Welcome to the fourth installment in the saga 'Illuminations'. If you haven't read the first three (Darkness, Shadows, and Light), you should go read them first. They're not incredibly long.

A quick note that I wrote the first three parts of this seven years ago. I am going to try to keep the style of writing the same throughout the saga, but I've grown a lot over the past seven years and some things are going to be slightly different. I refuse to continue some of the basic mistakes I was making in the first three stories. Hopefully I can keep the story feeling like one cohesive unit while upgrading the quality of the writing.

Also, please note that since the basis of this story is so old, the plot is first-season(ish) compliant only. No Mayor Vlad. No Red Huntress. No ice powers.

The story should be updated once a week, if not more often. There are about ten chapters to this story, approximately 20,000 words in total. Reviews are pleasant things that inspire me to write faster, should you be interested in leaving some feedback.

Appreciate you reading!

-Cori

The moon pulls strong on the tides.

Moon
A Danny Phantom Fanfiction by Cordria

Chapter 1: Confusions

Danny and Maddie

Danny's eyes fluttered open to the sound of quiet voices. Laughter, back and forth chatter, and then someone started to talk about the weather. Slowly the ceiling came into view, and Danny reached up a hand to rub at his eyes. His mouth felt dry and sticky.

"Good morning," a voice said nearby, and he felt someone settle down next to him. "How're you feeling?"

Not answering, Danny pushing himself up into a sitting position, finally realizing he'd fallen asleep on the couch. Or - as his forehead wrinkled in thought - he'd fallen asleep on the floor. The TV flickered and caught his attention. He watched the weather radar for a long moment, lost in thought.

"Danny?"

"Yeah?" He turned his attention to his sister, who was perched on the armrest of the couch. Only then did her previous question register in his mind. "I'm fine, Jazz."

She arched an eyebrow, but vacated the armrest is favor of the recliner. A half-eaten bowl of cereal was waiting for her. She picked it up and resumed eating her breakfast, turning her gaze back to the morning news. "You know," she said after a moment, "Mom and Dad stayed up almost all night watching you sleep."

Danny let his eyes flicker towards the stairs - towards their parents' bedroom. "Oh."

"What happened?"

Rubbing a hand over his head and through his hair, Danny tried to remember exactly what had happened the previous night. He'd been talking to his parents, trying to explain everything. Then…

Then…

"I don't remember," Danny muttered after a moment, his head starting to ache. Pressing a hand against his head, he closed his eyes and leaned back against the pillows. Little flashes of memory curled through Danny's mind. A black pendant. Red eyes. Fire. He shuddered and dropped his hand, a strange feeling of loss stabbing through his heart.

"Head hurt?"

Danny shrugged and let his eyes drift open, gazing blankly at the TV - which had just flipped over to a commercial break. He didn't process what he was seeing. Instead, he was focused on the sensation that something was missing. Broken.

Stolen?

Grasping at the thought, Danny started to pull other stray bits of memory together. Men in white. A jail cell?

"Want me to get you some Advil?"

Thoughts thoroughly scattered by his sister's voice, Danny sighed and let his head fall backwards. A few sarcastic comments popped into his mind, but all that came out was a soft, "Sure."

There was the clink of a bowl being set down. The chair squeaked. Footsteps as his sister left the room.

Danny sat in the silence, alone for the first time since he'd woken up in the hospital, and stared at the ceiling. Darkness. Too many shadows. Lost in the light. Almost sacrificed under the moon…

"Here."

Danny flinched, his eyes jumping to focus on his sister. She seemed to have magically appeared by his side - no where near the amount of time needed to get both the Advil and the glass of water she was carrying. Her eyes softened and she waited, holding out the glass for him to take. "Thanks," he said, taking it and the two pills.

"You sure you're 'fine'?" Jazz stared straight at him, as if she were looking for something in his eyes.

"Yeah," Danny said, pushing a grin onto his face. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Jazz actually snorted. Shaking her head, the small smile faded. "But you don't remember…"

Swallowing the pills and a few huge mouthfuls of water, Danny forced a laugh out of his chest. It sounded a lot more realistic than Danny had expected. "I fainted, or something. What's there to remember?"

Jazz worried her lip for a moment, then the faint smile returned. "I suppose."

