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Chapter Text

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All was silent except for the sound of freshly fallen snow crunching underfoot. Frostbite’s steps were uneasy as he staggered through the tundra of what was once his home. The part of his right arm made of ice had been shattered, and his left arm clutched his side trying to stem the flow of ectoplasm. It was dripping down his body, leaving a grim trail of neon green against the stark white of new snow. He would not let himself succumb to his wounds yet. Not while he still had a mission to complete. With the other Ancients fallen, the Infinite Realms were counting on him.

Frostbite kept stumbling through the snow until he reached the mouth of a cave. He nearly cried out with relief at having found it, but held his tongue to conserve strength. To fail so close to his goal would spell out the end of the Ghost Zone. He cast a glance around the cave, eyes lingering over the familiar carvings of the Great One’s triumph over Pariah Dark, and felt a faint smile grace his face. The carvings reminded him of why he was here, and of the duty he must fulfill with his dying moments.

The Infi-Map sat on its pedestal, and the magic in the scroll was releasing a low hum in the air. It was smart, and likely could sense its new purpose. All Frostbite had to do was nudge it in the right direction. He took those last steps towards the pedestal, each one feeling like climbing a mountain, and grasped the Infi-Map in his claws.

Frostbite spoke his last words, tired but with conviction, “Find King Phantom. Bring him back to the beginning–help him save us all.”

If you later asked King Phantom to describe what time travel was like, he wouldn’t be able to put any words to it.

From his perspective, one moment he had been hunched over a table in the war room in Dora’s Kingdom, and the next he was blinking his eyes open standing in the Fentons’ lab. If he really strained, he could recall a brief moment of awareness that the Infi-Map was in front of him before a portal opened underneath his feet. There hadn’t even been the sensation of falling, though. He had been somewhere between confused and distressed to come to awareness in the Fentons’ lab. The last time he had been there had been unpleasant to say the least (he refused to dwell lest his thoughts turn against him), and he had thought it destroyed shortly after Amity became Liminal.

It took nearly a minute to realize that he felt terrifyingly human.

The constant companion of his humming core was gone. No longer did it sing in time with the beating of his heart. King Phantom flexed his fingers, trying to beckon energy to them.

Nothing.

The only thing that prevented him from spiraling into panic right there was a buzzing in his pocket. He reached in to pull out his phone, and was surprised to find that it wasn’t his current phone. No, it was the one he had shortly after beginning highschool. A text notification glared up at him from the screen.

Group Text: Sam, Tucker, You

Sam: Are we good to come over to check out that portal to hell in your basement?

The name sent a sharp pain through his chest. Sam had died years ago. That was the piece of the puzzle that sent the jolt of realization through him finally. He was most definitely not in his current timeline.

He nearly tripped over himself, as he rushed to where he remembered the lab sink to be. Gripping the edges of the sink, he held himself up with shaking arms. The image staring back at him in the mirror was not him. Or rather, it wasn’t him anymore. The image staring back was the smooth, boyish face of a 14-year-old Danny Fenton.

King Phantom exhaled slowly as everything fell into place. He laid the facts out in his head.

One, he was standing in the Fentons’ Lab prior to its destruction.

Two, he could not feel his core nor access his powers.

Three, Sam texted him asking about seeing the portal.

Four, he was in the body of his 14-year-old self.

Five, he was very afraid.

It took a moment for the fear to ice over into something more manageable, as he compartmentalized and picked apart the feeling. He could handle fear. He could handle whatever… this was. Staggering back from the sink, he glanced around the once-familiar lab of his parents. It was how he remembered it around the time of the completion of the portal, before they were spurred into constant invention by the regular appearances of ghosts. There was only one thing out of place–The Infi-Map. It was unceremoniously kicked to the side on the floor, having rolled partially under a steel examination table.

King Phantom approached the map and gingerly picked it up. He could feel the keen loss of connection that his ghostly side once had with it and other ghostly articles. There was no buzzing in his fingertips when he made contact with it, nor did his now non-existent core stretch in anticipation.

The newfound loss of his ghost half made him feel hollow.

He knew that the Infi-Map could determine the opening of portals between the Ghost Zone and varying points in space and time in the Human World, but this? It beggared belief. It was one thing for the Infi-Map to apparently take him back to this exact moment in time, but another for the journey to rip apart his being in such a way that it forced him back to the form of a human 14-year-old Danny Fenton. Did this version of reality have a Danny Fenton that he took over the body of?

King Phantom exhaled slowly, feeling the air leave his lungs and being discomforted at the feeling. He wasn’t sure what he wanted the answer to that question to be.

Holding the Infi-Map to his chest, King Phantom finally let his gaze settle on the portal frame. It sat empty and without the familiar swirling green of the Ghost Zone. He wasn’t sure why he was here, human and nearly a decade younger, but the idea that he had been given a second chance began to bubble inside of him.

After Clockwork was ended, his council had once discussed using the Infi-Map to send King Phantom back to prevent the war from ever happening. They had talked in circles for days about whether or not to do it, but he never could reconcile the idea that they didn’t know what would happen to their reality if he went back to change the flow of time. It’s possible that changing events would only split the timeline and leave his people without a King–he would not abandon them, and he remained firm on that despite his council’s desire to see the Infi-Map used.

The truth was that King Phantom would never choose to use the Infi-Map to try to alter the flow of time. That didn’t mean that he never longed for a second chance to change things and prevent the senseless death and destruction the Human World had wrought. A small, guilty part of him was ecstatic to be standing here, age 14 and human.

The empty portal frame glared at him. He stepped forward until he was within arm’s reach and reached out to brush his fingers along the frame.

He was once told that the Infi-Map leads people to their destiny and not to a destination.

He had a choice.

King Phantom–no, not Phantom yet and not a King–must choose between becoming a halfa again and turning his back on everything he had come to love and cherish and protect. Maybe if the portal wasn’t activated here, then the Ghost Zone wouldn’t be at risk of being ravaged by humans again. That was an if, though. If Danny turned on the portal here and now, maybe he could lead the time stream in a gentler direction–one of lasting bonds and peace.

His eyes fluttered closed, and he took a few moments to listen to the sounds of his heart, of his breathing, and of the gentle hum of electricity.

He dropped his hand from the portal frame and turned his attention back to his phone. If he did this, he would have to be alone at first–at least until he was certain he could protect those he cared about from the dangers of knowing. Danny would have to die alone.

Group Text: Sam, Tucker, You

You: sorry guys, my parents are working on it again tonight to see whats wrong so i cant sneak u in yet

Sam: Bummer.

Danny set his phone on the sink to the side and began to shrug off his hoodie to toss on the ground. Slowly and with almost a sense of reverence, he made short work of slipping on his hazmat suit. He marveled at how different his 14-year-old body was as he pulled the white material taut over skin. His arms and legs had no definition, and there was a general softness to him that he had lost over years of ghost fighting. It felt alien, almost, to know his true age and suddenly be shoved in a package that he knew didn’t reflect it.

But those considerations were just him stalling–he had a portal to turn on and there was no time like the present. Approaching the portal frame, he peered inside at the steel panels and mess of wires. He could see the on switch in the middle on his right side, at the perfect height where he’d naturally rest a hand for balance. Had the switch been anywhere else, it was unlikely Danny would have accidentally pressed it.

A shiver of anticipation passed through him when he stepped over the threshold. Whatever force the Infi-Map wielded that brought him to this point in time, to this human body, couldn’t rip apart the very part of Danny’s being that longed for the Ghost Zone, his home more than Amity Park had ever been.

His gloved fingers dragged along the wall of the portal, inching closer to the button as he walked. When he first felt the rise underneath his fingertips, he didn’t hesitate and pressed down as soon as the recognition flickered in his thoughts.

Then those thoughts were stripped away by the raw sensation of agony. Thousands of volts of electricity rushed through his body, setting every nerve alight and dancing with the feeling of pain. The first time he had been shocked by the portal, Danny’s frantic last thoughts had been the desperation of someone realizing they were about to die before the ectoplasm began to flow through him, too, repairing the damage done and smoothing over the pain like ice on a twisted ankle.

This time, there was only peace and acceptance, for Danny knew that this death would not mean his end. It meant his beginning.

When the ectoplasm began to intertwine with the electricity, Danny let out a sob of relief that caught in his throat. The familiarness of ectoplasm and of the Ghost Zone, waiting for him on the other side of the portal was what he had been missing since finding himself human in the Fentons’ lab. The ectoplasm flooded through his body and coiled in his chest, condensing into a small core of his new being that would only grow with time.

But above all that, the Ghost Zone greeted him.

It remembered him and reached out to hug him like an old friend. Danny could feel the phantom sensation of a caress across his check and an arm wrapped around his lower back–a ghost of a hug that he leaned into with no small amount of desperation.

Phantom, beloved Phantom, the Ghost Zone chanted. Welcome, welcome, welcome.

Chapter Text

For Danny, settling into a new normal wasn’t easy by any stretch of the word. After coming to after the portal accident (was it even considered an accident this time?), Danny had ascended the stairs from the lab to the living room and startled at seeing Maddie–no, his mother–in the kitchen. She didn’t notice him at first, cooking something on the stove. He froze mid step like a deer in the oncoming glare of a car’s headlights.

His heart was beating out of his chest as he watched her sway side to side, humming a song he didn't recognize. Gaze was trained on her, he was keyed into her movement and ready to flee if at the slightest hint of trouble. When she turned to grab something from the fridge, she noticed him and called out to him in a light scold to ask what he was doing in the lab. Danny bolted without even stuttering out an answer, fleeing to his bedroom upstairs and closing the door with a bit too much force.

That night, unable to calm himself from being face to face with his mother again, he fell into a fitful sleep of nightmares and tossing and turning. He kept awaking, choking on a scream as the phantom sensation of hands in his chest flooded his being. At some point Jazz had rapped lightly on his door to ask if he was okay, voice worried and soft around the edges.

Danny pretended to be asleep.

The next morning while lying in bed at the crack of dawn, he came to the realization that pretending to be his 14-year-old self would be exceptionally difficult. He just wasn’t that person anymore–his edges had hardened, cracking and splintering under the pressure and leaving a sharp, jagged exterior. His mind was plagued by all he had been through–all he had done and had done to him. Not to mention the heaviness of his heart, aching and yearning and crying over the amount of destruction and loss he had taken responsibility for as King.

Danny Fenton was not the same awkward but bright-eyed kid he once was–the Ghost Zone didn’t give him that last title of The Ice King for nothing.

There was a cold poison that ran through his veins now.

(Jazz would call it trauma, but Danny scowled at that thought).

He spent the rest of his weekend holed up in his room–he was not hiding because that would be pathetic. Danny was simply… adjusting. A lot had changed for him with this whole sudden time travel business. He found himself intermittently pulling out the Infi-Map to glare at it and debate if it could bring him back to his original timeline. It was only after figuring that this time’s Clockwork probably still existed that he packed the idea away. Clockwork’s mastery over time could probably prevent him from forcing a portal through the time stream open with the artifact.

The second night was barely any easier than the first. As soon as he calmed down over the idea of facing his parents again, he was struck by the overwhelming sensation of guilt. Danny abandoned his original timeline. The entire Infinite Realms would never know where he had disappeared to–not the denizens of it nor the Ghost Zone itself which had come to love him as all but a brother. His being had been so deeply intertwined with that of the Ghost Zone at the end that he worried about the effect of his sudden departure.

Would the Infinite Realms and its people mourn him, thinking him dead, or become bitter and resentful, thinking that he fled like a coward in the face of defeat? Losing the Keep to the Human World in that final battle had been a devastating blow and the remnants of his council had been scared and uncertain.

Danny missed his home so fiercely that he couldn’t bear to get out of bed the second day in this new timeline. He was lucky it was a Sunday and, as a lazy 14-year-old on summer break, was expected to lie around all day. Sam and Tucker sent him a few texts that he half-heartedly responded to, saying he was under the weather and couldn’t hang out for a few days. He knew it was the first of many lies to come, since Danny would have to keep Phantom a secret from them until he was confident he was powerful enough to protect them from reality and the truth.

He wasn’t going to lose his best friends. Not again, not this time.

All in all, adjusting was easier said than done. He was plagued by nightmares at night and panic attacks during the day, crushed under the enormity of his task and suffocated by guilt. So much guilt that it made his knees buckle in the shower when it hit him. He slid to the floor and sobbed until the water grew cold and his teeth chattered with the intensity of his shivering.

A week after arriving in this timeline and turning the portal on, Danny finally was forced to suck it up and attempt a facsimile of normal life. He’d plaster a smile on his face and bear the day to avoid the suspicions of his family and friends, only to fall apart at night in the privacy of his bedroom. The last of summer came to an end and he was faced with his next task of his freshman year of highschool. Starting school went surprisingly well–he had honestly been expecting disaster, but Danny had grown more confident and assured of himself through his kingship. He could handle high school a second time.

