Breath of Life – Chapter 8
Haywire
Danny rolled over with a soundless yawn and snuggled closer to his pillow while pulling his sheets tighter. He kept his eyes firmly shut, unwilling to wake up. He was most definitely warm and cozy right where he was and he had no reason to get up at-
The filter of green ectolight abruptly turned black and Danny's eyes snapped open with an unwilling groan. Clinging to the tingling sensation racing across his skin, he rolled out from underneath his bed and unsteadily climbed to his feet. He sighed and crossed his arms impatiently while he waited for the intangibility to pass. He never had these problems while he was asleep- Pandora was still speculating the reason for that- but the moment he woke up, he was doomed to another day of battling with his ghost powers.
In fact, his last quiet day had been when he'd gone to visit Sam and Tucker. After he'd explained to them what had happened to him, he introduced them to Pandora and the trio had begged her to let Danny stay with them for the rest of the day. The four-armed ghost had reluctantly agreed and Tucker had headed off to the Nasty Burger to pick them up some food while the other two headed back to Sam's house. Her parents were out for the rest of the day, so there hadn't been much of a risk beyond her grandmother- who didn't come upstairs very often, from what Danny could gather.
The next day, his powers had started acting up. Intangibility, invisibility, random transformations, and sometimes he would even float a foot off the ground. It was enough to drive the teenage halfa mad. Every day was spent battling against his ghost powers and he spent hours training with Pandora, trying to learn how to control his core. So far, he hadn't been successful.
It had been a week and a half and the only thing that had really been a relief to Danny was redecorating his room. It was a painstaking process considering his wild powers, but Pandora usually instructed one or two of her servants to be in there with him in case he accidentally dropped something. Again. Still, it was worth it.
The flooring had been replaced with a thick, silvery-white carpet that Danny would swear up and down that it had to be made of silk. The furniture had been replaced with a wardrobe, a dresser, a large bookshelf, a full-length mirror, a desk with a comfortable cushion-seated chair, and a couple of shelves bolted to the walls- all of which were a deep, soft brown-grey color. The wardrobe and dresser had promptly been filled with a new set of clothes for him as well as a few old pairs that Sam and Tucker had smuggled out pf his room at FentonWorks. (He'd volunteered to go in instead, but the two humans and a ghost had promptly squashed that by replying that he couldn't risk being seen.) Most everything else was bare, since he couldn't really risk taking anything from home incase his family noticed. Sam had bought him a large stack of college-ruled journals and an incredible amount of pens, pencils, sharpeners, and erasers. He'd taken up a habit of writing when he was younger- usually just his thoughts, theories, or ideas- and that had progressed into full-blown analyses which had eventually bled through to his creativity stream and encouraged him to begin short stories. He owned tons of old journals- which were kept in a box in his closet- that were filled cover to cover with a mixture of scientific and fictional to sci-fi writings. He was more than grateful that Sam had decided to send him off with all of this stuff. He might've gone mad if he couldn't write. And when he said she'd given him a lot of stuff, he meant a lot. No less than thirty journals- each of which were one of those three-in-ones- and who knew how many pens and pencils were bound up together on his desk. He'd have to get her an amazing birthday present.
Not to be outdone, Tucker had given the halfa a fair-sized box of what looked to be small, round balls of metal. Really, they were all magnetic and in perfect condition. Tucker- who he still marveled at because he was failing school and struggled with half his courses, yet still managed to do stuff like this- had made them himself. His best friend had known that Danny still loved to build things- which was why quite a few items of his home collection were put-it-togethers- and Tucker had given him exactly what he needed to do exactly that. He could built the magnetic marbles however he wanted, take a picture, and start all over again. Tucker apparently used to use them himself when thinking over his own things, but he was more than willing to hand them off to Danny.
There was currently a half-finished Eiffel Tower sitting in the middle of his room.
His bedsheets had taken some time to match to the rest of the room. He'd wanted everything to blend with the walls- which he was still finishing up- but he hadn't wanted to live in a completely black and white world. At first, he was just going to go with grey furniture (so it blended into the walls), but Pandora had persuaded him to go with some with a brown hue so everything didn't look monotone. As a result, the bed needed to have different coloring to pull the room together. They had finally settled on sheet that were mid-to-dark colored green and blue. They were mostly green with thin blue lines crossing all over them to form small, slightly rounded diamonds. There were three sets of pillows- one decorative and two to be used. The decorative pillowed matched the bedspread, but in reverse with a mostly blue covering and green lines, while the other two sets were sold colors- one being green and the other blue.
