Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ash burned in his lungs. He could feel the heat on his skin. He felt like an amphibian thrown into the desert. Danny knew he did not have long before his ice core overheated.

But- Dash went back into the fire for him. Well... for Danny Fenton. He could not leave him there. That’s not what heroes do. Even though- arguably- part of this was Dash’s fault.

Danny Phantom pushed through the burning remains of Casper high school. The hallway was filled with smoke, ash rained down, and the ceiling beams above him creaked. Despite walking down this hallway a million times Danny felt disoriented and lost. He glanced up nervously; he knew the longer he stayed inside the less time he had. He put a hand over his eyebrows and tried to scan the clouded hallway for Dash.

The day started off rather normally. Danny Fenton actually arrived at school on time. So far today was going rather normal as far as normal for him was. No weird late night ghost attacks, and no one bothering him on the way to school. Rather, all in all it was a good day.

He yawned trying to ward off the drowsiness. At this point it was almost a state of perpetual tiredness- something he had become accustomed to. His nights were spent patrolling the city, stopping the villain of the week, or catching up on missing and late assignments.

The students at Casper High always tended to pick on him. Maybe it was because his parents are/used to be the town's laughingstock, and lastly since the ghost portals invention, attitudes had changed. Now, instead of being seen as the towns’ weirdos now they are the towns’ incompetent ghost hunters. And Danny as the child of said ghost hunters was the Casper high’s liaison for his parents. Now- on top of that- he was often missing class or sleeping during it, causing him to get signaled out by the teachers and staff of the school. If there was not a target on his back before then there was definitely one now.

Frankly, highschoolers were mean. Day in and day out Danny Fenton and his superhero persona Danny Phantom saved the town and sometimes the world. He was getting beat up by ghosts, endless homework, and his classmates. It was exhausting. Apart from his best friends and worst enemies no one else knew.

Everyone else knew Danny Fenton as the odd quiet kid who kept to himself and who jumped and hid at the thought of Ghosts. No one saw Danny Fenton as anything like the brave, charming, heroic Phantom. As much as it helped his cover story at times, it also made Danny feel as if he was often stuck between two worlds. Well- he kind of was. The world of the living and the world of the dead.

The bell for lunch rang and suddenly the hallways were filled with students shuffling about. By this point in the afternoon most students were tired of sitting all day and were excited to have time to themselves plus it helped that lunch as slightly after noon. After almost 5 hours of sitting around most students were starving.

Danny left his math class in a bit of a hurry. Today he was excited to talk to Sam and Tucker about the latest update for one of their favorite video games. He quickly deposited his morning books back into his locker and grabbed his afternoon and gym stuff carefully putting it into his backpack. He heard footsteps approaching from behind him, so cautiously he turned around.

Behind him stood practically staring at him was Dash.

Danny instantly was on edge. Dash was not a villain, but he was a minor annoyance. Dash tended to pick on him on a good day, on a bad day-well- it would almost be considered a fight. Before Danny had superpowers he would lose to Dash, and now that he had superpowers he still lost to Dash. Not because Dash was better but because Danny had good morals. Well…. most of the time.

Dash approached him and snaked an arm around Danny’s shoulder. With slight force, Dash started to lead the two of them down the hallway away from the lunchroom.

“Dash?” Danny asked nervously as he took a step sideways to get out of Dash's grip.

“Don’t worry. I just want to show you something.” Dash said putting his arms out like he was half stretching, hands open and up to show a gesture of good faith, and finally with a shrug he let his arms fall to his side.

Danny looked back at him confused. He was half debating if he should just turn and walk back down the hallway. But whatever it was that Dash wanted to show him could wait till after lunch, right?

“It’s really cool and really sciencey.” Dash quipped with a smirk, almost reading the uncertainty in Danny’s mind.

“Okay fine,” Danny responded with an eye roll, “show me.”

