Warning - depicts underage drinking


Great One

Maddie closed the door gently on her husband. He was resting comfortably, after eating a plate of fudge and downing some pain killers. His leg was wrapped in a brace and propped up on several pillows. The sound of Jack's snores followed her down the hall.

She meant to go downstairs, to quiet her thoughts in the lab before taking the GAV on patrol. But before she reached the stairs, she came face to face with her son's bedroom door. The words she had said to him echoed through her mind: he had failed the eleventh grade; he was being held back; he would not graduate with his classmates.

He was sabotaging his future, and in no uncertain terms she had promised him that he would never be an astronaut.

She remembered the look on his face – anger. He had so wanted to be angry. Maddie thought he was going to yell at her, but suddenly, all of that anger had evaporated, to be replaced by… resignation? Defeat?

Guilt stabbed her heart. Even if he had needed to hear those words, she hated the fact she had made him, her baby boy, look like that. Maddie grabbed the doorknob and quietly went into his room.

It was shadowy, lit only by the purple twilight sky outside and the light streaming in from the hallway. Danny, fully dressed and still wearing his shoes, was curled in a ball on the top of his blankets facing the opposite wall.

"Danny?" she said.

He shifted. "What?"

Maddie approached and sat down on the bed behind him. She laid a hand on his back, and he flinched. Maddie removed her hand.

"What's wrong?" she asked. Danny said nothing. Maddie sighed and tried again. "Danny, why are you doing this to yourself?" Still, he said nothing. "I'm not going to leave until you talk to me."

"Then you'll be here awhile," he said. His voice was bitter.

"Danny-"

"I don't want to talk to you."

Maddie pursed her lips. She knew she could easily scold him again, but that would only cause him to cut himself off further from her. She refused to believe he wouldn't talk to her. So, she waited.

Fifteen minutes passed, and neither said a word. True night fell outside. Maddie would almost believe her son had fallen asleep, but she could feel how tense he was beside her.

Her eyes felt scratchy. All of her aches from the battle that day were making themselves known. She needed to go to bed – even if it meant losing a waiting contest to a seventeen-year-old boy. Without a word, she stood and began to leave the room.

She had reached the door when she heard a strange, low hum begin to emanate from behind her. The temperature of the room plummeted, and the hairs on the top of her head stood on end. The air was filled by the distinctive presence of ectoenergy, crackling over her like static; cold, blue light swelled behind her, throwing her shadow into the hall.

Maddie spun around, falling automatically into a fighting stance. She did not see a ghost, but she saw her son, sitting up on his bed, at the very center of the source of the blue light. Concentric circles of light had appeared, stretching from the bedspread horizontally into the open air. They were interwoven with strange, glowing runes of ghostly origin. Danny wasn't moving, merely staring at the thing with wide eyes. His body began to glow blue, and then worse – it started to vanish.

Maddie sprinted across the room and leapt toward her son, intending to knock him out of the circle to the other side. But as soon as she entered the circle of light, her momentum rapidly slowed until her body hung in midair, outstretched fingers inches from Danny's shoulder. No wonder he hadn't been moving.

A deep cold bloomed at the center of Maddie's body and radiated outward. She watched, helpless, as her limbs took on the same blue quality of the circle and began to fade. Things sped up then; the blue light flashed, blindingly bright, and she dropped heavily to the ground.

"Great One!" said a deep, booming voice. It was followed by the pounding of dozens of objects against the ground. Maddie pushed up smoothly into a crouch and looked around.

She was no longer in her son's bedroom. Instead, she found herself in a massive field of ice, possessed by soft blue luminescence even against the darkness of the sky overhead. Columns of this glowing ice towered around her like stacks of desert rock.

Directly before her was a group, a semicircle of monsters. Each was at least seven feet tall, broad-bodied, covered in white fur and armor, wielding spears, and equipped with deadly fangs and claws. Their red eyes glowed, as did the rest of their bodies. A certain one of the beasts, greater and more fearsome than the others, stood at their head.

She caught movement in her peripheral. Danny was scrambling to his feet, gaping at the creatures. Maddie quickly straightened and shoved her son behind her back. "Stay behind me, Danny," she ordered. "These are ghosts."

"No duh," she heard him mutter, but she chose to ignore it. Maddie quickly went over her assets. Her only weapons were the ones built into her hazmat suit or in her utility belt. There were some small lasers, one or two handheld blasters, a few grenades, and various other containment devices, but all were limited in power. She could not fight these ghosts, even without needing to protect her son. Their best option was to escape.

The leader of the ghosts stepped forward. Maddie chose this moment to toss two choking ecto-bombs at the group of monsters; they exploded upon hitting the ground, releasing a noxious green gas. The ghosts immediately recoiled. Under this cover, Maddie grabbed her son's wrist and began sprinting the other way.

