#Valerie and her father have nothing to do with ghosts in this timeline.

[asjjohnson]

@danphanwritingprompts this post:

After being revealed and arrested by the Guys in White, they surprisingly didn’t torture or experiment on him. Instead, they completely removed his ghost half, “cured” him of being a halfa, and that, somehow, was a hundred times worse.

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Alright, I have a thought. :)

Someone sees Danny using his ghost powers at the very beginning, when Danny had wanted to be 'cured'.

(Indented text is taken directly from the first episode)

Danny, Sam, and Tucker pause to talk on the staircase's landing between the first and second floor of Casper High. "It's been a month since the accident, and I still barely have any control. If somebody catches me, I go from geek to freak around here," Danny says, not realizing his legs are beginning to sink into the floor. "Kinda like what you're doing now?" Tucker asks. Danny looks down and yelps. His friends help him back up. "Oh, darn it." Danny continues up the steps. "If my dad can invent something that accidentally made me half ghost, why can't he invent something that turns me back to normal?!"

Danny glances up as he reaches the top of the stairs—and freezes.

A girl stands beside the banister, her mouth hanging open and her eyes staring straight at Danny.

She drops her books and runs.

"Uh-oh," Danny says.

"Hmm..." a new voice says. "This won't end well."

Clockwork can already tell, but he still waves his staff to fast-forward the images playing in the time portal.

Surrounded by a large crowd, the girl, still looking spooked, with men in white suits behind her, points at Danny.

Danny being dragged away as he struggles, one of his limbs flickering between visible and invisible. His parents being held back as they try to reach him.

Danny inside a bright white room with two agents. His tense and fearful posture and expression slowly turning to calm.

Danny being dropped off at his front door, a smile on his face as he waves at the leaving car. His parents jerking the door open and hugging their son and checking him for injuries.

Danny in his basement, gesturing at the ghost portal as he says something, his parents displaying a range of emotions, but concern and protectiveness and love and pain are most noticeable. Even without sound, it's obvious when they ask why he didn't come to them. The family sharing a tearful but happy group hug.

Danny walking down a school hallway, his friends trying to shield him from the crowd. 'FREAK' spray painted across his locker. The Lunch Lady phasing through a wall and everyone running.

Technus, Desiree, and Skulker battling above the streets of Amity Park, uncaring of the property damage caused. The Fenton parents blasted off their feet by a combined attack.

The Fenton family within a dented RV, each with frazzled hair and dark rings under their eyes, but the parents also wearing semi-hopeful smiles. They pass a sign that says, "Welcome to Wisconsin!"

Danny sitting in a chair with a pale, shocked expression, his sister sitting beside him. Vlad Masters standing nearby, a sympathetic frown on his face and an arm wrapped around a weeping Maddie.

People arriving for a reunion but being turned away. Some staying for a funeral.

Maddie, back at Fenton Works, sitting in the corner of the living room. Wearing something other than a jumpsuit.

A grinning school therapist watching as students try to avoid stray ghost attacks and debris in the hallways.

People across the human world being conquered through music via live broadcast, and also through electronic devices via the Internet.

A power struggle beginning to develop between Desiree, Technus, Ember, and Freakshow. The four splitting up, picking large sections of the Earth for themselves, with their borders continually shifting.

Vlad Masters repeatedly trying to speak to and win over a depressed Maddie, who's still wearing ordinary clothes.

Other ghosts beginning to move in on the big four and winning over parts of Earth for themselves. The Egyptian ghost Hotep Ra, after disposing of his human pawn. Nocturne. Undergrowth and his human extension. Vortex. The Earth dividing into eight shifting sections of control. Amity Park the exception, no single ghost able to lay claim to it.

Vlad finding the Ring of Rage.

The play of images on the time portal begin to slow, as though the timeline were nearing its end.

Vlad falling through the Fenton Works' portal, into a dusty lab.

Maddie still depressed, barely looking up as Vlad enters the living room.

Danny arriving home with no friends by his side. Eyes downcast, a banana peel in his hair.

Vlad giving Danny the Ring of Rage.

Amity Park being overrun and conquered.

The Eight bowing to Pariah Dark, the Ghost King.

Amity Park becoming the capital of Pariah Dark's kingdom, stuck between the Ghost Zone and Human Realm.

The ones who oppose Pariah Dark being seized by skeleton ghosts.

Pariah Dark with a pleased smile, sitting in a large throne-like chair among a cheering crowd, as a long line of ghosts and GIW agents await their executions. The line taking a step forward as the one at the start of the line is guided onto a stage that has a guillotine.

