A/N: Woo, update! Sorry this chapter took so long, I had a bad case of writer's block on one of these scenes (can you tell which? lol) but I FINALLY finished it after a few weekends. Thank you all for the lovely reviews and I did purposely leave the Esperanto untranslated last chapter for some suspense (sorry). It is translated in this chapter, though!
Anyway, at the request of reviewers, a quick recap: In this universe, Danny never had the portal accident, but he does have ectoplasm in his blood and he suffers from seizures when exposed to foreign ectoplasmic matter; this has been true for as long as he can remember. His parents haven't told him why this happens or what is wrong with him, but they occasionally "treat" him for his condition by injecting ectoplasm into him, etc. He's always had nightmares about being chased by something, but only recently starting seeing his parents in these nightmares; Sam hoped that any anxiety he has around his parents could be resolved by exploring their lab and finding nothing of note down there. It goes wrong, and Wulf springs from the portal none of them knew existed. Wulf recognized Danny, and at Danny's request left before his parents could see him. Now Danny wonders what his parents might be hiding from him...
Thanks again for reading and enjoy!
Chapter Four: What Lies Within
Wulf grinned, his glinting canines standing out against the swirling green of the ghostly realm. He'd finally found them, the hunters who took his claws all those years ago. He could not see them, but a sniff of the air told him they had been in this area not too long ago.
He'd been tracking them through the ghost zone for over a decade, now. Though, for a ghost, he supposed, it was the equivalent of a few days; time passed so slowly in this realm. Still, perhaps if he waited only a few days, years more, they might return to this place; their scent was strongest here. He figured this was where the humans had built their portal, if the rumors were to be believed.
He sighed—what he wouldn't give to be able to claw through dimensions again. Narrowed green eyes glanced towards his wrists, where harsh, gleaming metal met dark, unruly fur.
It had taken some convincing, but by bribing the self-proclaimed greatest hunter in the ghost zone he'd managed to get these functional, if gaudy, replacements for his paws. Skulker did like his trophies, and Wulf had the unique and handy ability of being able to scent out anything with an ecto-signature; a few pelts for the ghost, and he had claws again. That same skill led him straight here—where the acrid scent of ecto-weapons was hanging in the air.
He wondered vaguely if the humans still had the little phantom, or if they had butchered the cub like so many of Wulf's comrades and enemies alike. The thought made a growl rise in his throat. At the very least, he might be able to take vengeance for himself and the cub—perhaps for all ghosts.
A portal manifested, just feet from him. It swirled lazily into existence, drawing another toothy grin from Wulf. After all these years, he would have his revenge.
He took his first step through the mist, and immediately the smell of death hit him. His eyes burned with rage as he roared.
He rushed forwards, swiping at the tiny humans, not noticing and not caring if they were the ones he'd searched for. Surely if they were in this horrible place, they'd had some part in it. They screamed as he approached, and he wanted to laugh at their terror. He would kill them, just as they'd killed—
But as he took another whiff of the tainted air, something else caught his attention. Something impossible.
Be still, prince, the creature said, I will take care of this, and get us out of here. Danny's vision was hazy, he felt feverish again. He wanted to ask where the wolf wanted to take him, wanted to ask why it called him prince when he was pretty sure his parents weren't royalty, wanted to tell it not to hurt his friends and family. All he could manage was a single, croaked command.
Don't.
The wolf seemed paralyzed by his response, and Danny could see that behind those fierce, glowing green eyes it was concerned for him. It gazed from him to the door, unsure. They could both hear his parents rushing for the stairs. With a sigh, it told him it would return.
The teen had a strange feeling it had said that before.
Danny awoke, eyes searching the darkened room for green eyes and dark fur. Posters of space and rows of model rockets stared back at him. He was in his room, but when did he get here? Just moments ago, he was speaking to the wolf-ghost and then his parents—
Crap, my parents. He groaned. He remembered now, his parents must have moved him to his room after seeing the state he, Sam, and Tucker were in. His eyes widened.
Sam! And Tucker! He leapt out of bed, immediately regretting the motion as his sides protested. Freezing at a sudden thought, he placed a hand to his chest. His furiously beating heart greeted him. For now, he thought drily. Still, it was good to know before talking to his parents. He shuddered at the thought of dissections and ectoplasmic remains.
He made his way over to the stairs, wincing at the ache in his joints. He felt like he'd been in bed for days, but a quick glance at the clock revealed it'd only been an hour or so since he and his friends had ventured into the basement. Jazz'll be home soon, he mused. As he reached the rail, he could hear hushed, urgent whispers. He wondered what his parents didn't want him to hear. He slowly placed each foot on the first step, straining his ears to catch snippets of conversation.
