice was strained. He sounded a bit like he was three steps from a breakdown. “Is there a list anywhere? Of the people I – I hurt?”

“Of those you destroyed, yes. I don’t believe injuries were registered.” Frostbite said. He guided Danny aside and returned to tending to Pariah’s hand. “It is not with me, but I could request a copy.”

“Thank you.” Pariah said. “Would you – do you know if the name Clockwork is on it?”

Frostbite glanced back at Danny. He’d met Clockwork once, sometime after the revelation that Frostbite’s ancestor had been an Ancient and that Clockwork had helped them. They’d gotten along okay, Frostbite was a – pun intended – super chill guy, and Clockwork, as awkward as he was, had easily found common ground with the yetis. He’d also been impressed that they were nice to him since, apparently, Frostbite’s ancestor had been a real jerk.

Danny shook his head. Frostbite gave a small nod and refocused on Pariah. “I can’t say that name is familiar. Why?”

“He was my friend.” Again, Pariah said friend super weirdly.

“Ah,” Frostbite said. He’d moved on to examining Pariah’s limp and copied the weird tone. “A ‘friend.’”

“Yes, a friend.” Pariah said defensively. He hissed when Frostbite adjusted his ankle. “He was closest to me after the events with the Observants. Physically and otherwise.”

“I’m sure,” Frostbite said.

“I just want to know if I hurt him.” Pariah said, his bowed head coloured by a blush Danny almost missed. “There’s something else that’s just as important. There’s an item called the skeleton key. Do you know where it is?”

“No,” Frostbite lied. He knew just as well as Danny did that it was with the Observants. “Why?”

“It’s important to Clockwork,” Pariah said, and left that incredibly vague statement at that.

“How so?” Danny asked, and floated closer.

“It’s important,” Pariah stressed. “I know it opens any lock in the Zone. I don’t care about that anymore, certainly not if I used it to hurt people. But it belongs to Clockwork, and I had it before the curse took effect. I was closer to him than anyone. I could have hurt him.”

Danny said nothing. He wasn’t sure what he could say that wasn’t just Clockwork’s personal business. But he didn’t like the picture this was painting – Clockwork had, however reluctantly, admitted that the Observants used the key to control him. Danny didn’t know the specifics. He didn’t like the idea of Pariah knowing them, ‘previously cursed’ and ‘friend of Clockwork’ or not. Besides, Clockwork had helped the Ancients seal Pariah away. He wouldn’t want anything to do with him. Even if they’d been friends once, Clockwork definitely wasn’t one now.

Despite Danny’s best efforts, he was about the only friend Clockwork had.

The silence hung for a bit longer. “If, by any chance,” Pariah spoke up, “you’re lying because you don’t trust me, I understand that. I just want Clockwork to be safe.”

“Mood,” Danny said. Pariah frowned at him. He backtracked. “I’ll ask around. See what I can do.”

“Be sure to use your Kingly Sway when you do so!” Frostbite said, apparently delighted by the topic change. He turned to grab more disinfectant.

“Is that even a thing?” Danny asked. “Also, pretty big flaw if it is. Considering, y’know, the thing.” The ‘not actually being the ghost king’ thing.

Frostbite laughed. He stepped over and slapped Danny on the back. “That’s not an issue anymore, Danny Phantom! The Observants have no say in this!” He gestured to Pariah, who just looked confused. “Not when the previous king has passed the throne on to you!”

Pariah and Danny stared at each other for a second, and it was impossible to tell who was more confused.

“He’s a child,” Pariah said.

“I’m only half dead,” Danny said, at somewhat the same time.

“What?” Pariah asked.

“Both can be worked around until they are no longer issues!” Frostbite said. “But this is wonderful news! You should be happy, Great One – finally, the Observants will leave us alone!”

There was a soft ahem. The group looked to the left – a portal had been cut through the ice wall, and in front of it floated a white-cloaked figure. It waved a clawed, green hand, and poorly hidden under the hood was one red eye. “Is this a good time?”

“You’re an Observant,” Danny said. Frostbite guided him closer.

“…Well, I suppose the disguise was pointless then. That’s groovy.” The Observant said. He took off his cloak and slung it over an arm. “Anyway. What’s shakin’?”

“You’re not allowed here,” Frostbite said. He kept his eyes fixed on the portal.

“I’m not staying,” the Observant said, “I’m just here to make a delivery.” He pulled the skeleton key out of his robes.

“You have it?” Pariah snapped, already on his feet.

“A delivery for Danny Phantom, sit down before you hurt yourself.” He floated forwards, eye still on Pariah, and pressed the key into Danny’s hands.

“Thank you?” Danny said. “Are you the one who released Pariah?”

The Observant seemed to frown. “His name’s Alric. If you can turn your back on him, you can call him by his name.”

“Don’t defend me,” Pariah – Alric – said. “I don’t want your help. Where’s Clockwork?”

“Funny,” the Observant said, and backed up significantly. “You needed my help earlier, when I knocked that column over and uncursed you. Oh, and before that, when I lobbied the Overseers enough that they gave in and destroyed the crown. Honestly, they’re artifacts of power that can only be wielded by an ‘evil spirit.’ Everyone involved with that division knew they had some sort of curse; it wasn’t like they were in the dark about it. Why did they need to keep those?” He paused. “This is a bad time to get distracted. Yes, I released him.”

“Why?” Frostbite narrowed his eyes. “Observants are not supposed to intervene, and they don’t act alone.”

“He’s right,” Alric growled, and came to join their line. “Whatever you want with me, I am not interested.”

“Yeah, you are.” The Observant said. “I know my history. You and Danny are the best shot.”

Danny pulled a face. Alric scoffed. Frostbite continued to stare.

