#and she found where the ghosts of Fentons were starting to form and destroyed them

[chaos-bringer-13]

Jazz's little. Her parents are super cool. They're ghost hunters! It sounds like something from a movie about future and scientists and supernatural beings and cool-looking tech. They have cool-looking tech at home. It's even cooler than tech in the movies.

Jazz also has a little brother. He's stupid but he's hers, and she will protect him from anything. Her brother is very small, he needs someone to protect him and teach him about the world.

She knows about the world. She understands their parents much better than him, and she can tell her brother when they shouldn't be distracted. She knows when they're upset and irritable, and she knows when they're too excited and being near them is dangerous because of all the inventions.

Jazz does a very good job keeping her little brother safe.

---

Jazz goes to school. Her teachers say that she's very smart, the best student in class, and very mature. Her parents are proud of her - when she manages to distract them from ghosts. Her brother is still kinda stupid and doesn't know how to properly fight food, but she's always there to protect him, because that's what older sisters do.

Her classmates seem to think that she's weird though. Some of them say mean things and call her a teacher's pet and a show-off. Jazz isn't sure why they think so because she's always trying to be friendly but maybe she's doing something wrong. She goes to the school library and finds a book about people and their communication.

It's a very interesting book.

---

Jazz is almost a teen. She's gotten better at communicating with people. The school library ran out of psychology books, and Jazz now has to go to the city library but that's fine. Human brain fascinates her.

She's been feeling like something is wrong about her though. She even thought that she was going crazy for a little bit. That probably wasn't true because she didn't match any symptoms but she was still worried.

Someone told her that being so good at lying and faking face expressions is not okay. That's probably not true, Jazz is pretty sure almost everyone can do that. Or maybe she's just being a prodigy again. It's a very good thing to be able to do after all. She can hide her emotions from her family when she's feeling sad. She wouldn't want to worry them, would she?

She'll have to research it.

---

Jazz is a teen. She now knows that her parents aren't actually that good. It's something that was really hard to accept but it did explain everything. Her parents are kinda bad at being parents, and they also don't really listen when she tries to explain it to them.

It's okay. She's almost an adult and Danny has her. She can take care of herself and her brother.

She learns everything she can about being a parent and a therapist and tries to use her knowledge. It's hard, but she's a Fenton, which means that she's very smart and determined. She pushes through, and trains on her classmates and herself.

In the evening she writes about her feelings in a journal. It's very important to be aware of her feelings because that's the first step to dealing with them.

She's experiencing sadness. And anger, actually, even though she doesn't like to admit that.

She writes "this family is a fucking mess" in her journal and then covers the paper with ink until the sentence is absolutely unreadable.

---

Jazz is sixteen, and her stupid parents opened the stupid portal, which means that they're even worse than usual. It's pretty much okay when they're just stuck in their stupid lab, making some stupid weapons. It's not that okay when they're out of the stupid lab, because they get their stupid inventions all over the stupid house, and stupid food comes to life, and she has to protect Danny from both their stupid weapons and stupid hotdogs, and oh god everything is so stupid.

She's experiencing anger.

She's also acting perfectly calm and almost cheerfully.

Jazz hates how perfect her fake smile is in the mirror.

---

Jazz is seventeen. She wants to put her headphones on and listen to some loud music. Jazz can't do that, because she gets anxious if she can't hear what's happening around her. She needs to be fully aware of her surroundings because she needs to be able to protect herself and her brother if weapons against ghosts become weapons against children again.

She thinks that it's not okay.

The house smells of ectoplasm, so she'll be extra careful when opening the fridge.

She thinks that she shouldn't know how ectoplasm smells.

Jazz should probably also warn Danny: her little brother's gotten better at fighting food but doesn't notice the smell of ectoplasm. Funny, considering his ghost sense.

Funny, considering that her brother is a half-ghost.

That her brother died.

That she failed at protecting him after all.

Jazz stops breathing to prevent herself from crying, and doesn't need oxygen for a few minutes too long.

Maybe she failed at protecting herself too.

---

Jazz is turning eighteen next month. Her parents are all of a sudden more attentive and caring, as if that can change their almost-absence during her whole life. She doesn't like their attention because she doesn't know how to deal with it. She doesn't even really think of them as parents anymore.

She thinks of them as a threat.

Once she's eighteen, she's gonna try to move out, and she's going to take Danny with her because it's not safe to leave him here. Maybe after she gets a good job and saves some money, she'll even get into therapy.

Jazz thinks that she needs therapy.

She's been having Bad Thoughts lately, and she doesn't write them down in her journal. Jazz stopped writing anything in there ever since she found out that Danny is a ghost. She just couldn't risk anyone finding that journal.

Jazz isn't sure if she should call those Bad Thoughts intrusive. They scare her, and they're Bad, but it could be just her normal thought process.

It's still definitely not normal.

---

Jazz is eighteen. Her parents are very excited, whispering to each other about how they found a perfect present for her, some surprise that she's gonna love.

She doesn't care.

Her little brother is late from school, and it's weird, because he was also super excited about giving her his present.

She's worried.

Her parents brush off her concern, say that Danny probably just got distracted talking with his friends. They don't listen when she says that Danny wouldn't get distracted like that on her birthday because he's not them, he actually cares about her, he doesn't forget her birthdays, and something has to be wrong for him to be that late.

They don't listen to her at all.

She's angry.

Her parents are excited and talk loudly about how they wanted to find a perfect gift for their favourite daughter, and how they managed to do it because they love her so much. She hates when they're excited. It only leads to problems.

They bring her to the lab because of course they do, why would they make a gift that is normal and isn't kept in the lab, right? They usher her in, so obviously proud of themselves.

She hates them.

And she hates them much, much more the next second, because the gift is her little brother in his ghost form, strapped to a table, unconscious and injured, and the smell of ectoplasm is strong in the lab because of his green blood dripping on the floor.

There's a cold part of her that analyses her feelings and tells her what emotions she's experiencing, and that part is very aware of thick black smoke of wrath twirling and twisting under her skin. It's suffocating, and she stops breathing as it invisibly fills her lungs, scared of letting it out.

There's a perfectly fake part of her that keeps the smile on her face as her parents gush about how hard it was to catch the ecto-scum, and what they can do to it - together with Jazz because they wanted to share this with their amazing daughter.

Jazz is black smoke of rage under perfect glass of calmness when she grabs Fenton anti-creep stick. The smile she learned to fake under any circumstances doesn't falter when Jazz brings the baseball bat down on her father's head. It grows a little bit wider when she hits her mother, because Jazz learned to smile brighter when she's hurt or sad or scared or angry - experiencing any "bad" emotion actually.

Jazz is angry when she grabs her weapon.

Jazz is furious when she kills her parents.

Jazz is worried when she checks her brother's wounds.

Jazz feels nothing when she rigs the portal to blow, walks out of the house and presses the button.

She is her parents' genius daughter after all, and she did listen when they were telling her about their inventions. Maybe it would have taken longer to do, but she had Bad Thoughts, and they probably weren't just intrusive after all, because she did what they told her and made it very easy to make a bomb out of a portal. Just in case. Her parents were a threat, and Jazz was smart enough to prepare to dealing with threats, and she was smart enough to make it look like the threats dealt with themselves.

She really hoped she wouldn't have to use that button though.

---

Jazz is nineteen. Her sort-of-friends at uni offer to go to a restaurant, and she tells them that she doesn't celebrate her birthdays. There's a noise of all of them saying that maybe she should try, noise that she really should have expected, because humans are always so excited about any holidays, it's hard for them to understand that someone might not like them. It's not hard to stop that noise though. They shut up very quickly when Jazz says that she had "a very traumatic event" on her birthday.

Good. She doesn't like loud people.

Jazz goes home to her little brother. He's sad because his parents died in an awful explosion a year ago. He's still trying to smile because it's also her birthday, and Jazz is very happy that he's bad at faking a smile.

It means that he won't end up like her.

Jazz hugs her little brother, and he gives her a little present that she adores, and then they sit in silence and eat some takeout. It's very nice.

She never tells Danny that their parents died before the explosion, and that the explosion wasn't an accident, and that their ghosts did form after that because of all the ecto-contamination they had, but she made sure this wouldn't become a problem. She never tells him what she's done, because that would hurt her little brother, and she would never let anything hurt him.

Jazz will protect her little brother from anything.

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Ras creates an evil clone of Tim Drake for whatever reason and after he trains it it runs off and none of his assasins can find him.

Ras isn't too concerned because he specifically made this clone in a way that it would start to fall apart after three years and he fully expected the clone to come crawling back when that happened.

Except, the clone never came back. If fact no one heard anything from or about him since he ran into this forest three years ago and never left. His men searched that forest countless times and deployed his greatest trackers. They all said the same thing, his trail stops dead in a small grotto. There was no where he could have gone.

Its like he just vanished.

The evil clone turned out to have stumbled apon a natural portal and decided he was screwed if he stayed so why not take a chance. He could probably fight his way out of hell. Probably. The angry swarm of Assasins after him was probably going to be its own form of hell anyway, so why not. He jumped through.

The other side of the portal was not hell, thankfully. It was a small city in Illinois...for some reason. He began to patrol the city in his altered Red Robin Costume, looking for the basic necessities when he stumbles across Phantom who was in the middle of finally being captured by the Fenton parents.

Danny could do nothing as his parents were quickly killed in front of him. When he was freed from his restraints he didn't attack the other teen, he didn't get angry or yell. He cried and thanked him then cried harder.

The clone really didn't know what to do in this situation and just awkwardly comforted the ghost. Danny dragged this guy home when he found out he didn't have a place to stay. Clone Tim was planning on using the hero for a while before bouncing but all this plans changed when he saw what Phantom could do. That kind of power would be owned and controlled by someone eventually, whether it be the League of Assasins or the Justice League it was all the same. So why not him?

Danny was easy to manipulate, his sister not so much. Once he started pointing out that he was protecting Danny from people who would hurt him she became swayed.

He disliked Sam. She reminded him too much of Jason and Damian, or more accurately, a fusion of the two. The horror.

He genuinely liked Tucker, he was carefree and true to himself. Plus who was he to turn down an assistant for creating tech. He had discovered he was no longer in his own universe and the JL and LOA didn't exist here.

Tim Drake didn't exist here.

He was free.

The clone almost cried. He was Tim here. The real Tim. The only Tim. No one to prove he's better than. No one to the "the evil clone" of. Just Tim.

He was going to make the universe regret that. Starting by dating the ridiculously cute and over-powered boy that he most definitely is not in love with. No siree its just him using someone. His heart definitely isn't pounding in his chest right now as he asks him out. Nope. He definitely isn't super giddy when he says yes and kisses him. Haha that only something someone in love would do.

.

.

.

Crap.

-meanwhile in Batmans universe-

Ras casually explains he created an evil clone of Tim and its out there somewhere and its failsafe has somehow been destroyed. (Thank you Danny)

Tim freaks out and the batfam investigate. They do eventually open a portal into Amity Park where Evil Tim immediately tells them to frick off. So much chaos ensues

[bubblegumbeech]

Don’t Try Again

Happy Truce @greatbigolhampuckjustforme

Here’s your fic, I hope you like it! AO3

“Give me your hand.”

She reached towards him. At the same time—no, faster than the others but only by just a moment.

It was long enough. 

Once he took her hand he was pulled, firmly, securely, into her arms. It felt comforting, safe.

She had been his enemy, she had been his friend. She had almost been more.

Now, in this moment, she was his protector.

It had started fine. A normal day. Red Huntress was chasing him down after he dealt with Cujo’s weekly ‘walk’. (The one where he destroyed half the town because he had the zoomies.) 

He hadn’t expected to fly face first into a ghost shield. 

Then again, he had never been particularly observant. 

The shield had been different from what he was used to—sticky and malleable as opposed to solid with a slight buzzy feeling. It also burned, not anything excessive, or that he couldn’t handle, but uncomfortable and corrosive nonetheless. 

He couldn’t get it off. Like a mosquito trapped in amber, the more he struggled the more it started to incase him. Even Red Huntress had stopped, watching in dark fascination as Phantom became trapped. 

His parents had jumped out from around a corner, claiming victory and monologing about their new invention. 

His parents were still celebrating when the GIW found them, and started writing tickets and trying to claim government jurisdiction over his capture. 

Danny didn’t bother rolling his eyes, but he did groan as he felt the substance start to turn hard and sharp around him. It made every move to escape both more difficult and more painful, the still soft and moldable parts eating away at his ectoplasm with the jagged bits digging into fresh wounds and making themselves at home.

He really wasn’t claustrophobic, especially not with the amount of times he got trapped in the thermos. Something about being completely unable to move without his physical form being dismissed though…Every movement punished…

It was shrinking. 

The trap-burning goo-stuff that hurt. 

It was getting smaller and burning through him. His ectoplasm. Was this how Dani felt? When she started fizzling away? 

There was a moment were he just froze, the realization taking hold. He knew, of course, that his parents as hunters weren’t particularly worried about how safe their weapons and traps were to use on ghosts. They had no qualms about… well, anything, in the name of their research and vendetta. 

He just kind of hoped that, like most of their inventions had been so far, their future inventions would turn out to be mostly useless. 

His eyes met Red Huntress. She, unlike the other hunters, was not celebrating. She was watching though. Her nails tapped in an erratic rhythm against the weapon clipped to her belt and she looked on edge. Like she was half a second away from doing… something. 

Danny didn’t know what that something might be.

Wasn’t really sure he wanted to either. His faith in humanity was starting to be at risk. At least Skulker’s traps were only ever uncomfortable or shorted out his powers. He’d never had one slowly start to dissolve him. 

But he knew what he had to do. It wasn’t worth Ending over. And he could always do something to fix it if it went badly. As long as he survived. As long as whatever this was didn’t reach his core. 

He transformed.

It hurt. 

The crystallized goo splintered apart, cutting and tearing even deeper into Danny’s skin. But it didn’t burn anymore. At least whatever this was wouldn’t work on both forms. No worries about it being a modern Blood Blossom. 

His parents’ eyes went wide behind their goggles, there was a gasp from Red Huntress and the GIW moved for their weapons. 

Maddie was the fastest.

She hit him—hard. 

The Fenton Anti-Creep Stick cracked against the side of his head and Danny staggered back down to his knees, crashing them into some of the thin splinters of the sharpened goo. 

What? Why did she….?

He shook his head but that sent the whole world spinning and didn’t help him decipher any of the things being screamed over him. 

The only thing he saw as the edges of his sight went blurry was Red Huntress reaching out, and the only thing he could do was take her hand before he collapsed entirely. 

Danny woke up in a familiar room. It wasn’t his though, and he couldn’t remember—

“Owww,” he groaned, hand lifting to his head. Everything was still spinning, despite his accelerated healing. Luckily the rest of the wounds, cuts and general abrasions had disappeared during his impromptu nap. Only his knees were really still chewed up and someone had cleaned them up at least.

Right now he kind of wished his brain had disappeared too. 

Two warm hands pressed gently at his shoulders. “Lie back down lover boy,” a warm voice said from beside him. “You’re hurt.”

“Val?” he asked, his vision still blurry. “What did you…?”

“I took you home to get you bandaged. You transformed in front of damn near every ghost hunter in town.”

He let himself fall back into the plush pillow, biting at his lip to try and ground the pain. “So you knew.”

There was a snort, and Danny closed his eyes. Figured. He was bad at lying.

“I didn’t know,” she said, to Danny’s surprise. “But I know your… cousin. So when you transformed I put two and two together. Unlike other, less talented hunters, I know you are who you say you are.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Her grip on his shoulders tightened, just a bit, before letting go and smoothing the wrinkles out of his shirt. 

“Your parents are on a man hunt. They think the worst. You remember that Amorpho guy?”

“Couldn’t forget him if I tried.” A useful ally, but a horrible enemy to have. Especially if you didn’t know his tells. 

“Yeah, well, they think you're something like a cross between him and Spectra.” She looked uncomfortable. “They think you… stole your own body.” 

Danny sighed. “Of course they do. I need to talk to them, set this right.”

But Val was still holding him down.

“You’re not going anywhere to get yourself killed until you’re fully healed. Understand?”

Danny nodded slowly, careful not to move too much and set off the spinning again. 

“Good.” She smiled, brushed a bit of hair from his forehead , then leaned down and kissed him gently on the corner of his eye. “Go back to sleep. I’ll run interference.”

He was fairly certain that sleeping after a concussion was probably a big no, but he was already half dead and a little brain damage was nothing compared to some of the other stuff he’d dealt with. So Danny let himself fall asleep, two warm and delicate hands carding through his hair and carefully avoiding the bandage there. 

When he woke up it was to the smell of food. Real food, without that zesty sting of ectoplasm he’d grown used to. It smelled delicious, even if Danny’s head was still spinning as bad as it was last night he still probably wouldn’t have been able to resist seeking it out. 

He was pretty much healed by now though, even with the sting of whatever it was that had gotten him trapped in the first place. 

Walking slowly into the kitchen, he saw Val at the table, two plates and two cups of coffee still just barely steaming.

“You’re lucky,” she said. “The food was going to get cold if you took any longer waking up.”

“Thanks.” He sat down across from her and took a bite out of the toast before diving after the coffee.

Valerie was looking at him. It was the same gaze she’d always reserved for Danny Fenton ever since their almost-not-relationship. Warm, bemused, soft. 

For some reason he had expected it to change when she found out. To turn sour, or dark, or bitter, or betrayed—

“Stop thinking so much,” she said, tossing a piece of toast at him.

He caught it and immediately licked the jam off in a small petty act of retribution. 

Her laugh was still the same. And despite every warning Sam and Tucker had ever given, it still turned his core to goo just hearing it.

“You’re not mad?” He set the toast down, fiddling with his hands and avoiding eye contact. He knew what the answer likely was. Even so, he still really needed to hear it out loud. Something. A certainty worth holding onto even if it was likely to break his heart. 

“Should I be?” she said softly, dropping her chin onto the back of her hand. “I mean, I tried to End you quite a bit before we started getting along better. And you knew who I was. That I was the one hunting you. 

“Honestly if you had told me I would have thought you were trying to trick me or something but…”

“But?”

She caught his gaze for a bit, searching. Eventually she gave up, pushed back from the table and sighed. “I saw your expression when your mom hit you.”

What expression did he have? Scared? Desperate? Was it too human to not believe?

Val gathered the empty dishes and walked them to the sink. Danny rushed to follow, offering to dry as she cleaned them. 