The most difficult part was honestly not overestimating himself when it came to ghost fights. Sam still changed the menu and angered the Lunch Lady, which Danny still had to deal with. It was frustrating, though, to not feel in full control of his body and his powers. It wasn’t too unoften that he’d attempt a maneuver or power that his weak, young body just couldn’t pull off. He struggled with burning out his energy reserves too quickly in fights and transforming back. It wasn’t just embarrassing to go from the strongest ghost in all the Realms to this, but it was dangerous. Danny couldn’t protect anyone like this, and his core throbbed and ached with the mantra of protect save serve protect save serve protectprotectprotect.

There were times that he wished he had a better internal calendar of when certain things happened in his previous timeline. Had he remembered that meeting Skulker was shortly predicated by a biology exam, then he would have been ready.

Instead, Danny went about his day and to bed that night without a second thought. When another gruesome nightmare roused him from sleep, he sighed and slipped out of bed. His bare feet hit the cold wood of his bedroom floor, and he wobbled to a standing position despite his shaking limbs. Some fresh air would do him some good. Making a decision to go for a quick fly around Amity Park, Danny transformed into Phantom and flew through the window without bothering to open it.

He floated above the streets of Amity Park, marveling at the mundanity of it all. In his timeline, Amity Park had become twisted and warped from being permanently pulled into the Ghost Zone. Liminal, they called it. The creeping entanglement between Amity and the Ghost Zone had grown familiar and comforting. It had been a piece of the human world that he could say he still had a place in.

The combination of his ghost sense and the high-pitched whistle of something whipping through the air broke Danny out of his reverie. His eyes darted to the side to spot an incoming missile moving at incredible speeds towards him. It was a testament to his composure and years of combat experience that this didn’t spark panic but instead a cold calm. He charged up an ectoblast and fired it off at the missile to cause it to explode before hitting its target.

What he didn’t account for was the weaker charge of his ectoblasts barely two months out from the portal accident.

He had only a split second of realization where his eyes widened a fraction at the sight of the unscathed rocket before it impacted into his chest and the resulting burst threw him out of the air and into the concrete below. His impact made a crater in the concrete of a sidewalk that had seen better days, and Danny laid there, groaning. In the back of his head, he was trying to scream at himself to get up and fight, but his weaker body wouldn’t cooperate. He just didn’t have the physical endurance to match his mental resolve.

Before he could contemplate the missile’s source, a large metal hand grabbed the front of his hazmat suit and hoisted him up. His head lolled to the side, vision dancing as he tried to focus on the ghost. On Skulker.

“So this is the little halfa whelp,” Skulker mused derisively. “Not much of a challenge for the Ghost Zone’s greatest hunter.”

Part of Danny wanted to slump further in relief, his brain tagging Skulker as an ally and not a threat. Then, he remembered this wasn’t his version of Skulker–this Skulker was meeting him for the first time. Frustration began to build in Danny, as he struggled in the robot ghost’s grip. He felt pathetic with how he was at Skulker’s mercy so easily. His eyes searched around him for inspiration for some sort of plan.

“Scared silent?” Skulker sneered.

Then, Danny spotted it.

Right at Skulker’s elbow joint was a place where the internal wiring and musculature was slightly revealed. If he could just focus his ectoblast fine enough, he should be able to damage the robot ghost’s arm. He pointed a finger and recalled the feeling of condensing ectoplasm through a smaller and smaller outlet then released. It fired directly into the crevice of Skulker’s elbow, ripping through the internals of his arm. Pained and damaged, Skulker reflexively dropped Danny to the ground.

Danny rolled to the side and sprung into the air and took off at a breakneck pace. Looking back, the other ghost’s arm was sparking and hissing from the damage the blast did. Skulker sneered and followed after Danny, easily able to keep up. Danny bemoaned the fact he hadn’t yet built up his speed and stamina flying in this new, younger body. Skulker was within an arm’s reach of Danny when he produced a whiplike weapon alight with electricity. He snapped it towards Danny.

Acting on instinct, Danny spun around to grab the end of the incoming whip with the intent to redirect the energy back. It was an easy enough trick, but one he didn’t do very often. And, apparently, a trick that this body had not yet developed. The electricity coursed through him, his body spasming with pain. The raw, visceral fear of electrocution that shot up his spine along with the whip’s lightning flooded his core with memories of the portal accident

He dropped like a stone out of the air for the second time in that fight. The ground didn’t meet him, however. What met his body was a long, curved blade piercing through his midsection, as Skulker swerved below him. The sword in his stomach was an exquisite, hot agony–fresh and different from that of electricity. Danny was barely aware of the scream that tore from his throat through the haze.

The sword left him, and Danny summoned all of his strength to catch himself in the air rather than plummet again. Shaking violently, he powered through the pain to fly away from Skulker, who was shaking the ectoplasm off his blade. There was no way that Danny would win this fight with this sort of injury. His only hope would be to lose Skulker in a chase.

Making a split decision, Danny reoriented himself to speed towards Fenton Works. He’d get through the portal, and the Ghost Zone would likely try its best to help. Not to mention the ambient ectoplasm would keep him from passing out. They were only four blocks away from his house, but making that flight with a hole pierced through his abdomen was a momentous task. Every breath had to be clawed into his lungs, hand pressing ineffectually to his stomach to stem the bleeding of ectoplasm.

He siphoned a little of his remaining energy to make himself invisible before flying through the front door of Fenton Works. Danny was lucky that doors with a genetic lock had not yet been fashioned for the portal by his parents, because he really didn’t have that sort of lead on Skulker.

The green of the Ghost Zone greeted him warmly as he passed through the portal. Immediately, it rushed through him to numb his pain and urge him onward. Danny put his trust in where the Ghost Zone would lead him and didn’t hesitate to continue flying. Occasionally, he’d spare a glance back to check for Skulker, but it seemed that entering through the portal had given him enough distance to lose him for now. Still, he kept flying. He needed to get somewhere safe enough to land and rest until the wound patched up somewhat.

He could feel the tips of his fingers and toes growing even colder from the ectoplasm loss. Beyond the chill, there was a tug on his core that beckoned him in a direction. A sigh escaped his lips, recognizing the sensation as the Zone’s way of trying to help. It tugged at him again, and Danny shook his head. “Alright, alright, I’m going.” He chucked under his breath, a sort of fondness creeping into his tone.

Danny trusted the Ghost Zone with his entire being. He might not have his Titles in this timeline, but he was once considered the Heart of the Infinite Realms, so the feeling was mutual. The Ghost Zone loved him in its strange way. If it wanted him to go somewhere, he’d follow. He just hoped that the Ghost Zone was taking his injury into account.

Changing the direction of his flight slightly, Danny followed the tugging on his core. The area of the Zone that it was taking him through was familiar, and he realized with no small amount of alarm that he was being led to Clockwork’s tower. It made sense, he supposed. He had intended to visit eventually in hopes of answers or advice, but something had held him back until now. The gash in his abdomen pulsed in pain, reminding him of his predicament, and he picked up the pace.

Entering the tower, it was unsurprising that Clockwork was nowhere to be seen at first. The ancient ghost had likely seen him coming and was waiting deeper inside. The tower was familiar–how he remembered it before Clockwork ceased to exist in their own timeline. The memories sent sharp pangs through his core and heart, so Danny floated towards where Clockwork tended to set up their viewing portals without any delay.

The ghost’s back was turned to Danny when he found him. He drank in Clockwork’s form, searching for any minute difference that would separate him from Danny’s Clockwork. The two seemed identical, however, and he wasn’t sure if that made him feel better or worse. Cautiously, he called out, begging his voice not to shake. “Clockwork.”

Clockwork did not turn, but their ghostly tail swished in acknowledgement. “Ah, the interloper comes to me at last.” Their voice was low and melodic, familiar and not at all unfriendly. That put Danny at ease somewhat.

“Interloper is a word for it,” Danny mused idly as he floated closer to the time ghost. “Do you–do you know where I come from?”

“I do not.” At that, Clockwork turned their head to examine Danny with careful, calculating eyes from inside their food. “I foresaw your arrival only some hours before it occurred. Unexpected, but manageable.”

Danny frowned, then a spike of pang reminded him of his more pressing predicament. “Um, before I explain, some help?”

Clockwork nodded and gestured with their staff. There was the intense sensation of searing heat around the edges of the wound on Danny’s stomach, then the oddest feeling of flesh stretching closed. The temporary pain was worth the relief that followed, however, and Danny exhaled low. Clockwork’s ability to speed up (or even slow down) the healing of others had been quite useful during the war in Danny’s original timeline, but he summarily shoved away the memories of the instances the power had to be used.

“There.” Clockwork rumbled, withdrawing their staff. “Explanations are in order, hm?”

“Yes, uh, though I am unsure where to start.” Danny scratched at the back of his neck–a nervous tic that had stuck with him through the years.

Clockwork considered the portal in front of them, watching images of long forgotten history play out. “I would say at the beginning, but we both may very well know there are many places to begin a story.”

Danny hummed, uncertain, then steeled his resolve. “I’m from another timeline–I think. Or maybe dimension? I was sent here by our version of the Infi-Map.”

“Curious,” Clockwork muttered, fully turning away from the portal to regard Danny for the first time since his entry. “But not unfathomable, as I look at you. I cannot see your history, nor the future around you. You blur and warp the time stream around you.”

“Oh.” Danny intoned. That was worrying and more than a little disappointing. He had hoped he could ask for more specific guidance. “I… My timeline–dimension–whatever was bad. Really bad? By the end you were, just, gone. And I was trying my best, but that was never good enough, and–”

Clockwork held up a hand to stop Danny’s rambling. “Ascribing blame to one’s self does not remedy much, young Phantom.”

He sighed and nodded, knowing Clockwork was right. He should compose himself more as befitting of his station. No, past station. It was hard to get back into the mindset of his 14-year-old sense with little responsibility other than taking out the trash on Saturdays.

“I was crowned as King when I was 18, but things went wrong pretty fast. There was a war with the human world, and they found out how to end ghosts. Crush their cores. It was…” Danny trailed off, shuddering.

“And this occurred to myself in your timeline?”

Danny made a strained, affirmative noise. Clockwork’s brow pinched together, a troubled look overcoming their face. They floated a bit aways to observe another portal. The image that sparked to life was not entirely distinct–fuzzy around the edges and hard to discern, but the portal was showing images of various ends to Clockwork. He frowned at that, approaching as well.

Their face smoothed into an expression more serene. “I am not unfamiliar with the idea that one day my reign as master of time is finite. The exact means to which my flame will be extinguished are unknown to me, but all stories must write towards an end.” Clockwork’s voice did not waver in any way, and to say that disturbed Danny would be putting it lightly. He was used to death and ends, yes, but he remained equally affected by every one.

It was a reminder that Clockwork’s sight over all of time afforded them odd opinions and morals.

Clockwork continued, “My coming to an end from your perspective would provide some manner of explanation as to why you are so unclear in my vision. The versions of me that exist throughout time are separate parts of the same whole. If you cut one off from the others, our sight becomes blinded to that perspective.”

Something troubling came to mind for Danny. An errant thought that he had briefly considered upon initially arriving but done away with in favor of focusing on the portal. Did… did he displace another living, breathing version of himself?

He voiced his concern. “Was there another me that I replaced?”

Clockwork waved their staff, the disturbing, blurry images of their end leaving the viewing portal to be replaced by a mirror of Danny’s human face in a deep sleep of some sort. “Try ‘is’.”

It was as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over Danny’s head.

“Wh-what?” He voiced lamely.

“Upon your arrival here, I whisked away the version of you that existed here in order to observe you. This time’s Daniel Fenton is safe in stasis here.”

“That’s–that’s awful, Clockwork.” He admitted, voice rigid. “Release him right now.”

“Your command carries no weight at the moment, young Phantom.” Clockwork reminded him.

Danny shook his head vigorously. “I don’t care if I’m not King yet. That’s terrible! I won’t steal the boy’s life. Release him.”

Clockwork considered Danny, closely eyeing him as if searching for something. Danny didn’t let his stern expression slip an inch. Eventually, the time ghost gave in with a passive, “Very well.”

With a gesture of their staff, a ticking clock portal formed and the limp figure of Danny’s human body fell through it. The other Danny seemed to awaken mid fall, just barely catching himself to land softly on his hands and knees. Danny stared, openly, as this other version of himself fought to catch his breath.

After a few moments of recovery, the other Danny looked around, alarmed and confused. “Where am I? This is such a weird dream.”

Hearing his own teenaged voice coming from another’s mouth was disconcerting, Danny decided. He floated down towards this mirror image of himself and landed. The teen blinked rapidly, looked up at Danny’s ghost form with obvious awe.

“Holy shit, are you a ghost?”

“Of a sort,” he answered himself.

“My parents are right?” The other Danny asked dumbly.

“About some things.” Clockwork provided, drawing the other Danny’s eye. To the teen’s credit, he didn’t startle too badly at the whimsical image of the blue-skinned time ghost.

The other Danny gulped, then glanced over at Danny again. He looked closer, his confusion deepening on his face. “You–you look like me.” He said, voice shaking.

Danny hesitated, but decided the truth was a bandaid best ripped off here. “That’s because I am you–a version of you that became half-ghost.”

The other Danny laughed nervously. “What is this, Back to the Future meets Ghostbusters?”

“More like Everything Everywhere All At Once.” Danny responded lightly.

