Chapter Six: Comatose

"That's what silence is; it's just audible darkness." - Sean "Jacksepticeye" McLoughlin

Reaper

The Observants do not stop me from charging through their Master's lair. Clockwork must have informed them of my impending rage.

I find the subject of that rage in the room where he told me millenia ago that my core would one day be healed.

Where he told me just yesterday that my son would be okay.

Clockwork, in his middle-aged form, had been watching something on one of the many large clocks in the room. The image fades back into a clock face upon my entrance. When Clockwork turns toward me, there is a wary smile on his face. I am sure the smile is because my hood is down and I am no longer hideous to look at.

"Comatose," I snarl. I storm up to him, and he doesn't fight back when I grab the collar of his purple cloak and pull him toward me. "My son is comatose, Clockwork! You knew this would happen, and you said nothing!"

Clockwork sighs. "This is how events must play out. I don't like it anymore than you do, but I won't apologize for doing my job."

"I am not asking you to, but…" The anger I walked in with suddenly drains from me, and I release Clockwork.

That dreaded image flashes in my mind. Danny Phantom - Danny Fenton, more accurately - lying prone in a hospital bed more fit to his size. Wearing a thin gown, as the cold will not bother him, and with needles stuck in his arms and chest. Tubes offering him medicines and ectoplasm. Wires monitoring his vitals, ready to alert to any severe negative changes.

My child. Unresponsive.

According to the doctors' apologetic recount, Danny Phantom had used up every ounce of strength he had to keep them from pulling him away.

And, to ensure that I recovered.

I had been too stunned to weep at the time. Now the memory brings tears to my eyes.

I place my hand over my face. My face that is both new and old. I do not even need this cloak anymore, yet I find myself oddly reluctant to part with it. "I do not normally question your decisions, Clockwork, but…" I sniff and rub my eyes with my thumb and forefinger. "You could have warned us."

Clockwork shifts into an old man. "I could have. But, if I had, Danny would have made preparations just as he did for his reckoning."

A reckoning is the process in which a halfa begins to transition into their true ghostly form. At the end of it, their mind becomes corrupted, causing them to go on a rampage. Hence the preparations Danny Phantom had in place for his own.

"And," Clockwork goes on, "that would have prevented quite a lot."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

Clockwork flashes a cocky grin and gestures to the clock he had been observing. "I could show you…but what would be the fun in that?"

I groan and toss my hands at my sides. "You are as dutiful as you are exasperating, my friend."

He chuckles and shifts into his child-form. "Before you ask, I can't tell you how long your imprint will remain comatose. I did warn you that his recovery would be a long one."

"May I please have an idea as to how long?"

Clockwork regards me with sympathetic eyes. "I'm afraid not. All I can say is that he will wake up."

I cross my arms and glower at him. "I suppose that is all I am getting out of you."

Clockwork smirks and changes into a middle-aged man. "In regards to Danny, yes." He counts down his fingers. "Three. Two. One."

I whirl around when the doors slam open. Two figures I have known all my life appear in the room and gasp at the sight of me.

One is a man a bit shorter than Clockwork and who is the most human-looking among us. He has mint green skin, curly white hair under a red stocking cap, a thick beard, pupil-less neon blue eyes, and a paunch under his red jacket. Santa, the Master of Life.

The other is a woman whose natural height, which she is currently using, is a few inches shorter than my own, though she is capable of changing her size. She has vibrant blue skin, wholly red eyes, and pinkish purple flames for hair. She also has an extra pair of arms, which her armored gold and black dress accounts for. Pandora, the Master of Order.

"I made some calls," Clockwork says matter-of-factly.

While I am processing this turn of events, Pandora rams into me, nearly knocking me over. All four of her arms wrap around me, and I feel Santa and then Clockwork join in. Being swaddled by their joy and love is enough to mask the grief in my core. At least for the time being.

Santa pulls me away from our group and scans my face with that special kind of glee that he mostly reserves for the Christmas season. "Now, let's get a look at this ghost!"

Pandora has tears in her eyes as she grabs my face and kisses both of my cheeks. "You are so beautiful! Tell me the rest of you is this grand!"

When a bout of shyness prevents me from speaking, Clockwork says, "Like I said, they have been fully restored. Thanks to their imprint's actions."

But, at a heavy cost, I think mournfully.

All of Pandora's hands land on her hips. "Why are you no longer smiling?" she asks me. "This is a wonderful thing!"

"Danny always was a good kid," Santa comments. He taps his black-gloved fingers together with a thoughtful grin. "I was gonna surprise him and sister by revealing my existence to their parents for Christmas. You know, end that yearly argument I told you guys about now that those two know about his ghost-half. Maybe I'll thank Danny by bumping it up to November."