“… You looked like you were expecting it.”

Ah.

She turned to him, her hand resting warm and still a bit wet over his own on the counter. 

“Will you be okay Danny?”

That was the question wasn’t it? 

“I don’t think that’s really up to me anymore,” he chuckled, rubbing at the back of his neck with his free hand. 

Val frowned. Her grip tightened. 

“Val?”

She stepped even closer, not letting him pull back, crowding him against the counter and wow.

Danny knew she was strong– all sturdy muscles and a solid frame so vastly unlike his own lanky moldable-even-when-he-was-human form, but it was different entirely to have the full force of that muscle pressed against him.

He fought a blush. They’d decided, the two of them, that their fight was more important. Danny needed to protect Amity Park. So did Val. 

They’d tried protecting it from each other. Then with each other. Then adjacent to each other. 

It was better not to get too involved with all those… secrets.

“Danny,” she said, catching his eyes. “No more secret identities right?”

He nodded. 

She nodded too and lifted a hand slowly to his cheek, as if asking for permission. He didn’t stop her.

Even as she leaned in. Even as she kissed him. 

He tried to stop her when she pulled away though. 

They stayed like that for some time. Touch, taste, warmth, the only things Danny bothered to think about. Living (for once) in the moment. 

But there was only so long a single moment could last, and eventually they pulled apart. 

“If you need help—“

Danny chuckled. “I already come to you when I need help, Val.”

She blushed, her skin just a touch darker around her ears and cheeks. “Shut up,” she said. “This time I won’t try and run you off, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Let’s get to school.” She walked back to her room to grab her bag, and Danny remembered he was still wearing the same gross clothes from yesterday. They were torn in very unflattering ways with splatters of unknown goo, ectoplasm, and blood. 

They also smelled bad. 

“Uh… lemme call Jazz first.”

Jazz was able to bring his clothes so he could shower in the locker room. Other than that, school was pretty normal. He warned Sam and Tucker that his secret was probably out so they should be prepared in case anyone went after them.

The trouble was, he didn’t really know what to do now. Should he go home? Ask to stay at someone’s place? Hide out in the Zone for a bit? What would help get his parents to trust him? What would keep him safe?

Was there even a good answer to that?

Why was he so scared? There were plenty of times they found out and accepted him… before he reset time or reality or their memories—

He could always do that again. Ask Clockwork for a favor, rewind time a day. Just one. He was usually pretty accommodating with those kinds of requests. 

But the memory of a warm kiss after breakfast stopped him. 

Would they have that if he didn’t let this go?

Was one of these things worth the cost of the other?

Why was he so scared? Still? 

Val found him after the last class ended. There weren’t any ghost attacks all day. Danny didn’t know if it was because the day itself was just a bit boring, or if his parents' new traps had done more damage than he’d like to think about, but he still couldn’t concentrate in class.

Because of course not. His day off was for worry and confusion and over thinking. Relaxation? That was for the — well clearly not for the dead, huh? 

“You’re sure you feel alright?” she asked. 

“Right as rain!” Danny forced an easy going grin. “Real rain, not the ecto-mix we get here in Amity Park.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re half ghost. I think the Ecto-mix is actually a better metaphor.”

Exaggerating a pout, Danny trailed a fake tear down the side of his cheek. “You wound me.”

“I’ll try to avoid that in the future.” She ruffled his hair, gently, and then she was gone. With the speed she left, she probably had work right after school. 

He watched her go, lost in thoughts once more. What were they now? What could they be if he just let this go? Let whatever was happening, happen. 

What would happen if he didn’t?

“Danny?” Jazz tapped him on the shoulder. Startling him. 

It took a second of Danny holding a hand over his heart and glaring at his sister before he calmed back down to his usual– probably unhealthy– levels of anxiety.

He shook his head and started walking. “Sorry, thinking about homework. What were you saying?”

She didn’t look convinced. She shouldn’t, he was a bad liar. But he was trying. “Are you sure you want to come home tonight? Val told me—“

“Yeah,” he shrugged, forcing his smile to look more relaxed than he felt. “The longer I put it off the worse it’ll be, you know?”

Jazz shook her head. “It’s your choice little brother.”

No, not really. If he had a choice…

Would he tell them anything at all? Would he have told anyone?

Wouldn’t he have kept it from Jazz too?

“Mom?” Danny knocked on the door of the lab, Jazz next to him just in case. “Dad? Can I talk to you for a second?”

It was silent. Danny called out again. 

This… wasn’t a good sign. 

He stepped back.

A voice, sickly sweet. “Where are you going, sweety?”

“I… uh…”

His mom and dad stepped up from the bottom of the basement, the shadows hiding most of their expressions. 

“I needed to explain—“

He heard it before he saw it. But it didn’t matter either way. Jazz was pushing him aside and shouting. 

“Get out of here for now!”

So he did.

He disappeared and watched his sister argue with his parents about how human he was and—

“We won’t hurt him! We just want to make sure—“

Was the last thing he heard before he made it outside. 

To make sure.

Of what? How? What was that thing they shot at him? A new invention? Already? 

His stamina had never been very good so the short sprint from home was very short and soon Danny was just walking in the opposite direction of his house. Aimless. 

It wasn’t like he had to worry about curfew right then, not with the much bigger threat looming over him. 

He was just outside the Nasty burger and about a third of the way to Tucker’s place when he heard it. 

“Get run out?” 

“Taking a walk,” Danny smiled up at Red Huntress as she hovered above him. “Walking’s for nerds. Come take a flight with me instead.”

So he did that too. 

Easier to go with the flow than to try and think on his own. 

He transformed, not bothering to look if anyone saw him. The ones that mattered knew now anyways. 

“Can you even keep up on that thing?” He nodded towards Val’s hoverboard even as she revved it.  “Or should I go easy on you?”

“Hah!” She shifted her weight back, zooming forward past Danny. “If anything, I should be the one with a handicap.”

He smirked, watching her silhouette as it got smaller, then flew after her. It was more fun to catch up than to stay ahead. 

They ran across Skulker. Because of course they did. Turned out the reason today was so quiet was because he’d been planning some kind of ambush and scaring other ghosts away. 

Too bad for him.

“Ah,” he said, looking up from the trap he was setting as Danny and Val both slowed to a stop above him. “You’re here a bit… early.”

“Sorry about that,” Danny said, “I’d have taken another lap around town before stopping but I didn’t want to embarrass anyone.”

“Ha,” Red Huntress rested her large ecto-weapon on her shoulder. “You’re lucky I was going easy on you then. Otherwise the one embarrassed would be Phantom.”

“You’re just saying that cause I won~”

“In your dreams.”

“That’s weird, the last dream I had you were definitely—“

She coughed, loudly. “J-just help me catch this creep!”

Success. Danny would love to see if she was blushing under her helmet, but for now just getting her flustered was reward enough. 

Skulker had tried to run off while the two of them were distracted, so Danny threw a wall of ice in front of him, forcing him to turn around. He shot a net out in retaliation, and Danny (in his usual fashion) couldn’t decide whether to phase through it or dodge and got tangled up in it.

“Shit—“

“Ha! I see your dodging hasn’t improved.” Red Huntress zoomed past, aiming her ectoweapon and firing three shots successively. Each one missed as Skulker dodged and burned a hole through Danny’s ice shield. 

“I see your aim hasn’t improved,” he sneered, finally cutting away the last of the net with a sharpened piece of Ecto-ice. 

An ecto-blast whistled right past his ear and Danny glanced up, affronted. 

“Whoops~,” Red Huntress sang before following after it. “Try to keep up this time, would ya?”

Danny let himself smile as he kicked away the last of the net. Maybe he should let her win this one.

They had defeated Skulker and Danny let Red Huntress trap him in her cube to send him back to the Ghost Zone. He didn’t really know when he’d be able to use his parents’ portal again after all. 

She released her suit, and he undid his transformation, and the two of them walked, hand in hand for a bit, before deciding to get some food at the Nasty Burger.

He hadn’t even taken a bite of the fries before everything started to weigh on him again. 

“I just… don’t get it,” he mumbled, unable to even taste the salty mush now in his mouth. “You handled it so well.”

Val sat back. “I told you, I met your cousin. I already knew about—“

“Everyone always handles it so well… why can’t they?”

He didn’t mean to interrupt. Didn’t really mean to say any of it out loud either. But she leaned in before he could apologize. 

“What do you mean Danny?” Her hand reached for his. 

“Everytime…” he thought back to the different times and different situations where his secret got out. Desiree, Freakshow, some of the others… “Dash and Paulina and Lancer always handle it well when they find out even though they hate me—“

“I don’t think Mr. Lancer hates you.”

“And Jazz handled it so well too! Why isn’t there one—one timeline where they handled it with grace?”

“Danny,” her hand grabbed his shoulder. “Timeline?”

He didn’t answer.

She let go reluctantly and it showed on her face. In the pinch of her brow and the confusion of her eyes. 

“Danny, can you do something for me?”

Her voice was light and Danny found himself nodding without even thinking. Of course he would. He would do anything he could to help her.

It took a moment. Them gazing into each others eyes, trying to read what the other was thinking, before she smiled and pat his hand. 

“Good. Promise me you won’t reset this timeline. You won’t try to change their reactions—“

“But—“

She held a hand to his mouth. “No. Give them a chance to grow, to get used to it. And don’t take this,” she squeezed his shoulder, gesturing to the two of them, “away from me.”

“Okay,” he said, “okay.”

They shared another small kiss, short and sweet, before she punched him on the shoulder and told him to man up.

“I’ll go with you,” she said. “Let’s set this straight.”

And maybe this time they would. 

[raaorqtpbpdy]

The One (3)

For the Phic Phight prompts: Soulmate Au where after your soulmate  dies, you can only see in black  and white. As in you see normal colors  until they die and then only in  black and white for the rest of your  life, so you only ever know if you  had a soulmate once it's too late.  Except Character A's (up to you who  you want it to be) soulmate is  Danny. While Danny is in Phantom form,  character A's vision is in black  and white, but returns to normal color  when Danny is Fenton. Character  A is going crazy trying to find their  soulmate who keeps dying and  getting resurrected. (from @ghostboidanny) and Wes is the first one to find out Danny's secret. No One Knows AU. (from @murphy-kitt)

Chapter 3: With New Full Color Pages

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AO3 Link

[Warnings for death mentions and light stalking (because it’s Wes)]

Wes spent the next few weeks looking up newspapers from all over the Midwest, trying to find any articles about accidents or incidents the day he stopped seeing color for the first time. He scoured hundreds of newspapers, maybe even thousands, to no avail. During that period his color vision disappeared and returned almost every day, sometimes more than once.

Though he'd been relieved the first time the colors returned, after the fifth time all he felt was dread for the next time they faded. Whoever his soulmate was, they were obviously not doing so great. They could die for good any day now, and he still hadn't found them!

While his focus was elsewhere, something incredible was happening right in his home town. Ghosts were invading Amity Park.

A lot of people still didn't believe it, Kyle especially didn't believe it, but after a spectral lunch lady nearly destroyed the entire school with meat creatures just because that one goth girl lobbied for a vegan day, Wes was inclined to believe. Luckily not all the ghosts were bad. There was at least one ghost keeping the others in line.

He never stuck around long, so no one had ever gotten his name, but whoever he was, he seemed to be protecting the humans, so a lot of Casper High students had taken a liking to him right away. Wes probably would have too, but every time he showed up, Wes' vision went grayscale and he was too worried about his soulmate to think too much about the ghost boy.

It wasn't until after the papers had dubbed the ghost Inviso-Bill that Wes even learned what he really looked like. Paulina, the cheerleader, was waxing poetic about his gorgeous green eyes in history class, and Wes stopped cold. He leaned over his desk to talk to her.

"He has green eyes?" he asked her. She turned in her seat to look at him with disdain. He'd never understand why she did that. After all, he was a jock too; he was a starter on the Basketball team this year.

"Uh, yeah," she said obviously. "They're so gorgeous and they glow like stars. Have you never seen him?" She rolled her eyes and turned back around, clearly not looking for an answer.

"Not in color," he mumbled to himself, leaning back in his seat thoughtfully.

Wes' family had always called him 'creative' to his face, and 'crazy' behind his back, because he had a tendency to come up with wild theories about the way the world worked. One of those wild theories was starting to form in his brain just then. Even he knew that it was insane, that it was impossible. Unless.... well, unless it wasn't.

The first thing Wes had to do to test his theory was compare all the times his vision had gone black and white to all the times Inviso-Bill had been spotted. He'd kept a log in his notebook since the third time it happened, writing down when the colors faded and when they returned, to compare with newspapers. That was turning out to be pretty useful now. Next, he talked to some people at school, where Inviso-Bill was seen most often, to get approximate times of when he was spotted.

Sure enough, every time Inviso-Bill was spotted aligned with a window where Wes' soulmate had been briefly dead. There were some periods where Wes couldn't see color but Inviso-Bill hadn't been seen, but that didn't necessarily mean he hadn't been around. They guy could turn invisible, after all.

Once he'd verified that, Wes dusted off his old camera and started carrying it with him. He needed to get some clear shots of Inviso-Bill if he was going to figure out who he was when he was alive. Sure enough, the next time Wes stopped seeing color, moments later, the ghost was spotted.

While most people were running away, Wes sprinted toward the raging battle. It was not easy to get clear shots of the ghost while he was fighting what appeared to be a massive dragon—which was intensely cool, by the way—but Wes managed to get at least one decent shot of Inviso-Bill standing up after being thrown into the bleachers. The colors returned while Wes was looking at the shots he'd gotten, and he looked up to see the ghost boy and the dragon both gone.

When he got home, Wes hung up his old cork board. The best thing about no longer sharing a room was that Kyle wasn't around to make fun of him for having a conspiracy board. He pulled his tin of thumbtacks out of his desk drawer while his photos printed. Inviso-Bill, as it turned out, didn't look all that much different in color. Except for the fact that, just like Paulina had said, he had glowing green eyes.

"Who are you?" Wes asked as he pinned the clearest photo onto the center of the cork-board. He huffed out a breath. "I guess it's up to me to find out."

He started by combing through the most recent Casper High yearbook. Luckily, Wes had the benefit of knowing exactly when Inviso-Bill first died—providing his theory was correct, so there was no need to look through older yearbooks. Him being a Casper High student was more of a hunch. The ghost boy seemed to spend a disproportionate amount of time saving the high school, although, that could've been because ghosts happened to attack there more often for some reason.

Wes circled some people in the yearbook that look like they could be Inviso-Bill, but none of them were quite a match. It was also hard to get an idea of their heights based on a head and shoulders yearbook photo. Matthew Davidson, for example. His yearbook photo looked very similar to Inviso-Bill, but Wes knew him, and knew that he was a good foot taller than the ghost, which—unless he died from being vertically compressed—took him off the list of suspects.

The only problem with identifying suspects from the previous year's yearbook was that none of the current freshman were in it. Inviso-Bill was kind of short and scrawny, so Wes theorized that, if he was a Casper High student at all, he was probably a freshman, or maybe a sophomore. So he had to talk Kyle into getting the school records for him so he could compare them with local middle school yearbooks.

"I want you to write my English essay on Animal Farm for Mr. Lancer's class," Kyle said when Wes asked what he'd need in exchange for hacking the school.

"No."

"Come on, please?" His brother pouted imploringly. "You're way better at writing essays than I am!"

"Yeah, I know," Wes crossed his arms, "and Mr. Lancer knows too, and he will one-hundred percent notice if I write your essay for you. I'm not gonna get detention for this."

"Then I won't hack the school records for you."

"Oh, come on!" Wes groaned and threw his hands up in frustration. "Fine, how about this. I won't write your essay for you, but I'll proof-read all your English homework for the month. You still have to do it yourself, but it'll at least bring your grade up, and I know English is your worst subject."

Kyle thought about it for a long moment, tapping his bottom lip with his index finger. "For the semester," he countered.

"Only if you also help me study for my math finals."

"Deal."

"Then deal."

Wes had the school records by the end of the day. Getting his hands on middle school yearbooks was a pain in the ass, but he managed. Eventually, he narrowed it down to the three most likely suspects, based on appearance. Martin Pierce, Liam Greene, and Daniel Fenton.

Upon investigation, he discovered that, despite being in the Casper High records, Liam Greene had actually moved away before the school year had even started. Probably something unexpected, like family member in another state getting sick, or his parents getting a big job opportunity in another city. In any case, he didn't live in Amity Park anymore, so he was off the list.

And then there were two.

"Hey," Wes stopped a guy in the hallway. He didn't know the freshman's name, but he'd seen the kid hanging around Daniel Fenton, and he was pretty sure they were close. "You're Fenton's friend, right? What's your name?"

"Tucker," the boy said. "Who's asking?"

"Name's Wes," he introduced. "What can you tell me about Fenton?"

"Why?" Tucker narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Time to spin the wheel of excuses.

"I heard he was a good student," Wes said. His middle school yearbook had shown the kid grinning widely in front of his first place science fair project, so he felt like it was a safe assumption. "I'm looking to recruit people for the school newspaper club. You earn extra credit if you join."

Tucker snorted. "He used to be. Every since he started high school, Danny's grades have sunk big time. You must be thinking of his sister. Jazz is the brainiac."

Of course, his grades could've dropped for any number of reasons, but Wes imagined dying and then fighting seemingly endless ghosts didn't leave a whole lot of time for homework. It wasn't any more of a stretch than thinking the kid was a ghost in the first place.

"Well, what can you tell me about her then?" he asked. The two of them were siblings, so it would make for a decent start. "Home life, interests, stuff like that?"

"Well... their parents think they're ghost scientists, but they're not what I would call good at it," Tucker answered consideringly. "I'm pretty sure Jazz is into, like, psychology and stuff. I don't think she'd be interested in the school newspaper."

"Ah, well, it was worth a shot," Wes said with a shrug. "I don't suppose you'd be interested?"

"Not on your life," came the derisive response, and then Tucker was walking away down the hall.

His parents were ghost scientists. That was promising. Who knew what kind of crazy lab experiment of theirs Danny might've stumbled into? The ghost boy did wear some kind of jumpsuit, it could totally have been a protective suit of some kind. Maybe a lab accident could explain how he could be both dead and alive.

Danny became all the more promising when Martin Pierce turned out to be a complete bust. Pierce, had shaved his head since graduating middle school, and Inviso-Bill didn't have a buzz cut. According to his friends, Martin had started shaving his head over the summer, which meant there was no possibility that he'd had a different haircut on the day Wes had first seen in black and white.