It had been far trickier to get Pandora to agree to the walls, however. After all, people just did not paint their bedrooms black, of all colors. It had taken a solid three days of coaxing to finally get her to agree and to do so he'd had to tell her that he was planning on painting the constellations of the human world sky on it by interconnecting them all. He'd planned to keep it as a surprise, but he supposed she would get a surprise anyway. Pandora was very knowledgeable about the human world, true, but she never really stayed out there to stare at the night sky. She lived in the Ghost Zone and coming to the human world was dangerous for most ghosts, no matter how powerful. He'd finally decided to extend the constellations onto the ceiling, as he had no idea what else to do with it, he didn't really have enough room on just the walls, and it would look odd if he just left it white or whatever other color he decided to paint it.
All in all, his room was quite nice, especially since Pandora had gotten him ectoplasm-infused paint for the stars in the constellations, allowing them to glow after night had come in the Ghost Zone. The bathroom remained unchanged, since Danny was really fine with the warm-colored tile and saw no pressing need to change it.
The wash of warmth from the intangibility finally fading pulled him out of his thoughts and Danny turned to dress for the day. Glancing out the window in his room, he stared at the green swirls of the Ghost Zone for a moment before determining that it was roughly mid-morning, going on late. He was still learning to tell time here, but it was trickier than learning how to read the sun's position. The "sky" here was constantly green, but at night they turned so dark they looked black. In the mornings they were a sort of mid-toned green with white-ish hues forming around the edges. In the afternoon, they were just a bright, flat green and in the evening they simply progressed steadily darker and began to take on a black hue. Pandora said that a practiced eye could see the slight differences in the shades hour by hour, but Danny wasn't anywhere near being able to do that yet.
What he guessed was about ten to fifteen minutes later, he slipped out the door and began his routine of wandering the halls. The palace wasn't exactly massive, but it was large enough to easily get lost in if you didn't learn the layout fast enough. He'd already found the fastest route from his room to the kitchens- he had been starving lately- and the gardens/grounds out back. Pandora had requested that he stay in the palace until he learned to control his core. She trusted her staff not to run off and announce that a human was in the Infinite Realms, but some of her people were terrified of humans. Danny was actually fairly lucky that only one friendly ghost had noticed him when he'd gone to the market.
And yesterday, he'd found the library.
He wasn't a bookworm like Jazz, but Danny wasn't averse to reading as long as it wasn't something old and complicated, like Shakespeare or something. The language took far too long to translate in his head and he was tired of listening to every single English teacher ever prattle on about how "amazing" the books were. They were incredible pieces of work and renown as the classics and ya-da, ya-da, ya-da. Seriously. They got it, so stop drilling it into their heads over and over again!
But, Danny did like the books here. It was interesting to read things written by ghosts. The idea of what made a poem a poem, or what was considered a 'classic' or 'noteworthy' book was different than in the human world. It mirrored human literature to an extent- just like everything else here- but it was also unique. It was fun to read them and get into the mindset of a ghost. Pandora had cautioned him to leave the more factual books until later. He'd be learning all of it later and it would be easier for him to understand with someone else there to explain. Especially since, like every book written since ever, there was bound to be a biased point of view.
So when he wasn't training with Pandora, he'd stop by the kitchens to grab a snack and then take a couple books from the library and go sit in the gardens and spend a few hours reading. It was nice to be outside, since most of the palace had been busy lately and he hated simply staying cooped up in his room.
So, despite the haywire ghost powers, life here was fairly good.
Except for the part where he was still sick. He never knew when it would happen, but he would suddenly have another dizzy spell like he'd had over at Sam's. A few times, he'd actually passed out and lately he'd been running a constant fever. Not much, just a couple degrees, but it was enough to make Pandora worry. The fact that his ghost powers altered his temperature every time they went off didn't help. He couldn't tell that he had a fever, but the doctor- a kind ghost by the name of Airmed*- Pandora had staffed warned him daily that it wasn't going away. However, Danny still refused to be restricted to bedrest. He'd go insane.
