CHAPTER 35: THE NATIVITY, PART 4
The story of three people each asking a genie for wish has been told countless times, whether it be to make a point, entertain, or to make a joke.
For the trio of Danny Fenton, Danielle Phantom, and the ghost of Jazz Fenton, their own journey to meet a certain genie is made not for any purpose of the above, but to save the world as they knew it from certain destruction. Lacking his human soul, the former of the group has relied on the other two to help him reach his destination, and the group all now rely on the genie named Desiree to help them.
Desiree has been known as a villain to Danny Fenton during the days before the Disasteroid and his days of amateur superheroics, granting the wish of any man or woman's wishes to instill chaos in the realm of the living to satisfy her own needs to grant the desires of others.
It is that drive that has caused her to relocate herself to the subcity of Eros, a place in Old Amity Park dedicated solely to the worship of human sexual pleasure. She has made a name for herself performing before many patrons, raking in many dollars with her eternally attractive ethereal body and sole interest on bringing pleasure to others.
Through winning her over with a large sum of money during one of her performances, the group has gained a private audience with her to express their needs. Leading them to a private room to themselves, past a series of loud sounds of ecstasy, the animalistic noises of released sexual tension flooding the halls, they are at last given an isolated area to speak alone, and explain their situation to Desiree.
Sharing a hostile past with Danny Fenton and his accomplices in the years past, the action is merely taken as a business obligation with the money spent.
When all the past events the group has shared together are explained to her, however, her stance is far less hostile and far more sympathetic, if only carrying some slight skepticism over the story told to her. As with any who doubt a story shared with them, her instinct is to ask and analyze the information to confirm its authenticity.
"So, there's an evil Danny Phantom from the future threatening to kill all life on Earth, he destroyed Danny's soul, and you need my help to give him a new one. That's definitely an amazing story, but it's still just a story, as far as I'm concerned. Why exactly should I believe any of what you're telling me?" Desiree asked.
"You're an undead harem girl from the ancient Middle East working as a stripper who makes money off people with ghost fetishes. Is any of what we said a hard story to buy in that context? Besides, if we came here to put up a fight, we would've done it already, wouldn't we?" Jazz asked.
Unable to retort the response, Desiree stirred in thought to give her own response to Jazz.
"Well, I suppose me asking that is a tad silly in that context. And you were quite a formidable foe alongside your brother; to see you dead and him without a soul would indeed be difficult to fake, and the reason to do so very hard to justify. I suppose it is more believable in that perspective." Desiree said.
"Thank you. Now, will you please give us some help? We paid good money for it, after all." Jazz said.
"Whether or not I believe your story is the least of your worries. I would not call you people that I can put my trust in, considering our past. How many times has it been since I was thrown back in that thermos of yours, trapped in it like it were a lamp like genies in stories past? What is there to gain from my helping you?"
"In our defense, it was you going off any granting all kinds of wishes at random just so you could fill a need. But, believe me, all the gripes you have with us, you can have them, but we're not here for those old wounds. If you believe us that there's a deadly enemy out there, then you know he's not just coming for us, he'd be coming for you, too. If you can help us take him down, that would be in your own interests just as much as ours."
"'Old wounds'? Is that what you call it? You denied me my purpose time and time again, catching me over and over again when all I wanted was to fulfill the desires of others? When I was a but a girl to a sultan, I just wanted to make him happy and fulfill his desires, but he would no longer have me. After my death, I was forced to fulfill my needs elsewhere. Can you blame a wolf for hunting and killing when it is hungry?"
"People change, Desiree. I've changed a lot more than I thought I would over the past few days, and not just because I died. And obviously you changed, too. I don't see you granting people's wishes anymore like in the old days."
"My purpose was never to simply grant wishes. My purpose was to grant the desires of others. The only difference now is that I have chosen to fulfill more basic desires, as I once did when I was alive. I have never changed."
