Hey, guys!~ I'm amazed I got this to you on time. I had a real problem at one point in it. Nothing sounded right, but I randomly got over it and it's good now :) Sadly, this still doesn't have the action I keep telling you guys is coming. I promise there will be! It's just taking more angst than I suspected to get there XD Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy!~
Dani came to with one thought filling every crevice of her mind.
'Vlad is back. Vlad is back. Vlad is back. Vlad is ba-' was on a loop, the moods of which alternating between fury and absolute terror. The fear intensified when she was awake enough to realize she couldn't get up. The worry was shoved aside by confusion then understanding and anger as she was finally able to open her eyes.
"Oh, drat. I was hoping she'd stay asleep longer," complained Maddie, looking away from Dani though standing next to her. Dani knew from many stories on how hopeless Jack and Maddie are at catching ghosts, but this also meant nobody knew what they were like after they really had caught one. Dani had the misfortune of being the first, apparently. She immediately began glancing around everywhere she could see, though it was only the things in her current field of vision. She was in the Fenton's lab and wasn't strapped down, but still couldn't move anything besides her face and whatever muscles needed for breathing. Maddie and/or Jack had knocked her out somehow and put her like this.
'Great. Just perfect. I guess Danny's bad luck really is genetic for me to have it, too.' She observed everything she could within a few seconds and immediately began planning.
"So why exactly did you feel the need to knock out and paralyze your niece?" she asked, hoping this wasn't what her mind had just thought of. Her prayers were thrown right back with a rejected stamp as Maddie answered.
"Well, since we can't exactly capture Danny separate his halves, then we decided we could do the process on you. Once it succeeds, we can show Danny that it won't hurt him. We're almost done collecting the data needed, so you won't have to be like this much longer. Once you're separated, the temporary paralysis will only affect the ghost you." Dani wished she could facepalm at the pure idiocy of that assessment.
"Not that I have experience with science or anything, you know, only being made in a lab and then taught how to use everything created by an evil, fruitloop scientist, but don't you think that plan has some holes in it? I mean, for one, how are you going to contact Danny to tell him about it?" Maddie ignored her, turning away towards where Dani knew the computer to be. "And furthermore and more importantly, the whole thing might have had a chance to work on Danny properly, but you will kill me if you do this!" Maddie came back into Dani's view then with an odd look on her face.
"And how is that? It's happened to Danny, and he's perfectly fine. I see no reason it would hurt you when it didn't hurt him." She smiled at in an odd way, making Dani seriously wonder if the woman was still mentally stable.
"You really don't get it, do you? Since you know me, I'm sure you know that I'm a clone. The only thing keeping me alive is the stabilization of my ghost half. I was turning into goop for months before Danny saved me with it. If you take my ghost powers away from me, I will turn to goop again. ALL of me." Maddie turned away once again and went back out of sight before replying.
"But Danielle your ghost half isn't part of you. Don't you see? Your human half has always been stable, so it would just be the ghost you who might disappear. Also, I'm sure Jack and I could make sure we prevent that from happening. Don't want anybody, human or ghost, dying on us." Dani really wanted to facepalm again. Just how blind could two people be?! An idea did come to her then, though.
"Well, I disagree. I'm smart, you know, and I know myself and my limits better than anybody else. I say that I KNOW this whole thing would kill me. If you are really crazy enough to try it, then at least test it on some of my blood first. If you don't and kill me, then Danny will definitely NEVER forgive you nor come back home. Not to mention that I'm sure him and Jazz would find a way to get you both arrested for it as well as all the other crimes that have piled onto you guys for years." Dani wished she could see the expressions of the two, but both were out of her range. She also wished she could itch her foot as some of her toes had a tingly feeling.
"What do you mean by that, Ghost Girl?" Jack asked in a steel voice. Dani probably would've jumped at it if she could as she never would've expected Jack to be someone who could sound so dangerous. So sharp. So much like... Vlad.
"I mean that you both are very lucky to have not been arrested after Danny saved the Earth. No matter how busy or how much the kid tries to hide it, there is no way that what you two have done to Danny for the past couple years isn't considering Child Neglect."
'SHUT UP, DANI!' she mentally fussed at herself. She knew she was treading on thin ice with these two possibly unstable yet very capable ghost hunters, but she just kept talking. That was one of the bigger differences between her and Danny. In her time away from Amity Park, Dani had managed to develop a slight Big-Mouth-Complex. She could keep secrets extremely easily, but holding in the rest of her thoughts and words was a problem. She wished she could hit herself as Maddie stomped the couple steps over to her and jerked her so Dani was in a sitting position, but was only supported by the wild-eyed woman in front of her.
"Don't you dare suggest we don't love our son. We're doing all of this because we love him! We want him to be able to have a normal, happy life where he won't deal with the stress of fighting and won't have to put himself in danger! Why can't you people understand that?!" Maddie lessened her grip on Dani's immobile shoulders as tears began pouring down her face. Dani could see Jack sitting at one of the desks. He hadn't turned around, but he wasn't doing anything in front of himself either. Dani wasn't sure what to think of it all. She did know it made her impossibly more concerned for the Fenton mother's mental health.
"Look, Mrs. Fenton, I didn't mean it like that. Everybody knows you guys care about your son. The neglect I was talking about was the fact that, for two years, neither of you noticed that your son was half-ghost. He got his powers in this very lab. He almost died in this very lab because you didn't lock it up well enough. While he takes full responsibility for everything, it wasn't completely his stupid decision. It was everything that allowed to his to make that stupid decision. You say people don't get why you want to separate Danny's DNA. The reason for that is because it makes no sense! If you want him to be happy then let him do what makes him happy. If you tear him into two people, I doubt either version would ever be happy again." Dani felt proud of herself for keeping such a level head and getting through all of that, especially since most of her legs were now itchy. Surely it would do at least a little to help Danny... right?
