#Amity Park is READY to throw hands with anyone/thing

[ladylynse]

Dimensional Displacement [FFN | AO3]: Danny has a love-hate relationship with the Fenton Booo-merang. This time, it didn’t do him any favours. This time, it knocked him through a portal—and from what he can glean from the Water Tribe siblings he meets, odds are, there’s a reason for that.

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For @geronimo-alonzi as a thank you for donating to my ko-fi. (Yes, they won my fic giveaway, but I finished this one first.) Loosely based on this three sentence fic.

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Danny had been clobbered in the head by the Fenton Booo-merang more often than he’d like to admit, let alone count, but this was the first time it had knocked him through a portal.

That wouldn’t have been a particularly bad thing if the portal hadn’t immediately closed behind him.

One minute, he’d been minding his own business in the Ghost Zone, coming back from a visit with Frostbite that Jazz must have forgotten about if she’d sent the Booo-merang after him. (Sam was stuck with her parents at some fancy dinner party thing somewhere and Tucker was working on designing a computer game for his comp sci assignment, a class neither Sam nor Danny was in, so it had to have been Jazz.)

The next minute, Danny was…. He didn’t even know where he was. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere. He’d caught the Booo-merang before either he or it had hit the ground, but once he’d righted himself to look around, there was no familiar skyline or something equally useful to him. There were only trees and rocks and dirt roads as far as the eye could see, even from a considerable distance up in the air.

Well.

That wasn’t quite fair. He could see a silver river cutting through the trees in a path roughly parallel to the road, but in terms of helpful things, he was coming up empty.

He didn’t even know which direction he’d need to fly to get to a city. It was too light out to see any distant glow of city lights against the scattered clouds, and all he could smell when he breathed in was fresh air and pine needles and something else—moss? The general mix that was pretty much mulch on the forest floor?—that was decidedly natural, not the signs of human activity he’d been hoping for. Sure, following the road or even the river would get him somewhere sooner or later, but what was he supposed to do, pick a random direction or go eenie meenie minie moe?

Danny did another loop above the trees, looking for some sign of anything, and came up with nothing.

“Come on!” Danny yelled at the patch of blue sky where the portal had closed. He spun in a circle, the Booo-merang clutched tightly in his fist, but it didn’t pull in any direction, and he didn’t catch so much as a glimmer of the familiar green of the Ghost Zone. “Just open up again already!” It was as effective as he’d expected it to be, which was not at all, but screaming out his frustrations made him feel a bit better. “Now! Please?”

Unsurprisingly, the portal didn’t listen.

Out of appealing options, Danny threw the Booo-merang. Logically, he knew it wasn’t the Infi-Map. Logically, he knew that the universe did not often do what was convenient for him, even if he sometimes got incredibly lucky in a fight. Logically, he knew that the chances of the Booo-merang deciding to reprogram itself to find portals just because it had done it this one time (likely coincidentally) were slim to none.

Illogically, he didn’t expect the stupid thing to circle around and hit him in the back of the head again.

Danny cursed and landed to retrieve the fallen Booo-mang from the roadway, muttering under his breath about how much he’d like to just dismantle the thing and hide the pieces. He wouldn’t, of course. It worked too well to risk Sam, Tucker, and Jazz losing the ability to find him if they really needed to. It had been dicey enough the few times his parents had decided to try to ‘fix’ it, only for disaster (Vlad) to strike in the meantime.

That didn’t mean Danny couldn’t fantasize about bashing it against a rock, though. There were plenty of those around.

“That’s a weird looking boomerang,” someone said from behind him, and Danny nearly jumped into the air right there.

He didn’t, mostly because he was getting used to Sam and Tucker trying to surprise him, but it was a near thing.

He wasn’t used to people sneaking up on him. His ghost sense was reliable, Dash made more noise walking around than even Jack Fenton, and, well, most of the people who hunted him couldn’t be subtle if they tried, especially since a good chunk of them liked hearing their own voice. He’d only ever really had to worry about Jazz, and self-preservation in the face of tickle attacks had given him the ability to be extra sensitive to her presence whenever she was in a certain mood.

The two who’d caught him by surprise now must have come from the trees on the other side of the road, and he hoped that meant they hadn’t seen him do anything particularly ghostly. Granted, neither of them was screaming, so he should be safe. They didn’t look terrified, either. Wary, maybe, but not scared.

Danny guessed that they were both somewhere around his age. Siblings, by the looks of them, but probably not twins even if they’d both decided to leave the house wearing oddly styled blue clothes today, at least compared to the usual jeans and T-shirt combo Danny was used to seeing. Unless he wasn’t anywhere near the States anymore? Or unless he’d been flung through to a different time. But the boy had spoken English, and it hadn’t sounded funny to Danny’s ears, no lilt of a foreign accent or strange phrasing that he associated with Shakespeare or something.

The girl was his height, the boy a bit taller, and they were both staring at him.

They probably thought he was the one who was dressed strangely.

The boy pointed. “Your boomerang,” he repeated. “It looks weird.”

The girl elbowed him in the gut—none too gently, judging by his immediate wheeze—and hissed, “Sokka!”

Yeah, those two were definitely siblings. And even if the girl wasn’t older, she definitely had the annoying (and annoyed) sister tone down pat. Danny had heard (and been on the receiving end of) the same from similar exchanges with Jazz more than once.

“Sokka’s going to apologize, right, Sokka?”

The boy frowned and then threw up his hands. “Right. I apologize for saying your boomerang looks weird. It looks interesting.”

The girl stepped on his foot, and he yelped. “What was that for?”

“You know what that was for!”

“It’s fine,” Danny said. He still wasn’t entirely sure what was going on. Maybe the portal had dumped him out in the middle of some historical re-enactment thing. Granted, there should really be more people around if that were the case—or at least hidden cameras. He was better at spotting them now. Vlad and his creepy spy tendencies aside, Danny had gotten good at noticing (and avoiding) cameras so he didn’t let his secret get caught on tape. (There were a surprising number of places in Amity Park not under video surveillance, or at least not under real video surveillance even if they had fake cameras out; he could practically transform in the middle of the street sometimes.)

Still, nothing about this felt staged. It didn’t even feel like one of his enemy’s tricks, some giant setup that was meant to trap him or whatever. That’s not to say Danny was wholly convinced this meeting, whatever it was, was merely chance—he didn’t particularly trust Clockwork not to arrange things as he saw fit without warning anyone—but it didn’t feel overly contrived, either. There was just….

Something felt off, and he couldn’t explain what it was.

“It’s fine,” Danny repeated, since the two were looking at him dubiously, but the familiar phrase felt strange on his tongue, almost like—

Wait.

“Okay, this is going to sound like a weird question, but where are we?”

The boy, Sokka, blinked. “Did you hit your head or something? We’re in the Earth Kingdom. Or, wait, do you mean where in the Earth Kingdom? Look, if you need new supplies, there’s not much in the last few villages, but we’re about a day from—”

The girl elbowed him again, and he fell silent. Danny could see the growing suspicion on her face for what it was, could see suspicion settling on the boy’s face as well, but he wasn’t sure if it was because he’d asked the wrong question or because he’d asked something at all. He’d been paying attention this time, watching Sokka’s lips, and Danny didn’t have to be a good lip reader to know that he hadn’t been saying the words Danny had heard.

Well.

More accurately, he hadn’t been saying them in English.

And Danny, in answering, had somehow not been speaking English.

That was not, as far as Danny was aware, something Clockwork could do to him.

He didn’t know a ghost who had power over language, though, unless the Ghostwriter had something else up his sleeve and this mess was it. Nocturne would be able to pull anything in a dream, but Danny couldn’t see why he’d bother including something that would be an obvious tell like this, so it shouldn’t be him even if he had decided to come back. More likely, it was someone he hadn’t fought before, someone who had targeted him, seen an opportunity when the Booo-merang had hit him and seized upon it to throw him…here.

Wherever here was.

The Earth Kingdom, apparently.

“Um.” The girl still looked like she expected him to start fighting, and her stance…. Danny didn’t recognize it, but he did know that she looked ready to move at any moment. Her brother had taken her cue and, while Danny hadn’t been paying attention, pulled out a boomerang of his own. That couldn’t be good. “Look. I know how this sounds.” How he sounded, more like. If he had some accent he couldn’t hear because he wasn’t speaking their language properly, whatever it was, this had to be a setup after all.

Someone had sent him here to be dealt with. By this world, this dimension or construct or whatever it was, if not necessarily by these two people.

Granted, Danny wasn’t sure why someone would go to the trouble of letting him understand and be understood in the first place if that were the case, since he could get in just as much trouble without speaking the native language.

Surely he wasn’t actually supposed to help someone here, right? This wasn’t even his world. Or the Ghost Zone. Whatever was going on here was most definitely not his business.

Except now he was in the middle of it, so if there was something going on, it would be beneficial to find out what it was sooner rather than later.

This wasn’t some Jumanji kind of thing where he’d been tossed into a game and had to do whatever it was to get out again, was it? It didn’t feel like the time he’d gone into Doomed, but that had been intentional, and this….

Okay, no, he didn’t have enough information to speculate, which meant he needed to get some information out of these two in order to get somewhere. “I just…. I was kidnapped and dumped here for some reason, and I’m trying to find my way home.” That was close enough to the truth that it shouldn’t raise any red flags. Hopefully. “My name is Danny.” Introducing himself as Phantom, even in ghost mode, wasn’t something he wanted to do when he had no idea how these people felt about ghosts. Besides, it wasn’t like they’d ever see him as Fenton. He just needed to stick to the ground and pretend to be a normal human being, which he could most definitely do—at least when the sun was bright enough that his slight glow was basically nonexistent. He doubted it would be terribly noticeable even under the cover of trees.

“Danny,” the girl repeated, not relaxing her stance. “That’s an unusual name.”

Sokka just cocked his head at Danny. “Why would anyone kidnap you?”

It was spoken like it was an innocent, thoughtless question, something that could be brushed away with a laugh, but Danny could read an underlying tension in each of their faces. Sokka was waiting on his answer, and so was his sister. Danny’s response might very well determine what happened next.

Consequently, Danny didn’t miss the fact that Sokka didn’t offer up any potential explanations that he could jump on.

Another lie wasn’t going to do him any favours, not when he knew so little. “I don’t know.” He could guess, but he didn’t know. From the looks of it, though, these two wouldn’t be satisfied with that. Chances were good they wouldn’t be particularly satisfied with his suspicions, either, which was that someone wanted him out of the way for whatever they were planning—or maybe that someone had decided they wanted to have a little fun with him at his expense, if world domination wasn’t on the table. “My parents are inventors. Maybe that’s why?”

“That doesn’t explain why whoever took you would leave you here,” Sokka pointed out, and Danny wished these two weren’t so smart. “If you were taken because you were valuable, you wouldn’t have been left behind unguarded.”

“So maybe they kidnapped the wrong person and realized that I wasn’t who they wanted?”

Sokka exchanged glances with his sister before murmuring, “We can ask Toph. I mean, it’s possible they found us, but if he is really a Fire Nation plant picked solely for his eye colour, they’d have at least dyed his hair and given him some normal clothes.”

Danny decided not to ask who the heck picked people for something based on eye colour and not skill or merit or experience or something normal like that. Aside from derailing the conversation from anything potentially useful, Danny was pretty sure Sokka hadn’t realized he’d been overheard, and it wouldn’t be in Danny’s best interests to let them know how good his hearing was.

Still, he took the opportunity to tuck away the Booo-merang before they could ask any questions about it that he wasn’t up to answering. Maybe it would make him seem like less of a threat if they didn’t think he was ready to use it as a weapon—not that he knew how to use a boomerang as a weapon, but he was pretty sure Sokka hadn’t pulled his out to see which of them could throw it farther or throw it properly—and maybe then they’d trust him enough to answer his questions. Hopefully. He was perfectly willing to meet this Toph if it meant figuring out where he was and how to get home, especially since it would be easy enough for him to cut and run later.

The movement was enough to draw the attention of the siblings, though, and both pairs of eyebrows rose. Had they not expected him to make what he hoped would be taken as a gesture of trust or were they wondering how the heck he’d gotten it into his pocket? Maybe they thought he was trying to hide it, which wouldn’t help matters at all. Then again, if they thought that he thought it had been a subtle move, then maybe—

No.

He had to stop doing this. He didn’t know enough about these two to try to guess their thoughts, let alone what actions they might take against him.

Danny shifted on his feet, glad they hadn’t jumped to attacking and that they weren’t even asking questions about the Booo-merang, since practically anything about it would be difficult to answer. At least they hadn’t seen him flying. Even for people familiar with ghosts, unknown ones tended to be cause for concern until their threat level was assessed, and Danny didn’t want to invite trouble and immediately find out what this world had that messed with ghosts. Sure, he wanted to know what could hurt him here, but finding out while it wasn’t actively being used against him was infinitely preferable.

“Where did you say you were from?” the girl asked after a beat, even though they all knew he’d never said anything about that.

“Nowhere you would know,” he hedged, which was true enough.

“We travel a lot,” the girl said, and her brother snorted.

“What Katara means is, try us. If we can help you get back to your family, what do you have to lose?” Sokka offered Danny a grin, and his stance had visibly relaxed, even if he hadn’t put his boomerang away. It might be just for show, especially since he still had a weapon out, but at least the girl hadn’t drawn any knives or something like that. “Look, from one guy to another, you don’t need to make up some crazy story if you’re a runaway or something like that. We’re basically runaways.”

“We’re running towards something, not away from it.”

“We were almost runaways.” To Danny, Sokka added, “Gran caught us, but she let us go.”

Katara rolled her eyes, and Danny looked between the two of them as Sokka continued talking. It was obvious that they’d changed tack for some reason, no doubt trying to get him to trust them, but the blatant switch made him uneasy. Did they not realize how obvious that was or was this just their usual dynamic?

“I’m from Amity,” Danny eventually interrupted. He knew from the way that they were looking at him that neither of them had forgotten he had yet to answer the question. He’d already told them they wouldn’t know the place, so technically he could’ve said Amity Park, but for all he knew, these two had been sent to get information out of him, and the less he told a potential enemy, the better.

Come to think of it, maybe he shouldn’t have told them his real name, and maybe he should’ve just made up a village name rather than dropping heavy hints about his hometown.

“Which is near—?”

Danny ignored Sokka’s prompt. He didn’t even have a good enough idea of the geography of this place to make that up, especially when there was a chance they knew the area, runaways or no. “Do you know where I could get some water? I haven’t found any since I woke up.” That wasn’t true, but they wouldn’t know that unless they were getting some more intel about him from someone unseen.

The siblings looked at each other again, and then Katara faced him and said, “We’re headed to the river. Come with us. You can get your water, and we can share our catch if we get anything.”

“Wait, I didn’t agree to share my meat!” Sokka exclaimed. Katara’s only answer was a dirty look, but it was enough to have Sokka subsiding into grumbles.

“I’m not hungry yet,” Danny said, which also strictly wasn’t true, but he knew he didn’t need to eat much.

“You might be hungry by the time we’re finished,” Katara said over Sokka’s griping.

Danny hesitated, trying to figure out how weird it would be if he made up some excuse not to go with them. What were the chances that this was a trap when he’d brought up the river—or at least water—before they had? It wasn’t that he thought they’d be able to take him out if it came to that, even if Jazz had more experience fighting normally than he did, since he typically relied a lot on his powers when he could.

These two might be better fighters than him—there were almost certainly better hunters, given how silently they could walk—but he’d always have something like intangibility in his back pocket if it came to it, and they wouldn’t. Still, when it came down to it, he wasn’t used to fighting humans. What if he didn’t pull his punches enough and seriously hurt one of them?

“You can tell us about Amity,” Katara added. “We’ve never been there.”

Danny really hoped that was true and that there wasn’t a place in this world called Amity that they knew well. Still, when they started walking, spreading out so he was always in sight and they never had their backs to him, even when they hit the trees on the other side of the road, he kept pace with them. “It’s pretty much like you’d expect.” Except for the ghosts. At least his ghost sense hadn’t gone off here. Yet. “This is probably the farthest I’ve ever travelled from home.” He couldn’t get much farther away than a completely different dimension that (probably) wasn’t as connected to his world as it was to the Ghost Zone, anyway—unless he counted when he’d time travelled, but he wasn’t about to bring that up.

Katara opened her mouth to ask another question, maybe to press him for details, so Danny cut her off. “What about you two?”

They looked at each other again. How many times were they going to do that? Hadn’t they already decided how far to trust him? Danny knew it wasn’t very far, but they’d clearly decided he wasn’t going to straight up attack them at this precise moment, so even if they didn’t tell him the whole truth—

Sokka gestured at their clothes. “We’re Water Tribe.”

He said it like it was obvious, like Danny should’ve known already, but of course it explained absolutely nothing.

“Southern Water Tribe,” Katara added unhelpfully, despite Sokka’s frown. “We wanted to see the world, and now we are.”

As cover stories went, it was better than Danny’s. Barely. “Right,” he said, wondering again why he’d been dumped in the path of these two. “It’s a nice world to see.”

Somehow, that was the wrong thing to say, because they were both looking at him like they’d expected him to say anything but that. “What?”

“There’s a war on, you’re supposedly kidnapped and dropped off somewhere in occupied territory without any of the proper paperwork, and the best you can come up with is it’s a nice world to see?” Sokka turned his incredulous look from Danny to Katara. “He cannot be Fire Nation. This kid is more sheltered than Toph was supposed to be.”

Danny, who had stumbled at the word war, kept walking and hoped they hadn’t noticed. If they had, maybe they’d think he’d tripped over a tree root or fallen branch or hole or something. They weren’t following a trail, so that was a perfectly reasonable explanation, right?

“It’s all right,” Katara said as she reached out to touch his arm, and, okay, from that gentle tone, which was a complete change from anything earlier, it must mean she had noticed, knew he hadn’t tripped over anything in the terrain, and—from how she was looking at him now—thought it wasn’t surprise that had tripped Danny up, either. “Trust me, I know what it’s like to be a little naïve until you have a chance to leave home for the first time, but unless you’re got a camp around here, you’re not prepared at all.”

Sokka finally put his boomerang away and smirked at Danny. “We at least left home with supplies.”

“Did you have to run without any warning?” Katara asked, giving her brother a pointed look.

“Oh, uh, kinda.” Danny winced, knowing that had to sound like a lie. “I…I didn’t really plan on leaving when I did. This just…happened.”

Sokka raised an eyebrow, but Katara said, “You don’t have to worry. We’re the last people who would turn you in to the Fire Nation.”

Right. So the Fire Nation were the bad guys, at least according to the Water Tribe and, if he was putting things together correctly, the Earth Kingdom, where they were. Meaning the Fire Nation had invaded the Earth Kingdom if this was occupied territory. Danny thought about asking why these two had come into occupied territory themselves and then decided he didn’t want to risk getting into a discussion that would show off how little he knew. If they had decided he was a runaway who knew practically nothing about the world, well, that worked in his favour.

“Thanks.” Danny wasn’t sure what else to say. “Why are you helping me, though? Won’t that put you in danger?” That had to be a fair question in this situation.

“We can’t help everyone,” Katara said quietly, “but we can help some people, even if it’s just a tiny bit. Sometimes, that has to be enough.”

Danny really didn’t know what to say to that, because she certainly wouldn’t understand if he said he knew the feeling, so he smiled weakly in thanks and let the conversation drop.

They were still watching him, but they were more subtle about it now, and it didn’t look like they were watching him more closely than they were watching everything else.

Being downgraded from a threat was a win, though. Danny hoped he didn’t do anything to mess it up.

“There’s no shame in being a refugee,” Sokka said after a moment. “Being from a richer family might’ve bought you an isolated childhood, but it wouldn’t guarantee your safety.”

“We won’t try to hold you for ransom if you tell us where you’re really from,” added Katara.

Danny glanced at her. “I said I was from Amity.”

“I could say I have a platypus bear as a pet,” Sokka interjected. “That doesn’t make it true.”

“We know what it’s like, thinking you understand the way things are and then realizing how little you know,” Katara said quietly. “It can be overwhelming.”

“And it would explain why you’re in your nightclothes,” Sokka said. He’d come in range of Katara’s fist, but he danced out of the way as she swung in his direction. He hadn’t even needed to look at her to know it was coming. “You didn’t know enough to keep your valuables hidden and got robbed your first night on your own, didn’t you?”

“I—” Danny knew it was an excuse for his ignorance being handed to him on a silver platter, but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep up with a lie like that when he knew so little. “These aren’t my pajamas,” he said instead. Let them believe what they wanted to believe; that would make his life easier. Even if it blew up in his face somehow, he could truthfully say he’d never said they were right.

They might be suspicious that he hadn’t outright denied it, but then again, he’d already told them something a lot closer to the truth.

“Uh huh.” Sokka glanced at Katara again, and she gave a slight shake her head that Danny didn’t understand.

“Let’s get you some food and water first,” Katara said. “Then we can see about finding you other supplies.”

Danny decided not to point out that they’d already told him it was slim pickings for supplies around here. Not that he had the money to pay for anything, but Sokka had already guessed that. Besides, they thought he was running around in his pjs.

Judging by the sour look on Sokka’s face, he’d evidently translated his sister’s words to mean that she wanted to give him some of their supplies, something Sokka clearly wasn’t sure he approved of.

Katara must have had similar thoughts on Sokka’s expression, since she murmured, “It’s this or bring him with us, and you know what’s safer.”

Katara might not have minded that Danny could overhear her last words, but Sokka closed the distance between them, pulling his sister farther away from Danny before hissing, “It’s not the only option, and you know it. We can’t afford to give away any of our supplies, and just because Toph can make sure he’s not coming in with the intention of stabbing us in the back, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t blab to anyone once he figures out who we’re travelling with. You know as well as I do that that wouldn’t take very long.”

“He’s just kid.”

“Technically, like Aang keeps reminding us, we’re just kids. Who very much cannot afford to so much as drop him off in the next village. Show him the river and teach him how to catch and cook his meals? Fine. Picking him up as a stray when he’s not bringing anything to the table? Not fine.”

“He’s lost.”

“So? He’s not hurt. He’s already in a better position than some refugees. He’ll survive until he can walk to the nearest settlement. Then he can try to get help from people who can actually give it.”

Katara bit her lip and slowed to a stop. “There’s something else.”

“What?”

Danny very much wanted to know the answer to that—what had Katara figured out?—but he tried not to react so they didn’t know he’d been listening in. He deliberately turned away and stared around the trees instead, a mix of deciduous and evergreen. He couldn’t pick out any specific types of trees—nothing distinctive like oak leaves that he could see—and, as far as he could tell, the woods were utterly devoid of critters. He had no idea if that was because this world wasn’t real or if it was simply because all the animals in the region had had warning of their coming and hidden accordingly.

Danny knew his disinterest wouldn’t be very convincing, but if he was lucky, they’d think he’d given up on trying to eavesdrop.

“There’s something…off about him. Not necessarily something wrong, but something different. I can’t…. When he asked about water, I wanted to make sure he wasn’t hiding any on him or nearby in case it was a trap, and— He didn’t feel the same as you or me. I can’t explain it. Toph might have a better idea than I do. Or…or Aang.” The last word was a barely audible whisper.

“You think this might be a spirit thing?” Sokka’s response was closer to a suppressed shriek than anything else, and Danny winced.

“I think he might be spirit touched,” Katara answered, and Sokka’s sharp inhalation was painfully audible. “I wasn’t good enough back then to notice anything about Yue, but—”

“Fine.” Sokka’s voice had gone flat. “I don’t want to shun someone and accidentally anger the spirits. I’ll teach him to fish. You go back and interrupt advanced earthbending practice and pick a meeting place, but make sure everyone’s packed in case this doesn’t go the way you think it’ll go.”

“I know to be careful.”

“We all know to be careful. Some of us just need more reminding than others.”

Katara didn’t say anything else, but she must have nodded or done something similar because Danny heard Sokka stalk back over to him. “Katara’s going back to talk to the rest of our group about what we might be able to spare,” he said as Danny turned back to face him, “and I’ll show you how to fish in the meantime. If you don’t catch anything, I’ll give you one of mine.”

Danny wasn’t about to admit that he’d overheard their entire conversation, so he smiled and said, “That sounds great, thanks.” It didn’t stop the uneasiness from settling in his gut, though. Sure, now he knew these people believed in ghosts, and Sokka’s response made it clear he didn’t want to get on their bad side, but Danny had no idea what being spirit touched meant. He didn’t know if that was seen as a good thing or a bad thing.

More to the point, if it was a bad thing, he didn’t know if these people had something suitable with which to attack spirit touched people, since if they did, chances were good that it would work on him.

He was not lucky enough to get a free pass here.

Still, the odds were good that he’d be able to escape if they did attack since he’d know to be on watch for something, and he wasn’t about to turn down an offer of food. He had no idea when a portal would open and he’d be able to go home. Until then, the best he could do was survive.

He’d survived this much, and his life had hardly been a walk in the park since the accident, let alone before. He wasn’t about to let some ghost fling him into an unknown world and succeed in taking him down. He needed to get out of this to kick their butt and prove to them that they couldn’t get rid of him that easily.

Assuming this wasn’t all a series of genuine coincidences and not the result of the careful manipulation of events.

Danny didn’t want to think about that, though.

He had a much better chance of getting home if there was someone he could beat, and he was going to get home.

Somehow.

(see more fics)

[datawyrms]

Half a Decade Late

Valerie was finally promoted to the main headquarters of the Guys in White. There she finally comes face to face with Phantom, who disappeared five years ago, locked in a cell. For Phic Phight 2021, @lexosaurus' prompt!

Nothing proved ’harder workers get ahead’ was only a capitalist lie than the absolute hassle getting promotions within the GIW. Of course she’d gone right to them for employment, it was the only organization large enough to actually pay people that took her resume of ghost hunting seriously. She had experience, actual knowledge and even her own gear but had still spent years getting jerked around to various small operations, basically just using her to train all their useless recruits while still just considering her a ‘fellow’ field agent. It wasn’t like she had the option to quit in protest, no one else was in the market for ghost hunters. As far as most people knew ‘ghost intelligence’ was just a joke cover story that the agents were very attached to. They didn’t want any more Amity Parks, so if she wanted to live somewhere new and still do her job...these guys were it. She’d been very clear, she wanted to be in the main office, where everything happened. That didn’t stop them from constantly assigning her literally anywhere but the actual headquarters. Maybe they finally ran out of other places, she still half expected to get stopped at the door and be told about a new field mission they absolutely needed her on immediately. It didn’t happen. Valerie Grey finally got to clock in as an Ecto Containment Officer at the main branch. Where they kept the strongest creatures, developed the new anti-ghost equipment and did more than just splattering a ghost down to nothing. Sure, she liked a good ghost obliterating, but it got boring after a while. There were only so many ways a ghost could beg for it’s useless afterlife before it became white noise. It didn’t stop any new ones from showing up, or tell her anything new. Just got rid of one pest, permanently. That wouldn’t help explain some ghosts, the powerful ones that showed up again and again. It wouldn’t explain the one that stopped showing up either. There was no way that life ruining ghost just got ‘bored’ and vanished without notice. It was still out there, plotting something. She just knew it in her bones. She had to be ready for it. There were traces of that ghost, hints of his ectosignature that she came across in the field, he was still out there. The GIW was just a means to an end, she didn’t trust them to be ready alone.

Sterile corridors and simplistic signs were expected, but even the break area was doing its best impression of a frozen tundra. Fantastic for morale? Probably not. Made the coffee pot easy to spot, at least. Even if she preferred to avoid the stuff in uniform. It stained too easily, and just made her wish for her red battle suit. She took a cup to at least have an excuse for her scoping out the place, she could pass it off to someone once she got to the containment area. A quick double check that everything was in place at the mirror before heading right back out to the winding halls. She wasn’t going to be late, she didn’t have time for that. Maybe a red tie was against protocol, but no one had been stupid enough to bother her about it yet. Judging from the deferential nods from her latest coworkers, that wouldn’t be changing. No one who worked here couldn’t know who she was. The only Ghost Hunter who got out of Amity Park without getting corrupted by the ectoplasmic monsters. It was a shame, Jack and Maddie Fenton used to be a serious force for humanity. Five years ago they suddenly flipped the script, denouncing their work and calling for peace with unreasonable fiends. Their daughter Jazz likely had something to do with it, but Valerie had her own theories. Danny, her friend and once boyfriend had gone missing around that time. Leverage to ensure the Fenton’s ‘good behaviour?’ The whole thing reeked of ghosts. To think she might have gone the same way. Back then she was actually listening to the pest, starting to really consider them a ‘good’ ghost. Like that was actually possible, when he’d just been playing to emotion and her own desire to give up in fighting a dangerous foe over and over. So much for that. That monster showed it’s true colours, sure enough. Something the GIW never bothered to look into, even as she wrote report after report about the incident, how unlikely it was for the Fentons of all people to change that drastically without constant possession. Not worth the resources, even when it was easy to see what tech was built on the foundations the couple had laid. They were throwing away so much to focus on little outbreaks of ghosts instead of making more of a lasting change. Stupid. That was what the funding was ‘meant’ to go towards, as if helping the Fentons would be less productive than making a slightly different ectogun.

She almost hoped there would be a problem, just to prove this is where she should have always been.Even if it seemed distinctly unlikely. She had to swipe to get into the lab, then yet again to actually get to the cells. Or the ‘vault’, as if the higher ups wanted to pretend the creatures in there were inert materials instead of cunning and dangerous beings. Even though they had someone posted at each door, and someone on guard inside as well, herself today. To get acquainted with the place mostly, she had more than enough training on ‘proper handling’ procedures.

“Hey, you can swap with me today, if you want.”

Valerie blinked, eyebrow already raised at the posted guard’s suggestion. “I can handle watching caged ghosts.”

They had the sense to look embarrassed, taking their hand away from the oversized ectogun to loosen their tie- which was tied rather poorly now that she got a better look at it. “I’m sure you can, it’s just, well.” They wouldn’t stop fidgeting with their tie now, eyes checking that no one was really paying attention to the guards. “H0G02 is awake today. No one likes those days.”

“Then all the more reason to get used to it early.” She didn’t give them time to sputter another excuse, swiping her card and striding past without another look. As if people should be worried about a captive ghost being awake. Maybe some of the people here never got a spine before joining up.

It wasn’t as cold as she expected it to be. Or as dark. It was actually brighter, thanks to the extra row of fluorescent lights. On some level she expected the room to reflect the monsters kept here, a shadowy icebox of a space. Of course it wasn’t. These were defeated creatures under human control, of course their cages would be bright and clean, the air warmed for human comfort. The ghosts might not like it, but why care what they wanted? It wasn’t like there were many to begin with, mostly green oversized vermin with blank red eyes. Most had the sense to cower back as she walked past, but a fair few didn’t even twitch. Calling a ghost of all things lifeless was foolish, but it was the only word coming to mind...she had to focus. She didn’t pity these things. Why so many creatures though? The real dangerous ones, the most monstrous ones were the ones that could play human, the ones that had conniving minds that only worked to cause destruction and terror. These were just feral things, annoying but hardly more impressive than a coyote when you knew what to do. Half of them she’d barely rate above ‘feral cat’. A light near the back flickered. Strange. When it flickered a second time she was already releasing her helmet to pull it on. Not nearly as easy as just willing it on, but at least she could carry it in a pocket without needing to rely on some ghost’s power. Three steps and her gun was ready, not that she expected to need it. Really, she worked on autopilot, legs still moving as she stared at the largest glass cage at the back of the room. Or more accurately, at what was in it.

“Oh, newbie. ‘Sup.” The ghost rasped out, blank green eyes watching the ghost hunter. A teenaged boy with a shock of white hair, a black jumpsuit, but the voice of a seventy year old chain smoker. Just sitting in a painfully bright cell, watching. Not exactly as she remembered him, but close enough.

“You.” The disgust was easy to voice, even as her brain struggled to catch up. He was here? Looking practically exactly as he had when she was still a soft hearted freelancer?

He only gave a sputtering laugh at the aggression. “Me? You’re not that mad about the light, are you? I’m bored, Tie.”

“What are you doing here?” That wasn’t the important question really, she should be more concerned that he apparently was able to manipulate light fixtures from his cell...but she’d been hunting after this ghost for five years. Protocol could go shove itself up the director’s ass.

“Same thing I do every day Tie, being some government property!” His laugh was wrong, not from amusement like she remembered. A desperate cackle that didn’t fool anyone. “You new enough to still have your soul in there?”

“Answer the question, Phantom.”

The smirk slid off the ghost’s face. “Wh’ad you call me? Like I’m only calling you Tie cus the red sticks out, I can call you Shooty if you don’t like it, newbie.”

The response made her insides run cold. It had to be Phantom, and the terrible sense of humour was just like him- but the ghost wasn’t quite right. What was this? It couldn’t be some copy of the ghost kid, could it? “I called you by your name, ghost.”

“Never heard of em.” The ghost crossed his legs and looked away, apparently bored of the person holding a weapon. “What day is it?”

Surely he was playing around. “What do you think your name is, then?”

He didn’t take his attention off the ceiling, looking more bored than anything.“Day first, Tie. Gotta know how much of a head start I’ve got.”

“Like you’re in any position to bargain.”

“Hm? Whatcha gonna do Tie? Let me be unconscious for a few hours? Scary. Day first.”

There was the Phantom she knew, snide and sarcastic when he really had no business being so. “I could do worse than that.”

“Doubt it. You gun grunts gotta listen to the freaks out there, remember?” His shoulders shook with a silent laughter, but it looked more like spasms. “No more mishandling the goods, yeah? Day Tie, comeonnnnnn”

Since when was he so interested in the calendar? Not to mention how weird it was how he kept referring to himself...and pretending he didn’t know his name. “It’s Monday.”

That got his attention, the casual rocking halting as he looked at her again, disturbingly still. “Monday, really?”

“Lying is your thing, not mine.”

He grinned. “I like you Tie, so you’ll probably be fired in like a week. Maybe it’s the red.” The tension left the ghost completely, she hadn’t even noticed how stiffly he’d been sitting until his spine relaxed as his elbows rested on his legs. “Pretty sure I’m H0G02. Least that’s what all your creeps call me.”

There was no way Phantom of all ghosts would call himself ‘H0G02’. He had to be a mimic of some sort, a ghost that modelled himself on the once well known Amity Park menace. “You like me because I told you it was Monday? Seriously?”

“I like the Mondays more than you, if that helps.”

“Not particularly.”

“Sounds like a you problem.” He was watching her again, more curious than anything. She shouldn’t be glad to see a spark of something in those eyes, but he was far less creepy this way.

“What’s so great about Monday? You’re a ghost.” She didn’t really care. She should be asking important questions. She was just...playing along to see if it really was Phantom. That didn’t stop her for being grateful for the helmet.

“Monday is the farthest day away from Friday.”

“Wouldn’t that be Saturday?”

“It hasn’t been Saturday or Sunday for...like four years? Those days don’t exist, I think you humans made ‘em up to prank me.” Phantom shrugged, sounding completely serious. Not even a hint of amusement or a grin. “Pretty good one, all you new guys keep it up.”

He was going to be completely useless if he kept saying nonsense. How could he be useful in finding out what happened to the Fenton’s son if he couldn’t even talk about the days of the week sensibly? “Fine, what’s so bad about Friday then.”

