{This chapter takes place after the previous chapter.
We do not own Danny Phantom or Percy Jackson, only this story and our original characters.}
Danny woke up on a stone bench, facing the cavern ceiling of the Underworld. He turned his head and saw Nico standing near the fountain, talking to Hades. They were locked in a hushed conversation, and Danny could see that Hades looked rather annoyed, while Nico looked rather upset himself.
Danny felt like his limbs were made of lead, and his head began spinning like a top as soon as he tried to sit up. He groaned miserably, which caught the attention of the two by the fountain.
"You should not be trying to sit up, Daniel." Hades cautioned as he strode over to him. Nico followed close behind, a bewildered look on his face as he watched the interaction between his father and Danny. "How did you end up in my realm without your mentor?"
Danny's mouth felt like it was full of cotton balls. "I... uhh..." He put his hands to his temples and laid back down. "I dunno..."
"I think you may have shadow-traveled." Nico supplied.
Hades sighed. "I will go contact Thanatos, tell him that you are here. Nico," Hades frowned at his son. "Don't be rude."
Hades pulled a pure black iPad from thin air as he walked away. Danny heard the Skype ringtone just as Hades walked into the entrance hall. On a normal day, Danny might've been amused by that. At the moment, however, he was just trying not to throw up.
Once his nausea settled, Danny looked over at Nico. The demigod was standing nearby with a hand on his sword hilt and an unnerved look in his eyes as he watched Danny.
"What are you?" Nico asked, sounding rather disturbed.
Danny rolled his eyes. "I thought your dad told you not to be rude."
Nico's eyes narrowed. "Answer my question."
Danny scowled at that. "You know what?" He sat up, feeling slightly less awful than when he first woke up. "No. I'm not gonna answer your question. I'm not gonna answer anyone's questions! I'm getting really tired of people asking me about things I don't wanna talk about!" His voice echoed loudly through the silent courtyard.
Nico looked surprised at Danny's outburst, and then he glanced away, his expression slightly apologetic. "I..." He looked down at the ground. "Sorry, I'm just... confused."
Danny chuckled tiredly at that. "Me too, buddy, but what are you confused about?"
Nico stared at Danny like he was a car accident on the side of the freeway; stomach churning, but it was impossible to look away. "How... how are you dead and alive? Why do I see Phantom when I look at you?"
Danny glanced up at him, perplexed. "What do you mean, you 'see' Phantom?"
Nico grew frustrated. "I mean, I see you," He gestured to Danny. "black-haired, blue-eyed you, sitting right there. But I also see Phantom sitting there, like a... weird overlay or something."
Danny guessed it made sense that Nico, as a son of Hades, would be able to see ghosts and stuff. He wondered if it would be a good idea to tell Nico about his secret, but... he didn't really have a choice, since he couldn't think of any lie that Nico would believe.
Besides, although Danny had only met Nico a couple of times, he felt like he could trust him. There was an air about Nico that made him seem much older and wiser than he appeared. Danny felt the same pull around Nico that he did whenever he was around Hades, but to a lesser extent; it was less mind numbing, and more... comforting, maybe?
Danny scooted over on the bench and motioned for Nico to join him. Nico raised an eyebrow in question, but sat next to him anyway.
"I dunno where to start, honestly, it's..." Danny gave Nico a tired smile. "It's a pretty weird story. My parents are obsessed with anything and everything to do with ghosts; they like to think of themselves as 'professional ghost extraordinaires'. They've studied the paranormal for years, and built all sorts of equipment for hunting and studying ghosts. They've even got this whole science-y lab in our basement. One day, I decided to mess around down there and... had an accident."
"But... you're dead." Nico said, putting emphasis on the last word.
"Yeah," Danny sighed. "I know."
"What happened that caused you to become... this?" Nico gestured vaguely at Danny.
"Honestly, I don't know how I survived, let alone became this." Danny shrugged. "But, I'm glad I became Phantom. I'm happy that I'm able to protect those I care for."
Nico looked thoughtful, but before he could say anything else, Hades reentered the garden. Nico stood to greet his father, but Hades ignored him.
The god looked tired, and he put his hand to his temple as if trying to ward off a migraine. "Thanatos isn't answering my calls, so he must be occupied at the moment. Daniel, could you use your mark to summon him?"
