Old and New Love
By: Wilona Riva
Disclaimer: Danny Phantom belongs to Butch Hartman, Nickelodeon, etc.
Clock Tower
Author's Note: If you find errors, let me know so I can correct it. Thank you.
The Ghost Zone's eerie green and black swirls stretched on forever. The purple doors, in this region were few and far between. Maddie sighed.
"How are we even going to find him in all this swirling void?" Tucker asked. "This place is huge."
"We're just going to have to stop and ask for directions, I suppose," Maddie said.
"From whom?" Tucker demanded.
"From whatever ghost lives there," Maddie said, pointing at the faint image of an island shimmering into view. A tower made of stone and metal with a clockwork gear sticking out of one of its turrets had a light shining in one of its windows.
"A ghostly lighthouse," Tucker whispered. "This is so cool."
"Yes, but who among the ghosts knows we're here?" Maddie said, frowning.
"I don't care," Tucker said. "Set the coordinates for that tower. Whoever lives there has to know where to find Danny."
"Setting the coordinates, captain," Maddie teased.
"Des, I need air," he whispered, breaking away from her. The djinni woman pulled away from him.
"As you wish, my prince," she said.
Danny looked desperately at the doors to the ornate chambers they were currently trapped in. A faint amber glow surrounded them. "Trapped," he muttered, eyes darting to the windows; the same amber glow surrounded them as well.
"No," the green-skinned courtesan whispered, pulling him back into her embrace. "Sealed until the ritual is complete."
"A lighthouse with a parking garage," Tucker said, whistling. "Man, these ghosts think of everything."
"Visitors are few and far between here, mortals," a one-eye ghost with olive-green skin said, holding up an old-fashioned oil lantern said, stepping from the shadows to his right.
"I am one of the Observants, an aid to the Master of Time," he added, seeing the human woman level a shiny ecto-gun at him. "We mean you no harm. Come." He turned and motioned for them to follow him up the stairs that shimmered into view.
Maddie kept one hand on the trigger, and glanced at Tucker. "We don't have a choice if this Master of Time knew we were coming."
"Kinda weird, but I agree," Tucker said. "What choice do we have?"
"I have drawn your bath, Prince Phantom," Desiree told him sultrily from the opposite door. Danny was sitting on the bed removing his socks and boots, his gloves next to him.
"Thank you, Des," he said. "I took a shower this morning. I don't see why I have to bathe again."
"Ritual purity, my prince," she explained, taking over the removal of his clothing.
"What is that smell?" Danny said, catching a whiff of the incense she'd lighted.
"It is an herb called wood betony, Prince Phantom," she said, taking off his last boot. "Lift your arms."
He obeyed as she took off his shirt, then his belt. "What is the herb for?" he asked.
"It will protect you from dark and negative energy, Prince Phantom. The smoke will purify your body and your core. If you place it under your pillow, it will shield you from dreams."
"Uh, Des, what are you doing?" he asked, when she had pulled him to his feet.
"Removing your trousers and undergarments, my prince. You very well can't bathe with your clothes on, can you?"
Danny groaned and stared up at the ceiling.
"Wait, here," the Observant said. "The Master of Time will come soon."
The room the humans were left in was one only a rare few ever saw. A circular pool of silver water shimmered in the moonlight which shown through the earth sky above them. The walls were actually trunks of trees and the floor was the earthen soil.
"Are we back on earth?" Tucker wondered.
"I don't think so," Maddie said.
"You are correct," a strong male voice said, "I am Clockwork, called by some, the Time Master."
"You control Time?" Maddie queried the child who floated into the room.
"No," he said, changing into an old man. "I am only its guardian; no one, but the Great One, can control Time."
"Where is Danny?" Maddie asked.
"There," the ghost said, shifting into a young man this time. He pointed at the pool. In its silvery still waters, Maddie watched the wishing ghost hold a silver chalice to her son's lips.
"Was it that he is drinking?" she wondered.
"It's love potion #9," Tucker crowed. "That movie was a hit!"
Clockwork chuckled. "Of a sort," he replied. "It's only a tea made from rose petals steeped in spring water."
"Where are his clothes?" Maddie yelled, suddenly seeing her son's nakedness.
"Ah, the purification bath," Clockwork murmured. "She's gotten to this part, at last."