Malevolence

Chapter 2- Quite Surprised

by: TheColorsofSand

Children laughed. They laughed, they cried, they shouted and sang and shrieked. The sound was at once happy and exhilarating, and terribly sad. The laughing and cheering swells inside him somewhere and he wants to smile. He wants to smile in spite of the sadness. In spite of the pain that he is certain he will never quite forget. The pain that will spring back on him once the voices die down and all the children are gone.

He misses the children when they are gone. They shouldn't have to go. And sometimes, he can feel the anger just beyond. He's angry that they had to go.

"Good boy. It's alright now. Everything's going to be okay."

Danny bolted awake suddenly. He already knew that it would be six o'clock if he bothered to look. The smell was still in his nose, choking him and the whole room. He had just enough time to make it from the living room couch to the kitchen sink before he threw up.

"Danny? Are you alright?" He hadn't even noticed his mother sitting there at the kitchen table, her cup of coffee in her hand. She set the mug down and hurried over to her son.

"Can't you smell it?" He ground out, still gagging.

"Smell what?" She put her hand on his forehead. He was covered in sweat, but he didn't feel warm. "Sweetie, what's wrong?" For a moment, Danny wasn't positive where he was, or what had happened. The smell faded suddenly, and he was aware of his mother's hand on him. He coughed and spat, hoping to spit the taste of vomit out of his mouth. He turned the faucet on to wash the sink out, and tried to think of something to say to his mother.

"Nothing, I'm fine." She turned him to took at her, looking him over with a concerned eye.

"You look paler than usual. You're covered in sweat." He was tired.

"I just had a really weird dream. That's all." For a moment he and his mother stared at one another. Neither sure of how to make the other talk. Fortunately for Danny, vomit was now in play.

"I need to wash out the sink, Mom." She glanced over and made a face, breaking the tension.

"Yes you do. You also need to chew your food better." The comment coaxed a smile from the both of them, and they left the conversation there; he knew she cared, and she knew he was just fine. Lately Maddie had begun to realized that might be all she could really hope for when it came to her son.

She sat down again and reclaimed her coffee cup. Danny dutifully washed out the sink, and his mouth. He still didn't look great, but he seemed to feel alright. He'd become very tall and lanky, much less clumsy, and even less like Jack than he started out. She had been so sure when her son was young that the two of than would grow so much alike she'd be at her wit's end by the time Danny was sixteen. But she saw now she'd been silly to think Daniel would be anyone but Daniel. The broad square of his shoulders was hard. His large hands were strong. The crashing conclusion was as simple as it was devastating; her child wasn't a child anymore. Maddie wasn't sure how she felt about calling her son a 'man' but she couldn't avoid it anymore.

Could a child ghost become anything but a child ghost?

"Good morning!" Danielle came through the ceiling into the kitchen, already dressed. Her long hair she'd taken to braiding loosely to keep it out of the way. It made her look nominally older, in spite of the fact that she was aging much slower than normal. She kept her clothes baggy, her hair messy, and her conversation appropriately blunt. Maddie could almost call her a daughter- but she had no doubts she was her son's sister.

No, she was really Phantom's sister. There was a difference. They acted like siblings, had disagreements, and when they fought together; they complimented each other perfectly. 'Big Brother' who stood tall with that self-assured smirk, and 'little sister' with her sneaky little grin and the kind of right-hook no one expects.

For being a ghost hunter, she certainly had a lot of ghosts in her house.

Dani sat on the counter, making herself at home and pouring a cup of coffee, which earned her a look from her 'cousin'. Which she ignored. Maddie couldn't help but smile.

"What did you do in the sink?" She asked, wrinkling her nose. Danny just gave her a deadpan sort of look. But she seemed satisfied to go without an answer.

"So you never did tell me how you ended up with that blob with legs on your tail." Danni rolled her eyes.

"That thing was horrible. It took me two days to get here with that thing popping up everywhere I went. You know the observant's outpost out by the overgrown swamp thing? I think it's number 1734." Danny nodded, and Maddie just looked confused. "Well, I figured if I cut across this big swamp out by number 1734 I'd save like six or seven hours on my trip."