"You're just a worrier." Danny drained the rest of the glass and set it on the coffee table, nonchalantly putting his arms behind his head and his feet up on the armrest. "I spent a week in the hospital, pushed myself too far, and fainted. And now I have a headache. It's not a big deal."

The little wrinkles around her eyes vanished as she relaxed into a real smile. "I'm really glad you're okay, Danny."

Shooting her a grin, Danny let his eyes close, half-listening to the news and waiting for the Advil to kick in. He could hear Jazz crunch through what was left of her cereal, occasionally muttering to herself about the news stories. But his smile vanished as the dream-like memory of the black pendant flickered in front of his eyes. This time it was glowing an icy blue. It made every hair on his body stand on end.

The TV was playing softly in the next room, Jazz's careful tones ceasing as the short conversation with her brother came to an end. Maddie listened a few moments, relieved that Danny seemed to have woken up with nothing but a mild headache, before turning her attention dazedly back to her coffee. She wasn't a coffee drinker, but after yet another sleepless night she needed something to keep her brain functioning. A heavy dose of Jack's 'Fenton Blend' coffee would have to do the trick.

In the ripples and swirls of the dark coffee, Maddie imagined she could see glowing green eyes. Two eyes, the sharp gaze of a ghost, piercing through the darkness. The rest of its body lost in the shadows. Very slowly, she set the cup down on the table without taking a sip. The cup clinked.

The past month was little but a blur in her mind. Danny's kidnapping, followed by her own. Days trapped in the darkness with a mysterious ghost. Finding an escape, only to almost lose the spirit she'd come to actually like being around. Learning the ghost was her son just in time to lose him to a death-like coma in the hospital.

It had happened so fast.

It had changed her entire world.

Maddie pushed the cup away from her and set her head down on her arms, letting her eyes fall closed. If she didn't stop to think about it, everything was okay. The world was still spinning. Her family was reunited and happy. Everything could just continue the way it was.

But then she would think and the world would feel like it was being ripped out from underneath her.

Her eyes started to burn and Maddie took a deep breath, holding it, refusing to give in to the emotions that were playing out inside her heart. The faint trembling in her chest subsided. The ache in her eyes faded. When she sat up, her cheeks were dry. She reached for the coffee cup but hesitated, choosing instead to stand up and walk quietly over to the door. She leaned against the door jam, gazing at her children.

Jazz was engrossed in the morning news, a little dribble of milk from her cereal forgotten on her chin. Danny was laying on the couch, feet on the coffee table, seemingly asleep again. It all looked perfectly normal.

Maddie's arms slowly crept up to wrap around herself, pulling tightly. Her fingers burrowed into the flesh of her arms. Her lips were tight on her face, warped into a strange expression, as she studied her young son. The blankness on his face as he slept, the way his hair tickled his eyes, the relaxed way his body slouched on the couch.

His eyes twitched and Maddie quickly rearranged her face into a smile. His eyes flickered open and gazed in her direction, still half asleep, and fought back a yawn. Struggling to sit up, Danny shot her a grin.

The sight of her son's face caused a warmth in her heart that curled through her chest. She felt it when the warmth hit her eyes, turning her forced smile into something real. Pushing away from the door, Maddie walked back into the kitchen and settled back down at the table, momentarily content with the knowledge that she loved her son.

But she stared at the coffee, smile fading, unable to keep the prickling thought away: just who was her son?

Jessica Oscura played with the little pendant hanging around her neck as the train chugged down the tracks. Her useless lump of a brother was snoring the seat next to her and she cast him a scornful glare before turning her gaze back through the window. Endless expanses of farmland were passing by. Corn, perhaps.

For the tenth time since she got on the train, she picked up a calendar and stared down at the date, tracing a delicate finger from the current date to the new moon, only a week away. "Can this train not move any faster?" she demanded quietly, flicking the calendar closed and putting it back onto her lap.

Her brother twitched in his sleep. "Ghosts…" he muttered.

"Would you like something to drink?"

She looked up into the eyes of a young woman with a small cart filled with bottles of water and cans of soda. "A water, please," she replied after a moment.

"And where are you two headed?" The young woman handed over the bottle, accepting the dollar in exchange.

Jessica smiled. "Wisconsin."

To be continued.