A Place That May Be Home

Danny had never, to the best of his knowledge, been in this part of the Zone. He had never seen a landscape quite like the one he was seeing now, nor had he ever seen flowers like the ones that lit the hillside an eerie blue. Looking down the hill, Danny could see a little woods, dark, and full of trees. Beyond that, there was what looked like a beach; pale sand, and dark water lapping at the shore. The stars- the stars were the same as the ones over Amity, at least at first glance, but there was a barely visible wash of green over all of them.

Nevertheless, he knew exactly where he was.

Or at least, he knew what this place was, if not where this place was with respect to other things. Except that it was in the Ghost Zone, but not the Ghost Zone proper. It was behind a door. But with the landscape, that was kind of obvious. (He'd usually have a little more detail than that, like how far away they were from the Fenton Portal, but his powers, including what Tucker dubbed his 'Ghost Homing Instinct,' weren't exactly cooperating with him at the moment.)

He didn't know how he knew, so he was disinclined to trust the knowledge. But, he was just so sure. He suspected that it was some kind of ghost instinct, but it could just as easily be that this place was some kind of pitcher-plant type deal. A trap. Or, maybe, more like the island of the lotus-eaters in the Odyssey. (And Mr Lancer thought he didn't pay any attention in class! Ha!)

On the other hand... It kind of made sense. He still didn't know how they had gotten here. Jazz had been talking about what happened after she woke up, but not what happened after he got hit by that thing. So, coupled with her reluctance to share her theory about how they had all gotten here, Danny had to conclude that it was somehow his fault, or some side effect of the weapon. It made sense, then that they would wind up in a place that was connected to Danny. Then there were the plants, which were helping Jazz, removing dangerous items from his parents, and, most importantly, not hurting anyone. Finally, there was the relative normality of the surroundings. The stars, despite not being real, were an excellent facsimile. If it wasn't for that green wash, and a few other subtle cues, Danny might have been fooled. The grass looked like grass, despite the way it waved in the still air. The hill was shaped naturally, unevenly. The air was cool, but not frigid. Just the right temperature for Danny. Actually, everything about the surroundings, sans all the unconscious people, was just right for Danny. All in all, a person could be forgiven for thinking that they were still on Earth. Which was odd. Ghost Zone landscapes, even those behind doors, usually had something explicitly and obviously unnatural about them. (The flowers didn't count in Danny's mind. They had only shown up in earnest after Jazz had complemented the first one.)

So.

Conclusion?

Yeah. They were where he thought he was.

They were in his lair. (He was home (and he was safe) and he could rest now.)

Danny wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not. He didn't know a lot about lairs, but between Clockwork, Pandora, Frostbite, and, surprisingly, the Ghost Writer (something about a work-release program), he was getting an education in ghost culture. So he knew that lairs were connected to their ghost's mind, mirroring their personalities and powers, and typically controlled by their ghost's subconscious. This usually meant that if the ghost ghost wanted or needed something, the lair would provide it, or that the lair would react as the ghost would (if the ghost was, you know, a physical location) but with less restraint, and more emotion. But there were cases of a lair turning on its ghost, like with Sydney Poindexter and his shadows (although Danny had heard that that had been resolved), as well as cases of lairs developing their own personalities, like with Ghost Writer and his library, or even becoming full-blown genii locorum.

The thing was that Danny knew that he had a lot of problems. Maybe not the same problems that had caused Sydney to essentially torture himself for fifty years, but problems. If his nightmares were any indication, his subconscious was a dark, dark place. Every fiber of his ghostly being was singing at him to rest, to relax, that everything was fine, and that everyone was safe, that he was safe, but he really couldn't believe it. Even if his lair did behave normally (and wow, nothing in his life was normal) there were ghosts that got so wrapped up in their lairs, and the illusions and comforts that their lairs could provide, that they never left.