Danny still uncertain of Dash’s intentions, carefully followed him down the hall to the east wing of the building were the library and the Janitor’s closet was.

So, Danny followed Dash to the middle of the hallway, to their right was the entrance to the library, and to their left was a row of lockers and the doors to the janitor's closet.

Dash opened the janitor's door and with the force of a football player he shoved a confused Danny into it.

Danny stumbled over his laces, catching himself on the wall to stop himself from falling face down. He turned around just in time to see Dash laughing hysterically and slamming the door shut. He heard Dash messing with something metallic, likely some kind of lock or key mechanism. Danny sighed and rolled his eyes.

“You're such a gullible loser, Fentoni.” Dash hollered from the other side of the door before he started laughing.
Fentoni- At least that was a new one.

“Let me out Dash.” Danny said halfheartedly; however he had a feeling Dash had already walked away.

Before Danny had superpowers, he would have banged on the door till someone, likely a teacher came and scolded him for his carelessness and unlocked the door for him. He would likely be the one to get in trouble instead of the “Star” football player Dash.

So, Danny sat down on the bucket and counted to two hundred in his head. Then he stood up and transformed into his ghost form. With that he went invisible and flew through the walls up to the roof.

Meanwhile, three other students decided to skip lunch. They worked together to set up candles in a circle in the back corner of the library.

“Are you sure this will work?” Paulina asked, turning to Star.
“Totally!” Star responded, “I read it in a supernatural book. This pattern of salt around the circle is to contain the undead, then the candles are the channel of our spell, and once we speak the words, we open the door of the spirit realm.”

Paulina turns to their third member, Wes. “You got the cameras ready?”
“Definitely! We will summon Phantom here and once we do, we will have photographic proof. We trap him in the summoning circle, and he will HAVE to tell us who his is!” Wes said as his voice rose in excited pitch the more, he talked.

Paulina, and Star share a quick glance of concern.
“So now we light the candles.” Star instructed, as she opened her backpack and tossed Wes the lighter. She continued to rifle through her bag pulling out three copies of the handwritten ghost spell. She handed them out to her two companions.

“Alright everyone ready?” She asked, and when the other two gave a quick nod, she started to recite the spell. The other two followed the words on the page.

The circle glowed green in response to their chanting. The library picked up a supernatural wind, which blew around loose papers.

“It's working!” Wes yelled, interpreting the spell casting. The other two turned to stare at him.

The circle glows brighter and the wind whipped around them stronger. Anything that was not heavy or held securely to the ground started to levitate. Including the books from the library shelves, and the candles around the circle.

Paulina reacts by putting her arms up and covering her face, Star quickly ducked underneath a table and Wes stood there awestruck.

“It worked!” Wes yelled.

Star grabbed onto a table leg, and glared at Wes, “Worked? It's out of control!!”

In an instant everything came crashing down. The still lit candles, books and loose papers fell around the room. The three of them breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“That was scary.” Paulina said as she was fixing her hair.
“You messed it all up!” Star said, shouting at Wes. “If you just kept chatting then we could have done it.”
“My fault!?” Wes responded back, “you two stopped speaking too.”
“Only after you shouted, “It’s Working!” in the middle of a spell. That’s like spell casting 101. You don't stop the spell in the middle of the spell.”
“Well excuse me for not being a witch-” Wes said back crossing his arms.

“Um... Guys” Paulina interrupted.
“I am totally not a witch. You want a witch!? Go talk to Sam. She is a witch. I am a crystal mage.”
“Uhmmmmm- Star. Is it supposed to be doing that?” Paulina pointed out.
Star turned to look at what Paulina was looking at. One of the candles had fallen into a pile of papers. The flames from the candle had caught the papers on fire.

“Oh My God.” Star screeked
“That's a fire- a real fire-” Wes pointed out.
“No shit sherlock!” Paulina yelled.
“We need to pull the fire alarm.” Wes explained. However, neither of the three made any attempt to move.

