Edit: 6/5/18: Next wave of grammar fixes and wording tweaks or some scenes altered to avoid cliches. Took out AN question and answer sections.
The actual Trial will be in the next chapter
zzz- normal separation
ooo- dream or vision separation (could be a past event of some kind)
Mental thoughts or distant speaking
"You know my name, not my story. You've heard what I've done, but not what I've been through." ~Jonathan Anthony Burkett, Neglected But Undefeated.
zzz
Washington D.C. 6:00 AM.
"Good morning, fellow Americans…"
Many people around the world watched as the President of the United States made an address to his people. There was a period of silence before the man looked up into the camera again.
"The last few days have been… enlightening to say the least. We thought we understood ghosts and their habits as well as their nature and motives. I am here to say that something has come up to put much of what we thought we knew into question. At this time, we are not exactly sure what type of being Danny Phantom is. What I am here to tell you is this, we shall be scheduling a court hearing that is not quite the same as the Constitution has guided us to have in the past. A selection of Congress as well as a selection of citizens shall help in the deliberation. Further details will be declared in the next couple days leading to the trial."
The President paused one last time. "I have only one last thing to ask of you. Until we are clear on the facts, until we know what it is we are dealing with, remember the ideal that all men are innocent until proven guilty, that even criminals have rights, and as not only Americans, but human beings, we have the capacity to show mercy even to creatures that don't know it or would rather neglect to show it themselves. Carry yourselves with dignity and not blind hate. Thank you. We are not taking questions at this time."
President Hartman then turned to walk off the stage, as reporters clamored to try and pry more info from him before he left.
zzz
Unknown Location. Block 3A. 7:01 AM.
"Mr. Phantom… or do you actually prefer Fenton?"
Danny blinked his eyes opened to see a few armed guards waiting outside his cell. Danny leaned up and let out an exhale of air. "I guess Fenton since Phantom was just a name I came up with." He swung his legs out from under the sheets only to remember he'd taken his jeans off last night because he was hot. "Damn it."
The youngest of the men may have smirked, but it could've been only Danny's imagination. Danny hurriedly pulled on his jeans and then walked closer to the glass door there. One of the guards slid a green ring through a tiny door.
"Please put that around your left wrist, Mr. Fenton. It will neutralize your powers."
Danny blinked at the almost techno-styled bangle and picked it up, before snapping it on his wrist. He immediately felt a drop of energy to a point that he almost thought the government had possibly engineered something that could in fact deactivate ectoplasm in all his cells, which was better than any of Vlad's weapons. This rose a problem. "Wow… um… excuse me, but do you know whether or not this thing works at a hundred percent capacity?"
"I'm afraid I'm not able to disclose that to you."
"Normally I'd be okay with that, or well as okay as I could be, but you see… I'll die without some ectoplasm in my cells active. I mean even a couple percent would be fine. I need ectoplasm for my systems to run, it's like taking red blood cells out of a human body." Danny reasoned calmly.
The guard that was doing most of the speaking, just stared. "Very well, we will have to talk with the doctors though. Do you happen to know how long your body can survive without ectoplasm active?"
Danny glanced down at his hands in thought. "I… maybe twelve hours? I'd probably get lethargic after seven, organ failure near eleven."
"Then everything is fine. We will not be analyzing you for more than three hour stretches."
"Oh okay." Danny nodded as they opened the electronic glass door. The two other men placed hands on his shoulders and internally realized that Danny seemed to in fact be nothing more than an eighteen-year-old boy without his powers.
After several minutes of walking down corridors, they entered a room that seemed to be like a waiting room. The guard in charge pulled out a pair of hand-cuffs. "For the safety of the scientists."
Danny nodded numbly as the cold steel clicked into place around his wrists. He froze in horror though, when the door opened and he caught sight of a flat metal table. The guards started to walk forwards with him and he panicked. "Wait! Wait!" Danny cried out, making everyone stop what they were doing and look at him for a reason as to why he was suddenly acting out. "You people said- No dissections."
One doctor came closer a placed a hand on Danny's shoulder. "Easy. It's just a table like a doctor's office. We aren't cutting you open. At the very most we may end up taking a few tissue samples, that's tiny bits, so that we can look more closely at your make-up."
Danny looked into the man's eyes and slowly his tension faded. "Sorry…"
"Understandable. We should've thought of that."
"Why? It's only common sense unless he has trouble with basic human logic."
Danny looked over a saw another scientist with his arms folded, glaring at him. The one next to him whispered something harshly.
"No. I'll speak my mind if I want."
The two that were with that doctor glanced at each other while a couple others a distance away shook their heads. Though Danny wasn't positive, he seemed to notice there was some kind of divide between the two groups of scientists and he wondered if they had different biases at heart at the moment.
"Enough. Let's get to work," The scientist nearest Danny spoke and then gestured to Danny to make his way to the table. They allowed Danny to lower himself onto the table and then they put small sensors in various places on his head. The guards remained near the door to the lab area.
"Have we got any sort of base-line?" The main scientist asked.
"Hmm… seems to be just a normal wavelength for a human."
Danny blinked as he heard the scientists talking and looking over the data. He dared to speak up. "I mean… I'm not super-smart, but from what I've learned from experience, part of my anatomy is different as a ghost than as a human. There are things that stay constant, but some that change every time I transform. For example, my skeletal system is just as hard as a normal human's while in human form, but when I'm in ghost form, the atoms seem to become less stable and I can stretch a bone into ectoplasm and then twist my body in almost any fashion after that, even separate parts. I have a few limitations in that department since some of my systems would be damaged if I twisted or stretched too far."
The main scientist walked back over and talk to him. "Is that so?"