Heads at the base of the stage beginning to destabilize, green skin and large, single eyes halfway-melted into glowing puddles.

The ghost now being led onto the stage proudly holding his head high, glaring defiantly toward the stands. The ghost, gloved hands handcuffed behind his back, being pushed toward the guillotine. The purple hood of the ghost's cloak falling back as he's pushed downward and his head is positioned.

The guillotine blade beginning to fall, sliding downward, slowing down, barely moving as it approaches the ghost's neck, beginning to slice through ectoplasmic flesh. Slowly, very slowly, going deeper. Completing its descent.

The time portal freezes at that instant.

The timeline would, of course, continue forward, but his time portal stopped recording.

Clockwork saw plenty, however.

He enters the past.

And subtly clears the upstairs school hallway of students. Replacing them once Danny and his friends pass by.

The boy's secret needs to remain hidden, and his ghost powers kept.

[arashikitten]

“I am Danny Phantom”

Who knew that four words were all it took to turn someone’s entire life on its head? Well, Valerie knew, her father being fired and her subsequently being dropped by the A-listers proved that, but....

Danny Fenton. The small, quiet, funny, space-obsessed, sleep-deprived, nervous guy who slept in class, made puns out of everything, her boyfriend... was Phantom. The ghost who had ruined her life, who was a menace to the town, who had committed several crimes including kidnapping the mayor. They were the same person.

Her suit was on before she could blink, guns powering up and aimed at Phantom- Fenton- Danny.

“One reason. Give me one. Goddamned. Reason why I shouldn’t put a hole in your head.” Everything was red. She felt nothing but the blood in her veins turning into fire, only heard the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. It would be so, so easy to turn this... this monster into a pile of ectoplasm. All it would take was one little blast...

“Because it was an accident.”

Silence. It rang in her ears like a gunshot, quieting the pounding of her heart like the forest before the storm. Where her anger was once fiery red, now it was cold, calm blue, freezing everything in her path.

“What?” Her voice sounded flat, no hint of anger, and yet the ghost shuffled back slightly, wringing it’s... his hands nervously. (Somewhere in the back of her mind, a part of her recognized that was a habit of Fentons, that Danny- no, Fenton has been doing that earlier. Valerie shut that thought down before it reached farther into her head.)

“It was an accident. That ghost dog... Cujo, he- he was, um, looking for his- his toy because he’d been euthanized by Axion labs after they got the, uh, new security systems. He was just loking for his toy.”

“Then why were you there, spook?”

A pause. He was wringing his hands again. It caught her off guard slightly, how... human he looked. If you took away the glow and bright white hair, he could’ve easily passed as a normal highschooler. (That’s because he is human, part of her mind screeched at her. That’s your boyfriend for fucks sake, it said. Again, she shut it out.)

“I can sense them. The ghosts, I mean. Whenever one shows up, there’s this sort of... smoke, kinda, that I breathe. And that’s how I know if one’s around. So that night, when- when Cujo showed up, I sensed him and went to check it out. I never meant to get your father fired, or to- to fuck the place up as bad as I did. I’m sorry.”

Anger bubbled up in her again. He thought- he really fucking thought that a simple damned apology fixed that? Hell no! He’d screwed over her entire life, got her father fired, committed several crimes, and he thought a simple ass ‘I’m sorry’ would fix it?

She took aim, charging up her blasters.

“I don’t care if you’re sorry. You’re a ghost, a crook, and a thief. And I’ll be doing the whole world a favor by getting rid of you.”

Her blasters were charged up. All it would take now was for her to-

“Then do it.”

Valerie almost dropped her blaster. Had- had she heard that right? She stared at Phantom.

He was rooted to the spot, arms down by his sides, eyes scrunched shut. He was still in his ghost form, but he wasn’t levitating.

What in the hell?

“What do you mean ‘then do it’?” You’re not- you’re not even gonna try to fly off?”

“No.”

“Why?”

At that, Danny- no, Phantom opened his eyes. He looked, scared. Sad. Like he had seen a massacre, or a war.

“A couple of weeks ago... when- when we were about to take the CAT... I- well I got the answer key to the test. And... I wasn’t in a great place, mentally, at the time. I mean, I’m still not, but... it was different, in a way. But basically, what, well, what happened was that I was so stressed out, because I was trying to protect the town and my friends from ghosts, and my parents were just getting worse about trying to hunt me down, and my grades are already shit, and Mr. Lancer kept saying that this test would determine my future and I just...” Danny stopped, shaking and hugging himself. He looked.... Valerie didn’t think she’d ever seen him look this distraught, as Phantom or Fenton. It made something in her chest tighten, made her stomach twist.

