Yay! Happy Friday! This chapter is a bit longer. :)

Thank you all for being understanding about update schedule changes.

DarkFoxKit: Nope! No weird memory stuff. They will remember everything that happened in the Tower. You'll have to wait to see how that's resolved, but I'm not going to cop out on that.

DriftingGem: Hello! That is a good idea, and thank you for reviewing, but I'm not sure how I'd go about doing that, and I think I'd overall prefer to spend time writing. It would take a lot of re-uploading and copy pasting, and I just... Don't want to do that... Because I'm lazy... (sorry new readers!)

Guest: I... Didn't consider that. I guess? Sure?

Annie Camp: The answer to that is in this chapter. :)

Thank you for your reviews!

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Chapter 151: What Dreams May Come

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Issitoq thought he had been scraping the bottom of the barrel before. That was nothing. He was now using the barrel itself. His hands twitched and jittered nervously, claws catching on the fine fabric of his robe. His plans were like dust. Aragon was defeated, and, worse, stripped of his amulet. Many of the feral scientists he had recruited now lay in beds at the Duat Hospital, twisted into horrors. His other mercenaries were little use against the Elysian soldiers- and now Egyptians had arrived. He had predicted they would, of course, he had foreseen it, but he had expected the issue to be resolved by now.

He thought to the thermos being prepared back at the Panopticon. Was it-? No. Not that. He could not yet bear to unleash that horror upon the world. Not yet. He forced himself to smooth his robes. There were still other options. Other options. Yes. This was not the time for panic, it was a time for calm. For careful planning.

The hourglass felt cold on his chest. There was less sand in it than there had been when he first removed it from the vault.

He was running out of time. He was running out of pawns to sacrifice into the abomination's hungry maw. If only he had known. If only hadn't been blinded by the possibility of Pariah Dark's return. Even the renewed reign of the old king and all its privations would be preferable to the utter destruction of his order- Of everything! The visions flickered behind his eye once more.

He was running out of pawns. He was running out of intelligent pawns. No. He had already run out of intelligent pawns, and was now into the barely sapient pawns.

There were, however, other kinds.

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Danny had to admit he was amused by Vlad's horns. They were curly, and laid oddly against his hair. The cape, too, was a new addition. He was rather envious of Ellie's current set of wings. They were much prettier than his, much prettier than the ones she usually wore, in his opinion, luminously green, rather than transparently, ghostly gray.

Cujo was the most changed out of all of them. Typically, in Danny's memory, anyway, he wore a rainbow coat. Now, he was black, with demonic red eyes. The green he'd been exhibiting on lower floors was an interesting middle point between the two.

He liked this floor, he decided. It wasn't overly stressful, or maddening, and all his people seemed normal, at least relatively so. Vlad was a bit aloof, but that could be for any number of reasons, and at least he wasn't acting angry at, well, everything, like he sometimes did.

It would be better if he stopped being angry.

Danny rubbed his chest. His core hurt. His stomach hurt, too. He had to do something about the amulet in his stomach, he really did. It was probably indigestible. Probably. Based on the size of the thing, he doubted it would just... um... come out, either. Would phasing work? He hadn't tried it yet, but he'd phased things out of his stomach before. The amulet was inherently fae, though... That changed things.

There wasn't anything he could do about it now, of course, not with his core injury. He sighed.

The stairs loomed ahead of them, a broad spiral staircase. Danny blinked and rubbed his eyes. Had they been so close? He was having trouble focusing on what was going on.

"Remind me, what was next?" he asked.

"It makes your dreams come true," said Ellie.

"Right, right." He paused. "Which dreams?"

"Aspirations," supplied Prunella. "Things you hope for."

"Oh," said Danny. "I wonder if Pandora would like that floor..."

"Pandora? She's the one who's coming to get us, right?" asked Sarah.

"Mhm," said Danny.

"Why would she like it?"

"Because she's the Ancient Master of Hope."

"Okay," said Sarah. She sounded confused. Given other circumstances, Danny probably would have explained, but he was too tired just now.