Danny nodded slowly. "Like, I can't twist my neck all the way around. Some ghosts can do that and I can twist my neck really far but there's a certain point where I'd break my neck or well wouldn't be able to pull the bone back into a physical form and then if I transformed, I'd probably die…"
"So, it seems we can't do a proper analysis without having your powers available to you."
"Yeah. I think if you set the wrist band up to twenty five percent, then I could transform and do all the basic stuff. On the other hand, I'd also be unable to fly or use most if not all my external powers. I could use intangibility and invisibility, but they kind of just come with the basic package."
The scientist nodded and walked over to a large machine. Before he could start typing something in, the stern scientist from before grabbed his shoulder. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm upping the percent slightly. We can't do an honest and full evaluation without doing as he says."
"How do you know he isn't just lying to you?"
"What would he gain? By giving us further access to his ghost half, it would manipulate the data to more ectoplasmic standards. It wouldn't be proving he was less ghost. Besides, him escaping would also be unlikely. He gave himself up and has been cooperative this whole time."
"Excuse me for speaking out of line, but he also indicated to us that he will possibly perish without ectoplasm in his system for an extended period of time. He said eleven to twelve hours would result in organ failure." One guard spoke.
The scientist glanced over at Danny, who had placed his hands on his stomach and was staring at the ceiling. "Ectoplasm is in every cell I have. This device deactivates the atoms in ectoplasm specifically. Without it, my blood isn't as efficient and my cells don't metabolize as efficiently. That's why blood blossoms are so dangerous to ghosts, it practically vaporizes ectoplasm and absorbs it like nutrients."
"Blood blossoms?" The stern scientist asked.
"They're very rare plants. I think if they grow in places around natural portals. They have almost purplish vines and dark red blossoms. They also have thorns."
The main scientist clicked a few things into a computer and Danny suddenly felt a wave of energy flush through him. He let out an exhale as his eyes glimmered with a dimmed green.
"You shouldn't do it. I'm telling you."
"We are here to study him properly and each come to our own conclusions about what his anatomy says he is and what that means for his intellect and EQ."
Danny glanced over at the two as they got closer. "If I transform, then you can tell me how my brainwaves are then. I'm not sure if they're different." Danny then closed his eyes and willed his ghost form into being.
"Does the transformation always require a shining ring of light?"
"Most often. There have been only a few instances it doesn't need it," Danny replied.
A commotion occurred near the monitor. "But that doesn't make any sense."
"What's wrong?" The nicer scientist asked and walked over.
"If he's supposedly a spectral entity, he should have a flat line on the brain wave activity, like corpses do. But here it's almost like it's slightly more active."
The stern doctor walked over and snorted. "Already altering the data?"
Danny frowned. "I didn't know what to expect. I mean… I think I still have a brain. I know I have organs in this form."
"How do you know?" The kind doctor asked, ignoring the crude one.
Danny seemed to get a bit nervous. "Um well, it was this one fight with Skulker and he got in a lucky jab. Some stuff was showing and one of my friends seemed to know what it was."
"So then theoretically you should have a brain?"
"I guess. I honestly don't know. Haven't exactly busted open my skull yet or been to the doctor since the accident."
"I see. You never broken a bone?"
Danny frowned and began to play idly with one glove and hand to relax himself. "Yes, I have. But if I set it right then it heals in a couple days."
At that, one of the scientist couldn't stop a gasp. This made Danny look up anxiously. "I mean I heal a lot quicker even in human form, though ectoplasm is more viscous, so if I'm bleeding out it's better if I stay in ghost form to give me more time to heal or get help."
"Hmm…" The kinder doctor looked down at the bobbing lines. "I suppose the ectoplasm could be what is causing the heightened activity. Ectoplasm is mostly a form of plasma that has somehow come to be in a more solid form. It would most likely have electrical impulses on its own."
Danny perked up and nodded his head. "Makes sense. Although… it could also be my enhanced senses…"
"Heightened senses wouldn't effect activity quite as much, plus this activity isn't present in your human form and you say your senses are available to you in your other form."
Danny looked at the man and flushed in slight embarrassment. "Oh yeah, didn't think of that."
"So then, now we need to see how your brain reacts in both forms to certain stimuli." The doctor walked over with a headset. "This will display pictures within its built-in screen."
Danny nodded and transformed back into a human before putting it on his head; he was then equipped with various other sensors so that they could also study his basic emotional responses and the effect they had on his body. After about thirty minutes, that particular procedure was done.
Danny could hear the doctors talking in various whispers near their sheets of data. Some seemed excited, others tame, and still others somewhat disturbed. Apparently, Danny was much more apt to react to violence with violence slash anger in ghost form, which could be attributed to the fact that he often fought ghosts in ghost form. It also seemed as though the Fenton part of him was more likely to succumb to depressive situations or things that would normally lessen one's spirit; Phanotm on the other hand seemed more neutral to them, which was possibly be because Danny felt more confidence in that form and was often more determined not to give up no matter how grim something was. However, why the data showed what it did was completely up to interpretation, which left a heavy weight in Danny's gut. They could just as easily claim that Phantom was violent and indifferent to suffering. Just great.
The kinder doctor eventually walked over. "We're almost done with our analysis for today. Tomorrow we will look into more physical things, like body shape, x-rays, and tissue and blood samples.
"Oh, okay…" Danny answered awkwardly, not sure how he felt about a bunch of random dudes maybe seeing him completely nude.
"The last thing we want to do is test a more extreme stimuli to test a hypothesis within the Spectral-scientific community. It was only recently developed and in fact was developed by your parents and while we are aware of the possible bias, the theory itself is… fairly solid and needs to be tested for your credibility as well as perhaps other ecto-entities."
Danny nodded slowly, feeling a sense of dread enter him. What could they be talking about? What kind of stimuli did they mean?
