Author's Note:
I hadn't expected to update so fast...
That is to say I was going to with hold the next chapter for a bit in order to draw out more kudos and comments.
Comments are my favorite after all...
But I got too excited about this story line and sharing it.!
Also... I admit I did only proof-read it once and I have likely missed things, my apologies.
Danny's stay in the hospital was thankfully short. The scars on his arm were vanishing quickly, not inhumanly fast - yet- but quicker than the doctors expected. His rapid recovery meant that he was discharged by the next morning, though he was given a few tests before leaving. They told him that he was lucky, but they didn't know the half of it. If half dying could be considered lucky, then yeah, Danny was lucky. He didn't know if he'd consider that lucky. It was better than fully dying in some ways, and in other ways it was worse.
Danny knew that the stronger his ghost half grew, the more concerning his human biology became. It was certainly a good thing he was leaving the hospital as quickly as he was, more than a day and he'd have to worry about becoming a medical anomaly. He was therefore more than happy to be out of the hospital. As of now, his vitals were only slightly concerning, but with time they'd become downright alarming. If there was any advantage to his weakened core, it was that he didn't have to worry as much about the doctors discovering something inhuman about him.
Danny's arm was still bandaged where the scars were the worst, and he was given instructions for how to continue his treatment. He was pleased to be returning to his own bed - the hospital bed wasn't very comfortable - and the other comforts of home. He knew when he got home he would be grounded - even if he didn't have knowledge of the future - for being down in the lab with Sam and Tucker after being told not to enter it. However, he knew from prior experience that his parents would be fairly occupied with the portal and wouldn't be around much to enforce the grounding. Now that Maddie and Jack were assured that Danny was healthy, they would focus back on their obsession with the portal. As frustrating as it was that they would essentially ignore him for the next few months, it was also reassuring to know it would give him more space and time to think. He could also use the time he was grounded to focus on stabalizing his core and trying to bring harmony to his two halves.
He sighed and frowned as he thought about what had happened in the past day, the fact that the portal accident had just happened, but remained in the past in his memory. What did it all mean, how did her come back to the past, back to his body from the past as well. His core hummed in his chest, vibrating in the space inside his heart, but also existing on a separate plane from his human body. He put a hand to his chest and wondered what would have happened if he'd never pressed that button. He supposed it didn't matter much now anyway, it was in the past, 8 years or only a day, it had already happened. He needed to focus on the future and the present, why was he here and how. He needed to plan to see Clockwork. He just wished he could remember what happened before he'd returned to the past, if he could remember what caused this, then maybe he could begin planning to fix it.
He rested his head against the glass of the Fenton RV as his mom drove them home, his brow furrowed in thought as he sighed to himself. Maddie took notice of his excessive sighing and looked over at him concerned.
"Are you sure you're feeling okay Danny? We can still go back and get you checked out some more." Maddie said.
"I'm fine mom, just tired, and they already ran a bunch of tests on me." he said as he looked over at his mom. "I just have a lot to think about." He didn't want to tell her anything yet, particularly when he couldn't understand it himself, let alone explain it all to someone else.
"Well, if you want to talk, I'm here." Maddie said as she glanced over at him again and gave him a reassuring smile.
"I know mom, I appreciate it." Danny smiled in return and sat up straight, looking over at his Mom and nodding to her. Maddie's smile grew slighting, he had been quite a moody teenager as of late, it was nice to see he was still willing to open up.
They rode in silence for a few more blocks. Danny went back to staring out the window, frowning as he considered the situation. It was Maddie who broke the silence again.
"Did you… did you see anything in the portal?" she asked curiously. While she knew Danny had confirmed he was fine - and so had the doctors - she was still worried about him. However, the ghost hunter in her wanted to know more about what happened, if he had seen a ghost in the portal, or even the ghost dimension. What had happened when he was inside the portal? Had he seen anything that could help with her research?
"No… not really, I was also in too much pain to really look around, and it just looked like the inside of the portal, I didn't go through the portal. I was just in the energy vortex that creates the portal, when I came out I was just back in the lab. If you're wondering, no, I didn't see any ghosts." he said with a shrug.
"Energy vortex? I didn't realize you paid so much attention to our inventions." Maddie said surprised. "But you did mention a ghost when you came out of the portal, what was that all about?"
"Ghost? I don't know… I was very confused and in pain after the accident… I don't really know what I meant. Sorry mom." he said with a weak smile, then looked back out the window. He'd sensed as ghost leaving the portal, but he had been too out of it to explain, probably for good reason as he wasn't sure how much of his ghostly life he'd hide from his parents.
"You did seem pretty delirious." Maddie agreed, Danny half smiled and shrugged as he looked out toward the sky.
