Black Canary crouched down and tried to peer through the keyhole but it was black. The key was still in the door.
"Back up. I'm breaking it open," Black Canary warned, hiding her frantic worry as much as possible.
"I could just phase us in," Danielle offered. Black Canary turned to her. She'd forgotten that Danielle had powers as well as Danny. And she wasn't mentally scarred so she could use them. Black Canary nodded.
"But only you. The rest of you, wait here," Black Canary decided. Danielle nodded and took the heroine's hand. She turned them both intangible.
"You okay? It's a little weird at first but you get used to it," Danielle asked. Black Canary couldn't disagree. She did feel peculiar. She felt weightless and almost like she was no longer present despite the others being able to see her.
"I'm fine. But I have to admit, this is a lot different to density shifting with Manhunter," Black Canary muttered.
Danielle then led the way and pulled Black Canary through the wall beside the door. It took a lot of willpower for Black Canary not to fight the girl. Walking straight into a wall felt wrong and instinct screamed at her to stop. But they passed harmlessly through the wall and into a freezing cold, dark room. Danielle charged her hand with green energy to light the room. In the eerie gloom, Black Canary gasped. Frost and ice spread out from Danny. He was huddled beside the door shivering, whether from fear or the cold wasn't clear. She walked over to the teen. The frost crunched under foot. She knelt beside Danny and put a hand out to touch him.
"Probably better I do that Black Canary. Ghosts are more durable than humans," Danielle interjected and changed into her ghost form in a flash of light.
Danielle knelt beside Danny and gently touched her cousin. His head jerked up, his blue eyes wide and panicked as he shrank away.
"Danny, it's me. It's alright," Danielle murmured.
"Dani," he croaked. Danielle smiled patiently.
"Yep. You okay?" Danielle replied. Danny blinked at her before taking in the room.
"How long have I been in here?" he whispered, looking almost ashamed of himself.
"Overnight. We were worried when you didn't come out for breakfast," Danielle answered. Danny unfurled his tight huddle. He was stiff and tired. He didn't think he slept last night. It was hard to tell between the flash backs.
"Sorry about the ice," he muttered. Black Canary shook her head.
"It's fine Danny. As long as you're alright, the ice doesn't matter," Black Canary assured him. She stood up.
"I'm going to put on a light alright? I'll be right back," Black Canary told him. Danny nodded and flinched as the bright light hit his tired eyes.
In the light, Black Canary could see how upset Danny was. The room glistened with frost. Almost every inch of the room was covered, especially close to Danny. The door was frozen shut as well as locked. Danny looked cold too. His lips were tinged blue and he was shivering. Black Canary grabbed a blanket and turned up the thermostat before she returned to the halfa. She handed it to Danny, not wanting to make him feel in anyway trapped or threatened. Danny gave her a weak grateful smile as he took the blanket and wrapped it carefully around himself. His eyes were blood shot and ice covered his cheeks, he'd been crying a lot.
"Danielle, could you get something for Danny to eat and some tea? M'gann will know where everything is," Black Canary requested. Danielle glanced at Black Canary, reluctant to leave her cousin, but obeyed by phasing out of the door.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Black Canary asked now that Danielle was gone. Danny sighed, his breath clouding from the cold.
"I suppose I should. I don't want to but I was considering it before this," Danny admitted. Black Canary blinked in surprise. She had almost given up hope in getting him to open up.
"Do you want to though? I don't want to force you into anything. Especially if you're not ready to face this," Black Canary replied. Danny shrugged.
"I think it's obvious I need help. I… I had to use my ghostly wail last night. It's one of the powers I've been having trouble with," Danny began. Black Canary blinked in surprise again. She hadn't expected Danny to open up so readily. But she wasn't going to stop him now that he started. She could only hope that Danielle would take her time to return.
"Remember how I said I use my powers instinctively sometimes?" Danny continued. Black Canary nodded, hardly daring to speak in case it stopped him.
"My ghostly wail is one of them. I only learned to use it because I was cornered and in trouble. It's really powerful too. I can take down a building with it. Well… when I was… when I was with the Guys in White. I felt the same way," Danny resumed, Black Canary held her breath in anticipation. Danny had always avoided mentioning the Guys in White by name.
"I was screaming and it changed into my wail. I don't remember much because I think they sedated me. But they were angry. Really angry. So they punished me when I woke up. They… they put blood blossoms on me and stabbed ecto-ranium into my body and attached electrodes. They set a machine to electrocute me every so often and left me there for hours. Blood blossoms and ecto-ranium… they hurt. A lot. I felt like I was burning. From the outside and then from the inside when the electricity hit. I was gagged after that. I lost my voice anyway for a few days. And last night. I had to use it. It was the only way to save Dani and the others," Danny explained.
Black Canary was silent. She could sense that there was a lot more to the story but if this was just a taste of what Danny had been through… then no wonder he didn't want to talk about it.
"But that wasn't the only thing I was forced to remember last night. I had to change into my ghost form. Ever since that lab, I haven't been able to push myself to do it. Every time I try, I can't help but remember that every time I changed meant another experiment. I don't know everything they did. I think they did the stuff they could do while I was human when I was drugged. But I was awake for the times they wanted to understand Phantom better. Changing before had always been something I liked. Phantom was my escape as well as my responsibility. Fighting ghosts… a lot of the time it was fun. The adrenaline rush and misplaced aggression were therapeutic. But now. Every time I even consider changing… all I think about is the experiments," Danny mumbled.
Black Canary nodded encouragingly. Everything was making so much sense. Danny's fear of anger originated from that inhumane punishment and was probably reinforced by other acts of punishing brutality. His reluctance to change his form. It filled Black Canary with a deep seated rage to hear how those monsters had defiled something so close to Danny. He loved his ghost half, but now it only reminded him of what he'd been through. The ghostly wail. It had clearly been a mistake. A defence mechanism. But the scientists had cruelly tortured him for it.
"There were a lot of scientists that… that worked with me I'll put it. But there was one in particular that I dreaded. He was sick. He told me over and over again that everything I was going through was for the best. I was teaching them so much about ghosts. I hated being told that. Not all ghosts are evil and none of them deserve to be destroyed but… I couldn't stop them. I was helpless to stop them from taking… notes. They could use what they learned from me to hurt the ghosts. Especially Dani or my ghost friends. I think he liked doing the things he did to me. He was there last night too," Danny resumed. Black Canary hid her pity for the boy. No wonder he'd had such a violent reaction. He hadn't been ready to face his past and yet he'd been forced to confront some of the hardest aspects of it all at once.
Danielle phased into the room with a steaming cup of tea and a plate of food.
"Sorry I took so long. Here Danny," Danielle announced and handed the food and tea to her cousin. Danny took them but made no move to eat. He held the cup close but didn't drink.
"Danny, at least drink the tea. It'll help warm you up and calm you down," Black Canary encouraged. Danny took a small sip of tea to appease her. He found the tea was helping and he sipped at it until it was gone, but he didn't touch the food. He had no appetite. While Danny drank his tea and ignored his food, Danielle worked to defrost the room using her ghost ray.
Danny's finally opening up to Black Canary!
And a little more about what the Guys in White did to our favourite halfa.
Until the next chapter.
