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Danny Fenton was not having a good day.
He’d woken up, tired and grumpy because he had to fight seven ghosts during the prior night. Seven! Were the ghosts having a get-together or something? Could they not have done that in the Ghost Zone? Like- let a halfa get some sleep for once, sheesh!
Danny honestly doesn’t get paid enough for this, well then again, he doesn’t get paid at all.
Okay, getting back on track, after waking up he then realized he was freaking stuck in ghost speak when Jazz gave him a look of confusion when he tried to say something to her before breakfast. English had just refused to work with him and only the sounds of ghostly hissing would leave his mouth. Rude much?
But it was fine . No biggie, he could just take the ghost gabber so his friends could still understand him and hopefully not get called on in class! Danny was completely chill . (Haha get it? Because of his ice powers? Okay, nevermind, focus Danny!).
Of course, because of Danny’s amazing luck (definitely not being sarcastic here folks!) he had gotten called on to read aloud in Lancer’s class. Out of all the people in class, he chose Danny . Just great!
But luckily, the amazing goddess known as Sam managed to save his butt in class by telling Mr. Lancer that he had lost his voice due to a lot of screaming and when she was asked why Danny was screaming, the godly Tucker (Okay maybe Danny was being a bit dramatic describing his friends, but can you blame him? They’re the best!) had backed up her excuse by providing some story about ghosts and his parents' inventions (Danny wasn’t really paying attention to the details).
Lancer, thankfully, bought the excuse.
After that, school went the same as usual. Dash had thought at first that Danny was purposely ignoring him when he wouldn’t say anything, which meant a whole lot of pain for Danny. Though, Dash had soon found it boring to pick on Danny when he learned that he “lost his voice” since he couldn’t say anything back after a while. So at least that’s a plus.
As school was nearing an end, Danny had found that he was able to form a few words in English again, which slightly made things better. He would prefer that he could speak entirely in English.
And now here he was, discussing things with his friends at Tucker’s house, trying to figure out what the heck was going on with him.
“Maybe it’s some kind of weird half-ghost puberty?” Sam suggested.
Danny wrinkled his nose. “ Ugh, ghost puberty?” Danny said, the ghost gabber repeating his words, adding an extra “ fear me” to the end. “ Great. Wonder if I’ll get fangs like that fruit loop.”
“Did you get hit with any of your parent’s inventions?” asked Tucker. “Or maybe a ghost with weird powers that can change the language you speak?”
“ Nah, I haven’t gotten hit by any of those ,” Danny answers, the word ‘haven’t ’ being spoken in English, the rest still being ghost speak. “ I mean, I did get thrown into a building last night but I doubt that’s the cause . ”
“Danny!” Sam exclaimed. “You got thrown into a building and you didn’t tell us?”
“So?” Danny asks, grinning when he realizes he had spoken in English. “ I get thrown into buildings like every week. And it wasn’t that hard. I’m fine!”
Sam gave him a look that showed that she wasn’t going to back down. Tucker took one look at Sam and sighed, “I’ll get the first-aid kid.”
“Tuck, I don’t need the first-aid kit ,” Danny protested. “ Besides, it’s already healing!”
Sam cut off the ghost gabber while it was in the middle of translating Danny’s sentence, already getting the gist from the broken pieces of English. “Danny, we still need to check it out. You tend to have a habit of downplaying how bad an injury is.”
“ Fine,” Danny quite literally hissed. “ But can we please get back to figuring out what the heck is happening to me?”
“I am a ghost. Fear me,” the ghost gabber tacked onto the translation. Ugh, someone remind Danny to throw the thing out the window when he doesn’t need it to talk to his friends anymore.
“I don’t really think there’s anything else we can do to figure this out. Besides, it seems to be going away on its own. I mean,” Sam pauses as she thinks. “If you’re desperate enough, we could try to get information out of Vlad.”
Danny shudders. “Ugh, there’s no way I’m asking the fruit loop about ghost puberty or whatever you think it is. I’d rather die. Again. ”
“Dude. The only thing I got from that before the gabber translated was ‘fruit’,” Tucker chuckled, “and I couldn’t tell if you were coming out to us again or just calling the mayor gay.”
