This is one of those chapters in which I don't really know what to say in the beginning, so I'm just gonna let you read it and find out how you like it. Disclaimer: Danny Phantom is created by Butch Hartman. I do not own any of the show's original characters. Just of the design of the older version of Danielle you can view on other websites.
Chapter 9: The Truth Hurts
Danny's heart skipped a beat in piecing all the clues together on his own, and so many things started to jumble through his head at once.
How could this have happened? How could he have been so stupid to let Danielle join in the fight when he knew full well that his future self would make getting rid of her his first priority? Not to mention she had already been exhausted to begin with. Dark Phantom would never have done anything like this to Danny because he needed him alive in order for his existence to have a chance in the first place. Danielle would have been fine if Danny had been allowed to just face his evil self alone.
He started backing away from everyone else as he looked at his cousin in shocked disbelief and saw tears escaping her eyes once again. The eyes that no longer received any light to see the faces of her caring friends and family gathered around her. Yet the same eyes that could still dispel the tears of her sorrow in not being able to do this.
"Danny?"
Danny was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts in hearing his name and looked up to see Jazz staring at him as if asking for an explanation to Danielle's condition. In seeing this hurtful expression, Danny turned himself intangible and dropped through the floor of the Op Center. He transformed to his Phantom mode before his feet even made contact with the floor of the lab and he pushed off with his legs and flew through the Fenton Ghost Portal instantly after he landed.
"Danny, wait!" He heard his sister calling after him from the window of the Op Center, but he didn't acknowledge as he zoomed into the Ghost Zone and left the gateway back to his home far behind him within the next moment.
The young hero knew he still wasn't quite strong enough from after his fight with his older self to be safe enough to go into this world, but he didn't care. He just wanted to get as far away from the Op Center as possible. Far away from the painful atmosphere he felt there. Far away from the truth.
Danny eventually lost track of how long it had been since he left. He didn't even know how fast he had been going the whole time. Eventually, though, he realized that no matter how far away he went and how fast he flew, he still could not escape the burdensome guilt he was feeling. He soon found a floating rock formation that had a deep cavity he could hide in. He flew inside it and sat against the rough, inside wall of the cavity, curling up and burying his face in his arms that he set on his knees.
This couldn't be happening to him. It couldn't. And yet, he still could not deny that it was. The experiences were all too real and still too clear in his mind to be some kind of dream or illusion. The deep wound that dug deeper inside his chest by the minute was also too painful to even attempt to ignore.
Danny grabbed at his white hair trying not to think of his little cousin's expression and the tears she was bearing when he left. To think that her last sight was that murderous, psychopathic, version of the one person she had come to trust and rely on so much and who had helped her in so many ways. Danny couldn't help but think of how surprised she looked when he first told her that the thing on the news was the alternate him.
He hadn't run into his older self in four years, and until today, he had felt so confident that he wouldn't have to. He had passed that trial already to prevent himself from becoming that ghost. So why was he still here and as powerful as ever? How could he have escaped the Fenton Thermos?
The Fenton Thermos. Danny suddenly looked up in remembering something. The Fenton Thermos was with Clockwork. He was supposed to be watching it. How could he not have predicted this? Or maybe he did. He was the Master of Time. He knew everything that would or wouldn't happen. He could have done something to prevent this. So why didn't he?
Perhaps it was about time Danny found out.
With a new destination in mind, he flew out of the rock cavity and sped through the spacious sky with a new and angering motivation driving him to go faster.
After a while, Clockwork's tower lay just ahead and he soon burst through the creaky wooden, double doors. He sped his way up to the topmost room of the tower where the sage always resided. The Master of time turned to face him as soon as he stormed in through the trap door entrance of the room.
"You told me you would keep that Thermos safe, Clockwork!" Danny blurted angrily, as he landed on the floor and started advancing over to the ghost who was currently in his small baby stage. "How could you just let him out like that?"
Clockwork just had a serious expression on his face and responded calmly, "You know I would never release the most dangerous ghost in existence on purpose."