They appeared to be in a settlement of some kind. Ghosts of the same variety stood in igloos and huts, watching their escape. Maddie and Danny soon broke free of this, but she did not stop. She led her son down an icy, craggy slope until they came to the bottom. It seemed the settlement was on a plateau; at the bottom, ice stretched into the distance until it faded into darkness. Danny was fussing and pulling at his wrist, but Maddie paid no attention. She looked around for a safe place to hide and regroup and soon spotted it – the narrow mouth of a cave in the wall of the cliff-face. Maddie flashed her flashlight inside, confirming it was safe, no more than a small depression in the rock. She pushed Danny in, then cut a thin slab of ice with her Fenton Lipstick Laser and heaved this in front of the cave to obscure their location.

The inside of the cave was dim, its ectoplasmic glow muted. Danny was sitting on the ground, rubbing his elbow.

"Are you okay?" she said.

"Yeah," he mumbled. "I just hit my elbow in the middle of being thrown around like a sack."

"Young man," said Maddie tersely, "I just saved your life. You're in no position to be complaining. Now shush. They must be looking for us."

Maddie pulled her son to the back of the cave and waited there with him, eyes fixed on the entrance to the cave. Minutes later, a group of the ghosts passed nearby, calling out, "Great One!" They did not notice the cave, and soon were gone.

They waited for another five minutes or so. Finally, Danny shrugged off her grip and pulled away a few feet. "They're gone."

He was probably right. "Stay here," she said. She slid the ice slab out of the way and stepped outside to look around. As far as the eye could see, fields of ice stretched in all directions from the plateau, until they faded into darkness. Above, the sky was black and starless; ectoplasmic green clouds drifted across it, hazy like mist.

Despite her instructions, Danny appeared at her side. "We're, uh, in the Ghost Zone, huh."

Maddie buried her irritation. She couldn't afford to waste energy fighting with her son. "I think so."

"Have you ever been in here before?"

"No, I haven't." Even with the Specter Speeder, she and her husband had never deemed travel inside of the Ghost Zone safe enough to attempt. They had been meaning to make preparations for that, but with the increasing attacks of the last year, had been unable to find the time.

Danny nodded. His expression was tight. Maddie knew he must be terrified. She was not so confident herself; but it was her job to keep that from him. She needed to protect him at all costs and return him home.

Maddie put a hand on his shoulder. His head whipped around. "Don't worry, sweetie. I'll get us out of here."

Danny swallowed. "Uh, sure."

"Let's go back inside and figure out our plan."

Inside the cave, Maddie cracked a glow stick and laid it on the floor. It lit the cave with ghostly green – ectoplasm was proven to give light several times longer than the normal chemicals. They sat at the back of the cavern, eyes on the entrance. Maddie's breath puffed in front of her. It was very cold in this realm, like the coldest winters she had experienced in Wisconsin. Her hazmat suit was conserving her body heat, for the most part, but the frigid air bit at her exposed face.

She looked to her son. He was sitting with his knees pulled up to his body, arms wrapped around his legs. He was wearing no more than a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. At this rate, he would freeze to death, and they wouldn't have to wait long for it.

"How are you feeling?" she said.

Danny shrugged. "Honestly? I'm kind of freaking out."

"I'm serious, Danny," she said. She pulled his hands into hers and began to examine them.

He yanked them back. "I am, too! What, am I not allowed to panic just a little right now?"

Maddie stared at him, eyes flicking up and down his body. Danny wasn't exhibiting any signs of being cold – none at all. He was not shivering; he was not stiff. In fact, even his breaths were not fogging the air. This was wrong.

"What?" he said irritably.

Maddie pulled her hood over her head and put on her goggles. They were equipped with thermal scanners; she turned those on now. At once, she could see her own arms and legs glowing orange against the dark blue background. Danny, however, was difficult to spot. Where he sat was a human-shaped ball of energy, light blue against the dark blue of the ice cave. Maddie looked at her own hands again – warm orange and red. Her scanners were not broken. This meant Danny was only slightly warmer than their surroundings.

She turned off the thermal scanners. Her hands were shaking, and it wasn't because of the temperature.

"Aren't you cold?" she said. Her voice rang hollow in her ears.

"I'm fine," he said gruffly. Then his eyes widened with panic. "I mean, of course I'm cold. We're in an ice cave."

Danny had realized something was wrong. But he wasn't surprised by it. Instead, he had decided to try to hide it from her.

Maddie stared at the glow stick on the floor, her mind frantically pulling details together to try to explain this. She changed the settings on her goggles by rotating the right-hand lens, turning them to the ectoplasm scanners. Looking again at Danny, he was clean of that tell-tale green energy, but an unfamiliar blue one, like what lit the snow and ice around them, burned at his center and radiated from there, filling his body.

She pulled her goggles off, letting them hang around her neck. What did it mean? Was he a ghost? Was he being overshadowed by one of those ice monsters?

"Mom?" said the other person in the cave, voice wavering. Was it really her son?

"Your body temperature is registering at minus ten degrees Celsius," she stated, monotone. "Just slightly warmer than the ice in this cave, but more than cold enough that you should not only be dead but frozen solid." She looked at him to study his reaction.

