They flew. They flew at speeds unknown even to Danny. If he was asked, he would probably estimate that his speed had increased at least half again. As to his awareness, the world seemed to be going by at a passable speed, as if his comprehension at higher velocities had improved. His reflexes were sharper, his eyesight keener. He felt no great increase in strength, but his mind soared with clear thinking. He landed with Sam in the park part of Amity Park, and, though neither of them would ever realize it, he had landed them directly on the site of their first fakeout makeout. Danny set Sam down, and stepped away. They tested some of his new powers. His ectoplasm blasts were infinitely faster, but not more powerful. Curious, Danny tried that elusive power, replication, and finally mastered it, with a triumphant yell. When he tried to summon up a large ectoplasm blast, however, it failed, and stuck to his hands. He managed to get one hand free with a tremendous tug, and, when attempting to free the other, he arced an immense downward swing. What came of it was the formation of a glowing blue ectoplasmic katana. He had time for a single practice swing before the flash of fangs, fur, and claws attacked him.
He had been waiting outside the home of Danny Fenton, respectful of his friend's ghost shield, for close to an hour now. He had seen the dark future version of Danny enter, and now, Wulf watched carefully for the demon to reemerge. When, instead, it was Danny and Sam who came back out, he found himself even more concerned. Ever since he had surfaced from the hole Wulf himself had torn in the timestream, Wulf had watched, waiting for the right opportunity to strike. What was odd was that Danny didn't seem quite right, and Wulf had an idea that it was because it wasn't the real Danny. He just seemed to be able to move too fast, and, although Wulf was colorblind, and also too far away to see Danny's eyes, he had an idea that if someone with color vision were to look, they'd be frozen by a piercing icy glare. Mind you, he hadn't seen this Danny in a full ten years, so he could be wrong, but as long as there was no visible trouble coming from the other, future Danny, he supposed he should follow this one. He looked on as Danny got to the park, fired a few ectoplasm blasts, but they were too fast and small for Wulf to accurately identify. 'Damn my colorblindness!' he thought. It didn't help that in their last battle, Dan had destroyed the eyesight in his right eye, leaving nothing much besides scar tissue where the eye once was. When he saw the ectoplasm sword come out, he knew. Danny couldn't have developed that power in less than a year. That was the older, dark future Danny, most likely overshadowing the younger. So, with confidence that he had found his moment of vulnerability, Wulf struck.
As the first claw bit into his side, Danny only glimpsed his attacker, before the pain knocked him breathless. Nonetheless, he fought, and his speed came in handy, as did the sword. He got his bearings as quickly as possible, and phased through the ground. He appeared behind the assailant, only to find that was an old friend.
"Wulf?"
As the hulking canine turned, the bloodlust went out of his eyes. Danny was different, yes, but not the dark entity he had been expecting. The phase wound that had been meant to remove Dan from overshadowing Danny, had only succeeded in seriously wounding the younger Danny. Also, when Danny spoke, his voice rang with a kind of compassionate power that no normal teenager, half ghost teenager, or evil super ghost should possess. Especially not an evil super ghost. Therefore, Wulf assumed it must be the real Danny he had just wounded. Danny heaved a labored breath, and passed out, reverting back to his human form on the floor. Wulf rushed forth, and was batted away by a terrified looking Sam.
"No! Get away from him!"
Wulf sheathed his claws, saying "My apologies lady, but the boy is in severe danger of dying of ghost inflicted wounds. No normal doctor would be able to help him. He must see the eighth sage, and I am the only one near enough who knows the way. This is a case of mistaken identity on my part. Danny phantom helped me once, and now I must return the favor. Either you can help, or you are an obstacle."
Wulf's English was not broken, but he carried a heavy accent. Nonetheless, Sam interpreted him correctly. He saw in her eyes the reflected compassion, and even a love, from the unconscious ghost child. Sam nodded slowly, and Wulf wasted no time in picking them both up, tearing a hole into a rather desolate looking version of the ghost zone, and stepping through.
After several long minutes of silence, Sam got over her shock enough to ask a question. "Why is it that you speak English, now? You didn't the last time we met."
"A lot can happen in ten years."
"Ten years? But we saw you get sucked into the Fenton bazooka portal less than a year ago."
Wulf turned, and Sam noticed he was now nearly blind in his right eye, due to what looked like a battle wound.
"It is a very long story. I would prefer to have to tell it only once."
He motioned with his head towards the unconscious Danny. They flew the rest of the way in a tense silence. What they eventually came to was a large castle like structure.
"This is the fright knight's lair! Why are you taking us here?"
"Here, there was once a king, as there was once a knight, but now, there is only the wizard."
He entered with no trouble, which was surprising, even if the castle looked run down beyond belief. They descended into the deepest dungeons of the place, and emerged on the other side of a large moat. Behind the fright knight's castle, there was a small hut. A line of smoke came out of the hole in the ceiling. When they came closer, a voice echoed from within.
"Why have you brought Him here, Wulf?" a cloaked and hooded figure emerged from the hut, a large wizardish staff in hand. Eyes glowed red from beneath his hood.