Before long he was placed back into the headset, with all the same monitors, plus one extra over his heart, which they wouldn't tell him of its purpose; he'd also been asked to transform into Phantom again. Pictures once more flashed through the same screen and most of them seemed completely peaceful. It was quite sudden that the mood changed. A picture of a dying person popped up, something of a gruesome car accident or the like having happened to have maimed his body in such a way. Then a ruined city, from a natural disaster. He hardly noticed or heard the increased frequency of the beeps outside what he was seeing. Something deep inside his chest ached and he cried out loud instantly at the sight of gravestones with his loved ones' names carved on them and finally a computer altered picture of the Earth, torn, burnt, and in ruins floating in space and lacking its beautiful blue glow.
Danny didn't feel hands around his arms or people's anxious voices, no, he heard voices that he didn't know, begging him for an answer as to why he didn't save them. The explosion at the Nasty burger flashed through his mind, Walker's torture being used on his classmates instead of him, his cloned sister melting into nothing, fire, blood, and a deep pain in his chest, spreading to the rest of his body that made him feel like he was going completely insane.
He still thrashed after they'd turned down the percentage of the bracelet to zero and stuck a sedative in him. The first coherent thought he had was wondering if a sedative would work normally on him when all his ectoplasm was inactive. As he slipped into sleep, he drowsily answered himself. Probably…
zzz
Unknown Location. Block 8C. 7:12 AM.
If she was honest with herself, she could say they were being pretty nice and that this wasn't so bad. All she had done this morning was talk to a nice lady. After answering a few random questions that didn't seem to have to do with anything, she'd been taken deeper in the building to a lab. There she'd freaked a bit, much like her brother, at the sight of the cold steel and white-coated scientists, but she'd been calmed rather quickly.
That was until they were halfway through some of the procedures that Dani noticed she was slowly melting. She let out a shriek, pulling everyone's attention to her.
"I'm melting again! You've, you've got to take the bracelet off!" Dani wailed, seeing her fingers droop a bit and start turning a little purple.
"We can't let you have access to all your powers."
"I won't leave, but the ectoplasm keeps my body together! I would've died in the test tube without it!"
The guards and scientists exchanged perplexed glanced, not sure what to do.
"Please! Even if you take it off I might still destabilize! I haven't been like this for months!"
Finally, one of the scientist, who was female ran over and started punching in codes. Another followed her and tried to stop her.
"I will not be guilty of murdering a young girl!"
"We don't know that she is one!" the other snapped back.
Dani felt tears dot the corner of her eyes at the cruel suggestion, but didn't let herself cry, she'd been called worse.
"We don't know that she isn't!" The woman then clicked the last buttons and the bracelet stopped glowing.
Dani focused her energy and then looked down at her fingers, only to see they weren't fixed, but at least she wasn't melting further. Now in Phantom form, she could only picture the gruesome idea of her fingers falling off if she turned back into a human again.
"I don't know if I can transform again without my fingers falling off. I can't even go to sleep!" Dani spoke hysterically. It was too late before tears started trailing down her cheeks; this was no longer something she could deal with on her lonesome. "Danny. Danny!"
"Easy child," A scientist attempted, only for Dani to cry out Danny's name again. She loved Maddie and Jack, but there was simply no replacing Danny in her heart. He'd been the first one to love her, to teach her, to really hug her. She didn't like being even a little way away from him in a place that seemed so foreign. Wrapped in the safety that Danny and her new family had given her, she'd been able to grow more; her adventure around the world had helped her to be independent, but it couldn't match up to the love she now craved. No matter how far she had traveled in the past, Danny was always in reach in some way; now he wasn't. She knew what a real life was like now and she was truly afraid to die and loose it all.
The woman she'd talked to earlier, who was a phycologist, walked forward and placed both hands on the girl's shoulders. "Hey, calm down a little, okay, Dani?"
Dani looked at the woman and blinked back a few tears. "I… I…"
The woman squatted a bit. "It's okay that you're scared and want Danny. He just can't be here right now, okay?"
"But… he could fix this… I think… He fixed me last time."
The woman nodded as the doctors looked at each other in confusion. "He really cares about you, doesn't he?"
"Yeah." Dani whimpered a bit. She wanted to go home; she wanted to go back to sleep in her own room, in that crazy home of hers with the bright neon signs.
"How about we stop for today? We can head back to your room and talk some more. I can have one of the doctors ask if Danny could see you later."
Dani seemed to brighten at this. "You can?" The woman nodded and watched as Dani floated off the table and hovered over the floor. Dani sighed. "I can't feel my toes and my hair isn't obeying gravity…"
Indeed, the bottom of her boots and the tips of her hair were looking a bit wispy and not solid like normal.
"Have you destabilized before?"
"Yeah, a couple times. Once all the way, but then Danny used this spray to fix me. I reformed back from mush."
At that, the doctors' eyes bugged out of their heads.
"Back from mush huh? Were you scared?" The phycologist asked and kept walking away with Dani.
"A little, but I would've been a lot more scared to die alone. I'm glad Danny was there to say goodbye. I didn't think he'd be able to save me though."
About an hour later, the phycologist was talking with the doctors in charge of studying Dani.
"You have to understand that even if she isn't a living creature, her apparent psychosis is varying between two extremes depending on her environment and the situation. I can't confirm whether or not it's her act as a ghost is to be unstable or if she's a human child with the same behavior, seeing as that's not my expertise. From what I've picked up, she appears to have the anatomy of a fifteen or sixteen-year-old, but her experience within the world is only from the standpoint of about two or three years. She may have been pre-programmed with some of her original basic teen mentality but so much of her growing process was forcibly sped up. She can swing between being a snarky teenager and a dependent toddler and I'd imagine the fact that her mind does such a thing, confuses her. Her body and mind can't quite decide what she is in some emotionally driven instances. We don't really have prolific research on cloning and clone phycology, seeing as we as the world doesn't see the idea as morally acceptable. I can only speculate that her relationship with Danny and her family may be the healthiest it could be, given what she is. Because Danny has been supportive, she's been able to learn and grow and even understand that though she isn't normal, she's loved and none of it is her fault."