"It was painful… I think I was dying… it felt like I was dying." He said softly. "Obviously such a traumatic experience would make me a bit strange." He shrugged again as if dying wasn't such a big deal. Maddie glanced over and then focused back on her driving.
"Well, I suppose that makes sense." Maddie nodded as they pulled up in front of Fenton Works and she parked. "Let me know if you need anything sweetie."
"I will. Thanks." he said with a larger than necessary smile before unbuckling and slipping out of the RVC. He wasted no time in heading to his room and collapsing on the bed.
Danny took a deep breath, the room smelled so nostalgic, he buried his face into the covers and focused on the scent, grounding himself and telling him this was reality. It was strange how the bedsheets smelled like laundry detergent and fabric softner, how his room just smelled like a room. There was no lingering copper smell from all the times he'd bled into the mattress or carpet. The tangy, ozone, citrus smell of ectoplasm hadn't permeated the room yet. There was no slight smell of smoke, singed hair, or wood nor the acrid smell of discharged ecto-blasts. All these things had yet to happen and the room smelled like a room with no hidden secrets or painful memories.
Ten minutes passed with him just breathing and reassuring himself that he was home and that this was real. It was so easy to assume this was a dream, if his body didn't feel so off and his core so jittery, he might even think he was just visiting home during spring break again. But the smell was real… this was real, he was fourteen again, and he had just come home from the hospital after the portal accident.
"That was eight years ago… but also… yesterday?" He mumbled to himself as he rolled over and stared at the ceiling. He knew Jazz would be coming home from the library soon, having gotten word that Danny was home, she would be coming in to check on him - or that's how it had happened in his past.
"So… before then…" he said to himself as he sat up and tried to transform, the light bounced around his fingertips before vanishing. "This used to be as easy as breathing." he frowned, sitting up and looking at his hand, the transformation sparked again and he bade it to wash over him, but it resisted, it was almost as if his human half rejected it and the changes that death brought.
"Focus Fenton." He repremided himself as he stood and closed his eyes tightly, focusing on his energy core, pulling the energy through his body and forcing the transformation.
He felt the transformation wash over him like falling through a pool of ice, bitterly cold and yet blistering hot all at the same time. His heart stopped as did his need to breathe and he gasped, touching his chest as he opened his eyes. His core hummed weakly in his chest, barely overpowering the too warm blood of his human half. His body ached with cold and yet that same deathly chill was all too familiar in his soul, a soothing balm to his anxiety.
"Well… that was harder than expected," he said softly, his voice echoing softly. "I forgot how uncomfortable this used to make me feel." he sighed and floated above his bed, folding his legs under him and closing his eyes. His human half yeared to be released but he suppressed it, it felt like his two sides were at war, fighting for dominance instead of working together. In the future the boundaries which divided his life from his death were, at best, shadowy and vague. He had come to a point where he couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. He was just an existence, belonging to neither and yet both at the same time. A perfect harmony achieved at the border of life and death.
He shook off his upset at not being quite as powerful as he was in the future and turned his attention to his core, examining it mentally and checking its status. It was easier in his ghost half, everything to do with his core was amplified, including its power and stability.
"Hmmm…" he frowned and considered what he sensed. "I didn't realize it was so small when I first got my powers… nor did I realize how out of sync my human and ghost half were… are…" he gasped as he lost his transformation and fell to the bed. "This is going to be annoying." He grumbled as he pushed himself back up into a sitting position.
He looked down at his arm, the scars hand mostly vanished everywhere except the palm of his hand and up his wrist, he knew they would nearly vanish by the next day, save for the circular burn on his palm. It was still terribly strange to him that he was back in his old body, dealing with the same old power crises he hadn't had to worry about for nearly eight years.
I used to be so much more powerful than this, accidentally transforming back never happened…. I could even sleep as a ghost… my powers didn't act up without my knowledge… if anything they responded too well to my commands. He thought as he threw himself backwards on the bed.
"This sucks, having to start all over again, grow all over again." He lamented as he looked at his ceiling.
"Using my powers in either form was so simple. Though, maybe I can stabilize my two halves faster this time… Clockwork can probably help… or Frostbite… or I can do it… somehow…." he frowned as his train of though derailed. He didn't know what was the best course of action, and he felt like he shouldn't enter the realms prematurling. He sighed then shook his head before standing and pacing the room. He felt his power fluctuate, an energy spike in his core that fought against his humanity. His foot went intangible, sinking into the floor and causing him to trip.
"I so do not miss this." he said as he caught himself before he could completely sink through the floorboards. He laid on the ground and focused on containing the power humming in his chest. He remembered the first time he'd been in this room after the accident, the hope that it was all a bad dream, the fear of what was happening and the occasional self loathing at what he'd become. He'd felt like a freak, and he felt like his peers regarded him as enough of a freak as it was without weird ghost powers making him weirder.
