#dp-marvel94 please know this chapter was finished now entirely because of you

[ladylynse]

Chapter 9 [FF | AO3] of Passageway: The Fenton Ghost Portal in the basement lab is empty, broken. Instead, the portal is inside Danny–and even when he knows something’s coming, he can’t stop it. (Danny as the ghost portal AU)

(beginning | previous)

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Danny was halfway back to Johnny and Jazz when he heard, “That was too easy.” He nearly jumped out of his skin but relaxed as his brain identified the voice. The shifter didn’t know about Sidney yet—or, at least, they didn’t know it was Sidney who’d been helping Danny, even if they’d figured out Danny had help—and Sidney had as good as confirmed it was him with that line, seeing as it tied into their earlier conversation. Good thinking on his part; Danny hadn’t thought to make up some sort of code.

Danny turned to face Sidney’s hovering form. “Some warning would be nice.”

“Then give yourself some warning.”

Okay, Johnny was definitely more useful than Sidney when it came to getting information. “How?”

Sidney shrugged.

Naturally.

“Why’re you all wet?”

“I went for a swim.” Danny couldn’t tell from Sidney’s expression if he’d caught the obvious sarcasm or not. “You could help with that. Me getting dry, I mean.”

“So could you.”

Clearly, Johnny was also the more helpful of the two ghosts. Granted, he wanted something more material from Danny than Sidney did. (Come to that, Danny wasn’t wholly sure if he knew what Sidney wanted, beyond eventually going home.) But maybe if Danny gave up some information, he’d get something useful in return. “I know what my power is.”

“Oh? What’s your tale, nightingale?”

Danny spread his arms. “I can heal, see? Which hopefully means I won’t die trying to do whatever I wind up having to do.”

“You also slipped those cuffs.”

Danny frowned as he dropped his arms and turned so he could lean against the wall. No comment on the healing? At all? It couldn’t be that common. “That wasn’t a power. Johnny picked the lock for me.”

Sidney’s eyes narrowed. “You know a Johnny on this side? Or— Earlier, you called someone through. You didn’t bring over Johnny 13, did you?”

“Um. Maybe. Is that a problem for you? He’s been helpful. Like getting me in here. And out of the cuffs before getting me in here.”

“This ain’t a great hiding spot.”

“Yeah, well, it’s a better place than any of my ideas, of which there were none.” Danny hesitated. “You don’t like him?”

“He’s not the worst one out there,” was the grudging reply, “but he’s not the best. Where’s Kitty?”

“Uh. Not here?”

“What, you didn’t—?” Sidney winced. “Ooh, you’ll wanna figure out a warning before the morning. Those two won’t pull their punches if it means getting back together.”

Story of his life now, apparently. “Doesn’t matter so much if I can heal this fast.”

“You think that helps? It’ll just make it worse. Healing doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt in the first place. And, anyway, I don’t know why you’re surprised. Your shiner didn’t stick around for long. You must’ve noticed before this.”

Insults and a dismissal. Why did he count this ghost as a friend again? “Forgive me for not being the most observant person in the world.”

“So you’re trying to make it easy for the shifter? Keeping your eyes peeled—”

“I know, okay? I’m trying. I made sure Jazz was Jazz before telling her anything.”

Sidney’s eyes widened. “You what? What made you think telling your human friends about any of this would be a good idea?”

“She’s my sister.”

“That’s worse!”

“Well, it’s not like I can rely on you guys for everything! Even when you answer my questions, you don’t tell me anything.”

“And you think someone who knows less than you do will be more help?”

Danny rubbed the back of his neck and didn’t meet Sidney’s eyes at first. “No, but…. She saw me, okay? She saw me, and she had questions, and she wouldn’t have let this go. I know Jazz. If I didn’t explain anything to her, she’d try to track me down and draw enough attention to herself that the shifter would get that much closer to me, anyway, and after they—” Danny swallowed. “They threatened the people who are close to me, Jazz included. It’s not like ignorance was gonna make her any safer, not after she’d seen me.”

“Being seen wasn’t your first mistake.”

