Author notes:
1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.
2)I don't own Danny Phantom.
3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs
4)Thanks Truephan, Christopher Scott and Shaddow the Spirit for your reviews.
Alphonse started to run to King Pariah's castle with all his strength. He had a mix of curiosity, excitement and even some degree of fear. That happened because of the strange ghost who popped out of nowhere to talk to him.
The ghost told him his name was Clockwork and told Alphonse a much briefer version of the story he had told Danny and Sam about the Dead Forest. Clockwork merely told him that the tree is what keeps the ghosts alive and that there's no way of controlling it, just healing when it needs. He also explained to the lycanthrope how the poison thrown in the water almost killed the tree and everyone in the Dead Forest and what the fireflies were.
The Time Master didn't mention the lake bellow the tree, but he told the werewolf that the ghosts came from an accident involving the power of another species. He also told him how Danny had to give up of his human half to save every ghosts' life.
That last bit shocked Alphonse, but Clockwork wasn't going to give anything more away. He knew how Alphonse would react if he told him such things. The werewolf would have tried his hardest to get to the lake, even digging to get there.
Clockwork also made sure to make it clear to Alphonse that if the lycanthrope kept messing around the cave he could get seriously hurt and even endanger the whole dead forest.
The Time Master also showed a copy of his gear like medallion and even repeated several things he had wrote in the books Alphonse had read to prove Alphonse he was telling the truth. Clockwork even suggested that if Alphonse wanted to prove his worth to the world, like he always wanted, he should, first, stop with his high and might attitude. Second, he needed to make sure his father stopped being a leech on Alphonse.
Clockwork knew Alphonse could be dangerous. But he was a dangerous person who had some boundaries. The Time Master knew Alphonse would still try think of a way to learn more about the cave. But, at least, the lycanthrope would discover near nothing and would harm no one.
But the Time Master encouraged Alphonse to get enough will to face his father and show everyone that he's nothing but a faker and show everyone who's the real genius in the Werewolf Village.
But it was Clockwork's last words that rang in Alphonse's head the most. "Try to enjoy life a bit, will you. You have a wife that loves you. I know it was an arranged marriage. But try to know her a bit. You might enjoy her company if you do."
'As if I could get along with anyone else. The only person I can count on is me.' The lycanthrope thought as he rushed to the castle also wondering where the strange ghost had gone to. All he had said was that he had other people to visit.
After running for a while, Alphonse finally reached the Ghost Castle. The lycanthrope saw some guards at the entrance and they were very confused, after all they felt like they were going to die some time ago.
Alphonse than appeared in front of the guards and asked them if they were alright. Not that he cared, but if he wanted to get inside of the castle he would have to butter them up a little.
The guards recognized who Alphonse was. He was often dragged by his father to some parties at the castle. Wolfgang did this in order to show off in front of his son and also to brag.
"I'm fine, I guess…But what are you doing here, Professor Alphonse?" one ghost guard asked.
Alphonse than said: "I need to see the King! I discovered the reason for our sudden weakness and he needs to hear that immediately before it's too late!"
Another guard cringed at that: "Wow. It's true when they say tragedies never come alone."
Alphonse raised an eyebrow and asked: "What do you mean?"
That same guard then answered: "Didn't you hear? Someone tried to kill the King and the humans are invading our lands."
Alphonse's eyes went wide with that. He then felt much more worried. There was no time for quarrel against humans and the King would certainly be short on patience after what happened to him.
The lycanthrope then asked again: "May I come in? It's urgent I talk to the King. Imagine if we lose our strength again while we're fighting against the humans?"
Alphonse's reasons for doing all this weren't that altruistic as the guards thought them to be. But what they didn't know couldn't harm them. This time.
The guards knew that they shouldn't let anyone come inside, especially at a time like that, but Alphonse was the son of the counselor Wolfgang and the professor also had a good reputation and what he said could be of extreme importance, so they ended up allowing Alphonse to enter the castle but they called another guard to guide him to King Pariah.
