"I was watching you today, Daniel," said Clockwork, softly. "You did well deflecting Desiree's latest attempt to gain a kingdom."
A smile stretched across Danny's face. The fight with Desiree hadn't even been a thing Clockwork had given him instructions about. Being praised for it, for what he'd do anyway, felt like a surprise party, like joy being massaged into his soul. It made him so happy to know that Clockwork appreciated things like that.
He also knew that it was another tactic of Clockwork's to shepherd his thought process into the correct place. Danny didn't, maybe couldn't, care.
Danny could feel himself getting closer to what Clockwork wanted him to be. Every order followed, every good result, every piece of praise, every show of affection, no matter how small, was another step forward.
Part of him worried that, once it happened, once Danny was what he was supposed to be, the perfect tool for Clockwork's hand, Clockwork would withdraw his kindness. But the larger part of him knew the truth, that Clockwork's instructions would be kindness enough to satisfy Danny.
The whole process was much like being gently, inexorably forced into a box. A good box. A box made just for him. A box that would cradle and constrain him. His world would be smaller, unbelievably, unthinkably smaller, inside that box, but it would still be his whole world. And it would fit him perfectly.
Or maybe he would fit it. He wasn't sure there was a difference.
"Do you have anything for me to do today?" asked Danny, leaning against Clockwork, and grabbing part of his cloak. He wanted to touch, to feel. He didn't know if Clockwork would tolerate this, later, and it felt good, soft, secure, to be this close.
He felt fingers under his chin and responded to the unspoken order, tilting back his head to look Clockwork in the eye.
"I do not want you to forget how to find things to do on your own," said Clockwork. "It will not always be appropriate or possible for me to do so for you."
Oh, that didn't sound good. Danny shuddered and rubbed his chest, feeling as if another nameless something had settled there.
"That being said," continued Clockwork. "I do have something I could use your help with."
At the word help, Danny's attention was utterly arrested, any thought of what was happening to his body chased from his mind.
"Come," said Clockwork.
"Where are we going?" asked Danny.
"To where your potential future self was stored," said Clockwork.
"Why?" asked Danny.
"To release him."
Danny imagined that if he'd been told that a few months ago, he would have stopped and argued against any such course of action. He was proud of himself for making so much progress.
"Um," he said, "why?"
Clockwork reached back without looking and ruffled Danny's hair. "To resolve the problem he poses."
"Won't releasing him make the problem worse? Because he'll be able to go and kill... people?"
"We are only releasing him from the thermos," said Clockwork. "What happens next is up to you."
"No pressure, then?"
"Quite a bit of pressure," corrected Clockwork.
Danny tilted his head. "Is this another test?"
"Would you be upset with me if it was?"
"I'm not really happy about this," said Danny. "But I don't think I'd be upset at you." He fell quiet, thinking. "It's like testing the color of a marker before you start to draw. You have to know how I'll behave in order to know how to use me best."
"Interesting," said Clockwork.
"In a good way?"
"In an interesting way."
They stopped in front of an unexceptional, and Clockwork pushed it open. Sitting on an old, dusty plinth was the thermos Danny had caught Dan in. Clockwork glided forward, and Danny, followed, nervous.
The door slammed closed, and Danny jumped into the air, twisting to look at it with wide eyes. He was way too keyed up.
He turned back to Clockwork just in time to take the thermos as Clockwork handed it to him, his hands closing around the object automatically.
"Open it," said Clockwork.
Danny swallowed and sank back to the floor, planting his feet firmly on the ground. Dan was probably powerful enough that just taking the lid off would let him out, no need for the eject button.
Danny was scared. He pulled off the lid.
Dan rose from the thermos trailing smoke and demented laughter. He streaked to the door. Danny didn't let him reach it.
They scrabbled against each other, nails and teeth and ectoblasts. Ice and fire filled the room with steam. Bits of masonry hit the ground and dissolved, crawling back up the walls as ectoplasm, repairing the damage they'd left. They snarled and bit and screeched, never quite able to work up to a scream, a wail. It was brutal and desperate.
