Stolas's Earth Residence
Octavia stepped through the portal with Danny leaning heavily against her. His arm was draped over her shoulders, and she had one arm wrapped around his waist to keep him upright.
The portal closed behind them, leaving them in the familiar living room of her father's Earth residence.
"Dad?" Octavia called out.
Danny stumbled, forcing her to tighten her grip before he could fall.
"Dad!"
"Via?" Stolas's voice came from upstairs. "Is that you, darling?"
"Yes! I need help!"
Hurried footsteps followed, and Stolas appeared at the top of the stairs.
"Octavia? What's wrong?"
He started down but stopped when he saw her struggling to support someone.
"Good heavens! Via, are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine! It's Danny!"
Stolas hurried down the remaining steps. He recognized Danny almost immediately, though the boy looked considerably different from the last time he'd seen him.
"Danny? What on Earth happened?"
"I don't know! Something happened with his parents' machine, and he just..." Octavia struggled to find the words. "Dad, please!"
"Yes, of course! Here, let me help."
Stolas moved to Danny's other side and took some of his weight. The moment he touched him, he noticed how cold the boy felt.
"Oh, goodness. He's freezing!"
Danny's normally black hair had turned completely white, and his clothes had somehow changed into a strange black-and-white suit. Faint traces of green energy occasionally flickered around him.
"Danny, can you hear me?"
Danny's eyes shifted toward him.
"Hey... Stolas."
His voice was weak, and he could barely keep his head up.
"Hello, my boy. Are you hurt anywhere?"
Danny tried to answer but only managed a small shake of his head.
"That's all right. Let's get you somewhere comfortable."
Between them, Stolas and Octavia helped Danny over to the couch. His legs barely cooperated, and he sank into the cushions as soon as they lowered him onto the seat.
Octavia sat beside him while Stolas crouched in front of the couch and placed two fingers against Danny's neck.
After several seconds, he adjusted his fingers and tried again. There was a heartbeat, but it was so faint and slow that he could barely detect it.
Stolas watched Danny's chest next. His breathing was shallow and infrequent, with so little movement that Stolas had to concentrate to see it.
"Oh, this isn't good."
Octavia looked up sharply. "What?"
"His pulse is barely detectable, and his breathing is far too shallow. Good heavens, he should hardly be conscious with readings like these."
"Dad?"
"Perhaps the energy affected his heart or lungs. But then how was he able to speak just now? Unless there's some kind of magical interference, or..."
"Dad!"
Stolas looked up.
"You're panicking!"
"I..." Stolas stopped himself.
"Dad, please!" Octavia's voice cracked slightly. "I brought him here because I thought you could help him. You've got that big brain of yours, so use it!"
Stolas blinked at her.
"You're right, darling. I'm sorry."
He focused on Danny again.
"Let's start with something simple."
Stolas held a hand over Danny's chest. A faint red glow formed around his fingers and spread briefly across the boy's body.
"What are you doing?" Octavia asked.
"Checking his life force. I want to see whether it's fading."
The glow lingered for a few moments before fading.
"Well?" Octavia prompted.
"His life force is still present, and I don't sense it weakening."
"So he's okay?"
"I wouldn't say that, Via. His heartbeat and breathing are far weaker than they should be. I don't understand how he's remaining conscious at all."
Danny was still lying against the cushions with his eyes half-open. Whatever was happening to him, his physical condition didn't match what Stolas would expect from someone with such weak vital signs.
"If his condition worsens, we'll need medical assistance," Stolas added. "But first, I need to know what happened."
He turned to Octavia.
"Tell me about the accident."
Octavia took a breath.
"We were at Danny's house, in the basement. His parents have this machine they've been working on, and Danny went inside it. Then it suddenly turned on."
"His parents' machine? You mean that portal Jack and Maddie have been building?"
"Yes! Danny was inside it when it activated. There was this green light, and then all this energy started coming out. He was right in the middle of it."
Stolas knew about the Fentons' research. Jack and Maddie had spent years investigating ghosts and attempting to construct a portal to what they believed was another dimension inhabited by them.
He'd never doubted their technological abilities, but their theories about ghosts had frequently contradicted his understanding of souls and the afterlife. He'd been particularly skeptical of their belief that spirits originated from an entirely separate dimension.
Yet Danny had apparently been caught inside their machine when it activated, and something had fundamentally changed him.
Perhaps there was more to their research than he'd given them credit for.
Whether they'd actually reached the world they claimed was another question.
