Part Fourteen

Starfire pulled at the sleeves of her light sweater and adjusted her hat and shades. She was not used to civilian clothes, but she understood that Jazz wanted to be - visually at least - independent of the Titans for this most important day. Her fellow redhead was dressed in a crisp grey business suit, silver necklace and grey headband, a well worn backpack completely ruining the business attire. At her side was a small green puppy - not Beast Boy - with the ethereal glow that all ghosts shared. Starfire looked at the ghost dog, hopping this way and that, tongue lolling about and asked Jazz a question.

"Are you certain it is a good idea to bring a ghost dog to your first day of work?"

Jazz sighed. "It's a little silly to call this the first day of work," she said. "Considering how many months it took to hire everyone and get them trained. All this is is a meeting where I officially delegate all of them to their assigned projects, go over human resources and stipulate business environment, everything that was in that powerpoint Lucius Fox gave me for startup companies. I don't know what I would have done if Mr. Wayne hadn't sent him over. Do we know how I ever got such a high rating from Wayne Enterprises, anyway? I don't think I've ever met anyone who worked there."

"Perhaps the Batman put in the good word for you," Starfire said. "They both live in Gotham, yes?"

"Kori," Jazz said, using Starfire's "human" name. "Just because they live in the same city doesn't mean they know each other. One's a billionaire philanthropic tycoon and the other is an obsessive crime victim who's trying to undo the trauma of his childhood by removing what traumatized him in the first place. The two have no points of commonality. Though I do wonder at some of the things Robin let's slip, but…" she trailed off, mind working on a project.

That had been one change Starfire was happy to see. When the Fenton girl had first arrived there was precious little she could think of outside what had happened to her and her brother. Now she had projects and ideas and things to occupy her mind, and though Starfire was not the mental expert that Jazz was, the Tameranean privately thought that aspect helped greatly.

Jazz rented out a warehouse for the reopening of FentonWorks. Cheap and by the docks, it was a risky location for criminals and hooligans, but removed enough that if an experiment went wrong damage would be minimal. Starfire and Jazz entered the warehouse, the ghost dog barking and immediately running off to explore the new location.

"Cujo!" Jazz called, pulling out a squeaky toy from her backpack. "Come!"

The ghost dog lobbed back, Jazz kneeling down and running her fingers greedily through the ectoplasmic fur. "You can explore later, okay?" she cooed. "Right now your job is to keep me safe. Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?"

Cujo barked twice, and stayed by Jazz's side.

"Will he not scare the new employees?" Starfire asked.

"If they do they're fired on the spot," her fellow redhead said. "I want people who understand that ghosts are people too, that there is a very specific ethical line that will not be crossed, and that I'm just as crazy as my parents. Besides, Beast Boy can't be a therapy dog for the rest of his life, and Cujo will be a good compromise. What I really want is to capture the Box Ghost in a few months and have a couple sessions with him. I might be able to get him to work here part time as a tester, but I need a better evaluation of his psyche before I float that to the rest of the staff."

"You seem to have everything well in hand," Starfire said. "What is it you wish me to do for your first day?"

Jazz gave a small, lopsided smile. "I want you to keep me sane," she said simply. "Just because I look like I have my act together doesn't mean that I actually do. This is kind of a big day for me, and I want to feel as safe and secure as possible. I don't want a Titan here, I want a friend. That's why you're Kori-chan, my penpal from Japan. You smile and nod and remind me that, no matter what else happens, I'm safe and sane. It's unfair of me to ask, but I'm just not there yet."

Starfire smiled warmly, wrapping her arms around her friend gently and squeezing. "You need not feel poorly for asking for my presence," she said softly. "I or any of my friends will do this gladly, for however long it takes. Afterwards we will go for ice cream with pickles and mustard!"

Jazz laughed. "Sounds delicious."

The girls gathered in the office space of the warehouse; most of the staff was already there, and fifteen minutes later Jazz had her powerpoint set up, Cujo napping at her feet, and Stafire sitting a small distance away, excited to see what her friend would talk about. The meeting lasted almost three hours, there was a lot to cover; interspersed with questions from the dozen people Jazz and Danny had hired, all intelligent and professional and excited to work on the things Jazz proposed. The science was talked about briefly, as were the four major facets of the company: invention, refinement, publication, and production. The ethical code she had mentioned earlier was gone over in minute detail, using Cujo as an example. When the staff realized it wasn't Beast Boy at her feet things went downhill for several minutes until finally getting back on track, and by the end Jazz was a little pale but still dynamic, focused, and adapting to the world around her. Starfire clapped when the meeting was dismissed, hopping up to her friend and hugging her once again.

"That was most impressive!" she said. "There was not one up-slip or mistake, you were perfect to everyone there and handled Cujo very well. Today was a success!"

"... Do you think so?" Jazz asked, signs of stress fraying her features.

"Yes! It was glorious! It is too bad the others were not here to witness your greatness. I am certain Danny most especially would be proud!"

The smile finally appeared on Jazz's face, and some of her features relaxed.

"I don't know how I'll work my way up to full days doing this," she muttered. "Tomorrow I have meetings with buyers all morning. How will I survive?"

"The same way you survived everything else," Starfire said brightly, helping her friend pack the backpack and leave the conference room to the main offices. She walked backwards to hold her friend's gaze. "With strength of will, determination and love of your family."

"Yes, family is very important."

Stafire, facing backwards, did not see who spoke, but she had a full view of Jazz as her already pale complexion went sickly white, eyes tripling in size and her body going absolutely rigid as she stared at whoever was behind Starfire. Sweat immediately covered her face, and a small, weak noise bubbled up from her throat. Starfire turned, seeing a tall man in what Robin would label as an expensive suit, grey hair pulled back into a ponytail and dark blue eyes. He looked down his nose at the Tameranean, face utterly closed off, before his gaze locked immediately to the Fenton's.