“What?”

Clockwork cleared their throat, “That movie hasn’t come out yet, young Phantom.”

“Yet?” The other Danny echoed.

“I’m also from the future. Kinda. My future is hopefully different from your future.” Danny said as an explanation.

“That’s so goddamn confusing.”

“Just go with it.”

The other Danny looked amused, saying, “Oh, I plan on it. I think it’s best not to fight my weird dream-slash-hallucination.” He moved to stand, legs shaking slightly under his own weight. Danny helped him up.

“Unfortunately, this is all real. And, it gets worse.” Danny admitted, voice steady to project as much calm as possible. “I’ve, uh, taken your place so to say. I need to try to prevent my future from happening again.”

“What the fuck, dude?” The other Danny snapped, eyes narrowed. “That’s a dick move if I’ve ever seen one.”

“It wasn’t exactly my choice, Danny.” He said, wincing a bit at how his tone grew strained. “I didn’t ask to be sent here, and I certainly didn’t ask to have you shoved into a corner of the Ghost Zone in a weird comatose state until now.”

“That’s too much to unpack, so we’re throwing out the whole suitcase.” The other Danny deadpanned.

Clockwork spoke up, “Things will be different from now on, Daniel. You may think this is but a dream now, but these changes are real. You cannot return to your life in Amity Park without causing a wave of disruption.”

Scowling, the other Danny argued, “That’s not fair.”

“Nothing in existence is fair,” Danny said with a dry note. “But I won’t let you just rot in stasis in the Zone.”

“Maybe you should have.” There was an upset coldness to the other Danny’s words that had Danny cringe. He knew that this was a lot to dump on a version of himself so unaware of the cruelties of the world, but coddling the other Danny wouldn’t achieve anything.

Clockwork considered both, then suggested, “Daniel can stay with me–not in stasis–and I will teach him the ways of reality. The truth about ghosts and about your place with them.”

“But–” The other Danny began to argue, but it died on his lips. He glanced down and said nothing further.

“Very well. With that settled, you can follow me to what will be your personal quarters, Daniel.” Clockwork said and floated towards a back exit from the portal room.

Watching them leave, Danny groaned. “Ugh, I need a drink.”

Chapter Text

Returning to the Human World after the talk with Clockwork left Danny with a distinct feeling of unease that persisted for several days. Tucker and Sam had noticed, of course, and voiced their concern over his strange behavior and flakiness as of late. His gut twisted painfully at the need to keep secrets from them, but he had to be certain he could protect them before he brought them back onto “Team Phantom.”

After being surprised by Skulker, Danny had finally sat down and wrote down everything he could remember about the order of events in his original reality. It was difficult to think back to his freshman year of highschool, but he had a rough idea of the vague order that his ghostly enemies first showed up in. He didn’t let himself adhere too strongly to the timeline he had written out, though, in case the world threw any curve balls at him.

After Skulker came Technus and the stupid A-Lister party that Danny couldn’t believe he had cared so much about the first time around. Without Danny straining himself to get invited to the party, Tucker had taken up an interest in attending. Dealing with Technus wasn’t particularly difficult without having to worry about him taking control of the contaminated Fenton household tech, and Danny got Tucker into the party without much hassle.

All in all, it had left Danny feeling well enough that when he encountered Poindexter with Locker 724, he easily enough befriended the ghost. Poindexter was thrilled to have a friend after so long trapped in his mirror dimension–enough so that his lair had begun to shift away from the hellish recreation of his bullying in highschool. He was a surprisingly good and attentive friend and was a godsend when Danny needed help cramming for exams or speeding through assignments.

It was then a shock when he struggled to contain Desiree and her rampant wish granting. His foresight provided no help considering his focus had been absorbed with Tucker’s ghost envy wish in his original reality, and Danny realized he was tired. It was the heavy exhaustion that he almost wanted to throw his hands up and let Desiree grant a wish or two for him.

It was the way that Desiree let the wishes get out of hand that upset Danny so much and not the fact she was granting wishes in the first place. He didn’t know how to reach out to her to try to convince her to reconsider her twisted sense of justice, and he fumbled his way through encounters with her over the span of two weeks before he finally gave up and actually fought against the genie.

Trapping Desiree in the Thermos did not leave Danny with any sense of satisfaction or accomplishment. Instead, he just felt oddly empty. A reminder that none of his desires in fixing this reality’s timeline to prevent the war would come easy. Throwing himself into ghost fighting to avoid the turmoil in his head wasn’t working, but it wasn’t like he had anyone to work through that storm of emotions with. The only people who knew Danny’s truth were Clockwork and the other Danny that he had replaced. He wasn’t keen on visiting Clockwork’s tower and once again facing the reality of what his presence here meant for the other Danny.

To compound his frustration and anxiety, the trio of vulture ghosts tried to attack his father, heralding the nearing appearance of Vlad in his life.

Throughout the years, his relationship with Vlad had its ebb and flow. Sometimes they were bitter rivals and other times the only two who could understand each other. They were in a unique situation as the only two true halfas. Danny didn’t want things in this reality to turn out the way they had with his Vlad–he didn’t want to have his hand forced to orchestrate Vlad’s end again. But the man’s actions backing the Guys in White and sharing the secret of cores had been unforgivable.

That Vlad’s words echoed in Danny’s head.

“I’d see both worlds burn if it meant you were reduced to ashes.”

Meeting Vlad in this timeline would mean striking the careful balance between pushing him to go for the Crown of Fire and Ring of Rage, but not so far that he can’t be pulled back from the brink after Pariah’s invasion. Danny needed Vlad to set off the series of events that would lead to him reclaiming his throne. It made him feel sick to his stomach, knowing that he’d be manipulating Vlad and wrapping the older man around his finger to act as Danny pleased.

But through Danny’s reign as King of the Ghost Zone and throughout the war, he had learned that sometimes sacrifices had to be made to get to the right outcome.

Musing over such matters would get Danny nowhere, however. His parents were, as expected, dragging him and Jazz to Vlad’s castle in Wisconsin for their college reunion. He had to be careful not to reveal too much of his hand to Vlad–the man was always better at planning steps ahead than Danny was, even towards the end.

Danny had forgotten how pointlessly infuriating interacting with Vlad was when the older halfa’s focus was on Jack and not Danny. It was one thing to deal with Vlad’s obsession with him, and another to deal with the petty sniping towards his father. Danny had done his best to keep a pleasant expression through the “introduction” to Vlad the morning they arrived in Wisconsin, even when the halfa slammed the castle door in his father’s face.

Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant, Danny reminded himself, smile plastered on his face as Vlad showed him to what would be his bedroom during the stay. Fright Knight shoving the entirety of Sun Tzu’s Art of War into his head was the only thing that kept him sane interacting with Vlad during the day.

He just had to bide his time until he found Plasmius that night and push him just enough to set him on edge.

Sleep didn’t come easy in Vlad’s castle. Danny tossed and turned on the too-soft bed, legs tangled in the layers of sheets and blankets. The churning anxiety wouldn’t settle for him to get rest. There was only the wait for his ghost sense to go off to alert him to the ghost vulture and Plasmius’ presence in the castle.

The chill down his spine and puff of cold breath came a bit after midnight. He straightened in bed and rose slowly, transforming into Phantom and approaching the bedroom door.

“All warfare is based on deception,” Danny whispered to himself before stealing his resolve and slipping into the hallway intangibly and invisibly.

He listened to the tug of his core to find the vulture ghosts stalking his father and made quick work of grabbing Jack to move his sleepwalking form to a bathroom on another floor. It wouldn’t do well to be interrupted while talking with Plasmius and have his father whip out an ectogun or some other horrid invention. When the vultures shrieked and vanished, Danny schooled his expression into a neutral mask and turned slowly.

Plasmius hovered in the air above him, watching with a sneer that showed off the sharpened fangs on one side of his mouth. He was much more polished and put together than the last time Danny had seen the halfa in his timeline. It was almost jarring. Plasmius pinned to a crumbling wall, Dan holding him by the throat as Danny passively watched the alternate version of himself dig claws into Plasmius’ core.

Danny swallowed, hard, and begged his mind to stop drifting. He needed to stay level-headed to maneuver Vlad where he needed to be after this interaction.

“Ah, the ghost boy that uses his powers for good.” Plasmius said, lips curling cruelly.

“Plasmius, is it?” Danny said, keeping his voice as soft and timid as possible.

The other halfa paused, an unreadable expression crossing his face, and he examined Danny more closely. “Heard of me, have you?”

Danny chose his words carefully, “The Zone speaks to those that listen.” He needed to imply he knew things Vlad didn’t–press the man into digging into the secrets of the Infinite Realms.

“And here I thought you a pathetic ghostling in his first year.” Vlad said, his tone biting in a way that would have riled up a younger Danny.

“Oh, no, I only got turned in August.” Danny glanced down, as if embarrassed or ashamed.

Vlad let out a low chuckle. “You stand no chance against me, boy. Why bother protecting that idiot Fenton buffoon?”

“Because I won’t let you hurt my dad, Vlad.” Danny growled, instincts getting the better of him and eyes flashing with a brighter glow.

Vlad scowled, brow lowering in an intense glare. “Don’t tell me that his foolishness has made a second ghost hybrid of his own son?”

Danny lowered to the floor, letting transformation rings wash over his form to change him back to Fenton all while not breaking eye contact with Vlad. “You won’t be able to lay a finger on him while I’m around.”

“As if your abilities could come close to matching mine.” Vlad said dismissively, but followed after Danny by transforming back to Masters. “You should give up this misguided sense of morality and let me train you.”

Vlad extended a hand towards Danny.

It wasn’t that Danny needed any training, but…

“Please, you can’t do this! I’m your son.”

An expression of pure hatred twisted his mother’s features, and her finger twitched towards a button on the control panel. Electricity danced across his body, pain lighting every nerve ending on fire.

“It’s a sick trick to wear our son’s face. Drop the disguise, Phantom.”

“It’s not a disguise. I swear, it’s me! Believe me!”

He blinked away the memory of his scalpel-wielding mother, dragging his gaze towards Vlad’s outstretched hand. In his timeline, his loyalty to his family had gotten him nothing but pain in the end. They didn’t believe he was their son when he was strapped down on a table, begging for mercy. It wasn’t until Sam’s death that they had come around to realize their loathed enemy was their son. In the interim, they had wrought so much destruction on both worlds.

Danny could take Vlad’s hand here and now. He could change his plans for how to fix this timeline.

No.

He had to be strong. Danny had to trust that he could shape the future to prevent his parents from ever turning down that path.

Danny stepped back away from Vlad, shaking his head. “I won’t join you. Not now, and not ever while you hold on to all this spite and hatred.”

The words felt hollow on his tongue. Danny wasn’t sure if he could even let go of his own spite towards the past. Or, future, rather.

Vlad’s face darkened, eyes briefly going red, before the older halfa calmed himself. Retracting his hand, he ground out, “You’ll see the mistake that you’ve made.” Then, he turned on his heel and swiftly walked away.

Danny sighed and whispered to himself. “Only time will tell if this was a mistake.”

Danny looked over the ballroom of Vlad’s castle passively, observing the beginnings of his parents’ college reunion. Jazz was back in the theater, watching some old documentary about the Green Bay Packers, and his parents were dancing to some old music he didn’t recognize.

He was on edge.

Vlad would make a move at some point during the night, but Danny was unsure what the older halfa would plan to do with his identity already revealed. He’d surely make some sort of move to take out Danny’s father, but would it be the same as it had been in the other timeline?

So, Danny watched. Posted up against a wall by a punch bowl, he watched the party with half-lidded eyes. To any observer, he’d just be a bored teen dragged to his parents’ college reunion. Which, that wasn’t to say he was having fun, but Danny had begun to take a degree of amused satisfaction from people assuming he was just some 14-year-old. Being nearly 25 in a freshman’s body was certainly interesting. Or perhaps, frustrating.

Vlad entered the room, speaking with a couple that Danny didn’t recognize but figured were just some old classmates. The other halfa seemed to be going on at length about something, much to the boredom of his companions. Danny snickered at that. Trust Vlad to not notice when his swanning about was truly unwanted.

He caught sight of Danny in the corner of the ball room and excused himself from the couple, who both gave sighs of relief.

Approaching, Vlad gestured for Danny. “Come with me, Daniel.”

Danny narrowed his eyes, voice quiet as he spoke to not be overheard, “Why? So you can split a duplicate off and like overshadow my dad or something while I’m not in the room?”

“Oh, that would be a clever idea.” Vlad paused to sneer. Danny pointedly flicked his gaze to some nearby people to remind him to behave. The other halfa schooled his expression into something more neutral at that reminder. “But, no, I simply wish to play a game of chess with my dear godson.”

Godson? Gross if true. But Danny had learned quite a bit about chess from Clockwork after being crowned King. He was a formidable player–not that Vlad knew anything about that, though.

“Chess? Lame,” Danny said, shrugging and trying to play the part of a bored teen. “I guess if it gets you to not do anything weird to my parents, though.”

“Good decision, son.”

Danny couldn’t help but snap, “Don’t call me that.”

