Final notes at the end. Just a bit longer, mes chers.

Chapter Seventy One

::

Feeling someone moving beside him, Danny yawned wide enough to crack his jaw, eyes just barely cracked open and looking to whoever was shifting to wrap an arm around him- Black hair. Andrew. Okay. Awesome. Danny would figure out why seeing Andrew made him so happy later- Oh. Right.

"This might be the only time I agree with Andy, but it's too early." Shivering as Randy kissed at his neck, Danny blinked over at him. "Go back to sleep."

"Well, I was going to until you said something." Because speaking meant people were awake and people being awake meant there were things to do and after recently there was so much he needed to do and-

Randy's groaning snapped Danny out of his thoughts, the teen looking down to see Randy was sitting up. "Alright. I suppose if we have to be up then I'll check your wounds."

"I'm fine, the speed healing kicked in sometime last night, I think." Of course, Danny knew that nothing he could say would reassure Randy until the man saw the the wounds himself. "Ghost Zone, and all that."

"You also were in contact with those vines," Randy pointed out, Danny sinking down because, yeah, shit, he had forgotten about the vines. "Honestly."

Randy flew off the bed and lit the candles around the room, grumbling about Andrew under his breath as he searched for the first aid kit- Actually, why did Andrew have so many candles if he was afraid of fire? Aesthetic? No, probably because there was no electricity- But then how did the refrigerator work… And the laptops and computers and tv- It was for aesthetic.

"He is a tortured poet." There was a sound like a snerk, Danny looking to where Randy was back on the bed in front of him. "Candles."

"Yeah. Candles." Randy still looked to be fighting off laughter as he phased Danny's clothes away, checking and changing bandages at once. "Most of it looks to have healed, but those burns will be there for a while. We're lucky you weren't there very long."

"We're lucky Valerie was there." Danny hoped she was doing okay because something like that without any ghost powers to help… That had to have hurt.

"You'll both be okay." Randy pressed a kiss to inside of Danny's thigh, right over the bandages from where he had been shot. Danny kind of was surprised by how much he hated the bandages in that moment. "Like I said, you're healing well."

With that, Randy proceeded to kiss every single bruise, scar, and wound Danny had, which would have been fine he wasn't being so soft and gentle and serious about it all. As it stood, Danny was biting his lip and shivering at each little touch and kiss, just barely holding onto his sanity.

"Is- Is that really necessary?" A kiss to the side of his neck where he didn't even remember getting hurt had Danny's question answered for him. "'S no marks there."

"Is there not?" Yeah, yeah, be innocent, it wasn't- Danny's thoughts were roughly cut off as teeth sank into his skin sharp and quick, Danny curling around Randy's shoulders and hiding any noises with a heavy pant and jesus. "I think I see a mark."

"You bastard." The broad sweep of a tongue over the bite marks had Danny quieting with a soft whimper. "You're so mean. Why are you so mean? That's mean, Randy."

"You don't seem to mind," Randy laughed, high and bright and relieved as he cupped Danny's cheeks, licking at his own lips as he watched Danny with blown pupils. "Are you hurt anywhere else?"

"I bit my lip pretty hard?" Danny tried, delighted when he was jerked into a deep, passionate kiss that had him relaxing into a puddle at once. "Tongue, too. Definitely bit my tongue."

Andrew seemed to stir beside them just before anything else could happen, Danny and Randy pulling back before sharing a grin and oh, yes. It was going to be a good morning.

::

"There's going to be a hell of an aftermath," Danny mused, kicking his feet against the counter as he tasted whatever concoction Randy fed to him. "The ghosts, yeah, but also the town realizing what they're becoming."

"It's going to take a while for them to realize what happened," Andrew sighed, pacing the length of the kitchen. "Less so for the ghosts, I believe."

"Half of them have probably already figured out something's going on." Randy flipped something on the skillet before cutting into it and sticking a bite into Danny's mouth. "We should check on them to make sure they're okay for now, though."

"I-" Danny was cut off with another bite of food, glaring at Randy as Randy glared back. Hmph. He couldn't feed him forever.

"You are going to stay right here and rest until you heal some more. Your speed healing doesn't fix everything overnight."

"That's not fair-" This time it was some french toast that was fed to him, Danny trying to complain through the syrup that now coated his mouth. It was harder than he thought considering it was so good and Randy was feeding him more bites.

