Chapter Text
The lab had been abandoned before, but lately the Fentons had been tackling it without abandon. The Maximus, once a dripping husk of its former self, had improved by leaps and bounds. At the very least, it looked like something that should have worked, though its insides were more on the outside than they were meant to be. Many of the damaged parts had had to be completely remade.
Jack had left to continue searching, but Maddie had stayed behind to delicately rewire the thing. Phantom observed from across the room. He was tired of looking for someone who wouldn't be found. He was tired, tired of being tired.
"You said you met Danny once before?"
Phantom snapped out of his half-awake trance. Maddie had been silent all morning, to the point he hadn't been sure she even knew he was there. He wasn't sure if the idea that she'd been simply ignoring him was even better.
"I did. Why?"
"I don't think you're telling me the full story."
Phantom went cold with dread, a feeling much more foreign than his ghost sense. How was it she always saw through him?
"The two of you…" she continued, her words carefully weighed. "You were Danny's friend, weren't you."
Phantom let out a slow deep breath, willing his heart to stop racing, to stop beating at all. It wasn't even necessary, damn it. "What makes you think that?"
"Danny never liked fighting ghosts. He especially never liked hearing us talk about them, about you in particular."
Of course he didn't, but how was he even meant to respond to that? Should he deny any connection at all? Or was this helpful. Would they still be willing to shoot Phantom if he was their son's friend? Would it even matter?
"I guess you could say we were close."
She laughs, devoid of any real humour. "It's like some sort of sick joke. My son, friends with a ghost? I can't believe it."
"It could have been worse. He could have been a ghost himself."
God what was he even saying? She had to hear just how that sounded.
Maddie's grip on her pliers tightens. "My son is not a ghost. He's not…."
"Right, of course." Why did he say that. Of course she wouldn't take it well. It sounded like…. "I'll see you around, Maddie."
A hand grabbed onto his boot. Phantom stopped in place, turning back around, barely mustering up the courage to look her in the eye. She wore an intense expression that Phantom couldn't quite read. "What do you know?"
Phantom met her eye. "Nothing at all."
It felt like no time at all before the sun was setting again. Maybe this was Clockwork's influence, pushing him along faster and faster until that final moment of truth.
Jack spotted him first, a feat considering Phantom was flying above him against the dwindling light of the sky while he was trudging along the roads in the GAV, exactly where Phantom had hoped to see him.
"Phantom!" he called jovially. "Come to join the search?"
The passenger seat was occupied by a giant metal box. It wasn't something that Phantom recognized.
"Ah, you'll have to sit in the back. This baby needs to be front and center."
Phantom sank into the seat. "Why?"
"It's our Fenton Wide Range Spectre Detector. It's detecting ghost activity all over town. If there's an uptick, we'll know where to look next."
Right, because they still thought he'd been kidnapped by a ghost. It was almost a perfect cover story. Hell, it was almost true. It was just too bad it wasn't completely so.
"Why do all this?"
Jack hummed, watching the road for once. "What do you mean?"
"Aren't there other things you'd rather be doing? Ghost weapons you'd rather be building?"
"Danny's out there somewhere. We'll find him."
"But what if you can't?"
"We will."
Phantom curls into the back of the seat, picking at a bit of gum jammed into the lines of the door.
"Sometimes I wonder of he's even still in Amity." Jack's voice was so subdued that, for a moment, Danny hadn't been sure it had even been him speaking. Jack Fenton didn't do quiet like that, but certainly he hadn't meant to be heard right then. "What if it wasn't a ghost? What if…."
Danny wished no one had to worry about him like this. He was right there, yet completely helpless to fix any of it.
"But I'm sure I'm worrying over nothing. It's a big town after all. Now that we have this baby, I'm sure we'll find him in no time."
Danny was sure he would try.
Danny felt useless.
The deadline Clockwork had imposed on him was drawing ever nearer, but the solution was still just out of reach, and Danny could do nothing about it. His parents were hard at work fixing the Maximus, and all he could do was search for someone who wouldn't be found. And then what? What if it didn't work? Would he be a ghost forever? Stuck as only a half of what he once was?
The sky was a pretty shade of pink, a picturesque view that only made him feel worse in comparison. He buried his face in his hands, pressing his thumbs into his eyes until he saw sparks behind them.
Clockwork said he was important. The future needed him. A stronger him. Surely if that was the case, he's make sure everything turned out alright.
Surely if that had been the case, this wouldn't be happening at all. Was this like Dan? Was he living through the bad timeline this time?
Fuck. The not knowing was going to kill him before this little problem ever did.
Danny yelled at the sky until his voice echoed back at him in a haunting chorus. When that failed, he aimed an ecto-blast at a nearby dumpster and fired. Then again, and again, and over and over until it was nothing more than a smoldering hunk of metal to rival even Vlad's work. He kicked it for good measure, the steel toe of his boot clanging a discordant note. He didn't need to breathe, but he was still panting hard by the end of it.
The sky had gone pallid and grey. A street light flickered on above him, a spotlight on his creation. Danny grimaced. The anger drained out of him as fast as it had come.
He pushed the ruin of metal back into place. It fixed nothing, but at least it felt like he was doing something for a change.
And then, of course, just as he was looking for somewhere to rest for the night, there was the Red Huntress.
If only he hadn't said those things to Sam. Then there would be no question as to where he could crash for the night. As it was, Phantom wasn't sure he was allowed back. He no longer knew where he stood with them. What would happen if he did return?
No use thinking about it now, he supposed.
"Phantom."
Maybe it would just be easier to fly off into space and never return. He'd pick a star and start a new life in its orbit, one where he could forget about ghost hunters and maybe-friends and ticking clocks. "What now, Red."
Her grip on her gun was tense, but at least it wasn't pointed at him this time around. "I saw you're working with the Fentons."
Well, that was one way to put it. "What about it?"
"Listen," she huffed, "if you're lying about having nothing to do with whatever it was that happened to Danny, I'll never forgive you. I'll never forgive myself for this."
Red stepped onto the concrete, bringing them face to face. "I don't know if you're up to some sort of trick or scheme or whatever, but if they can look past all your… everything, well, that has to mean something."
"What are you saying?"
"My point is, maybe we can put aside the whole trying to shoot each other thing for the sake of what's important."
As if this whole thing was his idea, his fault. As if she wasn't the one who went out of her way to attack him whenever she could. But whatever, he'd take what he could get. If it meant one less bullet to dodge, then so be it.
"For the record, you're the one who does most of the shooting."
"You're a menace."
"Do you want your truce or not?" Phantom held out a hand, wiggled his fingers for emphasis.
Red took it, but instead of shaking, used it to pull him closer. "Do not make me regret this," she hissed before letting him go.
"Wouldn't dream of it."