Vlad said nothing in response, but smiled and turned around to leave the ballroom. He led Danny down the hallway and to a cozy-looking living room with a fire roaring in the hearth. In between two plush leather armchairs was a side table with an admittedly gorgeous chess set. He made a grand motion for Danny to pick a color.

Danny took a seat on the white side.

“Curious choice.” Vlad commented smugly, as if he had gleaned something from Danny’s decision to choose white.

Shrugging, he asked, “White moves first, doesn’t it?”

Vlad gave an exaggerated sigh, as if tired with Danny’s supposed amateurishness, and took his own seat. One leg crossed over the other, leaning slightly forward as if to glower at him. Danny made a show of frowning at the board, then picked up the g2 pawn.

A twitch of glee in Vlad’s otherwise neutrally smug expression.

Grob’s attack would do fine here–a move considered masochistic to take against an experienced opponent. Most people would see the move as taken by one with no idea of real strategy. Danny, however, wanted Vlad lulled into a false sense of security.

He placed the pawn on g4.

Vlad almost smiled, then moved a pawn to b6. Ah, the waiting game, Danny mused internally.

“Really, Daniel, put aside this childish loyalty to your fool of a father and join my side.” Vlad said over the next few moves, getting his bishop and kingside knight into position to take pieces.

Danny was careful to take moves that would be seen as reactionary moves to Vlad’s own. “That’s what this game is about?” He asked, taking a pawn at d5.

“Think of the doors I could open for you–we could rule together.” Vlad responded in kind by taking Danny’s pawn that now sat at d5.

Danny knew from his experiences that Vlad was nothing if not a horribly lonely man–one who had let his isolation twist him until the only thing left was a rotting, hollowed out shell of a man. He pitied him in a sense. There had always been friends and allies by Danny’s side, especially throughout the war against the Human World. He moved his knight from c3 to take d5 again.

But, Danny also knew that having such bonds left one open to the raw agony of loss. Was it better to have loved and lost or never to have loved at all?

He shook the thoughts from his head. Now wasn’t the time for pointless introspection. Looking up at where Vlad sat, Danny sighed. Pity wouldn’t aid in getting Vlad to act the way that the timeline needed. The other halfa had to make a bid to take the Crown and Ring like before.

So, no matter how much Danny longed to try to see what bond could be forged between him and the only other halfa, he knew what must be done.

Two more moves from Vlad. “I won’t join you, Plasmius.” Danny declared, placing his queen on e2 to sit in front of his king. It was his first decisive move, poking at Vlad’s confidence by creating a situation where his own king might be pinned down by his own pieces.

Black knight to g7. “Really, this is getting cute at this point.” Vlad said with a laugh.

“I know who you are, Vlad.” Danny growled low. “ I’ll tell my father. I’ll tell everyone.” Danny moved his knight to f6. No matter where Vlad moved his king, there was no winning. “Checkmate.” His lips curled into a sly smile.

A win in nine moves.

The other halfa was stunned silent, examining and reexamining the board state. Danny let him take his time to absorb the defeat, merely watching the realization slowly dawn on Vlad’s face. As a grimace overtook his features, Vlad gently placed a finger on the tip of his king piece and tipped it over.

He stood, straightening his suit jacket, and silently turned to leave. The heels of his dress shoes clicked against the hardwood floor, the only sound besides the occasional pop of the fire stretching between them. At the doorway, Vlad paused. Not bothering to look back, he murmured, “We aren’t so different, you and I.”

And he was gone.

Chapter Text

“Danny,

Your Highness King Phantom,

I’m writing you this letter as a final goodbye.”

Danny was tired in the weeks to follow seeing Vlad again. It was the sort of tiredness that didn’t go away with sleep, and instead clung to him like wet clothes after a warm summer rain. Pulling himself out of bed was becoming a daily struggle. He’d lie there staring at the ceiling, listening to the shrill alarm clock begging him to get up for school. The exhaustion hung heavy in his soul. After so many years of constant danger and the weight of the crown, being somewhere relatively safer had him straining with the desire to simply fall apart.

He remembered Jazz talking about that to him once. Before things soured. In the back of his head, Jazz’s voice reminded him that someone could endure prolonged trauma only to break down when finally safe.

Was that what this exhaustion and anxiety was? The desire to let go after being pulled taut for so long?

A knock at the door. Danny sighed and turned on his side, casting his gaze away from the star stickers on his bedroom ceiling.

Jazz’s voice filtered through the door, “C’mon Danny! If you want a ride, you have to be ready to leave on time.” She sounded annoyed. What had first started as concern for his change in behavior after Danny was shoved in this timeline had over the weeks shifted.

He dragged himself out of bed with no small amount of effort and barely bothered to tug on a worn out pair of jeans and dirty hoodie. Jazz was outside his bedroom door, tapping her foot incessantly. With a sigh, he unlocked the door and pulled it open. “Alright, I’m ready. We can get going.”

His sister examined his ruffled, barely put together state and shook her head slightly. She didn’t comment, but Danny could feel the judgment radiating off of her. He brushed the feeling aside and walked past her to head down the stairs. Jazz followed, and the two were off for the day.

The car ride was quiet until they were a few blocks from school. Despite watching the city scenery pass them by through the window, he glanced over to his sister when she cleared her throat. “The school got a new guidance counselor.” She said evenly, eyes not leaving the road.

Dread pooled in Danny’s stomach.

Spectra.

“Did they now?” He asked, attempting to sound disinterested.

Jazz bit her lip, hesitating, then spoke, “I made you an appointment with her during your free period.”

“Why?” The question tumbled from his lips before he could stop it.

“You’re hurting, Danny. I don’t know how or why, but something is obviously wrong.” Jazz said calmly, almost as if speaking down to a child. “You need to open up to someone. Even if it isn’t me.”

Danny knew he shouldn’t engage. He should put his head down and deal with Spectra quietly, but an anger he couldn’t stop flared in his gut. “I don’t need to open up to anyone.” The last thing he needed was someone getting too close before he could properly protect them or finding out he wasn’t their Danny.

The car pulled into the Casper High parking lot. Jazz said nothing as she parked but turned her head to look at him after turning the car off. “I just want my little brother back to his happy, annoying self.” She said softly.

“I thought that maybe after I left for the Human World, you would finally see reason. I thought that you would see everything that has been lost in your crusade against humanity and finally come home. I had always admired your ability to see the best in others, and how you would be the first to give someone a second chance. Time and time again you turned an enemy into an ally. Into a friend.”

He swallowed, hard.

There was no getting that Danny back. The years had whittled Danny away, hollowing him out and filling him with something else. He certainly couldn’t describe himself as happy anymore. Not in his other timeline with the weight of ruling a realm in war on his shoulders and not here, taken from his home and scrambling to prevent tragedy before it happened.

“Maybe you won’t get him back.” Danny eventually said in a quiet voice.

He got out of the car and didn’t look back.

Spectra’s office was cold, a chill prickling across his skin. When he originally met Spectra, that had been a neat trick to get around his ghost sense. Being more experienced and aware of his core now, Danny could identify when the shivers weren’t accompanied by the telltale tightening of his core. It made it easy to avoid Spectra for most of the day until their meeting during his free period. He didn’t want to have a conversation with the ghost and give her more chances to wheedle out his insecurities. She was one of the few of his ghostly enemies from high school that he never came around to becoming allies with.

Spectra watched him now, lips upturned in a pleasant expression and glasses balanced precariously on her nose. “Daniel–”

“Danny.” He interrupted her.

“Danny, do you know why you’re here?”

He blew out an annoyed huff. “Yeah, my sister made the appointment.”

“But do you know why she made the appointment?” Spectra’s hand moved to cover a file folder. When Danny didn’t respond, she opened the folder and began examining several sheets of paper. “Straight A student in the 8th grade. Perfect Attendance. Loved by teachers. President of the Junior Astronomy club. Requested not to skip the 9th grade after scoring remarkably well on placement exams for Casper High.”

Danny had forgotten about most of those things. Little memories that hadn’t been deemed important enough to hold onto. He wondered why so few people in his life had pointed out the change both in his original timeline and now. Becoming Phantom took a lot from Danny, no matter his experience level.

Spectra’s smile turned sad, almost. “Now? Projected to get low Cs for first semester. Habitual tardiness. Falling asleep in class. No extracurriculars to speak of. It’s quite the change over the summer.”

“I got into an accident in early August.” Danny revealed cautiously. “But you’d know about that, wouldn’t you?”

“Why, yes, your sister did mention something along the lines.” Spectra removed her glasses and scrutinized Danny. “She said it wasn’t serious enough to even require hospitalization.”

He didn’t want to play these word games.

“I know who you are.”

Spectra pursed her lips, placing her glasses back on, and gave a breathy chuckle. “Who am I? I’m the one that will help you, of course.”

“You don’t help people, though.” Danny growled. “You needle them and make them feel smaller and smaller until you can crush them underfoot.”

Her gaze flicked to where the air conditioning unit was pumping out cold air, then back to him. “Is that how you feel? Small?”

Always with the leading questions from Spectra, pushing her prey along a path like cattle at a slaughterhouse.

Danny scoffed. “If you don’t leave the Human World alone, I will shove you back in the Ghost Zone myself.”

“So quick to resort to violence.” She propped her elbows on the desk and leaned forward, leering. “Do you solve all your problems with threats and intimidation?”

“Why not Vlad?

Why not Mom and Dad?

Why”

Talking with Spectra wouldn’t accomplish anything. He stood, chair scraping loudly against the tile floor, and moved to leave. When his hand grabbed the door knob, he heard Spectra tut softly. Her voice had a sinister edge woven in now. “Running away, are we? Just like you’re running from your family, your friends. When the threats and showboating don’t work, then it’s time to run. It’s only a matter of time before you run from this misguided responsibility over Amity Park, too.”

He whirled around. “I would never–”

“Ohhhh.” Her lips curled up devilishly. “Hit a spore spot?”

“I don’t need to listen to you.” Danny snapped and went to tug Spectra’s office door open.

It didn’t budge.

“Tsk, tsk, dear. Bertrand and I can’t have such a delightful meal like you simply run away.” She punctuated her words with a delighted snicker. “So, responsibility, is it? Or is there some other layer?”

“I know Mom and Dad hurt you, but they had seen that they were wrong and wanted to change. They wanted to make amends. You had the chance to save them, but instead you cast the last vote to see them executed.”

Danny said nothing, but his heart was thundering in his chest and hands slick with sweat.

“No, not just responsibility. Otherwise you’d never let your academic life slip so far from your grasp.” She paused, then gasped. “Don’t tell me you feel responsible for protecting this miserable town?”

She didn’t draw a response from Danny, but the pure hatred he glared at her with was enough for her to nod to herself, satisfied with the answer. His stomach twisted with nausea and dread. Of all the ways Danny weakened right now, he felt weak of mind more than anything. He was a perfect toy for Spectra to play with, and he hated it.

He glanced back at the locked door.

Danny hadn’t yet mastered prolonged use of his powers in his human form in this timeline, so flying out intangibly was off the table, unless he transformed. He could either try to talk Spectra down until his free period was over and she let him go, or go ghost and flee to regather himself. A glance at the clock on the wall. Five minutes.

Don’t just run away, idiot, he mentally hissed to himself.

“Don’t you know that these humans would turn on you the moment your existence became inconvenient?” Spectra eyes glowed as she spoke, casting an eerie light across her face

He squeezed his eyes shut, breath catching in his throat.

“Think of all the pain and suffering that humans put each other through. Why would they treat you any better?” Each word was worse than a punch in the gut.

“Then you make an alliance with Dan? You forgave him? Order him to kill Vlad? The boy I knew who just wanted to protect Amity Park would never have ordered another’s death so easily.”

This was why he hated Spectra. With other enemies, he could counter their blows or find a clever way to gain an advantage in a fight. His only option with Spectra was to weather the storm of words she slung. Voice creaking, Danny forced himself to say, “I believe things can change.”

“Change.” She drew the word out cruelly. “Nothing and no one truly can change.”

Danny knew that every moment spent in this room with Spectra, she was feeding off of the misery she elicited. She cut deep, trying to bleed him dry of all that he had left. His resolve and conviction in changing the future was all that he had. He couldn’t afford to lose it to her. Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes and looked at Spectra.

“You’re a coward–tearing others in an effort to make yourself feel more powerful. Rising to the top on a pile of bodies is no way to exist.”

Spectra watched him, expression wide-eyed and wild from the intoxication of gorging herself on the veritable wellspring that was Danny’s misery. She didn’t seem too bothered by his comment but rather amused. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips.

Danny turned his gaze to the clock. Free period was over. His voice was ice cold, “I believe I should get to my next class.”

The glee left her face, expressing turning dour, but she made no effort to continue toying with him. The lock clicked, and the door swung open to reveal Bertrand pocketing a key. Danny didn’t bother saying anything to either of the ghosts before pushing past Bertrand and storming down the hallway.

The rest of the day went by in a fugue state. It wasn’t until he got in Jazz’s car to head home, and she asked him twice how his session with the counselor went that he snapped back to some semblance of reality.

“It’s childish to ignore me.” Jazz said with a sniff.