Danny and Sam burst out laughing because of the unexpected comment from Tucker.
“Heh, well how’s about we go play Doomed while we wait for this ghost speak disaster to pass ,” Danny suggested. His friends agreed after the ghost gabber had completely translated his words.
Danny Fenton was not having a good day but his friends always make every second of it worth it.
Now, if Danny was able to live a normal life, then this would be the end to the story. But, things never go well in the (after) life of a halfa, so buckle up folks, this is only the beginning.
It all went downhill when they received a phone call from Jazz about two and a half hours later.
“Hey, Danny?” Jazz had said immediately after Danny accepted the call and put her on speaker. “Mom wants you home within an hour.”
“ Why? ” Danny asked, repeating himself when he realized the word was said in ghost. “Did something happen?”
“I’m not sure,” Jazz informed Danny. “Earlier she said that she wanted you to clean the ecto-filter, but I don’t think this is about that.”
Danny carefully notes the suspicion in her voice.
“Do they know?” He asks softly.
“No. Not yet at least,” replies Jazz, which doesn’t help Danny’s fears. “It looked like she just came from your room and had something in her pocket. I think she took something.”
“Danny,” Sam said seriously. “Was there anything in your room that might help your parents find your identity?”
Danny thought hard. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I can’t think of anything.”
“Wait, I think dad is coming,” Jazz suddenly said. “I’ll try to ask him.”
The trio waited silently while Jazz talked to their dad. After a few minutes, Jazz said, “He said that mom found a videotape.”
“A videotape?” Danny repeated, still confused. Then, “Oh no.”
“What?” exclaimed Jazz.
Danny sweared, thankfully in ghost so no one understood him, the ghost gabber was out of battery at this time too. “The only tape that mom could have found was the one showing the day of the accident.”
“And it shows Danny detransforming from Phantom to Fenton,” adds Tucker.
Danny got up, hanging up the call with his sister. “ I need to go.”
“Danny, wait!” Sam exclaimed. “It might not be safe!”
“Hey, wait,” Tucker said, also getting up. “Let us come with you!”
But Danny was already transformed and flying out the window.
As he flew back home, he tried to think of a plan. It usually takes his parents a while to set up the T.V. in the basement because of how old it was and because it was usually put away to make room for their experiments. Maybe if Danny got home in time, he’d be able to snatch the tape before they were even able to play it.
Sure, he’d probably get in trouble when they realize he took it, but he’d rather be grounded than be vivisection. Let them believe what they want, just not the truth.
He detransformed as he got closer to his house and walked the rest of the way. As soon as he opened the door, a worried Jazz brought him into a hug.
“Stay here,” She commanded after she released him from her affection. “I need to get something first. Do not go down there without me.”
So naturally Danny ignored his older sister and headed down into the basement as soon as she left.
Jazz Fenton loved her parents but there were times where they… weren’t the best so to say. They were ghost hunting fanatics, their studies were always their first priority.
Their children came second.
As long as Jazz could remember, she had been the one to take care of herself and Danny. Their parents were always so busy elsewhere in the lab. For a major part of Jazz and Danny’s life, the portal was the most important thing to their parents.
The portal had taken so much from Jazz. It had taken her parent’s attention.
It had taken Danny’s life.
And soon her parents will know what their invention has done to their youngest child. Who knows if they’ll act as parents or as scientists.
They certainly have chosen ghosts time and time again over their children in the past. It’s hard to admit it, but Jazz doesn’t trust her parents with this reveal. Not yet. She’s not going to risk it. Not when it’s Danny’s life on the line.
So here she was, opening her closet and grabbing two bags hidden neatly deep within. She’s prepared for any outcomes. She’s been expecting this for a while.
She would take Danny and run. Far, far away from here.
Jazz Fenton loved her parents, but Danny was far more important to her.
The first thing he noticed when he entered the basement was the familiar glow of the TV screen. Danny was too late. They were already watching the tape. Amazing .
And as if fate hated him, seconds after entering, he heard a familiar scream. His scream. The room is encompassed by a bright green glow and all Danny can think of is the pain . He’s being electrocuted and all he knows is green and pain .
After what seems like forever when it’s really only been a few minutes, the recording ends. It takes a few minutes more for Danny to snap out of his haze.