“We gotta put it out ourselves. Or we will definitely get expelled!” Paulina said.
The other two quickly nodded. Paulina quickly took off her jacket and started to wave it over the fire in an attempt to put out the fire, however all that did was cause the fire to gain more oxygen and get bigger.
Star grabbed her water bottle and dumped it onto the fire.

“There is a bucket in the janitor's closet!” Wes yelled as he backed up, “I am going to go get it.”

Wes ran into the hallway, and across the hall to the janitor’s closet. He tried the door, but it was locked. Panicking, he looked up and down the hallway.

He remembered that the bathrooms had large trash cans. So, he took off running down the hallway to the bathroom. He was just about to enter the bathroom when he saw a fire alarm.

He hesitated. If he pulled it then the firefighters could come and put out the fire, but then they would get in trouble for starting the fire. He really did not want to get in trouble. But- he would likely get in more trouble if he did not pull it. So, he took a heavy breath and pulled down on the handle.

Sam was pushing around the cold flavorless peas around her cafeteria plate.

“Danny is late for lunch.” Tucker pointed out.

“Probably something came up.” Sam said with a casual shrug. Vegan options at this school sucked.

“Without telling us!?” Tucker responded as he leaned back in his chair, almost typing it over, “not even a text!?”

Sam looked up at Tucker as she thought about something to say, but before she could speak three loud continuous beeps interrupted her thoughts.

“BEEEP BEEP BEEEEP”

Everyone in the cafeteria stopped eating and talking. They looked around confused for a second. Fire alarms in the middle of lunch? That was unheard off.

“Alright people stay calm!” Mr. Lancer stood up from the teacher table and walked to the middle of the room waving his arms around like an airplane control person as he yelled, “This is an unscheduled fire alarm, please stand up calmly and line up a single file line and we will walk to the nearest exit.”

To say that the students followed Mr. Lancers directions would be a lie. However, no one panicked. Some people stood up immediately, others grabbed their bookbags and others grabbed their food tray as they half walked, and half jogged outside of the cafeteria.

The students exited the building, and all lined up in the parking lot, separated by their current class. The freshmen were down by the cafeteria and the seniors were mostly down by the gymnasium parking lot.

Sam caught Jazz’s concerned glance for a second before responding to her with a shrug.

“When you hear your name say here!” Mr. Lancer shouted over the chaos of students chatting nervously as they shuffled around.

“William Balwdren” Mr. Lancer yelled.
“Here” William responded.
“Dash Baxter?” Mr. Lancer continued.
“Here!” Dash responded, his voice waving slightly from being nervous.

“Daniel Fenton” Mr. Lancer asked.
“Here!” Tucker said giving his best Danny impression as he could have given. Sam whispered something to Tucker.

Mr. Lancer continued down the list of students, without looking up to confirm checking off the names with a blue pen as he went down the list.

“Paulina Sanchez?” Mr. Lancer said, when there was no response, he looked up and looked over the students. “Paulina Sanchez? Has anyone seen Paulina?”

No one responded but people started looking around.
“Star Strong?” Mr. Lancer asked, “Has anyone seen Star or Paulina?”
When no one responded Mr. Lancer looked concerned.
“Everyone stay here. No one moves at all. I am going to report this to the principal. Hopefully they are just lumped in with another class.”

Paulina’s eyes were watering as the smoke hung in the air. The library was covered in white-gray smoke. It was giving her a headache. She turned to face Star.

“W-we should get out of here.” Star said breathless, heaving almost to get more polluted air into her lungs. She seemed out of breath, doubled over her hands on her knees.

“But- we got to put out the fire first.” Paulina responded urgently, “Do you want to go to juvie?”

“No!” Star yelled back. Star looked up, the bookshelf, covered in old books and wooden shelves had become lit. It felt more like a bonfire than a candle flame. The flames were quickly moving from one book to another. Despite that, Paulina reached for a few books before the fire and pulled them off the shelf and onto the ground.

