So with the graphic novel, some new canon has been added to the DP universe. Most of my story is compatible, only some of it isn't. I've been wanting to rewrite some of this story anyways, cause as I get better at writing I'm less and less proud of the past chapters. So, I've gone and done that! You don't necessarily need to reread them, the story is basically the same, just with added details. But I do recommend it anyways cause I'm proud of them and I want to share how proud of them I am. I have the first 11 rewritten as of posting this, not sure how many more to come. Some edits for continuity will occur later in, you won't need to reread the ones with minor edits when I do those. This chapter is very long compared to the rest, but there's no better way to tell this tale!

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**Pretty big unavoidable AGIT spoilers this chapter. Be warned. I can provide a spoiler-less summary in the reviews for whoever asks, if you choose to skip this chapter!**

Additionally, the graphic novel puts Phantom Planet a couple years after the start of the show. In short, the story follows that time framing!

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Chapter 35: Unchecked Power

In a tower deep in the uncharted depths of the Ghost Zone, the Eternals flew into a circular room. Harmony was twice the size of the others and hovered in the apex of the room, towering above all. The rest came in and filled their spots in a clockwise motion, an old trial ritual. Every one except Harmony was wearing red ritual cloaks.

Illusion came in, sitting right next to Harmony. She carried a glowing orange globe. This red cloak did not cover her third eye, which she usually kept closed but held wide open today.

Next was Stormwave, covering herself as much as she can with the robe. Her vivid yellow complexion made her look like a fast food parody of a ghost when paired with the red, she thought. She flew to her spot trying to keep a low profile.

Otherworld however proudly flew in. He had a grudge and was ready to bring down the law. Clockwork, still looking weak but obviously regaining strength, was right in between him and Bluesky, who flew in just as confidently as Otherworld had. The two having such similar duties made them the closest siblings of them all, and Clockwork always wondered why Harmony chose to put him between them.

Leaving one seat empty between herself and Bluesky, Lightheart came in. Her glowing pure white form that was usually beautiful clashed with the red cloak like blood on snow, as if it was a symbol of evil staining the good. She looked as sad as her unintentional symbolism implied.

And lastly, Graveyard came in. The red suited his dark ash-grey skin and ominous red eyes. Though as evil as that combination would look to anyone, he was perhaps the most neutral of the group besides perhaps Harmony themself, and was almost as close a duo with Lightheart as Otherworld and Bluesky were to each other.

When they were all "seated," Harmony raised one hand. A cage came out of a portal. A cage holding Karma.

Karma was obviously not happy about the situation. The anger in his eyes was very clear. He stared at the empty spot, the spot that was supposed to be his, and angrily grasped the bars with his physical hands. If it was his choice he'd be sitting there and putting Danny Phantom in the center of the room, as it was all his fault in the first place. His fault for separating the worlds and making the Rift. His fault for making it so hard for Karma to get karmic energy from the human world. And of the kids, he was only really mad about Alex. But the kid gave himself ghost powers, and now that he lost the Gauntlet he could be taken advantage of, perhaps even being shown the Eye again, and actually have it work. The kid's personality was prone to manipulation, especially now that he had ghost powers he wasn't even fully compatible with.

"Eternal Spirits of the Ghost Zone, we hereby begin our trial," Harmony said with their echoing voice of a thousand voices. "This trial will be for the sentencing of brother Karma. He stands accused of abuse of power, improper manipulation of the laws of power, and improper imprisonment of a fellow Spirit. For these crimes, Karma faces the consequences of lair arrest and full monitoring by the Observants, the length of which would be determined in this trial. As a Spirit, his duties are necessary for the balance of the Two Worlds, and no consequence will be allowed to prevent his loyal duties."

In line with the standard ritual, all the Spirits opened their arms wide, and declared in unison, "Harmony has set the charges and consequences. This trial will begin. The accused will state their interest."

Karma sighed. "I submit to the charges."

Harmony gazed down at him. "Karma submits to charges. With no contest of charges, we will have a discussion of the case, and shall determine length of charges."

The group responded again. "Karma submits to charges. The discussion will begin. Karma, state your case."

With a synchronized wave of Otherworld and Bluesky's hands, the cage moved and reconfigured itself into a chain around his body. He had some freedom of movement and expression now, though the chain around him still blocked his ability to use any power, even energy hands. But this is what this chain was for. He floated up a little above the others, to give himself a more powerful appearance, and began his testimony.