"You granted other people's wishes when it served your purpose of inconveniencing or attacking other people. It was because of that we had to keep catching you and sending you back to the Ghost Zone. Giving people boners is a lot less damaging to the world than magically making things come to life."
Jazz's retort once again brought Desiree to a moment of thought, thinking over her own life choices.
"Perhaps I was more vengeful in the old days... but so was Yahweh, in your Old Testament before the teachings of peace in the New Testament. The being is the same in form and spirit, but only in actions is there a difference." Desiree said.
"So what? You still want to grant people's wishes, don't you? Here's your chance. Danny needs his soul back, so make him a new one. Grant his wish." Jazz said.
"Granting wishes was simply a means to an end. I have changed the fabric and the nature universe itself to see those ends meet, changed reality as I saw fit, but I have always done it with the intent to grant the desires of others."
"So?"
"It is his desire I must use to grant his wish, because it must be his wish I grant. But desire only comes with the soul. If he has no soul, then he has no desire to fulfill. He is little more than an animal needing only food and shelter."
The implications of Desiree's explanation began to bring dread to Jazz's face, making her realize that their journey may have been for naught.
"So... You're saying... you can't make him a new soul?" Jazz asked.
"No. I cannot. I am sorry." Desiree said.
Outraged over their mission seemingly coming to an untimely and unsatisfactory end, Jazz threw up her arms in anger, letting out a shout.
"DAMN IT! All this way for nothing?! There must be something you can do! Can't you do anything?!" Jazz shouted.
"It is outside of my control. It must be him who holds the desire for me to grant it, but I can do nothing when he has no desire to speak of. It is like trying to make a flower eat when it has no stomach; it does not have the capacity nor capability to fulfill the task." Desiree said.
"And since we're on the subject of bad news, I might as well tell you now: There's a chance this may not have worked anyway." Danielle added.
The anger of Jazz was compounded with a sense of betrayal from Danielle's comment, further adding to her despair.
"What?" Jazz asked.
"I told you I came to Desiree to ask for something. I didn't get what I wanted." Danielle said.
"What did you wish for?"
"She had wished to be someone else." Desiree answered.
"What do you mean, 'be someone else'? What does that mean? And why didn't it work?"
"I told you about the kind of life I've had to live. Being a clone of Danny without anything special about myself. I went to Desiree a long time ago and asked her to make me someone else instead. To have a new life that I could actually call my own." Danielle said.
"And why didn't she grant your wish?"
"Hers is the one desire that I cannot fulfill. Men have had dreams of being other men, but always the desire had always come from envy for another. If one man has become a famous musician, there is another who feels desire to be like him. There is a basis for the desire to grow, stemming from envy or greed." Desiree said.
"But what I wanted was to not be somebody else. When I asked her to grant my wish, she couldn't do it, because I'm not really Danny Phantom. For all my similarities to him, even down to the genetic level, I'm still my own person, and that won't change from a desire to be someone else when I'm not someone else." Danielle said.
"Then what was all that you gave us about having to live in his shadow, or being just like him, or anything else you were telling us about?" Jazz asked.
"Those are just things that make up the kind of person I am now, trying to be someone else of my own. I just didn't realize it until she pointed it out to me. I guess, in a roundabout way, she did grant me my desire after all."
"Okay, well, good for you, but what does this have to do with Danny? We're not asking to make him somebody else, we're just trying to make him back to normal!"
"It is yet another problem that Danielle's wish, or, lack thereof, has to our dilemma. It is not enough that he must have the capability of desire. The desire must be clear, strong, and fulfill a need. When one faces hunger, there is a clarity that the desire is for food, the desire is strong as the body is in physical need of nourishment, and it fulfills the need for that nourishment by fulfilling the desire. It is that hunger that I must work with to fulfill what is needed. Even if he had a soul to desire, the strength of the desire must be clear enough to fulfill it. If you do not feel hunger, can you hope to conceptualize it as a concept, much less feel it yourself?" Desiree asked.
