A/N: On with the show!
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.
Vesa
The room came slowly into focus, it's swirling green and purple colors steadying, taking form. He still felt the lingering pain, pin pricks moving over his skin like sparks of electricity, making his limbs twitch every now an then. Hazily, uncomprehending, he looked at the snarling demons above him, their red eyes glowing menacingly, holding perfectly still. Too still. He blinked, closed his eyes and opened them again. They hadn't moved, and now that his eyes worked a little better he saw that he was looking at a painting on the ceiling.
He let out a small sigh in relief as he let his eyes wander over the gruesome painting, the brown monsters clawing and tearing at... people. He shuddered, knowing how that felt. Then he wondered where he was and who would enjoy such a painting on their ceiling, who would like to watch people being slaughtered. Then he thought about his own preference for horror movies.
"You are awake."
He blinked and tried to move his head to find the source of the voice. It was a soft, female voice and it sounded almost gentle. Slowly, painfully he moved his head sidewards and stared at the woman standing beside the bed. She seemed only a little taller than he was, with long blond hair and a slight blueish complexion. Her most startling feature were her eyes. They were blood red.
Danny pushed himself up, trying to think what he was doing there and where he had seen her before. Then it came back to him and he gasped, closing his eyes. Father had punished him for running away. He felt guilty. He shouldn't have run away like that, he shouldn't have failed his father in that way.
He felt a cool hand pushing him down again and he whimpered in pain at her touch.
"I'm sorry," she said, "Here, let me ease your pain."
She moved her hands over his body, stroking him, caressing him. He felt the pain leave him slowly and a feeling of contentment and warmth came over him. He opened his eyes and looked at her.
"Vesa," he said, remembering her name.
She smiled at him and he blushed as he realized that the only thing he was wearing was his boxers. He looked around apprehensively.
"Where are my clothes?" he asked her and blushed again when he saw her dress.
It was of a flimsy, silky fabric, clinging closely to her body and almost see-through, it didn't leave much to the imagination.
"You don't need them here," she smiled, "Besides, they were torn and dirty. He'll supply you with new clothes later."
Hastily he slid under the covers of the bed, which he had been laying on top of. Vesa's smile broadened.
"Don't you just love my bed? It's very comfortable, isn't it," she said, smirking.
Danny groaned. "Look, I just want my clothes back," he said, "please?"
She shrugged and walked away. He couldn't stop himself from looking at her and felt his body react to her swaying movements. She returned moments later, holding a torn and bloody t-shirt and equally torn and bloody cargo pants. Sweat broke out when he remembered what had caused the state they were in. He couldn't wear those.
"See," she said, "You'll just have to stay here until he returns. He will probably be a while though, so why don't we make ourselves comfortable?"
With that, she laid down on the bed beside him, thankfully on top of the covers. He tried to move away from her but found himself at the edge of the bed. He wondered what it would be like if she were to slide under the covers with him and quickly pushed that thought away. She was a ghost. Then again, so was he.
"S-so, what else can you do? I mean, besides heal?" he rasped, trying to divert her attention.
She smiled and stroked his cheek.
"I can make you feel very, very nice," she whispered in a husky voice.
He hugged the blankets a little closer to him. She was not suggesting what he thought she was suggesting.
"I..I...," he stuttered, blushing madly, "Y-you were the one who made everybody forget?"
She pulled back a little, frowning at him. But then she smiled again and batted her eyelashes.
"I have many talents," she said, somehow making even that sound flirtatious.
"But you couldn't make me forget?"
Anything to keep her talking. She shook her head and frowned a bit, plucking at the covers to remove some imaginary dust particle.
"We tried. It seems that your half ghost status resists my... interference. I cannot enter a ghost's mind, only humans. We thought that if we could weaken you enough, I'd be able to get through, but you were unusually resilient."
"So instead, you tortured me," he said bitterly.
She pouted. "Now, Danny, don't be such a bore. We made you better. We trained you."
She leaned closer to him again and he started to sweat.
"Look at you now," she whispered in his ear, "So strong, so quick and agile, so... powerful."
He tried to back away from her again and almost fell out of the bed.
"Why...why are you doing this," he squeaked.
"Silly boy," she giggled, leaning back again, to his relief, "I like you. And Vlad isn't here. Why don't we have some fun?"
Danny gulped as he started to imagine her idea of 'fun'.
"NO! I mean, no, why are you working for f...Vlad," he said.
She snarled and he instantly wished he hadn't asked. Her red eyes flashed even brighter, the room seemed to darken and he thought he saw the demons on the paining turn their heads towards him. Then it was gone and she just looked angry.
"Vlad has me under his power, just like you," she said.
"How?"
She looked at the silvery bands around his wrists.
"He has a ring. It binds us together. I have one too, but he's stronger than I am. I have to obey him. Much like you do."
He flinched at that. "How did he get that ring," he pressed.
She looked away, her eyes suddenly sad.
"I gave it to him. I thought he loved me. Boy was I wrong."
She was staring at some a spot on the wall. He almost felt sorry for her when he saw the forlorn look on her face, her loneliness. She almost looked human.
"He was so... charming in the beginning," she said suddenly, "The perfect gentleman. I was flattered by his attention and we had such a good time in the beginning. But he was always asking me questions about my powers, he always wanted to know what it was that I could do. I... I always try to make people feel good, you know. But he was more interested in the side effects... that I could make people forget they'd ever seen me. And then I found out that he didn't love me at all, that he loved... your mother and I was so angry... But by then I had given him that ring and he could control me. You know how it works. We had better obey him. But that doesn't mean that I can't get back at him every once in a while."
She turned to him, a feral grin on her face and he was suddenly captivated by her red glowing eyes. Something in his mind snapped.
"You're cute," she said and tore back the covers.