That left Danny Fenton.

From that day onward, Wes kept a very close eye on Fenton, as close as he could, anyway. He'd see the boy run into the bathroom and never come out again. He'd see the boy flinch violently when he got a static shock from a metal doorknob. Once, he'd seen his eyes flash bright green when he was angry, for the briefest of moments. Then, finally, he saw it.

Danny must've thought no one was watching. He looked around, and Wes ducked out of sight. When he looked again, rings of light had appeared around Danny's middle and traveled up and down his body. When the light faded, Wes' color vision faded with it, and Inviso-Bill was standing right where Danny had been.

Wes' eyes widened and he leaned against the wall he was hiding behind as the ghost boy took off to fight the Box Ghost for the fourth time that week.

"Holy shit," he breathed out. "I can't believe I actually found my soulmate... and he's half dead."

[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.” 

[aenxiome]

Chapter 3: Suck it up Fenton

The rest of the day ended up being lackluster.

In the beginning, things were going well, seating assignments had been changed, and more teachers roamed the halls during and between classes. Unfortunately, the changes aren't going to last. While teachers were punishing students for bad behavior, it wasn't always the ones who did the deed that got punished. It is almost like the trouble makers started rapidly evolving. Many of the A-List target students got detention, with their reflective bully doing a whole 180 when a teacher showed up. Thankfully I managed not to get detention for a second day and a row, but that may be from Dash getting in trouble earlier today.

I may be giving my classmates more credit than they are worth, though. Before today, none of the teachers ever monitored the events in the hallways—giving everyone free rein to do what they wished without any consequences. This isn't anyone evolving. This is their way of getting around the new, hopefully, standards that they are trying to implement. If things continue to go this way, the A-Lists and others are just going to become less subtle in their actions. Not that I expect them to be able to pull it off in the end, but the new arrangement might cause even more issues.

'Great going Fenton, you just screwed everyone, I tell myself. Not everyone can handle themselves as well as you can. This is going to mean so much trouble. But, I try to look on the bright side, thinking about Astronomy. I got some papers back today, full credit on my star chart, though that's pretty much expected of me at this point. So not too surprising. Hopefully, other classes will improve with the seating arrangements being changed, but there is no way of telling if they truly will.

Once classes were over and done with, I met up Sam and Tucker at the Nasty Burger. The restaurant is just starting to get busy with the constant incoming groups of students coming through the door. Thankfully we can claim our regular booth and put in an order for food. " So, how did your guys' day go?" Tucker asks, fiddling with one of his newer PDAs. He goes through PDAs as Dad goes through fudge, a lot of them and all the time. Sam and I just shrug in response and continue the conversation going through some random small talk.

In the middle of our conversation, Tucker suddenly goes still and stares at the PDA. He shoves the device in front of Sam's face making her read whatever has grabbed his attention. Once she is done looking at whatever it is, she and Tucker make eye contact conveying something to each other that I am unable to make out. Sam starts to say something but is interrupted by our food arriving.

"Danny," Tucker says as I shove fries into my mouth, " what happened last night?" I give him a questioning look. Sam slides over the PDA it is showing a local news article. The headline, "MORE DESTRUCTION IN AMITY," is plastered at the top. Below it shows a picture of a destroyed abandoned lot, the same lot from the fight with Skulker earlier this morning.

MORE DESTRUCTION IN AMITY

by Charisma Lynn

This morning residents of this local neighborhood woke up to the remains of another ghost fight. All around the grounds, traces of the battle can be found. Burn marks cover the ground in many areas showing the intensity of the fight. When officials first got on the scene, they found a couple of abnormalities not commonly seen. In a couple of different places, shattered pieces of ghostly green energy can be found. At first appearance, the pieces look like stained glass, but after the first contact turns into a gooey substance. Residents are being told not to worry as the substance is completely harmless but to still take caution. Along with the glass-like substance is a frozen piece of the ground. Even in the sunlight, the spot has shown no difference and is as hard as a rock. Out of the earth is a broken piece of ice. So far, we are unable to tell where the ice has come from, but our best guess is from some kind of ghostly interference. Many residents of the neighborhood have to ask where Phantom was? Was he part of the destruction, or is there a new ghost in town? Find out more tonight at 6 on APC.

I look up from the article to see Sam and Tucker staring at me. I shove more unsalted fries into my mouth. Did you know salt is a natural ghost repellent I, unfortunately, learned that the hard way. Never again. I finish chewing before reassuring them, " Guys, it's fine it was just a typical ghost fight." Tucker starts on his food apparently satisfied with my answer while Sam looks like she is getting ready to argue, but I interject before she gets the chance.

" It was just Skulker, it wasn't anything too bad" the mixture of "too bad" and Skulker grabs Tucker's attention once again. With him too now giving me a critiquing look over. " Are you sure dude? You aren't hurt anywhere are you?" His voice started to become a little bit frantic as he says, "Because Im not going to the hospital. Sorry but that's where I draw the line."

" Okay, but that doesn't explain what's up with the ice spot and glassy thingy," Sam says, bringing us back to the point of the conversation. " Not now," I tell them. I glance around the crowded room before looking back to them, "not here."

They look as if they are preparing to argue as I whisper, " in private." I get a couple of questioning looks as I continue, " Theres' too many people that could overhear" With the promise to talk about it later, our meal went back to everyday small talk and griping about whatever else is bothering us.

Thankfully they let it go. For now, at least.

We finish up our meal and leave the restaurant, then start on down the road. "So," Sam asks, looking in my direction, " where exactly are we going? Your place?" I start to agree but get cut off by Tucker, " We should go to the lot." I give him a questioning glance. He continues his thought, saying, " The picture in the article doesn't show much, and you never know the media could be over-exaggerating again."

"Why not," Sam says with the tone of excitement in her voice, " sounds like fun." I stop walking as I think it over. Before I can say anything, the two of them rush off ahead in the direction of the lot while a feeling of dread overtakes me. "Guys," I call out to them, trying to catch back up, " I don't think this is a good idea." I tell them in a rush, "I will tell you about it when we get to my place. We don't need to go there." Sam narrows her eyes at me before saying, "you're hiding something."

" No, that's not it," I wring my hands in my shirt, unsure of how to proceed. She doesn't let up with her glare at my words. Sam sighs and comes towards me, grabs my arm, and pulls me along with her. I try to pull myself away without hurting her, but I just can't seem to do it. Finally, I become resigned and hesitantly follow without protest.

Didn't they read the same article that I did? It says authorities looked at the lot. They would have had to call ghost experts. Who is to say that they still aren't there? What are we going to say if the Guys In White stuck around? Or even worse, my parents.

When we arrive, the lot is empty, only showing past signs of anyone having been here. The three of us cautiously walk towards the destruction. Next to me, I hear Tucker gasp before saying, "Oh my…" he stops himself before saying anything else. Sam isn't much better putting her hand around my arm in a vice grip.

Before them stands the evidence of one of my fights. In the daylight, the damage looks worse than it did under the moon, making me feel even worse about our actions than I already do. The ground doesn't look so much burned but scorched. As if a fire had burned away its beauty and left a hot steaming pile of muck in its place.

The few trees that line the property have missing limbs that have either splintered or lie on the ground. Shards of ectoplasm are scattered around in the grass, waiting for an unsuspecting human to fall victim to its goo or a ghost to impale its self on its sharp edges. In the middle of it, all is the spikey ice collum surrounded by the frozen frosty ground.

" So they under exaggerated this time," Tucker said, trying to bring humor to the situation, " who would have guessed." I look away from them, ashamed. " It didn't look this bad at night," I say softly, " It didn't" Unable to meet their eyes, I walk forward towards the Ice. Sam and Tucker tell me not to touch anything that I don't know where it comes from As I get near it. I ignore them and put my hand on the side of the spike. Even in human form, I am still unable to feel any of its coldness. It feels just as warm as the air around us, a little moist but not cold.

Sam and Tucker, at some point, walk towards the spike and join me at my side while I inspect the spike. " What does it feel like to you?" I ask. " Dude, it's Ice, it's cold. What else is it supposed to feel like?" I continue to glide my hand over the ice while telling them to humor me. I watch as they put their hands onto the ice, and as soon as they touch it, their hands go flying away from it. They both hold their hand as if something is attacking them. "Danny, how can you touch that!" Sam exclaims, " that stuff is freezing!"

" It feels warm to me," I tell them nonchalantly as if this is an everyday occurrence. " Danny, this isn't normal," Sam says in a worried tone. I don't say anything in response, knowing that this isn't normal for human beings, not at all. Instead, I stare at the ice, trying to figure out how to fix it, when suddenly, an idea comes to my head. I look towards them and hum to catch their attention, "Hey, do you think you can back up for a second? I have something I want to try."

As soon as they are far away enough, I check and double-check that no one is around. Before going forward on my idea, I yell to Tucker, " Tuck, can you check for cameras and stuff first?" He pulls out his PDA and tells me, " No problem with 'Simone' I'll know if anything is there in a jiffy." I wait a second until I hear him give the okay and start my attempt.

My eyes start to glow an icy ethereal blue as I stand before the spike and tap into my ice core. I can feel the cold rushing through me and out to my surroundings. In my presence, the spike starts to repair itself as I let my core come to the surface. In the middle of the spike, I can feel a connection to myself, its ectoplasmic connection to myself. Instead of pushing the ice out, I pull it in, and before my eyes, the ice starts to melt. Instead of shattering like before, it slowly becomes raw energy becoming a blue-white blob.

I gather as much energy as I can from the earth, defrosting it and adding it to the rest of the blob. I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding when all of the ice finished melting. I look around the lot for the scorched places, instinctively knowing what to do. I melt the icy ectoplasmic blob even more into water and send it around to saturate the ruined earth. When the ecto-water hits the ground, the earth lets out a satisfying hiss. The ground looks as if it has partially recovered, making it look like months have gone by instead of only a few hours since the initial conflict. Slowly I let go of my core, letting my eyes go back to their normal human hue. A smile comes to my face at my accomplishment, and I look over at Sam and Tucker. They are both staring at me with huge eyes with different emotions flashing through them: amazement, surprise, and wonder.

I go to take a step towards them when the world starts to spin. I feel myself stumble forward. " Danny!" I hear my name called out in fear and a rushing of feet coming to me. A wave of nausea hits me hard, and I lose my balance falling forward. Luckily Sam is just close enough for me to fall onto. "Danny," I hear my name called out again, " oh my gosh, are you okay?" Feeling too weak to answer, all I can do is groan.

" What are we going to do?" I hear Tucker ask Sam frantically, " we can make it to his place from here, and both of our houses are on the other side of town." The two of them keep coming up with ideas that won't work to get us out of the lot. I try to interject but just moving my mouth causes me pain.

Finally, I manage to groan out a name, "Jazz," but they don't seem to hear me. I try again, a bit louder this time, "Jazz," Sam stops talking, and when Tucker doesn't, I listen to her hit him in the back of the head. "Hey, what was that for" he complains, "Shush, Danny said something." With the raging quiet for the last time, I groan, "Jazz."

A quick vague phone call later and give or take a few minutes, Jazzs' car pulls up, and they give a sigh of relief. I hear a door slam and a worried Jazz making her way over. When she gets to us, I try to look up at her and grab her attention, but I am unable to reach her eyes. " What happened" She interrogated as she crouches down to take hold of me. I feel fatigued and start to lose track of the conversation. The next thing I know, someone has picked me up, and I'm in the car. I feel at ease with the motion of the car as we race home. It doesn't take long for me to close my eyes and fall asleep.

When I come to, I'm staring at the old stick-on stars that are attached to my bedroom ceiling. I cautiously sit up, feeling the strain of an invisible muscle, my core, in my chest. My sister and friends are spread out in the room, passed out exhausted. I glance at the clock next to my bed and read the time 3:18 AM. I try to get up from the bed, but I tumble down onto the floor. The sound wakes up Jazz, making her spring into action, helping me back up. "Hey," she whispers, "don't move too fast. You are still recovering."

I wince a little at the movement. Once she gets me steady, I whisper, "Can you help me get to the bathroom." She nods and carefully helps me to the bathroom. Once everything is situated, Jazz brings me back to my room and helps me onto the bed. I scoot over, making enough room for her to join me, which she quickly accepts.

"They told me what happened at the lot," she says, motioning towards my friends, " What were you thinking trying something like that?" She admonishes. I snuggle into her, getting comfortable before starting my defense, " I was just trying to clean up the mess we make," With a look, I explain further, " Skulker and I fought there last night. It went a little longer than expected. I didn't realize that we made such a mess."

"What about the ice," she inquires. I give half a shrug, " It was unexpected; I don't know how it happened." I tell her truthfully, " I plan to go visit Frostbite this weekend and see if he knows anything." She starts raking her hand through my hair then continues the conversation, " They said you got rid of the ice and fixed part of the ground? They didn't explain it too well. Care to elaborate?"

"It's weird. I just kind of knew how to do it. It was like…." I trail off, not liking the word I need to use. Jazz, unfortunately, knew where to pick up at, "Instinct?" She questions, with my silence being the only acknowledgment she needs. She sighs before saying, "It's okay, you know, to admit it." We lay there for a while before I decide to respond, " I can't." I react in denial, " If I acknowledge it, then it makes it true." Jazz lets out a breathy laugh at that, " So, what if you don't talk about it? It's going to go away?"

" I wish," I mumble, "It's just if I talk about it, then it becomes more real. I can pretend to be normal." She scoffs at my response, " Normal is overrated anyway." I let out a yawn and looked over at the time 4:03 AM. " Can we talk about this later? It's late." She lets out a yawn of her own, having caught mine before saying accusingly, " You just don't want to talk about it." I don't deny her accusation but put some more distance between the two of us and painfully turn over.

What does she want me to tell her? That I feel drawn to go to Ghost Zone? That I like laying around in my ghost form? I can get away with feeling like me under the stars and use insomnia as an excuse, but there is no way to explain anything else. If I told her some of these things, it would just be more of a confirmation of what I already know: I'm a freak.

" Good night, Jazz."

"Good night, little brother."

[sanchoyo]

danny phantom season 2, episode 17-20 thoughts! finishing up season two! the finale is the THIRD 2-PARTER OF SEASON 2. that's so many! I wonder how many season 3 will have?

see prev episode thoughts in this tag <3

-UERGH WHY DOES VLAD HAVE AN AI WITH MADDIE'S FACE ON IT. SOOO CREEPY. AND MORE 'CREATIONS' waiiiit. vlad is Dr. Frankenstein! (despite his ghost design obviously referencing vampires) HE HAS 'CREATIONS' HE MAKES THEN WONT TAKE REAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR!!! this bitch.

-danny was late and his friends immediately start going off about how hes inconsiderate, and has been treating them like sidekicks??? he just overslept, my god. chill. even if he has, be nicer about talking about it with him?? he really can't help that he sometimes has to chase the ghosts, or has a secret identity to protect...

-'what kind of ghost haunts a miniature golf course' umm. me as a ghost. next question

-imagine going home and theres a tiny child on your bed claiming to be your cousin. with as many cousins I have, I would probably believe her. but the 'ran away from home' BIT....SHES 12?? SHES SO TINY. I hate that they have her belly out in her ghost form, but I like how her colors are asymmetrical. something about her design...maybe the proportions?? are weird to me...anyway danny was good to feed her, but he shouldve taken her to his parents FIRST. or, tbh, probably jazz. (JAZZ DIDNT EVEN GET TO MEET HER!!! NOOO. I mean she said she'll be BACK BUT STILL)

-ANYWAY. shes voiced by AnnaSophia Robb, the girl who was in because of winn dixie, played as violet from charlie and the chocolate factory, and was the girl from bridge to terrabithia. (the movie that made me cry hysterically when I was 12 and I never watched it again because it Broke Me!) thats super cool.

-vlad sucks: the episode, basically. what's new!! I love how he's like, I'm Not A Villain. *immediately cuts to him torturing danny to make him transform, to get mid-transformation DNA, to perfect a Clone.* *immediately shows that he doesnt give a shit about his new daughter Dani and just wants a ''more perfect clone'' and will put her in danger to get that. will let her DIE to get that*

-Dani is danny's clone and is a girl? transgenderism....one of them has to be trans. or they both are.

-dani just. leaving at the end. WHAT? SHES 12. DONT JUST. NO!!! SHE WAS PROBABLY JUST BORN, A MONTH AGO AT MOST, RIGHT?? SHE NEEDS...SOMEWHERE TO LIVE. MONEY? FOOD?? A FAMILY?? AN EDUCATION???! WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S LEAVING!!! OKAY BYE I GUESS!!! D: concern!!!

-the next ep opens with skulker chasing a ghost down. ...does skulker count as a ghost hunter in the way valerie and danny do? I mean, sure, he hunts the good guys too, but he. he hunts ghosts...also, we haven't seen his Real Form since his debut episode! tiny...

-the guys in white are back! ngl, I assumed they were a gag for that one episode. you're telling me they might actually be a threat? ok.

-valerie in her lil nasty burger uniform looks so cute!! glad shes not in that mascot uniform this time. I guess she stopped hiding that she's working there now?

-gregor having white hair, dressed in black and white...and green eyes...sam has a Type, I guess.

-danny being unnecessarily hostile about gregor. danny!!! hes been nice so far. he looks a little...tall to be 14, but. danny doesnt know anything about him! (he does Suspect, but...you cant just spy on people and be rude to them from a hunch.) also, gregor kissed her, and when she freaked out, he was like 'oh no!! sorry, we can take it slow! I understand!' which was NICE. I hate jealousy plots still tho.

-altho. umm. tucker, being concerned about danny spying on them??? SAM AND YOU WERE SPYING ON DANNY AND VALERIE A FEW EPISODES AGO!!!!! im not saying its RIGHT, but dont be a hypocrite!!! AND THEN SAM BEING MAD ABOUT IT, TOO.

-DANNY IS A 7 ON THE SCALE OF ECTOPLASMIC POWER!!! out of 10? so I want to know where the other ghosts rank...I mean it's a list from the guys in white, so, it may not even be accurate, like, they havent seen ALL of his powers, have they?

-Lancer being like 'im not cooperating with the FEDS' until they said they could access his tax records. they already did that joke with jack, but like, its still funny. kings of tax evasion.

