#Danny Fenton is immortal and has nothing better to do

[blue-avis]

Dc X DP prompt/story idea

So Danny has teamed up with different Captain Marvels over the years (either via clockwork shenanigans, or the Dp universe is simply older then DC) and Billy has memorys of this badass Ghost coming to help his predecessors out of tight spots.

Billy brings him up offhandedly in a JL meeting and jokingly calls Danny his dad. (Oh that reminds me of when Phantom went all dad mode and stopped this powerful mage from killing me a few hundred years ago)

The JL finds some ancient pots or writings describing Phantom as a benevolent god. They connect the dots.

A demigod calling a being described as a god their father? Checks out.

The league really needs help with something or someone world ending (probably darkseid) and they are out of all options so they tell Marvel to call his dad. Even Bruce and Constantine are onboard because a being described as benevolent that is apparently one of the most powerful leaders dad is certainly the safest option then whatever else they have at the moment.

Billy internally freaks out and tells them he needs to go to the Rock of Eternity to call him because he lives in a another dimension/universe and it’s just safer contact him there. Billy books it to the rock sifting through memorys, spell books, and desperately asking Shazam for help because none of his predecessors ever contacted Danny he just showed up.

Billy eventually finds something to summon Danny and does so, not before getting some food as offering of course. Danny shows up either and a adult or a Elterich being because it’s just easier to have adults respect you when you look like that rather then a 14 year old.

When Danny sees Billy he’s instantly like ‘is that a 12 year old!?’ Because his powers as the ghost king and or being considered an ancient let’s him see through the magic that is Caption Marvels form. Billy tells Danny about the situation and Danny is concerned.

Depending on how the writer wants the fic to go Danny’s reaction would probably be either ‘I must help him at all costs because he’s like I was after the accident’ or ‘he’s way to young to be fighting such powerful beings, who do I give a piece of my mind to!’

It could easily be either Danny adopting Billy, or Danny and Billy becoming close friends that pretend to be father and son to mess with the JL and JLD

[unadulteratedsoulsweets]

A DC X DP IDEA #11 The Ice Prince

Imagine dis….

 The plot is always Clockwork reversing Danny’s age to a toddler’s or a child’s age to be found in the grimy alley of Gotham City, to fix a broken family, an overdue vacation, or is it because it was meant to be? But what if they found a child who is nothing more than a mere babe?

 …

 War has consequences whether you are on the right side or not, consequences will come up to you. Death, injury, sexual violence, hunger, disease, and disability are some of the most dangerous physical repercussions of war, while PTSD, despair, and anxiety are some of the emotional consequences.

 Danny experienced all, from the physical damages he had taken to protect his citizen to the emotional as well the phycological effects that will haunt his mind throughout his immortal life.

Jack and Maddie Scientists and the GIW had done it, waging war against the Infinite realms.

 Using ectoplasm, the very being that they have despised to use as weapons to aim and maim.

 Humans tend to hate and fear what they don’t understand.

 In this case, fear caused this war.

 Unlike in the history books whose wars started due to greedy politicians or even the thrill or greed to attain new land, this war was caused by fear.

 The fear of the unknown.

 At 16 years of age, Danny is crowned and alongside his trusted friends as well as his former enemy Vlad Masters all gathered their things and went back to the Infinite Realms to prepare for war.

 At 16 Danny witnessed the horrors as well witnessing the lines humans will cross to satisfy their greed.

 Each day that Danny is planning or even fighting alongside his friends, family, and even ex-rogues for their home and the universe’s and multiverse’s balance, he would feel the pain, sorrow, and sadness of each of his citizens who were captured or even used to be the battery to be used against their people.

 At 16 Danny watched his very own parents, Jack and Maddie, cut open their former best friend to better understand ghost biology all in the name of ecto- science.

 Danny saw the betrayal and grief as well Vlad’s vulnerable state on how Maddie, the kind and caring Maddie whom he fell in love with, do such cruel things to innocent blobs of ghosts, do such inhumane things to him. Cutting him open like a frog in a dissection table, using large hooks to keep the two skin that were cut to show his ribcage, apart to keep them from healing.

 At 16 Danny joined the war alongside Frostbite, Pandora, Dora, and many more. Even Dan and Dani had joined him on the front lines to fight their parents to fight their inventions, their creations, the agents...etc, as well as rescuing many, many ghosts who were captured before this war even started.

 The first one to fall was his beloved sister Jasmine No-Name, who captured and was taken to the basement at the household of the Fenton’s. Each scientist kept drawing blood and kept poking her with needles to “cure” their daughter from any form of ectoplasm possession or mind control. Despite being liminal she was still mortal, freeing the innocent ghosts that were cruelly captured and caged by their parents destroying the lab, taking the blueprints, the weapons, and even the portal at the cost of her own life.

 Brother and sister, together as friends, ready to face whatever life sends.

 Next, was Sam Manson, her mentor Undergrowth and her going to the annex side of the building to create a massive distraction for the rest of their allies to destroy this particular lab as the lab that they were about to destroy is a cornerstone of the ongoing battery flow between the agents thus making this mission top priority. Blood Blossoms were involved causing great pain to both ghosts, as the agents were getting closer, they heard the explosion in the direction of the targeted lab, they were successful, and now all that is left is to retreat. But the pain as well as their inability to move is impossible and even more impossible to fight off the remaining agents who were exclaiming and shouting about the destroyed lab. With what little strength Sam had left in her, she stood up and commanded the plants to rescue Undergrowth as without him nature and flora would have died alongside him. As she saw the silhouette of her mentor/ father she made her last stand as one of the few friends of Danny now her King.

 Last to fall is Tucker Foley, his best friend, leading an army made out of entirely Egyptian culture. Being the right hand of the High King as he led another attack towards their government not only did their government bury their heads in the sand, but instead of diplomacy they have chosen to continue this war. As they were fighting by each other side, Tucker noticed an agent creeping closer to his King/ friend whose head was turned and busy due to the number of agents that kept him busy and unguarded. Tucker Foley did what any friend would do in that situation; he took the bullet aimed fatally at his best friend. Danny seeing that his best friend had just turned limp released his ghostly wail that contains his anger, sadness, grief, and horror as he cradles the body of his best friend as he held his last breath in the arms of his King and friend.

 We’re more than friends but less than a couple

 The government was getting desperate as each day the “ghosts” kept pushing them into a corner as their numbers dwindle each second while the other side’s army kept growing each passing day.

 Didn’t you know, A cornered animal is almost as dangerous as a wounded one?

 A Nuke, they have created a nuke. A nuke that has the combination of Blood blossoms as good ectoplasm as fuel and weapon, that was aimed and trajected to the Infinite Realms.

 But, who spoiled their plans?

 Blobs of ghosts gathered at the hidden base of humans and set off the nuke at their base.

 Blobs that were rescued by Princess Jasmine of the Infinite Realms.

 They didn’t expect the aftermath of such a weapon.

 The shockwave didn’t just end their world’s dimension but it reached the Infinite Realms almost wiping them out, it wasn’t for their King, Danny, who took the brunt of the aftermath and shock to protect the Infinite Realms where his remaining family reside.

 As a result, his form and core almost crack at the mere pressure, and result, Clockwork as his last card to protect Danny from disappearing for eternity turned him into a baby whose age could be merely a month old.

 Now that horrid dimension was gone, permanently, it is now up to the ancients and ex-rouges as well the rest of his family to raise Danny to the best of their abilities as he, Danny Nightgale is the bridge as well the very representation between the two worlds.

 The yetis that have lived in Far Frozen went and found a perfect dimension that has ectoplasm for their young King’s ghost half and human needs for his human half.

 Building a small castle made out of ice in the deepest part of the Arctic region, complete with rooms as well as things that will keep their young King’s attention in case he ever be bored.

 …

 Between the time they thought of settling down in the new dimension, in the DC universe, it had been thousands of years since the ascension of the High King Phantom. For those who have participated in the war it has been only a few months while in DC it has been thousands of years, to the point each magician in the JLD and Shazam knew about King Phantom, his benevolence and mercy shows no bounds. King Phantom who was a ward of the Master of Time and defeated the Pariah Dark to end his tyranny.

 …

 Alarms blared throughout the base of the JL and everyone was at the edge of their seats seeing that the alarm originated from the Fortress of Solitude, the base of Superman containing all the knowledge from his planet Krypton.

…

 Superman alongside Batman flew to the Artic to find out who trespassed, Superman fears the knowledge of Krypton falling into the wrong hands.

 As they were searching around the Fortress of Solitude, they came across a castle made entirely out of ice, Superman tried to look through it but received a headache the moment he tried to use it.

 With no choice left, both Batman and Superman went inside the castle to investigate.

 Passing through a large double door greeted them a large spiral-shaped staircase with the finest designs out of ice. Decorations and sculptures that decorate each nook and cranny of the castle are made out of ice that has the finest details to be mistaken as the real things. The largest chandelier hangs above them that seems to sparkle each passing second due to the little sun that bounces off each glass/ice. That creates the illusion of twinkling stars.

 Hearing footsteps from afar made both Batman and Superman hide in the closet that contains the cleaning supplies, looking through the smallest of cracks, they saw ice-shaped people that have sculpted hair and eyes but no mouth or nose wearing maid and butler outfits carrying books, toys and large folded sheets of clothes.

 All going in the opposite direction of which they have hidden.

 After making sure that those footsteps were no longer heard both Batman and Superman got out of their hiding place and went further deep the castle to investigate further.

 As they are walking along the endless hallways, they suddenly heard a small humming of a tune coming from another large double door with designs of space and stars embedded on the door.

 Peeking through a cracked door there they saw two green-skinned humanoid creatures with dragon-like features looking down, cooing, and humming to something. Due to their large size, they couldn’t see what they were looking for but after a few minutes, one of the human-dragon people turned off the lights and revealed their large wings, gave a few flaps and flew out alongside their companion using the large windows made from the most beautiful stained glass as an exit.

 Making the coast clear Batman was the first to go inside the room while Superman looked for the switch to turn on the lights. Through his cowl, Batman tried to guess the room that their two unexpected guests could have.

 The moment Batman’s eyes adjusted due to the sudden light invading his sight they immediately flabbergasted at the room could be.

 A playroom, complete with safety mats and toys that are either made from ice or silk.

 Looking around there they saw at the very center, a crib made out of glaciers with a space-themed mobile that seemed to spin around above the crib while releasing, looking closer there they saw a few months old human children, if the physical appearance of the child could go by.

 Black hair with the faintest of freckles across his face accompanied by his light skin that can be mistaken as dead.

 Warped in the finest silks as blankets while wearing some sort of Greek clothing as a means to cover the child.

 Fearing that the child was dead Batman turned to Superman to silently ask whether the child has a heartbeat or not.

 Superman stated that the child has a heartbeat a bit slow for his life but a heartbeat none less.

 Superman picks up the child with the resolve to return to the JL base to give the child a full check-up as well as to return him to his rightful parents.

 Batman countered that the humanoid-dragon-like people could be his parents but before Superman could even counter his claim flaps of wings were heard from a distance.

 In a panic, both Superman and Batman fled the room unknowingly carrying the infant.

