Chapter 271: Bearhe
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"What were you thinking?" the president asked his wife. "Helping your sister plan a coup, kidnap me?"
"I didn't know she was going to do that!" protested the president's wife, raising her handcuffed hands. "I had no idea that's what she was doing, no idea she was part of the GIW until after, and I thought she was lower level, I thought… I didn't realize she believed in it, not like that. She said she needed a job, and she knew ghosts, and I… I wanted to help her. She's my sister."
"Irene…" The president rubbed his face. "I don't know what to say. I don't know… This is going to destroy my career," he said. "And I still have to figure out what to do with all this ghost business and I can't trust you anymore." Throughout his career, through every campaign, she had been his staunchest supporter, his most trusted advisor, and now…
Could he even trust himself if he'd missed this whole thing?
The phone rang. Already hating whoever was calling him now, he picked up.
"What?" he snapped. He wasn't feeling particularly charitable or patient at the moment.
"The ghost embassy, um, they say that they've gotten more news about the situation and want to talk to you about it. Something about catching one of the culprits?"
"What? How?" he asked, moving away from his wife, into the next room over. He hated leaving her, but the officers would take care of her. "How could they get one of the culprits?"
"I don't really know, sir, that's all I really know."
"Who did they- Do you know who? Showenhower?"
"I don't know," said the aide again. "That giant wolf guy showed up and told them something. I didn't hear it. All I know is what I told you."
Great. Just great. "I'm coming down," he said.
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"So. You said you had news."
"Yes," said Jasmine. "Shortly after we got here, Sojourn and Dan managed to defeat Freakshow's accomplice and sent her to the Ghost Zone." She held out a picture. "This is her."
The picture looked almost antique, even though it had only just been taken. Not quite a polaroid, the proportions were all wrong, but something like that.
That was, indeed, his sister-in-law. There were a whole variety of other issues, however. "We don't have an extradition treaty with you. I have to protest you taking her across borders. Speaking of which, I don't think you got permission for that Dan character to be in this country."
"He came with the rest of the diplomatic party," said Jasmine, apparently unconcerned.
That… That had to be a lie. And even if it wasn't… "You didn't tell us he was here."
"You didn't exactly ask for a composition of our group," said Jasmine. "Besides, I think we have more pressing concerns. The coup attempt, and all that."
"I'm going to have to insist that she be turned over."
"I'll pass that request on. In the meantime, they're questioning her about what her plans were and how they did what they did. I suspect that Freakshow's motives are different."
"It isn't a request. I really must insist."
"And all I can do is pass the message on. I don't exactly have her in my pocket, President Klein."
"That's it, then?"
"She hasn't exactly been cooperating," said Jasmine. "All we've gotten from her is that she really, truly, believes ghosts are all mindlessly evil and that anyone 'colluding' with them is equally evil and should be either 'cured' or killed." Jasmine shrugged. "It's about as expected. Most likely, they will turn her over to you, if only in the hope that she'll be more cooperative with human authorities."
"And Freakshow?"
"Still missing, along with Sam and Pamela," said Jasmine. Her tone was clipped, forcibly professional and even. There was a great deal of strain here.
The president had to sympathize, through his own stress and anger. No one here was having a good time, and incidents like this were always messy. It wasn't Jasmine's fault, just like it wasn't his.
Well. That was, perhaps, not entirely true. They were authority figures intimately involved in the matter. Still, he couldn't help but cling to the sentiment.
Blame game and all that. Hey, it was useful in politics.
Maybe if he threw someone under the bus hard enough, his career could be saved… But he couldn't do that to his wife. Her sister, though. He'd never liked her, anyway. They could spin it to frame Irene as a witless victim- No. As a softhearted victim. She'd only wanted to help her traitorous sister, after all.
Later. He could figure that part out, later.
"The ghost army?"
"Many of the victims of Freakshow and this woman are yet to be accounted for. Dan is still looking for Freakshow."
"And Sojourn?"
"His son needed medical attention."
"So, Dan is the only one looking for Freakshow?"
"Other than your people? Yes. But I was under the impression that you didn't want our help with this at all."
He hadn't entirely meant to leave that impression, but he had wanted the ghosts to go through proper channels. Although, they might not have existed yet, given that they were still in the middle of negotiating the relationship their countries would have.
"That's not entirely true. I only want to have a say in what military operations are happening in my country. As it stands, your government and citizens continue to violate the borders of the United States, and I cannot stand for that. I can't see how these talks can proceed without you respecting our borders as a minimum."
