Chapter 14: Back Again
A/N: Thought I already posted this chapter...oops...3 more chapters to go
Almost two months have passed by since our return to the real world. Taylor decided to get a part time job at the local ice cream parlor. Elizabeth and I started to look into college applications, since we were going to be high school seniors as soon as school started. Being a whole month in a world where we had jobs, it reminded us that we were no longer going to have as much free time.
Since then, I haven't used the amulet, nor told the others that I had it. I kept the amulet in the safety of my miscellaneous drawer, no one looked in that drawer. Everyday I had an urge to use it, but I had no real reason to use it. I don't even know why I took it in the first place. It was a complete invasion of privacy.
Currently Elizabeth and I were in my room on our respective laptops. Still adding to our list of potential higher education.
"What about the college that's like a half an hour drive?" Elizabeth asked.
"It does have a nice biology department, but it has a limited number of openings for students." I cracked my back. Staying hunched over at a desk was not fun.
"Why?" Elizabeth wrote something in her notepad.
"Their rooms can only handle 20 students at a time and they only have 1 professor." I wrote another college name on a sticky note. "It also doesn't help that at least 380 people try to sign up each year."
"Why don't they hire another professor?" Elizabeth took my sticky note to write down the name.
"Last time they did, organs from the anatomy room went missing." I scrolled through another university website.
"Wait, the teacher stole organs?" Elizabeth stopped looking at her laptop from my bed.
"No, they kept leaving students unsupervised and they stole three livers." I clicked the options for the university and moved away from my laptop. "Hey, this place has online and in person computer science and mathematics."
"Nice." Elizabeth wrote down the website's name and returned to whatever was on her laptop.
After that we stayed silent as we typed away on our laptops. Until Elizabeth's laptop decided to make a noise.
"Don't you dare," Elizabeth threatened, "I will have your motherboard."
I turned to see her laptop glow green. "Holy shit!" I cursed.
Before Elizabeth could react, a familiar metallic arm shot through the screen and pulled her in. The laptop turned back to normal and the door to my bedroom flew open.
"My babies I have returned!" Taylor shouted holding up a carrier with three sundaes.
I still stared at the laptop that was now closed on my bed. "What the fuck."
"Hey, that's no way to greet someone with the goods." Taylor placed the sundaes on my nightstand. She was wearing her uniform that consisted of a shirt and short shorts. "Where's Elizabeth anyways, the bathroom door is open so she can't be there."
"She got eaten by her computer." I said in disbelief.
"Ha, ha, very funny." She opened up the laptop. "And I'm guessing her looking up interdimensional portals is part of this joke."
"Wait," I scrambled to look at the laptop," we were looking up schools." Sure enough in her search bar was 'interdimensional portals.'
"Is she in the closet?" Taylor opened my closet.
"The laptop turned green and had a metal arm." I stared at the laptop.
"It wasn't funny the first time." Taylor looked under my bed. "Now tell Elizabeth to stop hiding."
"I'm not joking." I went towards my miscellaneous drawer. That arm looked familiar, could it be possible if Skulker...no, Vlad made a portal into our world? If so, why did he do it?
"That's it, I'm calling her." Taylor took out her phone and dialed Elizabeth's number. As soon as the connection went through her phone glowed green and she was sucked into the phone. It landed harshly onto my nightstand and I was alone in the room.
It was Friday afternoon, so no one but myself was home. My brother was with his friends, mom was at work, and dad was outside working on his cars. I grabbed a pillow that was on the floor and screamed into it.
I was alone, two of my friends were sucked into technology, literally, and I had no idea what was going on. Finally I decided to grab the amulet and pressed it against a mirror.
The image of Plasmius yelling is what greeted me.
"How is it that you grab both her friends, but not her." Plasmius yelled at Skulker.
"The portal can only pick up frequencies closest to the amulet." Skulker defended himself. "If I could only grab her friends that means that they were closest to it."