"Did the portal actually open?"
"I think so. There was something inside it, but I couldn't really see anything at first. Everything happened so fast." Octavia hesitated. "Danny screamed, and then he collapsed. We thought..."
She couldn't finish.
Stolas gave her a moment before asking, "What happened afterward?"
"His hair turned white, and his clothes changed. There was this weird green stuff all around him. And then his hands started going through things, like he wasn't solid anymore."
Stolas raised his eyebrows.
"He became intangible?"
"I guess? He didn't even know he was doing it! One moment he was fine, and then his hand would just go through something."
Stolas gently lifted Danny's hand and examined it. Apart from its unusually low temperature, there was nothing visibly wrong with it.
"Did he display any other abilities?"
"There was green light coming from him sometimes. And he kept getting weaker." Octavia looked down at Danny. "I don't know what that machine did to him."
"We'll try to find out."
Stolas set Danny's hand down, and Octavia leaned closer to him.
"Danny?"
His eyes were half-open.
"Hey," he answered weakly.
"How are you feeling?"
Danny took a moment to answer.
"Tired."
"Anything else?"
He shifted slightly against the cushions.
"I dunno... kinda numb."
Stolas leaned forward.
"Danny, do you remember what happened inside your parents' portal?"
Danny struggled to focus on him.
"The portal..."
"Yes. Can you remember anything?"
Danny swallowed.
"I saw..."
Octavia moved closer. "Saw what?"
"There was... someone."
"Someone?" Stolas asked. "Inside the portal?"
Danny shook his head faintly.
Octavia frowned. "Danny, there wasn't anybody else in there."
"No, I..." He struggled to concentrate. "An angel."
Octavia stared at him.
"What?"
"An angel," Danny repeated. "I saw... an angel."
Stolas straightened.
"An angel?"
Danny's eyes drifted shut.
"White... light..."
"Danny?" Octavia touched his shoulder.
He didn't answer.
"Danny, hey!"
She tried to shake him awake, but Stolas gently stopped her.
"Via, let me check him."
"He's not answering!"
"I know."
Stolas checked Danny's pulse and breathing again. Both remained barely detectable, but neither seemed to have changed since his initial examination.
"His condition doesn't seem to have worsened. Let's not force him to wake up."
Octavia reluctantly withdrew her hand.
"But he was just talking."
"Whatever happened to him has clearly taken quite a toll."
She looked down at Danny.
"What was he talking about? An angel?"
Stolas didn't answer immediately.
He knew angels existed, of course, and Danny's mention of one was considerably more significant to him than it seemed to be to Octavia.
Danny had been caught in an experimental dimensional portal, undergone an unexplained transformation, and now exhibited vital signs that would ordinarily suggest he was close to death.
'Could he have briefly crossed over?'
The possibility concerned him, but he had no evidence that Danny's soul had actually left his body.
"Dad?"
"Sorry, darling. What was that?"
"Do you think he was hallucinating?"
"Perhaps."
"He wasn't making much sense."
"No, but I'd rather not dismiss what he said entirely."
"Why?"
"Well, angels are quite real, Via. It's possible he witnessed something during the accident."
Octavia frowned.
"You think he actually saw an angel?"
"I don't know. He may have been confused, or perhaps he experienced something while the portal was active."
Stolas decided against sharing his speculation about Heaven. There was little point worrying Octavia with another possibility when he had no evidence to support it.
"We can ask him about it once he's feeling better."
Octavia didn't appear particularly convinced, but she let the matter drop.
"Via, when the portal activated, did you sense any magic?" Stolas asked. "Infernal magic, perhaps, or something else familiar?"
Octavia thought back to the basement.
"No. Nothing like that. Whatever that green stuff was, it didn't feel like anything I've encountered before."
Stolas studied the faint green glow that occasionally flickered around Danny's body. He couldn't identify it through observation alone.
"And that energy appeared when the machine activated?"
"Yeah. It was everywhere when Danny got caught in it. The portal was still running when we left, too."
"Still running?"
Octavia nodded. "Sam and Tucker stayed behind when I brought Danny here."
"Did anything come through the portal?"
"Not that I saw."
That was worth remembering. Stolas had encountered dimensional disturbances capable of affecting living creatures, though he couldn't yet say whether the Fentons' machine had produced something similar.
"And the others? Were they hurt?"
"No, they were okay."
"Good. Do they know you brought Danny here?"
"Yeah. They saw everything."
"Everything?"
