Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Y’know ghosties can have kids too? It’s not like they can like… as the kids now say it... "get it"… But if two individual peeps have a strong enough bond they can combine some parts of their ecto-entities to make a new ‘ghost.’ We call them second-gen, and they’re not like, a completely new and improved model, but more like... A fusion I guess. So you see you little punk, when two ghosts loooovvvve each other very very much, they use the unnatural spectral laws of biology to get them a new brat.”

He abruptly woke up shuddering, clinging to his blanket as his eyes darted across his room. It wasn’t hard to miss her, a blazing torch of electric blue energy. She pursed her lips impatiently, floating in the corner while he gawked at her in shock. 

There were a million questions more than appropriate to demand in this situation, but he settled on the one that seemed to almost ask itself.

“Why...? Why are you telling me this..." He hoarsely whispered, throat screaming for water. Danny was still a little more than groggy; his mind was so tired he could taste how bad his breath smelled, and it was an effort to keep his eyes creaked open. But he kept himself more than tensed enough to prepare for… whatever could possibly follow-up this situation.

Ember rolled her eyes as she crossed her legs mid-air. “It’s so you don’t ask me any weird questions on the way to the party dipshit.”

“Party…? And since when did you curse?” He got off his bed cautiously, making his way to close his bedroom door, eyes never letting her leave his field of vision. The wooden worn floor creaked nervously, but not loud enough (hopefully) wake his family at the early dredges of 5 in the morning. His toes were stiff from the overnight air-conditioner cold and he could feel his hair’s split ends still carrying static electricity. This was so not the time for this.

“Hey, the filter came off as soon as you hit 16. Congrats for finally hitting the driving age kiddo.” She winked as she gently made her way onto solid ground, her heavy combat boots not so much making a peep.

“For your information, I’m 17 now.” He scowled at her through scruffy, cow-licked bangs. “And jusy spit it out, why are you here? Unless it’s to demonstrate more of your awful memory.” He forcefully pulled his hair from his eyes, grimacing at the electric shock that accompanied it. 

It was her turn to scowl. “Hey, you know I’m not good at remembering things I don’t care about. And I don’t care about anything.” She outstretched a gloved hand with a letter and shoved it into Danny’s chest. “Except me.” She winked. Danny just tiredly stared at her perplexed.

“Baby shower, bring a good present. Or else.” Her eyes gleamed that odd yet familiar in-between gaze of mischief and maliciousness that every ghost seemed to have been giving him for the last year.

He sighed, watching her melt through the floor to the basement, and opened up the letter. It was a bit of a struggle, not only for it being oddly sticky (yuck), but had, for some inexplicable reason, construction tape sealed around it. Scrawled in the hand-writing of someone obviously not familiar holding a writing utensil was:

Your inviteb to the ecto-birth of Lucy “Lunchbox” Spectre!!! Please come I love her alot already :))))) It is at when the moon is at the heighest of august 1st! Bring a gooood presant, or BEWARE! (Sereously please come we wood apprecate everyone comhng. You can even bring guests! A 2 for 1 deal! I think that is the right phrase… So decrease: 

Markus “The Box Ghost” and Amelia “The Lunch Lady” Spectre

(Ps: She is very good at couking so you shood definately come :))

Ghost or not, it was still rather endearing. He smiled, and pocketed the invitation in his backpack before trailing back to his welcoming bed. Collasping face-first, he smiled at the absurdity of the whole situation. Wait until Sam and Tucker heard about this.

“God this a nightmare to read.” Tucker rubbed his tired eyes behind his chipped glasses. “I have been through every possible hellish group chat, and even the grammar from some spammy 12-year old weebs circa 2002 pale in comparison to this.”

“It’s still pretty darn cute.” She smirked as her eyes bounced back and forth reading over Tucker’s shoulder. “Kudos to them for settling down, or however the hell ghosts come close to that.” She glanced over to Danny, who was absent-mindedly peeling off the glue that had stuck on his hand from the letter. “You going?”

They were hanging in the field behind the Nasty Burger, where the familiar yet unwelcomed smell of putrefied animal fat hung heavy in the air. The sun was slowly beginning its cascade over the horizon, casting a dark orange sheen over the town.

“Huh? Oh yeah.” Slyly, he looked to them.” And I was hoping the two best friends in the whole world would come with me?” He beamed a heart-winning smile to the duo as they cynically eyed each other.

“I don’t know man. Remember going to their wedding? I thought for sure I was finally going to become one of the ghosts we hunt with the way some of their “friends” were staring at us.” He shuddered. “But the food was truly, chef’s kiss .” He added hopefully. 

“Although my cuisine doesn’t accommodate literal shipping boxes of packed meats, it was still pretty fun. Who knew Skulker could break it down?” She chuckled, reminiscing. “Man, that was wild.”

"Or when Bertrand started just taking straight vodka shots?" Tucker chortled while absent-mindedly fidgeting with a dandelion he pulled from the ground. "Dude was drinking like the world was ending tomorrow."

"I mean geez, having to work for Spectra for a whole afterlife, I'd probably drink like that too if I had the chance." Sam added slyly as the trio laughed good-heartedly.

“Y’know, we’ve gotten pretty close to them huh?” Danny said, his focus returning to a stubborn piece of glue still hanging onto his pinky. 

“We? No, you Danny.” Tucker looked up at him. “Dude you’re practically one of them now. Well, I guess at least half.”

Danny took a somewhat unwarranted offense to that, and whipped around to face him. “C’mon Tuck I haven’t been that close.”

Sam snorted at that and leaned in so close he could tell which shade of lipstick she’d picked today. “Blackberry Punk.” He thought to himself distractedly as Sam jabbed her finger into his chest. 

“Listen pal, I know this summer we focused on exploring the ghost zone and making “alliances”,” She mimicked her fingers in quotation marks at that. “But tell me one Ghost Zone event this year that you haven’t gone too.”

“Well…” Danny looked through his mental scrapbook since August of last year. Around September had been Youngblood's birthday, or at least the day he claimed it was. 

“I’m too young to not make everyday my birthday.” Was his excuse, until Ember had whispered to Danny privately to try and not bring the subject up. Youngblood had actually forgotten his birthday date. Most ghosts had. 

“He changes it now and then, but he’s just a kid, so we make sure to go every year.” She explained while shrugging. “Don’t start a fight, and no one will start one with you. Probably.”

Thankfully, there wasn’t. Until Danny had brought a glowing light saber. The absolute innocent joy in the kid’s face made Danny realize quietly why Jazz had cherished treating him so much like a child. Youngblood started squealing in delight, and immediately tried batting it around. It was all fun and games until it actually sizzled the back end of Technus’s coat. Apparently he’d transformed it into an actual weapon of death, and, donning a black hooded coat and mask, had decreed his new mission of annihilation and destruction. The party guests had to run from his spree of mayhem until the Lunch Lady gently offered him a tuna sandwich and chocolate milk, and after feasting on the snack, had promptly decreed that his mission was on a hold until he took a proper nap. 

“Even… Even Darth Vader's need sleep too... “ He said, conscious slowly drifting away on her lap. 

“Yes dearie, even Darth Vaders.” She cooed, agreeing. 

After the party ended, Danny half-expected a beating, hell even a good punch, but surprisingly no one even approached him.

“What can we say dude?” Johnny shrugged. “You made him happy. Only reason we came anyway.”

Danny hadn’t realized how much of a community there was until that day. It was surprisingly comforting, knowing as vengeful and malevolent these spirits they were, they were kindred spirits nonetheless. 

“The afterlife is lonely and desolate, but with others it is less so.” Desiree had sagely offered before disappearing with the others.

That December had been a bit awkward. He’d been invited to join the festivities, and not only that, but with Tucker and Sam, although they had to wait until after their own home-celebrating was finished. 

“Humans, ghosts.” Skulker waved his hand. “It’s Christmas! We’re all here in good fun.” 

Danny didn’t think ghosts could “make merry”, but he experienced first-hand they were more than capable of it. They offered him and his friends some rum, and although Danny didn’t particularly approve of underage drinking, he didn’t want to offend anyone. Although he, Sam, and Tucker had collectively sipped less than half a pinky toe of the strongly spiced, slightly-glowing booze, it sure didn’t feel like it. 