And there that was that ringing endorsement for his handling of this mess. Danny huffed. “Can you at least tell me if ghosts have to do what they say they will?” Sidney just blinked at him, so Danny added, “Johnny agreed to help me. I asked him to guard Jazz until this is over.”

“And you think he might split instead?”

“Well. He said there’s more than one gate and more than one gatekeeper. I’m not his only option if he wants Kitty over here. Or to meet her back over there, seeing as I don’t know how to get him back, either.” Danny still had no idea how the ghosts were getting through, and his parents were still working on containing them. Getting them back to where they belonged wasn’t something he really wanted to think about right now, even if he’d have to figure it out to deal with the shifter. He wasn’t particularly keen on assuming something his parents invented would work on the first go after last time.

Sidney let out a low whistle. “He must be desperate if he’s thinking about that. Not a lot of portals around here are stable, and he’d pay a higher price than guard duty at the other gate.”

“Price? There’s a toll? Like the paying the ferryman thing in mythology?”

“I’ve never gone that way myself. Passage is for a price, but you need to be willing to work for it—or trade a future favour.”

“So you know this other gatekeeper? You could find them?”

Sidney shook his head. “Don’t know him. Don’t want to know him. Even his reputation gives me the heebie-jeebies. You think this shifter is bad news? Those two are cut from the same cloth.”

Danny was struck with the sudden realization that he wasn’t sure if Sidney was lying. He was already too jumpy, too flighty, for Danny to read anything in his body language, and knowing someone for only a few days wasn’t enough for him to read anything finer. He wasn’t Jazz, who’d studied enough psychology to know common tells by heart and have an idea of when someone was faking.

Sidney might be right in thinking that Johnny wouldn’t cut and run and leave Jazz on her own, but that could be simply for the sake of convenience. Johnny had already pegged Danny’s inexperience; he might think he could get what he wanted more easily if he hung around and played along than if he went elsewhere.

If there was another gatekeeper, if there was someone else like him who was even remotely nearby (and by nearby Danny was thinking within the contiguous United States), wouldn’t Danny be stupid not to seek him out? Especially with a ghost around who’d made it painfully clear that they had no problem carrying out threats? Being able to heal himself did absolutely nothing when it came to helping someone else.

Johnny had a motorcycle. Maybe he’d agree to take Danny to this other gatekeeper, assuming Danny could convince Sidney to guard Jazz? Assuming he could convince Jazz to stay behind?

Or was that what Johnny wanted? Was that why he’d been dropping hints, giving Danny tidbits of information so he’d be curious and ask more and think that going to see this other gatekeeper had been his idea all along? What if Sidney wasn’t lying or exaggerating and had very real reason to be concerned?

You’re useful to all of us, Johnny had said, meaning him and Sidney and the shifter and all the other ghosts.

Danny didn’t want to be useful.

He wanted things to go back to the way they’d been before, when he didn’t have all of this hanging over his head.

But wishing it wouldn’t randomly make it happen. He couldn’t rewrite reality like that. There was no magic reset button, no way to undo this, erase all the time that had already past and replace it with something else, simply because he desired—

Danny gagged, trying—and failing—to suppress a dry heave.

“Stop it,” Sidney hissed at him, as if that had ever helped. “We don’t need anyone else over here right now. It’s bad enough you called Johnny over.”

Sidney made it sound like this were all a simple game of red rover.

Danny pressed himself into wall, letting the coolness of it seep into his still-damp skin. Cement blocks, layered with enough paint or sealant or whatever it was that they were bumpy but not rough to the touch like they would be otherwise, made up every wall. They were reassuringly solid, and he tried to use that to ground himself, to focus on the here and now and not the could-be or would’ve-been-nice. Sidney was talking to him, maybe telling him to breathe—Jazz would be—but Danny just closed his eyes and listened to the rhythm of his words and not to what he was actually saying.