"Fellow brothers and sisters of Harmony, I declare my improper actions as results of the Rift and the Rift only. In this time of great peril, as our powers slowly vanished, I'm sure we all felt weak and helpless to various degrees. I oversee the domain of the unconscious mind and random chance, and I must restore my power by balancing the assistance I provide by doing the opposite to the being I assist. That phenomenon the humans called karma, which I took the name of. All of our powers have their own limits, and unfortunately some of us are more powerful than others, so we feel even worse when our powers disappear." There were a couple scowls in the group. Karma was clearly not gaining many favors here; he was at least speaking some truth. Or maybe most. He knew he screwed up big this time, and while he wasn't able to sing his core's song here, he was still willing to open up a little.

He continued in his statement. "When Danny Phantom first decided to cut off the human world, making us utterly unable to access it, none of us could see it coming. He did not warn us, nor did he even think about the world bond. The nature of the Rift made us all blind to the deterioration of the bond, and though we knew it was occurring, we stood idly by, waiting for it to work itself out, or maybe placing all our faith in our oldest sibling Harmony. Otherworld, Bluesky, I know you worked alongside them to keep the Rift from growing too fast, but what about the rest of us? When our most powerful brother Clockwork lost his sight of the timeline, what did we do to support him? Nothing! We haven't supported each other in decades, we've barely kept in contact for centuries now!"

The room sat in silence. Clockwork raised his hand to speak, and Harmony nodded to him.

"I would like it to be known that Danny Phantom informed me, and only me, of the closing off of the two worlds. However, the Rift blinded my view of this timeline, only showing me ones with a much weaker barrier that did not precede the formation of the Rift. My power was gone the moment the barrier was shut; I had no knowledge of what would happen, and no way to stop it."

All gazes turned to Clockwork. This time, the silence was suppressing.

Karma sneered at that very fact. "And you decided against telling us anything. Not surprising. Not surprising at all."

Late 2008

"The technology, said to be able to completely prevent the formation of ghost portals, has completed testing with great success. Plans have been proposed to place this technology in Amity Park in a trial run to prevent ghost attacks. If the technology is a success, the technology will be placed throughout the country, or even across the world."

Danny walked in the room just in time to catch the tail end of the news segment. "Hold on, they're trying to prevent ghost portals?"

His dad shut off the TV. "I can't believe we never thought of that. It's genius! But it would also make it hard to get test subjects..."

"Test subjects? That's what you're worried about?"

"Of course! Ghosts are bent on destruction, and stopping them would stop all the attacks! We'd lose Fentonworks of course, with no ghosts to fight we'd have no technology to sell. If the tech works on artificial portals too, we wouldn't even be able to get test subjects to experiment on. But at least we would be safe!"

This wasn't good. How would he be able to help the ghosts out if it gets placed? He couldn't say the real reason he was opposed to the tech, as that would be revealing his secret or at least framing him as a ghost supporter. But he knew his dad well enough to say the right words to get the idea of stopping the tech in his mind. "Do you really think it's a good idea to stop the portals? What if ghosts can find a way around the tech? What if..." he paused for a second to think of a better excuse. And he made up the best one. "What if ghosts start forming here, and can't get to the Ghost Zone, and then start turning our world into a new Ghost Zone?" He suppressed a giggle at how ridiculous it sounded. He knew that wasn't how ghosts work, but even after so long, he knew his dad would fall for it. "Plus, what would you do without any ghosts to fight? You would have no purpose!"

"You're right. We can't let this happen! We need to stop this!" He jumped off the couch and ran to the lab, yelling, "Maddie! We need to stop the ghost stoppers!"

Trial

Clockwork held a neutral face, even though the guilt piled up in his core. "You must understand I couldn't stop it. I am not invulnerable to everything, and I am certainly not used to being unable to see the timeline we are in."

If Karma wasn't bound, he'd point an accusatory finger towards his brother. "You came forth to none of us! You didn't even come into contact with me until I began gathering the energy I was losing. And all you did was try to stop me, try to prevent me from having any energy."

"Your gathering of energy was beyond normal scope of your power, and it did nothing but cause harm. You caused great anguish to many ghosts, and hindered the journey of those who saved us from the Rift. You opened your Eye to them."

At that point Harmony silenced them. "In light of these accusations, I invite Illusion to do a sweep of intentions."

Clockwork fixed his posture. "I submit to the sweep of intentions," he stated confidently. He had nothing to hide.

Karma was less enthusiastic. "If I don't submit?"

"We will have a vote on an involuntary sweep." Harmony's voice-of-a-thousand-voices was firm.

Knowing there was no way the vote would go his way, he accepted his fate. "Fine. I submit to the sweep of intentions."

Illusion flew between the both of them and held out her orange orb. The room was frozen in anticipation as the three stood still, a melding of minds, thoughts, memories, and emotion occurring between them.