"On purpose?" Danny shot back as if he had caught him red-handed in what he just said. "So you still knew he would escape, didn't you?"
"I know everything, Danny." Clockwork replied calmly as his appearance shifted to the long-bearded version of himself.
"Then why didn't you do something to stop it?" Danny demanded.
"I wanted to stop it just as much as you would have."
"Oh. Yeah. A lot of help you did on that regard." Danny said sarcastically. Then he indicated with a hand towards the lone window as his tone rose even higher. "And now my cousin's gone completely blind."
The ghostly sage changed into his middle stage and only turning towards the circular time window where Danny could see that he had a view of his family in the Op Center. The scene Danny had just run away from. Clockwork had been watching the whole time.
"I repeat." Clockwork resumed, calmly. "I didn't want it to happen any more than you did. But just because I'm All-Seeing doesn't mean everything happens the way even I want it to. I'm the Master of Time, not a miracle worker. I told you this once already."
Danny exhaled in slight irritation, but when he spoke again, his voice at least wasn't as anger-driven. "But if you couldn't stop it, why didn't you at least warn me about it like you did last time?" He asked as he saw Clockwork fade to his elderly form. The cloaked ghost only stared at Danny as the young boy then indicated the image on the time window where he could see Danielle having to be guided by Sam's and Jazz's hands to even stand up from the medical bed she was on. "What did she do to deserve this?" Danny observed the scene for a minute before finding himself unable to any longer and looked down in remorse. "What did I do?" He finally asked.
There was a long moment of silence in which Clockwork didn't respond at all before Danny looked up at him and found that he was changed into his strong, present-day appearance with his arms folded as if waiting patiently.
"What?" Danny asked with a confused shrug.
"Are you done?" Clockwork asked plainly. Danny cocked an eyebrow in confusion at the sage in before he continued. "As soon as you stop jumping down my throat with accusations and throwing out questions, I'll know I'll be able to answer at least one of them."
This took Danny by surprise. "Sorry." He quickly apologized for his behavior. He was still feeling a bit angered, but he was more embarrassed in how he had just rushed in, accusing Clockwork the way he did.
Clockwork nodded in understanding but his expression was as stern as ever. "It was nothing you had done Danny." He said as his appearance changed once again to the cloaked infant that still floated at a height taller than the teenage hero. "It's more or less what you didn't do and what someone else has done."
Danny made another perplexed and yet aggravated face. "What's that supposed to mean?"
In response to the boy's question, Clockwork pointed the end of his staff to the time window in front of him and the view changed to one of the past. There, Danny saw firsthand the conversation the time-manipulating ghost had with the Cyclops-eyed Observants. The ghost-boy especially paid attention to the part of how the Observants would have to arrest Clockwork if he tried to help Danny again and made him surrender the Fenton Thermos that housed Danny's evil self. Danny gaped sorrowfully and guiltily at the pool of light as the event played forward to where Skulker attacked the Observants and released Dark Phantom, who in turn, used his Ghostly Wail to completely destroy the hunter's island home.
"What an idiot!" Danny said in appallment as the image in the vertical pool in front of him faded. "Skulker let him out?" He turned back to Clockwork, who had changed to the skinny old man, and added, "And the Observants practically put you on probation just because you helped me?"
Clockwork, by now in his infant appearance, nodded his hooded head to one side as he cocked an eyebrow. "That's one way of putting it."
Danny looked around at the flat rock he knew the Fenton Thermos had previously been kept and walked over to it with several questions still running through his head. "But…I still don't understand. I never cheated on that test." He said, as he ran his gloved hand over the now empty surface of the rock. "I was supposed to turn into that ghost years ago, and I didn't. You made sure of that."
"I did." Clockwork agreed from behind him.
"So, why is he still here?" Danny asked, turning around to face the sage. "How could he be able to endanger my family again and rob Danielle of her sight?"
Clockwork just floated where he was, folding his arms again with an interrogating look. "Why? Did you expect something miraculous to happen when you returned the test answers to your teacher? Aside from your loved ones being allowed to live and the ability for you to keep your integrity?"