"Jasmine," he said, voice smooth to the point of oily, "My precious little fox, be a dear and send your friend away. We have much to talk about."

"Kori-chan," Jazz said, her voice barely a whisper. "Aitsu da." Starfire knew Japanese, of course, from previous adventures, and nodded. "It's him," she had said.

Starfire replied in kind. "Daijoubu desu. Atashi-tachi wa koko ni imasu."

"It is alright. We are here."

Jazz nodded, and Starfire switched back to English. "If you wish to take this meeting I will explore the warehouse."

Jazz nodded, unable to speak, and Starfire moved back inside, making certain she was well away from the front before flying up to a catwalk office and floating in. Robin and Cyborg were there, monitoring everything. "It is exactly as we feared," she said. "Plasmius came as soon as the company was open."

Robin nodded as Starfire began to change out of her civilian clothes. "His specialty is hostile takeovers," the Boy Wonder said. "He wouldn't be able to resist. If Danny is right and his obsessions include not just Phantom but also Jazz, we had to be prepared. Danny's sweeping the area with Raven right now to see if there are other ghosts to worry about, and Beast Boy's moving all the staff members to the bunker below the warehouse."

"I worry that our friend will not be able to withstand the sight of her greatest fear," Starfire said, looking at the monitor.

"She will," Robin said, offering a pair of headphones. "She's a lot stronger than anyone gives her credit for."

On the screen the two figures hadn't even moved, and Starfire put on the headphones to listen.

"-and that is why family is so important," Masters was saying. "I considered Maddie my closest family, and Danny and Jack and you of course, and I mourned - deeply - when I lost her forever."

"You can't be here," Jazz replied. Starfire saw she was even paler now, shaking. Oh, her poor friend…! "I put a restraining order on you the day I turned eighteen. You're not to be within a hundred feet of me, pending the investigation of the kidnapping charges."

"Jasmine, my precious little fox, you know as well as I do nothing will come of that investigation. It's been, what, eight months now? The trail has gone cold."

"That doesn't mean it didn't happen."

"Believe what you want, Jasmine, but we both know this," he gestured to the warehouse, "is temporary at best. You're too young to run a company of even this meager size, too inexperienced. Too damaged." Starfire clenched her fists and grit her teeth, Robin reaching out and touching her arm, just as offended as she was. "Do you truly understand the stress involved in running a company? The late nights, the long hours, the competition? I find it's the competition new businesses underestimate the most. It's a very cutthroat world out there, you know. It doesn't take much for blood to splatter everywhere."

Starfire's fists were bright green, and she forced herself to exhale and release the righteous anger. Cyborg looked about ready to break something, and Robin was perfectly still, the glow of the screens casing him in eerie blue light as he stared, blank-faced, at the powerplay that was going on.

"I know how much you would love to make blood splatter," Jazz said, back absolutely rigid, her body trembling. "But you can't have this company. I told everyone that FentonWorks would never be a subsidiary of VladCo. You'll have to speak to my lawyer, Adrian Chase."

"How precious!" Masters said, voice light and condescending. "You have a lawyer! That's my little fox, trying to plan for every contingency. Daniel would do well to use you as an example, but I think you - yet again - fail to understand how small you are. You consider yourself CEO of this little company? Congratulations. Good for you. I have been CEO for over twenty years. I have experience not only over the little badger, but also you, my precious little fox. I've seen your business model, read up on your goals; very well thought out, whoever wrote it."

"I did."

"Of course you did," Masters dismissed. "Whatever you say, but we both know the truth. I can take this company whenever I want."

"Come on Jazz," Robin muttered. "That's the perfect opening."

"You can't," Starfire's friend said, her voice shaky, but strong. "I will never allow this company to be sold out to you. I will never allow myself to be sold out to you. I will never allow you anywhere near me. I will never allow you inside of me. Not ever again."

Masters smirked. "I noticed the colors here," he said brightly, ignoring the pledge Jazz had just made. "It's too bad the colors here are so cool, all purples and greens. I always thought red suited you better."

Jazz gasped, and a tear ran down her cheek.

"That burgundy uniform suited you so well. And you loved that cherry wood desk I got for you. And those lace curtains. I wonder, in these past months, have you missed it? Have you missed those warm colors, that inviting space? I haven't changed a thing, you know. It's all exactly as it was, waiting for you. Just as I am waiting for you."

"No..."

"Yes," Masters said. "You will sell your fledgling company to me and you will return to me. Just as Daniel will return to me. It is inevitable."

"No…"

"Come now, my dear, let's not beat around the bush."

"No! No! No, no, no, no, no! Get out! Get out of my warehouse! Get out of my business! Get out of my life! I refuse! I refuse everything that you are, everything you represent, everything you want! I will never go back to that room! I will never let you turn Danny into your son! I will never let you take something that I made myself! Get out! I'm calling the cops!"

Jazz jerkily reached for the phone, Starfire could see the anger in her face, the determination.

Masters, behind her, sighed. "You still haven't learned," he said.

"This is it," Robin muttered.

Everyone watched the screen intensely. Visually there was no change, Jazz simply walked over for the phone, picking up the receiver and starting to dial. Masters didn't move, didn't shift, didn't change. But fifteen seconds later there was the staticy noise of an electric shock, a grunt of pain, and a blue, vampiric ghost fell to the floor, electricity crackling over him.

Masters displayed open shock. "How… You're not wearing a Specter Deflector!"

Jazz offered a dark grin and fingered her necklace. "Aren't I?" she demanded, confidence finally in her voice. "Cujo! Sick'em!"

And the little green dog turned into a ten foot monstrosity and began chewing on Vlad Plasmius. Vlad Masters swiftly let black rings shoot out from his waist, splitting to reveal another Plasmius.

