Ghosts Don't Exist

Chapter 19:If There's Joy, There's Fear

"Why not? You said it would be best if I learned to control my ice powers first!" Danny stated in response to Vlad. "I leave soon, Badger. I need to teach you how to control more than ice. There's heat, ice, duplication, intangibility, splitting your body, and lots more." Vlad retaliated. Danny huffed, crossed his arms, and looked away.

Vlad sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He knelt down in front of Danny. "I'm only teaching you the basics because it's the only thing your body can handle right now. That ice magic scenario— whoever caused it— needs to be taken into consideration. You don't know how to heat yourself or the surrounding area."

"B-but I heated Damian up!" Danny clarified. Vlad stared at him. "What?" He murmured. "Ghosts have never been known to heat others up." He whispered to himself. "It's effortless. You just absorb what heats in the air and give it to whoever needs it." Danny explained, wiggling his hands as a soft orange glow raised.

Vlad stared curiously; heat was never used directly by the body of the ghost. It was something they couldn't do. However, cold was another story. The half ghost fact would have been an easy answer, but Vlad couldn't do that. This was all Daniel and no one else. Vlad side glanced at Damian, who stood by Alfred with a hot chocolate.

He fell asleep at some point when he was told to watch Danny, but no one thought much of it. "Daniel, what did you use to heat him?" Vlad watched air almost materialize into small bubble-like shapes before small smoke waves legates from Danny's hands. "I don't have to move; I just need to find the heat in the air. The more I take, the hotter I get. It is easier to reuse t-" Danny looked up at Vlad, his smile falling.

Vlad had tears in his eyes; now it made sense. He was extracting heat from his surroundings. He was using his body as a heater to reuse heat—his inability to control ice. Vlad's tears were coming out in streams. He knew exactly what was happening. He understood why Clockwork didn't tell him Danny survived.

Danny was officially dying and reaching his Final Death.

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Vlad screamed and cried as he tore his hotel room apart. He just got his little Badger back, and now he was dying. He left after Danny told him without a word. He left without telling and left Danny wondering if he'd done something wrong.

"Were you ever going to tell me?"

"Yes, but it was never the right time."

Vlad stared blankly at the translucent blue tail swaying nonchalantly around in front of him. He looked up with anger and confusion. "Never the right time? Time?! TIME?! You are the literal Ghost of Time; what do you mean?!"

Clockwork didn't look it, but he wanted to scream out every emotion that hurricane through him. He felt like he was going to burst. "My point, I've looked for more timelines, and there is never a time for me to tell you because you were not even supposed to find him. This is the ONLY timeline where you found him. This timeline should not even exist." Clockwork explained. Vlad listened reluctantly, but something important was going to come out of whatever Clockwork was going to say.

"Time cannot calculate a timeline that shouldn't exist. In a general sense, seeing time as not a living thing, I cannot touch this timeline. I can enter, leave, and interfere with probable mishandling. Even then, I get hurt when I do. That's all I can do."

Vlad stared up from the floor at Clockwork's eyes. He looked deprived of just... just everything. Vlad wasn't sure what was happening to Clockwork, but whatever it was, it was slowly draining his ghostly health. Vlad looked away as his eyebrows knitted. He covered his face with cold hands and purple fingers. Yet, smoke rose from his mouth from the dying fire inside him. His skin raw and teeth shattered—his tongue-tied by tragic wording and lips thinned by age.