“Gruess spiriwts aure greatd aut brewingd spirdits!” He yelled slurring, face flushed and heart pounding.

“You’re damn right Ghost Boy.” Walker grabbed his shoulders while holding a bottle in his other hand. “Tomorrow, I’m making sure that the only drink you ever have again is pruno, so you better party like this it’s your last ever tonight!”

After that, they had a very drunk game of mistletoe. He kissed a lot of faces, most he couldn’t even remember, but he was sure at least he'd awkwardly pecked Kitty, Spectra, Johnnie, and hell even Skulker on his cold metal nose. It’d been a spectacularly weird night, and to top it all off, he found out later that “spirit booze” was a lot stronger than human’s, and used certain properties to make sure it could be absorbed by ectoplasm. He’d gotten the worst of both sides: his human side taking the punch of a near-lethal alcohol percentage and his ghost side quickly sponging it all up. Needless to say, his morning the day after hadn’t been great.

“Ok ok, I see your point.” Danny admitted, glancing at Sam in defeat as the sky started floating violet and pinks, shading silhouettes a dreamy color. “But you know, at least I got something out of all of it. I’ve been learning things. Ish.”

“Yeah, like learning how to party with the undead.” Tucker sneered as he tapped at his PDA.

“Tucker!” Sam tapped her boot against his leg. “I mean, you’re not wrong, but still.”

“What?” Danny was in disbelief. “You can’t seriously believe I’ve just been goofing off this entire time do you?” Sure, Danny definitely didn't have the best work ethic in the world, and yes, he was prone to slacking. But that did most certainly did not mean that he wasn't putting some hard-earned work in.

“Well…” Sam let her voice trail off along with her eyes. “I mean…”

Danny’s jaw was on the verge of dropping. “I have been doing things, a lot actually. I’m the bridge between this world and the other: the perfect diplomat. And I’ve actually picked up stuff that I never would’ve learned had I not gone to those functions.”

“Like?” Sam raised an eyebrow. "I mean fact it Danny, the only things you've told us or we've seen ourselves have been either who throws a better bash: Walker or Spectra, and how its possible to dance until you're actually dead."

Danny hesitated, realizing too late he’d opened his mouth too much to go back. He hadn’t told the two about this particular event yet because there was just too much to unpack; hell it was almost 7 months later and he still hadn’t waddled through that mess of night. Guess now was a better time than never. 

“January first, 2008.” 

Chapter Text

For New Years, he found out ghosts had something of their own version of fireworks.

“You see, child.” Technus pointed at a huddling, black-and-green spiral storm that showed up now and then throughout the Ghost Zone. “When naturally-energized, ionized particles of ectoplasm collect over time, they start following the prevailing magnetic waves of our dimension. Since our realm naturally spawns portals and pocket “spaces”, sometimes these “ectoplasm storms” ride along that pattern, creating an orbiting chamber of raw, precarious force due to the unstable properties of the solidified ectoplasm. Sometimes they make new pieces of land mass when hit with a force that negates its charge, such as other portals or stray pieces of energy. But when they stay in a state like this...” With a little too much glee in his eyes he procured a giant ray gun crammed with so many wires they were visibly spilling out.

“Behold! This beauty right here sends a ray of unformed energy, which mimics the charge of the ionized ectoplasm and bounces off them following the orbital pattern, which can vary in many shapes and sizes but mostly circular; thus, fireworks!” He laughed maniacally while Ember mocked his actions behind him.

“Basically kiddo he shoots that huge forking fancy-ash gun into the ecto-storm and we get pretty fireworks!” She oohed and aahed exaggeratedly.

Technus grumbled. “Kids these days… No wonder we have lost an entire generation of geniuses.”

Ember chuckled and gently punched his shoulder. “Cheer up old man, at least your science is appreciated.”

Danny looked around and noticed a fair absence of the regular crowd of ghosts. “Where is everyone?” 

Ember looked away awkwardly while Technus pretended to fiddle on his machine. Skulker sighed and put his hand on Danny’s shoulder.

“I guess whelp… It is time for us to have the “talk.”” His face was an odd mix of resignation and regret.

“Woah woah woah.” Danny quickly scurried away while putting his hands up in surrender. “My dad already tried doing that, and then he forgot what he was supposed to talk about so my mom had to step in. No worries, I’ve already got enough of “the talk” to last a lifetime.” 

Skulker sighed exasperated, eyebrows furrowing. “Not that, Ghost Child. It’s about… something significantly less awkward than that.”

Danny cautiously made his way back to Skulker and crossed his arms. “Better be, I’ve got enough trauma to last this life and the other.”

Skulker sighed once again and took a deep breath. “Ghosts are… an odd thing to classify, even for a hunter for me. Even for a scientist like Technus.” He nodded towards him. “Even for the Watchers, no matter how much they would like us to believe they know everything. You see ghost child, not every dead human comes to this realm. Actually a majority never even astray from their intended paths, going to the great big promised land in the sky. But some… some struggle and fight and rebel because something , something is strong enough to motivate a few to lose everything in order to remain. That battle to fight destiny, however, doesn’t come without a price. It twists the soul unnaturally, in ways not meant to be. And yet here we are, roaming this realm, existing and non-existing, stuck between the living and the not-quite-so. And although many of us have lost bits and parts of us over the years, the stronger of us have stuck to our fundamental ‘core’.” He made himself non-intangible. “Literally.” 

An eerily-glowing spectral-blue flame was lit in the middle of the small figure in his head. Tiny as it was, it still shone enough to make Danny turn away from the brightness. “This core makes up our power, our intelligence, our identity. This is what makes us able to have self-awareness, and a conscience that deeply mimics humans.”

Danny instinctively reached near his core, feeling the energy pulsing in a manner uncannily similar to his heart. “Then what about animals? Or those ghosts who uh, y’know, aren’t too bright.”

Skulker raised an eyebrow. “Who says animals don’t have souls as well? Sometimes they fight against the natural course of death as well, although since they aren’t very much aware about the concepts of an afterlife, they appear quite more often than you’d think.”

“Yeah don’t worry, I noticed.” Danny muttered, thinking of the more-than-once creature invasions at his school.

“As for the second-level ghosts, well, they’re a bit confusing as well. As basic and meaningless as they might appear, they’re actually the hardest to classify in terms of spirits. Some are just pieces of ectoplasm come to life with natural or artificial energy. Some are remnants of ghosts that have met a grisly end without their core properly extinguished, eternally wandering, trying to find the rest of their pieces. And some… are just what we all eventually turn into if we don’t move on one day.” Skulker looked uncomfortable with that last statement.

“Wait what?” Danny was in shock. “You mean that’s what happens to ghosts? I thought you guys... just haunted here forever. Those guys, they don't remember anything, they have like supernatural Alzheimer or something. Is that it? That’s it- that’s the after-afterlife, turning into a mindless green blob?” He rubbed his temples. “I can’t lie, that’s kind of… sad. Scary too, but mostly just… sad.” 

“Hey!” Ember interjected. “That doesn’t happen for like thousands of years. And it doesn’t mean we can’t avoid it anyway. We just gotta… let go. Of all the things that bind us to the physical realm, or whatever crap the Buddhists say.” She rolled her eyes. “You living dudes should really listen to them by the way- they’re the closest about how to avoid becoming, well, “She gestured to herself. “Us.”

“Wait wait wait.” Danny raised his hands. “Why are you telling me this anyway.”

“Normally, it is an unspoken agreement to not discuss the afterlife with living humans.” Skulker started.

“Not so much as an agreement as a threat.” Technus muttered from behind, still configuring his machine.

Skulker ignored him. “But it is something I must warn you about ghost boy, as you are still half of us. As much as I would like to make a trophy out of you, there are still fates I’d be regretful for you to meet.”

“Such as…?” Danny was quizzical. Already there was a lot to unpack here, including the question Danny had been wondering for a while: what would happen to him when he died? But there was something about Skulker’s tone that made him decide that perhaps that wasn’t the most important nor terrifying question he should be thinking about.