"Do I tell Sam and Tucker about the future?" He wondered softly as he lifted his head out of the carpet and rested his chin on his palm, frowning to himself as he stared at the wall.
"Do I tell Jazz?" he asked himself. He wasn't entirely sure when it had started, but talking outloud to himself helped him think, though occasionally it got him in trouble… like now.
"Tell me what?"Jazz asked as he entered, knocking on the door only after she had opened it. Danny looked at her then shook his head.
"Nothing for now… It's complicated and I'll sound completely nuts, and if you tell our parents they'll put me on a big spinning table… that or try to exorcize me molecule by molecule." he sighed heavily and slumped into himself, letting his face plant into the ground. Jazz looked him over and shrugged.
"Well… even if you do sound crazy, I'll let it slide given you've just had a near death experience. NDE's tend to make people a little off… random bursts of affection, occasional hallucinations and delusions." She said with a smile before approaching and offering him her hand. He took it gratefully as she helped him up. He was more grateful that his powers didn't cause him to phase through her hand and fall again.
"But in all seriousness little brother, are you doing okay?" Jazz asked, looking at him with her overly sincere eyes. Danny had hated that look in the past, it had made him feel pitied and pathetic, he'd grown since then though and it just made him feel guilty now. Guilty for worrying her.
"I'm fine… or I will be soon… I just…" he sighed and walked to his bed, sitting on the edge, before gesturing to Jazz to sit. "Is there any chance you remember anything… about me… and ghosts… or ghost powers?" He asked, testing the waters. Perhaps it wasn't only he who had come back to the past, perhaps he had allies. Clearly Sam and Tucker hadn't returned to the past, they had been confused about his ghost form and had called him Bizzaro Danny instead of Phantom. He was certain his parents hadn't returned with him either, as they both went on their usual discussions about ghosts - Danny had overheard some of their conversation from his hospital bed. There was still a possibility of Jazz returning though and so he asked.
"Danny, we both know ghosts aren't real… that accident must have really rattled you up, huh?" She said as she came to sit by him and put a hand on her shoulder. Danny looked away disappointed.
"You don't know the half of it." he sighed. "I was hoping you did though… know the half of it… or all of it… it would make things a bit easier." he thought for a moment before looking over at Jazz who was studying him closely. He frowned then looked out the window avoiding her sharp eyes for the next question.
"Hey Jazz… hypothetically if you had knowledge about the future, what would you do? Would you share it? Would you keep it to yourself? What if you could change things for the better?" he asked. He worried a little that he was treading in dangerous territory, revealing too much too soon, but this Jazz wasn't likely to think that he had actually seen the future and time traveled. This version of his sister would likely think it was some sort of strange look into his psyche and that he didn't mean it literally.
"Strange question… let me think." Jazz said as she considered it. Danny chuckled to himself as he looked back at her, she had her hand up to her mouth, brows furrowed in thought, it was a familiar sight. He was pleased she was putting so much thought into the question, then again Jazz wasn't one to easily dismiss a person with a flippant remark or sarcastic quip. It was a while before she spoke again and she sounded a bit like she was reciting from a textbook.
"I suppose if you act according to altruism… the moral value of an individual's actions depends solely on the impact of those actions on other individuals, regardless of the consequences for the actor. The person knowing the future is the actor in this case. Therefore the course of action that person should take should be solely focused on any positive impact for others regardless of whether it benefits the individual. For example, using said knowledge to prevent a shooting or murder, rather than focusing on person gain such as using that knowledge to win the lottery. she recited.
"Fair enough…" Danny said with a small nod, he wasn't even sure how much of the future he should change nor the impact it would have, but if he acted with altruistic intentions, perhaps that was for the greater good… not that he spent much time memorizing lottery numbers or could even play the lottery at the tender young age of fourteen. Jazz continued
"And according to Noblesse Oblige, those with the power to help others have a moral obligation to do so. Therefore, if you have the knowledge and ability to change things for the better you should. As someone with the knowledge, power, or ability to help others, you are therefore morally obligated to do so… but that doesn't mean you should risk everything to do so as is the case with purely altruistic intentions." she said then paused and thought.
"However, that's just looking at things from a strictly moral standpoint, not taking into consideration any ramifications using such knowledge of the future would have. There is the butterfly effect to consider, however, it's not necessarily true that the ripple effect of changing time will have a negative effect. There is simply no way to know for sure if things may change for the worst or for the better.