If he is awake in November…

"You're making that face again," Pandora comments.

I sigh. "It seems there was…a complication."

Clockwork, switching to his elderly form, tells them so I don't have to. "Danny found a method of increasing the power of his Healing Touch as well as his stamina during use. Alas…this resulted in him becoming comatose."

Our friends gasp for an entirely different reason now. Santa asks me, "Are you okay? Sorry. Standard question."

"What about Danny?" Pandora asks. "Is there any word as to," she twirls her hand, "you know."

Whether or not he will awaken. My core aches in my chest.

"He'll wake up," Clockwork says in his child-form. "Though when this will happen, I cannot say."

"Oh, spare us," Pandora scoffs. She jabs her finger at Clockwork's currently small chest. "We all know that you can say it very easily. You simply choose not to!"

Clockwork narrows his eyes and knocks her hand away. "You know how this works, Pandora." He is a middle-aged man once more. "If I withhold information, there's a reason for it. On that note, I strongly advise that none of you tell anyone that Danny is guaranteed to wake up."

"You are joking," I plead.

"I am not," Clockwork insists. "This is what's best for the timeline. That information cannot leave this room. If you want to tell someone after he wakes up, that is your decision. But, not before."

Pandora scoffs louder and crosses her upper arms and places her lower hands on her hips, scowling at the Master of Time. "You always were a stubborn one."

Clockwork raises a now-elderly eyebrow. "Said the woman who stuffed boy bands in her box because she doesn't like them."

I step between them before this can escalate. "Enough of your bickering. What is done is done and cannot be undone."

"Reaper's right," Santa says. "We all know and like Danny, but there's nothing we can do for- Hey, what about your Healing Touch?" he asks me. "That should work now, right?"

"Theoretically, yes," I say.

"More than theoretically," Clockwork adds with a wink.

I should be excited about my most beloved power working again…but how can I when that same power is the reason my child is…

I return to Santa's question. "I offered to attempt such a thing, but according to Frostbite, Danny Phantom's core is in such a delicate state that any sudden change, good or bad, could be fatal." My voice breaks at the end.

Santa tosses his hands at his sides. "So, there really is nothing to be done. That sucks."

There is a faraway look in his eyes that tells me he is thinking of his own imprint. I wonder how Ming-Zhu is doing.

Surely, she is better off than Danny Phantom…

"Danny's state of being will improve when the time is right," Clockwork says. He puts a small child's hand on my shoulder and shows me a real smile. "There is still cause for celebration."

I shrug him off. "You will forgive me if I do not feel like celebrating."

Pandora places two of her hands over her core and rests a third hand on my arm. "Of course we do. But, you will forgive us if we are positively thrilled for you! You have your wings back, right? Did you fly here instead of just drifting like you normally would? Let us see those glorious wings, please!"

My wings. I confess that I had forgotten about them. An angel's wings are an extension of their core. Meaning that if my core is fixed, my wings should be as well.

How I have missed true flight. The feathers that were soft and delicate yet made deadly weapons when necessary. There was no need to rely on the Infinite Realms' selective gravity for transport. I could fly no matter where I was.

And yet, my mind wanders to my son's wings. I recall the lessons I gave him on how to use them once he was able to manifest them. The sadness he showed when my gaze or caress would linger a moment too long. Seeing his fascination twist into shock and horror when I revealed that the long jagged protrusions sprouting from my back were not the claws he had assumed they were.

He was so eager to fly at my side.

"I am sorry," I say. "But, when I take flight for the first time in five thousand years, I want my son to be present."

Vlad

This wouldn't be the first time I sent duplicates to do my human jobs for me, and it won't be the last. Ordinarily, I only do it when there's a particularly annoying problem I want no part of or, more recently, I have mayoral duties and business meetings happening at the same time.

I wish one of those familiar situations was the case here.

When Jack called and informed me of Daniel's condition, I hung up on him mid-sentence, switched to ghost-form, and took flight. Now I phase into their living room and demand, "Tell me this is a sick prank!"

Jack had been pacing when I came in, and one look at his red-rimmed eyes and hunched posture tells me all I need to know. "I wish."

I open my mouth then notice Maddie out of the corner of my eye. She is lying on the couch and appears to be sleeping. I turn to Jack in question.

"She collapsed as soon as we got the call," Jack moans. "She and Danny had that fight and now this happens. I think it's all just too much for her." He runs his hands over his face and chokes out, "What is happening to my family, Vlad?"

I want to comfort him, but I don't know how.