As Danny mounted the steps, he wondered what his aspirations were, at this point. For a long, long time, he'd wanted to be an astronaut. Some part of him still wanted to be an astronaut. He'd been to space multiple times, he'd even been to the Moon, and Mars, and he'd flown a shuttle in that summer that didn't happen, but there was something about the idea of 'working for NASA' that he just really wanted. Recognition, maybe? He felt like that wasn't it. Adding to humanity's knowledge? Broadening the final frontier? Reaching out? Paving new roads for others to walk behind?

… Ah. There it was. 'Helping people' wasn't far from the surface of those sentiments. He smiled gently to himself. It was a nice reminder that he always had been, and always would be himself.

(Sometimes, looking at his alien, fae features in the mirror, running mental fingers over the inhuman shapes in his mind, he wondered and doubted.)

(But faeries were supposed to be cruel.)

But was that really what he aspired to, nowadays? Was it even possible, what with his unnatural biology? Would the Tower change the past to make that future more likely?

What else did he hope for?

He had a dearth of plans for the future, a result of having to fight off evil faeries all day and all night. He had a tentative desire to go to college, but he didn't know how that would turn out, and the idea of moving away from Amity Park, long term, without someone there to protect it made his skin crawl. Thinking about it now made it crawl, and he didn't think he'd been away for a month, much less four years.

His parents had often mentioned him taking over FentonWorks, and that had some appeal. He was good with ghost tech, and Amity Park's citizens and faerie problems gave them steady business. It wasn't quite a sure thing, but it was close. Security was, perhaps unsurprisingly, something Danny had come to value.

But did he hope for that? Could he even see himself doing that, now that his parents knew?

He turned the thought over in his head, once or twice. He was halfway up the stairs.

Maybe he was thinking of this too narrowly. This wasn't only about his future job choice.

His mind drifted to the dreams Nocturne had given him. All of them. The first... Being accepted. Being liked. Being with Sam. The most recent one... Peace. Being with friends.

Peace. Peace in the Realms. Peace between humans and ghosts. Ancients, he wanted that. Amity Park, safe. The GIW, gone. Ghosts and humans getting along. He wanted that. So much.

Getting out of the Tower safely- It couldn't show him that.

His parents being released. Vlad being less creepy. Valerie stopping her vendetta, permanently. The people in his class getting along. Danielle joining his family officially. His mistakes smoothed over, forgiven, forgotten. His friends being happy, successful.

Would this next floor show him a world like that? Would it show him things he didn't even know he hoped for?

He hoped.

He climbed the last step.

"Ah," he said, quickly getting out of the way of the people behind him. "I suppose we're not on a tour, then?"

He was on the receiving end of several glares.

"No," said Sam, shortly. "I don't think so. We weren't with all these people when we came in."

"So, we're 'these people,' now, Sam?" said Mia, with slight but strained amusement.

"You look good," said Danny.

"Thanks," said Sam. "You too. Is that a NASA jacket?"

"Haha, yeah, perk of working for them, you know?" He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yeah, I know," said Sam, giving him a half-smile before becoming serious again, and scanning the room.

"Oh, hey, Danny," said Tucker, "you still have that NASA jacket!" He looked around. "Oof. Not a tour, then."

"Why would we be here on a tour?" asked Paulina.

"And why are you all older?" asked Ellie, who wasn't.

Danny looked around the room. Most of his classmates were older than they had been on the lower floors. Of course, to Danny's memory, they looked to be about the right age. Late twenties to early thirties.

"I would guess," said Danny, "it's because a lot of our goals take time, or need us to be older."

"That's fascinating," said Prunella. "I've never seen this many humans on this floor before. This is great data. What are your lives like currently, from your perspectives?"

"Um," said Danny.

"We should keep moving, shouldn't we?" asked Mr. Lancer, who didn't look much changed from the time Danny was in high school. Or from the other floors, for that matter.

"Yeah, since we're apparently being chased," said Danny, as he started walking. "What are you all doing, here, anyway, if it isn't a tour?"

"Fell through a portal on my way to work."

"Same."