“Ohhhhh, you’re really new, Tie.” the ghost flopped onto his side, bored of sitting up apparently. “You know, the day they keep me around for? That day.” He wasn’t quite still, his right shoulder moving very, very carefully. Hiding something.

She didn’t have the patience for this.“What are you hiding there.”

“Tie has good eyes. Gotta remember that.” Phantom muttered, getting onto his back, a blue shard of ice melting off his arm.

“You don’t really think that some ice would help you out of there?”

“Out?” He looked mystified by the suggestion, but that could more be seeing his face upside down. “That glass doesn’t break for anything, I should know.”

Which didn’t explain why he’d been trying to hide the fact he’d made ice at all. He knew it too, but apparently playing stupid was still one of his favourite tactics. “Knock it off and just answer me.”

Phantom’s frown didn’t change, green eyes staring intently at her helmet as if hoping to see through it. “I could show you why?”

It didn’t sound like a threat. “Sure, why not. It’s gonna be a long day.” If it was? Then she’d show him that she wasn’t someone he could mess with.

Ice wrapped itself around the ghost’s lower arm alarmingly quick, a wickedly sharp blade of ice with serrated teeth jutting from the scrawny arm at an awkward angle. It was practised, something this ghost must have done often in all the time he’d been gone from her life. Yet it was so different from how Phantom usually chose to fight. That was a weapon to tear and maim, not to shock, stun or bruise. It looked wrong on him. The idea that this ghost wasn’t Phantom at all only grew more credible with that thing on his arm, even if ice powers were to be expected. His eyes flicked back to green, still fixated on her as he lifted the arm and stabbed down hard. Right into his other arm. Didn’t even blink.

“What are you doing!” She couldn’t remember the last time Phantom had ever been frightening on some primal level. This- with the disturbing snap of bone as the edges of the blade caught and tore made her hair stand on end. “Stop that, Phantom. What’s wrong with you!?”

“Cancelling Friday.” Phantom was laughing as the blade melted away into the pool of green rapidly spreading from his self inflicted wound. “I said you’d probably get fired Tie.”

“Forget Friday you idiot, cover the wound so you stop splattering everywhere!” He was just a ghost-a ghost messing with her. A ghost she’d fought with and had heard scream in pain. This...thing wasn’t him. Her heart didn’t care what her mind thought, insisting he needed help.

The ghost sat up, his left arm holding on by a shred of his suit before splattering into the puddle, but the left behind stump stopped dripping almost as quickly as he’d lost the limb. “Aw. Maybe Tie does have some soul left. You actually sound worried.”

“Of course I am! You slashed your arm off!”

“So?”

He didn’t seem to be in pain. If it wasn’t for the mess of green and the lack of a limb, she’d almost say she imagined it. Why did she care? “You wouldn’t do this sort of thing.”

“Uh. Yes I would? You just saw me do it. I’m down for an encore.”

The idea just made her feel ill. “Don’t.” Did she want this to be Phantom or not? “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Well I’m down an arm. So the coats are going to be very whiny about how much ectoplasm they can get out of me.”

“You must have felt that.”

“Sure. Isn’t nearly as bad as when they start ripping as much ectoplasm as they can out of you. Every single Friday.” He actually rolled his eyes, like she should just know this.

Why did they bother keeping Phantom around if they just wanted ectoplasm? He might be strong, but no ghost had limitless amounts. They’d just fall apart and stop existing. That’s why the weakest ones never even left the Ghost Zone, they couldn’t survive without constantly being around the stuff! “What makes you so special then? Not your attitude.”

“I’m just lucky enough to make my own ectoplasm. Who knew food was easier to get then high grade ectoplasm? Not me.” His remaining arm pointed to her weapon, his smile stretching. “Bet ya your weapon’s fully powered from Fridays. Yours and every other thing they use in this hellhole.”

“Ghosts can’t do that.” The lie was absurd. It went against everything they knew about ghosts, even before food entered the equation.

“Y’know, Tie. I think I knew a ghost hunter that wore red once.” the ghost’s eyes went unfocused, unmoving as he looked listlessly into space. “It’s a good colour.”

“You knew me. Quit fooling around with this not remembering crap.” Valerie threw her helmet aside, no longer caring. She had to know who this ghost really was. She had to know if everything he was blathering about was a lie. So what if it wasn’t ‘safe’.

His eyes didn’t change. “Y’know how hard it is to remake a brain? Cut me some slack Tie…”

“I mean it. Look at me Phantom. If you’re the ghost I know, you can stop pretending to be something else.”

“You lose the details. Arms and legs are easy. The brain though? Way too hard.” He kept rambling to himself, not reacting even as she put a hand to the glass to get his attention. “Y’know how many times they’ve cut it open? I don’t. I lose track after like. Eleven. Maybe. Pointy Shoe said my best was fifteen but I sure don’t remember that.”

She wanted him to just stop talking. She wanted this ghost to be some strange creature she didn’t know. To not have the only possible link to someone long lost a shattered husk. “Phantom. Do you remember the hunter in red’s name?”

He finally blinked. “I’m not this Phantom guy, Tie.”

“Okay, whatever, forget that part. The ghost hunter in red, what do you remember?” She insisted, knocking again in hopes it would keep the ghost’s focus.

“Wish I’d told em something.” he held up his gloved hand as she opened her mouth to speak. “Don’t remember what that something was, don’t ask.”

So he was Phantom? He couldn’t be. That was so non-specific it could be anything. “You never explained how you’re the only ghost that can make their own ectoplasm.”

“It’s in my name Tie! Come on. Thought you guys were smart or whatever.” He did a very awkward one armed attempt at crossing it, eyebrow raised. “The H? The feeding a ghost food thing?”

She didn’t really get the whole naming scheme they used here. The fact it mattered wasn’t making her gut unclench either. “What about the H?

“Hybrid? Might have been Human. That might have been a joke.”

Valarie’s mouth was drier than any desert when he said it that easily, that casualty while kicking his own arm aside. “You’re saying you aren’t all ghost.”

“Yup. Not yet! Trust me, I’ve tried,” the bubbly high pitched laugher clawed out of the ghost at that. “I tried so much. Guess it’s another thing I’m a failure at, eh Tie?”

Something told her not to ask. She had to know. Five years she waited, five years apparently knocked Phantom clear from reality.“Does Danny Fenton mean anything to you?”

He just laughed harder at the question. “Really Tie?”

“Yes, really.”

“That’s the name I scream at em. Don’t know why. Feels good though.”

“Is it your name?” Had he had contact with Danny? Been part of whatever made him go missing from everyone’s lives? He couldn’t be, there was no way.

“They get reallllll angry when I say it is.”

There was no way the GIW had a human captive for five years. There was no way Phantom could be the Danny she knew. The ghost was just lying. He had to be, she desperately needed him to be. “Were you fused with a human or something? Got stuck when possessing someone?”

“Nah. Been like this before I got here, pretty sure. You can check your fancy gear though. There’s some non-ghost DNA in it. Lucky lucky me,” he lay back down in the mess of ectoplasm, ignoring how it clung to his hair. “Thanks for the Friday off! I hate those.”

There was no reason to need air. Talking to a ghost she didn’t even like shouldn’t make her feel like she was being crushed under a boulder. Panting for air, outside the room would make her look pathetic and weak, but she needed the space, needed to be away from that...mockery of a ghost.

“He does that to everyone. He’ll repeat the whole thing in a week or so, but he’s a really good copy the first time you see it.” The guard gave a comforting word, apparently unsurprised by her sudden unscheduled departure.

Oh, there would be no ‘next time.’ Not if he was right about her weapon. But she nodded instead, letting her ‘coworker’ think she was just overwhelmed. Even if all she could think of was how many ways this place would burn if that ghost- that thing had been a human once. She was good at telling when ghosts lied. Phantom didn’t sound like he had. No matter how much she tried to convince herself he did.

[redrobin-detective]

Just one single glimpse of relief

TW: OC death, death themes

“Hey,” Sydnee looked up at the sound of the voice. It was familiar, safe, and it stopped her tears for a moment. She can’t remember where she was or what she’d been doing. All she knew was that she was scared and upset and didn’t know what to do. It felt like she’d been crying forever when the voice appeared. “Hey there, it’s Phantom. Can I come closer?”

Sydnee gasped as the town hero, Phantom, approached her slowly. Syd was a bit of a nerd and she couldn’t get enough of those superhero movies. She always tuned in to Phantom’s fights on TV; he was as close as she’d get to a real life Superman or Captain Marvel. She’d never seen him up close before though. He was younger than he appeared on TV, not more than his early teens. Sydnee, almost 24, was hit by a wave of mortification over how they’d described the hunky, we-thought-he-was-older kid on Margarita Night. This day just got better and better, not that she remembered it.

“How are you doing?” Phantom asked quietly, floating near her but not getting too close. He was watching her warily but not unkindly. She saw how some folks treated him, he was probably worried she’d throw a shoe at him. “What’s your name?”

“Sydnee, with an extra e not a y. Uh Tanner, Sydnee Tanner,” she mumbled. Ugh why were words so hard. Her head felt fuzzy and very far away, she thinks she was going to start panicking again. What was she even so upset about? “I don’t know what’s going on. Where are we and what happened. I don’t- I don’t remember anything.”

“It’s okay,” he said soothingly, floating a little closer. The soft glow he emitted brightened up the dark place they were in. Was she in a collapsed tunnel? What had she been doing here? She’d never been claustrophobic but the debris and rubble of the place seemed to close in on her. “Hey, hey, just look at me.” She turned and met his kind eyes, soft and easy. “We’ll walk through it together. What is the last thing you remember?”

“I was late to work,” Syd said, the memory popping up before her. “I um work at the Donut Delights bakery in that strip mall next to the middle school. My cats had knocked over some of my houseplants in the night so I had to clean them up and was running behind. I open the store on Wednesdays - oh it’s Wednesday! - so I knew I’d be in trouble. But I made it, just barely. I was starting up the ovens when.” Syd furrowed her brow and took in the hero before her. The one who was almost never seen outside a fight. “There was a ghost attack, wasn’t there?”

“Welcome to Amity Park,” Phantom said grimly. “I’ve been here a couple times; the jalapeno bacon topped donuts are my favorite. My mom and sister buy them sometimes if they want to bribe me into doing something.”

“You weirdo, only crazy people eat that weird flavor,” Sydnee chuckled. “You have a family?”

“Of course, we all have a family out there somewhere. What about you?” He asked gently. There was something about the soft way he was talking to her, the way his eyes flickered around the dark like he was looking for something. He had news he didn’t want to tell her and she wasn’t ready to hear it. Not yet. Just a few more minutes of denial before she faced the revelation she couldn’t bear to touch yet.

“Yeah, mom and dad and two younger sibs. Folks divorced forever ago, I barely remember them actually being together. Mom is is living it up in Dubai working as a pastry chef in one of their fancy hotels. Dad’s an auto-mechanic down on Maple street, Duke’s Car Services. Pretty sure you got tossed through the window a year ago.”

“I’ve been tossed through many windows but I know the place you’re talking about. So a big family, any friends? Boyfriends? Girlfriends?”

“I have a boyfriend,” she continued on hastily, taking the distraction for what it was. “I like him, a lot and we’ve been dating since high school. Everyone says I should marry him and we’ve talked about it, casually, but I’ve never dated anyone else and wonder if I should see other people first. You know, test the waters before I settle down with my high school sweetheart like my folks did and look how they turned out.”

“Mhmm,” Phantom hummed nodding, encouraging her to continue.

“DeShawn is great though, he’s very supportive and sweet in his own kind of absentminded way. He’s got epilepsy real bad though, I have to drive him everywhere since he’s always at risk of a seizure. Annoying sometimes but its nice, you can learn a lot about a person from a conversation while you’re alone together.”

“Very true, I’m learning a lot now,” Phantom smiled. “What about your siblings?”

“I have a brother and a sister, Kennedy is finishing his sophomore year of college and Janelle will be a senior in high school. She was a surprise baby, one last attempt of my parents to reconcile before the big D. It didn’t help but I got a great sister out of it, she’s a real firecracker.”

“Janelle,” Phantom’s eyes lit up. “She’s the one always dying her hair. I see her in the hallways of Casper, she’s hard to miss. I think she draws too, she won an art award I think.”

“Yeah!” Sydnee said enthusiastically, she reached out and grabbed ahold of Phantom’s arm. It was cold but solid. It reminded her that she really couldn’t feel anything, nothing but him. “Yeah, I swear her hair is a new color every time I see her. It’s a dark purple now, it looks pretty good on her. She was a peachy orange for picture day last year. Mom called her up screaming when she saw the photos.”

“I thought it looked cool,” Phantom grinned, “not that I was there for picture day. Ghost attack, you know. My mom was upset with me too.” They laughed lightly for a minute before it gently petered off leaving them alone in the dark. Sydnee didn’t have any feeling in her toes, in any part of her. She felt light and disconnected and all over out of sorts. She was pretty sure she knew what had happened but she couldn’t face it yet. But talking to Phantom, it seemed a little easier.

“I remember the attack now,” Sydnee stated quietly. “It was a big ghost bear only it was the size of a pickup truck. It rammed into the store there was chaos and screaming. It was so loud, the screaming of the customers, the bear, building coming down on top of us...” her lips wobbled. “We’re still in the store, aren’t we? I haven’t wanted to turn around because... because I know my body is buried underneath the concrete back there.”

“Yeah,” Phantom breathed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t get here in time. Most everyone in the area got out but you and a few others in the store got trapped under the rubble. Mrs. McDaniels who lived on Eustis street and was the first woman in her family to go to college plus Eddie Drake who came down from Chicago to check out the ghost stuff with their boyfriend and was a tattoo artist.”

“Did you talk to them too?” She questioned in surprise.

“Briefly, Mrs. McDaniels didn’t stay long, just long enough to tell me, and I quote, “stop wasting time on her dead ass and get to the others.” She already passed on. Eddie, they didn’t take it well. We talked for a while and I think they need a little more time to accept it, see their loved ones first. I warned them that the longer they delay death, the harder it is and the more you lose yourself. You’re the last, all the way in the back of the store. When you’re ready, I’m going to bring your body out.”

“Thank you,” she whispered before breaking out into hysterical laughter. “God I bet I’m a wreck, I think I put my shirt on inside out I was in such a rush this morning,” she sniffled. “What do I do now, as a ghost? I don’t have to, like, attack people, do I?”

“No,” Phantom sighed. “Most ghosts are just normal people, no one else but other ghosts will see you and you’re not going to be strong enough to interact with the real world for a long, long time. You can stick around a bit if you want, watch over your family but it’s like I told Eddie, you forget things pretty quick. Or you can move on, that part I can’t help you with but I’ve helped a lot of others go that route and I’m told it’s easy.”

“Easy, then why haven’t you?” She questioned angrily, the full weight of the situation crashing over her. She shoved him and he floated back passively. “I’m a freaking ghost and you’re here talking to me like you’re my therapist or something. Who’s gonna take DeShawn to his appointments? Or praise my sister’s creative messes? Or badger Ken into picking major? My life is over and you think you can float there and lecture me about it being easy to move on!”

“I didn’t mean it that way,” Phantom soothed, scratching at the back of his neck. “I’m so sorry Sydnee, I wish I could turn back the clock an hour, two hours, and prevent this from happening but I can’t. I’ve tried to mess with time and it doesn’t end well for anyone. I just want, I just want what’s best for you now. You can stay or you can go but I want you to make the decision that you feel most comfortable with. That’s all I can do for you.”

“I think I’d be sad,” she said, crying again, “being able to see everyone but not talk to them, to watch them cry over me. I don’t want to forget them either.” Phantom watched her, easily and earnestly. “What made you choose to stay? Why didn’t you go?”

“I’m a little complicated but I can tell you, when I’ve done all I need to here, I’m not hanging around a second longer than I have to. Being a ghost has it’s perks but it’s also, it’s being stuck in a place you longer fit, watching the world go on without you.”

“Okay,” Syd hiccupped. “Okay, yeah okay.”

“Okay,” Phantom nodded. “Do you want me to leave?”

“No, please don’t,” she grabbed his hands again. “Please I don’t, I know I died alone but I don’t want to do... this alone. Please stay, ugh, calling you Phantom is weird sorry.”

“I don’t know if it’s any less weird but you can call me Danny,” Phantom, Danny, laughed. It was an ordinary name for a superhero but it fit. There was a special thrill in knowing the ghost boy’s name but it’s not like she was going to be around to tell anyone. It was scary, to think of not existing but also sort of comforting, like a long nap with nothing pressing to get up for.

“Can you tell them that I love them, in my place? I know it’s a lot and I’m sure you’re super busy saving the town and everything-”

"It’s not a problem. I’m sure they know but I’ll be happy to pass on the message,” he smiled and it made him look so young. For a second she was struck by how sad it was that she was relying on a kid a decade younger than her for support. But he was here and he was kind and he was what she needed right now. Maybe one day, he’d have his own person talking him through this last step. 

“Okay, Danny, thanks really. For talking, for staying. I’m scared but I, I think I’m ready.” She closed her eyes and squeezed his hands tightly. “Do you, will it hurt?”

“No,” he said, his voice warm despite his inherent chill. “No, Sydnee. No, the hurting is all over now. All you have left ahead of you is peace. Thank you for all that did, you’ll be missed.”

“I’ll see you on the other side. Goodbye.” The world faded to a pinprick, consumed by light. The last thing she saw before she went into it was a stranger’s smile. 

XxX

“Here’s the last,” Phantom said solemnly, delicately setting a broken body he’d carried out of the dilapidated building and on the sidewalk next to the others. “This is Sydnee Tanner, she was the only employee in the store at the time. She has cats at home who will need taking care of. Her dad works at Duke’s Car Services along with siblings and a boyfriend.”

“Don’t know how you know all that but thanks for getting these folks out,” Sheriff Newton sighed. “Damn shame. Keep up the good work kid, we’ll save the next ones for sure. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some rather unhappy news to break to several people.”

“Do you mind if I tag along? I have a few messages I need to pass on.”

[ccelinewritess]

the distance between us

pairing- draco malfoy x reader

word count- 9.7k

summary- the first time draco uses the muggle post system, it goes so terribly wrong, and a letter falls into the hands of a girl who was never supposed to see it, a muggle at that.

warnings- curse words, ptsd, anxiety/ panic attacks, depression mention of death, murder, blood and burns aswell as insomia, seperation anxiety (?) and my grammar.if these may trigger you, i suggested not reading.

a/n- this took me a while to get out, sry abt that. the reader was set to live in a canadian town called kelowna, british columbia. it takes place in readers grade 11/12 and dracos 6/7 year. i hope it’s not to self inserted, and you guys can enjoy and relate to it. big thank you to @dracodear for the help on this, love you! also thanks to everyone who left owl name suggestions, all were awesome and i ended up going with @winnsmills suggestion ‘noctua’ ! tumblrs been acting weird, so i hope it lets me post the whole thing. letters are in italics. also please note, this is off the movies timeline! i tried to fit in as many details as possible but some didn’t make it.

-

the town was widespread. wineries and mountains everywhere, the okanagan lake splitting it down the middle, reconnecting the cities halves by a bridge. little snow and tons of rain. jeep wranglers in every colour roaring around into unholy hours of the night, bustling with life yet all to lonely at times. but hey, that’s kelowna for you.

rain was running down the windows of y/ns most boring class, last period biology. she knew she should be paying attention. she had a high gpa to maintain, and couldn’t afford to fail another class besides french. the last five minutes of blabbering ended after what felt like a year.

‘you are dismissed, ill see you all monday, have a good weekend’ and with that everyone rose, heading to the parking lot as fast as possible in an attemp to dodge traffic. despite pouring rain, the air was hot, and on the ride home y/ns mind raced over every single assignment she had to complete over the next two days, while her hands tapped the steering wheel.

‘english essay, math review, history paper, business management graph’ she muttered under her breath. the town was busy, many students often blew off class to go shopping, or hit a movie, or smoke weed, the possibilities were endless. her house was cool compared to outside, and empty. no one was home, not that it was a surprise to the girl, people weren’t usually home, siblings gone to university, and parents working absurd amounts.

something caught her eye on the counter, an envelope, an ordinary seeming one, but absolutely covered in small pictured stamps with ‘england’ underneath each one. eighteen of them, all different. she knew shouldn’t open it, so she didn’t. at first. but it was irresistible. there was a return address written in the smallest writing she’d ever seen. wogshell, no, wiltshire? she took it to her room, and locked the door before ripping it open. she didn’t want the one time she had something intresting going on to be interrupted by whoever might show up.

her mouth fell open at every line of the same scroll. who was snape? why was this draco boy sending him a letter? he didn’t need his help to kill who? what the fuck was an unbreakable vow and why shouldn’t snape sign it? why was his mum going to see snape? who was the dark lord and why did he pick draco for a task? what kind of name is dumbledore?

what she already knew was confirmed- this letter was most definetly not for her. but newly- she opened a letter from a potential murderer or maybe it was a prank, a sick prank if it was one.

so instead she crafted up quite the response, whoever wrote this was either hysterical or in distress, and needed some sort of company- she thought, atleast.

-

it had been thirteen days, why wasn’t the letter back yet? the owl still couldn’t fly even about the house without damaging itself further. maybe using the muggle post system was a mistake. but better have it land into the hands of a muggle, who would likely throw it out, than a wizard who would know a death eater would soon be wondering around hogwarts.

as if on que, the door bell rang and echoed through the empty manor. on the porch sat an envelope, with only one stamp, his name in the middle and another he didn’t recognize in the corner. shit, this couldn’t be good. his eye caught the stamp. canada? fuck, this was supposed to go to cokeworth not bloody canada. no one was home so he opened it right there in the foyer.

hello, draco.

i am not snape- nor do i know who snape is. i am also very unfimilar with some of the vocabulary you used. dark lord? unbreakable vow? you seem to have quite the situation going on, if i read correctly. im not exactly stupid, but i do know that this letter was most definitely not supposed to be in my possession. i didn’t know who to send it to, id send it back to you, but you probably don’t want a copy of your own letter. i also know you likely have enough on your plate, but if you’d like someone to talk to im only half a world away, have no sort of schedule and am a good listener, well reader in this case. good luck with whatever task you’ve mentioned. p.s. you had about seventeen stamps to many, first time sending a letter? unfortunate fate, huh ? what kind of name is snape and what the heck is a dumbledore? i suppose it’s none of my business, knowing you likely won’t respond, but if you do i wrote my address on the front. have a good day/ night/ whatever time it is wherever you are.

y/n l/n

tears were welling in dracos eyes, he was floored, in a good and bad way. his task was already going downhill. the letter he sent snape had fallen into the hands of a muggle, who did not throw the letter away, but responded. and snape was likely going to bine himself into the task through the unbreakable vow, which draco was more than able to complete. he wouldn’t have been chosen if he wasn’t, right?

not only had she responded, she offered him help, well distant company, to a stranger who obviously had quite a few problems and she clearly had no regard for her own safety. he couldn’t tell her about the wizarding world. not that he could tell her about anything, she could be lying. he had a task to focus on, he couldn’t write her back.

and that was true- at the time. he had no intent of writing the girl back. and yet he found himself reading the 201 words over and over, running his hands across the paper, expecting them to fade away as he wiped. counting and recounting. he surely couldn’t talk to any of the twats at hogwarts, maybe a stranger could help numb the pain. and as long as he didn’t tell anyone- she couldn’t get hurt, she was to far.

draco was packed for hogwarts, the response at the bottom of the trunk, underneath his clothes. he’d just have to get to the damn school, then he could write all he wanted- without his parents knowledge or ridicule. his mind jumbled together what he was going to say while his friends rambled on. the train pulled up to the castle after dreadful hours and he could barely sit still during the opening feast. his thoughts did falter though, when dumbledore gave his speech, he felt guilty- the shame of his family weighing on his shoulders. he looked around, all his classmates staring in adoration at a man who would be dead ten months from now, and they were sitting in the same room as his killer.

the singular room was nice, he knew it wasn’t for lounge, but for plots of death.

before he began he started making promises to himself. if i get behind on the plan ill won’t write, if snape notices anything about it, ill stop. the list went on and on.

he couldn’t put his pen down, the words continued to fly out the end, was he oversharing?

dear y/n

my deepest apologies that my last letter found it’s way to you. im sure you didn’t expect whatever you may have perceived from it. honestly, i don’t know how it arrived all the way over there. im almost positive you have better things to do than listen to my problems, and i know you had no control over the fact it arrived, but i ask you to please not share this information with anyone. i am unsure if i will take up your offer of amity, if you were serious that is. im at school now, so if you’d like to respond, not that you have to- you can send letters back with my owl, it’ll be faster (and i won’t have to worry about stamps- thanks for the tip by the way)

draco malfoy 

and with that noctua was off into the night, and he could only hope that it would make it to her.

-

droll was running down y/ns chin and she was caught in a dream. suddenly a vigorous tapping on the window pulled her into consciousness, the sight of owl knocking her backwards in a scare. a crash sounded, if the tapping didn’t wake anyone up, that surely did. she almost considered just trying to ignore it, until she noticed a letter tied to its neck and reluctantly opened the window. she’d never seen an owl in real life before, but was aware from school that they weren’t exactly the kindest of creatures. this one just perched on the window while she removed the new enevelope, no stamps in sight. just a neatly printed address, and his in the corner.

from the new letter she learned even more- this wasn’t a prank, draco was a real person, was still in school, and whatever the first misplaced letter contained was true. he had some sort of task and didnt want help, but that was all. so with what she could, she wrote another response. it took an hour and she wasn’t exactly sure what she had written by mid morning.

draco

you’d be quite suprised actually, it gets lonely over here. i still haven’t exactly deciphered your original note, so if you would like to help me understand i think i’d be ready. and no worries about me, my lips are sealed. what is an unbreakable vow, im curious? you go to boarding school? and owls, really? what the hell is up with that? im pretty sure it’s illegal to own one here, but we are countries away, so perhaps it’s different all the way over there. send whatever you want. i do not- by the way- have anything better to do in the slightest.

y/n

-

he continued to write throughout the month of september, which bled into october before he knew it. he was avoiding questions about the task, just wanting someone to talk to. it wasn’t easy, she was curious, which draco couldn’t exactly be mad at her for that since he continued to write her, accepting the distant friendship that was forming.

he was learning a lot about her aswell. besides french, which he informed her he spoke fluently numerous times, she was a very good student. she was single, he didn’t remember how that came up but made a note in his mind- he couldn’t date her, nor did he know enough about her to be properly involved.

she read a lot of books, sappy romances mostly, couldn’t cook anything deemed edible by anyone, and her favourite colour was green, he smirked when reading that for the first time. she didn’t know what she wanted to do with her future, just not a doctor like her parents wanted.

-

y/n was sitting in english as her teacher reviewed about univeristy application requirements. only next year they would be getting accepted and denied from their dream schools. she’d spent years dreaming of it, university, and yet somehow a boy half way around the was racing through her mind. she felt horrible about it, the small crush. it was incredibly selfish, falling for a boy with so much going on, he certainly didn’t need her as anything more than a friend to talk to, but he was good with his words, and making her feel important too. her dismissal came and so did a classmate, approaching confident and cocky.

‘hey, l/n’ he said, a smirk on his face

‘oh, uh hey, will’

‘what are doing tonight?’ her mind went blank, any excuse, come on, say something

‘i have plans’ wow real specific, great job, y/n

‘like what’

‘fish funeral, real important stuff, my family is just devastated’ her voice was clearly sarcastic and that was all before she walked right out. no she didn’t exactly have plans, but waiting for dracos owl provided much more company than any date could have. the sight of dracos owl flying towards the pre-opened window was somewhat relieving, she didn’t know why, just the fact that he had not failed yet, and was still out there was nice. she hadn’t had this much company. since last year at least, when her supposed best friend started ghosting her because of some petty shit.

thankfully noctua ad gotten quite good at being discreet when delivering the letters. of all the things on y/ns junior year bucket list, explaining to her parents that she had befriended a british boy with an owl who flyed into her room while her neighbours had a clear view, wasn’t one. she also began keeping a bowl of water under her bed for the owl to drink when it arrived, knowing it couldn’t have been easy travelling back and forth.

y/n

im not fully sure you want to know the depth, yet you seem to want me to corrupt you with my villain with a task baggage. i suppose it couldn’t hurt if i told you about the unbreakable vow. it’s like a promise or a bond, but if you break it then you die. if you can stomach that i may be able to tell you more. how far away do you reckon we are?

draco

-

draco wasn’t falling behind too far, but his first attemp had failed, and panic attacks were taking up most his time. he never had any, at least not this bad until this year. at least once a day he would start sweating, no matter how cold he was, unable to control his breathing or tears, feeling like the walls were caving in upon him.

that is, besides writing y/n as much as he could. apparently she was being honest, she had no schedule of any sort besides going to school. he hated to say, but he was becoming attached, he didn’t exactly know how either, but everytime he recieved a letter a small weight was lifted from his shoulders, even just when he read it.

noctua was doing the weekly, almost daily round at breakfast with the other owls and draco watched with anticipation as a letter dropped on his lap and owl on his shoulder. he tried to conceal the letter into his robes but pansy had taken matters into her own hands. likely jealous that she’d spent collectively around six hours with him the whole year, and he never talked to her like he used to.

‘ou draco whats this’ twirling the envelope between her hands. the letter had no name, no stamp, only a small heart drawing in the corner.

‘hands off parkinson’ he said while taking the letter back. ‘a letter from my mother, if you must know’ he said knowing that neither his mother or father had written him anything, despite having all the time to do so.

he got up and left the second he was done, not wanting to draw snapes suspicion about who could possibly be more important than working on this task.

he rushed to his room, desperate for more of her words. he tried to picture her voice in his head, but had to remind himself she wasn’t british nor was she from southern america.

draco,

so you just die if you break the promise? intresting. it’s not as hard to stomach as you seem to think, very unique tradition i suppose. you are not a villain draco, you haven’t told me much about it but your to good of a person to have picked any of this for yourself. i calculated when we you were home, seven thousand three hundred something, i don’t know where your fancy boarding school where you have owls for pets is, so it may be further. im ready whenever you are.

y/n

her letter was relieving for him aswell, even in the slightest it helped, but she deserved some sort of answer for helping him take his mind off the task for a couple minutes. he could tell if she wasn’t scared off already, this would do it.

y/n

if you are sure, here it is. dumbledore is my headmaster, the dark lord is a very powerful wizard, and snape is my professor. if i don’t kill dumbledore before july, he will kill me and my family, if i can’t complete the task, snape will kill him under terms of an unbreakable vow. im not a very good villain that’s for sure, my first attemp failed, and my classmate is out cold. i understand if you dont want to write to me anymore, just don’t tell anyone about this, please.

dm.

-

the only words to describe the feeling that overwhelmed her senses as she read were devastation and shock. tears pooled in her eyes as she tried to imagine herself with that much responsibility to wildhold until july. another detail that caught her eye, wizard? what did he mean by wizard? is that the word for dictator in england? certainly he wasn’t talking about the wizards she read about in storybooks as a child. her hand shook slightly and she debated mentioning it.

draco

you’re silly if you think i’d stop writing you. you need company now more than ever. please don’t hold things back from your letters, you deserve someone to talk to. that is quite the situation, im sorry if i pushed you, you do have enough on your shoulders and i want to help you as much as i can. i hate to ask, but you mentioned ‘wizards’ and i am a bit confused.

all my love

yn

-

initially, draco went into shock. he knew he was probably oversharing, but didn’t expect to slip up in that way. he begrudgingly admitted; knowing that if this went badly he would likely be banished from the wizarding world, which didn’t seem like such a horrible punishment to him anymore. and yet she was fascinated, by the coins he sent her, the subjects he learned- which she compared to her own much less exciting ones, and everything he told her about it. he could now talk to her about much more, since both his secrets were now out in the open to her. he told her about the about the houses, and they both agreed she would probably be in hufflepuff, well he thought so, her kind and accepting nature, and she didn’t know enough to disagree. and for the first time in the long time he was seeing things differently, completely diminishing the rude behaviour he often displayed towards the house.

she even sent him a picture, the first time he ever saw her face. a large smile spread across her beautiful features, she seemed to be laughing. eyes glistening in the sun even prettier than he could have imagined. he slept with it under his pillow, and could stare at the still image for hours. no it didn’t move around, but he couldnt care less. he only had one picture of himself in his possession and he was young, about four. she was facinated by the moving image, his blonde hair and attitude shining right through. he would owl his mother for a more recent one, but didn’t want to explain why.

the letters were helping him, but the task wasn’t advancing. his second attempt had failed, he was caught sneaking into slughorns party, and harry was onto him. they were also causing him doubt. say they did get the cabinet fixed, he couldn’t see himself killing dumbledore anymore, the more he talked to her he realized he couldn’t be a killer, as cold as he was to some people, but he had to, didnt he?

most importantly every letter she sent gave him a sense of hope. that the second this is over he could move. away from voldemort, and potter, his parents even, england in whole. perhaps not to canada, but it could be a change, half way across the world with the girl who was helping him stay alive through his letters. he just needed to stay alive long enough too see her.

the seasons changed around draco, but his room stayed the same. hot from mysterious potions, for himself and some for dumbledore, he had not had much hope after the wine, though. it was lonely, not that he’d like y/n here, he’d much rather be there, all the way across the world.

-

may came in a blur, and finals were creeping up. one week y/n sat at her desk, every night, waiting for a letter that didn’t come. on the fifth letterless day she cried. not exactly knowing why, it wasn’t her that had much of a reason to cry, but dracos company had filled her lonely life up with light of its own, leaving it darker than it was before she saw the first letter. she was silly to be so attached and silly to expect him to reciprocate the feelings she had proclaimed in the last one she sent, and should have expected him to stop eventually. so she continued on with school, finding it a bit easier to concentrate now that a draco sized whole was missing from her brain, and her heart aswell.

the next week, though, a letter came, very appreciated by y/n as the whole other universe, british boy forgetting thing wasn’t as easy as it seemed.

y/n

im sorry for not writing, the classmate i mentioned all those months ago woke from the curse, and the potter twat hexed me with a spell id never heard of before. i would have tried to contact with you but i couldn’t exactly trust what my brain was planning on writing, and the cuts are still a bit sore. the cabinets fixed, but even if everything works out okay i won’t be writing very much at all. i’ll be home in july, but the manor will be infested with death eaters and i can’t let you get hurt. thank you for everything l/n.

draco

it stung a little, knowing that the empty feeling the girl just experienced would be more frequent, he didn’t mention anything about what she had said, and that this could be the last time she ever heard from him if he didn’t kill dumbledore. in hindsight, practically telling her she loved him in a letter wasn’t what he needed, she knew that.

-

he left out the fact that he the spell put a him in a huge emotinal draught. he was exhausted constantly, crying even more than before. the cuts were sore, so he wasn’t holding everything back.

the last month of school came and went all to fast for dracos liking, and death eaters now roamed around the castle, causing havoc where ever they could. his trunk had been shurken so small it looked like a small muggle toy he put into his pocket easily. the dark mark that was stretched across his left arm was now hanging in the gray sky, and the headmaster was no where to be seen. he paced anxiously around a vacant corridor until he heard a pop in the astronomy tower. he didn’t think people could apparate into hogwarts, it would have made his job much easier.