A frowning doctor hummed. "This only really seems plausible if she's in fact a clone. We have to compare her and Daniel's DNA. That is, if they even have DNA."
"And we can't seem to continue the testing and analysis if she may melt at any time. How can we ensure our safety and hers at the same time?" Another added.
"The group studying Daniel indicated that the bracelets at hundred percent efficiency are potentially fatal to either of them. Apparently, they require ectoplasm for their systems to run properly."
"So then maybe Danielle's body relies a bit more on ectoplasm to stabilize her body and less to use for other external reasons?"
"It would explain why Daniel claimed he was stronger in power compared to his clone sister. This would also match the data the GiW have on Phantom and his cousin."
"Honestly, I think the only thing we can do is wait for Daniel's testing to be over for the day. We have to ask him what to do about his sister."
"We can't! What if he becomes enraged and thinks we hurt her on purpose?"
"That's simple," The phycologist finally spoke again. "We take Dani to Daniel. She'll be able to tell him that it wasn't necessarily on purpose."
The group was interrupted by a guard walking in. "That might not be possible as of right now. Daniel reacted poorly to a stimuli test and went into some kind of shock. They had to sedate him."
The phycologist was honestly stunned by this. "What on earth did they test?"
The guard frowned. "The theory about ghosts and their obsessions."
"What exactly happened?" One of the doctors asked, a bit too eagerly.
"You'd have to ask one of the others. I wasn't in the room at the time. I'm just the messenger."
The phycologist stood up and started to leave the room.
"Miss Garber, where are you going?" A doctor asked.
She paused and smiled half-heartedly at them. "Oh, I just needed a small break. This is all just… a lot."
"Very well. We'll see you later."
Miss Garber walked down the longer halls thinking to herself about everything she'd seen and heard. It seemed like one day the world had woken up and everyone was crazy. Just recently her old professor had called her up suddenly and asked her what she felt about being involved with psychoanalyzing ghosts or ecto-entities or whatever. Of course, she had thought it odd for her old teacher to call her randomly and given the subject she'd told her very little since most of what she was doing was government business and therefore confidential. It wasn't until a day ago that she'd been curious and looked up Doctor Hall's past clients only to see the now wanted Vlad Masters had been one of them; the irony was overwhelming to her. She couldn't look further into the actual case due to patient confidentiality laws, as she lacked the proper subpoena.
Garber made it to the bathrooms and leaned against the sink to give herself a moment to think. Everything was all so convoluted and confusing. If these beings weren't sentient, then they sure should be used for acting out plays or the like because they were damn good actors. She wanted the conclusion to be that Danny and his sister were as normal as they could be, given their admittedly unnatural abilities. At the same time though, some part of her wished they weren't, if just so that she didn't have to imagine that two teens were being held mostly against their will in a government lab.
zzz
Ghost Zone. 9:02 AM.
Undoubtedly Vlad wasn't sure what he could accomplish by snooping around the large empty lair. Vlad had had the crown and key in his possession, but with the amount of time that had passed since he'd formulated the plan, there was no telling what had happened to the items during his bout of full force madness.
The last few weeks or so was a bit blurry to the elder halfa. For the time being, he was going to begrudgingly agree with Daniel's assessment of his obsession getting the better of him. It was the only thing that could explain his disassociation with his actions as well as his acne acting up again. It had been over twenty years when the ache had shown back up the first time, after he'd reunited with the Fentons and their children no less, and now the second attack had happened not within more than a year's time. He was getting worse.
Vlad screwed his mouth and face into a look of troubled thought as he found the entrance to Pariah's Keep. He'd seen the hell-hound go in there after following it. Something told Vlad that this couldn't be good.
Considering his thoughts again as he snuck inside in human form, he realized with a pang that during his fit of madness he could've killed Daniel. Though there were times when the man had been aggravated with the boy enough to threaten his less than pleasant end, deep down he knew he couldn't kill him purposefully. He'd realized that not long after trying to clone the boy. Even as their aggression towards each other had increased slowly, a hidden thread of respect only had grown; he wondered if Daniel felt the same.
The boy did have Danielle now… so maybe… maybe Vlad wasn't needed by anyone anymore. He'd unintentionally created his own replacement in a sense; they weren't the only two halfas in the world anymore.
That dark thought suddenly crushed him and pulled the air from his lungs. Somewhat hidden in one of the lair's corridor's, Vlad leaned against the wall thinking a bit more about this sudden revelation of his. He'd caused that damage by making Danielle. How many other things had he done, that had ultimately made his own life worse?
A growl rumbled from somewhere nearby and snapped Vlad out of his thoughts. He phased into the wall as a large raven walked slowly down the corridor; the hell hound ran past it at a quicker pace. After a few moments, they were both gone. Vlad moved quietly down the hall, still invisible and intangible and floating an inch above the ground.
Finally, he entered the main throne room, only to see the grand sarcophagus looking a little worse for wear. It looked as though the very material making up the creation was aging rapidly. Vlad let out a breath of surprise when black smoke fled from within and started tracing strange shapes and symbols in the air above.
Before Vlad could react, a couple streams of smoke snapped to attention and flew out to wrap around his wrists while the third, punctured his chest. The man couldn't help but let out a cry of absolute torment from the pain the contact was giving him. A voice started to echo in his head… or really it was more like his chest, as odd as that was. Malus was after his weakened core…
"Plasmius dimittere poenas mecum. Quod te inpediat ire. Ut ire. Quod te inpediat ire dolor. Ut ire." (Plasmius release the pain. Let go of that which hinders you. Let go. Let go of the pain that hinders you. Let go.)