It felt like forever as Illusion worked her magic, but soon enough the connection was broken and Illusion threw everyone an amulet with a charm of a miniature orange orb. Once everyone donned the amulets, she held up the globe and orange mist streamed from it to all of the amulets.

Clockwork's memories were first. The mist implanted knowledge of the event, and the emotions that came with it, in a compressed manner. The weeks following the barrier rushed through the ghosts' minds in minutes, and everyone felt Clockwork's fear, pain, and hopelessness.

Karma's much more recent memories were a different story. The allegations against him proved true, as did his fear of losing power. What they felt here was anxiety, worry, and the conniving glee when he figured out his plans.

Illusion stopped the mist coming out of the orb. "The sweep is complete. I deem these memories of intentions to be true in all regards, in accordance to the Rules of Honesty in this trial."

2009

The ghost attacks slowed, but they never stopped. The artificial portals still worked to let out ghosts. Natural portals were already rare, and it was even rarer that they would let ghosts out. The first anti-portal tower worked though, and natural portals, even though they were barely a problem, were suppressed successfully.

"No more ghosts! No more ghosts! No more ghosts!"

The President's visit to Amity Park prompted many, many protests. Young and old bound together, tired of all the property damage, and protested.

Across the street, a small counter protest spawned. Danny Phantom loyalists, the ones who followed his way of dealing with the ghost problem, listened to the city's defender. They believed wholeheartedly that if they just had enough time and let the hero do his work, things will get better.

Even the anti-ghost side had a few Danny Phantom supporters. While most said all ghosts were bad, or Danny attracted ghosts, or Danny dealing with the ghosts made them worse, some gave the halfa a pass because he stopped even more damage. But they wouldn't listen to him, they wanted him to solve the ghost problem and nothing else.

It may have been possible once. But after the Disasteroid, and especially after the timeline was changed, there was no chance anymore. Despite everything he tried, Danny couldn't convince anyone who had a say in things to change anything. It was all over. Short of overshadowing the President, an incredibly unethical idea that would just make things worse in the end, he couldn't fight the government. The G.I.W. were the ones who found the way to stop ghost portals from forming on their own. Negotiations were already in place to utilize the tech. And Danny was going to do something drastic.

Danny flew into the private meeting with his hands raised. Guns immediately aimed at him by his parents and the many Secret Service and G.I.W. agents in the room. A few Secret Service agents moved forward and apprehended him without struggle.

"I'm harmless! I just want to speak to you about this tech!"

The agents sat still, waiting for a signal. The Mayor, the Red Huntress, and a half dozen other men in suits in the room waited for the President to do something.

And the President, no longer awestruck with seeing a teenage ghost come in through the walls, made his decision. "Give him a minute to speak."

Danny, handcuffed, did a quick bow of his head in respect. "Thank you. I'm here because blocking all portals will cut off the two worlds, and you can't do it." He cringed at himself, realizing that his spontaneous and unplanned speech sounded really awkward. He took a deep breath, not needed in his ghost form but still calming, and continued. His parents, not knowing his identity, gave him a subtle curious look. "It can hurt both of our worlds. The Earth and the Ghost Zone are closely bonded, separating them can be disastrous. I can't be sure what will happen. But it is unnatural, and may have consequences."

"And where's your proof?" Maddie Fenton said, unprompted. Disguised Valerie sighed and shook her head.

Danny looked down in embarrassment. "Writings in ancient Ghost Zone ruins," he said, aware how ridiculous it sounded. "Whatever ancient beings wrote it knew more than any of us. I can change things with their old knowledge, but blocking off the Ghost Zone won't solve anything. Ghosts aren't inherently evil, and they can be helped. "

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that without scientific proof, or any sort of proof, I can't believe that anything bad will happen just by blocking natural portals," the President said.

Danny started to feel hopeless. He failed at city council meetings. He failed to convince the state. Each political battle was getting harder, and he continued to lose at each and every one of them. This method wasn't working, and never would.

He looked at everyone in the room with determination in his eyes. "I'll find your proof. Just you watch." He turned invisible and phased through the handcuffs and flew away in seconds, before anyone could react.

Later that evening...

Danny's heart beat at lightning speed. Damn this timeline, he thought. He waited and paced around the lab, wondering if it was even worth it.

It worked out in the old timeline. He was okay and accepted. Of course the fame was an absolute mess. Things were just going wrong here, though. The near-destruction of the world was terrifying, and he understood why everyone wanted to block ghosts. The near-destruction of the planet was a huge deal. It just made ghost dealings way harder when nobody remembered the ghosts were the heroes in the end.