His parents still haven’t noticed him… should he leave?
But, part of him wants- no needs to know what his parents now think of him. Would they still love him now that they know?
Danny tries to stop his breath from quickening as thoughts swirl in his head. What should I do?
Then, before he can stop himself, he speaks, “Mom… Dad?”
His mom starts to approach him.
As soon as Jazz finds the bags, she slings her own over her shoulder and holds Danny’s in her arms.
She quickly got up and ran downstairs to where Danny was waiting. Only to find that he wasn’t there. Which, now that Jazz thinks about it, seems like something he would do. Ugh, she should have had him come up with her.
She’s about to head to the basement to find Danny, hopefully completely unharmed, when she hears a knock at the front door. She considers ignoring it and heading down to grab Danny as quickly as possible until she realizes that it may just be Danny’s friends who are worried for him.
She opens the door and hastily pulls them in when she sees that they are in fact Sam and Tucker. Wordlessly, she gestures to the basement, signaling them to be quiet as they follow down after her.
She enters the basement to see her mother approaching her brother, with an odd look in her eye.
“Uhh, Mom?” asked Danny nervously. This is going great, he thinks sarcastically.
“Peculiar,” Mom notes to herself. Then addressing Danny, “Explain.”
Well, at least she’s not immediately trying to shoot me , Danny thinks to himself.
“Uhh…” Danny struggled to find his words. Did she hate him now? Did she accept him? What was going on?
Danny is caught off guard when he feels a hand grasp his shoulder. He turns to see his older sister with a fierce expression on her face with his friends right behind her. Instead of trying to wrestle himself out of his sister’s grip, as younger siblings do, he finds comfort in the gesture, feeling protected and more confident with Jazz and his friends there.
His mom furrowed her eyebrows when she saw Jazz. “Jazz, honey, can you please stay from… er, him until I know it’s safe.”
Well, it seems Mom sort of views Danny the same? She’s not dehumanizing him like she would with other ghosts by constantly referring to him as an ‘it’.
Jazz scoffed. “Mom, it’s just Danny . He’s not going to hurt us.”
Danny takes in a deep breath, trying to calm himself. Oh how he wished he was anywhere but here. He might even take living with Vlad over this situation. Might . He’s not that desperate.
“How is this even possible?” Mom murmurs softly. “You- You’re Phantom.”
No, he was Santa Claus, duh.
“I am.”
“Then, you’re dead?” His mom asks, still trying to understand this new information. “The portal..”
“I died in the portal,” Danny shares, then quickly tacking on, “but I lived! Wait, that doesn’t make any sense does it?”
He sees Sam facepalm out of the corner of his eye.
His mom shows no emotion and doesn’t respond, leaving an awkward silence. You could probably hear ghost crickets chirping from within the portal. Wait, are there ghost crickets in the Ghost Zone?
His dad has only been watching their reaction silently and has yet to jump in which only added to Danny’s anxiety. What did his dad now think of him?
“Uhh, okay then. Well, so I’m this thing called a halfa,” Danny explains. “Which means I’m half-ghost and half-human. That’s why I can switch between two forms. Pretty cool, huh?”
“A half-ghost hybrid?” Mom questions. Danny could see the gears shifting in her head. There’s a few more seconds of silence before she says, “Transform.”
“Danny, you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to,” Sam reminds him softly.
“Transform. Now.” Maddie says coldly.
And so, Danny allows white rings to wash over him and transform him.
“It is you,” Maddie says in wonder. “How does transforming even work?”
Maddie reaches out to touch Danny, but Jazz pulls him away before she can. “Stop treating Danny like he’s some experiment to you,” Jazz says. “He’s your child. Act like it.”
Everyone waits nervously for Maddie’s response.
Jack Fenton knows he messed up.
He’s messed up so many times in life. Who doesn’t? Mistakes are a natural part of life after all!
But… Some of the mistakes he’s made are unforgivable.
There have been not one, but two accidents caused by his own invention. One of them had even been responsible for the death of someone. Someone he cares for deeply.
He should have upped the safety precautions after the first time with Vlad. He’s lucky that Vlad survived, but his own child died due to his negligence because he didn’t learn from his mistakes.