Let go? Ah yes of course… the pain… human emotion… the boils… they hurt so much… human… weakness. Wait. There was some part of him that knew… He knew that if he ever became a full ghost, he would never find happiness or peace in all of eternity. As he was, his obsession was strong, painful, yes… obsessions that continued to cause pain after death, loneliness, or anger… they were the hardest to deal with. At least with his humanity, he still had a chance. He had been willing to do many things in the past that were sinful enough, but he would never give up his humanity.
"No! Esse afuturus me! Humilitatem meam, et non sacrificium!" (No! Be away from me! I shall not sacrifice my humanity!) Vlad screamed out and, accessing his hot core, released a storm of fire that forced the streams of black to fizzle and disintegrate faster; Vlad never saw the white light dancing within his flames.
"Audetis ventilabis tenebris away!? Tum puer pati patietur!" (You dare push the darkness away!? Then you will suffer as the child will suffer!)
Vlad didn't hear anymore as he shot out of the lair as fast as he could, after changing into his ghost form.
After traveling for long enough to make the halfa feel safe enough to stop, he transformed and floated in the ether, gasping for breath. He was drawing in ectoplasm, which would normally make any ghost feel peaceful and energized, but he could feel his boils' pain return with vengeance for using his powers. It felt like his flesh was starting to burn and now even his insides ached.
In desperation, he floated towards a tall gothic tower, with clocks floating about it, not having noticed that it had appeared out of nowhere.
zzz
Clockwork's Lair. 10:10 AM.
"Why would they do such a thing?" Dora whispered, before shutting her eyes in sympathy when Danny started to thrash and panic on the table.
Clockwork seemed impassive to his guest's question as he too watched the same event on one of his screens. Frostbite was the one to answer.
"As much as I agree, I believe they are simply trying to understand how ghosts work. They don't understand what kind of crime it can be to threaten one's obsession… or torture a ghost with it, even on accident. They would most likely think that using a ghost's death against them would be the greater crime. They just don't know any better. It's wrong, but in this case, we must show that we trust them enough."
"Yes. We must. Daniel will be alright with them…"
Frostbite and Dora both looked at Clockwork as he spoke before sharing a worried glance with each other. There were still so many points where this all could fall apart.
"Humans are cruel and they will use him either as a weapon or as a way to make him into a method to gain longer life or some nonsense, not that we care what happens to the boy, but honestly we're risking the Zone with your experiment here, Clockwork." An Observant spoke up making two of the other four with him, nod.
The remaining two observants looked at each other and shook their heads.
"Videre, I will impart this much to you if only to silence you once and for all. If I didn't try something, then the Zone and the world would be doomed either way and not merely because of Malus."
Everyone in the grand hall became sober.
"Humans are getting smarter and more curious, forgetting their roots and general humanness and Ghosts are getting more vengeful because of these same humans… Ultimately we would destroy each other. Not much would be spared if anything at all. This is what we must do to attempt to ensure a decent outcome. So enough of your bigotry."
Videre grew quiet, but remained irritable, of course. A distance away, up in the scaffolding above, Dan watched the entire thing. Clockwork had told him it would be best if he stayed hidden, at least until the Observants had left. Even the more reasonable ones would go nuts if they learned Dan was out… After several more minutes of random discussion and a few predictable jabs from the one-eyed freaks, which of course didn't help progress anything really along, the Observants left.
"Hey, maybe that could be my obsession. I could be the destroyer of fools," Dan spoke up, making the three remaining ghosts look up at his perch.
Clockwork smiled discreetly, wondering if Dan had even noticed how lighthearted that joke really was, even if the murderer had truly meant and would carry out what he'd said.
"I see. Without an obsession. I can now see why the Time Keeper let you out," Frostbite spoke.
Dan's hair burned bright. "Watch it Snowman. It would be a shame if you melted in the heat."
"Dan, play nice," Clockwork quipped, not looking at Dan but not hiding his smirk this time.
"I am not your pet!" Dan roared in pure frustration. He simmered down after a quick glance at one of the time gates that flickered. Clockwork noticed and rose a thin black eyebrow in curiosity and amusement.
"You really think that's going to turn out well? Dan asked emotionlessly, remembering the visions he'd seen of Danny and Dani's time in the government facility so far.
"I'm fairly certain really… so far every single detail has gone as planned. I believe time has gone down the right path for us. There are still a few markers I'm hoping to see soon though," Clockwork answered honestly.
Frostbite and Dora shared a glance when they saw Dan frown in thought. "Markers?"
"Key events or sometimes even very small events can make all the difference. It's a combination of the two that determines our fates."
Dan seemed to realize he'd been leaning in a bit as though showing interest and slowly pulled back, lying flat on the banister. "Tch. I have to side with the Observants on this one. They'll probably turn on him, cut him up, turn him into a weapon; it's only human nature really."
Frostbite and Dora merely shook their heads at Dan's assessment, seeing it as biased, though Clockwork seemed to frown for a deferent reason. He was actually very aware of Dan's take on things, even if he wasn't as biased as Dan about it. "We all have the potential to do great good, Dan. All things do."
Dan furrowed his brows. "You almost sound like Danny-boy with his childish declarations about the power of promises and some such nonsense." Sarcasm dripped from his voice at the end. Then two streams of red mist flew from his nose at the same time. "Huh? No way."
"I see you've finally detected our guest?" Clockwork asked.
"We have another coming? Who, sir?" Dora questioned Clockwork, looking to Frostbite only to see him shrug.
Clockwork said nothing but floated over to his great doors and opened them. Vlad Masters collapsed onto the floor, panting.