“Then help!” Paulina screamed back at Star.

Then the library doors flew open and both girls turned to look at who entered. It was Wes! He was dragging behind him a large trashcan full of water.

“I got water,” he said as he slowly moved it closer, Paulina ran over to him, and together they both pushed the trashcan over.

Star ignored them both, instead she moved over to her bag, and tore it open. She was digging her hand around the inside looking for something. She felt dizzy, like she was about to faint, and she could not seem to get enough air,

She turned to Paulina and Wes, dizzy and disorientated, “Paul- my bag? I need my- inhaler.” she weased, before promptly passing out collapsing into a heap on the floor.

Danny flew out of the building feeling the air push past his face. He really should just turn around and head to lunch. But- instead he wanted to fly around, take a moment since he was already out, just to make sure everything was normal. Plus, it helped his cover identity of people assumed Danny Fenton was at school and other people saw Phantom in the daytime.

He will admit the quick only few minutes flight turned into more into a half an hour. He was sitting on top of a building when he saw the first fire truck zoom past.

At first, he did not think much of it, fire trucks go around all the time. But then came a second and a third, and his curiosity peaked. He flew above them and watched as they moved though the city and headed down a familiar road- the one leading to the high school.

At this point from above the sky, Danny could see the smoke rising out of what was some kind of external vent. He quickly turned invisible and moved towards Mr. Lancer who was talking with a bunch of fire fighters and the principal.

“Several students are missing.” He overheard Mr. lancer say, concerned.
“One boy- Wesley Weston, and two girls Star Strong and Paulina Sanchez.” He spoke. Danny was half expecting that his name would be on the list of students since he was clearly not here. That meant that Sam, Tucker, or Jazz had covered for him.

Danny knew that in situations like this time was the most important thing. And, well he was a superhero after all. It was not even much of a decision before he turned and flew into the window.

The classroom was empty, as was expected, and there was no sign of smoke or fire here.
Danny poked his head out into the hallway. Now that was a different story, a bit of smoke like dust showed in the beams of the light off the ceiling.

That confirmed it. There was a fire.

Danny was not normally one to go into burning buildings. Nor was he ever a fire fighter. He was a halfa with ghost like superpowers. He had rescued people before from… Ghosts. How much different can a fire be.

He took off moving a bit quicker, since he could walk through walls and fly, then the firefighting crew could. He heard some voices to his left and moved closer to them, up ahead he saw two guys in big yellow coats they seemed to be checking each of the classrooms. They had to be looking for the missing students. But they were going slow and carefully, more concerned at this point for the kids then the fire.

Danny turned the corner of the hallway, leading down to the janitors closet and the library.

The smoke was getting stronger now, as it floated in dark ugly clouds down the hallway. It was disorienting. Danny knew these hallways since he had walked them so many times before but in the near darkness it was hard to see.

He felt the heat before he saw any flames.

Dash Baxter stood in the line of students seemingly more nervous each second. When Mr. Lancer called out the names, he was not expecting to hear a voice respond “here!” for Daniel Fenton.
Why? Because Dash Baxter was a school bully. He knew that’s what he was. He liked to push peoples’ buttons to ruff them up a little. It made him feel big when he otherwise felt small.

He had last seen Danny when he had shoved him into the janitor’s closet. The same closet that he had the key for in his pocket.

That key burned him hotter than any fire could. He only meant to scare Danny- maybe 10 15 mins tops, but then the fire alarm went off. And Dash shuffled outside with the rest of the kids. He had assumed it was nothing at first but then the fire trucks started to pull up beside the school and well… the worried looks from teachers seemed to give away that it was not a normal fire drill.

Others were missing- Star, and Paulina. But did that matter to Dash…no, not really. Danny did. And he left Danny in a locked closet in a burning school.

God. He was a murderer.

Well not yet, but he could see it now. The cop car, the trial, people looking at him like he was the absolute scum of the earth then him spending the rest of his life in jail. All because of a prank he pulled that went wrong.