Danny became aware of the faint hum of the fluorescent light overhead, the sound seeming to grow louder now that he could hear it at all. There was a clock somewhere, too, an analog one with the steady sound of the second hand ticking forward slower than Danny’s quickened heartbeat. If only there were a way to slow down the seconds ticking away, to give himself more time—

Breath Danny didn’t realize he’d been holding exploded out of him in a fit of coughing. He blinked against the brightness of the world, and Sidney’s face was suddenly right there, filling his whole view. “You’ve gotta stop calling for them,” he said, still not making any sense.

Danny was coughing too much to even shrug, let alone protest that he had no idea how to stop something when he didn’t know how it had started, but Sidney seemed to catch his drift. This time, instead of repeating himself and being thoroughly unhelpful, he reached out and grabbed Danny underneath the arms, lifting him without any apparent effort and flying them both back towards the washroom.

There was a flash of coldness, like jumping into a lake on a hot summer’s day, and then they were through the wall and warmth returned. Sidney left him to clutch the cool porcelain of the off-white sink and try to remain upright as he closed the door.

It was only once Danny heard the lock click into place that he realized he wasn’t coughing anymore. Shocked out of it, maybe?

“Thanks,” he croaked. Being dry was nice, too, though he wouldn’t be surprised if there were a couple puddles of water in the hallway now—one from where he’d been standing earlier and one where Sidney had turned them both intangible. Hopefully that wouldn’t draw too much attention. Maybe someone would think the hallway had been mopped recently and a couple of spots had been missed?

Fat chance of that, but as long as the shifter didn’t put two and two together, Danny didn’t really care.

Sidney was still hovering by the door, and while Danny was confident enough to look away from his hands, he wasn’t willing to release his death grip on the sink. Sidney fiddled with his glasses for a second before pulling them off to wipe on his shirt as he said, “You can’t just put out a call like that. You don’t know who might answer.”

Well, that didn’t help. He knew what Sidney was trying to get at, but really, ‘put out a call’? As much as Sidney had talked about it, he’d never explained it, and Danny had been too busy trying not to cough up a lung to call anyone. How could he stop something that was unintentional if he didn’t even know how he was doing it in the first place?

Danny waited a few beats, hoping Sidney would finally elaborate, but of course he just fidgeted some more, rubbing at his glasses and altogether not being helpful for someone who had whispered a frantic warning barely ten seconds ago. “What?” Danny prompted, now well aware that Sidney wasn’t going to continue if he didn’t press him.

“It’s too general,” Sidney said, which didn’t clear things up as far as Danny was concerned. “You’ll turn the other side of the gate into Antsville that way, everyone jostling for a chance to get through. You could—” He broke off. “That’s how the shifter got through, isn’t it? They didn’t need to force anything. You let them pass.”

Danny had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to say to that, but at least he didn’t feel the slightest bit sick anymore. He turned around so he could lean against the sink instead. “I already told you I don’t know how this calling stuff works. And for the record? You aren’t explaining it. At least not well if you’re actually trying.”

Sidney pulled a face and put his glasses back on to complete the look. “I’ll try harder, but not here. You weren’t subtle. The shifter will be coming after that.” He hesitated. “Least, they will unless they think you’ve gone over yourself.”

“Huh?”

“You just need to reach for it, open a door. They’ll feel that, just like this last one. You really gotta be more specific when you call. Like you were with me. They won’t feel it then.”

“Okay, even pretending I understand that, how the heck am I supposed to do it? Reach for what?”

“You already know. I could see it when you were calling. It—” He broke off, no doubt seeing Danny’s scowl. “You’ve never looked?”

“Looked at what?”

“Yourself. When you’re calling. Your eyes, especially. They’re the same shade as back home.”

Danny stared.

He had a feeling that, whatever shade Sidney was talking about, the colour wasn’t blue. Which did nothing to stop his skin from crawling over the implication. He’d accepted that there was something inside of him now, and the thought of having powers had seemed cool at first, but the thought that whatever was inside him was changing him was distinctly less cool.

Danny swallowed. If calling over a ghost was why it felt like his guts were being put through a blender, then— “Jazz never said anything.”

“Your sis?” Confusion hovered for a moment before melting into understanding. “Johnny 13 was trying to get you to bring over Kitty. He got you to specify it, only call her. But you didn’t?”