‘harry, get snape, i need snape now’ he seemed exhausted, maybe this wouldn’t be as hard

‘sir im going to sit you down okay, and then ill go get madam pomf-‘

‘severus, harry, I need severus now, go get him and talk to no one else’ he said in a shallow yet somewhat urgent and angry tone.

draco waited for footsteps to disappear, before whipping the door open with his wand already ready.

‘oh hello, draco, nice to see you on this fine evening’ he said nonchalantly, leaning his weight against the wall.

‘EXPELLIARMUS’ draco boomed, successfully disarming the man without counter attempts before glancing around to see a second broom

‘who else is here?’ he said sounding confident but feeling the opposite

‘i could ask you the same question, acting alone are you? you don’t seem supported’

‘no, there are death eaters in your school tonight, and i got them here’ he snarked ‘they’ll be up, any minute now, their fighting down below. i’ve got a job to do’

‘well done boy, if you don’t mind me asking a few questions, before you get on with it, im very intrested’ was he kidding? he knew draco was about to kill him right? wanting to stall, and not fully wanting to kill him he nodded his head yes.

‘you seem scared to act until they join you

‘im not scared, you should be scared’ he snarled, unable to contain the fear in his voice any longer any longer

‘oh draco’ he sighed ‘while we wait for your friends arrive, care to explain how you smuggled them in here? i never imagined it possible, especially not by a student’

‘i had to mend the broken cabinet that no ones used for years, there’s another one in borgin and burkes. montague got stuck in told everyone stories about it, how he could sometimes hear what was going on in the shop and sometimes hear hogwarts like a passage, and i was the only one who discovered what it meant. not even borgin, not you either, i did it right under your nose, you didn’t realize anything’ he said

‘you are right, i didn’t know that. i do- on the other hand, know that you aren’t a killer’

he raised his wand a little higher, feeling wheezy and as though his legs would give in any second

‘how you know that, I’ve done despicable things, you wouldn’t even be able to fathom’

it was dumbledore’s time to pause, glancing up at the sky and looking around the room before continuing

‘draco i know you almost killed katie bell and ron weasley. you’ve been trying to kill me all year, forgive me for saying this, but they’ve been very feeble attempts. to be honest ive wondered wheather your heart has truly been in it’

‘it has, and if you knew why didnt you stop me’

‘snape has been watching over you on my orders’

‘ it’s not on your orders, he promised my mother-‘

‘ofcourse he would tell you that, but it happens to be that i trust professor snape’

‘your losing it then, he’s a double agent, he isn’t working for you- he’s been trying to get in on the action all year, helping me and all. doesn’t matter now- he probably doesn’t even know they are here yet, he will wake up tomorrow and no longer be the dark lords favourite, he will be nothing compare to me’ confidence was building within him

‘very gratifying, we all like being recognized for our hard work, but, draco?im standing here wandless and weak, unable to defend myself, and you have not made any move to kill me, dont blame me for believing you will not, but let’s discuss your options’

‘my options’ he laughed ‘im standing here with a wand, about to kill you’

‘oh dear boy, if you were going to kill me you would have when you disarmed me, not stayed for a little chat’

‘i haven’t got any options, don’t you understand, i have to kill you, or he will kill me’

‘okay, if you don’t want to join the order with your mother where we could protect you, i only have one more question’

‘better hurry, theyre on their way’ he almost laughed which was quickly replaced when Dumbledore said his next words.

‘who is y/n l/n’ at that a tear fell down dracos face, and he lowered his wand almost completely

‘i-i don’t know who that is, odd l-last words’ he stuttered

‘draco dont play dumb now, not after we discovered you are very intelligent. we left some of the security measures from last year that Umbridge enabled, and I couldn’t help but notice hundreds of letters flowing to and from her. i looked into student files, ilvermornies too, nothing, id never heard the name, a muggle i presumed. but of all the things, that had me the most confused. i couldn’t figure out why you would be contacting her, so i did some meddling’

‘WHAT DID YOU DO’

‘fiesty all the sudden, are you? i felt bad after opening this, it seemed very personal, and i probably should given it too you sooner, but i was a bit preoccupied double checking my drinks and all’ dumbledore said handing him the letter.

draco

how is the cabinet coming? it’s raining even more here than usual, all day and night. and don’t talk like that, saying you don’t have a future. you do draco, you deserve another chance and infinite amounts of them. you are just a kid, you shouldn’t be forced to be a hero. you are protecting so many people right now, but i don’t need any. you have given my life enough light in the last few months than i ever recall, and im so thankful that letter came to me. i wish you were here with me right now, but i know you can’t be, so just stay alive, okay?

y/n

more tears fell, he hated being so weak at the mention of her, crying before he completed the blessing his father and bellatrix considered the task to be.

‘she’s right, draco, you deserve another chance’

he was speechless, and could tell Dumbledore knew he found his weakness.

‘i always pictured you and pansy, never in a million years imagined you to be in a relationship with a muggle’

‘no matter who does it, your about to be killed, and im not here to discuss my love life am i?’

‘so you do love her?’ before draco could even think he heard a door open and raised his wand, hiding the letter faster than he had ever moved.

‘shut up, they will kill her’ he said quietly and desperately

in walked fenrir greyback, yaxley, and bellatrix. they made banter of their own, but her words replayed. he couldn’t do it.

‘go on draco’ his aunt whispered into his ear, making him shiver.

‘DO IT, DO IT BOY’ she yelled, in a high pitched and annoying voice

he felt a strong arm over his chest, pushing him aside, and he saw the whoosh of snapes robes and an already pleading dumbledore

‘severus, please’

‘AVADA KEDAVRA’ snape shouted, a green flash producing from the end of his wand, hitting the old man square in the chest. draco rushed over to the edge, watching him fall. it was a long way down.

-

the rain had sudsided, sunlight leaking into her room during the day. watching the sky at night, failing to find constellations he described many times to her. her wardrobe was mostly untouched, remaining in pyjamas most of the week. the odd time she did leave, she saw her old friends walking and laughing out her car window. eating and socializing felt like a chore, and she hadn’t communicated with the boy since may. he could be dead, she didn’t know. there was no death on the ‘muggle’ news, and draco wasn’t on the top wanted list, not that he likely would be on the television all the way over here. he could be fine, in wiltshire, going to dinner parties and holding balls. or maybe, he too, was sitting in his room staring at the ceiling for days on end. she had now hung the picture of a young draco by her desk, not needing to worry about anyone seeing. her siblings were once again home, but out living their lives so much that it still felt like they were gone. for the first time she noticed his scroll on the back.

‘i was four when this was taken i believe, my hair is very similar, i was quite sassy, im sure that shows without explanation.’ she blushed while reading, it was true. his hands were on his hips whipping his head around.

-

every day was a surprise around malfoy manor. not the kind of surprise draco liked. not the feeling of butterflies in his stomach when he read y/ns letters, those were replaced by a pit as they were summoned around the large table in the dining room. the first one he attended was horrible, watching his muggle studies teacher being hung above their heads, pleading for the help of severus as she died. he bit his tongue in an attempt to avoid raging about about every comment surrounding muggle culture. each one tore his heart, as he imagined the girl all those kilometres away, the girl he had no contact with, but he looked at her picture as much as possible, and hoped one day he could make her smile again like she did in the image.

-

senior year was here, and y/n schedule picked up once again. her timetable was full, maybe it was best, a distraction, after a whole summer of thinking alone in her room. draco was on her mind at night, no matter how hard she tried to forget. she’d made friends with her creative promotions partner, logan. he was certainly not intrested in her in anyway besides friends, but company after all this time was enjoyable, just in the hour of class

-

draco had little privacy, with death eaters in every hallway, conversing with eachother. wherever he went someone was there, until he finally got sick of it and began going to the garden bench. with a book, sometimes, giving some of the sappy love stories y/n mentioned a try or even the poetry books she sent with noctua awhile back, they were okay, but his heart hurt at the feeling of relation in every line. he could only read one or two poems at a time, without tears forming in his green orbs.

sometimes he went with a pen and a notebook. he wrote about everything. the smell of the plants around him, the feeling in his chest when the dark lord called for a meeting. most of the notebook, though, was filled with poems of his own. and letters he had no intention of sending for her own safety. she wasn’t in harms way, though, other followers were preoccupied with ruining weddings and other things they considered fun. he blabbered on for pages, about how he missed seeing noctua fluttering towards him at breakfast. how he rereads the letter that dumbledore gave him the night he died. how she listened to him rant on and on, giving her support no matter how evil he felt. how he found love where it wasn’t supposed to be.

snow was falling once again, he had to dress in layers, making it hard to write often, the plants started dying as cold settled over and his mother no longer babied him like she used to before the death eaters began inhabiting the mansion. he couldn’t keep himself company any longer and gave into the pressure he put on himself. as long as they were careful, she’d be in no destruction- he prayed as he wrote what seemed to be an appropriate response after all this time.

-

like it had been decades, she flinched at the noise of the owl on the window, carrying a much larger scroll that he’d ever sent before, some parts scratched out and written above. his writing was much less tidy than she remembered, like the letters on the page were anxious for her reaction.

love,

after all this time, im sorry you are just now hearing from me. you have ever single right to be annoyed with me, after you listened to me for months, helping me emotionally in ways i never be able to repay you for. you do not need to forgive me, or write me back. i just wanted to keep you safe. but i needed to tell you everything before it might actually be to late. you’ve probably moved on and forgotten about me, like you should, but i guess im saying that i am alive. i didn’t kill him either. snape did. i thought i was going to be able to, but he started talking about you. he gave me a letter from you that he had already opened, the words repeated in my head over and over. you talked about how i deserved another chance, and how you wish I’d was there with you. right before he died he asked me if i loved you. i knew the answer but didn’t have time to say it. ive read your poetry books, they aren’t as bad as i once thought, i can’t read to many at once. i try to forget what dumbledore said that night, and that night altogether. but one day i read ‘that’s how you know you love someone, i guess. when you cant experience anything without wishing the other person was there to see it too.’ when i sit in the garden i imagine you smelling the flowers, myself picking one and putting it behind your ear. when i go on walks i imagine your hand in mine. youre in my dreams. my never ending thought. i remember the way i felt when we started talking a lot, and how I felt when we didn’t get a chance. you listened to me when no one else offered. not even my parents. i hope your doing okay, and smiling and laughing. i don’t care if we talk about absolutely nothing, i just want to talk to you. i know that’s unfair to you after all ive weighed on you. but i guess that’s all, i love you. draco ♡

well this certainly didn’t get him off her mind. she didn’t need to either. ofcourse she was going to write him back, but she needed time to think about her response. she missed the next day of school, and his owl was comfortably standing on her desk, nibbling away at the water and crumbs. she took an hour long shower, multiple naps, raided her fridge, and had to email the school pretending to be her mum, excusing her for the day. before she even knew what she was going to write, she began on a new piece of paper. she’d have thought longer, but was sure draco would be convinced she stole noctua out of anger.

draco,

wow. i don’t really know what to say. i knew you weren’t a killer, and i meant what i said about you deserving more chances. i will admit i was angry, and a bit confused. i sent that letter with high hopes. i don’t know what i was hoping for at the time, i was being incredibly selfish. but couldn’t help myself feel pained when you didn’t mention it in the next letter when you said harry hexed you. i know we can’t be together, especially not right now, but i love you too. i wish more than anything you were here with me right now, and it was you i’d be graduating with half a year from now. i wish you were in the passenger seat of my car while i drive through the city. i wish you could point out the constellations in the sky. i usually can’t read to many poems either, they get me thinking to much. im ready to write again if you are.

y/n

-

draco hadn’t felt more joy in a long time. around seven months. she loved him, and that was enough happiness for a life time. he just needed to stay alive.

they continued to stay in touch, almost as if they never stopped talking, entertaining eachother as much as possible, masking their separate misery and the distance between them. he could get time away from the reality that was his life for a while, he thought, until snatchers brought the trio he spent so long bickering with to the manor.

a very distorted looking harry fell before him, his hair tightly gripped by bellatrix.

‘well, is it him’ he knew it was harry. and yet a part of him couldn’t bring himself to letting the boy get killed.

‘i can’t be sure’ he lied

‘draco, look closely son’ lucius said loudly, getting a grip on the back of dracos neck before leaning in and whispering.

‘if we are the ones that hand potter to the dark lord, all will be f-forgiven. a-all will go back to how it was’

his father and the and a snatcher quickly got into an arguement. lucius was yelling something about the manor before narcissa calmed him with a hiss.

‘don’t be shy, sweetie come here take a closer look’

draco was know level with him. the scar was still visible on his forehead, and swollen eyes staring back at him, hopeless.

‘what’s wrong with his face’ draco said

‘yes what is wrong with the boys face’ a shrill voice repeated

‘he was like that when we got him, something he picked up in the forest i reckon’

bellatrix walked away, laughing away at something. the blonde boys eyes were still on harry, before he felt a tap on his shoulder. bellatrix began acting out, yelling about a sword, putting ropes around snatchers neck from the end of her wand. sword now in her hand she walked over to ronald weasley, grabbing his collar and demanding that the boys be put in the cellar.

a different draco would have gladly watched a mudblood be tortured by his aunt. but he flinched at every scream of hermione, unable to watch he went to the next room, resisting tears as he thought of the girl he fell for enduring the same. she had moved onto the goblin- ridiculing it about who got into her vault- and hermiones screams were now gone.

‘youre lucky, goblin, the same won’t go for this one’ he heard footsteps

‘like hell it wont’ he heard ron yell, followed by the expelliarmus and what must have been harry stupefying his father. draco rushed in, now dueling a more normal looking harry, until their attention caught on bellatrix, a knife to grangers throat. they dropped there wands, and he did as instructed, picking them up. lucius was summoning the dark lord when they heard a tittering on the ceiling, and the chandlier crashing. it all moved so fast and harry was now wrestling draco for his wand back. he tried, but harry had already pried it out of his cold and shaky hands.

‘STUPID ELF. THAT COULD HAVE KILLED ME’

‘dobby never meant to kill. dobby only meant to maim or seriously injure’ the house elf squeaked, and draco had never resisted a chuckle so hard.

‘HOW DARE YOU TAKE A WITCHES WAND. HOW DARE YOU DEFY YOUR MASTERS’

‘dobby has no master, dobby is a free elf, and he has come to save Harry Potter and his friends.’ and with that they apparated out, not without bella throwing a knife into the mix.

-

meanwhile, y/n was receiving letters of her own. not from draco either. letters from the schools she applied to. so far everything was good, except for princeton, but she didn’t have the highest expectations. she was accepted to the university of british columbia, seattle university, even ucla. she only had one letter left, and the large stuffed yellow envelope sat in her hands. she wasn’t sure about it- would she even be able to go to the univeristy of london? it was far, but draco was there, well closer to there atleast. accepted- it read. it was an option, and she still had weeks to think about it.

-

draco was very hesitant to write after the incident at the manor, the screams of Hermione, and the terrifying looking potter still vivid in his brain and nightmares. he often woke from sleep in a sweat, yet freezing cold. whispers of the war around his house also haunted his mind and soul. he’d walk to the window and look up at the the stars, they were under the same sky, at least. eventually he had to write her, it had been half a month and he couldn’t leave her hanging alone again.

y/n

love, im sorry for being hesitant, but there is going to be a war. i hate to leave you contact-less, but i need you to be safe now more than ever. i couldn’t live with myself if you got hurt. potter and his friends were brought here to the manor, it didn’t last long- they escaped within the hour and a half. with that doped elf, and a goblin too. if you don’t hear from me again, remember i love you. and always will.

draco

of all the letters y/n had recieved, from draco in all, that was probably the most displeasing. a war? like with tanks and bombs? tears were shedding down her face as she wrote the shortest response yet. knowing he most definitely didn’t have time to listen to her talk about schools, and how she got accepted to london, but her parents deemed it to far, ubc would have to do, she’d find her way to him eventually, if they were meant to be.

draco

stay safe, i love you.

yn.

-

draco now stood at snapes new office, dozens of corpses on the floor, pooled in blood. the dark lord speaking parsel tounge to nagini. no one needed to speak it to know that the man was infuriated about something potter had done.

-

the information he left was lacking, was he serious? what did wizarding wars even look like? her graduation date was set, June 6th, but it all seemed irrelevant, suddenly picking out a dress didn’t seem as fun as she thought, same with getting portraits taken. should she have said more?

-

next thing he knew the protection spell was countered and he apparated in, grabbing zabani and goyle by the collar. rushing them into a corridor and waited for the door of the room of requirement to completely vanish before approaching himself. they successfully found harry, opening a box carefully before finally drawing attention to themselves.

‘well well, what brings you here, potter’ draco said, softly, much to his surprise as he meant it to sound snarky and rude

‘i could ask you the same’

‘i believe you have something of mine, and id like it back’ was he becoming… kind?

‘whats wrong with the one you have?’ harry replied

‘it’s my mothers, powerful but different, doesn’t fully understand me, im sure you know the feeling’

‘why didn’t you tell her. bellatrix? you knew it was me, and you didn’t tell her’ he wasn’t exactly sure what to say, nor did he know. harry really didn’t have anything to do with his feelings for y/n, maybe he should have just turned in him when he had the chance, it would all be over if he had.

‘don’t be a wuss draco, just do it now’ goyle whispered in his ear, making him chill the same way bellatrix did on the astronomy tower, almost a year ago.

‘expelliarmus’ hermione half shouted, causing narcissas want to fly out of dracos hands and run the other way.

‘avada kedavra’ goyle missed and weaslebee started chasing after them, yelling something about his girlfriend. turning back around after goyle unsuccessfully casted the fiendfyre curse.

fear was making his body almost rattle as he desperately climbed bookcases in an attemp to outrun the flames. he watched goyle fall, into the orange. yes, he was a complete and utter twat, but wasn’t a half bad friend during dracos bullying peek. his foot slipped, now just his hands were keeping him up, and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold on. in the distance he saw the three, zooming off to safety in the distance, leaving them their to die. not that he blamed them, after anything he did to them, he would have probably left himself there aswell.

but potter was flying towards him, arm out-stretched, grabbing onto his own and hoisting himself on the broom. had he already died? must not have, because the heat had finally caughten up. feeling as though he was going to pass out, he gripped tighter onto harry, maintaining his position on the broom. so much for staying safe. the second they made it out, they crashed onto the ground. he wanted to thank harry, but found himself running off instead.

explosions and hexes were being sent everywhere. people dying left and right. giants and trolls and spiders helping, he found himself in the slytherin common room. partially because he wanted to say goodbye, as he never wished to return to the building again once he had the choice. and partially as he was now aware of a large burn on his arm, and he felt a need to put off fighting until absolutely necessary. he entered through the portrait, for the last time. it felt like an aquarium, looking out upon the lake filled windows, merpeople and the giant squid often zooming by. he sat down upon the sofa, where he spent countless hours avoiding homework, plotting against potter and swimming in lust of his pure-blood status that now felt like a curse. he went up to his dorm, where he did very similar things. he wondered as to what he would be doing if he was a muggle right now. picking out a suit for graduation, buying a corsage for his date, but he wasn’t, so he best get going. running his hands along the furniture before leaving, not looking back.

the noise in the entrance courtyard had completely been diminished and draco found his way into the crowd of students pooling in. death eaters swarmed towards them at a painfully slow place, his mother and father near the head of the group. he noticed hagrid, towering above them, carrying what could only have been harrys corpse.

he watched carefully as they approached, trying to wedge himself inbetween and behind other students.

‘harry potter is dead’ voldemort paused ‘from now on, you put your faith in me’ silence fell over the hundreds of people who were know gathered. he swished his robes and turned backwards facing his followers

‘HARRY POTTER IS DEAD’ obnoxious and deafening cackles erupted

‘and now is the time to declare yourselves. come to our side, or die’ even more silence fell.

‘draco’ his father hissed before repeating ‘draco’

he felt eyes fall all over him, gazing expectantly. tears ran down his face.

don’t talk like that, saying you don’t have a future. you do draco, you deserve another chance and infinite amounts of them. was this what she meant? he’d been looking for another chance, maybe this was it.

he shook his head no, and noticed his father had fallen a shade of pale he didn’t know existed.

‘Draco, DRACO’ he yelled, clearly enranged, but before he could continue - a movement shifted in hagrids arms, and harry fell out. in a heartbeat draco threw his wand to the scar faced boy. he caught it, looking grateful as he could while casting some sort of spell at nagini. death eaters were disappearing into the air- including lucius, narcissa being dragged with him.

draco didn’t know what to do with himself, he was wandless and he couldn’t fight, unless he wanted to engage in an actual physical duel, which he didn’t. he found himself in the great hall, asking professor sprout if she needed help patching those up, she pulled him into a hug, unexpectantly. he never recalled such contact or connection with a professor. he spent the rest of the battle helping healing wounds with dittany, and caring for those left in the wake. it was a nice distraction from the fact he would most definitely be disowned, left a family-less orphan at 17.

-

y/n couldn’t blame him for not writing, he clearly stated that it might be the last time. but every night she cried until she couldn’t cry anymore, or until she fell asleep. how could she like him so much? they’d never even met. she didnt really need to see him to know him, his letters told him enough about him. and she could only hope- that if he managed through his six year without killing his headmaster, he could make it through the war.

-

he delayed going back to the manor for as long as possible, until he decided to apparate directly into his room. he considered packing his things up, but realized no one was home. he was thankful, he don’t think he would ever be able to fully confront his parents again. he fell asleep in his bed, and slept for 48 hours straight. he slept through very vivid dreams, ones of y/n being tortured the same way as Hermione, ones of the dark lord coming alive once again and killing his mother because of his choices. he couldn’t bring himself to sleep again purposefully, no matter how exhausted he was. the days weren’t much better, his mind raced at unbelievable paces. he saw the dead bodies laying around the great hall, the unrecoverable ones. maybe he should have just fallen into the fire, surely that would have been easier. he was slowly becoming thinner, and always needed multiple blankets to even stay at a somewhat warm temperature, his heart beat faster than normal. he often felt pains in his neck, and his eyes were almost always puffy from crying. he spent so much time in bed he almost didn’t hear his owl flutter onto his nightstand mid afternoon, a small package tied loosely around his neck.

he opened it to see a letter, muggle candies and a worn book. suddenly he felt more awake, and be shot up a little to fast then he should have, sitting on the edge of his bed.

draco.

i don’t know where you are, or if youre alive, if youre reading this now. i hope this doesn’t arrive at a bad time. but your 18 now, so happy birthday. if you are seeing this, i still love you. i think about you all the time. i hope you are okay, and safe. in case you don’t end up writing me back, i just thought I’d give you some random information to keep you company and away from your mind. i graduate tomorrow. i look at your picture everyday. I remember what you once told me about following my dreams, so instead of medicine, im going to study literature and business next year. im staying in kelowna aswell for now, hoping maybe you’ll be able to visit someday. im sure you’d like it. my favourite colour is still green. i don’t know what else to say.

always here to listen if you’d like to talk. yn.

was it actually his birthday? had it already been a month since the war? it felt like a year but the visions played over and over like it was yesterday. it took him awhile before it clicked. the war was over, Voldemort was dead and there was no one to stop him from seeing her. he completely disregarded the lightheaded feeling he got when he stood up to fast- and rushed to his wardrobe. it took him a bit longer than he thought to pack up all his clothes, including the thousands of letters he kept hidden in a large drawer. the trunk was a bit heavier than he may have thought, and he ended up needing to take a car, in fear that he may not be able to apparate successfully to the airport without injuring himself. he quickly found out that muggle travelling was harder than he thought, and security and customs were also apparently a thing that all people needed to get through.

he wrapped himself in his cloak and didn’t get a drop of sleep the whole plane ride. it was nighttime when they flew over montreal, and then toronto. the sun rose as they crossed through winnipeg, regina, and calgary. he didn’t know this himself ofcourse, but he aggressively hit the map on the screen in front of him, desperate to know where he was. he only got an hour of half decent sleep before he felt rattling of the plane landing, and he gripped tightly onto the arm rests. he struggled for half an hour before he even got sight of his luggage on the moving thing that went round and round. compared to London, kelownas airport was very small and easy to navigate. the air outside was hot, making draco feel even more self concious about his clothing choices.

-

y/n put her hair back into a twist with a clip taking a suprising amount of effort to make sure it looked okay. her makeup was natural looking, nothing crazy but she looked gorgeous none the less. she slipped into her black romper, some canadians didn’t wear their fancy dresses to convocation, only something simple to go with the cap and gown. she arrived at the ceremony, seeing everyone, with excited smiles and laughs, conversing amongst themselves. and every memory came rushing back. they sat in rows on a stage, listening to the heartfelt and extremely cheesy speech the staff made every single year. she’d never noticed how many kids were in her age group until they were being called up one by one.

‘alex can’

‘ruth lee’

and the list went on and on until finally

‘y/n l/n’ the moment had come, and she shook everyone’s hand, receiving her diploma and flipping her caps tassel to the left. ‘y/n is staying around next year, and attending the university of british columbia okanogan, good luck l/n’ her principal said and claps continued like they had and the rest of the list finished sooner, or seemed to go by faster, she wasn’t sure. 

-

draco had never had to find a taxi by himself, but once he did he gave the driver the only place he knew, the address he saw on the top corner of her first response almost two years ago.

-

y/n pulled away from the school grounds, watching them disappear in her rear view mirror. it was hot with a breeze, but she smiled the whole way home. she’d done it, made it through every assignment and class, dealt with attention hungry bitches, and crappy teachers. the next door was truly opening. pulling up to her house, and closing her car door as she hopped out, she watched her feet carry her up to the house. turning the corner, she saw him, sitting there on her steps, a present wrapped horribly in his hands, looking very out of place in his black cloak. she stopped in her own steps and he hesitantly stood up, before she launched herself into his arms breathing in his cologne, finally together after all this time.

[goldenchan-fx2thepeacock]

Don’t Go Running Off Into Danger, Even If I Do pt 2

So, I have no clue what a publishing schedule is. So here, have more of this dumb fic at 11 pm. FUCK SLEEP! SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK!

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Chapter 2

Danny and Jazz managed to finish just in time to put everything away before their parents got home. He’d actually managed to have a ghost free night. But the peace wasn’t going to last. And this wasn’t about ghosts. He got slammed into his locker.  “Hey look, it’s Fenturd. What’s with the dumb picture of Phantom? You’ll never be on his level,” Dash said and laughter broke out. Danny groaned. At least they didn’t know he was trans. He’d be beaten twice as much if they knew. The locker door closed and locked.  “Seriously Dash? I have to get to class!” He yelled through the metal.  “Whatever Fentina. No one cares! Oh hey, it’s fresh meat!” Dash went away from Danny’s locker. Danny had found out a way to make it so he could open his locker from the inside without it being outerwardly compromised. He jumped out. It was those kids from last night.  “Leave them alone Dash. They haven’t even been here for a day yet. The rules are that newbies get a probation period,” Danny crossed his arms.  “I don’t know Fentoenail. Would you like to take their beating?” Dash mocked him. Danny sighed. He’d have to do this.  “Any day,” 

Danny regretted everything. Dash had hit him twice as hard as normal and his locker trick wasn’t working. Everything hurt. He was going to miss Lancer’s class. At least his ghost sense wasn’t going off or something. Lancer wouldn’t miss him. Suddenly, his locker opened and he tumbled out. He yelped. “Are you okay?” The girl twin said.  “No worse than what I’m used to,” Danny brushed himself off.  “You didn’t have to do that,” The boy twin told Danny. “Yeah, I kinda did. The probation period is sacred. Dash knows that,” “Probation period?” The boy said. “A rule we made up last year. If Dash really wants to break it, I take the beating instead. Fenton gets to take the beating so the new kids don’t have to,”  “That’s not fair. You should report him,” “Nah, he threw like four perfect throws last night and is exempt from punishment,”  “Football?” The boy gave Danny a knowing look.  “Danielle- I mean Daniel Fenton to the main office,” The loud speaker said. “Oh come on! At least it was probably just a misread,” Danny was fuming. The beating plus being deadnamed was getting on his nerves. “We have to head there too,” The girl said. Danny shrugged and let them follow him.

Lancer called them all in at once. “Sup Lancer. Can I help you?” Danny leaned against the wall. “Mr Fenton. You and I both know that you need to show me more respect. W-what happened to you?” Lancer looked up from his papers. “Just a certain football star. Nothing I can’t handle. He broke the probation period,” “That’s a rule between students. I have no need to enforce it,” Lancer sighed. “I have no clue why you of all people were chosen for this, but you are too be Mr and Ms Pines guide around the school,” “Jazz not good enough for you? Had to pick the ‘slacker’ Fenton?” “Daniel, mind your tone. Jazz is our top student,”  “We all know I’m destined to fail in life. Can I get their timetables?” “Yes of course. Listen Danny, both you and I know you’re capable of better grades. I don’t understand why you don’t try,” Danny wasn’t in the mood for Lancer’s pep talks.  “I’ve got more important things to worry about,” Danny grabbed the papers and stalked off with the Pines Twins on his heels.  “Why didn’t he do anything about Dash?” the boy asked. “He has no reason to. Not like I’m about to ask,” Danny handed them their timetables. He’d seen that the girl was named Mabel and the boy Mason. “We’ll start with your classes Mason,”  “I prefer Dipper,” “I’m not calling you by a dumb nickname. Let’s go,” Danny growled.

Just as he was about to lead Mason to his first class, a royal pain in his ass showed up. “Daniel! I require your assistance, little badger,” “It’s bound to be another plan to get in my mom’s pants. Go away,”  “Now, don’t be like that. I’m the mayor after all. You should be honored,” “Plasmius, shut your goddamn mouth. I. Don’t. Give. A. Fuck,” Danny said so that only Vlad could hear.  “Well, something’s got you in a tizzy. I’ll ask later. I should tell you though, it’s about Danielle,” “What did you do to Dani?” Fury. Wait, he had to get the kids to class.  “Nothing. It wasn’t me. You should ask your ghost hunter girlfriend,” Vlad grinned. Fucking Valerie.  “Come on kids. You’ve got to get to class,” Danny ignored Plasmius. Valerie was going to die. 

At lunch, he purposefully turned into Phantom and waited for Valerie on top of the school. She took no time at all. “What. Did. You. Do. To. Dani,” He glared at her.  “I didn’t do anything to her! You’re going down ghost!” “Am I really?” Danny was pissed. She wasn’t getting any mercy today. He teleported behind her.  “What the... HOW?” “Where is she?!” He growled. “What do you care? She’s always off on her own,”  “Does it look like I care Valerie?!”  “How did you know?!” “I know more than you seem to think. Tell me where Dani is. NOW!” He froze her feet. She looked terrified.  “What’s wrong with you!? Why do you care so much about her? Ghosts don’t have feelings,” Danny lost it at that point. The laughter was dark. Hollow. Horrible. Val’s terror was visible.  “Don’t have feelings? DON’T HAVE FEELINGS? FUCK YOU! I’M SO TIRED OF ALL THIS!” “Phantom, calm down,” Val was terrified. Danny wasn’t done. The rings were threatening to come down and expose him to her.  “So you admit this is real? Would you like to know how it feels to die Val? How it feels to live on the line between life and death? Wait, I can’t do that! You don’t have a deactivated portal in your basement that I can make you turn on while your inside. I don’t have a stupid jumpsuit with your dad’s face on it so I can take off the that sticker. You don’t have parents that threaten to rip you apart molecule by molecule for just exsisting! You don’t have to see a future where you become evil because you cheated on one test and your family all died! Can you even begin to comprehend what I go through? Ever been cloned? And forced to do something incredibly painful so that one clone can get fixed and watch another get lied too? And that’s just the brunt of it Valerie. Keep telling me how I don’t feel. How I’m nothing!” Danny screamed at ice engulfed their feet. Val’s eyes went wide.  “D-Danny?” She said quietly. “Congratulations! You aren’t as niave as the rest of Amity Park! How does it feel?” He’d snapped. “Calm down! I’ll tell you where Dani is!” She shrieked. That hollow laugh came back. But instead of an angry rant afterwards, he just sunk to his knees and screamed. It wasn’t a wail. It was a scream of pain. Of being done with the world.  “I can’t do this anymore,” He sobbed and the rings went down. All that was left now was a beaten, broken Danny Fenton.  “You should change back. I’ll take you to Dani,” Danny nodded and followed her.  “Sorry I broke down. I’m just sick of people telling me that I can’t feel. That all ghosts can’t feel. You don’t even bother talking to us, ya know?” “Ghosts lie,” “And so do people! I’ve talked to the ghosts. Listened to them. Heard their stories. I protect people, but I protect them too!” “How do you know those aren’t just acts?” “Cause they make sense. I’d have the same response if it was me. If my parents burned down the place I was in because I got caught being gay,” “I’m confused,” “Ember. I told her I wouldn’t tell anyone. But you need to know that they all have reasons for being the way they are. Skulker’s family was hunted, so now he hunts to prove his strength,” “Maybe we should talk to you more,”  “Maybe you should. No one asks to die,” “But your parents say that ghosts don’t remember their lives. They’re the leading experts,”  “That’s like putting a ten year old in a room of babies. They’re the expert by default in that situation, but an adult would be the expert the moment they walked in,” “Why don’t we know about that,” “Dying is traumatizing. Even half dying is traumatizing. It’s taboo to mention it unless you’re told. No one explains it until they’re ready. And talking about a life before that is almost wrong,” “How did you learn?” “Skulker told me during the Christmas Truce. Ember told me one day when she just wanted to be left alone, but I did too. I guess things end up working out in weird ways,” “The Christmas Truce?” “On Christmas Eve and Christmas, ghosts have a truce. No one is allowed to fight anyone that day. The Ghost Writer broke the truce and Walker got to haul him off in just means,” “We really know nothing about ghosts, do we?” “No, you don’t. They even have a party. I got invited last year. Skulker let me make the star! It took me weeks to get it right,” Danny smiled at the memory. He’d made a scale model of a blue giant that went through it’s life stages.  “So there’s a whole society?” “A government. Systems. Main rules. Taboos. Just cause we’re ghosts, doesn’t mean we don’t have a system,” “I’m sorry,” “What?” Danny nearly froze. “I’m sorry that I made so many assumptions. I never should’ve chased you or any ghost like that,” “Keep them out of Amity Park and send them back to the Zone. Most ghosts forget that living is dangerous, so they just rampage. I keep trying to talk sense into them, but they’re pretty stubborn,”  “What about the dog?” “Dog? You mean Cujo? I was trying to stop him from trashing Axiom. He was trying to get a toy. I’m sorry that recked your life Val,” “My life? Wrecked? When compared to you, my life is a dream. It’s not like I died,” “I guess you’ve got a point,”

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Thanks for reading. I just like fics where Val finds out, and this one seemed like an okay place to stick it. Dani is fine. I’ll fill you in on that next chapter, but I should get some sleep.

[srsly-messed-up-fruitloop]

Supper’s Ready

Word Count: 2,033

Summary: A couple of weeks have passed since Danny’s accident with the portal. Fortunately, so far, he hasn’t experienced any symptoms at all, not even ghostly ones. Until one day, he begins throwing up ectoplasm.

Or, my take on Portal!Danny

Warning: Includes depictions of nausea and vomiting so...read at your own discretion

Read on AO3 or under the cut

Danny awoke with a groan. He clutched his stomach and squeezed his eyes together as a wave of nausea hit him. If he could, he would’ve laid there forever, curled up in a ball fighting the sick feeling in his stomach. But it kept getting worse, and worse, until his instincts drove him to blindly stumble to his bathroom. Kneeling before his toilet, he held his mouth open, wishing for whatever he ate earlier to just come out already. It felt like an eternity before his dinner left him. Panting, he laid his cheek against the toilet seat as he felt the nausea starting to subside.