"Got it," Robin said with clear satisfaction.

Starfire only nodded solemnly while Cyborg went about broadcasting the clip. "Shall we aid our friend now?"

Robin gave a cold smile. "Titans, go!"

Starfire burst out of the window, starbolts held tightly in her fist, as Raven's black soul-self first swept the warehouse, then appeared outside, Plasmius in tow. Starfire flew beside Raven, and Cyborg and Robin landed lightly on the ground in the parking lot.

"How droll," both Plasmius's said, clapping slowly. "An attempt to outwit me. Like I haven't faced down teenagers before."

"And never actually won," Phantom said, appearing behind Plasmius just as the vampiric ghost breathed out a red condensed mist, and Phantom let out a massive cryo-ecto-blast into Plasmius's back. The duplicate dissipated, leaving only one Plasmius who quickly blasted Phantom in the side, sending him flying.

Starfire had waited long months to lay the beat down on this particular ghost, and all the stress that both Jazz and Danny had gone through as they discussed plans and scenarios with Robin. Her starbolts hit home, sending the ghost flying backward, into the ecto-cannon of Cyborg, who blasted the vampiric ghost to Robin's waiting ecto-bo and Raven's black magic.

But Plasmius righted himself, merely dusting himself off. He sighed dramatically. "Children… They never seem to learn."

And then, in front of them, were ten identical Plasmiuses, who swiftly paired off and went after every Titan.

The two Starfire faced attempted to herd her and all the other Titans away from one another in an attempt to divide and conquer. Starfire would not allow this, however, and aimed at one of the duplicates firing a pink ectoblast at Robin. Robin, naturally, had anticipated her and used her surprise to vault over one of the duplicates to fire his wrist-ray at the two duplicates following her. Plasmius may seek to separate them, but the Titans would always fight together.

Raven was back to back with Cyborg, black magic and ecto-cannon keeping the three duplicates busy, even as they surrounded the pair. One of the Plasmius clones had tried to overshadow Raven only once, and while her head was still splitting, the duplicate had dispelled, leaving them that much more breathing room.

"How does Ghost Boy fight this guy regularly?" Cyborg growled as Raven had to call up a black dome around them again as all three duplicates fired pink ectoblasts at them from too many angles to simply block.

"Phantom used brute force and luck," Raven hissed, dropping her dome and telekinetically throwing a truck at one of the clones from behind. But one of the other Plasmius' saw it and the one she had been aiming for went intangible.

"Variety of powers is getting real annoying," Cyborg retorted.

"You like that variety with Phantom," Raven bantered back.

"So what?" Cyborg grinned, adjusting his cannon. "I'm allowed a double standard when it comes to him."

Danny growled as he was, yet again, thrown into the pavement. How was Plasmius able to do this? Whenever Danny duplicated, he cut his power by the number of copies there were. Plasmius didn't seem like he was only a tenth the strength of when he was whole, he seemed to still be at full strength!

Letting out a frustrated growl, Danny went invisible and phased through the pavement, hoping to come up in a different direction to surprise Plasmius. Ghost sense only told a ghost was close by, not where or in which direction, hopefully giving him the surprise he needed. He rose up, finding himself with Robin and Starfire and happily blasted one of the duplicates facing them.

The surprise worked and it dissipated, but the two clones facing Danny both plowed into him from behind, separating him again.

"Why keep fighting, little badger?" one of them said in oily smugness. "Everything points to you joining me some day. Who else can best understand what we are?"

Danny spit out some of the pavement he was reintroduced to. "And Jazz?" he demanded. "Since when have you ever given a damn about her? It was always about me and my mom."

"Isn't it obvious?" the other Plasmius gave a smug grin. "The two of you are all that's left of my dear Maddie."

"Mom was never your 'dear' anything!" Danny yelled.

"Says the child who pays so little attention," Plasmius said, blasting pink energy from both hands – not at Danny but extending to either side - into the backs of Starfire and Cyborg, sending them flying. "If you were really the hero you want to be, I would already be defeated by now. If you were really using your powers to their fullest potential you would know what to do. But you are neither of those things, and still you continue to think you can best me. You have so much to learn."

Danny growled, hating the dig and worrying the older halfa was right. Not about Maddie Fenton, the AntiCreep Stick was testament to her opinion of the fruit loop, but about him failing as a hero. His dark future always caused him worry, and he still remembered the unsympathetic look of Superman at the Watchtower. He felt better now, with the help from Raven, feeding his obsessions and talking to Jazz, but he would never shake that doubt, and Plasmius was great at pushing that button.

Another Plasmius plowed into him from behind, and Danny turned intangible, flying through the wall of the warehouse, crashing into the cement floor and bouncing up before pink energy seared across his side.

Angry, he blasted at the duplicate, who simply held up a hand and created a mini shield to deflect the blast. A second duplicate arrived as well, doubling the trouble.

"Crud," Phantom mumbled.

But then a shot of green ectoplasmic energy shot out from somewhere, slamming into one of the clones making it dissipate. Danny turned, getting up on his elbows. Beast Boy was there with Jazz and one of the FentonWorks employees. Jazz nodded to her brother, and Danny nodded back. Energized, he shot another ectoblast – flying up into the air. "How about a game of tag, Plasmius?" he taunted. "Let's entertain the kiddies!" and he flew back outside the warehouse.

Raven threw up another shield, leaving a small hole for Cyborg to shoot through. Being on the defensive would drain them in the long run. They needed to shift to offensive. So Raven started to devote a part of her mind to the tedious task of chanting a specific spell. It was an old spell for dealing with ghosts, handed down by Azar himself. Like all spells that old, a lot of chanting was required, which was always a hindrance in pitched battle.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Spell completed, she formed a cage around one of the duplicates. "Now, Cyborg!" she shouted, already grunting as all three focused on the black cage. Cyborg quickly shot his ecto-cannon, the energy melding with her black soul-self, causing a feedback loop that created an ecto-powered explosion that completely destroyed the duplicate stored within.