Alphonse was in such a hurry he didn't even mind being escorted by a guard. At least he was making some progress.
After walking some time, Alphonse and the ghost guard arrived to King Pariah's chamber and saw Fright knight, Wolfgang, some doctors, other guards and the Ghost King.
"Alphonse, what are you doing here?" Wolfgang asked surprised to see his son there.
As soon as they recovered their strength, the guards carried the wounded Queen Spectra to the prison. King Pariah was going to deal with her treachery later. But now he had to deal with the menace of humans in the Dead Forest
"I'm here merely to show how much you have endangered us all, father!" Alphonse snarled.
Wolfgang had gone to the castle right after he had talked with his son. He had been invited to live there and receive a noble title as well. Needless to say, he didn't like the tone of his son one bit.
"Please, excuse my son, your highness. He's been a troublesome child as far as I can remember." Wolfgang quickly said in order to at least protect himself from Alphonse's 'stupidity'.
Eric was quite confused to see Alphonse there as well. The general knew that the lycanthrope was his nephew's teacher and wondered why they even let he inside in a time like this.
"Let me take a wild guess here, then. You are intending to use poison against the humans once more, aren't you?" Alphonse asked gritting his teeth.
"If we don't use poison, you brat, how do you expect to get rid of the humans? They have anti-ghosts weapons!" Wolfgang protested trying to suppress the urge to ask how did Alphonse even knew about what he had just suggested to the Ghost King.
Alphonse stood quiet for a while but then he smirked as he remembered something the Time Master had told him. "let's gather all the fireflies and drop them on the humans! It's late at night and they pretty much had settled a camp by now. Also the night time is the perfect time to gather tons of fireflies."
"Are you mad?" Wolfgang said almost shouting. "What part of anti-ghost equipment don't you get it?"
Alphonse had to find it quite amusing to see his father loosing his composure in front of the King and also the General Fright Knight who only looked confused. King Pariah was also losing his patience with the younger lycanthrope, after all he trusted Wolfgang for his 'brilliant' ideas and had next to none contact with Alphonse.
Alphonse then answered: "It was thanks to your brilliant idea of throwing poison in the river that almost killed us! It was a…miracle that saved us."
"What?" everyone in the room suddenly said.
"That's preposterous! Arsenic doesn't affect us!" Wolfgang snarled.
"True. It doesn't affect us directly. But you knew it affected the trees. You say so yourself. But again, you were so keen to destroy the humans you didn't even consider the side effects of your own actions. We need the trees in order to survive. As you probably know, fireflies come out of the trees at night. They are pure ghostly energy. I bet you don't know that even water can corrode the most tall mountain. Don't tell me none of you wondered why we live in this weird forest for as long as this? We need the energy that comes out of the trees. We absorb it small amounts of it on our skin. You all know how pleasant can a firefly be for us and how harmful it's for the humans." Alphonse knew he was lying through his teeth about some parts, but at least they sounded convincing enough to make them quit using the poison plan.
"Are you forgetting who is the scientist here, boy?" Wolfgang snarled in hope that Alphonse would stop making him look like a fool.
However, the younger lycanthrope had enough of fearing his father. He decided to put an end on his act.
"I see…Are you talking about the research so well on ghosts' energies, huh? About how ghostly energy flows at a endless flow in our bodies?" Alphonse said with a grin.
"Exactly! Your majesty, you aren't well to deal with this brat's childish tantrums. Can you please throw him in jail for blocking with my plans?"
Pariah was about to do as he was suggested with Alphonse started to chuckle for everyone's surprise. "Wow. Just wow. You just gave a superficial reading in my research so you looked smart enough and then delivered it to the king, but, in fact, you knew nothing of what was written inside of what you stole from me, don't you? If you had gone through the trouble of at least memorizing what was in my research, you would have noticed how the ghost energy halts for a second every minute. It's this halt allows us to manipulate our energy. If the energy stops even for a second, it allows us to change its entire stream and manipulate it for a series of different usages. All of that, without harming our bodies."