He doesn’t remember the last time he threw up. Probably when he was a kid. It couldn’t have been mom’s cooking, right? He recalled the glass of milk he had before bed. It did taste a bit funky.

He stood up, sparing a glance at his dinner once again. He was just about to flush it away until something caught his eye. A single translucent drop of something that glowed brightly green. Jazz probably did have a point about not keeping the ecto-weenies in the fridge.

A couple of weeks have passed since Danny’s accident with the portal. Unfortunately, the portal remained unfunctional since the brief moment when he had activated it. At first, Jazz and his friends were extremely concerned for him. After all, he was practically electrocuted. But seeing that there were no lasting effects, over time they’ve let go of the incident. Things resumed back to normal, save for Jazz becoming a lot more protective of her little brother.

Danny flushed and rinsed the foul taste from his mouth. He made a mental note to throw out the milk in the morning as he climbed back into his sheets.

~

A few days later, Danny was sitting at his desk in his bedroom, struggling to understand why he kept getting this one math question wrong. He swears he’s following the same steps in the textbook example. He was just about to give up and move onto the next question when his mouth suddenly felt dry. No, not again. 

Ever since that night he puked, Danny’s stomach really wasn’t having it. More and more often the sick feeling would return, except nothing came out of it. He rested his head on his homework, waiting for the nausea to pass. At this point he just wanted whatever bad food, stomach bug, or whatever to leave him already. Maybe he should ask his parents to take him to the doctor.

At that thought, his gut uncomfortably lurched and he barely grabbed his wastebasket in time. It’s a shame those tater tots from the cafeteria had to go to waste. Just when he thought he was finished, he felt a painful jolt in his abdomen and squeezed his eyes shut. He felt something, with an almost slimy-like texture pour out. The sensation of it running up his throat made him feel even sicker than he was.

He took a moment to breathe before opening his eyes again. He almost dropped the bin at what he saw. It was the same glowing green substance he saw that other night. Except this time, it took up three quarters of his wastebasket! He couldn’t even see his lunch from earlier.

Slightly panicked now, he quickly scrambled up from his desk chair to get rid of it. If Jazz saw him now, she’d never let him hear the end of it. 

After flushing it away, he turned to the sink to clean himself up. But, the sight of himself in the mirror made him freeze.

He saw that green fluid, staining his white shirt as it steadily dripped from his chin. He almost gagged when he still felt it present in his mouth. But what truly frightened him was his now green irises, glowing brightly in the same intensity as the fluid. 

What was wrong with him?

~

Ectoplasm. That’s what was inside him.

Over dinner, his dad was excitedly explaining how he had extracted the substance from a ghost. His mom joined in, explaining its scientific properties. And while Jazz expressed her disgust at bringing something like that to the dinner table, the whole conversation was lost to Danny’s ears. All he saw was the small vial his dad was showing off, containing the same substance he had been heaving out daily in the last week.

~

Danny was in the middle of an English test when he felt it. It wasn’t all that painful anymore, and he’s gotten used to holding it down just long enough until he could get to a washroom. Still, it always was very uncomfortable. And inconvenient, especially at times like now. He raised up his hand and cringed as Lancer stared at him suspiciously.

“Yes, Mr. Fenton?”

“Can I—uh...go to the bathroom?”

Lancer sighed as he glanced at the clock. “Fine. Please hurry back though, you only have 20 minutes left for the test.”

“Thanks Mr. Lancer,” Danny mumbled as he got up from his seat. He fought the feeling of Wes glaring a hole in the back of his head, along with the weird stares from some of his other classmates. Sam and Tucker worriedly watched as their friend left the classroom.

Alone, in the bathroom, Danny used his hands to brace himself against both sides of the stall, as he crouched in front of the toilet, wrinkling his nose at the smell. He hated doing this at school.

He counted to three and then let go, expelling the seemingly endless supply of ectoplasm within him. Every time he did this, there was always that little nagging voice at the back of his head, telling him that he really should tell someone about this. His parents should know what to do, right? But, every time he attempts to do so, he just...he can’t go through with it. Hearing them rant about their pure hatred for ghosts and the inventions they’ve created just to torture them makes his stomach lurch for a whole other reason. He knows they love him...but...what if they try to hurt him?

As for Jazz and his friends, he honestly can’t bring himself to burden them more after the portal accident. After all this time, he still occasionally sees the guilt in Sam’s eyes. Besides, who’s to say this won’t go away on its own...right?

He wiped his chin with the back of his hand after he felt nothing else coming up. However, he was greatly mistaken. 

The next moment, sheer agony shot through his abdomen, causing him to lose balance and hit his back against the stall’s door. It never hurt this bad before!

His body went rigid when he felt a frightening chill freeze his insides. A burning green—almost yellow light was all that he could see as he was overwhelmed by the brutal sensation of his insides being ripped apart. His mouth was forced open by an invisible force as something else crept up his painfully inflamed throat. It wasn’t ectoplasm this time.

Panting heavily, all Danny could do was lay there against the door as the blinding light and pain gradually faded away. The first thing he saw after regaining his vision was a spectral tail disappearing into the ceiling.

~

“Good morning, this is Tiffany Snow reporting Amity Park’s latest breaking news. Recently, we have received several reports of ghost sightings. Witnesses have expressed that these ghosts have been trespassing their homes, destroying property, and terrorizing civillians. The Amity Police Depar…”

“Those no good specters!”

“Jack, honey, do you know what this means?”

“Of course Maddie, the town needs us!”

“But the sudden increase in ghost activity, it must mean something…”

“What are you sayin’ Mads?”

“Where would these ghosts be coming from? Natural portals don’t stay open long enough for any significant entities to escape the Ghost Zone. Unless...maybe something is causing them to stay open longer?”

“You might be onto something, gosh Mads you’re so clever! Well, better get right to sealing up those portals for good. Oh, I got the perfect idea for an invention!” Jack exclaimed as ran downstairs into the lab.

“Danny?”

Danny just realized he’d been holding his breath throughout his parents’ conversation. At the sound of his mom’s voice directed at him, he dropped his spoon. “Y-yea mom?” he stuttered as he anxiously gazed at her.

She was holding a silver-gray thermos with metallic green details. “Today, I’m packing your lunch in the Fenton thermos. We’d be horrible parents let you kids go to school defenseless. Just remember to point and push, okay?”

“Um, okay. Thanks mom,” Danny mumbled. 

She kissed his head before he could protest and said, “I’m going to help your father out. Have a great day at school sweetie.” 

After his mom disappeared downstairs into the lab, Danny morosely glanced at his half-eaten cereal. He’s probably not gonna keep it down anyways. Fenton thermos in hand, he grabbed his backpack and left to catch the school bus.

~

Danny could almost say he’s gotten used to being nauseous all the time. Now when he threw up, more often than not an actual ghost would come up. But now, the guilt from causing all the recent ghost activity grew with each passing day. Yet, no matter how much he’d tried stopping himself, all he did was make the pain even more unbearable. Something was seriously wrong with him.

One day, he recovered quickly enough to see an octopus-like ghost escape into the school’s hallways. As he exited the washroom, he saw the ghost hurling textbooks at students and scaring anyone that got near. 

This was all his fault. He winced as he saw poor Mikey get his glasses knocked off his face by his own math textbook. He had to do something. Wait. Danny reached into his bag, finding the now empty Fenton thermos.

“Just point and push, right?” he muttered to himself as he took aim at the ectopus. A light blue beam shot out the thermos, enveloping the ghost and pulling it inside. Danny blinked as he noticed the small display on the flask read 25% CAPACITY.

“Huh, that was easy.”

~

Using the Fenton thermos to capture the ghosts really helped ease some of his guilt. However, all too soon the thermos had hit its capacity and Danny had no idea what to do with it.

He’d secretly borrowed another one from his parents and already that one was full too. He needed to figure out something quick.

“Hey dad?”

“What’s up Danno?”

“Uh...how do you get rid of ghosts?”

“Son, I’m so glad to see you taking an interest in the family business! Me and your mom are still finding out a way to get rid of those spooks for good. For now, we’ve got the Fenton Ghost Weasel and the Fenton thermos to catch them.”

“But, what if you run out of space to keep them?”

Danny’s dad scratched his head in thought. “Never really thought much about that. I guess when the time comes, we just gotta send those suckers back where they came from. Maybe by then, we’ll find those portals that are causing us all this trouble.”

Back where they came from? 

By now, Danny knows that the accident with his parents’ portal had to have something to do with his...condition. And considering that all the ghosts are coming from inside him...maybe the portal did end up working after all. Except, not in the way he’d expected. He tried not to think too much about it. How an opening to an entirely different dimension was...inside him.

But, he had a more immediate problem to worry about. And as much as the solution grossed him out, he had no choice. 

Currently sat on his bed, Danny stared at the two full flasks in front of him. His dad’s words rang in his ears as he unscrewed the cap off one. His stomach turned uncomfortably as he spared a glance at its contents.

Bringing up the thermos to his lips, he squeezed his eyes shut to brace himself for what he was going to do next.

Here goes nothing.

[saturn-in-autumn]

BRO your art and writing are both so good ajsbsjjs can I request a danny reveal to valerie? I would assume this would be a small drabble prompt but I'll let you choose how to do it and if you even want to do it in the first place whoops

ASDFGJHJK Thank you so much! 

Omg, first off I am SO SO Sorry this took me so long to get back to you! It’s actually so bad... But I finally finished your request!! It took me a while to figure out how to phrase everything and get my head around it but I ended up getting a little carried away in the end, I’m sorry... 

So here it is I suppose! I’ve also posted it to Ao3 here if you’d like to have a look, but it’s also under the cut if you want to read it on here! 

Thank you so much for your patience, I only hope it was kind of worth it? Idk. I ended up writing a short story/one shot rather than a drabble haha, I just didn’t expect it to get so long!  And thanks for the request idea! 

- Fire and Water -

Valerie sometimes thought Danny was like water.

He was so perfectly clear somehow, an undisturbed lake shining in the moonlight. His iridescent blue eyes sometimes felt like they could see right through her, somehow sense exactly how she was feeling, understand her deepest secrets.

That eerie calmness rippled and cascaded through him, so clear and tranquil, yet so incredibly dangerous.

He had a depth that terrified her to no end, a feeling that if she dove down too deep he would overflow, drown her with his power. As if his little lake held all the fierce might of the sea.

(In which Danny has a secret to tell Valerie, but doesn't quite know how to go about it)

“Ugh, what am I supposed to do Tuck?” Danny groaned, resting his head on his elbows in the grimy corner booth.

Tucker shrugged, patting his back awkwardly in what he hoped was a comforting manner. “I don’t know man, I don’t have a murderous ghost-hunter for a girlfriend.”

Danny sighed, looking forlornly across the crowded restaurant of the Nasty Burger. Valerie was still standing by the till, laughing with some customer as she took their order. She was gorgeous even in the grease-stained yellow of the fast food uniform. Silently Danny watched as she tucked a stray strand of dark hair out of her eyes and looked away. He was such a loser.

“Hey… but then again, it’s not really our decision to make.” Sam’s voice cut through Danny’s musings and he looked up at her dolefully. “Whether or not you want to share it with her is up to you.” She took another slurp of her slushie and frowned. “I thought you had sworn not to. Why the sudden change?”

Danny looked away, straightening to peer out the window at the passers-by on the street. “I don’t know… I just feel… like it’s wrong to keep lying to her is all…” Danny could feel Sam and Tucker’s eyes on him as he sighed again, “Look, we’ve been going out for almost a year… That’s, like more than I’ve ever been in a relationship my whole life! Plus, even if she doesn’t know it, I know her secret, but she doesn’t know mine, I can’t help feeling like I’m cheating on her or something weird like that…”

“Danny…” Sam started but he continued.

“But at the same time, I’m terrified that if she finds out she’ll hate me y’know? Like… I don’t want to lose her in the process…”

“Look Danny, as the current female representative at the table.” Sam said, placing her drink firmly on the table to look at him in the eyes, “I can safely say that telling the truth is probably your best option. If she finds out and it’s not from you, it’ll probably hurt her a lot more than just coming clean.”  

Tucker nodded, “You know, Sam’s right, if you really care about her what’s the worst that could happen?”

“The worst is that she’ll shoot an ecto-blast through my chest faster than I can say ‘Sorry’.” Danny moaned. “Or she’ll tell my parents or something… Then I’d really be dead meat.”

“And the best-case scenario is that she doesn’t mind.” Sam said with an eyebrow raised. “I’m sorry Danny, but if you guys really care about each other then keeping secrets probably shouldn’t be on the table. Valerie has a right to know if you’re hiding things from her, chances are she’ll figure it out sooner or later. Her aim’s getting better by the day.”

Danny winced, rubbing his upper forearm where the burn mark still stung.

Sam’s eyes softened and she reached over, taking his hand gently, “Danny I honestly think that anyone who knows you, the real you, won’t hate you no matter what you are. The real test is whether or not you think you can trust her enough to tell her and get away with it. She’s still the Red Huntress after all. I wouldn’t take this decision lightly.”

Danny nodded but smiled. “Would you guys mind though?”

Tucker blinked, “Dude, we’re your friends. If you want to date the most dangerous ghost-hunter in Amity Park we have your back. As Sam said, it’s you’re secret to share with whoever you want.”

Danny closed his eyes and stared at the ceiling, “Thanks guys…” he mumbled, glancing over to where Valerie was once again. It looks like she was packing up. “I think I’ll try and tell her tonight…”

At that Tucker’s eyes widened, “Wait, really? Like you don’t want to think about this a little more before you run in guns blazing?”

Danny blinked at him, “Well, I know it’s a little brash sure, but the sooner I do it the sooner I can sleep easy right? Whether she hates me or not I’ll at least know.”

Sam sat back, “You heard the man Tuck, if he’s stubborn enough he’ll do it.”

“Hey!” Danny said, sounding offended, “Okay maybe I’m not 100% on it, but I’ll feel better if I’m not lying to her. Besides…” He smiled slightly, “We’d kinda already had a date planned for tonight. I might as well make use of it…”

As if on cue Valerie walked over, she’d thrown a dark green jacket over the orange of her uniform that perfectly complimented her eyes. “Hey!” she said, arm raised and smiling, “You ready to go?”

“You bet!” Danny laughed, sliding past Tucker and leaving his money on the tray, “I’ll… talk to you guys later then?” He offered and Sam winked.

“Go get em’ tiger.”

Danny grinned, giving Valerie a quick peck on the cheek and the thumbs up to Tucker before the two of them walked out of the restaurant.

***

When they were gone Sam’s lips quirked into a smile, “He’s gonna die.” She chuckled, taking another slurp of her drink as she sat back in the booth.

“Wait what?” Tucker asked swinging his saucepan-sized eyes to her in disbelief, “What was all that about ‘accepting who you are’ then?”

Sam eyed him across the table, “You kidding? Valerie’s gonna stomp his heart into pieces with five-inch high stilettos, but even then, I doubt she’ll hate him for it.”

Tucker sighed and took another bite of his burger, “I don’t know. It’s just odd he has this sudden conviction to tell her everything. It’s a pretty big deal is all.”

Sam shrugged, “Yeah, but then again I guess it’s just a sign of how much she means to him. After all, he told us pretty soon after it y’know… happened…”

“Yeah but that’s different, we’re his best friends and you’re one of the main reasons he got his ghost powers in the first place. Plus, Valerie hated his guts on principle back then because she was still with the A-Listers… now she just hates him for different reasons…”

She scowled at him, but nodded, “Well then fine. Maybe he just wants to take their relationship up a notch. I don’t know why you’re having such a hard time with this Tucker, if Danny wants to go blabbering about his powers to people, he has his reasons for it. Despite appearances he’s not that much of an idiot to get caught by his parents or the GIW.”

“I know it’s just…”

“Ohhh,” Sam grinned, cutting Tucker off with a shit-eating grin. “Oh, I see, you’re jealous.”

“What!” Tucker shrieked, “Am not!”

“You’re jealous that Danny is opting to bring someone else in on the team, this was the same thing with Jazz! You’re too proud to admit that you like being a sidekick.”

“What!? Never. I’m Danny’s guy-in-the-chair! His wingman! His Q to his 007! It’s not like Valerie could—”

“Oh yeah totally, the Red Huntress with an arsenal of weapons and ghost-hunting experience would never take Tucker Foley’s precious slot as the guy-in-the-chair.”

“Fuck’s sake Sam.” Tucker spat, “I’m not jealous, and fine then, I don’t care who the hell Danny goes and talks to. Are you happy?”

“Ecstatically.”

“Fuck you.”

“Fuck me yourself coward.”

“I hate you so much…”

“I know. So… you down for Doomed later?”

He shrugged, standing up and throwing a few notes on the table, “Sure. I’ll catch you around 9.”

***

Danny hadn’t planned for this at all.

He mentally slapped himself as he and Valerie walked to the movie theatre, absentmindedly chatting as best he could about her day. The street was almost deserted at this time in the afternoon, couples walking to and from places, laughing as they held hands. Danny smiled. They were all so… alive.

Valerie said something and Danny watched her out of the corner of his eye. Her breath clouding in front of her face before hugging her jacket closer to her body and cupping frozen hands around a fresh cup of coffee to keep warm.

Amity Park in autumn was both beautiful and freezing with the golden brown and red of leaves staining the paths and parks like wounded soldiers on the fields of battle.

He would have shivered if he could.

As it was Danny looked away, the cold didn’t really seem to affect him in the same way anymore. A pang of guilt struck his chest as Valerie laughed at something, she sounded so happy. If only she knew who she was walking with…

After the movie, he vowed, after the movie I’ll tell her. She deserves to know.

“Hey! Are you even paying attention?” She asked and he blinked, startled out of his musings.

“Uh yeah, sure… what did you say again?”

She sighed throwing her hands up in exasperation, “Honestly, you can be so… distant sometimes. What the heck goes through your head anyways? Stuck in the stars again NASA boy?”

Danny laughed, “I guess you could say that…” Was he really that obvious?

“Well, I asked, what do you want to see?”

“Oh right!” Gazing up at the selection he paused, “I…” he bit his lip, his mind going blank, it didn’t feel right to choose… “I don’t mind, how about you pick?”

She looked at him sideways, “Man you’re acting jumpy today.” A gleam caught in her eye and Danny gulped, “How about a horror?”

“Uh well… if that’s…” Danny stumbled over his words.

“Great! Glad that’s decided. I want to get really scared tonight, two tickets to your most horrifying film my good sir!” She chimed to the guy behind the counter.

The guy looked them up and down but shrugged, “Cinema 5, have fun.”

***

Danny wasn’t really paying attention through the film.

Guilt was eating away at him, gnawing at the edges of his subconscious as Valerie laughed and jumped at the loud noises and crappy special effects that Hollywood perceived ghosts to be. Danny smiled absently, they really had no clue how wrong they were compared to the real thing.

She held his hand in the gentle darkness of the cinema, and Danny couldn’t help but look at her in the faint light from the screen. Her green eyes glistened with excitement and curiosity, taking in all she saw with such conviction.

He smiled, she was light, warm and comforting. Even as she gripped his ice-cold skin Danny couldn’t help but admire her. She laughed when she felt like it, got angry when she felt like it, smiled and danced in her own brilliant warmth. Danny’s eyes softened as he leaned into her touch, savouring this moment. Feeling her heartbeat through her skin.

She was dazzling.

Danny pulled away slightly, his eyes narrowing, but she was like fire to his ice. She melted him in ways she could never understand, but he was sure, he was frighteningly sure he was going to burn her irreversibly in the end.

But if that’s the way it had to be, then so be it.

“Hey Val?” He mumbled, leaning further into her shoulder in the gloom of the theatre, feeling her warmth against his cheek. She stopped gazing at the screen and turned to him, her eyes still dancing in that dull luminosity. Danny sighed, letting his dark hair fall into his eyes so she couldn’t see that he was on the verge of tears. “I’ve been… keeping something from you. For a long time now… I just… don’t know how to say it…”

He felt her shift under his weight, and he pulled away, looking in the opposite direction. She was looking at him, he could feel her green eyes taking him in and he felt his heart panged with annoyance. Annoyance at himself, at how weak he was.

“Danny…” Valerie started, and he looked at her, she was smiling softly in the light, “It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me anythi—”

“No, you deserve to know. But… maybe in a bit if that’s alright?” He grit his teeth and looked back up at the screen as the final scene began, he smiled sadly locking eyes with her. “I just… want this moment to last a little longer is all…”

***

Valerie sometimes thought Danny was like water.

He was so perfectly clear somehow, like an undisturbed lake shining in the moonlight. His iridescent blue eyes sometimes felt like they could see right through her, somehow sense exactly how she was feeling, understand her deepest secrets.

It was awe inspiring. Like Danny knew exactly where she went when she snuck out of class, knew her connection to ghosts and the other shadows of Amity Park. Knew who she really was.

But he never seemed to care. It was why, she supposed, she was so drawn to him in the first place. The eerie calmness that rippled and cascaded through him, so clear and tranquil, yet dangerously so. Pooling with something else.

A darkness. A depth that terrified her to no end, a feeling that if she dove too deep he would overflow, drown her with his power. As if his little lake held all the fierce might of the sea.

Why did that feeling surface now? That dread that crashed against the shoreline of her heart. Breaking the tension as Danny lead her out of the theatre and into the cool night air. What was this in her chest that felt like the pressure of being unable to breathe?

He laughed at something and Valerie felt a shift in the atmosphere as she looked at him in the light of the street, his blue eyes reflecting something she couldn’t see. Something beyond where they stood outside a bustling theatre.

“I want to show you something,” Danny said, there was a kind of relief to his words, like he’d been daring himself to say them. “But not here.”

He glanced at her and she felt that terrible drowning sense in her chest again as his clear-blue eyes softened in the moonlight. He looked… so sad, like this was somehow the last time she’d ever see him.

Danny stayed silent as they walked, weaving in and around the humdrum of pedestrians and life that flittered around them like moths to a flame.

She let him pull her along, feeling the familiar chill that buzzed between her fingertips of his skin brushing hers. He was so cold, so frozen in time. It gripped at her.

It was only now that she started to watch him in comparison to the people on the street. In his dark, navy jacket and worn jeans he stood out and blended in at the same time. Like he wasn’t meant to be there and was there all at once. It seemed unnatural somehow…

She shook her head, following him across the street to the park, letting the dull glow of the stars guide them along the cracked paths.

What was it he wanted to show her? And why did it feel like an ending and a beginning all at once? Her curiosity ate at her but if Danny was willing to show her, she would be patient.

The park seemed twisted at night time. The trees warped somehow in the dark, green grass glowing blue in the silver light of the moon.

Danny looked around and hurried on, pulling her up the hill to where a small crop of trees nestled between the undergrowth. There was no one around for miles but Danny seemed extra cautious, double and triple checking their surroundings to make sure they weren’t being followed.

“Danny, you’re scaring me you know that.” Valerie finally said, breaking the silence that had hung over them for so long.

He chuckled softly and came to sit next to her, looking out at the twinkling lights of the city spread out below them like a map. A perfect mirror for the stars above.

The throb of life buzzed about them, the shrieking of tyres, the chink of glasses and the laughter of people. The metropolis was a beating heart but here in this secluded tower, they watched it all in silence.

“I’m so sorry Val…” Danny finally said, and she looked at him as he laid back, staring upwards towards the sky. “I feel like I’ve been lying to you, from the very beginning.”

She wanted to interrupt, wanted to tell him what a mysterious jerk he was being and just to cut to the chase, but she said nothing, too entranced by the wandering lights that reflected in his irises.

“The truth is, that I…” Danny’s expression changed slightly, and his teeth gritted together. Whatever it was that he was trying to say to her, Valerie knew that it was probably something major.

“Danny… you don’t—”

“No, I do.” He said, pulling an arm across his eyes so that she couldn’t see him. “I have to tell you; cause otherwise you’re just going to find out from someone else and then I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.”

He sat up and turned to her, his dark hair framing his face as he gripped her shoulders. Her heart fluttered slightly in her chest; he was crying.

She watched as that perfectly clear water fell from his eyes, carving rivers in his pale skin. She felt something press against her lungs, that fear of drowning, and she opened her mouth to speak.

“I—”

“I love you…” Danny said, cutting her off, his head bowing as she blinked at his words, numbly they settled on her like falling snow as she felt her heart lighten. “I love you so much… That’s why it’s not fair to keep hiding myself, the real me, from you any longer.”

“Danny I—”

“No, Val, please, let me finish.” Danny looked at her and she felt a pang of guilt cross her chest. He smiled, such a sad smile, as he continued. “Val, I love you. I didn’t think I would fall for someone so hard as I do for you… you’re incredible you know that? You’re so strong and dazzling to look at it hurts my eyes.”

She felt her eyes widen but he continued, “Ever since I met you, you’ve shown me time and time again how great you really are. And quite frankly, I don’t think I deserve you. But I wanted to tell you that I love you. Let you know how much you truly mean to me so that you don’t lose sight of who I am.”

Danny looked at her, “I’m an idiot you know that? I’m such a complete and utter loser that I take so much of what I have for granted. Sam and Tucker have always told me so and that’s why I want to stop hiding from you Valerie. Because I care too much for you to continue acting, continue pretending that I’m alright.”

Danny began to shake as he spoke and she shifted closer to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him in close to her as a smile lifted her face. “Hey. Look at me,” he lifted his eyes to hers and Valerie smiled, “You know, if you’re scared to tell me you don’t have to Danny. Cause…” She felt light, “Because I love you too.”

He blinked at her and smiled, “I was afraid of that…”

She laughed, “Oh yeah and why’s that wisecrack?”

He smiled but didn’t laugh. “Because of who… no that’s not right… because of what I am Val.”

She stopped laughing, he was dead serious, she gripped her chest, that tightness was suffocating now. The fun-loving idiot she had fallen for seemed to melt off him as his eyes narrowed, turning to her fully to look at her dead in the eyes. “Val, I don’t want you to think any less of me, I really and truly want us to continue being close, I want to hold your hand and laugh, go see movies and continue living like this with you for the rest of my life…”

Wait. What was he saying? What did he mean by…

“But, Valerie Grey. I can’t keep hiding forever. I brought you here tonight to tell you something about myself that I can’t share lightly with anyone. But you have to promise to trust me, promise me Val. Please promise me that you won’t think any less of me for it and that you won’t tell anyone else... please this is important.”

She felt the pressure in her lungs choking her now, but she nodded, why was she so scared? So utterly terrified that she might lose him? “I promise. I promise, whatever you want to tell me it’s okay Danny. It’s okay, you can tell me…”

Danny smiled and nodded, his shoulder’s sagging as he did so as if all the tension released from him in one motion. Like he had been waiting his whole life to hear those words. “Val… I…maybe it’s easier if I show you instead?”

She blinked but nodded, allowing him to let go of her as she sat back.

Danny looked at her, she was so perfect, sitting there patiently waiting for him to show her what he meant. He closed his eyes and looked to the stars, here goes nothing…

“Val, I’m so sorry…” he whispered, and triggered his transformation.

Valerie watched in mild horror as the light sparked around his mid-section, twin-rings expanding at his waist.

Wait what?

They broke and spilt, traveling over his body slowly as he stood there, changing him.

What’s happening?

Danny sighed at the feeling of relief, the cool sensation of weightlessness taking hold as the rings reached the base of his neck with a rush of adrenaline.

Valerie felt her hands fly to mouth to cover the shriek of shock as Phantom touched down lightly in front of her. His skin glowing in the eclipse of the moon, the black jumpsuit replacing the familiar jeans and jacket Valerie knew so well…

She stumbled, her mind racing a marathon as her heart banged so hard against her chest, she swore it was audible. No. No this couldn’t be right… Danny was… Danny was?

He looked at her with that same sad smile and she allowed herself to gasp. The clear blue of his eyes now glimmering green like emeralds against the sky.

He sunk to his knees and looked away; he’d ruined it hadn’t he? The curling white of his hair intermingling with the evening breeze. Looking down almost resentfully at the snow-white gloves that adorned his hands. “I’m so sorry…” His voice echoed across the space between them and Valerie inadvertently shivered. “I’m so sorry Val…”

Valerie just sat there, staring blankly at the scene in front of her as Phantom… no Danny, hung his head in his hands. She reached out, but paused, no this couldn’t be right… This was all a big misunderstanding, right? A joke?

She pulled her hand back, cupping it against her chest. But it felt so real, so obvious that she mentally cursed herself for being so stupid.

Danny Fenton, Danny Phantom, he’d barely even changed his name. She blinked, observing the shape of his face, the style of his hair, it was all the same, all exactly the same… But even then… Danny couldn’t be a ghost! Surely not… surely… and of all ghosts Phantom? The town hero? Her ultimate enemy? It couldn’t possibly be real; this couldn’t possibly be happening right now…

“You’re probably wondering what happened right?” Valerie snapped her attention towards him as he laughed dryly, the sound was grating, so completely alien to her, “That’s usually the first question I get asked…”

She nodded, she felt so numb.

“It was the Fenton Portal.” He smiled, the white of his hair playing on the breeze like snow, “Mum and Dad couldn’t get it working so I thought it was safe enough to look inside… I… it turned on while I was in there…”

Valerie shuddered, phantom screams of Danny being electrocuted rattling her skull as if she’d been there herself. That was how he’d died? Screaming and alone?

“I’m so sorry Val…” He said again, looking at her, she jolted at the green of his eyes, but he continued, “I’m so sorry you had to find out, but I couldn’t lie to you forever. I just couldn’t keep pretending it was all fine considering our… history…”

A sharp pain rippled through her heart as she realised that he did know. Of course he did. Phantom had known she was the Red Huntress from the beginning, and yet even after every fight they’d had, every insult and curse she’d flung his way… Danny still continued loving her, being around her even then. Even then…

She felt cheated slightly, like he’d known her deepest secret for so long that it wasn’t fair she didn’t know his in return. But she stopped, hadn’t that been the point though? What would she have done if she’d known earlier? What good would it have done to know?

She reached for him cautiously and he flinched as she touched his shoulder. He was so cold, so incredibly cold but she gripped him, feeling the static of ectoplasm under her fingertips as she turned him to her.

His eyes were wide, but she smiled slightly, pulling him down into her, drawing him into a hug.

He was like ice against her, buzzing with electricity and energy that was the only way he could survive. “You’re so stupid you know that?” She felt him twitch slightly against her but she smiled, “I can’t imagine what it was like… what you must go through every day Danny… knowing that there is this side to you that you can’t share with anyone…”

“You’re not scared? Or angry? You don’t hate me, do you?” He sounded so timid, like a frightened child.

She thought about it, sure, she was certainly angry. But not as much as she’d expected, she laughed slightly, she hadn’t planned on this when she finally had Phantom in her grasp.

“Danny… I… don’t think I do… You never told me the truth because I never gave you a reason for it. I was so completely bent on destroying you that I don’t know… I lost sight on what I was fighting… but I’m glad you waited until now to tell me…”

He pulled back from her slightly so she could see his face, “You mean that?”

She nodded, “If I had found out earlier, I might have blasted you to bits. But as it stands… I’m…” she grinned, “I’m really glad I got to know you, Danny Fenton.”

He blinked at her reaction, pulling back further so that they were at eye level. “I…” he started but she pushed a finger to his lips.

“Let me finish loverboy. I believed ghosts were… well monsters. Bent on destroying this world and everyone in it, senseless and unstoppable monsters and nothing more… I never let my guard down, never let anyone see me weak. Until you Danny. I let you in and now, you’ve let me in. And that means so much more than I think you realise. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty shocked, and it’s gonna take me a week to digest all of this… but I love you Danny. You, no matter what you are.”

His eyes widened and he laughed, the familiar sound tinkling against her making her smile.

Valerie didn’t exactly know how she found himself in the position she was in next, but all she felt was the soft press of lips against hers and she wrapped her arms tightly around Danny, feeling light as air. She slipped her hands from his waist to over his shoulders, pushing in for the kiss. Danny felt like his world had exploded into stars, she tasted like strawberries and sunlight mixed together in utter happiness. And Valerie smiled against him, he tasted like static but she didn’t care. Danny could’ve stayed like that forever, and he probably would’ve if Valerie didn’t slip her hands off of him and gently push away.

She smiled, the heavy fear had lifted from her chest and she sighed as it dispersed. The clear water moving in it’s wake.

“So what do we do now?” She asked and Danny blinked, smiling softly as he scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.

He looked to the stars, feeling lighter than ever, “I don’t know.”

“Well, Phantom, how about a truce to begin with.” She winked and Danny laughed, getting to his feet he took her hand and pulled her up with him.

“My my, the Red Huntress herself is offering a ceasefire? I never thought I’d see the day!”

“Oh hush, I can still shoot you.”

He gulped but nodded, a bright smile lighting up his face as he began to float slightly off the ground.

“Not for nothing,” she murmured, eying the space between his feet and the ground warily, “But how about you… uh… what’s the word you use? Switch back? Cause if you walk me home in that state, I think my dad’s gonna have to bring out a little heavier an artillery than a shotgun.”

Danny nodded, touching down without a word, feeling the rings of light split around his waist again as the world held weight once more.

Valerie gasped as Phantom fell away but regained her composure, “Somehow I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that…” she muttered, and he laughed, his blue eyes sparkling.

“Val… I’m… I’m really happy with how tonight went…” Danny grinned as they walked back towards the path, “But you’re sure that you’re okay with this whole… me being Phantom thing?”

She hummed in thought but nodded, “Yeah, but you’re going to have to answer a bunch of questions I have about yourself and the other ghosts. Plus,” she winked at him, “I still expect to be able to fight. Treat me as an equal ghost boy, I refuse to be your sidekick.”

Danny laughed but waved a hand, “Oh don’t worry, I think Tucker wouldn’t talk to me again if I let you have that role.”

“Then that’s settled then… shall we—”

Danny’s breath misted in front of his face and Valerie stiffened as a wave of static swept the park. “Oh no,” she mumbled, a sensor beeping quietly on her watch as she reached for her backpack, flicking the switch on the underside.

He speeder hit the ground and Valerie’s eyes narrowed as she pulled down her hood, snapping the butt of her ecto-gun against her palm as she whirled to Danny.

He was already in fighting mode, the human boy she’d fallen for melting away as the half-ghost hero Phantom stood by her side. Just as a massive, bloated figure rounded the corner ahead of them.

She looked at him a smile playing on her lips, “You ready ghost boy?”

He grinned, “You bet, partner.”

[darks-ink]

Absurdism Chapter 4

Jazz shows off that she really is a teen by listening to someone tell her why you shouldn’t do something and then promptly doing it. She makes a friend in the process.

Rating: Teen/K+ (a lil swearing, because teenagers, man) Warnings: - Genre: Family, Hurt/Comfort Additional Tags: Sibling Bonding, Family Bonding, Alternate Universe - Halfa Jazz AU, Jazz makes friends

[AO3] [FFN] [more Absurdism on Tumblr] First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

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Chapter 4: What You Want

Jazz’ core thrummed in her chest. Energy lapped from it through her body, streaming through her veins. Pooled together in her hand.

A golden glow emitted from her hand, but it was dim, flickered wildly.