"Oh..." Danny thought back to what Thanatos had taught him about his mark the previous day before the god had left. "Uhh, I mean, I kinda remember the, uhh, tracing thing," Danny waved his arm vaguely. "But I... don't remember the words."
Hades sighed tiredly. "You trace your mark while you say, 'éla se ména,' and then his name."
"Oh, uhh, okay." Danny nodded. He held out his arm, mark up, and traced over the black letters with his finger. As he traced them, he said clearly, "Éla se ména, Thanatos."('Come to me, Thanatos.')"
Danny's mark glowed a bright white, and he could feel what little energy he had left being sapped from his body. After a few seconds, his mark faded back to black, and Thanatos appeared in front of him in a cloud of dark mist.
The god wore a knee-length black chiton with an embroidered gold hem and coppery-red laced sandals, with a long red and gold cloak that sat between his wings. Thanatos immediately knelt in front of Danny and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Daniel, are you alright?"
Danny tried to nod, but he slumped forward instead as his exhaustion overwhelmed him.
Thanatos caught Danny before he could fall and held him up, his golden eyes regarding Danny with concern. "Hades, what happened?" Thanatos asked the other god, but Danny didn't catch Hades' response as he lost consciousness. Again.
Thanatos POV:
Thanatos caught Daniel as he slumped forward. He looked into the child's eyes to try and catch his attention, but Daniel's eyes slid shut and his head fell forward limply. "Hades, what happened?" Thanatos asked.
"I don't know, honestly. Daniel shadow-traveled here, though I'm not sure why." Hades answered, shrugging carelessly.
"He shadow-traveled?" Thanatos repeated in disbelief. "By himself?"
Hades folded his arms. "I suppose so. Why didn't you answer my calls?"
"Because," Thanatos placed Daniel's arms around his neck and lifted him up from the bench, cradling the back of Daniel's head as he stood and turned to face Hades. "The King of the Gods decided that he urgently needed to speak to me about my new apprentice." Thanatos' gaze hardened slightly. "Did you tell him about Daniel?"
"Excuse me?" Hades glared back at him. "I haven't spoken to that big oaf since the winter solstice! Why in Tartarus would I tell him about anything, let alone about your apprentice?"
"How else could he have learned about him?" However, as soon as Thanatos said that, he remembered that Daniel had met Dionysus at Camp Half-Blood. He had also met Ares, and although Thanatos and the war god were good friends, Ares may have mentioned Daniel to his father. Persephone may have even mentioned him to her mother, Demeter, who would've spread the news to everyone on Olympus within the hour. "Do you think Persephone might have told her mother?"
The air around Hades turned frigid. "Perhaps, but have you thought that maybe Daniel said something himself?"
"... That could have happened." Thanatos conceded. He would have said more, but Daniel shifted in his sleep, reminding Thanatos that he was still holding him. "I should probably get him back to camp."
Hades agreed and turned to leave, but paused as he looked around, confused, and asked where his son had gone. At some point in their conversation, Nico had wandered off without either god noticing. Hades groaned tiredly and bid Thanatos farewell before heading back into his palace.
Thanatos considered shadow-traveling back to Camp Half-Blood, but decided against it. Daniel did not look to be in good health from his solo trip earlier, and Thanatos did not want to risk his apprentice fully melting into the shadows. So, he decided to use the Doors and hoped he could get them to open close to the camp.
After making sure he had a good hold on Daniel, Thanatos' outfit shifted back to his usual chiton and sandals as he spread his wings and took off for the Underworld side of the Doors.
As Thanatos flew to the Doors, Daniel started to mumble in his sleep. At first it was just random, nonsensical words and phrases: "fudge," "beware," "goin' ghost," (Thanatos smiled at that one.) But then, Daniel started fidgeting and mumbling: "no, please," "stay away from them," :why are you doing this?:
Thanatos looked down at his young apprentice in concern. Did he just speak in Greek? He wondered as he landed in front of the Doors. "Daniel, everything is alright." Thanatos said comfortingly. "You are safe."
:Safe?: Daniel repeated as Thanatos stepped into the elevator. "Safe... good."
Thanatos listened closely to hear if Daniel spoke any more Greek, but his apprentice had quieted, his mutterings fading away to silence.