He needed his parents on his side. They wouldn't listen to him as a naive college freshman. But they would listen to him once they knew. But this timeline was different. His parents didn't have any reason to trust him this time around. But it went okay last time, so if he just stopped panicking, he could do this. They hated ghosts even more this time. They believed the blame being put fully on the ghosts. This would be much harder to do.

He went ghost so he would have an escape from his quickly beating heart, hoping if he could escape it, he could lessen his anxiety. It did work, and all he could feel in his chest was his freezing, vibrating core. It was overenergetic in his anxiety, but it was still more comfortable and easier to ignore. He floated a few feet off the ground, leaned back so he was facing the ceiling, and closed his eyes. He breathed in deeply and focused on the old timeline, where his parents knew everything. He plotted it out in his mind, imagining every outcome, every reaction they could have.

He heard the door open upstairs, and quickly turned human. It was only a minute before they came downstairs. He was as ready as he could be.

"Mom, Dad, I have something to say. I need your help, but you absolutely CAN'T freak out, okay?"

"What's wrong? Is it something about ghosts? I'll catch 'em for ya!" Jack said confidently.

Maddie, much more in tune with the sensitive parenting stuff, could see that Danny was truly worried about something. "Oh, don't mind your father, we just had a successful meeting, you know how he gets. What's wrong, sweetie? We'll help you with anything you need."

Danny laughed nervously. "Well, you'll have to have an open mind. I'm trusting you guys, okay? And I mean it when I say don't freak out."

And without letting them get another word in, he transformed. He slowed the transformation down by a couple seconds, so they could take in what they were seeing. When the transformation was complete, he studied their surprised, speechless faces, and saw no threat in their eyes.

"We need to stop the portal blockers. We can't let that technology be placed. Please, help me."

Trial

"Karma enjoys causing pain and harm to those that he can take advantage of. He desires to cause harm indirectly, not only for his benefit but because he takes pleasure in seeing destruction," Clockwork stated.

Illusion looked at him sympathetically, but said nothing.

Graveyard spoke up, his deep, gravelly voice nothing but disappointed. "Taking pleasure in pain is despicable. Karma, your place in this order is already questionable. You have manipulated your purpose over the millennia, to the point where you barely cover your original Natural Order. Natural means natural. We have let it slide for far too long. And let it be known, I don't fully forgive Clockwork for his more recent manipulations of the timeline, which did lead to a Rift event on it's own with the being of a lost timeline."

"What about you, with the Natural Order of Death?" Karma growled. "You can't say you don't take pleasure when lives are lost, whether human or ghostly."

"I do not enjoy death!" Graveyard shouted. Harmony gave him a glance, and he took a second to compose himself. "I don't enjoy death. I don't enjoy killing, I do not kill at all. I watch over those who die, but I do not manipulate death unless an outside force manipulates it. And if I need a Sweep of Intentions to prove it, then I'll gladly submit.

"You see, Karma, we felt your true feelings in your Sweep. You simply took advantage of the Rift. Simply by submitting to the charges, you proved that you knew we would find out. You always thought you could get on my favor by doing these questionable things. You thought it when the others condemned your actions all those centuries ago. You followed the same misconceptions outsiders have of me. Now, with your imprisonment of our brother, you crossed the line. That was the final straw. You've turned yourself into an outsider."

"I provide the next form of evidence as the memories of the involved parties of the incident," Illusion said, interrupting the argument. "It is proof of mind control. I deem these raw memories to be true in all regards, in accordance to the Rules of Honesty in this trial."

The Spirits' faces turned as the memories were streamed to them. The manipulation of children. The fear and suffering of Clockwork in the cage. They felt the results of Karma's power.

2010

Across the street from the UN building, Danny paced. He sat down for a few minutes. Then stood up again, and paced some more. He fiddled with the buttons on his coat. He stopped to retie his shoes. Then paced some more. He looked out at the endless New York City traffic, listened to it's endless drone. He thought of every person in every car. Each one had their own life, their own world, their own existence. Yet he was the only one out of the millions living in this city who knew what was happening in that tall glass building, only he knew that fate was being chosen today. Sure, some officials outside might know the goings-on of the meetings inside, but for the fate of the Earth, only he understood the true gravity of the decision that will be made. He waited and waited, waited for it to be over.

And finally, out came his parents. He ran over to them without hesitation. "Please, tell me you got them to listen. Tell me you were able to convince someone, anyone!"

His dad shook his head. "Construction is set to begin next month. Fifteen facilities, all over the world."