“Sometimes… ghosts don’t meet a swift end, an end that mercifully dissipates their core and sends them to the next life. Sometimes, their core dies overtime, slowly at first, but faster and faster like a noxious infection. It is a painful, pitiful fate: to not just forget, but permanently peel away who you were and your identity. The smallest memories you took the most for granted: stretching after a long slumber, adrenaline throbbing in your veins, the gratitude of warmth after shouldering in the cold for so long.” Skulker looked on longingly. “It all disappears, and soon all you can do is chase the ghost of what you have left, trying to relive those emotions- or at least get close to it as possible. But this disease, it drives one mad.” There was a harder look in his eyes now: a look of experience and loss. “At some point, you cannot even give them the swift release of destruction: all it would do would chip away their essence. This curse reduces one to the skeleton of themselves; an empty core desperately searching for a purpose. We call them the ‘lost ones’, and you’ve seen them before child.” 

“I have?” Danny quickly rethought every ghost he’d encountered- hell even seen- before. “Who-?” 

“A clone.” Technus interrupted. “A creation that, although violated no actual spectral rules, bothered us nonetheless.” He shivered. “I admire that Vlad Plasmius’s genius; he is truly devious in his design and science. Yet it does not make it any less ethical, and that’s coming from me, Technus.” He jabbed a thumb towards his chest.

“Those- those failed copies…” Danny recoiled in disgust. “That’s what happened? I- I thought they were just mindless, unaware, j-just some stupid clones that I killed, I destroyed, I-”

“Silence whelp.” Skulker put a surprisingly-comforting hand on his shoulder. “If not you who had done it, I would have, sooner or later. They were not worthy creatures to hunt, yet even I believe that some deserve to be put out of their misery. How pitiable they were,” If possible, his metal face grimaced. “Having none of their identity to lose yet still losing their selves. Their purpose was only of their creator’s, and nothing else.”

“But the main reason we’re telling you this.” Ember picked up Skulker’s ramblings as the hunter looked away regretfully. “Is about how that can even happen to you.”

“Ah, that’s probably something nice to be warned about.” Danny sheepishly replied.

“There are two main ways.” She held up her index and middle fingers, and balanced her guitar in her other hand. “One, get hurt. And I mean really really hurt. For most ghosts, we recover decently from damage; if not we’re probably dead. Well, ‘deader.’ But the more similar that damage was to our original death, the more severe it can be. Sometimes, it’s completely irrecoverable, and eventually it’ll just eat you away.” Ember’s hand tightly clenched around her guitar. “We call it ‘ghost rot’, and it’s not pretty.”

Danny gulped. “It doesn’t sound like it, trust me.”

“And the second way…” Ember shrugged, guitar wildly swinging from its strap. “I gotta be honest kid, I don’t know a ghost still “alive” who’s actually seen it.”

“I do.” A new voice spoke up. 

Danny blinked; he hadn’t even noticed her.

“Desireé! Late to the party I see.” Technus grinned as he tossed her a party hat.

She smiled quietly in return and caught it gracefully. “Some party.” She gestured around to the clear absence of ghosts.

“Well y’know what they say: if a party dies, just reanimate it.” Ember smiled wildly as she posed her guitar to play some more-than-likely eardrum-destroying notes.

“Wait wait!” Danny pleaded as Ember eyed him. “I wanna hear what she knows.” 

Desiree, if possible, turned even more somber. “It is not a pleasant tale, young one.” Her gaze descended from their faces to a copper-colored stone that lied innocently on the ground. She picked it up and eyed it with remorse. 

“I was called, long ago, to help cure a young man’s lover with an unspeakable disease. Try as I could, there was nothing to be done. The unfortunate maiden was cursed: a terrible, ancient curse that in my millennial of travel had not yet even heard about. After weeks of heartwrenching suffering, she finally passed, and the young man asked for a merciful death so he could be with his beloved. Who was I to deny his request?” At this point she clenched the stone until it was nothing but blood-colored dust in her hand. “Oh, how I regret that decision”

“The curse traveled with the afflicted girl, causing her to repeatedly ‘die’ from her disease in life. Her beloved could only standby and mourn the whole time, while there was nothing I could do.” Danny wanted to comfort her; she looked so miserable. But he also needed to hear how this story played out. 

“Eventually, the damsel turned into a lost one, no longer strong enough to relive her suffering and anguish. Her darling however, met a face almost as grisly as hers. The mental and emotional damage caused from helplessly watching her deteriorate in life and death was too much. It festered and blistered until, he too, was being eaten from the inside out, his existence of self slowly fracturing away. Both of them were wretched, pitiable creatures, no longer able to even recognize each other, blindly searching for something they didn’t even remember. I put both of them to rest, at their final request before they relinquished into madness. The only thing I could do to aid in their agony.” She finished wistfully. 

“The morale of that story, child, is it is not only physical pain that can wound a spirit.” She stared at him directly in his eyes, making him stuck between wanting to look away and being captivated by her gaze. “Do not take your trauma lightly; lethal damage to the heart and brain does not always come from a bullet.”

“Right sometimes it comes from an ecto-blast.” He thought to himself but found himself nodding vigorously to Desireé. “Thank you, for uh, telling us something that obviously you aren’t too keen on sharing.”

“I’m one of the only witnesses of it in the Ghost Zone: if it must be me who heralds it, then so it must.” She shrugged.

“But this has been a very, very long tangent to explain that most of the ghosts aren’t here because…?” Danny eyed the group before realization hit him. “Because most of them died from something related to explosions.” 

“Like Desiree proves, there have been very, very few accounts of the disease caused by mental trauma in the Ghost Zone. But it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t strike fear in many.” Skulker replied. “Many of us here died violently, usually at the end of something detonating.”

Danny quietly wondered how some of the usual spirits could’ve possibly died by explosives. As if reading his thoughts Technus chimed in.

“See child, like time, our traumas are very relative. I am proud to say I died in a violent, kablooey-kind-of accident. Heck, it even took out everything in a 3.5 mile radius.” He beamed rather boastfully at that. “But it doesn’t mean I fear or avoid anything that explodes- actually more than anything I adore them. The reason that many of our spectral friends don’t join us today is that these dazzling fireworks trigger a memory of their death, that may not actually have been the cause, but hits a little too close to home. It’s like that affliction you humans have, what is it.” He snapped his fingers in frustration. “Uuhhh…”

“PTSD?” Danny offered.

“Yes!” Technus yelled excitedly. “That is the one.” 

Danny once again rubbed his temples to deal with the oncoming headache. There was just so much to take in. Ghost rot? Lost ones? Supernatural PTSD? He thought he understood the afterlife, but clearly there was a large chunk missing from his knowledge.

“I know this much to absorb.” Desiree said sympathetically. “But cheer up: now is the time for celebration.”

“Indeed.” Technus piped up gleefully. “It is time! Get ready everyone.” 

Danny, although a little stiffly, popped on his yellow and orange party hat. He watched as Technus, manic with his eyes, readied the machine into the storm. 

“Fire in the hole!” He yelled as a giant, ghastly-green ray struck smack dab in the middle of the vortex. 

For a second, there was a deafening silence, and Danny wondered to himself if it had failed. Then he heard it.

It was an odd noise to name, the closest he could come to was setting your vacuum in reverse in a giant, empty cave. But it was the view that truly took him aback in shock. Majestic blue, white, and green shrapnels of energy flying out like runaway fairies from the point of impact, blazing a trail of numerous, indescribable colors behind it. To say he was in absolute awe was not the right term.

“Oh fuck thats right.” He muttered. He pulled out his phone from his pocket, almost dropping it twice. Finally opening his camera and hitting record, he was disappointed to say the least. The view couldn’t even hope to come close to the beauty and artistry that was blazingly unfurling in front of his eyes.

“Human contraptions can only hope in trying to capture the magnificence of our realm.” Technus smiled smugly before tossing him what looked like a mini cam-recorder. “Use this: it’s of my own devices.”

“No worries child, just this once there are no underhanded motivations.” Technus said mischievously when Danny eyed him in suspicion. “Consider it a gift, free of charge. Happy New Years, Danny Phantom.” 

They spent the rest of the night cheering, drinking mysterious cold beverages that still carried the familiar buzz of caffeine, and taking ridiculous photos of each other.

“And after all, what party isn’t complete with a little music.” Ember smirked half-way through the festivity.

Although he could barely hear the music over the roar of the fireworks, Danny laughed silently to himself when he recognized the artist. 