"Just consider staying here until we get back?" Andrew asked softly, stopping in his pacing to stand by Danny and brush his hair back. "Please?"

Making sure Randy wasn't about to shove anymore food down him, Danny gave a slow nod. "Yeah… Yeah, alright. I'll consider it."

An hour later and Danny was grinning to himself as he flew out of Vidya and, really, he had considered staying home until the two got back. Then he thought better of it. Besides, he was mostly just popping in from lair to lair to make sure everyone was back and doing okay.

It seemed most of them really were okay. Johnny, Kitty, Ember, and Youngblood were all tucked away behind Ember's door, Youngblood much more subdued than usual, but overall he was okay. The younger ones like the teens were doing fine and the clans were rathe rwell off when Danny managed to track one or two of them down - they were the most well-adjusted ghosts in this place, honestly.

It was the 'troublemakers' like Skulker and Technus that had gotten the brunt of Section 13's anger. Walker remembered the trouble they caused well, it seemed.

"Jeez, and I thought I was hard on your suits." The suit Skulker typically used was near destroyed, Technus grumbling to himself with an irate little Skulker hopping around on his shoulders and complaining.

"At least you fight fair," Skulker complained, Danny trying so, so, so hard to not laugh at the higher pitched voice. He managed, but just barely. "Ripping my suit apart was the first thing they did."

"They then tried to step on him." Bless Technus and his ability to reveal embarrassing information on a person. "Not to worry, though, ghost child, he was well protected in my pocket after that!"

"I'm sure he was," Danny nodded, quite seriously, and grinned as Skulker honest to god pouted. This was great. Honestly, this was one of the best days ever. Although remembering the cause of it all had Danny's smile falling. "Seriously, though, are you two okay?"

"A little banged and bruised, but nothing we haven't experienced before!" Technus shouted cheerily, doing something to the suit that caused it to twitch before the arm fell off. "Hm."

"We've been through Walker's tender care before," Skulker waved off, glaring at the arm as it jerked around like a fish out of water. "It's not supposed to do that."

"I am quite aware of what my technology is and is not supposed to do, Richard!" There was a bout of silence, Danny slowly scrunching up his nose and staring at Skulker, and, what?

"What," Skulker snapped, glaring even more. "Never met someone who's name was Richard!" Skulker's name… It was Richard.

"I'm… N- No, sorry, I'm okay." Don't laugh, don't laugh, don't laugh, don't laugh, don't laugh. "It's okay."

"It's not like this idiot should be going around throwing out names! Isn't that right, Nicolai." Burying his face in his hands, Danny held in laughter as the two fought and bickered and acted so much like Danny and Tucker during a 'fight.' It was reassuring to know that things were still okay.

"Alright, alright, I just wanted to check on you guys and make sure you were alright after everything." That got him dual looks of 'not impressed.' "What?"

"We weren't tortured for the entire time we were there," Skulker said, raising his eyebrows- Brow- Did- Oh, god, Danny hoped the suit got fixed soon. "Do those idiot mates of yours even know you're here?"

"Probably." Maybe. "You'll be going back to Amity Park, then, or are you going to stay here a while?"

"We'll be back by week's end," Technus waved off, calmly flying away from the suit and easily picking up Danny, flying him a few feet away. Danny was as confused as Skulker looked.

"Uh, Technus? Why-" The suit burst into a shower of cackling sparks before it was steadily on fire, Danny blinking and slowly nodding. "Thanks."

"Maybe longer than a week," Skulker muttered. "We'll be back in Amity, whelp, don't you worry. I have new weapons to test and one of those idiots at the lodge owes me a new gun."

"Good- I'm glad. We'll see you there." Danny flashed them a grin before heading out of the lair, vaguely hearing something explode before the two were screaming, and, yeah. He could see a lot of his and Tucker's behavior in those two.

Thinking of, he should probably check in with the human side of things.

A quick stop by Vidya to make sure he hadn't been discovered - and maybe grab some left over sweets - and Danny was flying back to the portal, poking his head in before the rest of him followed and oh, Jack and Vlad were at the consoles. Darting over to hover over their shoulders, Danny frowned at the data that scrolled across the screens.

