I feel like a bad person... I'm late on the update! I totally slept through the weekend after my construction week, and my surgery left me too frazzled to remember! Feel free to pelt me with soda cans or mildly explosive fruit.
Also, here's the chapter! I'm incredibly excited, because this is the chapter that leads into justification! And I like justification!
Illusen, on the other hand, was quickly bustling around, hopping from foot to foot and spinning happily, a silly grin still on her face. Recut watched her, arms crossed but still managing a hint of a grin as his niece almost slammed into the coffee table.
"Uncle this is perfect!" Illusen said, flopping backwards onto the couch, staring at her empty cider mug. "Its not even winter yet and Danny's already my friend, and Sam's my friend and Tucker's my friend and this is perfect! I am so glad I managed to talk you guys into letting me come here!" She kicked her legs and sighed contentedly, picking up the mug. "Things are going so well."
"So, you still think you'll be able to stand leaving?" Recut asked, sitting beside her. "I know you're going to miss it."
"Oh, I miss everywhere we go." Illusen said, looking at the bottom of the mug and trying to read the maker's mark. "But no one ever misses me, and I get over it, same as always. I like to think its enough, just being here." She sat up and looked at her uncle, really looked at him and then put the mug down, crossing her legs. "Tell me about my parents."
"Oh no, its not even Christmas yet." Recut warned, leaning back into the pillows. "You can't start getting mopey and missing them yet, you'll be miserable by Thanksgiving. I will not let you be sad for an entire winter." He looked serious, knowing that his niece would probably ignore him. She was a sweet girl, but she could dwell and over-think like nobody's business. "You're smiling now, I don't want to lose that grin."
"I won't be sad." Illusen promised, playing with a lock of her hair. "I just want to hear it again. Its so strange, knowing they're so close… But they're not." She moved her hand and fingered her necklace, looking down. "Tell me about the wedding again, or how Dad proposed, or how he got Mom to fall in love with him, or my second birthday. Tell the fun stories."
"You know all of the stories." Recut told her. "You've seen them and heard them a million times each. You know them word for word by now."
"But you were there." Illusen said, leaning against his shoulder. "You got to be there and see them and grow up with them and follow them around whenever Dad had an awful idea. You guys were best friends." She looked up at him with wide eyes. "Just one story, please?"
"Alright, alright, what story do you want to hear?" Recut asked. He was a sucker for her puppy-dog eyes and sighing, he leaned back. "I know you have something in mind."
"The wedding." Illusen confessed, a lopsided grin on her face. "Just one more time, please? Just tell me the part about the arrival, hmm?" She smiled softly and fingered her necklace again, looking at her uncle. "Please?"
"First off, I have to describe the weather." Recut started, and Illusen smiled, curling up and sinking into the couch. "You know your father, he pulled some strings and so the weather was absolutely perfect for the wedding. The sun was shining, breeze was blowing, everything was just right. It wasn't even too hot."
"Even the clouds were in order." Illusen reminded him. "They floated in whenever there was too much sun and looked fluffy and docile when there wasn't."
"Hey, either you let me tell the story or you get no story Lou." Recut threatened. "Take your pick kiddo." Illusen mimed zipping her lips closed, and with a grin, Recut continued.
"With that perfect weather, the wedding had to be outside. Your mother made sure they had it at the gardens in early spring, so most of the plants weren't blooming yet, but there was still plenty of green…" With a grin, Illusen leaned back and pictured it all in her head.
Of course this was a story that she had heard so many times before, but it was what she had other than tiny bright moments, memories of her dad from when she was little and just the quickest glimpses of her mother as they passed each other. She knew the stories so well that they were almost memories, like she had really been there and not just a conceiving notion, far in the future. Maybe she had been there when she was younger, or that she could separate what she had lived through from what she had just seen. Stories were like lullabies to her, and as she listened, Illusen could feel herself getting tired and by the time her father had gotten to his own wedding, she fast asleep.
Her uncle continued his story for about to minutes afterwards, checking to make sure she really was asleep before chuckling softly and getting up, watching Illusen curl up on the couch.
"You never did grown out of that, did you?" Recut asked, looking at his sleeping niece. "You manage to fall asleep every time… And you still know the whole story better than I do." Shaking his head, he moved to the other room and got a blanket, laying it over the sleeping girl. "Sweet dreams Lou. Try not to be too active during your days, hmm? I know you're saving all that energy for your nights."
As Illusen slept, Sam was across town nursing a headache. She had gotten a hint of one that morning and it had been waxing and waning ever since. At the moment, she was hiding under the covers with the Fenton Phones in her ears to block out any noise.
"Stupid headache." Sam whispered, trying to ignore the pounding. She didn't normally get them, but when she did, she felt absolutely miserable. It was painful, it was insistent and it was generally making her night suck. "Stupid stupid headache."
She rolled over and groaned, trying not to think anymore than was necessary just in case it made the headache worse. Instead, she tried to very slowly run over that morning's ghost attack. She knew that something about it had been weird, but she wasn't sure what.