“I…I didn’t want Jazz to see anything.”

“So you didn’t look at her when you started calling.”

Sidney wasn’t asking so much as stating, but once Danny thought about it, he realized Sidney was right. He’d been looking more at Johnny than Jazz when Johnny had been talking about Kitty, and he’d gotten out of there the moment he’d started to feel it. He hadn’t wanted to go back until he got himself under control.

Jazz might not know how messed up he was. She might still think that he was normal. Or at least as normal as the Fentons ever were.

“And then you stopped, because you didn’t want the gate to open.”

“I guess?”

“More control than you had before.” Sidney nodded approvingly. “So try again. Open the gate. Just make sure it goes the other way, so nothing can come over from that side.”

“I don’t—”

“Danny?” Jazz’s call was accompanied by a knock on the door. “You okay in there?”

“I’m fine,” he said, raising his voice even as Sidney made frantic motions that were probably meant to indicate he shouldn’t answer at all. “I’m almost done.”

“Don’t be too long. We still need to talk.”

“I know.” He owed her a better explanation than she’d gotten. “I’ll be out in a minute, I swear.”

Danny heard Jazz walk away, and then Sidney disappeared. Danny waited, thinking maybe Sidney had just stuck his head through the door to make sure Jazz had really gone, but he didn’t come back.

Right.

Okay.

Sidney was worried about the shifter. Danny could understand that. But running off without saying a word really didn’t help matters.

Danny sighed and turned back to the mirror. He’d give Sidney a bit of time to show up and explain himself before he went back to Jazz and Johnny like he’d planned. If Sidney was right and the shifter was coming, then Danny couldn’t get away without help anyway. At least, he couldn’t if the shifter was close. Waiting thirty seconds shouldn’t kill him.

“Right,” Danny said aloud as he studied his reflection. “How the heck am I supposed to reach for a place I know nothing about?”

The upside was, he didn’t hallucinate an answer. The downside was, he still didn’t have an answer.

Danny stared, narrowing his eyes and willing something to change in his reflection.

Nothing happened.

He tried to focus on doorways and passageways and gates.

Still nothing.

“I just need a way through,” he muttered, “without going through the other gatekeeper, and there’s gotta be a way—”

The sick feeling abruptly returned, but it cut off just as quickly as he blinked in surprise at his reflection.

His eyes had looked green.

Green.

They were their usual blue now, of course, but he hadn’t imagined that just because Sidney had said something, had he?

“You’re lucky,” Sidney’s voice said from behind him, and Danny jumped, spinning around and whacking his funny bone on the edge of the sink. He sucked in a breath through his teeth and tried not to think about his left elbow as Sidney continued, “I don’t think that was the shifter.”

The pain hadn’t quite faded, but in all honesty, Danny probably would’ve been as blunt without it. “You’re being paranoid. You know that, right?”

“If you want me to help you stay a step ahead of the shifter, we should go now,” Sidney said, which proved Danny’s point instead of disputing it. “If you’re cruisin’ for a bruisin’ and wanting to go six feet under….”

“They won’t kill me.” At least not yet. “I’m too useful.”

“The same can’t be said for your sister.”

“Don’t you dare start,” Danny snapped, his hands clenching into fists at his sides as all pain from his elbow was forgotten. “You’re trying to get me to run off with you and leave Jazz with even more questions than she had before, and I’m not going to do it. That’ll make it even easier for the shifter to get to her, because they can go swanning over pretending to be me and she won’t…she might not….” His mood flipped, and he found himself closing his eyes against the burning of tears. “I’m not willing to risk that.”

“You’d rather stay where you can be found?” Sidney raised an eyebrow at him. “You don’t even know how to hide yourself.”

“I’d rather hide her than me!”

Sidney just hummed. “Make it quick, then.”

Danny had no idea if that was Sidney’s way of telling him to hurry up and fill Jazz in quickly or some implication that he was supposed to have the ability to hide other people (with an unspoken so why not get on with it then?), but he was too annoyed to care. He brushed past Sidney, opening the door and giving the hallway only a cursory check to make sure it was safe before bolting back to Johnny and Jazz.