He watches his wife carefully as she talks with their son. She does know that it’s still their boy, right? Jack can see it as bright as day, Danny is still Danny, ghost or not. Just like back when he came out to them as trans, he was still their child and would always be.
Jack knew that, but did Maddie?
He gets his answer after Jazz calls Maddie out on the way she’s been acting.
“Oh no, honey,” Maddie replies, sickeningly sweet. The atmosphere in the room is dangerous, as if one wrong move and all will be lost to chaos. “Even if that used to be Danny, he isn’t anymore. Just a mere echo of the past.”
“What are you saying?” Sam questions, a warning tone in her voice.
“It’s just not possible. You can’t be both ghost and human. Both dead and alive,” She says matter-of-factly. “It’s an interesting story and I admit your human disguise is convincing, but it doesn’t fool me.”
Danny makes a strange hissing sound, then suddenly covers his mouth as if he didn’t mean to make that sound. Wait, was that…?
“Aha! See? Ghost speak!” Maddie exclaimed. “It- sorry honey, he is showing us his true colors.”
Jack frowned at the derogatory usage of ‘it’.
“What?! Mom, no I-”
“Interesting,” Maddie cuts off Danny. “I wonder what makes you so different from the others. You seem to be able to retain memories and emotion unlike the others.”
Danny rolls his bright neon green eyes.
“What makes me ‘so different’ is that I’m half-human!” Danny exclaims, air quoting for emphasis. “And the other ghosts do have feelings! Your studies are just stupidly biased and wrong!”
“Oooooh!” jeered Tucker, stopping after Sam elbows him.
Maddie gasps in offense. However Jack is intrigued by the new information that his son had just provided him about ghosts. Just how much does he know? Jack is bubbling with millions of questions that he files away to ask Danny later at a better time.
“Hmph, we’ll talk about that later,” Maddie then pulls out a syringe which puts everyone on alert. “Now, I just need to take a sample, okay sweetie?”
“What?! No!” Danny exclaims. He says a few more things in ghost speak that Jack doesn’t understand. Jazz tries to put Danny behind her and his friends try to keep Maddie away but Maddie manages to grab Danny’s arm despite their efforts.
Jack can’t just sit by and watch this anymore, it’s no longer just back and forth talking, he has to do something. He sits up, chair scraping loudly against the floor, gaining everyone’s attention. “Maddie,” Jack starts. “That is our son. You cannot just take a blood sample from him.”
Everyone looks up at him in surprise. Jack takes notice of the smile from Danny and how Jazz looks at him approvingly. He may have failed his children before, but he will not fail them now.
“But Jack,” Maddie says in that same tone you would use on a toddler. “We have our very own ghost living under our roof! Just think about all the data we could collect! All the knowledge that no one else in the world has!”
Jack stares at the monster he thought was the woman he loved in disgust. “No, we will not run tests on our own son! That is still our kid, halfa or not and I love him just the way he is!” Jack could feel the tears starting threatening to drop.
“Heck yeah!” Tucker cheered.
“This is unethical!” Sam proclaims as she frees Danny’s arm from Maddie’s grasp. “You don’t even have his consent to do this and you didn’t even ask.”
“Even if you did ask and if he did agree, I wouldn’t let you,” Jazz tells Maddie as continues to keep a firm grip on Danny’s shoulder protectively.
Danny doesn’t say anything, still in shock because of the events happening around him.
“Hmm…” Maddie hums, clearly deep in thought. For a moment it looked like she would have a change of heart and realize that it was still their Danny. The same child that they raised all throughout the years.
It happened all too quickly.
Maddie pulls out a small gun, one that does minimal harm to humans but will greatly injure ghosts, and aims at Danny’s leg. She shoots and hits her mark, Danny didn’t even realize she was going to shoot him so he hadn’t even moved to dodge.
Green ectoplasm poured out of the wound since Danny was still in his Phantom form and splattered against everything , the walls, the furniture, some of it even got on Maddie, making her look slightly more insane and unhinged being covered in the ectoplasm. Her own son’s ectoplasm.
As soon as she shot Danny, she quickly pulled out a Fenton Thermos and sucked up Danny, who was too weak to fight his way out, before he even fully collapsed onto the ground.