Frustration bubbled up. He could feel words forming on his tongue that he was powerless to stop, vitriol and poison. “Sorry, not sorry. You should stop being so nosy and butt out of where you aren’t wanted.”

Jazz’s grip on the steering wheel tightened. “I’m being ‘nosy’ because I’m worried, Danny.”

“No one asked you to worry about me.” He shot back.

“That’s the thing about being my little brother–I’m always going to worry about you.” She murmured, voice soft.

That shot a dart through Danny’s heart, and he turned his head to look out the window to avoid her gaze. In his timeline Jazz had been a staunch supporter and ally.

Up until she wasn’t.

The betrayal still stung, but he had to separate that Jazz from this Jazz. Things would be different this time. He’d change things–prevent that particular betrayal from ever happening.

“Danny, I–” She started then stopped, stuttering over what to say next and choking back tears. “I don’t know what to do. I noticed the liquor bottles in the trash. If you’re dealing with something, it shouldn’t be alone.”

Alone. He was alone, adrift in a timeline that wasn’t his own. Even if he played the part of Danny Fenton, 14-year-old superhero, that didn’t mean that’s who he truly was. There was a distance he had to hold everyone at, so that they didn’t find out who he was and where he came from. Not yet, at least.

But, with that loneliness came an emptiness. His heart ached for all that he lost and wouldn’t get back. Death was inevitable, and even ghosts can come to an end, but that understanding didn’t make the pain any less sharp. It felt like shards of broken glass rattling around in his heart. Everytime he moved, one of the shards would slip out of place and bleed him.

Danny was bleeding out in all ways but physically.

His fingers twitched towards Jazz’s elbow, brushing across the skin in a plaintive attempt for comfort.

“Jazz…” His voice warbled on the name.

They were stopped at a red light, so Jazz turned her head to look at him. He could see the tears glittering in her eyes and lip trembling. Maybe Jazz needed this connection as much as he did.

Could he take a chance?

Would it be worth risking this timeline?

Danny wanted to be selfish. After all he had come to do and come to represent, he had put aside his own needs and wants a long time ago. He put his head down and focused on helping the world around him. Sometimes in moments of weakness like now, he so desperately craved to be the one receiving help.

“I’m scared, Jazz.” He admitted.

“Of what?”

“Failing. So much depends on me…” The words fell from his mouth as if purging bile. He tried to swallow the lump in his throat. Jazz had told him, once, that she figured out his identity pretty early on after seeing him transform. She just didn’t discuss it until necessary in order to give him the space to trust her with it. “Do you know the ghost boy?”

The light turned green, and Jazz glanced away, brow furrowed. “The one mom and dad are obsessed with catching?”

“That’s me.”

The car jerked, as her foot stepped on the break too hard to pull over to the side of the road, another car honking at them.

“What?” Her eyes searched Danny’s face for any hint that this was a lie or a joke. “Really?”

He nodded, feeling small and fragile in that moment.

“Are you–did you die?” Jazz barely managed to choke out.

He tipped his head to the side and shrugged half-heartedly. “I’m something in between a ghost and human. I’m both alive and dead. Schrödinger's cat.”

“How do you know what Schrödinger's cat–no, that’s not important right now–how?”

“The portal.” He replied simply.

Jazz leaned back in her seat, head hitting the cushion as she exhaled, long and low. Her face was oddly serene, as she processed the information. “Okay.” She said after stewing in the silence for a minute.

“Okay?” He questioned.

“Okay. That’s… not what I was expecting, but at least now I know why you’re–you’re spiraling.”

“I’m not spiraling.” He said, tone defensive.

She fixed him with a stern look. A Danny that was actually 14 might have shrunk away, but he met her gaze evenly. Blinking, she glanced away to break eye contact.

“What do you need from me?” She asked eventually and pulled back onto the road to continue the drive home to Fenton Works.

“Don’t tell anyone. It’s dangerous.”

She sighed. “What about your safety?”

“I can lift a bus. I’ll be fine.” He told her dryly.

Jazz wasn’t satisfied with that, but seemed to not want to push further. Danny didn’t know whether it was because she needed time to process, or she wanted to give him space. Silence stretched between them for the rest of the drive through the suburbs to their house. It wasn’t until she pulled her car in front of the garage that she spoke again. “You’ve changed. I’m proud you’re using your powers to help people.”

“You’ve changed.”

The next day, Danny told Jazz that he’d walk home, citing that he was going to see Spectra after school. It wasn’t a lie, but he still felt guilty at the pleased way that Jazz’s eyes crinkled, believing him to be taking steps to better himself.

He walked down the hallway towards Spectra’s office, footsteps too light to make a sound. A chill hung in the air and clung to his skin, raising goosebumps all up and down his arms. A good thing he liked the cold–they didn’t call him The Ice King for nothing.

Her office door was closed, but there was the sound of sneering chatter between Spectra and Bertrand inside. He placed a hand on the doorknob and pulled it open. The door clicked shut after he stepped in, and his eyes found the two ghosts. Spectra was sitting on her desk, one leg crossed over the other and Bertrand stood, leaning against a wall.

“Spectra. Bertrand.” He greeted, tipping his chin up defiantly, and tugged at his core to let the transformation rings travel over his body.

“Oh look, the little freak boy came crawling back.” Bertrand said with a pointed laugh.

The insult didn’t bother Danny. He had been a halfa for a decade and had settled into his uniqueness comfortably. They’d have to try harder than that to get under his skin. “I didn’t come to play nice and talk.”

Spectra narrowed her eyes. “Then why are you–”

He interrupted her with an ectoblast to the face, powered up with enough force to send her flying backwards and hit the wall. Had she been human, bones would have broken on that sort of impact.

Bertrand reacted without any hesitation, his human disguise melting away and his ectoplasm reforming into the shape of a panther. He pounced at Danny, claws outstretched, but Danny dodged by spinning away. Pushing himself into the air, he extended his arms and focused, praying to the Zone that his powers would cooperate against all odds. A green glow enveloped the desk, and Danny lifted it with his telekinesis to fling at where Spectra was recovering from being thrown back.

Spectra didn’t notice the threat fast enough to turn intangible, and was pinned to the ground. With a growl of frustration, a pulse of energy radiated out from her and the desk was blown apart into pieces. Bertrand tried again to make a grab for Danny. He sank through the floor this time, popping back up in the hallway. A quick glance around told him it was empty. Good.

The office door exploded open with a blast, bits of wood showering the hallway. Spectra was behind with an arm raised, hand glowing with the residue of energy. “You freak of nature brat.” She hissed, eyes burning red with hatred.

“Oh, shut up.” Rolling his eyes, Danny sprung over Bertrand and aimed a blast of thick, sticky ectoplasm at Spectra’s face. It hit her mouth, effectively gagging her, and she furiously tugged at the glob of ectoplasm. Landing and sliding along the tile floor, he redirected his attention to Bertrand. The shapeshifting ghost was growling at him, claws flexing and digging up tile. “Here kitty, kitty.”

Bertrand leaped forward, but Danny broadened his stance and leaned lower to the ground rather than dodge. He conjured up a glassy green shield of ectoplasm for Bertrand to crash into. On the moment of contact, he poured energy into the shield until it was spitting and hissing. Touching it would give anyone–ghost or human–a nasty burn, and Bertrand got a face full of it.

Howling in rage, Bertrand shifted out of the panther form and into that of an amorphous blob. The ectoplasm on his face looked almost as if covered in angry boils. Spectra abandoned her pursuit of removing her gag at the scream and took on her true form, shadows barely contained into the vague shape of a female body.

Danny wet his lips in anticipation, as both of his foes circled around him. With one hand, he pulled the Fenton Thermos off his belt. Both ghosts sprung at him with that movement, their attacks coordinated and fluid. He put up a shield on Bertrand’s side and flung an ectoblast at Spectra. Bertrand slid to a stop before impacting the shield, cautious of a repeat, and Spectra dodged to avoid the charged blast.

The Thermos ran on converted ectoplasmic energy and usually could only store ghosts in a weakened state. In his junior year of high school, Danny had made the belated realization that by pumping it full of energy, he could capture higher powered ghosts. Placing one hand on one end of the thermos and removing the cap with the other, he shot an energy blast into the Fenton Thermos. It now had green lightning crackling along the sides .

Danny turned the Thermos on Spectra, pressing the button and capturing her in the beam of light. She screamed and tried to claw her way out from the pull, but was helpless to resist. Flicking his gaze to Bertrand, Danny said in a slow voice, “If you come nicely, I’ll dump you both in the same section of the Ghost Zone.”

“And if not?” Bertrand asked warily.

“I wonder what Walker would do with Spectra…” He let the threat hang.

Bertrand sighed and held his arms up in surrender, not bothering to move out of the way when Danny pointed the Thermos at him. He snapped the cap back onto the device and, after a look to make sure he was alone, transformed back into his human form.

“That could have gone worse.” He whispered to himself, but the reassurance felt hollow.

Danny could only think about the pit of misery he had found himself in.

“Now, I don’t know who you are.

I just know you’re not my little brother anymore.“

Chapter Text

Jazz being in on the Phantom secret wasn’t as bad as Danny had imagined. She was doing her best to understand him and give him space, even if she did still have that overbearing and annoying older sister attitude at times. Separating this timeline’s Jazz from the Jazz he had come to know in his original timeline was difficult, to say the least.

Sometimes he’d be speaking with her and pause, searching her teal eyes for any hint of malice or disappointment.

It was never there, though.

He’d see a variety of emotions, chief amongst them being concern and a soft, delicate sort of care. Not once had any hint of disappointment even flickered across her expression. It gave Danny a little jolt of hope every time he realized that. Maybe he truly could salvage not only this timeline but the lives and relationships of those he cared for.

Trusting Jazz was difficult, but in the way stretching was difficult the day after an intense workout. It hurt, yes, but it eased the aches and pains. The little bits of trust Danny was allowing himself made it easier to get out of bed in the morning.

He coasted on the budding pleasantries for a week before he was slammed back into the reality of his situation. On his way to meeting Jazz in the parking lot after school, his ghost sense clawed out of his throat to alert him to the potential of a nearby threat. His familiarity with the signatures of his usual rogues’ gallery meant that he identified the triggering ghost as Cujo in an instance.

His heart dropped into his stomach.

Valerie.

Shooting off a quick text to Jazz to go home without him, he scanned the parking lot for the little, green dog. Jazz always lingered on school grounds up to an hour after the final bell, which meant that the parking lot was more or less empty of other students. Off to the side, he spotted him–Cujo was digging furiously through the pavement by a beat-up, old sedan.

Danny approached as one might approach a living stray, movements slow and gaze lowered. He didn’t want to scare off Cujo or startle him into his larger form. The ghost dog didn’t notice at first, too preoccupied with tearing a hole through the tarmac. Then, Cujo paused and cocked his head to the side, sniffing the air. He spun around to look at Danny, crouching low to the ground and growling.

In moments, the small puppy had grown to the size of a car.

“Ah, come on.” Danny grumbled under his breath, searching for any onlookers for a brief moment before focusing his attention on Cujo. “Calm down, boy. Heel!”

The dog kept growling, though, all but shaking with anticipation.

Danny took a slow step forward.

Cujo pounced, and Danny stumbled back with a yelp. The massive ghost sunk didn’t impact onto the street but rather sunk through it intangibly and was gone.

“Fuck.” Danny grumbled, rubbing at the back of his neck in frustration. Cujo was poorly trained before he died and instinct driven as a ghost, following only his whims to find his chew toy in Axion Labs. He remembered where he had found the toy the first time around, but hesitated.

Was dealing with Cujo quickly before any damage came to Axion the right thing to do?

His gut said yes, but something in the back of his head was screaming at him.

Valerie’s life was changed drastically by Cujo’s rampage in Axion Labs, but it was what led her down the path to become the Red Huntress in the first place. Her hatred of Phantom and all things ghost started with Cujo. What would it mean for Danny to step in and deal with the problem early? Would Valerie ever become the Red Huntress? Her life as the Red Huntress taught her a lot and shaped her into the woman that Danny had known and come to love. Plus, she was an important component in Vlad’s plans prior to and during the invasion of Pariah Dark.

Perhaps it would be best if Valerie was allowed to continue down this path that led her to being the Red Huntress–or was that selfish? Was Danny trying to replicate the conditions that forged someone he loved? Was Valerie’s pain in the wake of her dad losing his job worth the health of the timeline.

He wasn’t sure.

Danny’s phone buzzed.

Jazz: Sure you don’t want a ride?

He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and set back ‘sure’. Shoving his phone back in his pocket, he worked his way through the parking lot to where Jazz usually parked her car. His mind mulled over the situation with Cujo and Valerie. Everything in his gut said to leave it alone and let Cujo find his toy at Axion on his own. Valerie would blame Cujo for her dad’s job loss with the added bonus of not associating Phantom with Cujo at all.

Valerie’s dad was a nice guy–kind and warm whenever they had interacted. So, stomaching the guilt of letting his and Valerie’s lives turn upside down wasn’t easy.

Being stuck in this timeline trying to fix things meant making hard decisions.

“Danny!” Jazz called out, giving a wave and jogging over to where he leaned against the car.