 …

 At the JL base, Batman is scolding Superman for taking what could be a human-like dragon people’s child. Superman may have countered that the child he was carrying has no features from either of the possible parent and could be a kidnapped infant from the earth so that those humanoid dragons could play house.

 The Green Lanterns try to look for any planet that could be the origin of those dragon people, while the rest of the League are split in siding with Superman or Batman.

 With each passing second the volume of their argument kept getting higher and higher thus waking the infant still on Superman’s arm.

 Blue eyes like the sky and ice greeted them as the infant yawned as of saying that they have disturbed his nap time.

 Flash who was vibrating on his skin to coo at the child immediately ran up to Superman to take the infant.

 But the moment Danny saw the faintest amount of electricity that was being emitted from the Flash immediately started to wail.

 Loud but not loud enough to level the JL base, every JL member present with enhanced hearing covered their ears instinctively due to the noise the unbearable noise.

 Batman immediately snatched the child from Superman’s arm and began calming the child.

 After calming down the infant till he is only whimpering a very pale Constantine, Dr. Fate and Zattana burst into the meeting room scanning each nook and cranny till their eyes landed on the child that was still whimpering in Batman’s arms.

 Constantine demanded why on earth they have a child from the Infinite Realms and began to panic.

 As Constantine was out of commission for panicking Dr, Fate explained what the Infinite Realms is.

 As they were about to get back the child to where the ice castle was located another alarm blared at the JL base.

 Cyborg who was immediately typing across the computer for further explanation as see whether they have another world-ending threat made them double take.

 A blue-skinned man whose hair is unbound by gravity and floats upwards as if it was flames accompanied by two more people.

 One who looks like a vampire removing the avoidance of the sun as well adding a blue tone to his skin. Another looks like a female version of the first one aside from the green eyes and dark skin tone.

Zattana stuttering asked herself in a whispering voice why on earth King Phantom is destroying government facilities alongside the Count Masters as well the Princess of the Infinite Realms in the human world.

 Each time they demolish a facility down to the dust and rubbles they began scanning the area for what?

 A clapping and sound removed them from the carnage shown on the screen and saw the infant still in Batman’s arms reaching toward the people on the screen.

 Constantine mumbled something and began looking at the screen and the infant, and started widening his eyes as if he had just connected the dots.

 A union between a human and a ghost are unheard of but the fact that no new life/ afterlife was introduced since Pariah Dark made every life/ ghost in the Realms are now precious.

 But the resemblance between King Phantom and the infant in Batman’s arms is uncanny and so Constantine reached a possible conclusion alongside Dr. Fate.

 Superman just kidnapped the child of King Phantom.

…

PS: If someone out there wanting to continue or make a fic about this you are free to do so don’t forget to tag me though.

[vipower001]

DP & DC prompt 1:

Imagine danny meeting Martha and Thomas Wayne at one of Vlads Galla type things. Danny just gets dragged along to any Galla his parents are invited bc “You have to visit your uncle Vladie Danno”. So here he is, hanging out by the fruit bowl when this guy comes along and strikes up a conversation with him, and guess who it is…Alfred. So Danny gets talking to this guy bc it’s better than eating his weight at the snack table.

So their talking and then along comes a young Bruce Wayne after he to got bored of all the business talk (Bruce is like 3 years younger than he was when his parents got killed) and so he sees that Alfred has struck up a conversation with another fellow child (even if said child is older than him). So Bruce gets talking with them as well until the Galla is over. They say their goodbyes and think that this is the last time they see each other…surprise surprise it’s not!!!

Vlad actually hosts many parties every year so these three end up meeting a lot. Danny is introduced to the other Wayne’s and the Wayne’s are introduced to the Fentons. Danny actually becomes a close friend to Bruce and starts to see Alfred as a type of godfather/uncle. And Bruce’s and Danny’s parents become friends and have exchanged numbers.

After The Wayne’s are killed Danny doesn’t see Alfred and Bruce anymore. It’s when Bruce, now Batman, has a problem, a ghostly problem, at the manor that he remembers the Fentons. He thinks that Danny has probably forgotten about him and won’t remember him since it’s been so long, but when he calls the Fenton residence Danny picks up.

They then have this whole conversation about asking eachother how have they been and all that, eventually Bruce brings them back on track and asks what can be done about the ghosts and Danny goes “oh I can fix that for you, it’s a low level ghost so it won’t take long” and then says he’ll be there in a few days and then proceeds to hang up. Bruce is just standing there like ‘ok, guess we’ll be have our ghost problem fixed and an old family friend over’.

He tells Alfred and he is just happy that they will be reunited with someone from before Bruce becoming Batman and hopes the Danny can bring a more normal feel to the manor for as long as he is staying. He’s exited to introduce Danny to the bat kids bc he feels like he can hopefully become a part of the family as like an uncle of sorts that isn’t in the crime fighting profession (wishful thinking there Alfred).

When Danny arrives Bruce and Alfred were expecting someone in their like mid 30’s (I couldn’t find an exact age for Bruce when his parents are killed, just know he was between the ages 8-12) but when the open the door their is a guy who hardly looks like he is in his early 20’s. Danny’s half’s status didn’t make him immortal but it did slow his aging down. They eventually brush this off as him just having a baby face and thus making him look young. So Danny goes and says hello and all that and after a bit of reconnecting is alerted of the ghost with his ghost sense. He says he’ll go catch the ghost now and leaves. Not even 20 minutes later he is back and says he got all the ghosts. Alfred and Bruce are impressed but think nothing off it bc he was raised by ghost hunters.

Alfred then asks him to stay for dinner as he is about to leave and Danny accepts. He meets the bat kids and when Jason walks in he gets a sense that he is familiar. Danny doesn’t really act on it in the moment but he tells himself that he will get this kid (bc Danny called anyone younger than him kid) a nice cleansing bath to get rid of the rotten ectoplasm in him and replace it with clean and healthy ectoplasm.

That’s really it. Danny being a friend of the family and becoming the official “ non-hero related uncle”. Jason knows about his half’s status but doesn’t tell the rest of them. You can do whatever you want after the dinner. But yeah…that’s it.

[decaying-enigma]

DP Crossover Prompt

DP x Harry Potter

Please bare with me as I begin:

We, as a collective, have established that it was Lily’s sacrifice, via when Voldemort killed her, that protected Harry and rebounded the Killing Curse back at Tom Riddle that night.

Yet, if I may take this a step even further. Some may ask, where did Lily possibly learn how to do this? Realistically, there’s no way that this magic was just something Lily invented, no matter how talented she was.

I am a little lazy, so it easier just to say she either found a book or scroll in the Potter library/vault or was somehow ‘mysteriously’ *Clockwork* led to find the ritual.

A very specific ritual that called upon the MONARCH OF THE INFINITE REALM to protect someone and place them under their rule.

This ritual was originally used by Parish Dark as an easy method to damning souls to eternal servitude as mindless drones in his army.

Lily didn’t see the eternal servitude part, as it was in the fine print, and honestly, who actually reads the fine print anyway. She did the ritual, but ‘accidentally’ mistranslated some words.

Who knew protection and adoption looked so similar in Ghost?

Anywho, by invoking the power of the Monarch of The Infinite Realm, Lily thought she put Harry under the Monarch’s rule and protection.

Which, if she translated it correctly, it would have. But since she didn’t….something else happened instead. Something incredibly unexpected.

For example, making a deal with the Monarch of The Infinite Realm to adopt her son.

Thus, enters a very confused and very tired Danny Fenton simply trying to get his college degree when, completely out of the blue, he can immediately recognize that he somehow just adopted an infant.

A actual human infant.

It’s a wizard and has magic, but still human for the most part.

*Cue Danny realizing this as a soul appeared in front of him*

Danny: “Fiddlesticks!”

*Immediately calls Jazz, the only Fenton with properly functioning brain cells*

Jazz: “What’s up?”

Danny: “I got another kid.”

Jazz: *Not even phased anymore* “What is it this time? Clone? Alternate timeline? Emotionally imprinted?

Danny: “A witch did a blood ritual invoking my status as Ruler of The Ghost Zone to save her kid’s life in exchange for eternal servitude. Now I kinda own her soul, and I sorta technically adopted her son.”

Jazz: 😐

Jazz: “…Huh. That is a new one. So when can I meet my new nephew?”

—————————

*Danny sending Harry off to Hogwarts*

Danny: “Okay, repeat everything I’ve said back to me.”

Harry: “If I ever see something dangerous, I shot it immediately then asks questions after.”

Danny: *nodding* “Good. What else?”

Harry: “If a evil person tries to make me their evil apprentice, I shoot them twice to be safe.”

Danny: “Better. And what if you discover someone is plotting to destroy the school or to use a powerful artifact to gain power and become immortal?”

Harry: “…I get the bazooka?”

Danny: *tears in his eye* “Your grandparents would be so proud of you.”

——————————

Requirements/Ideas:

-Harry will not, under any circumstance, stay with the Dursley’s (Not if Danny has anything to say about it)

-Lily will become a ghost/or shade that will help raise Harry. It takes a few year for her to fully form after dying and regain all of her memories.

-James Potter can either be fully dead or also become a ghost since his soul was technically involved with the bargain Lily made.

-Harry will be mostly raised by Danny, other ghosts, and the Fenton’s(debatable if you want Danny to have a good relationship with his parents) (#Dissection)

-Harry is not a Horcrux. None of that bullshit.

-Good amount of Dumbledore bashing, but not too much. Snape, on the other hand, will be crucified and nothing will change my mind.

-100000% see Danny as the Ultimate helicopter parent, but also be, like, super involved. I’m talking forming a Hogwarts PTA, randomly showing up to Harry’s Quidditch games and no one being able to stop him, and will for sure threaten anything remotely registering as a threat to Harry.

-Danny will become friends with Hagrid, and visit Hogwarts so Cujo and Fluffy can have play dates.

-Dani will be the Wine Aunt/older sister that randomly shows up sometimes. Clockwork is the fun grandpa that always gives out random fortune cookie advice. Dan is the weird uncle that likes to encourage mildly illegal activity whenever possible. And Vlad is just there.

-Daniel James Fenton/Phantom will not be nerfed in any way. My boy is the ruler of an ENTIRE DIMENSION. Ain’t no way some pasty dudes with sticks are gonna beat him or be even remotely close to his level.

You can fight me on this.

Like, Follow, and Share any suggestions!! Thx

[quirkless-accident]

Prompt: Someone in the school (a student, you choose) finds evidence that Phantom has been seen throughout history.

Izuku Midoriya was kind of known for being the most observant kid in the class. With his love of heroes and quirks, and his general anxiety he was hyper observant almost all the time.

This extended into his hobbies, of course. Quirk analysis, fighting, training, and absolutely dominating Iida at Monopoly.

And also his internet searches.

He couldn't really believe what he was seeing. Even without squinting too hard, the person on his screen was none other than his classmate. They even had the same logo on their chest. But it didn't make any sense. This was history paper-turned rabbit hole research about ancient Rome.

There were hundreds of drawings and paintings and carvings and etchings of Danny-or at least, of his doppelganger. Most of them were negative, and in an hour Izuku had his reason why.

Apparently, under the incredibly short reign of Emperor Plasmius, Doppelganger came and fought him, destroying the colosseum in the process.

