Chapter 168: Great Queen of Heaven
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Okay, Danny was done with the panic attack. There were other reasons for his ghost homing sense (screw the name!) to not be working. Actually, even if Amity Park had been destroyed, Danny would still be able to point to where it had been. One contributing factor to Danny's internal compass pointing towards Amity Park was that he had died there. Just because the place had been trashed, that wouldn't change.
Now, he had to figure out what had changed it. The Fenton portal being closed might do it, since he had died in the portal. That might have thrown his homing sense off-kilter. Might. It would be reasonable for the Fenton portal to be shut off, considering that all the Fentons were in the Ghost Zone. Except, of course, that even Danny's parents couldn't figure out how to do that without a side effect of massive destruction. Or other ghost-related weirdness. His parents weren't sure which. The portal was self-sustaining.
The other thing that could have happened was something he had experienced before, something a portal could do. He could have traveled into the past. Usually he had a little more warning than this before he time traveled. Enough warning not to freak out because his town was gone.
(Maybe he should endeavor to find out if his homing sense was really connected to Amity Park, or just to the place he died, once he got back home. He had never been quite sure, and now he was thinking that would be pretty useful information.)
He was probably in the past. That would explain why the gate wasn't decorated. It hadn't been defaced. It hadn't even been decorated yet. Probably. He didn't know how far back he was.
He half closed his eyes. Maybe that had been that weird nagging little feeling in the back of his head. Time. He had time powers. Tiny little baby time powers. Sort of. Ish. He had some time sense. Yes. That seemed about right. He was far, far in the past.
So, what he should do now was find Clockwork. Clockwork, even if Clockwork didn't know him yet, would be able to see that he wasn't from 'now' and send him back to his home time. Heck, Clockwork probably already knew that he was here. Now. Whatever.
He just had to find Clockwork. That would be... hard. He really wasn't sure where he was, and he didn't know if Clockwork had moved Long Now at some point in the last however long.
On the plus side, he wouldn't have to worry about changing history, since he'd gone through a portal, rather than one of Clockwork's time windows. If he was going to cause a paradox going through a portal, Clockwork would have already 'solved' him. At least, he thought that was how that worked... He wasn't entirely sure. Time travel was confusing. Anyway, going through time via portals didn't cause paradoxes. Via normal portals, anyway. Usually. Mostly.
Oh, jeez, he had no idea. Maybe that hadn't been a normal portal. Maybe he was grossly misunderstanding Clockwork's work with paradoxes. Maybe he should avoid interacting with everything and everyone, just in case. He didn't want to squish any butterflies.
(He needed to learn more about time. Clockwork had shown him so much, but he was still so useless when something time-travel related came up and Clockwork wasn't there.)
All he knew for sure was that there were paradoxes, which caused branches, bulges, or breaks in the timeline, and stable loops, which didn't cause any harm, and were sometimes even necessary. And he didn't know which one he was in. That was for sure, too.
Well, he'd never find Long Now while avoiding everyone and everything. He probably couldn't even survive while avoiding everyone and everything. He still wasn't well. He was honest enough with himself to admit that. Actually, he probably couldn't navigate through the Zone avoiding all other people, period. It wasn't possible. There would be too much stuff, too many people. Heck, he might have already changed something. He'd been here and unconscious for a while. He didn't know how long. He could have changed something already and not even know it.
Danny groaned. He'd have to assume that he was in a stable loop. That would make things easier.
(If not for the crippling fear that he'd accidentally erase the future he'd come from. He was pretty sure that wouldn't happen, but clearly he didn't understand enough about time to know.)
He'd go to the little town. Yeah. See where he was, see what era he was in, see what landmarks there were, see what supplies he could get. Then, maybe, find a safe place to rest. He was already wearing out, but he didn't want to let go of his ghost form. He wasn't sure he could get it back if he let it go, and he needed it to talk to whoever was at the town, since humans probably weren't exactly common around here.
He turned to the little town.
It exploded.
Danny stared.
(He hoped those people were alright, but with that kind of explosion, they couldn't be.)
(Part of his heart broke.)
(A more selfish and practical side of him, however, reminded him that this had happened ages ago, from his proper perspective in his proper time.)
No way was his luck that bad. Well. It was. But, seriously. He had been here and awake for maybe fifteen minutes, and the first place he wanted to go exploded? Really?
