Shoot, this one wound up being really long. Oh well.

Special thanks to Obi Quiet!

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Chapter 121:

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Smith had left the Digressed Tower when the boy started talking. Part of him was curious, another concerned... But the child's false life-story really wasn't Smith's business, the child had more than proven his survival skills, and, now that he had retrieved what he had come for, there was no reason for him to be here.

He patted the object in his pocket once again. He had not held it for years and years. He had not used it in longer. Far longer. Back in the Digressed Tower, it had looked broken. It had been broken. An odd decoration shoved in a corner that no one really bothered with or noticed. No one had so much as touched it.

Now, well, he could feel the mold through his pocket, feel the runes and symbols carved into its surface. He could feel the smooth edges, the weight of it. He could feel the power it exuded, the traces it left on his hands, on his clothing. This was one of his better works, and he was... not happy. He did not do 'happy.' Satisfied. Content. Soothed.

Why shouldn't he be?

He had everything he needed to reforge the Ring of Rage.

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Danny twitched hard, coming out of sleep all at once. He had been dreaming, but he couldn't remember what he had been dreaming about. All he knew was that he was anxious. Incredibly so. His heart was hammering so fast he could hardly separate it from the nervous, stuttering hum of his core.

He breathed in deeply. As far as he could see, there was no real reason to be so anxious. Everyone was here, everyone was sleeping... Almost everyone. Vlad was awake, and so was Hannah, oddly enough. Valerie looked like she had fallen asleep in a sitting position. His eyes flicked from person to person, examining them more closely. They all looked fine. Maybe it was just because of Vlad? But Danny had frequently been forced to sleep in Vlad's general vicinity, or in proximity to enemies.

Danny levered himself into a better position, avoiding leaning on or bumping into Ellie. She was sleeping peacefully, purring just a little, and he didn't want to disturb her.

"Go back to sleep, Daniel," said Vlad. "You've only been asleep for an hour."

Danny took another deep breath, and glanced at Hannah, who shrugged.

"Check- Check the outside?" asked Danny.

"None of those bounty hunters is here, Daniel. I just looked a few minutes ago."

"Check again, please."

Vlad rolled his eyes, but flicked into invisibility before opening the door. Danny waited, tense.

"There is no one out there but art enthusiasts," said Vlad, closing the door and returning to the visible spectrum.

Danny relaxed a little. Not entirely. Vlad was still right there, after all. "You're sure."

"Yes," said Vlad. "I'm sure. Either there aren't any more of them, or they all went to different floors." He adjusted his suit. "I couldn't say why they would avoid this floor, but perhaps they already swept it looking for you, and they've moved on."

"Swept it," said Danny. His blood pressure was still much higher than he liked it, and he felt flushed. "Looking for me. They're looking for me." He started to get up off the couch. "I've got to go."

"Where do you think you're going?" said Vlad, striding over.

"I've got to go," repeated Danny. "I'm putting everyone in danger."

Vlad pushed down on Danny's shoulders, forcing him to sit. Danny hissed at the unwanted contact, but couldn't really do anything about it.

"No," said Vlad. "You aren't in any condition to go anywhere by yourself. You can't even walk. Is it your intention to die?"

Danny shook his head.

"In any case, I'm not about to let you out of my sight. So if you left, I would leave too, leaving all your little friends to fumble through the Zone on their lonesome."

"Vlad-"

"Go back to sleep, Daniel."

"No," said Danny, querulously. (Part of him knew that he was being unreasonable, but this was Vlad.)

The corner of Vlad's mouth quirked up, amusement evident. It faltered after a moment. "You're almost as warm as I am," he said, very nearly sounding concerned. He shook off the concern. "You need to sleep, Daniel. Heal."

"I don't want to," said Danny, now acting more than a little childish.

A raised eyebrow joined Vlad's upturned mouth. "Did you have a nightmare?" he asked.

"No," said Danny, sulking.

"Don't be such a child," said Vlad.

"I am a child," said Danny. "Leave me alone." He batted Vlad away, little force behind his blows. Vlad stepped back, hands raised.

"At least lie down," said Vlad, still using that supercilious tone he loved so much. "Pretend to sleep. You're disturbing your cousin."