"Well…I don't know." Danny confessed. In truth, he had never really taken much thought of this until now. He stayed silent for a moment as he started to rethink it, however. "I guess…" he started again, slowly and still uncertainly. "I guess, I kind of thought…since I would never actually go in that direction into becoming him, he might…maybe…disappear or…or something."
Clockwork's appearance changed to his strong, middle-aged form. "What else?" He encouraged Danny.
Danny looked back down at the flat rock, resting a hand on its surface as he thought for another minute. "Well…he's a fusion of mine and Vlad's ghost halves. Vlad's evil side taking control is what would have made me turn evil back then." He thought out loud to the wise specter. "Which is probably why Danielle picked up his aura coming from the alternate me." Clockwork nodded, indicating that Danny was correct. "But Vlad's gone now. So I couldn't turn into him even if I wanted to." The young hero looked back at Clockwork shaking his head. "So I still don't see how that future version of me can still exist."
Clockwork just gave the boy that usual stern look and glanced at his time window. With this, Danny noticed how the sage didn't exactly confirm what he just said. This started to concern the boy and doubts started to flood his mind. "Vlad is gone, right?" He asked, stepping forward, questioningly "There's no way he could come back. Right?"
"He may, and he may not." Clockwork simply shrugged at the question as he shrank into the infant form of himself. "But just because in that series of events, it was Vlad's evil that sparked the transformation you would make to the dark side, it doesn't mean there wouldn't have been other ways for it to happen."
"What?" Danny was quite shocked at this answer and he demanded Clockwork to explain himself. "Are you saying I could still turn into him even with Vlad not being here?"
"You have been able to avoid evil by making the right choices and holding true to your promises, Danny. Even though your family's memories of that particular promise had been wiped clean." Clockwork said, as he used his staff to change the view of his time window to the day that Danny confronted his teacher with the answers in hand. "However," Clockwork counteracted. This caught Danny's attention in an instant before the sage went on. "At any time, you could decide to take back that promise and start doing unforgivable things that even Vlad Plasmius or your dark self would never even consider. You just choose not to do so. But as long as you live, Danny, that choice to turn to the dark side is still presented to you in everything you do. That possibility of you turning evil still remains." The view of the time window changed again to that of Dark Phantom when Danny had first viewed him. "And therefore, so does he." Clockwork finished in indicating the ghost in the circular pool before it went dark and Danny could see his own, present-day reflection looking back at him with a solemn expression.
The boy let out a very heavy sigh, looking down at the floor. "Then…it's my fault." He said quietly and slowly. "I lost Danielle's sight for her."
Clockwork looked at Danny sympathetically and put a hand on his shoulder as he faded into his strong adult form. "No Danny, it was beyond your control." He said to him.
Danny shook his head, looking at his own hands in dismay. "But I'm the one who created that thing. By so much as getting the idea to cheat on that test in the first place, I made that alternate timeline that leads to that…that…monster."
"No one is perfect, young hero, and you didn't know any better back then. Which is why I myself had to break a few rules in order to prevent you from going through that alternate timeline."
This didn't really help Danny. He clenched his fists, trying to hold back tears he felt were coming on. He looked up and saw that the time window in front of him had returned to the view of his cousin who was being carried up the stairs of their house in the large arms of his father. His mother was leading the way, glancing behind her to solemnly look at her poor, blinded niece.
"Uncle Jack?" Danielle was asking as she clung to Mr. Fenton's neck, as if scared he might disappear and she would lose her way if she let go. "Where's Danny?"
Danny felt that sinking feeling grow inside him again as soon as he heard her ask this question. He hadn't even realized until now that he had just run off, leaving Danielle in such a state where she was most in need of care and assistance. He had been so focused on what he was feeling this whole time that he had been selfish enough to abandon her like that.
Mrs. Fenton was the one who eventually answered Danielle's question. "I'm…sure he'll be back soon, Danielle." She said, rather uncertainly as she was opening the door to the girl's bedroom for Jack to take her inside. "He probably just needs some time alone."