“You’re getting there,” Danny—Phantom—encouraged, standing right next to her. “You can feel the energy coming from your core, yeah? If you increase that amount, the blast will get brighter and stronger.”

“Right.” She tried to tug on her core, tried to pull more energy from it. The energized ectoplasm in her hand pulsed, growing bigger. Its glow grew more steady, too.

“And then, when you’re ready to let go of it, fire! Aim at your target, and then will the energy to go there.”

She nodded, watching the golden-yellow ball of energy in her hand. It was in constant motion, the glow dimming and brightening in sync with the pulse of her core.

Slowly, steadily, she raised the hand towards her previously chosen target. The rock was a big target, and close enough that she felt like it would be nearly impossible for her to miss.

She released the energy.

“Good hit,” Phantom complimented, floating over to the rock. Its surface was scorched where she hit it, but the soot rubbed off easily. “Not a lot of strength behind it just yet, but that’s fine. Aim is more important.”

“Why was it golden, anyway?” She walked over as well, but it was as she thought. The hit had blackened the surface of the stone, but it was barely damaged underneath. “Aren’t your blasts green?”

“I dunno.” Phantom shrugged, ignoring her incredulous expression. “Look, I’m not an expert on all things ghost, okay? I know some stuff, but I had other priorities. I guess it might be linked to eye color, though.”

“Eye color?” she repeated, thinking it over. Yes, she supposed Phantom had blasts that matched his eyes, and she had golden eyes, but… “Do you know more ghosts as an example, then? I thought green was kind of standard, since that’s what our parents have.”

“Pretty sure green is the most common, because that’s the standard color of ectoplasm.” He formed a ball of ecto-energy of his own, tossing it from one hand to the other. “And I’m not sure if it holds up for full ghosts, but all half-ghosts I know have energy blasts that match their eyes. Well, more or less. Plasmius had magenta energy and red eyes.”

She nodded along, then ground to a halt. “Sorry, who’s Plasmius? There’s another half-ghost?”

“Well, yeah. In my world, at least. Not sure if he’s different in this one.” Phantom shook his head, turning to look at her again. “If he, or his equivalent in this world, is anything like mine, you don’t want to bother with him. He doesn’t live anywhere nearby, and he’s not gonna help you. I’ll—”

“Keep an eye out for him?” she finished dryly. “Yeah, I figured.”

“Come on, Jazz, don’t be like that. I’m not keeping you in the dark on purpose, alright? I just want to make sure I don’t tell you anything that’s different here.”

“Yeah, I know.” She sighed, but nodded. “It’s just— You do that a lot, you know? With Red, and Danielle, and now this Plasmius. And you’ve barely told me anything about your experiences with the ghosts, with, well. All this.”

“It’s just… hard.” He rubbed a hand through his eyes, and when he looked up again, the sadness was back. “This place is so much like home, and all the ghosts… I keep remembering when I first met them, with Sam and Tucker by my sides. Or you, or hell, sometimes even Red. There’s so much history, and it’s… I miss them, Jazz.”

He heaved a heavy sigh, his boots touching down in the grass. His posture was slumped, like he was carrying the weight of a world. In some way, she supposed he was. “And there’s no point in going looking, because I’m never going to find the portal on my own, and I know that. But it’s still… hard, to talk about that. To know that somewhere out here, there’s a Sam and a Tucker, and they’re almost like mine, but not quite. That don’t have any of these experiences.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, and she meant it with all her heart. “I didn’t mean—”

“I know,” he interrupted her, waving a hand. “I know, Jazz. I’ll… try to talk more about this stuff, okay?”

“Yeah, alright.” She nudged him, gently. “Want me to try blasting that rock again?”

He snorted. “That could barely be considered a blast, you know. But, yeah, go for it.”

“Oh, are you really trash talking me now? Wow.” She stirred her core back to life, feeling it hum with energy. Honestly, as offended as she acted, she was just glad to get Phantom cheered up again, even if only a little.

“We’ll have to work on your trash talk too, you know?” Phantom threw a look at the ball of ectoplasm she was forming, then took position between her and the rock. “Amity Park knows we’re here, now. That ghosts exist. Sooner or later you’ll have to fight for real, with opponents that understand what you’re yelling at them.”

“I know, you don’t have to tell me.” More energy pulsed into the ball. She wanted this one to have some punch to it. “But for now, I would rather focus on the actual fighting aspect.”

Phantom hummed, not shifting from his position between her and her target. “Good. In that case, we’ll move on to target shooting. Tell me when you’re ready to fire that one.”

“And, what, I’m supposed to just shoot you?” She shook her head. “No matter how weak this blast will probably be, I don’t want to risk hurting you, Phantom.”

“If you warn me before you shoot it, I’ll make a shield.” He reclined a little, entirely too casual considering that he was talking about her shooting him. “It’ll give us a better image of your current strength, and you won’t break through anyway. I’ve stopped ecto-blasts way stronger than your core can make right now, it’s fine.”

“If you insist…” she said, uncertainly. But, well. If he was sure about that, who was she to tell him no? “I’m ready when you are.”

“Good.” A green dome appeared around him, transparent enough for her to see him within. Its surface stirred, in constant motion. It almost looked like an oversized ecto-blast, but hollowed out so one could take shelter within.

Jazz lifted her hand, putting a last bit of energy into her blast. And, once more, she fired.

The dome took the hit easily, the blast sizzling out against its almost liquid surface.

“Very good. Was that where you aimed?” The dome dissolved, leaving Danny floating in the open clearing. “The strength was alright, but you’ll need to work more to increase it, of course.”

“Of course,” she repeated, rolling her eyes. “The aim was pretty close, but I’ll need to practice more. It’s weird, to aim with your arm like that.”

“It took me a while to get the hang of it, too,” Phantom assured her, floating closer again. “We can practice more, if you want, or we can try something else.”

“I… Let’s stick with this for now.” The shield could be useful, but she was pretty sure she needed more consistent strength for that, first. “This was a good way to build core strength, right?”

“Pretty good, yeah. And it’s a basic technique, which can serve as a jumping-off point for more advanced techniques.” Phantom floated back to his old position, his legs merged together in a spectral tail. “Let me know when to throw up another shield.”

“Sure,” she said, and they went through the motions once more. Phantom’s shield blocked her next blast with ease, not even flickering upon impact.

“Better,” he complimented her, looking pleased. Then he caught sight of something in her expression, and his face dropped. “Jazz? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she assured him quickly, but it didn’t seem to work as his frown grew deeper. “Nothing related to this, really, it’s fine.”

“I never see you look frustrated, Jazz, unless it’s something serious. You know you can talk to me, right, even if it’s not half-ghost stuff?”

She sighed, but nodded. “Yeah. It’s just… It’s nothing, really.”

Phantom scoffed. “I don’t believe that. Seriously, Jazz, either tell me, or tell someone else. If I learned anything from my Jazz, it’s that keeping this stuff to yourself does more harm than good.”

“Oh, don’t use my own psychology techniques against me.” She stuck out her tongue, but admittedly, he had a point. “It’s nothing, really, just… I hate seeing all the bullying happening at school, you know? They never target me, sure, but I wish I could help anyway.”

“Trust me, I know the feeling.” He floated in closer, settling in next to her. “I did get bullied, you know. After I got my powers, even I didn’t want anyone to know about them, it was so easy to imagine getting back to them. Invisibility and intangibility… not to mention overshadowing!”

“Why didn’t you?” she asked, turning to look at him. His eyes sparked with life, now, and that ever-present hint of sadness. Memories and homesickness, she figured.

He snorted. “I did. Sam wasn’t very happy with me, but Tucker approved—he got bullied too, you know—so I figured I was in the right. Ah, if only it worked out like that…”

“What happened? Did they catch on, somehow?”

“Nah, not them.” It didn’t seem like he was going to elaborate, so she prodded him a little. Okay, maybe a lot. It was her right as a little sister to be annoying! “Alright, fine, I’ll tell!”

“Go on, then,” she insisted.

“Okay, okay, chill. None of the humans caught on, but there was this ghost who was opposed to bullies. Only, he thought that I was the bully, because he hadn’t seen how it started. It was… a whole mess, honestly, so I tried not to use my powers for that kinda stuff afterwards. Didn’t want to risk it again.”

“How did that even happen?” she asked, curious despite herself. It sounded like this ghost had the right idea, honestly. Even if Phantom might be reluctant to search them out, maybe she could. “How did they catch you off-guard, anyway?”

“Oh, Sidney has a portal of sorts inside Casper High.” Phantom ran a hand through his hair, mussing it up. “It’s a mirror inside his old locker. He can go through it, but no one else can, so it’s not a huge deal. Not sure what made it activate, honestly. He just started appearing after I got switched to that locker. I ended up breaking the mirror to make sure he couldn’t come back, although he can still use the regular portal.”

“Huh.” She quickly scrawled all this down in a mental notepad. Sidney, a ghost in Casper High, had an old locker with a mirror that activated after Danny started using it… Maybe she could find it later, with a little research. “Well, I’m glad it all turned out okay in the end.”

Phantom laughed, humorlessly. “Yeah, me too. Now, if that was your only concern, how about another ecto-blast?”

---

Jazz paused in front of the locker. Glancing one way and then another, she made sure that the hallways were empty. In front of her was locker 724, in all its damaged and rusty glory.

She hesitated. It hadn’t been all that hard to find information about the ghost Phantom had mentioned. Sidney Poindexter was an old student of Casper High, bullied relentlessly throughout the years. Stories about him haunting Casper High had been around for decades, but none of those stories ever mentioned his mirror.

But Phantom—Danny—had. According to him, Sidney had started appearing from his mirror once Danny got the locker. She supposed that the mirror needed the increased amount of activity to activate, or perhaps Sidney needed it. Either way, the best way to keep an eye on the activated portal would be to move to someplace safer.

Gathering her courage, and with one last glance to make sure no one was watching, Jazz shifted to her ghost form. As Specter, she turned herself intangible, reaching through the locked door. Her hands closed around the edge of the mirror, and carefully, she pulled it out. She wasn’t sure if it was adhered to its spot, somehow, but it didn’t seem to be.

Pulling it out entirely, she was left with an ordinary-looking mirror. Shifting back to her human form didn’t make it change, either.

“Not sure what I expected,” she muttered under her breath, turning back to her own locker. If only she had more information on how this was supposed to work. What if she had broken the connection permanently by moving the mirror?

Jazz unlocked her locker easily, then lifted the mirror to place it in the back. She paused. Lowered the mirror again.

Gently, she blew the dust off, then wiped the remainder away with the sleeve of her shirt.

“There,” she said, placing the mirror in the back of her locker. It hadn’t activated to the dusting off either. Maybe she needed to talk to him?

“I… I don’t know if you can hear me…” She paused, biting her lip, feeling foolish. But if Sidney was real, and he certainly sounded like he was, maybe she just needed to treat him like a person? “I’ve… heard about you, Sidney. About the good you do, standing up to bullies. And… honestly, I think the school could really use someone like you. The bullies are out of control, and teachers aren’t stopping them, no matter how I ask. And I— I might have powers, ghost powers, but I don’t— I don’t know how to use them for this. I want to help, but I don’t know how.”

She swallowed, but the mirror remained blank. Undisturbed. “I don’t know if you’re… If you can hear me.” She reached out, placing her fingers on the cold surface of the mirror. “But, Sidney, if you can hear me… Please come. Please help me deal with these bullies.”

Still no reaction. She drew her hand back, feeling stupid. No matter. Even if it didn’t work, at least the mirror was someplace safe.

Shaking her head, Jazz closed her locker again. She might’ve wasted most of her break on this, but she had some time still left.

---

Slowly, Jazz shifted books from her locker to her backpack, and vice versa. Around her, the noise in the hallways lessened as more and more people left. It was Friday, now, almost a week after she’d brought the mirror to her own locker.

Even if she had doubted the effect of it at the time, the stories were undeniable. More and more people started talking about it, about bullies getting shut down, getting put in their place.

The hallways around her emptied. She kept up the pretense of being slow until she was sure that they were empty, that she was alone.

“Hey,” she said, addressing the mirror. “Um… Are you there?”

The surface of the mirror rippled, like the Portal did when Technus came through, little more than a week ago. And, just like then, out came a ghost.

Colored entirely in monochrome—which she didn’t even realize was possible for ghosts—was a teenage ghost roughly her own age. Dressed in old-school style clothes, which made sense considering how long he’d been around, and with slick black hair, he sure looked the part of a nerd.

Sidney Poindexter blinked at her behind his large glasses.

“Hey, I’m Jazz. Jazz Fenton,” she introduced herself, shooting him a disarming smile and offering a hand. “You’re Sidney, right? Sidney Poindexter?”

“Er… Yes.” He took her hand, shaking it hesitantly. Like all ghosts, his hand was cold to the touch, and a little too soft to be human. “And you are the halfa— the half-ghost. The one who spoke to me, earlier this week?”

“Yeah, that was me.” She glanced around, just to be sure, but she hadn’t heard anyone approach. The hallways were still empty. “I go by Specter in my ghost form. I’ve been working together with my brother Phantom to keep this city safe from ghostly threats, but… the school isn’t even safe from human threats. I heard stories about you, about who you are and what you do, and I was hoping you could help.”

The ghost nodded, then straightened his bow tie. “Well, I’m honored to be considered. It would be my pleasure to help in any way I could.”

“Good, good, I’m glad.” She shot him another smile, and Sidney flushed a darker gray—a substitute for blushing? “As long as you don’t go too far, of course, but I think you’ve got a good grasp on that already.”

“Yes, of course. We’d be no better than the bullies if we caused any real hurt.” Sidney hesitated, then cleared his throat. “Are there any… limitations to this agreement? To stay in the school, to only appear within certain hours, any such things?”

“I mean, not really?” She shrugged. “So far the city hasn’t seen a ton of ghosts yet, since Phantom and I have tried to keep everything out of sight, but that’ll end sooner or later anyway. As long as you don’t cause any trouble, you’re free to go wherever you want in the city.”

“The whole city?” Sidney repeated, growing wide-eyed. “You would offer me such freedom so easily?”

“Well, yeah.” She shrugged. “As long as they’re not causing trouble, I don’t see why we must differentiate between ghosts and humans. The public probably won’t agree with me on that, especially the local ghost hunters, but as long as you can avoid them you’ll be fine.”

“Ah. I’m not sure if I’m ready to mess with ghost hunters.”

“They’re not a huge threat right now,” Jazz assured him. “They don’t have functional ghost scanners—Phantom and I keep disabling them—so they won’t find you unless anyone reports your presence. If you stick to quiet areas you’ll be fine. The local woods nearby are very nice. If you want, I can show you around sometime?”

Sidney flushed dark gray again. “Well, I’m not sure…”

“It’s no big deal. We can be friends, right, and that’s what friends do. You’re helping me out a ton with this, let me help you.”

“Well, gosh.” He scuffed his shoe on the floor, then looked back up to her if. “If you insist, I would love to make your acquaintance.”

“Friends, then.” She smiled at him, wide and bright. “Hey, I gotta go right now—I promised to train with Phantom. We can talk after school on Monday, find a good moment, if you want?”

“Ah. That would be… nice.” Sidney smiled back, clearly uncertain. “See you on Monday, then?”

“Yeah! I put your mirror in my locker, by the way, so you should be safe to pass through it whenever you want.” She started backing towards the doors, raising one hand to Sidney. “Bye, Sidney!”

“Goodbye, Jazz!” he said, hesitantly raising a hand as well.

---

“You don’t believe me,” Jazz said, incredulously.

“It’s not that,” Phantom quickly assured her, raising his hands. He was, as usual, in ghost form. “I’m just having some trouble imaging it. Sidney was always easily angered, and he never got over our first conflict.”

“He seemed fine to me.” She crossed her arms, staring down her alternate universe brother. “Very calm, very understanding.”

Phantom blew out a breath, landing on the soft grass as well. “I mean, good for you! Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for you. I just… keep expecting things to go the same way for you as they did for me, even though you’re a completely different person.”

“Is that why you want to wait before telling me about Red, Danielle, and Plasmius?” She relaxed a little, cocking an eyebrow. “Because things go differently for me than they did for you?”

“Yeah, that, and I want to make sure none of the fundamental things are different in this universe.” He gestured at himself, then at her. “After all, something is different at the very base, with you being the younger sibling and the half-ghost around here.”

“Fair enough,” she admitted, dropping the tense posture altogether. “So you’re alright with letting Sidney roam free?”

“Sure, why not? As long as he understands the dangers. And hopefully he’ll keep a low profile for now, until Amity gets a little more familiar with ghosts.”

“I warned him, at least.” She hoped the same, though. At least Sidney looked rather disarming, as far as ghosts went. “And I promised to show him some quieter places, so he can go outside without being invisible or getting spotted.”

Phantom nodded. “Clever. And who knows, maybe he can teach you a thing or two about ghost stuff as well.”

“I thought you were my ghost teacher?” She sniffed. “Unless you’re going back on your words?”

“Honestly, I don’t know all that much about ghost culture, and all that.” Phantom shrugged, shooting her a sheepish smile. “I know how powers work, and I know how to fight. Mostly because those two are basically the same thing. But beyond that? My knowledge is pretty limited.”

“Well, being able to defend myself is an important skill,” she allowed. “Especially since not all ghosts will listen. Technus could’ve caused a lot of trouble if you hadn’t been around to stop him.”

“I like your approach, though.” Phantom flew in closer, nudging her. “For the first few months, my answer to pretty much everything was to fight them. Seeing how you’re doing, I can’t imagine how many unnecessary enemies I made.”

“I guess I have a good teacher to guide me.” She leaned against him, her core stirring oddly in her chest. “I don’t need to make enemies if you scare them off before I can fight them.”

Phantom laughed, suddenly. “Are you just really good at guessing, or did you hear about Skulker?”

“Who?”

He laughed even harder, now, curling against her side. Whoever Skulker was, Phantom must’ve actually scared the guy off before she ever discovered he was around. Convenient, but it also made her very curious.

“Seriously, Phantom, who’s Skulker?”

“I’ll— tell you if it’s— relevant,” he managed between bouts of laughter. Wiping away a tear, he added, “I’m keeping— an eye on him.”

She blew out a noisy breath. “Of course you are.”

---

Jazz riffled through a few more items, thanked the shopkeeper for their time, then moved on to the next stall. Danny—her Danny—had invited her along to the Amity Park Swap Meet, and she had excitedly grabbed onto the opportunity. These days, she felt like she spent more time with Phantom than with her actual brother.

But the moment they had arrived, Danny has sought out Sam and Tucker, and had left her to fend for herself. Looking back, she probably should’ve expected as much, but still. Now she was here all alone, when looking through the stalls was way more fun with someone to joke around with.

She sighed, skipping over to the next stall. And her search was looking rather hopeless as well. She’d hoped to find something to give to Sidney, to thank him for helping her, but so far it didn’t look great. She was pretty sure he was from the 50’s, and stuff from that time… Well, there wasn’t much she could find, anyhow.

Before she could consider the next stall, her core stirred to life, and she paused. Were her powers acting up?

Blue air wisped from her mouth, and she stifled a chagrined sigh. Nope. A ghost had come to mess up her nice weekend day.

Shouts sounded from nearby, and cursing, she ran to find a secluded spot. Hiding behind a few abandoned stalls, she tugged on her ghost core, shifting into Specter.

At the ghost wasn’t too hard to find, floating high above the rapidly-emptying marketplace. Green-skinned like most ghosts, but with long black hair and clothes in purple and blue, her spectral tail languidly curled underneath her.

“Hey!” Jazz called as she flew in closer, drawing the ghost’s attention. “Who are you, and why are you causing trouble?”

The ghost narrowed her red eyes at Jazz, pressing a dainty hand to her chest. “I am Desiree, the wishing ghost! I fulfill any wish I hear, including yours. Tell me, what is it you want most dearly?”

“Uh…” Jazz ground to a halt. “For you to… stop causing trouble?”

Desiree scoffed, lowering her hand. “Surely there must be something you wish for?” She flew closer, suddenly, curling around Jazz. “Something you… desire?”

“Get away from her!” A vivid green ecto-blast whizzed right by the two of them, and Desiree flinched away from Jazz. Before she could really process what was happening, Phantom was next to her, green energy coiling around his fists.

“Or what?” Desiree snarled back, pink energy whirling around her own hands. “Afraid that I might give her something you cannot? Afraid that you cannot chain her anymore?”

“What? No!” Phantom shook his head, gesturing over at her. “She’s—”

“I’m his sister,” she cut in, catching the hand aggravatedly gesturing at her. For some reason Desiree had gone on the defensive when Phantom had shown up, and whatever it was, she wanted her to calm down again. “Sorry, he’s just really protective. Most ghosts tend to pick fights, you know, and I’m not a very good fighter just yet.”

Phantom huffed, but didn’t argue. His spectral tail lashed angrily, but he doused the ecto-blasts, at least.

“I… see.” Desiree released her gathering energy as well, the pink dissipating. “I apologize.”

“It’s fine,” Phantom said, unexpectedly, after shooting a short glance at Jazz. “You have a bad history with men, right? Of course you’d be suspicious. Plenty of terrible men walking around. I can… I can leave, if it helps?”

Clearly the suggestion was as surprising to Desiree as it was to her, as the ghost grew wide-eyed. After a moment of quiet, she shook her head. “No, it’s… alright. You’re clearly not the sort of person I thought you were.”

Quiet fell, as Phantom and Desiree were looking at each other. They must’ve fought in Phantom’s own world, Desiree’s wariness of men causing a clash.

Which left her with a problem. Desiree implied that she had to fulfill any wish she heard. If that was the case, she couldn’t be left to her own devices. Who knew what kind of wishes people might utter, that she would be forced to fulfill. If only there was some way to… solve… that…

Oh. Duh.

“I have a wish, actually,” she said, drawing the attention back to her. Phantom made a face that said, very clearly, ‘don’t do it’.

“Do you?” Desiree shifted, her jewelry melodiously clinking together. “What is it then, young ghost?”

Next to her, Phantom started gesturing even more clearly, but she ignored him. He had admitted that he had fought every ghost he had encountered. This, right here? This was her expertise.

“I wish you could chose to fulfill wishes, rather than being forced to fulfill any wish you hear.”

“Oh,” Desiree said, blankly. She raised a hand, almost automatically, pink energy coiling around it. “As you have wished it, so shall it be.”

The energy washed over them, then pulled back onto itself, coursing through Desiree. She blinked, almost as if surprised by the event. Looked down at her hands. Then at Jazz.

“What…?” she asked, like she was still trying to process something she had done automatically. “I— You—”

“I wished for you to be free to fulfill wishes, rather than forced to.” Next to her, Phantom made a shocked noise. “That’s… That wasn’t wrong, was it? I thought— You looked so unhappy, but…”

“No, no, I— Thank you.” Desiree smiled, uncertainly, wavering. “You have done me a great kindness. How could I possibly hope to repay this?”

“You don’t have to.” Jazz flapped a hand, waving off the offer. “I—we—protect this town, yes, but that isn’t limited to the humans. If ghosts come here, hurting or upset, we help them too. Right, Phantom?”

“I— Yes.” He nodded, maybe a little too forceful to be natural. “Yeah, like she said. We’re happy to help however we can, Desiree.”

“That is unexpected kind of you.” Desiree’s gaze drifted from Jazz to Phantom. “Both of you. I’ll take my leave now, but, with your permission, I would love to return at a later moment.”

“Of course,” Jazz assured her before Phantom could say otherwise. “This was one of the first times the city saw ghosts, so the ghost hunters might become more active after this, so I don’t know if it’ll be safe to visit, but we’re fine with it. Right, Phantom?”

“Yeah, exactly. Any ghost that isn’t causing trouble is welcome in Amity Park.”

“In that case, I would love to take you up on that offer.” She smiled, kinder this time, more sure of herself. “Perhaps I can repay your kindness next time. For now, I must go. Goodbye, you two.”

They waved goodbye as Desiree faded from visibility, leaving just the two half-ghosts hovering in the air.

“Well,” Danny said, breaking the silence. “Guess that the cat’s out of the bag now. Amity definitely knows about ghosts now.”

“At least she didn’t cause any major damage?” Jazz looked down at the abandoned marketplace, but whatever Desiree had done to cause the initial panic, she must’ve undone it before she left. “Could’ve been worse.”

[phantomphangphucker]

Vacations Provide Second Chances - PhannieMay - Day 28 Vacation

Summary; Vlad was always going break, eventually. Because somethings are just inevitable.

Warning: discussions of death, mentions of Dan, suicidal behaviour

As soon as Danny opens the door his smile drops to a harsh frown, “what do you want, Vlad?”. Danny’s not sure what to make of Vlad’s smile actually seeming soft and genuine, though he does find it a bit sad that friendliness looks out of place on the villainous halfa’s face.

“Relax, Daniel. I don’t exist to sour your mood”, Vlad sighs as Danny rolls his eyes exaggeratedly, “I’m here to invite you on a trip. With me. A mutual vacation if you will”.

Danny glares incredulously at Vlad, the fact that Vlad doesn’t gloat over that and hasn’t insulted him yet, tells Danny Vlad’s serious here. “What’s your plot this time, old man. And what? Not inviting my mom?”, Danny crosses his arms and glares a bit harder, but gets thrown off guard when Vlad sighs and looks almost...sad?

Vlad shakes his head slightly, “no, just us and no schemes. Just the two halfa’s taking a needed break from everything. Fights, schemes, lying, being the hero, being the villain”. Vlad knows stagnation doesn’t do anyone any good, and he’s been stagnant for a long time, and young Daniel has fallen into it himself. Contemplating the routine of it all and the future had brought him to this idea. Thinking back to a place he used to haunt, “I know you have no reason to believe me, Daniel. But this is no farce, there’s a place I used to go, that I’d like to again”.

Danny can practically read the words, “just not alone”, on Vlad’s face; that’s more than enough to remind him of future Vlad. Studying Vlad’s face, and finding that it really is genuine. That’s one thing about Vlad, the guy’s actually fairly easy to read. Tilting his head down and sighing before muttering to himself, “second chances, Fenton. Second chances”. Tilting his head up to the older halfa, “this doesn’t make us family, but alright, you weird frootloop”.

Vlad gives him a strong nod, he knows his pleasure is palpable to the boy. Even if he did want Daniel as a son, it was more than obvious that was never going to happen now. And Vlad’s starting to think that just might be best, they didn’t run in the same circles at all. Heck, their circles didn’t even overlap except when they inserted themselves into each other’s lives. All that bound them was species, a lonely species of two; and Vlad was done being lonely.

Tilting his head backwards and nodding his head in the direction of Amity Park’s mall, “when you’re ready, I’ll be waiting. I’m sure you can figure out what car is mine”.

Danny shakes his head, a little weirded out, as Vlad takes his leave. Closing the door softly and muttering at it, “something’s up with him, but for once, I don’t think it’s bad”. Turning back around and heading to his room, knowing full well that Vlad knew no one else was home right now.

He didn’t exactly know what to pack, so he went with the general stereotypical shit. Groaning a bit, as he realises it was probably pretty dumb to agree to go to some unknown place with his arch enemy. Heck, it was kind of dumb to do that with his own family. So, of course, he makes sure to pack anti-ghost crap, who knows what might happen.

Zipping the bag closed, before walking over and resting his arms on his windowsill, “it really would be nice to be gone and not worry about this place for a bit. Well, ok, I’m still gonna worry”, sighing, “I’ll have to find Red. Should at least give that stupidly determined hunter a heads up”. Plus, Danny knew she’d actually would be worried if Phantom just up and disappeared; even if she wouldn’t admit it to his face.

Transforming and flying out the window, eventually coming to perch himself on her opened windowsill. Chuckling as she spins around, ghost scanner going off, “relax, it’s just me. Your friendly neighbourhood dead man”. Valerie shakes her head but smiles at the sight of him, he’s glad they’re on good terms now; especially with his friends and Jazz all being off at university. Though he’s got a suspicion she’s being more than just friendly to him nowadays.

“What’s up Phantom?”

“Oh just making your life more hectic”, Danny shrugs good-naturedly, “gonna be out of town for a bit. So the ghosties are all yours for a while”. Valerie looks torn between liking that and being annoyed, “for how long and when you leaving?”. Danny shrugs again, “no clue actually, and I’m leaving pretty well immediately”.

“Of course you’d have no clue, you really are quite a mess, you know that?”, both of them snicker, because really, they’re both messes. “Always, Red, always”, both them smile as Valerie walks up and pats him on the arm. “You better come back, you floating bastard”, Danny only smirks as he pushes himself off the windowsill. Two finger saluting her with a soft smile, before zipping off.

Placing his feet back into his room and transforming before heading downstairs. Sticking his head into the kitchen and smiling at his mom. Obviously, he can’t exactly tell her the truth, his dad really was the only Fenton who wasn’t fully aware that Vlad wasn’t exactly a good person.

“So turns out Tuck is a bit of an idiot sometimes. Sam’s already over there but he pretty well blew up his dorm room. Overloaded the speakers, don’t ask me how exactly, I’m not sure I even want to know”, both them laugh as she motions for Danny to sit down. Danny takes and eats a couple of eggs before continuing, “so now he needs the place fixed up before the dorm officials find out”. Maddie sighs, “well, I guess it would be good for you to go visit. Maybe check out the campus while you’re at it”. Danny forces down a wince at her not so subtle hint. He knows they’re disappointed with his poor schooling, especially when they all know he is damn smart. Rubbing his neck and looking away from her a little, “can’t say how long I’ll be gone. No clue just how much damage he did”.

Danny finishes the rest of his food and does indeed notice that his mom’s smile is a bit forced. He’d like to think that was because of him not being at home for a while, but he knows it’s more likely because he avoided the topic of him going back to school. It did make it kind of obvious that he didn’t intend to, and how could he? He didn’t have the time. Maybe if there was a university in Amity he could, and sure there was online programs. But he knew himself well enough to know he’d put it off unless forced otherwise. Smiling apologetically at his mom before heading up to his room.

He’s not surprised his dad’s up from the lab, as Danny comes down the stairs with his bag in tow. Talking as he hugs them, “don’t worry about a ride, got one already”. Danny both likes and hates how they don’t push him for more information. Knowing full well they once would have, as he heads out the door.

Danny shakes his head at the dark purple Bugatti Chiron, which a few other people are also either staring or glancing at. Muttering, “I don’t think that man even knows what subtle is”. Before approaching the side of the car, with the door popping open before he even gets there.

Sticking his head inside, “is this even road trip worthy?”. Vlad rolls his eyes, “the best one for it”, sticking his thumb towards the back of the car, “just climb in and phase your stuff into the trunk. Blackout tint is very useful”. Danny shakes his head but does just that. That was one thing he missed about there being no one in Amity who knew about him, getting to use his powers liberally around other people.

Daniel can’t help but glance around the fancy car which Vlad smiles pridefully about as he drives off, if Daniel was a more shallow person Vlad might have been able to obtain him with his wealth alone. Vlad still found it odd that his wealth didn’t even slightly coax the boy, especially when he was younger; children tend to be more narcissistic.

It doesn’t take long for the two to settle into silence, but both of them are surprised to find that it’s a rather comfortable kind of quite. Danny smiles a bit sadly as he looks out the window, spotting a couple making out while taking selfies. Sure, he’d had his romantic stints but dating a hero wasn’t really the safest thing for anyone to do, without even throwing in the whole secret double life thing; secrets and romance didn’t really coexist well. Though he wouldn’t say no if asked, he’d just never be the one to do the asking.

Vlad side-eyes him, easily catching the expression and what brought it about. “Love isn’t something that’s come easy to either of us, has it”, Vlad’s never really had more than the odd one-nighter or single date. He still wanted Maddie of course, he’d just sort of...given up. It’s not that he’d moved on though, just stopped trying. That was almost worse sometimes, but he’d set his mind on that being the past now.

Normally, Danny would make some joke about the guy wanting to get with his mother again, but the slight resigned sadness in Vlad’s voice didn’t really call for that. Plus, Vlad wasn’t exactly wrong, “hiding yourself doesn’t beget affections”. Vlad blinks a bit, caught slightly off guard, “I forget you’re not a little child sometimes”. Danny snorts at that, “what? You think only kids want to play the hero?”, waving his hand at Vlad, “besides, I’ve been more grown-up than most adults for years”.

“Yeah, that’ll happen when you insist on fighting every battle and willingly yank every single responsibility on yourself”, Vlad shakes his head, Daniel instantly taking up the mantle for town protector really did shine a light on how utterly special he was. Nearly everyone, especially kids, would use power for personal gain; Daniel did the exact opposite. It was something Vlad himself had never even considered doing, maybe if he had he’d be in a different place. But he does also understand why Daniel did what he did, “power gives people the ability to act. The access to all the options. In a way, I don’t think it’s possible to not grow up some when becoming able to do what others can not even fathom”. Vlad knew he had grown up some too, sure he’d already been an adult but to say he had been mature would be bullshit. He’d just grown cold and weathered, rather than protective and boisterous.

Danny shakes his head, “and you had the option to be good, to help. Yet you didn’t”. Danny’s a bit thrown that Vlad nods and doesn’t even argue about that. Danny’s almost worried that means that Vlad has accepted the role of villain, which while the man’s actions were definitely villainous, he didn’t expect or even want him to actually fall into the role in genuine. He was the bad guy for sure, and Danny did see him as his enemy and villain, but he was just a man abusing his powers and with a broken moral compass. Frowning more as Vlad responds, “I never once considered it”.

“Well, you could. You did once, you could again”, Danny’s got a suspicion that his actions towards the older halfa have been pushing him further into the role of villain. After all, future Vlad was free of good guy Danny. He was left alone, sure he also lost his powers and the chance at his mom; but maybe all he needed was a friendly, not combative, push in the right direction. Maybe this little trip was a backhanded way off asking for exactly that. He had pretty well asked to not be enemies for a while, a vacation from being foes. And it’s not like Danny couldn’t do that, sure Vlad has done way worse than his other foes, but he literally was their friend at least one day a year.

Vlad is flat out confused by that response, having never know himself to ever play a helpful role to anyone other than himself; especially not up to Daniel standards. Sure he’d fought beside Daniel before, but that had been part of a scheme, and he knew Daniel knew that now. Giving Daniel a quizzical glance, “when was this “once”? I know you would not make that up simply to make an honest man of me. There may be a lot between us, but lies aren’t one of them”. Vlad knows full well Daniel lies, and lies a lot, to pretty well everyone around him. But one thing all the tv shows get right, is that arch enemies know each other intimately well.

Danny knows Vlad’s right on that, there’s a good chance Vlad knows him better than his friends actually do; partly because of spying though. But this, this is something Danny never talks about; does a lot of thinking on it though. Chuckling at the man’s confusion, “it was after my family and friends died, and you lost your powers. I still remember your words, “ten years without ghost powers, gave me the chance to see what a fool I had been”, though I still wouldn’t have called you a “good guy”. Just willing to do the right thing, even when presented with the, far easier to do, bad option”.

Vlad coughs and does have a hard time not jerking the steering wheel, he has no knowledge of this but he knows Daniel wouldn’t make something like anyone dying up. “I think an explanation might be in order for that”, glancing at Daniel as he chuckles with a bit of a frown. He shakes his head, “I’m not sure it really can be. Time travel and literally cheating the timestream makes things complicated. Simply put, they were supposed to die when I was fourteen. You would have adopted me but in a misguided attempt to make me happy, you tore out my humanity. As you told me, “no more human emotions to drag you down””.

