A/N: Yeah... so, warning because this chapter is angsty. Think I'm gonna change the rating to T, just to be on the safe side. But, at least it's longer than my other ones! Also, the "I'm inevitable" that keeps on playing through Danny's mind is from Ultimate Enemy, and I've given Danny enhanced hearing. That's all.
The voices were coming closer. Danny closed his eyes. His hands were shaking, even though they were steadied on his knees. He could hear them. Thirty yards away, in the waiting room. Coming closer every second. His heart sped up. Badump. Badump. Badump. The heart monitor kept time exactly, faint computer noises accelerating, synchronized with his heartbeat. That was messed up, even for him. He wasn't even connected to the monitor. Though, it did kind of have a weird sort of logic to it...
He could hear their footfalls. Sharp against the linoleum tile floor. And they were close enough now that he could make out what they were saying.
"What is he?" It sounded like that Norman kid. The footsteps stopped. Twenty yards away. He could hear Tucker tugging at his baseball cap, his eyes darting around.
Or was he just imagining it? Piecing a scene together from the fragments of overheard conversation. It sounded like something he would do. But then again, he might not be him for much longer.
"I'm inevitable." How many times had he gone over those words in his mind? How many times had he convinced himself that the crisis was over, that everything was fine? That that future was gone, his future self prevented?
There was a blip on the heart rate monitor. Danny jerked and snapped his fingers in front of his face. Keep it together. The steady beeping resumed.
"It doesn't matter." That was Tucker. Danny took a shaky breath, and steadied his hands on his knees again. So Tucker had told Norman something was different about him, but he hadn't told him what. He could work with that. You're okay, you're okay, you're okay...
"Oh, y-yeah. Of course..." The footsteps resumed, then stopped again. They were very close now. Danny could hear Norman's sharp intake of breath. "But I'd still like to know."
The heart rate monitor beside him sped up again. A green glow swirled at the edges of his vision. Danny took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The heart rate monitor did not slow down. The thump in his chest didn't either.
"You don't get it, do you? I'm still here. I still exist. That means you still turn into me."
There was another blip in the monitor. It was longer this time, almost a full second.
Fifteen yards away.
"I'm inevitable."
He could hear the faint scrunch as Tucker's eyebrows came together. As he tried not to answer Norman's question. It was undeniably loud, louder than it should have been.
Danny pulled himself into a ball, his eyes shut tightly and his hands covering his ears. There was too much. Too much information. This hadn't happened in years. Not since he was just starting out, in those first few weeks after he stumbled out of his parent's portal, and the lights had flashed in his eyes and every little sound felt like an earthquake in his eardrums. When every day he'd be afraid he'd collapse from a sudden increase in sound. It was just too much information. But he'd figured out how to avoid it. It hadn't happened in years. So why was it happening now?
His hands did nothing to stop the flow of noise. The heart rate monitor bleeped obnoxiously at him, keeping time with the drumbeat in his chest. The lights glowed through his eyelids. Tucker started talking again, but the heart monitor was too loud. Drowning out his words. The backs of his eyelids were on fire.
"I'm inevitable."
Somehow, he had ended up on the floor. He didn't remember when he had gotten off of the chair. On the bed, he could hear his doppelgänger tossing and turning. Wasn't he supposed to be comatose? Wasn't that what the doctors said? Of course, what the doctors said didn't really have anything to do with it at all. The kid wasn't normal. He didn't have to follow the normal rules of medicine. Or physics for that matter. What had Norman said? That he didn't have a shadow?
Danny let out a dry chuckle from the floor, then stopped. It was too loud and too close to his ears. But seriously, how was it possible to not have a shadow? The kid was even less normal than he was, and that was saying something. Considering they were technically the same person. Well… parts of the same person, anyway.
"He told me he was broken."
Norman hadn't known how right he'd been. Good thing Danny's twin had had enough sense to tell someone, otherwise Danny would've been taken completely by surprise. He could've turned evil and never even noticed. "I'm inevitable."
At least now he had some warning.
The footsteps outside had started up again. They were much louder than before, but he couldn't tell how far away they were. His ears were too unreliable to tell for sure. They could be over a mile away or right next to him. Danny settled on fifteen feet. That seemed reasonable.
Danny took a deep breath. Deep breaths, deep breaths, deep breaths... The world gradually faded back to normal. Or maybe it happened in just a few seconds. It was hard to tell. He sat up cautiously, his hands still wrapped around his ears. The lights had faded back to normal behind his eyelids, and he slowly opened his eyes. The heart monitor had gone back to its steady beat, and the kid was lying still in the bed. The blankets were jumbled all about him.
He lowered his hands and closed his eyes, listening to the footsteps outside the door. Tucker and Norman were two yards away, max. Another blip on the heart monitor.
He couldn't stay here. He had to get out, he had to leave. The green glow came back to the edges of his vision.
They weren't safe around him. Danny stood up, clenching his fists. Who was he kidding? They probably never had been.
White rings appeared around his waist, and he floated into the air. He paused to look back at the kid in the bed. That was a mistake.
The door opened behind him. He whirled around.
Norman stood there, his eyes saucers. But he wasn't afraid, not like he should have been. Apparently Tucker had already filled him in. At least, the parts that Tucker knew.
"Danny?" That was Tucker. "Danny, calm down. Jazz is on her way. We're going to figure this out."
"We don't need to." Danny swallowed back the lump in his throat. "I know exactly what's going on."
Tucker took a step back. Obviously, that response hadn't been the one he'd been expecting. "What do you mean, you already know? How?"
Danny floated back down to the ground, but he didn't look at either of them. "Ever wonder why Vlad's such a horrible person?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Just humor me. Please."
Tucker released a breath. He was obviously trying not to roll his eyes. "I don't know. The guy's a fruit loop, Danny. Some people are just jerks."
"But that's just the thing, Tuck. He didn't start out as evil. He only turned bad after the accident."
Norman was edging behind Tucker now. Tucker looked like he was trying very hard to stand his ground. "Danny, where are you going with this?"
He was scaring them. He'd never done that before. Vlad did that. Not him. The future you did. Danny took a steadying breath, then forged ahead. He had to make Tucker understand.
"He didn't start out evil. I didn't start out evil."
Tucker swallowed. He held out his hands in a placating gesture. "Danny. Calm down. You're not evil. Okay?"
"Yeah. Not yet." Danny walked towards the window. He looked back at them, "But since he's dying, that's probably gonna change."
"Don't follow me." He turned intangible. "You'll regret it." And then Danny walked through the wall and out into the open air.
"Danny!" He could hear Tucker running toward the window. He wouldn't be able to find him. Not while he was invisible. Nobody would. Danny was going to make sure that the future him never became a reality. And he didn't really care how.