His eyes grew wide like saucers, and he stared at his hands, flexing his fingers as though to make sure he wasn't, in fact, frozen solid. "What?"

Maddie pulled an ecto-gun from her thigh strap and pointed it at him. It warmed up with a high pitched whine, the end glowing green. "Don't play dumb," said Maddie, "ghost."

'Danny' scrambled out of the line of fire, towards the mouth of the cave; Maddie followed him with her aim. "I'm not-"

"Tell me what's going on, because I think you know. You have some sort of 'cold core', and those ice ghosts summoned you here specifically. Where's my son, and how long have you been impersonating him?"

The ghost held its hands up in the air, a sign of surrender. It closed its eyes. "Look, I know this all seems really weird," it said. "But ask me anything. I'll prove it to you, I'm Danny." Maddie said nothing, glaring hard at the creature. Did it think she was so gullible? It opened its eyes, and now that it was away from the glow stick, Maddie realized the crystal blue eyes were glowing with icy, ectoplasmic light.

"If you hurt me, and find out it really is me, you'll regret it. So would you just listen to me for once?"

She did not lower the gun. "Then I'll ask you a question only my son could answer."

"And I'll be able to answer it!" it replied, exasperated.

She pursed her lips. "When we went to France, Jazz was in an accident. Tell me what happened to her."

The ghost's jaw dropped. Its eyes flickered across her face, panicked and lost. "We… we never went to France. Unless – no way! You went without me? Was that one of those times you dumped me with Aunt Alicia? But you took Jazz?"

The strength drained from her limbs. She lowered the gun and holstered it, letting out a long, shaky breath. "Okay. It's you."

Danny similarly collapsed. He fell backward onto the ice, groaning. "That was a horrible question! I really thought I was going to die."

"Danny, what is going on?"

Her son sat up again, too-bright blue eyes locked onto her. "Um. So I really don't know why those ghosts sucked me into the Ghost Zone."

Maddie narrowed her eyes. "Okay. What do you know?"

He rubbed the back of his neck and turned his head to face the ice wall. The gesture was so characteristic of her son that any of her remaining doubts fell away, to be replaced with worry. "Uh… um… it's like this…"

"Daniel James Fenton."

"I kind of, sort of, have ice powers?"

She blinked. Whatever she had been expecting to hear, it was not that. "Ice powers," she repeated.

"Yeah. Like, um…" He raised a hand in front of him, palm facing up. His eyes began to burn more intensely, and a few inches above his palm a whirling marble of ice began to form. At first it was no more than the size of a BB, but then it quickly grew until it was as big as a baseball. It dropped into his hand, and with a shy smile, he offered it to her.

Maddie took it in her hands. It was perfectly round and almost perfectly clear. She looked between it and her son, at a loss for words. Finally, she went with, "How long?"

His eyes trailed to the ceiling of the cave, searching his memories. "Uh… since a year ago, I guess? They came out of nowhere, really."

"This is what you've been hiding from your father and me?" Her son shrugged. She would have to interpret that as a teenaged 'yes'. "Why didn't you think you could tell us?"

He chuckled; it was nervous. "I guess I thought you'd call me a ghost and shoot at me."

Shame washed through her, like hot water in her veins. It was a slap to realize that her own son did not trust her – and with good reason. He had guessed her reaction exactly.

But this secret would explain so much. She tried to imagine having a secret power and no one to share it with; how he would feel alone, depressed; how he would begin to act out; how his grades might suffer.

It was her fault. Her son had felt afraid of her. How could she ever make that up to him?

"Danny," she said. She crawled to his side, placing the ball of ice on the floor and wrapping her son into her arms. "I'm so sorry."

He patted her back awkwardly. "It's... it's fine. It's not a big deal."

Maddie pulled back and held her son at arms' length, studying his face. His icy blue eyes refused to meet hers. "What does this power have to do with these ghosts that are after you?"

Danny swallowed. He was saved from answering, because at that moment the slab of ice behind him was lifted out of the way by one strong, fur-covered arm. It reached in and grabbed her son by the collar of his shirt, pulling him easily out of her grasp and out of the cave entirely. Maddie grabbed two guns from her thigh holsters and catapulted through the opening of the cavern, rolling fluidly into a battle-ready crouch, guns raised.

She was blocked from shooting the ghost, for it had her son wrapped in its arms, one of which was flesh and the other made of ice with bones suspended inside of it. The ghost looked like it was trying to crush Danny.

"Great One!" it cried. It held Danny out in its paws, so that he dangled in mid-air, appraised him, and pulled him in close again. If she were not mistaken, those bared, razor-sharp teeth were bared in a grin; and it was not crushing Danny, it was hugging him.

And… 'Great One'? The ghosts had been yelling that ever since she and Danny had arrived here. Did they mean Danny? A ring of the yeti-like creatures stood around the mouth of the cave, and Maddie realized the one with her son was the leader she had seen earlier.