Today, he was sitting outside the Pegasus pasture, listening to the winged ghosts run or fly or graze on the vivid grass- most of which was neon blue, but there were a few other colors. Never let it be said that the Ghost Zone wasn't colorful. Propping open one of the few history books Pandora had given him leeway to read (all of which were actually quite interesting. Possibly because it was all something he'd never heard before. Ever.) –this one was on the ever-changing monarchy of the Ghost Zone- Danny leaned back against one of the fence posts and pulled an apple out of the snack bag Humphry had given him.
Immediately, there was an interested snuffling behind him and spotted Iluvia trotting over to him, tail swishing behind her. Hey honey-yellow eyes were fixed on the treat in his hand and Danny tossed it to her without complaint. The Pegasus snatched the apple out of the air and proceeded to crunch it between her teeth before jumping over the fence and laying down next to him, allowing the halfa to lean against her soft side.
Ever since they'd gotten back, Iluvia had taken it upon herself to look after Danny whenever he wandered the grounds without Pandora. Evidently, the Pegasus had caught onto the fact that the teenage halfa was her rider's temporary ward and decided that she liked the teen after all. The two weren't quite friends, but they were comfortable enough around each other. Danny found that being around the welcoming Pegasus eased the guilt he felt from leaving Sam and Tucker behind some. Perhaps because she had been there when he'd said good-bye and obviously didn't judge him for it, or maybe because Iluvia simply seemed content to have him there. Either way, Danny was grateful for the Pegasus's unconditional presence.
Settling back, Danny picked up where he left off in the book. He hadn't been reading for long- or so he'd thought before he looked up and realized that he'd missed lunch- when a familiar figure crossed the grounds towards him.
Danny waved at the stable master. He was a short ghost who was dressed almost constantly in a cowboy outfit and had a shaggy head of yellow hair and a beard to match. His eyes, like most ghosts, were bright red and he had a neutral green skin color. He had a gruff temperament, but wasn't unwelcoming as long as you weren't constantly in the way and worked to pull your weight. His name was Perseus*, which Danny thought was hilarious to no end.
"Hey, Percy." Danny greeted, which earned him a grunt and a glare in response. Perseus hated the nickname, but Danny just thought that was funny too. "What's up?"
"You missed lunch." The ghost replied exasperatedly. "The Queen is worried." Perseus glanced at Iluvia, who had opened one eye watchfully. "And Iluvia is due for a bath."
Said Pegasus snorted and picked her head up, turning a glare on to the ghost.
Danny quickly intervened, "You look as beautiful as ever, Iluvia. I'm sure that Percy here just wants to make sure you stay that way."
Most Pegasi wouldn't have understood a word of what had just happened, but Iluvia was one of the rare Higher Breed. She understood language perfectly, even if she couldn't speak. Faster, stronger, larger, and more intelligent than regular Pegasi, their one weakness was that they required more food more frequently. Starvation could kill a Higher Breed in less than a week. They used a lot of energy to maintain themselves and some even had ghost abilities.
Iluvia judged his words, probably aware that he was just stroking her vanity, but decided that she was okay with that and willingly stood up, appeased.
"I take it I should go find Pandora?" Danny asked, turning back to Perseus, who grunted in response again. Danny took that as a "yes" and closed the book he had been reading and handed the last of what was in his snack bag to Perseus- who took them without a word, but Danny knew he appreciated the gesture.
Ignoring the headache he'd woken up with and his quickening heartrate, Danny headed back towards the palace while trying to guess where Pandora would be now. If she was looking for him and worried, then she had probably already checked his room and the library, so if he hadn't seen her, she was probably heading for the stables. Assuming she checked his room first, Danny headed for the library. Hopefully, she'd be coming straight from there and he could cut her off.
He was wrong, however, and by the time he'd gotten to the library, in a fairly bad shape. Danny collapsed into the nearest chair, breathing slowly in and out while he tried to even out his rising temperature and chase away the darkness at the edges of his vision.
He faintly heard the voice of one of the staff asking if he was alright and responded by muttering, "Find Pandora, please."
What felt like a few seconds later, he was being nudged into awareness by Pandora; who was frowning worriedly at him. Danny blinked fuzzily at her for a moment, wondering why she was there, before his brain caught up to him. Oh. He'd passed out again.
"Danny, I don't think we should train today." The four-armed Queen started. Danny quickly made to argue, but was cut off by the full ghost. "I've been trying to wake you up for ten minutes, Daniel." Her tone was stern and Danny was cowed by the use of his name. Just like his mother, she only used it when she was really worried or upset.