Danny looked down at Ellie. She didn't look disturbed, but then, she was a ghost. She might be picking up emotions from Danny. He sighed, and, though he was loathe to do anything Vlad said, laid down. Vlad had some points. Not a lot, but some.

This time, when he closed his eyes he focused on the hum of Ellie's core.

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The next time he woke, he woke to chatter. He sat up, blearily rubbing his eyes.

Danny was not looking forward to the next floor. No, he was not. It didn't sound like anyone else was, either. Except for Ashley, who was adopted, Danny was pretty sure that everyone still had at least one living parent. Even if they weren't on the best terms with those parents, none of them wanted their parents dead.

Of course, none of the rest of them had direct evidence that one of the more likely results of the death of their parents was them turning into an incredibly destructive lunatic.

"Hey, Ellie?" he said after a moment.

"Yeah?" said Ellie, who was... Danny wasn't sure exactly what she was doing. Maybe going through a morning wake-up routine despite having no water, or anything else that would normally be used in such a routine. She was sort of scrubbing at her hair right now. Danny experimentally drew a hand through his own hair, and grimaced as he came up short with knots. "What is it?" asked Ellie, getting Danny's attention again.

"Earlier, you said something about bypasses? Could we maybe skip the next floor?"

"Um," said Ellie, frowning in thought. "I'm not sure. It's definitely one of the floors that people would avoid. But..."

"Never mind," said Danny, realizing at least one problem with his 'plan.' "There are probably more bounty hunters out there, anyway, waiting for us."

"Mhm," said Ellie. "Probably."

"Almost certainly," said Vlad, the long hours awake having done nothing to dampen his superior tone. "Come along then, children."

"Is there any food?" asked Star.

"I'm starving," said Paulina, dramatically.

"No," said Vlad, scornfully.

"Maybe," Ellie said, with an air of contemplation, "you should have thought about that before you ran away from a place that actually had food? And, you know, safety? Kinda rare things for humans in the Ghost Zone, after all."

"Hey!" protested Dash. "She made us."

"Uhuh. Sure, keep telling yourselves that."

"Danielle," said Vlad, repressively. Ellie stuck out her tongue. The older ghost rolled his eyes, and opened the door, sweeping out. Danny and his classmates scrambled to follow, Mr Lancer herding them along.

Surprisingly, Danny's ankle felt a little better. He doubted that he could manage more than a few steps on it without Ellie as a crutch, but it was still better. Which was good.

Ellie and Danny hobbled along at the end of the group, just in front of a very frazzled, very worn, Mr Lancer.

The journey to the stairs was neither quiet nor uneventful. A stage had been set up on one side of the main room, and it was full of ghosts playing on unfamiliar instruments. At one point, Vlad was attacked by a ghost wielding a highly decorated sword. At another, someone tried to grab Tiffanie and use her as a hostage. There were a couple people who tried to attack Danny directly. But once the fighting started in earnest, and the other ghosts on the floor had realized what was going on, well, it turned out that the ghostly art scene, while not noticeably more obsessive than the human art scene, was full of people who were ready to throw down and had some really awesome powers. At least one would-be-assassin got trapped in a picture.

The band played on. Danny had to wonder if their instruments had made them deaf.

The fight ended before they reached the stairs, the bounty hunters taken care of. Of course, then all the ghosts who had helped them wanted to know what was going on, why people were trying to kill and kidnap them, and who their favorite artists were. There were a couple who had also decided that Danny and Ellie were 'so cute' (Which Danny really didn't understand. Both he and Ellie looked terrible, disheveled, sleep, deprived and dirty.) and who wanted to either paint them, or treat them like very small children. Many of the others were fascinated with the other students, or the mere presence of humans. Apparently they hadn't realized that the others weren't ghosts the first time they'd gone through the floor's main room.

A few were very concerned about Danny's injuries. Danny found this somewhat cheering, but the fact was that none of them really knew much about medicine, and they didn't have the time to just hang around. They had to go up.

So they did, a few of the ghosts forming a kind of honor guard around them.

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Danny gasped. Swallowed. Straightened and stepped away from Ellie. He pulled down the long sleeves of his black shirt. No need for anyone to see his scars.

