Danny Phantom Fan Fiction ❯ Glitches in Time ❯ Chapter 10 ( Chapter 10 )

Chapter 10

Everyone blinked rapidly, clearing the white spots that danced before their eyes as their vision finally returned. Then everyone stared in shock at the sight before them. It was definitely not what they had expected.

It was a war zone. That was the only way to describe it. The floor was littered with debris. Many of the stonewalls were barely standing while a few were just heaps of rubble. Gears of all sizes lay scattered about, some buried and some not, some whole but a majority were bent, twisted, or broken.

"Welcome to Clockwork's domain, you have arrived at Time Castle." Danielle proclaimed proudly.

"Good God! What happened here?! World War III?" Valerie exclaimed in disbelief as she watched the swarm of ghostly construction works as they hauled away rock and made repairs.

"No," Danielle answered as the group hastily dropped hands, realising that it wasn't necessary anymore as they were all standing in the entrance of a nearly demolished castle tower.

"My evil future self didn't get free did he?" Danny asked in horror.

"No although we don't know where the Thermos is at the moment. It's around here some where… haven't found it yet though." Danielle said cheerfully as she floated forwards, drifting over the wreckage and leaving the humans to scrabble over the mess in their path.

"Evil future self?" Valerie questioned.

"Yeah, in an alternate timeline I go bad." Danny admitted reluctantly, looking at his sort-of-friend-slash-hunter.

"No surprise there." Valerie muttered darkly.

"Try evil incarnate." Danielle piped up.

"Okay, I go really bad." Danny amended with a cringe.

"Oh, it's not too bad," Danielle said with a wave to indicate the destruction, "you should have seen it a week ago, one could almost say there was no tower. Heck, we're even got our roof back. This is progress."

"What happened then?" Tucker asked curiously as he looked about.

"Oh, Jed—my little brother—did," was Danielle's casual answer.

"What kind of monsters do you have?" Vlad exclaimed as he looked at Daniel, Grim Reapers and a child who could apparently demolish the domain of an Old One? What was the fourth one like?

"Jed's not a monster!" Danielle protested shooting daggers at the dark halfling, before saying in a huff, "He's just misunderstood."

"If this ghost Clockwork is so great and can control time," Dash said with a puzzled look on his face, "why didn't he stop this?"

"Well that's one of Jed's many quirks." Danielle replied with a sigh as they left the main entrance hall and passed through another doorway, "He seems to exist outside of time. Thus Time Out doesn't work on him."

Eyes blinked and those who did not understand the reference chorused, "Time Out?"

"Oh," Danielle said as she rubbed her forehead, "forgot, you don't know it. It's what we call Clockwork's ability to freeze the time stream."

"What's with all the coffins?" Kwan asked, gesturing to the crystal sarcophagus that were scattered among the debris, being carefully freed by the ghost workers and stacked together.

"Those are souls undergoing their punishment from Themis(1)." Danielle explained as the group passed closely by one of the coffins, they could barely make out the humanoid form within the glittering pinkish crystal. Etched upon the lid was an image of a scale.

"Themis? Who's he? Is he like Clockwork?" Paulina asked.

Danielle looked with amusement at the Latino girl, "Themis is the Spirit of Justice and yes, she's an Old One."

"Lady Justice is a ghost?" Valerie questioned in surprise.

"Yeah, that's Themis' more common name among humans." Danielle replied.

Valerie blinked and then fell deep into her own thoughts as she attempted to puzzle a sudden moral dilemma out.

"Themis is also the name of a Greek Titaness," Sam said with a thoughtful frown, "are there other ghosts that we humans know of and have just called something different?"

"Well duh! Ever heard of the Holy Spirit? Hello! Spirit? Holy Spirit?" Danielle exclaimed testily as she gave the group a look. "But seriously, most of those that you call Greek deities are in fact what ghosts call the Old Ones."

"That doesn't make any sense though... if the Old Ones are deities then what exactly is the Ghost-Zone? I though it was just a form of Limbo." Sam said in confusion as they made their way through the ruins of Clockwork's tower.

"It is Limbo, the place where generally the souls of those with unfinished business reside. However, the Old Ones were never human. One could sort of say they were born from human thought but..." Danielle shrugged philosophically, "the Old Ones are the Old Ones."

"Then what about Heaven and Hell and all the other forms of the afterlife?" Sam questioned.

"Limbo is a transitory stage. All souls of the newly dead come through here, whether they become a ghost or not is a different matter. If they become a ghost, then they are judged by Lady Justice and it is she who decrees who shall undergo punishment for deeds commit in life or remain unconfined as a ghost until they complete their unfinished business."

"What about the souls that don't become ghosts?"

"The pass beyond the Veil and then what happens to them... whose to say? The Old Ones certainly won't." Danielle concluded with a grumble.

Sam fell silent as she muddled over what she had just learned.

"You mentioned punishment, is that what the coffins are for?" Kwan questioned as they continued to walk by the crystal objects.

"Yes actually, the coffins trap them within their own nightmares, thus it's their own demons that torment them, which is a lot better then physical torment, cheaper to." Danielle said brightly.

"It's like the Soul Shredder then?" Tucker said, shuddering at his own experience living his own nightmare.

"The Fright Knight's Soul Shredder is patterned after Themis' powers actually, but they basically do the same thing." Danielle answered as she taped her staff against a picture carved onto a coffin. "The scales are a measure of how long their punishment lasts."

"So how long does punishment last?" Kwan questioned.

"Depends," Danielle said with a shrug, "either they must repent, or until what ever duration Themis' sets is over. I know about five who are damned for as long as existence continues."

"Whoa," Kwan said, impressed as he began to look at the coffins more closely, seeing that thought they all were carved with scales, they were all slightly different, the left or right side higher then the other.

"Why are they here then?" Valerie questioned. "You said this is Clockwork's domain. What does Time have to do with Justice?"

"They don't exist in time any more, thus they're now Clockworks." Danielle responded.

"Hey, why aren't any of them broken?" Star observed as a slab of stone she'd swear weighted a ton was lifted upwards, revealing an unmarked coffin below it while everything else was crushed.

"They're unbreakable and the one thing Jed can't affect…" Danielle paused with a frown for a moment, "Anyway we think so."

"We hope so." Samuel muttered.

"We pray so." Danielle concluded fervently.

Footnote:
(1) Themis: lit. 'justice', 'order'; a Titaness in ancient Greek mythology.