"Except that it was claimed and you pissed off something bigger than you." Danny was giving her a little frown, and she was grinning sheepishly back at him.

"Something like that."

"No wonder it was so mad. So you brought it here so I could get rid of it for you?"

"I thought that since it was so territorial, if it got to a much bigger ghost's territory, it would get scared off. But I got here- and you haven't claimed any territory yet. So the only other thing I could do was find you." It was Danny's turn to look sheepish, and Danielle got to frown.

"I never did get around to it. I'm not really that kind of guy."

"Every ghost at your level is 'that kind of guy'." Maddie, fascinated, considered taking notes.

"So ghosts are normally territorial?" She asked. Her son was usually reluctant to give them much information, but Danielle was a different story. She smiled and hopped off the counter, sitting down next to Maddie. With a sigh, Danny followed.

"Oh yeah. That's what a 'haunt' is. It usually doesn't matter for the weaker ghosts, since any ghost stronger than they are can pretty much ignore it. But for stronger ghosts it keeps out all the little ghosts that don't want to get into a fight over it."

"And Danny is strong enough to have his own territory?"

"He's strong enough that it's weird that he doesn't have his own. The whole ghost zone knows he's haunting Amity Park. He has a right and everything." Maddie had started taking notes, pulling out a notebook from a kitchen drawer. Danny thought about putting a stop to it, but realized that this was how the Fenton family bonded- over hastily scribbled theories about the ghost zone at the kitchen table. At least this time the information was correct.

"So, what does that mean, to have a right to Amity Park?"

"Well, there are rules to haunts in the living world. There's different kind of rights. The best one is to be a 'named core ghost, with area-formed cause'. That just means someone who died here and became a high-level ghost." Maddie glanced nervously to her son at the word 'died', Danny just looked at Danielle incredulously.

"You've been studying I take it. Still with Nocturne?" Danny said the name with a little bit of disgust.

"I don't have school to interfere with my education. And it's not my fault Clockwork doesn't like me the way he likes you."

"I think it is your fault, actually." He didn't elaborate, but his mother made a note to ask about the story later.

"Who are the Observants?" Both parties rolled their eyes, and between the two of them launched into a lengthy explanation. Including Phantom's arrest, (Daniel James! Arrested?), subsequent release to Clockwork (you've talked about him before, haven't you?), and eventual apology. As well as Danielle's own run-in with the governing body of the ghost zone.

By the time Jazz wandered down the stairs, hair still wet from her shower, Maddie laughed along with both Phantoms, who were by then sitting at the kitchen table in ghost form- Danielle hovering in the air. Her notebook had many scribbles and a few drawings, but had mostly fallen by the wayside; more interested in listening to the story of Danny and Dani's last visit to the Far Frozen. Which had, par for the course, ended in disaster.

"Nobody was mad and nothing got broken. I think they keep me around just to laugh at me."

"That's why we keep you around!" Even Jazz laughed as she made her way through the kitchen.

"Have you told her about the time he was arrested yet?" Jazz inserted as she sat down herself. Maddie nodded, still laughing, and Danny shook his head.

"I remember both of you promising that you weren't going to tell her about that." He said. But he was laughing just as hard as the others. The dream had faded. The tiredness had faded. Sitting with his family, ghost or human, laughing about both halves of his life made him forget about the lingering sense of dread that had settled in the pit of his stomach. Jack eventually wandered into the kitchen, and for a few brief moments, it didn't matter that he was 'Phantom' in a room full of 'Fenton's'.

But eventually he had to get dressed, Mom and Dad had to make breakfast, and Jazz had to start her homework before she went back to college on Monday. Breakfast went by without interference from the smoke detector.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Flying had become more and more natural the past couple of years. So much so that he still hadn't bothered to get a car, or do much driving. Fortunately Sam enjoyed flying almost as much as he did. He left a little early, just to take a look around his town again. Amity Park was his. He knew every inch, every pothole in every street, and every crack in every sidewalk and building. But claiming it seemed wrong- at least right now. Clockwork didn't seem too worried about it, and he usually steered him right. Most of the time.