"It's the Vile One!" Frostbite boomed.
Vlad looked up weakly and gave a small, irritated glare. "Is that the best you could come up with, you abominable snow beast?"
"What are you doing here, Plasmius?" Dora asked harshly, and Vlad backpedaled a bit, realizing he definitely couldn't fight an angry… fire breathing and scaly Dora, much less whoever else was here.
"Going to kick a defenseless man while he's down?" Vlad asked bitterly. Dora paused and noticed the boils on his skin.
"It seems the wicked stew in their misery," Dora hummed mostly to herself.
"Unless of course you outlive it, but maybe live isn't the best term…"
Vlad glanced up, still not really taking note of Clockwork to see Dan staring down at him. He took in the figure. The HAZMAT suit… the face… the eyes… and the DP symbol on his chest. At that moment Vlad's heart seized, trying to process what he was seeing. Who was this ghost? Why did he have Daniel's symbol? Was he perhaps one of his failed clones or the like? No, certainly not. He'd seen all the others slowly dissolve and be ended and none of them looked like this boy… er man.
"What's the matter cheese-head? Aren't you glad to see me, you crazy fruit loop?"
Fruitloop… only Daniel or Danielle and their friends called him that. Good lord… had he may be killed Daniel? He'd been certain that Maddie and those the others had saved him and taken him back safely. Had he only presumed that he'd not perished?
"Vladimir. You need not panic. Dan here is not your Daniel."
Vlad drug his eyes off the faux-Daniel still grinning at him with sick eyes to look up at another figure. After a few gasps of breath as though he was a fish out of water, Vlad was able to find his voice. "You're, you're…"
"Father Time, yes, yes I am."
Vlad swallowed thickly. Honestly some part of him had thought such a being was only a myth… If the ghost truly was who he said he was, then there was no mistake that he had stumbled in here.
"Please, don't take my life yet. I know I'm suffering and still quite angry, but I-"
"Enough," Clockwork interrupted, seeing a shiver go through the halfa. "You have done many things, but you are far from the worst. All of us must try to be better at being ourselves…"
"Don't tell me you don't enjoy his fear," Dan muttered to the Time Keeper, his eyes still glinting from having talked to his old enemy. A glare from the Time Keeper made Dan begrudgingly grow silent.
"As I was saying. I do not steal the soul away. That job is the Reaper's… However, if I had informed him to come now and take you, it would be quite counterproductive. Perhaps other than teaching Daniel a valuable lesson, but I digress."
Vlad swallowed and grimaced at the pain even that small action caused. "So, you prefer me suffer then?" The man asked hoarsely.
"No. I wouldn't have helped Daniel save you from your last acne spell for only you to perish from the next." Clockwork floated over to his gates; using the hand that didn't have his staff firmly held, he levitated Vlad's weak form over to him. "Vladimir Masters. I'm going to give you a second chance."
Vlad seemed intrigued and Dan, above them all still, snorted in annoyance.
"With how you always talk about how you can't fix everything, you sure have been fudging things a lot lately."
"Dan, don't talk about things you don't understand. It makes you look ignorant," Clockwork quipped back easily, making Dan click his teeth in anger. The specter leapt from the banister and flew to his room before shutting the door. "Vladimir."
Vlad narrowed his eyes and looked at the specter who had him at his mercy. "Yes?"
"First step is that I'm going to teach you a lesson." Clockwork watched as one of his visions in the gates became grey in color. He tossed the man in before he could so much as let out a shriek of surprise.
"Are you certain he will learn?" Frostbite asked.
Clockwork turned and smiled. "Not really. Vladimir requires a different sort of lesson plan apart from Daniel. While Daniel needed to be left to his consequences and given an authoritative figure, i.e. myself to fix what he'd broken so he could understand, Vladimir already understands consequence in a sort of action-reaction situation…" Clockwork paused to look bad at the portal, seeing Vlad stumble around in confusion. "What he needs is to learn humility above all things. Daniel's test was to see how far he'd go to try to fix his mistake. Vladimir's will be whether he learns from his mistakes at all."
"How will we know he's learned?" Dora questioned softly.
"When one can realize and accept the wrong they have done to others without focusing on what others have done to wrong them, that is a true sigh of humility. If he can do that, then I will ask you attempt to heal him, Frostbite," Clockwork answered.
"How are you certain he won't turn as soon as he's healed?" Frostbite returned, not too happy with where this was going.
"I guess we'll have to put a little faith in him, hm?"
zzz
Infirmary. 11:01 AM.
His nose itched. That was the first thing he noticed. Ironically, he got merely a tad irritated when he couldn't seem to move his arm up to scratch the spot. It was only after a couple more minutes of slowly coming to, that he started to realize that was not normal. Danny opened his eyes and he saw a white ceiling and felt cold metal on his back. He couldn't move his arms or legs and he saw he was strapped down and unable to access his powers. Why was that again? What was happening? Had the GiW caught him or something?
He started to pull at the restraints not really wondering why the agents had taken the care to hook him up to an IV or place an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose.
"Easy, son."
Danny looked over to his side, wide-eyed to see several people suddenly there. Had they been there before? A few doctors within and several guards behind the glass.
"Your body went into shock from the procedure. We had to restrain you after sedation because we weren't sure how quickly you'd wake up even with the numbers down to zero and also we weren't sure if you'd be violent."
Danny finally remembered where he was now and what had happened. Regardless, he strained, not wanting to be strapped down while on his back. Too many bad dreams, too many things an enemy or ghost could damage to an unprotected torso or abdomen. Curling up was safe, being forced to remain exposed wasn't.
"Please, untie me," Danny whispered. "I can't… I can't lay like this, please."
He saw the doctor look over at another briefly before turning back to him. "We can release you shortly, but at the moment, it's not an option."
