CHAPTER THREE
No. I clearly hadn't learned my lesson.
I was standing stock still in my front door frame, slowly rising to the bait that was the temptation to have more information thrown at me.
I should walk away now... I thought. I don't want to know anymore... I don't want to know... I don't...
"Don't call me that." The words blurted out of my mouth, and I couldn't stop it. It was like trying to keep in vomit.
"Why not?" Clockwork inquired, and I could tell, even if I was facing in the opposite direction to him, that he was smirking; the thought made the putrid word vomit clog in my throat again. "That's your name."
I whipped around to face him, my eyes wide in a borderline death glare. It was either he didn't notice my expression, or he didn't care. Either way, he was treading on the wrong path.
"That is not my name. I don't have a name."
"But you do," Clockwork countered. "That was your name... When you were still human."
I stared suspiciously at him. Was he being serious?
"Danny." I tried it out; looked at him pointedly. He nodded slowly. I raised an eyebrow. "Really? Danny."
"Or Daniel. Whichever you prefer." He was smirking again and even though it still irked me, it wasn't annoying me as much as it did three minutes ago.
My tone was flat now. Almost dead. "Why are you telling me this?"
"You wanted to know, didn't you? Besides, it would be a bit pointless sending you to the human world with no name."
My eyes widened. "So that's what you... Wait. You're sending me to the human world? Why? Won't it be worse if yet another ghost enters their world? You know, tip the balance and all that?"
"It won't be. Not if that ghost will fit in with them."
"With who?"
"With the humans."
This confused me even further. "But Clockwork, I'm not human. Ghosts are not human."
"And here in lies my proposal, Danny."
That name. He called me it again. I shuddered when I heard it, but it seemed he wanted me to get used to it. Great. I interrupted him. "Look, Clockwork, if you're going to call me that... I mean, come on, I must have a last name."
Clockwork nodded. "Your family were the 'Fentons'. They have a reputation as crazy ghost hunters in your home town."
I ignored the crazy comment, and assumed he meant my old home town. "Which was?" I asked.
"Amity Park." He replied with a smile. "That's where the ghosts will come out in after the portal is activated."
I looked down in thought, then my head snapped back up again. I put two and two together. "Wait. The portal. It's them who are building it, isn't it?"
Clockwork nodded. He knew what I meant. My old family... They were trying to build a portal to the Ghost Zone...
"Why though?" I asked. I almost felt hurt, then I realised that theoretically, I never remembered meeting them. I had no idea what they were like.
"I have good reason to believe... They are building it because of the same reason they became Ghost Hunters in the first place."
"And why's that?" I said impatiently.
"Revenge." Clockwork said simply, this tone noticeably becoming more cautious and calm.
"Revenge?"
"How do you think you died?" He asked carefully.
"I-" I looked down. "I - I have no idea... I thought you would be the one to tell me that." he gave me a look, and an imaginary light bulb suddenly appeared above my head. "Wait... Are you telling me that I was... I was killed... By ghosts?!"
Clockwork didn't answer. All he did was smirk knowingly.
My eyes flashed in anger. "Ok, what? WHAT?! I'm being serious here! Did they - when I get my hands on..." I stopped, as Clockwork was now shaking his head. My eyes narrowed. "What? Are you telling me they didn't? Tell me something here!" I demanded.
Clockwork was still shaking his head. "Your family thought you had been killed by ghosts."
"Oh..." I felt rather stupid now. Then I thought of something else. "What happened to my family? You know, after I-" I couldn't say anymore. I just couldn't. I would have collapsed if I had said any more.
Clockwork lowered his head. All I could see of his head was the purple of his hooded cloak. "They were distraught, as any family would be. The funeral was short, but everyone cried. What was the strangest thing, though, was that nobody ever found your body. There was no burying ceremony or crimation for that reason."
I grimaced. Nice thought. "Why?"
"Your body went missing."
"Then how did they know I was dead?"
"They didn't. After a year, nobody had found you yet, so they conspired to give up." he suddenly changed his tone. "But that could work to our advantage..."
I had noticed the change in his tone, and my eyebrows furrowed suspiciously because of it. "What do you mean?"
He casually gave his staff to his opposite hand, but did not look up. "This could be a great cover story."
I raised one eyebrow. "You realise this would mean telling them I survived after ten years."
"Yes."
A light bulb suddenly clicked in my head. "Wait a minute. You said my... Parents... Wanted revenge... On ghosts, was it? Well, if that was because of my death... If nobody ever found me and nobody even knew for sure I was dead, they just assumed... How would they know it was ghosts that did it? I mean, both of us know it wasn't ghosts, but still..."
"They didn't, of course. With your parents' obsession with the supernatural, they could only assume. Because of the town's respect for your death and what impact it had had on your family, they just went along with the assumption to prevent the situation getting worse. Seems as though they had sense. For all your family knew, you could have been mauled by a bear... I don't know... But your parents didn't consider that. Neither did they consider the possibility that you might not be dead at all."
"But that would jave been fruitless, wouldn't it? If they assumed that? Because in actual fact, I did die. How did I die anyway?"
For some reason, he ignored my latest question. "Precisely. I expect they either genuinely didn't think of the fact that you might not be dead, or did not wish to take the chance of finding your body. You might as well have trapped them in a cave and forced them to result to cannibalism. Traumatising."
"Um, eew." I grimaced. "Are you seriously trying to implant that image into my head?"
Clockwork chuckled, but it was dark and rather forced. "I try."
A moment of silence grabbed the room like desperately gripping onto the last atoms left of a cliff. Or at least, that was until I sighed, stepped back inside and shut the door. With the ringing silence in the room, the sudden sound of a door shutting would most probably make anyone jump. Anyone but Clockwork.