Danny relented with a sigh. "Alright."
The ghost smiled at him in relief and stood back some. "You should go see Airmed again. Do you think you can walk?" Pandora asked and Danny nodded, rising to his feet shakily. He took a few uneven steps before he managed to get his balance back under control and followed Pandora down the maze of halls.
Airmed's "office" of a sort was conveniently placed nearby the East Wing of the palace, where all of the bedrooms were. The library, being near the center, wasn't too far of a walk either. Still, by the time they got there, Danny was ready to sleep for a week.
It was less formal than any human doctor's office that Danny had ever been too. The walls and floor were still primarily tile or stone or whatever it was they made it out of, but they weren't white and the place was decorated invitingly. There were a couple cushioned chairs sitting in the corner and even the patient's bed was fairly comfortable. Some of the only things revealing what the room was were the numerous doctor's tools and medical charts on the countertops and walls.
"Hey, Airmed." Danny chirped in greeting, offering the medical ghost a tired grin. Airmed was very pretty for a ghost, with fine, soft features and gray-ish, white skin that reminded Danny of clouds just beginning to turn into rainclouds. Her hair was long and purple-blue; and she let it fall around her shoulders in waves. She also possessed a pair of golden-white feathered wings, which Danny thought was ironically fitting. Her eyes were red as well, but a richer shade that Danny associated with autumn leaves.
"Danny?" Airmed turned to greet him with a smile, but abruptly frowned instead and ushered him over to the bed. "You're as white as a sheet!" The doctor exclaimed worriedly. "Did you have another fainting spell?"
Pandora answered for him. "Yes, Airmed. I found him in the library. It took me ten minutes to wake him up."
The ghostly doctor immediately subjected the halfa to a series of tests, muttering under her breath the whole time. Danny shifted uncomfortably under the intense scrutiny. The last time he remembered going to the doctor was when he was five. Having Airmed hover over him was odd. Not even his parents had ever fussed over him this much.
Roughly twenty minutes later, Airmed sat back with an exasperated sigh. "Nothing. I can't tell you why any of this is happening."
Pandora looked sincerely shocked and Danny wondered if Airmed had ever not been able to diagnose something before. "Why not?"
Airmed gestures to the items littering the countertop. "These tools are met for ghosts, Your Highness. I can get a faint read from Danny because of his half-ghost status, but despite his fluctuating powers, his core is too suppressed for a true diagnosis. Unless he can bring his core to the surface without actually transforming, I cannot tell you what is wrong."
All three ghosts in the room instantly saw the problem. Drawing his ghost core close to the "surface", so to speak, required an incredible amount of control. Obviously, he couldn't do that considering he couldn't even control his regular transformation.
The youngest ghost in the room titled his head back with a thoughtful expression, musing over the issue. "If I could manage to trigger my ghost form, could you take the tests again in that form and then combine it with the human results?"
Airmed hesitated to answer, turning the solution over in her mind, while Pandora looked cautious.
"Are you sure that's a good idea, Danny? You haven't transformed in the past two days. Forcing it now may disrupt your core again."
Danny nodded reluctantly. That was true. He'd only been dealing with bouts of invisibility and intangibility. Well, along with his ever-increasing bouts of sickness. Pandora and Airmed had theorized that his core was beginning to settle. If he forced it to do something it wasn't capable of handling now, he could set the whole process back. Or worse.
Airmed looked doubtful, even if similarly cautious. "I can't believe that it would really upset his core. Its very purpose is to provide Danny with access to ghost powers and allow him to transform. It might actually help, if anything." Her red eyes flicked over to him. "Do you think you could manage the transformation?"
Danny shrugged helplessly. "I remember what it feels like, but it's always hard to grip. My ghost half just… slips away." He replied in frustration.
"Well, why don't you walk us through what it feels like to you? We may be able to offer some advice." Pandora coached. They'd been practicing for the last few days, but Pandora couldn't help much right now. As a full ghost, she'd never had to learn how to control transformations between two halves.
Danny leaned back some to thick and brought one hand up to tap his chest. "It's like a cold spot right here, next to my heart, that I can always feel- even when none of my ghost powers are acting up. When I'm in ghost mode, I can't feel the cold spot anymore, but I can feel a warm spot where my human... core or heart, I guess, is. Transforming is… I have to reach for that cold spot and sort of spread it. Grab ahold of it and just let it expand until it "fills" up my human self. But I just can't consciously grab my ghost half. Every time I get close, I try to pull on it, but it just fades away."