He did his best to school his expression into something neutral so as to not worry Jazz with his dilemma. Danny would have to let Cujo run amok for now. No matter how much the guilt made his head feel fuzzy, he’d have to go through with it.

It was, from Danny’s perspective, the best way to nudge the timeline in the right direction.

Danny floated into Clockwork’s tower and headed directly to their viewing room. The ordeal with Valerie and Cujo was heavy on his heart, and he needed any indication that he had done the right thing. Clockwork could be vague and cryptic, but they were not heartless by any stretch of the world. Surely the time ghost would provide some sort of hint to calm his nerves?

Clockwork was waiting, body turned towards the entrance of the viewing room and hood pulled firmly over their head.

Danny didn’t waste any time with pleasantries. “Did I do the right thing?” He asked, eyes searching Clockwork’s shadowed face.

Their expression remained neutral as they responded, “Only time will tell.”

“What did you do?” A voice called out from the doorway. It was the other Danny, standing with his hands shoved in his hoodie pocket and eyeing them cautiously.

“Nothing.” He responded, a bit too quickly.

The other Danny narrowed his eyes, voice icy, “Yeah, super don’t believe that, mister ‘stole my life’.”

“I did nothing.” Danny repeated, eyes drifting from the other Danny’s face and back towards Clockwork for any indication of approval or disappointment. “I stood by and did nothing while something bad happened to someone.”

Other Danny crossed his arms over his chest. “Okay, you can’t just say that and not give details.”

“Valerie, she…” The guilt twisted in his gut. He took a deep breath and continued the admission, “I knew that a ghost would cause her dad to lose his job. I knew that it’d financially ruin her family, destroy her social life, and send her down a path of ghost hunting.”

“And you did nothing?”

Danny nodded, shame mixing in with the guilt.

“Wow, that’s fucked, dude.” The other Danny stated flatly. “And I thought Clocky here was a cold bitch.”

Clockwork raised an eyebrow at that, but didn’t interrupt. They turned away from both boys to examine something in one of the viewing portals. Thanks for nothing, Danny spitefully thought, even if he knew that it was the time ghost’s nature to be passive in certain regards.

The other Danny continued, “So you’re, what, trying to recreate the people you knew in your timeline instead of doing the right thing?”

Wincing, he defended, “No! And doing ‘the right thing’ isn’t so simple, Danny. That’s something I–we–learned. Nothing is easily divisible into right and wrong, black and white. It’s all just muddled, messy shades of gray that look different depending on who’s doing the looking.”

“I dunno, this one seems pretty simple to me.” The other boy shook his head, a look of clear disgust across his features. “I’m not Valerie’s biggest fan but letting her life get turned upside down like that? Ice cold.”

Shame and guilt in equal parts coiled and writhed inside of him. Was the other Danny right? Had he messed up and done the wrong thing for the wrong reasons? He screwed his eyes shut, fists clenched at his sides. In order to best utilize the knowledge he had from his timeline, he had to maintain a balancing act of making meaningful changes without ending up in a situation where things were so different he’d be blind to the possibilities. Valerie becoming the Red Huntress was right–it had to be. Her hardship would make her stronger and help her grow into the strong, fierce, and protective women that Danny knew she could be.

But, he knew deep in his core that this timeline–these people–they were no replacement for his allies and friends. Trying to nudge them along the path of becoming like their counterparts would be pointless, because they were fundamentally different people even if they shared the same role, the same name, the same face.

A flicker of resolve returned to Danny, intertwining with wisps of indignant frustration. Opening his eyes, he fixed his gaze on his counterpart. “I’m aware that every day I live this stolen life that the people in this timeline are not mine. They’re not the same as my loved ones and they never will be. I’m not trying to recreate the people I knew–I’m trying to save tens of thousands of existences from being snuffed out in a terrible war. Life is messy and complicated and imperfect and people get hurt. Sometimes pain can open doors to the most beautiful possibilities–ones of solidarity and growth and love. I’m not happy to watch Valerie suffer, but being coddled at every step won’t get anyone anywhere.”

Danny’s voice had risen in intensity with each word, each breath. The passion that came flowing from him was surprising not only to the other Danny but to himself as well. Everything had felt so dim and muddled with the pain and depression, that this surge of conviction was like breathing fresh air after life underground. His core loosened, stretching out like a content cat with the sense of purpose.

The other Danny looked down at his feet, kicking at the floor. “I… I didn’t think of it that way.” He scowled. “I still think that it’s kinda fucked up, but what do I know? And it’s not like I can do anything stuck here.”

A pang of empathy plucked at Danny’s heartstrings. Being spirited away from his life and sequestered in the Ghost Zone must be difficult for him. It must be a lonely day-to-day existence. Danny’s expression softened, and he exhaled softly. “It’s almost Halloween.”

“And?”

Danny extended a hand out to the other teen. “No one will think twice if you wear a costume mask and pretend we’re cousins. Get out of this dingy, dark tower for a bit.”

Other Danny blinked, surprised at the offer, before his lips turned upwards into a small smile. “Yeah. Yeah, I’d like that.”

“You might need something else to call you by.” Danny said, considering that he didn’t want to just keep calling the teen ‘other Danny’ in his head.

The boy’s brow furrowed in thought, as he considered. I’ll go by, like, Memento I guess. Like Memento Mori.”

Danny barely contained a laugh in his surprise. “How do you know what Memento Mori is?”

“I’m 14, not stupid.” The other Danny–Memento–responded with a scowl.

“I didn’t say you were,” Danny said with a ghost of a smile across his lips. A flicker of fondness towards the prickly, self-righteous boy was beginning to blossom in his chest. He wanted nothing more than to protect his younger self the best he could given the odd circumstances.

Memento scoffed and turned away, calling out that he’d be returning to his room and disappearing. Danny watched his form retreat into out of Clockwork’s viewing room, then looked back over to the time ghost. Clockwork was still examining one of the viewing portals, but the scene was unfamiliar to Danny.

He was about to state his leave as well when Clockwork tapped their staff to the ground with a resonant thud. A small burst of energy radiated from the movement, sending shivers up Danny’s spine. Clockwork then spoke, voice low and harmonic as usual without any inflection of emotion, “You do still have the Infi-Map.”

Danny paused, blinking. “Huh?”

“The Infi-Map–it’s power cannot be understated, but it’s an artifact to exercise great caution with.” Clockwork continued, not bothering to look behind them at Danny.

Was this a test of his resolve? Or an indication that he had made a mistake already and should start over?

The small bits of conviction he had grabbed onto during the course of his conversation with Memento were slowly slipping out of reach. Clockwork was a cryptic sort whose mind worked in mysterious ways due to their ability to see through timelines, but they never said anything without reason.

“Is that you telling me to use it? Or to forget about it?” Danny ventured to ask.

Clockwork merely hummed.

Danny turned away, uncertainty buzzing in the tips of his fingers. He didn’t bother asking anything else of the time ghost. There were no answers to be had in the tower today.

No, this was Clockwork’s way of reminding Danny that only he could make his own decisions.

The fate of the timeline remained firmly within his hands.

Chapter Text

Halloween was the worst.

What had once been Danny’s favorite holiday turned into a chore. As the barrier between the Ghost Zone and Human Realm thinned, more and more natural portals would pop up in Amity Park’s ectoplasm-rich atmosphere. He didn’t remember Halloween being this bad when he had first gotten his powers in the other timeline. Or maybe, he just had a greater sense of responsibility over every single blob and wisp that passed their way into the Human World. Most of them weren’t here to cause problems–they were either curious or hadn’t even realized they passed through a natural portal.

What was important, though, was getting them safely to the Ghost Zone before any ghost hunters found them. The blobs and wisps and other ghosts low on the power scale were easy targets for any ghost hunter with a blaster and containment device. His parents often would capture them to test the properties of ectoplasm, but Danny knew that they had accidentally siphoned off too much ectoplasm from these weak ghosts more than once. Their cores weren’t entirely solidified, so their ability to recover from damage was greatly reduced. They might not be entirely sentient creatures, but Danny cared deeply for all inhabitants of the Ghost Zone.

That all meant that Danny was running himself ragged collecting blobs and wisps for their own protection. Their energy signatures were so minimal that he didn’t have to fight them, thankfully, and an unpowered Thermos blast sucked them up in no time. He was really testing the limits of the Thermos’ energy containment, loath to make too many trips down to his parents’ lab for fear of being caught messing with the portal.

Blob related stress aside, Danny was trying his best to relax and enjoy the holiday. Not just as a human but as a ghost. During his years as King, he had come to appreciate how much fun the denizens of the Ghost Zone had with holidays. It broke up the monotony of eternal life in an ever expansive green landscape. Different parts of the Ghost Zone latched on to different holidays, but it was almost unanimously agreed that Halloween and Yule were the best.

Danny was lucky that this year his parents had accidentally tainted the Halloween candy meant for trick-or-treaters with ectoplasm. He had gathered it up with the excuse of getting rid of it, then secretly shoved it all in one of his backpack pockets with plans to give some away to any sapient ghosts he came across.

His last period let him out early, so he made his way back to his locker with Poindexter’s mirror to share the ectoplasm-tainted candy with the ghost. They had become relatively good friends–Poindexter was smart as a whip and surprisingly funny, too. Above all he was incredibly attentive and kind, especially considering he saw Danny as his first real friend. He checked around the hallway for any other students, then called out softly for Poindexter. A few moments passed before the ghost materialized with a goofy grin on his face.

“Ready for a Spooktacular day, Phantom?” Poindexter crowed, adjusting his glasses and beaming.

Danny gave a small smile in return. “Of course. I brought you something to celebrate.” He said, then dug through his backpack to grab a handful of the candies.

Poindexter’s eyes sparkled, as he tentatively took them from Danny’s hands. “Woah, you’re just the bee’s knees!” After examining the variety of candy he had been handed, he pocketed all but one. Unwrapping it, he popped the hard candy in his mouth.

“Just wanted to stop by and bring you that.” Danny said, zipping up his backpack and slinging it back over a shoulder. “I gotta get going, though. Need to grab someone from the Zone that I promised I’d bring to Amity.”

“Well, burn some rubber and get out there.” Poindexter laughed and faded back out, the sound echoing down the hallways.

Group Text: Sam, Tucker, You

You: we still on for haunted house hopping tonite?

Tucker: yeye

Sam: When will your cousin be in?

You: meetin w him right after school should b able to drop by ur place at 5ish

Tucker: i need help with my costume, so i’ll be there at 4

Tucker: you better have hella candy at your mansion so we can pregame

Danny scoffed fondly, then slid his phone back into his pocket. He didn’t bother with getting a ride home from Jazz, since she had whatever after school obligations before she left. Instead, he slipped into the closest bathroom to transform and fly back to Fenton Works.

The trip into the Ghost Zone to Clockwork’s tower was becoming a familiar route. He could feel the humming of the Zone around him, small bursts of joy occasionally as the realm itself couldn’t contain the excitement of its denizens for the holiday.

Memento was waiting for Danny when he landed on the tower’s island. He was already in a costume that Danny vaguely wondered where it came from. The other teen had chosen to dress up as an astronaut, complete with a dome helmet that he had cradled in his arms. Danny couldn’t tell if the costume was because of their mutual love of space or was a reference to that weird game that teens liked to meme about. Realms, that line of thought made Danny feel old.

“I see you’re ready to go.” Danny mused, hands on his hips.

Memento rolled his eyes. “A chance to get out of the literal hell dimension? Yeah, I’m not wasting a second.” Placing the helmet on his head, he added, “C’mon, let’s go.”

Amused, Danny’s lips twitched into a smile. “Not going to let me say hi to Clockwork?”

“They probably already saw a timeline in which you wasted my time and said hi, so that’s good enough.”

Danny chuckled. He didn’t want to bother arguing with a stubborn 14-year-old on the matter, so he pressed against the Ghost Zone and mentally implored it to pass along his greetings to the time ghost. The prickle along the back of his neck confirmed its agreement to do so. Danny stepped forward and, without warning, scooped Memento into his arms to carry the boy.

Memento yelped and smacked at Danny’s shoulder, indignation flaring, “Do you have to bridal carry me? Really?”

“Your options are that, piggy back ride, or you learn how to fly.” Danny said, amusement dripping into the tone.

“I hate you.” Memento grumbled in a way that reminded Danny of the grumpy anime girls that Tucker tended to like.

“Sure you do.”

After arriving back at Fenton Works, Danny made short work of changing into his costume. Memento eyed him when he emerged from the bathroom. It wasn’t until they had begun to walk to Sam’s house that he ventured to ask, “What are you supposed to be?”

“Prince Hamlet.” Danny said, adjusting the plastic crown on his head a bit. Memento made a face, so Danny continued to add, “Tragic hero from a Shakespeare play.”

“I know who Hamlet is, jeez.” Memento crossed his arms over his chest “It’s just not a very clear costume. You look like any old timey dude.”

“We can’t all dress up as suspicious astronauts.”

“Did you–” Memento narrowed his eyes. “Do you know what Among Us is?”

Danny gave him a hard look. “Just because I grew up, does not mean I wasn’t in middle school when the game blew up.”

