Gravitational Phantoms

Chapter Seventeen

Danny didn't know how long he was there, enduring the torture of words or wounds. Jazz, Sam, Tucker, and Dani were sometimes replaced by others, like Mr. Lancer, Valerie, or his parents. Those times hurt almost as much as his friends. Occasionally random agents would walk in and beat or insult him.

It had become apparent that it was a dream not long after it began. Only in dreams would the decimated bodies of his loved ones and family hurt him, right?

Maybe all of it was a dream. What if he had never been captured, by the agents or his parents? What if he had never been found by Dipper and Mabel? 

Danny couldn't decide if that was a good thing or not. He hated that his parents thought that he was a monster, that his best friends and sister were dead or missing. He hated that he had been tortured, and that he had to live with what the agents had done to him.

But he liked the twins. And he liked Wendy. Soos was okay, but the hybrid didn't really know him. Stan and Ford seemed alright, even if Ford scared him. 

The hybrid had no idea what was happening in real life, or if he would ever wake up. Were the Pines family trying to wake him up? Or did they just leave him? 

Would they leave him?

The pure white walls around him began to darken, and soon they were pitch black. It shone oddly dark purple, the color of Sam's eyes in the sunlight. The glowing moonlight ring appeared around his waist, and his body reverted back to human form against his will. 

Danny gasped in pain as fire lanced through his body. He felt something move inside of him, and he tried to run away. But his feet moved in empty space, chains wrapped around his arms, legs, and waist. The hybrid screamed, and then everything became agony and azure flashes of flame.

Familiar white symbols started to shine in a circle, and they spun in a circle. Then they froze, and Bill stepped out from the middle. The triangle's eye tilted up as if he was amused.

"Had enough yet, DP?" He asked. The demon twirled his cane. "I can make it stop, you just have to make a deal..."

Danny braced himself and shook his head. "No."

"Oh really?" Bill's body turned bright red again, and his body grew to a tremendous size. The veins in his eye popped out, bleeding a dark crimson into the pupil and cornea. "Are you so sure about that? Because I can think of something that might make you change your mind."

He snapped his fingers, and a window similar to the one that he had shown Danny earlier appeared. In it, Danny saw himself, but it wasn't.

It was Dan.

Dan's fist's lit with an ectoblast, and he hurled it at a group of people that the ghost boy recognized. The Pines family scattered, and Danny watched as they fell one by one. 

First Stan, then Ford as he shielded the younger set of twins from a flaming sphere. Dipper was next, pushing his sister out of the way. And Mabel fell last, pleading with her brother to wake up.

"You see? You're inevitable. No matter where you run, no matter where you hide, you can't outrun your future."

"You-you're lying!"

"Am I? Your human aspirations are so funny, DP. Not quite as bad as Pine Tree, though."

"You have to be lying." But this time Danny wasn't sure that he was. The demon was right; he could feel it in his gut. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop himself from becoming Dan. Couldn't stop himself from becoming evil.

He looked up at Bill, dread heavy in his chest. "How can I stop it?"

"Simple," the yellow triangular demon extended his blazing hand, lit up with blue fire. "You make a deal."

Danny looked at the hand. "What's the catch?"

"All I want is a puppet. Simple, really. A puppet to stop the inevitable. I know that Shooting Star has one left over from that play of hers, and you could probably make one yourself."

The Halfa closed his eyes, then opened them. They glowed a pure, bright, green, and Danny shook Bill's hand. 

The demon cackled and tugged on Danny's palm. There was a feeling as if the fabric of the universe was tearing, and Danny's ears popped.

The four people in the bedroom were startled when Danny's mouth opened, and black-and-blue mist floated out. His eyes snapped open, and they were a pure green ringed with bright blue and yellow.

He began to speak, but it was just a mess of static-y gibberish. "Llib rehpic elganairt. Ni ytivarg sllaf htrae semoceb yks raef eht tsaeb htiw tsuj eno eye."

"What does that mean?" Mabel whispered, clinging to Stan's leg. Her great uncle set a reassuring hand on her head. 

"I think...it's just normal English, but backwards," her brother said with an uncertain frown. He bit his lip and tilted his head. "But I don't know why or how he's doing it."

Ford moved toward the ghost boy slowly, watching him warily. He leaned over the Halfa and studied his eyes and the mist. He frowned.

"That's very...strange," he commented. "I've never heard of a ghost sense looking like that before. Although I don't know what his normal one looks like."

"It's all blue, but it was mixed with black when he saw Bill for the first time earlier," Mabel informed him. "We saw it when we helped Pacifica with The Box Ghost."

"Is he okay, Grunkle Ford?" Dipper asked.

He was answered when Danny phased through his handcuffs and sat straight up. His eyes were closed again, but the glow shone through the lids.

A huge smile spread across his face, almost unnaturally big, and an awful feeling of dread settled into the pit of everyone's stomachs. His canines were oddly sharp, as if he had grown razor-sharp fangs.

Danny's eyes snapped open, revealing slitted pupils. He laughed, and his voice echoed strangely as if he were speaking down a long tunnel.

"Oh, don't worry yourself Pine Tree," he cackled. "I'm just fine."