Danny pauses as Vlad just pulls over on the side of the road, “Daniel, that seems like an extreme plan even for me. While I’m not about to claim to possess having limits I won’t cross, that is a bit much”. Danny shrugs, “you were the one who told me what you did, it’s completely possible you lied or omitted stuff. One thing I know you omitted was how exactly my human half died. You separated my human from my ghost basically. And I the same to you. You then told me our ghost halfs fused into one but that was a lie, found out later that my ghost half had actually basically absorbed or consumed yours. Taking all your power and destroying Plasmius. And this is were I mention my ghost half went pretty well insane”. Vlad doesn’t even attempt to cover up his shock as Danny shakes his head and chuckles hollowly, “turns out removing someone humanity, which even ghosts have, effectively obliterates their morals and renders them callous”.

Vlad blinks a bit realising Daniel’s basically saying he became evil, that Vlad had actually successfully corrupted the young halfa once. At one point in time, he might have felt pride over that, but now he likes Daniel the way he is. He actually doesn’t really want to know what actually gave him the idea or even desire to tear out anyone’s humanity. “Callous is never something I’ve wanted you to be. Use your powers for personal gain and status, sure; but I never looked to make you cold or uncaring”, Vlad feels almost bad at Daniel seeming slightly surprised at that.

Danny turns to Vlad, “sometimes I wonder. But I can read honesty on you pretty damn easily. Can’t say I’m too surprised though, you may not be good but you’re not evil. Dan made that so clear”, shaking his head and closing his eyes, “meeting real evil makes it easy to tell when someone isn’t evil”.

Vlad’s genuinely startled that Daniel doesn’t actually view him as evil, “so you do not believe me a monster?”. Daniel shakes his head almost aggressively, “no, just morally corrupt and selfish”.

Danny’s torn between pride and guilt at the small smile he catches on the old man’s face. It’s officially obvious to Danny that he’s sort of pushed Vlad into the role of a villain. That the way Vlad thought he was viewed likely made him view himself that way, thus accepting more and more bad behaviour. Thinking that was what was expected of him, so why bother changing? Vlad turns back to him, “then what must this “Dan”, whom I’ve never heard of, have done for you to call him evil. When, with all I’ve done, you won’t deem me such?”.

Vlad still has the car parked, as he’s sure this man must have done something truly bad. Maybe crossed a line that even Vlad wouldn’t, and Vlad can only think of a handful he wouldn’t cross. “Dan is short for Danny or Daniel. Dan Phantom. He’s what became of that callous full ghost me. I met him ten years after the whole humanity torn out thing, by time travelling into the future. See the Observants wanted me destroyed before my family and whatnot died, so that me getting my humanity torn out would never happen. Had to flee into the future to avoid that”. Now Vlad is both impressed and shocked, though he hides it well, “they only get involved in rather extreme things. They’ve never even meddled with my affairs”.

Danny nods, “indeed and Dan earned it. Their description of him, as I was told, was “the most evil and powerful ghost to ever exist”. And he lived up to that, by killing off nearly all of humanity and ghosts, destroying every city and lair, and then going back in time to make sure my family and friends died so I would become him. Eventually, he would have killed and destroyed everything”.

Vlad stares at him, he knew full well Daniel was more than just powerful but for him to cross that line, one that Vlad himself wouldn’t even consider getting close to, was one part baffling and one part horrifying. Add in mortifying, since Vlad was, in a sense, responsible. He more than just corrupted Daniel, he made a literal monster.

Vlad opts to just drive, focusing on the road rather than his brain trying to picture Daniel actually killing someone. But then blinking with genuine worry at realising Daniel probably did witness himself killing, “to know you could be capable of that and actually witnessing it, must have been more than just unpleasant”. Daniel nods, “to say traumatising would be putting it mildly. But the warning and message was damn clear, plus I made an amazing friend out of ClockWork due to it”. Vlad can’t help but smirk at that, he did wonder exactly how Daniel had met the enigmatic time ghost. Vlad’s rather glad life hasn’t tried to teach him “lessons” in such a manner, but judging by how he’s ended up, he probably could have used them. Shaking his head a bit sadly, “well, at least that unpleasant “message” is behind you. You being good to a fault, unbearably so at times, makes much more sense”.

Danny sighs, honestly wishing it actually was behind him, “Dan exists outside of time and could very well escape his prison and show up, in the here and now. I couldn’t beat him last time and he couldn’t kill me then. Now he could, and would”. Vlad jerks the wheel a bit, making his displeasure and worry very palpable to Danny before he even responds, “if you didn’t defeat him, then how? And I don’t want the world destroyed, arch enemies or not, I would help you fight him”. Danny already knows that but he also knows Vlad is the weaker halfa, “ClockWork cheated and it’s my fight to fight”.

“You are a self-sacrificial idiot”

“We’ve all got our downfalls. Mine gets me hurt a lot, yours get others hurt. I think I prefer mine”, Danny doesn’t care what Vlad thinks, what he does hurts people; including people Vlad doesn’t want to get hurt.

The two settle back into silence, not quite as comfortable but more in each other's bubbles. Until Vlad turns the car intangible and invisible, careening off into some trees. Danny raises an eyebrow, “so this is a sneaky place is it? Guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Weird trees though”. Vlad thought the same when he first spotted the faintly glowing trees, it’s why he checked this place out. And asking around the nearby town afterwards had revealed that no one else could see the glow; it seemed to be a ghost thing. Vlad nods, “closer to restricted than sneaky. Restricted in a ghosts only kind of way, half ghosts included”.

“Well, that explains why you invited me”, Danny gives a goofy grin to show he’s making a bit of a joke. He knew full well that Vlad didn’t hate him, or even dislike him. If it wasn’t for the enemies thing, and Vlad’s general behaviour, they’d probably be friends. Danny can’t even say he hates Vlad, though dislike is a bit of an understatement. Well, at least it was. Vlad could very well have invited any ghost, but it’s pretty obvious to Danny that Vlad views them beneath him or as lackies. Plus, Vlad wasn’t exactly well-liked by any ghost; even the ones that worked for him. His lack of getting invited to any Christmas truce parties made that extremely obvious. No friends in the ghost zone and no friends in the human realm, Danny can’t help but find that a lonely thing.

“I never do anything with such simple reason, Daniel. As you know”, Vlad can tell by Daniels smirk that he does indeed know. Vlad Parks the car far enough away to not disturb the place, he doesn’t even have to tell Daniel to get out; as both of them phase out the doors, neither bothering with actually opening them. That’s one thing he has noticed as he’d watched Daniel, he’s incredibly liberal and comfortable with his powers. They really are part of him as a person, not just tools like they are for Vlad. If Vlad’s honest, Daniel is much more of a ghost that he is. And seeing that made him think, think about how he viewed himself as a halfa. Realising he didn’t really see himself as half ghost, rather a human with ghost powers at his disposal.

Vlad walks through the barrier and pushes aside some of the tall grass, thoroughly amused at Daniel’s awareness of the barrier and then his barely hidden wonder.

Danny speaks as he takes in the black rock hot springs, neon green water that fizzes with the steam coming off a pale green and purple. Watching the colours swirl together, “wow Vlad, you aren’t capable of basic are you?”. Even if he’s bugging the guy, the place is pretty and smells nice. However, swimming trunks was not something he packed; and you can’t really do hot springs without actually getting in. Vlad apparently knew he wouldn’t though, as a pair identical to the ones he already owns smacks him in the face. Turning his head to Vlad and not even bothering to remove the offending garment, “see this, this is why you get called a creep”.

Danny’s at first very concerned that Vlad doesn’t even appear to be holding his own swimwear, but then shakes his head, “there’s no way swim trunks are comfortable under dress pants”. Vlad shrugs as he tosses his clothing over a tree branch. Danny shakes his head before invisibly slipping behind a tree to change. Sticking his head back around, he can’t help but smirk and raise an eyebrow at Vlad; who’s sitting in the water with his head and arms laying on the edge, eyes closed and blatantly relaxed. Danny tries to think of any time he’s actually seen the prideful man not stiff or without proper posture. At one time Danny would have thought it was just part of the rich act or his pride, but he knew now that it was part of Vlad’s self-worth.

Dipping his fingers in and promptly realising why Vlad, or any ghost, would want to come here. It has an intensely relaxing and soothing feel, the thickness was like that of liquified comfy blankets, combined with the smell of lavender and eucalyptus. Slipping in as he decides it’s definitely safe to do so, quickly feeling any stiffness or sore bruising pretty well disappearing, “healing springs? That’s a hell of a find Vladdie”. It was like aromatherapy combined with fine bath oils, all contained in a stone hot tub.

Vlad nods, he pretty well lounged around here like a cat for well over a month when he first found it. Why wouldn’t he? He didn’t exactly have anywhere to go or anyone to see. Even after that he rarely stayed away long, until the pull of wealth and seeing Maddie’s name in a paper. “This place was basically my haunt back in the day, you can see why. No one else really comes here though and while ghosts are quite content with their solitary lairs, I’m more of a human”.

Danny definitely gets why, though it’s clear this place wasn’t ever anyone’s lair. Which he does find kind of odd with how nice it is, “what does no ghost know of this? And never would have taken you for speeding you time or days lounging. Now fencing I could see”. Vlad laughs lightly, “to ghosts it’s just like a regular hot tub, like the ones in the ghost zone. This effect is a halfa thing and what do you take me for? Lex Luther?”. Danny makes a mock shocked expression, “did you just make a genuine joke? And you’re hardly different. Filthy rich philanthropist, owning massive corporations, intelligent, scheming, overly well dressed, engineering gadgets. And that’s not even mentioning being the arch enemy of an overpowered golden boy who lives the double life of an average jo; who’s two forms look borderline identical. Seriously, people are blind”.

Vlad chuckles, Daniel’s got a point there, “I’m not powerless though. And world domination is not in any of my playbooks. Though yeah, it’s rather absurd none have figured you out. But even I didn’t consider Phantom being a halfa when we first met, and I am one. Even with the near identical look and showing up at the same time”. Daniel nods but scrunches up his eyebrows, as he submerges everything but his neck and head, which he leans back against the stone, “like I said, you’re not really evil and I guess. You said you were more of a human earlier, do you not really view yourself half and half?”.

“Never did. My powers were, and are, just tools at my disposal. Like owning a gun, just better”, Danny’s a little thrown by that, a gun was something separate for your own body. It didn’t change your genetics and didn’t give you a new body. To Danny, seeing himself as equally both was just obvious. “Well, that’s something else we differ on. Half and half is what I am. My powers are simply me, not tools. Phantoms me, not some anonymous mask I can wear. Though I guess my lifestyle does favour my more ghostly activities”.

Now it’s Vlad’s turn to be a bit surprised, “could be because you’ve basically grown up this way. I already had life figured out and was grown, this threw a wrench in everything. But I can say leaning more ghost makes very little sense to me, you were still human first”. Vlad’s not sure what to make of Daniel’s loose shrug, “I viewed my self equal parts from the beginning really. Though my life didn’t start being more ghostly until I plopped myself into the role of Amity’s protector/ghost fighter. What I do is simply what I’m meant to do, just so happens to be a more ghost thing to do”, shrugging again, “you got a wrench, I got gift wrapped purpose”.

“I guess you were meant to be a halfa, I just stumbled on it”, Danny gets why Vlad’s frowning a bit, Danny viewing himself as both is pretty well proof of how comfortable and ok with what he is, that he is. Vlad’s lack of that shows he’s really not, he’s used to it rather than content with it. And Danny’s seen how Vlad would really be better off without it, Danny knows that he personally wouldn’t be. But he does chuckle a little, “I’m the one who stumbled on it, literally. You face planted”. Vlad shoves Danny’s head into the water, “can you ever resist a death joke?”.

Danny just goes with it and lays down under the water, “nope. It’s my hero trope”, chuckling at the confusion on Vlad’s face, “what? You can’t breathe underwater? Or have you just never tried”. Flat out laughing at Vlad scrunching up his eyebrows, making it very clear that he didn’t even know this was possible. Laughing even more as Vlad just ducks under and goes to sit on the bottom of one of the deeper sections.

Vlad’s not sure if he’s more impressed or annoyed that Daniel knew something about being a halfa that he did not, Vlad was supposed to be the experienced teacher here, well if Daniel had ever let him teach anyway. Rolling his eyes at Daniel, “why would I ever intentionally try something like this? We have lungs, this shouldn’t work”. Vlad’s not sure what about that is so funny to Daniel, “we’re literal schrodingers boys! Dead and alive! Impossible by our very nature!”. Vlad blinks, have never really thought of it that way at all, “well then”.

Danny underwater stargazes while Vlad contemplates just what other weirdness they could be capable of, and just how many Daniel had discovered. Both eventually falling asleep.

Danny’s not exactly surprised he’s the first to wake up, getting out of the water and stretching. Looking down at his chest to promptly realise that the water didn’t just have a healing feeling, as all the bruising on his chest is gone way quicker than it should have. “Huh, well this could come in very handy next time I get mauled by Zone knows what... or who”, chuckling before zipping back to Vlad’s car and phasing out some of his snacks.

And munching on cheezies is how Vlad finds him, when he pokes his head back out of the water. “Well, your tastes sure haven’t grown up. I’d offer up some octopops but I doubt you’d appreciate them”. Judging by Daniel’s confusion Vlad’s guess is quite right. Though Vlad does relent and eat some of the offered fake cheese food, much to Daniel’s amusement.

The two spend most of the day in the hot spring again, Danny fully gets how someone, or some halfa really, could just stay here. It’s lazy, comfortable and all around pleasant; it’s clear that affect it both physical and mental. And it’s not hard to admit that Danny really did and does need a break from the near constant action of his daily life. Even if he knows full well he’d eventually get antsy and paranoid if he stayed too long, he’s a protector by nature and nothing about this protected anyone.

Tilting his head back and snuggling into the grove of one of the rocks, “that still doesn’t beat flying a spaceship”. Vlad shakes his head, “you’re practically insulting yourself but not just going to university already”. Danny simply shrugs, higher education was a bit of a status symbol so Danny won’t claim to be surprised that Vlad holds value in it, “eh, I’ve got more important things to do than get some degree or human job. Phantom comes first, and jobs don’t really care for someone who runs off constantly or is bandaged up eighty percent of the time”.

At one point Vlad would have chalked Daniel’s disregard for education up to being a child, but he wasn’t anymore and he was mature beyond his years. Vlad also knows this disregard doesn’t actually help him in life, he’s seen how unhappy and unpleasant the Fenton parents are over it; and he knows Daniel’s aware of it too. “Your family mourns over that, you know”, Daniel’s slow nod only further shows he's aware of it.

The two sat silent for a while, Danny kicking lazily at the water finding it hard to really feel sad about much of anything here. The effect was soothing but people are meant to feel bad emotions sometimes, officially making him decide that he wouldn’t want to just stay here prolongedly. Flicking his eyes back over the Vlad as he talks, “my bridge to her, to Maddie, is pretty well butchered, isn’t it?”. Danny’s a bit shocked, wondering if Vlad’s really even considering letting go of her. “Oh yeah, though mine might be too. Too many lies and one too many let downs”, Vlad’s frown makes it clear he hasn’t really let go.

“That’s something I’d rather not have in common. Suffering from similar strife. But I guess that’s the past”, Vlad can tell that Daniel has little to no intention of telling his family. Resting his elbows on his knees, “you’re alone in Amity now, aren’t you?”. Daniel simply shrugs, “pretty well yeah, they’ll be back of course”.

“Don’t let yourself be alone, you won’t like where you end up”, Danny looks at Vlad curiously, with a hint of sadness. All his comments about Vlad being a lonely man were supposed to just be jokes, clearly, they were a little too true. “Being close to a hero is a dangerous thing, ain’t fair to drag other people into my life. So I’ll content myself with those who know”.

Vlad points at him, “eventually they’ll be gone. I know you’re aware of halfa life spans”. Vlad’s also pretty sure it’s far more dangerous to be close to the stories “villain”, regardless of how evil or not the “hero” thought them to be. “You mean half-life spans? Yes. But there’s no way other people aren’t going to find out accidentally over the years”, sure probability is on Daniel’s side here but Vlad’s far more aware of the ineptitude of people, especially normal people. “If you’re not around anyone then no one likely will”, that’s one thing Vlad will give Daniel, the boy is terrifyingly good at keeping his secrets.

Danny hates that he’s kind of got a point on that, the only person who’s found out without actually witnessing his accident is Jazz; and she only knows because she wouldn’t stop hounding him. No reason for someone who’s not already close to him to do that. Though Danny scrunches his eyebrows, “I’m not sure why you care. It’s not like they just recently left”.

“I do care about you Daniel, I just had no reason to voice it before. You figure out things on your own well enough but this time I can’t be assured you will. Mentoring you was something I was going to do, whether we wound up friend or foe”, Danny’s not quite sure what to make of that. Vlad trying to give him “advice” wasn’t out of the norm, heck it was commonplace. But for it to not be rather bad or “villainous” advice, was a bit strange. Everyone has their moments he guesses, but what really gets him is Vlad sounding like he needs to say this now, “why now then? You very well could have shown up on my doorstep two years ago”. Danny kind of wishes he had, because this, this screams making amends now and turning over a new leaf maybe. Sure, it’s entirely possible Vlad might just go back to his ways after they get back, but he doesn’t think Vlad could possibly be that cold. Cold enough to disregard friendly bonding, especially with the reinforcement of being the only members of an entire species. Even if there’s also Dani, but she was a fair bit different from them. Never fully human, no traditional family, and pretty well free. And genetically she wasn’t a full person, none the less a full halfa; she was her own unique thing. Like Danny, she could be content being a one and only, Vlad clearly couldn’t.

Danny gets jolted out of his thoughts by Vlad, “I’m dying, Daniel. Messed up in the lab, messed up my bodies ectoplasm production. Permanently corrupted it, like I’ve sort of corrupted everything else”. Danny’s not sure what to say for a couple of seconds, Vlad must have more than just messed up to make something immortal no longer so. Vlad confirms that as he continues speaking, “us halfas, our ectoplasm and blood’s pretty unique. Can’t be truly replicated and doesn’t occur naturally”. Danny, speaking quietly, “I’d guess that’s why you wanted to come here, but the “permanent” tells me you knew this wouldn’t fix you”. Vlad’s nod is all the confirmation he needs, and that makes Danny realise this wasn’t him making amends, but rather him making peace to the only person who would actually hear it. Danny’s no fool, his mom wouldn’t have even considered talking like they’ve been and really, what would he have to say to her? He’d have to reveal himself for her to really understand, making that the focus of discussion and risking Danny’s secret too. Even if they were archenemies, there was an inherent respect for secret identities and Danny knows Vlad wouldn’t risk his happiness or safety in such a manner.

Like usual Daniel knows Vlad’s ways well, though Vlad doesn't really plan to admit that he didn’t look very hard to fix himself. After he’d give up or lost so much, death was a rather easy escape to accept. There was a sort of freedom to death after all, “I guess I didn’t exactly have any intention of leaving here. Couldn’t think of a more comfortable way to go”. No fights, no schemes, no business ventures, no mansion walls or fancy suits telling the tale of his, probably bad, life choices. Instead just healing waters to ease his mind and aged body, and soothing scents to ease his bruised and battered heart.

“So...you wanted a death buddy. That’s beyond depressing, Vladdie. And yet, oddly comical”, of course, Danny will stick around however long at this point, for Vlad’s final and permanent vacation. Though he’s by no means pleased or happy about this, but this place makes the sadness and loss of it so much less pungent. And the irony of two half-dead guys chilling in a neon green hot spring while one slowly becomes more dead, adds an air of humour; especially to a guy who’s a perpetual walking dead joke.

But then an idea strikes him as he looks curiously at his own veins, flicking his eyes up to the peaceful man with his eyes closed and the hint of a smile. He’s clearly accepted this, so Danny’s not sure if voicing his idea is a good thing. But Danny will be damned if he doesn’t at least attempt to save pretty well everyone, and that right there is one of his faults, “you could, just get exchange transfusions from me. I am a universal donor after all, if you exclude having ectoplasm, but that’s half the point here. Sure, it’d have to be a constant thing if your brutalisation of your body is so permanent”.

“That, that would probably work actually, and you really would do that, wouldn’t you? But I’m going to have to decline. I’ve put too many complications into your life already”, Vlad probably would have stumbled onto this idea himself, if he had bothered. But he was just done, done with all the wanting and taking from everyone. It just hurt him more, and them too; though he didn’t care about that nearly as much. Vlad can easily read the disappointment and determination, overshadowed by understanding, on Daniel’s face. If anyone could understand not wanting to burden someone else, it was the too-heroic-for-his-own-damn-good halfa. “Why’d you have to wait till now to follow me in being a self-sacrificial idiot”, Vlad’s not really being self-sacrificial, and he’s sure Daniel knows that. This, like everything else he’s ever done, is selfish. But he knows Daniel will somehow find a way to blame himself if he doesn’t make that clear, “it’s more that I’ve just given up. On all of it”.

“Well, I don’t do giving up”, and the Vlad Danny meet years ago didn’t give up either. But Danny knows how time can change you or beat you down, better than most do. He’s seen himself break after all, and Vlad tried to help him in his twisted and rather villainous way. Vlad didn’t exactly tend to come up with plans that actually helped people. But doing exactly that was a large part of Danny’s life, so he’ll save this damn frootloop. Though Danny doesn’t expect this will make Vlad any better of a person, maybe less actively a villain, but still morally corrupt.

No one says anything for a bit until Daniel pokes Vlad in the arm, “how about you do it anyway, come to stay in Amity, see if I can show you something new”. Vlad’s not sure whether to curse or appreciate Daniel’s determination and hero-complex. Vlad’s pretty sure he’ll wind up abusing this, or maybe he won’t; he doesn’t know. Though this does give Daniel something to lord over his head, even if he knows Daniel hasn’t and wouldn’t even consider that. He’ll literally need Daniel to survive, the ways that could be abused is utterly insane. And Vlad’s not really sure he even wants the surviving part.

The two stare at each other for a while, Danny’s got determination in spades and will damn well take on every extra “complication”, and if he has to bore mental holes through Vlad’s head to prove it, he damn well will. Vlad sighs, “alright Daniel. You always know the right things to say nowadays don’t you?”. Danny only smiles loosely at the burnt out man heading to a not so burnt out future. Second chances, it would seem, were a key component to life; or half-life in this case.

End.

[going-dead]

To (Not) Kill a Ghost

Two ghosts raced across the sky of Amity Park, weaving in and out of buildings . Danny Phantom threw an attack but the offending ghost dodged out of the way. The ghost blindly threw an attack back not wanting to slow down by looking back. If someone who lived in Amity Park were to look up it wouldn’t be an unusual sight. Phantom chasing ghosts was an almost daily occurrence and the citizens were used to it. This particular ghost on the other hand was a monthly occurrence at most, there were many theories about the relation of the two ghosts, few said she wasn’t related to Phantom at all, some said she is his sister, or his cousin, his daughter. All they knew was the two ghosts were close and from their similar looks and outfits probably died together. Or at least that was the theory.

The young ghost stopped mid air and threw a snowball that hit Phantom directly in his face. Dani laughed clutching her stomach and kicking her feet in the air. Danny wiped the snow off his face revealing a face of joking anger. “Young lady you are so grounded.” he shook a finger at her.

“You’re not my real dad!” She joked sticking her tongue out.

Danny scoffed, “You have an almost 100% DNA match to me, I’m more of a father to you than most fathers are to their kids.” Danny trailed off, “buuuuuut if that’s how you want to be.” He gave a wicked grin and formed a giant ball of snow in his hands the size of his head and readied to throw it. Dani yelped and ducked out of the way barely missing it. She shot off again Danny chasing behind her laughing.

Dani tried to visit Danny once a month depending on where she was traveling. Even when they couldn’t see each other in person they would video chat or text each other for a whole day to simulate being there with each other for a day. After Dani was stabilized she stayed at Danny’s for a few days just so he could make sure the ecto-dejecto wasn’t just a temporary fix. She stayed in his room, invisible whenever his family came in. Well there was an incident with Jazz but she already knew about the whole halfa thing so a clone of her brother wasn’t too far fetched for her. Jazz was the first to ask about the logistics of the relationship between the original and the clone. They definitely were closer than cousins, but it didn’t feel like his relationship with Jazz. It was obviously platonic that wasn’t even a question. Eventually Jazz offered the father-daughter comparison, which they hesitantly agreed to. Dani didn’t call him dad but he was fine with it. It would be hard to explain to anyone who overheard and Dani called Vlad her dad before she found out the truth so she was uncomfortable using it, but they were glad to have a name for their bond.

After a while they headed to Fentonworks landing in Danny’s room. They both transformed and walked downstairs where Jazz was making dinner in the kitchen. “I was wondering when you two were getting back, so I figured i’d just start dinner.” Jazz looked up from the stove, “we’re having pancakes for dinner.” She placed a pancake on an already tall stack.

“Do they have chocolate chips in them?” Dani asked running up beside Jazz.

“Yes they do, but don’t get any ideas Danny. It’s only because Dani is here and she doesn’t get family meals often.” Jazz waved her spatula toward Danny.

Danny shrugged and opened the fridge rummaging around until he pulled out a can of whipped cream. “Oh no, whatever shall I do?” He deadpanned spraying the whipped cream into his mouth. Then walked over to Dani to do the same.

Jazz wrinkled her nose, “You guys are already getting chocolate chip pancakes you don’t need more sugar with it. It’s bad for your bodies you’re still growing.” Rolling her eyes when they both did it again. “You two can at least set the table, I did cook all the food after all.”

“Aye aye captain Jazz.” Danny saluted phasing through the cupboard doors grabbing the plates then placing them on the table. He lifted Dani up so she could reach the cups. Just like Danny when he was her -biological- age, she hadn’t hit her growth spurt yet. Though he didn’t really grow tall, just became less short.

“So Dani how long are you staying?” Jazz asked putting pancakes on everyone's plates. The two raven haired children drowned their pancakes in syrup then scarfed them down, adding whipped cream of course.

“Probably until tomorrow? Danny said your parents are out late today teaching a ghost safety class, but doesn’t know if they’ll be here tomorrow.” She replied in between bites.

“Yep, that’s why we’re spending as much time together today. And since it’s Friday I don’t need to go to bed early. Danny nodded.

Halfway through dinner both Danny and Dani shuddered and puffs of frost escaped their mouths. “Oh come on! I know I let everyone know you were coming, even Skulker agreed to leave me alone today who the hell is it?” Danny stood up angrily.

The ghosts and Danny came to an agreement a few months back that they were not to come through the portal when Dani was over, unless it was an emergency. They might not all like Danny but they seemed to respect family. The threats from Clockwork and Pandora probably helped as well.

“Just go before your food gets warm.” Jazz waved to two heros off.

“Dani stay here and finish dinner, I can handle whoever it is.” Danny transformed and flew off to find the offending ghost.

“Pssh yeah right, I never get to fight. I’m not giving up the chance to.” Dani flew after the older ghost.

Jazz shook her head and headed to the living room to see if the news had caught wind of the ghost yet. She hoped whoever it was just forgot Dani was over. Danny always seemed happy when she was over.

The two half ghosts flew above Amity Park scrying the streets and sky for the unknown ghost. A scream tore through the air. Danny imeadintly dove towards the source of the scream. He landed in the middle of a playground that was located in the center of the town. There was another scream right next to Danny’s ear. Danny flinched back then turned to his right. He saw a woman holding a small child that was probably around five. Danny quickly glanced them over looking for any big injuries, but both seemed fine.

The woman was just staring at Danny frozen in fear. “How...What?” The woman took a step back. Dani landed behind her, once the woman saw her she gave another yelp.

“You’re new around here aren’t you?” Danny raised a brow. “Dani can you take her somewhere safe. Mo- The Fentons are holding a ghost class at the school. They can explain the whole ghost town thing.” Danny was about to turn and leave but paused. “Can you toss me the thermos?” He opened his hands in a catching position.

“I don’t have it? We were eating and I never get to fight when i’m here why would I have it?”

“Crap, grab it on your way back then. I’m sure I’ll be able to hold off the ghost until you do.”

Dani grabbed the women's free hand who flinched away. “Don’t worry I don’t bite,” Dani smiled “I’m Dani by the way what’s your name?” She asked walking the women and her kid out of the park.

Now time to figure out who interrupted dinner, a pancake dinner nonetheless. Danny mused and floated above the tree line and almost immediately spotted the ghost. It was a hulking figure wearing armor and wielding slightly curved sword. “Hey dipwad who are you? You look like the accidental lovechild of the Fright Knight and Skulker.” Danny paused, “Ew, that’s an image I which I could burn out of my head. Forever.”

The unknown ghost turned towards Danny his eyes a blazing red he snarled showing sharpened teeth. “I am Eviscerate!”

“Oh boy what a creative name I could never possibly guess what you like to do. I bet you thought long and hard about it. But let me try to guess anyway, you want to tear my organs out? Display them in your personal collection perhaps?”

“Eviscerate does not collect for when I remove the organs they are too mangled to preserve. And I will take your organs and everyone else's as well.”

“Join the line bud, you’re behind my parents, Skulker, and the government. But if you go nicely back into the Ghost Zone I might be able to bump you up the list. Though still behind my parents, I think they actually have the legal rights to my organs when I die until I turn eighteen, how does that work in my situation?” Danny paused counting the names on his fingers, “Oh there’s also Valerie, but we have an on and off truce right now.” Geeze he really shouldn’t have this many people ready to dissect him at the drop of a hat.  

He was pulled out of his musings when a sword was swung at his chest. He barely dodged it and returned the attack with an ectoblast. It hit it’s mark but it didn’t even seem to stun his opponent. Dani better get back soon. He threw up a shield to intercept the next attack. Why couldn’t it have been the Box Ghost? Or even Skulker at least he knew what he was dealing with when it came to him. Danny let off another round of ectoblasts which managed to dent the armor and he could see a few drops of ectoplasm leaking out of the armor. God what did it take to actually hurt this guy? He couldn’t risk his ghostly wail there were too many buildings around and it didn’t exactly have a small area of effect.

“I got the thermos!” A young voice called out.

Danny turned towards Dani to make a grab for the thermos. That was a mistake, he left himself open for an attack and took his eyes off of his opponent. Eviscerate saw the opportunity and took it lunging at him stabbing him through the abdomen with his sword, lodging it in his gut. Danny could hear the faint yelling of his name through the ringing in his ears and saw the blue flash of the Fenton Thermos. Then he was falling and it all went black.

He woke up human and in searing pain, Dani struggling to carry him through the doors of his home. He managed to pry his eyes open and saw himself being carried into the living room. Jazz was rushing around to clear space on the floor clutching the spool of Fenton Fishing Wire. The TV was still on recapping the fight that just occurred.

“Wha-What happened?” he croaked out trying to lift his head once he was laid down.

“Don’t talk, and stay still.” Jazz snapped out, threading the fishing wire through a needle. “You got stabbed, Dani trapped the ghost in the thermos and carried you here. You lost a lot of blood.”

“I can feel that, I’m tired.” His eyes drooped threatening to close.

“Nevermind what I said about not talking Dani keep him talking! Don’t fall asleep.” Jazz barked out. She cut open his shirt wincing as she had to cut his binder as well. It was his favorite, but that didn’t really matter when he was bleeding out.

“Come on you can’t give up,” Dani cried. “Here would I go? Who would I talk to about my travels? You can’t leave me!” Dani too was now human.

“I won’t leave you” he coughed out, “I’d never do that.”

The wound in Danny’s abdomen was clotting with a strange mixture of blood and ectoplasm. Jazz had cleaned the wound as much as possible and was starting the stitches her her hands shaking. Danny’s veins were slightly glowing green with ectoplasm his human and ghost halves doing their damnedest to keep themselves (mostly) alive.

Dani took up pacing back and forth while Jazz worked to stay out of her way. Stress and worry causing her powers to act up making her body flicker in and out of visibility. Rambling on and on trying to keep Danny awake. Jazz was about halfway across the wound when the tense air and senseless rambling was interrupted.

“Jazzy-pants, Danny-boy!” Jack Fenton’s voice called out as he turned the kitchen light on. Giving the living room a dim light. Danny, now stable enough to move around a bit, lifted his head and shared a look with Jazz and Dani, who’s eyes were now reflecting in the dim light, and he could only assume his were doing the same. All three kids came to the conclusion there was no way to move Danny mid stitch without making the wound worse, and no way to reasonably excuse the current situation.

Danny rest his head back on the ground all three waiting on bated breath. “What the-?” Maddie Fenton started turning the living room light on. She was met with the sight of a strangely familiar looking young girl. But that was quickly pushed into the back of her mind when she saw Jazz, holding a needle and- was that the Fenton Fishing Wire? Crouched over a blood and ectoplasm covered Danny, with a huge gash in his stomach. The fact the ectoplasm seemed to be coming from Danny only made her concern grow.

“Heya Mom,” Danny groaned, “not exactly how I imagen-” he hissed in pain as he drew a deep breath, “how I imagined you finding out”

Jack was now standing beside Maddie. “Find out what sweetie?” She asked apprehensively.

The strange girl placed herself in front of of Jazz and Danny almost looking like she was ready to fight the two scientists. “We can explain when Danny is not bleeding out!” Jazz snapped. “Just… just go sit in the kitchen or go upstairs for now, okay?”

“But…” Jack protested.

“GO!” Jazz yelled. Her parents hesitated but complied glancing back before exiting the room.

Once the wound was closed up Danny’s healing factor kicked into full gear. He was still in loads of pain but he was able to be moved to the couch with a blanket draped over him and his head propped up with a pillow. “You can bring them in now.”

“Are you sure Danny? You don’t have to do this.”

“It had to happen eventually Jazz.”

She sighed and walked towards the kitchen. Dani took a seat at Danny’s feet her hands in the pocket of her hoodie. Danny’s eyes were darting towards the kitchen and then over to Dani. “If this goes wrong just leave, don’t worry about me okay Dani? Just stop by Sam’s or Tucker’s tell them what happened then get as far away from here as you can.”

“What? No! You almost died, I’d take you with me or I won’t leave.”

“ Yes, you will Danielle.” He said as stern as he could.

“No. I. Won’t. Dad.”  

Jazz cleared her throat standing a few steps away with Jack and Maddie looking confused. Danny slowly sat up, keeping the blanket over his chest, so he could face his parents.

“I suppose I should start from the beginning huh?” Danny started. “You remember when I told you the ghost portal gave me a small shock when it turned on? Well that may have been a small understatement.” He paused trying to think of the best way to explain it. “Well it’d be easier to just show you.” Jazz started to protest but Danny rose a hand. “It’s fine, I heal faster like that anyway.”

“Honey what are you-” Maddie was cut off as two rings of light ran up and down  her sons body replacing jeans and bare torso with a black and white hazmat suit, ice blue eyes with a toxic growing green, and the black hair she ran her hands through when he was younger and scared replaced with an ethereal ghastly white. In the place of her son was Danny Phantom. Jack looked frozen and Maddie brought her hand to her mouth. “The ghost portal killed you? We killed you? You’ve been a ghost this whole time?”