Ellie, meanwhile, was glaring at Vlad. "You're alive," she said, tone thick with displeasure. Danny glanced over. Was that not usually the case? Vlad was the reason they were here, after all, trying to get a handle on the nuances of ghost culture. Or... Was he? The last several floors confused things significantly. Where did his former classmates come from? Mr Lancer? Mr Lancer was supposed to be dead. And why were people trying to kill him? Something about an Issitoq? Who was Issitoq?

Vlad rolled his eyes. "Yes, I am," he said, exasperated. "This is the floor that makes you think that your parents are dead."

"Right," breathed Danny. "Does that mean... Does that mean that Mom and Dad aren't- That they're not..?"

"Yes, Maddie and that buffoon you call a father are both still alive," said Vlad.

"You mean-" said Star (When had she cut her hair so short?), "That all our parents are alive?"

"I have no idea," said Vlad. "I don't know your parents."

"Your parents are fine, Star," said Mr Lancer, smiling at the girl, then shooting a withering glare at Vlad. "All of your parents are fine except, well, Ashley, you were adopted, so..."

"Yeah," said Ashley. "I know."

Vlad sighed. "It is more likely than not that your parents are fine, considering the properties of this floor."

"They're alive," said Danny, tasting the words in his mouth. He blinked back tears. They were alive. He didn't live with Vlad. Admittedly, Vlad had been surprisingly civil, and, well, nice, about the whole thing. This trip to the Bends had been meant to distract him from his grief. He hadn't tried to make Danny do anything evil the entire time.

When Danny thought of what could have happened... When he thought of Dan, and the idea of being so alone that he would willingly...

"Are- Are Sam and Tucker-?" he asked, shakily. "Jazz? They're alive, too?"

"Er, yes," said Mr Lancer.

Danny did start crying, then. He wiped at them ineffectually.

"But, Ellie, you... Not that I'm not glad you exist, but... How?"

"Uh," said Ellie, "that idiot made me." She jerked her head at Vlad, a very mixed expression on her face. "Because he wanted the 'perfect son' and you couldn't stand him, but I wasn't good enough because I was a girl, so he made another one, but that one turned out to be a crazy monster who killed him, so..." She shrugged.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," said Danny. His voice broke at the end of the sentence, and he choked a little, tears pouring down his face. "They're alive. They could be alive. I can't believe it."

Danny's classmates, save Ashley, were similarly weepy. Everyone was getting hit with the emotional weight of their parents being alive. Danny was being hit with everyone he cared about being alive. He was so happy he could hardly process it. He tottered unsteadily up to Mr Lancer.

"I'm glad you're not dead," he told the teacher.

"I am also glad not to be dead," said Mr Lancer, uncertainly.

Danny sniffed, and hugged Mr Lancer.

One of the ghosts who had come with them approached, then. Danny would say that the ghost was old, maybe even ancient, and definitely was not one that had ever been human. They took the form of a dense, vaguely humanoid, pale blue cloud that churned with eyes. When they had spoken on the lower floor, they had used only Old High Spirit, though they clearly understood English. "Mimaalemiekikunu, imaale bu yihe uuwee ichuuwee, e ewi maale meuka u ehlsoo hu." A marbled blue hand emerged from the depths of the clouds to pat Danny on the shoulder, before withdrawing again. "Emi wewikewo i iuuhwisauhol ewi maale muu hii. U maale uuwihesheu." Cherished one, were they dead or gone, we would be pleased to take you. All wonderful things and soft places would be yours. As is proper.

"Um," said Danny, turning away from Mr Lancer to face the ghost better and parse the difficult language. "Muu noo wewooku," he said, finally, settling on politeness, "u muu u miikuehewelusehsu." My thanks for your kind words.

The ghost's clouds billowed in a kind of pleased way. "Iewuusiwu." Good child. The ghost extended two more hands (both left ones) to pat Danny again.

Danny blushed, and stepped away. He thought the ghost was being a bit patronizing, and overly familiar, but considering the obvious age difference, Danny couldn't really blame the ghost. He looked up at Vlad, half expecting the other hybrid to step in. Vlad had become somewhat... territorial about Danny, since Danny's parents had died. Danny had sort of come to expect it. But Vlad seemed to be distracted by something else.

Danny tried to find what it could be. This floor was largely empty, except for the people who had come in with them. This was, unsurprisingly, an unpopular floor.