-tucker's aggressive third-wheeling. but gregor being super into it. gregor/tucker is the real ship here. then gregor kissing danny on both cheeks after hugging him. bi poly king gregor. (he does turn out to be a liar with a phoney accent. unsurprising, BUT THE CONCEPT OF HIM BEING GENUINE AND THEM ALL DATING IS FUN)

-THE...GUYS IN WHITE THINKING GREGOR IS DANNY PHANTOM. LMAOOO. GET HIS ASS. or,, Elliot. lmfao

-sam saying tucker is part of the package because theyre friends was super sweet <3 but also 'part of the package'...polyships are obviously the solution to these dumb jealousy/love triangle plots.

-danny crashed a whole plane. the collateral damage...

-is he....

-you know....

.... (ITS NOT GAY IF YOU'RE DOING IT TO PRETEND TO BE SOMEONE YOU'RE NOT, AND LIE TO A GIRL. RIGHT? he was getting a little too into pretending to enjoy tucker's company, and the above...c'mon, guy.)

-lmao, freakshow is in actual prison. I didn't expect a follow up, or for him to show back up! in the finale of this season, too!

-THE SICK TATTOO GHOST IS NAMED LYDIA!!! more Lore On her. freakshow seemed genuinely concerned about her. also, is she mute? I don't think she talked the first time we saw her, either. and we didn't know freakshow 'envied' ghosts, either, the first time, we just knew he was controlling them. interesting!

-...they literally stole the infinity gauntlet from marvel and called it the reality gauntlet. is that legal. what the fuck. even with the gems in the lil slots, having different powers...they had freakshow in jail, but didnt check his pockets??! hes just still in his lil outfit??? what kind of ...oh, its in amity park. yeah, all of the adults are idiots, okay, sure.

-'freakshow!' 'in the anemic flesh!' dude take some iron pills then. also, sure, the red eyes could be contacts for his aesthetic, but the whites of his eyes are yellow! does he have jaundice?! he severely needs more...like, every kind of vitamin. (this is what im worried about as freakshow attacks danny with giant robots)

-again, goth circus is a sick theme, and I love his goth train.

-oh FUCK every single person saw danny transform. on a stage. including his parents via TV. oh god. the guys in white and immediately like 'youre coming in for experiments!' SCARY. at least the crowd is willing to help him to escape...perks of now being a local celeb! even the kids at school are accepting :) this is what, the third time his family has found out? its always been an alt timeline tho. and danny fully intending to just rewrite things again instead of...I dunno, trying to roll with it this time? hes really worried his family won't accept him, huh...

-'maybe our son IS THE GHOST BOY, but its not as if our family's ghostly activities have EVER PUT YOUR FAMILIES IN DANGER' maddie. mmmmmmmmmmmm. okay.

-danny 100% prepared to run away from home because of this :( oh :( and saying his parents are 'looking for him, or a scalpel to dissect him with' ouch...

-THE GUYS IN WHITE TRYING TO ARREST A 14 YEAR OLD. fuck da feds.

-side note (another one about voice actors...) freakshow's voice actor, Jon Cryer, was lex luthor in pretty much every DC tv show, which is why I recognized his voice, because my dad loves those shows so I've seen a good bit of them without seeking them out...)

-the old man saying 'hey, i still had minutes left!' and danny saying 'you gotta watch those roaming charges!' about danny destroying the people in the diner's phones so no one could report seeing him...would kids today understand these things. can you even BUY minutes anymore...I remember my first phone being a flip phone, and the fact I always had minutes when my sister ran out super fast, because I didnt have friends calling or texting me like she did...:/

-the fentons being genuinely like 'why didnt danny trust us and tell us this, we love him :(' and JAZZ LAYING INTO THEM WITH THE 'DISSECTION/MOLECULE BY MOLECULE' LINES. LITERALLLLY. they need to apologize

-technically, lydias stronger than you! -jazz lesbianism moments! when did you even learn her name!!! but also get freakshows ass. lydia is also cooler looking. looove her design sm still.

-jazz psychoanalyzing freakshow... (also, her also having ghost envy? au where jazz is a ghost!! id like to see it)

-im glad the kids still got to go to their respective vacation things, even if they cant really stick around and enjoy them much...

-furry: confirmed. (also tucker calling her hot. tucker is a furry confirmed)

-danny being mad someone at the comic con is selling comics of him without permission, lmfao. give him his royalties!

-freakshow > thanos because hes a drama clown and does use his gauntlet to be FLASHY AND DRAMATIC.

-jazz's 'USE PYSCOLOGY' to danny about freakshow LMAOO. AND THEN IT WORKING. but, oh, freakshow's ghost form sucks. I like him as a clown better tbh. good thing danny took away his ghost powers!

-his parents hugging him and saying theyre proud :"( and saying 'of course you lied to us, we never gave you a reason not to!' and saying they were in the wrong basically for always talking about hurting ghosts aaaa :""(

-then he WIPED THEIR MEMORIES AGAIN!!! FUCK. I can understand him wiping the goverments/student bodies' memories, but why his parents?? they were being accepting!! ARGHHH. season 3 couldve been them all trying to adjust to them knowing!

-I know, on a meta level the showrunners probably wanted to just reset things to the status quo of him having a secret identity. But. We've been doing that for (2) seasons, I'd love if season 3 could be like, his parents adjusting to this and trying way harder to learn more and accept it (and the shenanigans that could come from that) and for fun, if he didn't wipe the students memories, it could be him being popular for a while, then everyone slowly realizing, oh, he's still Danny. Like. he might have ghost powers but hes Just The Same Guy instead of putting him on a pedestal (and seeing them all try and help him hide it from the giw/people who don't know!!)

-fuck they didn't even explain WHY he wiped everyone except sam, tucker and jazz's memories. he just Did It right when his parents were saying they loved/accepted him!! and sam and tucker didnt question it at all!!! HELLO??? very annoyed about this turn of events.

-anyway. onto season 3! I know its shorter than the first two seasons, and is the last season... I might just do it in 2 bursts if I can... :3c depends on the episodes' content and how much I want to say about each!

[mischiefandspirits]

Doppelgänger (19/19)

Previously on Doppelgänger ~ Masterlist ~ Next time on Doppelgänger

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were just 14 when they took a look inside the portal Danny’s parents had built. From there, everything changed. They woke up with white hair, green skin, and powers they could learn to control. They were hybrids, halfas.

They were the hero Doppelgänger.

{Identity Crisis, Part 2}

Danny melted onto Valerie’s hoverboard with a sigh as she kissed him. She was kneeling between his legs with one of her arms braced next to his head to hold her weight off him while the hand of the other snuck under his shirt to stroke his side. His own hands were occupied with holding her close and running through her long curly hair.

They were hovering high above Amity, partially hidden within some low clouds. They’d been admiring the view and taking in the afternoon sun when they’d gotten a bit distracted.

Valerie chuckled into the kiss and pulled back. She gave his limp form a pleased look then ducked down to pepper his neck with kisses.

Of course, that was when his ghost sense went off.

I’m going to kill whoever it is, Danny thought as Valerie’s scanner started ringing and she pulled away.

“There’s a ghost right beneath us,” Valerie growled, glaring at the scanner before giving Danny an apologetic look.

“Well, I guess that’s what we get for mixing dates with patrol,” he chuckled with a shrug.

She glanced down. “It should be fine to leave it to Doppelgänger.”

He sat up to look down as well, his hair hiding the red shine in his eyes. He spotted a glowing laptop flying down a road.

Ugh, who let Technus out? He reached out for his partners, but neither responded. He looked around to be sure neither of them was in sight and said, “They don’t seem to be here. Should probably make sure the ghost doesn’t cause trouble before they can get here.”

“Yeah.” She pulled up her mask and he braced himself as she brought them down. “Sorry about this.”

“It’s fine, Val. Really.” Jazz is definitely going to kick his butt if she found out about this, though.

Valerie dropped him off in an alley before shooting off after the laptop.

Who let Technus out? Danny asked again as he transformed and flew after her.

Tech-Oh shoot! Tucker hissed. He’s why my laptop was running slow! He must have been stuck in my cache. My bad!

Well, that explains why he’s flying around inside a laptop.

Want some help? Sam asked.

Valerie’s already on the scene, Danny pointed out.

Right, I forgot you guys were on a date.

DON’T LET HER DESTROY MY LAPTOP! Tucker shouted.

Danny turned a corner to see Valerie trying to blast the laptop. We’ll try.

He tried to sneak around the fight so he could try to knock Technus out, but was distracted when Valerie got wrapped in the laptop’s cord.

“Red!” he shouted, shooting towards her to pull her free. He looked her over for injuries. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” she huffed and shoved herself out of his grip as her board swung around to catch her.

“Well now, this is interesting.”

The two turned back to Technus just as the laptop stopped glowing and fell. Danny darted over to grab it before it could hit the ground, then looked around for the ghost.

“My scanner is only picking up you,” Valerie said and Danny checked the computer.

Wireless transfer complete.

“Ugh, he sent himself somewhere else,” Danny groaned.

“Well, you’re the one with technokinesis. I’ll leave you to it.”

“What?” He looked up to see Valerie turning away. “You’re leaving? Just like that?”

“I’ve got a date.”

“Well crud,” Danny muttered. He shoved the laptop into the fold and dove into the ground, flying as fast as he could back to the alley Valerie had left him in. Good news and bad news. Good news, our laptop’s fine and Val’s leaving. Bad news, we lost Technus and Val’s leaving him to us because we’ve got tech powers and she wants to continue our date.

The irony, Sam sighed.

I can’t leave right now. Kiran and I are right in the middle of a debate on which generation of Pokémon is the best, Tucker said.

Kiran? Danny asked, popping up in the alley and transforming back just before Valerie could come around the corner.

This really really cute freshman in the computer club. They’re a gamer who’s building their own PC, they’ve got the hottest smile, and I refuse to let Technus blow this for me!

An unimpressed feeling came from Sam. I’ll take care of Technus. Clearly, your love lives are more important.

“You okay?” Danny asked Valerie. Sorry, Sam. I can tell Val I need to go.

“Yeah, it’s a tech ghost so Doppelgänger’s taking care of it.”

No, it’s fine, Sam said. You’ve ducked out of dates for us plenty of times. You deserve some alone time. It wasn’t really you I was mad at.

“If you’re sure. What do you want to do now?” Danny asked, stepping up onto Val’s board.

I think my love life deserves more consideration than his, Tucker huffed. Since, you know, I DON’T HAVE ONE!

Valerie grabbed his waist and tugged him against her. “How about we find some privacy? We can head to my house since my dad’s working until midnight. We can cuddle and watch tv. I think there’s supposed to be an animated Batman marathon on.”

Danny tuned out his partners as he nodded. He shifted behind her and braced himself as she took off towards Elmerton. She flew up to her window and opened it, letting Danny climb through before slipping carefully in. She recalled her board and pulled down her mask.

The boy didn’t have a chance to react before she was scoping him up and setting him on her dresser so she could kiss him. Her hands slipped under his shirt and he tried to bring his own up, only to knock something off her dresser.

She snorted into the kiss and he mumbled, “Sorry,” as he wrapped his arms around her neck.

“Valerie?”

The two froze.

The door opened and Damon Gray poked his head inside. “I didn’t realize you were -”

Valerie jumped away from Danny while he squeaked and worked very hard not to turn invisible.

No matter how much he wanted to.

Valerie’s father looked at Valerie, then Danny, then Valerie’s suit.

“H-hey, Daddy. I thought you were supposed to be at work,” Valerie said nervously.

“I had a break so I came to grab something I’d forgotten. Fortunately.” He gave her a sharp look. “Get changed. We’re going to have a talk before I head back. Mr. Fenton, out.”

“Yessir.” Danny gave her a quick apologetic look before following Mr. Gray into the living area.

He froze when the man grabbed his shoulder. “I like you, Fenton. You’re a smart kid and you’ve got a good heart. However, if I ever catch you in my daughter’s room without my permission again, you will be reminded in a far more painful way than I’m doing now that I carry a loaded weapon for my job and I am trained to use it. Understand?”

“Yessir. Sorry, sir. I swear, we weren’t doing anything like, you know, that. We were just -”

“Out.”

“Yep, right, leaving!” Danny ran for the front door.

“And Danny,” Mr. Gray called before he could close it behind him. “I suggest you go straight home. I’ll be calling your parents as soon as I talk to Valerie.”

Danny flinched and nodded. “Right.”

As soon as he made it to the alley next to Valerie’s apartment building, he slumped against the wall and screamed into his hands. Then he transformed and headed home as slow as he could.

“We’re dead. We’re so dead. We’re going to spend the next decade in the Fenton Stockades,” he groaned. “We’re so dead! We’ll never see the light of day! Hold still you stupid bucket of bolts! Goodbye cruel world! Wait, why are we transformed? Val’s father walked in on us making out. Sucks to suck. Can we get a hand?” He checked his watch and shrugged, turning towards where Sam was fighting Technus at the boardwalk. “Sure, we’re dead as soon as we get home and Mom and Dad won’t be expecting us back for another half hour since they think we’d have to take the bus. Great, because he’s getting on our nerves.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m grounded for two weeks, Danny said. And I had to sit through mom giving me The Talk again.

Sounds like it sucks to be allo. Can’t relate, Sam said, setting aside the book she’d been reading and grabbing another.

And Jazz came in looking all stern to say that when she told us to spend the weekend having fun, she hadn’t meant that much fun.

Sam snorted.

We didn’t even do anything!

She looked over the passage on Chronos she’d found, but it didn’t have any new information.

Val texted to say her dad’s taking her phone. She’s grounded for a month and her dad’s taking her suit and all her gear.

Sam tossed the book aside. Wait, her dad found out?

We’d just gotten to her house so she was in her suit when he walked in.

She was in the suit when you guys were making out? Tucker interjected out of nowhere. Wait, is the suit kink a Fenton thing? Is that why -

Finish that thought and I’ll toss your laptop into the ghost zone, Danny hissed. Crud, Jazz just came in. She’s making me study with her to make sure I’m not talking to you guys. Talk later.

Bye Danny.

See you, Sam said and stood up. She grabbed the books she’d gathered and went to put them back on the shelves. So you’re done hanging out with Kiran then?

Camp’s over for the day, but we’re going to hang out again tomorrow, Tucker said. What are you up to?

Checking out the paranormal section at Skulk and Lurk. I was hoping they’d have some information on our clock ghost.

Aren’t we supposed to be avoiding ghosts?

Jazz isn’t the boss of me.

True. Want some help?

Are you dressed like your usual self?

Yes?

Pass.

Rude.

I love you, but I will not get kicked out of my favorite bookshop because you’ve decided your aesthetic is traffic light.

Aw, I love you too! Tucker cooed.

Tuning you out now.

Okay, bye, Sammy! Love you!

Sam made a gagging sound in her head as she started looking for new books to check. “Aren’t there any books in here about real ghosts?”

“Try the historical fantasy section.”

She looked over to see Ravage reading the description of a book. “What?”

“The historical fantasy section,” he said, gesturing half-heartedly to the side. “Found a book over there the other day that was about a ghost king. Sounded just like the real dude. The author seemed to understand death and ghosts better than most. Bit too cheerful, but it was an interesting read if you can push past it.”

“Do you remember the author?” Sam asked.

“Worth, or something. The book was King’s Coffin if that helps.”

“Thanks.”

“Whatever. You coming to poetry night?”

“If I can get away from my parents.”

“Good luck.”

“Whatever.”

She went over to the section and found the book Ravage had mentioned alongside a few others written by Regsit Worth: Acropolis of Elysium, Nocturnus, Dark Winds, and Carnivorous Garden.

She pulled King’s Coffin off and glanced over the description before flipping through the book. She skimmed through it and her eyes widened at the ghost’s description and the description of his downfall. She checked the Also By section and smirked when she saw a book titled Shadows of Time. She put Pariah's book back then grabbed the garden book and headed to the counter.

“Would you be able to order a book by this author?” she asked as the cashier rang her up.

The man shrugged and switched to a different register. He asked for the title and typed it in when she answered. “Another print isn’t due for a year or so, but our sister store in San Francisco has a few copies. I can have them send one over, but you’d have to pay shipping upfront.”

“That’s fine.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You know, I think Jazz was onto something about having some weekends to ourselves,” Tucker said when they met up Monday morning. “I had fun at the camp and made great headway with Kiran. Trust me, we’ll be dating by Christmas.”

“Sure you will,” Sam teased. “I’ll admit, though, it wasn’t awful. I got this new book on a wicked plant monster ghost that could actually exist and I might have gotten a lead on our clock ghost. I won’t know until Thursday.”

“Glad you two had fun,” Danny pouted, his forehead pressed against his locker. “Val’s dad threatened to shoot me.”

“If it makes you feel any better, you can just phase through the bullet,” Tucker said, patting his back.

“He has ghost weapons now.”

“You right.”

“You could try not sneaking into girls’ bedrooms,” Sam suggested and Danny flushed.

“Don’t say it like that!”

“Hey, Danny.”

The trio turned to see Valerie walking up.

“Hey, Val. Sorry about Saturday.”

“Not your fault,” she sighed and hugged him. “We both didn’t think that through.”

“You didn’t get into too much trouble, right?”

“Just grounded like I said. I’m mostly just mad about my gear. Dad’s taking the suit into the lab and he’s going to give all the rest to your parents. I told him I didn’t get most of it from you, but I don’t know if he believed me.”

“Better them then Vlad,” Danny said with a shrug. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to get any of it back for you, though. They’ll probably be keeping better track of their gear after your dad talks to them.”

Which means it’s going to be hard to replace their thermoses if one gets damaged, great.

“That’s alright. My dad will be keeping an eye out now anyways.” She pulled back. “I should get going before I’m late.”

“Alright, see you at lunch.”

{The Fenton Menace}

Danny sighed as he scrubbed the lab’s counter. “Can’t I do this later?”

“It’s not as if you have anything else to do,” his mom said pointedly.

Maybe so, he thought, eyeing the gun his parents were working on. But I’d rather not get vaporized when that thing accidentally goes off.

When, not if. Danny knew his parents too well for that.

He went back to his scrubbing and his mom focused back on the gun.

A few moments later, Danny’s breath fogged in front of him and his eyes darted to the portal as a pirate kid and his skeleton parrot flew out and up through the ceiling.

Captain Kid is back, he told his partners. My parents are keeping on top of me so I can’t deal with him.

Headed your way, Tucker said.