Maddie lowered her weapons, but she did not put them away. Simply, she did not know what was going on, and once again, they were sorely outnumbered.

The leader of the yetis placed Danny on the ground and rubbed the top of his head with a massive paw. Her son smiled, although it looked more like a grimace, and patting down his now badly ruffled hair said, "Uh, good to see you, too, Frostbite."

Maddie could not help but gape. They knew each other? Danny knew its name?

The ghost tilted its head to one side. "But why did you run away earlier? And," it looked past Danny to Maddie, "who is the human with you? Is she an enemy?"

At the word 'enemy', the company of yetis growled and brandished their weapons and claws at Maddie. The huntress noticed with unease that those claws were now coated in ghostly ice. She raised her blasters again, as futile as it seemed.

Danny waved his arms frantically at the creatures, stepping in front of Maddie, and she was struck by the wrongness of it all. For some reason, Danny was protecting her, not the other way around. Moreover, he was fearlessly opposing a group of ghosts that had even Maddie wary to face them. She wondered if she was dreaming. Had she actually gone to bed at the same time as Jack? But no – her aches from the battle that day were too real for this to be a dream.

"An enemy to ghosts?" said Danny. "Yes. An enemy to me? No. So don't you dare touch her." The yetis all obediently lowered their weapons, although the hostility in their red eyes did not leave them. The leader continued to stare at her, dubious.

"Who is she, if I dare may ask?" said the leader again, deep voice rumbling through the air.

"…my mom," said Danny.

Suddenly, all of the ghosts clapped their massive paws over their chests. "Welcome!" they shouted as one. "Great Mother to the Great One!"

Danny slapped his hand to his face and muttered something venomous under his breath. His eyes slid sideways to Maddie, and fear crept into them again.

The leader stepped forward and knelt before Maddie, head bowed and one paw over where its heart would have been, if ghosts had them. "Great Mother," it rumbled. "Welcome to the Far Frozen. I am Frostbite, the leader of this land. I humbly welcome you to our home."

"… nice to meet you," said Maddie. Eyes narrowed suspiciously, she straightened and holstered her weapons, although she could be ready to draw them in an instant.

The one called Frostbite stood again. He towered over her, probably more than seven feet tall. His maw parted in a grin. "I did not expect such an honor today," he said. Then, addressing the other yetis, "How soon can we prepare a feast?"

The yetis rattled their spears, clearly in support of that idea. Danny looked like he was in pain. "You really don't need to do that," he said, weakly.

"Nonsense!" replied the ghost, and he patted her son's shoulders with enough force to nearly knock the boy down. "I do not want your mother to think we of the Far Frozen treat our guests with anything but the best welcome."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Danny muttered. If Frostbite heard, he acted like he didn't.

"Come!"

And that was how Maddie found herself at the center of a company of ghostly snow monsters, her youngest child the only thing separating her from the leader of the creatures, as they marched up an icy staircase returning to the top of the plateau. She had a thousand questions for her son, but he was hanging his head and glaring at the ground, while she also was leery to say anything in the presence of their captors.

They reached the settlement at the top of the plateau. News of their coming must have preceded them – the entire population of yetis was there to greet them, or rather, to greet Maddie. It could not have gotten much more bizarre. The ghost yetis waved their massive arms in the air, cheering "Great Mother!" in chorus. Maddie just stared. Dimly, she was aware of Frostbite grinning at her over Danny's head. Danny, meanwhile, was red from the collar of his shirt to his hairline.

"My people prepare a feast," announced Frostbite. "Shall I take your esteemed mother on a tour of the village?"

"I'd rather you didn't," said Danny through his teeth.

"Don't be silly, Danny," said Maddie with false cheer. "Of course I want to go on a tour."

"Accompany us, oh Great One!" said Frostbite, and by wrapping one furry arm about his shoulders, gave him little choice in the matter.

The three of them broke from the other ghosts, but their red, glowing eyes followed the group through the village.

"Frostbite," said Danny. "Not that I don't appreciate all of this – because really, I do – but can't you just tell me why you brought me here?"

"That's a very serious topic for conversation," said the ghost. "Best for full stomachs and working minds."

"Of course it is," Danny huffed. "I thought ghosts didn't eat?"

"We do not need to, but we like to on occasion," replied Frostbite. They stopped in front of an intricately wrought ice structure. Two particularly fierce-looking guards stood at either side of the entryway. They nodded at their leader, but the sight of Danny seemed to produce some feeling of weariness in them. It may have been Maddie's imagination. After all, ghosts experienced a highly limited range of emotions.

"This!" said Frostbite when they were inside, "is the most prized possession of the Far Frozen!" A golden chest sat on a pedestal of ice; two green flames burned on either side of it. With a wave of his hand, Frostbite raised the lid of the chest, and what looked like a scroll rose from its depths. It floated in the air, glowing faintly. It was clearly a ghostly artifact. Maddie's knowledge of them was admittedly limited, but if it was anything like the Crown of Fire or Ring of Rage involved in the Ghost King's invasion, it was probably dangerous and needed to be destroyed.