Danny was reasonably certain that wouldn't happen to him. That it couldn't happen to him. But not wanting to risk it was one of the reasons that he had never tried to seek out his lair. Well, that and the fact that he thought that the idea of some place having a permanent backdoor into his mind was kind of creepy.

He was forced to pay attention to his surroundings again when he tripped over nothing. Literally nothing. He had inadvertently rendered his foot intangible, and it had gone through the ground. Jazz had caught him. He knew that Jazz was becoming concerned. That she had been concerned. He knew that he was acting strangely, but he couldn't help it. He felt like he had right after the Accident. Weak. Shivery. Out of control.

That wasn't what Danny wanted to think about, though. Those thoughts lead Danny down a road of inquiry that he wanted nothing to do with. Not yet.

(They had done it on purpose.)

So let's do something constructive, okay? There were two dozen people lying on the hill. He could recognize his parents and Mr Lancer by their silhouettes. (He carefully ignored the movement happening on the ground near his parents). The others were harder to identify from a distance, so he and Jazz were going around and checking everyone. So far, most people were from his class, which he thought was weird. There had been a lot of other people in the gym. So far they had passed Paulina, Dash, Star, Elliot, Kwan, Ashley, Mikey, Nathan, Lester, Rebecca, Mia, Hannah, Dale, Sarah, Tiffanie, and Ricky. There were only three people left.

Danny had mixed feelings about this. On one hand, he really wanted Tucker and Sam to be there. On the other hand, he wanted them to be safe, home in Amity Park.

Except...

"Jazz," croaked Danny. Gosh, his voice sounded awful. "What happened to Technus?"

"Um," said Jazz, clearly not wanting to talk about it. "Well..."

"Jazz."

"I don't know. As far as I know, he was still in the school's system when the portal opened."

"So he's still in Amity Park?!" squeaked Danny. He seized his hair with his hands and groaned. Maybe Valerie could take him? No, he had made her suit. She was at even more risk that the average person. The Guys in White were just this side of utterly useless, and honestly Danny wouldn't wish those monsters on any ghost. Sam and Tucker could probably handle Technus, given time, but, well, he still wanted them to be here, so that he could make sure they were safe. There weren't any other local ghost hunters. Danny moaned again. This was all his fault. He should have worked harder on making peace with the other ghosts.

"Danny," said Jazz, lightly gripping his shoulders. "Danny, listen to me. This isn't your fault. We'll figure it out. We always do. And there isn't anything we can do about Technus from here. We have to figure out how to get home first. Then we can worry about Technus."

"Okay," said Danny.

"Okay," repeated Jazz. She gently untangled his fingers from his hair. "Three more people, then we'll know if Sam and Tucker are here."

The next person they looked at was Valerie. So worrying about her confronting Technus had been premature. Good to know. Of course, her being here was another complication. She wasn't as bad as his parents when it came to ghosts, she had worked with him in the past, and Danielle visited her now and again, but she did tend to shoot first and ask questions later. Depending on where in the Ghost Zone they were, that could seriously limit their options to get home. Also...

"So why aren't the plants picking her pockets?" asked Danny.

"I don't know," said Jazz.

"Thought you were supposed to know everything."

"I'm not Clockwork. Maybe she doesn't have her weapons?"

"I can see one right there," said Danny, pointing towards where Valerie's open backpack, which she clenched tightly in her hands, even in sleep, was spilling out onto the ground.

"Huh. Yeah. I didn't spot that. That's weird. Do you think we should try and take them?"

Danny considered it for a moment, but shook his head. "We don't know what we're dealing with here. It might be better to have someone else armed."

They moved on. The next two people were, to Danny's great relief, Sam and Tucker. They looked unharmed, as far as Danny could tell. He could neither smell nor see any blood, and their limbs were all in the proper positions. Tucker even still had his beret.