Izuku clicks on a link and opens it in another tab. It's another sighting of Doppelganger (at least, Izuku is really hoping it's not actually Danny. He's not sure how he would cope if time travel was another power his friend casually had). This time it's drawings and journal entries written in English, but with Mic's classes and the fact that he had nothing better to do as a child, he doesn't struggle one bit when it comes to translating them. Though it is a bit trickier with the Old English that's being used.

But they're all accounts from Salem. Izuku recognizes the name. There had been a vigilante named Salem running around when he was around nine or ten, and he had wanted to get as much information on them as he could. And, well, there wasn't much. But Izuku had gone down a rabbit hole about Salem, Massachusetts.

Of course his little nine year old brain hadn't thought twice about the drawings of Danny. Back then he had thought they were a part of some kind of hallucination or tall tale. This was before the dawn of quirks, after all. But looking at them now, it's painfully obvious that he had just been kidding himself.

And these...These were all so incredibly detailed. Pages upon pages of information. Of blood blossoms and a boy with an iron stomach. Of a dark haired witch that had aligned herself with the dead.

There were recipes for food and sludges and other odd things by one John Fenton Nightingale, meant to protect from possession and ghosts in general. But...That was odd. Wasn't Danny's last name Fenton? Izuku wondered if there was any kind of connection. This was all too much to be a coincidence.

Theories upon theories were running through Izuku's head. It could be a time travel quirk, either possessed by Danny or someone else. Or maybe he was exactly like the passages said, just an undead god looking for something to do. And if that was true then what in the world was he doing here in U.A. of all places? If he was some kind of immortal god then why in the world would he want to spend time with a bunch of rowdy teenagers and grumpy teachers all the time? Why would he subject himself to a world so cruel?

Maybe it was the same reason Izuku did. Maybe it was so he could help people, and be a hero. Or maybe it was just easier to do everything within the confines of the law, as to not be caught.

But maybe this theory was wrong, too. After all, Danny had parents. Bright, happy, loving parents who were both alive. Certainly not gods themselves, not like Danny possibly was.

Izuku wasn't religious by any means, but if he was going to believe in any god, it would be someone like Danny. Strong and all powerful, even if he himself didn't realize it yet.

He pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes, grimacing at the sting from staring at a screen for so long. This was...A lot. And there was a massive chance he was wrong, but the chance that this was all some weird coincidence was slim to none. His gut was telling him that.

Still, he couldn't be quiet about this.

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

Izuku fidgeted as he pulled on Danny's sleeve to get him to stay behind with him. Danny gave him a quizzical look before shrugging and following Izuku over to Mr. Aizawa's desk. That was one thing Izuku really appreciated about his friend. He was laid back. The go-with-the-flow type that eased his anxieties just enough to get him to get the words from his mouth.

"Can I help you?" Mr. Aizawa asked tiredly. He looked them over, unimpressed but willing to hear what they had to say. Danny, as if to cue him, looked over to Izuku, who fumbled with the research he found last night.

"I'm just-just-I have a few questions," Izuku said. "About Danny. I think you have a time travelling doppelganger." That, oddly enough, was not the theory he believed in the most, but it was the safest route to take. Plus it would be his excuse to have them both in the conversation. Aizawa's eyebrows shot up to his hairline as he glanced between the two boys. One of whom looked incredibly confused.

"What do you mean a time traveling doppelganger?" Danny asked. There was a defensive wedge to his voice, but Izuku was too high strung in the moment to try and properly decipher it as he pulled out the binders he made for them last night and handed them over.

Aizawa's expression was carefully neutral, but he could see a twitch of confusion in his brows. Danny, though, seemed to come to a realization as he flipped through the pages and articles, even going so far as to snort at the section Izuku found on John Fenton Nightingale.

"Is this...?" Aizawa asked, briefly glancing at Danny.

"Yeah," Danny replied. "From before U.A."

Izuku had no idea what the fuck any of that meant, but it seems that whatever little secret Danny has, Aizawa knows about. And if Aizawa knows about it, then maybe everything is okay, right?

There's a long, tired sigh from their teacher as he closes the binder and looks at Izuku. "You're not going to drop this, are you?"

"Probably-probably not, sir," Izuku shrugged. It was new knowledge, new answers. If he could get his hands on them, he was going to hold on to them as tight as he could.

"Might want to take a seat, then," Danny said with a sigh, seemingly coming to the same conclusion as Aizawa. "It's a long story."

[redrobin-detective]

because I could not stop for death

because I could not stop for death / he kindly stopped for me / the carriage held but just ourselves / and immortality ~ Emily Dickinson

Danny Fenton was dying, properly this time.

Somehow, in the back of his head and in his worst nightmares, he knew it would end this way: bleeding on the floor of his parents’ lab where it had all began. He was so hot he felt like his skin was on fire, blood and ectoplasm were dripping all over him and his lungs and heart were working overtime to try in vain to keep him alive a moment longer. He’d imagined at the time that there would be more screaming but death, in the end, was turning out to be a quiet little affair. A lonely table set for one.

“Danny, Danny come on, you-you gotta slow down your breathing, just relax, for me, please,” Sam moaned, more than making up for his lack of noise. She was shaking and touching him all over, his chest, his face, his hair. Normally she jumped right into action but she had to know, deep down, that there was nothing she could do. All that was left was to watch her panic and cry, it wasn’t his favorite image. 

“Vlad!” He heard Tucker scream cry into the phone, “please it’s Tucker, Danny’s dying I think. The Fentons had some new invention, something about his core, please we don’t know what to do!” 

Ugh Vlad, he was probably going to be so happy Danny was on his way out. He wasn’t looking much forward to his last images being his archenemy gloating. Tucker hung up and reached down to grasp Danny’s hand so hard it hurt. “Don’t worry dude, Vlad’s coming. He knows so much about you half ghosts that you’ll be fixed up on no time.” Right, Danny was already dead. If calling Vlad, feeling like he did something, helped Tucker move on then he’d deal with it.

Danny tilted his head to the side where Sam’s fingernails were carding through his hair. It was getting harder to see with the blood pouring out of his eyes but he looked at her, and tried to memorize her face. He’d never been able to tell her how much he loved her, that any day spent with her was a blessing. Tucker too, his best bro and a part of his soul. His best friends in the whole wide world, through thick and thin. God, he was going to miss them.

“Glurk,” he said, trying to convey those feeling but the fluids in his mouth and airway made it impossible. “Blerh.”

“Shh shh shh,” Sam soothed, “it’s okay, don’t try to talk.”

“Daniel!” He heard Vlad’s voice shriek as he materialized in front of the portal. Sam and Tucker were violently pushed out the way. Danny wanted to be angry at his loved ones being taken away in his final moments but anger was for the living, he barely had the energy to breathe. This death was too long and too short all at once. He made eye contact with Vlad who all at once lost the frantic edge to his tone and and instead knelt on the floor. “Oh my dear boy. What did they do to you?”

“What is going on?” Sam demanded, shoving her way back in. Danny was glad, he could see again like this. “Why aren’t you doing something!”

“There’s nothing to be done,” Vlad said in a flat, monotone, he picked up one of Danny’s hands and patted it gently. “His core is dying, it’s like a ghost’s heart. It contains their very essence, it is from which everything they are comes from. If Jack and Maddie somehow disrupted it then there’s nothing anyone can do to save him.”

“But he’s human too,” Tucker defended, grabbing Danny’s other hand. His human warm skin burned but the contact felt so good, he twitched his fingers closer to his friend’s. “He-he doesn’t need a core, he’s already got a heart. So, so he doesn’t have powers, we can do normal again.”

“You-” Vlad hissed before taking a calming breath. “The accident that made Daniel like this irreparably altered him. His core was as much a part of keeping him alive as his other organs, without it, his body is shutting down.” Vlad turned down to look Danny in the eye and saw true, genuine grief in those hateful red eyes. 

“I cannot imagine the agony you are going through, I’m so sorry. I’d say it will be over soon but,” a hitch that sounded almost like a sob if it was coming from anyone other than Vlad. “But you’ve hovered on the edge of death for years, son, and you’ve always been such a fighter. You have minutes at most but those minutes are an eternity when you’re suffering.”

Sam and Tucker’s sobbing blended together in the background, Vlad was saying something with a miserable, stunned expression. The swirling of the portal in the background seemed louder than anything, louder than his heart beat pounding and pounding as it ran it’s last race. 

“Daniel, Danny,” he focused his eyes back on Vlad who had a stubborn, unhappy set to his brow. “Do you want me to make the pain stop? An ectoblast to your chest will end your life instantly.”

“Don’t you dare touch him,” Sam shrieked, coming back into view and looking like she was trying to fight Vlad off. “You do anything to him and I’ll kill you!” Tucker just sat and stared at him, like he too was trying memorize Danny’s face.

“It’s a mercy, Samantha or do you want his last moments on earth to be drowning on the blood in his lungs.”

“Sam, he has a point. I don’t- I don’t think we can fix this.”

“No! No we always fix things, I’ll do it myself if I have to!”

Danny’s vision was starting to go, more black than anything else. He closed his eyes and readied himself for the inevitable. 

“Time Out,” Danny opened his eyes and found he was no longer in pain. He was standing up and apart from where he’d previously been lying. Sam had her hands in Vlad’s face and the older hybrid was snarling something at her. Tucker was midmotion trying to stand up, presumably to get Sam but the three of them were frozen in the moment. Danny turned and found Clockwork floating, looking very out of place in his parents lab. “Good evening, Danny.”

“You that short on cash that you work part time as a grim reaper?” Danny quipped out of habit. He looked down at his body and grimaced a bit, that wasn’t a pretty sight. No doubt traumatizing for Tucker and Sam. God how were they going to explain this to his parents? “Gonna ferry me across the River Styx? I don’t have two pennies but I think I have a bloodied $10 on me.”

“You’re core is dying and you have 17 seconds left in this world before all your organs give out and finish the process you began when you turned on your parent’s ghost portal,” Clockwork explained as he changed into child form. 

“O-okay,” Danny said shakily, trying to be brave even when he was so, so scared. He was going out whether he wanted it or not but he refused to leave crying. “Nice of you to come say goodbye then but, uh but unless you have something to say then you should let me go back. No one knows better than me that you can’t outrun death. Thanks but I’m uh I’m ready.”

Clockwork stared at him for a bit, not sure how long, time was weird like this but he changed forms a few times. “You’re quite the remarkable young man, Danny Fenton.”

“Uh thanks,” Danny added, once more looking at his body which had, according to Clockwork, a 17 second expiration date. “What’s going to happen? Am I going to become a ghost? Does heaven or hell exist for someone like me?”

“I don’t get to decide what happens, I merely see options,” Clockwork stated easily, taking his time. “If you die naturally you’ll become ghost, a mere shadow of who you are now and one who would fade fairly quickly. You don’t have strong enough anger or regrets to tie you in the real world for long.” Not great but okay he supposed, hell for his friends and family though. “You could let Plasmius deliver his mercy kill, destroying what’s left of your ghost core and ensuring you do not come back.” Better, probably won’t help the Fruitloop’s instability but he can’t save everyone.