Danny clenched his eyes shut in frustration. Didn't people see his fear or pain? Why did they even need the machines, the data, the everything? And for the sake of the Infinite Realms why had they toyed with his damn obsession!
"What is the matter with you people?" Danny asked hotly. "Why for the love of God would you simulate a ghost losing his obsession!?"
If the doctor frowned, Danny couldn't see behind the mask. "I'm sorry we upset you. It had to be tested. You do realize most normal humans don't react so violently to simple pictures, even such disturbing ones as those?"
"Yes, normal humans know when a movie or picture is fake," one of the more bigoted doctors impressed, making sure Danny heard the normal part.
Danny let out a trembling breath, trying not to say something snappy to the guy.
"I must say. It is kind of disturbing though… that a ghost can be set off just by a picture…" Someone muttered, but they weren't quite enough.
Danny snapped his head over and glared at the others there. What had been said was true, but there was an issue. "First off, I didn't just get set off. I went into shock! You do realize that if I wasn't also human, a weaker ghost could've faded away right there, right? Second if you had given me pictures or things that insinuated that you were threatening my obsession rather than already having destroyed it, then duh! Even threatening a normal human, typically isn't smart!" Danny snapped, pleased with himself to have gotten a jab back at the mean doctor while at the same time he'd made his point.
Danny laid down and took deep breaths, still not comfortable being tied to the table as he was.
Before any of the doctors could speak up, a guard came around a corner.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but it's important. We have a situation with the female. It's required that she see the male," The man spoke gruffly.
"What? Dani? What's wrong?" Danny asked, starting to get anxious. At that moment, Dani came around the corner in ghost-proof cuffs instead of the neutralizing bracelet.
"Danny," She breathed out, rubbing away a few hidden tears. Miss Garber walked a little closer.
"Mr. Fenton. We were trying to do the requires tests on your… sister and it seems the problem with the neutralizing ring affected her in a slightly more aggressive degree-"
"Danny! I'm melting!" Dani wailed out and showed her fingers at the glass.
Danny felt his heart skip slightly when he saw her fingers acting as though no bones were in them. Her hair and toes seemed to be somewhat wispy as well. "Let me help her. Please!"
"It's not advised we let you two interact-"
"For God's sake, she's my little sister!" Danny cried out and pulled harder on the straps, making them rub his wrists a bit raw.
"Hey, Danny… easy now. Calm down," Garber soothed.
Danny took a breath, slightly ashamed at losing his cool, but in his defense, they'd never watched your own life blood melt before their eyes. "Sorry… I just… I don't want to watch her melt away again."
Everyone was quiet until Dani spoke, "Danny…" How could she have ever thought about running away for good?
Danny took in a deep breath. "Okay… I need to hold her. If you can put us both in a cell together and give us full access to our powers, I can share some of my core energy with her."
"Danny! That's dangerous! Why not just have them get that spray stuff?" Dani asked.
Danny shook his head. "That would take too long, plus core serum is what the ecto-dejecto was. Dad meant to polarize it, but he failed and it became a power-up serum. Turns out even properly polarizing core serum simply turns the ectoplasm into some unstable or useless element. That's what mom said anyways." Danny then sighed. "I also thought of a way for you guys to continue your study while keeping the bracelets' percentages as low as you need, no risk of melting or full death included."
Dani laughed and that made Danny smile.
"What is it?" Garber questioned.
Danny looked at her. "It's a bit more expensive on your part is the only down fall. If you give us a tank of ether, that's ectoplasm in gaseous form, we can breathe it in. We have to have a constant flow to make up for not having our bodies produce it ourselves, but like I said no death no melting and the ectoplasm will be burned up almost as soon as it enters our body."
The meaner doctor went to speak, but the nicer one cut him off. "Seems reasonable." He turned to the guards. "Let's get them over to the largest chamber. They can't escape from that one, even if they could teleport. It has the sensors that pick up the gases released from the chemical reaction a teleport starts."
"They'd fry themselves if they tried it," The cruel doctor finished.
"There's no need to word it that way." The kind doctor snapped before he motioned to the guards.
Danny looked at Dani. "It'll be okay Dani, remember?"
Dani nodded slowly as the guards moved to prepare Danny for transport. "You want to hear something weird?"
"Sure."
"I think I'm not scared anymore… at least… I'm happy."
"Happy?"
Dani smiled. "I realized all over again that I have the best brother in the world."
zzz
FBI office of Indiana. Rooming facility. 4:32 PM.
She was questioning whether or not she'd ticked someone off, because the bitter irony of the situation was not lost on her. She finally had gotten her baby boy back, after a little over two years of secrets, bruises, lies and distance, she'd learned about the young man she'd birthed and what he'd really become… only for him to be taken away again. And Danielle… the extra gift in her life that had made her feel… complete? Yes… three was a wonderful number.
The questioning had been a bit more intimidating, if not mostly redundant and circular again. Even though now she was dealing with the FBI and not the local authorities, they still didn't have proof of any kind that they'd purposefully harmed their son, when human, as they categorized; she'd still felt quite incensed when they'd insinuated that all her shots at him as Phantom didn't legally count as child abuse, seeing as Danny was legally a ghost then. The idea felt so vile in her mind now. What had she been thinking? They also couldn't prove that the Fentons had been the ones to make Danielle or attempt to form some kind of human weapon army. There was no evidence on the computers either, because obviously they'd never tried to do such things. They'd probably clear that up went the feds got around to going through Vlad's things. The only thing the feds hadn't found and that Maddie wouldn't be honest about was the Ghost files Danny had made for his computer. They'd taken them all as evidence and somehow Tucker's work had hidden the fact that there was something else in Danny's computer. She didn't know how the boy had done it, but no government needed that kind of info… especially if they were going to prosecute her boy using evidence about… him. Then again, time travel? Mythical objects and beings? How could a nation really be safe or know what to do? And the other countries, especially the U.N had to be waiting to talk about how fair it was or wasn't for the U.S. to have a hybrid creature at their supposed disposal.
