A/N: Here is the next chapter! It was hard to write and I'm not sure if everyone is ic. Hopefully they are. At any rate, I hope you like it. There is some DXS goodness in here and plenty of Clockwork. So enjoy and please R&R! Let the show begin!
Vivification
The husk of the boy, who was originally me, lied on the ground at the foot of Clockwork's doorstep. He shut his eyes. The pain he felt was intense. His body ached but his very soul ached even more. It was a constant throb. He had lost his family. He had lost his friends. He had lost his one true love, Sam. She had rejected him. She hated him now. There was very little point in living. Nobody wanted him. Nobody cared for him. Nobody loved him. His parents wanted to take him apart, molecule by molecule. They wanted to wipe away any hint of whom and what he had become. He was Danny Phantom. Nobody could accept that.
The door to the tower opened. It groaned and creaked as it did so. The boy who was me did not respond. He did not raise his head to stare into the light that leaked through the open door. He did not open his eyes to see who had answered the door. He did not flinch or struggle as someone picked him up and carried him inside. The boy was ready to die.
"You should not be taking this boy in, Clockwork," reprimanded a deep, gravelly voice.
"He is a menace," said another.
"He will destroy us all," said the first voice.
"He is not a menace and he will not destroy us all. He is heartbroken. Surely you know about that," said the voice of the person who was carrying him. Clockwork. The boy almost opened his eyes as he realized this, but opted to keep them closed. Why should he care? There was no point in living. There was no point in caring.
"You are mistaken, Clockwork! Have you not seen the future?"
"Yes, I have. Everything is as it should be."
Danny felt himself moving again as Clockwork floated away from the Observants. Again, he considered opening his eyes and asking if what the Observants said is true. Once more he remembered that he was not supposed to care. He doused his curiosity.
After a few moments Clockwork lied him down on something soft and warm. He felt velvety fabric under him. He was in a bed. The room or maybe the fabric smelled faintly of violets.
It brought tears to his eyes. It was Sam's scent. She always washed her hair with violet scented shampoo. He recalled using it once himself when he slept over her house. She had looked at him kind of funny but he was happy. It made him feel good. He later bought a bottle of it. He washed his hair with it whenever he had a bad day.
"There's nothing wrong with crying, Danny. It's how humans release stress."
"I'm…," he sniffed a few times, "I'm not a human. I'm a ghost."
Clockwork sighed. "Danny, you are both a human and a ghost. Nobody can change that, not even you. You will always have some ghost in you. You will always have some humanity in you. So long as you do somebody will love you. Therefore, you will always be loved.
"Open your eyes and quit thinking of yourself in the third person. It's not in the least bit becoming."
I opened my eyes and looked up at Clockwork. I sniffed pathetically. Tears stained my face as I began letting them fall. I don't think I had ever felt so weak and helpless and, yet, I felt strong. I was strong because I could cry and not feel shame.
"Somebody still loves me?" I hiccupped and tried to wipe some of the tears away. Out of nowhere a box of tissues appeared. Clockwork handed them to me. I took a few and blew my nose.
"You were never unloved. Your parents love you. Your sister loves you. Sam loves you."
"No she doesn't. She told me to go away and never come back."
"She was angry."
"She hit me twice. She pulled me by the ear and threw me off her balcony! She has never done anything like that before! She hates me. It's all my fault. I broke her heart and then threw up on her. I should have told her I wasn't feeling well. Then maybe she wouldn't hate me," I looked up at Clockwork in question but he was already shaking his head.
"No, Danny. You have to learn how to fix these things on your own. I can't turn back time every time you make a mistake."
"Oh," I said as I looked down at my feet. Suddenly they had become very interesting. As I stared I noticed the pattern on the bed's comforter.
It was a series of three squares. At the center of the first square was my insignia (the DP symbol). In the background was a white wolf with green eyes. It glared balefully from behind the insignia as it crouched there, prepared to strike. On the second square was Clockworks's CW symbol. In the background was a white owl in flight. Its talons were extended as it swooped forward. It looked like it was about to fly right off the comforter. In the third square was Vlad's symbol. Behind it crouched another wolf, but this one was black and its eyes were blood red. Its teeth were bared menacingly. Together the three squares formed the oddest pattern on the oddest comforter I had ever seen in my whole life.
"Why is Vlad on here?"
"That you will have to discover for yourself. I suppose you want to know about the animals too."
"Yeah. What do they have to do with anything?"
"Do you remember your dream?"
"Yeah, I remember. Did you send me that dream?"
"I am the ghost of time, not the ghost of dreams or miracle cures."
"So it was a normal dream? Then why is it shown here?"
"It was not a normal dream. It was tied into your ghost powers."
"What? I don't understand. How…"
"You have the power to see into the future. Since the ability is relatively new to you it is not yet fully developed. Therefore you see very little. In your dreams, events are shown symbolically. In this one, people you know, including yourself, were shown in the forms of animals."
"Yeah, everyone was a wolf. But wait, if you are the owl why didn't you show up in my dream?"
"I was in the dream."
"No, you weren't. Wait. Was I dreaming when that owl attacked me?"
"You were both in the realm of the conscious and the dream world."
"That explains a lot. So does this comforter show the future too?"
"It shows you the active characters in your dream."
"But Vlad wasn't moving. He was standing still like the others."
"Just because someone is not moving does not mean that they are not doing something."
"He is plotting to kill my dad," my eyes widened as I began to realize his plan, "and with me out of the way it'll be easy for him to do. He was behind my sickness, wasn't he? He made me fight Tucker and Sam. The transmission! My parents told me that something or someone was attacking my ghost half, making me sick! He was the one doing it!"
I stood up. I felt unsteady but I walked forward.
"I have to go back. I can't let Vlad kill my dad and marry my mother. I have to go back and set things right."
I stumbled as I tried to walk through the door. I tripped and landed on my face. I tried to get up but I was too weak. My arms wouldn't support me. My whole body shook as I continued to push myself up. Eventually it was too much and I fell back on my face. Ouch.
"I can't let you, Danny. You're far too weak and Vlad won't make his move for a while yet. You will stay here with me and rest."
He picked me up and placed me back on the bed. I didn't bother fighting it. I lied down but not before asking, "Will I be back in time to save dad?"
"Everything is as it should be."
He began floating away. He stopped at the door and turned around again.
"You haven't eaten in thirty-six hours, forty minutes, and thirteen seconds. You need to eat. I'll send food up for you. Eat, rest, and take a shower. Regain your strength for a great battle lies in the future."
Well, that wasn't a very comforting statement. I closed my eyes. The violet scent in the comforter drifted over me. I breathed it in and allowed myself to relax.
"Thanks, Clockwork."
"Everything is as it should be."
He left. The door closed softly behind him. The room darkened until I could barely make out the door at the other side of the room. Sweet silence enveloped me. I slept.