And well… he really did not hate Danny. Maybe in a different life, without the expectation to be a football star, and without his rather mean friend group, maybe him and Danny could have been friends.

Dash walked over to Sam and Tucker, Danny’s two best friends.

“Why did you cover for him?” He asked, quickly and worriedly,

“I don’t know what you mean.” Sam said, with just a hint of annoyed attitude.

“I know he was not here when Lancer called out his name, and I know Fol- Tucker, over there, called out instead.”

“Neh- He was right behind us. He must have just wandered off since then.” Tucker lied.

“No- Your wrong,” Dash said, “I- oh... He is still in the janitor’s closet.”

Dash turned and ran, pushing past students and teachers to the front door. Then he pushed that door open and ran inside.

Sam and Tucker stood flabbergasted.

Sam turned, “What?”
Tucker shrugged, but was concerned enough, “Did Dash lock Danny in the janitors closet?”
“That would explain why he was not at lunch,” Sam pointed out in a whisper, “I had thought he was chasing after some ghost.”
“Same.” Tucker concluded.

Danny flew though the library doors. This is where the fire must have started! The back corner of the library was alit, and the fire was quickly spreading all around. It was so dusty, dark and cloudy that Danny- even with his ghost vision- was struggling to see. But he heard shouting and moved closer to the sound.

He saw Paulina kneeling next to an unconscious Star. Wes was using what looked like a coffee cup to scoop water out of a trash can, and onto the alit bookshelf. His attempt had little impact because the flames were climbing higher and the alight pieces of books pages fluttered down and landed alighting the books and the ground.

The whole thing looked like a big mess. Danny had no idea why the three of them would stay in a burning library.

He turned himself visible and moved quickly over to Paulina and Star.

“Star?” Danny asked, concerned. More about both her and Star then about keeping his identity.

Paulina looked over at him. Maybe a bit jealous that he was worried about Star instead of her, but it was a burning library.

“I-I don’t know one min she was fine and then she fell over.” Paulina said, holding up a blue cylinder, “She needed her inhaler.”

“Well, I don’t think she can use an inhaler unconscious.” Danny responded, “I’ll fly her outside, there should be an ambulance or something. Then I’ll come back for you two. ”

Danny carefully picked up Star and carried her bridal style. He pushed off the ground, turned intangible, and flew out of the building.

Danny was used to people’s eyes on him, but everyone’s eyes were on him when he flew with Star to the ambulance. There was a stretcher outside, as if they were prepared to need one. He carefully laid down Star on top of it.
The two paramedics looked at him, a bit awestruck, and then immediately went to check on star.

The captain of the Fireman, Mr. Lancer and the principal, rushed over to Star and Danny Phantom.

Phantom turned, to face them and put on his most “superhero face” and used the deep fake voice he used when he had to deal with the public.
“The other two kids are inside.” Danny said, “Fires in the library.”
Before awaiting their reply, Danny turned and took off to head back inside the library.

Even though that whole trip only took a few mins tops, Danny could already tell that the library was in much much worse condition. Paulina and Wes were cornered as the fire had spread to the table and bookshelf by the door. Wes was crouching behind the trashcan using what water was left to try to keep the flames away.

Danny knew he could not leave them both inside, so he turned to them,
“Here is what I’m going to do.” Danny instructed, “I am going to push you both though the walls and get out outside into the fresh air. I told the firefighters that the library is on fire. They should be here soon.”

Danny grabbed Paulina’s wrist first and directed her over to the wall. Then with a shove he turned her and him intangible and pushed her though the wall and onto the other side. He heard her cry out from the other side of the library wall.

Then he turned back to face Wes and grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him outside with him.

Danny huffed a bit; he was feeling exhausted. Way more than he normally would. He whipped sweat off his brow. Then he turned to face Paulina and Wes.