"The Infi-Map! Not only can it show its user every active portal in the Ghost Zone, it can take them there in an instant! We guard it without pause, but that hasn't stopped your son from stealing it on a number of occasions." Frostbite said the last part with a chortle, as though Danny stealing an extremely powerful artifact from a tribe of ghosts – not once, but several times – was a great joke.

Maddie gaped at Danny, but he was looking pointedly, stonily, at the floor. And he was not denying anything.

So, she turned back to the yeti leader. It was preposterous, but it seemed like she would be able to get more information about what was going on from the monster than from her own son. As long as she stayed on its good side, it seemed like it would prove a wealth of knowledge.

"You weren't angry?"

Frostbite laughed again. "Surprised, certainly! But he always returns it to us when he's finished with it. He even tracked it down across time and space when he lost it! The Infi-Map is not in bad hands when in the hands of the Great One."

Danny seemed to be trying to melt into the floor.

"Let's continue!" boomed the ghost. He ushered them from the room, and the ghostly map settled again into its container.

The next few buildings were home to a variety of things. There were stables for the giant ice worms and wooly snow mammoths that the yetis considered their steeds – yet more proof that Maddie was best off not fighting these ghosts. There were weapons storehouses, a smithy for the weapons, and a huge studio where different ice structures were crafted, not to mention a laboratory filled to the brim with advanced medical equipment and technology that seemed oddly out of place in a village that could have appeared in Beowulf. Despite the tour, Maddie's growing impression was that she had no idea what these ghosts might be capable of.

Then, near the rear of the village was a cave, broad-mouthed and shallow. Danny groaned when he saw it, which only made Maddie want to see inside it all the more.

"And this," said Frostbite, sweeping his arms out to either side, "is the monument my people have built to honor the deeds of your son."

Danny buried his face in his hands. "Can you just kill me and get it over with?"

"No need to be modest!" exclaimed Frostbite. He began to lead Maddie inside, when all of a sudden several huge icicles dropped from the cliffs overhead and crashed down in front of the entrance, blocking it completely.

"Oh no!" said Danny; the falsehood dripped from his voice. "The cave's blocked and we can't get in! Looks like we'll have to go back. Oh well, these things happen."

The ghost yeti must have been more naive than she had previously thought him, because he could not see anything suspicious in her son's words; or maybe Maddie, as his mother, had just had more experience with her son's personality.

"Hmm," said Frostbite, rubbing his chin. "That is unfortunate. We will have to return another time! For now, let us retire to the mead hall. I am sure the feast is ready."

Maddie was rooted to the spot in disbelief. The most crucial part of her son's secret life, blocked off? "Aren't you a ghost? Can't you just phase through the ice?"

"Ghosts cannot phase through ghost-world objects, oh Great Mother," said the yeti leader. "Only real-world ones."

Now that was interesting. It also proved that any ideas she and Jack had had about the nature of the two zones were probably wrong. They had never suspected such a thing. But it did not make up for the fact that she was being kept from important information. She would have to corner Frostbite during this 'feast' and get the story from him another way.

On the way to the hall, Danny rather obviously put the yeti between him and his mother. Maddie hardly knew how to feel; she was exhausted and overwhelmed and more than anything wanted a minute to sit down and catch her breath. She thought she should be angry with her son for keeping such huge and dangerous secrets from her and probably lying to her repeatedly in order to do so. She was sure she would be angry eventually. But currently, her confusion and worry were outweighing that particular emotion.

What she did know was that her youngest child was caught up in the world of ghosts and had been changed because of it. Worst of all, he seemed entirely unaware of the danger.

They entered the mead hall and were greeted by a chorus of cheers and whoops. The hall was massive. Wrought of purple wood, it seemed as tall as it was deep, and the dimensions were too great to estimate. Rows of tables and benches filled the first half; then, there was empty floor; and at the head of the hall a particular raised table, perpendicular to the others with chairs only on one side, facing the rest of the hall. Frostbite shoved through the many ghosts to lead them to that table. On the way, Maddie caught glimpses of the 'food' that had been prepared, but she had never seen food in such colors or with so many tentacles. Well, except for the contaminated leftovers at the back of the Fenton Fridge that had mutated due to ecto-exposure. Foreign odors met her nose, and she could not decide if they were appetizing or stomach-turning.

She caught Danny's sleeve and held him back for one second. "Don't eat anything they offer you," she whispered to him.

He made a disgusted face. "You don't have to tell me twice. You didn't even have to tell me once."