"The accident. What happened to Danny." Octavia hesitated. "And... my portal."
Stolas blinked.
"Your portal?"
"I had to use the grimoire to bring him here."
Stolas raised his eyebrows. "In front of his friends?"
"Yes, but they promised not to tell anyone!" Octavia quickly explained. "I made them promise before I opened it."
Stolas regarded her for a moment. Ordinarily, he would have wanted a much longer conversation about revealing Goetia magic to two humans. But with Danny unconscious on the couch, he could hardly fault Octavia for using the quickest means available to get him help.
"I see. Well, we'll discuss that another time."
Octavia looked relieved.
"And Danny's parents?" Stolas continued. "Have they been told?"
Octavia shook her head.
"Danny asked Sam and Tucker not to tell them about the accident."
Stolas considered that for a moment.
"Well, we'll have to address that eventually. But right now, Danny needs our attention."
"Dad, I know I wasn't supposed to show them any of that, but I couldn't just leave him there. I didn't know what else to do!"
"Via, I'm not angry with you."
Stolas placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Danny needed help, and you brought him somewhere you thought he'd be safe. I understand why you did it."
Octavia hesitated.
"What if bringing him through the portal made things worse?"
"Did anything unusual happen during the journey?"
"No. Not that I noticed."
"Then we have no reason to believe it harmed him."
"But we don't know."
"No, we don't," Stolas admitted. "That's why I want to examine him properly."
Octavia was quiet for a moment.
"I just... I wasn't sure what else to do. He kept getting weaker, and I didn't know how to help him."
"You did everything you could, Via. Right now, we need to concentrate on helping him."
"What if you can't help him?"
Stolas hesitated. He wanted to reassure her, but he wasn't going to promise something he couldn't guarantee.
"Then we'll find someone who can. I'm not going to give up on him, darling."
Octavia looked at Danny again. She still seemed worried, but at least she wasn't trying to handle everything herself anymore.
Octavia was quiet for a moment.
"I didn't want to take him to Hell," she eventually said. "I don't know what's wrong with him, and I didn't know if it'd be safe there. I figured it'd be better to bring him here first."
"A sensible precaution," Stolas agreed. "We can determine what's happened before deciding whether he needs to be taken anywhere else. I'd rather avoid attracting unnecessary attention while he's in this condition."
Octavia seemed reassured by that, though she remained close to Danny.
Stolas moved a nearby chair closer to the couch and sat down.
"Now, I think it's time we take a proper look at our young patient."
Octavia watched as he settled himself beside Danny.
"Dad? You can help him, right?"
Stolas considered the boy's condition.
His appearance had changed considerably, his body temperature was abnormally low, and his heartbeat and breathing were barely detectable. Yet his life force remained present, and he'd been able to speak despite the severity of those physical symptoms.
It was certainly unusual, but Stolas had encountered transformations, curses, and dimensional accidents before. Even if the Fentons' technology was unfamiliar, he expected his knowledge of the supernatural would help him identify what had happened.
"I need to determine exactly what's happened to him first, Via. I don't want to make promises before I understand the problem."
Octavia looked down at Danny.
"He's going to be okay, isn't he?"
Stolas's expression softened.
"I'll do everything I can to help him, darling. You have my word."
Octavia nodded and settled beside Danny on the couch.
Stolas held his hand over the boy's chest. A faint glow formed around his fingers as he prepared his first proper diagnostic spell.
"Now then. Let's see what we're dealing with."
The glow spread across Danny's body as Stolas began his examination.
Octavia remained beside Danny, watching her father work.
"What's this one supposed to do?" she asked.
"A more thorough examination, darling. I want to understand how his body is responding to whatever happened inside that machine."
Stolas concentrated on the spell. Danny's physical condition hadn't changed since his preliminary examination. His heartbeat and breathing remained alarmingly weak, and his body temperature was far below normal. Yet his life force was stable, with no indication that it was fading.
"Well, the good news is that he hasn't grown any weaker," Stolas said.
"That's good, right?"
"Certainly. But his physical condition is still rather concerning."
He adjusted the spell to examine Danny's heart and lungs, searching for recognizable magic that might be interfering with their normal functions. He also checked for any outside enchantment that could be artificially sustaining him.
He found neither.
What puzzled Stolas was that Danny's condition didn't appear to be deteriorating. His vital signs were far too weak for someone who had been conscious and speaking only minutes earlier, yet there was no indication that his body was continuing to fail.