“Never took you much for a Katy Perry fan.” He yelled over to her.

She blushed furiously. “You know her? Fork, is she popular now or something?” She slammed down on another note, which threatened to knock him away. “Not a word, ok?” She glared at him, which although obviously was to intimidate, barely worked when her entire face was covered in a green flush.

He held up his hands in surrender, unable to hide his smile. “Hey, Tucker listens to EDM, trust me when I say I don’t judge.”

Ember mumbled something that probably wasn’t PG-13 and continued playing. Besides that incident, the entire night went smoothly, eventually reaching a finalé at the early hours of 4 in the morning. Danny hadn’t realized there was a ‘day’ and ‘night’ in the Ghost Zone, but apparently the later it was, the grayer everything looked. 

“Alright, alright, last one.” Technus swore again after he’d said the same thing for the last three ones. “This baby will really knock your socks off.”

Ember rolled her eyes. “That’s what you said last time too, old man.”

Technus scowled. “Don’t underestimate my genius child.” He switched around different settings on his device until it finally seemed to please him. “Watch and behold!”

Danny expected something the same generic effect: bigger particles, multiple blast zones, different colors. What he saw instead buckled his knees until he hit the ground.

It was the fourth of July, him and his family had just moved into the house. He was so young, so unaware, how was he remembering this? He felt the sticky barbecue sauce that threatened to close his tiny fingers shut, and the discomfort of his mom constantly cleaning him with rough baby wipes. 

“Oh Danny, what is with you and that condiment.” She asked, holding him as he stared obliviously into those sharp, upbright eyes. 

“He’s just like this father: a barbecue fan.” His dad chuckled heartily as he prepped some hamburger buns, hair not even close to graying yet. They were both so young, so inexperienced. So much like a normal family, not having yet adorned those ridiculously flashy jumpsuits and wearing weapons in public places. 

“Jazz, honey, what are you doing?” Mom looked over to her as she stared seriously at a petal.

“Observwing thwis inswect.” Jazz said solemnly as a ladybug pranced around its not-very-efficient prison. “It nweeds two bwe cwassified.” Danny had forgotten that Jazz used to have a lisp- a terrible one at that- until first grade. 

“Oooh! Good job dear, make sure to catalog it properly m’kay?” Mom walked over to her and handed her a magnifying glass. “You gotta catch all the little details, that's what makes a good scientist you know.”

Jazz eagerly nodded as she leaned in even closer to the beetle with a smile on her face.

"Look honey, they're starting!" Dad gestured towards the early peaks of fireworks over the horizon.

Danny felt himself raised onto his Mom's shoulders; barbecue sauce and all while Jazz was held with a little too much enthusiasm from Dad as he waved her around and constantly asked if she could see.

His folks were so supportive of everything, did Danny ever properly appreciate that? When he asked if he could take coding classes in fourth grade when they were low on money that year, theh agreed without hesitation. When he was thinking of changing middle schools because he couldn’t stand being away from Tucker, Mom and Dad drove the extra distance without complaint. When he was the one who insisted he could balance soccer practice and school and ended up not even being able to handle a week, they never said a word about it. How could he have forgotten that, although their obsession with ghosts had more than definitely wedged a block between them, they hadn’t changed that much. He did. How could he forget this, how could-?

He snapped back to reality, camcorder having fallen out of his hands.

“What. The fuck. Was that!” Ember hissed venomously, an anger that even Danny hadn’t heard from her.

“I told you didn’t I?” Technus smiled, pleased with himself. “Don’t underestimate my geniu- Whoa!” 

Ember had grabbed him by his collar, tears ruining her eyeliner as they streamed furiously, stained pitch-black, down her face. “What. The fuck. Was that.” This time it was a low growl; a demand more then a question.

“I- I.” He stuttered, completely caught off guard. “I didn’t mean-.”

“It’s alright Ember.” Desiree put her hand on her shoulder. “He had no ill-intent.” 

“Yeah I don’t really give a shit about that right now.” She quickly wiped away at her eyes and swung her guitar to her chest. “What I do care about is giving you a piece of my mind-.”

She found herself hanging midair, stuck in an uncomfortably-small green bubble. “What gives!” She shouted, fire quite literally raging in her eyes. She banged and kicked, but nothing budged.

“Sorry Ember,” Danny glided up to her apologetically, although still shaken himself. “Just listen to what he has to say, ok?” 

“Yes well,” Technus dusted himself off and looked warily at the trapped ghoul. “It was supposed to just be a hypnotic pattern, one that pulled your most personal memories about fireworks. I figured since we were all here, we didn’t have traumatic experiences with them, but I guess I guessed wrong…” His voice trailed off as Ember gave him an evil eye.

“Calm down, he didn’t mean any harm.” Danny pleaded the best he could with her. “A little warning would’ve been nice, yeah.” He glanced at a sheepish looking Technus. “But it’s not like he triggered something right?” 

She just growled in response and turned to glare at Skulker. “What are you doing, you’re supposed to be on my side!” The group turned to glance at him, only to find him looking away pensively. 

“I…” Skulker looked around wildly, eyes open in surprise. Whatever trance he’d been broke, leaving him stranded in reality. Rubbing his eyes, he shook himself to attention. “They’re right Ember, just hear him out.” No one missed the deep note of grief in his voice however.

“It was just a harmless surprise, honestly!” He nervously fidgeted with his sunglasses. “I figured that with fireworks, there ought to be happy memories that accompany them, but it was my mistake.” He apologetically peered at Ember. “I apologize, young one. It was a foolish error on my part.”

She huffed angrily, but appeared to have mellowed down. “Yeah whatever, I don’t care anymore.” The bubble surrounding her popped, and she floated to the ground. “I mean, I guess it wasn’t really a bad memory…” She trailed off, her hair flickering around. “It just… Reminded me of something I didn’t really want to remember.”

“I understand, and I promise not to use deep hypnosis patterns on an unknowing and vulnerable audience without warning next time.” Technus pulled a screen from his pocket and tapped a few things. “Here, see?” He showcased what looked like several files and double-tapped on one of them. “Deleted.” He dragged it to the trash bin, where a mini pixel Technus gleefully ate it with sharp, shiny teeth.

Ember wiped her eyes again and smiled a bit. “Better not be coming back from the dead, that’s our job.” 

“Indeed.” Skulker approached the group, seemingly feeling better. “That experience was not… pleasant, to put it lightly. But I recalled something far away that I forgot why I cherished so.” 

Danny spoke up. He couldn’t help it; he was too curious. “If it’s not too personal, can I ask what you remembered?” He was shameless, and he knew it.

“First off, it is way too personal.” She arched an eyebrow at him, but relented when he gazed at her beggingly. “But fine, whatever, it’s not like it was embarrassing or something.” 

She tuned her guitar distractedly as the group waited for her to speak. “I was 16, my mom was working all night again, and it was just me with a bottle of whiskey. I was home alone drinking and listening to this awful hair metal station when I heard a knock on my door. If I were anywhere else, I would’ve thought it was some robber or something, but everyone knew that in my neighborhood, there was nothing worth stealing. I open it, and standing there is my older sister, grinning like a dork. This was like totally out of the blue; I would’ve expected the president to be relaxing there pantless before seeing her. But there she was, smiling like there was something worth being happy about. She kept talking about how she was taking a break from college and all that crap, and that fight with her and mom didn’t mean anything. I was just… fixed there, still holding the alcohol like an idiot. And then she just grabbed my hand, and we started running over to this giant hill called Fanchon’s Unit; everyone just called it FU. Before she moved out, we used to hangout there all the time- to smoke, to sleep, to just talk and make fun of each other. There was this banged-up gazebo that had a pretty great view if you know how to climb on top of it. We got there just in time: the celebrations were starting, and we sat there, sharing shots from the bottle and screaming like idiots whenever a firework exploded too close. We drank ourselves until we passed out and the bottle was dry. Well, more like me, because when I woke up, she wasn’t there. I’m pretty sure she never was. She died in college a year ago when an appendix surgery went bad. I never found her in the afterlife, so logically I know that it wasn’t a ghost or something and just too much drinking, but still.” Her eyes were watering again, and she turned away to wipe her eyes. “I just… I just pretended so hard it was her visiting me, because she wanted to see how her little sis was doing, because she cared about me-.” Her voice cracked, and she stomped her foot into the ground so hard the imprint left a crater. “Can’t believe I’m crying over this crap man. What happened to not having feelings and all that.”