“That one comes with it’s own caveat but I’ll get to that in a moment,” Clockwork explained. “There is a third option where you get up off the floor and walk away.” Danny blinked then looked back at his body which certainly wasn’t walking anywhere but into a plush casket. Clockwork opened his hands and the Ghost King’s Crown materialized in his hands. “If you accept your claim to the King’s Cown, it will revitalize your core and your life would be saved.”

Danny blinked.

“By sealing Pariah Dark, you won by proxy and established a legitimate claim to the throne. The Zone has been without a king for millennia, most have forgotten the old rules. Those who remembered were not too keen on a half-ghost child assuming leadership and kept you in the dark. If Plasmius ends your life then your claim transfers over to him, which he is aware of. It had been his plan all along to trick you into defeating Pariah so he could steal the Crown from you at a later date, a much easier opponent.”

Danny’s mind was overloaded with information, he didn’t know what to focus on first. He stared at his 17 seconds from death face and tried to process it all. Crown? Claim? Vlad?

“Of course,” Clockwork tutted, “he didn’t plan on your dying and in such a gruesome fashion. If he kills you and takes your claim, he would spend his remaining years ruling the Ghost Zone in a just, controlled fashion for your memory. He destroys all the stable portals and keeps the ghost and human worlds separate.” Clockwork became and old man and titled his head, “it’s not a bad timeline, all things considered.”

“And if I take it?” Danny asked quietly.

“You’re compassionate, brave and motivated, you have all the makings of a revolutionary king,” Clockwork smiled. “The Zone would experience and unprecedented era of peace, there would be positive interactions between human and ghosts for the first time since life and death split into two. Your name would spoken with reverence for the rest of time.”

“But I don’t want to be king,” Danny frowned.

“I know, I’m sorry,” Clockwork stated. “Which is why I am giving you the choice. If you pass peacefully there will be no one to claim the Crown and life will continue on, ghost attacks and all. If Plasmius kills you, he becomes an effective but unmemorable king. If you take the Crown, you can get the chance to tell Sam and Tucker how much you love them.”

Danny rubbed at his face, he didn’t want to die but he’d be sealing away his entire future with a move like this. He didn’t even know if the Crown would let him go with death, maybe he’d die and be stuck as the Ghost King until his core finally gave out lord in who knows how long. Eternity was an awful long time to carry such a responsibility. He couldn’t bring himself to ask, too afraid of the answer.

“Is there ever a timeline I became an astronaut?” He asked instead. Clockwork hummed, seemingly unsurprised by Danny’s non-sequitur. 

“Yes, in one of the few universes where you never walked into the portal. You never go into space what with human politics putting a halt on the programs but you work for NASA. You leave Amity Park at 17 and don’t come back save for your parents’ dual funeral.” He paused and Danny felt read down to his very bones, “from the moment you became half ghost you were always heading for this moment. The circumstances varied but it always came down to you and the Crown. Time is straining to continue, to see how this drama plays out. Will you accept it and all the joy and grief that comes with it?”

Danny looked over at Vlad, still mid-sneer but there was a scared desperation in his face. He and Vlad sniped at each other all the time but Danny didn’t really hate him and he didn’t think Vlad did either. Leaving him alone, plus making him be king was a heavy burden to put on his enemy. 

Sam and Tuck probably wouldn’t recover from this, he’d put them through so much already but he just knew that they’d never be the same. Could he do that to them? Take the easy way out and leave them to suffer? Mom and Dad didn’t deserve to come home to a dead son, the truth would come out and they’d never forgive themselves. Jazz certainly wouldn’t, she was 2 states over at University but he could already hear her angry, grief-stricken screams. 

Death, death was quiet. It was quiet and merciful and sad, but it was also easy. And Danny Fenton had never once taken the easy route. He reached out and took and the crown before shakily placing it on his head. He gasped, throwing his head back as his core swelled, taking up residence once more right next to his heart. Clockwork smiled, looking like the cat who ate the canary. 

“The Crown of Fire, pardon me the Crown changes with each core, the Crown of Ice is now yours as is the Zone. Your reign begins now but so too does the rest of your life. People are waiting for you. Time in.” Danny slammed back into awareness on the floor of his parents’ lab, the floor he’d almost died on twice. 

He sat up as cold radiated off his body, causing frost to crawl down his arms and along the floor. Sam, Tucker and Vlad, who’d been frozen up until now, jumped back to life. There was a new, familiar weight on his head that he didn’t dare acknowledge. 

He squeezed his eyes shut and said a silent goodbye to a quiet, normal life. It wouldn’t be all bad, he could be happy like this but the Crown still felt like a iron manacle around his neck. But he got used to the ghost powers, he could get used to this too. Maybe one day he won’t look at the stars and say ‘what if?’

“Danny!” Sam shouted, throwing herself into his arms soon followed by Tucker. Their warm weight, their relieved sobs, their shaky breaths in his air, now this was something worth living for. He squeezed them tightly.

“But how dude, you were at death’s door!” Tucker asked, still not letting go.

“You accepted the Crown,” Vlad said evenly, “I wasn’t aware you even knew about your claim. Who told you?”

“You don’t know everything, Vlad,” Danny sighed, sitting himself upright. Ugh his shirt was covered in blood and ectoplasm. He needed to trash these clothes before his parents freaked. And find a way to hide the floating ice crown on his head. 

“Even an old man can be surprised every now and again,” Vlad said wearily. He stood up to his full height before startling Danny by dipping down to one knee. “Then allow me to be the first to welcome my new king and wish him well.”

“I thought you wanted this,” Danny questioned.

“I do, I did,” Vlad said, unusually off balance. “To be quite honest, I’m not sure how to feel about it but, right now, I’m just immeasurably happy you’re alive, little badger. Now I best be off, enjoy your kingdom, my liege, I’ll be sure to come bother you some time soon.” Vlad disappeared in a swirl of pink leaving just him, Sam and Tucker still clinging to him.

Danny may have a kingdom, a job he didn’t want and his whole life decided in a spur of the moment choice, but he also had something very important. He squeezed his friends tightly.

“I love you guys, thank you for being my friends even though I have the worst ideas for activities. Dying? On a Sunday night? How lame is that?” Sam laughed, a bit hysterical but it was real and it made Danny feel weightless. 

“Don’t do that again, buddy,” Tucker breathed into his shoulder. “So you gonna explain what just happened and why you’re apparently the Ghost King or something?”

“Yeah, yeah I will but let’s get changed first. Mom and Dad will be home soon and I think I’m going to need to have a conversation with them about my new job.” 

[phantomphangphucker]

We’ll Be Ok, And I Swear, Only One Of Us Is Lying - Phic Phight

Prompt Creator: @burning-clutch Prompt: Hero's hero. Phantom always saves the day while Fenton is seen as the wuss and a failure. When the pressure gets to much someone unexpected helps cheer him up. Summary: Sometimes Danny needs help to see the shades of gray between all the black and white.

Warning: depression, angst, hurt, hurt/comfort, suicidal, gore, injuries, blood, violence, self-sacrificing, regret, there's a voice in his head and he's listening, immortality is a curse, the kids are not ok.

(season 3 doesn’t apply)

He skilfully slides his sweater sleeve over his bandaged hand, as his two friends join him by his locker.

“Been pretty quiet ghost wise, huh?”, Sam nods at Tucker before turning to him, “yeah, you haven’t even called us once this week for even the Box Ghost. It’s almost worrying actually”.

“Well, hopefully, it’s just that they’ve mostly gotten the whole, don’t fuck with Amity or Phantom, message. It’s been two years after all, makes sense they’d slow down”, he gives his friends a loose smirk, ignoring the little voice in his head.

That’s a lie, it’s worse than ever.

He knows his sister would worry if she knew just how good he’d gotten at hiding a limp, as he heads to class with his friends. He’s been easing into this slowly, his decision to ease his friends out. Out of ghost fighting, out of danger, and out of all the worrying. It’s no life for normal teens, and the only thing not basically normal about his friends was them playing sidekick to a superhero half ghost. Without that, they’ll get to be normal. Get to have lives and futures outside of his duties. And they should get to have that, so he’ll give it to them; even if they never realise he’s doing it.

So he’s been slowly calling them up for fights, research or a fix-up; less and less. Only ever bringing them to the easier fights, filled with plenty of puns and witty banter. And never ever telling them about any of the newer ghosts, the ones that seem to feed off death and destruction, that only want to see him hurt. Now he’s hiding most injuries entirely, unless he can blame it on his own clumsiness. Even if he isn’t actually clumsy anymore, he’s sure his friends don’t know that though. There have been over twenty ghost attacks in the last four days and they only know of two. One that was televised and another he told them, because he’s not a fool. Knowing full well there’s no way they’d believe that there had been zero ghosts. Also knowing that if he only told them about the televised fights, they’d clue in that something was up.

“So dude, want to enjoy the, most likely short-lived, break for a movie marathon?”, he would absolutely love to; Zone knows he could use the break. But he knows full well this marathon will run well past ghost hour, when the nasty ones come out. He can’t afford to not be patrolling for them or having to allow his friends to tag along to the fight. The nasty ghosts actually aim to kill, they don’t want fear or to mess around; like the ghosts his friends know of. These ones are only content with staining their forms with blood and ectoplasm.

“Naw, I think I’m going to say hi to ClockWork. See if somethings actually up, if he even gives me a proper answer anyway”, he shakes his head and chuckles while Sam rolls her eyes at him. “You should be enjoying the break Danny, but you’re self-sacrificial to a fault. Though, I think we’ll both have to pass on joining you. You two might get along but CW is a bit...much”. Which is exactly the reason he used him as an excuse, knowing his friends would join him on patrol if he said that’s what he was doing.

How very manipulative, Vlad would be so proud.

He covers his ghost sense up in class but duplicates, keeping his duplicate invisible the whole time. It’s a skill he mastered in his room, he doesn’t really care about people knowing he’s leaving. He just knows that his friends will know what’s up, if he asks to go to the bathroom. It makes him weaker and distracted, but it’s worth it for their safety and eventual easing into a normal, ghost fighting free, life.

He doesn’t really pay attention to his next two classes as he’s more focused on the fight with some hundred eyes horned cat. He knows Jazz would also worry about him if she knew how tolerant of pain he really was, as he hardly even flinches either bodies as Phantom gets gored. Making sure Phantom keeps the brunt of injury so Fenton does bleed through his shirt.

Standing next to his locker, his friends never even notice an invisible Phantom phasing his medical supplies out as they talk with Fenton.

“Obviously tell us if CW’s got anything useful. But dude, leave out the riddles. For our sanities sake”, Tucker rubs his temples as if to prove a point. While he laughs at Tuckers’ antics, “yeah whatever Tuck, he’s not so bad you know”. Earning eyerolls from both his friends. All the while, Phantom is stitching up a hole in his chest and wrapping it loosely with gauze.

“It’s not just the riddling, Danny. He’s just so distant, hard to read, and secretive. Even towards us”, Sam frowns and shakes her head almost sadly.

Just like you are, they just don’t know it

ClockWork doesn’t care what they think, so he has no problem coming off as such. Danny, however, does care. So he tells just enough, keeps up with the jokes, and gives the truth as he finds safe. His goal is having them as just friends, Fenton’s friends, not kicking them out of his life altogether. And certainly not having them as Phantom’s sidekicks. They’re just too breakable, like every other one of his regular humans. If he had it his way, Valerie would cut it out too; but there’s no cutting her off from it. Just like him really, so he’s not even going to try.