Sadly, Maddie hadn't been so sure of that. So far, her son had been trampling over all of the warnings she and his father had given him about ghosts and the Ghost Zone. And ingesting ectoplasm was one of the quickest and worst ways to suffer ecto-poisoning. They knew this because it had happened on a number of occasions – usually idiots trying to get 'ghost powers' by eating ectoplasm. As if a human could have ghost powe-

Her thoughts screeched to a halt. Danny's powers were not of real-world origin. Maybe he wasn't a ghost, but his ice abilities were probably a side effect of ecto-contamination. Maddie only wondered what other, unpleasant side effects he must be suffering. Would that account for his mood swings, irritability, and exhaustion?

Frostbite sat at the head of the table in a great wooden chair, reminiscent of a throne. To his right he put Danny, and on Danny's other side, Maddie. Maddie was thankful for this in one sense – she was close to her son; but in another sense, she was less thankful. Now another, unfamiliar yeti was on her right. She hoped things like 'small talk' didn't exist in the Ghost Zone.

In front of them was a spread of exotic, toxic-colored, glowing dishes that must have passed as cuisine to ghosts. Maddie made a note to investigate ghosts' casual eating habits more closely. She had been given a plate – was that gold? – fork, and knife; and in a gold-streaked ice goblet was a clear liquid that gave off a quartz-like sheen.

Frostbite stood then, and he banged his ice-hand on the table. The hall quieted. He raised his own goblet and boomed, "A toast!"

"A toast!" the hall echoed, and all of the yeti ghosts stood and raised their goblets. Danny belatedly did the same, eyeing the contents of his goblet; so Maddie, of necessity, raised hers too.

"A toast!" Frostbite repeated. "In the last two years, the Great One has done much for our kind." Two years? Danny said his powers had appeared a year ago. A glance from the corner of her eye showed her son wincing. More secrets – more lies. Maddie scowled. The ire she had predicted was beginning to show itself. Her son was going to be in a world of trouble when they escaped this place.

Frostbite continued. "Without the Great One, our realm would surely have met its doom not once but several times over! Now, we have in our midst the hero's mother." Maddie jolted. They were going to toast her? Well, of course, this entire feast was in her honor. "Already she has proven herself a fierce warrior. It is easy to understand how the Great One became who he is today, when a mother as intelligent, brave, and honorable as she reared him."

Maddie blinked dumbly. Did this ghost have any idea who she was? She was Maddie Fenton, one of the world's most acclaimed ghost hunters, an enemy to its kind!

"Maddie Fenton," said Frostbite. That answers that question. Danny flinched so hard that the liquid in his goblet sloshed over the sides. "Although you are an enemy to ghosts, let us observe a truce while here in the Far Frozen. We will show you our best sides, and while we cannot speak for other ghosts of other realms, maybe we can change your mind about our particular kind."

Maddie's mind screamed at her that it was a trap. But, what could she do if it was? So, she smiled as best as possible, nodded her head, and raised her goblet. The yetis of the hall cheered and drank.

Maddie pretended to take a sip, but Danny did not bother to pretend. Stiff, expression petrified, he placed the goblet on the table with a loud 'clunk'. Frostbite also noticed this, but surely interpreted it differently than Maddie.

"Great One!" exclaimed the ghost, taking up the goblet again. "Maybe you do not know, but here in the Far Frozen, it is bad luck not to drink after a toast."

"I, uh, don't drink…"

"But you've never tried our liquid crystal! Come, drink with me to your mother's health!" Frostbite placed the goblet back in her son's hand and knocked his own against it. Surely Danny had the good sense to pretend to drink it…

…or not. Horror slid through her veins like ice as she watched her son draw the drink into his mouth and swallow it. Danny's eyes grew wide, and Maddie knew he had to be feeling the effects already. It would be like drinking battery acid. She frantically searched for any anti-ecto serums on her person. She found one in her utility belt and slid it into her hand, ready to administer it.

Danny lowered the glass, stared at its contents, then looked up at Frostbite, who was grinning expectantly.

"Woah," said Danny. Frostbite clinked his goblet against Danny's one more time and downed the contents. Danny blinked at his cup, and did the same.

Gasping, Danny set the empty goblet down, and his face, hitherto having worn expressions of irritation, embarrassment, or terror, stretched into a smile. Slightly awed, he blinked stupidly at the air in front of him; the light in his eyes bloomed, like ice forming on a lake.

"Danny?" said Maddie. Her fingers were numb around the serum.

"I knew you'd like it!" said Frostbite. He snatched a nearby carafe and poured himself and Danny more of the drink. "Again, a toast! To the Great Mother!"

Danny looked at her, and he raised his glass to her with a self-conscious smile. "To Mom." The pair of them drank with great swallows, as though racing to the bottoms of their glasses.

At that moment, the yeti sitting at Maddie's side stood and dragged his chair to the other side of the table, so that he was directly across from Danny. He placed the chair with a thud, took the carafe, and poured Frostbite, Danny, and himself a drink, letting the last drops of the jug drip into Danny's goblet. The yeti himself was well-armored and scarred across his right eye. Maddie immediately counted him as a difficult opponent.

He passed Danny the precariously full goblet. "I see you like our liquid crystal."

Danny's smile grew. "Snowdrift!"