"That can't be right." The ectoplasmic concentrations surely couldn't be that high in Amity Park, especially not so far from the portal. "Are these recent- Whoa, hey, you okay?" While Jack looked slightly startled, Vlad was bent double and clutching at his chest.

"Don't worry about him, Danny-boy, Vladdie never could stand surprises. Back in college, he couldn't make it through a horror movie without holding onto one of us!"

"Okay, one, I didn't need to know that." Danny flew up to hang off of Jack's shoulders, amused at how his dad didn't even move. "Two, that's the greatest thing I've ever heard." Vlad, the half-ghost, afraid of scary things.

"This entire family is against me." Mm, well, yeah. "Yes, these are the recent readings. They were taken by Section 13, but we've compared them to our own, and, well. Let's just say the high amounts of concentration are having some untold side effects."

"Untold side effects such as what?" In response, Vlad picked up a beaker and threw it across the lab, Danny raising an eyebrow. "You're cleaning that up."

"Mm." There was no sound of breaking glass. Gaze snapping to the beaker, Danny's eyes widened as he saw the beaker was falling, but slowly. It was drifting to the ground more than anything like something might… Like something might in the Ghost Zone. "The effects lessen the further away from the epicenter, of course."

"And let me guess where the epicenter is." All three looked towards the open portal that filled the lab with soft green light. "How wide spread?"

"The entire town so far as we can tell," Vlad sighed, crossing his arms. The motion startled Danny into noticing that Vlad was wearing a lab coat. He really was falling back into the who scientist thing, wasn't he? "It's possible these effects were started by the Pariah Dark fiasco."

"The one you caused, you mean," Danny pointed out, tugging and poking at Vlad's lab coat. The man swatted him off, Danny not fighting as Jack held him like a normal person might a puppy. "You think Amity Park being in the Ghost Zone caused this?"

"Helped it along at the very least." Vlad flicked at his forehead, Danny whining loudly through a grin. "Nothing bad is happening, but physics are becoming more similar to Ghost Zone properties and ghosts will likely be able to stay here for longer periods of time."

"Clockwork was right about this place becoming a ghost town," Danny mumbled, shaking his head at Vlad's look. "Ask Elle, I told her about it a while ago. Right now I need-"

"To be resting." Ah. Shit. "I'm not certain, but I believe we went over that this morning before we left."

Curling his tail and trying to look as cute as possible, Danny looked up and immediately yelped as he was phased free of Jack's arms and instead brought into Randy's, the man looking as unimpressed as Andrew. "Don't even try it, you little gremlin."

"Excuse me, Elle is the little gremlin here. I'm a normal sized gremlin, at the very least." Whining as he was dragged towards the Ghost Zone, Danny threw a halfhearted wave towards Vlad and Jack. "See you guys later!"

"We asked one thing of you, mon cher, one thing." Andrew was already working himself up into a dramatic fit, Randy trying to look stern and failing and hitting wildly amused.

"Technically, if we're being technical, see, you technically said that I should consider staying at Vidya until you got back. And I did. For an hour. You should be more careful about that in the future."

"You're terrible," Randy snorted, hugging Danny closer and kissing at his cheek. "I figured you would check on the ghosts, but why were you in Fenton Works?"

"Thought I'd check on everyone else. I didn't get to since someone kidnapped me-"

"I told you, at your age it's abduction, and only when you mother stops texting me about your horrible sleeping habits."

"You have her number? Since when?" Why did Danny not know this? He didn't know that! "How many of my friends' numbers do you have?"

"'Have,'" Andrew scoffed. "They stole my phone and programmed all the numbers in the day we met." Oh. Yeah, that sounded like Sam and Tucker. "I'm sorry, I believe we were on the topic of making you rest."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, that's important and all, but guys- Guys. The physics in the human world are becoming like Ghost Zone physics." That had Randy stopping, staring down at Danny with wide eyes.

"Decreased gravitational effects?" Oh, right, that was one of the reasons Danny was in love with Randy. Cute science and math nerd.

"Vlad threw a beaker and it floated down." Instead of looking excited, Randy frowned and held Danny closer. "Randy?"

"Remember… Remember when your forms first started bleeding together? That day me and Andy were really worried over you? It was before I was with you two."

"Oh, uh… Yeah- Yeah, I think so. Why?" That had been a while ago and Danny only vaguely remembered that there had been something strange about the two.