Ghost attacks had dwindled to almost nothing. The few that made their way through usually had the decency to ask permission. An exchange of sorts was starting- and Danny was finding himself an unofficial gatekeeper for the dead. Which meant he was spending a lot of time in the ghost zone, and making sure that Sam and Tucker didn't slide down the list of his priorities. The last date he'd tried to take Sam on had been rather rudely interrupted by a ghost he didn't know. The ghost knew him now.

Sam was waiting for him by the time he arrived. Her favorite restaurant- a strangely effective mix of inedible food and dismal hipsters with too many piercings, had made regulars out of them. Sam loved the food and the just less than uncomfortable atmosphere, and Danny just loved Sam.

"Took you long enough." She said, as he flashed back into visibility just beside her. She had been ready for it.

"I'm not late yet." He replied. Normal things, like lunch, movies, and picnics weren't boring. Not after the daily excitement of ghost attacks and Armageddon- and they took the opportunity to do the things that other couples their age were just getting bored with.

Public affection made him paranoid. He learned the hard way that someone could be watching. If they watched long enough they'd know when he let his guard down, where he spent his time, the people that were around him most, the people he loved. Sam claimed he was just overprotective. Not an unusual quality for a ghost to have.

It was satisfyingly boring. They laughed, they talked about Dani, Tucker, her mother's latest hobby. After an hour, she had wandered into his lap and they were enjoying the simple contact that they didn't always get to have. Danny wasn't sure if it was supposed to feel this way. It was an odd sort of love that they had together.

They'd known one another forever. When she was absent, he missed her. But the closer she got, the greater she felt, until he felt like he'd wrapped his arms around something brighter than the sun. And he felt full of holes. There was no puppy-love. No giddy, thrilling looks, or Shakespearean odes. Just iron dedication, so large it filled those holes and he knew that no matter how few shreds of his soul were left, she was all he needed to keep himself together. He was going to get jealous and overprotective. She was going to be outspoken and outrageous. They both knew what they were getting into.

They didn't blush when they touched anymore. They knew every part of each other and loved every scar and every flaw. This love was permanent.

Their date, however, couldn't last forever. Eventually, they had to say goodbye. He flew her home, careful that her parents didn't see them. They had been as accepting of his 'condition' as could be expected, but flying their daughter around had apparently been over the line. He kissed her goodbye, and she promised to call.

They'd been together for hours, and his night on the couch was catching up to him. He spared a few moments to check his town over, but in the end, decided to take the quick way home. The tiny vortex opened up for him. Home was like a beacon in the dark. He locked onto his home, and pulled himself there.

There was no adrenaline to mask the feeling this time. No 'focus' that sometimes blocks a ghost's keener senses. He felt the pull and it was undeniable. That gravity grabbed at him and pulled him away with a force he could not break. The beacon of home became distant, and he popped back into the living world somewhere other than home.

He smelled food again, and though he couldn't read the signs on the face of the building, he knew it was the same he'd visited the day before. The parking lot was packed. His acute hearing picked up the sounds of children.

They laughed, they cried, they shouted and sang and shrieked, and no one could hear his pain.

He could smell it again. In ghost form, the smell was not nauseating, but it evoked something else that he couldn't identify. His ghost sense was going off in great plumes. He'd experienced a form of 'ghost empathy' before. Was that what he was feeling now? The vague curiosity to go inside he'd felt before had become a driving need. He could feel that he was close to Amity Park. If there was such a powerful ghost so close to his home, he needed to know more about it.

But it was a mistake to get closer.

It, whatever It was, reached out and took a hold of him. Phantom felt the whirling, sucking black hole that opened below him. Caught in the undercurrent he was torn from the air and toward the center of It. He could hear the voices, their voices. Words, so jumbled he couldn't understand, clanking, screaming, laughing, crying. It was not one ghost, but many. A collection of souls sank deep in the mire of regret, anguish, and fear. If he went inside than he would sink like they had- stuck forever in what was surely Hell. Voices screamed for help- begging to be released. Voices clamored with laughter-delighted for him to join them.

And he wanted it. He wanted it so much that his soul was sluggish to struggle. It wanted him and he was ready. His friends were there, they had always been. Just waiting for him to come home.

