Hello readers! I'm going to take a break tomorrow. Just warning you.

Also: Two-hundred follows! Ahhh!

Jadejem1: Danny's subconscious isn't entirely rational. The shadows can think and reason, but the lair can't. So it might do dumb, or counterproductive things, like keep Danny from leaving to get medical aid. Fractal is saying this to imply that, anyway, because he can't very well say that Danny is Phantom, and the whole 'stuck' thing is a lie. I know that's kinda convoluted, but I like convoluted things.

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Chapter 39: In the Water

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"You mean like in Greek Mythology?" asked Ricky.

Fractal practically beamed. "Yes, exactly! Many ancient civilizations had access to the GZ at one time or another, but the Ancient Greeks were the best mortal cartographers of the Realms. They thought that the ghosts they met were minor gods. The Hindus did, too. Many polytheists did. Dike was sometimes called Durga, Pandora was called Kali... That doesn't really matter, does it? Um." He scratched his ear. "Anyway. They knew the River Styx. This," he tapped the bottle, "is extract from Stygian Pomegranates. This," he tapped the roll of paper, "is what I want you to agree to. I don't feel like the terms are too much of an imposition, but if you have an objection to any of them, we can discuss it. I, of course," he said, puling a pen from his belt, "will also sign. He should as well, to bring him, that is, Phantom, into the contract.," said Fractal, nodding at Danny. "Then, once you sign, we each take a sip of this," he tapped the bottle again, "which will bind us to our agreement. You can't break an oath made on Stygian waters."

Maddie frowned. "How do we know that anything you're saying is the truth?"

"Yeah! You could be trying to poison us!"

"You've been eating our food with no ill effect for the past two days. Why should I try to poison you now?"

"You-"

"Oh for-" Danny lunged over the table, grabbed the bottle, popped off the cork, and took a swallow. "Wow." He carefully re-corked the bottle, and put it back on the table.

"Danny!" said Maddie, grabbing his arm. "Spit it out."

"I've already swallowed it," said Danny. He picked a cookie up off of the platter. "That was really... flavorful." He stuffed the cookie into his mouth. "How did you extract it, anyway?"

"A press, then a centrifuge. There's a workshop on the other side of the library. Stygian waters are slightly heavier that normal water, but that means-"

"That all the sugar and stuff got pushed to the bottom, too. Right. Blah. But, see? No poison."

"Danny..."

"I know you're worried, but you've got to extend some trust or else we'll never get anywhere." He took another cookie. "These are really good."

"Thank you," said Fractal. "You should read this. Take your time with it. Make sure that you understand it." He pushed back from the table. "I need to go take care of something. I'll be back."

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The 'contract' wasn't much to look at. The person who wrote it either had not taste for complicated legalese, or lacked the time for it.

The text was as follows:

'Madeline and Jack Fenton agree to destroy all blueprints related to the Fenton Mortifier, and any other weapons or documents used to construct weapons that may be used to violate the Three Taboos. Further, they agree not to create any more such weapons or documents. In exchange, Phantom, in the person of his shadows, will lead Madeline Fenton, Jack Fenton, Mr Lancer, Michael Snow, Lester Spengler, Nathan Spengler, Richard Marsh, Dashiel Baxter, Paulina Sanchez, Star Thunder, Mia Battaglia, Sarah McAllister, Tiffanie Jones, Dale Gordon, Kwan Ishiyama, Valerie Gray, Hannah Weston, Jasmine Fenton, Tucker Foley, Sam Manson, and Danny Fenton, to the lair's door, and shall allow them to pass through unopposed.'

Jack and Maddie weren't pleased. Apparently, many of their more recent creations were in some way related to the Mortifier.

Danny was more than a little disgusted, as well as nauseated by some of the more... graphic descriptions. He therefore announced his intention to go explore the cabins. Jack and Maddie, as expected, immediately vetoed this, saying that they had to check to make sure that they were safe, first.

Danny responded to this by getting up and walking to the pool nearest the waterfall. He didn't want to hang around his classmates anymore. He didn't need the guilt. He was hot, and he felt dirty. Everyone had already seen him shirtless. He just didn't care.

"Danny, what are you doing?" asked Sam.

"Going swimming," said Danny, peeling off his shirt.

"Is that safe, dude?" said Tucker, dubiously, eyeing the waterfall.

"There's a gate," Danny said, nodding to a lacy, ironwork grate set over the end of the pool. "Doubt I'm going to slip through that." Danny put down his shirt.

Sam gasped. "Danny! Your scar!"

"My-?" Danny looked down. "Oh," he said, softly, before sitting down carefully on the grass by the pool, making sure to interpose a large leafy plant between himself and the tables. "Oh. That's not good." His fingers traced up to the skin above his core. The scar tissue there, at the very center of his complex pattern of scars had gone dark, burnt green, almost black. It felt odd, swollen, and it fluoresced when he touched it, patterns of light bouncing and rippling against the surface, like from a stone thrown in water. "That's not good," he repeated. Sam tossed his shirt at him, and he pulled it back on. "You have a knife?" he asked.

"Yeah," said Sam, pulling a pen-knife from her bag and offering it to Danny. Danny made a tiny nick in his arm. Red. That meant... What? Well, it wasn't traditional internal bleeding, at least. Was his core leaking ectoplasm? Or some supporting ectoplasmic structure hemorrhaging? Or some other reaction to being hurt? A healing process? He didn't know. He'd never been hurt like this. He just had to hope that his chest cavity wasn't filling up with ectoplasm, because he doubted that would go over any better than if it was filling with blood. He had been having a hard time breathing. He was having a hard time breathing.