Though this was technically true, Danny still couldn't help but feel his guilt and sorrow sink even deeper inside him. Danny watched as his father gently put Danielle on her bed. He was about to move to help her under her covers, but as soon as the teenager felt his arms release her, she started to panic. "Daddy, wait." She suddenly said, feeling the air in front of her until she found the sleeve of his orange jumpsuit and held onto it, fearfully.
Both of Danny's parents froze and looked at Danielle in reaction to the word, "daddy." It was very rare that she would call Jack by this title and it was usually an accident when she did it, but it always served as a sign to the whole family that she was in desperate need of the comfort of a real father.
Jack knelt down at her bedside and took his niece's hand in his in reassurance that he was still there. She then groped for the whole arm and hugged it close, knowing for sure that it was her caring uncle's. Danny saw her hide her face in the orange sleeve and heard her let out occasional whimpers as she started to cry again.
Maddie looked at this sight with a sorrowful sigh and sat down on the other side of the bed by Danielle, hugging her from the side and letting her head rest on her shoulder. Jazz, Sam and Tucker were peaking in through the bedroom door as Maddie rocked the weeping girl.
"Danielle, it's all right." Mrs. Fenton said in a hushed and calming voice. "Just because you can't see us doesn't mean we're not going to be here for you. We're all right here."
"But…how can I be there for Danny? Or anyone else in return?" Danielle said, letting her tears fall. "If I can't see, how can I help him when he needs it anymore?"
As if Danny couldn't feel any worse than he already did, his heart sank even more yet after hearing this. That was just like her. Danielle was always thinking about helping others no matter what condition she was in or how scared she was. Instead of being afraid that Danny had abandoned her, like how he was feeling, she was instead concerned about him. Still, seeing his usually strong-willed, independent and determined cousin reduced to such a helpless state pained the Ghost-Hero.
Just then, he felt his own eyes watering up and he quickly turned and walked towards the outside window, trying to pretend to Clockwork that he was just going to look outside. But he stopped half way to the window as he quickly tried to dry his eyes.
Hiding it from The Master of Time was no good, though. Clockwork, being able to predict the future, would have known that the sorrowful teenager was about to tear up, even if he didn't see it. Which he did. "Don't be so ashamed to cry, Danny." Clockwork said softly behind him. "Tears are not a sign of weakness, as certain individuals might try to tell you. They just show how much you really care."
Danny sniffled and used his arm to wipe his eyes dry the rest of the way, just not as discreetly as he was attempting at first. "Will she be okay?" He couldn't help but ask, even though he already knew the ghostly sage would never give him a straight answer.
"Well, based on what we're seeing here, I can definitely say that she will need the support of all of her family. But especially from you."
Danny looked down at his feet, smiling weakly. "Guess I'd better head home now then." He said. He started to head for the trap door before he paused at the stairs. "Hey, Clockwork." He said sadly. "Earlier. I'm sorry for the way I…" Danny's sentence faded off before he could find the words to finish, but he didn't have to.
"You were upset. I understand." Clockwork said in forgiveness. "Just remember that you shouldn't be so quick to judge anyone."
Danny didn't look at him, but he scoffed in agreement. "Yeah." Then, still off in his own thoughts, Danny concluded softly, "Thanks." Then he jumped through the trap door and slowly hovered down to the bottom of the tower where he exited through the wooden double doors.
Clockwork watched solemnly from the clock tower window as the boy began his flight home. Even though Danny's leaving tone would have suggested that he was at least cheering up a little, the wise sage knew that he was still deeply hurt at what had happened this day and what he had found out. There had been several times where Clockwork wished he didn't have to know everything, especially of the pain others were going through in facing certain trials. What was worse was the fact that because of the Observants strict warning of using his knowledge, he would never be able to tell the already broken teenager that this was only the beginning of his sorrows.
I know. This chapter doesn't really have any action in it and that in The Return of Dani Phantom, at least every other chapter had some kind of battle going on, but I can't say that it will be the same for this fic. Hope that doesn't dissapoint you too much. But anyway, I thought Danny and Clockwork should have a talk about his future at some point in this story. I hope the whole thing worked out for you guys okay.