Wolfgang gave a step back looked like he was hesitating. This were noticed by both the general and the king. "I-I wrote that many years ago. Of c-course I would forget about some parts of it!"
"Really?" Alphonse asked crossing his arms. "A huge 'genius' like you would forget about the most important research you ever presented to the king? But again, that's to be expected from the person who came up with the brilliant idea of poisoning us just because I refused in your pathetic attempts of getting a comfy life by leeching on our King's wealth!"
"Watch your tongue, you brat! I just forgot one little thing. I wrote that years ago. You pretty much read my work before coming here so it's fresh in your mind." Wolfgang snarled.
"Oh, really?" Alphonse said. Then he pointed to his father and demanded: "Alright then. If you're so smart, why didn't you consider the side effects of the poison? Why did you mysteriously not care for the fireflies, which I have to remember you come from the trees, to disappear? You almost killed us all. But I'll give you one chance. Explain to the king the side effects of the poison on the trees."
Everyone then stared at Wolfgang expecting an explanation, though some doctors there already knew the answer. Wolfgang then tried to lie his way out of the situation: "You are a moron, Alphonse. The poison didn't do any harm to us. Stop making stuff up."
However one ghost doctor had to intervene: "Excuse me, but I'm afraid he's right, Counselor Wolfgang. The trees do suffer with large amount of arsenic. Without the trees there are also no fireflies in the forest. The effects of the fireflies on both humans and ghosts are known for everyone. And I'm not making any of this up. If you had cared to made an actual research on the books you would know that. However, the effects of the lack of fireflies have yet still to be studied."
Wolfgang had enough of being contradicted. If he didn't do anything soon, everyone woulkd discover he was a hoax. He then clenched his fists and yelled at Fright Knight: "What are you waiting, you moron? Arrest him!"
Needless to say, Fright Knight didn't like to be yelled at. He hated even more when someone tried to use him like Wolfgang was. If the older werewolf was really telling the truth he wouldn't have lost his composure like that and Eric knew how smart Alphonse really was. The two of them talked a lot while the younger lycanthrope tutored Danny.
But ultimately, it was King pariah's decision. And there was one thing the King hated with all his heart: weakness. Wolfgang reached to the point where he couldn't even fend for himself and was even going over Pariah dark's authority and ordering his general to do something the King was yet to authorize or not.
The King may be wounded, but he knew when someone changed their mood like that, it meant nothing good. Sure his wife betrayed him, but he was always wary of her because he knew she was trying every now and then to grab some of his energy while they talked even during their sleep.
The problem was that the King never thought she would have the guts to both try murder him and cheat on him with a shape-shifting blob.
"If someone here is going to be arrested here it'll be you, Wolfgang! Never try to overrule my authority. Do not order my general ever again!" the Ghost King snarled.
"B-But, your highness. I'm the one who…" Wolfgang tried to explain himself.
"Almost killed us all?" Alphonse finished.
"How was I supposed to know those stupid trees would harm us? You didn't want to let me see your most recent research!" Wolfgang snapped at his son.
That was more than enough for everyone in the room to know who was the one telling the truth. The older werewolf placed both hands over his mouth at an attempt to fix his situation, but it was another give away of his lies.
"Fright Knight, arrest this imposter." The king yelled.
Fright Knight didn't voice how it felt good to put that arrogant werewolf in his place. He then grabbed him by force with one hand and with the help of the some of the present guards, they dragged a kicking and yelling werewolf out of the room.
Alphonse found the sight to be quite amusing because he had never seen his father act like that before.
But before he could go on, he heard King Pariah asking him: "So you were saying something about using fireflies to fight the humans, didn't you?"
At Danny's home Vlad had just recovered from the abrupt weakness he had felt. As soon as he could walk again, he rushed to Danny's room to check if his son was alright. But all he found in the room was a certain adult ghost wearing a purple cloak and holding a staff with a clock on the top of it.