And Danny was winning.
"You were supposed to be better! You were supposed to help people!" screamed Danny, slamming Dan into the floor, finally giving voice to the betrayal he'd felt ever since learning what Dan was, what he had done. It splintered, then healed, the cracks glowing green.
"By being his puppet?" sneered Dan, despite the ectoplasm dripping from his face.
"Yes!" If that was what was wanted, what was needed.
"You think you can help anybody by being a slave?"
Danny shrieked in frustration and redoubled his assault, because he wasn't a slave, not unless he was a slave to his Obsession, and that was like saying humans were slaves to water or air. Except, except, he'd chosen his Obsession, when he was dying, all the ghosts that were once alive did that, and he did not regret it.
(He wasn't entirely sure if he could regret it, but that was beside the point.)
The point was that Dan, of all people, should remember that. Should remember the people he'd helped, remember that the whole point of him was to help and-
"Why are you like this?" demanded Danny.
Dan didn't answer. This may have been because parts of Dan's body were disintegrating into smoke.
"That is enough," said Clockwork, pointing the thermos at Dan, blue-white light briefly washing over the room. When it disappeared, Dan was gone.
Danny was shaking, every part of him trembling. "I didn't- I didn't kill him, did I?"
"No," said Clockwork. "As I said, I will not ask you to kill or end anyone."
"W-well, you didn't really ask me to, so..."
"He still exists, after a fashion," said Clockwork, tapping the thermos, "but the chain of events that leads to him has been thoroughly severed. He will no longer be able to exist outside of the clocktower, and even within its borders, he will be substantially weakened. How do you feel?"
Danny... Danny wasn't sure. On one hand, he was injured, and even the mention of Dan brought so many of his insecurities to the surface that it made him feel sick on a good day. On the other, he'd beaten Dan, and he'd been so afraid of Dan in so many different ways for so long that he didn't know what he felt at being told he was no longer a threat. Then, there was something moving, changing inside him, something not quite physical, but not solely mental, and it...
It hurt, but it also felt good, felt right, like pieces of himself were sliding, grinding over each other, but getting closer to their correct location.
Clockwork bent slightly, to better examine Danny where he knelt on the floor. For a moment, Clockwork's bright eyes caught his own-
-and he could see Clockwork, huge and looming, a great thing, bigger than Frostbite, bigger than Pariah, bigger than Undergrowth, Vortex, or Nocturne, big enough to contain the entire branching and infinite tree of time and have room enough left for things like compassion and curiosity and pain, and it was all focused on the tiny, golden speck of dust that was Danny.
Clockwork offered Danny his hand, and the moment was broken. Danny stared at it blankly, still softly fascinated by what he had seen - or had he only imagined it? Already, he was unsure. He put both his shaking hands in Clockwork's momentarily entranced by how they were dwarfed by him. Had it always been that way?
"What are you thinking about, Daniel?" asked Clockwork.
"You," said Danny.
Clockwork let out a small sigh, and Danny got the impression that wasn't the answer he was looking for. He twitched, guilty.
"Can you stand or float?"
Danny frowned at his shaking body. "I d-don't think so."
Clockwork nodded in acceptance. "We are going to treat your wounds," he said, picking Danny up. "You will remain with me until you are sufficiently healed."
Danny nodded. Clockwork knew best about these things. About everything, really.
Something clicked inside him. His shivering stopped, and he relaxed into Clockwork's arms. He opened his mouth to say something, he wasn't sure what, but all that came out was an almost-musical burble.
"Ah," said Clockwork. "So that was the last key. You truly are a delight."
Danny hummed a question.
"You will need some time to recover from this as well. It is a sizeable change for you, even though it may not seem that way." Clockwork adjusted his hold on Danny so that Danny was half-covered by Clockwork's cape. "Go to sleep, Daniel."
Danny core hummed happily as he satisfied his Obsession.