Luckily, Jasmine walks down the stairs, saving me from having to figure it out. She too has been crying, but it seems that her grief has already faded into exhaustion. "Okay. I think I called everyone. Mira's already in the Ghost Zone. She said she's gonna go straight to the Far Frozen. Everyone else is on their way here."

Jack walks over and pulls his daughter into a hug. "Jazz, I'm sorry you had to do that by yourself."

Jasmine leans into his touch. "It's alright, Dad." She finally notices me. "Oh. Hi, Uncle Vlad."

Uncle Vlad. Now I know she's broken up.

I swallow a groan and rub my forehead. I would love nothing more than to join Daniel's girlfriend in the Far Frozen, but somebody in this room needs to be strong.

"Let's try to keep this contained to Daniel's group," I say. "If the townsfolk find out that their hero is," I can't say that dreaded word, "indisposed, it will surely cause a panic. If people notice his absence, we'll have to find some way to spin this."

Eileen Merryweather chooses that moment to phase in through the front door. "Hey," she greets with an anxious grin and a hesitant wave. "Have you guys seen the news recently?"

"Oh, butter biscuits!" I mock-curse. "Don't tell me word has gotten out already!"

Jasmine grabs the TV remote and changes the channel to that of the local news station.

Tiffany Snow is on-screen. "-shocking turn of events. Earlier this morning, our weatherman and field reporter, Lance Thunder, was interviewing Eileen Merryweather, Casper High's sole ghost teacher and adoptive mother of Danny Phantom, about her experience teaching humans. The interview was abruptly cut off when Merryweather stepped away to take a call."

Oh no.

The screen cuts to a clip from the interview. This must not have been live, as Lance Thunder shows little irritation at being interrupted by Eileen floating away to answer her phone. The camera pans over to Eileen the moment she starts shouting.

"What do you mean, my son is in a coma?! How can Danny *beep* Phantom be in a coma?! He's a ghost for *beep* sake! I didn't even know he could- Oh *beep* this is on camera, isn't it?"

Jasmine makes the executive decision to turn off the TV. Her father stares uncomprehendingly at the screen.

Maddie woke up during the broadcast and now says with bottomless dread, "That wasn't a nightmare, was it?"

I glare daggers at Eileen, who has her head in her hands. "Nice going, Eileen. God only knows how the townsfolk will react."

Eileen lifts her head to glare back. "Listen. When a woman learns that her child is unresponsive in a hospital bed, she does one of two things. Either she loses her shit or," Eileen flicks her hand toward Maddie, "she does what I assume this one did."

Maddie groans into her hands. "This really is a nightmare."

I want to ask what happened between her and Daniel, but now isn't the time.

"No."

"Uh…I beg your pardon?"

A female (I think) yeti-like demon stands in front of the cave's entrance with her beefy, furry arms crossed over her chest. "I said, 'no.' As in, 'get lost, Plasmius.'"

It was surprisingly easy to get to the medical ward in the Far Frozen. I should have realized it wouldn't be that easy to get in the medical ward.

After all, my relationship with the Frozeners is…not great.

I hold up my hands placatingly. "I assure you, madam," the yeti doesn't try to break me in half, so she must be a woman, "I have no ill intentions. I am only here to visit with one of your patients."

"Please," the yeti scoffs. "We all know you and Danny aren't friends." She points in the direction I came and narrows her beady red eyes. "Now hit the road before I hit you with the road."

I size the woman up. Like the rest of the Frozeners, she is a hulking beast with large claws and teeth, and she wouldn't be the medical ward's gatekeeper if she wasn't powerful. (She reminds me of this one nurse in Amity Park. And a doctor who cared for me during one of my ecto-acne relapses. Does every hospital have a big, scary woman on staff?) Still, I could stand a chance if it's a one-on-one fight.

"Um, Snowflake? It is 'Snowflake,' right?"

The yeti nods at the new, timid voice but doesn't take her eyes off of me. "That's right."

This beastly woman is named Snowflake?

Daniel's girlfriend steps out from behind the inappropriately named demon. Mira's tired red eyes land on me. "He and Danny are…" She scratches under her signature purple-and-black striped beanie. "Well, I don't think they're friends, but they are on better terms." Snowflake hums, considering. Mira looks down at her fingers as she knocks them together. "I could keep an eye on him. I'll stop him if he tries anything."

I swallow a laugh. Mira is not a fighter in any sense of the word. Before my epiphany, there was an incident where I attacked Mira because she was getting in my way. It was like a wolf hunting a newborn kitten. She actually cried in Daniel's arms afterward, the poor dear!