“Well...not exactly. I’m half ghost, the ghosts call me a halfa. Half a human, half a ghost. I still need to breathe and I still have a heartbeat, I just have a few… extra things as well.” Jack looked grief stricken, “We tried to kill you. I tried to kill you. I talked about how I would tear you apart right in front of you at the dinner table! You call yourself Danny Phantom for fucks sake, Phantom, Fenton. How could we be so blind.”

“Hey there are kids present dad!” Jazz pointed at Dani.

“Wait you’ve been fighting ghosts this whole time, no wonder you don’t get any homework done. You...fight...ghosts. Young man! You were stabbed what are you doing in our living room and not at a hospital? Jazz isn’t a doctor!” Maddie ran to Danny’s side, the sudden movement made Dani look like she was ready to throw punches any moment.

“Well hospitals don’t really know how to treat half ghosts.” Danny gave a small chuckle. “Plus the Fenton Fishing Wire works a lot better than normal stitches, it stays together in both forms so…”

“Well those stitches are very sloppy. Come on Jack help me bring him down to the lab.”

At that statement Dani practically shoved Maddie back and placed herself between her and Danny. “I won’t let you take him!” She snarled her eyes flashing green.

“What do you think I’m going to- no wait who even are you?” Maddie asked. “And why did you call my son ‘dad’?”

“Oh she’s my clone. We figured it was the most fitting relationship title.” Danny shrugged a shoulder.

Maddie looked like she wanted to ask more but saved the questions for later.  “Anyway if we don’t redo those stitches. It’ll get infected, or at best just leave a really bad scar. And the lab has better supplies than a D.I.Y. first AID kit. Come on Jack help me move him gently.”

“You’re going to have to turn human again sweetie. I need to see how bad the wound is internally.” Maddie said once Danny was set on the lab table. He complied groaning as his organs were once more needed. Maddie cut the stitches open unthreading the wire used. “I’m going to have to tug at the skin a bit okay? I need to see if anything vital was punctured.” She slowly pried open the gash wincing at her sons gasps of pain. She glanced over at Jack, “Grab the suture needles and the fishing wire.” As she looked at the exposed intestine she noticed that it was already mostly healed despite being stabbed only a short time ago. The intestine seemed to be faintly green, probably because of the ectoplasm that seemed be be mixed with his blood. She wondered the ratio of blood and ectoplasm and if it was different in both forms. But right now it was her job to fix up her son. Everything else could wait until later.

[aggressivelyclueless]

The Boy Who Ran Away To The Circus

prompted by @gottacatchghosts "Full ghost Danny AU based on the episode Control Freaks. How does being a full ghost affect the influence the orb has over Danny?" Words: 5904 Warning: a bit dramatic, brief ghosty blood, is begging for a sequel

      The phantom hid away from the sun.  He'd crammed himself into a little shady area under the roof, but he wasn't comfortable.  At least his sister wouldn't find him up here, he thought, in an effort to keep from getting too irritated.  He'd escaped one of her psychology lectures earlier; for some reason, she always seemed to think that he had taken up the same interest in the human brain as she did, and would routinely try to rope him into discussion - or worse, helping her study.       He wasn't having any of it, and had flown out to his best friend's house to wait until she got home from school.  He could see her coming up the block, and he brightened.  She'd always listen when he vented about his parents or his sister, and in return he'd usually help her pull petty get-backs against her own parents when they got on her nerves too much.  He watched her head up the paved driveway and into the house; she appeared in her room a minute later, dropped her backpack by the foot of her bed, and kicked off both her boots.       "I'm home," Sam announced, opening up her window and giving the yard a quick glance.  "Danny - you around?  C'mon in."       "Yeah, I'm around," he answered, appearing in the shadow of the overhanging roof.  He slipped into her room, glad to escape the daylight outside.  He tried to stay out of the sun if he could help it - it had felt just a little bit wrong on him ever since he'd died a while back - and that made Sam's room an ideal hang-out spot.  Gotta love goths.  They get it.       Sam flopped back onto the bed to decompress.  "Man, I can't wait," she groaned, "This is gonna be the coolest circus in the world.  I just know it.  Opening ceremony's tomorrow - you'll get me out of first-period, right?"       "Uh, yeah, duh, old fire-alarm routine?  Piece of cake," said Danny, draping himself across the foot of the bed and letting his ecto-tail hang over the side.  "Wouldn't miss it.  I don't even remember the last time I saw a real circus.  You think your parents'll be mad when they find out?"       "Take a look at this," Sam said flatly, handing him the pamphlet she'd gotten in the mail when she'd ordered the tickets.  "You think they'd want me paying money to see that?"       Danny took the pamphlet and gave it a look-over.  The ringmaster posed dramatically on the front, holding a flashy red staff with a bat on it.  Danny found himself staring, and entirely missed whatever else Sam had been saying.  "Huh?"       "I said I was counting on them not finding out about it," Sam repeated, taking the pamphlet back and stuffing it into the secret compartment of her backpack.  "Good thing about my parents is they'd never even think you were giving me a hand."       "Yeah," said Danny, still somewhat distracted.  Something in his mind had just been plucked at, but he couldn't tell what or where - he frowned for a moment, but then dismissed it.  He was just getting a bit excited, that was all.

      The northern Amity Park train station had been abandoned years ago due to a fire.  The building still stood, but its interior had been gutted by the city after the disaster.  Graffiti and creeping vines bedecked the sturdy brick walls, and one of the front windows had cracked into a spiderweb of shards, still managing to hold together but threatening to throw itself down to the concrete platform below with anything more than a slight breeze.  The two front doors of the building remained vigilantly shut against any intruders, but they had been ignored for almost a decade - on the nights when vandals came through, they always preferred the broken window on the eastern side of the station.  One disused pair of rails ran alongside the platform.  They hadn't been touched in years, despite the routine traffic from the depot half a mile down the line.       It was along this last weed-ridden track that the ghastly train rumbled, disturbing nothing.  It was almost dusk.  Twisting green letters painted on the side of each car caught the last dwindling rays of sun and, as the train slowed to a crawl, a deep and chilling mist began to roll between the rails underneath the cars.  The wheels screeched to a standstill at the same moment that the sun disappeared, and the train gave a mighty hiss of steam as it was allowed to settle at the station.       The circus had just arrived in town.

      The big-top tent had been pitched in the field on the other side of the tracks.  They arrived early - Sam had said something about wanting to get a good seat - but they were far from the first ones there.  A small but growing crowd of goths had begun to assemble by the train, and Sam recognized a handful of them from school.  She acknowledged a couple of them with a dead-inside half-nod, receiving the same in return, and turned to Danny.  She'd loaned him an oversized purple hoodie, knowing he'd be recognized as the Infamous Ghost Kid otherwise, and thought smugly to herself how easily he slipped in with the crowd here.   "C'mon, don't lose me.  I'm going in for a good spot."  She grabbed his hand and then made her way up to the front of the crowd, keeping her eyes on the front of the train.  It was almost nine - the opening ceremonies would start any minute now, and she'd kick herself if she missed even a second of it.       "Hey, hang on," said Danny, spotting a pair of wooden crates stacked off to the side, "Over there - those should be good.  Otherwise I can pull you up as high as you want."       "Hey, good eye," Sam ducked through the crowd, hopping up onto one of the crates.  Danny was right - this was a pretty good spot.  She could see the train without problems, and she could make an uninterrupted beeline for the tent to get good seats when the show started.  "Man, this is gonna be so cool - "       The side of the first boxcar rolled open slowly, and the crowd fell silent.  The inside was hidden in shadow; the ringmaster stepped out, an entertainer's grin plastered across his pale face.  "Greetings, fellow outcasts!" he announced in a comical, slightly-unhinged sort of voice, "I am Freakshow, your Master of Ceremonies - are you ready to smile, relax, and forget all your troubles amid the pleasant diversions of the circus?"  He was playing it up; his grin widened, and he held out his hands to invite a response from the crowd of misfits assembled before him.       The crowd indulged with a collective, "No!"       "Then you've come to the right place!" Freakshow declared with a flourish and a little wave of the staff in his hand.  His eyes swept over the crowd, and after a dramatic pause he continued: "Prepare to be disturbed and appalled by a small sample of the bizarre and abnormal world of Circus Gothica!"       Danny didn't catch anything that happened after that.  His wide-eyed gaze was affixed on the ringmaster's staff - specifically, the enormous red crystal ball on the end of it - and his thoughts slowly started to float away from him.  He was caught in the hypnotic swirl of the crystal the ringmaster held, and his mind went blank.  He stared, unblinking.  Through the fog that clouded his head, he saw Freakshow - and Freakshow saw him.  Though he entertained the crowd, he spoke to Danny directly: come, ghost. Danny was compelled to obey.       - - -       Sam could hardly believe it.  She was finally seeing Circus Gothica live - she'd dreamed of it every night since she'd heard they were coming to Amity Park, and she'd forked over much more for the tickets than she would ever admit to anyone.  Even her best friend was with her - how much better could this day get?  She turned with a grin to remark something along the lines of look at us, a goth and a ghost at the freak circus!  Do we belong here or what? or, man, you're the best - I'm so glad I skipped class for this.       Danny had disappeared.       Sam's smile vanished.  "Danny?  Where'd you go?"  She turned to the crowd with a frown.  She couldn't see a trace of him anywhere - not even by the popcorn vendor - and despite herself she began to worry.  Where'd he disappear to?  He didn't even say anything about it - is he okay?  She tried to shrug it off.  He'll be right back, she told herself, but something still didn't feel right.       "Sam?"       She froze.  If she'd been prepared, or at least been given a ten-second heads-up, she'd have made a run for it and disappeared into the crowd.  Instead, her hesitation doomed her.  Above even the pearl-clutching frets of the oncoming mob of parents, she heard the clicking of her mother's heels as she approached.  Sam turned; there stood both her parents, poised at the head of another one of their pointless protests.  Can't they just have day jobs like regular human beings, if they're so intent on being normal?       "Samantha!  Just what do you think you're doing out here!" her mother exclaimed, "I distinctly remember forbidding you from attending this repulsive display of immorality!"       Sam was too angry for words; the ringmaster, on the other hand, was not.  "Oh, critics!" he crowed, jumping up onto one of the crates just to make sure they could see him, "There's a heckler in every crowd, of course!  What do you say, freaks, should we really let the rantings of the closed-minded norms beat us down?  Or should we show them our true colors - and by true colors, of course, I mean all black!"       The crowd obliged, nearly breaking into a riot right then and there.  Angry goths threw insults and empty soda cans without hesitation, determined to drive the protesters back.       Sam would have slipped away, too, if her mother hadn't grabbed her by the arm with a disapproving scowl.  "Sneaking out of school?  You are so grounded, young lady!"

      "Are you sure you haven't seen him anywhere?" Sam asked with a frown.  Class had just let out; she and Tucker had met by her locker for an emergency discussion.  Neither of them had seen Danny at lunch, either.       Tucker shook his head.  "I mean, he comes by my house like twice a week, so - "       "No, I mean today.  He came with me earlier when we ditched first-period, remember?  We were gonna watch the opening ceremonies - I thought he just flew off when my parents showed up, but I haven't seen him since.  You think maybe something happened?"       "I don't know," said Tucker, "If it's all the same to you, I'd really rather not go to a spooky goth circus to find out.  No offense."       Sam huffed.  "Ugh, look.  That's the last place I saw him, okay?  He might be still around there.  I just wanna make sure he's okay - "       "Sam.  He's a ghost.  He's fine."       "Then how come he hasn't showed up?" Sam persisted, "He should have at least dropped by during lunch.  He does that literally every day.  Come on, Tucker, you gotta admit something's a little off."       Tucker finally relented.  "Yeah.  I guess that does sound a little fishy.  Alright, Sam, you win.  Guess we'll scope that circus out."       "Thanks, Tucker," she gave him an appreciative smile, grabbed her backpack from her locker, and the pair headed down the hall.  "I've got to grab some stuff, just in case.  I'll meet you down by the station."       "Sure," said Tucker, "Meet you there."       Sam only stopped by her house for a few minutes.  She dumped all the school junk out of her backpack, stuffing it instead with a handful of snacks, a flashlight, and some emergency eyeliner (a goth can never be caught without it, she knew from experience).  She knew her parents weren't home; they'd no doubt still be marching around in circles outside the big-top, and probably would continue to do so until later in the evening.  With luck, she'd be home by then, and she and Danny would be upstairs making fun of how stupid her parents were.       Still, that was assuming things went well.  Something told her they wouldn't, and she did her best to ignore it.  I'm sure Danny's fine, she told herself for the twelfth time.  She scrawled out a note for him anyway, leaving it taped to the window in case he came looking for her before she was back.  With that done, and with everything she was certain she'd need in her backpack, she sneaked past her none-too-observant grandmother and back out to meet up with Tucker.       She found him behind the train station, out of sight of the relentless protesting parents, and quickly ducked around the side of the building so she wouldn't be caught.  "You see him anywhere?"       Tucker shook his head.  "Out here?  Nope.  No ghosts - just goths."       Sam took a quick peek around the corner, hoping to spot an easy way they could sneak past her parents.  "Come on.  Maybe he's inside."  She grabbed his hand, pulled him behind a stack of supply crates, threw a glance over her shoulder to make sure the coast was clear, and then darted around behind the big-top.  She pulled the massive canvas flaps apart, and the two of them slipped inside.       In an instant, Sam completely forgot why she was there.  A spectacular breath of fire erupted from the center ring, where a pair of performers danced effortlessly on either jaw of a massive prop bear trap, and calliope music swelled in time with their act.  The crowds of goths in the stands exploded into cheers; the smell of popcorn and cotton candy hit her over the head, making her sway on her feet.  For a moment, all her focus was gone, and she was overcome with excitement.  The fire-breathers let loose a concluding double-arc of flames, took a bow, and then vanished in a puff of smoke.       "Whoa," Sam breathed, "That's so cool..."       "Um, Sam?" Tucker asked, not having been quite so enthralled by the performance, "What about Danny?"       Sam jolted.  "Right - " (gotta focus, Sam!) " - see if you can get up in the stands - maybe you'll be able to spot him from higher up.  I'll come up the other side."       Tucker nodded once and then ran off.       Sam turned.  Stay focused.  I know you're at the circus - once we catch up with Danny, it'll be fine.  We'll catch the show after that.  All three of us  It'll be fun.  Despite herself, she turned in the hopes to get a glimpse of the next act.  Freakshow's voice thundered across the tent: "And now, please welcome a performer who puts the death in death-defying act - The Grim Reaper himself!"       Sam stared in amazement.  Balanced precariously up on the high-wire was a single acrobat, draped in a dramatic black cloak and armed with a scythe.  Focus, Sam! she told herself half-heartedly, but it was in vain.  She was mesmerized; when the acrobat balanced the scythe on the tightrope and then hoisted himself up by one hand on top of it, she was left speechless.       Her senses came back to her when the reaper's act drew to a close.  She watched him descend from the platform and duck quickly out of sight, and a crazy thought presented itself in her head: I gotta get back there.  Before she dared allow herself to think twice about it, she crept along the dark corner of the second ring.  The sign overhead read Cast Only but she pushed the flaps open anyway.  Her heart was pounding.  She spotted the cloaked acrobat amidst a wide array of assorted props and, if she hadn't been so hopelessly in awe, she might have noticed that the tattered edge of the reaper's cloak hung in the air.  "I - " she started, telling herself not to slip into a fannish ramble and immediately doing it anyway.  "That was incredible out there - I know you probably get this like all the time but - "       The reaper turned.  From under his hood came a burning stare, and the scythe in his hands glinted in the low light.  He floated down to her; his face was blank, but his eyes had become red and bloodshot.  From up on the high-wire, the hood had masked him, but up close it no longer mattered.  He was unmistakable.       "Danny?" Sam gasped, taking a step back.  "What are you doing?  I've been looking all over for you!  Come on, we should go - "       "Can't," said Danny vaguely, as if in a trance.  He held her stare, unblinking.  "I belong here now."       "What do you mean, can't?" Sam demanded, unamused, "Cut it out.  I'm serious - "       A hand on her shoulder made her yelp.  She whirled around, suddenly finding herself face-to-face with the ringmaster.  He still held his staff in one hand, and his face had hardened into an irritable snarl.       "What are you doing back here?" he demanded.  His glare shifted to acknowledge Danny, and his eyes narrowed.  "And you!  What sort of miserable excuse for a performance was that?  You call that an act?"       Danny took it in silence, his face paling.  His gaze fell.       Sam's eyes darted between Danny and Freakshow.  What on earth was going on?  "Danny - come on, you're just going to let him say that?  I know you!  You never take it like this!"  She turned back to Freakshow, anger filling her.  "This is your fault, isn't it?  What did you do to him?"       Freakshow rounded on her instead.  "Oh, figuring things out so quickly?  Goody for you!  You think you'll protect this little ghost, now, don't you?"  He gave a sardonic laugh, unhinging just for a moment, and then bent to be level with her.  His face stiffened into a practiced grimace, and his voice became a threatening growl.  "Who - pray tell - will protect you from him?"  He gave the staff a little flick, and turned his attention to Danny.  "Redeem yourself, ghost.  Don't you hear those poor souls out there begging for more?  Give them the encore they want."       Danny said nothing.  He grabbed Sam by the arm and they both vanished from sight as he pulled her upwards to the high-wire platform.       "Danny, what're you - hey!"  Sam protested, landing on the platform and immediately taking a step back from him.  She was well aware of how small the platform was; one foot nearly slipped off the edge, and she had to regain her balance so she wouldn't fall.  She could see Freakshow below, narrow-eyed and unblinking.  The crystal mounted to his staff cast an insidious glow over one side of his face, and he tapped it once, as if an orchestral conductor might give a ginger flick of his baton.       Danny advanced, scythe in hand, and pressed her back.  His bloodshot eyes were locked on her; he wore the same scowl as the ringmaster, but as she backed slowly out onto the tightrope the corners of his mouth twisted instead into a crooked smile.       "Danny, stop it," Sam pleaded, casting another gut-wrenching glance down to the ring far below.  "I mean it - this isn't you!  Danny, please!"       He neither heard her nor answered.  He took a step out onto the wire after her, and then another.  His eyes were fixed on her, daring her to make a misstep - he swung the scythe at her once, just to make her scream, and his unnatural grin widened.       His blade and Freakshow's staff moved in tandem, one mimicking the direction of the other, and Sam put the pieces together.  He wasn't joking around - he was being controlled directly - but it was too late.  Danny gave the scythe a dramatic twirl before bringing it down and slicing the wire in two with a maniacal cackle.  It fell away from under him, but he was unaffected; Sam, on the other hand, was not.       She fell with a shriek, making a wild grab for the hem of his cloak.  Failing that, she at least found the severed end of the rope, and swung down to a rough halt at the side of the ring.  It wasn't a solid landing by any means; it took her a moment to collect herself and shake the dizziness out of her head.  The crowd was in an uproar but she didn't care - as she staggered back to her feet she saw Danny descending gracefully after her, scythe resting on one shoulder.  She took another step back.  "Danny, please listen to me - snap out of it, quit scaring me like that - "       Danny loomed over her with a ghastly snarl, his face only an inch from hers.  "How should I scare you...?"       She swallowed hard.  She realized just how hopelessly he'd been crushed by the power of the ringmaster's crystal - was there anything that could pull him out from under Freakshow's spell?  She was beginning to doubt that there was.  She watched, speechless, as Danny stepped back to the side of his new master.       Freakshow's scowl deepened; it was clear that he hadn't expected her to survive that little stunt, but he'd accept the outcome for the moment.  "Consider that a warning, girl," he sneered, stalking back off to the second ring with Danny still in tow.       Sam pulled herself together.  She couldn't save Danny on her own and she knew it - she had to find Tucker.  Still shaken but reassuring herself, she turned to the stands and scanned the crowds for him.  She could see him partway up; he was the only one among them who wasn't a goth, and it made him incredibly easy to spot.  He darted down to her, eyes wide.  "Sam - are you okay?  I saw you up there - you nearly gave me a heart attack!"       "Tucker!" Sam exclaimed, "I found him - I saw Danny, but he's under some kind of spell - it's Freakshow's staff, I think it's controlling him!"       "Controlling him?  Is there a way to stop it?"       "I don't know," Sam admitted, "We've got to figure out a plan.  Come on," she led him quickly to a darker corner of the tent - someplace where they wouldn't be seen, ideally - and cast a worried glance back to the center ring.  Earlier, she'd been transfixed; now, after what happened, it just sent a shiver down her spine.       "I'm gonna see if I can get any dirt on - man, you're not gonna believe this," said Tucker, interrupting himself mid-sentence as both eyebrow shot up.  He'd pulled out his PDA, and as he scrolled through the notifications on the screen he read them aloud: "Jewels reported missing by police - bank vault found empty - rash of mysterious burglaries - circus owner offers show to concerned parents - " (he gave that last link a tap with his thumb) " - get a load of this one.  Says here he's reaching out to skeptics to prove it's all 'harmless entertainment.'"       "Harmless?" Sam scoffed, "Harmless for himself, maybe.  Hey, see if you can find anything on the spell he put on Danny.  Any idea how to lift it?"       "Hang on, let me see - " (he tapped furiously for a moment) " - no, I'm not finding anything.  Not even a mention of anything like it.  Sam, what're we gonna do?  We can't just leave him - "       "I know we can't!" Sam snapped.  Tucker flinched, and she let her breath out all at once.  "Tucker, I'm sorry - I can't stand to let this happen to him either, but we don't have any leads, and we don't know how to lift the spell, and my parents are going to be in here for the show tonight, and we can't even let them see us - "       "Sam," said Tucker, as calmly as he could manage, and put a hand on her shoulder.  "Quit freaking out about it.  We'll save him, okay?  Plus the more you freak out about it the more it makes me wanna freak out about it, y'know?"       Sam forced herself to take a deep breath.  "Yeah.  Okay."  She swept the what-ifs that had been plaguing her away, redirecting her focus.  "What about the staff?  We have to get it away from him.  That might be the only way."       "You think he'll ever set the thing down?" Tucker asked, "I mean - "       Sam's resolve hardened.  Seeing Danny manipulated like that - his flinching shame when he'd been berated - lit a fire in her, and she nodded.  "He's got to."       Tucker turned as the crowds roared into applause again.  "After the show - he's gotta tire out sometime, right?"       "Yeah, and I know just the thing to snoop into in the meantime.  Come on," Sam rose to her feet, leading him around the back of the tent and out underneath the heavy canvas.  She checked both ways, in case the crowd of skeptical parents had spotted them.  Unseen, she pulled Tucker away and back toward the abandoned station.  The sun hadn't set yet, but there wouldn't be much time until it did.  She could see the crowds from the show filing out - earlier that morning, she'd have said she wouldn't miss the finale for the world, but she no longer wanted a part in any of it.  She knew their window would be short.  She pulled Tucker up beside the train, staying carefully out of sight of the crowds.  "Stay close by me," she whispered, spotting an open boxcar ahead.  They crept closer, and Sam caught a glimpse of the ringmaster before ducking under the carriage in a panic so that they wouldn't be seen.     "Excellent work, drones.  I'm certain dear Lydia will be joining us as soon as she's finished with her little performance.  Ah, and here come the stragglers.  A bit late, are we?"       Sam watched as Danny appeared in the air with another ghost beside him.  Freakshow's will had overpowered him, turning his eyes from green to a dark blood-red, and in one hand he held something small and glittering.  He descended, offering the trinket to his master.       Freakshow paused.  "Now, where did you find a little jewel like this?  Perhaps you're not entirely useless after all..."       Sam didn't catch anything after that.  The door of the boxcar rolled shut, latching with a hard clank, and she gave Tucker a nudge with one elbow.  "C'mon, we gotta get in there."       She got up to her feet as the engine gave a roar of steam.  The entire train shuddered; the wheels screeched against the rails as it struggled into motion.  She pulled Tucker out from underneath the boxcar, keeping his hand as she darted for the space in between the cars so she could jump up.       They paused in the confined space, and Sam's mind raced.  She could see the big-top already beginning to recede behind them; the train accelerated slowly and in great chugging shudders, but once it got moving she knew there'd be no stopping it.  Where would they end up?  She shook the thought out of her head.  One thing at a time.  Save Danny first.  She clambered up the side of the car, Tucker keeping close behind her.  There had to be a way in somewhere - she spotted an emergency hatch on the next car ahead, and the two of them made their way across.       Tucker pulled the hatch open just a little so he could peer inside, and he turned back to Sam with a nod.  "C'mere, I see it - "       A beam of ghost-energy hit them both square in the chest, sending them sprawling.  Sam made a grab for Tucker but missed; he flew clear off the train, tumbling to a halt somewhere in the tall grass below.  "Tucker, no!"       She turned to see Danny floating over her, finger-gun still smoking.  His eyes had been taken over completely by the red haze of Freakshow's hypnosis, and it had begun to creep like infectious roots under his skin.  He stared her down, his face betraying neither satisfaction nor regret, and he formed a full-sized ball of ghost-energy in one hand.  His eyes narrowed; he released the ball of energy and made the shot.       Sam only barely avoided the attack as she scrambled back to her feet, nearly toppling off the edge of the train.  She didn't dare take her eyes off of Danny for more than a second - she knew he'd chew her up and spit her out if she did - and she squashed down the terrified knot that had begun to form in her gut.  "Danny, don't do this - he's controlling you, you've got to listen to me - !"       Danny paused, as if idle, as the ringmaster appeared behind him from in between the cars.  "Looking for this?" he crowed, staff in hand, "Did you really think you could just take it right out from under my nose?  I may be a freak, girl, but I'm no fool!"       Sam steeled herself.  "Let Danny go!"       "Let him go?  Oh, that's charming!" exclaimed the ringmaster, breaking into hysterics.  "You're going to defeat me, are you? and single-handedly, no less!  How heroic!"       Danny advanced, eyes aglow.  His will had been all but crushed under Freakshow's; he wore the same grim glower, and even the way he moved had begun to mirror the ringmaster's own mannerisms.  He floated closer, nearly overwhelming her.       Sam took a step back.  "Danny, I know you're in there somewhere - you don't want to do this - "       "Save your breath, girl.  He doesn't stand a chance against me - and you don't stand a chance against him," said Freakshow in amusement.  He gave Danny only a look, but his orders were clear: finish her.       The ghastly glow in his eyes spread into a crimson aura, and he was forced to obey.  He made a grab for her, catching her by the arm, and spun her around to face him.  His grip was like ice, but his stare was burning.  "Come on," he growled, "Scream for me.  Just once."       "Danny, please!  It's me, Sam - I'm your best friend, remember - ?"       "I'm a ghost," he snapped, the corners of his mouth twisting back up into the too-wide grin, "I have no friends."       Sam's mind raced.  She realized - or, at least, was forced to acknowledge concretely - that there was no getting through to him.  He was no longer merely under Freakshow's command; his mind was beginning to warp because of it.  He was toying with her.  Whatever there was left of him inside was too far gone.  No, she insisted, he's not gone.  I have to save him.  She only had one shot.  The fire in her returned, and her hands balled into angry fists.  Despite herself, she still couldn't meet his eyes.  "Let go of me."       Danny's twisted smile widened to an impossible degree, and he burst into sardonic laughter.  His grip tightened.  "You couldn't make me!"       Sam forced herself to meet his stare.  She hesitated, but only for a moment.  "I'm sorry, Danny."       She decked him in the nose.       Danny's facade faltered; he flew back, skidding to a halt on the metal surface of the train.  In a daze, he lay still.       Sam rounded on Freakshow, her blood boiling.  She refused to acknowledge she'd just punched her best friend; she couldn't afford to hesitate now, and she took a step forward.  She was certain she'd beat him, now that he was on his own.       He seemed to know it too; his eyes widened, and he opened up his mouth to make a sorry excuse for himself.  "Please - er, just a moment, now, I don't think there's any need for - "       "Sam?"       She turned.  The fire in her began to fade in an instant, and chilling realization crept into its place.  She saw him, propping himself up on one hand, the other held over his nose.  Bright green blood ran through his fingers and stained the glove of his suit.       He refused to meet her gaze; his voice was broken.  "Sam, you - you really hurt me..."       She caved, overcome in an instant with remorse.  "Danny, I'm so sorry - I had to," she knew it wasn't enough.  She ran to him, knelt beside him, and carefully set one hand on his shoulder.  "Danny, please, I didn't mean it - "       He finally turned to her.  His wicked grin returned.  "Gotcha."       Freakshow sucked in his breath.  "Oh, bravo..."       The ground on either side of them seemed to fall away as she realized what had happened.  He'd baited her, and she'd fallen for it.  "Danny, I - "       He was faster.  He grabbed her, floating upwards and pulling her off her feet.  He turned, holding her for a moment over the side of the train, and with a little wave of his other hand he dropped her.       She fell with a shriek.  Time seemed to slow with her descent, and for a fleeting moment everything went silent.  The last thing she saw before she hit the river was Danny, floating triumphantly with the ringmaster at his side, as the train sped away.

      She pulled herself up onto the riverbank and collapsed.  The cold water had numbed her skin; her failure numbed her mind.  I lost him.  She lay on the bank - panting, exhausted, and soaking wet - and couldn't even bring herself to burst into tears.  She stared blankly up at the tracks on the bridge overhead; she could almost still see him, but she knew he was gone.  She knew she'd never see him again.  Freakshow had won.       She still had to drag herself home.  She turned her gaze to the steep ravine, dreading having to climb up the side after she'd just emerged from the water.  She only let herself rest for a few minutes, and then forced herself to her feet.  What am I gonna tell Tucker?  She knew he wouldn't take it well.  He'd known Danny longer than she had, and he'd had a rough time after Danny had died a while back.  She clambered slowly upwards, knowing better than to take her chance against the loose earth of the ravine and setting her sights on the supports of the bridge instead.  She hauled herself over the top and lay in the grass, unable to take another step.       She'd never see Danny again.       It was the next morning when she finally arrived home.  She'd just had the longest night of her life, and she couldn't even find it in her to protest when her parents began to fuss over her.  She let them.  At least she was home.  She was sent immediately to bed, and the next thing she knew it was evening.  Her mind still in a haze, she checked the time on the cell on her bedside table.  It was almost nine, but that meant little to her.  She found, instead, a text from Tucker waiting in her notifications.       Heard what happened, hope you feel better soon! get back to me when you can bc i have to tell you smth important. its abt danny. i found the schedule for the gothica tour! theyre setting up next month in oregon and i really dont wanna go by myself. i miss him too. hope you get better. we'll talk then

[ladylynse]

So, I wrote more in my Dystopian AU [FF | AO3].... Y’know, the competent Guys in White one.

He had to go in, but knowing that didn't make it any easier--or take away the risks.

“You have to go in,” Danny said. “Please. Jazz is smart, but she doesn’t know half this stuff. You do. We need you on the inside.”

Tucker bit his lip. “Dude, this isn’t cool. They know we’re friends. They’re gonna know I was working with you. They aren’t going to expect me to stop.”

“Then we give them a fight,” Sam suggested. “Something big. Showy. Convince them of your loyalties that way.”

Tucker pulled a face. “We can’t risk not convincing them, though. If they don’t think I’m legit, they’ll just wash me. Wipe away any pesky sympathies and whatever else.” He wasn’t sure what the Guys in White were doing to brainwash people, but he knew it was effective. They all did.

His words sobered the other two. It was only the three of them in this meeting, huddled in an old outpost of what had once been the lobby of Val’s apartment building in Elmerton. It wasn’t Amity Park, but the ghosts had never made much of a distinction between the two, and they knew its streets from fights long past. From Before.

It was familiar ground, but it wasn’t something the Guys in White expected them to know as well as they did. They weren’t safe here, exactly—the GiW even knew Danny was Phantom—but this was safer than other places. Besides, the Box Ghost had said he’d cause a distraction, and Pandora had let him borrow her box. It would buy them time, if only because the GiW wouldn’t—shouldn’t—be expecting a hydra to turn up.

“Then we convince them you’re a traitor to our side,” Sam said.

Tucker and Danny stared at her. “What?” they asked in unison.

“We can’t risk them washing you. We can’t lose you. But they won’t wash you if they think you have valuable information that might be lost in the process.”

“No, they’ll just torture me! Newsflash, Sam. That’s not better.” Anyone the GiW washed white was ‘freed’ from their past loyalties. The cleansing washed away all their dirty little secrets that helped them hold onto the promise of fixing this mess of a world, but it could also affect memories associated with those loyalties. He wasn’t too sure whether it destroyed them completely or just made them too unreliable to count on when it came to information extraction, but if he was labelled a sympathiser, a rebel, it wouldn’t matter. They had no qualms about torturing someone until they saw the error of their ways and then begged to be cleansed by them, washed and returned to society. It was sickening but effective. Most people didn’t realize their methods, and since they’d begun hammering areas where the information got out, those in the rebellion weren’t keen on spreading it around, either, unless they were already on the move.

It was hindering the whole recruiting process, exactly as the Guys in White wanted.

Sam punched him in the arm. “They won’t need to torture you if you give up the information willingly.”

“What?” he repeated. That sounded entirely too much like actually being a traitor, and the rebellion was too small to afford that. Sure, Danny had made a truce with most of the ghosts easily enough; most of them didn’t want to leave Earth, and of those that remained behind, few thought so much of themselves that they believed they could defeat the Guys in White alone. At least, few did after rumours got out about how the first ones had been torn apart, and almost none had tried it since the release of that footage. But the ghosts were more of a hindrance than a help in populated areas, where citizens had been issued basic ghost hunting tech that included the equivalent of Fenton Finders meant to ferret them all out, and it took flesh and blood humans to break through ghost shields and convince others to join their cause.

Just last week, he’d come across a pair of kids not much younger than he was, scavenging for food. He wasn’t sure how they’d ended up outside the cities, but he hadn’t been about to ask at the time. Instead, he’d told them that they didn’t have to live like this, that it didn’t have to be this way, that they could change things if they just fought back—

The older one had pegged him as a rebel right away. Threatened to report him and reap the reward. Made it clear he wasn’t afraid to fight if it would get him some proof that the report wasn’t a false one, that it was an actual lead on the location of the rebels, if not a captured rebel himself.

It was the younger brother who’d asked questions. Who’d given Tucker a chance to explain the truth. Who’d convinced his brother to join the rebel cause, for a place to belong if nothing else. Walker had vetted and approved both of them at the way station. They hadn’t been threats, just kids who’d needed help to survive, who’d been willing to do anything for it. He’d helped give them a purpose.

He…he didn’t want to throw all that away.

“Tell them something they don’t know,” Sam said slowly. “Something real. Just something small to start. Let them check it out and confirm it. And then give them something else. And then, when they demand something bigger, give them that, too. It’ll hurt us, but we’ll be stronger in the end. They won’t be surprised that your information is less reliable after the third attack—they have to know we’ll be adjusting our plans—but they won’t be willing to wash you, either. You might know something they don’t realize is valuable, that you don’t realize is valuable, and they won’t want to lose that.”

Tucker shook his head. “They’ll want names.”

“They have most of our names,” Danny pointed out. “Between the death registration and the last census—”

“Then they’ll want locations!”

“Yeah, they will, and you’ll have to give some of them up.” Sam crossed her arms. “I said this’ll hurt us. It’s not believable if it doesn’t hurt us. But you can’t chicken out, either. If you lie, it won’t work, and they’ll wash you white, and then this will have been for nothing. Your knowledge is your leverage, Tuck. Make sure they know what you’re bringing to the table, and they’ll be too greedy to let you go to waste.”