“Yeah, but, like, you have such old person vibes.” Memento said.

“25 is not old.” He scoffed.

“Practically ancient.” Memento paused and Danny could sense the shit-eating grin underneath the astronaut helmet. “Could say you’re one foot in the grave.”

He groaned and rolled his eyes. “I cannot believe I used to say shit like that. How embarrassing.”

“Says the weirdo dressed as a character from Shakespeare. Aren’t you an actual King? What’s the point of, like, LARPing as one?”

Danny would snipe back, but the two had reached Sam’s house and were climbing up the steps of her porch. With a quick, “Behave.” shot off to warn Memento, Danny pressed the doorbell. Within seconds, the door was flung open to reveal Sam in a shockingly high quality Poison Ivy costume–red wig and everything. He didn’t know enough about the comics to judge which version of the villain Sam was dressed as, but her lips were painted a neon green as opposed to the usual black or plum purple.

“Danny! You look ridiculous.” She said, an amused grin plastered across her face that told Danny the teasing was in good fun.

Memento barked out a laugh from behind the helmet. “That’s what I said.”

“Oh, and the mysterious cousin, too. Come in, guys, Tuck and I are set up in the movie theater before we leave for the first house.”

Sam let them in, and, thankfully, her parents were nowhere to be seen on their way to the movie theater. Flinging open the double doors, she loudly announced to Tucker that they had arrived. Tucker was in the middle of shoving M&Ms into his face, jerking in surprise and dropping them. He was wrapped in layers of toilet paper to mimic some sort of mummy. Danny wondered how long that costume would last through the night.

“Classy, Tuck.” Danny said with a smile.

“So, Danny, who’s this cousin of yours?” Sam asked curiously, leaning in to examine Memento’s astronaut costume.

“Call me Memento, I guess.” He responded with a shrug.

Sam’s nose crinkled slightly. “Memento? That’s–”

“Weird? I know.”

“Why?” Tucker asked while picking up his dropped M&Ms.

“Well my first name is also Danny, but I’m younger than that Danny, so I got saddled with the nickname to distinguish us.” Memento then shrugged. “Family name, ya know?”

Tucker and Sam took that in stride with shrugs before Sam got distracted by grimacing at Tucker popping the floor M&Ms into his mouth. “Ugh, gross, Tucker. Gross” She grumbled.

“Well,” Danny cleared his throat to say, “We ready to subject ourselves to the terrors of cheap costumes, fog machines, and flashing lights?”

“Don’t forget the gallons of fake blood.” Memento added.

Sam smirked devilishly. “We could never forget the gallons of fake blood.”

“What about floor M&Ms?” Tucker asked, not looking up from his intense concentration trying to find all of the scattered candy.

Danny shook his head. “The world is never ready for floor M&Ms.”

The night went well, all things considered. Danny only had to sneak off twice to corral wandering blobs with the excuse of going to the restroom. They were on their fourth haunted house when Danny’s ghost sense went off with a full body shiver. His head snapped up and over to the direction he felt the tug, his jovial mood instantly hardening with caution. Pursing his lips, he tried to parse through the particular ectosignature that triggered his ghost sense. It was cold in the way a pitch black cave was cold.

It took a few moments of consideration before Danny realized–this was the Fright Knight’s signature.

He was so used to the Fright Knight’s ghostly aura registering as an ally and protector to his, that it had been unusual to feel the malice along with it. Fright Knight was a dangerous and formidable foe to those not on his side, and Danny could sense with complete certainty that the ghost was here to cause harm.

Tucker elbowed him, “What’s up dude? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Sam groaned. “Really?”

“Hey, it’s a figure of speech. Not my fault the city’s haunted now.” He shrugged in response.

Danny gave a strained smile to try to reassure his friends. “I think all the fog and flashing lights are giving me a headache. I’m going to step outside, but you three can continue.”

Tucker and Sam seemed ready to argue that they could take a break too, but Memento caught on and grabbed both of them by the elbow. “You heard the man! Spookiness awaits.”

They let themself be dragged into the next room of the haunted house to get in line, and Danny turned away with a sigh. He hated lying to his friends, but that was how things needed to be until he could prove to himself that he could keep them safe.

Maybe after Pariah Dark…

Shaking the train of thought from his head, Danny made his way back to the dark city streets and stepped into an alleyway to transform. Finding Fright Knight would be an easy enough task with how much malice the other ghost was exuding. It was a clear incursion on Danny’s haunt.

As Danny floated over the streets, a few citizens pointed and waved at him with no small amount of awe. Distracted, he didn’t react beyond a nod of the head in their direction. What could Fright Knight want? How had he even been freed so early? In his timeline, the knight had been freed on this Halloween because of Danny’s own actions.

When he reached what felt like the densest concentration of Fright Knight’s aura, he cast a glance around in search of the ghost. Danny couldn’t see him from a cursory search, so he floated down to the street and landed softly. A particularly excited kid moved to drag their mother towards him, but Danny gave a small shake of his head.

“It’s not safe.” He called out, voice soft as to not cause any fright but firm enough to leave no room for argument.

That caused the mother to scoop her child up in her arms and hurry away without another word. Good. He didn’t need civilians getting in the way.

The sense of malice pressed against Danny’s core harder.

Clank.

A gauntlet had been tossed at his feet. Ah, Danny thought, a challenge to a duel. He knelt down and picked it up. Fingers closing around the cold metal, the threat that was Fright Knight began to coalesce near him. Wisps of shadow and ectoplasm swirled together to form the ghost. He stood, poised and ready with a hand at the scabbard on his hip. Fright Knight made a gesture and the gauntlet in Danny’s hand vanished.

He fixed the knight with a confident stare. “You’ll have to provide me with a weapon, should you want a traditional fight.” Danny stated evenly.

Fright Knight’s helmeted head tipped to the side, but he said nothing. Holding out one hand, a ball of ectoplasm formed and stretched into the shape of a longsword. Bits of shadow twirled around it, melting into the ectoplasm and solidifying it. It was then unceremoniously dropped on the floor and kicked in his direction.

Danny kicked the sword up into his hand, testing the heft and balance before nodding. “Very well.” Danny said, taking his own ready position.

Fright Knight lunged forward, bringing his own sword to bear down onto Danny’s. The impact reverberated through his sword and down into his arm. Testing his strength, Danny supposed.

Danny flicked his wrist, forcing Fright Knight’s blade to slide off of his own and backstepped. Strategies flickered through his head, debating how best to approach this duel. Fright Knight was deadly with a sword if he so chose to be. The best swordsman in the Realms–an opponent that Danny could never consistently defeat in spars. And in this body, weakened and not yet accustom to its ghostly half, Danny wasn’t certain he could squeak out a win.

Standard Ghost Zone duels allowed for the use of powers defensively, but Danny’s stamina in ghost form was still building. This body had only been half-ghost for less than three months, after all. He’d have to play smart, only use his powers when needed and hope he didn’t get worn down. Fright Knight could play aggressively and overconfidently against opponents he didn’t respect or see as a threat. He’d be less cautious than he might have fighting Danny during a spar in the other timeline, so it was likely that Fright Knight would leave an opening he didn’t think Danny could press.

The two danced and spun around each other, blades meeting time and time again. Danny ducked and weaved through the combat, using his lithe form to his advantage against the bulkier, slower ghost. Their swords were but extensions of their bodies, their auras sparking against each other.

“The Infinite Realms laid claim to you.” The Fright Knight said in between rings of metal against metal.

That didn’t surprise Danny in the way Fright Knight must have wanted it to. He knew that the Zone remembered him in its own way based on how it welcomed him after the portal accident in this timeline. It wasn’t as close as it had been when he was King, but it was a constant companion in his day-to-day. “Jealous?” Danny asked, the smirk bleeding into his voice.

“Nay, only curious.” Fright Knight’s disimpassioned tone responded.

Their bout was gathering a crowd, Danny realized with a frown. He’d have to end this before anyone got in the way.

Fright Knight noticed his drifting gaze and took it to mean that Danny was distracted. He wound up and swung with all his might to pierce through Danny’s abdomen. The halfa noticed and knew he could be quick enough to parry. All he had to do was twist to the side and–

“HELP!”

His core clenched, attention immediately leaving the fight to search out the person in need.

Danny’s gaze met the unmasked grin of Memento, a mischievous spark in his eyes.

The sword plunged into him.

“Oh.” Danny squeaked out in a small voice.

“Pathetic.” The Fright Knight growled, pulling the sword from Danny’s gut. Blearily, Danny knew that Fright Knight’s sword was called the Soul Shredder and that it had the power to trap victims in nightmare loops. He scrambled to hold onto this fact as to not get stuck in the nightmare, but–

But.

The scent of disinfectant intermingled with the stench of ectoplasm.

Acrid and unpleasant, it caught in his nose and throat.

Frantically, he looked around his surroundings. Tile floors, metal walls. Ghost portal on the wall. Fenton Works. And he was lying down, strapped to a table. Danny jerked against the restraints, fear quickly taking root in his mind.

The mantra of not real, not real, notrealnotrealnotreal did nothing to soothe the building panic.

He wanted to beg for any nightmare but this. He couldn’t weather most any storm, just not this. Not this neverending nightmare.

Not this memory.

He screwed his eyes shut, pleading words bubbling over from his lips on repeat. No matter what, he would keep his resolve to not look. Not even when there was the press of a cold, metal blade to his sternum, and–

“Danny!”

His eyes snapped open to see a figure hovering over him. Immediately, he registered the danger and acted. He surged forward and grabbed at the threat, flipping their positions so that they were pinned underneath Danny’s slight form. Pressing his forearm down on the assailant's neck, he snarled to bare his teeth in threat.

Then, he blinked.

Underneath him, wide eyed and sweaty with fear, was not someone trying to hurt him–it was simply Tucker.

Danny swore under his breath and jerked back. Tucker was very still for a moment before pushing himself up to a sitting position. Both teens sat on the street, staring at one another wordlessly.

Sam, standing a few paces away with Memento, was the one to break the silence. “What did that ghost do to you? Are you okay?”

Tucker looked at him, still, with that wide-eyed expression. His mouth was slightly open, the fear and worry and confusion written clearly on his face for Danny to see. The guilt and regret churned in Danny’s gut. He had thought Tucker a threat.

He was ready to hurt Tucker.

Danny stood.

And fled.

After searching for Fright Knight unsuccessfully, Danny found himself wandering one of Amity Park’s graveyards. He figured that the other ghost had gotten what he’d come to Amity for by winning against Danny in the duel and was content to leave the city alone for the time being. The outcome of the duel and the subsequent brief foray into his own nightmare realm were heavy on his mind.

What laid heavier than that, however, was coming close to hurting Tucker.

He stopped along the rows of tombstones, looking at a blank spot where he had, in his timeline, buried Tucker.

“You’re still my best friend, Danny.”

The memory brought a twinge of pain to his heart, and he dropped to his knees in front of where he remembered Tucker’s grave being. Even after his friend’s death–his execution–Danny would make trips to this part of Liminal Amity to bring him flowers and other trinkets that he thought his friend would appreciate.

“I understand. This is what you know to be best for your people, right?”

The tears stung at the corner of his eyes and Danny removed his gloves to press his bare hands onto the ground. His fingers curled, pulling up clumps of cold, wet dirt. In the other timeline, Danny had buried Tucker himself in secret, unbeknownst to the ghosts that might begrudge him for his attachment.

“And I don’t think I’ll come back as a ghost or anything, but I’ll be waiting for you if there’s an ‘other side’ with golden gates or whatever.”

Danny couldn’t stop the thick tears from rolling down his cheek, silent streams carving tracks into his cheeks. “‘M sorry, Tucker. ‘M so, so sorry.” He whispered to the nothingness in front of him. “I won’t do it again. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t.”

The only response was the wind.

Chapter Text

Following Halloween, Danny withdrew into himself for a time. He didn’t have a good explanation of what had happened for Sam and Tucker beyond getting caught in the middle of a ghost fight, but even that had clued them into the fact that Danny was hiding things from them. His friends had, to Danny’s dismay, become much more attentive following the incident. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep Phantom a secret, but he hoped he could at least get through Pariah Dark’s inevitable invasion with his identity intact. Then and only then would Danny feel confident in his ability to protect them.

Midway through November, he realized he had gotten through most of the month without the mess of Vlad putting a million dollar bounty on Phantom's head. No bounty meant the Guys in White had not yet zeroed in on Amity Park and Phantom as points of interest. The change made Danny’s core swell with joy and relief at the idea that maybe, just maybe he could fix things. Coupled with his growing control over his powers, that good mood carried him through the rest of the month on a giddy sort of high, intoxicated by a confidence Danny rarely let himself indulge in.

That overconfidence led him to sneaking into Circus Gothica as soon as it rolled into town, stealing Freakshow’s staff and tipping the police off as to the buckets of stolen goods the bastard had. The staff was a dangerous artifact made by humans long before written history with a storied past of being lost and rediscovered in the human world to commit great harm against ghosts. It was best kept under lock and key, so Danny popped into the Ghost Zone to leave it with Clockwork.

