WHO HAS TWO THUMBS AND IS REALLY LATE WITH THIS UPDATE BECAUSE THEY FORGOT WHAT DAY OF THE WEEK IT WAS.
THAT'S RIGHT IT'S ME.
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Chapter 210: Inter
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"It has been many years, old friend!" called Sojourn as the crowd of ghosts landed on Libra and divested themselves of their human passengers. "And you, too, young prince!"
"Hi!" said Danny, waving. "Uhhh, do you want your cloak back?"
"No. It looks good on you."
"Where have you been?" asked Clockwork.
Sojourn raised an eyebrow. "Following your plan," he said.
"My plan." Clockwork pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. "Of course. My plan. I am still… discovering new things about my plan."
"That sounds about right," said Sojourn, grinning. "And you, Pandora? How are you?"
"I am well," said Pandora. "But where have you been? Really? And how did you know to come back?"
"Visiting the far places," said Sojourn. "Those that lie far from the core. As for the 'when,' Clockwork gave me this." He held in his hand a small watch. "An artifact out of time. You told me they would be all but obsolete by the time I came back, but it looks like you have added some to yourself."
Clockwork ran a hand over the watches strapped to his wrists. "I have, at that."
This was when Libra's doors burst open, spilling dozens of advocates, adjudicators, and other worthies out onto the steps.
Jazz, Sam, and Tucker came with them.
Danny and Ellie were swept into a group hug.
"Tucker," said Danny, laughing, "what are you wearing?"
"The Egyptians gave it to me," said Tucker. "It's cool!"
"Yeah, you're right," said Danny. "It looks like they tried to modernize the old look a bit?"
"Yeah," said Tucker. "What are you wearing?"
"Long story."
"We're so glad all of you are in one piece," said Jazz, ruffling first Danny's hair, then Ellie's.
"Me too," said Ellie.
"So, what's been going on?" asked Danny. "What have you been doing? Is everyone alright? How are Mom and Dad?"
The three exchanged glances. "Mostly," said Jazz, "everyone is fine. The trial is," she sighed, "it's complicated. You'll need to talk to Hemlock."
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"I'm not doing that!" said Danny, incensed, hands clenched around the edge of Hemlock's desk as he leaned back in his chair. "Can they do that? I thought messing with bonds was supposed to be off-limits."
"Even here, there are loopholes," said Hemlock. "But it won't actually affect your bond with your parents."
"Won't affect– Really? When it's supposed to make it so that I'm not worried about how what I say will affect them?" Danny got up and started to pace. "I can't imagine how it would do that, without messing with my bonds, or my Obsession, or something."
"I can see how you might reach that conclusion," said Hemlock, "but it is my current understanding that the procedure acts more like human antidepressants, or human anxiety medication."
"You have no idea how either of those things work."
"It would only be to make you more comfortable," said Hemlock.
"I can't believe that you're agreeing with this," said Danny.
"I am not. I do not. I have argued against it extensively in the past several days. I merely want to prepare you for it if the initial committee does approve one of these measures. None of them are as bad as you seem to believe, and they are all temporary."
"I think that they're exactly as bad as I believe, if they keep me from seeing the consequences of my actions," shot back Danny.
Hemlock frowned up at him. Danny realized that he was floating over a foot above the floor and forced himself to land.
"What would happen," said Hemlock, "at least with the method I believe the committee is most likely to decide on, is that you would still be perfectly aware of what was going on around you and be able to act freely, but the conflict you would feel between your oath to tell the truth to the court and your need to protect your parents would be eased."
"Eased how? By not being able to register that the truth threatens their wellbeing?"
"In short, yes. Although some of the others simply mitigate the reaction, ameliorate the stress."
"I'm not doing it," said Danny. "If they're worried about me freaking out in the middle of court, then, fine, I'll take an oath not to do that. But I'm not going to go in there with a clouded mind." He let out a puff of air. "I refuse."
"This may not be a matter of simply refusing," said Hemlock, cautiously.