Danny sat on the ground between the two of them. He was so tired. Exhausted. Part of him wanted to sleep, to forget about all of this, but he knew he couldn't. So he poked Tucker (waking Sam was a risky proposal, he wanted more backup). When Tucker didn't stir, he poked him again, harder. Then he shook his friend's shoulder.

"Why aren't they waking up?" asked Danny plaintively.

"Check his eyes," said Jazz, who was trying to wake up Sam (his sister was braver than he gave her credit for, sometimes). "Maybe they have concussions?"

"Doesn't look like it," said Danny. He took off Tucker's beret, and picked through the other boy's curly hair. "No bumps, either."

"Hm," said Jazz. "It could be that something is keeping them asleep. Like that time with Nocturne. Do you think you could-?"

But Danny was already shaking his head. "I don't have any control, Jazz," he said, holding up his fingers, which were flickering in and out of visibility. "Dream invasion is a no-go." He stared at his hand. "Jazz," he said slowly. "Did they really do this on purpose, I mean, what was that... that... What was it supposed to do?"

"Danny..."

"I need to know, Jazz! I need to know what it was supposed to do, and what happened, and why we're here so that I can start to try to do something about it!" Danny cringed away from the harshness of his own voice. "Please, Jazz."

Jazz look down, still rubbing Sam's shoulder in an attempt to wake her. She pulled her hand into her lap, and massaged her palm with her other hand. "Alright," she said, "alright. But I need you to promise me something first. I need you to promise me that you aren't going to blame yourself. Okay?"

"Jazz. You know I can't do that."

Jazz sighted. "At least promise me that you'll try not to blame yourself, okay?"

"Okay. Okay," said Danny. "I can do that. Yeah, I'll- yeah. I promise. Just please tell me what's going on?"

Jazz licked her lip before starting. "That- They said that the Fenton Mortifier was designed to make ghosts relive their deaths."

Danny felt something break inside of him. He had been holding out hope that the weapon hadn't worked as intended. That it was supposed to do something else. Something less awful. He pushed the feeling to the side, swept the broken pieces under a rug. He nodded, to show Jazz that he understood, that she should go on.

"When you were hit, you kind of froze. You were just hovering there for a few minutes, and, I don't know what Mom and Dad were doing. Just watching? I don't know. I wasn't looking at them. You started to scream, then you started to, um, spark a bit, after that. Electricity. And... You know. You can... Scream really loudly."

"You mean-?"

"No one got hurt," said Jazz quickly. "It wasn't focused, and the shield actually stopped it, I think. And, I mean, everyone inside the shield is here, so. No one got hurt."

"Except that they aren't waking up," said Danny, balancing on the edge of hysteria, not noticing that the wind was picking up, "and they're here in the Ghost Zone!"

Danny found himself wrapped in Jazz's arms. Jazz was rocking him back and forth, and he could tell that she, too, was on the brink of tears. The wind died back down to a gentle breeze.

"Jazz," said Danny finally, pulling back. "What's the rest? How did we get here?"

Jazz shuddered. "After- after you stopped screaming, you-" Jazz paused, apparently rethinking her phrasing. "A portal started to open up. Right over your chest. That's the last thing I remember before waking up."

Danny groaned. "So this is my fault."

"Danny-"

"I had better not be waking up to you blaming yourself for everything wrong with the world," said a third voice.

"Sam!" exclaimed Danny and Jazz together.

"Ugh, my head hurts." The goth girl sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes. Then she froze, staring at Danny. "Oh, heck, Danny. Are you okay? They hit you with that-"

"I'm fine," said Danny. He flickered in and out of visibility. "Kinda."

"Nnh," said a fourth voice, before Sam could do more than scowl and open her mouth. "It's too dark to wake up."

"Tucker!" said Danny, happy for the reprieve. "You're alive!"

"I, huh, what? I'm a jive?" Tucker sat up abruptly. "Ahh! Technus! What happened? Where are we? Danny, do you know where we are?" Before Danny could answer, Tucker frowned. "What happened to your face?"

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***