"His heartbeat and breathing are much weaker than they should be," Stolas explained. "Ordinarily, I'd expect someone in his condition to be in considerably greater distress."
"Then why isn't he?"
"That's what I'm trying to determine."
Stolas couldn't tell whether the accident had damaged Danny's biological functions or altered them in some unfamiliar way. Until he understood the cause, attempting to magically correct those abnormalities seemed unwise.
He allowed the spell to fade.
"There's something else I'd like to check."
"What?"
"His soul."
Octavia stared at him. "His what?"
"His soul, Via. Given the nature of the accident, I want to make certain the portal didn't disturb its connection to his body."
"You think his soul got knocked out of him or something?"
"Not necessarily, darling. But it's a possibility worth investigating."
Stolas remembered Danny's strange claim about seeing an angel.
'If his soul crossed over, perhaps it never fully returned.'
"Will checking it hurt him?" Octavia asked.
"No. I'm only examining the connection, not attempting to alter it."
"Okay."
Stolas placed his hand above Danny's forehead and concentrated on his spiritual presence.
Almost immediately, he detected Danny's soul within his body. He examined the connection more carefully, searching for signs of displacement or an incomplete attachment. He also checked for any indication that another entity had taken possession of him.
There was nothing unusual about the connection itself.
Danny's soul was fully present and properly attached to his body.
"Well, that's encouraging," Stolas murmured.
"What did you find?"
"His soul is intact. It's still properly connected to his body."
"So it didn't get knocked out of him?"
"At least, it isn't displaced now."
Octavia considered that.
"Does that mean he didn't actually see an angel?"
"Not necessarily. I can't tell you what he might have experienced during the accident. Only that his soul is currently where it should be."
Stolas ended the spell. His theory of an incomplete return no longer seemed likely, although he couldn't rule out a temporary separation during the accident.
"Let's check a few other possibilities."
He continued examining Danny for familiar supernatural conditions, including infernal curses, soul bindings, and recognizable transformation spells. None of the examinations revealed anything that could explain his condition.
"Well, he isn't possessed, and I can't detect any curse or outside enchantment responsible for what's happened."
Octavia looked relieved.
"So that's good news?"
"Yes, darling. But it doesn't mean he's getting better. We still need to determine what caused his transformation."
Octavia glanced at Danny, whose face remained still against the cushions.
"Do you think the portal did this to him?"
"I suspect so. Dimensional exposure can produce unusual effects, and some transformations don't involve conventional spells at all."
"And you can figure out what it did?"
"I believe so. Let's try something more comprehensive."
Stolas raised both hands, summoning several glowing symbols above Danny. They arranged themselves into a circular pattern and began rotating slowly.
This spell was intended to identify supernatural characteristics rather than search for a particular enchantment. Stolas had used similar methods when studying unfamiliar creatures and magical transformations.
Even if he couldn't immediately identify Danny's condition, he expected to learn something useful.
The symbols began responding.
At first, the results appeared consistent with his earlier examinations. Danny possessed a stable life force, his soul remained attached, and his physical body registered as living.
Then Stolas noticed something strange.
One of the symbols had changed.
He examined the reading more closely.
That couldn't be right.
The spell was identifying a spiritual characteristic he normally associated with a departed soul.
Stolas checked the other symbols. Danny's physical readings remained unchanged, but the spiritual result suggested something that shouldn't have been possible in a living human.
"Hmm."
Octavia turned toward him.
"What?"
"One moment, darling."
Stolas adjusted the symbols, checking whether the unfamiliar energy surrounding Danny might be interfering with the spell.
The result remained unchanged.
He dismissed the pattern and began again, making a further adjustment to account for possible interference.
The same contradiction appeared.
"How peculiar."
Octavia noticed him studying the results.
"Dad?"
"I'm checking something."
"You already did that one."
"Yes, darling. I wanted to make certain the first reading was accurate."
Stolas allowed the symbols to disappear.
Perhaps the spell wasn't properly interpreting whatever transformation Danny had undergone. It was designed around known supernatural classifications, after all.
There was another method he could try.
Stolas summoned a smaller arrangement of symbols and began examining Danny's physical and spiritual properties separately.
The first portion confirmed his previous findings.
The second produced the same troubling result.
He narrowed the examination to focus specifically on Danny's spiritual presence. Again, the readings resembled those of a departed soul.
The second spell was functioning correctly, yet it had produced the same impossible result.
Stolas could no longer dismiss the contradiction as a simple malfunction.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Octavia watched him dismiss the spell. She could tell something was bothering him, but he hadn't explained what he'd found.