The shockwave reached him before he could react with anything more than incredulity, the ectoplasm screaming around him. He tumbled backwards, and hit the side of the gate. Ancients! The town must have been utterly disintegrated. No wonder he didn't know what it was, it hadn't survived to his time.
Something came shrieking, zooming out of the blast zone like a flash of lightning. Towards him.
Maybe he should run.
He took off, as fast as he could. It wasn't fast enough. He was cut off.
It was a woman. She rode a yellow-white lion with electricity in its mane and flanks streaked with deep, bleeding gashes. She wore a crown on her midnight-black hair, a necklace made of blue stones close around her throat, a longer one against her chest, a long, flowing dress of closely-woven cloth, a breastplate, and a single golden bracelet around her wrist. In her hands, she held the reigns of the lion and a blue stone rod.
She burned with power. Her eyes flashed as she wrestled the lion into submission. The air sparked with it, boiling and wrinkling. Her skin shimmered and glowed.
She was human. Entirely, completely human. She didn't have even the barest shadow of a core on a her heart. Danny didn't know how he knew, but he did.
Danny shrunk back. He knew when he was, now, and perhaps a little too well.
A heartbeat later, all his indecision about acting and disrupting the timeline went out the window. This was here. This was now. This was happening in front of him.
This was Inanna, Queen of Heaven, destroyer of Ebih, destroyer of Kur, most holy priestess, the Morning and Evening Star, foremost in battle, giver of law, bearer of the mes. She had cut a bloody swathe through the Infinite Realms in her quest to conquer them and become Queen of All Ghosts. She was a sorceress without equal. She had been worshiped as a goddess.
By some accounts, she had very nearly succeeded. She had certainly devastated dozens of contemporary Realms, and carelessly destroyed a countless number of ghosts and humans. She had even made it to the Core, according to Ghost Writer's books, and a disaster was only averted by delaying actions on the part of Neti, the gatekeeper. The Ancients had barely arrived in time to defeat her.
Danny's presence on her path might have destroyed that chain of events. It might have diverted her, accelerated her, sped her along.
He had to do something, he had to fight her, distract her, delay her. He'd be destroyed, of course, but he still had to do it. He had to protect the Realms, the Core, his timeline, everything he knew. Or- Had anyone sent word ahead yet? What if he had moved Inanna out of the path where she was seen, and the Ancients were alerted? Did the Core even know? Did the Ancients? Clockwork had to know, right? Except, he hadn't in the original timeline. Inanna had used her mes, her seven weapons, to bend away the Ancients' senses... Or was the story that the Ancients had been in council, meeting to decide the next king, the correct tale? In any case, the Ancients hadn't arrived to stop Inanna until the last minute.
The lion was struggling against Inanna. Danny was glad; it kept the brunt of her attention away from him, it delayed her. But it was horrifying, what was happening to it. Its ectoplasm was coming away in ribbons, streaming in the general direction of the Core. The lion was ending, right in front of Danny's eyes, and Danny couldn't do anything about it.
He hadn't thought that they were close enough to the Core for this kind of dissolution to happen. Unless it was because of its injuries.
Danny's mouth was dry. That was what was going to happen to him.
Inanna cursed under her breath, and threw her reigns down, into the void as the lion completely dissolved.
Ancients, if only he could speak to the Core, if only he could touch it, like it had touched him, when he fought the GIW.
Tell us what?
That Inanna was here. That she was coming. That she had destroyed that town, and the lion, and she wanted the throne that Gugulanna had so recently vacated. That he would fight, or delay, or anything he could, but he would lose and she would come, juggernaut that she was.
So, you would defend us, little one?
What was that?
Pay attention.
He was. Promise.
(Something wound around his core, softly, gently, distant.)
(He didn't know what was happening.)
Inanna was looking at him now, surveying him, up and down. He wouldn't be surprised if she could see right through him. Her eyes were so bright.
She pointed at Danny with her rod, and he got ready to lunge out of the way. Inanna grew in Danny's mind. He felt the tug on his thoughts, but not from the rod, from the blue necklace. His consciousness shifted rapidly between his multiple brains, throwing off the influence. He had learned since Freakshow. He wasn't going to be controlled again.
"You," she said, "gatekeeper. Where is the Core?" Of course, that wasn't exactly what she said. She was speaking in Sumerian, after all. "Where is Ereshkigal?"
Danny blinked. On one hand, he was stunned he wasn't dead already. On the other... Could she not feel it, glowing with power to her left?