"…we have to tell him, now, Mads…."
"…Jack, you know why we can't, he'd…."
"…Wait, listen, what was that?"
Danny cursed as the next step creaked beneath his weight. He wanted so badly to know just what his parents were so worried about telling him. Was it the fact that they had a working ghost portal and hadn't told anyone? Something about the strange wolf-ghost, maybe? He couldn't just dismiss his dreams as figments of his imagination, now, could he?
"…Danny? Is that you, sweetheart?"
His thoughts cut short. He realized quickly that if he didn't say anything, his parents would just come upstairs anyway; there was no way he'd hear the rest of their conversation. He took a steadying breath.
"Yeah, mom, it's me." He walked quickly towards the kitchen, where he found his parents huddled around the small, round dining table. Their shoulders were tense, their creased brows silently asking what he'd heard. Not nearly enough, he thought with a frown. His mother was the first to get up from the table.
"Oh, honey, are you feeling alright? You're so pale." She raised a hand to his forehead, and it took all of his willpower not to flinch away. Her frown deepened. "What's wrong, sweetie?"
"I'm fine, mom, really." He sighed, brushing her hand away from his face. "Are Sam and Tucker okay?"
His mother nodded, looking more like she was eyeing a cobra about to strike than her only son. "We sent them home after we took care of you. They're fine, but they couldn't remember much of what happened in the lab. We were hoping you could tell us—"
He raised both hands. "Hold on, first, are you guys gonna tell me what's going on with that lab down there? I thought you didn't hunt ghosts anymore? And what's with that… that portal?"
His parents exchanged uneasy glances. He could sense that something silent passed between them. Danny shivered, crossing his arms over his chest. His heart gave a little flutter. Had it always been so cold in here?
"Well…." His mother paused. "To be honest, we've been hunting in secret for a few years now…." She pursed her lips. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you sooner, sweetie."
"Why?" Danny asked slowly. Although he felt he could hazard a guess; all that ectoplasm they used in his meds had to come from somewhere he supposed—he just always thought they'd only hunted the bad ghosts, the ones that didn't honor the treaty. Or synthesized it. His father silently studied the back of his gloved hands, feigning disinterest.
"We've been…well, you see, we needed…." His mother trailed off. The word 'ectoplasm' hung, unsaid, in the air—weighing down each of them in different ways.
"So...you've just been taking ghosts from their homes and killing them? Even after the war ended?" Danny clutched at his chest. He remembered their twisted faces in his dream, the wet sound of damaged flesh. The terror he felt as he thought he was next.
His mother frowned. "No, Danny, sweetheart you don't understand—"
"Don't understand what? I thought you said that not all ghosts were bad and—"
"Danny," His father stood, gesturing towards him, "Everything we've ever done has been to help you—"
"By killing and dissecting ghosts?" But what if I'm more ghost than human? Danny felt his blood run cold; his fingers felt like ice. He backed away from his mom, trying not to register the hurt in her eyes. She looked nothing like the fiery warrior from his nightmares. "There was a wolf-ghost that came through the portal, it knew me, and it called me prince—"
His parents flinched. His mother's eyes shone in the fluorescent lighting. "Danny, I…we…. Please." She stretched a hand towards him, begging him to calm down, to listen. He shivered again—it was freezing in the small kitchen. How were they not cold?
His father heaved a deep sigh, casting a forlorn glance towards Danny's mother. "Mads, we have to tell him." Jack's eyes met Danny's. "We owe him that much."
Danny creased his brows, his grip on his shirt loosening. "Tell me what?"
Maddie froze. She faltered, outstretched hand falling. "Danny…honey…." Her eyes welled with tears. "I'm so sorry."
Jack moved to take Maddie into his arms, pulling her softly against his chest. "Danny, the truth is…we needed to hunt ghosts…." His father gulped. "To keep you safe. There are a lot of ghosts who would kill to find you."
Danny felt his heart stop. "Wh…what do you mean?"
"Y-you're being hunted by ghosts," Maddie sobbed, eyes red and puffy, "and it's all our fault. If only we hadn't—" She buried her face in her hands.
"Hadn't what?" Danny whispered. He was feeling more confused by the second, watching his parents fall apart before him.
"Danny, we…that is, your mother and I…we opened the portal so that we could save you. You need periodic ectoplasmic injections to balance your unique chemistry, to stay alive, I'm sure you know." At the look on Danny's face, Jack clarified. "All of the stuff we use for you is synthetic, of course, but we needed to collect samples from the ghost zone to perfect our formula."