"All seeing, as usual, Octavian. He is badly wounded, and the last hope for the future lies with him. I wounded him myself, thinking he was his future self. Now, I must beg your aid once more."
The figure, apparently called Octavian, stepped forward once more, and his face became visible. He was pale gray-blue in pallor, and as old, it seemed, as time itself. He was indeed old, but it was his eyes that gave the impression of timelessness. They had the look of eyes that once held great mirth, but in ages gone past, that mirth had died. Red though they were, the eyes held more wisdom than malice. His cloak was deep purple, clasped at the left above the heart, with a moon and star symbol. He lifted his staff, and the cloak fell back a bit, revealing black gloves, bound with strips of gray leather, and a white outfit, that ended at the waist, which is where he ended as well. He wore a long beard, that came to the waist as well, and any remnants of a body past that point was replaced by a blue smoke trail. His staff, made of some nondescript gray metal, held a light violet orb at the end that swirled with white lightning.
He sighed. "Come inside. I will reject your request in the comfort of my own home, and not before hearing your tale."
Wulf set Sam down, and carried Danny inside. Sam followed.
"Now then. What–"
Sam cut the ancient ghost off. "I'm sorry, but Danny… he doesn't look good. Couldn't you help him and then hear our tale?"
The ghost smiled, but it did nothing to grace his features with the earlier mentioned mirth. Instead, it was a bitter thing. "Girl, I am the last of my kind; the eighth ghost sage of the nine ghost sages. The greatest healers and keepers of knowledge the ghost zone possesses, or, rather, possessed. The boy you seem to care so much for, is the cause of it, as well as the cause of the destruction of the human realm, and you as well, more likely than not."
"Danny would never do that!"
The old sage leaned forward, until his glowing red eyes were less than two inches from her face. "Tell me, girl. Has he done anything strange, lately, shied away from his friends? Gained any strange new powers?"
Sam paused, in terror, but shook her head anyway. She wouldn't let Danny down. Wouldn't let him die. Not for anything.
The 8th sage leaned back, and said "you have a strong spirit, Samantha, and a great devotion to your friend. Or perhaps, is he more than that, to you?"
He eyed her suspiciously, but then shook his head.
"No matter. For the devotion, loyalty and caring you have shown, I shall keep death at bay within him, long enough for you to tell your tale, and hear ours, at least."
They took seats surrounding the green fire in the center of the small hut, and Danny was laid out beside the 8th sage.
When they sat, the sage spoke. "Allow me to begin by introducing myself, and giving you all a warning. I am Octavian, the eighth sage of the ghost zone. We sages, when there were still more than one of us, were known for our great healing power. However, it only works on ghosts, and does great harm to humans, therefore, I am unsure what my power will do to the boy." He began to undo the clasps on his right glove. "Also, I advise those of you who do not require healing to not look directly at my hand, when I remove it from this glove. The power I possess can even blind those who are not able to see it."
As he undid the final clasp, Sam was struck with a sense of undeniable destiny. When he removed the glove, she looked directly at the hand below it. In the brief glimpse she got before being blinded by pale green light, there was, however, no hand, merely ethereal skeletal claws. When the light cleared, she saw that the hand was on Danny's wounded chest, and the sage was looking directly at her.
"You have looked at the healing hand of death, and not been blinded. The tenth place is fulfilled. Perhaps it is I who should begin the tale.
"At the dawn of human sciences, when man was leaving the magics of the world behind, there existed nine Celtic druids; men of mysticism and power. When it came the time for the first among the nine to die, they devised a plan. They would hold fast their consciousnesses, even after death. Most ghosts, as many paranormal scientists would claim, are not the humans from which they were born, but the reconstituted fragments of that human's last wish. Often, they dwell because they lack the knowledge to ascend to the higher plain – the memory of who they were, and their reason for ascension. These nine, however, were among the gifted few with knowledge and power enough to become true spirits, and chose, willingly, to dwell here, observing all, so that they might learn truth, and earn enlightenment. I am the last of these nine. Because we have purpose, we are not the malevolent spirits that many of ghostkind have become. We each were granted several powers, because of this, besides immortality in death, we were given a certain prescience, or futuresight, and great healing powers. When the last of us died, we made a pact that bound our knowledge together, in the event of the disaster that has just recently occurred. Ghosts, you must understand, can be killed, or die by their own will. Those that die willfully, are those that find the understanding needed to ascend to the heavens. Those that are killed, however, are rarely so fortunate. They pass into the void that lies outside of existence, where there lies nothing but endless torment, and loneliness. The other eight sages have thus passed into the void; murdered by this boy's dark older self. Due to our pact, though, their collective knowledge was passed to me, and I now have the strength and wisdom of all nine sages. Which brings us to Wulf's part of the tale."