"That's two down," Cyborg gave a satisfied grin.

"Can't do that again," Raven hissed. Between that feedback and the earlier attempt at possession, she couldn't afford such a large spell again.

"Not a problem," Cyborg offered a large grin.

Starfire fell uncontrollably from the sky, only to be stopped by Danny long enough for her to right herself before dashing off back to his own fight. The Plasmius copies were difficult to keep track of, all three identical and quick to change positions. She floated to Robin, back to back. "This is proving more difficult than anticipated."

And it was. Plasmius had range and height. Starfire couldn't get the high ground without abandoning Robin, which she refused to do. While Danny had been able to destroy one of the clones they were facing, it was proving difficult to overpower any of the remaining three without the other two diverting or interrupting. They needed a better strategy.

Starfire turned her eyes to one of the Plasmius duplicates, and narrowed her eyes. Her eye-lasers, much like Superman, drained her solar power much faster than her usual starbolts. It was why she used them so rarely in battle. But there was still a full day ahead of them, not the middle of the night, and the ultraviolet radiation she absorbed was still in abundance. So she let her eye-lasers flare, far too fast to dodge, and an instant hit on whatever she was looking at.

The Plasmius she hit staggered, and she narrowed her eyes further, watching the cape rip and tear, gashes appear, and focusing on those openings, getting more and more precise.

Until an ectopowered fist slammed into the side of her head, breaking her focus and sending her down into the pavement before Robin could swivel and slam his ecto-bo into the duplicate that had tried to concuss her. The injury only made her angry, and in a cry or rage she pulled up to a sitting position and slammed a fist at the duplicate closest to her. The speed surprised the clone, fist making such a great impact it could be seen on its other side, before flying away from the force in Newtonian reaction and slamming into the damaged duplicate, both disappearing.

"Remind me not to make you mad," Robin said, grim smile on his face.

Cyborg fired his ectocannon again - the more he used it the more he loved it - and held a narrow, intense beam to guide one of his duplicates into a corner. The street was one torn up mess of asphalt and concrete, and he didn't have nearly enough mobility as the fliers of the team. Hoping to get the duplicate to an alleyway for the moment, he arced his beam again, the clone smirking and allowing himself to be cornered.

Danny flew through one of the walls, chased by his own duplicate and crashing into Cyborg's, the pair rolling around and down the alley. The metallic Titan was forced to stop blasting, not wanting to hit Phantom and glancing up to see if Raven was in position yet. She was, and Cyborg took a running leap, rearing his ecto-cannon back and giving an intense battle yell. Danny processed it enough to phase into the concrete and Raven's black energy lifted both of them up into the air, above the line of roofs before letting go. Perfectly positions, Cyborg fired at point blank range, dialing the power up to maximum, and letting loose an enormous surge of ectoplasmic energy that the duplicate had no hope of defeating, dodging, or ducking. It melted into nothing.

"Boo-ya! I love this weapon!"

"Coming through!" Danny flew up, catching Cyborg and hovering for a moment, taking aim before he was forced to let go, his own duplicate giving chase and firing pink ecto-blasts left and right. Cyborg started to fall, but a glance at the ground showed he would land on a roof instead of the pavement, and switching from ecto- to sonic-cannon in a split second he had the force necessary to reduce his descent. Raven was next to him, stoic as always, and nodded to her right.

"Okay," Cyborg said with an anticipatory grin. "Let's see what the last man standing can do."

Beast Boy knew he was the weak link of the team. At least with ghosts. The past few months spent with Danny had adjusted him to the scent and he had no problem smelling Danny under all the ghost. In fact, Beast Boy was so accustomed to Danny's terrifying scent that it was no longer terrifying. It was... comforting in a way. Under all that smell of decay and rot and death was protection and safety, and it got stronger and stronger the healthier Danny got with both a steady diet and security, and properly feeding his appropriate obsessions. The halfa no longer smelled like his oncoming doom, but a wizened pack warrior, one to defer to or work with.

But other ghosts?

Not even a human scent to focus on.

So Beast Boy still shuddered, still had to focus to work through the primal horror and reflex to run and hide, when facing down ghosts. Spectra had had great fun pointing out how useless he was, both because of his inability to fight ghosts and how simply changing into other animals was a useless power that no one knew what to do with. Of course, Spectra had fun pointing out every insecurity he had and twisting, but she had done that with everyone.

Thus, Beast Boy had put in long hours of practice for accuracy in sniping. Whether it was a wrist-ray, a bazooka, or some other ecto-weapon that the Fentons had cobbled together, he learned how to use it, and how to be accurate. Which was strange. He always considered himself a melee fighter, or a tank, depending what animal he changed into. It was always about reach, and he had to be up close and personal to use his reach. Firing from a distance felt... empty. Hollow. It wasn't what he was used to.

But the fight with Skulker months ago had given Beast Boy an idea on a different strategy. It wasn't one he could use often, not when the scent of ghosts still made him back away with his tail between his legs before he could overcome it to do something. And Plasmius, with the human scent of Vlad Masters easily caught under all that ghost, was the perfect ghost to fight against.

For the moment, he was a mosquito, clinging desperately to Danny's hazmat suit as he flew either after or away from Plasmius, assisting the other Titans when he could. The frantic pace of the flight and the tight corners that often required intangibility, wasn't something Beast Boy could keep up with, not without shifting from animal to animal. Something maneuverable enough wouldn't be fast enough, and something fast enough wouldn't turn as well. So sticking with Danny proved to be the best option.

