Danny Phantom Fan Fiction ❯ Glitches in Time ❯ Chapter 15 ( Chapter 15 )

Chapter 15

"You mentioned that there are four of you," Valerie said tentatively after polishing off her cookie.

"Yep!" Danielle chirped pleasantly, "Us two, Jed, and Lilith! She's six and at camp right now."

"Camp?" Eight voices gasped in disbelief, three coking briefly on a bite of their cookies.

"Yeah… what's wrong with that? Haven't any of you been at camp before?" Danielle asked curiously.

"Yes," Valerie admitted grudgingly, "but none of use are bizarre ghost human things."

"I resent that," Danielle said with a dismissing sniff, exchanging glares with the ghost-hunter.

"Its fine," Samuel grunted, "she's wearing a Fenton Bracelet. Besides, she's there with Vanessa."

"I wouldn't say my little sister is the most sane influence through," T.J. muttered.

"Sister? I have a daughter?" Tucker asked wide-eyed.

"Yeah, though I wish I was an only child," T.J. admitted. "Why'd you have to have two?"

Tucker was too flustered to answer, after all how did one answer a question like that?

"There are no worries anyway, Aunt Jazz will have everything covered," Danielle said with shrug, rejoining the discussion as cheerful as ever.

"Jazz?" Danny questioned, "What's she doing at a summer camp?"

"Volunteer work," Danielle smiled, "as well as some study or other that she's working on."

"You mentioned a Fenton Bracelet," Danny said as he backtracked, trying to figure out what they could be. After all his parents came up with some very strange stuff. "What does that do?"

"They block our ghost powers but the bracelets are different from the Spectre-Deflector which nullifies ghost abilities," Danielle explained, "our grandparents created them when they found out about us."

Sam eyed the girl Phantom with wary interest as the conversation continued. She could not believe that she had a daughter like this insanely cheerful girl. Heck even Danny—as weird as it was to think about it—was not like this. Moody Samuel seemed more like a child she would have.

"You mentioned grandparents…" Danny said slowly, "do they know?"

"Oh yes, they've both known for years now," Danielle chirped, looking at her father-to-be with some confusion.

Danny's brow furrowed in thought. They knew? Wait a sec, she had said both, did that mean the Fentons and the Mansons knew about Phantom? Or did she mean only that both his parents knew?

"Mom and Dad must just love you," Sam commented dryly.

"What ever for?" Danielle asked tilting her head to the side as she began to spin around in the air.

"For having a perky granddaughter," Sam answered blandly.

"Who does that mean?" Danielle questioned quizzically.

"Mom must have great fun shopping with you for floral print dresses."

Danielle blinked then her expression froze into one of pure horror as she stared at a sight only she could see within her torment mind. Curling into a fetal position in the air, she rocked back and forth whimpering. The staff she had been holding dropped to the stone floor with a clatter.

Instantly Samuel was by his sister's side, one rubbing smoothing circles upon her back as his other hand stroked her short cropped hair, his own staff joining his sister's on the ground.

"Sh, it's okay Danni," Samuel murmured soothingly, a strained expression on his face as he attempted to calm his twin.

"Floral prints, floral prints, floral prints," was the traumatised chant that could be heard from Danielle as she rocked herself in midair.

Sam and Danny and others exchanged strange and mostly uncomprehending looks among themselves.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked hesitantly, taking a half step towards her future child.

"Floral prints, floral prints, floral prints."

"Danni doesn't have what one would call the greatest relationship with Grandma Pam and even Grandpa Jeremy at the moment." Samuel answered, thinking of the disastrous shopping trip, his tone grimmer then when he addressed Danielle but still calm enough that his anger wouldn't disturb his sister.

"Floral prints, floral prints, floral prints."

"It's okay Danni," Samuel cooed as Danielle continued to rock, "There's none here. You're safe."

'Okay…' Sam though privately, 'reminder to self, perky does not always equal conformist.'

"Floral prints, floral prints, floral prints."