"Well, that's just PERFECT! Not only did we come back all this way, the whole world is gonna be totally screwed! Dark Danny is gonna totally destroy the entire Earth, and there's nothing we can do about it!"
Needing something to take her anger out on, Jazz grabbed Danny's wallet from Danielle, preparing to throw it against the wall.
"And like any sucker at a strip club, I spent all my money with nothing to show for it!" Jazz shouted.
Throwing the wallet against the wall, Jazz sent it colliding with it, falling to the ground after its initial impact. When landing on the ground, it landed in an open position with its credit cards and other items within partially falling out, leaving them to be displayed to any observer.
Among the items that fell out was a family photograph of the Fentons, showing every member of the family standing and smiling. The image was mostly lost on all the emotionally captured present, but it was not out of the attention of the soulless Danny Fenton, who walked to the picture and looked at it.
Reaching down and picking up the picture, Danny paid closer attention to it, keeping his eyes fixated on everyone present in the captured image. The sight of each person brought forth emotions created from deep emotional connections within Danny, almost bringing a smile to his face.
The images of his mother and father seemed to draw the deepest of feelings out of him; perhaps it is an embedded bond that goes beyond the human soul that is aroused, tapping into the recognition that these two are his progenitors and creators, the one who conceived him and the one who raised him.
Seeing their faces once again, he can see images of them alive in his head, and, to him, they are alive once again.
Concurrent to the meeting between Danny and his sisters with Desiree, where an important turn of events makes way for events to come, the meeting between Vlad and Clockwork is still underway, who are to feel the effects of the aforementioned events between those still at the Whorehouse on Haunted Hill.
The exchange of dialogue and respective needs of both parties is far different for these two in the Ghost Zone, but nonetheless important in the grand scheme of the universe, and all within the control of one of these two who controls the grand scheme of the universe itself.
What Clockwork does is give Vlad Plasmius something that he rarely, if ever, gives to any one person:
A vision of the future.
More specifically, a vision of his future.
Through the will of Clockwork, Vlad is shown his plan for the universe and his attempt to make a perfect world. Concerned with only his own well-being for most of his life, the very concept of bettering the world and changing it to benefit others is something that he has never once paid much time to doing...
...but upon seeing the final product and what good it has done, there is a change in his heart, and new desires are given for it.
"I... I never realized that the world could be so... perfect... and take so much, yet so little to fix..." Vlad stammered.
"Yes. A puzzle is a challenge to put together, and it requires many pieces to do so, but, when one sees the full picture to be finished, it is perfect and beautiful. That is the task of being master of all time. A burdensome chore to any mortal creature, but an instant for an immortal being." Clockwork said.
"So, what? You're saying that the timeline's already going to stop there? Then why bother with talking to me in the first place?"
"It is because I speak to you now that this end result will come. The actions you take from here on out result in this end goal, just as I have determined it so."
"And yet you still play the game of trying to absolve yourself of doing so, trying to say free will still exists."
Clockwork seemed to finally show some emotion out of Vlad's question, displaying only a passing sense of disappointment, like a teacher to a student missing the point of a lecture. The emotion nonetheless fleeted in an instant as quick as it first came, with the master of all time moving back to the focus of his visit.
"Call it what you will, Vlad Masters. My will be done no matter how you choose to understand it." Clockwork said.
"Then what do I have to do now to make this future happen? How do we help Danny?" Vlad asked.
"Daniel Fenton is already where he must be. He is waiting for his soul to be recreated. Without knowing, he has taken the first steps in which he will regain what he requires, and move on to regaining his powers, becoming Danny Phantom once again. He has followed well so far, and he will continue to follow well until this world has found its end. Now, it is time for you to follow, as it is for Jack and Maddie Fenton."
As Clockwork spoke out both of their names, Vlad's eyes opened up to him in surprise to hear their names, immediately looking to his surroundings in hopes to find them. Upon turning to the tree on the asteroid they stood on, Vlad's surprise compounded to amazement as he saw the two deceased Fentons, in the form of ghosts, standing before him.
