Is it possible to forget how to breathe? Surprisingly, yes.

When you choke, or when you have the wind knocked out of you, sometimes even when you're shocked or afraid. Your brain literally can't make your body breath without conscious effort. You have to consciously focus and think, inhale, pause, exhale, inhale, pause, exhale. And if you don't....You don't breathe. And when you don't breathe, you pass out, your body and mind are forced into an unconscious state so that mechanics and muscle memory take over and your body breathes instinctively.

And this is what happens most of the time when your brain fails you and you forget the simple task of breathing to oxygenate your body. Some would say that the moment you can't breathe, the moment you are incapable of inhaling the complex chemicals in the atmosphere around you and exhaling carbon dioxide is terrifying. And why wouldn't it be?

When one forgets how to breathe, when your brain fails you and you forget the simple task of breathing to oxygenate your body, fear starts to build up. Fear isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's what keeps you from doing stupid things and helps with unnecessary risks. But in this circumstance, it doesn't help.

Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing, and energized muscles, among other things, also known as the fight-freeze-or-flight response. Once the fear pathways are ramped up, the brain short-circuits more rational processing paths and reacts immediately to signals from the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure in the limbic system of your brain. While fear can play tricks with your memory and your perception of reality, it also affects your body. And the amygdala is considered to be the seat of fear in the brain (as well as other emotions). But fear is processed differently than other emotions, bypassing the sensory cortex on its way to the amygdala. A signal sent to the adrenal glands in your torso causes them to send out cortisol and adrenaline, two hormones. The fear response also a releases glucose into the bloodstream -- a power up to get you running for your life--

But that's beside the point.

The next question is a rational response to a major lapse in memory?

Logically, one would calm down and force themselves to inhale, pause, exhale, inhale, pause, exhale. But it's not that simple. Far from simple, actually.

During the fear process, two hormones called cortisol and adrenaline are released into your brain and bloodstream, which severely limits the ability to release any other chemicals. Chemicals such as serotonin, the soothing chemical. So calming down and focusing is incredibly hard to do.

Danny, who knew all of this and had perfected the technique of channeling all those chemicals in his body to calm down, was still unable to do so in this situation.

Unfortunately, it was not just fear that affected him, but rather glutamate, the excitation chemical, mixed with delirium (confusion and disorientation), and the combination threw him so off balance that he forgot how to breathe.

And he can blame no one other than the redhead in front of him.

A redhead who should be very much dead.

Inhale, pause, exhale, inhale, pause exhale, inhalepauseexhale, inhalepauseexhale, inhaleexhaleinhaleexhaleinha-

When simply breathing doesn't help, the calming reflex can help. Looking at colors and listening to sounds that release serotonin for you, many mothers use this technique to calm down infant children that won't stop crying and--

"Danny? Is that you?"

All thoughts in his brain were bluntly cut off and his body worked in overtime to produce the oxygen his lungs were so desperate for. The redhead had spoken and Danny's full, undivided attention was drawn to the fifteen-year-old version of his dead sister.

And this was his sister.

Danny wasn't a social butterfly. Far from it. He had little to no human contact for seven years, 3 months, 1 week, 6 days, 14 hours of his life. And he was sort of lucky that at least it had happened earlier in his life because if it had happened later, he would have gone completely insane.

That was the funny thing about humans, they needed interaction. Prolonged isolation of a human would make them more attuned to their surroundings, senses would heighten and soon the complete lack of contact and silence would induce hallucinations and cause them to lose their minds. In fact, he read somewhere that a common interrogation technique for prisons in certain countries, such as Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran (built in 1971), put their political prisoners in a place called Section 204 which is a solitary confinement block with cells that are 1 meter by 2 meters and are 4 meters tall, without windows and they kept them in there for days or weeks on end without any contact other than the interrogation. The prisoners often received threats and didn't see outside unless going to trial. It made them more prone to confessions, even if they were forced and false.

The bottom line, due to Danny's prolonged stay without any good human interaction left him a little more than unable to properly act in certain social situations. Such as this one.

New question (question number four if he's counting correctly): How does a normal human re-act to seeing their (should be twenty-one-year-old and dead) sister after going through a situation where they had been impersonated?

Speaking of impersonation, what was the creature that had looked like his sister? (Number five) Were they shapeshifters? (Number six)

But couldn't be shapeshifters (Number seven--no wait, that wasn't a question still at six.) Shapeshifters are myths. They were a person or being with the ability to change their physical form at will. Well, supposedly it's possible, because ghosts fell under the category of "beings" and he guessed that if there were ghosts that were stemmed from Gods and other creatures, like yetis, it was entirely possible for shapeshifters to--

"Great One? Are you quite alright?"