"Is that how our parents found out about the ghost abilities?" Danny questioned, worriedly eyeing the future girl Phantom as she flickered between ghost and reaper form, continuing to chant.

"Floral prints, floral prints, floral prints."

The only one who was not looking at the girl with some degree of concern was Vlad, who was rather bemused by what the Grim Reaper was doing. This was one of the most powerful ghosts in the Ghost-Zone and she was afraid of floral prints?

"Floral prints, floral prints, floral prints."

"No," Samuel answered distractedly, relieved to feel his sister's muscles being to relax under his stroking palm. "They leaned about it when Lilith was a couple days old."

"Floral prints, floral prints, floral prints."

Danny pondered the math, if the twins were about his age as they appeared to be and Lilith he'd been told was six, then that meant for eight years the ghost powers had remained a secret. So what had happened then? If they had managed to hide the twins ghost powers as infants, why hadn't they'd been able to hid Lilith's? "Why did they find out then?"

"One could say Lilith has a killer voice," Danielle said shakily as she raised her head from her knees, finally creasing her chant but still leaning heavily against her brother.

"What?" Multiple confused people questioned.

"She got the Ghostly Wail as an infant," Samuel explained dryly.

Danny's eyes bulged and he was incapable of speech, as where his two friends who also knew the devastation of that ghost attack.

"She—you mean—the Wail—!" Danny sputtered incoherently, blue eyes wider then ever and jaw nearly hitting the floor.

"As a baby!?" Sam shouted thinking incredulously, 'Oh god, Vlad was right. What monsters do I and Danny have?'

Tucker was too dumfounded to even say anything slightly coherent.

 "Yeah, gota hate that," T.J. added cheekily, "Especially when all the grandparents are over to greet the new baby."

"You aren't serious," Danny whispered, he had nearly been dead from the combined attacks of future Ember, Box Ghost, Skulker and Technus, Ember, Johnny 13, and Kitty when he had developed that attack and what it had done to them…

"Took the roof right off, demolished most of the house," T.J. said cheerfully, "And almost wiped out the neighbourhood too."

Vlad frowned with curiosity, what was this 'Wail' that young Daniel was speaking of? It did not matter, he would learn of it in time and he was confident that he would be able to defend himself from it, after all Daniel had not even managed to duplicate his form yet.

"You're telling us an awful lot," Sam said suspiciously, eyeing the teenage threesome and the Old One.

"Oh don't worry, you won't remember a thing." Clockwork in his adult form said as he smiled soothingly at them.

"What?" Valerie yelped, looking suspiciously at the others herself now.

"Oh nothing," Clockwork answered blandly, morphing into an old man.

"Won't remember," Danny muttered, remembering an earlier comment made by the Master of Time and ghost lore that he was currently studying up on. "Memory… Mnemosyne(1)."

"Very good Danny," Clockwork murmured giving the halfling a proud smile. "You are learning much."

"Who? What? Memory?" Valerie said in confusion, her scorn of ghosts leading her to avoiding learning much about them beyond how to hunt them.

"Not what but who," Danny explained, "Mnemosyne, the Old One of Memory. She has the ability to remove memories from people with her touch if she wishes it."

"I'm amazed that you with your high school education know of her Daniel," Vlad said patronisingly as he flicked an invisible piece of lint from his jacket front.

"I do happen to do research when the lives of those I care for in constant danger," Danny said with a glare at the billionaire.

Valerie flushed and ducked her head, a motion that went unnoticed by all but the Master of Time. She suddenly found herself ashamed to say that she could not say the same thing, even though currently she was experiencing conflicting emotions towards Fenton-cum-Phantom. Her knowledge of ghosts, not just how to hunt them, could probably fit in a thimble. And from what she'd just heard and the powers these ghost called the Old Ones seemed to posses that was probably a very stupid thing.

Footnote:
(1) Mnemosyne: lit. 'memory'; in ancient Greek mythology a Titaness and the mother of the Muses by Zeus.