I’ll come too. Mom’s trying to drag me to the hairdresser.

Have fun. Danny flinched as the gun went off, thankfully pointed away from him. “Can you guys work on something else while I’m down here, please?”

His dad pouted, but his mom put the gun away with a nod, frowning at the blast mark it had left.

[cordria]

Second Chances

Unlike popular opinion, Clockwork wasn’t the master of all time. Just the 50,000,317 most likely ones. And he didn’t really know which of those times would happen - he was just very skilled at statistics and probability.

And, being the master of time, he knew that in only 47 of those fifty-million-or-so futures does this particular person show up at his front door right now. That gave the knock at his door only a 0.000094% chance of happening.

Which explains why he wasn’t waiting for her.

Clockwork pulled open the door to glare at the human woman. She was dressed in a blue protective outfit, some sort of jetpack on her back, and a weapon dangling loosely from her hand. 

“I would like your help,” Maddie Fenton said without introducing herself.

He ran a tongue over his teeth. Of the 47 futures where this happened, only four of them turned out for the best. 8.5%. Statistically bad enough odds it wasn’t worth engaging in conversation. “No.” He floated backwards, intent on shutting the door and sending the woman home.

The weapon came up, whirring up a charge and glowing dangerously. “Let me rephrase it, then. You’re going to help me.”

Clockwork raised an eyebrow and shifted his form to his sixteen-year-old self, intentionally parroting her son’s age. One blast from her weapon would hurt, but it certainly wouldn’t cause permanent damage. He would have just continued to close the door, but in one of the 47 futures, she was pushed to violence and it ended with the utter destruction of the infinite realms. Even a 2% chance of that happening was too high. “Very well,” he said, releasing the door. He would appease her for now. “Come in, Mrs Fenton.”

Maddie let the charge in the weapon fade away and she stepped inside, glancing around. He wondered if she found all the clocks and ticking noises as off-putting as her son did. He prodded at his lair, turning up the volume.

“What is it you need help with?” he asked, as if he didn’t know. In 46 of those 47 universes, she came here for the same thing.

“I need to go back in time. Back to the accident.”

Clockwork rested his weight on his staff and shifted to an older age. He didn’t bother to ask which accident. The goal was to talk her out of this, not bore himself. “Why?”

Her shoulders dropped. “I can’t… sleep.”

He hummed and waited.

“... Just… knowing what he went through by himself. It hurts too much.” Even through the mask on her face, she looked to be in pain. 

A human mother, driven to violence for the sake of her child, was a dangerous thing. Clockwork narrowed his eyes and felt his fingers tighten on his staff. Hopefully he would not have to destroy the woman to protect against that chance of oblivion. Daniel would not take it well. “And you want to go back and stop it from happening?”

Maddie shook her head. “I want to be there for him.” 

He cocked his head, wordlessly asking her to continue. 

“I’ve thought this through a dozen times. More.” She spoke slowly and thoughtfully. “I don’t think I can take this from him. This is who he is, and he’s better for it. Everyone is better for it.” She was quiet for a moment. “But he doesn’t have to do it alone. I can be there for him.” Her words picked up speed and confidence. “I can be home, be there for him for once instead of out chasing some ghost that wasn’t there. I can be the one that finds him instead of his friends. I can… I can be a good mother for once.”

“You are a good mother,” Clockwork assured her.

“No, I’m not,” she scowled. “The last month has made that incredibly clear. But I could be.”

Clockwork drummed his fingers on his staff. This conversation had narrowed down the 47 possible universes to 22. That meant 18.2% of those turned out well, including one that was a wonderful potential future. “Interesting,” he murmured, changing his mind about shooing the woman away. 

“What is?” She blinked at him.

“This.” He turned and headed up a set of stairs, confident the woman would follow. 

“You’ll do it? You’ll send me back?”

Clockwork hummed noncommittally, shifting his form again, aiming for the visage of a wise old man. He floated along in silence until he reached the center of his lair, surrounded by ticking cogs and twirling bits of wheels and dials. The rhythmic sound thrummed through the air, making everything vibrate. He closed his eyes, enjoying the feel, before he glanced back at his human visitor.

The woman was clearly not enjoying it. Her hands were over her helmet, obviously trying to press hands against her ears, and he could see her eyes scrunched together in pain. 

Clockwork let everything tick a few more times before he gestured with his staff, bringing everything to a stop. The quiet hurt, almost like he imagined a human heart attack would hurt. But it was ignorable, wouldn’t cause him lasting damage, and would allow for this conversation to happen. “Come here.”

Still blinking back tears, Maddie stepped forwards, studying the swirling green gases. He knew she didn’t have the eyes necessary to make out the 50 million odd futures shifting endlessly in the gas - he tightened his fingers on his staff, bringing one of those futures to the front. 

It was a horrible potential future. Danny was nineteen and had lost his mind. A large swath of both worlds was destroyed. 

Clockwork didn’t watch the scene. He watched the woman. 

She stepped closer, studying the images, slowly raising her hands to her mouth. “That’s the future?” she whispered.

“That’s one of several possible futures,” he said, “if you go through with your plan.”

“So I make it worse.” Her hands fell to her side, her eyes closing, tears slipping down her cheeks. 

He hummed and shifted the future. One she should recognize. It happened today, just a few hours ago - only in a different time stream. This Danny wasn’t sitting at the table with a black eye and broken arm, looking defeated and exhausted and picking at his supper. This one looked happy and vibrant, with a humorous twist to his grin. “This is possible too.”

Maddie watched for a very long time. “Why did you show this to me?”

“So you understand.” Clockwork shifted through futures in the gases, pausing each for a second so she could see them. Although he showed her a mix of bad futures and good ones, the bad was much more common. “Any of these are possible. We are already in a time stream that is one of the best outcomes. You going back might assuage your pain, but it doesn’t necessarily help your son.”

She sank to her knees, staring blankly at the shifting futures.

“If you do this, you have a much greater chance of making the future worse than making it better.”

“You want me to just go home,” she said quietly.

“It would be the safest outcome,” Clockwork said. The best possible outcome appeared on the screen again - a carefree young man with a strong support system. Clockwork leaned on his staff, studying the future, feeling it out. Dark Dan didn’t exist in this time stream. The New War wasn’t hovering on the horizon; instead there loomed a powerful king that would bring in a new age of peace and prosperity for the infinite realms. He cut his eyes over to Maddie Fenton. “But not the best.”

Maddie stared at the screen, tears still lingering on her cheeks behind the protective helmet. He could almost feel her longing for that image to be true. For her son to not be lying in his bed right now, in pain and feeling utterly alone.

“You can build a relationship out of the past we have. You can repair some of the damage that’s been done.” 

“But I’ll never have that,” she whispered, unable to tear her eyes away from the carefree smile on the young hybrid’s face.

“No,” Clockwork agreed. 

She was very quiet. Time wasn’t passing and Clockwork was infinitely patient. It was important that she made the right decision, and he was willing to wait. He aged his form a bit more, feeling his back curl, his beard lengthen, his knobby fingers clinging to the staff to hold himself upright.

“What’s the difference?” she asked, finally looking over at him and pointing towards the screen. “What’s the difference between that one and the bad ones? If I went back, how do I make sure that happens?”

“You’re the difference,” Clockwork said, “and you alone. Your choices. Your love. Your acceptance.” He tipped his head. “Your stability, your rationality, your rules, your respect. The balance you choose to strike between his freedom and boundaries parents must place upon youth.” He let his hold on the screen relax, and it started to shift between possibilities again.

She laughed, a soft disbelieving sound. “So it’s all on me.”

Clockwork arched an eyebrow. “You came to me. What else did you expect?”

“I’m not sure,” she whispered. “Can you tell me? Can you tell me what to change?”

“The difference comes in a million little choices you would make every day. It’s not one thing.” Clockwork tipped his head. “Will you risk it? Will you risk this,” he froze the image on utter destruction, “for a chance at this?” he sent it back to the best possible future. “Or will you go home, play it safe, and build a life out of the decisions you’ve already made?”

He watched her get back to her feet and take an uncertain step forward, reach out a gloved hand, and touch the smiling image of her son. “I…”

Clockwork felt the future shift. The probabilities change. 

“I will,” she breathed. “I’ll risk it. I can be a better mother. I know it.”

“Very well.” He nudged the swirling mass with his staff, and it resolved into an image of the Fenton basement laboratory a bit more than two years previously. The portal was silent and dark. “The future rests on you.”

Maddie gave an uncertain chuckle. “No pressure, huh?”

“Just the fate of two entire worlds,” Clockwork agreed. The back end of his staff caught her knees, sending her stumbling forward through the portal. “Choose wisely. Time in.”

He watched her steady herself on a table in the lab, looking around the dark basement. 

“I’ll be right back,” came a shout from upstairs.

Clockwork watched Maddie flinch, then duck under a table just before the lights flickered on. She couldn’t let them know she was here until after the accident.

Danny Fenton tromped down the steps, his friends in hot pursuit. “You guys don’t need to come down here. My parents will kill you if they find you down here.”

“No they won’t,” Tucker Foley said, “your mother likes me.”

“And your dad likes me,” Sam Manson added. “They’ll just kill you.”

“Fair point,” Danny muttered. “But let’s not get caught anyways.”

Clockwork rested his weight on his staff and shifted his form to that of a toddler. “Good luck, child,” he said. 

[darks-ink]

Rewind - Ectoberweek 2020

Acknowledging canon episodes? In my fanfic? It’s more likely than you think. Also I’m experimenting by adding the links onto this post so lemme know whether this shows up in the tag or not.

Rating: Gen Warnings: - Genre: Hurt/Comfort Words: 2,834 Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Masters of All Time, Families of choice/Found family

[AO3] [FFN]

---

“What do you mean, you can’t?” Danny darted around Clockwork, refusing to let him turn away. “Clockwork!”

The ghost sighed, heavily and wearily, and looked down at Danny. “I cannot. It is that simple.”

“But that’s— that’s nonsense,” Danny insisted, gesturing wildly. “You’re the ghost of time! How can you not rewind this and fix it?!”

“I warned you, Daniel, that this would be a permanent change.” Clockwork blinked slowly, as if trying to convey some sort of emotion with his empty red eyes. “You did not heed my warning, or considered yourself above it. Now, you must live with the consequences.”

“But you’re—”

“Not all-powerful, no matter what you might think,” Clockwork cut in, narrowing his eyes. “You have altered the past, despite my warning not to. To travel back again would risk the stability of the timeline entirely. Would you rather see all of reality destroyed?”

Clockwork hummed before Danny could answer. “I would not, therefore I will not allow it to be so. The past has been set in stone, but the future is still malleable. Make it into something you can live with.”

“But…” Danny bit back his automatic response. There was no point. He’d tried fighting Clockwork before, and gotten his ass handed to him as a result. He sighed instead. “Can you at least take me back to Mom and Dad, then? The Portal looked like it blew up after I flew through it, and I don’t know where to find another.”

At that, Clockwork smiled. Or, Danny though it was a smile, at least. A small twitch of the ghost’s lips. “That, I can do.”

“Thanks, Clockwork.” Danny watched as the ghost swung his staff, a portal opening in its wake. “And… sorry, I guess.”

“Apology accepted.” Clockwork floated aside, waving a hand towards the portal. “Goodbye, Daniel.”

Danny nodded back, before flying through the portal. Welp. Time to face the music.

The portal spat him out in Amity Park, near his house. For a moment, Danny paused, considering the possibility that it brought him here because he consider Amity to be his home, no matter what. But then he realized that there was a car parked in front of the garage, one far too fancy for the neighborhood. His parents must’ve come this way, taking one of Vlad’s cars.

Thus satisfied, he flew down, phasing through the front door. No need to be secretive—both Jack and Maddie knew his secret already.

Still, he was surprised to find them both in the living room, apparently trying to clean up the place. Maddie saw him first, her body stilling. And how strange was it, that he found it comforting to see her here, in her cyan jumpsuit, with red goggles over her eyes? (That was weird, right? Danny felt like it should be weird.)

“Danny,” she said, quiet with surprise. “What are you doing here?”

At her words, Jack also looked up from where he was standing. He, too, looked almost exactly like his counterpart from Danny’s own timeline. Except with ecto-acne, of course.

“I, uh.” Danny shrugged, unsure. He felt thrown off by seeing his parents like this. It was almost right, but just slightly off. “Clockwork couldn’t undo it. Apparently the timeline is too unstable, or something. So I have to… stay in this world, I guess.”

“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry.” She straightened up from her crouch, walking closer to him. “I— It probably won’t be easy, but you can stay with us for as long as you need to. Right, Jack?”

“Of course!” his dad immediately responded, nodding vigorously. “We’re… figuring stuff out, of course. But it’s thanks to you that we reunited in the first place. And you’re our kid!” He grinned, wide and loving, in that typical Jack Fenton way. “Even if the way you got here is a little weird, you’re still our family!”

“I…” He landed, noiselessly. Hesitated for a moment. Then closed the space between him and Maddie, wrapping his arms around her. “Thanks. Both of you. I’m sorry.”

The enormous warm arms of Jack Fenton came up around them. “Don’t be, kiddo. You have nothing to be sorry for,” he rumbled, underlined with an almost audible buzz of his core. It emitted a palpable feeling of family.

“No, but, I…” Danny sighed, crushing his head against Maddie’s shoulder. “It’s my fault. All of this is! I tried going back in time to change the past, to make it so Vlad wouldn’t get ecto-acne so he couldn’t infect my friends with it, but instead you became half-ghost.”

Danny drew a shaky breath, trying to fight past the emotions welling in his throat. They needed to understand. “It’s all my fault! Without my meddling, none of this would’ve happened!”

“Sounds to me,” his mom began, her thin fingers gently combing through his hair, “like you tried to help your friends, Danny.” She clicked her tongue. “Maybe not in the best way possible, but the intention was good.”

“I can’t imagine that Vlad would’ve dealt with being half-ghost much better than I,” Jack added, faint laughter in his voice. “Never mind the ecto-acne. But, of course! That’s how you recognized it!”

“Yeah, um.” Danny drew back from the hug a little. “I can… tell you guys, I guess? About my timeline. The differences, at least.”

“That’d be nice,” Maddie agreed, as Jack’s arms released them. She looked around, and Danny could read the reluctance in her body language, even despite the goggles. “We might have to clear some more stuff before we have the space to sit.”

“We could always sit on the floor?” Jack suggested, shrugging at her look. “Or Danny and I can float as ghosts.”

“Right.” Maddie shook her head, wandering over to the single chair not covered in debris and trash and reaching up to her hood. “If that works for you two, that might be the most convenient.” She paused, frowning at Danny, hood pulled off but still in hand. “But… if Vlad was the one who became half-ghost in your timeline, why are you half-ghost as well, Danny?”

“I, uh.” He shrugged, lifting his feet off of the ground to sit in mid-air. “Became half-ghost in an accident of my own.”

The frown he received from both parents very clearly asked for him to elaborate, so he did. “Okay, so. The point of divergence is the accident in college, obviously. In my timeline, Vlad got hit by the explosion, not Jack, so he becomes half-ghost and stuff. You two, Jack and Maddie, get together, especially since Vlad was cutting contact. You decide to become ghost researchers together and move to Amity Park.”

He paused to gesture to the house around them. “Specifically, you move here, to this specific house. You make it your place of business as well, called FentonWorks. Big neon sign on the front of the building, the basement downstairs becomes a lab, and at some point you two built the Ops Center at the top, which can also be used for inventing stuff. I’m… obviously not very informed of the details, since I was the second kid and you two talked very little about the past. Only,” here he made a face, “ghosts. Everything was always about ghosts.

“Anyway,” he continued, after a short pause to take a breath. “You two have Jazz first, and then me two years later. At some point after that, you start working on a new Portal, full scale, down in the lab. It takes forever to build, because you’re trying to be careful about it, I guess? But you finish it, eventually, when Jazz is sixteen and I fourteen.”

Maddie narrowed her eyes, darting them over his body. The question is clear as day: isn’t he basically fourteen?

“So,” Danny trumped on, ignoring the silent question, “After years of work, their Portal was finally finished! The ultimate proof that ghosts were real! And then it didn’t turn on.”

“It didn’t?” Jack gasped, clearly startled. Danny realized that, somehow, he’d missed the man shifting into his ghost form. “But—”

“It didn’t,” Danny interrupted, holding up a hand. “Because apparently, someone had built a secondary power switch inside the Portal, and they had forgotten to turn it on. So when they plugged in the power, the Portal didn’t turn on.”

There was clear calculation in the eyes of both of his parents, now. Danny continued his explanation before they could figure it out. Needed to tell his story to his parents, for once. He didn’t think he would ever get a chance to tell his actual parents, after all.

“Later that day, after Jazz convinced you two to take a break, my friends talked me into checking out the Portal. Just the three of us, since Tucker was interested in technology and Sam was interested in all things goth and occult.” He shrugged, almost fatalistically. “Sam suggested I take a closer look, and I did. Only, I didn’t realize that the power was still plugged in, so when I accidentally hit the power switch inside…”

“Oh!” Maddie gasped. “Oh, how terrible!”

“That must’ve hurt like hell,” Jack agreed, a painful grimace on his face. It looked strange, the genuine emotional expression with the blue skin, the pointed fangs poking out of his mouth. “Your parents must’ve felt awful, to know that they put their kid in such danger!”

“Well…” Danny made a face. “They kinda… didn’t know? They were both avid ghost hunters, both full of hate towards ghosts. I considered telling them, at first, but then they saw their first ghosts and…” Danny sighed. “I guess I was just scared that I’d be just a ghost to them. That they wouldn’t believe me.”

“That’s… That’s awful.” Jack floated over to nudge Danny. “Kiddo, if your dad was anything like me, I promise you, he would’ve cared.”

“I know.” Danny shook his head dismissively. “I know. That wasn’t why I was worried. I was afraid that they wouldn’t believe that I was me, that I was their son. That they would think that I had hurt or replaced their own kid.”

Maddie touched his shoulder, and Danny jerked, surprised. When had she stood up? Walked over? “Well… At least it is of no concern anymore, right? You’re here now, with us, and we believe you.”

It felt like something had crawled into his gut and died. “Yeah,” he said, with terribly faked enthusiasm. “Yeah, right.”

“It’s not much of a comfort, is it?” Maddie made a face. “I’m sorry. I guess I have very little parenting experience, compared to your actual mother.”