"Vlad?" he said. "What's wrong?"

"There should be more people here," said Vlad. "Stay close, little badger."

Danny nodded, and followed Vlad's instruction, walking over to stand at Vlad's side. Vlad looked shocked. Danny, thinking on it, supposed that he would be, if he was from a universe where Danny's parents were still alive. Danny and Vlad were most likely still enemies in Vlad's continuity. Or maybe not, if they were all still together.

"Yeah..." said Ellie, agreeing with Vlad's statement. "A lot of people come here to take advantage of the truce."

"A lot of-? Oh. Yeah."

"'Oh yeah' what?" demanded Valerie harshly. Danny glanced over at her. She looked awful. Her hair had been cut short, not unlike it had been in the averted future, but that wasn't what made her look so- Harsh. That was the word for it. Harsh and unforgiving. More so than usual, and Valerie was quite possibly one of the least forgiving people he had ever met.

"Not all ghosts have parents," said Danny, quietly, "and even for the ones who do, for the ones who were born human, anyway, a lot of them are so old that their parents are all long gone."

"Why would a ghost even care?" asked Valerie.

"Same reason you do," said Danny.

"Sure," said Valerie. "Whatever."

Danny watched Valerie with some trepidation. She had been even more intent on destroying Phantom since the... incident. She blamed Phantom for the deaths, and for the uptick in ghost attacks afterwards. There was truth behind both accusations, but it still hurt. Especially when she hit him with one of her weapons. He supposed he should be glad Vlad wasn't supporting her vendetta any more.

But that had been in his time line, with Damon Gray alive and well. Danny didn't know how this floor, the loss of both her parents, would affect her.

He licked his lips and swallowed.

"Should we-?" A will-o-the-wisp zoomed out of Danny's peripheral vision, into the center of the empty room. Where had it come from? Had it-? No, he remembered that these wisps had been with them through the rest of the Bends. But why?

The wisp chirped, and made a number of other orchestral sounds, but Danny couldn't make head or tail of what it was trying to say. He didn't speak, or more properly, sing, the wisp language.

"Does anyone speak wisp?" he asked.

"I thought you did," said Mikey.

"No? Not this version of me, anyway." The wisp trilled again. "No one? Really?"

The wisp made a disgusted noise which quickly morphed into a high-pitched scream. Then it fell to the ground, pulsing weakly. The other wisps made audible sounds of shock and dismay. The art ghosts gathered close, ready to fight.

Danny hadn't spent much time fighting alongside friendly, or even allied ghosts, so he was surprised at how willing, almost eager, the ghosts were to protect, to help. He wondered if the truce here was really so strong, so important, if it was just that most of those involved were children, if ghosts were far more social and generally decent than even he had been given to believe, or if something else entirely was going on.

It was heartening, anyway. Or would have been, if it wasn't for that poor wisp on the floor. After a few silent minutes, Danny couldn't stand leaving the poor thing out there, and took a step forward, as if to help. The other wisps immediately crowded around him, making scolding sounds. Vlad, too, put a hand up, stopping Danny.

"We can't just leave them there," said Danny. (His core ached, and he was trying to find a reason why.)

"It's a trap," said Vlad. The wisps chimed in agreement.

"Euwi maale uumee," whispered the old ghost. "Huumaale oowowowi."

Danny bit his lip, trying to find an argument. He didn't want to lose anyone else. But he didn't know the wisp. Why did it feel like the second bit was wrong? Was this what it was like when something important was covered up by the Bends?

There was a cold, echoing laughter. "Wise not to come farther," said an equally cold voice. "But we could destroy you, regardless. All of you. Give over the abominations, and you will be spared."

"What abominations?" said one of the art ghosts, a critic in square hipster glasses and a turtle-neck sweater. He looked like he could be Ghost Writer's cousin. It definitely wasn't Ghost Writer's half-brother, though. Danny had met Randy. Randy was much more... unsavory-looking, and had gray skin, not pale green. "The only abomination here is you, for breaking the truce!"

"And trying to kill children!" cried another.

"And for disrespecting art!"

"Are they disrespecting art, though?"

"Of course he is, look at those works of art! How could he possibly call them abominations?"