“Why are you here?” Frostbite asked. “Where does that portal lead?”

The Observant shook his head. “I can’t tell you where it leads. I would rather not be murdered for doing the right thing. Take a chill pill, dude. You should have plenty of those lying around.”

“Okay!” Danny said loudly, “Observants aren’t allowed to say dude, that’s too weird! Why’d you release Pariah?”

“Alric,” the Observant corrected. “And the same reason I gave you the key. It’s the right thing to do, personal fears or not.” He focused on Alric, “He’s in the same room you found him in before. They shut him down once word got around you were out. Do what you have to.”

Danny looked back when Alric growled. When he refocused on the Observant, all he saw was a closing portal.

“Well!” Danny said, clapping his hand around the key, “That was weird!” Alric’s hand reached over his shoulder. Danny frantically passed the key to Frostbite and whipped around.

“I need that key,” he practically begged.

“No,” Danny said, “not unless I get a more concrete reason why you need it.”

“It’s for Clockwork,” he said, “Please. He’s with the Observants again, and I need to go rescue him.”

“You are not attacking the Observants again,” Frostbite said. Alric scowled, and lunged for him – two blasts of ice froze his feet to the ground.

Danny lowered his hands. “You heard him,” he said, “Why do you need to rescue Clockwork?”

Alric hesitated. “They use that key to control him. He’ll be comatose in a closet again, just like he was last time – I’m not going to kill anyone, I just need to save Clockwork! Please!”

“How am I supposed to trust that?” Danny asked, and refroze the bit of ice that broke when Alric strained. “What do you mean comatose?”

“Exactly as it sounds.” He scowled, “They use that key to shut down his consciousness, and he needs to be… be regularly wound with it, or it will happen naturally. As long as someone else has it, he’s bound to them. He doesn’t have a choice. I need to get him out.”

“No,” Frostbite said, “we cannot trust that. We –” Danny melted the ice at Pariah’s ankles. “What are you doing?”

“He’s right,” Danny said, and held out his hand. “That checks out with what Clockwork told me about his body. We’re going to go bust him out. Key, please.”

“Great One,” Frostbite said, “you can’t be serious. He is still injured and cannot be trusted.”

“Clockwork can.” Danny said. He glanced at Alric. “I lied, by the way. I definitely know Clockwork. He’s great. I’m coming with you.”

“Oh,” Alric said.

“This isn’t wise –”

“Dude,” Danny said, “if you want me to be king, then you need to trust me. Besides, you don’t like the Observants either. Come on, Frostbite.” He smiled, “Just trust me.”

The silence held. Then, Frostbite passed the key back.

“I’ll arrange a ride for us.” He pointed at Alric, “Do not leave without me.”

Alric frowned but made no effort to run down the open door. He looked Danny over. “You know Clockwork?”

“He saved me from the Observants once,” Danny said, “I owe him my family’s life.”

“Oh,” Alric said. “Good for him.”

.-.

In the second basement in the Observatory, Alric ripped the knob off a closet door when he tried to pry it open.

“Oh jeez,” Danny said, “he meant a literal closet.”

They hadn’t run into many Observants. The few they’d seen had taken one look at Alric and flung themselves in the other direction. Frostbite had followed them in, and still stood a few steps behind Danny and Alric as they pried open the door. The bottom hinge snapped with a final tug on the hole that used to hold a knob. Alric pulled it open, and Danny, in all his stick-thin, not-quite-five-foot glory squeezed through the gap.

In front of him was a crumpled form wrapped in purple fabrics, normally blue skin clear to reveal the still gears that made up Clockwork’s form. Danny knelt down and poked him with the skeleton key.

Nothing.

“That’s not how you do it,” Alric said, and took a knee in the small space beside him. Surprisingly delicate, he opened the glass of Clockwork’s case and placed the key in a grove between the gears. There was a click, and then the key lit up. Clockwork, too, lit up – his gears began to move again, and his skin clouded over, blue once more. Alric pulled the key out and took a step back. Danny stayed where he was.

Clockwork groaned as he cracked open an eye. “Danny,” he said, already obviously anxious, “you shouldn’t be here. The Observants –” He stopped. He’d sat up enough that he could see the other two in the doorway.

“Hello,” Alric said, softly, like he thought Clockwork would break. Frostbite raised his eyebrows and muttered something about ‘abuse’ and ‘legalities.’

By the time Danny blinked, he was back in Clockwork’s tower, a medallion hanging around his neck. Clockwork had his hands on his shoulders. Danny had the key in his hands.

“Danny,” Clockwork stressed, “what did you do?”

“Rude. Technically, I did nothing.” Clockwork’s frown deepened. Danny held up the key. “D’ya want this back now? An Observant went rogue and gave it to me. Also he uncursed Alric by breaking the ring, apparently.”

“Alric?” Clockwork repeated. He stared at Danny, eyes flickering over him. “…Yes, I want the key back.” Danny handed it over. “I need you to answer me honestly. What is going on?”

“Uh. Well. For one thing, Frostbite implied I’m actually the Ghost King now.”

Clockwork’s sigh was several seconds longer than it had any right to be.

***

Prompt 1: Pariah Dark got out again! Danny goes to take care of it, but Pariah is acting.... weird. Not-evil weird. Turns out something or someone else caused Pariah (If that is his real name) to be the raging tyrant history knows him as, but the influence has ended and he's a new (or renewed) person now. What changed, and who's at fault? (Ghostlyhabato)

Prompt 2: Danny ISN’T the ghost king. (imperfection-at-itsfinest)

Reasons to be my friend: when you tell me your lore I write you fics about it so you don’t have to! Nocturne doesn’t get to appear in this fic despite being an Ancient bc he’s gross and stinky. No one likes him. He sucks.