"Good to see you, lad," rumbled the yeti. He turned his gaze on Maddie. His eyes were calculating, nearly suspicious. "And it is an honor to meet one of your parents."

Maddie measured her words. "I'm happy to finally meet you. It seems your people have been taking care of my son for a long time."

"We do our best," said Snowdrift. "Sometimes it isn't enough. But he is a strong pup."

Danny watched this exchange, sipping at the top of the glass. He didn't speak, almost as though he were waiting for a cue. He would probably interrupt the ghost as soon as it began to reveal anything particularly telling about his exploits here.

Frostbite, with his characteristic joviality, had begun to pile different foods onto Danny's plate. He poured a yellow sauce on something purple, speared a fork into it, and put it in Danny's hand. "Try this, and then drink just a bit of liquid crystal."

Obediently, Danny stuffed the too-big bite in his mouth, chewed, swallowed, and drank. "That's really good!"

"You sound surprised, Great One!"

Danny laughed. "I am!"

"Then, try this!"

Maddie watched this, jaw tight. Her thumb rubbed the serum. Suddenly, she became aware that Snowdrift was staring at her. When their eyes met, he said, "You're wise, Great Mother, to not eat our food or drink our drink. Surely our fare would kill a human."

Danny choked. He pounded on his chest with one fist, and then gulped down some of the liquid crystal before gasping at his mistake and placing the goblet far across the table. It was almost empty – he had already had three glasses of the stuff.

"Why are you panicking, lad?" said Snowdrift. He poured more drink from a new jug into Danny's cup and handed it back to the boy. "You're not exactly human."

Something changed in Danny's face then. Maddie was not sure what to call it, although it seemed akin to blushing. His cheeks suddenly took on a bluish tinge, and frost bloomed across them. Combined with his brightly glowing eyes, the result was something, like Snowdrift said, 'not exactly human'. Maddie found she was having trouble breathing; she felt like a stranger in her own body.

Danny glowered into his goblet, which he had wrapped his hands around again. In a low voice, he grumbled, "I'm not a ghost."

"No, you're not that either," said Snowdrift. "Even so, I don't think a little ghost food will do you any harm."

Silence descended on the table. Helplessly, Frostbite looked between his companions, hovering on the edge of a word. He rose suddenly to his feet, his chair scraping back loudly over the floor, and clapped his huge paws together. "We need music! Nothing completes a feast in the Far Frozen like a rousing dance! Band!" he called. A group of yetis who were sitting at the edge of the open floor, plucking at strings and tuning wind instruments entirely made of ice, looked up. "Play a song for us!"

After a few shared mutters, the ghostly musicians began to play. Their instruments filled the hall with bright, sharp notes; the drums beat a steady rhythm, and soon yetis were whooping and crowding onto the floor. They locked hands with each other in huge concentric circles and begin to stomp about, kicking legs and raising arms and cheering.

Frostbite's grin returned. He obviously liked what he saw. Turning that grin on Danny, who was still staring pensively into his drink, he grabbed the boy's arm and yanked him to his feet.

"Wha-" Danny stammered. "Hey! I don't-" Whatever he said next was lost in the noise of the hall. Frostbite dragged Maddie's son to the circles of stomping ghosts, who were all several times bigger than Danny, and shouldered into the outermost ring. He took one of Danny's hands in his paw, and the neighboring yeti was more than happy to take the 'Great One's' other hand.

And like that, Maddie watched Danny desperately try to understand the steps and occasionally be lifted off of his feet when all of the yetis in unison raised their clasped hands into the air. The song galloped on, and the spinning circles swept Danny away across the room.

Snowdrift, much like Maddie, had watched the whole exchange from the high table. Chuckling, he turned back around in his seat and took a swig of the liquid crystal.

"You aren't going to join them?" said Maddie, drawing her eyes off of the point where her son had finally disappeared.

"I'm not much of a dancer," said the yeti. "Neither is your son, it would seem."

Maddie made a noncommittal noise and pursed her lips. Snowdrift's earlier words were still ringing in her head.

Danny was… not entirely human? Because of his ice powers? Did that mean – was the problem deeper than simple ecto-contamination?

Of course, it had to be. With ecto-contamination, the symptoms ranged from illnesses like 'ecto-acne' all the way to impermanent mutations, when the person affected took on ghost-like qualities for a short time. While problematic, the symptoms faded once the ectoplasm faded from the body – which it always did, because ectoplasm was not compatible with human physiology. It faded, or in the worst case scenario, overwhelmed and killed the victim.

But with Danny… it seemed he had had his powers for two years, or more. They had integrated with his body to the extent he had a 'cold core', not so dissimilar to a 'ghost core'.

I'm not a ghost.

No, you're not that either.

Maddie sighed. A headache beat at her temples; her wounds from earlier that day – from yesterday? – pained her dully in the frigid air. She was too exhausted to process all of this.