What he planned was going to take precise timing, and reading both Danny and Plasmius right. Knowing Danny's fighting style was easy. He'd had months working side by side with the halfa and practice and sparring. Plasmius was harder. The older halfa was certainly built like a fighter, beefy chest, strong arms, runner's legs. But Beast Boy, who had been fighting ever since he turned green, didn't see any sort of professional training. Since the changeling had fought with the Doom Patrol against the Brotherhood of Evil for years and had been side by side with the Titans and Robin's torturous training regime, Beast Boy considered himself fairly good at getting the basics of someone else's fighting style. He may not be great at countering, or figuring out how to work around it or with it or whatever, but he could recognize parts.

Plasmius... didn't really have a style. There were aspects of fencing, particularly when he whipped out a nasty pink broadsword of ectoplasm that Danny quickly made an ice sword to counter, but not enough finesse. There were elements of boxing, but no real technique. Parts of karate, but no follow through. Where Danny had learned fighting on the fly and from certain teachers like Frostbite, or Dora, Plasmius seemed to have just taken what he needed and didn't bother to refine it.

Which made sense. Plasmius fought with words and laws, not with fists. Fists were as a last resort.

That could work.

It was a chase through an alley next to the warehouse, and Beast Boy let go of Danny, hovered in air, then got caught in the folds of Plasmius's cape. He held on tightly, just waiting, and sure enough, the vampiric ghost followed Danny through a wall and Beast Boy tagged along. Plasmius, like Danny, would make himself intangible, but didn't think too hard about if anything else was attached that was so small.

Perfect.

So mosquito Beast Boy started to crawl around Plasmius's cape, adjusted to the constant fluttering, and made his way to Plasmius's back. It was slow work, but he finally made it to the collar, and, glancing up to make sure they weren't going through another wall, shifted to a velociraptor, digging his claws into the ghost and biting hard down on the shoulder.

"What?" the duplicate shouted, distracted enough to take an ecto-blast to the chest strong enough for the clone to dissipate. Beat Boy started to fall, realizing belatedly he was a hundred feet up in the air, and quickly changed to an eagle, Danny flying up to him, haggard, and giving a gritty thumbs up.

Robin was not having a good day.

Fighting with Phantom had given him a very broad understanding of fighting ghosts, and fighting ghosts had given nuance on when to duck, dodge here, ecto-blast there. None of it - not even Danny himself - was much in the way of preparation with fighting with a master. It reminded him dimly of when he first started training with Batman: trying to hard to keep up and unable to even grasp what he was doing wrong. It wasn't that Plasmius was that good a fighter - he wasn't - but he had complete control of every aspect of the fight; from range to distraction to agility to endurance.

Backflipping over an upturned car and throwing an ecto-birdorang had no effect, neither did his ecto-bo, though he did manage at least three good hits. Starfire was taking the brunt of the fight but even she was hard pressed to keep Plasmius in check, even now that it was down to only one clone. His utility belt was getting dangerously empty, and he was beginning to wonder if the ghost would ever wear down enough to use a Thermos.

Phantom zoomed past his line of vision, Beast Boy flying with him, off to handle another duplicate, and Robin reached into his belt for another birdorang.

He was out.

Damn it!

What he pulled out instead was a small pseudo-gun-like contraption with the FentonWorks logo on it. He blinked, reaching back in his memory for what this was. A prototype? Jazz and Danny had cycled through so many of them in their initial phases with Static and Gear (they almost blew up the Tower. Twice. That was a week no one would forget...) he had lost track on which ones he'd decided to let the Titan's keep and which to either scrap or donate elsewhere. Out of other options, and watching Starfire fly over his head from another ecto-blast, he took aim and fired. Two wires flew out of the gun, spinning and undulating out and catching Plasmius in the chest. Green electricity erupted from the wires, and Plasmius was suddenly writhing and screaming, body jerking this way and that.

Robin privately decided that Cyborg's elation over his ecto-cannon paled in comparison to his sudden love for this… this taser. He looked at the handle again, the FentonWorks logo, and saw the name of the device.

Ectaser.

Fentons and names. He shook his head, but shocked the ghost again, and then again, before the duplicate disappeared.

Danny and the Titans surrounded the last Plasmius. The vampiric ghost looked considerably the worse for wear, scuffs and tears and stray hairs all out of place, hunched over and one eye curiously swelling. Danny saw his sister and the employees pressed against the front windows of the warehouse, some with devices in their hands, greedily taking readings, scientists to the core. His eyes caught his sister's, and even though she was pale and trembling, she nodded her head, still in reality, watching her greatest trauma be conquered.

"It's over Plasmius," he said, the Titans fanned out in behind him. "You've lost."

"Honestly, Daniel, your ignorance is astounding. Yours and Jasmine's both." Vlad straightened, dusting himself off, floating up to eye level with the halfa. "What do you think you've gained, really gained from this little exertion? Oh, you've kicked me out for a little while, you'll throw me into the Ghost Zone for a few weeks, but how does that really help you? Do you think your tiny little business will actually thrive? Do you think that precious little fox will be equipped to handle the strain of running a successful business? Do either of you have the skills necessary to close a deal? Any deal? This little venture will fail, and the two of you will fall to obscurity and desperation.

"And, in the end, all I have to do is wait."

"In that case," Robin said. "Have fun waiting in jail."

"Pitiful child. I'm a ghost remember? I won't go to jail, I'll go to the FEDs, and we all know how incompetent they are."

"Vlad Plasmius might be," Robin said. "But Vlad Masters is another story."

There was the tiniest of pauses, Danny knew his nemesis enough to recognize that smallest of tells, and the halfa couldn't quite stop the smug grin. "I guess you don't research new companies as well as you thought," he said, unable to help himself. "If you did you might have noticed the latest in FentonWorks security, including ghost detectors and surveillance equipment. Commissioner Barbs is going to have a couple questions for the guy who tried to overshadow Jazz Fenton and then turn into a ghost himself."