Even when spending most of his life seeing ghosts, he still needs to hear confirmation that his eyes are not lying to him.
"...Maddie? Jack? Is it really you?" Vlad asked.
"Yes, Vlad. It's us." Maddie said.
"Yeah, ol' buddy. We're back, alright. The wifey and I never go anywhere without each other. Who says that death has to do us part? Gotta love that we're finally ghosts now, hunting them for as long as we have." Jack joked.
To see the faces of the people he had brought death upon with his actions, Vlad stepped to the two with a heavy feeling of guilt in his heart, slowing his movements as if his feelings held physical weight. Maddie, the woman he had always loved since he was a young man, is the one who captures the most of his guilt, having to handle the weight of his night of despoilation of her along with his betrayal of both of the Fentons.
"Jack... My best friend... Maddie... My love..." Vlad said.
Vlad began to reach out to touch her face, wishing to make a gesture of apology by laying gentle hands upon her. Before he could make his bid for a nonverbal apology, he retracted his hands, believing them not good enough to touch her ethereal flesh, and fell to his knees, breaking down in tears before her.
"I'm... I'm so sorry... I did... the worst thing I could possibly do to you... I can't believe I ever contemplated... that... I'm sorry..." Vlad cried.
Maddie's own hands then began to reach for Vlad's face, laying gentle caresses over him and wiping away his tears. Jack stepped in to lift him on his feet once again, allowing the three to stand face-to-face for the first time in so many years, standing as equals in status and conversation.
"Oh, don't be too hard on yourself, now, Vlad. Despite what you chose to do, there's still a silver lining that's come from it: Danny." Maddie said.
"How many people has he saved, how much good has he done for the world? He's a hero. He's given the world everything it needed. I couldn't be more proud of the boy, really." Jack said.
"And all it took to accomplish that was me violating Maddie like I was an animal. If there is any credit for me to take, it's damning with faint praise, at best. I'm still not worth my sins." Vlad said.
"How, then, would you judge an act? Its cause, or its effect? The Virgin Mary was given the seed of Yahweh without consent, but her son Jesus had brought a new definition of peace to the world that it needed." Clockwork added.
"I don't believe in the bible."
"Time 'believes' in nothing, Vlad Masters, it simply is. But that is not my point. Characters, real and true alike, have their impacts on time. You have had yours through your only son."
"And now I've forced him to watch his family die, lose his powers, and go through who knows what to get where he is. What I did is bad enough, but knowing that he only exists because I did something completely unforgivable?"
"It was me who was the victim, Vlad. I decide whether what you did is forgivable or not." Maddie said.
"What if I don't want your forgiveness? What if I don't deserve it? What if I really do deserve to suffer for what I've done? Maybe I want punishment for what I've done. Maybe I deserve to burn in hell for all eternity."
"No punishment can last an eternity, Vlad Masters. That is not the purpose of a punishment. A punishment corrects a wrong action, and amends the wrong that has been done to another. What good does your suffering for eternity do? Does it undo your actions? No. What is done will always have been done. Does it change your ways as not to repeat your mistakes? No. If you are forever trapped in an eternity of your own suffering, you can never impact the lives of others again. There is nothing for you to learn." Clockwork said.
"Well, maybe I'd just feel better suffering for what I've done. It'd by my way of repenting for my wrongdoings. I can live with that."
"Then your punishment is not truly a punishment at all. It is simply another act of pleasure for you to feed your own ego. To feed your sense of pride. Pride and ego may come with the correction of wrongs, but it cannot be achieved if the wrong has never been corrected. You still will have learned nothing, and you still will have made no change to fix what you have broken."
Proven wrong in his actions once again by Clockwork, Vlad conceded his argument in silence, lowering his head in shame.
"Then what do you want me to do?" Vlad asked.
"Actions are what count, Vlad. Actions speak louder than words. Instead of moping and feeling sorry for yourself, maybe you need to take action instead. If you really want to change things, then being sorry isn't enough. " Maddie said.
