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It had been a long patrol, and Danny just saw Sam and Tucker off to their homes for the night, making sure they got back safely. His arms burned from overusing his ice against a particularly strong Technus and Skulker, who had tag teamed Danny and worked together too well. They were either thinking up new ways to destroy him, or blaming one another for the failure, trapped together in the thermos.
For some reason, Danny’s body ached, when it never had before. It was weird and deeply unsettling. He flew through the house and into the basement, peeking inside intangibly to make sure his parents weren't there. When he found they weren't, he stood in front of the portal and plugged the thermos back into the port.
It had been a happy accident, given Maddie and Jack never intended to release captured ghosts back into the Ghost Zone. It was just highly convenient and coincidental that the random hole in the frame worked the way it did.
Danny put the thermos back on the hook around his belt, glad it followed the physics of his hazmat suit and disappeared when he transformed. But Danny felt beyond drained, and decided to sit for a few moments before turning back and dragging himself up to his room to do his homework.
He started to drift off, and only came aware when he felt a searing pain in his leg. He jolted, expecting it to be his parents, but what he saw was of nobody else’s doing. His foot was melting. Destabilizing. Like Ellie’s had in the beginning. Danny screamed, unable to contain it, and shifted back.
It hurt badly to change forms, but his human, sneakered foot was whole and painless. The house had been full of his family, so they all easily heard the scream. Jazz was down first, and sighed in relief when seeing Danny in human form.
Before she could ask what had happened, their parents came down, too. Danny was wired with panic. He couldn't think, he couldn't speak, just ripping his shoe and sock off to make sure his foot wasn't disfigured and sloughing off into a puddle of flesh instead of ectoplasm.
“Danny, what’s going on? What were you doing down here?” Maddie asked. When Danny didn't answer, she laid a hand on his shoulder, causing him to jump in startle. There were tears on his cheeks. “Sweetie, what happened?”
“Nothing! I thought I saw a ghost!” he finally blurted, finally gathering the energy to speak. Before anyone could challenge his excuse, he sprinted back out of the basement and into his room.
Jazz entered minutes later, closing the door behind her. Danny was sitting in bed, knees up to his chest, rocking back and forth, going through his breathing exercises Clockwork suggested he try whenever he had nightmares about the future he’d helped avert.
“What happened?” she asked seriously, gently. Danny was very obviously shaken, though he was sure Jazz would love to use the word traumatized instead.
“I started to destabilize,” he said honestly. Jazz paled.
“That’s when…”
“A ghost melts into a puddle of ectoplasm and dies,” Danny confirmed, chewing on his bottom lip. “I was tired after patrol, and after I discharged the thermos, I sat down and started to drift off. Then, my leg hurt real bad and I looked down and my foot was a puddle, like Ellie when she wasn't on treatment.”
“But, Ellie was - sorry - created broken. Why… Why would you destabilize?” Jazz asked, trying and failing to hide her growing panic.
“I don't know. I would give her ecto-dejecto to help with it, but that stuff makes me sick, it doesn't have healing properties. I was thinking about going to my ghost doctor, or Clockwork.”
“Not as a ghost, right?”
“In the specter speeder. And as soon as possible,” he mumbled.
Jazz was already standing, and held out her hand. Danny blinked at her. “Well, let’s get going. I'm the better driver anyway.” Danny briefly wanted to invite Sam and Tucker along, too, since he rarely did ghostly activities without them at least knowing about it, but it would worry them (maybe unnecessarily) if there was a quick fix for this.
Danny stood up and followed her out of his room. He couldn't use any ghost powers to check if their parents were out of the way, so the two of them sat on the couch and waited until they heard Jack’s deafening snores. Then, they headed down into the lab, and left inside their protective vehicle.
Even in human form, thankfully, Danny could feel the internal map in his mind of the Ghost Zone, of places he’d been and marked in his soul as worthy of returning. With the way the Ghost Zone naturally shifted from visit to visit, he assumed this sense of direction was just natural within ghosts to counteract the changing landscape.
Luckily, no ghosts bothered them on their journey. Jazz was bundled up in winter clothes to prepare for the visit to Far Frozen. Danny desperately hoped for an answer, and a solution, to this horrific problem. He also suddenly admired Ellie a lot more for handling it the way she had. And still did.
The people of Far Frozen were expecting him, which clued Danny into the fact Clockwork was involved, which made him worry even further. This was a big deal, then, not a fluke. As much as Clockwork seemed to be fond of Danny, he didn't usually meddle and more often than not, they only met because Danny sought him out.