There wasn't a snarl, or a growl, or any indication of rage, the only give-away that the older hybrid was furious was that he had finally, completely, stopped talking.

It only lasted for half a second.

"Well played," the older hybrid said, toothy smile back in place and clapping his gloved hands for show. "You've put me in check, I congratulate you. But the maneuver does not solve your fundamental problem. What you fail to understand is that I am not the problem but the only possible solution. Look at the city around you. Look at the people who've been watching you. Even now, months after coming out, no sane person really trusts you. Not after the Fright Knight. Not after that dark image your fear conjured up. Certainly not after all those ghost attacks."

Danny grit his teeth.

"Do you watch the news? Have any of those personalities, any of the 'experts,' any of the bloggers and video content creators singing your praises? Does anyone really, truly, honestly believe you are a hero? Amity Park was different, I'll grant you. You were literally all they had; but you are in a much bigger world now, with gods and demons both, and I think we both know where you fall on that particular spectrum. Tell me, did the people understand you were trying to help, that year you were cowardly running away? Did the people thank you for your heroic deeds, sing your praises, throw themselves at your feet?"

"It's not about that!"

"No? But do you think you can actually do the solo act?" Plasmius smiled in answer to his own question. "Bit by bit, month by month, you have chained yourself, boy. You are now dependent on other heroes being able to see whether or not you are a do-gooder. Does Superman think you a hero or a villain? Does the Green Lantern see past the fact that you are proof of life after death? Beings like us, Daniel, we make humanity uncomfortable by our very existence. Every spiritual and existential question ever thought is brought up upon seeing us. We two, in particular, take that to its farthest extremes. No one will feel comfortable with you. No one will completely trust you. No one will take you seriously unless you are bound to other heroes. You will never be a solo act, you will never have complete independence, you will never be free.

"Not unless you come with me."

Everything Plasmius said was true, and Danny hated to admit it. He knew what people as a whole thought of him, he knew all the suspicious looks Superman and other Justice Leagers had given him, he knew that he was – as Jazz put it – a walking existential crisis. It hurt to think that he would never gain humanity's trust, never get them to believe his most time-consuming obsession was being a hero.

Vlad was right. They may have defeated Plasmius, but he wasn't the real problem. But...

"You're not the solution," Danny said, straightening. "You're just a ghost going to jail."

"Enjoy life in the Thermos until it's time for the trial!" Beast Boy said brightly as Cyborg popped the cap and began sucking the ghost in.

"Enjoy your life in your gilded cage of your own creation," Plasmius smiled, then teleported away in a swirl of pink energy.

Danny was exhausted. Not physically, he could probably still go a few rounds with Cyborg or Starfire before he was completely wiped out. Not emotionally, he'd more than used up his quota for that for the past year between the death of his family, the Year of Hell, finding out Jazz was alive, helping her with her PTSD and his own anger issues, getting held by the Justice League, etc, etc. No, his exhaustion was firmly in the mental territory. It always was after an encounter with Plasmius that he ended up mentally capable of possibly chewing gum or talking, but not both at the same time. Vlad always thought about ten steps ahead of him, which made every victory he managed still feel like a loss. Sam and Tucker usually did a good job of straightening him out, and Jazz always finished off with helping him sort through the Gordian Knot of feelings that Vlad always brought up.

It was all he wanted to do at the moment. Talk to Jazz.

But he was a Titan now, and that meant he had responsibilities after a fight. Talking to the cops, talking to the press. Neither were his cup of tea.

The police, at least, was getting easier. He saw a lot of the same officers, was starting to joke with them as they talked incident reports and paperwork. Robin was showing him the ropes of all the forms and the cops were good on taking pity on the newbie. There was still a hesitance, though. A distance. Once in a while someone, without fail, would ask about death and Danny really didn't think he was qualified to answer such questions. He wasn't completely dead, but no one outside of the League or the Titans knew that. Even Commissioner Barbs would sometimes ask him to come down to talk to an officer who had been through a shooting. Honestly, he wasn't a psychologist. That was Jazz's territory. But she had talked to him enough about death, what it meant for him, and how he was a walking, floating existential crisis, that he tried to parrot back phrases that seemed right.

The most frequent question he faced was, "What is it like to die?" How could he answer that? He had died in a lab accident, and it didn't kill him all the way. It was the single worst thing that had ever happened and he didn't like reliving it for anything or anyone. The second most frequent question was, "What comes after you die?" Honestly, that had to do with religion and again, Danny wasn't qualified for that. Neither was Jazz. He didn't fully die, and what he knew was of ghosts who stayed behind and didn't move on. People left disappointed and Danny felt guilty that he couldn't really answer. People wanted reassurances that he couldn't give, like he was the second coming or something, when he was just a kid who half died.

"Hey kid, you okay?" Danny blinked, then looked around. He was still with the Titans, the cops were there and taking statements and getting paperwork taken care of. He had just completely zoned out.

Stupid mental exhaustion.

"Yeah," Danny rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the officer who had snapped him out of it. "Tired."

"The dead get tired?"

So didn't want to deal with this... "I don't know about the dead, but ghosts can," Danny replied, tried to be civil and polite instead of snappish and rude. "It has to do with ectoplasm and how it gets circulated..." If he barraged them with enough science he could be left alone without being completely rude. Sure enough, the officer's face eventually blanked out and he politely left.

"You've gotten good at that," Robin said, coming up behind Danny.

"People want spiritual. I give them science," Danny replied, before rubbing his face.

"You okay?"

"Nothing a few hours of therapy won't cure."

Robin looked at Danny, and the halfa suddenly felt a little too examined. "You're not in any sort of gilded cage," Robin said seriously. "You're not in any cage at all. You're part of a team. We don't hold you in. We hold you up."