To Mira's credit, around the same time, I witnessed a sparring match between her and Daniel, and she held her own well enough. But, a sparring match was all it was, and anyone who has seen Daniel fight could tell that he was holding back.

Of course, Snowflake doesn't know about any of this, so she squints and growls at me before allowing me to pass.

I will not ruin this by saying what I want to say, so I thank the woman and hurry inside before she can change her mind.

"Thank you, Mira," I say when the girl joins me in the surprisingly Earth-like lobby.

She puts her hands on her hips and glares at me. If this short, pudgy girl of only nineteen is trying to be threatening, she is going to have to try harder than that. "I'll take you to Danny's room, but I meant it when I said I'd keep an eye on you." She wags her finger. "No funny business, Edward!"

I raise an eyebrow. "My name is Vlad."

"I know. I was trying to banter like Danny." Her voice catches on her boyfriend's name.

"Okay," I drawl. "But…Edward?"

Mira shrugs. "You know. Edward Cullen."

…

"Twilight?"

…

"Vampire? Sparkly chest?"

"Now you're just saying random words."

Mira waves dismissively. "Ah, forget it."

She leads me down the hall. A handful of doctors glare at me as we pass, and I suspect that Mira's presence is the only thing stopping them from tossing me out on my rear. The girl may not fare well in combat, but she certainly has her uses.

"Have you heard anything about Daniel's condition?" I ask.

Mira makes a small noise and wraps her arms around herself. "Just what Jazz told me. I can't believe he would do this. Well, actually I can. I… Ugh. I don't know what to do." Her voice thickens with grief, and her arms tighten around her midsection. "He has to wake up. I…I don't know what I'll do if he doesn't!"

I stare at the arms wrapped around her stomach as a theory I hate forms. We have just climbed down an incline, and I grab Mira's shoulders and turn her to face me. Before we go any further, I need to either confirm or disprove that theory. Depending on Mira's answer, this situation could be a thousand times worse than anyone realized.

"Mira," I say carefully, "don't take this the wrong way, but…are you pregnant?"

Mira stares at me then bursts into a laughter that eases my anxiety. "No!" she giggles. "No! God, no! Danny and I never even got that far. And, even if we had, you know he's sterile."

"...I did not know, actually."

Mira's mouth opens and closes before she settles on saying, "Oh. I…I just figured you knew."

"Why would I have known that?" I ask.

Mira's eyes dart this way and that, and she makes a face like she sucked on a lemon. "Because you're a halfa." She gives her denim jacket an awkward tug. "And, apparently I have to be the one to explain this to you."

This has some very uncomfortable implications.

Mira's already green skin is not enough to hide the ectoplasm rushing to her face. "Danny and I have…discussed sex. But, we weren't sure if it would be safe since he's half-human. So, we went to Frostbite," she blushes harder and grimaces, "and received way more information than we probably needed. But, the relevant part is that Danny's half-human sperm would, like, cancel out my ghost egg, I guess? And, it would be the other way around if he had sex with a human."

My head is spinning. "In other words, Daniel and I truly are sterile until our human halves die."

"That's my understanding of it," Mira says with an apologetic grin.

Why am I just now hearing of this? I suppose I never had a reason to consider it before. And, given the rarity of halfas, it doesn't surprise me that such a thing wouldn't have appeared in any of the medical books I've poured through over the years.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this revelation. At my age, children are likely off the table anyway unless they're ghosts, and assuming my current male partner and I stay together, it isn't as if such a thing would be possible regardless. Still, it would have been nice to have the option.

I push the thought aside for now. "Where is Daniel's room?"

Mira sighs in relief at the change of subject. "We're almost there. They keep the hard cases deeper in the cave for protection."

But, how would they get those patients out in the event of an emergency? Surely, they have some procedure for that.

Once we reach Daniel's room, Mira hesitates at the door. My own nervousness has been spiking the closer we got, as well. My core throbs almost to the point of pain as Mira opens the door and we step into the room.

If I were in human-form, the sight before me would sap the air from my lungs. Daniel is lying on a hospital bed and wearing only a sanitary gown. There are needles stabbed into his arms and connected to IVs that are distributing whatever is being used to keep their patient stable. There is also a wire that stretches under the gown's short sleeve, perhaps connected to Daniel's core in some hidden way. Daniel's skin is ashen, eerily reminiscent of that of his ghost-form before his reckoning gave him his new light gray skin.

Except that Daniel is a human right now. One who should have gotten up the moment we entered. He should have smiled at Mira and perhaps welcomed her with a kiss. He should have greeted me with a flippant, "'Sup, fruit loop?" or something along those lines.

Heavens, I actually want him to call me a fruit loop.