“I... I had the answers. And I was already so worried about... well, everything, that I decided to cheat. I figured that maybe I could just do it one time, and then that’d be it, you know? But... of course, of course, it couldn’t be that simple.” Now he sounded... tired. Worn, and not in a good way, more like a war veteran disallusioned with the world. (Something in Valerie told her that maybe this was the real Danny, the part of him he refused to show anyone. The tired fighter who wanted nothing more than to be able to go to sleep without worrying if he was going to wake up with a gun pointed at him.. or if he would wake up at all.)

“Essentially what happened was that Sam, Tucker and I got sort of... teleported about ten years into the future, and... apparently me cheating on one stupid test leads to the end of the world, because Mr. Lancer would find out that I had cheated and would call a meeting with my parents at the Nasty Burger, which would then blow up and kill my friends and family.” Danny was shaking now, arms wrapped around himself as though he was trying to protect himself from his own words.

“That, in turn, lead to me tearing the ghost part out of me, which then proceeded to fuse with Vla- the Wisconsin Ghost. When- well, when that happened, it- drove my ghost half.... I-insane. And then he was killing people all over and... and I- I killed people in that timeline! I did the- the one thing I said I would never fucking do, and I killed someone.”

Danny was on his knees now, quietly sobbing. His black hair (when had he turned back?) shone in the sun.

Valerie was rooted to the spot. How in the hell did someone deal with that? Fuck, how in the hell would someone deal with any of this? In the span of about thirty minutes, Valerie had discovered that not only was her boyfriend dead, but was the town’s widely considered hero and had apparently fought an evil version of his future self and had almost seen all of his friends and family die.

And, to top it all off, he’d discovered that not only were his own parents hunting him, but she was too. Valerie felt sick.

Jesus. Just how much shit had she put him through? Fuck- was that why he was so nervous about telling her he was Phantom? Granted she was still pissed at him, but not for the Cujo thing. Not really.

“Danny.” He looked up at her, and she felt something in her chest break at just how scared and sad he looked. Was this the sort of shit he had to deal with every damn day? All that fear, over being hunted, or experimented on, or getting everyone he loved killed- was this how he felt all the time?

Slowly, Valerie stepped towards him and knelt down. Her eyes never left his.

“Danny. I care... so, so much about you. You... you were the first person to really give a shit about me, after the A-listers dropped me.”

Immediately he tensed, and distress filled his eyes.

“I’m-“

“Nope, don’t, stop. You’re not apologizing. Not right now. Maybe later. Not fucking now.”

He fell silent, eyes wide and searching. Still scared, still tense.

“You love space, and puns. Your favorite video game is Doom 4 even though you’ve never won. Your favorite subject is science, you’ve always wanted a dog, and you doodle in the margins of your paper when your bored.” Valerie paused.

Danny seemed to be noticeably more relaxed, as he was no longer gripping his knees so hard that his knuckles (how had she not noticed the scars? They weren’t exactly small.) were white. Good.

“You adore your mom and dad, even if they embarrass you all the time. You look up to your sister more than anyone on the planet, even if you don’t act it. You don’t make friends often, but when you do you stick with them through hell or high water. You’re incredibly smart when it comes to science and math, even if you have bad grades. And above all, you care so much about bathe people around you. You sacrifice everything, your grades, your relationships, your time, to help people who you think need it. And that applies to phantom and Fenton.”

He was crying again. But this time, there was a small, shaky sort of smile there, one that said something like this was looong overdue.

Slowly, Valerie recalled her suit, and wrapped her arms around Danny in a loose hug. He hugged back burying his face into her shoulder as he shook.

They would be okay. They’d figure it out, eventually.

But for now, they just enjoyed the relief in each other.

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Aaaaand that’s a wrap folks! Part three is finally here! Not gonna lie, I wrote this in the span of about two and a half hours on mobile from 9 to about 11:20 pm, so apologies if there are any inconsistencies.

That being said, I would like to do a poll. I have about 120 followers and I was wondering if I should write something special for y’all once I reach 150. So, would you rather I write:

1) a Danny phantom/Rise of the Guardians crossover,

2) a Danny Phantom TUE! Au fic,

Or

3) part 3 of my Glass ghost au?

Comment your choice below and have a happy weekend or whatever.