Danny gave a wan smile. "I know that," he said pointing to his head. "But I don't know it yet," he pointed to his core.

Robin nodded. "We're set with the police. Now we just need to talk to the press."

Danny groaned.

Dealing with the press was worse than dealing with the cops. At least with the police, there were a few who were getting to know Danny and (very, very slowly) starting to see past GHOST! and see the kid beneath. The press had no such benefit. They were all vultures looking for an angle for a story and he was meat for the slaughter. Some had started looking at Fenton research, not that many could make heads or tails of it without really diving in, and had been talking to the press in Amity Park, who had a mixed relationship with Danny Phantom. Questions often came about his past in Amity Park, his incidents of villainy (Robin always answered those questions) what to expect from ghosts, etc etc. Danny stayed to his one question per reporter rule, and the press knew it, making their questions long and complicated, to the point where he practically needed to write it all down before he could figure out everything they were asking.

And this was going to be about Plasmius.

Ergh. He was already mentally exhausted, he didn't want to deal with twenty-questions about an arch-nemesis he couldn't fully explain without explaining what he was.

At least this wasn't a press conference, where reporters had time to get questions and prep for grilling him. This was beat reporters who showed up to get stories for the local newspapers or, if the local news channels were fast enough, for the nightly news. Nothing too big.

Robin, as usual, gave the summary, all the Titans behind him. Danny floated in the back, cross-legged, and attempting to remain stoic. If anyone saw he was tired, someone would fire a question. Robin explained that they had been investigating the allegations that Jazz Fenton had made against Vlad Masters, and had set up extra security for her first day on the job merely as a precaution. When Masters showed up, violating a restraining order, and started making veiled threats, the Titans had called Commissioner Barbs to let her know the break down. When a ghost had tried to overshadow Jazz Fenton, the Titans had sprung into battle. The ghost was a powerful adversary, and had sadly escaped, but was weakened enough that it was unlikely he would return soon.

All very true. Vlad wouldn't show up again till he had another round of schemes.

Robin gave a very brief outline of previous encounters with Phantom back in Amity Park, not all of it known to the press of Amity Park, which was designed to have reporters doing some digging and keep them occupied enough to not bug them for a while. Without the background, they could just fire questions at Danny and attempt to have him explain everything, but with Robin pointing at a direction for background, some of that was mitigated and redirected.

Meeting with the press was always tightly controlled for the Titans. After a fight, one never knew if injuries need to be treated, or hot leads followed before they ran cold. So, once Robin finished his summary, he only ever allowed ten minutes of questions. He was known for his rigidity on this, and most reporters made sure to make their questions count as a result. So as Robin wound to a close, the Titans became available for shouted questions, Danny hunched down further, hoping it wouldn't turn into another feeding frenzy all about him.

Why had he wanted so much attention when he was at Casper High? He had nothing but attention now and he wanted nothing to do with it.

One question was clearly heard above all the others.

"Phantom! Why are you always floating? Do you consider yourself above the Titans?"

Danny's thought processes ground to a halt. "Uh, what?"

Stupid! Ignore idiot questions!

"Do you consider yourself above the Titans?"

Danny immediately stopped floating and extended his feet as he dropped to the ground. "Dude, I'm a ghost. Floating comes naturally."

"Phantom: what does it take to make a ghost?"

Still offended by the previous question he turned to the other reporter. "... Depends on the kind of ghost," he said curtly.

"Then what kind of ghost are you?"

Danny froze, unwilling to answer that question, and the press immediately picked up on his hesitation.

"What kind of ghost are you?"

"Why don't you want to answer the question?"

"What are you hiding?"

"Why are you afraid of telling us the truth?"

Danny just shrunk further behind Cyborg's bulk, unconsciously floating again.

"That was more than one question from a reporter was it not?" Starfire asked coldly.

"Yeah," Cyborg agreed, crossing his arms. "Sounds to me like some beat reporters are salivating over the thought of getting a scoop."

"Instead of focusing on the facts of today," Beast Boy growled, hackles raised.

"The point of this is to give you guys the information on today's fight," Robin said. "It's beyond the scope of why we're here to explain what Phantom is. Or any metahuman, for that matter."

"Aw, come on," on of the reporters said. "We all know the backstories of you guys, what makes Phantom so special?"

"I don't wanna be dissected," Danny mumbled under his breath.

"What was that?"

… Of course they heard him. Danny was seriously starting to consider just going invisible, floating away until the reporters were gone. Robin grabbed his shoulder before he could even fully flesh out the option however, and gave him a hard look, silently telling him to deal with this now before things blew even further out of proportion. Danny sighed and landed again, moving in front of the other Titans.

"What I am is very rare," he said finally, resigned. "What I am is afraid to talk to you guys."

That got more than a few rumbles from the beat reporters, and Danny took a step back, but Cyborg's hand was at his back, halting his progress. He gulped and tried again.

"You... you have to understand that humanity is kind of scary," he said. "Ghosts are pretty easy to understand; we have obsessions that we feed, most of us live in the Ghost Zone and don't bother anybody else. Our obsessions sometimes come into conflict, or sometimes lead us to here. Humans are a heck of a lot harder to understand. When you're not running away screaming you're inventing things to catch us or you shouting that you'll rip us apart molecule by molecule. Like, I've seen what the Guys in White do to ghosts, I know all about the Anti-Ecto Acts, and that doesn't take into account Joe Schmoe who holds a séance or gets a ouiji board or something and then tries to summon one of us to do something stupid. I've been trapped in thermoses, controlled against my will, shot at, called all kinds of slurs, electrocuted, and twice been used as a guinea pig in experiments. I mean I get it, humanity does not like ghosts, and I'm afraid the more I say to you guys," he gestured to the beat reporters, "the more people will have ways to hurt us... hurt me... further."