"We thought you were dying." Oh. Well, that explained the behavior. "You weren't - aren't - but at the time- I went to Clockwork on my own to talk to him about it and he told me you'd be safe, but he also… He said you were becoming what you were always meant to be."

"That I was what?" What he was always meant to be? Why would that lead to his forms bleeding together unless- Oh. All this thoughts on him being a bridge might not have been so far off. "Hey, guys, I know I need to rest-"

"But you're not going to," Andrew flew over to interrupt Danny's next words with a kiss. "Not when there's a mystery to solve. Should I reference meddling kids, here?"

"I mean, we did kind of stop that evil poem of yours," Danny laughed, leaning into the touch on his cheek. "I'll go straight back to Vidya after, I promise, but right now I really need to talk to Clockwork."

"Be safe." Andrew kissed his forehead softly before floating back, Danny feeling Randy's arms tighten around him for a moment.

"Be smart." A kiss to his cheek and a surge of energy sparking across his skin and Danny floated in the air before the doors of the Citadel.

"Sorry, Randy's very dramatic with the teleports." Danny would never hear Citadel, but he got a vague sense that they would probably sigh fondly at the three of them. "Is Clockwork here?" The doors opened and Danny gave a smile, flying inside and quickly heading up to the Tower.

"I believe you're supposed to be resting." Complain, complain, they were all so- Ooh, cookie. Well, if Clockwork was offering.

"Does he ever do what he's told?" Oh, Jazz was still here. Danny wasn't really all that surprised about that, although the hug he was pulled into was nice. "This doesn't count as resting, but I'm glad to see you."

"Good to see you too, Jazz." Danny returned the hug, relaxing a small amount. At least everyone he knew was safe after… Yeah. "So, uh-"

"No, no, I get it." Jazz gathered some tea cups, heading towards what Danny was pretty sure the direction of the kitchen. "I'll go make us some tea and give you two a safe space to talk all of this out."

"The same as always." Flying over to where Clockwork was actually sitting down on the couch for once, Danny settled beside him, narrowing his eyes. "Are you going to attempt to finish my sentences."

"I don't have my vision anymore, Daniel." Mm. "Although you are still remarkably easy to read. I take it this is to deal with Amity Park's changing nature?"

"No need to sound so smug about it." Danny relaxed a little at Clockwork's laughter, smile falling as he curled around him. "Clockwork… What's happening to me? What am I?" Because there was being a half-ghost, yeah, but this was… This was different.

"It's- It's a bit hard to explain, but I'll do my best." Clockwork waited for his nod to continue. "I suppose it would be more accurate to say you are a reflection."

"A reflection? So, like, what, I mirror what the Ghost Zone is feeling or something?" That sounded pretty accurate, actually, and not at all surprising considering his life.

"Of sorts. As the two worlds bleed together, or, more accurately, as Amity Park and the Ghost Zone bind themselves together, your lives - the reflections of who you are - begin to bleed together. You're unique in the sense that you've become a bridge between the worlds, able to move freely between the two of them."

"What about Vlad and Elle. I mean, they're half ghosts too, right? Shouldn't they be reflections? I mean, Vlad is always so shocked to see how many of my powers I can still use when I'm 'human.'"

"That's where things become complicatedly simple. Elle was formed of raw ectoplasmic energy and science. Her ties are to the human world, in the end. Vladimir was exposed to the energy of the Ghost Zone, but it was more as if the energy took him over rather than he accepted it."

"And me? I'm pretty sure I'm the same." Except no, he wasn't. Vlad had been exposed long term and Elle had been created.

"No. You were born in the world of the living, but you died in our world." Clutching at his chest, Danny thought back to the portal and he… He had died in a way. He had died while in the Ghost Zone. "Your situation came about through something that can never again be replicated as it was for you and that has had an impact on everything."

"So… So you don't know how this is all going to end?" Startled as he was pulled into a hug, Danny relaxed in the grip as some of his nervous tension finally left him.

"No, I know how it ends, I simply have no idea where it goes from here." Clockwork laughed, Danny looking up at him to see that he was beaming and looking more human than ever before. "Isn't that amazing?"

"Yeah." A reflection of the worlds, huh? That wasn't such a bad thing, really. "It's pretty amazing."