And if, emboldened by his string of successes, Danny swiped a half-full bottle of rum from his parents’ liquor cabinet, then who was there to scold him? He had grown accustomed to the comfort found at the bottom of a bottle partway through the war on nights the keep was particularly cold and empty and the next day would only prove to be pointless drudgery. A habit that time travel wasn’t quite able to break, it seemed.

It was an afternoon after school like any other. Danny had decided to walk home rather than wait for Jazz or fly, taking the time to savor the sights of Amity Park and drink in the comfort that his haunt provided him. He was turning the Red Huntress over in his mind, mulling over her subsequent appearance after Cujo’s rampage from Axion. She had been curtly polite with Phantom, holding no real grudge against him but no true love for ghosts. They were in a tense truce as co-workers, so to say.

Walking through the front door of Fenton Works, Danny was immediately aware of the sound of voices coming from the living room. More specifically, the sound of Vlad’s voice coming from the living room, interspersed with his father’s jovial tone and his mother’s thinly veiled annoyance. The situation prodded at his memories, reminding him that Vlad had similarly dropped in for a visit prior to Amity Park being invaded by Pariah Dark. His entire being tensed at that train of thought.

Whether or not Danny was ready, he’d have to face off against Pariah Dark once again and emerge victorious.

He made his way into the living room to find Vlad and his father playing chess, and his mother off to the side with hands on her hips and scowl on her face. Vlad’s gaze flickered to Danny and his lips curled into a sly grin.

“Oh, Daniel, so good to see you again. I do hope you’ve been well.” He said, voice all but a purr of smug condescension.

Not letting himself be riled, he gave a half shrug and tossed his backpack on the couch. Feeling out with his core, Danny searched for the concentration of power that would indicate the Ring of Rage was in Vlad’s possession. Sure enough, he could feel the artifact’s aura intertwined tightly with that of Vlad’s aura. Keeping his expression neutral, Danny considered that many of the Ghost Zone’s denizens would be scrambling to escape soon, and he didn’t have Sam or Valerie with him to deflect his parents’ attention like before.

“Hey dad, whose turn is it to clean the lab?” He asked, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans to appear bored and unaffected.

Jack didn’t look up from the game of chess, a look of intense concentration as he moved a knight one too many squares. “Jazzyrincess cleaned it last week, so it’s your tu–”

“‘Kay, thanks, I’ll get to it. Bye!” Danny said in a rush, turning on his heel and hurrying downstairs into the lab while his mom tried to call out after him.

He made quick work of finding the portal’s command console and disabling the exodus detection protocol. That way, his parents upstairs wouldn’t be alerted to the mass influx of ghosts that would be coming through the portal anytime soon. The scanner was picking up signatures a few minutes’ flight out from the portal, which gave him enough time to transform and prepare himself.

Sure enough, after five minutes passed the Box Ghost popped his head through the portal with a ‘Beware!’.

“Hey there Boxxy.” Danny said from where he had leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. He kicked an empty cardboard box over.

The ghost’s attention snapped to the box, and he reached a hand out. Ectoplasm enveloped the box and it floated towards him until it was within arm’s reach. Cradling the box in his arms as one might a stuffed animal, the Box Ghost regarded Danny. “You finally give the Box Ghost an offering.”

“A token of friendship to show maybe we can work together.” Danny tipped his head to the side as he spoke, neon green gaze regarding the ghost with a keen stare.

Through the portal, came the forms of several other familiar ghosts. Chief amongst them was Skulker, who immediately flicked his wrist to reveal a long blade pulsing with electricity. “Whelp.” The hunter growled. “You will let us through.”

Danny put his arms up in a mock gesture of surrender. “I’m not here to stop you. I’m here to talk.”

Ember sidled up alongside Skulker, glaring at Danny. “Now you want to talk?”

Poindexter, riding on the back of a draconic Dora squeezed into the lab, spoke up, “Phantom isn’t a bully. If he’s fought you, it’s probably because you wouldn’t listen.”

“He has the right of it.” Danny said with an inclination of his head towards Poindexter in acknowledgement. “We don’t have to fight each other. There’s a bigger threat, isn’t there?”

“And how do you know that, you half-human freak?” Spectra hissed, the shadows of her form hissing and spitting with her anger.

Skulker didn’t back down from his threatening position. “A reasonable line of inquiry.”

“I’m not totally out of the loop with what goes on in the Zone.” Danny said vaguely. “I know that the Tyrant King Pariah Dark has been freed, and that none of you all nor the Ghost Zone is happy about it.” A murmur passed over the crowd of ghosts gathered, curiosity piqued at Danny invoking one of Pariah’s Zone-gifted titles. He smiled. “Have your attention, hm?”

“Hardly.” Skulker scoffed. “What would a child be able to do against the Dread Lord himself?”

“On my own? Not much.” Danny admitted. “Together, though, there’s much we can accomplish.”

Some of the ghosts hesitated, considering, but the fear in their auras was palpable. None of these ghosts wanted to throw themselves in harm’s way, instead content to flee their home dimension and take shelter in the human realm.

Sighing, Danny added, “It won’t be long before he comes to conquer Amity Park, too. This piece of the Human World is too rich in ectoplasm for him to ignore.”

Dora gave a whine, and Pondexter rubbed at her neck. He sighed, shaking his head, “Then we’ll have to find elsewhere.”

“Where? Amity is one of the few places left in the Human World that can sustain a ghost’s form indefinitely.”

The tension in the lab was palpable, a mixture of fear and apprehension heady in the air. These ghosts were frightened and slow to trust Danny, not believing that there was anything he could do to prevent the events to come. He understood that in a sad way, the empathy churning in his gut and threatening to dour his expression.

Lunch Lady was the first to break, placing a hand on the Box Ghost’s shoulder, and telling him, “We need to get out of here.”

The Box Ghost nodded, and the two fled the lab. One by one, the ghosts shook their heads and left to fend for themselves. Danny watched, not moving a muscle to stop them. He understood their stance. Their fear. They thought themselves helpless against the tides of time, unable to change their fate. But, Danny knew that extending a hand in offer now would implant the seeds he needed to nurture in the future.

Now, time to find the rat bastard that started this all.

Vlad proved elusive in the days to follow, and Danny would put money on that being intentional. At school, he had noticed the distinct aura of the Ring of Rage on Valerie. Typical of Vlad to pass off the dangerous artifact and place a target on a teenager’s back. He mulled over whether to approach Valerie or the Red Huntress and as Fenton or Phantom. The combination of ways that conversation could go was unnerving. Letting things play out as they had in the other timeline could be feasible, but Danny wanted to establish alliances early–with Valerie, the other ghosts, and even with Vlad. Afterall, he might have needed Vlad to trigger these events, but Danny knew all too well that keeping him as an enemy was dangerous.

In the end, it was his hesitation that had the decision made for him.

Pariah’s army broke through the Ghost Portal several days later during the school day while in class with Mr. Lancer. He felt the icy chill and gasped at the same moment that Valerie watch began beeping incessantly. They both shot their hands up, asking to be excused and neither waited for an answer.

Darting into the hallway, he called after Valerie. “Wait!”

She wavered, indecision clear in her stance, but stopped and looked at him with a tight expression. “C’mon Fenton, I got somewhere to be.”

He took a deep breath, then inquired, “Is that somewhere dealing with the massive ghost alert you just got?”

“How do you know th–I mean, what are you talking about?” Valerie corrected herself, flustered, face tinting red.

“We don’t have time, so I’ll be short–I know you’re the Red Huntress.” Danny said, voice clear and firm.

Her eyes widened. “Wh–How?” Then, she laughed nervously. “That’s absurd, of course. Why would I hunt ghosts?”

“I know because I hunt ghosts too.” Danny said, then glanced around the hallway for any observers. After assuring himself that it was clear of observers, he reached deep into his core and let the transformation take him.

Valerie stared, unblinking and speechless.

“I don’t know what Masters told you, but I know you have the Ring–it belongs to the current ghost king, and he’s looking for it. You’re in danger.”

That snapped her out of her stupor. “Danger?” She scoffed. “I can handle myself. Besides, Masters said it was passed down through generations of ghost hunters.”

“Yeah, well, Masters is a lying bastard, okay? He’s using you, because he thinks you’re too naive to ask questions.” Danny crossed his arms over his chest. “Do you want to be a pawn in his game? Or are you gonna take a second to consider what I’m saying?”

Valerie glanced at the ground, uncertain, then back up. “I–I don’t know, but I gotta do something about those ghosts.”

“We can work together.” Danny offered, hand outstretched.

Silence.

And, then.

“What’s the plan, ghost boy?”

The plan was, simply put, to surrender.

Valerie had been baffled at that at first, arguing vehemently that she wasn’t going to lie down without a fight. She had come around after hearing the explanation, albeit a bit reluctantly. The pair were on their way out to the football field to confront the Fright Knight and the foreword guard of the army, when they were stopped by Jazz calling out for them to stop.

“What’s your nosy sister doing here?” Valerie hissed under her breath to Danny. “You might be transformed, but I still need to suit up.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose, and turned. “Not now, Jazz.”

“Danny, whatever you’re going to do, you have to let me help.” She pleaded, stopping several paces away.

Valerie glanced at Danny, the unspoken question of She knows? written on her face. He nodded, then turned to face Jazz.

“I won’t let you in harm’s way, Jazz.” Danny stated firmly, not leaving room for argument.

Jazz apparently didn’t get the memo, though, and pushed back on his statement. “You don’t decide what I can and can’t do.” Hands on her hips, she continued. “You two are planning something dumb and dangerous, and I want to help.”

Valerie opened her mouth to protest and shut Jazz down, but Danny held a hand up to stop her. Considering this, he wondered if involving Jazz in the surrender could benefit them. If she were the one to pull the Fright Knight’s sword from the ground in the encounter to come, then he might have a better angle to convince the other ghosts with. A human sounding the surrender might indicate to the ghosts that they’d have to stand together, rather than wait for human ghost hunters to solve the problem or die trying.

Carefully, he said, “I might have a role for you.”

“You do?” Valerie and Jazz asked at the same time, both equally bewildered.

“I told you that the Fright Knight will give us a way to surrender, Val.” He began. “Having a third party–one neither a ghost nor a ghost hunter–call the surrender could help us in gathering allies after. If one of us surrenders, it’ll make us seem weak.”

Valerie’s eyes lit up. “But if Jazz surrenders for Amity, then she’s just representing Amity and not us.”

“Exactly.”

Jazz frowned and spoke up, “What’s this about surrendering?”

“No time to explain besides stay hidden until you can pull the sword out of the ground.” Danny told her, then nodded at Valerie and continued to hurry towards the football field.

Valerie and Jazz followed, although Jazz was considerably more reluctant and confused. She didn’t question it, thankfully, and seemed willing to go along with the role that Danny had given her as a spur of the moment decision.

The interaction had cost them time, however, as Plasmius was already in the throes of a fight with the Fright Knight.

“I don’t have the ring!” Plasmius cried out, dodging a broad swing of the other ghost’s sword. “Pinky promise!”

The Fright Knight’s voice was a low, commanding growl. “Then you will divulge its location.”

Danny thanked the small victories that a ghost sense and ability to feel the energy of ghostly artifacts weren’t common abilities amongst the Ghost Zone’s denizens. The Fright Knight would be none the wiser to the Ring of Rage safely tucked away under Valerie’s Red Huntress suit.

“Ready for a rematch, Frighty?” Danny shouted, firing off a weak ectoblast at the Fright Knight’s back.

“You call in children for reinforcements?” The Fright Knight sneered to Plasmius, then disdainfully regarded Valerie and Danny. “I grow tired of this farce.”

The Fright Knight held his sword aloft and pushed ectoplasmic energy into his voice to proclaim, “I claim this town–now and forever–under the banner of Lord Pariah, King of all Ghosts.” Not for long, Danny thought spitefully, watching as the Fright Knight plunged his sword into the turf. Green energy radiated from the sword in waves, spreading over the football field and beyond, as the ghost chanted, “The sword is sunk. Your die now cast. The sword removed shall signal fast. Make reappear the ring thou hast, or your next day shall be your last.”

With the final word spoken, a pulse of energy emanated from the sword. Danny threw up a shield to spare him and Valerie from the brunt of the blast, and he saw Plasmius do the same.

“Certainly we can talk things out?” Plasmius asked, eyeing the sword warily.

“The time for talk is over. Surrender the ring or surrender your town. The decision is yours.” The Fright Knight declared, then gripped the edge of his cloak. He erupted into a swarm of bats and was gone.

“Oh butter biscuits.” Plasmius sighed.

“We need to talk, Plasmius.” Danny called coolly. He floated up and towards the other halfa, making a show of winding up for a speech of some sort. Plasmius was watching him with narrowed eyes, oblivious to how below them Jazz darted out from underneath the bleachers.

She crossed the length of the field and wrapped a hand around the hilt of the sword.

It was at that moment that Plasmius noticed, his expression turning panicked as he cried out for her to stop.

Jazz paid him no mind, resolutely trusting the plan given to her by Danny. With a labored motion, she heaved the sword out of the ground, and the Ghost Zone rushed to greet Danny.