"Hi, Danny," Mira says despite knowing that she won't receive a reply. "I'm back." She pulls a chair beside him to sit down. "I brought Vlad with me. I hope that's okay."

Suddenly, I'm back in University Hospital, tortured for days and days that blurred together as the ecto-acne slowly drained half the life out of me. Visitors weren't allowed because this was an ailment humankind had never seen before. No one knew if I was contagious. (I wasn't, but there was no way to know at the time.) After the first week, I started praying for death just so I wouldn't have to suffer alone anymore.

I'm glad Daniel doesn't have that problem. Even if he isn't able to enjoy the company.

"I read somewhere that coma patients can hear things," Mira says to me. This is the most subdued I've ever seen her. "I don't know how well they can hear, but...maybe you want to say something?"

"Why me?" I ask with my heart in my throat.

Mira smiles a bit. "Danny cares about you more than he'll admit to your face. He told me about when you guys cooked together when you first met and how much fun he had with you. He said you've been acting more like that guy lately. He's proud of you."

I want to pull that kid out of bed and shake him awake. I want to ask him if it's true, confirm that his girlfriend didn't misinterpret something he said. I want to hold him, to go back to yesterday when he fell asleep in my lap because I, of all people, made him feel safe.

No. I want to go back farther. To right after his panic attack in that alley, when he hugged me and thanked me for helping him through it.

No. Farther. Much farther. To the day before the college reunion that changed everything. When neither of us knew the other was a ghost. When he was just a sweet but shy fourteen-year-old boy who offered to help me cook dinner. When I didn't know that his Obsession had caused him to wander about, looking for someone to assist.

"Um, Mr. Masters? Do you need any help with dinner?"

"My boy, I could never ask a guest for such a thing."

"Well, the guest is offering."

"Ha ha! If you insist. Do you know how to make scalloped potatoes?"

The memory draws a quivering smile out of me.

Mira keeps talking. I suspect that doing so is keeping her grounded. "When I first got here, I," she lets out a small embarrassed chuckle, "I tried to wake him with true love's kiss."

"What?"

She squints at me in disbelief. "You know, like in Sleeping Beauty? Do you watch any movies?"

"I am familiar with the story of Sleeping Beauty." Though, not the Disney version Mira is probably thinking of. "Why did you think that would work here?"

I must have sounded more condescending than I meant to. Mira shrinks in her seat and stares at her lap. "I don't know."

I move to her side and place my hand on her shoulder but keep my eyes on Daniel. Memories are loosening my tongue. "When I was in college, Daniel's parents and I- His human parents, I mean."

"I figured," Mira says.

"Right. Well, we were working on a prototype Ghost Portal, but there was an accident." I almost explain Jack's bumbling with the diet soda but decide that it's not important. "I ended up with a heavy dose of ecto-contamination that resulted in a condition known as ecto-acne. It's a lot like regular acne for ghosts, but for humans it results in a slow and," my skin crawls, "highly unpleasant death. At least partially, if you catch my drift."

Mira nods. I have her full attention now.

"To this day, humankind knows very little about spectral diseases. But, back then it was even worse. Due to the unknown, I was isolated in my room. No visitors aside from doctors and nurses in heavy protective gear. I was… I was relieved when I died. I didn't hurt anymore, didn't have to suffer in solitude anymore. There were relapses, but since I was half-ghost then, they weren't nearly as bad."

It helped that, by that point, I had a loyal friend in a spirit who calls himself Hutch Blairman. Little did I know that he would not only stick by me all these years later, but would also become my romantic partner. And, he likes Daniel (though Daniel doesn't like him very much), so I know he'll be devastated when he finds out about this.

I kneel at Daniel's bedside and take his hand in mine. His hand is limp in my grasp. "I don't know how well you can hear me," I say steadily to him, "but you're not going to be alone like I was. You're going to have an endless stream of visitors. I guarantee it. And, you can expect me to be here every day." I chuckle with tears in my eyes. "Whether you want me here or not."

No response. Was it too much to hope that he would wake up just to poke fun at my display of sentiment?

"I was hit by a car," Mira says suddenly. Bitterness leaks into her voice. "My boyfriend at the time was a ghost in disguise, but I didn't know that until he overshadowed someone and rammed me with their car on the off chance that I would be a ghost with him."

Whoever this man is, I want to end him. "Gee, I wonder why you are no longer together."

Mira smiles for a split second. Her lip quivers when she looks at Daniel. "One good thing came out of it. I might not have met Danny otherwise." Her words catch as her tears start falling. "I want him to wake up!"

"Me too," I say.

Only Mira's quiet sobs and the whir of machinery break up the silence.