Some think that the universe has a balance of good and bad, perhaps changing the future to prevent one evil may create a greater evil down the road. The good you do now to fix any bad may end up snowballing into an even bigger problem. Then again… this is all hypothetical and we can't really know anything." Jazz shrugged. "That was an unexpectedly deep question, Danny… Why are you thinking about this? Especially when you just had a near death experience?"
"Again it's complicated…" He sighed. "So… hypothetically… if I was the 21 year old version of myself trapped in my fourteen year old self's body and not entirely sure why or what to do… what would you advise?"
"That's an oddly specific question… but I'll humor you." she said with a nod as she thought before looking over at him. "Well I guess to begin with I'd pity you, you have to go through puberty all over again."
"Great… hadn't considered that." Danny frowned and sighed. Jazz chuckled and shook her head.
"As for what you should do… find out why this happened? If it can't be fixed then I'd advise you to seek out the answers to what you should do yourself." Jazz said as she thought for a moment. "If you really did have knowledge of the future, I think only you, or someone with the same knowledge of the future, would have the ability to know what to do in this situation." Jazz said as she looked over at Danny, considering him for a moment.
"Yeah… I kinda came to the conclusion myself… I just… I wanted an outside opinion." Danny sighed and hung his head. "As if I didn't have enough going on when I'm fourteen with high school and the ghost portal and ghosts."
"You're sounding a little nuts after all… then again, near death experiences do strange things to people. Let me know if you want to talk." She said with an encouraging smile.
"Thanks Jazz… but for now I just need a little space to think. I don't think I've said it enough, but I appreciate you." he said with a smile before pulling her into a hug.
"Okay… you're definitely acting weird." Jazz said, shocked by the hug. "But I appreciate you and love you too." She said before returning the hug. "I guess I'll give you some space to think now. Take care little brother." she smiled, kissing his forehead before leaving the room. Danny smiled and waved her off before sighing and laying back, going back to staring at the ceiling as he began to sort out his thoughts and attempt something of a plan of action.
"I don't think I'm strong enough right now to make it to Clockwork's lair." He sighed talking to himself. "He has to know what happened and why I'm here." he said as he stared at the stars stuck to his ceiling and thought about everything he had been through and everything he would have to go through again. For now his biggest concerns were Freakshow and Vlad, there were plenty of other enemies along the way, but he was confident in his ability to beat them again. Freakshow and Vlad were a different story, Vlad for his conniving ability to adapt to any situation and Freakshow for the mind control orb he most certainly still had in his possession now that he was back in the past. He sighed and closed his eyes as he sat on the bed.
For now meditating would have to be the way to go, it would at least help his strength of mind when it came to Freakshow and hopefully he'd be able to synchronize his human and ghost half through it, if he was lucky anyway. A lot of his powers had evolved in intense emotional states, even if he wasn't able to get his full power back, hopefully he could stabilize himself before school started in a week.
He focused on his core, beginning to cycle the ecto-energy through his body, wincing a little at the chill of death that came with it. He focused further, drawing the energy through his veins, along familiar pathways, letting it flow alongside his blood cells to try and achieve hemostasis between his human and ghost half. He let out a slow breath of air as he let the energy from his core radiate through him, doing his best to cycle it through his body at a steady rate. Doing this would keep his core from randomly accumulating energy into an energy spike that would have nowhere to go and randomly trigger his powers. If the energy circulated constantly from his core to his body as it was supposed to he wouldn't fall through floors at random. He hadn't even realize what the problem was in his first life, he hadn't thought too much about it back then after all. The process had started naturally after he'd changed into his ghost form a few times, he'd be able to get control faster like this.
Danny collapsed from exhaustion and stared at the ceiling. It took extreme mental focus to circulate his energy properly and keep his human half from rejecting it outright. He reached a hand toward the ceiling and stared at it before clenching his fist.
"This time… I'll be ready, no matter what's coming."
Danny paced his room. It had been a couple days since he'd been released from the hospital and his hand was now scar free. He had even managed to stabilize his core, at least enough that he wasn't randomly phasing through things. In his past life it had taken months for his core to stabilize enough that his powers weren't randomly activating. Honestly, it was surprising his parents hadn't figured out something was off with him in his first life. Especially when he kept doing ghostly things in front of them such as falling through walls and randomly vanishing when his invisibility acted up. Then again, he wasn't sure if they'd notice a marching band coming through the living room when they were wrapped up in testing the portal and sending scanners into the Zone.
Thinking of the portal and the Ghost Zone, he wasn't sure if he was stable enough yet to go inside to find Clockwork. He didn't want to try to navigate the Ghost Zone with a fear of changing back and falling through the Infinite Realms. He'd have to wait until he gathered enough energy to sustain a long term transformation. He could probably manage to transform long enough to fly to Tucker's or Sam's if they hadn't been given permission to visit, but they had, and were on their way over.