"What actions, then? Please, I will do anything it takes, Maddie. I want to make things right. For you and Jack. I've wasted my life out of a... petty vengeance back when I was a young man in college, too stupid to know my own mortality or place in the universe. I lied and deceived you both so many times, tried to kill Danny, tried to make the world my own petty little playground... God... Please, tell me, I need to know!"
"Simple, Vladdy-Boy. We gotta have sex together." Jack said.
Jack's goofy, happy-go-lucky attitude was often an excuse for any strange comment made by him, but what had come from his mouth had brought Vlad's desperation to a confused stupor. Begging for an answer to absolve him of his crimes, to hear of such an answer given made him question twice to confirm his senses were still sane.
"...What?" Vlad asked.
"You have admitted yourself that Danny Fenton is without his soul. To make amends for this destruction, what has been taken from him must be given back. His soul has been devoured and destroyed by the one calling itself Demon Phantom, but a soul cannot truly be destroyed or die. Even when dispersed, its particles are merely spread about the cosmos, waiting to be part of another consciousness... or be reintegrated and unified once again. Since the first days of human, even the days of Cro-Magnon, the species has managed to conjure the essence of a soul, to harness the dispersed particles and make them a new consciousness, through sexual intercourse." Clockwork explained.
"But all kinds of animals have sex. It's genetic, it has nothing to do with ghosts or consciousness."
"Not for the sapient kind. Humans are, at least on planet Earth, the only creature to have a soul or what human beings have come to know as 'consciousness'. Genetics are but one half of the human buildup, the other belongs to memetics. Danny is already with a body; he has not lost his genetics. It is upon you to restore the other half."
"And I have to have sex with Maddie... and Jack to do it?"
"To return to my analogy, Jesus was the son of Yahweh, but that did not make Joseph any less his father as well. You might have sired Danny Fenton through his physical body, and even planted the seed of his ethereal body, but it was Jack Fenton that nourished and taught both to become a man. You are his father by origin, but Jack is his father in practice. Nonetheless, you are both parts of the whole of Danny's life, and needed to bring it back together."
Satisfied with the rationale with his need to partake in such an action, Vlad then turned his questions to Maddie and Jack, seeking their consent.
"But... are you... alright with this? All things considered?" Vlad asked.
"Yeah, don't think anything of it, Vlad. Just pretend we're just two guys back in college, away from any judgmental parents, and we're doing a few experiments together. Wouldn't be the first time in my life, heh-heh." Jack said.
"What's past is in the past now, Vlad. We don't make things right by dwelling on what we've done. We make them better by doing what we can now." Maddie said.
Maddie laid a hand on Vlad's face, giving to him a physical (as physical as a ghost can provide) sense of forgiveness, making him shudder at her touch.
"And maybe what you need to get started on making amends is a little compassion to realize that you still have some value to save, and you can do it. After all, you've wanted me long enough, how about you try it the honest way this time?" Maddie asked.
Every mention of his crime against Maddie instilled a further sense of sickness in his heart, but also within his heart was the determination to correct the misdeed he had done long ago, and the will to see it erased from his soul. Though he knows the latter is impossible, he knows that the former is still at least possible in theory.
That knowledge is what allows him to accept, reaching and touching Maddie's hand once again.
"Alright. I'll do it. I'll do what needs to be done." Vlad said.
And with his acceptance of the situation, the goal to be achieved in mind, there comes at last what is required for another to see the goal accomplished:
Desire.
A sour and heavy tone still rests on the heads of all in the company of Desiree, none achieving what they have come to achieve, and traveled so far to get. Unable to obtain what is needed to give Danny his powers back and fight back against Demon Phantom once again, all hope appears to be lost.
But with the smallest twinge of Desire in the air, Desiree has found hope for the group once again, looking to the ceiling, past it, in truth, at their hope. The strange action was not lost upon the angered Jazz and saddened Danielle, both observing her unusual stare with confusion.