The winged doctor peered closely at him. "Are you thinking of your human and ghost halves as two separate things?"
Danny opened his mouth to say that no, of course not, because two halves made a whole so they were obviously both him, but snapped his mouth shut instead. He was thinking of them as two separate things, wasn't he? The ghost and human in him were just him, but he was thinking of them as two separate halves that added up to make him. And even then, he primarily thought of himself as human. But… that wasn't the case. Not anymore.
I'm a halfa. Danny realized. Not human, not ghost; not half-human, not half-ghost. Just a halfa.
At that thought, Danny felt a wave of cold ripple over him and he reached for the cold spot somewhere by his heart. It hummed to life at his "touch" and began to expand, filling him with a tingle of cool energy. Danny felt the energy concentrate and looked down to see a white ring form around his middle-
And screamed as pain that brutally re-awakened his memories of the Accident ripped through his figure. He could feel his muscles seizing and his joints locking up while his bones shivered and cracked. He could faintly hear Pandora and Airmed panicking through the ringing in his ears, but his jaw had clenched so tight that his teeth ached. He suddenly felt too hot and too cold all at once and, with a final burst of pain, Danny gave in to the blissful relief of unconsciousness.
*Airmed – is the name of the Irish goddess of healing and resurrection
*The joke I'm making here is that Perseus was the son of Zeus who rode the first Pegasus, but in the story, he's a ghost who looks nothing like him and is just taking care of the Pegasi.
And wow! 8 reviews on one chapter? Thanks, guys. :) Glad you're liking the story.
Anyway:
Sophia the daughter of Nyxand ZeroExia and GhostAnn and KuriMaster13 and Blue11msu – Thanks for the reviews!
Great- I really do agree with you on that point. I feel like Tucker is in character, but I regret not adding in a few more emotional moments. However, I'm not really sure how to do that right now without going past what's acceptable. Maybe if I get an "oh!" moment somewhere down the line I'll go back and rewrite the chapter.
IceTaloned Frafyu – I have to say, you just saved my hide, you know that? I actually forgot that the reunion came up so soon in the cannon storyline and I've been meaning to mention how the canon will have dates and things pushed around. For one, the ghosts won't be in Amity as much (you'll see why) so a lot of things in the canon won't actually happen at all. Don't worry though, I'm not skipping the reunion.
dearoldsam – Thanks for both of your reviews, they left me feeling all warm and fuzzy. And yes, I am trying to attempt something I haven't really seen around. Really, I have to give credit to everyone who has ever written a Danny Phantom fic, because I went through a period where I read nothing but these fics and noticed that a lot of people don't really try to give "life" to the Ghost Zone. I just can't believe that there's not a long, organized history to the Ghost Zone considering that they have "realms" and even a King and Council (the Observants). That always disappointed me, and when I woke up one morning and noticed that no one had really messed with the "origin" story too much, I had an idea and spent the next few weeks pacing around my house detailing and straightening out the plot. I do agree that the last chapter is a little under-emotional, but I don't quite know what to do with it right now, so I might go back to it later. And I'm very glad that you like this story so much. :)
Now, to all of you, I would like to comment that I never expected this sort of response to this story. In just seven chapters I've gained a following faster than I did for Relapse (which is currently my most popular fic, not including Hidden Scars). In fact, I'm actually believe that this story might surpass Relapse. Relapse is not planned to be nearly as long as Breath of Life is going to be. Really, I doubt Relapse will reach thirty chapters. So thank you for your support. Each and every one of you.
On another note, I have finally updated my profile page and will be tracking stories on that now. At the moment, I only have the summaries and comments posted on the chapter lists, but soon I will have the update days and the like on there as well. I also have some info about myself, if you're curious, and a list of ten quick things you should know about my writing. I also have a Quote of the Week (posted every Sunday) up if you just wanted to stop by and read that. As I mention below every section on my profile, feel free to PM me if you have any questions!
I know this chapter lacked the "what do Sam and Tucker think about Pandora" a few of you wanted to read about, but don't worry. I wrote it in this order on purpose. You'll get to see their thoughts.
Hmm, you know, I wonder what's wrong with Danny? *evil grin*