“It- it was indeed a shock to re experience human emotions again.” Skulker agreed with her. “I relived such a lost moment, I almost believed I was alive again.” He shuddered at that. “How do you deal with it, you halfa child.”

Danny blinked. “Deal with what?” He wondered to himself if he’d manage to sneak back home before his mom made those cheese and ham crepes, one of the family favorites.

“The dead are not alive, and the alive are not dead. Therefore, we do not experience the same things. Our emotions, complexity, purposes, and even identities are different. Surely your two sides clash sometimes, violently even.”

“Yeah after reminiscing that awful memory.” Ember gagged. “How do you manage? Alive and not alive, sensitive and numb, vengeful and all that goody goody hero crap you do. Isn’t it tiring?” 

“Well.” Danny paused. He didn’t even have a good answer to the question that he out of anyone in the world should be able to understand. But what could he say to fulfill all the complexities they were seeking? To be alive and not alive, to have a beating heart that pulsed to two different rhythms; it was to be natural and unnatural at the same time. You had the constant feeling you were never meant to exist, a freak of nature that bubbled along the ocean of DNA, always ready to burst and disappear forever. But at the same time, there was a sense of belonging no matter which side you turned to. A home, waiting with open arms that threatened to snap shut the moment you let yourself wander in.

“It’s- it’s weird.” An amazing answer, truly. Someone should just award him the Pulitzer Award for that one. “You always feel… split. About everything. But you just gotta take the good with the bad, and just keep going. I mean, that’s life basically, isn’t it? You adapt and keep surviving, with the perks and cons and whatever the hell else is thrown at you. And you just keep hunting for whatever your purpose is.”

“God that’s such a lame answer.” Ember flicked his forehead. “But I guess that’s good enough twerp. Not gonna lie, now that I had to experience that human crap for a minute, I guess I’ll go a little more easier on you from now on.” She winked. “But only just a little bit.”

Danny held that tender patch on his face that Ember abused and glared at her. “Thanks.” He grumbled.

“Now run along child.” Desiree chided him as she handed him his camcorder. “The human world calls for you.” 

He smiled at her appreciatively. “Thanks.” He looked around to his companions. “To all of you, actually. I mean, ignorance might be bliss and all that, but at least now I have a heads up about my afterlife. Until next time, whether that’s the Box Ghost’s wedding or Johnnie and Kitty’s fifth breakup party.”

“Actually it’ll be their sixth.” Technus grumbled as he packed all his devices away. “Foolish love struck teenagers.” 

“Hasta la vista kiddo.” Ember waved to him with the others as Danny flew back home as fast as his sleep-deprived body would let him.

Chapter Text

Danny thought he’d seen Sam mad before. 

There was that time he accidentally spilled her 200 dollar mascara and she hadn’t spoken to him for a week. There was that time he was making some less-than-desirable jokes in a group call, not checking the face cams to see Sam’s parents standing judgingly behind her. There was that time he forgot to wash his hands after doing a chicken liver science experiment, and after handing Sam her lunch forgetting too late to warn her. There were alot of things, which Danny noted, were just unfortunate accidents because he was one the dumbest human beings on Earth. But there had never been a time where he did something intentional to hurt Sam, something to purposely throw salt in a wound. So it was more than reasonable, he supposed, to get the brunt of this kind of reaction.

“Why wouldn’t you tell us this!” Sam practically grabbed off the ground by his collar. He forgot sometimes (a big mistake on his part) that she was actually ridiculously fit. 

“Th- there wasn’t really a good time.” Danny tried to reason with her. “And telling you guys about the afterlife, it-, it just didn’t seem like a solid idea.”

“Yeah, well I don’t care about that crap.” Sam said, an anger in her eyes that was eerily similar to Ember’s. “It’s ripping off a band aid Danny: you just do it. And this was one that needed to come off months ago.”

“I mean… It’s not that big of a deal…” He sheepishly grinned.

Tucker just looked at him with an expression of really dude , and continued observing from the side. 

“Not that big of a deal, are you fucking serious-!” She rested her forehead in her hand, letting Danny down with the other. “Do you realize what this implies? Danny one wrong move, whatever it may be, could actually kill you. Or the other half. Whatever!” She threw her hands up in the air exasperated. “The point is, we don’t know what happens when someone like you dies. Besides that being one of the worst things to ever happen in my life, what if something bad happens? It’s not just dying Danny, what if-.” She didn’t finish that sentence, casting her eyes from his to the ground.

“What Sam?” Suddenly he was on the moral high ground. “What if what?

“What if, y’know, you turn into that dark future version..” She muttered. “Or somehow, something even worse.”

Danny was struck with a realization of something. He’d always assumed that dying would have consequences of whether or not he’d go to the afterlife, turn into a full ghost, or something else nastier in between. But she was right: Danny dying had a lot more complications of just, well, dying. Did ghosts choose if they were good or bad? Most of them seemed to just hitch back and forth through the grey areas. He could easily turn into his worst nightmare: that other version of him, that although was trapped from the river of time, was still a possibility of existence. 

“It’s kind of a ‘we’ll get to that bridge when we cross it’ deal Sam. I mean you’re right, we just don’t know.” Secretly, he was a little bit terrified now that the notion was in his mind, but he was going to damn well hide that. “But it’s not like I can stop doing what I do just because I know about ‘ghost rot’ or whatever. Nothing’s changed: I get hurt, possibly killed, I hunt the bad guys, and I do my job. Pretty well too, actually.” Danny huffed as he grabbed his backpack. “You can choose to help, or not. But you can’t stop me.”

“Danny-!” Sam started, but stopped when Danny glared at her with eyes glowing. “Just…” Her voice lowered. “Aren’t you scared? I mean you just keep taking hit after hit, and we know that one of these days you’re not getting back up but I mean,” Sam kind of laughed a bit, panic instead of mirth. “I’ve read so many stupid goth books, and they all talk about a ‘slow painful death’, but this is serious Danny, why can’t you understand? This could actually happen to you .”

God why wouldn’t she just let this go? He just wanted to go home and not think about this for an hour before unwillingly mulling over it all night.

“I get that, crystal clear actually.” He glared. “Doesn’t mean it changes anything.”

Sam was opening her mouth right before Tucker interrupted. “Ok ok enough! You two actually argue like an elderly couple. Geez what is this, the 1950’s? ‘Oh this doesn’t change anything’, ‘why don’t you understand’, you guys both hard of hearing now or something? Just shut up and listen to each other.”

Whenever Sam and Danny had big fights like this, Tucker knew better to interject and ‘take sides’. But he also knew his role as a peacemaker: mainly just stepping in when he had enough of both their shit.

Sam stewed silently as Danny just clutched his backpack and stared at his shoes. Finally, Sam spoke up after a few minutes of awkward silence.

“It's just… me and Tucker… we’ve had to get used to the idea that any day now, we could lose you. Permanently. And that's… that’s more than ‘difficult’, Danny. We’re so used to chasing the ghost of you, y’know in both those senses.” She stared at him as he finally gazed upwards to meet her violet eyes. “But at least we had this notion of like ‘at least he’ll be at rest’ or ‘maybe we’ll get to see him.’ Finding out that there’s something so much worse at risk, and then finding out that’s been kept away from us... That stings Danny, it really does. We just care about you, maybe more than you’ll ever know.”

“I’m an idiot.” Danny thought to himself as he saw Sam finally collapse onto a nearby bench next to Tucker. Both of them looked at him with exhaustion and defeat. “It’s not like-.” He hesitated, thinking of the words to fix this situation. No, there was no fixing it. There was mending it and sticking on a new bandaid just to pull it off in a couple of months.