"And you have failed to respect the basic rights our citizens – many of whom once called themselves Americans themselves – repeatedly, and at great cost," said Jasmine, her voice dropping into something icy. "I suggest that we put these disputes to the side for now."
"I am fine with putting the past aside for the moment," said the president. "But going forward, with the exception of messengers, I must insist that you inform us and seek permission before any of your people cross over."
Jasmine sighed. "We can't stop everyone. Natural portals are a thing. But we won't purposefully send anyone over without telling you. I'll send that point back with Wulf." She nodded to the large, werewolf-like ghost.
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"We have both Lydia and this woman," said Danny, crossing his arms, "but we still don't know what Freakshow's plans are?"
"I got the impression that she didn't really care," said Damien, tilting his head. "But she didn't really say a lot."
"I would concur with Damien's assessment," said Fright Knight. "She had plans for herself, plans in case Freakshow died, and plans in case he betrayed her. She had no confidence in him to carry out her plans in her absence."
"Great," said Danny. "And we still have no contact from Dan? Nothing about Sam and her mom?"
No one answered.
"Clockwork, can you…?"
"I can see them," said Clockwork, "but it would be… unwise for me to tell you where they are."
"Why?"
"Because you would leave to find them… Thereby rendering your work at peace with the living null and void."
Clockwork was right. He didn't want to destroy that progress. But if he knew where Sam was, or where Pamela was, he would go find them. Even now, only knowing the vague location of the facility, he wanted to go, go, go, go. It was his nature to want to help, and Sam was his friend.
Danny rubbed his face. At least he and Clockwork had progressed to the point where Clockwork would and could tell him, when he was keeping something from Danny.
"Okay," said Danny. "Okay. Can you see forward and tell me if they'll be okay?"
Clockwork tilted his head. "I believe so."
Danny made a small, distressed noise. 'I believe' was not nearly as certain as Danny had hoped.
"Daniel," said Clockwork, "why don't you take a break? The Regency Council will take a while to deliberate on the prisoner's fate and our next steps, and you have been awake for a long time."
"I can't sleep when Sam is in danger," said Danny, "when Jazz is out there trying to negotiate. I need something to do."
"Not sleep. Take a break from this particular problem. We will let you know if something changes."
"What would I even do if I'm not working on this problem?" This problem, which was most certainly the most important one. What else could he think about?
"The imminent addition to your thrall army, perhaps!"
"Fright Knight," said Nephthys, exasperated, "I doubt he wants to think about that, either. Danny, it would be helpful if you review the most recent negotiations. Perhaps you can see what we could offer to the president that might encourage him to let you take action. Or at least ignore some of our, er…"
"Bad actions," suggested Frostbite.
"But that implies that we're the one's at fault," protested Nephthys.
"That… would indeed be the implication."
"Well, I don't like those implications. What did we do wrong?"
"Technically, we've done almost everything he's accused us of."
"And was any of it wrong?"
"Guys," said Danny, "can you not? Maybe? Please? I don't know what we could offer him that could change his mind at this point, beyond what we're already offering, I just… I know that's busywork. Can't I stay?"
"We could try to figure out the mind control thing they did," suggested Damien, "or we could visit Dmitri."
"Can't do that until the GIW agents are all processed," mumbled Danny. Sojourn had, after all, brought Dmitri to the Duat Hospital, making a portal there immediately after giving Danny and the others a quick summary of events.
"Then the mind control thing," said Dmitri. "Let's go! Before Walker gets here and takes them all to his prison for holding."
This felt weird. Danny was supposed to be the older sibling.
"You also haven't slept since right after you defeated Aragon. It's been a while."
"Not that long. I've stayed up longer! I'll do it again."
"That is what we're worried about, Daniel," said Clockwork.
"Oh," said Nocturne, just now waking up, "I can help with that."
Despite everyone else's protests, Nocturne then threw a handful of sleep dust at Danny. He was asleep before he hit the floor.
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Dmitri woke up. He didn't really remember going to sleep. He didn't really feel as if he'd gone to sleep, to be honest. But he must have, if he was waking up. That's how that particular bodily function, well, functioned.
Unless he'd been knocked out. He could have been knocked out. Danny had been knocked out before. Multiple times. Dmitri had… Did dissolving count as being knocked out? It could. If he looked at it the right way. It could.
But. Knocked out. How could he have been knocked out? He'd been flying, with Dan, then he'd been descending. Descending towards what?
The holding facility where the captive ghosts were being kept. The roof with the woman, and the red light—
Dmitri squeezed his eyes shut, until he saw little flashes of static. He didn't want to remember that. He rolled over, still not opening his eyes, and felt something in his pocket. What was in his pocket? He wasn't the type of person to carry things in his pocket, and he had yet to master the extradimensional space Danny used to store small objects like the thermos.