Danny bit his lip. "If that doesn't work on them… I don't want anything that will affect my Obsession, or my bonds, or being able to see how things are connected." He watched as Hemlock made a note. "Do you think that me talking to them directly would make a difference?"
"It may," said Hemlock. "Many would take your wishes into account."
"But they'd all still want it to happen."
"Not all," said Hemlock, "but many, yes."
"Do you think we could use that?" asked Danny.
"What do you mean?"
"Some of this other stuff," said Danny, gesturing at the paperwork on the desk. He singled out the thick folder labeled 'Possible Sentences.' "If I agreed to… submit… do you think they might get rid of some of this? Because, otherwise," said Danny, "I will fight it. My mind's been messed with too much to allow it to happen easily."
Hemlock nodded. "I think we may be able to work with that," he said. "Here, which punishments do you most want removed? We can start from there."
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Danny had been given quarters some distance from Libra's 'human wing' for what boiled down to political reasons. The suite of rooms was finely, almost decadently, furnished. The bed was huge. Big enough for three people.
So, of course, they tried to fit on five. And a box. Which had four more people in it, if Danny tried to think about it. So, there were nine people on the bed. Also, Clockwork had taken up residence in a nearby chair.
"You guys can sleep in your own rooms, really," said Danny, his starry cloak wrapped around him like a blanket. "I won't mind." Except he would.
"Last time we did that you got kidnapped," said Jazz. She got up. "I think I'll take the floor. The rug is soft."
"You don't have to—" started Danny. Ellie elbowed him.
"Don't you dare offer to sleep on the floor," she said. "This is your bed."
"It isn't, really," said Danny. "I wouldn't mind."
"What's in the box, anyway?" asked Tucker, laying on his side and propping up his head with his hand.
None of them had mentioned Danny putting it down, so either they were being more careful of him then usual, or he had been telegraphing how important its contents were to him. He sat up.
"You remember when we first met Ellie?"
"It would be hard to forget," said Sam, glancing back and forth between Danny and Ellie.
"You told me about it, yeah," said Jazz.
Ellie put her hand on the box. "These are my siblings."
"The other clones?" asked Sam, her eyebrows going up.
"Yeah," said Ellie. She opened the box, revealing four faintly glowing jars.
"I'd forgotten you saved their cores," said Tucker, softly. "But, how do you have them? I thought you hid them in your closet."
"Oh, Danny took a little detour to Amity Park to fight the government," said Ellie.
"The GIW technically aren't the government."
Three voices rang out. "You did what?"
"Hey, wait, is that my mom?" asked Tucker.
"Oh, yeah, both your parents came. Sam, your dad is around here, somewhere. Your mom didn't come because one of them had to stay with your grandma."
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It took time to tell the story of what had happened to him while he had been gone. A long time, especially factoring in the time it took for Sam and Tucker to reunite with their families. They did not, after all, know about the time travel. They didn't even know that Dan had gotten out, something that disturbed them all greatly, even after Clockwork chimed in to say that Dan was 'working on his rehabilitation.'
"So," said Tucker, "are we going to have to stage an intervention for you?"
"An intervention?" repeated Danny. "What for?"
"For eating ghost artifacts. I don't know about you, but I'm kind of worried. What's next? The thermos? My staff? My PDA?"
"I'm not going to eat your PDA," said Danny.
"Notice how he doesn't deny the other ones?" joked Sam.
"I'm not going to eat them! Technically, I didn't eat the other ones, either, I just hid them in my body."
Ellie covered her face, laughing. "That's worse, that's worse! That sounds way worse!"
"Not like that!" complained Danny. "Come on, guys, that's gross. I just phased them in."
"You still consumed them, though," pointed out Tucker. "That's eating. You're just, I don't know, a humanoid amoeba."
"Oh my gosh," said Danny. "No."
"Osmosis Jones!" exclaimed Jazz, suddenly.
"Noooooo," moaned Danny. "You traitor." He leaned back into his pillows.
Jazz moved to sit on the side of the bed, her face becoming concerned. "You don't still have them in you, do you?"
