Hello! Thanks for being patient. I just want to remind everyone of the current update schedule. I will be posting on Fridays and Sundays. If writing is going well, I will also post on Tuesdays, but don't expect it. School is starting next week, so I dont know how much time I will have to write. However, at this point I have a pretty okay buffer, so if I have to stop, or slow down updates, you'll get some warning. Hopefully, I will be able to have consistent quality, if not quantity, in my posts.

It has come to my attention that sometimes my responses to questions can come off as aggressive or defensive. That really, really isn't my intention, and I'm really sorry if I've offended any of you. I just get really excited when I get a question, and I like to answer them as thoroughly as possible. Without body language and tone cues, some things get lost... Again, I'm sorry.

Charlie's Angel: I'm sorry to hear that something like that happened to you, but I'm glad that this resonated so much with you. I hope that you continue to enjoy the story going forward.

LizReader1125: Hello! Thanks for reviewing. I'm glad you like this little story of mine. There is a rendition of the Accident in chapter 3, in a flashback, if that's what you mean by beforehand stuff. I also have some immediate aftermath stuff in my Phanniemay Shorts, if that's what you're looking for. I do intend to finish this. It's just going to take a while...

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Chapter 63: To the Left and Right

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A fragment of a thought shot through Danny's mind, and he seized on it as a potential solution to the current problem, and a way to end the argument.

"Choices!" he shouted, louder, much, much louder, than he had intended. The word echoed into the following silence.

"What?"

"You all have choices. Make a choice. You should all just make a choice." He took a breath. A deep breath. "Fractal and Echo both know the ways. One of them can take the people who want to chance the Guys in White, or whoever they are, and the other one can take everyone else to meet up with the people from Harmony. There's still the contract, so we'll have to bring you all back to Amity eventually, no matter which choice you make. It'll just take longer if you decide to stay."

There was a beat as everyone digested that.

"Phantom?" asked Dash.

Danny blinked, then brought his hands up to his eyes. They reflected back green light. Heck. He bit his lip. "Yeah?"

Dash smiled. "Cool! I'll follow you, man."

"What? No. Don't decide based on that. This is- I'm not- I can't protect you when I'm stuck like this. You can't rely on me for this. You have to decide based on whether or not you trust a bunch of heavily armed men that you've never met and know nothing about, or a town of people who you at least know have children."

"No," said Valerie. "We have to decide based on whether or not we trust you. We haven't seen these people. They might as well not exist. And those people?" she gestured to the other balcony. "We don't know if those people are real, or more of these shadow things."

Danny threw out his hands in frustration. "Fine! Three choices, then. You can run around by yourselves without guidance. You can just go ahead, and try to figure things out on your own. We can- We can-" Danny suddenly felt light-headed.

"We can make sure you have food," picked up Fractal as Danny raised a hand to his head. "That you're comfortable, in most places. But we can't keep you from all trouble. There are just places, things, in here that aren't entirely healthy for humans, that we can't change on a moments notice. I mean, they aren't automatically dangerous, or, um, how should I put this? It's like cold weather. Snow. If you are prepared, or if , it's fine, but if you aren't then you could freeze to death... You do understand what I'm trying to say, don't you?"

There were a few nods, and murmurs of assent. Danny sighed. Maybe people would be reasonable. He felt his eyes finally return to normal.

Fractal looked nervously at the people who were still glaring at him. "I'm not lying. I promise."

"What is that supposed to mean?" asked Maddie. "Are we really supposed to believe that you'll keep your word just because you promised?"

"You should," said Danny, tiredly. "You've done research into frailties, right? And I- I think I said something about them, a couple of days ago, um, I might have passed out right away after. I was telling you that Echo had to obey Phantom's rules. I think."

"Phantom has a frailty?" asked Jack. "What is it?" Then he seemed to remember what he was saying, and who he was saying it to, and the grin on his face slid off.

"He keeps promises," said Fractal. "Always, as well as he can. That's why we don't make many of those."

"Why?" asked Maddie.

Fractal shrugged. "I couldn't tell you when it started. I don't have any recollection of purposefully broken promises, after his death. But it became more important, later. There is a promise that we have to keep. About the future."

Maddie glanced at Danny, her gaze softening. "Alright," she said. "Alright. I'll believe you."

"Good," said Fractal, uncertainly. "So what are you going to do?"