"Kidnapped by that hunter ghost."

"Got lost in one of those 'shortcuts.'"

"GIW experiment exploded and then we were here. Well. Here-ish."

"I came here to help you guys," said Ellie.

"And the, you know, all the people chasing us? Anyone know what that's about?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Okay, cool," said Danny. It wasn't, but it wasn't like he could do anything about it. "Great."

"Hey," said Hannah, who was wearing the remains of a blue pantsuit, "what were you doing giving a tour of the Ghost Zone, anyway?"

"I- er. Sam, Tucker, Jazz and I are on the council for human-ghost relations- we're working on a better name, by the way- so we were trying to, um, showcase some of the more interesting aspects of the Realms," said Danny, stumbling over the introduction he'd practiced. "Foster personal connections. That sort of thing."

"And you work for NASA?" asked Mikey, who was wearing a professorial jacket. He narrowed his eyes. "And you're taller. Like, a lot taller."

"With your grades?" added Ricky.

"Yeah. I mean, I didn't go the usual route. But once they realized what I could do for them... and that they didn't necessarily need a rocket to get into space..." Danny shrugged, awkwardly. "I save them a lot of money."

"You do more than that, Danny," said Sam. "You've rescued whole missions. Who else are they going to get to repair stuff on Mars?"

"Well, it wasn't just me, I just got the actual people and equipment through the Zone..."

"You know what I mean, and that's not it, either. Jazz, you're being pretty quiet."

Jazz pushed her glasses up her nose. "Oh, it's nothing. I'm just wondering if you're still married."

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"So," said Danny, as they reached the next floor. "I'm gonna just get this off my chest right now. I'm a spy."

Everyone stared at him. As if they were surprised. When they had just heard what this floor was supposed to do, not three minutes ago.

"For who?" asked Mia. Danny noted that she had her glasses back. Was that a camera he saw built into the frames? Interesting.

He shrugged his thin shoulders. "Who are you being a spy for?" he asked pleasantly. "Come on, we all knew we'd be spies, and it isn't as if this is going to give us any actual intelligence, or like we're still going to be spies once we get out. It isn't like we're really spies." He smiled lazily, and tipped his head to one side. "Is it?" He let his eyes flick over to the Elysians. Some of them flinched away.

"Let's hurry up," said the Elysian captain.

"Whatever you say."

No one discussed the floor that would come after this one, even though the journey took some time. They were all too busy being suspicious of each other, despite Danny's very best efforts. He'd even gone to the length of revealing his employer (Clockwork). People were just like that, he supposed. It was incredibly inconvenient, though, and-

He crossed over onto the next floor, and the thought skittered away. Ah. Okay. So, now he knew what this floor did. He turned around and walked backwards into the room, raising his hands.

Sign language, anyone?

A couple of his classmates were raising their hands to their ears, or throats, as if surprised by the memory of hearing or speaking.

He smiled as several of his classmates, people who he had interacted with only very rarely, on account of the language barrier, signed back yes.

The whole, on the run from bounty hunters thing aside, this was going to be great! Silver lining, and all that. He'd actually be able to get to know his classmates. Well, he probably wasn't deaf in the 'real' world, and might get along better with his classmates there, but that didn't change how he felt.

He smiled.

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Paulina gave Danny a small smile. He was the only one of her classmates who cared enough to actually learn sign language.

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Mikey grinned at Danny. He was one of very few people he knew who bothered to learn sign language to talk to him.

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Dash flipped off Fenton. He was always so smug about knowing sign language. Freaking show-off. Dash didn't know why he had bothered. The two of them hated each other.

Then he remembered that Fenton was probably Phantom and cringed.

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Jazz smiled at seeing Danny's face light up. It had taken her a couple of minutes to put two and two together, and seeing everyone else sign back to Danny, but this floor must make people deaf.

She thought back to the lower floors. Hearing was weird. It was like how being psychic was described in books, sometimes.

The Elysians were signing, too, but not in a language she knew. Danny seemed to understand it, though. It was probably a Ghost Zone version of sign language.

This would be interesting.