“What the heck were you thinking!?” Danny said. Yeah, he was not an adult, and yeah, he has been doing stupid stuff for like the past year. Namely sneaking out and fighting ghosts.

Paulina and Wes looked at each other, having a silent conversation as if they were not sure if they should tell Danny.

“We saw the fire in the library.” Paulina said.
“And you thought-” Danny said, pinching the bridge of his nose, “to put it out yourself?”
“No” Wes said, not wanting to lie but not wanting to tell the complete truth, “we did not mean to start the fire it just happened when we were messing around with a lighter and yeah the fire started. Please don’t tell the principal, we will all get expelled.”

Danny sighed, “You probably should go find the teachers because they are worried about you, and not worried about putting out the fire.”

Wes started to walk around the building, and that is when Paulina called out in pain.

“My ankle- I… I think I hurt it.” She said limping badly.

Danny looked at her and her ankle. In one motion he swooped her up in his arms like he did for Star and then they were flying.

“My hero~” She said.

Danny rolled his eyes not really caring if she could see.

“I think there is a saying.” Danny started, “That playing with fire might leave you with burns. I would take that literally from here on out.”

He floated down and dropped her off next to the ambulance.

The teachers and parents? Came running over to check up on Star, and Paulina. Wes had just rounded the corner.

Danny gave a quick salute and turn around turning himself invisible before flying over to Sam and tucker.

Normally he would find a place to change out of his phantom form but with all the commotion between the three students appearing and Phantom, everyone was focused on the ambulance.

So, he changed into human form behind a tree, and tiptoed over to Sam and Tucker.

“Boo!” He said with a laugh, watching Tucker jump in surprise.

“You think-” Tucker said between a breath of air, “That after the 5th time I would be used to that!?”

Danny snorted. “Yeah probably.”

Sam grabbed his arm urgently, pulling him towards her and throwing him off balance, “Danny- Did you see Dash?”

“Huh? What?” Danny asked.

“Dash went back into the school for you- he said he locked you in the closet!?”
“Oh…oh no.” Danny said suddenly nervous. Danny turned around and changed into his ghost form, “I got to go back in.”

Without a word from Sam or tucker Danny turned and flew back into the building.

It was so much worse now. Danny never understood how buildings burned faster than people could put them out, but suddenly he understood. Most of the building was already made of flammable material, it was just adding fuel to the fire.
And the about 15 mins it took for the firefighters to look for the missing students did not help.

The hallway was covered in smoke. Everything was hot. It felt like standing in front of an oven door. Hot air rushing out into cooler air.

Even then, the ash burned in his lungs. He could feel the heat on his ghost skin. It was borderline uncomfortable. He felt like an amphibian thrown into the desert sun and left to dry.

He could tell how the heat affected his ice core. It felt much like time went out whack. Danny used to think he had no kryptonite (apart from blood blossoms but we don’t talk about those) but the fire as almost as bad.
It was hot, and he felt his core overheating.

But- Dash went back into the fire for him. Well... for Danny Fenton. He could not leave him there. That’s not what heroes do. Even though- arguably- part of this was Dash’s fault. The other part of it was Wes, Paulina, and Stars fault.

Danny Phantom pushed through the burning remains of Casper High School. The hallway was filled with smoke, ash rained down, and the ceiling beams above him creaked. Despite walking down this hallway a million times Danny felt disoriented and lost. He glanced up nervously; he knew the longer he stayed inside the less time he had. He put a hand over his eyebrows and tried to scan the clouded hallway for Dash.

“Dash!” he called out desperately. Maybe Dash had doubled back around and had left the school. Danny felt weaker already and chose to start walking instead to conserve what energy he did have.

Up ahead he could see the bend in the hallway that signaled the east wing of the school. He was almost there.

He felt his ghost form start to flicker. No- he thought. He could not lose it now, could not risk losing it here! He would pass out and then be left as a human in the flames.

He was just about to turn around when he heard coughing and someone pounding on something.