Wulf straightened in his seat. "I am, or rather, was, once a man of science. A protégé of Einstein, in fact. It was just about the time that he developed his theory of relativity, that I was bitten, by a wolf. It was no ordinary wolf, however. I had, in my time, dabbled slightly in the paranormal, and discovered, all too late I might add, that it was a werewolf that had bitten me. When the silver bullet finally caught up to me, I had killed several people already, while by day I had no memory of my nighttime hunt, and was doing a seminar on Esperanto, which I had learned several years prior. Upon my death, I was mid transformation, and in death, so I remained – humanoid wolf. I would assume my changing state in life enabled me to pass between worlds, but I was still a feral creature in mind, only bare shards of my human side surfaced over the years, shards such as my ability to speak Esperanto. Until, finally, I met the boy; Danny – my friend. He showed me kindness, and awakened my dormant, but strangely in tact human mind. It was the day I arrived in the ghost zone, not a year ago by your time, that I attempted to escape. But, due to the unconventional method by which I was sent back to the ghost zone, my powers were changed, and when I tore my hole in dimension space, I tore it through time, as well, and was flung ten years into the future of the human realm. Seeing the desolation there, I was unsure what had happened, and decided it would be safer to wait back in the ghost zone. I returned to the ghost zone, and it looked the Same. I went back to the human realm several times, and eventually discovered that I was traveling not only through space, but time as well. On the final occasion that I went through, I discovered the source of the evil that had wracked your world ten years in the future. It was the very Same ghost child, now grown, that destroyed it all. When I returned to the past ghost zone, I devised a theory, and with it, a plan. The theory was that, because I was returned to the ghost zone from the human world by unconventional methods, my powers were modified, and by passing between worlds, I would be sent through time ten years, either backwards or forwards." He drew a diagram in the spectral dirt with his claw:
Human Past Human Future
Ghost Past Ghost future
"This line," he traced the line between ghost past and human past,
"Is the path my powers took prior to being sent to the ghost zone via portable ghost portal. It modified my abilities, sending me instead" he erased the original line he had made, and drew a new one, connecting the ghost past with the human future.
"this is how my powers then worked. I theorized that, if I waited ten years in my own world," he erased the new line, replacing it with one that linked the ghost past and ghost future.
"My powers would work in the opposite direction, like so;" he erased the final line, replacing it with one connecting human past with ghost future.
"For that reason, I waited, in hopes that I could right the wrongs of that future human realm, by finding its cause. Just when I was preparing the portal, however, I was attacked by the very being I hoped to prevent. I was badly wounded, and when I awoke, I was here. After Octavian healed me, I learned of his tale, and his purpose, and I then rushed off to open my portal, hoping I was not too late. I am thankful that I arrived in time to warn the ghost boy, because I realize now that Danny is the only one with the power to defeat his older self. Unfortunately, it is my carelessness that allowed the demon that is his future to come to the past. He found my portal, and used it to go to the past. When I discovered this, I went hunting, hoping I could catch him off guard, but, instead, I attacked my friend." Wulf turned to look at Danny, carefully avoiding looking directly at the 8th sage's hand. "Please, forgive me, my friend. I am sorry I have harmed you."
when the tale was finished, the eighth sage rose, and replaced his glove. He nodded to himself, and said "now, I already know your tale, thus far, and you know mine. This boy's older self has murdered my brethren, and he is too strong for anyone to defeat." He took up his staff, and the orb atop it glowed. A beam of ectoplasmic energy formed itself into the blade of a scythe at its top.
"at this point, I ask only that if you value the boy's life, that you give me an extremely valid reason why I shouldn't end his life here and now, and in doing so, end this horrid chain of events."
Sam gasped, and sought words that would allow her to save Danny, but her shock prevented her from doing so. Wulf spoke in her stead. "we do not yet know the reason for his becoming evil. For all we know, it could be an untimely human death. He could be cast into the abyss, only to return via his hybrid nature, as the dark entity of this time. Also, if you kill him now, you could cause a temporal paradox, he dying in a future that will cease to exist in his death, could result in a collapse of the space time continuum." The elderly ghost shook his head.
"not good enough, I am sorry to say."
He raised the scythe. Danny was not stirring. He brought the scythe down in an arc. The scythe was less than an inch from Danny's neck, when another Danny, a split off using Danny's ghost powers appeared behind Octavian, staying his hand by a grasp to his shoulder. The sage noted that despite the trembling of the copy's form, his grip was firm, his eyes determined. "I…heard the tales. Now, I would know… what it is you aren't telling us… is that 'cough' reason enough?" the copy dissolved, and the remaining Danny, sitting up, and trembling in pain. "even if I am to die… I would know… the reason."
He who fights his dark destiny with his life, and is willing to give all to change it, and she who sees the light of wisdom and is not blinded, will have a chance to avert apocalypse.
Octavian suddenly remembered the last words of the ninth sage – the only one he was close with, namely because it was his older brother in life, and also the only one to survive the first year of darkness after Danny phantom turned down the path of shadows. Under the advisory of those words, he would spare the boy, and he would heal him.
"rest boy. For now, your life is not forfeit. I will heal you. Then, I will tell you, and you alone, the truth that I cannot speak in front of these others."