It was like Danny had suddenly gained the ability to read minds. (He wouldn't put it past himself, honestly. He was always developing new powers.)

He could practically see Maddie's thought process. What would happen, she worried, if they split up? There could be three groups, or more. There were only three adults. There were only three ghost hunters, and Valerie was still a child, even if she was Red Huntress. She wasn't used to thinking of Jazz, Sam, and Tucker as ghost hunters, and she certainly wasn't thinking of Danny as one.

"Which of you will be guiding which group?" she asked, temporizing.

Echo and Fractal exchanged glances. "I will lead the group that will join up with the Harmonians," said Fractal.

"I'll take you to Harmony," said Echo, shoving his hands into his pockets, "but I'm not taking you to the trigger happy morons. Before you ask, Harmony is built around the Door. I'm just not going to be upset if we miss the people with guns entirely."

"Fine," spat Maddie. "Jack. You you with him," she pointed at Fractal. "I'm going with you," she glared at Echo, "and I'm going to make sure that you don't get any ideas about trapping us here, or leaving anyone else behind."

"Fine," said Echo, with equal hostility.

Danny was heartened to discover that most of his class preferred Harmony to soldiers. They weren't literally saying 'I trust you,' but that was the subtext.

Only Valerie, Nathan, Lester, Paulina, and Dash chose to come. Other than, of course, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker. And Maddie. And Danny. Because, as much as Danny wanted to avoid the GIW, he wasn't going to let his mom go walk up to a bunch of heavily armed strangers by herself. He really, really wanted Jazz, Sam, and Tucker, or at least one of them, to stay. But he knew that they wouldn't, because they weren't about to let him walk up to a bunch of heavily armed strangers by himself.

Valerie came because, well, it was Valerie. She hated ghosts, and would always trust humans over ghosts. Lester was going because of Valerie. Nathan was going because of Lester. Paulina was going because of Phantom, and apparently so was Dash. Ancients. That made things awkward.

(Danny had hoped that Paulina would have gotten the message after last night. She wasn't trying to seduce the shadows anymore, at least, but she clearly hadn't given up on Phantom himself.)

It was a lot quieter, with only ten people. The drawings on the walls ceased to be abstract, and started to be poetry, and fragments of stories, most of them not in English. Illuminated, illustrated. Delicate. The stone here was paler, too. White-gray, with gold flecks. The false moonlight was stronger, too. The stars in the windows were brighter. There was more light. Cleaner lines. The vines restricted themselves to the ceilings, their hanging flowers were lacy, pale, the color of pastel sunsets.

The quiet and restrained colors helped Danny calm himself, prepare himself. Finding out that there was a whole town in here... He already had a town he was responsible for. Then there were people who were liminal, about as liminal as the average person in Amity, but with more access to ectoplasm, more control. People who could use ectoplasm, like he could. Maybe Sam and Tucker could learn how, too. Maybe Jazz could. Maybe they could do more than just twist their perspective enough to pass through things in the Ghost Zone, and fall upwards now and again. Maybe they could learn and use what they learned to stay safe. Maybe they could play games together. Maybe-

Danny forced himself to come back to the problem at hand. It was not the time to panic or to obsess over things he couldn't change, or things that might not ever happen. Harmony had been fine by itself for a long time now. The people would be alright. The lair would keep them safe. They were far away from the soldiers, and moving farther. They would be safe. He'd keep them safe.

He was drifting off topic again.

What would he do if the soldiers turned out to be bad? To want to hurt people (his people)?

Maybe he could trap them. Force them into place. Imprison them. But that felt wrong wrong wrong. He couldn't put anything like that in his lair. He couldn't do that. Couldn't enclose an area like that. Couldn't put in doors. He just... He couldn't.

Driving them out wasn't working. Scaring them off wasn't working.

Ancients, he felt like he could barely think. He didn't know what was happening to him, what was going on in his head. Every since those people had come through the Door... Oh. Maybe... He wasn't entirely sure how the link between him and the lair worked. Maybe the lair was leaning on him for processing power. He wasn't sure if he should be alarmed or not.

Of course, there was also the possibility that he was just crashing again. Running out of energy, like he had the past couple of days. He hadn't slept much last night, which probably also contributed.