He moved closer quickly, trying to keep himself as low to the ground as he could.
Dash was on his hands and knees crawling on the ground to move forward.

Danny could barely see but he could tell just from the smoke alone that the fire had left the library. Whether the fire had burned though the walls or through the door or even through the ceiling tiles he had no idea.

But the fire, the flames notable from here, from their heat and the ever so glow he could see.

Now that he spotted Dash he felt renewed hope, and that provided the surge of adrenaline to push him forward.

He approached Dash tapping him on the shoulder, “Dash come on we need to leave.”

Something creaked from somewhere, a sign that the building was not as stable as it once might have been.
“D-Danny is still in there!” Dash as he looked frightened and scared, “I-I locked him in the closet.”

Dash pushed forward trying desperately to get there.

“Dash!” Danny yelled, “Fenton is fine, come on- we need.”

Dash looked backwards at Danny Phantom, and with a nod, he started to moving closer.

They moved together in a quick but unsure hobble till they rounded the corner.
There they paused for a second, Danny leaning against the wall of lockers, and Dash coughing ash filled mucus onto his sleeve.

“Can’t you just fly us out of here?” Dash asked between coughs.
“The heat is affecting my powers.”
Even in the ashy light Danny could feel the look of disbelief Dash gave him, it was one of “really- my superhero idol is not as super as he seemed”.

“Here- come on lean against me.” Dash said unexpectedly, extending his arm. Danny hesitated; this whole situation oddly parallel to the what- hourish ago conversation that led to this.
Danny nodded and leaned against Dash both of them using each other to help.

They felt water splash down from somewhere, causing their hair to get wet and the ash to feel thick and heavy against their clothes. They heard the hiss of water hitting fire, and the steam adding to the already chaotic confusion.

Danny felt dizzy, much dizzier than he should have felt. His core felt way too warm. His ghost core was flickering, there was no way he was going to be able to hold it much longer.

“Dash-” Danny said turning his head, “I-I think I need a second.”

Dash looked at him concerned- they had already reached the lunchroom. Here the air was much clearer but still full of the ashy smoke. They hobbled over to a table and Danny sat down on one of the seats.

The disorientation passed, and Danny felt just a bit better…

Then his ghost form flickered out, and both boys stared at each other in mild shock.

Danny Fenton blinked and coughed once. He felt both mildly annoyed and concerned at the same time. Of all the people to find out, it just had to be Dash.

“Why?” Dash said, asking almost, but Danny was not sure what the question was. Dash continued, “All those times I did things and you never said anything or did anything back? Why? Your phantom!?”

Danny was so not going to have this or really any conversation in a burning building. “Because- sometimes” Danny said now coughing the irritation out of his own lungs, “it’s better to do nothing.”

Dash sat back, “You were never in the closet anyway.”

“No.” Danny said, “I flew out almost as soon as you locked the door came back and rescued the three idiots that started a library fire.”

Danny leaned back onto the table further, feeling weak and tired.

Dash coughed as well, “Are we going to die here?”

“Probably-” Danny started to say before being interrupted by the need to both cough and breathe at the same time “-not” he wheezed out.

“We need to keep going.” Dash said as he forced himself to his feet, and then with strong arms, he dragged Danny to his feet as well.

They hobbled closer and closer to the exit. Danny felt dizzy and way to light… and way to hot. He was barely aware of Dash’s arm around his shoulder.

Then powerful lights from headlamps were turned in their direction, and someone shouted something inaudible. Soon two fire fighters in bright yellow clothing were running toward them.

In all the fray, Danny lost sight of Dash, and the whole next ten minutes flew by in a blur. He was covered in some kind of metal plastic shiny blanket and a paramedic was closely examining him. But he felt too tired to care.

Chapter Text

A week later the parents of five Casper high students were gathered in the mayor’s conference room. Why? Because the school was still unsafe to enter, and the cleanup would take months if not a year. They thought the building would be salvable with most of the damage done to the east wing only.