Waving goodbye to his friends, as he goes out to do what he actually needs to do. He knows his sister hates it, but being Phantom trumps his grades everyday. He’s honestly happy she’s off at university now, not getting caught up in his everything. She pays way too much attention and there’s no way seeing him injured isn’t hurting her. He’ll feel a lot better when Sam and Tucker head off as well. He’s not really sure what will become of his friendship with them after they go though.

Flying invisibly at an even pace past buildings, he watches his town and his humans. Everything going about it’s life as it should be, not consciously aware of his current presence. Though, everyone in town knows about their personal ghostly protector. It does sting him a little seeing them live normal human lives, close friends playing with no cares, lovers kissing as they enjoy fine treats, and parents swinging their kids around. All stuff that’s just simply not in his future, his future is this; patrolling the skies, fighting villains, and gettting hurt.

Don’t forget lying and hiding. Playing a big game of pretend. Pretend you’re just the vigilant hero. Pretend you’re just a weak timid human. Pretend you’re not hurt. Pretend you're happy. Pretend you’re ok.

He watches the sun finally set, before snapping his head to the side as his ghost sense goes off. Flying off to fight another fight, take another hit, and add another scar. He’s not entirely sure how no one ever notices them, as they pepper most of his body now. His face and soles of his feet are two of the few places with very few. Everyone, even him, is instinctually protective of their heads. This rings true as he takes a hit with his forearms to protect his face, slamming into a wall before being pierced through by the ghost's tail. He doesn’t care that his vision becomes blurry for a while, he doesn’t care that his ectoplasm drips down off his foot, he doesn’t care that he ran out of bandaging yesterday.

It’s not like your pain means anything, you deserve it.

Capturing the ghost, as he floats softly to the ground; only wobbling slightly as his feet touch down. It’s hard, all of this. But it’s his fate and he accepts that. Even at times like this, when he feels like he’s falling apart into tiny star shaped pieces. In a sense he really is, as he struggles to hold in all the shredded bits of organs. Groaning has he leans against a wall, part of him wants to laugh but that would take energy he just doesn’t have anymore. He reserves whatever he has to things more important than what he wants for himself.

Besides, you like the pain. It tells you you’re alive. It’s not like anything else does, even this body says you’re a dead man walking.

He gets only seconds of reprieve before there’s another fight to be faced. Taking a bedsheet from inside a ruined store window and wrapping it around him like an over sized belt. Pushing off the ground towards where he’s called. By the time the sun is peaking its face up, 7 more have been fought. He’s not sure if he can really feel his limbs anymore, without the weight of gravity it’s hard to tell if they’re there.

Why care anyways? If you’re weak enough to lose them, then it’s your fault.

All that confirms his right legs existence is it getting suddenly yanked on by a long whip-like tongue; sending him smashing into the street below. But the bright flash of purple ectoplasm and the going off of a thermos, tells him there’s no more fight to be had.

You know the grounds always comfy so you’ll just wait for the next fight, and the next after that. No need to move now.

Staring up at the sky as a shadow falls across him.

“Are you going to get up?”, Valerie hovers on her board looking down at Phantom. Who’s just laying on the ground, normally she’d love the opportunity at an easy shot; but that seemed really cheap to take right now. He’s missing an arm and leg, and she’s sure that shredded fabric used to be off white.

“There’s nothing more for me, so just leave me lying here”, he’s not really talking to anyone in particular. And his vision’s not really up to the task of watching her as she moves towards him, and his mind can’t be bothered to care.

She likes taking shots at you, and you always give her the pleasure of doing so. You destroyed her life, brought her into this; it’s the least you can do.

Part of her really does want to just shoot him but she can’t help but think he looks like a half-drowned mutt that’s letting itself be eaten by wolves.

Gliding closer to his face, she can see the blank expression. One she’s not really used to seeing on him, that’s more than enough to tell her something is up. “You look like shit, Phantom”

He can’t help but feel she looks the same, she looks more like him every day. Another scar, another poking out bloodied bandage, another clearly sleepless night.

Because you didn’t get to the fight first, because you failed to discourage her, because maybe you want someone else to be like you. How selfish.

Letting his eyes move to her battered arm, and the blood he can see leaking out of her helmet. A harsh dark red to offset his toxic bight green. He knows he said he wouldn’t try to stop her, that it was an unwinnable battle. But he’s never been one to turn from a fight, even when there’s no chance left to succeed. “Why? Why do you keep doing this? You could be normal, you have family. A real home. So why?” Looking to the skies as he mutters, “nothing bad will happen if you stop or change”.

But that’s not the case for you, is it? Everyone will die and you know it. And what will happen then? You know. You’ve seen it.

“Because I have to. Because I want to. Because it’s in me to do”, she knows these words mean something to him. She knows these are his reasons too, even if she’s sure his are founded in some ghostly obsession rather than true good.

He watches her suit, knowing how it flows through her veins like the ectoplasm in his.  

You really did a number on her didn’t you? Just like you, her veins were changed by your foolish mistakes.

“No one will die or hurt, you know. I’ll be here, always. It’s my place to take the hits. Not yours”

It’s not like you’re breakable, not like her. She won’t be better tomorrow, though are you ever actually better? But why care? The world knows you don’t deserve to be, after everything you’ve done. They’re here because of you, they attack because of you, they hurt people because of you. It’s your fault.

Sometimes he regrets walking into that portal. The gift or curse of half-life wasn’t worth the cost. And it will be costing him, the world, and everything in it; till forever.

And you’ll take it all, forever. There’s always another fight, another burden to bear, another life to save. That’s how your world works, the day it stops is the day you crumble apart into nothing. So you’ll keep paying the toll, you’ll keep slipping father; because you don’t have any reason not to.

“Pain is no ones place. Especially not alone”, she pauses as she too realises how cut off and alone she’s become. The closest she has to friends are her ex’s friends and her father resents her every choice. She dares not bring anyone near, lest they get caught in her crossfire’s. Clueing in that that’s what he’s doing to her, right now. Trying to push her away and out of his crossfire’s.

���Get up you stupid ghostly hero”, she cups her hand under her helmet to gather and stop the flow of blood from it. Watching him, she knows he let himself be hurt so much and she knows those wounds should kill any living thing.

As she’s taking in the hurt he's endured, genuinely doubting her belief that he must not feel pain, he lays acutely aware of it. Of each piece of jabbing concrete, the shards of glass in his foot, the organs completely out of place, the sting of fire burnt eyes, the torn ligaments, the wailed raw throat.

Pain is always your place. You’ve earned it. What else is there for a ghost in the shell of a- “did? Did you just call me a hero?”, he speaks as her words finally worm their way into his thick, with the numbing syrup of pain, brain.

“Yes, you moron. That’s what you are. And heroes never stop. So stop stopping”. She watches as he laughs loudly for a few seconds before it turns to tears. While she hovers awkwardly with her hands to her chest. Unsure of what to do with the ghost, no fellow ghost hunter, no hero; who appears to be having a mental break down in front of her.

Making her choice as she lets him stand, teeter and fall against her left side. The ectoplasm from his torn off arm dripping down her back. She pays it no mind as she slowly slides to the ground with him; his one leg giving out.

“How long have you been living in the rain?”, she pulls him to sit on her board, noticing how he neither seems to care nor notice. She feels like she’s moving around a ball-jointed doll and in a sense she is. His words are permeated by a hollow laugh, “when haven’t I?”.

Groaning against her shoulder, “no need for you to join me. And yet...”. He’s not about to deny that her warm shoulder and metal board feels like a sturdy island in a sea of hurt. He forgets he’s supposed to be a hero sometimes, not just a shield that can fight back.

He feels, more so than sees, her shake her head, “you can’t join someone in their rain. It’s a place for you and you alone. I would know. I’m just going to drag you out, like you did for me”. She knows she nearly drowned in her rain when she lost it all. Ghost fighting saved her, and he’s why she did it, even she’s starting to think her blame was misplaced. Seeing him now, she can see he’s crashing; but not even bothering to flail as he’s starting to drown. Reminding her that everyone needs someone, reminding her she can’t push everyone away, reminding her that she’s not a just shield herself, reminding her that she’s a hero too.

“What? How have I ever made you better?”, he finds it hard to believe that he’s caused her anything but hurt. But maybe, just maybe, he’s to blame for something that’s actually good. Or maybe he’s to blame for a lot of things that are good.

“You gave me a life worth living and then slapped me back to reality. The reality that we can’t do this on our own. Everybody hurts, it’s ok to take a shoulder, to give a shoulder. Having to let people in and that’s ok. Even heroes, and that’s ok too”, as she speaks he can’t help the slide show of smiles he sees filtering over his eyes. A child holding a balloon he just saved, a old lady aggressively offering him free food just so his face will reflect her smile back at her, a father who’s secretly thanking him for making him late to work, a kitten goofily batting at his nose as he carries it out of a tree, a young teen on a bridge who changes their mind at the sound of his otherworld laughter. A genuine laugh he forgot how to do; that he didn’t even know he’d forgotten.

Sensing that he’s lost in his head, she speaks quietly, knowing how good another’s quiet or silent presence can be. Sometimes all you need is someone to simply exist in your space, no questions asked and no expectations given. “We’re glowing stars racing through the skies, but even stars never shine or burn alone. And they’re what makes space beautiful, they can destroy sure but they’re peoples guides. When all the world’s vast knowledge and technology fails, the stars are still there; mapping out the skies. Helping is in their very nature and in everything they do. Of course, you helped me be better, it’s not just the people below them that the stars help; but their fellow stars as well. Constellations aren’t completed alone”, she’s always known him to have a thing for the stars. The way he looks at them and can forget all troubles when in their presence, makes that clear to her.

He can’t help but smile deeper, as his mind goes to the night sky. One which he seldom really gets to enjoy between all the fights nowadays. “Well, I’ll never burn out. I am immortal after all, Red. So I’ll always be a little black and white star. I’ve got all of time, for as long as I am needed”, he can feel her deep laugh in her back as he rolls to lean his against hers. Her board hovering a foot off the ground as both their feet dangle off either end.

“Well, don’t forget there’s a red one up there too. Even if my time is limited. Careening through the skies and space, burning heroes, glowing stars. And we’ll both keeping drawing in more of varying colours, into our constellation. Till it’s so grand that nothing could even dare harm our earth or its people”, she’s not sure he even heard all she said; soft as it was. As she hears him murmuring, while falling softly to sleep. Sleep she knows he shouldn’t need but clearly does and has clearly been missing, “and one day, no one will be left to be my hero”.

As the two sit on Valerie’s board, battered bodies back to back. She slowly goes wide-eyed as she realises something, she can feel Phantoms’ heartbeat through his back. Though never noticing the amethyst star and turquoise star watching as the black and white member of their constellation of three, now truly grown to four, slowly starts to pull himself back together.

End.