"What amulet, what are you two losers talking about?" Elizabeth was in an ectoplasmic cell with Taylor.
"Be glad we managed to pull you through Ms. Redheart." Plasmius sneered.
"I demanded an explanation!" Taylor shouted.
"The only explanation you need to know is; if we don't get to Miss Velia soon she could die." Plasmius slammed his fist on the closet flat surface.
"What?" Elizabeth and Taylor both shouted in shock.
"I don't have time for this." Plasmius glared at Skulker. "I suggest you keep an eye on that PDA and wait for the next opening." He stormed over to a large computer away from the others. "Damn it Jeanette, where are you?"
Elizabeth looked at Skulker, who was just staring at the PDA on his wrist. "So, are you going to tell us what's going on?"
Skulker's shoulders squared. "That annoying love ghost's power has a side effect."
"What kind of side effect?" Taylor pushed.
"The affected person's object of affection has started to die from heart attacks." Skulker shared.
Elizabeth and Taylor gasped.
"Has a solution been found?" Elizabeth asked.
"So far the only ones not affected have been victims that were already couples, or became couples." Skulker shrugged.
"Why would Plasmius want to save Jeanette?" Elizabeth mostly talked to herself. "He was a victim of Infatuation, he shouldn't have any feelings after being freed from her powers."
"He started on this portal into your world before we found out about the side effects." Skulker huffed. "Besides, I'm pretty sure he had a thing for her before he was affected." He muttered the last part.
I took the amulet off the mirror. Elizabeth and I could have died of heart attacks. We could have died because of Clockwork putting our lives in danger. No wonder he wanted to give us these amulets. I looked at the amulet and decided to put it on.
Soon a bright light consumed me and I found myself looking at Clockwork.
"I was starting to wonder if you were ever going to wear it." He smirked.
"You knew." I accused.
"Oh," Clockwork gave a look of innocence, "I knew what a being from another dimension was going to do?" He floated away to one of his many time portals. We were in his ghost lair. "Look into this timeline and tell me what you see."
I walked towards the timeline to see a broken image as it rewinded and played different scenarios. No image the same, no same characters, no single ending. Different versions of Danny Phantom came and went, either winning, or losing, a fight with an unknown foe.
"What is going on?" I asked.
"Someone from another dimension decided that this dimension was an excellent playground." Clockwork explained. "I have no power over them, because they come from not only a different timeline, but also different dimensions."
"But, you could control time and us." I said referring to me and my friends.
"I admit I had some control, but only in your behavior at the end." Clockwork moved to another time portal showing when we first arrived at Amity Park. The image was slightly blurry and the noise was staticky. "I could only pull you into my dimension, because I had permission. I could only rewind time but not your memory." The image shown when we were all at the apartment. "Me having control over your friends and you were me overshadowing you all." Next it showed transparent Clockwork's going into our bodies as we were leaving.
He once again turned to another portal. This one showing Mike and Emily Russel. "These two have been able to shake off my overshadowing. Taking advantage of the fact that my time tampering doesn't affect them. And have managed to cover their tracks on which dimension they come from"
"Then why bring me and my friends into this mess?" I asked.
"You and your friends were the only ones that cleared up my timeline." He explained. "But, believe me when I say I had no idea of Infatuation's powers."
"Then what are we supposed to do now?" I asked.
"For now stay with Vlad until a cure is found." As soon as he said that, my phone started ringing.
I grabbed my phone and answered. Soon I was sucked into a vortex and found myself in front of Skulker. The amulet no longer in my possession.
"Jeanette!" I turned to see my friends still locked in the cage.
"What just happened?" I asked genuinely confused.
"Velia." Arms wrapped around me and I was engulfed in Plasmius' embrace. "I'm never letting you go again."
"What?" I helplessly stood there not knowing what to do.
Plasmius pulled away only to cup my face. "I will not waste this opportunity."
"Hold it, hold all of your horses." I tried to push him away. "I need you to explain to me what is happening."