First, Danny transformed and zipped away to save the day, which was far too normal by this point. Tucker had gone ahead and run with the crowd, but Sam had hung back, just in case someone tried to do something while the class was gone. That had all been normal, and after a while, she had taken her seat and waited for the other students to return. Sam remembered Paulina coming in first, looking around cautiously, then Dash and Kwan, and then the rest of her classmates that she didn't really like, then finally Danny and Tucker. Danny had looked tired, but that wasn't it. Something else had been wrong.
That had also been when her headache flared up. Maybe that was what was wrong, her head was just being generally evil and had flared up.
"That's gotta be it." Sam murmured, straightening out and trying to get to sleep. One thing that cured every problem was more sleep, and not even thinking about removing her makeup, Sam tried to get to a fitful rest.
An hour later, as Sam slipped into a deep state of dreams, Illusen woke up.
"Oh Uncle." she whispered, pushing the blanket off as she was instantly awake. "You really are too kind sometimes." She folded the piece of cloth carefully and then set it on the couch, looking around the room and seeing nothing but the faint glow of the clock. "But now that I'm awake…"
She drifted through the halls as quietly as possible until she reached the door to the basement, just barely touching it. Even though Illusen knew that her uncle was asleep three floors above her, she still twisted the doorknob very softly, pushing the door open and hearing the trademark squeak. This particular door was actually kept as squeaky as possible just so that it couldn't be opened without alerting someone. It also had a fingerprint scanner, coded to recognize only Illusen and her family.
"Labs are always in the basement." Illusen said to herself, creeping down the stairs. "Why is the lab always in the basement? Is it meant to be tornado-proof or something?" She stepped off the bottom step and planted her feet firmly on the ground. "Maybe its just for an ominous air… Of doom." Her footsteps echoed softly as she walked over to a table full of wire and switches, moving them aside until she unearthed something the same size as an incredibly high-tech basketball hoop. Brushing imaginary dust off of the side, she pressed her thumb to another fingerprint scanner, and there was a motorized whirr as the device expanded to the size of a hula hoop. "Alright, let's make sure it still works."
Flipping up a cover, Illusen unveiled a row of switches, flicking the first, a small black one, with her index finger. Then, crossing her fingers, she threw it up in the air, letting the hoop flip through the air as a grin picked up the corners of her mouth.
"Please don't hit me on the head." she whispered, and like she asked, the hoop instead landed around her, slipping to the ground and bouncing twice. By the time it was still, Illusen was no longer in the basement, and had instead been transported to an imposing front door covered in gears, all spinning slowly. "This is way better than last time." Raising a shaky fist, Illusen moved to knock on the door before it swung open.
"I knew you were coming." Clockwork said with a smirk, floating in front of her before he withered and hunched, leaning on his staff as he aged. "Please, come in Illusen. Has it been long since we talked?"
"Months." she said, following him inside even as the gears turning shut the door tightly. "That's a long time for me… Even though I'm sure you've always know exactly how this conversation plays out."
"That doesn't mean it isn't nice to have it again." Clockwork said as Illusen followed him over floating clocks, trying not to slip through or be distracted by the way they all seemed to sink in towards each other. "Also, if you stay like that much longer, you're going to fall through one of the cracks."
"Huh?" Illusen said, her foot slipping between two clock faces and she wind-milled her arms, pulling her foot back out. "It works better when your warnings don't make these things come true you know."
"But its more realistic." Clockwork insisted, shrinking into a floating baby. "If you don't want to fall, just adapt to your surroundings, won't you?"
"Remind me to go back before I leave, okay?" Illusen asked, closing her eyes as a set of rings appearing near her navel and spreading upwards, switching her into a white fitted shirt that showed off her bellybutton and a flowing white skirt that fluttered in a nonexistent breeze. "Like full back, or I'll forget in the morning, I really will." Her skin turned a faint shade of blue and her hair white and when she opened her eyes, they were a luminous green. "I want to talk to you about maybe staying a little longer?"
"Illusen, you remember the deal." Clockwork said, growing tall and strong with his mouth set at a hard line. "You can stay until March. That's as long as you can go before you begin destroying the timeline."
"Not even until the end of the school year?" Illusen asked, her bare feet curling on the ground as she tucked her toes under the balls of her feet. "You know, a nice, normal time to leave, maybe write some postcards?" She tried to sound hopeful, but they both knew exactly how the conversation would go.
"I'm stretching it by letting you stay until March." Clockwork reminded her as he grew old again. "It's the same as always Illusen. Its dangerous to be out of your own time. When you're somewhere that you don't belong, you're disturbing what should be happening." This was another speech she could recite by heart, but she always hoped it might someday change. "You know the Butterfly Effect. A butterfly flapping its wings could change the wind patterns for years to come. And you, my dear, are much larger than a butterfly."
"Knowing it doesn't mean I have to like it." Illusen muttered, leaning against a rather small clock claiming the time was 7:26. "But can't you just cancel it all out when I leave, when everything snaps back to normal like I was never there? Please?"