 “Of course I know you guys care about me, you’ve always had my back no matter what. Even before I had my powers, even before I considered you guys real family, even before when Tucker showed me his weird scar on the back of his shoulder that looks like a dinosaur with wings, and you accidentally gave me that black eye on the recess set in third grade.” That at least elicited a smirk from Tucker and an embarrassed groan from Sam. “Point is, I get the concern, I really do. But it can’t scare me into never getting into fights, and it sure as hell can’t scare me out of my job. I protect this town, because, unfortunately, you two ended up befriending someone who likes protecting others. I can’t help it, and it’s not like I’m dragging my feet to do it either. If I do die, or get ‘ghost rot’, or whatever the hell does happen to me at some point in the future, at least I have the knowledge that I did the most I could. And that’s all I could really hope for.”

“You and your stupid hero complex.” Sam grumbled before rushing towards him. Danny didn’t know what to expect, but he wasn’t complaining about the rib-breaking hug she was giving him. She squeezed a little bit harder, knocking the breath out of him. Tucker joined in too, until he felt like his heart was going to burst, and not just from love. Ok maybe he was complaining just a little.

“I. Can’t. Breathe.” Danny gasped underneath the mess of arms and bodies.

“Too bad, you deserve this dude.” Tucker said mischievously, although he and Sam let go in a second.

Danny only had a moment of relaxation before he felt someone’s soft hands cupping his chin.

“I think Danny Phantom is the coolest fucking thing on this Earth.” Sam said while clutching his face. “But also, I think Danny Fenton is the coolest fucking person in the world.”

“Hey!” Tucker disputed.

She rolled her eyes. “Along with a certain loveable but annoying character named Tucker Foley.” 

“That’s better.” He gave her a thumb’s up.

“The thing is Danny.” She was squeezing his face. “I feel like you don’t get that. Both sides of you are important to us, and we just wouldn’t want to lose either one. Even though both of you are idiotic, self-sacrificing, oblivious, hard-headed, two-goody-shoes dorks.”

He smiled in response before realizing something. “Wait. What about oblivious-.” Sam smushed his cheeks together before he could finish. “Just take care of yourself, ok? Nod for yes, shake for yes.”

He laughed, although difficult with the way she was holding his head, and nodded.

“Good.” She let go and smiled comfortingly. “You know I’m not mad at you right.”

“Yeah, I know.” Danny replied, smiling. 

“Then you won’t mind sending a copy of that constellation log we were supposed to be keeping?” She gave him a dashing grin.

Tucker chuckled. “What, Mrs. Perfect B’s and A’s suddenly forgot to do one of the most important summer assignments?”

Sam frowned at him, although embarrassment was clear on my face. “Looking at the sky for hours bores me, ok? Especially when we live in the city and I’ve got a stiff neck. Pretty boy here always has his head in the stars anyway.” She pointed a thumb towards Danny. “And an actual telescope as a bonus.” 

“Wait, what’d you call me?” Danny stared at her in confusion while Sam, in a span of a second, froze, pulled the ends of her hair while stomping her foot, and abruptly started packing up all her stuff. 

“Uh, I got to go, curfew and all.” She said nervously while nearly dropping her purse.

“It’s only 7.” Tucker said with mischief written all over his face.

Sam glowered at him hard enough to melt him and the bench he was sitting on into a puddle of regret. “I- I just gotta… Help Nana with something. She needs too.... Uh…. Make a scrapbook! She’s been wanting to make one for a while and I promised her, whoops! Silly me I forgot.” She fidgeted with a bracelet on her arm, an endearing trait Danny had noticed she picked up in 7th grade. “I gotta- I gotta go… I’ll see you guys tomorrow?” She glanced at them while getting on her moped.

“Yeah, sure.” Danny replied pleasantly. “See ya Sam, and don’t worry about the constellation thing, trust me when I say I don’t mind.”

He heard a grunt in response as she plopped her helmet on, but he could’ve sworn that her face was red as she sped away.

“Was she acting a little weird to you?” Danny asked Tucker, only to find him staring deadpan at him. “What?” He asked in confusion.

“Oblivious.” Tucker muttered under his breath.as he tapped his PDA.

“I guess that’s just how chicks are.” Danny concluded while sitting next to Tucker. Tucker turned around and looked like he wanted to say something but stopped, sighed, and just showed him his PDA. 

“So I organized all that info while you two dorks were arguing like my grandparents in Minnesota. You’re welcome.” He smiled while Danny lightly punched him on his shoulder. “I’ll share this with you later so you can upload it into the ghost database, I just got a few more questions.”

Danny shrugged. “I don’t know what else I can give you; I’m just as clueless as you are. But go ahead.” 

Tucker tapped his pen on the side of his device. “Ok so I’ve organized ‘ghost rot’ into two different categories from how they originated: physical and emotional. You already established that emotional is pretty rare, but what about physical?  How often does it occur?”

“Well…” Danny thought back to a story Frostbite had told him a couple months ago, about when ancient civilizations ruled the Ghost Zone. “Er, I’m not sure if this exactly helps, but I heard that way, way back in the olden days of the Ghost Zone, there was this society of ghosts who were like, fairly normal. They lived in this protected bubble almost, kind of like a pocket dimension. But they had these rivals who wanted that territory for themselves. So one of the alchemists at the time devised this potion, and they flooded the city with it. It gave them all ‘ghost rot’ on crack; ghosts decaying into empty husks in just minutes. Obviously, it was banned and destroyed. But they say some of the affected citizens still roam the Ghost Zone, along with the original creator of the potion, who was given a taste of their own medicine.” 

Tucker shivered. “That’s harsh dude.” But he quickly jotted that all down into this his PDA.

“I’ll text you anything else I remember later.” Danny picked up his backpack for what felt like the eighth time.

“You leaving dude?” Tucker asked, watching him fish for the key to his moped.

“Yeah, today’s been kind of rough. Think I need to unwind.” Danny replied as he finally found it.

“And distract yourself from painful thought processes by playing violent video games?” Tucker suggested playfully.

“You know me too well dude. Which one are we grinding tonight?” Danny glanced at him as he buckled his helmet on. It was easy to underappreciate sometimes that Tucker was really his guy, his boy, his absolute lad with the tech. Him, Danny, and Sam had been a trio for so long that they understood each other in just about every possible situation. But Tucker and him had been best friends since that day in kindergarten when they had a contest about who could smear each other more with chocolate pudding and crushed goldfish. When they were put out in the hallway together, they couldn’t help but just roll over with laughter for hours until their disappointed parents had come to pick them up.

“Thinking Eldritch Hunter 3?” Tucker started collecting his belongings as well, seemingly finished with writing everything down. “It got a new patch note yesterday.”

“Hell yeah.” Danny smiled as he waited patiently for Tucker to hop onto his bike as well. They rode home together, having mini races about who could turn the corner faster and laughing about Mr. Lancer’s new sunburn that covered everything except what looked like a giant, chain necklace imprint. 

“See ya in 10 minutes dude.” Tucker said as he drove away to his house. 

“You better not be late again!” Danny called out, remembering the times Tucker had been almost half an hour late eating a new dish his mother made. 

“No promises!” Danny heard his voice trailing off as he just sighed good-heartedly and rode back home.

Chapter Text

He stared at the atrociously loud, neon orange sign that screamed ‘cobbled together.’ Fenton Works. This was the easiest part, and this was the hardest. Realistically, there wouldn’t be much greeting him. His mom and dad were probably working on their project downstairs, Jazz would be… not there. Because she was in college. Right. 

Even though her insistent pestering had been more than annoying sometimes, it was still nice knowing that she was kind of… a silent vault of secrets. Maybe it was because she was studying psychology or something, maybe it was because she was just his older sister, maybe it was because she always had this affinity of… listening. Ever since they were kids, he confessed a lot of stuff to her, and really only her. Maybe that’s why she was so protective of him. And even though he thought he’d never miss her constant nosiness and rejection of personal space, he ended up doing it anyway. Like an idiot.

He sighed and walked in, noticing the TV was on but nobody on the couch. Running over and collapsing on it, he only reached over to put the house keys on the table, and lazily scrolled through his phone. 

He noticed a notification from Sam asking if they got home ok in the group chat. Naturally, he replied.

Danny: ‘Yeah im good, wbu and Tuck’

Tuck: ‘im gucci dude, and rdy to play video games until my eyes dry out’

Danny: ‘Hell yeah’

Sam: ‘Yeah good luck wrdos. I prefer to be healthy and not consume mass media until I physically cannot.’

Danny: ‘You sure you a real gamer Sam?’

