It was official. Danny hated Klarion. The sadistic teenager was worse than Vlad in his opinion now. Worse than Freakshow. At least when Freakshow controlled him, Danny had no idea what he was doing. Klarion left Danny with his mind clear, and yet, unable to stop himself obeying. He forced the halfa to hurt Sam just to hurt her. Not to stop her interfering with his goals. But to punish Danny. Danny paced in his cell, now occupied by Jake too. Danny had orders to guard Jake. That was another reason to hate Klarion.
Jake's eyes fluttered open and he groaned softly as a splitting headache made itself known. He was on something soft and there was someone else in the room, muttering angrily. As the haze of unconsciousness lifted, Jake realised where he was. He was laying on the bed in Danny's cell while Danny in human form paced furiously across the room, his eyes burning green. Jake sat up and a wave of weakness overcame him. He gasped softly as he realised he was wearing a braided bracelet of sphinx's hair. A dragon's ultimate weakness. Jake immediately tried to get it off. He yanked at the threads but they wouldn't snap. Jake growled loudly in frustration, finally attracting Danny's attention.
"Master enchanted it. You won't be able to break it. He also ordered me not to touch it," Danny informed the shorter teen. Jake looked up at Danny.
"What happened back there? All I remember is facing Klarion and then being blasted backwards," Jake asked. Danny sighed.
"You got blasted into the cages and they fell on top of you. Knocked you out. No one escaped. Then when I finally came to my senses, Kl-master ordered me to… to hurt Sam. I-I managed to move the shot so it wouldn't kill her but… she still got hurt pretty bad. Then he ordered me to bring you here," Danny recounted sadly. Jake gasped worriedly.
"How was Sam hurt?" Jake ventured.
"Really bad burn on her arm," Danny confessed ashamedly. Jake gave Danny the most empathetic look he could.
"It wasn't your fault," Jake whispered. Danny shook his head.
"I know. But I still regret it. And I'm angry," Danny retorted passionately.
"Who's master?" Jake wondered, deciding to change the subject. Danny's eyes pulsed bright green with rage. Jake gulped nervously, realising that he asked the wrong question.
"I have to show respect to master. He ordered me to always call him that. It's disobeying orders if I say his name," Danny explained angrily. Jake frowned worriedly.
"Is er master, Klarion?" Jake ventured. Danny sighed and nodded. Jake nodded in understanding.
"What other orders do you have?" Jake inquired.
"I'm not allowed to tell you all of them. I have to obey Cheshire. I have to guard you. The door's locked now and I'm not allowed to touch it. Most of my orders don't matter anymore. Some were to do with that trap. But others… I'm not allowed to tell you what they even involve," Danny answered with a despairing huff. Jake bit his lip as Danny started pacing again.
"It's so annoying! If I didn't have those stupid orders, I could tell you everything I've learnt about the spell. But I can't! I can't fight the spell," Danny growled.
"What can you tell me?" Jake asked.
"I know the spell's stronger in my ghost form. I can't even resist when I'm Phantom. My body automatically obeys before I even realise it. I can't disobey a direct order. I can, to a certain degree, twist the words used to my advantage. Like if Cheshire or K-master don't say now, I can hold off for a short time. But I have to obey. If I try to resist, it hurts me. Literally. And if I can hold off long enough, I eventually will pass out," Danny recalled. Jake frowned in sympathy. He could see exactly why Danny was so upset.
"Jake? Can you hear me?" M'gann's voice suddenly asked over the mind link. Jake blinked in surprise.
"Yeah. Are you guys alright?" Jake replied.
"We're fine. Where are you?" Robin answered.
"I'm with Danny in his cell. Apparently he's been ordered to guard me," Jake informed them.
"How is he?" Sam inquired worriedly.
"He's pretty angry but he's fine. He told me how Klarion ordered him to hurt you. Are you alright?" Jake told them.
"I'm fine. It's just a burn," Sam retorted dismissively.
"Ask if Danny wants to be involved," Danielle requested. Jake turned to the pacing halfa.
"Danny, I'm still connected to the others over the mind link. Do you want to be involved?" Jake announced carefully. Danny stopped pacing and turned to the seated teen.
"No. I don't think it's a good idea. We don't know if the spell will carry to you guys. You might become bound to my orders and I don't want that. Also the less I know the better. I can't disobey master if he asks me anything directly. I'm not even allowed to lie to him," Danny decided. Jake nodded in understanding.
"He said no. He's worried about the spell influencing the rest of us and he wants to be out of the loop as much as possible in case Klarion asks him anything," Jake relayed.
"Has he told you anything we could use?" Zatanna asked hopefully. Jake sighed softly.
"Not really. He can't disobey a direct order, he can twist the wording of an order to his advantage to a degree. If he resists an order, it hurts him and it might eventually cause him to pass out. He has to call Klarion master now too. And he can't lie," Jake recounted.