"No, Clockwork helped me take them out."
"That's good."
"Anyway, after that, Clockwork sent me back to the present, and…" Danny trailed off, looking at Clockwork. He wasn't sure how much he should say.
Clockwork sighed and ran his hands over the top of the box, which he had somehow slipped away from Danny and Ellie over the course of the long night. "Daniel's fall through time had taken him beyond my sight," he said. "I received this turn of events poorly. However, I had, evidently, planned for such a turn of events. I am now free of the Observants' control, although I am no longer entirely in control of my temporal abilities."
"That's great!" said Sam. "Congratulations! Or is that not the right thing to say?"
"It's quite alright," said Clockwork. "In any case, after Daniel arrived, we were able to drive off the Observants. Dan helped."
After that, Danny took back up the thread, with Ellie adding little interjections, explaining where she was and what she had been doing.
"Anyway," said Danny, finishing up. "That's what happened to me. What about you guys?"
"Not much," said Jazz. "Mostly we've just been trying to keep up with what's going on with the trial and trying to work on our powers."
Danny grinned. "You guys are going to have to show me those. Tomorrow." He yawned. "I hope they'll let me see Mom and Dad."
He noticed Jazz grimace, but she hid it quickly.
"You don't think they'll let me," said Danny.
"I'm sorry," said Jazz. "They hardly let me see them."
Danny frowned, mood soured. Unwillingly, he yawned again. "I'm still going to try," he declared. "I want to check up on everyone else, too."
"We told you, they're fine," said Sam. "Annoying, but fine."
"I believe you," said Danny. If he didn't, he wouldn't have stopped moving until he had personally seen each and every one of his people at Libra. But he did, and he was tired. The day and night had been long. "I just want to see them. So much to do tomorrow…"
"Not really tomorrow," said Tucker, also snuggling down among the covers. "No day and night, here. It's all just convention."
"Yeah," said Sam.
Danny hummed and closed his eyes. The lights went out.
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Half his attention still on his grandchildren in the bed and their friends, Clockwork opened the box. Faint light, more than bright enough for a ghost like Clockwork to see by, spilled out. Gently, he lifted one of the jars and examined it.
Inside, a crystalline structure floated, suspended, in bright liquid ectoplasm. Beyond the light, the ectoplasm was mostly clear, only occasionally swirling with color. The ectoplasm, Clockwork knew, remembered, from when he had watched Daniel frantically fill the jars, was a special, artificial mixture created by Daniel's parents. The jars, too, were special. Both were intended to preserve ghosts.
He remembered watching Daniel desperately pouring the ectoplasm into that first jar and holding it to his chest, praying for the ghost inside to be alright. The idea of destroying a person, even by mistake, even someone who had been fighting him, had been abhorrent to him.
Clockwork turned his gaze back to Daniel. He had listened carefully to Daniel's story. This would be the first time Daniel had truly slept since the battle for Amity Park. The time he spent unconscious after deflecting the missile didn't count.
More to the point, this was likely the first real rest, unencumbered by serious injury or immediate worry, Daniel had since he had faced the GIW back at his lair. True, Clockwork would like to cite the time Daniel had spent in Long Now as restful, but he didn't doubt that the main thing on Daniel's mind, sleeping or not, was Clockwork's wellbeing, or lack thereof.
Well, that or Amity Park. Clockwork had a very vague recollection of Daniel trying to slip away as he slept.
Regardless, Daniel hadn't had the time to process what he had done.
Clockwork put the jar back in the box and closed it. He watched and waited.
Soon enough, Daniel twitched, a tiny whine emerging from his throat. Clockwork was up, floating over the bed in a second, hand held comfortingly against Daniel's face.
Daniel calmed and slowly twisted so that one of his arms was looped around Sam's, and he was curled so that his body was half wrapped around Tucker's. A tear traced a slow path down the side of his face, and he trembled.
"It's alright," said Clockwork, softly. "It's alright." It would take Daniel time to come to terms with everything that had happened, and most of that would have to take place in waking hours, but dreams were a safe place to start.