For the second time that morning, Dani might as well have had a "rejected" sticker slammed on her forehead.
"Danny was perfectly happy before his powers. Since he got them, he's been constantly around hazards to himself and his friends. Not to forget that he is my son. I know what's best for him, and he should be listening to us! It's Phantom who keeps him from doing it!" She huffed at the end of her statement half-laid, half-dropped Dani back onto the table she'd been on before and stepped back to the desk before going back to Dani once again. "Now, as for you, Danielle. You may not be my daughter and not in my custody, but you are living under my roof at the moment. I- I realize now that it gives me no right to test this on you without permission. However, you suggested it, so I will be taking some blood. That's all. Wouldn't want to get in trouble with the law, now would we? We have to get our son back," Maddie said, holding up an empty, normal-sized needle while doing so.
If Dani could move, she would have been shaking from fear, but not of Maddie or Jack. Simply of just how much they sounded like Vlad right now. As it was, she tried squishing it down from her head. Maddie didn't wait for a reply and simply drew the blood, anyway. Dani was honestly thankful for it, though. She knew she wouldn't have been able to keep it out of her voice just how troubled she was by this similar pattern. She needed to talk to Jazz. And maybe try getting Danny to answer his cell phone. It took only a moment for Maddie to draw the blood with Dani being able to feel none of it. After a moment of disappearing from view again, she returned with an odd-looking box.
"I could lie to you, but I don't know if this will hurt or not. I didn't bother checking the functioning of the reverse charge for the paralysis," Maddie told her far too calmly before pressing a button on it. Much like a Police taeser, two cords shot from the end of the box, lodging themselves into Dani's leg where they'd been pointed. Dani held back a yelp as they dug in but couldn't do so with the shock that ripped through her after it. It hardly had any strength, but it HURT. The actual shock disappeared almost as soon as it started, leaving Dani free to move again though she now did not want to. She forced herself to sit at, kept from cringing at the examination table she had been on, and jumped off of it. Maddie had already begun testing with the blood she had collected. Dani immediately started leaving the room but was so tense that she doubted she'd get some sleep here. Just as she reached the first step, she paused and spoke without turning around.
"You know, I don't trust easy or a lot. Not that either of you probably care, but you just ruined your chance for me to trust you for a very long time. After all, why should I? Sticking me on an examination table, having a voice of hate, doing things to avoid deserved legal trouble, and expecting your kids to do absolutely everything you tell them to just because you want your perfect little fantasized family. Every single thing the two of you just did was something Vlad has done to me." Something clattered behind her, but she didn't bother to look at she turned invisible before running up the stairs and locking herself in Danny's room, grabbing the keys which had been left on the living room floor on the way.
She sat against the door for a few moments, trying to relax. She felt terrible for Danny and wished she could be hiding with him. She had wanted to stay in his house in hopes of helping show his parents to truth, but she didn't think she could after this. She needed sleep desperately still, but that wouldn't be possible if she had to remain paranoid. She thought for a moment, forcing her exhausted mind to come up with ideas when finally she did think of something.
"I bet I can hide out in the Op Center until I get some sleep. Danny just called me to help protect the town, so I have to get myself back in order, somehow." The idea seemed good, so she grabbed Danny's pillow and blanket before morphing and floating upward through the roof. She was a mere two feet from the window and what was sure to be sweet relief of sleep when her ghost sense went off.
"Oh COME ON!" She whirled around, looking for whichever ghost was daring to hold her up from her sleep still.
"BEWARE!" Dani lifted the pillow in her hand and smacked herself in the face with it at the all-too-familiar voice. She then simply dropped them onto the roof, making a mental note to make sure they weren't dirty later on.
"Really? REALLY?! Of all the possible times for you to show up, you decide to do it when I'm about to sleep? Really, Box Ghost?" Dani crossed her arms and glared heavily at the blue annoyance. It was then she remembered. She didn't have a thermos on her. 'Aw, crud.'
"I do not care for your foolish mortal needs, Ghost Girl! As my square army of terror has just gained its newest member!" The Box Ghost continued to pull out an ornate, wooden box from absolutely nowhere, as was usual. "Face the wrath of my Joom Box! Hehe, get it? I combined jewelry and doo-AHHH!" Having lost patience, Dani had let off an ectoblast at him, but not to where he couldn't dodge it. She knew hitting him would actually cause a fight which she couldn't put up with right now. As it was, she didn't need to be putting so much strain on herself when she didn't know just how well the Ecto-Dejecto had worked. Danny had hid some extra in case, but she had no clue where at.
"Listen closely, Box Ghost. I am not in the mood, okay? I don't have a thermos on me right now, but that doesn't mean I can't do something about you. Either you take yourself back to the Ghost Zone within the time I count to five, or I take your new box, give it back in an unfriendly way, and throw you back in myself. Which would you rather do?" Dani flashed her eyes brighter at him. If she wouldn't have been so exhausted, she would have fallen over laughing at how quickly the Box Ghost dove down into the sidewalk below. Dani slowly floated down, collected the pillow and blanket then drifted up and into the Op Center, not even looking around before crashing on the floor.
Never get me wrong, I absolutely love The Box Ghost. I also just happen to love using (and abusing) him in fics :D I remind again, I can't promise next week's will be on time, but I'll try. For now, F, F, & R!~