Not seeing his son anywhere in the room, Vlad immediately snarled at the unknown ghost while concentrating red energy on both of his fists: "Where is my son? What did you do with him?"
The Time Master could see the past, present and future, but explaining to an angry parent that his child went through an unspeakable danger and even got changed in the process would not be an easy task.
"Daniel is alright, Count Plasmius. He's just somewhere else. Where he's more important to be." Clockwork said to the furious parent.
That explanation didn't satisfy Vlad in the slightest. "What are you talking about?"
"Perhaps it'll be better if I start from the beginning. My name is Clockwork. I am the first human who was turned into ghost inside of this forest." The Time Master begun his explanation, which made the Count raise an eyebrow in confusion. "I can see the timeline from above, so I know I can see its twists and turns. I know all about you, your wife and your son."
That made Vlad's energy glow even brighter. He thought that this unknown ghost was daring to threaten him. That didn't go unnoticed by Clockwork, who stopped time and moved to Vlad.
The Time Master then placed a medallion-necklace over Vlad's neck, allowing him to move even when time stopped.
Vlad blinked in confusion as he didn't see understand the weird feeling he had. But Clockwork immediately explained to him. "I stopped the time. And this necklace you wear is what makes you move while the time is still."
Vlad obviously found strange he was suddenly wearing that necklace. He didn't see when that ghost put that on him. But he still didn't believe the ghost could do such a thing. "Right. And I'm the King of all cheese."
"I'll prove you I'm telling the truth. If you think I'm lying after I show that to you, then you're free to shoot at me. Do we have a deal?" Clockwork suggested to Vlad.
"Alright, but I want a clear view of your back and if you try anything funny I'll painfully force you to tell me where my son is. Do not dare underestimate me" Vlad threatened him.
"As you wish. We don't have to go far. Here, at your home, it'll be enough." Clockwork said as he guided Vlad to the kitchen of his home. As they walked they saw some of the maids and some of other employees of the house staying perfectly still.
This of course made Vlad question what Clockwork did to them, but when they got to the kitchen they saw one maid, who tripped while carrying some plates . The plates were perfectly still in the middle of the air also with the maid inclined because of her accident.
This made Vlad drop his energy from hi arms and take a better look at her, aghast by the sight. "How is this possible?"
"I told you. I stopped the time." Clockwork answered calmly.
Vlad just turned angrily at the other ghost not liking such vague answers. Clockwork knew what he was going to say and in order to calm the parent he explained to him: "I'll tell you the whole story about the Dead Forest and me after I make these points clear to you. Your son, Daniel is a very unique child. Not just because he was a hybrid but because he was able to sacrifice part of himself to save the entire ghost population."
"What do you mean by sacrifice?" Vlad shouted not liking what he had just said.
"Listen, Daniel is now more ghost than human. He's pretty much like everyone else now. He resembles you even more now. You should be proud of your boy. I've seen many people much older than him, but without even half of his courage." Clockwork explained as he placed a hand over Vlad's shoulder.
"Where is he?" Vlad asked once more, but this time, without spite in his voice, but with worry.
"Your son is putting an end on the quarrel between humans and ghosts, I know this sounds like a huge task for a fourteen-years-old. But only he can do such a thing."
"What? But how?" Vlad asked
Clockwork changed to his elderly form and "The time is frozen, so I guess I can explain everything from the beginning. You see, there's this tree…"
At Malnova Pordo, King William was pacing back and forth in his throne room. He wanted to crush every single person at Amikeco Parko. Dash was there as well along with Alicia.
The queen of Malnova Pordo begged her husband to call off the attack to her home kingdom, but the man was stubborn and threatened her saying that if she didn't support him with his attack, it would mean she plotted with her father against him.
Alicia, obviously told him that her father may be hard minded, but he never plotted against him. Even Dash thought he father was overdoing it a bit. Sure he agreed that King Raymond was a nutjob, but it wasn't an excuse to treat his mother like that.