She moved closer and pressed her body against his. He felt his arms moving, wrapping themselves around her, pulling her close.
Maddie was rudely shaken from her slumber as the alarm on her son's bedside table started blaring it's obnoxious sound. He must have forgotten to turn it off. She pushed herself up from his bed and looked around. The room was exactly as it had been last night when she had gone in there to wait for him.
She walked to the window and looked outside. It was light out and the street was gleaming from the rain that had fallen that night, but it was dry now. The heavily overcast sky gave everything a dreary look. There was no trace of Danny. She left his room and went downstairs, hoping to find him there, that he had come home without her noticing. She walked into the kitchen, but found only Jazz, sitting at the table. She looked up from her book and smiled, but her smile faded when she saw the worry on her mother's face.
"He's not back yet?"
Maddie shook her head. She felt sick.
"We... we need to find him," she said haltingly.
Suddenly she ran to the door, grabbing the keys to the GAV. Jazz was right on her heels.
They drove around the town for hours, but found no trace of him. They went by Sam's and Tucker's house, hoping he had shown up there, but of course they hadn't seen him either. In the end they went home again, hoping to find him there, but they only found Jack in the lab, tinkering with the Fenton Finder.
Maddie felt helpless. With all her knowledge, all her studies, all her inventions, she couldn't help her own son. Had he run away? Was he lying somewhere, injured in some ghost attack? His independence frightened her. He didn't need her anymore, like he had when he was little. She glanced at the place where the picture of her and four year old Danny had been. She had loved that picture and had looked at it often. Now it was gone forever and she and felt guilty. Of course he needed to grow up, but did it have to be so fast? Was she losing him again?
"Hello?"
She heard Sam's voice at the door.
"In here," she replied from the kitchen.
Sam and Tucker entered and looked around.
"He's not back yet?" Sam asked worriedly. Maddie shook her head.
"That's not normal," Sam said, "He would have let us know if he was held up somewhere, or in a ghost fight. Something has happened."
Maddie sighed. "We have no way to find him," she said, "We looked all over town, checked all the hospitals."
"Do you still have the Boomerang?" Tucker said, "We have used it to track Danny before."
"I don't know. I'll have to ask Jack." She went to the lab and came back a moment later. "He's looking for it," she said, "But he hasn't seen it in ages. It must be around somewhere."
They sat together in a worried silence while they listened to the noise that came from the lab. Boxes were being overturned, closets were emptied, the contents of drawers were spilled on the floor, everything accompanied by exclamations from Jack when he found something else that he had been missing. Jazz came down from her room and joined them at the kitchen table.
Finally, after an hour, they heard a loud 'Eureka' from the lab, followed by bouncing footsteps on the stairs. Jack stormed into the kitchen and held a dusty, ectoplasm covered boomerang in his big hands.
"It was behind the closet in the corner. Don't know how it got there," he boomed.
Sam grinned, thinking Danny probably hid it there, tired of being hit by the thing all the time.
They rushed outside and Jack threw the device into the air. It flew away, turned and flew back at them again, passed over them and turned again. It kept doing that until Tucker grabbed it out of the air in passing.
"That's odd," he said, "Maybe the ectoplasm on it throws it off."
He wiped it clean with his sleeve and threw it again, but there was no change. Maddie shook her head.
"Maybe he is out of range. Or maybe it is not tuned into his signature," she said.
To her surprise Sam and Tucker went pale. Sam shook her head furiously.
"No!" she said, "Danny hid that thing behind the closet, I'm sure of it. He did that for a reason! It kept homing in on him, even halfway across the country. If only..."
"What? If only what? Sam, what are you not telling us?" Maddie asked, "Why are you children always trying to keep everything from us!"
Sam took a deep breath, knowing she really needed to fill in Danny's parents about everything. She hoped he wouldn't be too mad at her for it. But his parents needed all the information if they were going to find Danny.
"I'm not sure the Boomerang will still find him, even if it is still tuned in to his ecto signature," she said.
Maddie was suddenly struck by the idea that her son had an ecto signature.
"His signature may have been changed when he escaped from Vlad," Sam continued.
Maddie stood very still. Jack looked at her.
"Hey didn't you..." he started, but before he could continue, Maddie had rushed back into the house.
She ran to the book case and started rummaging between the old studies she had done in college. She needed only a moment and ran out again, holding an old booklet. She showed it to them. It read "Ecto alterations, Experiments on semi-ectoplasm" by Madeline Hayes.
She opened it and quickly scanned through it. It had been twenty years, she hardly remembered anything of it. She almost laughed at some of the statements she made in it until she remembered the seriousness of the situation. Then she gasped and they all looked at her in anticipation.
"It says here that the ecto signature of a ghost changes when the nature of the ghost changes," she said.
"What does that mean?" Jazz asked.
Maddie took a deep breath. She really didn't want to say this, the implications being devastating.
"It means that if a...benign ghost, if there is such a thing, turns malevolent...it's signature changes... or vice versa. But I've never heard of the latter."
They were all silent.
"Danny is not evil," Sam said vehemently.
"But he said he had to change himself to get free," Tucker said.
"And he said he changed back again!" Sam yelled.
Tucker hung his head. "Yes. That's what he said. But let's face it Sam. He's not the same."
Jazz cleared her throat. "Um," she said, "Why don't we try the ghost zone?"
Just a little announcement, I've been working on a continuation of my one shot 'Still Here' and I'm now far enough into the story to start posting it. Which I will do in a few days (editing, editing...). But working on that story will take time out of this one, so updates will slow down a little... I'm having a hard enough time making my (OK, self-appointed) deadlines as it is.
So start screaming if you don't want me to do that :) On the other hand, there's only about three or four more chapters left for this one... and you may like 'Still Here', because it's dark and depressing :)