And yup, there was the Time Ancient, floating next to Frostbite. Jazz, to her credit, didn't seem nervous at all. Danny was glad she was relaxed around the ghosts Danny considered friends and allies.
Even in human form, he tolerated the cold well.
“Daniel,” Clockwork greeted, neither surprised to see the other.
“Hi, Clockwork. Figure this is a big deal, if you're already here.”
“Indeed,” he said, inclining his head. Danny worked hard to keep the utter panic off of his face and out of his body language. Based on the look Jazz gave him, he wasn't very successful at it. Frostbite made a sweeping motion with his arm, welcoming them inside the facility. Danny sat on a bed made of ice and fur pelts, and explained what had happened an hour ago.
Clockwork just nodded. “I can't tell if you're not surprised, or if you're just good at hiding it,” Danny sighed.
“I am unsurprised.”
“Am I dying?” he asked, voice small and scared.
Clockwork frowned, shaking his head. “No, Daniel, you're not dying, nor will you die from this. It is simply an incompatibility between your core and physical body.”
“That sounds like a big deal,” Jazz stated, eyes flicking to her brother in fear.
“It is a reality for many ghosts who become powerful too quickly. Daniel has been a ghost for under three years, yet has developed the abilities of a ghost who came into being at least fifty years ago.” Danny knew he was powerful since so many people spat that fact at him like he was disgusting for it, but it was still odd to hear Clockwork say it himself.
“Is there a cure?” Danny asked hopefully. Surely there was a fix, if this had happened before. He distantly wondered if Vlad had suffered from this, too, at some point. He hadn't been blasted with the same amount of ecto-energy Danny had at death, and his had not been instant, but Plasmius was still a very powerful halfa.
“There is treatment before the body can catch up to the core,” Frostbite answered. “It’s a simple treatment.” Clockwork held out his hand, and in the palm of it, a pendant formed. It was a blue crystal with a metal chain. Danny wasn't sure how he felt about his body being held together by a necklace.
The Ancient seemed to know what he was thinking, and most likely did. “We can phase this into your body, like Dan did the time amulet all those years ago. This is a semi-permanent treatment, so it's best to have it permanently fixed inside of your body.” Danny felt much more comfortable knowing it wouldn't fall off in battle and cause Danny to melt into a puddle. And it wasn't an enemy shoving an object into his chest, it was someone who he trusted. “Do I have your consent?”
“Yeah. Yeah, f‘course.” Clockwork nodded, turned his hand and the object in his palm intangible, and then told him to turn into his ghost form. Any calm that Danny had obtained disappeared in an instant. His whole body went tense, eyes full of fear.
“Daniel, you are in a medical facility, and I can reverse time to repair your body if something catastrophic happens,” Clockwork assured him calmly. “Can you transform for me?”
Closing his eyes, clutching Jazz’s hand once she wrapped it around his clenched fist, he nodded, and transformed. A nanosecond after the white rings faded, Clockwork plunged his intangible hand into Danny’s chest, and his melting toes solidified back to normal. Danny coughed, the sensation of a foreign object trapped in his body being weird and unfamiliar, but otherwise, he was unharmed.
“See, all is well. With this remedy, you can continue on like normal.”
“What if a ghost sticks their hand in me and tries to take it out?” Danny asked nervously.
“Has anyone ever tried before? Besides your evil future self from that timeline?”
“Well, no…”
“Then do not worry. Besides, I am always watching. I promise I won't allow you to destabilize.”
Danny let out a breath in relief, and offered him a shaky smile. “Thanks.” Clockwork just nodded, and then stood up.
“Alas, I need to return to Long Now and accept my dreary scolding from the Observants.”
Danny frowned, and averted his eyes. “I’m sorry to trouble you.”
“For you, the trouble is worth it.” Before Danny could reply with another thanks, Clockwork vanished. Frostbite, jovially, unconcerned, asked Danny if he’d like a general check up, since he was already there. He agreed, and Jazz left to wait in the only insulated room of the entire mountain. She gave Danny a reassuring smile that he returned, feeling safe and cared for.
He had people in his life that would always take care of him. Danny looked forward to the day he could rely on himself only and not a piece of jewelry embedded in his chest, but the whole incident made him very grateful he wasn't the only one of his kind, and that he at least followed some general rules of ghost kind.