"Uh... Desiree? You alright?" Danielle asked.
"Yes... and I believe I have found a desire that shall give you what you need after all." Desiree said.
Having the good news brought to their ears, Jazz and Danielle's moods shot up in excitement, eager to hear an explanation on how their needs were met at last.
"But how? I thought you said Danny didn't have any desire for you to work with." Jazz said.
"It is not his desire that I can feel. It is the desire of his parents." Desiree said.
"Mom and Dad? You can feel their ghosts? They're here?"
"Not here. They are off in the Ghost Zone. They are in congress to remake his soul."
"What do you mean, 'in congress'? Are they... Uh... You know?"
"Having sex? Yes."
"Ugh. Great. Nevermind. Just... What are you doing?"
"His soul will need a guide to reach his body once again. Their desire is for his soul to be returned, and that desire is one I am more than able to fulfill. They are but souls in the Ghost Zone, and a soul carries nothing in it but desire."
Desiree reached her hands up to the air, seeming to channel energy from the act of copulation occurring outside the material world.
[Soundtrack Cue: Tool - Schism]
Together, they are three; three lifelong friends, three challengers of the unknown, three that shall become one. A trinity, a trio, a trine, a triad, a triumvirate, a trilogy of stories all coming together to complete their respective lives and bring them into one fold, bringing about one final conclusion.
The first step that they take for their unity is to disrobe themselves of any ethereal clothing, leaving themselves naked all before each other. In nudity, there is truth, and it is a truth that cannot be questioned or denied or falsified; it merely is, it is front and center, it is clear and present.
With their disrobing, all concepts of identity are stripped away from one another. There is no signs of pride or dignity left among them; all three are brought low and humbled before one another, given reminders that they are all equal in one another's eyes, and all here for the same purpose.
Even in their disrobement, there are still the usual signs of distinctiveness left among each other. Jack and Vlad both possessed their masculine features, their tools to penetrate the unknown and mysterious. Maddie still possessed her feminine features, her receptacle and glands of nourishment.
Shedding these final separating factors, losing their faces and hair in the process, there is nothing that can set the 3 apart from one another; they are uniform as one, and indistinguishable from one another in form and action. They come together to form their trinity, becoming one greater entity in the process.
Each of them is a different universe in and of itself, carrying with it differences and complex intricacies that none of them share. In their own ways, each of them are still female, carrying complexities and differences to be explored and penetrated, conquered as their own territory.
To explore and break through these boundaries, they each and all become male, possessing what is needed to break through the unknown and make it known to them. It is through this change that they break through and join, while still remaining female to allow them to break through each other. The male is immersed in the female, and the female is immersed in the male.
Three souls combined.
Two sexes.
One purpose.
There are many words that can describe the action being taken as of now, depending on how one wishes to perceive or interpret the action.
One might call the action something in esoteric terms, making comments regarding something of chakras or magic, trying to make some poetic analogy to the event regarding a moving tide, a gravitational pull, or some other means of bringing artistic flair to a phenomena, whether natural or supernatural, to amaze others.
One might call the action something purely in scientific terms, dismissing the event as nothing more than an engine moving or a chemical reaction, deconstructing and breaking down what brings a sense of wonder and joy to simplify it to a point where what once seemed miraculous to be ordinary and uninteresting, to bore others.
But what is being described of the event is of no importance. What matters is that what is happening is indeed happening, and it is happening for a purpose.
The purpose is to create life.
Like any process to create life, it takes much time and effort to see fruition. Perhaps it takes even more time to induce on purpose than not; a discovery by accident is always much more impressive than one intentionally done, so why cannot it be the case in the creation of life itself?
The process itself is an overwhelming of the senses for the three parties involved, all forced to relive their own memories and the memories of each other, watching the experiences gained out of each memory mash together with one another to create the right building blocks for their life.
The process is seemingly endless and tiresome, coming to naught for all the parties involved...
