Jack lifted his paralysed son from the hover board and on to a table in the lab. Zatanna summoned a pillow for the halfa. Maddie was examining Sam's burn with Tucker hovering nearby by out of concern and Wally was sitting down with his ankle propped up and an ice pack. Artemis sat beside her boyfriend watching Danny with guilty eyes. Ron, thanks to his monkey aura, had miraculously avoided any injury despite the amount of hits Klarion got in. Kim on the other hand had a massive bruise across her stomach. Jake stood beside Rose and Spud, carefully out of the way, watching Danny worriedly. Danielle stood nearby her adoptive brother both out of concern and for everyone's safety. As a halfa herself, Danielle was better equipped to fight off her brother than others. Many of Young Justice had asked to take showers or get some food which Maddie and Jack were more than happy to provide, Jazz even offered to cook dinner for everyone.
Jimmy frowned at the paralysed halfa as Jack gently pushed a syringe into the teen's arm and took an ectoplasm sample. The man then placed the sample under a microscope.
"How long will he be like this?" Jimmy asked, glancing at Rose.
"No way to tell. If he's like a normal human though, maybe a few more minutes. He has been paralysed for a long time now," Rose answered. Jimmy nodded and turned back to Danny just in time to see the teen's fingers twitch.
"I think it's wearing off now actually," Jimmy remarked. Everyone turned to Danny worriedly. Even Jack paused in his research to turn and watch his son. No one knew what the halfa would be like when he regained control of his body. Either the halfa would be angry and violent again or he would have snapped out of that uncontrolled rage.
Danny twitched his fingers again. The rage and fury had long since faded. All he remembered was feeling agony and then seeing Klarion. The rest was a blur before he found himself in the Bioship, unable to move with Jake, Danielle, Sam, Tucker and his mother swimming in and out of his peripheral vision. It had been frightening. He instantly feared that Klarion had ordered him not to move and that the spell couldn't be lifted. But then he realised something. His mind hadn't tried to correct his thoughts of Klarion. The Witch Boy wasn't his master anymore. Had Danny been able to move, he would have begun crying with joy and relief. The spell was gone. He didn't have to obey Klarion and Cheshire anymore. He was free. Really free this time. But then he noticed something else. His chest was buzzing softly in pain. It wasn't unbearable like before, but it was constant. But he could finally move again. And now he knew why. Rose somehow paralysed him. He didn't know how or even why but at least it was wearing off.
He blinked slowly and flexed his hands stiffly. He wiggled his toes in his boots. He felt stiff and sore from tensing but other than his chest, he felt fine.
"Danny? Can you hear me?" Jimmy ventured nervously.
"Y-yeah," Danny croaked softly. Everyone relaxed.
"How do you feel?" Jimmy asked with a gentle smile.
"Free. I dunno how you guys did it. But the spell's gone," Danny mumbled softly. Artemis frowned.
"You don't remember?" she called.
"No. It's a blur. What happened?" Danny confirmed, stiffly turning his head to the archer. Artemis gulped nervously.
"It might be better that you don't remember," Wally remarked. Danny frowned in concern. His gaze quickly scanned the room.
"Where are the others?" he questioned worriedly.
"They're fine Danny," Sam quickly assured. Danny smiled in relief.
"Sweetie… do you feel alright? Physically?" Maddie inquired worriedly, standing up and stepping away from the Goth and towards her son.
"I feel sore and my chest is hurting but other than that," Danny muttered.
"Being paralysed does leave you feeling stiff and sore," Rose remarked.
"Your chest hurts though? Where?" Danielle asked. Danny stiffly lifted a hand and placed it right in the centre of his chest. Danielle bit her lip and gently put her hand where he had been shot.
"Not here?" she prompted.
"No. Why would you think there hurts?" Danny replied, frowning in confusion. Danielle grinned nervously and held her hands up.
"No reason," the female halfa lied. Danny scowled.
"You aren't telling me something. What happened that was so bad you won't tell me?" Danny retorted with annoyance.
"Trust us. You don't want to know," Wally repeated himself.
"No. I think I do. Did I hurt someone?" Danny pressed.
"I shot you. By accident. I… I was aiming for the crystal ball and grabbed the wrong arrow. You got in the way. The crystal ball broke and… and it was horrible. I thought- I thought I killed you," Artemis whispered. Danny blinked in shock.
"And when you recovered somehow, you went crazy. You attacked Klarion and we couldn't stop you. You wouldn't listen," Danielle added.
"Dani," Jake hissed.
"No. Thank you. I'd rather know. I knew I was angry but… Did I hurt any of you? When you tried to stop me," Danny interjected.
"Worst you did was push me over. You just wanted to hurt Klarion," Danielle admitted with a shrug. Danny nodded and grabbed Danielle's hand.
"I'm sorry then. I'm sorry I acted that way. Even if I wasn't in my right mind," Danny apologised sincerely. Everyone smiled. Danny was back to his usual self.
"Danny, can we get back to the pain in your chest?" Maddie requested, reluctant to interrupt such a tender moment but she was concerned about her son's health.