"Gladly. Infatuation's abilities are more than just putting one person under a love spell. It also affects the person's object of affection. Several people that were connected to victims of Infatuation have been dying of heartbreak." Plasmius explained. "Or, heart attacks as most in the medical field agree with the phenomenon."
"So you brought me here to tell me and Elizabeth that we're going to die?" I knew that wasn't true, but they didn't know I knew.
"No, so long as the person affected spends a long time with the other person, they show stable conditions." Plasmius pressed his forehead to mine. "As long as you stay with me you'll live."
"Wow, I don't get a choice?" I huffed.
Plasmiuss' grip on me tightened. "You would rather be with that pathetic operative wouldn't you?" He sneered. I flinched and his fingers dug into my scalp. "Yet I clearly remember you saying you've never truly loved anyone."
"Stop, you're hurting me." I tried to pull his hands off me.
"Not as much as you hurt me." He smashed his lips to mine, but his hands finally loosen their hold.
"Don't touch her." I heard Elizabeth and Taylor yell.
"Plasmius, aren't you taking this a bit far?" Skulker finally said as Plasmius pulled away.
"Let's bring them upstairs." Plasmius' eyes never left my face as he flew us upstairs.
"Well, well, if it ain't girlie." I heard a familiar voice as we finally made it up top.
"Lilith." I made my way to her as soon as Vlad let me go. "What are you doing here?"
"Moral support." She grabbed me in a hug. "When you went missing and the whole Infatuation came to light I was worried. Stayed here the moment Vlad said he had a way to find you."
"Jeanette." Two bodies slammed behind us and two pairs of arms wrapped behind me.
Lilith chuckled and stepped away from our group hug. "I'll call in the operatives, K and O will be happy to see you."
Taylor started kissing my mouth. "I will kiss all those germs away."
"You're just adding germs." Elizabeth reasoned.
"I would rather you not do that." We heard Vlad growl. He was in his human form, eyes glowing red.
"You changed back to your black suit." I threw in before Elizabeth, or Taylor, decided to throw hands.
Vlad flushed at that. "I remember you saying you liked this look better."
"Jeanette."
"Elizabeth."
Seeing both operatives filled me with relief. Especially seeing K, with how we ended things, I was glad we left on better terms. I owed him so much for hurting him emotionally. And he deserved a gold metal for never lashing out on my inexcusable behavior towards him.
O walked up to Elizabeth. "I'm relieved to see you're still amongst the living."
"I'm glad too, I had no idea people were dying from heart attacks." Elizabeth said.
K slowly made his way towards me, still keeping distance. "Once a large number of people died over the same conditions we connected the dots." He explained. "Though we first suspected a terrorist threat, until a number of Infatuation's victims stepped forward."
"Has another form of the cure been found?" Elizabeth asked.
"So far nothing but being in the presence of the person affected." O replied. "A lot of people, already in relationships, have been complaining about sharing their partner. Some have even gone as far as divorce, even though we've explained their presence was only needed at least twice a day."
"How did you find that out?" Elizabeth asked excitedly.
"We've been monitoring people and their heart rates. Though physically touching the person helps, also being in the same room alone helps as well." O detailed. "We also found that the new found victims start craving to be alone, either by themselves or with other victims."
Elizabeth and I looked at each other. We were lately closed in each other's room, or went out to events without Taylor. Something we rarely did before we were sucked into this world. We just assumed it was a side effect of being in this world, or some form of PTSD.
"By the looks the three of you are giving, I'm guessing Elizabeth and Jeanette have been spending more time together?" K asked.
"Yeah," Taylor nodded. "They've been ignoring me lately and always with one another." She sighed. "Glad it was a side effect and not me."
"Taylor." Elizabeth and I hugged Taylor tightly.
"Crap my sundaes are melting on your nightstand." Taylor suddenly said.
"Taylor." We chuckled.
"As sweet as this reunion has been, we must start talking about living arrangements." Vlad interrupted us.