His mom gave him a big hug. "I'm sorry we couldn't do it. Our theories were just way too broad, they didn't believe us. But there is some good news. We negotiated to be heads of the program, thanks to our past work with the G.I.W. You may not be able to stop it, but you can have some say in how it works."

A crushing weight seemed to fall on his shoulders. All he wanted to do was fix things. But everything just got worse, instead. Just as he found his purpose, it was taken from him.

He couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't stand there in the shadow of his failure. He ran off, then transformed and took to the skies at breakneck speed. He went up, and up, and up. Above all the towering skyscrapers. Above everything. He flew up until he couldn't even hear the city sounds anymore.

Here, above the scattered puffy clouds, there was peace. But with peace came his own thoughts. Helplessness. Hopelessness. It was over. It was all over. All his work of helping the Ghost Zone was for nothing.

And in the end, what did he accomplish? Mapping. That was something, but not really useful. He helped out some ghosts. He tried to set up some sort of society other than the territorial lawlessness the place was. Ghost realtors became a thing. Walker was given a less restrictive rule book to deal justice through. There was the standardized currency, at least. But nothing really happened, nothing significant.

But what was that, really? Was there anything else? No closer bond between the world was truly established. And without anything being properly set up, there wasn't much to show. He had hardly worked out how to help ghosts individually. It was a process interrupted by his poor attempts at stopping the portal blockers.

Anger and devastation burned in his core. He lost. By next year, it will be over. No more ghosts. Even artificial portals would be near-impossible to open, let alone run. The reality of it was sinking in, and the weight of his failure was heavy on his shoulders.

He failed.

Trial

The air was heavy with the weight of judgement. Karma, trying to ignore the rising feeling of defeat, tried to make more arguments. But how could he argue against the truth? He reveled in the chaos he caused. He loved the feeling of power. He did in fact choose to manipulate the bounds of his Natural Order. How could he argue against what was true, when no one would believe his lies?

No one would believe his lies, and even if they did Illusion would just sweep his mind in deeper and deeper manners and take his memory and everyone would see. There was no fighting it, not one bit. They would confine him to his cave, force him to go back to overseeing his initial Order, weak and inferior to the other Eternals.

Weak and inferior. That's what he was before. Practically a slave to Harmony, just an extension of their power to take care of things so Harmony wouldn't have to. Balance is just another word for harmony, in his mind. Not a real Natural Order. Karma knew he would never let them force him to cover weak, boring Balance again.

He raised his head, eyes glowing with anger. "I was made weak, all those millennia ago. I fought for my strength and individuality. Yes, I trapped Clockwork because I knew he would try to stop me. I did manipulate this whole event and the Phantom teams. If you wanted an admission, that's it. I did it because I can. I like the power. I like being in control. I like the destruction and manipulation. I have no excuses. I did it because I wanted to."

His siblings were clearly not surprised. Some were angry, some disappointed. Clockwork looked on with sympathy. "Karma, Threadweaver, you were born the strongest of us. You held a touch of all of our power. You could see what we could not. You were given the highest of Harmony's honor, and you threw it all away. Harmony may be the balance of all reality, but you were the balance of the network of the Two Worlds."

"Do not call me by that name!" Karma's venomous shout flew through the tower. "And it is detestable to hear that coming from you, Clockwork. You are the Spirit of Time, your power is beyond all comprehension. You could do things none of us could even imagine. What could I do but make sure the world was operating all on its own? What power is that?"

"I halt this trial," Harmony said. "Karma, you have proven enough that you have disdain for your gift of existence. At the dawn of creation, I made you and your siblings to protect Reality, while I stayed outside the walls of Reality. Clockwork was right, I gave you highest honor. You have lost sight of that. For the eternal balance of existence, I hereby sentence you to indefinite Lair Confinement, overwatched by the highest order of Observants at all times."

"This is just like you. I continue to be your little pawn. I'll take whatever you want to give to me. You will never be able to take away my power."

Harmony's face remained completely neutral. "I hope one day you learn to appreciate your gift. This is your last chance, Karma. You were made the Spirit of Balance for a reason." Floating above others, Harmony made their closing decree. "So I have spoken, so it is decided. Karma's punishment will be dealt. The trial is closed."

"The decision is chosen, so ends the trial," the Spirits said in unison.

As the others filtered out of the room, Harmony grew to a massive size and pulled Karma through a portal. The punishment was set to begin.

We're almost done, for real. It's been seven years. Wow. Despite my slow updates, I truly hope you're enjoying the story so far, and I hope you enjoyed this different style of chapter. Thanks for sticking to it all these years my longtime readers, and to the new readers, I thank you too!