Danny was, again, snapped from his thoughts. He was unable to come up with any response better than, "I want to go home."

The ghosts looked at each other, and one ghost, one Danny hadn't seen before, stepped forward. He had red eyes and a scar over his left eye, and his skin was blue.

Fun fact about colors, much like time, color is only a construct of the human mind. One person's blue could be different to another person's blue. Scientists think that people come up with the idea of colors. Well, that is what some scientists and many philosophers seem to think. But it's never been--

He was getting distracted again.

Distraction is really—

No. Stop. Listen and pay attention, it could save your life.

"Danny?" He looked at his sister again. A lot more controlled and wary this time.

"Who are you?" He asked, voice as cold as the ice he made. She blinked. Once. Twice. She opened her mouth to answer but wasn't able to before the blue-skinned ghost spoke.

"Hello, Daniel. My name is Clockwork, I am the ghost master of time. I had brought your sister here a long while ago. She is from earlier in this timeline, to her, you were three only a few days ago." The boy processed the new information.

"Where today?" He asked. He cringed at his still bad English but wasn't able to think clearly, still shocked and confused. Clockwork's face softened marginally when he heard the words.

"I'm sorry, Daniel." He didn't say more. And he didn't have to.

The boy expected to scream, cry, he thought he'd grieve, or at the very minimum, he'd thought that he'd at least want to do those things.

But he's not. Nor does he want to.

It's not like he was in denial or numb, it was not even shock or realization.

'You already knew that. Why did you ask?'

He supposed he wasn't sure of the point in asking. Closure? Certainty? Regardless he had known. He had known for seven years, 3 months, 1 week, 6 days, 14 hours. He had hoped, hoped it wasn't true, hoped she'd be ok, but that hope lasted only a year into his....situation.

"Oh."

"What's going on? Why is my baby brother, who was only three a week ago, now look to be seven?"

Danny was not amused.

"Daniel is eleven and he was captured at age four. He spent seven years—"

"seven years, 3 months, 1 week, 6 days, 14 hours." The boy interrupted. Clockwork nodded, not affected in the least.

"—with an organization that killed you and your family. He was experimented on. I brought you to this timeline in order to keep time balanced, and allow the sequence of events that will end in the right outcome taking place. Unfortunately, I will have to wipe your memory and bring you back. I just thought you would want to see each other."

Jazz immediately ran and hugged her brother tightly. Danny was unable to keep himself from tensing in reaction to the abrupt physical contact. (Can't blame him, past physical contact never ended well.) After a minute (too long, you know it's too long. You should have reacted faster) he carefully lifted his arms and wrapped them around her taller form.

She smelled like she used to. Under the sweat, dirt, and blood, there was the faint scent of lilies and vanilla. As well as something else. Something darker. He didn't like it. But he was content and happy to have his sister back.

"Unfortunately, I will have to wipe your memory and bring you back." Right. She had to go back to before all this happened. And he'd never see her again. Because she was dead.

Heaving a sigh, letting all sadness go (or at least fooling himself into thinking that), he retracted his arms and gently removed her arms before stepping back. He saw Jazz frown in slight confusion and sadness at the action, but he knew that she understood the reason for his distance.

The time ghost, Clockwork (too weird, and way too boring. He's going to call him stopwatch), saw the action as an "I'm ready" and nodded. He turned to the other ghosts who had been discussing something during the transaction and muttered something, giving a light gesture towards Danny. Then he made a portal and led his adoptive sister through. He gave a small smile and a wave to her when she looked back. He mouthed 'I'm sorry.'

Then....she was gone.

He wasted no time.

"Want to go home." Skulker sighed.

"Yes, young one. You are going to go back to the heroes. Dark knows about you and after that attack, we don't think we are properly prepared to house you here. As long as you are on Earth, he can't sense you. We will resume the watch. Keep an eye out for the GIW" at the name Danny flinched, "and make sure no other ghosts try anything. If you would like, and if it's okay with the humans, your friends can visit. Would you like us to discuss that with the humans when we go drop you off? We have to explain the entire situation so that they are prepared." Danny smiled and nodded. He'd like to reconnect with Sam and Tucker, they had been the first people outside his adoptive family that treated him right, and they were his first friends. Skulker glanced at the rest of the ghosts and nodded.

Walker, he, and Skulker, after saying a temporary goodbye to Sam and Tucker, as well as Frosty, had left to go back to Mount Justice.

Danny missed the Bat-family.