He slowed before he got to the door and then held his breath to listen. He could hear Jazz’s voice, followed by the low rumble that was Johnny’s response to whatever she’d said, but his own voice never chimed in. Thankfully. Relieved, he raised his hand to knock, and the solidness of the door dissolved on the third tap.

“Surprised you came back,” Johnny said as Danny pushed through the door. It was too dark for Danny to see Jazz’s expression, and even if he hadn’t seen Johnny’s, he could’ve guessed it from his tone. Surprise was only a small part of it; suspicion buried under false nonchalance was far greater.

“I’m me,” Danny said, even though that wouldn’t prove anything.

“Who gave you your first astronaut doll?”

“Jazz! It’s an action figure!” Maybe it was a good thing it was dark in here. “And Dad made it for me.”

He didn’t need to see her smirk to know it was there. “It’s him.”

Danny groaned and looked at Johnny’s glowing figure. “Do you know somewhere else we can crash?”

Johnny’s eyebrows rose a hair. “You’re figuring this out.”

The answer wasn’t a comforting one, considering Danny didn’t exactly get the impression that Johnny would’ve warned him that the shifter would be able to find him now.

It made him wonder how specific he’d been when he’d put out the call Johnny had answered. (Danny figured he had to learn the terminology sooner rather than later, assuming Sidney didn’t have it wrong.) Sidney had known, so had it been too general?

If the shifter had realized, had they started preparing Danny’s punishment, assuming they could catch up to him at their leisure?

He couldn’t think about that right now. It wasn’t going to help him. He needed to focus.

“Someone’s helping you,” added Johnny.

“Yeah,” Danny said shortly. “You are.” He wasn’t sure how much—if any—bad blood there was between Sidney and Johnny, and until he did, naming names wouldn’t get him any further ahead. “Grab Jazz, go….” He had no idea where they should go. He didn’t know where he should go. “Just go upstairs until the library closes. You can hide in plain sight. I’ll get a message to you when I can.”

“Are you sure about this, little brother?”

Of course he wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure about anything anymore. “Pretend you’re helping him, like you help Spike. Heck, pretend you’re dating—”

“I’m not even pretending to cheat on my Kitty.”

“—just do something so that the shifter doesn’t realize I actually talked to you. Let them think I cut and run before I did. Just…be safe. I need a few hours to figure out a game plan.”

He needed way more than a few hours, and Jazz would know him well enough to know that, but hopefully Johnny wouldn’t call his bluff.

Jazz got up and wrapped him in a hug. “Stay safe,” she whispered into his ear. “I’m counting on you.”

Danny hugged her back, knowing however crazy this got, his sister would have his back. “You stay safe, too.” Stepping away, he looked at Johnny and said, “You guys better get going.”

Johnny shrugged. “Not my funeral if this is the wrong call.” He offered a hand to Jazz. “Shall we?”

Danny’s eyes had adjusted well enough to the dim light now to see how Jazz’s expression tightened. “Fine. Let’s go.”

“Don’t touch my bike,” Johnny added. “Shadow’s watching it.” Before Danny had a chance to respond, let alone ask to go along with them, Johnny pulled Jazz through the door.

The locked door.

Danny tried the handle again, just to be sure, but it wasn’t simply stuck. “Oh, crud.” If this was Johnny’s crazy idea of a test or something, it wasn’t something Danny wanted to deal with right now. He jiggled the handle and banged on the door, but it didn’t budge—or conveniently lose its solidness so he could slip right through. “Shadow? A little help?”

Shadow didn’t respond. He didn’t even move, forming into something recognizably different from all the other shadows. Not that there were a lot in here, seeing as the glow from Johnny’s bike was fading now that Johnny himself was gone.

Maybe Shadow didn’t listen to anyone except Johnny.

Or maybe Danny simply hadn’t done enough to earn his respect, let alone a favour.

“Crud.” Danny sat down on a stack of boxes with another groan and waited, hoping Sidney would come looking for him before the shifter found him.

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