Then Echo led them out into a set of stands. Danny blinked, looking down at a Greek-style stage lit by ghost fire. Above was a domed ceiling, painted to look like the sky. Echo quickly walked down the steps, the klimakes. He stopped once he got to the orchestra, then turned to look back up at the class. "This is the clan boundary," he announced. "You might as well make yourself comfortable. It'll take a bit." The shadow sang to the wisps, his voice entirely inhuman. Then he faded out of human visibility. The wisps winked out, too, one by one, following Echo. They weren't bothering to hide from Danny, though. He could see them, disappearing into the proskenion.

Danny sighed, and found a seat, leaning back. "What time is it?" he asked.

"No idea," said Sam.

"Party time," said Tucker.

"You're the worst," accused Sam.

"I'm the best," countered Tucker.

"You're both wrong," said Danny. "Jazz is the worst and the best."

Jazz opened her mouth, then closed it. "That doesn't even make sense," she said.

"I know," moaned Danny. "Do you smell popcorn?"

"Actually, yeah," said Tucker. He stood up. "Give me a second."

"Tucker?" asked Maddie. "Where are you going?"

"To get popcorn," said Tucker, as he walked off to the parodos. "I'll be back."

Maddie frowned after him, but didn't stop him. Instead, she came to sit next to Danny. "What's happening?" she asked.

Danny shrugged, glancing at where his other classmates were sitting. The twins were huddled next to each other. The A-listers were sticking together. Valerie was standing, arms crossed, face drawn into a scowl.

"Tucker's going to go get popcorn. Echo and the wisps are talking to the the other wisps, to make sure that everything is okay, and that there isn't a problem with crossing over. To let them know what's going on. They probably have a ritual. Um. They're part of the same tribe, Bright Harp, but the guys we've been with are the Three Winds clan, but the ones they're trading off to are the Halogen Whistles. No, I don't know how they come up with their names." He rubbed his eyes. "Why?"

Maddie sighed through her nose. "I'm sorry, Danny. I've put a lot of pressure on you today."

"I guess," said Danny, slouching.

"Mrs Fenton," started Sam.

"What?" said Maddie.

Sam bit her lip. "You've been doing a lot more than pressuring him. You realize that, right? Pressuring is what my parents do."

"Sam," said Danny.

Sam huffed. "You deserve more than this," she muttered.

Then Tucker reemerged from the parodos, carrying a large bowl of popcorn. "There's a bunch of ancient carnival and theater stuff back there," said Tucker, as he rejoined the group. "It was kind of cool," he continued, "but except for the popcorn machine, it was all locked up in these weird cages. Do you know what's up with that?"

Sam gave Tucker a flat look. "Name the one experience we've had with a carnival, Tucker."

"Oh. Yeah. Never mind. Why even have it, then?"

"Other people like it," said Danny, who had slouched so much that he was now staring at the ceiling.

"Oh," said Tucker. "Popcorn?" he asked, offering Danny the bowl. Danny took a handful.

Then the ghost fires went out, and the wisps filled out, trilling.

What followed was- Well, Danny wanted to call it an opera, or maybe a ballet, but wisps always sang, always changed color, and they were always flying like that, zipping around, twirling and twisting. This was just their version of a ceremony, their version of formality. Still, Danny couldn't help but feel like they were showing off, for his sake, or to impress the other clan, if nothing else.

Then the music stopped, and about three quarters of the wisps that had come with them flitted back out, towards their own territory, and they were replaced with twice that number of new wisps. Echo came back out from the proskenion, and a brightly colored wisp zoomed up to Danny, bobbing up and down excitedly in the air. Danny smiled gently at the leader of the Halogen Whistles, and hummed a greeting.

"There are hammocks behind the skene," said Echo.

"The what?" asked Paulina.

"The building that's the back of the stage," said Echo gesturing. "That's where we're sleeping."

"We only ate lunch a couple of hours ago," said Valerie.

Echo tilted his head. "Do I care? Nope."

"Echo-" started Maddie.

"It's bad enough that you're making him make me bring you this way," said Echo, cutting her off, "but I want everyone to be awake and well-rested by the time we get to Harmony, in case we have to run. I'm not going to let you be the reason he gets caught by them." He vanished, bringing an end to the conversation. Valerie started grumbling about ghosts and disappearing acts.

"I need to sleep," said Danny. "You do too, Mom."

"We know you and Dad didn't last night," added Jazz. "Please."

Maddie covered her eyes. "Alright," she said.