“Honestly?” He snorted. “It makes very little difference. Like I said, she and Dad spent most of the time in the lab, or otherwise occupied with ghost research.”

Maddie clicked her tongue, distaste clear on her face. “Well, isn’t that a waste. They have such a lovely son, and they don’t even enjoy his presence?”

“Well, y’know.” Danny shrugged, trying to ignore the pleased whirring of his core. “They try, now, but with all the ghosts we’re all kinda distracted. Them with trying to catch some for their research, and I with trying to protect the townspeople from the ghosts.”

Jack’s expression visibly brightened—as did the glow around his body. “You’re a ghost hunter! A ghost-fighting superhero! Just like I tried to be!”

“Uh.” Danny felt his brain skip over, then remembered. Somewhere in the blathering when he first arrived, Jack had mentioned that he’d tried using his powers for good. “Yeah, I guess so. But I had a little more success with it.” He grinned sheepishly.

“We should team up!” Jack exclaimed, wrapping an arm around Danny’s shoulders. “The two of us, and Maddie, if she wants to! We’d be a fantastic team!”

Danny laughed, a little uncertain. “Well, maybe. But we’ll need a Thermos to catch the ghosts, and a Portal to dump them back into the Ghost Zone, first. Those were kind of my major tools in managing. And Sam and Tucker, of course.”

“Oh?” Maddie asked, perking up. “Sam and Tucker? You mentioned them before, I think. Are those your friends?”

“Yeah, they… I guess they don’t know me, here.” He sighed, feeling himself drift down closer to the floor, away from his dad’s arm. “They… We were best friends, to the absolute end. Even after the stuff in the lab, the half-ghost stuff, the constant attacking ghosts and hunting them down, they stuck by my side.”

“I’m sorry, kiddo.” Jack landed as well, although unlike Danny, he landed on his feet. “But they’ll be around, right? It might not be the same, but they’re not gone.”

“Might as well be,” Danny huffed. He shook his head. “It won’t be the same. Without the years of shared experiences…”

Maddie and Jack shared a look—not quite as conversational as the ones his parents shared, but a good enough substitute—before apparently deciding to change the topic altogether.

“Why don’t we see if we can clear some rooms upstairs?” Maddie asked, clapping her hands together. “We’ll need at least two rooms clear enough for use, preferably three.”

“Three?” Danny echoed, frowning at them. “You’re not sharing?”

“We haven’t seen each other in years, Danny,” she pointed out, getting up from the chair. “We’re still reconnecting, never mind actually getting together.”

“Right,” he agreed, following her to the stairs. “But you are moving in?”

“Friends can share a house,” Jack pointed out, shifting back to his human form in a flash of white light, and reminding Danny to do the same. “And this way she won’t have to worry about getting kicked out of Vlad’s mansion while all the paperwork and stuff is happening.”

“And I never liked the mansion much,” Maddie admitted with a wry smile. “I liked the Vlad I knew, way back when, but over time it became clear that that wasn’t the real Vlad. I’d been thinking about divorcing him for longer, but… I don’t know. There was no one else I knew, nowhere I could go.”

“Not even to Aunt Alicia? I mean, she’s divorced as well, isn’t she?”

“I… didn’t realize she had married in the first place.” Maddie’s steps faltered for a moment before she continued up the stairs. “I guess I was afraid that she would judge me for marrying Vlad in the first place. I don’t know… It seems rather illogical, now, but I figured I could put up with Vlad well enough. And with his money I could afford my research, even if I had to do it behind his back.”

They stopped in the hallway upstairs, looking around. Danny resisted the urge to grimace. Somehow upstairs was even more of a mess than downstairs had been.

“Which room was yours, in your timeline?” Jack asked, sidling up to Danny.

“Uh.” He carefully stepped past the mess, stopping in front of his door. Or the door that belonged to the room that was his, in his own timeline. “This one. And Jazz had that one,” he pointed over to the room that his sister used. “The one next to mine was a guest room.”

Jack nodded. “Right, that makes sense! You can take that room if you want, Danny. Mads, you can take the other room if you want. The one next to here I used as a lab for a while, so cleaning…”

“Won’t be easy, got it.” She nodded as well. “I’ll take the other one. Let’s start with clearing out this one, shall we?”

“Let’s.” Danny pushed open the door, bracing himself mentally for the whiplash of seeing his room without it being his room.

As a result, he was almost toppled over by the cat that rushed past his legs.

“Jasmine!” Jack cheered, crouching down to pick up the fluffy white thing. “Is this where you’ve been hiding, honey?”

“Well,” Danny said, then stopped. He had no clue what to say. He didn’t even know what he thought of this.

“Well,” he tried again. “At least now I know who picked the name for Jazz, and who picked mine.”

Maddie snorted, gently pushing him into the room. “Personally, I think Danny is a great name, honey.”

“Thanks,” he retorted, eyes darting over the room. It was dark—the curtains were closed despite the time of day—but his night vision was pretty solid. “It’s short for Daniel.”

“And Jazz for Jasmine, then? That’s cute.” She ruffled his hair as she stepped past him, drawing open the curtains. “Hm. we certainly have our work cut out for us.”

“Yeah,” Danny agreed, looking at the piles of he-didn’t-know-what lying around. There was a bed buried in one of the piles, which suggested it might’ve been a guest room at some point. Or used by someone else, before Jack moved in. “And we still need to clear yours, too.”

“Better get working then,” Maddie decided, shaking her head as she crouched down. “Things won’t get better on their own, after all.”

[lanuvolanera]

Sept 19th - Confession

Chapter 2

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

The nerve of that guy, coming in here all concerned, kissing her, then telling her what she can and can't do. Who the hell does he think he is?

Sam understands Danny's point fully and completely, what would be the point of getting in the way when you're already injured. But this is different, Sam knows for a fact that Danny and Tucker would be stuck without her. After all, she's the one with all the witchcraft and ritual knowledge, if that's what it's going to take to bring this ghost down.

From an early age, Sam has always been interested in that sort of thing, interested in the practices and holidays of different cultures.

Good thing all of this knowledge and fascination comes useful when dealing with the paranormal, not everything can be explained away by science.

After a few calming breaths, she notices that Danny has left his backpack and laptop in her room, so she busies herself putting them onto her dresser.

Climbing into bed, she huffs and collapses into her pillow. Tomorrow they might have different attitudes, maybe not, but for now, time to go to sleep.

Good luck with that.

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

The next morning, Sam gets her parents to call the school to inform them of her absence for the second day.

As far as Sam could tell, Pamela and Jeremy are still under the assumption that Sam had a nasty fall in PE the other day.

Her injury really isn't that bad, she can manage to walk. And so, she waits for her parents to leave for work that morning before getting ready to head to Skulk and Lurke.

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

It's midday and Danny and Tucker are in the cafeteria, minus Sam, in their usual corner, when Tucker decides to ask then and there.

"So."

"So."

"How did it go last night?" Tucker asks before taking a sip of his milk.

"We kissed."

That sip of milk Tucker had in his mouth at that point? He'd sprayed it all over the table. That's not quite the answer he was expecting.

"What the hell? That's great, isn't it? Why have you been bummed out all morning?"

Danny looks up at him, pain in his eyes. Guilt, more like.

"We had an argument." Danny looks back down.

"So you kissed her then had an argument with her? That's a great way to start off a romantic relationship."

"Hey, she said she's coming with us to the warehouse tonight and I told her no, its too dangerous, and she took it as an attack on her personality or something."

"Well duh, have you met Sam? Tucker says with a blank expression.

"What if she gets hurt again?"

"What if I get hurt? What if you get hurt? This is just the risk we have to take. How long have we been doing this now?"

"2 years"

"See, and we've been hurt before and managed to bounce back. Sam said so the other day, her injury isn't as bad as it looks. Hell, I don't want her coming with us but guess what? We need her."

Danny stays quiet for a moment.

"I just don't want to take the risk..."

"I know, dude." Tucker says, returning to his milk.

"I should apologise."

Tucker decides to change the subject, and so, he asks.

"What was it like?"

Danny looks back up with a slight confused expression, so Tucker elaborates.

"The kiss."

That earned a crimson blush dusting across Danny's cheeks, and he stutters.

"Oh, that? It was just- it was- uh..."

Tucker patted his hand on his friends shoulder.

"It was amazing, honestly. Nothing those fake out make outs could ever compare to..."

"Aww, look at you, lover boy." Tucker laughed, giving Danny another firm slap at the top of his back.

Soon the bell rings, signalling for the students to attend their next classes. The pair clear away their things and head out of the cafeterias exit, idly chatting about tonight's plan.

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

Sam manages to find a spare seat at the Skulk and Lurke, dumping the armful of books she'd picked off the shelves.

Glancing at the blurbs at the back of each book, Sam sorts them in the order of how promising these books sound, the more information she can get out of them, the better.

Sam glances up and who does she find?

Jazz spots her from the other side of the book store and waves. She begins her beeline over to Sam.

"Hey!" Jazz exclaims.

"Hey, Jazz. What are you doing here? This isn't your usual scene."

"I've come to check out some books on paranormal psychology." Figures. "Most of this stuff I've found are fictional but the imagination of these authors lead to interesting topics and questions on phychoanalysing ghosts and monsters. Great, huh?"

"Sure is."

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at school with Danny?"

"I'm off sick, actually." Sam says, lifting her leg up just so Jazz can see around the table leg.

"Oh. Shouldn't you be at home getting rest?" Jazz says with a stern yet concerned look on her face.

"I should but this is far more important."

"I see." Nothing gets past Jazz and her quizzical look, Sam can see the gears in her head turning.

"Why aren't you at school today?" Sam asks.

"Free period. Do you need help with anything?"

Sam glances between the books in front of her and back up to Jazz. Would it be so bad to let Jazz in on what Sam is trying to look for? Would Jazz be useful? Does she even know about all of the ritual and witchcraft stuff? Would she even be interested?

One way to find out.

"Sure."

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

Danny had called Sam that morning, like he promised.

It was brief, and maybe a little awkward, though the plans they made were clear.

Sam managed to find the book Tucker mentioned and agreed to meet both Danny and Tucker at the Nasty Burger after school, to tell them all she had learnt to formulate a plan of attack.

Thing is, she never mentioned to him that she'd be bringing Jazz along.

The final school bell sounded not too long ago, and Danny and Tucker were half way towards the Nasty Burger when Jazz pulls her car up beside them, with Sam in the passenger seat.

The boys scramble in, and before they know it, Jazz is pulling into the Nasty Burger car park.

Entering the fast food joint, the four spot a booth in the far corner and make their way over. Sam and Danny squeeze in on opposite sides closest to the window. Tucker and Jazz hang back a bit.

"Hey, do you wanna join the queue with me?" Jazz asks, and Tucker nods, leaving the pair in the booth alone.

"Did it feel a little awkward in the car? Or was it just me?"

"They got into a bit of a fight last night." Tucker cleared up jazz's confusion.

"Jeez, they should get a room already." Jazz remarks nonchalantly, to which Tucker bursts out in laughter, alerting other customers to their presence.

Back at the table, the deafening silence was getting a bit too much before Danny has had enough.

"Look, I'm sorry for upsetting you. Again. You just- you mean a lot to me."

Sam looks up at him from the book she has in front of her and sighs.

"I'm sorry, too. I understand where you're coming from, I get it. Just, trust me, okay?"

"Okay." Danny replies with a small smile.

Now that that's out of the way, Sam begins telling him about how she bumped into Jazz, and that she offered to help. Because, honestly, they need all the help they can get.

Tucker and Jazz arrive back at the table with enough food for all four, and Sam gets to work.

"So, I found the 'witchcraft untold' book, and the review was right, Tuck, it is like a work of fiction, though based on facts, which I've cross referenced from other books. And what I've found interesting was this recipe for containment."

Sam brandished the page in question so the other three occupants of the table have a good view.

"My idea is to use this recipe and form a trap. We're gonna need a few things, like crystals, smudge sticks and bait. If what it says in the book is true, the ghost will freeze in the spot of the trap for us to figure out what to do next."

"How long will the trap work for?" Jazz asks.

"As long as no one destroys the trap, the ghost should stay there until we're ready to deal with it."

"Okay, so if this is part one of the plan, what's the next part?" Danny asks.

"Has that book mentioned a way to dispell it from our plane?" Tucker chimes in.

"Wait, why can't you just use the Fenton thermos?" Jazz looked confused. She'd guessed it hasn't worked in some way other wise they wouldn't be sitting here having this conversation.

"We encountered it last night, we had to leave it alone before anyone else got hurt." Danny said, glancing up at Sam and away in sorrow.

"We think this ghost is a type we haven't run into before, the thermos had no effect." Tucker cleared up.

"Right." Jazz says in morbid understanding.

"Part two would be to perform this ritual I found in another book, sending the spirit to hell, essentially." Sam says

"Hell is real?" Tucker asks in bewilderment. They're so used to knowing the existence of the ghost zone, that they can't really comprehend any other forms of dimensions. Earth being the opposite side of the ghost zone and vice versa, where else are people in passing supposed to thrive?

"Hell in figurative terms, I guess in this sense, another version or in another area of the ghost zone, maybe?" Sam tries.

"Makes sense." Danny says. "So how do we do this ritual?"

[five-rivers]

Fruits

For @greyheartwriter for the Phic Phight!  Enjoy!

.

.

.

Thanks to the Fenton Faded Folio Fixer, the waterlogged, ripped, and slightly singed journal of Jack's favorite and most notorious ancestor was now readable. Or, at least, carefully scanned photographs of the pages could be read. Jack could hardly wait to read it. He and Maddie had stayed up until the small hours of the morning inputting pages.

If only they were young again, able to pull all-nighters... Alas, it was not to be.

Still, he was very high energy when he got up that morning. As usual. He bounced down the stairs in front of his wife, letting his enthusiasm out.

"Hey, Mads, what kind of cool historical ghost fighting techniques do you think we'll find in ol' John Fenton-Nightingale's journal? My grandpa told me that he once fought a demon ghost with his bare hands, can you imagine?"

He heard a choking sound from the kitchen, and bounded in to find his son, Danny, choking on his cereal. He gave Danny a hearty slap on the back, and Danny started gasping for air.

"You okay there, Danny boy?"

"I'm, yeah, I'm fine. I just- Late for school! Gotta go!"

Danny rushed out the door without any further explanation. Jack scratched his head. "Huh. Isn't it still pretty early?"

"It's Saturday," said Maddie, concerned. "Should we go get him?"

"Nah, he'll figure it out soon enough!" said Jack. "It's good to see him so eager to go! Speaking of eager, let's go see how good ol' John ripped ghosts apart in the good old days!"

.

"Blood blossoms are extinct, right?" Danny asked Sam, watching her water her plants in her greenhouse, hands on his knees. "I mean, definitely and absolutely?"

"As far as I could find out," said Sam. "I talked to all of my gardening contacts. Only one had ever even heard of them, and she was convinced it was just a weird rose. I mean, even from where I was tied, I could tell they weren't, so... What's this about, anyway? Did your parents find out about them?"

"No, but they're about to. They got the Nightingale journal legible."

"Dang. I thought you trashed it."

"I tried! I really tried! But then Dad got it in his head that ghosts were trying to destroy it because it held secret ghost fighting secrets-"

"I mean, true, but go on."

"-and they got really enthusiastic about it. They build a whole machine just to read it!"

Sam put down her watering can and patted Danny on the back. "Well, hopefully there isn't anything in there that's worse than blood blossoms."

Danny groaned. "Why would you say something like that?"

.

"... and they're great on sandwiches!" exclaimed Jack.

"They certainly sound amazing," said Maddie as she typed on the lab computer. "They would be an amazing asset, but I can't find anything about them online, or even anything that looks like them. Show me the picture again? Maybe I can run it by some people."

"Sure thing, Mads!" Jack handed Maddie the relevant page. "Do you know a place called the Spine?"

"Not off the top of my head, why?"

"Because John says that's where he hid a bunch of seeds, just in case those dastardly ghosts tried to destroy them!"

"He hid them in the spine?" repeated Maddie, looking up from the computer. "Are you sure?"

"That's what he said!"

"Jack, what if he meant... the spine of the book?"

Both of them rushed across the lab to where the journal was stored in a ghost-proof box. Maddie picked up a pair of scissors.

"I'm really sorry if I'm wrong, Jack," she said.

"Don't be! It's what John would have wanted!"

She flipped up the lid and took out the wrecked book. "Maybe that's why the ghosts were so insistent on trying to destroy this, now. They knew about the seeds."

"I wouldn't put it past 'em!"

Maddie picked apart what was left of the binding, and, sure enough, a little cloth bag was nestled alongside the folded backs of the pages. Carefully, Jack picked it up and untied the top. He grinned widely and showed the shriveled red-brown fruits inside to Maddie.

"They're here, Maddie! Wait 'til I tell the kids! They'll be so excited! A little piece of family history, right here, in our hands."

"Wait, Jack," said Maddie, grabbing his arm. "I don't think we should tell them."

Jack's face fell. "Why not?"

"Well," said Maddie, frowning, "you know how they are about ghosts. I think we should keep these secret. So the ghosts don't find out, like they did with the journal."

"You don't think Jazz or Danny told the ghosts about the journal, do you?"

Maddie shook her head. "No, not necessarily. But they could have told their friends, and the ghosts could have overheard. This is just really important to our work and your family history, and I'd hate for it to be destroyed because of a mistake like that."

"Alright, we'll keep it secret, then. At least until they're ready to use! We can use the Fenton Stockades! The kids never go down there."

.

"You haven't heard any more about the journal?" Danny asked Jazz a week later. He leaned nervously against her doorjamb. He'd been having flashback nightmares to the seventeenth century or whatever hell year John Fenton-Nightingale had been from.

"What journal?" asked Jazz. "I read several. Psychology Today?"

"What?" asked Danny wrinkling his nose. "Isn't that a magazine? No, Dad's ancestor's journal. The one he and Mom thought was full of old ghost fighting stuff."

"No," said Jazz. "Why? Is it full of old ghost fighting stuff?"

Danny shrugged. "I didn't look at it super closely before I tried to torch it, but, yeah."

"That was you? Why?" asked Jazz, looking up from her book and swinging her legs off her bed.

"Because the guy tried to kill Sam," said Danny, scowling.

"Th- Our ancestor, who lived in the sixteen hundreds tried to kill Sam?" asked Jazz. "Jeez, I don't hear about half the things you guys get up to, do I? Why would he try to kill Sam?"

