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“You have two choices, boy.” Danny’s mother said. Her purple eyes gleamed in the harsh artificial light, cold and without mercy. “Either you drink this and prove you are my son, or you don’t and I will kill you.”
Danny swallowed, eying the goblet his mother had placed in front of him with trepidation. The contents of the goblet bubbled, dark and purple. It was the same colour as his mother’s eyes, dangerous and toxic and lethal. Danny couldn’t help but wonder if that was on purpose.
He didn’t know how his mother had come to the conclusion that he might be a ghost masquerading as Danny Fenton, or how she had gotten her hands on enough blood blossoms to create this toxic concoction, but…Danny didn’t need to know any of that to know how things would end if he drank this.
Danny’s choices were as such: he could either drink a poison that would destroy his ghost half and kill his human half along with it, or he could refuse to drink his mother’s potion and die by her gun.
The blaster in Mom’s hand was pointed at him, its muzzle glinting dangerously in warning—his time was running out.
“Mom…” Danny began hesitantly, trying to at least stall for time. “Is this really necessary—”
“Save it, boy!” His mother’s response came, cold and without remorse. “If you are truly my son, you would drink this without hesitation."
Danny winced. “I just…are you sure this is suitable for human consumption? You and Dad’s cooking sometimes get...out of hand…”
“Stop stalling, boy.” His mother scowled. “I’ve tested it out myself. The drink won’t affect you if you are entirely human.” Her eyes narrowed, her gaze sharp and dangerous like she was a predator and Danny her prey. “There’s no reason for you not to drink this…unless you aren’t Danny, after all? In that case, I might as well save myself the trouble and execute you right now…” Her finger moved from its resting place on the trigger guard, hovering over the trigger in warning.
Danny bit his lips. Nervously, he rubbed the toxic green manacles encircling his wrists. Mom had taken him completely by surprise—he had gone to sleep in his own bed to wake up in this containment cell, chained to the wall by these anti-ghost manacles. The chains bound his ghostly abilities entirely, and with him being physically immobilised, there was no way Danny was getting out of this half-alive.
Maybe…Danny had seen people pretend to drink things in movies, waiting until their opponent was distracted to discard the presumably poisoned beverage. Could Danny pull off something like that? The drink probably wouldn’t kill him just by touching his lips. At worst, Danny would simply develop a rash that he could—probaby—hide from his mother.
He swallowed. It wasn’t like he had much of a choice.
Hesitantly, Danny grabbed the goblet and brought it to his lips.
The door to the lab slammed open. “No—!”
Mom startled, reflexively pointing her gun towards the entrance of the lab. Taking advantage of her distraction, Danny yanked the goblet away from his mouth as if burnt. He couldn’t make out the intruder from the angle he was kept in, but—
Two gunshots rang out in quick succession—
Bang. Bang.
—Danny’s heart thudded. The phantom presence of his core ached—
—his mother fell over, a bullet hole shot through her head. Her purple eyes were wide and shocked and dead.
The intruder—the murderer stepped into view. Jazz smiled at him, unheeding that her shoulder had just been singed via an ectoblast. Her aqua eyes were warm and filled with relief—nothing like their mother’s eyes.
“I’m sorry it took me so long to get here, Danny.” Jazz stepped over their mother’s corpse into the open entrance of the containment cell. “Let’s get you out of this cell.”