Danny heard the front door open and stood, going to the hall and smiling as he saw Sam and Tucker coming up the stairs. His folks had insisted on him resting for a few days, and hadn't wanted to allow anyone over - but they had relented in the end. It helped that Danny had pressured them on a daily basis, and there was his friends' feelings to consider, they'd seen him nearly die after all. So his parents had finally allowed visitors. Danny also suspected that they wanted to focus on the portal and not answer the front door to chase teenagers away. Danny ushered his friends into his room, receiving hugs from both before he closed the door, putting his chair in front of it to keep anyone from walking in right away, his family had a terrible habit of just walking into rooms without knocking and his door lock was busted. It had been for several years and he'd never bothered to fix it.
"I'm so glad to see you guys." he said with a smile as he crossed his legs and sat on the floor, his friends joined him, Sam sitting sideways and Tucker opting to sit with his legs folded beneath him. They were quiet for a moment before Danny spoke again.
"So… I'm out of the hospital… doing better…" he said with a weak smile.
"You're looking a lot better too." Sam smiled in return before asking, "Um… are you feeling better?"
"I'm getting back to normal… or an approximation of it." He said with a shrug as he leaned back against the wall and sighed. "The portal accident is the least of my worries right now."
"How is that the least of your worries?… you kinda screamed like you were dying." Tucker frowned.
"Well... I kind of was." Danny shook his head and looked at the ceiling before steeling his nerves. He needed to explain things, not just his ghost half but the future stuff too. His parents may be oblivious and distracted but surely his best friends would notice he was acting differently. It was something not just being half-ghost could explain away.
"What? You're clearly alive." Tucker said and poked Danny's arm as if Danny would phase through his hand again. Danny shrugged and rolled his eyes.
"Well… looks like it doesn't it." He quipped sarcastically. His friends exchanged concerned looks and Danny sighed and shook his head before continuing "But trust me it's more complicated than you think. First off I'm sure you have questions about the portal accident… and what happened. Especially because my ghost half looks like an inverse me. We should probably get that explanation out of the way before I start getting into the really weird stuff."
"Ghost half? That's not really weird stuff?" Tucker asked as he frowned at Danny who laughed nervously and shrugged. He rubbed the back of his neck and avoided eye contact.
"Trust me Tuck, it only gets weirder from here on out. Especially with what I'm going to say after I go through the whole half-ghost thing. It's going to be a lot to take in at once." He warned. Sam and Tucker were quiet as they waited for Danny to continue, but Danny just looked down at his hands and worried them as if unsure where to start.
"Okay, so let's talk about Nega-Danny." Sam said, breaking the silence. "Or rather Ghost Danny… the version of you that came out of the portal and didn't quite look like you. What exactly happened to you in the portal? Why do you even have this whole ghost half?"
"Long story, the ghost portal basically infused me with ecto-energy, completely altering my body and creating my ghost half. Well I can still become human, as you can see." he said as he gestured to himself. "But my ghost half was very unstable at the beginning, that's why I phased through your hands when you tried to help me up… and why I passed out so quickly. If my core wasn't so unstable it would have only taken me a few hours to recover given my enhanced healing factor… If I wasn't so unstable my parents wouldn't have needed to find out about the accident…" He trailed off. "I guess there is a lot to go over with my new half-ghost status, let's start with any more questions."
"How did you figure all of this out?" Tucker said. "Ghosts? Ecto-energy? Human and ghost half? It's a lot to take in. Even more confusing is how you've accepted all of this in just a couple of days, let alone figured all of this out."
"For starters, my parents are ghost hunters… but also… this is where things get weird." Danny admitted as he ran a hand through his hair. "I'm… kinda from the future?" he said tentatively. There wasn't a way to ease into that conversation, so he just decided to say it outright. Sam and Tucker exchanged looks then frowned, both of them looking at him suspiciously.
"So you're from the future and you're half ghost? Are you sure you're not possessed? How do we know you are even Danny?" Sam asked, her eyes narrowed at him as she inspected him for signs of deceit.
"Second grade, Ricky Marsh." Danny said, looking at Tucker and smirking, there was more he could have said to prove himself, but the throwing up in Sam's lunchbox incident had obviously worked well before.
"Yup, he's Danny, no need to discuss that anymore." Tucker said a little too fast, Sam raised an eyebrow at him while Danny laughed.
"Okay, I'm not going to miss reliving highschool but I did miss holding that over your head." he smiled at Tucker. "Honestly… in the future we've been through a lot. I mean a lot of strange things but… me coming back in time and somehow merging with my younger self is admittedly one of the stranger things that has happened." Danny looked down at his hands for a moment then back up.