"It's not as intense as before. I could almost ignore it. But it's been like it for a while now," Danny admitted. Jimmy frowned.
"What do you mean?" the boy genius wondered.
"Before… it was like being stabbed… over and over again. And the time before that it was like I got punched. But now… it's more an ache than a pain. It's been there since my blackout. Maybe I even had it during it, I don't know," Danny explained. Jimmy frowned worriedly and turned to Jack who had already grabbed an instrument to monitor Danny's energy levels. The large man held the device over his son and scowled at the reading.
"It's higher than before," he muttered.
"I just had a thought," Spud commented.
"Is it relevant?" Artemis grumbled.
"Of course. What if all this energy in Danny's body is putting pressure on him?" Spud began.
"We kind of think that already Spud. You know the whole not eating or sleeping stuff," Jake pointed out. Spud shook his head.
"Not what I meant. Danny has an ice core right? It's a filter for his energy to go through to become ice energy. Which means it's filtering more energy than normal," Spud resumed. Danny's eyes widened. His pain was exactly where his ice core was.
"But I thought this extra energy was affecting Danny's human half, not his ghost half," Wally remarked.
"No. I think he's on to something. This is where my ice core is," Danny interjected, putting his hand back to his chest.
"Think of it like this. So much energy has got to act a bit like high blood pressure. And… what happens when someone has high blood pressure for a long time?" Spud continued, glancing worriedly at Danny.
"A heart attack," Maddie whispered in dread.
"So he's been having something like ghost heart attacks," Jimmy realised.
"Which means this energy is bad for both his halves," Sam concluded.
"We have to find a way to regulate your energy," Maddie decided and strode across the lab to her work station. Jack and Jimmy nodded in agreement and followed her lead. Sam crossed the room and leant against the table Danny was still lying on.
"It's funny… when I first felt this. I was scared it was a heart attack. I even looked up symptoms online but I didn't have any. I figured it was a one time thing," Danny commented. Sam took his hand and smiled at him gently.
"Well… you were kind of right," she muttered, her tone light but her eyes told him her true feelings. Concern and fear. Danny's green gaze drifted to Sam's arm and frowned worriedly at her bandaged burn.
"How's your arm?" he asked.
"Better. Skulker actually put some burn stuff on it back at that base. That helped a lot and your mom just looked at it," Sam informed him. Danny nodded. He glanced across the room and saw Wally's bandaged ankle.
"Did I hurt your ankle?" Danny called worriedly.
"It was more the fall than you. Don't worry. It wasn't your fault," Wally replied. Danny frowned guiltily but nodded.
"I'm almost afraid to ask this but… did you catch Klarion?" Danny ventured nervously. Everyone shared a glance.
"No. He got away. Cheshire got a hit in on me and the room filled with smoke. We were blind and both Klarion and Cheshire escaped. I'm sorry Danny," Kim confessed. Danny nodded stiffly. He knew it wasn't Kim's fault.
"But we destroyed all their Guys in White linked projects. And we did manage to catch Agent O and K. Turns out they've been running the operation since the higher ups got arrested after the whole Project White Flower thing. They teamed up with the Light shortly after that law passed, making their organisation illegal," Sam added.
"The Guys in White were involved? I should have known," Danny retorted with a slight scowl.
"You didn't?" Tucker realised with surprise.
"I didn't really hear much about what was happening. I knew they had Guys in White grade weapons. But they controlled Rose and made her rob that base in Gotham last year," Danny replied.
"We handed them over to the Justice League but we did hear one of them muttering something about branching away from the main organisation. The Guys in White must have been spilt over following the law and hunting ghosts," Wally mentioned. Danny nodded, he should have realised that would happen. The Guys in White, while complete morons and rarely competent, were resourceful and determined.
"What were they doing for the Light?" Danny inquired curiously.
"A lot of stuff actually. They were mass producing anti-ghost weapons. They were even starting to work on reverse engineering a Fenton thermos. They developed a knock-out gas that only worked on ghosts. They were the ones to figure out how to make those collars and the prototype power units they used for you. They were building the better ones Jimmy designed though. They also built a massive tank that they were going to pool all the energy they collected from the ghosts in. And they were working on something called power manipulators. They were meant to hold a ghost's energy and imbue the wearer with some ghost abilities. Like invisibility, intangibility, ghost strength, ghost ray and flight. They already had tech that could mimic intangibility but they were early stages of that project. Luckily," Tucker reported. Danny frowned.
"I thought they might try and do something like that. That or make a massive weapon powered by ghost energy," Danny muttered.
"Well, we got the leaders now. And a full list of all the Guys in White base locations. They're shut down Danny. For good this time," Sam concluded with a smile. Danny smiled at his girlfriend, feeling a fear in the back of his mind lift.
Finally, the situation that started during Ghostly Justice has been resolved… to a degree. The Light are still out there of course but the Guys in White are shut down.
And Danny's energy problem has been solved, well a cure is pending still but at least they understand what's going on now.
So really, just wrapping up the last few loose ends before the end now.
Let me know what you guys think of the story so far.
Until the next chapter.