It was chaos after that.
There was a lot of screaming and fighting. Jack had grabbed Maddie from behind, allowing Tucker and Sam to grab the thermos from her. Jack could have sworn he even saw Sam attempting to bite Maddie.
“Jazz!” Jack exclaimed. Her attention immediately snapped to him. He tosses her the keys to the GAV to which she swiftly catches. “Take this!”
“I-” She steels her expression. “Thank you. Sam, Tucker, take Danny to the GAV. Bring one of these bags, both of them have medical supplies so it doesn’t matter which you take.” The two friends follow her orders without question, running outside much to Maddie’s anger. She turns her attention back to Jack. “What about you?”
“Just go,” Jack tells his daughter.
“Jack, you’re letting the specimen get away!” Maddie screams. “You’re wasting this opportunity! He’s wounded now so it won’t be hard to-”
“Jazz,” Jack says, ignoring Maddie. “I love you, take care of Danny for me.”
“I love you too,” whispers Jazz before she turns and follows after Sam and Tucker.
Jazz goes outside to find Tucker completely panicking and Sam holding the thermos tightly with a worried expression.
“Oh my god, Oh my god, should we open it now and let Danny out?” Tucker asks. “What if his mom comes out here and tries to take him back?”
“We’ll let Danny out as soon as we get in the GAV,” Sam explains as calmly as she can since she was panicked too. “If we let him out now, he’ll bleed out and we’ll have to patch up his wounds here. Who knows how long that’ll take. His ‘mom’ could come out here and catch us. It’s safer to do it in the GAV.”
“Sam’s right,” Jazz says, making her presence known. She unlocks the GAV and Tucker quickly runs inside.
“Is Mr. Fenton coming?” Sam asks as she and Jazz follow after Tucker.
Jazz stares back at her house. “No, I don’t think so. He’s still holding off Maddie.”
Jazz buckles up her seat belt and starts up the vehicle.
“Can we let out Danny now?” Tucker asks, looking worriedly at the thermos Sam is still holding.
Jazz thinks it over for a minute.
“Sorry, but we’ll have to wait a while longer,” Jazz relents. “The vehicle might jostle his injury and make it worse and I’m not the best driver. I’ll pull over once we’re far enough away and then we can treat his injury.”
“The thermos will be unpleasant for him,” Sam says, seeing Jazz’s point. “But it’s our safest option.”
True to her word, Jazz pulls over when they reach a place where they’d be safe. Tucker opens the thermos while Sam is already pulling out the medical supplies. As soon as he is out, Danny detransforms, the glowing green ectoplasm pouring out of his wound slowly shifting into a deep red blood. This is something that never should have happened to her little brother.
“Where are we?” Danny asks after he takes in his surroundings. He winces as Jazz cleans his injury but doesn’t say anything about it.
“Somewhere far, far away from her ,” Sam says in distaste.
“Wait, what about Dad?” Danny then asks with a worried expression. Jazz wonders how much he remembers from what just happened. “Hmph, can’t believe she shot me.”
“He stayed to keep Maddie from coming after us,” Jazz informed her younger brother, still surprised with how the confrontation went. It went exactly as she expected and yet not at all.
There is silence as Danny processes the new information.
“She shoots at you every other week,” Sam says, replying to Danny’s earlier statement. “It’s nothing new.”
“Yeah, but she knew it was me this time,” Danny said dejectedly, betrayal clear in his voice.
“Oh god, that’s a lot of blood,” Tucker says, his voice slightly shaky.
Danny turns to look at his leg but Jazz stops him, not wanting him to see the extent of the damage. He makes a noise which Jazz recognizes as ghost speak. Jazz pulls out bandages and starts wrapping up Danny’s leg.
“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Sams retorts, but there isn’t as much venom in her voice as the statement would usually hold, she’s too focused on Danny for that.
There is more silence.
“...Hey, Jazz?” Danny asks suddenly. He has on an expression that Jazz recognizes as hope. “D’you think Dad can convince her about me?”
“Maybe,” Jazz answers, but she knows better.
Because Maddie Fenton was a scientist.
A scientist first and foremost.