Stolas turned his attention to the faint green energy surrounding Danny.
Perhaps that was the source of the problem.
If the portal had left some unfamiliar magical residue within Danny's body, it might be distorting his examinations.
"Let's have a closer look at this energy," he murmured.
"The green stuff?" Octavia asked.
"Precisely."
Stolas began another spell, focusing on the unfamiliar energy itself.
The green glow around Danny became more visible as the examination took effect. Stolas studied its properties, searching for anything he recognized.
It didn't match any familiar infernal source, nor did it resemble the forms of mortal magic he'd encountered during his studies.
When he tried locating the source of the energy, he discovered that it wasn't simply surrounding Danny. The same unfamiliar signature appeared throughout his body.
Stolas traced it through Danny's chest, then examined his arms and head. The readings remained remarkably consistent, with no obvious point of concentration.
He tried distinguishing the energy from Danny's physical and spiritual properties, but the spell couldn't establish a clear separation.
'Had the energy become part of him?'
If so, trying to remove or suppress it could be dangerous. Stolas couldn't determine whether the energy was harming Danny or whether his altered body now depended on it.
He decided against interfering with it until he understood more.
"Dad?"
Stolas looked up.
"Yes, darling?"
"What's wrong?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Because you've been doing these spells for a while, and you keep checking the same things."
"I'm trying to verify my findings."
"Yeah, I noticed."
Octavia glanced at Danny.
"At first, you were telling me what everything meant. Now you keep going quiet."
Earlier, she'd needed to tell her father to stop panicking. Now he was silently checking the same readings over and over, and she wasn't sure which was worse.
"I don't want to worry you unnecessarily," Stolas admitted.
"Dad, I'm already worried. Just tell me what's happening."
Stolas hesitated. He'd confirmed several important things about Danny's condition, but every attempt to understand the more unusual findings had only raised further questions.
"All right, Via."
He settled back in his chair.
"First, there is some good news. Danny is alive, his life force is stable, and his soul is still properly attached to his body. I also haven't found any signs of possession or a curse."
Octavia looked relieved, though only slightly.
"Okay. That's good, right?"
"Yes, darling. Those are all encouraging findings."
"But there's something else."
Stolas hesitated.
"Some of my spells are detecting characteristics I would normally expect to find in a departed spirit."
Octavia stared at him.
"What?"
"They're responding to Danny as though he's already died."
She immediately looked at her unconscious friend.
"But he's not dead."
"No, darling. He isn't."
"Then why would your spells say that?"
"That's precisely what I'm trying to understand."
Octavia frowned. "Could they be wrong?"
"That was my first thought. But I've checked the readings several times, using different methods. They consistently show both sets of characteristics, even though a living human shouldn't register this way."
Octavia struggled to make sense of that.
"So... what does that make him?"
"I don't know, Via. I can't even say for certain what sort of transformation he's undergone."
He indicated the faint green energy still visible around Danny.
"There's also that energy. It seems to have become part of his body, but I don't recognize it. I can't tell whether it's causing these strange readings or if both are the result of something else."
"Is it hurting him?"
"I haven't found anything that proves it is. But I also don't know what would happen if I tried to remove it."
Octavia lowered her gaze to Danny's white hair and unfamiliar suit.
"Could all this wear off?"
"It's possible, but I have no way of knowing whether the changes are temporary."
She was quiet for a moment.
"You're supposed to know about this stuff," she said.
"I know, Via."
"You're the one who understands magic and souls and all that. How can you not know what's happening to him?"
Stolas sighed.
"Because I haven't encountered anything quite like this before. I've checked everything I know to look for, and the results still don't make sense."
Octavia held Danny's hand a little more tightly. His skin was still unnaturally cold, and his breathing remained almost impossible to notice.
"But he's going to be okay, isn't he?"
Stolas wished he could give her a definite answer.
"I can't say that he's safe yet, darling. His condition is stable for the moment, but there's still too much I don't understand."
"Then what are we supposed to do?"
Stolas considered the question. There were other possibilities he could investigate, though he was becoming increasingly reluctant to subject Danny to more magic without knowing how his body might react.
"I need to think through what we've found. There may be something I've overlooked."
Octavia studied his expression.
"But you don't know how to fix him."
"Not yet, Via."
Before she could respond, Danny shifted slightly against the cushions.
Octavia felt his fingers move beneath hers.
"Danny?"
His eyelids fluttered, and she leaned closer.