So, the question, then, the question he was going to focus on instead of dwelling on getting mind controlled, was, what was in his pocket?
Wasn't that a line from a book? If it was, he didn't have that memory from Danny. He'd have to ask Jazz.
The thing in his pocket was… Oh. That was right. Jazz had passed on a present. From Danny. He hadn't opened it.
With difficulty, Dmitri opened his eyes. He was in a large (for him) bed in what looked like a hospital room. Sojourn was sitting at his bedside.
"How are you feeling, Dmitri?" the Ancient asked, trepidation clear in his voice.
Dmitri shrugged, winced, and then tried to burrow into the blanket. Was this a large blanket, or a small blanket? Was the bed a large bed or a small bed? How big was he, right now? His depth perception didn't feel very… functional, at the moment.
Where was he, anyway?
He shifted. The thing in his pocket – the present – pressed against his hip again. Annoying.
"Dmitri?"
"Mm," said Dmitri. He twisted – carefully! It hurt – and pulled the present out of his pocket. The wrapping had been rather destroyed. Probably during whatever had happened in all that red.
He didn't want to think about it.
He pulled back the paper. Whatever was in it immediately puffed out, gaining volume. It was… a teddy bear with a gold nose.
There was a note pinned to it. I don't know you very well yet, but you seem to like similar things to Jazz, so I thought you might like this. I figured out how to make it so he'll change size to match you. (He's Tycho Bearhe.) -Danny
Tycho Bearhe.
Dmitri squinted. Wasn't… Tycho Brahe a ghost? He didn't go by that name anymore, of course, but did he know about this? Did Danny check with him before he made this?
He flipped over the note.
PS, I did talk to Gyldennaese about this. Don't worry.
Right. Right. Of course, he'd predict what Dmitri would worry about. Why not? Clearly, Danny knew Dmitri better than Dmitri did. Not to mention, Danny had been able to knock himself out of mind control. Heck.
He squeezed the teddy bear.
"Dmitri?"
"Hm?"
"How are you feeling?"
"Everything hurts."
"I'm sorry about that," said Sojourn, patting Dmitri's head. His hand was quite a bit longer than Dmitri's head, but not longer than Dmitri's body, which meant that Dmitri was larger than he usually was. "We had to hit you fairly hard to knock you out."
"You hit me?" asked Dmitri. Not that he blamed Sojourn, exactly, but… It brought up bad memories. Being used as a tool. Someone who didn't truly mean to hurt him having to, and everything just… dissolving.
"Well, Dan hit you. I wasn't sure I'd be able to hold back enough to not…" Sojourn trailed off. "I will work on it, son. I will make sure this will never happen to you again." There was clear anguish in Sojourn's voice.
Like… Like in Danny's. Danny's was more muted, perhaps, but more time had passed, and…
Dmitri squeezed the teddy bear tighter.
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For better or worse, Danny didn't stay asleep very long. Just long enough to realize that the Ancients (and others) were right, and that he'd needed to get out of the way and let them do their jobs (being his regents). He could review their decisions later, but for now, helping the ghosts who had been knocked out probably was the best use of his time.
"Are you sure you don't want to sleep some more?" asked Damien, yawning.
"Yeah, but you can go back to sleep. I know you've been up for a while, too," said Danny, his ability to see what was around him, and how the people he was looking at felt somewhat improved by his rest as well.
"No can do," said Damien, "I'm your bodyguard, remember?"
"Mm," said Danny.
"Oh, maybe we can stop by Frostbite's rooms and visit Dustin!"
Danny stopped. "He picked a name?" he asked.
Damien stopped as well. "Oh. Um. Yes. Yes, he did."
"How is he?"
"He's fine," said Damien. "It's only been a few days, after all. He grew a lot. Absorbed a lot more ectoplasm. Sort of messed up his skin a bit, but I think it was already like that, a little bit, wasn't it? I sort of remember that, from before."
"Is he still… upset with me?" It was the mildest of ways to describe how his newly reformed clone siblings reacted to him.
"I'm not sure," said Damien. "He hasn't really said much about you. He's picking up Frostbite's speech patterns, though, which is really weird."
Danny could imagine that.
"No," said Danny. "I don't think it's a good idea for me to see him, yet. You can go, though."
"Still a bodyguard," said Damien. "Come on, none of them will be mad at you forever.
Danny… wasn't so sure about that. "Come on, let's see if we can solve the mind control, okay?