Maddie sighed. What could they really do to save Danny? What could anyone do? Logically speaking he was a living weapon. What kind of rights does a weapon have? She wished the three hadn't been separated during their stay. Maddie really craved her husband's perpetual optimism about now.
zzz
He wanted to touch and hold them close. That is all that Jack Fenton needed to be truly happy, and fudge, couldn't forget the fudge.
Maddie was a better fighter that him, so really you could say she was the protector of the family, if you ignored the fact that his son and newest daughter had superpowers. Yeah. But really, even though he wasn't truly the protector, he still had the job of bringing everyone into a hug holding them all close and saying he'd protect them. Even if Jack Fenton couldn't shoot an ecto-weapon straight or do some of those fancy karate moves his wife could, to save his life, he knew he was more than willing to give his life to save his family.
He was confident in what his heart had intended when wanting to ghost hunt, but now he was truly realizing that the road to hell was paved with good intentions. He'd doomed his son and his best friend to their fates. According to Maddie, it was likely that Vlad was dead in the woods somewhere and his son…
It was all his fault. If he wasn't so stupid and idiotic and had paid more attention, then none of this would've ever happened. His heart hurt, not just for his children but for Vlad. No matter what he'd come to learn about his college friend, he'd come to admit to himself that he could never truly hate Vlad. He'd loved the man like his brother and even if Vlad never saw him the same way… that kind of bond wasn't easily destroyed.
Jack rolled in the cot to face the tiny window. No, he couldn't go blaming himself for everything, Maddie wouldn't want that, nor Danny, nor Jazz, nor Ellie, or even the Vlad in his mind he'd thought he'd known in college. Everyone makes mistakes, but it takes two to tango… er, he was losing focus. Point was, they just had to keep pushing forward, because they were Fentons and a Fenton never gives up.
zzz
There was no time for a pity party. No sir.
Jazz had been very pleased when they'd allowed her to read some of the law books they had in to break room, study? She couldn't remember where the officer had said they'd come from, but that didn't so much matter.
She was doing what she did best. She was learning everything she could about the situation they were in, after all psychology and knowledge about people or a subject had not failed her yet, since you could never have too much of either.
Anything she could do to help her brother and sister in the long run was worth the time reading. If Danny could make and keep promises to people about things, then she could keep her promise too. She'd protect him and Dani. She gave herself no other option.
As far as she could tell, She and her parents had lawyered up quickly, but not too quick. The only thing she was worried about presently was what lawyer they'd get… Sam had mentioned something about that…
"Miss Fenton?"
Jazz looked up and closed her book to see a couple officers as well as her parents and another stranger.
"Your lawyer as arrived and has requested that he gets the opportunity to speak with you and your family," the same officer spoke.
The stranger in the group, messed his very tangled brown hair in slight nervousness and held out his hand. "Hello Miss Fenton. My name's David Hudson. I'll be your lawyer as well as your siblings' lawyer when the time comes." David had green eyes that were only slightly darker than his sister's and though it was obvious that he'd tried to tame his hair in a typical and neat slightly off-part, it looked like his hair had rebelled harshly or he'd been put through a hurricane simulator. He wore a plain black suit, tie, slacks and dress shoes; he also had a brown book bag that was very worn and she caught sight of a bit of silver chain hidden under his suit collar. He was slightly taller than her and a bit lithe, but charming and Jazz found herself blushing a bit.
"Oh, thank you. I'm Jazz, heh heh, oh yeah you already know that, huh?" Jazz stumbled nervously. What in the world was that, Jazz!? She shouted at herself internally. She couldn't remember the last time she'd stumbled over words before.
"You bet," David answered politely.
Jazz continued to stare in thought before she realized that she was still shaking his hand. "Oh! I'm sorry!" She let go and he only smiled.
"No problem. You've all been through the ringer it seems. Let head this way with your parents and the officers. I think they have someplace we can talk together in private. As you know, strictly lawyer to client information."
Jazz nodded. She glanced over at her parents to give them a smile, when she noticed her mother giving her a teasing smirk and her father giving the young man a suspicious look that was comical on his face. She facepalmed.
zzz
Eventually Jack, Maddie and Jazz found themselves sitting across from David, who pulled out various papers from his bag, that seemed to be in absolutely no order; some were folded and crinkled and others had coffee stains on them. Either the young man was nuts or he was a genius.
"Sorry for the mess. I've been stewing over this whole thing since Star emailed me and Miss Manson called. Not to mention this is going to be international and absolutely crazy, insane even-" He glanced up to see the Fentons blink at him. "Sorry. I tend to ramble." He took a deep breath and swept back a bit of his hair that had fallen in front of his left eye. Then Jazz saw it. A twinkle of inspiration in his eyes, like the feeling one gets solving a nearly impossible puzzle or riddle.
"Here's the plan and it's our best shot. I do like happy endings after all and if anything, you could call me more of a whale shark when compared to other lawyers."
It was at that moment that Jazz finally felt like they had a real shot at this.
There now next chapter we can finally get on to the Trial. Also, I just wanted to state an apology in advance. I'm not super knowledgeable in law or other government actions, etc. So, if I make a mistake, try to give me a bit of artistic license in the matter. Plus, we must remember that we're talking about a theoretical way a government would react if a super-powered being was created on accident.
Thank you all so much for your kind words and questions. Even you silent readers out there. Until next time!
Thank you all for your reviews, support, follows, etc! Your kind reviews were amazing guys! Thanks so much :)
I hope to keep you all entertained!
~NoSignal