"He thought she was a witch. Thought I was a demon, too."

"So the demon Dad was saying he wrestled..."

"Probably me, to be honest."

"Just so you know," said Jazz, "I am intensely disturbed."

"That's two of us. Just, keep your ears out for them talking about blood blossoms or anything like that, okay?"

"Sure thing, little bro. And blood blossoms are?"

"Incredibly painful to ghosts. Or to half-ghosts who happen to be in ghost form." Danny made a face, remembering. "I was in so much pain I couldn't even think about turning back."

"You want to talk about it?"

"No," said Danny. "Not really."

"Well, if you change your mind..."

"Thanks," said Danny.

.

"Heh- achoo!"

"Sounds like you've got some allergies there, Danno!" said Jack. "I used to get them when I was your age, too!"

"Yeah, yeah," grumbled Danny. When his allergies had failed to show up the year after he became half-ghost, he had thought he had seen the last of them, but apparently they had just been lying in wait, because now they were worse than ever. He resisted the urge to rub his eyes.

If he ever found out what plant was doing this to him, he was going to destroy it with extreme prejudice.

"We'll pick up some allergy medication next time we're at the store. Which kind did you like, again? Allegra? Claratin?"

"I don't care," said Danny. "Whichever."

"Well," said Maddie, putting a pot on the table, "maybe this will help you clear up your sinuses, at least for a little bit. I put lots of spices in it." She ladled rosy pink soup into first Danny's then Jazz's bowls.

"It's an old family recipe!" said Jack, proudly.

Danny was immediately suspicious. Sure, he was probably just being paranoid, but he couldn't help but remember that John Fenton-Nightingale had eaten blood blossoms. Danny doubted consuming something like that would be good for him, no matter what form he was in.

He made a show of sneezing very hard and knocked his soup off the table.

"Aw, man," he said, staring at the mess.

"Don't worry, Danny-boy! You can have some of mine!"

"No, no," said Danny. "I'm actually not feeling all that hungry... I think I'll just go to bed." He fled the dining room without waiting for a response

.

"Jack," said Maddie, "do you think Danny was acting strangely at dinner today?" She still wasn't used to how her voice echoed in the Fenton Stockades, even after all these years.

"Yeah. Man, he's got some brutal allergies, huh?"

Maddie pruned a branch off of one of the larger blood blossom bushes. "Did you see the way he was looking at the blood blossom soup?" she asked.

"Not really! I was too busy looking at mine, and, man, was it delicious or what?"

"Thanks, Jack," said Maddie, smiling briefly. Her thoughts turned back to Danny, and the smile fell. "The book said that the fruits were good against overshadowing, right?"

"Right-o, Mads!"

"How long until these start bearing, do you think?"

.

The answer to the question was two weeks. For two weeks, Maddie lived not knowing whether or not her son was a ghost. For two weeks, Danny lived in a state of steadily increasing anxiety and paranoia.

He could feel Maddie watching him. He could feel her doubt. Literally. It made him sick. Or was that just the allergies? Either way it was brutal and Danny found himself taking every excuse he could to get out of the house. He rarely ate at home. He couldn't trust the food.

Jazz didn't think it was healthy. Neither did Danny, but it wasn't his fault.

"Do you have any proof?" asked Jazz, exasperated.

"Proof of what?"

"That Mom's acting weird, or that she's trying to poison you."

"No," admitted Danny. "But that doesn't mean she isn't."

"You've lost ten pounds, Danny, and you were already a stick. People will think you're anorexic." She paused. "You're not actually anorexic, are you?"

"No!" said Danny. "That's stupid. I'd eat if I could trust anything. Which I can't."

"Please, Danny. At least eat a cookie. I watched Mom make them. She didn't put in anything weird. Except for raisins, I guess."

Danny glanced down at the plate on the table, mouth watering. They smelled so good, and he was so hungry.

"Okay," he said, "but you have to watch in case I die or something."

Jazz rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said.

Danny picked up a cookie and bit into it. "Are you sure these are raisins?" he asked, picking the bite back out of his mouth.

"They were in the raisin box," said Jazz.

"They taste kind of funny," said Danny. His pulse had picked up. Crud, was he having a panic attack? Over a cookie?

"I guess they were kind of old," admitted Jazz. She took a cookie herself. "They're not bad. Danny? Are you okay?"

Danny, leaning on the counter, shook his head. "Can't breathe," he wheezed.

"Oh my gosh, you're swelling up," said Jazz.

Danny's vision tunneled and went dark.

.

"... anything new in his daily life? His diet?"

The voice was unfamiliar to Danny.

"We got some new plants last month... We've been trying them in cooking."

"In the cookies?"

"The fruits, yes, they're an heirloom variety."

"Could you bring some in? I'd like to run a few tests, but my initial diagnosis is that Danny has a severe allergy to something he ate."

There was an annoying beeping sound.

"Of course." Oh, that was his Mom. She sounded worried. "When do you think he'll wake up?"

"Any time now. But there are some other things I'd like to talk to you about that we found. Would you mind stepping out with me for a moment? Alright, so..."

"You can stop pretending to be asleep," said Jazz.

Danny groaned. "I told you so."

"You did," agreed Jazz.

"What have they noticed?" asked Danny, opening his eyes to see a hospital room.

"Not much, don't worry. I think they just want to ask about your portal scar."

"Mhm," said Danny, rubbing his chest. "So..."

"Severe allergic reaction. They hit you with an epi-pen."

"Cool. That worked?"

"Apparently."

.

"Are you sure you got rid of all of it?" asked Danny, standing well clear of the front door.

"We're positive, honey," said Maddie.

"Yeah, Danno," said Jack. "We got it up with the Fenton Pollen-o-Matic! Just, let us make this up to you, okay, sport? We didn't mean for it to turn out like this."

"I know," said Danny. He squared his shoulders and walked inside.

.

Danny sat on his bed, cross-legged. He had to check this now, rather than later, even if the thought of what was probably going to happen made him cringe.

No, he had to think positively. After all, what were the odds that the universe hated him that much?

Pretty high.

Okay. Positive thoughts not working. Time to bite the bullet.

He pulled on his core, summoning his transformation rings. They appeared, bright and white around his waist. They started to separate, and-

He was hit with a wall of blinding pain. His rings snapped back together.

Typical, really.

He reached for his phone and dialed a number.

"Hey, Tucker. How long did it take for those blood blossoms to go through your system?"

[oldsilverblood5]

Regret

Valerie glared at the numbers in painful silence, as she had been doing for the better part of an hour by now. It was too silent in her bedroom for her to focus and she found herself missing the playful banter of her friends in the background. She didn’t think she’d actually miss Sam’s meat rants but couldn’t help but recall the way the girl had been going on about pushing for a vegan friendly alternative in the school’s cafeteria the last time she saw her. Until her scanner had alerted her to a ghost in the area and she left them all behind saying she needed the bathroom and would meet them at their usual table for lunch.

The teen groaned and let her pencil fall onto her textbook. She stood and went over to her main blaster. It had been damaged in the fight with Skulker and repairing it was higher priority than her math homework right now.

She pulled out her toolbox, but her mind was really only on the fight.

She kept replaying it in her head, seeing every moment and trying to figure out what she could have done differently to prevent the way it ended.

Skulker had been prowling around the roof when she found him, eyes on the tech on his arm and totally distracted. She took the first shot, catching him by surprise, and took out his jetpack. While all ghosts could fly, Skulker had always used his jetpack to get around. At first, they didn’t know why, but Maddie had hit it once in a previous fight several months ago and they learned that he actually needed it. For some reason, this ghost didn’t have the same natural ability of flight all other ghosts did. He could still fly, but he was incredibly slow, and it seemed to drain his energy faster. This was a weakness all the hunters picked up on and now whenever he came back, they aimed for his jetpack first, taking away his easiest form of mobility. Though he had recognised this and got better at dodging while also building stronger versions, this one didn’t stand a chance at Valerie’s clear shot.

After that, the fight really got started. Skulker wasn’t a very powerful ghost, but what he lacked in power, he more than made up for in his ingenuity. The hunter built gadgets and weapons to aid him in his battles and it made him one of the tougher ghosts they fought. This difference made him a scientific curiosity to her mentors who could not stop theorising about him, but all of them could agree it made him a frustration.

Not once had any of them even come close to catching Skulker.

However, he’d never been a major concern until now. Skulker was a hunter and a collector. He went looking for rare or valuable finds, usually in the form of certain ghosts and sometimes the hunters’ tech. He was a regular ghost in their town, but he usually left after he got what he came for. Even though that meant he wasn’t around to torment the humans like so many others seemed keen on doing, it was a sort of wounded pride to the hunters that he would come and go as he pleased. There’d already been several people saying they were incompetent at their jobs if Skulker could do what he wanted, and it pissed Valerie off.

So, she went at him with everything she had, fully intent to catch him once and for all. Then Phantom turned up, another ghost they just couldn’t get a hold of, and before Valerie knew it, she was so full of rage at these two beings that insisted on making her life difficult and she had her blaster turned up to full power, more power than it could handle and even though it was so satisfying to watch the bigger ghost crash into the building, she realised her surroundings far too late.

She remembered the shock at seeing the destruction around her. Damage was a normal thing in ghost attacks, but Valerie had no idea it was that bad until Skulker was out of her sight. The cafeteria was destroyed; windows were smashed, walls were straight up missing, and part of the roof had collapsed. Another large whole sat in the side of the building where Valerie had just blindly shot at and she remembered the shock in her limbs as she finally took it all in. Damage from ghost attacks was normal, she knew that. That’s just what happens when you fight powerful beings with destructive abilities. But Valerie just couldn’t get it out of her head that this was her fault. It had been her weapon that took out that entire wall. So what if the fight wouldn’t have started if Skulker wasn’t there, and that he caused his own fair share of damage, that part was her fault. She should have been paying attention to where she was aiming, she shouldn’t have used such a powerful blast in an area where something was bound to be destroyed.

But that guilt didn’t even come close to what she felt the moment she realised there was still someone inside, and that she had basically delivered Skulker right to them.

Tears blurred her vision and she had to put down the shaking tool to cover her face. A sob wrenched its way out of her throat as the sounds of his screams echoed in her mind. She wanted to blame Phantom, she really did, but she was the one who blasted the ghost right next to them.

She was the one who put Danny in danger.

Why of all people, did it have to be Danny?

The boy who comforted her when she lost her home and her friends. The boy who welcomed her into his life without pity. The boy who gave her the truest friends she’d ever had.

The boy she swore she would protect.

She’d promised herself. She’d promised his parents. She was supposed to keep him safe.

But she froze. The shock at what had happened stilled her body and she couldn’t move even though he was in pain. By the time she had come back to her senses, Phantom had already taken care of Skulker and was kneeling in front of Danny. She tried to be angry at him, but it was hard to after he’d saved her friend’s life. Trusting Phantom to take him to the hospital though, was incredibly difficult for her. If it weren’t for the fact that he could get Danny there faster than she could, she probably would’ve refused.

Valerie thought back to what Phantom had said in the hospital waiting room. About working together when they have the same goal. Working with a ghost wasn’t an idea she would normally entertain, but her guilt over what happened to Danny and the realisation that it could have been avoided had she actually been willing to listen to Phantom, was fresh on her mind.

It’s not like what he was proposing was anything new. Phantom had helped them in the past whenever a particularly dangerous ghost appeared in town, it’s what he had been doing with Skulker in the first place, but those times were really just circumstantial. They didn’t exactly work together, but if Phantom was able to help incapacitate the stronger ghost or lead him away from populated areas, the hunters didn’t complain. But they didn’t trust his plans or listen to his advice. And after a while he just stopped trying to talk to them. Valerie and the Fentons were glad when he finally stopped, that he’d realised his help wasn’t wanted or needed. It meant they had to deal with him a little less.

But now all Valerie could think about is what would have happened if Phantom had felt he could tell the Red Huntress that there were people still inside. She told him he should have told her, and the hunter wanted to believe she would have listened. But deep down, Valerie knew, she wouldn’t have even let the ghost say the words.

[goliath-de-senfina-sango]

Whenever Danny went to the past and was seen by others, the moment he came back to the present there were these weird threads sticking to him.  they didn't seem to do anything and nothing bad was happening - heck he felt stronger every time he saw new ones actually.  Still, he was curious as to what they were.

It started when Danny first came back from the Infinimap event. He felt the tug and pull of something on his core, some kind of… tingling? He wasn’t sure how to explain it. But among the whole ‘the Infinite Realms both do and do not exist at every feasible and non-feasible point in space and time across the whole multiverse’ revelation it wasn’t exactly something that Danny was focusing on. Instead, he was making sure Sam and Tucker’s heads didn’t explode with jokes to distract them. “Thanks for eating your veggies for the first time in your whole life, Tuck.”

Tucker rolled his eyes and elbowed him in his ribs. “Yeah, you owe me for that. I’ll take all your best copies of videogames.”

“How about you name three videogames and I’ll get them for you,” Sam countered. “You really did save our butts back there. And so did you, Danny.”

“Yeah yeah, who else is gonna do it if I don’t?” They laughed, there was ribbing, and the day went on.

After that, however, Danny found himself stumbling through natural portals more and more often whenever he went into the Zone. they lead to the past, often, and he found himself helping people out as much as he could before another portal could be found and he could find his way back to the Fenton Portal or at least to Frostbite or Dora or wherever he’d been planning to go. Tucker and Sam, of course, got caught up in it too. That wasn’t even the weirdest part though.

Every time Danny returned to the present day after a time-traveling shenanigan he felt stronger. As soon as he set foot on Earth, blue and silver threads of light reached out from him into the world, pulsing with energy, and Danny felt less tired, less weighed down by everything. He’d explained it to Sam and Tucker and saw that he even had these threads leading to them, though the strands leading to them were different. Tucker’s was golden and silver and UV orange, while Sam’s was green and silver and black. There was even one leading back to Jazz, violet and white and blurple. Sam said Blurple wasn’t a color, but Danny said that she couldn’t see in Ultra Violet so she didn’t get to name the colors in the spectrum. She bought a blacklight soon after.

The oddest thing, however, was when he saw people in the street walking to the Nasty Burger or to the library or park that the strings connected to. Usually, the blue ones, though sometimes it was the silver ones. When he passed by one such person, a guy in black pants and white jacket with sunglasses on, Danny reached out to wrap his fingers around that thread between them and narrowed his eyes when it felt like a tangible thing. So he pulled on it. The man stumbled a bit, lifting his sunglasses to look around - mostly up at the sky - and Danny snickered. Once he was a distance away from the man he started tugging on the other strings, gently at first but then he got curious. One of the blue threads held an extra green sparkle to it, and Danny weighed his choices and options carefully, making the most educa- he yanked on the glowing green invisible string coming from his core out into the world to see what happened.

The air in front of him twisted, light shifting around until it was purple and green and everything in between and a guy with pale green skin, oily purple hair and bright green eyes fell through the portal, floating over the sidewalk in an outfit befitting the 70s more than it did the millennium. The portal hovered open behind him and everyone on the sidewalk stopped, staring at the ghost, who was staring at Danny slackjawed and wide-eyed. “I’m gonna ask that you please go back into the Realms, I really don’t wanna deal with this right now.” More gazes shifted to Danny for that but really, he had to try to solve his problems with words at least once or twice, right?

The ghost looked down at the thread between them - wonderful, ghosts could see that, that was just fanfreakintastic - and then back up at Danny. Then he nodded, seemingly in shock, and floated backwards into the portal from whence he came. It snapped closed behind him and Danny blinked a couple of times. “I didn’t think asking nicely would work. I’ll have to tell Mom about that.” Now, Danny simply had to perform the task of becoming metaphorically invisible instead of literally. This proved difficult, however, as everyone ID’d him as The Fenton Kid pretty easily. He pulled out his phone, dialed Tucker, and ignored the stares best he could.

After the mishap in the streets, Danny noticed a new thread form in real-time, blue and sharply visible, as though daring him not to see it. When he got to school the next day, he saw that it lead back to Dash fucking Baxter of all people - who was showing off something as usual. When the trio made it through enough of the crowd to see what Dash had done that connected Danny to him like that, they saw a tattoo of Danny’s DP symbol inked onto reddish-pink raw skin. Danny let out a hum and wrapped his fingers around that string, tugging gently and watching as the tattoo glowed bright enough for everyone to see it. “Holy shit, I just felt that. It’s like Phantom pulled on me!”

“Whoa, dude! What if like, wearing Phantom’s symbol connects you to him somehow?” Oh, how Danny hated that Kwan was so much smarter than Dash and yet so easily lead by him. “Oh, hey, maybe you can like, pull back?”

“Perhaps if I get a tattoo myself then my ghost boy will always know where I am so that he can find me for a date!”

Danny would’ve paid any mind to the rest of the chatter around Dash had he not been floored by a tug from the other side of this newfound and unwanted connection. Warmth appreciation caution excitement echoed like words in a cave, searching for someone to hear but not close enough to truly communicate. Danny took a deep breath, holding onto Tucker’s shoulder for support, and carefully pulled his attention away from Dash trying to get it. “Save me.”

“They’re gonna start a cult,” Sam said with poorly concealed mirth. “Oh my gosh, this is going to spiral disastrously out of control and it’ll be hilarious.”

“Sam, I’m about to have a bunch of jock thoughts beamed into my head, and you’re laughing at me.” He sighed, rolling his eyes. “With my luck, they’ll try and make an official religion around me.”

Tucker snorted and shook his head, tapping away at his PDA. “Ya know what’d be really funny? What if all those extra threads are like, cults that worship you?” Tucker laughed at the idea, and Danny did too for a moment, elbowing him gently in the side. Sam, however, was not laughing, and once Danny noticed that he stopped laughing as well.

“Sam?”

“You said that you first saw these threads when we went time traveling around, right?”

“Yeah, every time we go to the past and someone sees us do stuff there’s more weird strings. They don’t pop up when we come back and didn’t get caught though.”

“So when you and Vlad fought over Rome and burned it down, and fought in that one temple and near destroyed it…”

“Oh, holy shit. Hold on Sam, I gotta check.” Tucker tapped away at his PDA at speeds that Sam informed Danny were not normal. He wanted to pretend he didn’t understand what they were getting at, revel in the bliss of ignorance and all that, but he was getting less oblivious these days - he was he swore.