"Illusen." Clockwork said, shrinking to the world's most serious baby. "Time travel is a very serious and risky venture." This was a part of the speech. "Every time you're moved around, things happen that otherwise wouldn't. Even if they do return to normal, there is still a lingering effect." More things she already knew. "If you stay anywhere too long, it becomes impossible to completely get rid of the changes you've made." He had never mentioned that before.
"Wait." Illusen said, holding up her glowing hand as Clockwork returned to his usual self. "What does that mean? Does that mean they remember me?"
"More so that they have associative memories." Clockwork corrected, all of the clocks near him spinning faster and faster as Illusen tried to think quickly. "They wouldn't know its you, but words and phrase will trigger emotions." Clockwork chanced a grin. "Like handmaiden. And it gets harder the farther back you go. That's why you can't travel past the 1900's."
"Bu if I stay long enough," Illusen tried, her hair floating in a breeze as well. "If I stay a really really long time, will they remember me? Will they make memories of me and not have me just disappear like I never happened? If I stay… Can I be remembered?"
"Illusen." Clockwork sighed. "You can't stay. That would only end in tragedy." Illusen bit her lip, looking down and her personal wind picked up. "I know it will. I know everything."
"I can make it work.' Illusen pleaded. "I can stay and just go through high school with them and not ruin anything, just stay and disappear for college and fade slowly, I can make it work I promise. It doesn't have to end in disaster." Clockwork shook his head, his beard nearly touching the floor. "Please." Illusen said, her green eyes bright with more than just a spectral glow.
"It has to be this way." Clockwork told her. "You can't stay too near to him, the both of you will draw nothing but trouble and attention."
"But you don't understand." Illusen said quietly. "I just want to be with him. It doesn't matter how old he is or if he knows of if he cares, or if she cares either, I want to be with both of them. I want to be with my parents, just for once Clockwork. I hate running and knowing that they're out there and never never getting to see them…" Her hands started to glow a very faint green, and she curled them into fists. "I want to just be able to talk to my dad, have a father-daughter relationship… I want him to really know I exist."
"He knows you exist." Clockwork assured her. "But you can't stay. Amity Park is full of ghosts already, something's bound to hunt you down soon. March is the absolute latest you can stay."
"I can take them." Illusen said, the glow fading from her hands as the power faded from her voice. "I can take anything, that's why I have these stupid powers, right? So I can fight?" She clasped her hands behind her back. "Why do you even both giving me all these cool little hints about how to make people remember me if you're never actually going to let me hang around long enough to?" Staying quiet, the baby floated, watching the girl as she floated very slightly off the floor. "I mean, I can take care of myself. I'm not just a little kid."
"You're still young." Clockwork said gently, growing older than her. "And it is dangerous. I know you don't like to think about it, but you're a very powerful young lady."
"Dad is stronger." Illusen said, sighing and shaking her head. "He was already better than me right now, and he only got better… You could hide us somewhere, the whole family. We wouldn't have to all be broken up and hiding through time and so far apart… You know I haven't seen Mom since I was like twelve? And its been over a year since I saw Dad… Would it really hurt that much to stay just a little longer?"
"You know it would." the old man behind her said, hunching towards her. "You know that you're going to move again in March and you're going to miss it and then internalize everything and pretend you don't care and learn to love the 1970's." Illusen sighed again and the baby moved back. "It's the same every time."
"It sure does come back to haunt me every time." Illusen muttered, barely noticing as Clockwork shook his staff gently. "Ugh, anyways… Uhm, can I get a key to your house that I don't have to chuck into the air and then dodge? It hurts when I throw it wrong."
"It has to be activated by motion." Clockwork said, a slight grin on his face. "Besides, you're better at it than you think. You just doubted yourself the first time. It wouldn't have hit you otherwise."
"Yeah yeah." Illusen said. "World's best hula hoop I guess…" Looking at the door, Illusen let her feet very lightly touch the ground and then made her way towards the door. "Anyways, thanks for talking to me… And, the seventies were cool, right? Kinda turbulent, but really free, right?" Her footsteps were light, and she almost stopped at the door, like she knew that she needed to wait.
"Don't leave just yet." Clockwork said, spinning his staff before putting a hand on Illusen's shoulder. "I've still got a treat for you. I knew you'd be upset."
"You know everything." Illusen said, looking back at him hopefully. "But okay, what is it?"
"It should be coming in right about… Now." Clockwork said, and a knock sounded at the door as he finished his word. Illusen looked at him and he smiled. "Go on, you can open it."
Grabbing hold of the knob, Illusen pulled the door open to reveal a man not much taller than her, with messy black hair and bright blue eyes and a smile on his face. He was obviously along in his years, a crinkle in his forehead while he smiled and just a touch of stubble framing his jaw, but it was still apparent who he was. Though older, Danny Fenton was standing just outside of Clockwork's door, deep in the Ghost Zone and as Illusen came to her senses, she released the doorknob and nearly tackled him.
"Daddy!" she shouted, wrapping her arms around his midsection. "I've missed you."
Ha! Who saw that coming? And don't lie, you weren't supposed to see it.
~ Natalie