Negative Feedback (Danny Phantom Fic)

Chapter 27

RECAP:

A small smile stretched across her face, and she accepted the gift with both hands. "If you're sure, then... Okay. Let's go get this over with." 

--------------------------------------------------------- 

"No more games, Clockwork. I want to know directly: is there or is there not a way for me to get back home?"

The force of Camry's words silenced the room to the point that even the ticking of turning gears seemed to soften. Without turning around from where he hovered with his back to the group of five, Clockwork shifted from an old man to a young child. Then he spoke.

"Why are you so eager to get back to that dimension?"

"Wha--? 'Why?' Because--" And she stopped, any possible answers fading on her tongue. Visions of Dude running out of his home crying and Saoirse's entire family being cornered by ghostly snakes danced through her head. 

Camry squared her shoulders, her face set in stone with determination. "Because my friends are in trouble, and who knows who else might be after what I've seen."

"Then allow me to explain what I did not cover when you were last here," he said, finally looking at her-- at them all. His childish youth disappeared only to be replaced with the countenance of a young man in his prime; it was the appearance she had grown used to during their first encounter. Some small, unnoticed part of her brain wondered why he hadn't changed at all during that decent chunk of time.

"You are a spirette, meaning your core has not developed to its fullest capacity. While there is not a large window of opportunity left, there is still a chance for you to successfully return to the way you were before Crom spliced your spirit from your body." 

"There is?" she yelped, her eyes the size of saucers at the unexpected news. The dawning hope darkened into dread as another part of that statement finally registered. "Wait... Crom? Y-You don't mean Crom... Cruach, right?"

"The one and the same." Clockwork's face held the same indifferent expression he always wore, though it seemed to carry undertones of pity at that moment. "Now, to returning to your body. If you can find a way to recreate the most important circumstances during which your soul and body were separated, and then reunite with your body, you will be cleaved back together. How you accomplish that depends on you."

"Does she go totally back to normal, though?" Sam piped up suddenly, drawing the room's attention to herself. "Or does she become a half-ghost, like Danny?"

Camry and Danny exchanged uncertain glances at the idea that evolved into shock when Clockwork confirmed, "With her core developed as far as it has, there is virtually no way to reverse it. She will be a hybrid, just as Daniel is."

"Whoa!" he exclaimed. "Another half-ghost? Finally, someone who won't attack me from the get-go!" A celebratory fist pump punctuated the end of his cheer.

"Well, as long as I can at least be mostly alive," Camry allowed with a soft, hopeful smile gracing her features. "So that means I have to get back to my own dimension and find my body first. But Kitty says her Kiss doesn't work on girls! How is this going to work?"

Clockwork's crimson gaze landed on the Polaroid camera hanging around Camry's neck. "You have the answer right there." 

"My Polaroid?" she wondered, lifting it up curiously without taking off the neck strap.

"So, what you're saying is," Kitty drawled, "if she takes a picture of herself, and I blow a Kiss at the picture... it won't matter that she's a girl?"