“Guys, the cult joke isn’t going too far now, is it?” Tucker hummed at him, and Sam started walking toward class, dragging them both behind her. “Guys, this isn’t funny anymore!” Honestly, Danny had every right to be whiny about this. He fought eldritch abominations every day, he didn’t need to have a cult to deal with too.

“Wow, that’s a lotta results. You’ve been seen in the past by a lot of people - me n Sam too. Maybe that ghost you summoned was like, one of your cultists who died?”

“There’s only one way to find out,” Sam half sang. “Someone’s gotta hold a seance and ask a ghost a question.”

“Sam, please, we’ve asked enough ghosts enough questions without dragging them here from their afterlives.” His friends were laughing at him now, which lead to yet pettier whines. “What would I even do about this if I have a cult?”

[raaorqtpbpdy]

Phantom Boy (7)

When the Doctors Fenton lose their son in a lab accident involving a ghost portal, the distraught parents will do anything to get him back. Even if it means breaking the immutable laws of life and death. But that thing? That’s not their boy.

First Chapter | Previous Chapter

Chapter 7: Reconciliation (Read it on AO3)

[No Warnings Apply]

Phantom awoke in a familiar room, surrounded by familiar people, but it was... wrong.

This was his bedroom―Danny's bedroom, before he died and came back as someone else. Something else. It was exactly as he remembered it. Nothing had been touched. Even the dirty laundry on the floor was just where he'd left it.

But the people standing over him... they didn't all belong there.

Maddie was sitting in a chair by his bed, nodding off. His sister was next to her, at the foot of his bed, reading a thick book, her leg jiggling anxiously. Ember was seated at his desk. She strummed a quiet tune on her guitar. Skulker and Technus―both of them at least as tall as Jack Fenton, whose huge frame covered a large section of one wall, his head a mere inches from the ceiling, his arms shifting and shaking as he knitted something with blue yarn, a nervous habit―were sitting on the bedroom floor. Youngblood was asleep on the beanbag chair, dressed in a little doctor costume, with Skelton curled up against his side, a bony cat.

Dora, pacing the floor, was the first to notice that his eyes had opened.

"He's awake!" she shouted, and instantly everyone's heads turned to him.

Maddie snapped out of her stupor. Jack's hands stilled on his knitting needles. Jazz closed her book with a loud clap. Technus and Skulker shot to their feet. Ember's music stopped. Youngblood and Skelton jolted awake, then yawned and rubbed their eyes.

All at once, they started talking, so Phantom couldn't make out what anyone was saying, and cringed at the sound.

"Guys, one at a time," he groaned. Maddie helped him gently push himself up into a sitting position. "What... why are... how are you all here right now? How are we all here right now?"

"When the army suddenly collapsed, we knew you'd succeeded," Ember explained. "We waited for you to come back out, but―"

"We thought you'd been destroyed," Skulker told him. "We went in to see if it was true, and that was where we found you, collapsed in front of the sarcophagus."

"It's my fault," Technus said. "I, Technus, Master of All Technology, should have known that the ecto-skeleton was not ready for such rigorous field testing."

"No, Technus," Phantom jumped to refute. "Without your invention, I really would have been destroyed."

"It used you like a battery," Technus argued, "drained you until you could not even stand, and... reverted to your human form."

"We thought you'd proper died," Dora said, shaking. "We thought we were looking at a corpse, a real one."

"We didn't know what to do, so we brought you to the human world," Ember said. "We thought that someone here might be able to help."

"They came out of the portal while we were preparing to go in after you and begged us to help," Maddie said. "Of course we agreed right away. We're the only people in this world―and apparently the next―who would have been able to bring you back from the brink like that."

"We'd never done anything like it before, aside from bringing you back in the first place," Jack pointed out.

"Your new biology is... unique," she agreed, "and difficult to understand, but we figured it out." She paused and locked eyes with her husband. "We had to."

"Danny... the truth is, Jazz was right," Jack said, setting his knitting on his son's desk before walking closer. The bed dipped heavily when he sat on the edge of it. "What we did... bringing you back... it wasn't right, and it wasn't fair to you, but what we did afterwards wasn't just wrong. It was cruel."

"We thought you weren't our boy, but we were wrong," Maddie agreed. There were tears in her eyes, and Phantom could feel them welling up in his, too. "You are our son, no matter how you came to be, and we should have accepted you. We should have been the parents you needed. I know it's late, but... we'd like to try to make up for it."

"Mom," he pushed himself forward into her arms and a hug had never felt so good before. Then his father joined in and made it even better. "Dad."

"And I was on your side all along, so you know I still am," Jazz tacked on.

He laughed through his tears and reached past his mom to pull Jazz into the group hug as well.

"Jazz!"

"We love you, Danny," his father said, his normally booming voice so soft and earnest in his ear.

"Actually..." he trailed off, wondering momentarily if it would change things. But things had already changed. They knew he wasn't the same boy as before, and they were the ones who'd given him his new name, really. "I don't think I am Danny anymore. My new friends call me Phantom."

"Well, in that case, we love you, Phantom," his father said immediately. He'd probably forgotten about his words all those weeks ago.

"Oh," Mom seemed to get it right away, from the pained look on her face when she pulled slightly out of the hug, as did Jazz. But then she smiled, and moved back in to keep hugging him. "Of course, sweetie. Phantom it is."

"I think it sounds cool, especially for a half-ghost like you," Jazz told him, "Classic, without undermining the inherent fear factor. It suits you."

Phantom grinned.

Sam and Tucker came in a few seconds later, bringing more ectoplasm and saline for the IV in his arm, and broke the moment with his parents. They were eager to rekindle their friendship with him, and to get to know the person he was now, as was he.

His parents and sister sat back and watched, smiling, offering input only when asked and checking Phantom's vitals every hour as he and his friends, old and new, caught up with each other. Sam and Tucker were excited to meet the ghosts, and vice-versa.

Once dinner time rolled around, Phantom's parents saw fit to take him off the IV and have a proper meal, with everyone invited, and the party moved downstairs.

None of them noticed the distant figure, watching them through the kitchen window, too caught up in their merrymaking and celebrating. Phantom was half-alive and completely well, the Ghost King was defeated, the danger had passed for all of them, and there was fudge for dessert.

Mysterious figures were a problem for another day, even familiar ones.

The unknown ghost who'd locked the sarcophagus, the one Phantom wasn't entirely sure he hadn't imagined, floated there. He landed in an alleyway, and rings of darkness swept over the caped figure, and when they vanished a gray-haired man in a black suit stood there, still watching.

"So, I was right," said the man. "Those Fenton fools have recreated my work."

An alley cat hissed at him and he scowled, his eyes passing over the grime and garbage around him. Perhaps this wasn't such a suitable place for him to stop after all.

The rings reappeared, traversing his body, absorbing the light around them and bringing the alley from dim to midnight-dark in the moments before they disappeared, and the ghost was standing there again. His clean white suit and cape were a stark contrast to the dingy background as he flashed his pearly fangs and glowing red eyes.

"I suppose we'll have to see how well it fares against one of its own kind," he said, before shrouding himself in invisibility and taking off into the darkening evening sky.

[ghostgothgeek]

Exposed.

Holiday truce 2019 gift for @pigte! I tried to incorporate all three of your topics in some form, I hope you enjoy it and have a great holiday!! :) 

Rating: T for swearing, mild gore

--

Vlad Masters was having a rough day, to say the least. He spilled coffee all over his favorite dress shirt, Maddie had blatantly ignored him at the grocery store, another one of his clone experiments had failed, Maddie (the cat) threw up on his lap, he had to fight off Daniel for a short period of time...and now…

Now he was getting beaten and bruised and, for lack of better terms, having his ass handed to him by the Red Huntress, the ghost hunter hellbent on revenge. He had been grooming her to go after Daniel as Phantom, not himself as Plasmius! Using a man’s own weapons on him was some sort of cruel joke this terrible day had been playing on him. Especially when said huntress is a fourteen year old girl who didn’t have ghost powers. Now that just hurt a man’s ego. 

“Come back here, ghost scum.” Valerie growled, kicking off her hoverboard and following hot on Plasmius’s trail. 

Valerie Gray, on the other hand, was having a great day. She had a run in with Phantom, where, much to her dismay, they agreed to a temporary truce. She had caught two ghosts already, she got an A on her Spanish test (she would know what Paulina was really saying about her now), and she was already maiming Vlad Plasmius, third most annoying ghost on her list (one and two are Phantom). 

Plasimus took a glance over his shoulder to see the teenager rapidly catching up to him. He grimaced and went invisible, keeping on his path.

Valerie pressed a button on her wrist cuff, activating a new screen inside her helmet. “Time to take this baby for a test drive.” She smirked as her thermal imaging sensors went on. She easily spotted a very cold entity flying just in front of her where the ghost she was chasing just was. “Pfft. Amateurs.” She snorted and held out her gun, aiming directly for Plasmius’s back, and fired, hitting him directly. She smiled in satisfaction.

“Ahh!” His invisibility flickered in and out as he grabbed his searing shoulder. “What the-” It felt like something was digging into his skin. His eyes widened as he saw the teen once again coming full speed at him, a look of pure rage and vengeance on her face. He quickly took off again, flying lower to the ground. “I didn’t buy her that!” 

Plasmius quickly landed behind a tree and transformed back to human. He rolled his shoulders back a couple of times, still feeling the burn from her gun underneath his suit. No matter, he was decent enough to make it home from here. 

As he called for a car, Valerie swooped down to look for Plasmius. She growled when there was no sign of him, although she did see Mayor Masters getting into his car. “Stupid ghosts,” she muttered as she started typing things into one of her gadgets. “Good thing that blast didn’t just burn you.” She looked at the GPS in her helmet and smiled when something popped up on the radar. “Yes! Mrs. Fenton’s ghost tracking system worked!” 

Valerie took a small moment to celebrate and reminded herself to thank Mrs. Fenton for letting her test some new inventions. Danny had been reluctant to let her talk about ghosts with his mother, but Valerie had eventually worn her friend down. 

She took off, following the little dot on her screen. “Weird, it looks like the ghost is trailing Mayor Masters’ car…oh no, he’s after the mayor!” She had followed the car back to the mayor’s mansion, surveilling the outside once she saw he was safely inside his home. 

Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she double checked her radar to see that the ghost was indeed here at the mayor’s mansion. “What are you up to…” She pushed a button dismantling her hoverboard and storing it back in her boots and looked around for an open window. For the mayor’s safety. She quietly climbed in and scoped the place out. “Mr. Masters?” She whisper-yelled and started checking out rooms in the mansion. 

Why did the mayor’s mansion suddenly have an eerie feeling to it? She had been here dozens of times, but for some reason, today the atmosphere was more sinister. She had only been in a few rooms of the large estate before. Perhaps it was because she was charting unknown territory. She slowed her breathing down so she could be quieter, and continued tip-toeing down a seemingly never ending hallway. 

She had heard some faint beeping coming from nearby. Glancing in one of the rooms, she saw a picture frame with an otherworldly glow behind it. Bingo. 

Valerie scanned her surroundings before entering the room and glanced up at the painting of the mayor. She rolled her eyes. The mayor was nice and all, but after losing everything on Phantom’s accord several months ago, she was realizing how insignificant most superfluous things, such as a twelve-foot tall headshot of yourself, were. Men and their egos.

She tried lifting the painting unsuccessfully. It was worth a shot. She double checked her surroundings for a button or a switch, and started playing around in the dark with items until she found the switch beneath the fireplace mantel across the room. She quickly maneuvered her way into a lab. “What’s this?” 

It looked similar to the chemistry labs at school; there were all sorts of glass beakers filled with miscellaneous liquids, notebooks laying askew, and she recognized a Bunsen burner. She walked over to a chalkboard with formulas written all over it. She had never been a mayor before, but she was pretty certain a mayor didn’t need all of this. This looked vaguely like the Fentons lab, though she had only seen it in brief one time, but this lab was more...creepy.

Valerie quietly looked around at all the machinery, looking for any sign of Plasmius or Mr. Masters. Could he be held hostage in his own home? None of this was adding up.

Alert, she jumped at a small thump behind her. She stiffened, turned, and had her gun pointed and ready to fire at whatever the source was. “What the…” She lowered her weapon and removed her helmet, carefully approaching the...whatever that was.

It looked vaguely human, but she was certain it was most definitely not human. 

“H-hello.” She jumped back when the...thing…spoke. It was somewhat shaped like a human; it had limbs, eyes (though one of them was slowly dripping down its face) and a mouth, obviously. The rest of it was glowy green goo. It looked like a person had been half melted in a nuclear power plant mixed with Frankenstein’s monster that had gotten run over by a truck, exploded, and then was put back together to resemble a human. Definitely some nightmarish hybrid that could have only been cooked up by an insane scientist. 

“Uh, hi?” She looked at the thing suspiciously, quickly glancing around to see if there were any other current threats. Heart pounding in her chest, she took a deep breath and tried to steady her voice. She needed answers. “What...what are you?” She raised an eyebrow, keeping her gun at standby just in case. 

The creature pointed to a computer screen behind her. Keeping an eye on the monster, she glanced at the screen. 

Clone Experiment #360: Failed

Notes: Less ectoplasm; need to strengthen ghost powers; human aspects making progress

She looked back at the thing. “You’re a clone? Of what?” Valerie searched for a mouse beside the computer and...was that a picture of Mrs. Fenton?! She grimaced and clicked on the computer, showing a new screen.

Clone Experiment #361: In Progress

Notes: Still developing, but most promising; switched genders and adding another human’s DNA helped stabilize; shows most sign of life; need more Phantom DNA

Valerie’s eyes widened. “You’re a clone of Phantom?!” She raised the gun back up at the monstrosity. It nodded and took a step closer. “Stop or I’ll shoot!” 

“P-please…” 

She tilted her head in surprise. The thing wanted her to shoot it? 

“Please shoot. End pain.” She stared into its somewhat familiar eyes and she saw suffering and despair as it moved one of its eyeballs back into place. 

“You...you can feel all of that?” She looked at the deformities once again and cringed when it nodded. “Who did this to you?” She demanded. 

“Master,” raising a goopy limb, it pointed to a painting of the mayor on the wall similar to the one she came in through. Odd. It paused before pleading again, “P-please...shoot. End me.” 

Valerie gulped and weighed her options. The thing was kind of a ghost, which she is set to destroy, but it still seemed vaguely human. It clearly had a soul, a tortured one at that, which meant she was ending a life and she didn’t think she could live with that. However, the thing was clearly suffering and she would be giving it a mercy kill. “I...c-can’t.” It started advancing towards her so she raised her gun again, arm shaking. “Don’t come any closer! Please!” 

“Can’t do more experiments. End pain.” It continued to move towards her. “Please.” She looked at its pleading eyes before shutting hers, turning her head away, and pulling the trigger. She flinched when she felt warm goo hit the side of her face, hearing it splatter all over the wall behind her as well. She opened her eyes and looked at the glowing ectoplasm splattered across the lab. She was still trembling. 

“What was that noise?” Valerie barely made out a voice that sounded similar to Plasmius’s. Shit. No time to process the murder she just committed. She forgot why she was there in the first place: to protect the mayor and catch a ghost. She quickly found a spot to hide while she charged up her weapons, preparing for battle and hostage negotiation. 

“...incompetent children and their lack of discipline.” She heard him muttering as he flew into view. “What?! What happened here?!” He flew over towards where Valerie had been standing before, looking at all the gunk covering his equipment. He pressed a button and a hidden wall suddenly came into view. 

Valerie gulped. More experiments. Just like the one she just destroyed. Some looking more like Phantom, some looking more like goo in a jar. One seemed to resemble a little girl, “Dani Phantom #361” written below the tank she was floating in. There were at least eight clones there, some hanging from chains. She could hear some of them whimpering. 

Plasmius scanned the wall and saw the empty spot. “Hmm...must have been more unstable than I thought. It appears #360 combusted and broke free of its bonds.” He typed a few things into the computer. “Now to get this painful contraption off of me!” Plasmius transformed back to his human half, his hand clawing at the silver device embedded in his shoulder. Masters stood where Plasmius once was. He grabbed some forceps and starting prying at the tracking device, not stopping or even wincing as blood oozed out around it. He set the forceps down and wrapped his fingers around the device. With a brief glow of his fingers, the device was zapped off his shoulder. 

Valerie could smell the burnt circuits along with the stench of the clone ectoplasm in the room. She could feel her stomach churning, but she was strong. She held her breath as she watched Vlad Masters glance at his watch.

“Oh fudge! I’ve got to meet Ed at seven for D&D!” He slapped a piece of gauze on his wound and looked for some medical tape, continuing to mutter to himself. “Last week I was late from Spectra’s book club running long, and if I’m late again I’ll miss Harriet’s spinach puffs! Better fly there.” After tending to his wound, two dark rings surrounded the man and flash of light filled the room, Masters becoming Plasmius once again.

Valerie’s eyes widened and she covered her mouth to mute her gasp. She couldn’t believe what she just saw. Plasmius/Masters quickly flew off. She blinked rapidly as she gathered her thoughts, making sure what she just saw is what she think she just saw. The mayor was trying to clone Phantom? Is that how he had ghost powers himself? The mayor was a ghost?! And not just any ghost, a ghost who had harmed her and who she had been hunting for months on end, despite Vlad Masters’s insistence to focus on Phantom instead of Plasmius. Of course. 

And Phantom. Phantom had tried talking to her when they formed their temporary truce earlier this morning, ironically setting aside their differences over the man whose house she was standing in; the man who wasn’t really a man at all. Phantom’s warning about Mayor Masters echoed in her head.

“You can’t trust him, he’s not who you think he is.”

He was right. She didn’t completely trust Phantom’s word, of course, but considering the new information she unraveled over the past ten minutes, Phantom…was telling the truth? Maybe she had to reevaluate her stance on Phantom.

No. Just because he isn’t as malevolent doesn’t mean he wouldn’t destroy her if he had the choice. He’s still a ghost. Just like Vlad. 

Vlad Masters. 

Valerie felt so stupid. Here she was, top ten in her class, and she didn’t make the connection between Vlad Plasmius and Vlad Masters. They talked similarly, behaved similarly for the most part, tended to show up one after the other...they even had the same first name for crying out loud! She should have just ignored her grudge and listened to Phantom. He never hurt her like Plasmius did, after all. No, Danny Phantom was pretty civil towards her, she supposed. 

Wait.

Phantom.

Danny Phantom. 

Danny Fenton.

“Oh shit.”