Tucker let out a slow breath. “Even if you’re right, even if they let me in without washing me, doesn’t mean I’ll be put in a position where I can help. Jazz won’t be able to help me. It would raise too many flags and blow her cover. And with the number of people watching me, I’d blow my own cover if I so much as hacked my own computer to disable to spyware.”

“That’s why you need to earn their trust,” Sam said bluntly.

Tucker groaned and looked at Danny. “Technus and I can keep hacking into their servers from here, man. We don’t need to risk this. Seriously.”

Danny glanced away. “I’m not sure that’s true,” he mumbled.

“What? They didn’t actually catch Technus, did they?”

Danny looked back at him and shook his head. “No, but he’s running into more blocks every day. Jazz can’t make him a back door. You can. And…and the more we can find out, the better. We need more than one person on the inside, and you could establish a reliable communication link for us. Please, Tuck.”

Tucker swallowed. “If it doesn’t work,” he croaked, “if they wash me, I’ll…. It wouldn’t just be an act anymore. I’d be ready to destroy you.”

Danny smirked. “I’m used to the feeling.”

It was a lie, or at least the nonchalance behind it was. Tucker knew that. Lying was what Danny did, even now.

“Just feed us what you can,” said Sam, ever the practical one. “We won’t act on everything, and we’ll double check what we can before we do act. We don’t want them thinking they’ve got a mole and feeding out false information to catch them.”

Tucker’s mouth twisted. “They wouldn’t bother with that. They’d just wash everyone for good measure. No skin off their noses. They’re too indoctrinated themselves to know the difference.”

“Information,” reminded Sam.

“That information’s gonna have an expiry date,” Tucker muttered. “It wouldn’t save me forever.”

“It doesn’t need to be forever. It just needs to be for long enough.”

“But what if it’s not?” Fine. He was scared. He could admit it. He was terrified. Danny and Sam wanted him to waltz into the lion’s den and play double agent. If he wasn’t washed, he could be tortured. Or just plain shot.

Or the Guys in White might realize what he was up to and use him to lead his friends into a trap. That was by far the worst option, but it was also the most likely, whether they washed him in the end or not. What if they extracted what information from him that they could, washed him, and fed him that information back? He’d happily use it against his friends then, and it’s not like he’d wind up in close enough contact with Jazz for her to tell.

And even if she could, there’s no guarantee she’d find a way to send a message. Her communications with them were spotty at best. His going in wouldn’t improve that, not when he had to keep his distance from her to maintain both their covers. Come to that, they wouldn’t even be able to assure her that he wasn’t a traitor, and he wouldn’t blame her for thinking he might be once his information proved to be good. And—

And he was thinking about this as if it were already a done deal, risks and all.

Sam reached over and squeezed his hand, which was a big deal, considering she wasn’t big on the showing her feelings like that after so many years of hiding what she felt for Danny. He would have taken more comfort in it if he didn’t know it was a futile attempt to balance out her not-so-comforting words. “We’ll do what we can and make the best of whatever happens.”

Danny didn’t say anything. He just waited for Tucker to make his choice known. Danny wouldn’t make him go in, not even with everything that was at stake. Sam would try, but Danny would let him make his own decision, even if ‘making his own decision’ included a few dozen guilt trips and pleas before it was actually decision time.

Like it was now.

To say going in was risky was a major understatement, but they couldn’t afford him not going in, either. Danny was right: they needed more than one person on the inside, and not just in case Jazz got compromised. They were short allies and needed more information. Anything he could do would help them…until they caught him.

Tucker sighed and looked at Sam. “Maybe you should take a harder swing at me, just to help sell the whole traitor thing.”

Sam grinned and cracked her knuckles. “I’ll just pretend you’re Agent W,” she said, and she was on her feet and a fist was flying towards his face before he could change his mind.

He woke up in the ruins of the Nasty Burger with some pickpocket wannabe rifling through his jacket. He could still feel the hard lump of the flash drive sewn into his collar, so he hissed a warning at her and let her get away with her appropriated beef jerky. It was the best he could do for her now. Besides, if they believed him, they’d feed him at HQ, and if they didn’t, a lack of food was going to be the least of his problems.

(next)

[sserpente]

A/N: Happy October, guys! You ready for the first day of my autumn and Halloween madness? You better be because here goes the first Imagine! Enjoy everyone!

1st October: Stupid leaves. 🍁 | feat. Eric (Divergent). Request from @jasonmccannsgirl8699. (Anything with Eric, right? 😉)

Words: 1005 Warnings: none

This was so utterly stupid, for Fuck’s sake. The reason you had left Amity was to never have to hold a garden tool in hands again and yet here you were, a Dauntless initiate, raking the leaves under a giant chestnut tree that grew in the park area that was used for jogging trips by the faction.

Fine, you might have brought it to yourself, sassing Eric and having him punish you for your mouth but in your defence, he really was exaggerating. Training hard and never giving up your arse. There was a reason you had chosen Dauntless but there was no reason you were going to accept him treating you like brainless vermin.

“Enjoying yourself, initiate?” Flinching only a little, you turned to see the crude Dauntless leader leaning against the wall with his muscly arms crossed. He looked as intimidating as ever, smirking maliciously as he stared you down in a mocking manner—raking leaves on a Sunday wasn’t what you had had in mind, after all. He could have been quite attractive if he wasn’t such an unbearable arsehole.

“Screw you,” you muttered under your breath, rolling your eyes before attending to the leaves again. Instead of piling them up, all you did was crumbling them. That rake of yours was useless. It would take you ages to clean the place and you had the uneasy feeling that was why Eric had given you this battered one in the first place.

You were hoping he would grow boring soon and disappear again but unfortunately, he was far from doing so. Instead, he strolled over to you, watching you scornfully with his head tilted. It made you wonder. He could have just cut you for disobeying his orders or much rather give you a real bad ranking—only he hadn’t. He was provoking you on purpose, for his own amusement and it was driving you crazy.

“You know what I don’t understand?” You started, eager to start a conversation with him. If he was going to stick around and observe you like a curiosity in a circus, you might as well entertain yourself, too. Eric was not dumb, after all. He was quite a smart man, that much you had found out already.

“The point of raking leaves in the first place,” you concluded without waiting for him to respond. “You wanna know why?”

“Enlighten me,” he grinned, reacting quicker this time.

Pausing in your actions and stopping the annoying sound of metal screeching over the grass and dry leaves, you tucked a streak of your (Y/H/C) out of your face. “Because as soon as you’re done, there’s even more leaves all over the place! It just never stops! Why would you rake leaves every day instead of just… letting the tree to its thing until it’s entirely leafless? That would make way more sense,” Shaking your head, you stared down at the pathetic pile you had managed to mount. It was big—but it wasn’t even half as big as it was supposed to be by the time you should be done with this ridiculous task.

“Sounds logical. I’ll just have you rake the leaves after training every day, come to think of it. Until the tree is all leafless,” Eric replied. Although his expression was stern and severe, you could practically hear the mocking tone in his voice. He was only waiting for you to lash out so he could punish you further—Christina had been right: Do not challenge Eric. Well, it was too late for that now.

“Excuse me, I will not… I’m going to use this thing against you, I swear to God!” You shouted angrily, lifting the sharp ends of your rake and pointing them right to Eric’s face.

“Oh, I’d like to see you try,” he mused darkly, glaring you down like a lion ready to pounce on its prey.

The minute you stepped forward to punch him with the wooden stick of your rake (you did not actually want to injure him, after all—you did not have a death wish), Eric dodged your predictable blow. He ripped your excuse for a weapon from your grasp without much effort before throwing it to the ground where it landed with a dull thump.

Your eyes widened in shock as you stumbled back, desperately flailing your hands about to regain your balance. Eric chuckled and firmly grabbed your wrists in one hand. He held them tightly, pushed his foot behind yours, then nudged you forward with his whole, unbelievably muscly body until you fell face-forward into the pile of leaves.

An indignant scream escaped your lips. You sat there like a picture of misery before your wrath took over and you literally saw red. Clenching your fists, you sat up again.

“Did you just throw me into my fucking pile of leaves?!”

“You’re a quick one, huh?” Eric responded, smirking once more. You could tell he was amused now.

“Eric! Now I can start all over!” You complained, pretending to whine before getting up again to brush a few crushed leaves off your black training suit. Apparently, there’d been a still moist puddle of mud underneath the pile. It would explain the dark-brown stain on your pants. “Just great, I don’t have any other clothes!”

“Well, maybe tomorrow I’ll just have you rake those leaves naked then.” He suggested with a cheeky smile.

Once more, your eyes widened. They nearly popped out of your head when you finally realised that fucker was flirting with you. Your jaw dropped without you actually saying anything.

“Come to my apartment after you cleaned this up.” Oh. Was that an invitation? You must have spoken your thoughts out loud.

“No, it’s an order, initiate. And if you tell anyone we’ll both be screwed, so you better keep your mouth shut.”

And as he was leaving you behind, a confused and somewhat aroused mess, you figured he had meant his last words quite literally.

Raking leaves suddenly wasn’t so bad anymore.

[primptownlibrary]

Satan’s Space Amusement Park Chapter 8 - Decisive Battle! The Dark Prince and the Space-time Traveler!

Out of the maze and into safety, everyone was able to gather and meet.

“Oh goodness. Why won’t they listen to why I needed to break down a labyrinth wall?” “Just because you say so, it doesn’t mean anyone else is allowed to! That’s illegal you know!”

As Rulue grumbled and complained, Schezo was there to counter-argue. Meanwhile, Arle and Ringo took another peek at the stamp card to confirm where our next destination is... then an “Ah!” followed it.

"Hey, once we get the stamps from Schezo and Rulue, our card's gonna be all filled up!" "Gu gugu~!" "A-About time...At least the ones who did fill it out is all of us!" Then she held out the card for all to see. "You're right! It's finally over, then~ It was super fun though, and I kinda don't want it to end!" I claimed, trying to keep a smile...

*silence...*

H-Huh? Why are Arle and Ringo's giving me that face with that troubled-sounding laugh?

"That definitely sounds like something you’d say..." "I figured as much, Amitie..." "Eh?"

That said and done, Schezo took the stamp card from my hand as I passed it around.

"So, shall we summon Satan and Ecolo?" "What? You want to call forth Satan?" Rulue perked up when Satan was mentioned. "Dare I say, yes. Upon completion of this stamp card, Arle and her group will return home...That is, that's according to their rules. Anything they have staged, they will act at any moment." "Oh do tell me more! I want to see darling Satan♪" "With that, I'll stamp it." "As well as my own stamp...okay!"

*pop and stamp!*

With the two stamps marked in, the completed stamp card then...

*triumphant jingle~♪*

Some kind of fanfare suddenly started playing. Then...

"Congratulations! Well done, Arly and Carbunny~♪" "Woo hoo! Hey hey, how as it? Didja have fun~?"

A puff of smoke blew in around us, and it was even all bright, shiny, and sparkly. And out of the smoke, Satan and Ecolo stepped out and made their appearance! He's looking satisfied with his arms spread out, while Ecolo's having a good time like usual.

"Satan, we got the stamps like you asked, can we go back home to our world now?" "Gu gu! Gu gu!" "That goes for you too Ecolo! You promised, didn't you?"

Arle and Ringo interrogated right from the get-go. ...meanwhile, Rulue clasped her hands,  swooning and saying "Aah, Darling Satan, making such a cool entry~!" in the background.

"Of course♪" "We promised~!"

Satan and Ecolo were quick to tell us that to make us feel better. Though...

"But before that, as a reward for completing the stamp card, I have reserved a present for Arly and Carbunny!" Satan heartfully announced. "Huh...? I-I don't want it though." "Gugugugu!"

Despite his hospitality, Arle and Carbuncle backed the heck away from him.

"Don't say that! It's my~ treat! From the prince of hell, the great Satan, it's a pair of tickets for our love-love honeymoon♪! Of course there's room for Carbunny too~♪ Now then, Arly! Now that you've thoroughly enjoyed the amusement park, kick back and relax in our dream airport! Allow me to heal you with love on your trip back home! HA HAHAHA!!" "......" Arle's shoulders hung in disbelief. "Is this old man honest with ending it all once we're home?" Schezo sighed profoundly. "Th- that's excessive..." Ringo looks disappointed. "Huh...wonder what that means..." I'm shocked, but completely lost. "EEEEEK! That ticket is a dream come true...!" And Rulue's all levels of losing it.

Moments later...

"I think that...you should SCREW OFF!!" "GuGUUUU!!"

Arle exploded in a fiery rage!

"WHY! IN THE WORLD! DO YOU ALWAYS! DO THIS NONSENSE!!"

And then Satan retorted.

"Hm? Arly. Are you displeased?" "Me, and just about everyone else around here want to go back to our world!" "Ha ha ha, no need to be modest, Arly ♪" "Like HELL I am! There's no way I'm getting on board with that!" "Guguguuuu!"

W-whoah there. Even with Arle getting in his face with rage, Satan's keeping his cool. Does he even know what she's furious about? I'm getting shivery just watching this!

"What...Arly. I treated you to this gorgeous amusement park, and yet you still want more!" "NO! I! DON'T!" "Gu-gu-gu!" "Well now, being the needy and greedy one, are you...your selfishness is cute, but since I must draw a line, how about I mi~ldly punish you for that?" "That's fine by me. I'm itching to serve you some punishment!" "Hm...I see...Very well." Satan answered, spreading out his wings.

Wait, what? This turn of events...Turning left and right to their directions, they both look ready to go already. Uh-huh, it's that time. I even clenched my fists with them. With that, Arle and Satan both proclaimed...

""PUYO BATTLE!""

There's the phrase I'm waiting for! And Schezo has something to say about it.

"Hmph, so this is where it comes to in the end. Hey, Satan. Why must you drag us in such strange circumstances at times like this..." "Sir Perverted Gossipy Wizard! Remember that your clownish style actually gave us a good laugh!" "Silence, Ringo! ...Ahem. I wish you purge those thoughts of me suffering though such shenanigans!" Schezo swatted away that little comment Ringo made, and wasted no time pointing his sword at Satan. “Whuuuut? Is pops gonna play some Puyo?” Ecolo butted in, after having floated around without saying anything for a bit. “Whoah- Ecolo! Don’t let you and your drooling self get into this mess!” Ringo sputtered out... “But it looked so fun, I wanted a piece of the action~!” But Ecolo paid no mind. “Grrr! You’re such a hassle!”

After that outburst, this battle of Puyo is starting to turn into total chaos here!

*plop, plop, plopity-plop*

But hey, at least Puyo battles are super fun times! ♪

But how do you chain? You focus, picture it, and you gotta plop, pile, and stack them up high with the Puyo given around you. With Puyo the one thing dancing in your mind, there’ll be tons of Puyo around you in no time...and boom! The start of a chain will lead to one pop right after another before your very eyes. It’s such a hoot! I can’t help but call out my spells whenever those popped Puyo release its power~! Playing Puyo is a favorite of mine, them, and just about everyone else. Whenever I head to Primp Town Park, Arle, Ringo, Carbuncle, and I get together for some rounds of Puyo.

But right now, this seems more like serious business... It’s just not that same, happy feeling.

"Don't forget that Satan's our opponent, Carby. Now let's get in there with everything we've got!" "Guguguguu!"

As always, Arle and Carbuncle stacked away the Puyo like the go-getters they are.

"Alright Ecolo...I'm your opponent like usual!"

And also as usual, it looks like Ringo's stacking away all super focused and stuff. On the flipside though, Satan and Ecolo are being casual with it.

"It's alright Arly, there's no need to be so serious about it. ♪" "Wooo, it's been a while we since last played Puyo, Ringie! I wonder what chains you'll be bringing~!"

On the sidelines, I could hear Rulue going "Go-go, fight on, my darling Satan~!", cheering him on with a voice that's practically golden and shiny. Schezo, though, is the one to make the first move.

"Brace yourself, Satan! Sting Shade!"

Whoaaah, how the heck did Schezo get a big tall chain that fast? All those Puyo are popping one after the other, and Schezo's gathering the chain's power into the dark sword to attack Satan! As for me, I'm just kinda sorta throwing something together with my powers. It can't end that quickly, can it?

I took a peek over, and they're just taking it easy.

"Hmph. Are you even trying?" Satan scoffed, taking flight to evade Schezo's attack! And over there... "Hey hey mister, I wanna play too! Being on the sidelines bore me!" Ecolo complained, rapidly firing spells as he popped some Puyo chains. "Swindle!" "Gnaagh!"

And Schezo gets rained on by Garbage Puyo. Being the person I am, I couldn't help but blurt out my concern.

"Schezo! You alright there!?" "Hmph, what a bother I've been roped into...Should've seen it coming..." "Seen what coming?" "The duo! They're a formidable unit!"

On that note, Arle and Ringo chimed in.

"Satan may be a jokester through and through, but he's still really strong..." "Ecolo too. Despite his looks, his real power is beyond the imagination." "Say WHAAAAT~~~!?"

And now I'm more nervous about everyone than ever!

"Eeeee! How could my man be this cool, go-getting, and so beautiful!? Come on, please go and give Arle a beat down~!" Rulue cheered on, completely in 'Satan's Cheerleader' mode. "Oh come on! Help us out here, Rulue!" I called out, since she was getting along before... "Oh ho ho ho! But I am Satan's precious Love Attendant! Until darling Satan's splendor is burned into your mind, you should just shut up!" "Meep!"

Rulue's blunt, that's for sure. Meanwhile...

"Here I go, Satan! Braindumbed!" "Guguuu guguguu!" "Prepare yourself, Ecolo! Tangent!"

Arle and Ringo both fired off their spells to their respective targets. But then...

"What's the matter, Arly? That all you got? ...Cataclysm!" "Hoo, Ringie's little attack looks adorable! ...Lovely Trick!" "AAAAAAH!"

They both got hit with a counter attack.

"W-What do we do, what do I do...!?"

For the most part, I'm more or less still working on my Puyo chain. But if I try and attack with this spell, I don't think it'll do a thing to them! I need some sort of Plan B...

"Hm? You're already tuckered out?" "I wanna play some more~!"

And just like muscle memory, Satan and Ecolo's building away still. Oh no, at this rate, just doing one-by-one isn't going to do anything on them. ...wait, I got it!

"Arle! Ringo! Let's do a combination attack!" I called out to them. "A what, Amitie? ...Oh yeah!" "I see now! Let's get to work on that!"

Looks like my idea got to them, one hundred percent.

"What the? What are you scheming?" Schezo asked, looking a bit puzzled. And Arie's quick to answer him, "Please, Schezo! I need you to fend off some of Satan and Ecolo's attacks!" "What!? Th-That's a demanding task ...I can handle the old man just fine, but how am I supposed to know which attack is where!?" "Can't you tag up with Rulue?" "Gu gu-gu?" "RIDICULOUS! Team up with her when she's like THIS!?" "You can do it! Fight on! Give it your best!" "Let me have a say in this!!" "C'mon! We'll have something up our sleeve if you give us a hand!" "......"

He doesn't look like he's on board with that, but he reluctantly turned to Rulue.

"Hey Rulue!" "What now? I've heard everything. What are you begging for this time...?" "Are you okay with Satan winning?" "What kind of a question is that!? Of course I am!" "I see. Then if he won, off he goes with Arle swooped away to their flight...Are you content with that?" "!!"

Rulue froze up.

"Are you SURE you want Satan to have his lovey-dovey honeymoon when he wins?" "P- Probably...not..." "If you find that absolutely disgusting, then help me out! Put up with Ecolo's next attack, and I'll manhandle Satan!" "G-...Nrrrrgh...."

Rulue trembled under her conflicted feelings, but once she assured herself, she unfolded her fan and dove into the battlefield.

"I'll certainly make you pay for letting Satan have his honeymoon with Arle... Let me at 'em!" "Yes!" Schezo made a little fist pump. "Oh wow... Sir Creeper Mage actually roped her in," Ringo commented to herself. "Those two took their sweet time on that small talk," Arle added, bitterly smiling. Okay, everything’s looking good. Onwards...!

"...I don't know what you're even thinking, but I do know you should stay out of the lover's quarrel, Schezo!" "Whoah, check out that chain building~! Guess I'm playing with this missy instead, huh~?"

Even with their side talk, it looks like they're just about done with their chains.

"I am NOT in the way of your 'quarrel', you're just a thorn on my side." Schezo scoffed, even though Satan's going double time on that big chain of his. "That's right, and I've got a special kind of playtime. Just. For. You!" Rulue provoked Ecolo, readying a fighting stance. "Hmph, run your mouth all you like..." "Here I go!" "Ascension!" "Imitation!"

*grandiose explosion that is still audible in deep space!*

Whoah...! I totally forgot how super strong Satan and Ecolo are. Even if the attack wasn't directed at us, we were still close enough to feel the force of it from the fluttering of our hair and clothes. Wait, are Schezo and Rulue alright!? Or are they total goners from that in just one fell swoop!?

I thought wrong on that last part.

"Gr...ngh...!"

Schezo was watching our backs, readying his dark sword for Satan's spell.

"Haaaah...!"

As for Rulue, she stood her ground to stop Ecolo's attack. And then THAT happened.

"Hoo-HAH!!" Schezo slashed his sword horizontally, deflecting Satan's power! "Hi-YAH!" And Rulue pivoted her body to parry Ecolo's attack. "Is- Is that all you got, Satan...?" "Teehee. You're such a lightweight...!"

Once that's done, the duo went and did some garbage Puyo cleanup, building up small chains to get them out.

"Well...that was a surprise." "Hoo-wee! You're a strong missy, aren'tcha!"

Satan and Ecolo don't look shaken though. But now's our chance! They've got nothing to attack with!

"Now!" I called out. "Preparations, A-OK!" "Gu guu!" "Ready when you are!"

Arle and Ringo answered back. Alright, what perfect timing too!

"What!?" "Huh..."

Satan and Ecolo's eyes widened, having forgotten about us and turning this way. Yep, we're in control now! While Schezo and Rulue were holding the line, the three of us got a BIG, big chain ready to go! We've been having rounds of Puyo back at the park, so might as well combine forces to get this far. Arle, Ringo and I are all in sync!

"Nyahahahaha! Oh yeah, here we go!"

By Ringo's call, the Puyo began to rapidly chain away... Oh wow! Check out all this power! Once the last Puyo popped, Arle and I went in for the big call-out.

""B-B-B-BAYOE~N!""

"GUAAAGH!" "Owowowow!"

That's what they get for not paying attention! The spell was a big hit! And before they realized it, they've got a huge pile of garbage Puyo coming at them.

"We..." "We did it!" "Guguguuuu!"

The three of us jumped up, and gave each other a high five. That is the power of our friendship right there!

[dp-pastandpresent]

Past and Present: Chapter 34

Danny and Sam were sitting on Clockwork's couch, staring up at the Observant before them, waiting for answers.

"Will you PLEASE just tell us what is happening here?" Sam asked again, as the Observant paced in front of the large screen.

"My dear. What you ask is much harder to answer than you would believe. The story of Clockwork, it dates back eons and would take far too long to tell."

"We have a right to know!" Sam shouted. "We WERE the ones who defeated him, you know!"

The Observant huffed at this. "Only because it has been planned that way since the day Clockwork took his job."

Sam raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, still not willing to give up.

"You mean, EONS AGO, someone decided that Clockwork would control time and that WE would be the ones to end it eventually?"

She looked at Danny, trying to get him to speak up, but he was still a bit shocked to even be in this position.

'Danny, help me here…'

"Well, actually, just him," the Observant said as he pointed to Danny, who was taken aback by the sudden acknowledgement.

"Me? It's always been… me?"

'Something still doesn't add up. How could anyone know so far back that one boy would save them all?'

"Yes and no."

"Which is it?" Sam demanded.

Sensing that he was not going to win the argument with this girl, the ghost in front of them let out a sigh and answered with as little emotion as possible.

--

"When the Ghost Zone came into existence, shortly after the creation of Earth, we Observants formed a council. Many of us came into being with the vast knowledge of our whole existence. We knew we had to pass on this information, and so we created books upon books of knowledge, many that exist in this realm even today.

"As we were creating these books, the knowledge poured out, some of it coming to us as we wrote. The prophecies were some of these things.

"Yes, there is more than one, please do not ask me to elaborate. For the one that is of importance right now is the one that pertains young Daniel.

"It stated, 'One day there will come a being strong enough to wield the power of both realms. Upon the removal of the cursed Amulet of Aragon, this being will take its true place amongst both humans and ghosts, freeing the Ghost Zone of the dark power that lingers over it, and taking its place as the protector of both realms.'

"At the time of its creation, we did not behold the true meaning, or what that darkness would be, however, we always knew it would be a human who would in some way share powers with ghosts. At what point in time this would happen stayed obscured from us though.

"It wasn't until we stumbled upon a young ghost, one that showed real potential as our protector, that we began to put the pieces together."

--

"Clockwork…" Danny nearly whispered as the ghost before him paused.

"Yes…"

"You knew he would be the one to…"

"Create the savior? Precisely. But we were still unsure how. All we knew at the time was that this young ghost, wandering through the still very empty zone, unable to control the changes he found himself going through, was the one we needed to watch over the timelines and make sure things played out the way they were supposed to."

"Because that clearly worked," Sam snarked, still frustrated with the role she and Danny been made to play.

"PLEASE GIRL, let me finish!" The Observant was at the end of his wits with Sam, ready to just disappear back to his realm and leave the two of them to figure things out on their own.

"Sam… let him explain… please," Danny muttered, a hard look on his face.

"Fine… continue."

--

"So, we took him in. Told him it was his destiny to watch over both realms and help those who had passed move onto a world beyond the Ghost Zone. After all, this world was not created to house the dead forever.

"We gave him what he needed: this realm, the screens, the Graveyard, and of course his staff. We trained him to use his powers and to be what he became, passing on as much knowledge as we could and then, when the time was right, allowing him to freely do his job.

"For centuries, he worked without complaint. Helping those who needed it pass onto their next life, all the while watching over the timelines. But we knew it wouldn't last

"When we entrusted him with this realm, we had also included the library, which, at first, he did not know contained his true destiny. It wasn't until things began slowing down that he found the time to look through the books, and in so doing discover the prophecy.

"We knew the prophecy couldn't unfold until he discovered it, but what we didn't know was how obsessed he would become. Soon he lost all interest in helping those in need, instead allowing them to run amuck in the Zone. The screens he had once used to watch over the timelines became nothing more than a device for him to stare at aimlessly, always searching for the ONE.

"It was then that we realized, by creating this being who could control time and allow the prophecy to come true, that we had also created the darkness that same prophecy referred to."

--

It was Danny's turn to speak up now.

"And you didn't do anything?" He got up from his seat and floated closer to the ghost. "Clearly you have power over him! You couldn't have just ended it then and there?"

"It is more than that. This prophecy was created when our world was born. We couldn't risk not allowing it to play out. We had to keep going, knowing that one day he would discover the savior the prophecy spoke of, and in doing so, end his own reign."

"It just doesn't seem right, allowing someone to take control like that and not giving them any repercussions for their actions."

And now it was Sam's turn to be the voice of reason, for after hearing the full story, she had begun to do some rethinking.

"Danny. I get that you're mad. I was too. But all the graphic novels and legends I've read about in Skulk and Lurk say the same thing: you have to let these prophecies play out, otherwise there are dire consequences."

Danny looked back at Sam, trying to figure out why she was suddenly having a change of heart.

"Besides, if they hadn't done all this, you wouldn't be here and I wouldn't have met you and well…" She blushed.

Danny sighed.

"Ok, I get it. You had to let him reign. But now that reign is over. Does that mean the prophecy is fulfilled?" He looked back to the remaining Observant.

The Observant let out a low chuckle as he watched Danny fall back to his seat.

"Ha! Nary. You see, you may have been able to control your powers when Clockwork needed defeating, but you still have a long way to go, young man."

Danny raised an eyebrow at this.

Seeing the couple's frustration, the Observant turned to face the screens again, willing the largest to turn on before turning back to them with a sigh.

"If you must know, Daniel, there is more to this story than defeating Clockwork."

--

Danny flies through the air at top speed, chasing after something as he emits green rays from his hands. The subject in question, as it turns out, is the same ghost he had met in the Zone on his way to Clockwork. But this time he's shooting rays at Danny, trying everything to win this battle.

"Welp. You must know how much your pelt is worth! I will get you eventually!"

The screen changed.

Danny is again battling a ghost, this time standing on the ground and watching as the trees around him come to life, the genie ghost behind them growing larger by the second.

"Who the heck wished for evil plants!"

The screen changed.

Amity Park, overgrown with vines, weeds, and flowers, as Danny blasts root after root to defeat their source.

"STOP IT!"

The boy's voice brought them all back to reality as the observant paused the screen on a scene of Danny captured in a thorny vine.

"Had enough yet?" the Observant asked, his robotic voice showing a hint of amusement.

"What does any of this mean?" Danny asked, although he had a feeling he knew the answer.

"This, young man, is your destiny. Don't you see? Your future is more that eating ice cream on a doorstep with the girl. It's protecting your city, those you love. Learning to control your powers and using them for the greater good."

"I've already done that! Stopped fires, caught criminals, done things the police can't," Danny said in a frustrated voice as he got up from his seat. "And what good did it do me?"

"Yes, you did help the local law enforcement. And yes, they expected it and got lethargic BUT you know what else you did? You stopped ghosts. You used those powers that you were given to keep the harmful ones at bay. And now that the portal has been opened, and there is no one to help them move on, they will KEEP COMING."

"And someone has to stop them," Sam whispered.

" The girl is correct!"

Danny looked down at Sam.

"But Sam, you saw the powers I have, what I had to do to defeat HIM. What if I have to do that again and someone gets hurt?"

Before Sam could answer, the Observant spoke up again.

"Yes, someone could get hurt. But that is why you must trust your instincts. When you needed to defeat Clockwork, and your mouth shot out that…"

"Wail. The huge ghostly wail. I didn't even have to think, I just…"

"You just knew. And you will always know. Now that you've found a way to transform at will, your instincts can take control and you'll know what to do," Sam interjected. "And I will be here, to make sure that you don't harm anyone you aren't supposed to."

Danny looked lovingly at Sam, truly realizing how lucky he was to have found her. The way she was willing to stand up for him, throw herself in harm's way. That's what he loved. More than her sense of humor. More than her beauty. More than those deep purple eyes…

"Eyes…" he muttered, rising up again.

"Hmmm?" she questioned.

"You, Mr. Ummmm?"

"Just call me an Observant," the ghost said, a bit of amusement in his voice.

"Ok, Mr. Observant. Can you show me the human world in real time?" Danny asked, urgency in his voice.

"Danny? What's…?" Sam asked.

"I forgot about the Sarah! Tucker! The Fentons!"

Sam slapped her forehead.

"Crap!"

The Observant turned to the screen, allowing it to change again, this time showing the Fentons' living room. Both Danny and Sam let out gasps as they realized how urgently they needed to get back home.

--

The Fentons were standing, looking down at the ground and the figure below them.

Sarah was on the ground, scooter on the floor behind them.

Just from looking, the group could tell that Sarah wasn't breathing. It wasn't until Tucker ran in that they got confirmation on the situation.

"The ER are on their way, but they don't seem to think they can do anything if her heart has already stopped," Tucker said, nearly breathless.

"She was fine this morning, energetic even. I can't believe she'd just pass out dead like this!" Maddie tried to reason.

"Given everything else we've been through, I'm wondering if this is related," Tucker added.

"You mean she died because something else happened!?" Jack scratched his head in thought.

"Well, she is sort of linked to Danny and Sam. Maybe something happened in there…"

The screen went fuzzy, not allowing the group to see more.

"That's my Grandma! Turn it back on!" Sam demanded, jumping up and almost attacking the Observant.

"I can't dear. Those screens are not designed to show unsure futures."

"Well then, take us home! Let us find a way to save her."

Danny got up as he spoke, finally beginning to realize that his story was indeed not over.

"Easier said than done young man, I can't just open a portal and send you home. I'll have to let you navigate yourself back…"

The couple drooped their heads at this. MORE traveling? Why couldn't they just return to the human realm the easy way?

"All the power in the world and you can't just send us home?" Danny asked, almost pleading.

The head Observant blinked down at the two, who still had pleading looks in their eyes.

"Well…"

The two perked up.

"I cannot send you to another realm. That is a power that no ghost has. BUT I believe I can open a portal near the opening to your world. I have never tried sending a human through though…"

Danny turned to Sam.

"Potentially get lost for eons trying to find a way home, or take the risk and let him send us through his?"

"Gee, what great options," Sam said sarcastically. "When you put it that way, I've taken so many risks already, might as well take more."

They both turned back to the Observant, who turned around and lifted his arms, green light coming from within to create a swirling vortex.

"Make it quick, and Daniel, hold her hand to be safe."

'I wouldn't dream of doing otherwise.'

Danny grabbed Sam's hand and floated them to the front of the vortex. He quickly turned his head to the ghost.

"Thank you. For everything."

"Daniel, as I said, you are far from finished. I am sure we will meet again."

As if pushed by a gust of wind, the two figures felt themselves falling into the abyss of green light.

"After all, there are more prophecies."

--

A green burst of energy exploded through the air, sending the young woman flying back. Brushing off her skirt, she regained her composure only to see the energy gone and two figures standing where there'd been no one before. The female figure was bent over, almost out of breath, black hair in her face. The male was holding on tight, making sure she was ok. When he finally looked up, the young woman gasped.

"You! I have been waiting by this portal for a long time to talk to you."

Danny flinched, taken unawares by the woman's presence. But upon his own closer inspection he realized that he recognized this woman.

"The dragon…" he muttered quietly, but she still heard him.

"Not anymore, oh great one. For I have not witnessed that part of me since your removal of my amulet. And for that, I am here to thank you."

Sam turned to Danny, who in turn raised an eyebrow, trying to remember all he had done for the woman.

"Ummm, you're welcome?"

"No! Don't you see! You told me to free myself, to confess about our powers. And when I finally did, well…my brother was finally put in his place."

"His place?"

"The dungeons to be exact. He abused his powers. Lost all those he loved and even his reign. You are looking at the new Queen of Eragon." She puffed herself up a bit at this, proud of what she had become.

"So thank you, great one. Our kingdom is forever in your debt."

"Again… you're welcome," he replied, looking around, hoping to spot the portal home.

Sam could sense the awkwardness and decided she should try and help.

"Danny. You saved her realm. YOU. You did something GOOD. Don't you see, this is what he was talking about. This is why you exist."

"Oh yes! Our prophecy. About my amulet. Did it come true, great one?" The woman's eyes widened with curiosity.

Danny smiled a bit at this, beginning to like being called "great one."

"Yes, you could say that… But now, ma'am, I must be finding my way back to the human realm. Can you point me in that direction?"

"Oh, of course. Anything for you! It's right there!" She pointed off to the right, where another green swirl was floating in the zone.

"But be careful, I think I saw another ghost go through earlier…"

Danny looked to Sam, raising an eyebrow, hoping they wouldn't have to deal with another ghost battle that day.

"Danny, we'll be ready for 'em," Sam smiled as they grabbed hands again and turned toward to portal.

"But for now, let's save my grandma!"

The ghost queen seemed confused as the two conversed, but knew that it must be important, for the couple seemed to be in a hurry.

"Good luck oh great one!"

The couple took one last look at the girl before stepping into the portal home, smiles on their faces.

"I hope you make a good queen!"