[vladxmaddie]

Takes place before Phantom Planet ///Jack Fenton comes up dead. Maddie and Danny Fenton zero in on a suspect and plan on the confrontation of a lifetime! However Maddie finds herself confronting more than just Vlad... She’ll have to confront her past... and fate. There had been a lot of unresolved feelings between Maddie and Vlad leading up to this. \\\ Romance/Suspense (VladxMaddie pairing) My husband wrote this and it is sooooo good!! If you are a shipper you’ll love it. It is very deep and intelligent and the characters are well written.  -------------------------------------- Wars have been started over lesser heroines. Helen of Troy was a mere fairy tale by long dead warriors. Juliet was a mere silhouette in romance poetry when compared to the light of my long lost Lenore.  Joan of Arc became a Pop Tart for a shred of my conviction. For me, there is only one name on the Marque -- Maddie.

Please allow me to introduce myself; I am Vlad Masters, also known as an ectoplasmic superhuman, the Plasmius. With an army of both wealth and manifested supernatural underlings, I command an empire... but such a lonely kingdom it is without her. An accident has forever bound the fate of Maddie, and I -- and ... him, and made me what I am today. He is the one I have loathed for longer than a human mind can conceive of time; he is the sole reason why I command a legion of lowly ghosts, hopelessly scrambling to win back Maddie's affections. Jack... Our lives our forever linked by tragedy.

We knew only one of us would come out truly alive... and truly loved. Jack Fenton is dead. You must understand that this is a day I never really imagined would happen.

You must understand what this means... Maddie...

Though you may think of me as the villain of our previous affairs, know that I have my reasons for my crimes. Oh, sure, I've had my fair share of dasdardly doings, malicious schemes, and underhanded dealings towards Jack and his family, but what I've dealt and done, I did for love. Even my minions know this. They often times tire of every tear that shrivels up in my ecto-eyes whenever a cheesy 80's love song blares throughout the castle walls. They tell me that I call her name out in my sleep... and that my snoring sounds like buzz saws cutting through jagged metal. They call it, "Maddie's Song" or, "The Cheese King's Lament" (-- I prefer the former).

They say I also say, "Kill Jack" at least three times a night (four on weekends).

Life has not been easy for this half-ghost super-villain, let me tell you. I have years of occult training under my belt, and a skillset to match that belt with shiny sequins... but nothing can shine like the glow of Maddie's eyes... though often times my glances at her were while she glanzed, doe-eyed and stupidly at Jack.  However... in my newfound understanding, I almost sympathize with my rival, and know that our intentions were more similar in heart than in their eventual actions. We were  two primal beasts beating our chests for the affections of a girl.... but not just any girl. Maddie... the girl he stole from me!

Forgive me, however -- I am getting far ahead of myself; she will be at this castle again in one hour.

My eyes dance in otherworldly flames that twist around the hands of the clock. My devious smirk twists from space and time in the mirror's reflection. Tonight, all the doors are open for my love and I. Tonight, a brave new world has opened itself up to us with loving arms.

Tonight there is a song playing on the radio so oddly reminicent of our plight...

"Take these broken wings and learn to fly again."

Maddie... let me teach you to fly. Let me show you a better world -- a world without Jack Fenton -- a world without Ecno-acne or the obnoxious fundraisers on the TV to cure it (we only raised $200 -- mainly because no one knew what the hell we were talking about--) a world where you and I are finally King and Queen...

Tonight, my minions are restless... Maddie's Song is going viral. Fifty-eight minutes, now... and I'm getting nervous. Tick tock, Maddie...

Words cannot describe the oceans of time that crash from our last true moment together as rightful heirs to this ghost kingdom. The blast of blinding light that overtook my vision as I thought I was surely dead -- the screaming crash that resolved the brooding tension of hearts -- it feels like forever ago, and yet every heart beat now. Jack Fenton had robbed me of my humanity on this day -- an infamous day -- but what no one really understands is that it was one of many days -- lonely days... without Maddie. Had I died that day at the lab, Maddie would have been the last thought on my mind, as she has often been the first, since then. Every wretched morning, I awake in a grave of a bed, and see my ghosts, bedside by her altar. Her face haunts me worse than they ever could.

So many pictures...

You could call me a collector.

For so long, for so many fights, in so many blasts of ectoplasmic energy, and for so many of those lonely nights and mornings, there has been only one thing standing in our way: Jack Fenton. Could a world without such a man even exist?

Well, it does... tonight.

Thirty minutes, Maddie...

With the aforementioned skillset I've boasted, these minutes are able to whip up quite the hardy dinner date, complete with everything from the freshest steaks from the almost freshest cows, their freshest milk and cheese, and the most aged and locked away wine, festering in at least three of my dungeons for at least two decades. The table is set, the finest (and freshest) silverware is laid out. The mirrors are all slightly tilted, so as not to distract my love with too many a horrible scene of my minions ready to kill her son if need be, in case of a backup plan.

The doorbell rings... "Maddie!" my voice confidently addresses, forgetting social cues. "You look so lovely... given such terrible circumstances."

Her eyes tear through me like ghost-obliterating lasers, and her face is pale and puzzled.

"Vlad..."

The moment is stolen by a snot-nosed little shit named Danny. His stare instantly becomes a threat of violence alone. There is a tension between us all that festers like an ever-expanding elephant in the rooms of my castle. I have to tell the truth, instantly.

"I didn't kill your father, Daniel. But please, come in! -- And Maddie, I will have your coat lined up on the finest of coathangers, and--"

"Vlad--" she intercepts like Brett Farve to score a touchdown in my heart. "I--"

"You must be so tired!" I desperately try to persuade her into security of my smile. "Have you ever felt the material of a six hundred thousand dollar expandable bed on your legs before? It's... really quite divine."

"It sounds lovely, Vlad," Maddie admits, delighting me, but likewise she toys with my heart with her every word. "But I really don't know if it's appropriate to be meeting like this so soon.."

"Oh, Maddie," I say, my voice cracking in genuine concern, "Even as a grieving widow, your eyes are still no more nor less haunting than before."

"Cut the shit, Vlad!" her misfit child barks at me. "I know you had something to do with this!"

"Oh, hush, boy," I say, undettered. "As I've been telling your mother for... exactly three hours and twenty eight minutes straight of text messages and Skype calls -- I'm here to help."

"I... want to believe that, Vlad" Maddie whimpers. Such delicate pain -- pain I know all too well, somehow, in longing for her. I have something for her tonight that will change everything we have ever known... my last chance at winning her heart.

"Please come in."

Touchdown, Packers.

The evening dinner goes smoothly enough, with the obvious passive aggression between me and the boy. Maddie even eats like an angel. I hope she doesn't mind me staring, in between the usual condolences and small talk about our favorite wines and cheeses. It's a touchy subject -- the Jack thing, as you can imagine, and she is in a state of grief. I am doing my best to prepare her for this truth that Jack never saw coming.

(Frankly, neither did I!)

What I had not ever truly known in all these years was there was a ghost among the presence of my castle that was not only strong enough to merely kill Jack or Danny -- but one that might resolve the pieces of my heart to repair -- repair in Maddie's arms at last! It was a freak accident that changed my life, but as such, I was not Jack's only mistake in the world of ghostly mischief. Allow me to ellaborate. A chance encounter with another immortal  showed me what I really became on the day that ripped me away from her, and drove her into Fenton's arms. A keeper of time and potential fate, Clockwork, had mumbled to me about ghosts not always being what we think of them to be. Sometimes feelings can be ghosts, too.

(Then he tried to kill me; go figure.)

"Daniel, could you excuse me and your mother for a moment?"

"No way, dude. I am NOT leaving you alone with my mom after what you--"

"Danny, please!" Maddie's voice interrupts us, heavenly and reserved as she is stern, and so the true conversation can begin. Danny slips out of the room, watching me in his every step as he goes to what I hope is the last possible bathroom on the furthest end of the castle.

Minutes tick by, and the conversations do rightfully shift to talk of Jack and Danny, and the wheels of fate that turn for us all now.

"I know your secret, Vlad," Maddie declares. "I know about your life as Plasmius, your countless attempts on Jack's life -- what you've done on your expensive beds -- everything!"

I gasp. "Maddie!  How could you accuse me of such awful and atrocious things? Surely you would not have come all the way out here just to toss around such hurtful accusations!"

"Danny always told me I shouldn't trust you, Vlad..."

"Danny is a fool, Maddie. He has grown up being overshadowed by that big, lumbering wall of a husband of yours. Both of you have been restraining your true potential -- potential that I can--"

"Enough!" she interrupts, glaring at me with hellish eyes that I know are serious... but something behind the fire beckons me still.

"How did you find out?" I prod.

She looks into my eyes and begins our psychological game of musical chairs. Both of us are refusing to stand, now, deadlocked into cemented stance, waiting for each other's move.

"I have my ways, Vlad. I have been onto your true motives for quite some time." "My 'true motives?'" I question. "Why did you come out here if you think I killed him?" Maddie says nothing, her lips devoid of a twitch, and her eyes too vigilant to fall off of me with more than a blink.

"Do you also know about Danny's powers?"

She nods.

This is all going so much better than I had anticipated...

The music has long since died. "Are you and Danny going to try to kill me?" I ask, smirking. "If you're going to take advice from him, you should ask him how many times I've died. It's honestly not many, Maddie... and never for as long as Jack."

Maddie hesitates for a moment, a bit of blood rushing to her head as she lets the wine settle in her stomach.

"I need to know what happened to him. I know that you know... Vlad Plasmius."

Hearing her call me by that name sends a quiver down my spine with the force of ten thousand Fenton-patented spiritual spine beams. I try to maintain my composure, and disicpline.

"If you knew what I knew," I respond, "you'd know I didn't kill him. Jack killed himself... in a way."

"How dare you!" she screeches. "Are you saying that--"

"Maddie -- what I'm saying is, we are on the cusp of something that no one could have truly understood before."

"What are you talking about?" Maddie demands.

"-- What killed Jack -- what gave me and Danny our powers -- what compelled you here, if not to avenge him -- it's all part of the same thing, Maddie. We are all summoning a great supernatural energy -- here, and now. You and I are the rightful owners of this energy -- not you and Jack!"

A part of the truth leaks from my lips like cosmic sludge. I wipe my mouth and wait for her to catch an interest in my information. It's a very curious game.

"You're... not making any sense... " she mumbles. "At least... not much sense. A little, I think."

"Yes," I confirm. "You know it in your heart, don't you? -- On the day of the accident, a terrible crime was committed against fate... a crime that robbed me of my humanity -- and of you! Yet, one was many in a list of crimes that begin and end with the Fenton name! I should be the one taking care of you -- the one honing your crafts with my own. Jack ensured that all I would ever have was a bucket full of extra crispy for a head!"

"And there you go on again," she shoots down, "always the same stories, always the same people to blame. Have you ever EVEN ONCE considered that I chose Jack over you because I genuinely loved him, and NOT because your face was fried chicken?"

"Yes, Maddie," I concede. "I have considered all possible fates since that day, and all foods in which to compare my face to -- hopelessly wandering through space and time to reconcile this matter -- why I feel so alone without you. Why the ghosts around us all are conspiring in such anger; why you ended up with such a ... a bafoon! They say opposites attract, but my--"

"Stop talking about him like that!" she warns. "How can you say such things about my husband -- your former friend -- if you were not the one who killed him! He loved me -- and he loved you! You were like a brother to him!"

"HA!" I deflect. "That oafish fence post couldn't calibrate a calculator! He never truly cared about my talents -- or yours! It was always US, Maddie -- the brains of the team -- the true Masters of the unseen! Jacky-boy was just along for the ride!"