Tucker: ‘yeah dude. where are u on the grind?’

Sam: ‘Actually doing my work before school starts.’

Oh yeah. She kinda had a point about that. And as if on cue, she sent a photo.

Sam: ‘Heres the work for Lancers research stuff. Because Im the only one in this trio with a brain cell.’

Tucker: ‘sam plz just marry me, you amazing goth goddess of fear and convenient homework answers.’

Sam: ‘:) yeah you guys better kiss up to me. I hold your guys grades by a string above the toilet of failure’

Danny: ‘Ty Sam, Ill send you my stuff soon’

Sam: ‘Np, hf with “playing video games until my eyes dry out’”

Danny chuckled, and laid on the couch for a minute before finally making himself walk upstairs. It was a Sunday, and naturally the laziness crept in every minute it could. Tossing his backpack onto his bed, he turned on his ratty PC. While it booted its ancient wires to life, he swung around in his swivel chair and tried to think about nothing. It didn’t work. Segments of that day’s conversation came back to him, and he was trying extremely hard to shoo it away by spinning until he felt nauseous. Finally, his computer blinked to life and Danny practically jumped to get his hands on his keyboard and mouse. 

He was loading up Eldritch Hunter 3, staring at the grotesque loading screen, when there was a blood curdling scream. At first, reasonably, he thought it was from the video game, before realizing with silent terror it came from downstairs. 

“Mom, Dad!” He leapt from his chair into the ground, turning intangible the moment the soles of shoes met the wooden floor.

He saw them immediately, his mom knocked onto the ground with heavy equipment blanketing her as his dad blasted at something invisible. What was he shooting at? All he could see was the darkened impression of burn marks all over the walls.

First thing was first at least: get people to safety. Dashing over to Mom, he grabbed her and carried her away to the living room as fast as he could.

Was she ok? He checked her pulse, the way she herself had actually taught in case of emergencies like this. He thought it was silly at first, but thank god he actually listened. She was fine, just out of it for now. He could see her chest rising painfully slow, but except a few bruises, looked ok. He dialled 911 and checked on her one last time before flying back down to check on his dad, only to find him missing. 

“H- Hello?” He called out, looking around. “D- I mean, Jack Fenton?”

“Don’t move, ghost punk.” A familiar voice sounded behind him. Uh oh.

Slowly, as gingerly he could possibly manage, he turned around. “Uh, good evening to you too?”

“Where’s. My. Wife.” He growled at him. Danny hadn’t seen Dad that angry in, just about, ever. True it was probably because he thought Danny kidnapped Mom, but it still hurt a little.

“Let’s just not be hasty here, huh?” Danny nervously chuckled. “She’s fine, I plopped her upstairs. By the way, you guys have an amazing kitchen backsplash can I add, where do-.” He saw a burst of light before realizing too late what was happening. Double uh oh. Too late to dodge, too late to turn intangible. He waited for the inevitable pain before realizing Dad shot to the side of him. He blinked. Maybe Dad really was that lousy of a shot? 

Then he saw it, if only for a second. A creature, a ghastly dark green tangled mess of goo and tentacles and fangs and everything else unpleasant that sounded like it came from Sam’s favorite book series. Being that close to it for a second, Danny had noticed something more unsettling than everything else. It had eyes, too many of them, peering out hungrily in between the spaces of its mangled body. It locked eyes with him, all of them, for half a second, but it was more than enough time to make his body seize up in absolute terror.

“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?” Danny jumped in surprise mid-air, mouth agape and eyes essentially boiled eggs. Whatever that abomination was, it sure was a lot scarier than whatever that game he was running on his computer could ever hope to create. 

“Language.” Jack muttered while recharging his gun before catching himself in surprise. “Stupid habits.” He shook his head while narrowing his eyes at Danny. “So that little monster isn’t your friend?” 

“Believe me, the closest that thing could come to is what lives under my worst nightmare’s bed.” Danny shuddered.

Jack narrowed his eyes again before relenting and tossing him a pair of goggles. “I don’t know why you’re here or why you’re helping, but I’ve got a son who’s coming home soon. You gotta help me get rid of this creep before he gets here.”

Danny saluted happily. “Aye aye captain.” Phantom and his parent’s relationship was… odd in the best way to describe it. Although they were far from allies, or even acquaintances, his parents at least recognized he was trying to help most of the time. That didn’t stop the threats of capture and dissection, nor the antagonization of what a ‘menace’ he was, but at the least he’d like to say they were unwilling partners. It was that uneasy understanding parents had with kids when they knew they weren’t doing something with their approval but it was also kind of harmless, like ‘hey I don’t like that you sneak staying up till 3 am mindlessly scrolling through those darn social medias, but at the same time it’s not the worst you could be doing.’ Which, coincidentally or not, was the relationship Fenton had with his parents.

Snapping on the goggles, he easily spotted what his Dad had been busy aiming at. God it was… disgusting. Repulsive. Repugnant. An awful lot like Tucker’s ‘leftover lunch papapalooza’ that he brought every Friday which was a mix of all the scrapes of food he didn’t finish throughout the week.

Well, the main problem seemed to be how fast the darn thing was flitting around. No problem. Taking a concentrated breath in, he focused on molding the cold from that beating spot of energy in his chest to move into his veins, until it twisted its way to the middle of palms, building it up more and more until there was nowhere to go but out. 

The ghost was frozen, but just for a second. It barely missed a pace, somehow wiggling out of the ice and scurrying away. It didn’t seem very phased, but just a lot angrier as Danny found out when he had to dodge getting engulfed by it.

“Woah!” He shouted, barely managing to escape by pushing off on it and tumbling away. “What is this thing?” He asked Jack before blasting the rampaging ghost. Of course it did almost nothing.

“We don’t know, we were just experimenting with the Ghost Portal when this little bugger popped out.” Jack yelled back before shooting his bazooka at the creature. It missed, instead obliterating an innocent lamp into nothing but ash.

“Holy smokes I’m an idiot.” Danny muttered to himself as he remembered something. 

“What?” His dad yelled as he once again took another shot at the ghost. It hit, but barely did anything noticeable to it.

“Do you still have those jack o’ nine tails?” Danny asked hopingly as he zoomed next to him.

Jack just gave him the not-so-uncommon look of ‘how do you know about our equipment’ before sighing and grabbing a staff next to him.

“I tried it before, but it barely does anything. It just… keeps wiggling out.” He shuddered. “This is the first ghost to give me the heebie-jeebies.”

“Ditto.” Danny thought to himself before blasting another shot at the creature. “Ok listen, with this, could you distract it for only a second? I just need a second.”

Jack raised an eyebrow at him. “Why? This thing’s too fast for the thermostat and our cages do nothing to it.” 

“Just trust me.” Danny said as he quickly formed a shield of ice in front of his dad. “If the thing charges at you, just get behind this.”

Man, it was actually really funny how conflicted his dad looked taking orders from a ghost versus potentially endangering his family.

“If this goes wrong,” Jack warned dangerously. “You’re the second on my hit list after this creep.”

“Promise?” Danny yelled over his shoulder as he turned invisible. He floated into the upper corner of the room watching the monster circle around like a shark being baited with chum. Suddenly the thing turned around, and… saw him? Even though he couldn’t see its eyes behind the clogged mess of various rotten body parts, it seemed to turn around and glance at him. Shit. The whole plan was down the floor then. Suddenly Danny saw a giant white ray completely engulf the thing.

“Eat plasma rays, ghost creep!” Jack roared while showcasing his arsenal of weaponry. The creature snapped back to him and started charging at him. Maybe the plan would work after all. 

As soon as the abomination was close enough, Jack deployed one of his favorite weapons of all time. Him and Maddie had really outdone himself with the jack o’ nine tails. As soon as the target came into contact with the pile of ecto-proof strings with his dashing face attached to it, the monster flailed and squirmed in a way that could only be described as “unsettling.” Tentacles didn’t have solid bones, even Jack knew that, but the way the creature bent its limbs made him feel a bit queasy. Suddenly, one of those sickening limbs reached out in a blink to grab him. He yelped, and ducked behind the pile of ice. When he made sure there was an absence of suckers on his person, he cautiously peered around to find one of the arms was stuck onto the frozen wall. Maddie would never forgive him for receiving so much help from the ghost kid, but maybe she never needed to find out.