...until, at last, there is the moment.
The moment is but a small eventuality in the process, starting as one small success out of millions of failures. It might be a miracle to see it come to light at last, or it might be an inevitable concept, just as a single sperm cell out of hundreds of millions are sure to reach its target.
Again, what truly matters is the end result. The end result has now started to take place and grow. It had a beginning as one, and it has now become two, and it has now become four, and it continues to increase in count, and it has began to take shape and form for itself.
The creation is too large to be unnoticed as it once was in its initial stages; it has now began to show out of the trinity by presenting itself as a growth in the mixture, sticking itself out like a sore thumb, or perhaps a cyst or zit. Either way, it has made itself more than noticeable, and declared its desire to exist with its presence.
It has further made its desire to exist clear when it made its attempt to break free from the hold of the trinity, desiring to be out of the womb made by its parents and sent out into the world, off in search of its place. Alas, the creation has not yet completed its growth as it is; the place it needs now does not need a newborn soul, but that of a grown man.
As such, the process has to become more vigorous and prolonged, accelerating the growth of the creation and bringing about a premature maturity. The process is unusual to be done in this manner, like a mother trying to keep her children in the house for herself as long as can be, but this is a necessary evil to prepare it for its task.
The trinity has given its creation all the growth and nurturing that it can provide, but what they can provide is ultimately still limited as they are in the universe itself. The release of the creation into the world is all but imminent now, and it will be ready to take the place it must.
Then, there is release.
The creation is at last cast out of its womb, sent out from the ethereal petri dish where it was put together by its three creators to its mission. For the trinity, the release is all that they have been waiting for and dreading all the same; the joy of orgasm and the pain of birth in one.
The creation is sent out away from its creators, off to achieve what it has been sent to do.
And as for any newborn, there is a person of great knowledge to deliver it, and this creation requires a specific delivery to a specific destination. It does not have a destination as simple as the arms of the mother where it gestated in, but instead where it was meant to gestate since its life began.
Desire for the creation to reach its destination is at the forefront of its creators, and that has given the genie named Desiree the knowledge needed to deliver it to its place in the human body of Danny Fenton. Reaching her arms up in the air, her magic has begun to take hold, altering the very nature and supernature of reality to see a dream and a desire realized.
Retrieving the creation from its place in the Ghost Zone, Desiree conjured the soul in her hands, as if cradling the child freshly pulled out from the womb. For Desiree, what surprises her is not this unique usage of her gift, but instead the feeling of having a brand-new human soul in her hands.
To feel how pure it is, how vulnerable it is, she cannot help but smile and tear up at it sight and how it feels in her arms.
"I never realized how... beautiful... it is to help create life." Desiree said.
Turning her eyes towards Danny Fenton, she extended her arms out to the man with no soul, gently letting out a breeze of a breath to the creation, sending it towards it intended target. Recognizing the empty shell as its proper home and place of being in the universe, the creation is eager to meet itself, swimming its way into the unfertilized body of Danny Fenton.
And swimming inside his body, the creation becomes one with Danny Fenton, giving him back what he had lost.
The connection between body and soul repairs the bridges that have been burned from the initial loss of his soul, reconnecting neurons and brain cells with the missing electricity between the conductors. Memories start to play out in full in his head, with emotions flooding in beside the images to complete them as whole experiences.
The sudden regaining of consciousness once again led him to open his eyes and widen his mouth in a gasp, feeling a touch so intimate that no family member or lover could ever hope to achieve in getting to know his own personality, for what he has come into touch with is his own personality.
He can remember the days when he was a child, he can remember the days when he was a teenager, he can remember the first time he stepped into the Ghost Portal, he can remember the first time he fought a ghost and the many he had fought since, and so he continues to remember as all that was forgotten plays back for him once again, reminding him of who he is and always will be.
He is Danny Fenton.
He is whole again.