"You're insane," Maddie spits.

"I know," I acknowledge, sipping the wine and building a rather impressive statue to myself out of toothpicks on my dinner plate as we talk (one of my many hidden talents). "You always said that the 'mad scientist' thing was a turn on, didn't you?" I smile.

"Vlad..." Maddie blushes, "That ... was years ago."

"Eternities," I correct. "Each of them spent in my own personal hell without you."

"Me...?"

"You, Maddie..." I call out, declaring my undying devotion. "For all of these days and nights and years and crimes -- it has always been the pain of really losing you that has driven me to these low frequences..."

Maddie looks to the ground, for a second, slightly lost and assessing her thoughts.

"We did have some good times together, didn't we...?"

An unexpected wall has come down in her temperment. I catch her lost in reflections of a life that should have continued on with us together -- days and nights of lab partners and friends and potentially so much more -- Vlad... and Maddie. Unfortunately, connecting the dots reveals that our love story has always been, indeed, a tragedy.

... Until tonight? "Remember  when I won those tickets for that Packers game, for the stadium near our old lab?"

Finally -- a smile comes to the sweet widow's lips and she almost trips into a slight chuckle.

"Of course!" she beams.  "That was crazy!"

"Yes," I agree -- "more than you know, for more reasons than you understand."

Maddie shakes her head.

"'You're looking sharp!'" she quotes herself from the day in question, giggling in slight self-deprecation. "I was such a dork back then!"

"No... you weren't," I reassure her. "You were beautiful then, and you're beautiful now.

"Vlad..." Maddie blushes. She tries to steer my mind towards the events of that fateful day. "You were so excited! You ran to tell me, as I was--"

"You were wearing your labcoat," I begin to effortlessly recall, finishing her thought, "hiding a blue halter top, a studded belt, and a purple skirt with flowing fabric, like ribbons. You were working on an experiment..."

"The Spectral Emotional Ecto Sludge," she correctly remembers. "I forgot all about that nasty, brown goop. It was so ugly... so sticky and slimy, so--"

"So like HIM!" I shout at her, startling even myself, a bit.  Maddie is taken off her guard by my conviction, but that is okay. I have my reasons for making an enemy of the Sludge I met on that day, and they are the same as my vendetta against her late, great Jack: it cost me yet another chance with her!"

-- "Hey Vlad! You're looking sharp!" Maddie called from afar, deep within a memory forcing its way through my powerful brain. "Whatcha' so excited for?"

My eyes soon caught the aforementioned ribbon-like fabric of her unforgettable purple skirt. It flew through the air like angel wings. Those eyes very quickly went to hers, though, as I tried not to stare.

(I may be a villain, but I'm not a creeper.)

Mainly I remember this occurance because it felt like a gust of wind had taken up toward me as I entered the lab through the creaky door, tickets outstretched in excitement with my flailing hands trying to reach for Maddie. It was as if I was having a premonition before I actually had the ability to have them (a prepremonition).

I was so happy. This was finally my chance to win her over -- to ask her out on a date to one of the biggest games in history!

(Okay, it actually wasn't an important game, but free tickets are free tickets, and boy, did I need an excuse to work up the nerve.) "Maddie!" I gleefully called out as a mere mortal man. Up until a certain point, I'd consider these the simpler days. "I have some amazing news!"

"I can tell!" she boasted with a surprised smile. "Your emotions are radiating throughout the Sludge -- which, of course, means the experiment was a resounding success!"

Delighted with her own information first, she beamed.

"What is that?" I asked, puzzled and broken away, too, from my own cause of success. Like a supermodel posing with a product, her hand held a meager tupperware container among the land of test tubes. In it was a sight that scars my eyes to this day.

"Well!" Maddie grinned, seemingly waiting for hours just to be asked -- "This little baby is the magical -- the fantasical -- the -- Spectral Emotional Ecto Sludge!"

I tilted my head slightly to the left, thinking to myself how deeply I was falling in love with her every graceful gesture. I had to keep these feelings to myself, so I resigned to looking rightfully puzzled by her experiment. "Spectral... Emotional ... Sludge?"

"Sort of!" she laughed, and true to its name, there was an emotional reaction to match her own within the brown, toxic slime. It danced to the sound of her voice, highly reactive.

"What does it do?" I pondered to her, intrigued. "Well," -- and Maddie hesitated with a flush upon her face that made my heart skip, here -- "I'm not exactly sure?"

Both Maddie and the slime coyly shrugged.

"It's supposed to read the emotions of the people it comes into contact with," she continued, "and what I was hoping for was that it could help communicate emotional resonance in the supernatiral realms, too... but..."

"But it's dancing." I smiled. "Maddie, you're a genius!"

She took a quick bow, drinking in my admiration, before finally acknowledging what I was holding.

"What are those?" she asked, the slime still hypnotically clinging to her voice in a dance.

"Well!" -- and I tried to use the same inflection as her, to make her laugh (and it worked; yes!). "Do you remember the call-in show from a week ago?"

"Yeah--?"

-- "MADDIE!" -- -- Just then, a second gust of wind generated -- a huge one --  the wind generated by a man wearing tights one-fourths his size, and incredible amount of hot air coming from his own bullshit. Imagine as gorrilla had mated with an ostrich at a superhero convention, and that would only cover his mother's genes -- but I digress. The oafish, walking fencepost returned.

"Jack!"

And as if compelled by the hands of fate, as Maddie's voice rang out in confusion of the three of us all in a state of excitement at once, the slime hopped up from its container, hurling itself in the air like a sentient pile of flying vomit.

(About that premonition...)

"OH NO!" screamed Maddie.

"NO!" Jack screamed like a mentally stunted chimpanzee. "Maddie! Vlad is projectile vomiting  --  QUICK! -- FIND SOMETHING ABSORBANT BEFORE IT STAINS THE LAB!"

"WHAT?!" I tried to scream out in confusion, but it was too late. Like an obliviously charging rhino, Jack began hurling towards me. "JACK, NO!"

"Jack!" Maddie cried out in sincere panic -- "It's -- NO! -- IT'S -- "

The tickets were ripped from my hand before I could say anything else, and I went hurling in the other direction of Jack, and the "puke" for about five feet, before landing on the ground, horrified.

"PAPER SHOULD DO THE JOB! WAY TO ALWAYS BE RESOURSEFUL, VLADDIE! -- EVEN WHEN YOU'RE SICK!"

The sentient Ecto Sludge ate the tickets in the air in an instant, controlled by the will of its stupid and unrightful wielder. It then grew exponentially in size until it covered the walls of the lab... but in an instant, it was gone. In one twist of fate to add to the list of all the ways Jack had robbed me of Maddie -- even in freak accidents no one could have forseen -- another notch was added in the belt. As I told you before, I have begun to better understand Jack in wake of his passing. This day, though I had no true way of knowing, up until tonight, sealed his fate. But I'm getting ahead of myself again. The food is eaten. The drinks are drank. -- "You didn't tell us that those were tickets for weeks!" Maddie recalls, laughing with a snort and reflecting back much differently than me on the memory.  " -- Even up until the day of the game, you just kept sulking and sulking! You didn't even show up for the next couple--"

"-- It's his fault!" I scream, rageful. "It's always been! That should have been OUR game!" "Vlad..." "Maddie -- you don't understand," I plead. "Can you not see that I've waited lifetimes just for a moment like this alone with you again?

"Alone... with me?"

"You're laughing again, Maddie," I remark. "Do you know how long I've waited to hear you laugh or smile and think of me?"

"You..."

Finally, I begin to read a shred sympathy in the voice of my beloved -- one that she has denied for so long, just like Jack has. She has such an innocent coyness to her... behind the makeup, behind the tears. She has spent all of this time untamed. Her powers could have even rivaled mine, in terms of sheer intellect. But like the dulling of a blade, her thoughts and memories and dreams fade away into memories of Jack. "You talk about him like he was just something in your way," she moans, saddened.

I want to blurt out, "he was" -- to sink back into sheer hatred and revenge -- but the game has changed, and I want to return her lowered guard with genuine affection. Both of us are grieving in very different ways. "Maddie," I concede, "Perhaps I was misguided in seeking revenge in the ways I have before. Perhaps, if you were happy with him, I can be happy for you. The main thing that I wanted you to see tonight is that you would have been -- and could still be -- much happier with me." "Vlad..." she sinks, almost recoiling into her seat. "Why have you always been so... interested in me? With all your power and money, you could have anyone in the world -- or ANY world. Why ME?"

"You..." and my voice and heart both skip in tune.

"Think about it," she suggests, like the hushing of the words that I cannot yet follow with. "Get back to me... after you tell me how you killed my husband."

"I -- I ... didn't kill him," I assure her -- and to me, this is still the truth.

"Can you prove that to me tonight?" she sternly asks in the tone of an almost threat or warning.

"If I can..." I begin to bargain " ... will you stay with me tonight?"

"Vlad... I... " -- she turns her head and fades in and out of racing thoughts and priorities, confused about her true feelings. I anticipated this moment. I have been waiting restless eternities -- as I've rambled on about. "Think about it," I smirk.

Maddie is not impressed... just still very lost.

My hands wish to touch her cheek.

My long, expensive overcoats long to keep her body warm.

"I love him, Vlad, living or dead, killed by you or ten thousand grisly ghosts -- I love Jack."

"But you love me, too... don't you, Maddie?"

"I..."

"Isn't that why you came here, Maddie...? Do you not remember the good times with me -- times where Jack would never cease to screw up, and yet you never stopped forgiving him? Why? Why, Maddie?"

She cannot reply, her breath and eyes stolen by an oncoming emotion. Her breath smells of Merlot, and her words are from the heart.

"It wasn't ... exactly a grisly," I begin, drawing her to stay on her guard. She takes the bait, and gives me an angered look. "What was it, Vlad? What happened? What do you know?"

"Maddie," I begin to unravel a bit, again, with the truth. "All I have ever wanted to know in life was your love... not a world of grisly ghosts."

" What kind of ghost have you been hiding from me, Vlad?"

My brow lowers. My body stiffens. One more drink of wine... is drank.

"I know of a ghost more powerful and brutal than those you and your family have struggled to understand," I begin, -- "one that feeds on anger, hate, and pain...  and of that pain, I know a pit so deep and eternal that it could never contain said ghost. It longs forever, wishing to belong to something -- to attach to someone -- and it waits, and festers and and goes insane... like me. With that pain and insanity, festering under the surface of my power and your marriage, we have likewise birthed a rival to Jack much like me, as well."

"This is pointless." Maddie retorts, catching me off my guard. "You're still just rattling off nonsense. Do you still think you are the only one who is in pain, Vlad? Do you have any idea how you and your powers have hurt other people? If there is such a ghost -- such a creature -- such a MONSTER -- how is it not you, yourself -- your ego, your plans -- YOUR cause?"

Now it is my turn to hesitate.

"There are far worse monsters than simply me, Maddie," I begin to my love, still overtaken with the weight of all my devious decisions visa vis her attempted guilt trip.  "Likewise, there are many causes to fight for -- 'the Ecno Acne Supercure Fundraising Agogo-plex,' for one -- but I digress. With absolute power, corruption is absolutely essential, is it not? With all of this power, the temptation to rule the galaxy would be strong for anyone -- even your son -- and even you, Maddie."