But none of them were expecting what came next. A blue vortex appeared in the middle of the room and when it disappeared a blue-skinned boy with white hair and red eyes was standing in the middle of the room.
The four guards inside of the room charged against him with their spears, but Danny managed to become intangible making the guards rush through him, doing no harm to the boy.
When Danny reappeared again he fires some ecto-beams towards their weapons shattering them for everyone's horror.
King William, in his anger towards the late King Raymond, had ordered the destruction of all ghost-related material. He thought that the whole 'ghost menace' was just the old man's craziness to put the blame on beings that did nothing to support what King Raymond had said about them.
"A-A…" King William started to say giving some steps back.
"Ghost?" Danny finished for him.
"W-ho are you? W-What do you want?" King William asked him.
"I'm Daniel Plasmius. I am the grandson of the king you just attacked." Danny started saying with an angry look. The boy had no intentions of harming that man, but he didn't need to know that.
"You're what? That's impossible!" King Raymond shouted as the guards were unsure of how to react now that the anti-ghosts weapons were gone.
"I was born before my mother passed away…" Danny begun "I went to face my grandfather for what he had done against her, but he was killed in an accident…"
"Wait. Is King Raymond dead? So you killed him for what he did to Madeline?" King Raymond asked now wondering if this being was there to aid him. After all he thought the boy held a serious grudge against the late King Raymond.
As they talked, Alicia voiced: "You're Maddie's son?" She didn't believe that she managed to give birth to the boy before she died.
But Dash was also flabbergast. 'That thing is my cousin?' he thought with his mouth wide open.
Danny stared angrily at the man. He never intended for King Raymond to die. It wasn't even his fault to begin with. "No. I didn't kill him. As I said. It was an accident. One soldier was going to stab me and I became intangible, so the soldier ended up stabbing my grandfather instead."
King William, now more relaxed gave a small chuckle surprised by the fact that King Raymond was killed by one of his own soldiers.
However, Danny didn't find it funny. It pissed the boy off to see that someone would enjoy to know that his grandfather was dead. "I didn't come here to be friendly to you, King William. I'm here to make some things very clear to you."
King William raised an eyebrow and was going to ask what the boy was talking about, but he then continued: "I won't harm anyone else anymore. What happened in your kingdom was horrible. But it wasn't my grandfather's fault. You shouldn't have attacked him."
King William then started to think the boy was going to do something with him and yelled at the guards to do something about him. They decided to launch themselves against the boy once more but they all phased through him once more.
Frightened, King William said: "I'll give you anything. Just don't hurt me."
Danny then sighed and continued: "Listen to me! I'm not going to hurt you, if you make it clear you won't attack my grandfather's kingdom or anyone else for a matter of fact." After a short pause he then told him: "Look, I assure you the one responsible for what he did to your kingdom will be punished and no more tragedy will fall over your kingdom. You have my word on that."
"How do you even know who…" King William started, then his eyes went wide as he realized. "It was the ghosts' fault wasn't it? So that old man wasn't crazy…"
Danny didn't want to tell him it was a ghost's fault, because he feared of a future retaliation, but then he assured him: "Yes, yes, it was…But as I said. What he did was wrong and he'll have what he deserves for doing something like that to you."
"How can I even trust you?" king William demanded.
Danny then stated one obvious thing the man seemed to forget. "I see you have no anti-ghost equipment here. If I were as evil as you think I am, I could have done unspeakable things to you by now. But I won't. Because I'm not evil. This whole quarrel between our species begun with a misunderstanding. I would like if you just let this subject go and just try to continue with your life. It'll be the best for all of us."
But before the King could say anything else, the time then froze. Danny, who was still wearing Clockwork's medallion wasn't affected at all. A blue Vortex appeared nest to Danny and not only Clockwork was there, but also his father.
"Come, Daniel. We have one more stop before going back home."
End of Chapter 21
Thanks for reading. I hope you enoyed it. Please review.