And suddenly, in the midst of that hall of ghosts, somewhere in the middle of the Ghost Zone, Maddie became aware of how alone she was. Alone, and totally powerless.

"So, how are you liking the Ghost Zone, huntress?"

Maddie blinked and glanced up at Snowdrift. The scarred yeti was 'casually' twirling something tentacled around his fork, but his eyes watched Maddie carefully, and his maw was twisted in a smirk.

She straightened in her seat before answering. "It's different from what I expected."

"And what did you expect?"

She wondered how much she could say without insulting him. Part of her was amazed simply by the fact she was having a civil conversation with a ghost – civil in that neither was physically attacking the other. There were definitely veiled barbs in their words.

"I didn't imagine there would be distinct regions – ghost groups with constructions and cultures…"

Snowdrift bared his teeth. "Just a bunch of violent, lawless thugs floating around in a void, eh?"

That was actually not far from the truth. Maddie shrugged, deciding not to answer. She twirled the anti-ecto serum, still clutched in her fingers, and pocketed it. "You and Danny seem to be on close terms," she observed.

"We are," the yeti nodded. "I'm the one who trained him to use his cold core. He never mentioned me?"

So, he really did have a cold core. "I'm afraid he hasn't mentioned any of this part of his life to me."

The ghost grunted, stuffing the tentacled something into his mouth and chewing. "I figured as much." At Maddie's raised brow, he explained, "You've been watching him like he might break at any minute. You obviously don't know what your son is capable of."

She bristled. "Care to fill me in?"

Snowdrift snorted. "I don't think the 'Great One' would appreciate that."

Just then, the 'Great One' appeared on their side of the room again. The song ended, and all of the yetis stopped to cheer and clap. Danny, grinning, stumbled over to the high table, Frostbite on his heels. Behind them, a new song was beginning, just as energetic as the last.

The chief of the Far Frozen ghosts poured Danny, Snowdrift, and himself another glass of liquid crystal. All three clinked the glasses and downed them. How many had Maddie's son had now? Four? Five? She stared him, at the changes it was producing in him. His eyes positively blazed with cold blue; his skin had paled; his cheeks were flushed blue; even the tips of his hair were frozen together, sparkling with frost.

He caught her staring, and his eyes widened like he had forgotten she was there. "Mom! Dance with us!" Without waiting for her answer, he hurried around the table and grabbed her by the arms to drag her to her feet.

"Danny, I…"

"Come on! When's the last time you had fun? You," he said, words thick on his tongue, "need a break."

"And you, young man, are drunk."

Danny blinked, looking amazed. Then he broke into a fit of laughter. "Awesome."

Maddie couldn't be sure of the reason. Was it her exhaustion? The surreal situation? Or was it simply that it had been months since she'd seen a genuine smile on her son's face? Whatever the cause, she gave in and let him drag her into the throng of ghosts.

The yetis, equally as drunk as her son, and many of them more so, welcomed her with exuberant cries. Maddie's hands twitched for her guns. But, then her left was gripped tightly in her son's hand, and her right was taken up by Frostbite, and she was swept into the dance.

By the time they were taken to their bedchamber, Danny was barely conscious. Maddie led him, one of his arms slung over her shoulders so he wouldn't trip and fall on his face – again. He happily let himself be carried along, eyes half-closed and smiling.

She laid him on one of the three beds in the room – a spacious if simple chamber with stone walls and a green ectoplasmic fire burning in the hearth. Danny mumbled something and burrowed halfway under a blanket.

Maddie frowned at him and then frowned at Frostbite, who had brought them here. "This will wear off, won't it?"

"If he gets a good night's sleep! But I'm afraid not even the Great One will be able to escape a hangover."

"Great…" Maddie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Then, a good night to you! Tomorrow, we will discuss serious matters. Until then, sleep easy!"

Finally alone again, for the first time in hours, Maddie sat down heavily on the edge of her bed. It was soft, covered in a mountain of blankets. She looked at her son, a few feet away, laying on his stomach only partially under a blanket, head missing the pillow entirely. Amazingly, snow was drifting down from the air over him.

"You're making it snow," Maddie whispered. She shook her head. When would any of this start to make sense?

Smiling, full of confusion and melancholy, Maddie pulled the blankets properly over her son and tucked him into bed. Danny's eyes cracked open and found her. He smiled.

"Night, Mom," he mumbled.

"Goodnight, sweetie," she told him. "I love you."

His eyes were closed again; it was a good thing, too. Unbidden, tears were rolling over Maddie's cheeks. Shocked, she wiped them away and decided she should sleep. And sleep she did – she was out almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.


A/N: Yes. So, it's been years since I've actually watched Danny Phantom. And I remember next to nothing about Frostbite and the Far Frozen. So, I embraced my imagination and drew on things like Beowulf and How to Train Your Dragon while writing them. The result is this, which I'm rather pleased with.

An excerpt from a longer in-progress fic called, "The Ice King".

Next time - Danny's origin story, with a touch more Vlad.

T.F.C~