"Um, if you are from the future… why tell us when it would make us more suspicious about if you really are Danny." Sam said, not entirely convinced yet that he was Danny.
"I'm telling you guys because you were there at the accident, you saw what happened, and what I turned into after coming out of that portal. Plus you guys are my best friends, you'd know that I was acting differently than normal. I can't explain everything I'm sure to do without also explaining the future thing… just being half ghost won't explain any slight changes to my personality, or why I'm better at using my powers than I should be. I won't explain why I'll ask you not to do certain things or why it seems like I can see the future." He explained. Sam and Tucker both nodded, seeming to accept this explanation, Danny smiled and then sighed as he looked back to the ceiling.
"To be honest… I thought about keeping the whole being from the future thing from you guys but… I just couldn't bring myself to do it." he admitted. "You're my best friends, I didn't want to keep it a secret from you, especially after all we've been through together, both in the recent past and the future past. Considering keeping this a secret from you just felt wrong."
"Okay… say we believe you." Sam said, her brow furrowing. "Which, I don't see any reason why you'd lie… but how did this happen in the first place? To clarify, how did you somehow come back to the past?"
"I've been trying to figure that out myself. I can't remember… The last thing I remember from the future was spring break… Something must have happened, something terrible…but I just… it's a complete memory blank. Eventually I'll go visit Clockwork, but my powers are still finicky." He frowned and looked at his hand forcing it to turn invisible then back, it took more effort than he liked. "I can probably handle the first few ghosts that pop up… but an extended trip through the Ghost Zone… I'm not quite confident that I can manage that."
"You're starting to make less and less sense. Ghost Zone? Clockwork? Powers are pretty cool though." Sam said as she pointed at his hand. "What else can you do?"
"Right now?" Danny frowned. "Change forms, intangibility, invisibility, flying… maybe a ghost ray or being able to overshadow people… Not sure how many of my former powers I can recover… I'm basically at the starting line again… my mind might know how to use these powers… but my body isn't able to keep up."
"So if you came from the future, probably because of something bad that you need to prevent… why can't you remember what it was that made you come back or how?" Tucker asked.
"I don't know." Danny sighed. "That's the most frustrating part… perhaps it has something to do with the way I came back… or something about being back in the body of my fourteen year old self… or the fact I came back in the middle of the portal accident… I don't know. That's why I need to recover enough strength to go see Clockwork… he's a powerful ghost that can control time." he said, tacking on the explanation for Sam and Tucker's benefit.
"So… you think this ghost… Clockwork… had something to do with you coming back in time?" Sam said as she thought. "How far back in time did you come? How old were you before coming back?" she asked, wondering how much older Danny had become, he still looked like himself, and seemed to mostly act like himself, but he was still a bit off, somehow more mature. She thought of the implications and frowned, did that mean Danny would think of himself as older than them? Was she just a child to him?
"Um… Honestly I wasn't planning on telling you how old I was…" He said as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously before shaking his head and switching topics. "But even if I can't remember it, I have this feeling that Clockwork was involved… I don't know how to explain it, but I'm certain he had something to do with it. I'm not saying that because he had time powers it just… it's not quite a memory, but this feeling in my core that I had been talking to him right before I came back. I'm still a bit confused about the whole thing honestly."
"Soooo… are you like 50 or something inside that body?" Tucker asked, switching the topic immediately back to what he was trying to avoid.
"Oh gods no!" Danny shook his head then rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I really would rather not say… I'm here now and fourteen again, what matters most is preventing whatever future led to me coming back to the past. If Clockwork interfered this much, then it must have been something seriously bad… world ending bad."
"Why won't you tell us? I thought you said we were your best friends? Why does it matter how old you were?" Sam frowned, still pushing the issue.
"Because it's awkward." Danny said as he buried his face in his hands. "My body is fourteen but my mind is an adult's and I'm still affected by these stupid teenage hormones. I have to go through puberty again and then I have to worry about High School again. I had graduated from High School… Let's just say I was in college before my time regression. I'm not telling you my exact age." he said.
"College… wow." Sam said, thinking about it for a second. "Did we all go to the same College?" she asked hopefully.
"Spoilers, not sharing that. I'm not going to be sharing future knowledge until it becomes relevant." Danny said. "Until I can sort this out with Clockwork, it's safer to keep most knowledge of the future to myself. If I need to share something to keep you or others safe, I will, but don't go asking for lottery numbers or future dating partners or anything like that… plus I didn't exactly memorize lottery numbers. I had no idea this would happen."
"You're no fun. The real Danny would tell." Tucker said as he folded his arms.
"I am the real Danny!" Danny rolled his eyes. "Just future Danny."