Danny seriously hoped this would work. He’d only used this ability here and there, just small stationary targets and not angry, wiggly mini-cthulhus hopped on steroids. Concentrating, he focused on making the energy spread in a circular surface, like a glass-blower melding the liquid glass until it spilled the way he wanted it to. 

The creature wouldn’t let up, trying its best to wiggle out of the bubble as much as it could, making him expand the bubble more and more until his arms started becoming numb. This was taking a larger chunk of energy he expected, but he still needed some stamina left for his plan. Finally, exhausted, he managed to trap the ghost in a green shield that took up almost half the room. 

Fuck. The thing wouldn’t let it up, looking like it was attempting to eat the bubble from the inside. If he wanted to shut it down, he had to do it now. 

He looked over to Jack, who was just staring at the creature with awe and horror. If he detransformed before he could finish doing this, even his oblivious dad would see him. 

“Sorry Dad.” Danny thought to himself as he walled him off from the cage and Danny.

“Hey what gives ghost punk!” He vaguely heard some muffled rumbling, along with shots of energy guns being blasted at ridiculously high speeds. Crap, his ice block wouldn’t last for long.

Danny took in a deep breath, and concentrated solely on the bubble of energy he had created. He pulled at his core, as much as he could, into every square inch of the surface. This was purely experimental, he hadn’t even tried this yet, nevertheless something on such a large scale. But whatever, there was a first time for anything right?

The energy he pooled finally seeped all around the bubble. The energy was terrific, even the monstrosity had stopped its attempts of escaping and was gazing nervously around it. And then Danny gave one more final burst of energy, the last he had. When it hit the energy pulled around the bubble, it exploded, electrifying the ghost inside it. He was blinded by his own ability; the power had even more recoil that his wail. He crashed into the wall, and heard the sickening crunch of what happens when skull hits metal. He slumped onto the ground, hand dropping on some broken beakers and drawing blood. And, although unfortunate but expected, felt the familiar destransformation ring pull around his body. He was human again, and with that, came the more sensitive feeling of ruptured veins and a pulsing head. 

He had to get up. Get up. Get up. GET UP. Danny staggered onto his feet, and shooed away the dust surrounding his eyes. From his limited vision, he could see he just about demolished everything, including the lights. Only the small flare of emergency lights gave him enough sight to see the broken trail of turned over tables, scattered notes and books, and mysterious stains of liquid on his body, which he was assuming was his blood. 

He lit a small orb of green energy in his unscathed hand, and looked around cautiously. When he turned around, his breath was caught as he fought the urge to scream. The monster was still, tentacles listlessly spilled around it, seemingly unconscious. Carefully, as to not to wake it, Danny almost ran to find a thermos. However, as soon as he took a pace, he almost doubled over as his shoulder practically seized with pain. Fuck. Danny grimaced as he held his shoulder and turned over to make sure the thing was still out. This was so not the time for this.

Adapting to a slightly less painful limp of walking, which was holding out his hand for a minute for some precious brightness, grabbing his elbow up to support his shoulder, and hunching over to a spot he thought might have the thermos, he thought he was about to pass out. After a long, tedious eight minutes of this awkward zombie shuffle, he finally found it, although in no better shape than he was in.

‘You’ll have to do.” He whispered to himself as he crept over to the creature. But of course, he messed up. Again. Admittedly, he was a little too giddy at the prospect of just getting this over with, and the uncertainty of when his dad would come barging in made him nervous. Staggering over quickly, he crushed an innocent-looking vial underneath his sprained foot. Crap. With fear raging in his heart, he glanced over slowly to his target, hand shaking as he fought to keep it lit. 

A multitude of ravenous eyes greeted him back. Danny yelped, and before the creature could even move one of its ghastly, powerful arms, Danny pounded the thermos.

A giant blueish white ray exploded from the device, quickly sucking the ghost in. It screamed, something Danny hadn’t heard before and sincerely wished he never did. It wasn’t just one roar, it sounded like a multitude of angry creatures and animals: a starving raven, a tiger playing with its prey, a vengeful spirit. All clustered together in a voice that didn’t sound like it had enough room to fit them all. 

Danny hadn’t heard something that sounded so ancient, so bitter. So sorrowful. Danny gave it a look of pity before realizing too late he’d been distracted too long by its growl. An arm reached out, almost dragging Danny into the container had he not been human. It did, however, detach a large chunk of skin from his arm.

Danny could only look at it in shock, disgusted by his exposed muscle and sinew before the pain finally hit him. He grabbed a charred eraser next to him and bit into it, screaming while he dropped the thermos and collapsed onto the floor. He couldn’t take this anymore. Couldn’t today end already? 

While the steady clamor of agony filled his eyes, he could distinctly hear the background of someone drilling into ice. Nothing ever really worked out for him, did it? 

Quickly, he screamed into his arm and pushed himself up, grabbing his canister. Today was just another day, and the day after that, and the day after that. And it was the people that he protected, like his parents who made that more difficult, that made it worth it.

Sluggishly, he pushed the ghost portal button, sighing with a breath of a relief that it still functioned. Staring at the green glowing swirl of otherworldly energy, he wondered to himself what would happen if he had the same accident. Shouldn’t he have more of a fear of the machine? He did technically half-die in this very location. He could very easily full-die here. But somehow, it wasn’t as ominous or terrifying as he thought it’d be. He reached out a hand, and felt the cool yet warm pull of energy float between his fingertips. Why was it almost comforting? It shouldn’t be, but this portal, although it brought him an endless amount of trouble, gave him a free escape to another home. 

Exhausted, he shook his head to get his thoughts collected, and took a deep breath. A little fizzle from his core was just enough to transform, at least until he recollected some energy from the Ghost Zone. 

He floated in, feeling the refreshing wave of green energy wash him before hearing a familiar voice behind him.

“Freeze, ghost kid!”

Danny froze. Crap, if he let Dad follow him he’d just put himself in danger again. 

With a last bit of energy, he shot at a wire in the portal and dashed out. Before the machine short-circuited out, he heard his dad say some very obscene things about his character. 

He chuckled a bit, finally relaxing at the distinct smell of ozone and almost metallic cool that was always in the air. He closed his eyes, he needed a break, just a small one. Danny Fenton needed to come home soon, acting surprised that the paramedics were in his living room, comforting his mom as she was rushed to the hospital, groaning when his dad told him about all the stuff he had to clean up.

After a few precious minutes, Danny set himself back on his feet. He stared at his canister, where he could swear he could hear growling from. What should he do with this? He considered to himself that numerous places he could dump this, all of them promising a vengeful ghost that would most definitely kick his butt later before the obvious settled on him.

“Duh.” He muttered to himself as he flew to a familiar skull-shaped island. Approaching cautiously, he dodged the numerous arrows that whizzed by and avoided the invisible bear traps that waited eagerly for their next victim. Finally he arrived at the entrance.

“It’s not much of a hunt if the prey willingly walks into the cage.” He heard a voice behind him boom. “But it's still prey I’m willing to keep.” Danny barely missed the net he knew was coming at him.

“Wait wait wait!” Danny put his hands in surrender. “I have some new ‘prey.’ Something new and exotic that I guarantee you’ve never seen before.”

Skulker grudgingly set aside his sniper and glowerd. “First you walk into my territory, second you dare question my knowledge of the beasts that roam this world? You better have something worth my attention, whelp.”

Danny gulped while nodding, and slowly pressed reverse on the canister as Skulker kept a squinted eye on him.

As soon as the creature was released, it stood still, only for a second, still in shock from the events. And then it started shaking, harder and harder until it was practically vibrating. Danny took a cautious step away from it.

After a few anxious seconds of this, something odd happened. It changed colors, fading from a swampy green and black to a ghastly color of grey cream. The life seemed to be draining from it, before all movement abruptly stopped. It collapsed onto the ground with a crash, body still frozen.

Carefully, Danny tapped it. Solid stone. He cast a sheepish gaze at Skulker, only to be met with utmost shock.

Skulker was as frozen as the creature, jaw hanging as he just stared at the creature (or what was left with it) completely flabbergasted. Finally, his face turned to Danny, barely able to utter a few words.

“What have you done child?”