Lies, they had to be lies. His friends were not here, they were at home. Amity Park, FentonWorks, that was home. And if he went to them- if he went to that place, he would never see them again. They would spend the rest of their lives wondering where he had gone, why he had left them. No one would protect his home, his family, without him Dani would have no safe place. He couldn't tear himself away, but he had other options. Suddenly it was life or death, and he had never needed it to work so desperately before. The tiny vortex opened, then closed again. Phantom was struggling, but marking no progress. He took a deep breath and tried again. It stayed open for him this time, and he dove into it without aim. Anywhere, anywhere but here. Somewhere safe, somewhere far away.

It tried to hold on, but he broke away. He passed through no-space faster than he ever had before. He didn't end up at home, but it was the next best thing. Clockwork's tower. Still panicked, he didn't waste any time. There was no safer place than the tower. Only inside did he think to breathe again.

"Sit down, Daniel, you're about to fall down." Danny did as he was told. He sat heavily on the floor, shaking all over. Clockwork was busy. He watched one of the large monitors carefully, something he rarely did while Danny was in the room. He let the younger ghost catch his breath.

"What- what was that?" Danny gasped. Clockwork let the monitors flicker off.

"It's called a 'collection', Daniel, and you were very nearly a part of it." His mentor helped him to his feet and into the other room, a place very few were able to go. A library, a room both small and infinite, something that seemed very unique to Clockwork. With only a table and a few chairs, the only other furniture were two bookcases, facing each other. Entering between the bookcases, however, Danny found that they would go on forever without ever reaching the back wall, which appeared to be only five feet away.

Clockwork sat him down, and took the seat opposite him. For a moment he let him just sit, letting the desperation fade. After a few moments the dread dwindled until he wasn't even sure if it had been real.

"So, tell me about it." Clockwork said in his even voice, insisting without demanding. Danny put his head down on the table and sighed heavily.

"I wanted to go. I wanted to go so badly I almost didn't get away in time. Was that real? Would I have ever gotten out if I got dragged in there?" For a moment Clockwork didn't speak. Danny could feel his heavy gaze on him. Clockwork already knew what he was going to say. He knew how the whole conversation would end. He was just waiting for Danny to be ready to hear the answer.

" Yes it was real. And no, if you had been pulled in there today, you would not have ever gotten out. It happens sometimes- ghosts collect together until they are not really ghosts at all. They become an object- a hive. Something so powerful and malevolent it becomes self-sustaining. It will often trap ghosts that get too close, or start stirring the hive so to speak. They are rare, it takes a great deal of power or emotion. If you have one so close, it's wise to be cautious." Danny nodded, the adrenaline had faded. Weariness had set in instead. He let his mentor's words sink in.

He had brushed against his ultimate fate just minutes ago, a fate worse than death narrowly avoided. Clockwork did not seem concerned, but he never really did.

"You haven't asked yet." Clockwork said plainly, answering a question Danny was still formulating in his mind. "You have to ask the right questions to get the right answers. Take your time and think about it." Head still on the table, listening to the cranking and ticking of the gears in the tower, Danny thought about the question he wanted answered the most. Not what would have happened if he had gone, but why he had wanted to go. What about those voices, that smell, the laughter of children, the creaking of door hinges, music he'd never heard before, and that place was so familiar? And most of all...

"Why do I keep going back there?" Clockwork smiled his little half-way smile.

"Why is it you think you keep going back there?" Danny sighed heavily. Answers weren't always in stock at Clockwork's tower.

"I don't suppose you could just tell me things you wanted me to know." He said, voice muffled by the table. Clockwork chuckled just a little.

"No, Daniel, I'm afraid it is never that easy." He sighed again.

Why did he keep going back there? It wasn't on purpose. Both times had been a complete accident, he didn't intend to go. It had pulled him, dragged him there as though it had a string tied around his ankle. It wanted him, and seemed determined to make him one of them. It had faded mostly, but he remembered how much he needed to go- how much he wanted to go home.