"Future Danny?" Sam thought for a moment and frowned as the question formed. "Then… What happened to present Danny? Is he in the future now or… did you possess yourself?"
"I don't know actually… but I do get the feeling that both the past and present version of me have merged into one… I do remember the recent past as if it happened recently… but I also remember the future as if it was my past. I feel like myself… but also like my future self… I'm pretty sure I'm not overshadowing myself and that I'm somehow both future and present me… or present and past me?" He groaned and held his head.
"That's confusing… but… I guess it's better and a bit less weird than the future you possessing the current you… still weird though." Sam frowned as she looked at him, wondering what Danny was like as an adult.
"I've only been back in the past for a few days now… but I think the two versions will eventually merge a bit more, making me feel less weird about being an adult in a child's body." he said as he laced his fingers together to emphasize his point. "I'm already feeling less out of sorts than I did in the hospital."
The three of them sat in silence for a moment as they considered it. Danny hoped that he was right about the two versions of him completely merging. It would definitely make things less awkward in the future when interacting with Sam and Tucker. His friends had similar thoughts, wondering what else future Danny had been through and when he would share with them, but also wondering how different future Danny would be to their current or perhaps former friend.
Danny sighed and looked down at his hand, wondering if he could focus his powers enough to create a ghost ray by the end of the week, and wondering how long it would take to regain his former strength. His hand sparked a bit and Tucker noticed frowning before speaking.
"Can we circle back to the ghost powers? What did you mean by changing forms? Is it the way you looked when you came out of the portal?" He asked as he looked down at Danny's hand curious about his powers after seeing the spark of energy.
"Yeah…" Danny glanced at the door to make sure his parents weren't going to come in and he stood up, focusing on switching forms, a ring of ghostly light appeared around his middle then split, showing the black and white jumpsuit underneath. Sam and Tucker gasped before the transformation failed, the light retreating and leaving Danny fully human. Danny frowned and looked down at himself.
"That was anticlimactic." Tucker said with a laugh trying to ease the tension. Danny scoffed and folded his arm as he thought, pressing a finger to his chin as he considered the problem out loud.
"I'm having trouble focusing my energy, my human half and my ghost half aren't very well synchronized. Oh right! I had a battle cry back then, it helped me focus my power and visualize the transformation… Going Ghost!" He said, falling back into old habits easily enough, the transformation completed without a hitch this time, the battle cry helping direct his change as Danny smiled and floated above his friends.
"Whoa!" Sam said, standing and circling around him, studying his altered appearance. "That's seriously cool…" she said with a smile.
"Going ghost? Seems a bit on the nose… also you're a glowstick." Tucker teased referring to the otherworldly glow Danny's ghost half emitted.. "But super powers are definitely cool. Plus with the power to change your appearance you don't even need a domino mask or need to worry about finding a nearby phone booth."
"The change in my appearance definitely helps with the whole secret identity thing… though not many people would even guess that a human could be half-ghost… except those who have already seen a half-ghost or are a half-ghost." he said, folding his legs and floating only an inch above the ground, bobbing slightly as his hair moved with an unfelt breeze.
"You mean you're not the only half-ghost?" Sam asked in shock, somehow processing the information amid everything else that had been revealed.
"Oops… spoilers… right now there is one more, I'll tell you about him later when he becomes more relevant… or a problem." Danny promised before changing back into a human and landing on the carpet with a soft thump.
"No going human?" Tucker teased. Danny knew it was meant to be a jab at him, but decided to explain why he didn't need to say something like that to him anyway.
"Right now my human half has priority, it's easier to change back into a human than it is to change into a ghost, hence the battle cry." Danny smiled. "In the future when my two halves are balanced, the battle cry is less helpful, but it remains a habit for a long time. I do miss that feeling I have in the future… the way my two halves were in perfect sync and it didn't take more than a thought to change back and forth." He paused and looked away from his friends and down at his hands before speaking a bit softly, more to himself than to them.
"I hate this… I hate this discord between my two halves, how difficult it is to control my powers and how weak I am!" He then buried his face in his hands and groaned. "I hate being a teenager and how angry and angsty these hormones make me feel… Not that my brain was fully developed in the future according to Jazz… but still… my emotions felt more stable than this."
"This is quite a bit to take in at once… but we'll be there for you Danny." Sam smiled and took his hand. "Even if you're an old man now." She teased.
"Thanks Sam… I know you will… you already have been." he smiled and looked between the two of them before sighing and running a hand through his hair. "Sorry… my emotional state is a rollercoaster… I didn't mean to ramble about my stupid feelings."
"Nah, feelings aren't stupid, and hormones are a pain." Tucker said as he waved Danny off. "Plus I've got a better idea of how old you were if future Jazz said your brain wasn't fully developed yet."