"And when we opened the portal…." Maddie sniffled. "Ghosts started coming through, started hunting you. Somehow, despite our best efforts, they knew you were…." She trailed off. "Well, different. And without the portal, we can't hope to cure you…. We had to capture them, interrogate them down in the basement...but we still don't know who's behind all of it after all these years..."
Memories came rushing back to him. It all started to make sense, how ghosts would suddenly appear wherever he was; birthday parties, school outings…kids started calling him a freak because of it, saying his "weirdo parents" must have been behind it somehow. They weren't exactly wrong.
"But why me?" He shivered again; it was so cold his breath was fogging in the air. His parents still didn't seem to notice the chill in the air.
"Because you're—"
"A ghost, dear boy." A voice, smooth and arrogant, filled the room. A dark-haired figure materialized into the room, floating effortlessly just inches from the ceiling. It exposed sharp fangs in a smirk. "Well, half a ghost, if you want to be precise. And it's all thanks to these poor fools." Blood red eyes drifted towards Danny's parents. They quickly drew their weapons, each ecto-pistol whining as it was charged.
"Who are you?" Maddie demanded, throwing herself between Danny and the malevolent being. She looked more like the huntress Danny saw in his dreams, now—eyes ablaze with fiery resolve. "Are you the one who's after our boy?"
Danny hardly had time to grasp what the ghost was saying before the specter fired red ectoplasmic beams towards both of his parents, knocking them out cold with the blast. "No!" Danny yelled, finding his voice.
"Hush now, child." The blue-skinned ghost sneered. "Do you wish to alert the whole of the two zones? There's a reason your parents kept all of this a secret; you'd be torn apart, dissected bit by bit in any world." Red eyes again drifted towards his parents. "Even they considered you an experiment."
"You're lying," Danny glared; ice filling his veins once more. "Even if you're telling the truth about the ghost thing, my parents would never—"
"No?" The ghost laughed—it was a poisonous, harsh sound. "They're the ones who made you what you are. It's their fault you can't even face another ghost without losing control of your body, as you are now."
Danny was starting to shake. He could feel an episode coming on, and he feared that was what the ghost wanted. It had been stalling for time. The ghost smirked mockingly as if reading his thoughts.
"Who are you? What do you want with me?" Danny asked, defiant tone belying the fear in his eyes. The ghost's smirk only grew.
"You may call me Vlad Plasmius. And it's not about what I want." He scoffed. "But what you want." The ghost gestured towards him. "You see—I know why your body reacts the way it does, and I plan to…accelerate things." The ghost charged a red ectoplasmic ball in its palm, aiming for Danny's chest. "Let's see if you have what it takes, shall we?"
Danny's eyes widened as he watched the ghost fling the ball of ectoplasmic energy towards him. He wanted to move, to do something but he felt frozen on the spot. Like he had when the wolf-ghost had barreled past his friends and towards him.
Said wolf-ghost came crashing through house, tearing Danny away from his spot in the kitchen just in time to avoid the blast. It gently draped him over its shoulder, before turning to snarl at Plasmius.
"Wulf!" Plasmius cursed, quickly firing off a second and third blast at the creature. "How many times must I have you killed, beast?"
"I thought I told you not to come get me." Danny muttered sluggishly, fighting to stay alert despite the dull ache behind his eyes.
"You told me not to fight the humans." The ghost called Wulf murmured gruffly between dodges. Danny wasn't surprised he understood it—him?—this time. "I am saving you from the ghost Plasmius." He finished matter-of-factly.
"Oh." Danny said lamely, head lolling against Wulf's shoulder blade. Wulf nodded, swiftly darting around the corner and out the front door, passing intangibly through a frightened Jazz on the way out. "Wait, wha bout Jazz. Gotta go back." Danny slurred at Wulf.
"No time, and she'll be fine." Wulf growled. "It's you he wants." He sprinted into the night, turning invisible just as Plasmius burst through the ceiling of the house in pursuit.
"Where are you?" The red-eyed ghost screamed, all traces of his cold, calculating demeanor gone. He fired an ectoplasmic beam at the pavement below, feet from the tip of Wulf's tail. "WULF!"
Danny felt himself slipping; he channeled his frustration into fighting against his feeble condition. "Where we goin'?"
"Somewhere safe." Wulf answered softly. "Just have to throw him off scent."
Danny scoffed. "Safe from crazy eyes? Where's tha…?"
Wulf turned to look behind them. Plasmius was flying off in another direction. They were safe for now. He skidded to a halt, turning to his now unconscious companion. Despite the fact that the boy could not hear him, Wulf whispered a response.
"The Ghost Zone."