"I want to go. Why do I want to go?"He leaned back and scrubbed his face with his hands. A solid week of nightmares, a solid week with no sleep and now this. He paused, remembering where he'd smelled that before. "I've been having dreams about that place for a week, haven't I?"

"Each ghost matures at their own rate. But every ghost, before they are full- grown must have the time to discover why they became a ghost in the first place. To not know why; that's what separates those with power, from those without. Perhaps it's just your time." Danny groaned.

"But I know why I became a ghost- it wasn't that hard to figure out." There was very little conviction in his voice however. Not one word from Clockwork was ever casual, and each was always loaded. He'd get a straighter answer from the table. Danny looked at his mentor very closely fora moment, he hardly noticed the age shifting anymore. Clockwork was his friend, his teacher.

He could not trust him to tell the truth, but he could always trust him not to lie. Thus was the paradox of Clockwork.

He was just going to have to go there and figure it all out for himself. There was just one problem with that. How was he supposed to go there without getting pulled in and become part of the tar pit?

"How can I go there, and still get out?" Clockwork fixed him coldly, but Danny very rarely felt that he was cold now.

"Phantom is maturing." He said slowly, "but for now, Fenton grows like any normal human being. One side is going to have to help the other." The answer was simple: the 'collection'- it wanted him. It wanted Phantom. But he didn't always have to be Phantom. Theoretically, if he stayed in human form the whole time, he'd be grounded firmly enough that it couldn't pull him in. It could work, probably. If Clockwork made the suggestion, then certainly he was right. Danny just didn't know if he said it because it was true, and it would turn out alright, or if he was just supposed to believe it was true and it was important that he attempt it. Either way, there wasn't any way to really get around it. Not if he wanted to stop throwing up at six o'clock every morning and waking to disturbing nightmares.

"This isn't going to turn into an episode, is it?" Clockwork didn't say anything, which wasn't the answer he wanted to hear. "Well, can I at least get some help with this?" This time Clockwork smirked at him.

"I have already helped you, Daniel. This is your story, not mine." Danny nodded grimly.

"That's what I thought you were going to say." He said.

Phantom stayed a while, calming under his mentor's watchful eye. Becoming Clockwork's responsibility was one of the most significant things that had ever happened to him. The time ghost had never taken a pupil before. The Observants assumed that he never would, and therefore making Phantom one of his would prompt neglect. Their plan backfired. They won out on Danielle, however, Clockwork and Dani had never 'gotten along'. And Nocturne was more inclined to resist making trouble for the ruling council.

By the time he made it back home, Danny was appropriately calmed, and reasonably optimistic. Clockwork wasn't sure, watching him go, if he should feel saddened or joyous. He had known Phantom from the beginning, and it was finally time now for the rest of the world to know him. He world save his joy for later, nothing was set in stone.

This unique soul, both wonderful and terrifying, gentle and vicious, kind and malevolent, could still surprise him. Thus was the paradox of Danny Phantom.

Danny returned home to a ringing phone. As it turned out, Clockwork's tower had terrible reception. He fished his phone from his deep pocket and recognized Sam's number. He paused for a moment, just to see if he remembered doing anything to make her mad. Finding nothing, he answered her.

" Did something happen, I called you twice." Her voice was concerned, but not angry.

"The ghost zone doesn't get great reception. I'll tell you later. What's up?"

"Something I forgot to ask you. My cousin's birthday is tomorrow and I got stuck as a chaperone. I could use a had of you're up for it."

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Author's Note:

Hello everyone! It's Me- Thecolorsofsand. I'm really cruising on this one, and I was so happy to see all the people who are following this story. I'm going to try to update every Friday for you, or more often if I can. A few notes:

The chapter titles are significant. The first person who can tell me where they are from in a review gets so points and my respect. I might even throw in a custom one-shot if you want.

Also, if people get really into this, I might start working on a sequel-but we'll see were Danny goes on this one.

I don't have a beta, and I'm working from my new tablet, so I will have made a few errors. Feel free to point them out to me, and I'll go back and fix them.

Last but not least-harassment is a very effective tool of the reader. The mine irritatingly persistent you are; the faster I will update.

Have a happy Valentine's Day!