I put my hands up as if to stop him, even though he wasn't speaking, or moving at all, in fact. "Okay, I'm confused now. Hang on..." I held my head in my hand. "Let me get this straight... So... I died ten years ago. Nobody ever found my body, and after a while I didn't come back, nor was I found, so my family just assumed my death. They held a funeral and are now bent on vengeance on ghosts because they thought that's how I died... By the hands of ghosts. And they've recently started building a portal to break down a barrier between Earth and the Ghost Zone." I put the same hand out in front of me, palm up and gesturing to Clockwork, looking at him expectantly.
Clockwork grinned and lowered his head in a curt nod.
My eyeline dropped and my voice became an only barely audible muttering. "Right... Because that couldn't have been explained a whole lot quicker..." I looked back at Clockwork again. "So, I understand the whole "unbalanced worlds" theory... Thing... But, once again, what do you expect me to do about it? You want me to go to Earth and pretend to be human or whatever... And what do you want me to do? Send them all back to the Ghost Zone? Fight them off? And I'm not human. How the heck am I going to fit in if I'm not human? As if the ghostly aura wasn't obvious enough, no doubt my... My parents... Will have something to detect ghosts. I mean, what's a Ghost Hunter without a ghost detector? Seems a bit pointless." I folded my arms and waited as patiently as I could for him to reply.
He observed me reverentially and spoke slowly, but surely. "Yes, I do want you to go to the human world. Yes, I do want you to try and keep the ghosts out of the human world, to try to fit in with the humans and go back to your family... Tell them that you somehow survived and found your way back to Amity Park."
"After ten years, though? You're crazy! Not to mention I can't exactly go back..." I pointed with both index fingers to my head. "Suddenly sporting white hair and glowing green eyes. There's no way they'll believe it's me. It's pointless!"
Clockwork stroked his chin in thought. "What if you looked like your human self?"
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "Fat chance of that happening."
"Not if you are actually human."
I furrowed my eyebrows at him doubtfully. He was suggesting this impossibility purposely. I voiced my thoughts. "What are you getting at? I'm already dead. It's impossible for somebody to randomly come back to life, even by your standards."
"Not necessarily. I've been over some calculations. Apparently, in another timeline, the complete opposite of what I'm proposing happened to you. You became Half-Ghost in that timeline."
My eyebrows shot up. "Really?!"
"Yes." Clockwork said. "You aquired ghost powers from an accident involving that portal. So, I'm thinking... That perhaps you could be the first to enter the portal, and be the one to activate it."
"Ok, be the first one there... Got it. But how exactly will that work? I am still a ghost... And what if it doesn't work?"
"Ah, but it will. Of course, it will not work unless someone activates it from the inside. This is exactly what happened in the other timeline and it was you going inside it and turning it on that gave you your ghost powers. Your parents didn't perfect the blueprints and all the coordinates were sloppily set and off the allocated setting. It was a stupid mistake set by your father, but yet not. It's a long shot, but the worst thing it can do is "fry" as you say... Your body into oblivion. Best case scenario, the electric shock may restart your heart and you may become human again, only the ectoplasmic energy surrounding the portal will still be active and will infuse with your DNA, and the same thing will happen in this timeline as in the other timeline."
I grimaced again. "Uh... I think you're making sense. Although... I don't know about you, Clockwork, but I don't particularly want to fry my body into oblivion, thanks."
"It is the worst case scenario. There's a ninety-nine percent chance that that won't happen. I am the Master of Time, I know what is most likely to happen."
"Most likely?! Do you not know for sure that that's not going to happen?"
"I am not a miracle worker, Danny."
I ignored his calling me by my human name. "Uh... Is exactly that not your job description?!"
"Danny, I know you are unfavourable and disapproving of this plan, and extremely skeptical of the outcome, but please... We cannot afford not to take a chance. Please... Just trust me."
I didn't even remember my family, or my supposed friends. And yet here I was risking my whole... Well, afterlife... For them. But... For some reason, no matter how many times I had shouted; had gotten annoyed at Clockwork for his irritating vagueness, I trusted him, for not only was he the first ghost I ever met after I died, but he has helped me and has looked out for me for ten years, not to mention he was clairvoyant and all that nonsense... If he was even ninety nine percent sure I would survive this, then who was I to take a chance on my own terms? Besides, it was as he said: we could not afford not to take a chance.
I sighed as my eyelids raised and bright green was revealed once again. I sure hoped I was making the right decision... I wasn't even sure if I understood what this was all about, or what I had to do. Hopefully when I got there, things would begin to make a lot more sense...
For the sake of people I didn't even remember, but I was sure to meet again. I felt like I owed them a debt... Like it was me who had caused their pain and anguish. And if Earth crashed and burned in the tip of the balance, then wouldn't the Ghost Zone do the same?
I think both Clockwork and myself knew that couldn't happen.
"Fine, I guess... I'll do it."
A/N: YAY! Chapter Three and Danny agrees! He's gonna have to get used to the name, huh? AND HEREIN LIES THE REBIRTH OF DANNY FENTON! I hope this chapter explains a lot of things which I didn't specify before... XD
Ohmygosh, I just realised... Danny hasn't actually used his powers at all yet! (Well, apart from floating across the room to answer the door... XD) I SO NEED TO FIX THAT. XD
I hope you are looking forward to Danny going back to Earth as much as I am! Woo! XD
So ya, behold Chapter Three! Thank you so much for all of your support for this story! I can't believe we have 100+ reads! EEK! Thank you so much! You are all too awesome to put into words!
~ Marli F. xx