[Soundtrack Cue End]
His soul restored and his awareness back, Danny Fenton no longer looked around the world with a passing blank expression, but instead with attention and interest to the smallest and seemingly least important detail, as if remembering the very words for what his surroundings were called:
'Floor'.
'Ceiling'.
'Walls'.
'Room'.
'Building'.
Such is his self-taught recollection that he cannot even notice the looks from his sisters, Jazz and Danielle both looking to him with a cautious sense of concern for their brother. His actions are different now for the first time since the beginning of their trip, but they are still not what they recognize from him.
"Um... Danny? Do you feel okay?" Jazz asked.
And for the first time since the trip, Danny had fully understood, and gave a reply with full consciousness.
"No. I feel everything." Danny said.
The cause for celebration is strong between the Fentons, but it is lost upon the rest of the world, including those who currently take the Fentons' place at their home of Fenton City. Still are they hard at work under their master Demon Phantom, working on his plan to create ghost superweapons fashioned out of extinct gods.
Demon Phantom himself only looked to the vague space before him, taking no interest in what happened behind him. But his apparent lack on interest in his own subordinates do not give them any excuse to slow down their work or progress; still do they work hard and restlessly to achieve his goals.
Technus is left to bear the mantle of leadership, forced to work with the other ghosts to see the god-weapons created correctly.
"Fright Knight! Careful on the resonator, you'll pop his pineal gland! Ember! That is not an instrument, stop making it beep! Skulker, don't kill that one yet! I don't care if you want a trophy or not!" Technus shouted.
Oblivious to the workings of Technus and the other ghosts, Demon Phantom's stoic focus has apparently found something to take his mind off all other matters at last, and successfully managing the seemingly impossible of catching his attention and keeping it to something of his utmost importance.
Out of his nose came a red mist, triggering a long-dormant warning system. The warning had once served its purpose for warning its user to be wary of any imminent ghost threats, but, having no threats to oppose him, there is no reason for his warning system to be activated.
Save, he realized, unless there is the return of one soul who could defeat him:
Danny Fenton.
The flow of red from his nose did not go unnoticed by the other ghosts, all noticing his warning with uncertain looks and anxious sense of fear.
"Uh, boss? What's with the anime routine? Is that something we should know about?" Skulker asked.
"He's alive." Demon Phantom said.
"What? What do you mean, who's alive?" Ember asked.
"Danny Fenton."
The mere entertainment that Danny still lived was a possibility none of the ghosts took lightly, all dropping their tasks in a minor state of panic.
"But that cannot be, can it? You killed him, my lord!" Fright Knight shouted.
"It seems I was proven wrong. Technus. Do you remember those modifications to the machines I deemed unnecessary?" Demon Phantom asked.
"Yes, sir." Techuns said.
"It seems twice now I was proven wrong. I may have use for them after all. I'm going to lead them and finish off Danny Fenton once and for all. If I didn't kill him before, I will this time."
The seriousness in his voice led none to dare risk another question, instead allowing their master to do as he pleased. Summoning forth the completed Techbots, Technus ordered the machines to the attention of Demon Phantom, sending them to follow whatever orders he might give them.
"A-All yours, sir. If I might ask, if you need to kill Danny Fenton again, why do you need my lowly robots? Surely you can handle him yourself, can't you?" Technus asked.
"Yes, I was of the belief of that once, and I have been proven that was not a wise strategy. This time, I will not be taking any chances." Demon Phantom said.
"But what if people see you out there with all those robots? Won't that be kind of a problem?" Ember asked.
"Oh, I have my plans for that. Besides, I just killed the President of the United States, I could use a good way to spin it in my favor. Just watch the TV for my latest announcement."
Stepping to the hangar of Fenton City, Demon Phantom took off without laying waste to a single moment of time longer, allowing himself the company of the Techbots to aide him on his mission of ending the life of Danny Fenton; snuffing out the newly-restored life as soon as it came.
With a game and goal as big as the one on his hands, he does not allow himself any loose ends, and takes no more chances.