"We worked most of that out and we heard Klarion's orders. You were knocked out," Conner remarked.
"What wording was used for the orders that he can't tell us?" Robin inquired unexpectedly. Jake blinked and turned to Danny who had returned to his angry pacing. Clearly the halfa was frustrated.
"Danny, what was the wording of those orders Klarion forbade you from telling us?" Jake ventured. Danny groaned loudly and stopped in front of Jake.
"I can't tell you Jake. I cannot repeat those orders," Danny retorted with frustration. Jake nodded.
"He's not allowed to repeat the orders, at all," Jake reported over the mind link.
"What about writing it down?" Robin suggested hopefully. Jake gasped in understanding. He looked at Danny who had hesitated to resume pacing, hearing Jake's gasp.
"Can you write those orders down? Technically, you're not telling us the orders. You won't have to repeat what they told you," Jake wondered. Danny blinked before he grinned broadly.
"I can try," he agreed excitedly.
Danny grabbed a random book off the dresser and scrambled through each drawer in search of a pen or pencil. Jake went to the bedside cabinet to search there.
"Well?" Danielle prompted hopefully.
"He's going to try. Give us a minute," Jake informed the others. Their search for something to write with was fruitless. Danny growled in annoyance but he wasn't going to give up. If he could tell the others everything he knew, he was going to do it, no matter what. He ran into the adjoining bathroom and found a spare toothbrush. He grinned as an idea came to him. He could write with ash. He grabbed the plastic cup on the side and ran back to the bedroom, ripping out a handful of pages and stuffing them into the cup. He charged his hand with ghost energy and burned the pages into ash, leaving the plastic cup untouched. He ran back to the bathroom and poured a trickle of water into the cup and mixed it together with the end of the toothbrush.
With a writing implement ready, he rushed back to the dresser and grabbed a book and poised the ash covered toothbrush over the paper. He sucked in a nervous breath before he scrawled down an order Klarion and Cheshire forbade him from repeating. He cried out happily in triumph and gave the book to Jake excitedly. Jake grinned at the halfa. He could see the hope and rebellious fire reignite in Danny before his eyes. He turned to the book.
"He can do it. First order he's written for us is that he's been ordered to protect that crystal ball Klarion carries with his life," Jake relayed over the mind link.
"That explains why he was so fixated on the crystal ball when I got it away from Klarion," Wally commented. Danny took back the book and scrawled more orders on the page, ignoring the text already present.
Jake took back the book and his eyes widened at the orders Danny had written.
"If he gets the crystal ball, he has to give it back to Klarion immediately. He also has new orders to raise the alarm if he sees any of us free. He's not allowed to touch the cages you guys are locked in. If someone says the phrase Teekl is the cutest pussy-cat ever, Danny's not allowed to hurt them," Jake read over the mind link.
"We can use that! We can say that so Danny doesn't have to hurt us," Sam exclaimed happily.
"We also know now that Danny has to protect the crystal ball. That means it's important. Zatanna, Fu dog… could that mean that if the crystal ball breaks, then the spell will too?" Robin pointed out.
"It could. Kid, does Danny know anything about the crystal ball?" Fu dog asked.
Jake looked up for the book Danny had written in. The dragon handed the defaced book to the halfa.
"Do you know anything else about the crystal ball?" Jake relayed. Danny sighed and shook his head.
"I've only seen it a handful of times. Master has it with him at all times as far as I've seen. And most of the time, he doesn't pull it out until he has me under his control, completely I mean. Why?" Danny admitted.
"We're wondering if breaking the crystal ball will lift the spell," Jake answered. Danny's eyes flashed black.
"You can't do that!" he blurted out before he could stop himself. Danny blinked before growling loudly in frustration.
"Stupid spell!" Danny snarled hatefully, gripping his hair tightly.
"Danny, it's okay. I shouldn't have said that in front of you. I'm sorry," Jake instantly apologised, recalling the order he read only minutes ago. Danny waved dismissively at Jake. He wasn't upset or angry at the other teen. He was just sick of being a prisoner.
"Danny doesn't know anything else," Jake reported to the others.
"I could try to overshadow Klarion and get him to order Danny to forget all orders. Then we could break the crystal ball," Danielle offered.
"Bad idea. Klarion's a lord of chaos. That much magic and evil might hurt you if you try to overshadow him," Zatanna interjected.
"So what's the plan? We can't just let the Light control Danny!" Sam exclaimed angrily.
"I don't know but at least we can pass that information to Kaldur and the rest of the back up. Right Artemis?" Robin replied.
"Yep, I got everything you've said and I'll pass it on," Artemis confirmed.
So they've finally figured out a way around Danny's orders!
They're also trying to think of a new plan.
Any ideas who the back-up will be?
Let me know what you guys think of the story so far.
Until the next chapter.