He was stunned to realize, no, she couldn't. She didn't have a core of her own, and whatever protected her must keep her from feeling it any other way (and she had to be protected, or else she would be succumbing to the same fate as the GIW agents who had torn their suits). She must not know where the Core was, not exactly.
But, that wasn't the only thing that bothered him about her questions. "Gatekeeper, great lady?" he asked, in the same language. Gatekeeper, in Sumerian, was Neti. Being called by that name, at this time, in this place, it felt... ominous. The real Neti had to be around, somewhere, close.
"That is your gate, is it not?" She jerked her chin at the violet gate.
"Y-Yes," he said. Time to play dumb. "But, great lady, why should you wish to know such a thing?"
Inanna rolled her eyes. "I have come to your people in your time of need, when your king, the Great Bull Gugalanna, has passed away, to take the empty throne as is my right and destiny." The speech sounded rehearsed. Perhaps it was. "Would you rather your lands fall to chaos forever, and become sundered from itself?"
"No, great lady, but I know not what you want from me." He could only hope to stall long enough to come up with a plan. He'd have to misdirect her, somehow, but in a way she wouldn't see. She must know that the core was around here, somewhere, in this general direction, otherwise she wouldn't be here.
"You are a gatekeeper. Do you not know these lands? Tell me the swiftest path to Ereshkigal, and the throne."
Swiftest? No, he needed something slow.
Oh! The gates! The Tantric Gates! That was it! Maybe. He could only hope they were as much of a walkaround now as they were in his time.
They are, little one.
That would be a good idea, then.
When she passes through, take her weapons.
That- Oh. That wasn't his thought. He might cry. Did the Ancients know?
Gently, child, little gatekeeper. Focus.
The voice was faint. They probably didn't know. If he could take the weapons while leading her through the gates, the Ancients would be able to see her again... Or defeat her more easily, if the other stories were true.
Wait. If he could take her weapons? If he could lead her through the gates? Had he inadvertently usurped Neti's role?
There is no one who has taken Neti as a name. No one who keeps this gate. You may have it, if you wish.
Oh. Well. No pressure, then.
"Great lady, great lady, I beg you, do not strike me down, but the throne of Ereshkigal is far, far from here. I know not who has told you else-wise, but they have lied."
Inanna's face twisted. Maybe he should have led with saying he knew a way to the Core, instead of trying to build up a buffer against her latter ire. Oh, jeez, he didn't want to be vaporized.
"I should not have trusted so easily... When I claim the throne, I will destroy them for their arrogance. You know the way, gatekeeper" You know the way, Neti. "You will lead me."
Danny bobbed in what he hoped came off as pathetic agreement. Truly, it was closer to that than he would like to admit. "Yes, great lady." He swallowed. "The way is long, and strange, and hard, but I can show you."
Inanna nodded very slightly. "Lead on."
Danny floated backwards, not daring to take his eyes off of Inanna.
Inanna flicked the rod at Danny, and a spark of electricity leaped from its tip. "Lead on, I say. I have dawdled enough."
Danny flinched, and turned, flying as quickly as he could to the violet gate. Inanna had no trouble keeping up with him. He had to wonder how she did it. Danny had seen humans mimic flight in the Ghost Zone by falling and shifting their perception of gravity. He had done that himself. This, what Inanna was doing, it wasn't that. She was hovering. She was gliding. Maybe some of Danny's classmates could do that, eventually, but they were more ghostly than Inanna was. They had cores that Danny could feel. Inanna did not.
Maybe one of her weapons gave her that power?
Okay, that didn't really matter. Well, it did, but more as an academic proposal, a thought experiment, than anything practical. He was absolutely sure Inanna could destroy him weapons or no weapons.
But, he had to get rid of the weapons. How could he do that?
Well, the Tantric Gates were supposed to have a long and bumpy ride. That was supposed to be especially unpleasant for humans. The Core, Lady Ereshkigal, she had told Danny to take the weapons when they went through the gates. That might work- But, of course, the Core had suggested it. She wouldn't say things that couldn't work, not here. Danny wasn't sure how a human pretender on the throne would affect the Realms, but he didn't imagine it would be good.
It would not. Should she be able to claim the throne, however falsely, the connection would be empty, hollow, one-sided. She would not hear our voices. The Realms would crumble, the lands be sundered. You would be better.
So, about what Danny thought. Good to know.
Although, there was something he didn't like about that last part.