Danny sat on one of the swivel chairs with his mother next to him on his right. Across from him was Dash and his father. Both of Paulina’s parents were there, as were Wes’s and his brother. Star’s grandmother was there. Danny assumed that must be her legal guardian or at least the only one who could make it to this meeting.

The principal, and the fire chief and several important looking people Danny did not know were standing in front.
Sulking in the coroner, not wanting to intrude but wanting to make his presence known, was the Mayor Vlad Masters.

“Do you five have any idea what trouble you caused!?” One of the officials was in a tight jacket and skirt saying her vice high pitched and shrill.

Danny looked down towards the table, so he missed everyone else’s reactions.

“Paulina.” she said, “The least you got away with was a sprained ankle, first degree burns to your hands and mild smoke inhalation.”

Paulina looked a bit shell shocked and shook her head.

“Star spent four days in the hospital recovering from smoke inhalation.” She continued harshly, way too harshly in Danny’s option, “Most people die from that and not from the flames of a fire.”

“And Wes- Was lucky enough to walk away with no injuries after being examined by the paramedics.”

“I have no idea what the three of you were thinking! “The lady said, “And- I have gotten three different recounts of how the fire started and what you all did after it. The only one I absolutely believe is Wes’s account of pulling the fire alarm because his fingerprints were left. Magic!? Playing with a lighter in the library? Smoking!? Dum, reckless and stupid.”

Danny looked up and could see the varying degrees of embarrassment and shame on his classmates faces. He even felt a bit of secondhand embarrassment. He shuttered silently knowing that his own reprimand was coming.

“If it was not for Danny Phantom being there are the right moment, you three could have been very hurt or even killed.” She concluded.

Dash looked at Danny almost as if he wanted to say something. Despite everything that had happened. And, as Dash now knew, neither he nor Danny talked about it. Danny had been worried that Dash would have spilled the secret to everyone. But Danny concluded that Dash took his advice. Sometimes it was better to do nothing. Only time would tell if this would change anything between them.

“As for Danny and Dash.” She said addressing the two of them, “You both told drastically different stories, both of you claiming to go back into the school to quote “Save the other one”. However, I believe according to Dashes testimony, he locked Danny in the school’s janitor closet. Given that he had somehow had a copy of the key and had admitted to having one.
“Thereby we believe that it will be best to treat this as a serious matter and consider expulsion.”

“No!” Danny interrupted, everyone’s eyes turned to look at him, “I did not get hurt, and Dash learned his lesson. We all did. I don’t think he should be expelled. We pull pranks on each other all the time, sure yeah, this one was a bit extreme, but it would have been nothing had the others not started the fire.”

“Still- actions have consequences, Mr. Fenton.” Said another official looking person.

“May I suggest community service? Instead of expulsion?” Mayor Vlad Masters spoke up for the first time in the meeting room

“They did millions of dollars in damages!” one of the committee members exclaimed, “Expulsion was the nicer option!”

“So- I will pay for the repairs,” Vlad said with a dismissive wave, “and in return, say, the new library be dedicated to me. I’ll even add some books from my personal collection, given that they don’t end up as kindling.”

“That is very generous of you, Mayor Masters.” said the principal of the school.

Danny barely- held back an eye roll.

“Alright Alright.” One of the committee members said, “Community service thought the rest of the summer and a week of suspension.”

The others agreed.

They were all just about to leave when Vlad nudged Danny aside, “I know what you did, Daniel. It was very brave, reckless, but brave of you.”
Danny did not know how to react. Normally Vlad was very smug, but this time he sounded… sincere.

“Thank you” Danny said carefully.

“In fact, if you would like you could do your summer of community service here at town hall.”

“I’ll uh….” how to politely decline… “Think about it.”

“Try not to get into any more heated trouble” Vlad said smugly as he turned to leave, “till next time, Ta!”