And now he was having a panic attack. Well, this was lovely. At least he had gotten away from the class. He didn't think that he could cope with being the center of attention, the only source of entertainment.

"Danny," Sam was saying, "breathe, Danny. Tucker, go get Jazz."

Then, without warning, Echo and Fractal were there. Shadows or not, Danny didn't know Echo or Fractal all that well, so when they showed up, he startled quite badly, and when he Echo reached out to touch him, Danny bit him. Danny immediately felt terrible. Civilized people don't just bite one another, even if one of them is touching the others' face for some arcane reason. Echo, on the other hand, hardly seemed to notice.

"You aren't panicking anymore," said Echo. "You're breathing. Focus on that."

"And remember," said Fractal, "you don't actually have to breathe to live, even as a human. It isn't the end of the world if you stop."

That was not helpful.

(The incident that had lead to that discovery had been absolutely hellish, and the reason that Danny's first impulse upon seeing Observants was to run the other way. Not to mention, it was kind of like telling a normal human that they didn't need arms and legs to live. That they could survive quite well without any limbs at all.)

"Sorry," said Fractal.

But it was true that he was breathing again. Shallowly, but still.

"You have a fever," said Echo.

"You need to lower your temperature," continued Fractal.

Danny's tear-filled eyes flicked between the two shadows. He didn't move.

Fractal sighed, and looked behind him. At Sam. Danny twisted to follow his gaze. And at Jazz and Tucker. They were scared. He wasn't processing things very well right now, but he knew that.

"Help us get him into the water, please," said Fractal.

"Without them noticing," added Echo, jerking his head towards the waiting class.

"That'll help?" asked Sam.

"Yes," said Fractal. "We also have something else that might help... But it isn't ready yet. Not quite. It will be tonight, but for now."

The problem was, what was frightening them? Was is Echo? Fractal? The water? Him? It was him, wasn't it? He made himself smaller, in a conscious attempt to appear less threatening.

They spoke to him gently, but he was very nearly beyond words. Even so, he let them guide him to the water. He had intended to go in earlier, didn't he? Maybe?

Even after he had sunk, chest-height, into the soothingly frigid waters, it took some time for rational thought to return to him. What even was that? His core overheating? His brain overheating?

"Oh my gosh," groaned Danny, submerging himself even further, so that only his head was still above the water. "What was that?"

"Panic exacerbating your fever and other health issues," said Fractal.

"You need to be more careful with yourself," said Echo. He was splayed out on the edge of the pool, playing with the wet ends of Danny's hair.

Sam was sitting on Danny's other side, cross-legged. Tucker was playing lookout. Jazz was a next to Echo, between him and Fractal. She seemed more at ease with the two shadows than the others were.

"Do you two know what's happening with Danny?" asked Sam, glaring at Echo. Specifically at Echo's hand.

"What's making my scar look like that," clarified Danny. He noted that his voice was a little slurred.

Echo and Fractal looked at one another. "We do know some things that you don't," said Fractal. But the things we know are because of our construction. Because of our connection to the lair, and, through it, to you."

"We're more in tune with your needs than you are," said Echo. "You pay more attention to others than you do yourself." He leaned down so that his nose was very, very close to Danny's neck.

"Please don't do that," said Danny. Echo sighed and leaned back.

"Anyway, we don't know what what's wrong, but we have... impressions, I suppose?" said Fractal, tilting his head. "I think that Echo is better at interpreting them than I. But that is his purpose."

"If I can even be said to have one, what with the mess of my creation. We can tell that you have something wrong with your core, that you are too hot, and that you are frighteningly low on energy. But these are all things that you can tell yourself. Even if you ignore it." He moved his hand to stroke the skin behind Danny's ear. "You aren't exactly getting worse, though. Not overall. Your core was worse before, and it has recovered somewhat, but the rest of your body," Echo traced his hand down the side of Danny's neck and into the water, to Danny's shoulder, "it isn't doing so well."

"It's like when you sprain your ankle," said Fractal. "You favor the hurt ankle, but then you strain your other leg, or your back. Or when a crick in your shoulder travels to your neck."

"Your core is still injured," cautioned Echo, "and it could still take a turn for the worse. But I don't doubt that it will get better if you just rest. Relax. Stay here, where it's safe." He reached down further, brushing his fingers against the sensitive scar tissue, leaning into Danny, practically hanging off of him. He was balanced precariously on the pool's edge, effectively trapping Danny. If Danny moved, Echo would tip into the water.

Danny squeaked. Echo backed off. Slowly.

"But we aren't entirely sure what those other issues are, or even what they're caused by. We know that your scars are inflamed with ectoplasm, but we don't know why."

"So I'm not bleeding internally?" asked Danny. That was a relief.

"Maybe a little," said Echo, shrugging.

But, before dread could set in Fractal picked up the thought. "But not enough to be a problem. Besides, it would be ectoplasm, which is quite a bit different that blood, and an ectoplasm bath would actually be beneficial to your core."

"Ah, heck," said Echo. "Jack and Madeline are gearing up to make a decision. Do you want to get out, or disappear for a bit?"

Danny sighed. The water felt so nice.

"I could distract them," offered Jazz.

"No," said Danny. "I've got to get out eventually."

Echo and Fractal somehow had a towel and a clean, dry, set of clothes, almost identical to the ones Danny was wearing. Danny suspected some kind of teleportation. (Teleportation: the solution to all life's minor inconveniences.)

Now Danny was marginally more ready to face his parents once more.

Yay.