"I'm not like you, Vlad," she dismisses. "I don't desire power. I want to make the world a better place -- for me -- for Danny, for everyone--"

"Young Danny has yet to fully grow into his powers," I remind her " -- to realize the potential laid out before us, as demigods. I only wish now to guide him to understand the worlds beyond our own, and yet still -- you -- and he deny me -- empowering a father that has no clue how to handle him, this power, or ... you."

"Yeah?" Maddie shrugs, seeming to tire of the conversation reaching a vague stalemate. "Well, it's too late for that, now," she laments. "Jack's dead... and you're going to tell me what happened to him, and... where's Danny?!"

Oh, great. Now even Jack Fenton's sperm has to interfere with my life in his absence.

"I'm sure he's fine -- probably 'going ghost' or something uninteresting such as --" A large amount of thudding and banging interrupts me -- followed by a voice I wish would dissipate into the brick walls.

"MOM! GET OUT! GET OUT OF HERE! IT'S A--"

"DANNY!"

Maddie topples the wine glass off of the table, and begins to take out of the castle room before I can even stand up. More loud noises echo out of our reach. Something is causing a great havoc all of a sudden... and I know exactly what it is. Damn it. I was expecting showtime to not be so early...

The thudding and banging continue as I chase after her, calling her name in genuine concern, because I know what she is racing towards. She, of course, ignores my pleas, as any mother would, and tries to find her son (whom I assume is righteously getting his ass kicked, as he so often tends to do in my castle).

I knew it was only a matter of time before the boy discovered what truly killed his father. I figured I'd see if I could get a two-for-one kind of deal before I moved in for Maddie. I suppose it's too late now... but no matter.

Let the show begin.

As I chase after her, I remember how long I've been chasing... how long I've been longing. More flashbacks ceaslessly pound against my mind like ping pong, remembering the older days between Maddie and I. I wonder as I follow her racing footsteps if my own seemingly endless corridor is a metaphor of some kind. I've been chasing her for so long, always being pulled away, always being hurled up into the big, stupid arms of the hero. Tonight, she will know her hero isn't dead.

He's me. I feel like my mind is a straight, thin line, like every hallway... an arrow to Maddie's heart.

As she finally opens the door, she gasps loudly enough to count as an explosion. She sees her boy knocked unconscious on the floor, bruised and beaten, as I had anticipated. He is buried underneath dust and rubble, but so far, there is no sign of his attacker. She rushes to his side, and from her position to check his status, she gives me a scowl.

"You!" she screams. "I knew I couldn't trust you! What have you done?!"

"Maddie--" I plead, now realizing that our former game of musical chairs has ended, and both of us are scrambling to find a proper seat in the room, before we get taken out. "This is actually the one time when you NEED to trust me -- or your son, and you, and I -- will --"

Just then, a terribly familiar brown, sluggish goop begins to form all over the walls...

Maddie's expression has turned to shock and panic to horror, and something familiar. It's almost as if the memory has summoned an old foe to the scene, and it reacts with matched hysterics. The walls begin to crumble and tear apart, sinking into the readings of everyone's panic. It's a vicious cycle, as the more Maddie and I become unhinged, so too, does the world around us... literally. The Sludge is rageful... wrathful. It will not stop until the paradox of our emotions is resolved. What Clockwork had revealed to me, after I bested him in battle, was that the Spectral Emotional Ecto Sludge, was in itself, now like a ghost. It had been feeding on all of our collective misery since that day... at least, mine. The tickets were not made of a very absorbant material, to say the least... but when I held them with the intention of winning Maddie over, that intention resonated. Eating the tickets fed the Sludge knowledge of our curious triangle. It had been festering for far too long.

It wanted Fenton.

Perhaps the whole time, fate was trying to rectify what I never could.

Needless to say, I had been attempting to track it down for quite some time since learning of its intention... but it had always eluded me... just like Maddie... until tonight -- also just like Maddie -- it showed up at my door... exactly one hour before she did.

But now, Maddie has finally returned to see the weight of her own grief and mine combined and threatening to kill us both. Now, she is in danger.

I have to show my true form; no need to hide it from her anymore.

("Going Ghost!" is still such a stupid catch phrase, by the way.)

Once transformed again into my Plasmius ways, I try my best to shield her from the oncoming debris, generated by the Sludge. My powers shine in kinetic lightning, phasering rocks and expensive items from other rooms that the monster is summoning with its rampage to fly at us. I shoot many a blast at every slimy, oozing piece of matter I see... but it seems completely unaffected.

"VLAD!" she screams, "GET US OUT OF HERE!"

"I can't!" I shout back, trying to talk over the rumbling bricks and pillars.

"What the hell do you mean you CAN'T?!"

A few more useless blasts at the Sludge dishearten me. I have to admit something to Maddie that normally a man of my status would not let his pride allow... but again, it is the truth.

"Even with all my power," I concede, "I know of no way to stop this thing!"

Maddie is cradling Danny, holed up in storage of the room's corner now that seems shadowed away from the Sludge. I can see in her eyes that even admist the panic, her mind is racing to assess new information. The look she gives me almost continues our conversation in the other room without us having to.

"The... Sludge...!" Maddie calls. "The Sludge killed Jack?!"

The room stabilizes now slightly as if our  goopy enemy wants to answer. My hands tire from wielding my powers.

"Do you remember?" I ask her in the becoming calm of the Sludge's storm. "Do you remember how you felt on that day you say me, before the accident -- before the madness?"

"What?" -- Again, Maddie is confused.

"I was 'looking sharp' -- remember?"

"Vlad -- what --"

"Maddie! You -- me, Jack -- we've all been feeding this thing for years. All of the battles -- all of the madness -- all of the scorn and jealousy and all of your research -- it can wield it all against us! This is more powerful than all of us combined... and we can't all combine anymore!"

"It's..."

-- "It's just you and me now, Maddie..." I finish for her.

"Vlad... what have we done...?"

Maddie's resignation to her fear, like the starting of an engine, roars again the Sludge to rear its ugly head, in its true form, this time, as well. A goop that pours from the walls piles into the corner adjacent to Maddie and Danny.  It begins to grow bigger, and bigger. Ominously, it assembles itself like a creature looking far too big for a human, and far too... solid, for a ghost or goop. It's changing its properties fast, drinking in Maddie's fear and my yearning. The Sludge has grown up into a villainous, vile dasdardly, worthy of my army...

But I would never command anything to hurt Maddie! --  (the boy -- sure -- and often -- but --)

"VLAD!" Remembering that day I first encountered the sludge, I reach into my pocket for my only real idea as to how to combat this perdicament. In my suit pocket, now slightly stained with wine, is a long, yellow envelope.

"What... what is that?" Maddie trembles as the monster moves towards her.

"Well!" I gleefully say, recalling our old life,  "it's an 'ace in the hole' -- a secret weapon I've been saving to wield for a few days, wrestling with this decision. Every tragic love story needs a sacrifice -- right, Maddie?"

"What are you TALKING about?!" she screeches. "Are you going to... mail a letter while this thing kills me?!"

I grimmace. Carefully, my powerful hand opens the envelope, and pulls out an obnoxiously long piece of paper.

"Maddie," I decree, while savoring the mere seconds before the monster finds her. "They finally sold me the team."

"... What?!"

"-- The Packers, Maddie -- they made me an offer. All I have to do is sign it and--"

"VLAD!" Maddie screams, now visibly in tears, "HOW CAN YOU BE SO SELFISH RIGHT NOW?! DO YOU WANT ME TO--" "I WANT YOU TO SEE THIS!" I scream.

"See WHAT!?"

With time running out, I make my move.

"None of this, Maddie --  NONE OF THIS means anything to me anymore -- not the Packers, not this world or the world unseen -- absolutely NOTHING -- if I do not have you. Why you? -- Why YOU? -- I'll tell you why -- because you make me want to be GOOD, Maddie. These ghosts have been restless for so long -- all because of our tragic romance. You know in your heart that I could have given you more than he ever could, and YOU KNOW IT, TOO -- YOU UGLY, BIG PILE OF SHIT!"

Without a single flinch of hesitation, I fling the unsigned contract into the monster.

It sinks like a fish into Jello into its back. The sacrifice has been made.

Maddie screams.

Silence holds for a few seconds now in her echo. The monster stands still.

The monster roars.

"SHIT!"

My mind is racing for a way to kill this thing. If none of the Fentons could do it, it's up to me.

Wait...

None of the Fentons...

"Maddie!"

As the room is engulfed in an ominous gold glow, and the Sludge creature inches towards Maddie, who is too tired to try and fight, time almost stops as it did in all of my terrible encounters with Jack that changed my life. Now it all is starting to make sense.

Maddie hangs her head down, accepting her fate, and Danny's.

"Goodbye, Vlad... I..."

"You..."

The final puzzle piece of the Sludge mystery fits, and as it raises a hand that has hardened from goo to solid stone to crush the love of my life, I cry out to her.

"SAY YOU LOVE ME, MADDIE!"

"What--?"

"SAY YOU LOVE ME!"

"But I --"

"Jack always knew it, Maddie -- he knew that we had something that he could never have with you -- never did. He was his own worst enemy. It was only a matter of time before his own mistakes caught up with him... but you... you're so brilliant, Maddie -- so wonderful and truly good! You don't deserve this! He wouldn't have wanted things to end this way! And it can only end this way if you refuse to see what you and I have been running from for YEARS--"

-- "VLAD! I LOVE YOU!" --

What...?

Hell freezes over.

The monster crumbles into dust.

As the castle starts to further rip itself apart in resolution of the monster's feelings (and ours) I use all of my strength to create a shield around me and Maddie (and begrudgingly, the boy as well). In flashes of light so bright that death itself would lose focus, I nearly pass out from the toll of the ecto-shield.

(Thanks for helping, Danny. Little shit.)

I swear I must be dead. I swear I must be.

Is this Heaven?

Maddie is resting in my arms now as her son had been resting in hers. The castle walls around us have crumbled... and she loves me. "The... experiment..." Maddie groans, groggily struggling to stay awake. "It... was... my fault."

"There is no such thing as fault, my love," I whisper in her ear as I dry her cheeks, "only fate, now."

"... Fate..." Maddie whispers. "Could you... really have been mine... all along?"

Exhausted, she fades away into a sleep that weighs lovingly on me. I am overjoyed.

Wars have been started over lessser heroines. Helen of Troy was a mere fairytale by long dead warriors. Juliet was a mere sillouette in romance poetry when compared to the light of my long lost Lenore.  Joan of Arc became a Pop Tart for a shred of my conviction. For me, there is only one name on the Marque -- Maddie.

I had known for far too long that we had a fire of chemestry. It ignited a passion that Jack wouldn't stand for. Like beasts, we both beat our chests, performing for Maddie's approval. Jack's least impressive stunt, it seems, had finally cost him his life... But I think MY life is finally starting to turn around.

Jack Fenton is dead.

Maddie Fenton is safe, where she belongs... Sometimes, emotions can be ghosts, too -- unresolved feelings so powerful that they may just resolve themselves.

"Take these broken wings and learn to fly again."

Let's fly, Maddie.