One of the reporters snorted. Actually several of them did, but only one of them responded to him. "You give us too much credit."

"Isn't he?" Robin demanded. "Who's fault do you think it was that planted fears of Phantom for Phobia to harvest and harass the city in order to draw him out? That's just one of the ways you've affected public opinion; we can list several more."

The half-dozen or so reporters shuffled, clearly not having expected the tables to be turned so thoroughly.

"Your ten minutes is up," Raven said firmly. "We'll be on our way."

Danny was still floating behind Cyborg, and seriously debating hiding behind Robin's cape. Nah, that was too small. Maybe Raven's cloak? No, he'd be fully dead then, and he knew invisibility wasn't an option. So he hunched all that much further, glancing back and hoping that there wouldn't be any more questions lobbed at them.

"Phantom!" one of the reporters shouted. "Humanity isn't all that bad once we aren't scared of something."

Danny turned, tilted his head, and only said, "I'll keep that in mind."

Well, at least someone might start seeing what the press was doing.

"That was wonderful," Starfire said softly, floating beside him. "You directed attention to precisely why you must be so cautious."

"They'll be playing that soundbite over and over again," Beast Boy nodded. "Discussion's going to turn away from you for a bit. Well, aside from more biased news stations who will only focus on the fact that you didn't answer a question, but only their zealots take them seriously."

"It might break through some thick skulls," Raven rasped.

"And it will get people talking about themselves," Cyborg gave a huge grin. "People love to talk about themselves."

"You did well," Robin said. "You can go see your sister, if you want," he turned with a small smile. "We'll meet you back at the Tower."

"You sure?"

They all nodded. "Enjoy your sister's day," Starfire said, giving one of her Tamaranean hugs that could easily crush ribs not made of ectoplasm.

Danny smiled, waved, and winked out of sight as he turned invisible and headed back to the warehouse-turned-lab, turning human so he could get in past the Ghost Shield.

Jazz was waiting for him, back in the conference room she had spent most of the morning in, a few of her employees eagerly discussing plans and science based on what they had seen. The television that had been used for the powerpoint was turned to a news website, where Danny's comments were already being repeated and discussed.

"Hey, little brother!" she smiled, one of her relaxed smiles that had been so rare since he got her back.

"Hey, big sister!" he shot back, also relaxing into a smile. "You got a minute?"

"For you, an hour or three," she retorted, turning to the scientists. "Prepare a proposal for my desk for tomorrow morning and we can go over more of the details."

They nodded eagerly, still discussing as they left, and Danny and Jazz were at last alone. With a smile, she took him to her office, and then to a small side room. "Soundproofed, ghost-proofed, everything-proofed," Jazz said, sitting down with a spiral-bound notebook. "Whenever you're ready, at whatever pace you want."

And Danny couldn't help but smile. Robin was right, he wasn't in a cage. The Titans were his friends and would always hold him up, the same as Jazz. But Vlad was also right. He didn't think he could ever do a solo-hero gig again.

But that was fine. He never was solo, even in Amity Park. He always had people to support him. Whether it was Sam and Tucker, or Jazz when he got home. In Jump City, instead of being those he'd grown up with, it was a team of superheroes. Maybe it was a cage if one looked at it that way. But it was a cage of his own choosing, and one he was happy to have supporting him.

That was all that mattered.

The End

Author's Notes: This fic...

It's been stated before but this fic is a recovery fic. After five years of writing detailed Assassin's Creed novelizations that required weeks of research and problem solving and dynamic thinking, we were so creatively exhausted and so glued to novelization format we were afraid we would never write "normal" fanfiction ever again. When we sat down to write this fic, the only thing we knew was the cold open, and we just sort of when "eh, let's wing it and see what happens."

And, for a while, it worked. We found interesting things to play with, we had a villain of the week/episode format, and a lot of intense family drama to explore. But the problem with any author writing a fic without an ending is that, eventually, you have to actually write that ending. Once Danny and Jazz were ripped apart by Superman and Flash, we suddenly came up for air and realized, "Crap; what do we do now?" We had built up to this sweeping narrative and it just got away from us. The Justice League was too big for us, and we're really not DC girls to do any of those characters justice. And so, the last three-ish chapters is us no longer having fun but trying to figure out how to wrap up the fic.

The price that's paid is a severe drop in quality - all those plot threads were ignored in favor of just rushing to some kind of endgame before the fic exploded any further. Vlad makes a season 3 Phantom-level of stupid mistake - and literally, that was our justification to ourselves for this last chapter. In the DP cartoon Vlad goes from someone able of awakening Pariah Dark and stealing his minion from under his nose to buying a cat and naming it Maddie at Danny's suggestion. Vlad turns into a bit of an idiot at the end of the series and we figured that was reason enough for him to do something as stupid as turn into a ghost in front of a camera.

Instead of enjoying the ride we wanted to get off because we didn't think we could PULL it off. For the first time in years, we looked at a fanfic and we blinked. This ending is so terrible that our beta - who consistently praises the quality of work we give her (even the bad stuff) - went out on a limb to criticize us over how quickly this ended. One of our reviewers (who is basically a spiritual beta) has already pointed out how quickly we've been letting ideas go (GiW involvement in the explosion being one of our greatest sins, Wonder Woman's mishandling being a close second).

We posted the story anyway, though, because we figured, "Hey, it's a DP/TT crossover. There's too many to count, who would even notice?"

And then we started getting twenty reviews a chapter, and the two of us collectively gulped and realized we were about to let everyone down. There was a serious debate this week on even posting this chapter, just letting the previous one act as a finale instead, but our OCD nature forbade us leaving the fic unfinished (even if we were the only ones who would have known).

And so we hang our heads in shame and apologize. We've let our readers down with this ending. We're sorry. We hope the earlier chapters that were decent supersede the disappointment, and that the overall experience was pleasant.