"I don't know if I'd call them art, either, though. They'd be great models, though."

"Say, do either of you do any-?"

"Enough!" cried the cold voice. Power sparked through the air. "Give us the abominations or all of you will perish!"

Danny was becoming suspicious. Defeating one wisp invisibly wasn't actually a very impressive display of power. It was rather strange, in fact, that such a powerful ghost that would choose bounty hunting as a lifestyle would be so hesitant to initiate a fight. On the other hand, remaining unseen, not just to the hybrids and humans, but to a large number of ghosts, all of whom had the visual arts either as an interest or an Obsession was no mean feat. At least, Danny didn't think that it could be. He didn't know these ghosts well. They might all be near-sighted, or short-spectrummed, or visibility-challenged.

He hissed lightly between his teeth. Vlad seemed to share the sentiment.

"Very grand words," he said. "But you haven't even given us a pretty show to go with them."

"We could destroy this one here," said the ghost. "We can snuff it out like a candle-flame."

"Yes, you could destroy a member of one of the weakest species of ghost in the Infinite Realms. That would show what, exactly?"

"Our conviction," hissed the ghost (or ghosts), "and that you cannot stop us."

"Can't we?" said Danny. The room froze. If the tone of the ghost speaking wouldn't be out of place in a refrigerator, Danny's was arctic, subzero, even. "You don't even know who you are facing."

"We do. We have been told what you are, what you can do. Do not try to bluff. It does not suit you."

Danny laughed. "That's a good one," he said, without humor. Honestly, he'd a lot less humor in general since his family had died. "You have no idea who you're facing here. Don't you know what this place does?" He ducked around Vlad's hand. "Don't you know what a small change can do to people to me, can you even begin to imagine what a large one might do?"

"Stay back!" The wisp on the ground squeaked.

"You're the one who shouldn't bluff."

"I said stay back!"

"It isn't 'we' anymore, hm?" said Danny. He smiled, making sure to show his teeth. "You do any more harm to that little one, and I will feed you your own entrails, whatever form they take." He took another step forward, smile broadening. "I can see you."

It wasn't a lie. Danny was now close enough to discern the outline of a large, three-headed ghost standing over the wisp, a foot pressing down on it. Impressive invisibility, yes, but with Danny's focus on his perception, he could pierce it.

"You wouldn't," said the ghost.

"I saw everyone I love die in fire. You think I could stand to see even more death without... snapping, just a little?" He took another careful step forward. "Did the one who sent you tell you even a fraction of what I can do? No?"

The ghost flickered briefly into visibility, and then fled. Danny dropped the smile instantly, and ran up to the wisp who was still on the ground, crying. The other wisps flew quickly after him, reaching him just as he gathered the little wisp up into his hands. "Poor little thing," he murmured, holding it close to his chest, hoping that proximity to his core might help stabilize it, much as Ellie had been stabilized, even if his core was doing some odd things right now.

Danny would freely admit to not knowing a lot about full-ghost medicine. He wasn't even sure if the little ghost was destabilized, or just hurt. Maybe it was different for other versions of him. There was certainly a part of him who felt like he should know more.

"Daniel!" said Vlad, shaking off the aftereffects of Danny's power. "What was that?"

"What do you mean, what was that? You taught me how to do it. Or... Didn't you?" He tilted his head to the side as the wisps gathered close around him and the fallen wisp. They tickled with concern.

"No," said Vlad.

"Weird," said Danny. "We should go up," he continued, more loudly, looking at the ceiling. "I don't think I like this floor."

"So we're going to ignore the fact that Fenton just, just- I don't even know what too call it. Stared down a ghost?" said Star. "We're really going to ignore that? Really? And the fact that he froze us all with some kind of ghost power thing?"

"I froze you? Weird. I thought that you would have had built up a resistance to that sort of thing by now," said Danny, idly. He made a series of soft kissing noises at the wisp. "Little friend," he mumbled.

Ellie walked up to him. "If you still remember how to do that when we leave, you're going to have to teach me."

"Okay," said Danny. The wisp seemed to be doing better. It had floated up to curl (Could wisps curl? They were very round.) against the base of Danny's throat.

"You're right, Daniel," said Vlad, finally seeming to get over his shock. "We should move on."