As the elevator reached the end of its journey, Daniel began to shift and stir; he appeared to be in better health than when Thanatos had first seen him that day. Thanatos stepped out of the elevator and into the bright sunlight and carefully placed his apprentice on his own two feet, holding him upright as he regained full consciousness. "Are you awake now, Daniel?"
Daniel rubbed his eyes as Thanatos let go of his shoulders. "Mmm, yeah." He looked around at the trees surrounding them. "Are we... still in the Underworld?"
"No. We are somewhere in Pennsylvania." Thanatos answered somewhat bitterly; in his current state—due to his earlier meeting with Zeus himself—he hadn't been able to get them as close to Camp Half-Blood as he had hoped. He returned his attention to his apprentice. "Why were you in the Underworld in the first place?"
"Uhh, I think... I shadow-traveled there?" Daniel answered, clearly trying to avoid the real issue.
"... Yes, I realize that, but why did you shadow-travel there?" Thanatos clarified.
"I didn't mean to!" Daniel hugged himself as he looked away. "I wasn't thinking, I just... needed to get away from camp for a bit."
Thanatos grew concerned. "Why did you need to get away from camp? Did something happen?" He noticed Daniel's bare arm and frowned. "What happened to your bandage?"
Daniel did not answer immediately. When he did, he was quiet. "I messed up. Someone saw my mark. Actually... two someones."
Thanatos took a deep breath and slowly released it; he should've known that would happen sooner or later. "Okay, who saw?" He asked calmly.
"Well, uhh, I met a girl-or, a goddess-today. She said her name was Hestia." Thanatos stilled, but Daniel didn't appear to notice as he continued. "She somehow knew that I was an apprentice, and she asked to see it."
"And you showed her?" Thanatos' voice held a hint of frustration.
Daniel flushed with embarrassment. "I mean, she seemed really nice, and I felt like I could trust her..."
"Well, yes." Thanatos agreed. "Hestia is quite a kind goddess. However, do you know who her youngest brother is?"
Daniel thought for a moment, and Thanatos watched as he connected the dots. Daniel paled before he answered quietly. "... Z-the sky dude?"
"Yes, the 'sky dude'. I had to talk to the 'sky dude' because of you," The frustration in Thanatos' voice was clear by that point. "And get him to agree not to do anything to you until the winter solstice."
Daniel shuffled his feet, his eyes downcast. "I'm sorry, Thanatos."
Thanatos pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "It will be okay, Daniel. You did not know any better."
Daniel didn't respond, his gaze still fixed on the ground.
Thanatos spoke more gently. "I am sorry for raising my voice at you. I know that I didn't really explain why you should hide your mark; that's on me. But people knowing that you are my apprentice could be very dangerous for you."
Daniel looked up at him questioningly.
Thanatos explained. "Mortals are often foolish, Daniel. They yearn for power over anything they think they can control. Some are even foolish enough to strive for power and control over the primordial forces of the universe, such as the movement of time, or who lives and who dies, and they will do whatever they can to get that control." He caught Daniel's gaze, hoping that his apprentice understood the seriousness of his words. "Do you understand?"
Daniel looked a bit shaken by Thanatos' warning, and he returned his gaze to his feet. "... Annabeth was the other person who saw." He mumbled. "We were sparring and my bandage came off."
Thanatos was a little less upset with that bit of news. "At least that time was accidental. I am sure you can work that out with her when you see her again. Now, how did you shadow-travel by yourself? I never showed you how, and doing so on your own, without any instruction, was very dangerous."
Daniel ran his hand through his hair. "I don't know how... I wasn't thinking. I just... reacted." He dropped his head into his hands and groaned. "I'm so tired..."
"Yes, that is what happens when you shadow-travel by yourself for the first time." Thanatos deadpanned. Though he was still annoyed, his tone softened a bit. "Are you alright to travel?"
As an answer, Daniel's transformation rings appeared around his waist and moved away from each other, changing him into his alter ego: Phantom. "Yeah, let's go."
{Anxiescape: I don't know if it's particularly necessary to describe Thanatos' outfits, but I like to so I'm gonna keep doing it.
Anxiescape: I don't know if it's particularly necessary to describe Thanatos' outfits, but I like to so I'm gonna keep doing it.
Also, Nico @ Danny in this chapter: the "Wait a minute, who are you?" vine}