"Speaking of Jazz, that brings me to my next problem… Do I tell my family about what the accident did to me? I know Jazz finds out a few months from now… but… my parents don't find out until the end of junior year. Should I tell them? Should I hold off a bit? What if they try to fix me? I need these powers to stop the ghosts that will come through the Ghost Portal… but if I don't tell them they'll be attacking my ghost half until I do." He sighed. "Plus after all this time… or… the future time… I enjoy being like this. It's part of who I am… I don't want them to try and fix me, I'm not broken."
"I don't know Danny… Parents don't understand… they don't listen… all they want is to mold you into the perfect little dress wearing princess!" Sam snarled. Danny paused and laughed.
"That's your parents Sam… your issues and your teen angst… As far as my parent's go they won't be shoving me into a dress anytime soon." He said with a smile before sighing. "Revealing myself so early… and this whole time regression thing… I don't know how these factors will change their opinion of me." He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head before continuing.
"They've accepted me before, several times even! Though I've undone the 'reveal' a few times before finally letting them in… but… it still makes me nervous. I don't want to end up on a dissection table. What if they think I'm just a ghost possessing their son? Even you two considered it a possibility… though that was mostly because of the future thing. In my last go at this you two accepted the half ghost thing right away without questioning my identity. What happens with my parents if they find out I'm half ghost now? What happens in this new timeline?" He asked before sighing heavily and once again burying his face into his hands.
"I say take it up with that time ghost… Keep it a secret until then." Tucker said as he glanced at the door wondering if there were any parental figures lurking. Danny sighed as he considered Tucker's suggestion.
"Yeah… I was thinking that too… Maybe I'll tell Jazz about the whole time travel or time regression thing once she finds out I'm Danny Phantom on her own." he frowned and considered the different routes he may take in telling his family, his brow furrowing as he began to think only to have his train of thought interrupted by Sam.
"Danny Phantom? That's a great name. It suits you." She said with a smile.
"Oh… yeah… we all brainstormed some other names together after the first few ghosts I fought… we kept Danny because it ended up being a bit hard for you guys not to yell my name when I was in ghost form and getting my butt kicked… Phantom is a bit self explanatory." Danny shrugged, letting them know how the name came to be.
"We have a good naming sense." Tucker smiled.
"Better than the media… I'm probably going to spend another few months of my life being called invis-o-bill. Ugh." He grumbled and rolled his eyes.
"Now that's the truly strange and disturbing part of this conversation." Sam laughed, Danny and Tucker joined in and Danny smiled at his friends.
"I'm really glad you guys believe me… I figured you would, given our past but… the thought did cross my mind that you might think I'm crazy." Danny admitted. He had prepared for that future as well and how he would convince them. He needed his friends by his side if he was going to stop whatever was coming for them.
"Meh, you've always been a bit crazy… though I am jealous that you got to see our future." Tucker teased, Sam punched him in the shoulder at the comment.
"Tucker! You're not crazy Danny… Plus I'd like to think I have more of an open mind than most… plus I trust you, even if what you're saying sounds strange or even impossible." Sam smiled a slight blush on her cheeks.
"Thanks…" Danny said with a nod, then he looked down at his hands, so much smaller than he remembered, he hadn't realized exactly how scrawny he was when he was fourteen until he came back. "I appreciate that." He smiled as he looked up at his friends again.
"We're your best friends Danny. We got your back!" Tucker agreed, rubbing his arm where Sam had punched him.
"Thank you… really… I -" Danny held his head as a sudden wave of dizziness washed over him, he leaned back against the wall and his brow furrowed.
"Dude… you okay?" Tucker asked. "Is this a ghost thing?" He worried about his friend, especially after finding out about Danny's altered biology.
"Just… dizzy… don't know…" Danny closed his eyes, but the room still felt like it was spinning, his fingers dug into the carpet, he felt like he might fall off the surface of the world if he didn't, his ears began to ring… no… someone was screaming. He opened his eyes and tried to stand, to find the person who was screaming, but it was no use, he promptly fell over, his hand clamping over his mouth as nausea forced his lunch up his throat. He swallowed it back, his body trembling.
"Help… them… the screaming… I have to… help." He choked out as he tried to crawl to the door.
"No one is screaming Danny." Sam said, Tucker agreed and worried. Danny groaned and they reached for him, intending to help him into bed, but before they could Danny collapsed, his eyes closing as a memory trickled in.
Author's Note:
I'm excited to see what you guys think is happening in the future that sent Danny back to the past.
The next chapter is going to be pretty short because it's just a sliver of memory, not the full story yet.
I'm going to drag things out a bit.